Hades Paradox Cup

The Hades Paradox Cup is one of the four cups that you enter by asking Hades directly in Kingdom Hearts II. The tournament consists of 50 matches. You fight a boss on every tenth match. The final boss is Hades in Berserk Mode. Note: the level that you should be at in order to win this Cup is level 99. All drive forms and summoning must be on level 7. To unlock the cup you have to complete Space Paranoids for the second time.

ROUNDS 1-10
No restrictions. You are not timed, and you have access to Drives, Summons, and your allies.

Round 1 - Three Shadows and three Soldiers. Get your score orbs and destroy these Heartless in any way you choose.

Round 2 - Four Driller Moles and two Hook Bats. Take out the Bats and be mindful that the Driller Moles don't hit you with their drilling and emerging move.

Round 3 - Three Rapid Thrusters and two Surveillance Robots.

Round 4 - Five Rabid Dogs and two Creeper Plants. Take out the Dogs with some quick Keyblade attacks. Go for the Creepers' Reaction Command if you see it because it explodes a good portion of the stage around you.

Round 5 - Volcanic Lord and two Soldiers.

Round 6 - Three Cannon Guns and two Silver Rocks. (Dark Round.)

Round 7 - Three Icy Cubes and four Shadows, followed by eight Minute Bombs. The Cubes die as easily as in Agrabah. The Bombs actually continue to spawn to a certain point, so it is more than eight. However, The first wave is just eight. Just deal with them with a shot of Magnega so you don't have several of them reaching the end of their countdowns and exploding quite so much.

Round 8 - Three Soldiers and two Silver Rocks, followed by more of the same spawning in, followed by four Armored Knights, followed by one Large Body.

Round 9 - Four Creepers and one Samurai. The Creepers can be taken out easily with some Keyblade attacks, but watch out for the Samurai, which will hit you three times in quick succession, potentially interrupting your combo. Stop this by seeing how a Samurai will attack, then throw up a block or Reflega. This will put the Samurai into Duel Stance form, which will help you take him and the other guys out in one shot. Try opening with an aerial combo, preferably after Goofy and Donald bear the brunt of the Samurai's attack.)

Round 10 - Tifa and Yuffie. You have the luxury of Final Form here, so use it! Yuffie seems to be more annoying here than she is in Round 49, because she'll interrupt you when you're trying to fight Tifa. If you activated Master Form before you'll probably drop out of it soon after the battle starts. But with 3 Drive Gauge left, use up the last of your magic in Knocksmash or Whirli Goof, then go into Wisdom Form and take out Tifa with some well placed Blizzagas and Reflegas. Try to bait Tifa into attacking you, and do whatever you can to get behind her, but do not stay out in front. Final Heaven HURTS, and she can use it as a combo finisher whenever she wants. Watch out for Yuffie though, shes good at interrupting combos. Of course, if you enter this round with enough Drive Gauge to go into Final Form, then go nuts on the both of them.(Throwing out random Reflegas helps.)

ROUNDS 11-20
Titan Cup rules. Sora fights alone, and cannot use Drives (with the exception of Limit Form in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+), but Summons and Trinity Limit are available. This also means you're under the Damage Points restriction too, and 500 points just isn't as much as it used to be. BE CAREFUL HERE! You can't afford a careless step, because even the less dangerous enemies can make you suffer with this rule in play. Use Peter Pans limit to gain huge points. CHEAP METHOD: Spam Final Geneie's Limit. Takes care of everything.

Round 11 - Five Rapid Thrusters and three Aeroplanes. The Rapid Thrusters are negligible, except when they are a distraction to get you in the air so the Aeroplanes can knock you about, something they like to do repeatedly when there are several of them. Lift them up where they belong with a Magnega, and try to take them out before the relatively harmless Thrusters.

Round 12 - Four Minute Bombs, one Magnum Loader, and two Air Pirates. Magnega, or even Magnet, makes this round a right walk in the park.

Round 13 - Three Luna Bandits and two Armored Moles. Be cautious here. Luna Bandits are agile with their attacks, which include sword swipes and a leaping, downward swing, and even in a group this small, can be a pain. Don't get caught in the center of the group, or you're going to be hearing the warning siren in short order, and you'll be severely down on Damage Points. Engage them one at a time if possible, and glide off to heal when needed. This isn't a difficult round if you play it safe, which you're going to need to do more and more from this point on.

