Antlion

The Antlion is an Emblem Heartless that is found in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. It is one of the bosses at Agrabah.

Strategy
The Antlion is not all that difficult to defeat, should the player follow a good strategy. At the start of the battle, this beast swims through the sands. It is best suggested that you attack it with the Fire Spell. Eventually, the Heartless Boss will escape the ground, preparing its next form of attack. At this point, climb up onto one of the ruins. You can then avoid the Antlion's next attack, which involves it creating waves of damaging sand, followed by a dangerous forward lunge. After enough attacks, the beast will be stunned and left open for receiving damage.

After it regains consciousness, it rises out of the sand completely, surrounding itself with a protecting whirlwind. It then drops bombs, which can be knocked at the boss to deal damage. The best time to launch the bombs back at it is when it glows red, as it explodes when it hits the beast. Be careful, as they may explode if this isn't done quickly enough. The process of the battle then repeats from square one. Also beware that the bombs it drops bounce like balls on a pool table, creating extra damage. Try to block it if you can, then lock on to the Antlion, position yourself behind the blocks, and launch them at it. Once it sustains enough damage from the blocks, it stops its Aero shield and remains still. Use this time to Air Slide to it and launch Blizzard spells or attack its head. Afterwards, it recovers and recreates its Aero shield and continue launching bombs and beams.

Whenever a purple orb surrounds its head, Air Slide or Dodge Roll to the left or the right to avoid the beam that it shoots at you. Beware that the head continues to spin towards you while it charges for the beam, so don't stop moving. It is also a good advice to lock on to it.

Should you hit low HP, do not hesitate to use the Limit Break. Try to time your Limit Break during the period that it stops its Aero shield. Heal periodically, and the Antlion should fall rather quickly.

Design
The Antlion is a massive, seemingly mechanical Heartless with a round, egg-shaped body comprised of several rotating rings. Each of these rings are white with black and yellow highlights, and each is lined by multiple, rectangular pillars. Most of these pillars are steel blue, though two on the first ring are a patchwork coloration of gold and copper. The Antlion’s rear sports a grey turbine that it uses for locomotion. Its neck is black and gold, while its comparatively small head is roughly spherical and white. Its head sports glowing yellow eyes, a large, jagged mouth, and two short "horns". It also has two large, steel blue and gold mandibles on the sides of its head. Its Heartless emblem is between its eyes.

In the Final Fantasy series, an Antlion is a type of subterranean monster based on the insect of the same name. A real-world antlion's larval state is very similar to the Antlion Heartless.

Trivia

 * In the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days manga Genie helps Roxas and Xion defeat the Antlion by holding it still to stop its rotating.