MF problems

[Xelon99]

Seeing how most MF threads are either closed or nearly 5 years old, I'll just make a new one...

So obviously I'm having trouble with this guy. Like many have. My deck consists of 4 Thunder Surge and 4 Curaga, in a Surge-Cure-Surge-Cure pattern. I can deal damage to him just fine, but either he gets one lucky punch in and makes it an insta kill because I cannot heal rapidly enough to get Leaf Bracer to kick in. Or he simply gets be from his Doom attack. I'm playing as Aqua at level 57 because she's supposedly the easiest to beat him with. But I've heard rumours about his patterns and style changing depending on the amount of abilities you've got equipped, the level you are and the keyblade you've got equipped. I am fairly certain they're false, but it wont hurt to check it with everyone I suppose?

And aside from the major luck factor which this battle has, are there any solid strategies or even cheap tricks to beat him?

 

[Kazr10]

First off, use Cure instead. He will deplete your HP to one anyway so no point in Curaga.

Next, remove the habits: Immediate air recovery, immediate cure. For the first phase, you can survive some moves by sitting through them and air recovery will remove your second chance protection. And whenever you got caught in his attacks, don't panic. Move away from him then Cure and/or start preparing to evade/counter his next move. Inconsistent curing will disrupt your battle rhythm. And revival block is much better than Cure if you can guard his subsequent attacks.

Next, you really have to remember all of his moves by muscle memory. Know when to attack and when not to, and the counter method for each move. For some of them, you can guard/dodge roll/run away/charge through with surge, pick which method is easiest for you. Like his Tornado move, I prefer dodging while there are some who prefer surging through.

Then for general advice: Use surge against the clones instead of blocking, you can surge his melee a second after he threw his blades up, you can surge after the 5th raging storm, guard his first sonic rave and dodge the rest, surge through megaflare. Don't forget that surging gives you i-frames as well.

The first phase is very easy because all of his moves are predictable. The i-frames Aqua and Ven have can easily let you survive the second phase. Just surge only when he uses his X-attack if you are not that good with MF. You won't really need luck against MF with Aqua and Ven if you just dodge roll all the way and only attack after X-attack. I've never lost against MF with them once I learnt all his moves, dodge roll/cartwheel is just that cheap. Also, you can be surprised with how many moves you can avoid by just running, and you have more camera control as well.

For Terra, you have to be fully aggressive right from the start. Just keep surge->slide->surge->slide..... Get him into his second phase with as little HP as possible. Then don't panic, just run away from him and use surge/guard as protection when you see him using moves near you.


For personal strategy, I abuse Rhythm Mixer against MF. I equip 2 Cures, 4 Thunder Surges, 2 Ice Creams. Attack him as normal during his first phase, avoid and counter as normal during his second phase. And use Rhythm Mixer during his orbs/vanish/raging storm combo at the second phase for invincibility and 0.5-1 HP bar depletion. Just don't spam Rhythm Mixer to allow him to guard. Difficult part of this is to find the timing to consume your ice cream. This is my main strategy as Terra and it works...well 40% of the time. He just won't let me eat during the fight lol.

 

[Xelon99]

I did beat him earlier by sheer luck and annoyance. Once I had him turning invisible I figured I'd have to play more aggressive, as it wouldn't take many attacks of mine to take him down. And after looping the fight from invisible to visible by dodging like a madman, he got me down to 1 HP when I finished him off. I somehow survived 4 Doom attacks that round... I seriously have no idea what happened there. But I'll take it. But just for future reference for anyone who needs tips on beating him...

Is there a difference between Cure and Curaga then? They've got the exact same reload speed. And I never actually put on Aerial Recovery for Aqua, even though I bought it. Dunno why but I don't really like it in BBS. I've created more a habit on falling straight down. It's surprisingly save.

After a few tries I had his moves figured out and pinpointed the moments where I can heal safely. Quite a lot of moments to be honest. So I never had the need for Renewal Block during that fight. And obviously only cure when your HP is at 1, it wont matter otherwise anyway.

The only problem I had is that he doesn't give a clear signal which attack he's about to do. You can see when he does the Raging Storm or the Tornado move, but not the difference between Doom and a regular combo. That usually did it for me.

Using surges for the clones is a definite yes. Dodging them seems nearly impossible and spamming Cure while they bash at you is an extremely high risk which is not worth it. Just line up and surge through them all, then you're free.

I honestly never had him using the X-blade attack other than when his clones were mashing me. But that just proves that his pattern is randomized. But simply cartwheeling in a circle worked fine for me. The best time to cure or use the ice cream would be when he uses his Rope attack or just after the Raging Storm I suppose.

I also did not notice any change in his aggression with the amount of abilities equipped... Still not certain if that's just a hoax strategy or not though

 

[Blue Firework]

I know there is a lot of debate on the internet, but based on personal experience with Vanilla BBS 4 years ago and 2.5, I do believe that some equipped abilities and commands have an affect. Especially Ice Slide. On my recent 2.5 play through, every time I went into a battle with Ice Slide equipped, regardless of the character, MF would spam Doom like crazy, sometimes using it three times in a row. With Terra it was impossible to dodge it this many times. When I removed Ice Slide, MF would start spamming the X attack and would rarely, if ever, use doom.