Round 14 - Two Lance Soldiers, two Tornado Steps, and two Armored Knights. Magnega is good again, but try for the Rising Sun Reaction Command from the Armored Knights.

Round 15 - Blizzard Lord. Even more of a pushover than Volcanic Lord because he doesn't do the belly bounce move. He'll blow icy mist all over the place, but generally, you can lay massive, repeated combos on him. Use Trinity Limit, then summon Genie in Valor Form and lay waste to him.

Round 16 - Four Soldiers and two Wight Knights. Again, the Soldiers are barely a threat, although possibly a tad bit more than before. It's the Wight Knights you need to be wary of, because they can hit multiple times and make you lose a lot of Damage Points. Falling on them attacking form the air helps. Use Magnega and try to combo the Knights as soon as they fall out, or just snare them right back up in Magnega again.

Round 17 - Four Strafers and four Neoshadows followed by four Aerial Knockers. As long as you don't get caught off guard by the Strafers' slow-moving magic ring projectiles, this one starts off fine, and gets nasty if you stay in the air when the Knockers fly around. They will punch you repeatedly with their magically enlarging fists, and that's no good for Damage Points. Again, Genie Rules.

Round 18 - Two Luna Bandits and two Air Pirates, followed by three Creeper Plants, followed by three Wight Knights after one Plant is dead. The Luna Bandits will continuously slash you, and peel off dozens of Damage Points here. Destroy them first, at all costs. Magnega, Thundaga, Trinity Limit, whatever you can do to them, just get them out of your hair. In a later round, when there are only two of them, you can safely stand anywhere out of range of their seed attacks, but there is only one side of the arena they can't reach in this round, so don't assume you're safe until you find it. When you do, it's still a good spot to regenerate MP, but only until you kill off one of the plants. Then you have the Wight Knights to deal with, and they don't stand still. Carefully work through this set, because you've got projectiles mixed with physical attacks, and it can be a handful.

Round 19 - Two Dusks, two Assassins, and one Dragoon. Use Peter Pans limit like no tommorow on the Assassins, while they are below ground. They wont take damage but theyll sprout points like a fountain. You can easily get 2000+ points here. The Dusks are nothing to worry about once you're done spamming Peter's Limit, the Dragoon should be long dead, and just take out the Assassins the old fashioned way, attacking when they attack to bring them out of the ground.

Round 20 - Pete. He's about as easy to fight as bosses come, if you play it safe. Use Trinity Limit (or if you're in Limit Form, use Sonic Blade). You should be able to get three separate combos out of it, and knock at least a full HP bar off of Pete. Follow this up with a ground combo, Guard Break, and Explosion finishers, and then get away from him because he'll retaliate with a punch or his trademark rolling bombs. He can also rush you, which he telegraphs by yelling, "Get outta my way!" Several times during the battle, usually when you're off regenerating MP, he surrounds himself in a magic sphere and yells something like, "Look out, kids, Pete's invincible!" He isn't joking; attacking during the next several seconds will prove to be all but futile. He also regenerates HP during this phase, though thankfully it isn't very much. Certainly, it isn't enough to save him from further Trinity attacks. You can attack him without Trinity, it's just much, much faster to use it, and it's a very safe method of fighting him. I've gotten through this without a scratch doing that. CHEAP METHOD: Start off with Trinity Limit, switch to Valor Genie and continue using its limit the moment he hits the ground. The only time hell be able to attack is when/ if you have to re-summon Genie.)

ROUNDS 21-30
Pain and Panic Cup rules. Your Drive Gauge is locked, but Summons and Allies are available and Limits consume less MP than usual. Goofy's Limits help the most in all of these rounds, especially Whirli-Goof.

Round 21 - Three Gargoyle Knights (Sword) and three Armored Knights. One Whirli-Goof and it's over.

