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Ever since they were introduced to the world of Final Fantasy, Tonberries have been synonymous with game overs. Their adorable little hooded green bodies hide a bloodthirsty appetite that makes the Tonberry King inFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthabout as hard a fight as any series veteran might assume.
This is a fight that can easily get out of hand, and fast, if you aren’t on your toes at all times. To get that Tonberry King’s Pristine Crown and wrap up the ‘Saga of the Seaside Inn’, you will need to remain vigilant - and maybe keep our guide up while you’re at it.
How To Unlock The Tonberry King Fight
To unlock the fight with the Tonberry King, you mustlocate four of the six Lifesprings in the Corel region. Corel, being as huge as it is, doesn’t allow exploration of itslarger southern portionuntilChapter 9. The Lifesprings you need are all down there.
Finding the fourth southern-area Lifespringsadds the Tonberry King’s Classified Intel mission to the map. you may find the (very obvious) battleground beforehand, but it won’t spawn yet!
If you’ve yet to make ample progress (or even unlock)‘Saga of the Seaside Inn’, you can still steal the Pristine Crown. Just hang on to it for when your mission to help Johnny commences in earnest.
How To Steal The Tonberry King’s Crown
You’re here tosteal the Pristine Crownand take no prisoners. TheTonberry Kingis here to kill you and laugh. Thesingle biggest problemwe faced while fighting the Tonberry King stems from hisCall for Friendsmove.
When the Tonberry King uses Call for Friends,numerous ‘normal’ Tonberries arrive. Like the Tonberry King (and Tonberries in general throughout Final Fantasy),they will slowly saunter toward a party member, whip out a knife, and one-shot them.
Thus, as soon as this happens, you have toweave your way around a bunch of enemies that can kill a party member with a close-range attack. This isn’t easy for any party member, but you should stillprioritize the usage of long-range fightersfor the fight.
This meansBarret and Yuffie. We used Yuffie as ourregularly-controlled character,swapping to Cloud when the Tonberry King was pressured(more on that in a moment) to hit thatstagger barASAP.
Yuffie comes with a Steal Materia equippedwhen she joins the party. All the more reason to roll with her, we reckon.The Tonberry King is pressured when his attacks fail to connect; andwhile pressured, the Pristine Crown falls to the ground.
This is when your Steal-equipped character canuse an ATB charge, select Steal from the Abilities menu, and choose the crown, automatically pilfering it in the process. Sweet.
How To Beat The Tonberry King
In addition to Call for Friends,Tonberry King has thefollowing attacks:
As you can see,staying too close to the Tonberry King for too longcan spell disaster. On the other hand,dodging the attacks pressures it. So, what do you do?You don’t try to evade Tantrum, that’s for sure. Too risky by far.
Instead,keep an eye out for the other attacks, andcontrol Yuffie, use Brumal Formto evade one, and reap the pressure rewards.
Brumal Form is one ofYuffie’s starting abilities. It’s a terrific technique fordodging attacks, and it evenfills the ATB gaugewhen it works.
Surprisingly,the Tonberry King lacks resistance to most debuffs- though full disclosure here, we didn’t try many out, but the Enemy Intel screen when you use Assess on it backs this up. Try them out to your heart’s content.
