Game:Luxord

Luxord is fought as a boss in Kingdom Hearts II. He battles Sora alone at Havoc's Divide, a balcony overlooked by Kingdom Hearts in the Castle That Never Was.

Kingdom Hearts II
The battle with Luxord is not so much a battle as it is a timed game. Luxord does not have an HP bar; rather, both he and Sora have a Time Gauge, which decreases as the battle progresses. When either Sora or Luxord is hit by an attack, their time bar decreases even more. During this fight, Sora must watch both his HP and his time.

As soon as the battle begins, Sora is transformed into a die—this is unavoidable. When the Drive Gauge depletes, Sora returns to normal, so simply avoid Luxord until then. Luxord frequently leaps around the arena. His cards spin and float on their own to strike Sora, and can be destroyed by attacking them (dropping MP orbs) or using the "Flip" Reaction Command. Using "Flip" can also trigger a trap, assuming the card has one (signified by the fireball symbol on one side of the card). Luxord will periodically summon an orb of dark energy that creates tendrils of energy around Sora, which continuously deal damage. This can be avoided by attacking Luxord before he finishes summoning the orb of energy or by triggering the Reaction Command "Begin Game".

Luxord will frequently give Sora the chance to use the "Begin Game" Reaction Command. When the Reaction Command is used, Sora's command window is filled with "X" symbols and an "O" symbol flashes by the command window. Pressing when the "O" symbol is highlighted will stun Luxord and cause him to drop HP orbs. Failing to "catch" the "O" symbol will cause Sora to transform into a card.

When Luxord's Time Gauge drops to around two-thirds, he will transform himself into a card and summon two more cards. The cards shuffle themselves around on the ground, then flip up and circle Sora. Sora must find the card with Luxord's image on it and "Flip" it to dispel the cards and make Luxord reappear. The other cards contain traps that are set off when the card is Flipped. Luxord will do this two more times, mixing his own card among five, then nine, traps cards each time. After being found three times, Luxord resumes his normal attack pattern, but summons more cards to attack Sora than before.

When low on time, Luxord will cover the arena in his cards face-down, and rise from the cards behind Sora to attack him rapidly. He also spins around the arena with his cards. Luxord's attacks become more unpredictable, but his attacks can be defended with quick timing. Luxord ends this sequence by summoning giant versions of his cards to surround him and Sora and begin another game. Sora must now "catch" four "O" symbols, one in each slot in the command window as the symbols cycle. Once four symbols are caught, Sora attacks Luxord with his own cards, reducing his Time Gauge to nearly zero while boosting his own by half the bar. Failure to do so will result in Sora being transformed into a die while his Time Gauge drops in favor of Luxord's. After this, Luxord resumes his normal attack pattern. When Luxord's Time Gauge is nearly depleted, either because of the aforementioned giant cards or simply because of basic attacks, he will completely stop attacking, instead staying in one spot and repeating the phrase "Don't squander your time." His Time Gauge no longer drops after this point and Sora must deliver a finishing combo to end the fight.

Data Rematch
Luxord can be fought again in his Data Rematch. This time around, winning Luxord's minigames becomes critical to victory, but are made more difficult as a result.

Unlike before, Sora will not be turned into a die at the start of the battle. During the "Begin Game" challenges, the shifting of the "O" does not slow down, and in fact slows down and speeds up at random, making it much more difficult to win each game. If Sora does lose and is turned into a card, a good strategy is to move away from Luxord as fast as possible and keep moving until the "Drive" empties. When Sora returns to normal, attack whenever there is an opening. When Luxord transforms himself into a card and shuffles around, manipulate the camera quickly to see which card Luxord is in, then follow that same card until the cards stop shuffling.

During this battle, Luxord will always activate his strongest attack when his Time Gauge drops to a low value (close to 1/8) regardless of how hard he is attacked. The four "O" game now punishes failure more severely. If Sora fails the game, not only does Sora become a die, but his Time Gauge is also depleted significantly, while Luxord's is restored to a value as high as to half his entire gauge. Luxord will repeat this game if his health is depleted again. In this battle, winning the four "O" game is essential to victory.

A rather cheap strategy for this final game is to continuously press the Pause button, to ease the process of spotting "O" commands. Be very careful when using this strategy, however, because recklessly pressing the button when witnessing an "O" during pause mode may result in the "O" becoming an "X" as soon as the pause ends. Instead, pause continuously while the command displays an "X", and then press the command as soon as the "O" appears in pause mode.

Once Sora wins the game, Luxord's Time Gauge will fall, and all he must do is inflict a combo finisher or cast magic (preferably Thundaga) to win.