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, but a timed game. Luxord does not have an HP bar, rather, both he and Sora have a time bar. The time bars decrease as the battle progresses. When either of them is hit with an attack, the time bar decreases even more. 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, he changes back, so simply avoid Luxord until then. Luxord frequently leaps around the arena, his cards spin and float on their own to strike Sora. The cards can be destroyed by attacking them (which drops 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 also stop and say "a challenge is it," at which point he summons an orb of dark energy that creates tendrils of energy around Sora and 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 used, Sora's command window is filled with "X" symbols and a "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 or die.

When Luxord's time bar is a little more than half-depleted, he will transform himself into a card and summon 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 several times, mixing his own card among more and more trap cards each time. After being found three times, Luxord resumes his normal attack patterns, but summons more cards to attack Sora than before.

When low on time, Luxord will cover the arena in his cards and rise from the cards behind Sora to attack him rapidly. He also spins around the arena with his cards. It is difficult to anticipate Luxord's attacks at this time, 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 bar to nearly zero. Failure to do so will result in Sora being transformed into a card or die. After this, Luxord resumes his normal attack pattern. When Luxord's time bar 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 bar no longer drop after this point and Sora must deliver a finishing combo to end the fight.

Data Rematch
In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, he can be fought again in a Data Rematch. Unlike the previous battle, Sora will not be turned into a die at the beginning of the battle. A major difference is that in order to take away his time this time around, Sora must win some of the games; especially the last one.

A good strategy is to move away from Luxord as fast as possible when he changes Sora into a die or card 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 they 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, forcing Sora to play the Four "O" game with much more severe consequences for failure, as not only does Sora become a die, but his Time Gauge is depleted significantly while Luxord's is restored to a value as high as to half his entire gauge. If Sora is successful in weakening Luxord he will force the game once more, making it impossible to defeat him if this game is not beaten successfully.

There is however a rather cheap way to succeed, all the player must do is continuously press the Pause button, in order to have much safer room for victory. One should be very careful however, because recklessly pressing the button when one witnesses an "O" during pause mode, can cause the "O" to become an "X" as soon as the pause ends. Instead it is recommended to pause continuously while the command features an "X", and then press the command as soon as the "O" appears in pause mode.

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