Round 22 - Two Fortune Tellers, two Trick Ghosts, and one Aeroplane. The Fortune Tellers can pester you with long-distance ice shots. This is compounded by the Ghosts and their plasma balls. The Ghosts, by the way, are immune to Magnega, so keep that in mind. You might want to ensnare the other three enemies and take the Ghosts out before proceeding, because the aerial bombardment can get tricky here. The single Aeroplane is less of a threat than when those enemies are in groups, but don't stay out in front of it long enough for it to strafe you with gunfire. Get up close and personal with aerial combos to cut the bombing runs short.

Round 23 - Two Soldiers, two Creeper Plants, and two Shamans. The Shamans are killer. they can float around invincible and damage you heavily. Activating Whirli-Goof before they can spread out helps alot. Keep an eye on Donalds magic to know whether to heal yourself or let Donald take care of it

Round 24 - Three Bulky Vendors. Use Curaga the moment the battle starts.This is the equivalent of the round in the original Hades Cup when you had to face the Blue Fungus enemies. Which is to say, enjoy this breath of fresh air and regenerate any HP or MP you want. Don't even bother with waiting for their HP to lower, because you receive no prizes in the tournament. If you are so inclined, you can simply wait whilst the Vendors' HP drains out of them at an astonishing rate of its own accord.

Round 25 - Cloud and Tifa. Its ridiculous how strong Goofy's Limits are in this round. Switch from Whirli-Goof to Knocksmash as needed, but both will hurt both Cloud and Tifa. Tifa is tenacious, please do not underestimate her because she will badger you to no end. Whereas Cloud likes to stab around everywhere, Tifa will track and attack you at the worst possible moment. Her finisher, a huge wave of blue explosions in front of her, can come after she says, "Don't say I didn't warn you!" or if you hear her shout, "Aaaaaah!" Bait her and dodge her punches, which is sometimes easier said than done, especially with Cloud attacking you as well. As for Cloud, remember that he is most vulnerable just after this three-stage sword combo, definitely more than following his lunge attacks. Reflega can be very useful in this battle. If you have it on your shortcut and mash the button, it can protect you from combos from either opponent, and set you up beautifully for a retaliating combo. Reflega will actually hurt the both of them if you spam it throughout one of their combos! This expends a lot of MP, but it seems to injure them a lot more than it should while keeping you relatively safe, so make use of it if you want to lay on some heavy damage with a followup combo whilst they're recovering from their attack stance. Barring this, bait and dodge, retaliating with your own combos, either ground or air, but remembering that Guard Break and Explosion are lovely for piling on the damage and can hit multiple targets in proximity. You will likely need to heal during this if you get caught in a couple attacks.

Round 26 - Two Bolt Towers, two Hammer Frames, and one Neoshadow. It is almost surprising what a useful spell Magnega is, and the vast majority of enemies on which it works. Even the Bolt Towers will get sucked in by it. Be careful of staying on the ground whilst the Hammer Frames are alive, because they love making shock waves. You should spend a good amount of this round in the air anyway, taking on the Bolt Towers. If you get caught in the lightning spheres from these enemies, consider it a blessing and mash Triangle for their Reaction Command. The ensuing explosion can kill other monsters. Focus on the Towers, not only because they're the largest targets, but because they have both a ranged physical attack and a shock wave of their own.

Round 27 - Two Gargoyle Warriors (Axe) and four Rabid Dogs, followed by four Nightwalkers. The opening move should be your trusty Magnega, followed by lots of blade time to start aerial combos. Rabid Dogs aren't too much trouble: consider them a baby version of Living Bones in that all they can do is bite you, which even in this tournament doesn't hurt too much. Take out the Gargoyles first if you can, and beware of their spinning attack, which sends them like tops over several metres of space. They don't use it a lot, though, and are just as easy to dispatch as their sword-wielding brethren. The Nightwalkers also love to spin, but they also succumb to Magnega, so you can clean them up exactly like the Gargoyles, keeping in mind that they will gang up on you more than those.

