Game:Luxord

Luxord is fought as a boss in Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts Union χ, and Kingdom Hearts III.

In Kingdom Hearts II, he battles Sora alone at Havoc's Divide, a balcony overlooked by Kingdom Hearts in the Castle That Never Was.

In Kingdom Hearts III, he challenges Sora and company at the Caribbean in a ship battle and eventually battles Sora alone in one final game at the Keyblade Graveyard with Mickey at stake. A data replica of him is also a optional boss in Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind.

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 either trigger a positive effect (signified by a twisting black clock on one side of the card) or a trap (signified by a fireball symbol instead), assuming the card has one. 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.

While singling out Luxord is of highest priority, paying attention to the cards he summons can help dramatically. In particular, the cards with twisting black clocks will deplete a small amount of Luxord's Time Gauge when Flipped, helping to bring him down. As he summons multiple of those specific cards when he tries to shuffle himself among his cards, spending some time searching for those cards instead of just Luxord's can be of great use. However, remaining cautious of the explosive trap cards still applies.

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. Be careful if moving in to finish him off with a physical combo, as he'll still unleash his close-ranged attack one more time before giving up and idling.

Keyblade Graveyard
Luxord is initially fought along with Larxene and Marluxia by Sora and King Mickey. His only attack is to conjure an orb of magic and then spawn cards at Sora's location to attack and he mainly keeps a distance. After 30 seconds, Luxord interrupts the battle by holding Mickey hostage as a card and challenging Sora himself. When this happens, any damage previously dealt to Luxord is restored.

While Luxord does not physically attack, he challenges Sora by creating an array of 15 cards with himself hiding in one of them. Though Sora can find Luxord's card by simply looking at the back side of the cards, Luxord will eventually indicate which one he is in by saying, "Over here!" while the card he is in will shake ever slightly. Failure to find Luxord in time will result in him reshuffling himself among his cards again. Hitting Luxord's card will leave him vulnerable until 15 seconds have passed or 30% of his HP has been lost, upon which he will return to hiding in his cards.

Marluxia and Larxene can occasionally interfere by attacking Sora while he is trying to find Luxord, but will disappear once Luxord has been found. Hitting either of them deals no damage and instead causes that character to vanish for 8 seconds.

Eventually, Luxord will fall and the fight against Larxene and Marluxia continues, with Mickey once again as a party member.

Data Rematch
Luxord's data rematch uses the same time game mechanics as Kingdom Hearts II - both he and Sora will have a time gauge, while Sora also has his regular HP bar. Sora's Time Gauge will slowly deplete over time, and will deplete when he takes damage. If Sora successfully attacks Luxord, then Luxord's Time Gauge will decrease and Sora's will increase. Conversely, if Sora fails a mini game then Luxord's time gauge will increase while Sora's decreases. However, Luxord can no longer turn Sora into a die or card, and Luxord's mini games are done on the field of battle rather than in Sora's command menu.

Luxord has various short card combos that can be blocked, usually indicated by him shuffling his cards beforehand. When Luxord rises into the air, he will fire a set of 3 homing cards, followed by anther 3 homing cards - block the two sets as they come. If Luxord stays on the ground, he can fire a trident of 3 cards toward Sora - if Sora is close enough then all 3 cards can be blocked, but if there is some distance then Sora may block only 1 or 2. If Luxord summons 4 rotating cards around Sora, wait until they stop rotating and block. If he puts a small card a distance away and teleports, this is his slow card combo - the small cards will slowly move toward Sora and glow white when they speed up, so use that visual cue to block. Any cards from these combos that are not blocked (whether by Sora getting hit or by dodging them) will remain on the ground and be used in an attack later.

If Luxord appears far away and summons 2 cards at his sides, he will do his elemental card move. The cards will flip around and reveal a thunderbolt, indicating that Sora must destroy them with a Thunder spell. After destroying the third set of cards, immediately enter focus to Airstep to Luxord and attack - this opening has a very tight window. If Sora doesn't destroy the cards, they will become red upon reaching Sora's sides, and try to crush him - dodge when the red cards start to move inward. Any cards that became red will linger on the ground afterwards.

If Luxord summons a barrier with cards rotating around him, Sora will need to carefully attack the red O card, avoiding the black X cards. The cards' rotation will slightly slow to make it easier, but if Sora waits too long then he will take damage and the move will end. This rotation slow-down will reset every time a red O is destroyed. Since Sora's attacks can sometimes last too long or deal too many hits, it is recommended to strike once at each red O and then dodge roll away immediately to avoid accidentally hitting an X. Once the last card is destroyed, Luxord's barrier will break and he will be open to attack.

When Luxord hides himself in a card and goes into the ground, he will shuffle his card among any other cards that were lingering on the ground. When the cards go back up, Sora will need to find and attack the red O cards. This game is solved by rotating the camera - unsafe cards will rotate to always face the camera, but red O cards will not rotate. Luxord will occasionally turn a card purple to approach and attack Sora with a fountain of small cards - if this happens, dodge roll away. Once enough red O cards are destroyed, the remaining cards will reveal themselves, and Luxord can be attacked. If not many cards were left lingering before this move began, then there will be fewer cards that need to be searched, making the move easier to deal with. Additionally, with a keen eye it is possible to follow Luxord's card on the ground and then attack him directly, skipping the red O searching process.

Luxord's ultimate attack has him surround the arena with walls of rotating cards. These cards will flip around at random, and occasionally close in on Sora with a fountain attack - dodge roll accordingly. Sora's task here is to find cards with Luxord's image and either attack them or dispel them with - the latter is recommended for safety, as the cards are so tightly packed that an attack may hit a stray black X card by mistake. Since the cards will reveal themselves at random, carefully search the cards by moving around and rotating the camera - standing and waiting for a specific card to flip will usually not yield good results. When enough Luxord cards have been removed, the background cards will move down and the second phase will start - though it works the same as the first phase. Removing enough Luxords will start the third phase, which works differently. Luxords will now reveal themselves but then hide when approached - the real Luxord will follow up by yelling a battle quote, and will appear as a spinning Luxord card in another part of the circle. He will fire 2 black X's at Sora - dodge roll toward them and dispel the Luxord card with. Repeat this enough times and the move will end, leaving Luxord finally open to attack. Note that the card walls will slowly close in with every fountain, and if Sora takes too long then he will fail the move.

Luxord's moves will be slightly changed after using his ultimate attack. The barrier move now places the cards on the edge of the arena instead of around Luxord, but the strategy of hitting the red O's is the same. The elemental cards attack will now sometimes send out flaming black cards, which need to be destroyed with Fire spells instead of Thunder.

For PRO code players, note that there are not many opportunities to attack Luxord with magic, so Wizard's Ruse is not very effective. Luxord does make Sora walk around a lot though, so it is recommended to equip the Forest Clasp accessory for its HP Walker effect, in case healing is needed.