PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 55 of 70

It's time to fight Lavos! Here's everything you need to know.

Also, I forgot to get the Gold Rock! I'll get it in the New Game Plus videos!

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Since there's nothing else to do in the game, it's time to fight Lavos.

When you enter Lavos' shell (or crash into Lavos with Epoch), you'll soon face the alien inside of Lavos, which is connected to a bunch of tubes inside the chamber inside the shell.

First things first: during these battles, be ready to heal yourself and the party at a moment's notice. Lavos hits hard during this set of fights that make up the final battle, so come in with plenty of big-time healing items such as Full Tonics, HyperEthers, Elixirs and MegaElixirs. Also, change your accessories to stuff that can give you an edge, such as a Gold Stud, a FrenzyBand or the PrismSpecs.

You have the body, the left arm and the right arm to deal with. You'll want to deal with the arms first before they can do some really nasty things, as they can attack with crescent-shaped projectiles and revive the body as well as inflict Stop on the party. They can also cast Protective Seal, which voids any and all immunities to status ailments, negating even the effects of the Prism Helms, Magus' Amulet and the Nova Armor can't save you from status ailments.

The left hand (which is on the right) has more HP than the one on the right (which is on the left). The left has 12,000 HP, while the right has 8,000 HP. If you want to take out Lavos without having to worry about getting hit with Protective Seal, work on the hand on the right side of the screen first until it's down at least 4000, then take both arms out with multi-target at the same time. If you're quick enough, you can easily take them down before things get worse.

As for the body, its defense will drop when the arms are gone. When both arms are around, Lavos can use the arms to open up its body for the Laser Beams of Doom, which damages all party members. Obstacle can cast Chaos on anyone unprotected from status ailments, while Shadow Slay will cast Poison. Flame Battle is just a weak fire blast that hits one party member. Shadow Doom Blaze is the last attack Lavos' body will cast before it cycles back to After that, Lavos will cast Evil Emanation, which silently causes its attack to go up. The longer the battle goes, the worse it will get. 

Once you defeat the body, you're not done yet. Another alien being will stand where the body of Lavos used to be and produce two pods. This is the Lavos Core, and this is the absolute final battle.

The left pod should be your first target. It has 2000 HP, and can take all physical attacks but absorb all magic attacks. Ayla's Triple Kick and Crono's Confuse, among powerful regular physical attacks, will definitely have a hand in destroying this thing. You'll want to do that, as it can attack any target it wants to, absorb MP from a single target, and cast Protective Seal on one party member in addition to healing the center pod. Once it is destroyed, the right pod's defense will go down.

The pod on the right is the true target and the one you must destroy to win the battle. Unlike the left pod, magic can actually damage it. The right pod is responsible for Time Warp (which changes the scenery in the background and hits everyone for 1 HP), lowering its own defense (which hits everyone for 2 HP) in addition to raising it back up, reviving the left and center pods (which hits everyone for 10 HP), and casting "Active Bit." If you see the message for Active Bit, the party's defense will be lowered. It's much like Evil Emanation, but instead of Lavos getting stronger, you're getting weaker. Once again, the longer this goes, the worse it gets.

When the right pod lowers its defense, this is when you want to attack it. If you attack it while its defense is up and all three parts are alive, the left and right pods will hit you with X Strike.

It should also be mentioned that if all three pods are around, you'll get hit with Invading Light, which inflicts Slow on the party (very bad if Protective Seal has hit someone). 

However, you also want to destroy the center pod, which is the alien with the arms and legs. Aside from smacking one party member like a ton of bricks, it can also cast random status ailments by singing (which is bad if someone's been hit with Protective Seal), Evil Star (which cuts the party's HP by half), Grand Stone (which is Lavos' ultimate physical attack), Crying Heavens (a lightning strike that hits one person for a lot of damage) and Dreamless (the ultimate magical attack).

Believe it or not, the attack you get depends on what the scenery is in the time warp. 65,000,000 B.C. (the Hunting Range) allows for Grand Stone, 12,000 B.C. (the Mammon Machine) allows for Invading Light if all three parts of the Lavos Core are alive, 600 A.D. (Magus' Castle) allows for Evil Star, 1000 A.D. (Leene Square) allows for Spell and the randomly inflicted status effects, and 2300 A.D. (city ruins) allows for Dreamless. Crying Heavens and the slap can hit whenever.

When you destroy the right pod, the battle is over, and you'll save Earth from an omnipotent threat that threatened the past, present and future. If the left and center pods are there when the right pod is defeated, they will be defeated, too.

In the ending, you'll be woken up by a soldier from Guardia Castle, who tells Crono that his stay of execution is over (despite being put on probation when you talked to the King before the whole Rainbow Shell side-quest). When Crono finally meets King Guardia, who considers what to do with Crono even as Marle shows up and protests, King Guardia reveals he knows what has been going on the entire game and thanks you for saving humanity's future. Kino, King Guardia XXI and Doan appear to also thank you, and you'll find out that these people are Marle's ancestors and descendants. (If you see the FMV epilogue on PlayStation and beyond, you'll find out that Ayla put a ring on Kino, which makes her an ancestor as well.) King Guardia XXXIII dedicates the Moonlight Parade on the final night of the Millennial Fair to Crono's victory.

You'll then be at Leene Square at night. A Blue Imp will walk around the square with a cat, while young girls will blow you kisses and dance around while festive music plays. You can talk to everyone from Truce Village if you like, but you'll need to get to the Telepod on the north end. If you saved Lara from the machine in the Sunken Desert sidequest, she will be here; if you rescued the real, present-day Chancellor with the Yakra Key in the Rainbow Shell sidequest, he will be there, too.

The screen before the Telepod has dead ends on both the west and east ends, so all you can do there is head to the Telepod.

When you head to the Telepod, everyone will say their goodbyes. Ayla will leave with Kino after hinting that she is now in a relationship with him and telling everyone that she had fun, Frog leaves with King Guardia XXI after getting a kiss from Marle, Magus leaves without saying a word to search for Schala (if he's spared after the escape from the Blackbird), and Robo leaves with Doan to an unknown but bright future.

If Magus was defeated after the escape from the Blackbird, Frog will no longer be a frog and will be back in human form as Glenn. If Glenn is still a frog in the ending with Epoch, you'll see him with the King, Queen Leene and some soldiers on Zenan Bridge where Frog notices Epoch; if he is human, you'll see the creation of the Guardia Castle prison in 600 A.D. with Glenn watching from an outside walkway.

Afterwards, it's just Crono, Lucca and Marle. The next part depends on whether or not Epoch is in one piece. If you didn't use Epoch to ram into Lavos' shell to fight Lavos' body and core, Crono's mom will show up and chase the cats into the Telepod Gate, and the gang will have to fly Epoch to find her. If you rammed Epoch into Lavos in 1999 A.D., this does not occur.

Afterwards, you'll be met by a soldier, who tells Marle that her father is looking for her. Go back to the previous screen to talk to the King, and Leene's bell will be replaced by a silver bell known as Nadia's bell. As The King helps raise it up, he gets stuck hanging onto the bell and cannot get down. If you got Crono's mom to show up, the gang leaves The King hanging to man Epoch and find Crono's mom. If she didn't show up, Marle tries to help her father, but gets carried away by the balloons. Crono jumps up to grab her, but he gets carried away with Marle. Regardless of what happens, Taban shows up and fires off some fireworks. From there, you'll either see Epoch (if Epoch survived) or Crono and Marle on the ballons (if Epoch didn't) in Mode 7 during the ending as the credits roll.