Round 28 - Two Bookmasters and two Emerald Blues followed by three Shamans, followed by at least one Emerald Blue and at least three Silver Rocks. Bookmasters are powerful spellcasters, but as long as you get up close with aerial combos, you can control them with little effort. The Blues have their trademark tornado move, as well as an Aeroga-like spell they use to bash into you repeatedly. The Shamans love their blue fire spells, but that's all they have, so get up close and shred them with the Keyblade. In this particular round, the only use one version of their spell: the one that sends plumes of fire upward from the floor. Unfortunately, the spacing of the three of them makes Magnega difficult to use to full effect, and you might get fried by the remaining Shaman's spells in the meanwhile. Use Cure as necessary. Once they're gone, it's back to the swarm of mage-type enemies. Make use of the Silver Rocks' Reaction Commands, because it can rid you of them one at a time from a good distance. Treat the Blues like always. To a right solid beating.

Round 29 - Two Gamblers and two Snipers. Gamblers in particular can be loathsome creatures, especially if they linger for a while. They have large dice they'll roll after you, card attacks, and if you're really unfortunate, you can be turned into a die, left to do nothing but bounce around and wait for a Drive Gauge to deplete slowly and return you to normal form. Take them out as quickly as you possibly can because they make the Snipers seem tame by comparison. You also have the Warp Snipe Reaction Command for those, which makes them even easier still. Don't forget that Magnega even words on Nobodies, so enjoy it yet again.

Round 30 - Hades. (Dark Round.) He will use Firaga Ball almost exclusively, telegraphed by him saying, "Feel the heat." This move is trickier than it appears, and can hit you at times when you don't think it can. He'll use it repeatedly, and it knocks you backward, so don't underestimate it. It can be knocked back at him by guarding or attacking, though it won't damage Hades. Reflega can absorb it, but is otherwise a waste of MP. If you're in the midst of a Slide Dash attack to close distance to him, you will often go right through a Firaga Ball without taking damage, so there are numerous ways to counter it, just be sure to counter it if you can't dodge. Aside from that, Hades has a one-two flaming punch attack when he says, "Take THAT!" but you won't see it too often, nor is it particularly powerful. One nice thing here is that you can catch him with extra attacks off of a finished combo; Hades is not quick on his feet when he's being beaten up. His only counter is to poof out of the way and rematerialize a couple meters away, when he says, "Is that all you got?" He does it a lot, usually just before you get to land that nice Explosion finisher. Just keep on him. He's much less dangerous when you stay close to him, because Firaga Ball is largely a ranged attack. Trinity Limit might be nice here, but but it's just as easy to combo him to death.

ROUNDS 31-40
Cerberus Cup rules. You have Forms available to you, and Drive Gauges fill much faster than normal. You have a ten-minute timer that will make you very thankful for those Forms.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While in a Form, cast Magnega, and immediately drop out of the Form. Youll find regular Sora will have a full Drive Gauge. This is because the enemies trapped in a Form's Magnega take constant damage adding a great to the Drive Gauge.

Round 31 - Two Samurai, two Creepers, and one Berserker. The Berserker in this group is thankfully just that, singular. If you can manage to make it drop its hammer, and are fortunate enough not to get attacked on your way to it, grab it and use it to the best of your ability. Get rid of that Berserker at any rate, and do it quickly, because if you sustain an entire combo from one of them complete with shock wave finisher, you'll either be dead or clinging to your last hit point. The two Samurai are nearly as dangerous. You can only endure a couple of four-swipe sword attacks here before going critical, and either one of them can perform them consecutively. Don't rely on the Reaction Commands either; Duel Stance is an elegant and beautiful way to kill a Samurai, but the penalty for making a mistake here is much worse than in a normal setting. Magnega—once more—is perfect for these, as well as any of the more dangerous Nobodies. Fire off a sphere and catch them when they're falling down with an aerial combo. They aren't dangerous if you keep them at a distance, but that leaves you with only the option to chip at their HP with magic. You need to get in close, but be careful when you do, as they'll interrupt your combos with their own. The Creepers are laughable by comparison, so just kill them with combos before they have a chance to morph into swords and swipe at you. Try to hold off on Final Form here, just because the earlier you use it, the more chance you have to run out at a moment when you really don't want to later. Even though the Drive Gauge charges faster, you still have a few moments between one Form change and the next, and Leon and Cloud in the last round will take advantage of that.

