While Baramos might have seemed like the end of Dragon Quest 3 Remake originally, this is the true end of the journey. Zoma is the final step to bringing peace not just to your own world, but the land of Alefgard as well. But Zoma is not going to make that easy.
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Unlike Baramos, Zoma won’t sit and wait for you to defeat him. Instead, you must face a gauntlet of his minions first before you’re even allowed to face him. While every boss is a challenge, none of them compare to the sheer power of Zoma himself. But that won’t stop us from putting him down.
Recommended Party And Level
Zoma is the final challenge of the game, so you’ll want to be a pretty high level when facing down him and his most powerful minions. We had each of our companions between the levels of 40-43. You don’t want to have anyone below level 40 at this point, so make sure to grind a bit if you need some extra levels. The enemies in Zoma’s Citadel drop plenty of experience.
Here’s the party we used:
- The Hero with a Paragon Personality to give them immense physical strength.
- A Monster Wrangler with the Everyman Personality to give them an even stat spread, as well as around 80 monsters recruited to boost the power of Monster Pile-On.
- A Mage-turned-Sage with the Slippery Devil Personality and a massive MP pool so they never have to worry about using high MP moves.
- A Priest-turned-Warrior with the Tough Cookie Personality so they have access to powerful buffing and debuffing spells, while having great Resilience.
With this party, the Hero and Monster Wrangler are the primary damage dealers, while the Warrior and Sage should exist solely for healing and buffing. Deviating from their role for even a single turn, especially against Zoma, can result in a very quick party wipe.
A particular piece of gear that we found to be essential is the Duplic Hat on the Sage. This hat can be picked up in a small grove between mountains near the Castle of the Dragon Queen, and can only be reached with Ramia. This also guarantees every spell is cast twice in a row, with the second completely free-of-charge.
How To Beat King Hydra
The King Hydra, the very same one that finally bested Ortega, is the first boss of the gauntlet Zoma throws your way, and they’re easily the most difficult of the trio as well. They have a hefty amount of HP, heal by around 90-100 HP every turn, and can attack twice. It’s not distinctly unlike the Orochi boss fight, though with many more status effects.
King Hydra primarily uses two attack moves – a physical strike, and Inferno, a Fire-element breath attack. While these are manageable in and of themselves, it is the Sweet Breath that you really need to look out for. Spells like Insulatle provide no protection against this, and it can be hard to justify sacrificing powerful accessories for one that grants protection against sleep.
To that end, we equipped the Sunstone on our Warrior so they could tank any hits while using it to remove Sleep from the party. The Warrior should always be playing support, such as casting Insulatle and, when possible, Snooze on King Hydra.
Keep the Sage on healing duty, continually using Multiheal even when you think it might not be necessary. If you get the chance, the Sage should also cast Kabuff, with the Duplic Hat casting it again for even more protection.
Cast Oomph on both the Hero and the Monster Wrangler when the chance arise, though prioritise the latter. As King Hydra gets low on HP, they will cast a fog that stops you from using magic, so make sure to stay on top of your buffs so they don’t drop during the turns that the fog is up.
After beating each boss, you can take the Teleportal at the beginning of the room outside to heal up before returning. Unlike the original, you do not have to battle any bosses you already beat.
How To Beat Soul Of Baramos
You thought you’d seen the last of Baramos? Of course, even his Soul lingers on past your encounter in the Tower of Rubiss, and this time he swears he won’t fail. He is wrong, but it’s nice that he’s so confident.
This fight is functionally identical to the previous fight with him, so there’s not too much extra to be aware of. He will always uses the strongest versions of the moves he has, and will spam Inferno if you manage to cast Fizzle on him though. This is preferable though, letting you focus on casting Insulatle instead of it and Magic Barrier.
As before, the Warrior and Sage will be on buffing and healing duty, while the Hero and Monster Wrangler will be the frontline attacks. As before, Baramos is weak to Lightning so cast Oomph on the Hero and spam them with Lightning Slash. Use Wild Side and Monster Pile-On with the Monster Wrangler to deal frankly obscene amounts of damage.
Baramos will start casting Blasto much more frequently in this battle, though it still has a relatively low chance of hitting. He also has quite a lot of HP, so it may take some time to whittle him down. Just keep up the flow, and you’ll get him. You’ve already done it twice before.
