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
As the Gambler of Fate, 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. Also, when either of them is hit with an attack, the time bar decreases even more. As Luxord himself states, "The first to run out of time is the loser." Thus, Sora must watch both his HP and his time.

When the battle begins, Sora is transformed into a die—there is no way to avoid this. When the Drive Gauge depletes, he changes back, so simply avoid Luxord until then. Luxord frequently leaps around the arena, his cards spinning and floating on their own to strike Sora. The cards can be destroyed by attacking them (which results in them dropping magic orbs), or using the Reaction Command "Flip". Using "Flip" will also trigger a booby 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, striking him no matter where he is. This can be avoided by attacking Luxord before he finishes summoning the orb of energy, or by triggering the Reaction Command "Begin Game".

As his Gambler Nobodies tend to do, Luxord will frequently give Sora the chance to use the "Begin Game" Reaction Command. When this command is 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 balls. 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 his time bar is almost depleted, Luxord will cover the arena in his cards, and rise from the cards behind Sora to attack him rapidly, attacking him with his cards and throwing them around the arena. He will also spin 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. The player 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. If the player fails, Sora is transformed into a card or die. After this, Luxord resumes his normal attack pattern. The player must ultimately strike Luxord with a finishing move once his time bar is depleted to win. 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 will not drop anymore after this point, and Sora must deliver a finishing combo to end the fight.

Overall, Luxord can be a tricky and frustrating opponent. The key is to learn the rules of the game he has turned the battle into, and follow them. Every game he uses has a chance for Sora to win, and the games Luxord plays with him during the battle are no different. As long as the player wins Luxord's games and heals when needed, he should not be too difficult to defeat.

Data rematch
In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, he can be fought again in data form, along with the other Organization XIII bosses. 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, you're going to have to win some of the games; especially the last one.

A good strategy is to move away from Luxord as fast as you can when he changes Sora into a die or card. Move around, away from Luxord's reach, 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 lock your eyes on that same card until the cards stop shuffling.

During this battle however Luxord will always activate his strongest attack when his Time Gauge drops to a small value (close to 1/8) regardless of how hard the player attacks him, forcing them 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. Considering that Sora is basically useless on its die form, and must wait for it to end in order to inflict significant damage on Luxord again, the entire procedure takes a huge toll on the Time Gauge, and if the player 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 mode ends. Instead it is recommended to pause continously while the command features an "X", and then press the command as soon as the "O" appears in pause mode. Using this method gives the player a better margin of time to press the button when they exit the pause mode, specially if they don't have fast reflexes.

Once the player succeeds on this game, Luxord's Time Gauge will fall, and all the player must do is inflict a combo finisher or cast magic (Thundaga is preferable) to win.