Round 32 - Three strange musical notes in water form and three Dancers. Demyx isn't around, but you get these water forms just like he uses, only they're in the shape of musical notes, and they carry the same Wild Dance Reaction Commands. The real danger is the Dancers. If they manage to grab you by the head and swing you around, you'll lose 30 percent of your HP. Do anything you can think of to prevent this. In groups, they'll interrupt your combos a lot and do that head grab. By itself, a single Dancer is easier to attack, so get out your Magnega, strike them until it fades, and single out whichever enemy is the farthest away. That head grab maneuver is lethal, so use Magnega whenever possible, as it's a lot easier to regenerate MP than HP, regardless of which round it is. Fighting in Final Form is just as difficult, as it requires more up close and personal fighting. If you're already in Final Form, however, use Magnega before attacking them unless you have one cornered and no others are around.

Round 33 - Four Samurai. They stick together and attack in sync. Often, if you think you're far enough away, they'll slide forward with their arms spread and manage to hit you anyway. If you're not already in Final Form, this is a great place to start. It might be helpful to get them with Magnega and then attack, Final Form or not. It can save you some pain.

Round 34 - Two Sorcerers. As soon as the round starts, they tend to instantly surround you with their floating cubes. Final Form will make very short work of these two, but lifting them off the floor with Magnet magic beforehand makes even shorter work of them.

Round 35 - Rapid Thrusters. Lots of them. This is just like the top of Pride Rock, only you're alone and you have that bloody timer to contend with. The best thing you can do is to immediately shift into Final Form, toss a couple Magnega spheres skyward, and strike away with the Keyblade. Expend your MP on Magnega and then wait for your Drive Gauge to deplete. Now is when that whole "gauges fill faster" caveat is truly great. You can go from level 2 to a full level 7 in literally three or four seconds if you just keep smacking the enemies about, which isn't difficult because there are so many of them. Immediately go back into Final Form, which will refill your MP, and start Magnega again. It might not seem to help, but every little dent you can make is a good dent. This one will feel like it takes forever, and you may start to worry about the timer. Just attack as fast as you can. This round, at best, will take about two and a half minutes, making it all the more imperative to use Final Form to the fullest in the other rounds.

Round 36 - Three Berserkers. Final Form is wonderful here, but even better is being able to grab one of their hammers and kill two or all three of them simultaneously. I've never done more than two, as that last one always seems to decide to do its hammer tantrum just then. If you'll notice, they shrink when they jump on the hammer. The gangly little sods look silly but are harder to hit that way, though you'll probably still hit them in Final Form. Just watch that last hit with the shock wave, as it will knock a chunk of HP from you. Try using Magnega, followed by attacks in Final Form, then grabbing the nearest hammer and enjoying that and mopping up the last Berserker with the Keyblades.

Round 37 - Three Assassins and two Snipers, followed by four Dragoons. The initial set is easy enough with Final Form, but it seems like a lot of the Nobodies don't stay in Magnega for very long at all, popping out almost instantly. The first five enemies is, nonetheless, simple to dispatch, just keep on them and use Warp Snipe if it becomes available. When the Dragoons teleport in, a few of them will do it via their damaging lance dive move, so watch the center of the arena. They are just as susceptible to the sustained pressure of Final Form though, so don't waste any time. If you see them curl into a ball, take those specific ones out before they can lance dive again.

Round 38 - Six Dusks, followed by three Dancers, followed by three Samurai, followed by four Gamblers, followed by one Sorcerer. Dusks are as easy as they come and shouldn't give any trouble, even out of Final Form. Now, the Dancers, Samurai, and Gamblers overlap with their spawn times. Once you kill one or two of the Dancers, the Samurai will come, and one or two seem to drop into the arena as you're fighting, so it might be more than three. One Gambler shows up, and three more in short order, and it's all a steady reason for you to get those Dancers and Samurai out of there so you can combo without being interrupted. Gamblers are easier to combo than Dancers and Samurai, even in a group. The Sorcerer is just like before, but easier as there's just one this time, so kill it and move on.

Round 39 - Five Dragoons. The fifth seems to come in sometime during the fight, so be weary. Get ready to love Master Form. Drive into it, start a combo, dash away with Firaga and Dash back, throw out a Thundaga or two, then finish the combo into Disaster.

