Game:Young Xehanort

Young Xehanort is an optional boss in the North American, PAL, and Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. His boss battle is unlocked when the player defeats Vanitas Remnant, then returns to the Land of Departure on a save file in which it is still accessible. Despite this odd situation, his scene is within canon, and is considered to occur at the save file's point in the story. Defeating Xehanort grants the player a unique Keyblade named "No Name", but he can be refought by leaving Land of Departure and then returning.

Abilities
Young Xehanort has a variety of powerful attacks, all of which can defeat the player instantly if unprepared. However, nearly all of these attacks can be blocked or dodged with practice.
 * Short combo: Attacks with three quick strikes.
 * Long combo: Attacks with an extended sword combo.
 * Dash attack: Transforms his blades into a spear and dashes forward, then flips backward.
 * X wave: Jumps back and releases an X-shaped shockwave from his blades that tracks the protagonist.
 * Spear orbs: Summons several orbs that fire spears of energy at the protagonist from every direction. This attack can continue during the Unknown's other attacks.
 * Sonic Blade: Quickly darts around the battlefield, knocking the protagonist high into the air when he hits them.
 * Whirlwind to the void: Summons a tornado that scatters the protagonist's Deck Commands when it hits them.
 * Vanish: Becomes invisible, and cannot be locked-on - though it is still possible to track him via his blades, which are only visible when he attacks.
 * Raging Storm: Summons three vortexes of flame around himself and hovers around the battlefield. The flames stun the protagonist when they hit them. In later phases of the battle, he will combine Raging Storm with some of his other abilities, usually his Long Combo.
 * Summon copies: Summons four copies of himself to overwhelm the player. All of them have every single one of his abilities (except for Vanish, and naturally, this one), and there is no set pattern to which attacks they use when.  Can easily be defeated by a clean hit, however.
 * Mega Flare: Summons a huge sphere of flames that explodes, inflicting massive damage and sometimes igniting the protagonist.
 * Meteor: Summons a meteor to fall on the battlefield and explode.
 * Doom: Fires a web of energy at the protagonist and starts a five second countdown. The player must rapidly tap X to end the attack, and if the countdown reaches zero they are defeated.
 * Collision Magnet: Leaps into the air and casts out a lasso of energy that snares the protagonist and pulls them toward him for a quick slash. In the Final Mix version of the game, Xehanort's Collision Magnet was weakened to make it easier to dodge.
 * Renewal Barrier: If the player attacks him head-first without an opening, or attacks constantly with a long combo, he will parry the player's attack and recover a bit of health.
 * Time reversal: At any random moment when the player deals damage to him, he could potentially stop and reverse time to the precise moment before the player hit him. As soon as time is restored, he immediately teleports behind the player and barrages with his Long combo.

Strategy
Young Xehanort is a powerful boss and one of the stronger enemies in the game. His attacks are varied and hard to predict, similar to those of the Lingering Will. Not only is he immune to all status effects, but he has a great deal of HP as well. The boss is very swift, with his attacks generally reducing the player's HP to 1. Xehanort is also adept in defense; he can turn mostly invisible, although he can still take damage and can be located due to his faint shimmer, and he sometimes rewinds time after taking damage, allowing him to recover some of his lost HP.

As Xehanort's HP dwindles, he goes even further on the offensive. He will often start one of his long-duration techniques, then continue to attack with different techniques while the first one is playing out. Xehanort will also clone himself, creating four copies that can attack and move independently of the Xehanort. His most frustrating tactic is to snare the protagonist with his Collision Magnet, then immediately follow it up with another Collision Magnet, a sword combo, or a Whirlwind to the Void, none of which the protagonist is given the chance to avoid, resulting in an immediate game over. Collision Magnet can be avoided easiest by simply dashing towards Xehanort when he jumps in the air, and also seems to be canceled if Xehanort pulls the player up against a wall.

Xehanort will attack whenever an opening to do so presents itself, but it is easy to heal safely by simply dashing far away from him first with either Slide, Dodge Roll, or Cartwheel. It is also somewhat easy to guard against his attacks by mashing, so the protagonist can also heal by using Renewal Block or Renewal Barrier. Because Xehanort leaves little time for the protagonist to act, it is unwise to use any advanced or ultimate commands, as they take too long to fire and reload. Shotlocks are also good options, but Xehanort likes to evade the targeting reticule, and can often evade damage midway through by using its Renewal Block, which will also heal him. If the protagonist decides to rely on Shotlocks, they should stock many Elixirs in order to make sure their Focus Gauge never runs out. D-Link's are also ill advised, as Xehanort may turn invisible in response. Finally, the Keyblade and Finish Command equipped are not very important, as Xehanort leaves no time for Keyblade strikes. The protagonist's Keyblade should be chosen only for its stat boosts, preferably towards the Attack stat.

The safest and simplest way to defeat Young Xehanort is to simply use a deck of 2-4 Cure-type commands, and fill the rest with Thunder Surge commands. Although Fire Surge is equally effective as a command, the Thunderbolt Command Style, triggered by the Thunder Surges, has an easier time hitting Xehanort than Firestorm does. With this deck, the protagonist can basically use Thunder Surge over and over, even when Xehanort is invisible, damaging Xehanort if they hit him and often knocking him out of his combos. The protagonist should make sure to use Thunder Surge so that he goes through Xehanort and winds up a short distance past him, rather than next to him, but should dash away instead if Xehanort is right next to the protagonist, as Thunder Surge has a tiny but noticeable start-up lag. Thunder Surge can even be used as a pseudo-dash in order to avoid Xehanort's techniques, like his Collision Magnet. If the protagonist is ever hit by an attack, he should immediately start dashing away, normally, and heal with the Cures as soon as he is clear from Xehanort. The player can also use Wingblade, which allows him to hit Xehanort with a combo of Keyblade attacks that he can't easily break out of. Even after setting up a working deck and overall strategy, victory against Xehanort relies primarily on luck, due to his penchant for using unavoidable, instant-death combos.