I'm not sure which abilities have an effect and which ones don't, but I usually turn of the ones that wouldn't help in the battle, such as Item Boost or Combo Boost, because they aren't going to help me anyway.

 

[WhinyAcademic]

As Aqua around LV 55, this is how I got the bastard.

I equipped Ultima Weapon, and my deck was Thunder surge's and three Curaga's. Had the abilities like Second Chance, Once More, Defense Boost, Cure Boost, etc, equipped.

It's mostly muscle memory. But the most important thing is to never stop moving, because he will close the distance very easily and you will suffer if you don't move. Play by play:

* When he fires the X at you, dodge, then surge him.
* When he summons his clones, keep moving, wait until they look clumped together, then surge them all in one go.
* When he fires his death rope at you, move away, and use the opportunity to cure.
* When he starts Raging Storm, dodge until his final, fifth one, then surge him.
* When he fires his tornado, dodge and surge. If you get hit, you lose all your commands, so keep cartwheeling and gather them up.
* When he turns invisible, you can't lock onto him, but you can still hurt him. I chose to avoid doing so, since I need to keep moving, and you can just wait it out till he comes back.
* Don't get frustrated when he starts healing himself. Ignore it and keep pushing.
* When he starts losing more and more health, he'll start throwing everything he has at you at once. Don't change tactic. Just keep moving, surge when he's open after an attack as listed above.

It just takes memorization and you should be in the 50's to take him. Basically, never stop cartwheeling, surge after most of his attacks, cure once you're safe from his death rope, and be patient. Enjoy the awesome theme while you play. And also, once you do beat him, if you haven't gotten the chests from LOD yet, do it right after you beat him. Don't leave that world without all the chests, otherwise you have to defeat him again to get to them.

He's actually a very fun boss, at least in 2.5. He's damn hard, but he's got a great theme and makes you form a strategy. Much more fair than Terra.

 

[Chuman]

As terra, I had three curagas and five thunder surges, in order of surge, surge, surge, surge, surge, curaga, curaga, curaga. Abilities are fine, I had chaos ripper equipped. Just exploit his x-attack by surging, dash away, surge again. When he gets in tornado position, immediately use a command, preferably surge but if reloading, heal. If caught by it, dash away, dash in any direction away from him, you should get your commands along the way and heal immediately.

his rape rope is easy, air slide as soon as your caught by it, do not let him attack you or you're dead. His firewheel van be avoided by dashing away from him in rhythm and you'll be golden. When he summons clones, surge towards him instantly and you should wipe them all out. If not, spam curaga because you'll only get a few chances to use it, his clones will dissipate eventually.

at 2-3 bars left he'll turn invisible, just follow his blades and follow your regular pattern of surging towards him and healing, don't lose sight in case he casts tornado. After a while, he'll turn up again, usually at his last bar of health. Keep it up and become victorious, you will feel vigor of the gods pumping through your veins once you do.

 

[Xeyril]

I just fought the MF myself, and while this is kinda an old thread and topic in general, I think I might have learned a little about the MF that others haven't discovered that makes him really easy.

First let me say that the rumors about his difficulty responding to abilities is definitely valid, but not entirely true.
i first beat the MF back in 2011 or whatever it was on the US PSP version as Ventus. I had a hard time because I was way less skilled back then, but the MF definitely used the X slash frequently and doom, lasers, and clones rarely. Then a few months ago I started going for the 2.5 platinum, so I went and beat all the secret bosses as Aqua and after that, did all the grueling command and ability melding.

So then I started going for 100% with Ventus. This time I thought it'd be smarter to get all the commands/abilities, then take on the secret bosses. No problem with the mirage arena, wiped the floor with Vanitas sentiment, but then, oddly, COULD NOT for the life of me, defeat the MF! I'd start it, and all he'd do is doom, doom, doom. Just like how you described, I am mega impressed that you were able to beat him like that. I started looking on the Internet, because I was like "what's going on? Why is he using doom and clones every other attack?" And I saw the thing about abilities. Tried that, doom all the way. I saw something about d-links, so I turned those off, too. Still doomed. Then I noticed that the thing in common is that these are both things to make the character stronger and more complex, so i tried something else: I replaced all the special action commands with basic ones, and got rid of unnecessary ones. Eg, replace ice slide with air slide, get rid of fire glide and have no glide at all, replace high jump with jump. I also replaced the multi vortex shot lock with plain old flame salvo.
all d-links off, 4 thunder surge, 4 curaga, 3 attack/magic haste, 3 treasure magnet (for that dang tornado), one thunder boost, and the essentials (second chance, once more, etc)

Worked like a charm. I had tried at least 70 times before, and when I made that one particular tweak, it was child's play, I beat him on my very next try in minutes. X slash all the time, doom almost never. So, about this rumor, abilities and d-links seem to have to impact, it's more about movement and action commands, and possibly shot locks, not sure about that. Hope this helps someone!