Round 40 - Leon and Cloud. Master Form once again. Start a combo on Leon, then use Firaga or Reflega, and Firaga again if needed to get back, though usually Master Form's attacks will move it towards an enemy. The Firaga is not to hurt Leon, (though it will keep him from interrupting your combos), it's to hurt Cloud and Keep him occupied. Reflega will catch a Cloud sneaking up on you, and even before the after shock the spinning Keyblade will hurt Leon. Using this you'll actually be able to let loose some of your Combo finishers, hope to Get 'Master Strike' instead of Disaster, it's a flurry of Blows that is much faster than anything else youve seen out of Master Form, ending with a giant X. When Leon starts his fireball, lock onto Cloud and block or use Reflega. It will send the fireball at Cloud for some easy damage.

ROUNDS 41-50
No Summons, no Drives (with the exception of Limit Form in Final Mix+), no friends, just your Keyblade, magic, and Trinity Limit. For those of you playing Final Mix+', you have access to a host of Limits; use them to your advantage.

Round 41 - Two Toy Soldiers and two Graveyards. This isn't too scary as long as you don't engage them at point-blank range for long. Both enemy types have attacks that will juggle or immobilize you while you eat damage like yummy chocolate. Use Magnega and aerial combos, and glide away to heal if necessary.

Round 42 - Two Fortune Tellers and one Living Bone. Do not underestimate these enemies' range! The Fortune Tellers can cast an ice spell at you even if they're off-camera, and the Living Bone is capable of huge leaps with bites at the end, not to mention the spinning move. Knock out the Fortune Tellers first, because their icy attacks from the sky will keep you pinned so the Bone can smash you. The Bone itself is much less dangerous when it's just you and it; it is a large target, and you can keep an eye on it more effectively when you glide off to heal.

Round 43 - Two Morning Stars and two Large Bodies. You'll have better luck with aerial combos on the Morning Stars. If you think you can make it in time, try a ground combo and Explosion, but make sure you have the clearance, because even if you think you do, you usually don't. If you land a full combo on a Morning Star, it will be stunned for a couple precious seconds, which you can use to best suit your situation, be it beating it down some more, or getting out of there. And don't forget the very useful Reaction Command when a Morning Star leaps over your head. It can deal massive damage to it, and possibly any enemies very close by. Large Bodies will occasionally pause to think things over, which you should take advantage of. Keep them at a healthful distance to ascertain what they're up to before trying to attack. Doing this keeps you safe from both their jumping shockwave and punching moves, and lets you see their belly slide coming a mile away. Be sure to jump and glide away from this, instead of simply jumping once, because the belly slide doesn't necessarily end when the Large Body hits a wall; it will continue for the duration of the move, and it's frustrating to get hit in the back after evading it. Once you do get away from it, though, they seem to pause for a bit, so get them whilst the getting is good. This move also bears a Reaction Command to help you evade or guard, but if you make a mistake, the Large Body will hit you three times with impunity. Use your own judgment on this, and do the Reaction Command if you feel better with that. It will stun the Large Body and leave it on its stomach, though not for very long, and they seem harder to hit than when they're standing. Again, aerial combos are what I like to use, but with Large Bodies, you seem to have a bit more time to attack before they hit you, at least more time than those accursed Morningstars. Explosion is a wonderful finisher if you can get it safely, but only if.

Round 44 - Three Living Bones, two of the headless variety with Shaman riders, and one normal one. This one is difficult because not only will they all spin over the arena, but they like to run after you before doing it, making it much harder to glide away and catch your breath. The Shaman riders will use this tactic a lot more than the normal Living Bone. Do not underestimate this trio of enemies, because they will kill you in five seconds if they pin you down. They are particularly vicious, and will even attack you as a group the second the round starts. Magnega will take care of all three of these enemies, but not for long, so make good use of it. Try to have a Magnega sphere in the air before you use Curaga, you'll be glad you did. The Living Bone with the head on will use that head to bite you repeatedly, and it isn't afraid to leap in the air to grab you if you're gliding or jumping too low. And the lot of them will use their spinning move so often it will make you swear at the television. Do not assume that you are safe from them at any point, because you're not. Don't spend any more time on the ground than you absolutely have to, and spam those aerial combos right after they scatter from Magnega. Try to kill the ones with the Shaman riders first if you can, because the Living Bone by itself seems like much less of a threat.

