Most Difficult Bosses In DQIII Remake

Summary

• Dragon Quest 3 Remake makes grinding fun through rewarding boss battles.
• Noteworthy bosses like Ripper of the Rift and Chiromancer challenge players.
• Grand Dragon offers the ultimate challenge with a strict turn limit for achievement.

In 2024, Square Enix gave the HD-2D remake treatment to one of the company’s greatest titles: Dragon Quest 3. Though not as renowned as Final Fantasy 7, at least outside of Japan, Dragon Quest 3 is a genre- and generation-defining game.

If you’ve ever skipped out on JRPGs due to the grind, Dragon Quest 3 is one of the games that could change your mind. The game makes grinding feel rewarding and fun, particularly because the bosses serve as such good incentive. Dragon Quest 3 isn’t easy, but it makes you feel like you achieved something. Here are the bosses that gave us that feeling the most.

8

Ripper Of The Rift

880 HP

If you’re familiar with Dragon Quest’s trademark gameplay, you won’t find Ripper of the Rift all that challenging. At worst, your mage or priest might need a resurrection after the battle.

If you’re new to the series, however, Ripper of the Rift serves as a rude awakening that this series is serious business when it comes to stats and levels. There’s no shame in opening a guide with Dragon Quest. While Robbin ‘Ood, the boss preceding this one, is little more than a regular mook, Ripper of the Rift is your last call notice to get grinding.

7

Chiromancer

940 HP

Chiromancer wouldn’t be a hard boss except for two qualifiers: only your hero alone is allowed to face him, and he has a Madvlad next to him to act as a buffer for him and an annoyance for you.

If you’ve been using auto-battle options, you might want to disable them for this battle and input your orders by hand.

The Madvlad can stun you and reduce your defence, rendering you helpless against the Chiromancer. The solution is to spam your Hero’s Zap spells and equip accessories that raise your resistance to spells.

6

Boss Troll

5,500 HP

An impostor pretending to be the king of Manoza, the Boss Troll is an annoying enemy due to his use of Fuddle and Kasap spells. These confuse your party and lower its defence, making the group ever more vulnerable to his club attacks. Your weaker units could succumb to a single hit.

Dedicate your mage to using Kabuff in order to reverse the effects of Kasap. If you have a monster wrangler with you – one of the new classes in the remake – you can also use Attack Attacker to lower his strength. Aside from that, it’s up to your hero and warrior.

5

Garboyle

5,200 HP

Garboyle’s fight with you is a grudge match: the achievement says as much. Ten years ago, Garboyle had fought against the hero’s father, Ortega. For all his bluster, Garboyle knows Ortega had gotten the better of him. For this battle, you’ll want your mage to cast Insulatle repeatedly to shield the party against Garboyle’s fire-based attacks.

If you have any accessories that prevent status ailments, particularly paralysis, this is a good time to equip them. Don’t forget the golden rule of Dragon Quest either: if you can’t beat them, grind a bit and then beat them.

4

King Hydra

5,800 HP

Before you fight Zoma, you’ll face a boss rush of sorts against the Soul of Baramos, the Bones of Baramos and this monstrosity. While the two preceding are fairly straightforward, King Hydra is almost as hard to beat as Zoma himself.

This many-headed monstrosity loves to stun your party with its roar, and has a devastating physical attack. It takes multiple actions a turn. Better still, King Hydra was made even harder for the remake. The one mercy: King Hydra can be put to sleep. If it had sleep resistance, it’d probably be the hardest boss before the post-game.

3

Zoma

8,300 HP

The final boss as far as the story goes, Zoma is merciless in his attacks against you. At the start of the battle, he’s shielded from your attacks: you have to use the Sphere of Light to make him vulnerable, and if you missed that little tidbit of info before, too bad.

Even once his shield is down, Zoma doesn’t relent. He repeatedly casts Bounce, causing your spells to richochet off him and hurt your party, and nullifies all your buffs on seemingly every turn. Beating Zoma truly feels like an accomplishment.

2

Xenlon

22,700 HP

Xenlon was first introduced in the SNES version of Dragon Quest 3. While he has since been surpassed by the Grand Dragon in terms of being the definitive challenge, he’s still the second-hardest boss in the game – particularly due to the time limit on beating him.

If you beat Xenlon in a limited number of turns – the strictest being 15 – he won’t get bored and leave the battle, and will grant you up to six wishes in return. One of these wishes is necessary to get to Grand Dragon, the hardest boss in the game.

1

Grand Dragon

33,866 HP

The ultimate challenge, first introduced in the GBC version of the game, Grand Dragon also has a turn limit if you want the Grand Medal achievement. Although it’s 20 turns compared to Xenlon’s 15, the achievement is hard to get because Grand Dragon has incredibly high HP. It’s more than three times higher than in his Game Boy Color incarnation.

So high is his HP, in fact, that he doesn’t have much ailment resistance. Unlike Zoma, you can use as many debuffs on Grand Dragon as you want. You’ll want the most effective ones to get the Grand Medal achievement.