How To Beat Bones Of Baramos
Ah, and you thought that was the last of Baramos? Why, his soul may be defeated, but the body still lingers. Now you must battle the Bones of Baramos, which are shaped like a dragon, for some reason. Thankfully, this is also the weakest of the trio of bosses you battle before Zoma.
The Bones of Baramos is more of a stamina battle than a tactical one. They utilise very simple moves, mainly using a regular physical attack, Attack Attacker to lower your strength, and then an All-Out Attack that hits for massive damage but lowers their defence, too.
They retain the Lightning weakness of their predeceased form, so spam Lightning Slash all the way, casting Oomph as soon as you can. The same tactic as before applies to the Monster Wrangler too, using Wild Side and then Monster Pile-On.
You’ll want to play your Sage and Warrior a bit differently here. While the Sage will still cast Kabuff and healing when necessary, there’s no need to focus on debuffing the boss as they weaken themselves anyway. Instead, use your Sage for healing and Oomph, and throw in some physical attacks with your Warrior to speed things along.
This fight should easily be beaten in a short few minutes without any massive issues. Make sure to never let up on your assault because the boss can restore around 300 HP every turn. Keep attacking until they’re dead. For good, this time.
How To Beat Zoma
This is it, the grand finale. Zoma is far-and-away the most difficult battle in the game, feeling comparable to the first time you battled Baramos. He is, frankly, obscene. But you prevailed against everything that came before this, and you have the power of the Dragon Queen on your side this time.
When the battle against Zoma begins, he will be glowing in a dark blue aura, and he will restore around 300 HP every single turn while dealing over 100 damage with every single hit. That seems a bit insurmountable, right? That’s because it is. Instead, use the Sphere of Light to remove the aura from him, making him a much weaker boss. Just still very, very hard.
If you spend a few turns without using the Sphere of Light, you will be prompted to use it. You can still say no, if you want a challenge run.
After a brief conversation, Zoma will be weakened dramatically, dealing less damage and no longer restoring his own HP. However, this also means he will no longer hold back in regards to the entire suite of his skills. And he has many of them.
Primarily, Zoma will use Ice-element attacks, a deluge of Kacrackle, Freezing Blizzard, and sometimes C-C-Cold Breath. The latter two are breath attacks, while the former is purely magical. As such, you’ll want Insulatle and Magic Barrier running at all times.
Zoma can also attack three times every turn if that wasn’t enough. So he can potentially use all three of those moves in a single turn, wiping your party very quickly if you’re not prepared. And unlike most bosses with multiple attacks, Zoma has quite high agility, too.
Like before, the Hero and Monster Wrangler will be the main fighters, though it’s unlikely you’ll get much of a chance to cast Oomph, so don’t bother. Focus exclusively on buffing yourself and healing this time around, and use Sap only on the turns you feel absolutely confident you won’t be wiped in. He also has no particular weaknesses, so continually use Falcon Slash to dole out the most damage each turn.
Periodically, and more so as the fight draws on, Zoma will use one of his actions to fully remove all beneficial status effects on the party. This is an inconvenience, but also means he has one less chance to actually hit you. Whenever this happens, make sure to cast Acceleratle so you can get ahead of Zoma’s attacks. Helpfully, he never purges himself of negative status effects.
Make sure to restore your buffs as soon as you see them running out. This way, there’s a good chance you might restore them immediately after Zoma removes them.
When Zoma’s HP is almost depleted, he will increase his magical power, potentially dealing over 100 damage even with Magic Barrier, Insulatle, and Kabuff active. At this point, it is a death sentence to not have them active. Even if your party has very high HP at the beginning of the turn, have your Sage cast Multiheal in case Zoma removes your buffs and has a chance to weaken you.
In what feels like a concession, Zoma will start implementing more status effects moves like Dazzle as his HP gets lower. While this does reduce your accuracy, it’s much preferred to his increased attack power. Sometimes it does come down to chance, so don’t let your guard down. Take it slow and steady.
Once you land that final blow, you’ll be transported to Talontear Tunnel, with only a short jaunt before you get to the credits. That’s it, the world of Alefgard is free from the scourge of darkness. Congratulations on completing Dragon Quest 3, and setting up Dragon Quest 1 and 2.
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