Round 45 - Repeat of the 1,000 Heartless Battle. Your goal is to survive until the timer expires; do this by any means necessary.

Round 46 - One Devastator and two Hot Rods. The Devastator is dangerous, but not nearly as much so as the duo of Hot Rods. Get a Magnega sphere up immediately to take them out of the picture for long enough to smack the Devastator around, and repeat as necessary. As for the Hot Rods, Magnega is still your best friend, but be careful when the Hot Rods do their driving tantrum, because they're often far away from each other and Magnega will only grab one of them.

Round 47 - One Bulky Vendor, followed by one Living Bone with Shaman rider and two Lance Soldiers, followed by two Assault Riders and two Emerald Blues, followed by three Morning Stars and five Crescendos. The Shaman riding the Living Bone takes a different tactic this time, using a blue fire attack that has two versions. The first one is avoidable if you're moving, and basically sends several plumes of fire up from the ground in a line that has amazing tracking capabilities. If the first one hits you, you'll get hit by all of them, and I believe the same goes for any of the hits in the chain, so watch out. The other version is a ring of blue fireballs that surrounds you for a few seconds, and then explodes into the same 8-hit chain. Reflega does nothing, nor does Firaga. At any rate, ignore the Lance Soldiers unless they get in your face, because unless they're that close, they really can't do much to hurt you. Focus on taking out the Living Bone and Shaman. Magnega will trap it, so as always, use that when you can. Lay on the aerial combos as thick as you can, and try to lessen the amount of opportunities it has to trap you in that fire. The next phase with Assault Riders and Emerald Blues isn't as bad. Don't let the Blues swarm you with those tornadoes; take them out first as they're much more agile than the Assault Riders. Magnega is especially good on those, because their bulk allows you to land a lot of hits when they're in the vortex. They also stun wonderfully, so have fun killing these easier enemies. After that, come the army of three Morning Stars and five Crescendos, which should be the focus of your efforts in this wave to take out their healing abilities. The Morning Stars by themselves are real bruisers, but are very vulnerable in the air, so jump and swing away. They also jump a lot, giving you more opportunities to use their Reaction Commands, so if you see it, take advantage of it.

Round 48 - Cerberus. As he's the only enemy in this round, you'll be able to distance yourself from him to heal when necessary, save when he jumps to close that distance. And watch out for the shockwaves, which follow each jump he makes. Glide as much as you can and be off the ground when he jumps, at least as often as you can do. You won't get too many hits on him before he turns around or jumps away, so you constantly have to chase him down. All three heads bite, but that seems to be less dangerous than it was in the first game. Try to attack the center head more often than not, because you might be fortunate enough to get Cerberus' Reaction Command, which culminates in a move that knocks him out for several seconds and lets you pound him severely. Alternatively, if you happen to own 'Final Mix+', enter into Limit Form, use the same strategy as above, and when the right time comes, spam Cerberus with the Ragnarok ability.

Round 49 - Cloud, Leon, Tifa, and Yuffie. One strategy among many is to chip slowly away at everyone but Cloud using Thundaga, but only if you have the room! Another strategy would be the following. Reflect/Reflega the moment the round begins. Reflega when you're bounced into the air. Reflega on the ground. There's so many people attacking at once at least one person is going to hit it. When in red, try as hard as you can to use Potions instead of Cure, unless you have almost no magic left. Tifa will usually fall first. Block cloud's OmniSlash by continually casting Reflega until he or someone else gets stuck in it. Leon is very vulnerable to Ice. If you need to land a finishing move, use the ability that knocks them into the air, it counts as a finisher.

Round 50 - Hades. This is the same thing as the Hades fight way back when you had Hercules to help you out, complete with Aura powers and everything. He usually sticks to his fireballs (listen for "Feel the heat!" to warn you,) so treat him like you did before, save for the increased damage he'll do to you. Just heal when you need to.