This is the final battle! There are many ways to reach this point. To unlock New Game +, you have to go through the Black Omen. You can go through the Black Omen by flying to it with Epoch in 12,000 B.C., 600 A.D., or 1000 A.D. The Black Omen appears after you escape from the Blackbird, talk to Magus at the North Cape, then get into Epoch.

Ways to Reach Lavos

• Complete the Black Omen (the only way to unlock New Game +)
• Fly Epoch to 1999 A.D.
• Use the bucket in the End of Time
• Defeat its outer shell in the Ocean Palace (only possible in a New Game + or if you do a lot of leveling for a long time prior to this encounter)
• In a New Game +, use the sparkle in the telepod at the beginning of the game

Save the Game

Before you battle the final boss, be sure to save the game so you can make the best use of the New Game + feature.

Inner Lavos

The arm on the right side of the screen has 8000 HP, the arm on the left side of the screen has 12,000 HP, and the head has 20,000 HP.

The head has very high defense until you destroy the arms. The arm on the right side of the screen restores the head's HP, so kill it first, then attack the arm on the left side of the screen. After you defeat both arms, wait for the message "Engaging Main Body." This means that the head has dropped its defense and you can start attacking it.

The arms can cast Protective Seal, which makes you vulnerable to status effects even if you are wearing status-protecting armor, so be careful.

Lavos Core

Although the creature in the center looks like it should be the focus of this battle, the Right Bit is actually the key to defeating Lavos. Once the Right Bit is destroyed, the other parts will die and you will win the game. However, the attacks and spells of the other bits and the creature in the center will make this difficult.

The Left Bit (the one on the left side of the screen) has 2000 HP, the creature in the center has 10,000 HP, and the Right Bit (the one on the right side of the screen) has 30,000 HP.

The Right Bit has very high defense until one or both of the other parts die. When that happens, the Right Bit will drop its defense and prepare to resurrect the dead bits.

Start by attacking the Left Bit with physical attacks. Don't use magic on it, because it absorbs all magic attacks. Throughout the battle, it will cast Protective Seal, making you vulnerable to status effects, and it will also heal the other two parts.

When the Left Bit dies, attack the creature in the center until the Right Bit drops its defense. At that point, you can either use attacks that target all enemies, or just focus on the Right Bit. However, you might want to use attacks that target all enemies, because the creature in the center will do time warps, giving it access to different attacks depending on the era. The Grand Stone physical attack from 65,000,000 B.C. and the Dreamless magic attack from 2300 A.D. do very high damage, and if you are unlucky, your entire party could be defeated even if they are at full HP.

If you kill the creature in the center, but the Left and Right Bits are both still alive, they will counterattack your moves with an attack similar to X-Strike.

Eventually, the Right Bit will resurrect the bits that died. Its defense doesn't go back to maximum right away, so keep hitting it until its defense goes back up. At that point repeat the usual strategy, starting by killing the Left Bit.

To review, the overall strategy is to kill the Left Bit, attack the center while you wait for the Right Bit to remove its defense, then use your most powerful attacks on the Right Bit and the creature in the center until the other bit(s) are revived, while making sure that your party is healed up throughout the battle. Once the Right Bit has died, you have won the game! Congratulations! The ending that you get depends on when and how you reached Lavos. See the endings guide for more information.

The Ending on the DS Version

If you are playing the Nintendo DS version, there are some additional boss battles that you can do after beating the game. First, watch through the ending. Be sure to press a button if the ending seems to be finished. Depending on which ending it was, you might see an animated ending sequence from the PlayStation version.

You will see some dimensional vortices appear in various places in various eras. You will later be able to fly to those vortices with Epoch and defeat some new bosses there.

Then you will be asked if you want to save your ending info to the current save slot. It is recommended to do this. The ending log will be added to the Extras for that save slot, and you will be able to keep track of all the endings that you have seen so far.