BOSS: DAIMAOU LUCIFER

Lucifer is the ultimate challenge in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster. Learn his weaknesses, required skills like Penetrate, and the best party setup to finally take him down.

Stats / Weaknesses:

• HP: 65535
• MP: Infinite
• Affinity: Immune to all Boss Immunities, extra strong to everything else, including All-Purpose.
• Resistances: Takes about 1/4 normal damage from all attacks, even with debuffs.
• Attacks: Never miss, All-Purpose damage, ~75% critical hit chance.
• Skills: Wicked Light (Charm), De-Kaja, De-Kunda, Prominence (Fire), Absolute Zero (Ice), Megidora, Megidoraon, Diarama, King of Kings (All-Purpose + Bind), In the Beginning There Was Darkness (All-Purpose, reduces HP to 1/2, 1/4, or 1/10).
• Special Notes: Megidoraon, Diarama, and In the Beginning There Was Darkness are only used when Lucifer is below ~2/3 HP. Kagutsuchi is dead, so Silent Sky Critical and Bright Sky Critical effects do not work.

Phases:

1. Phase 1 (Full HP to ~2/3 HP): Lucifer uses his standard attacks and skills like Prominence and Absolute Zero. Focus on buffing your party and debuffing Lucifer.
2. Phase 2 (~2/3 HP to 0 HP): Lucifer begins using his most powerful skills: Megidoraon, Diarama, and In the Beginning There Was Darkness. This is when the fight becomes significantly more dangerous. Prioritize healing and maintaining buffs/debuffs.

Strategy:

• The Absolute Necessity: Penetrate! This skill is non-negotiable. Without it, your physical attacks will do negligible damage (double-digit to low triple-digit). With Penetrate, physical attacks deal 'normal' damage. If your Hero doesn't have it, you'll need to fuse demons that do (like Girimekara from the Dark Broker in the fifth Calpa) and pass it on.
• Hero's Role: The Hero should ideally have Penetrate and Supreme Blast. Combine Kiai (if you have it) with Supreme Blast for massive damage, sometimes exceeding 8000 on a critical hit. Mediarahan is also crucial for emergency healing.
• Custom Yama Ja-aku Frost (LV 99): A great support demon. Skills like Mahabufudain, Raku-Kaja, Penetrate, Randomizer, and immunities (Mind, Nerve, Magic) make him invaluable. He can also deal decent damage if needed and reflects Fire/Absorbs Ice, countering Lucifer's Prominence and Absolute Zero.
• Custom Kishin Futomimi (LV 90): A hardy bruiser and healer. With skills like Kiai, Battle Cry, Critical, Charge, Mediarahan, Penetrate, and Life Spring/Magic Pulse, he's immune to status effects and has high HP. He can dish out around 3000 damage with Kiai, Penetrate, and Charge on a critical hit, and can also heal or debuff Lucifer with Battle Cry.
• Daitenshi Metatron: A solid support demon with good defensive and offensive support skills like Taru-Kaja and Maka-Kaja. Substitute Randomizer and Penetrate for Divine Retribution and Mahanmaon. Immune to status ailments.
• General Party Composition: Aim for demons immune to status ailments. While Beelzebub is a good example, Dante is surprisingly useless here due to his lack of support, healing, or Penetrate.
• Buffs and Debuffs: Consistently use buffs like Taru-Kaja (attack) and Raku-Kaja (defense) on your party, and debuffs like Taru-Kaja (attack down) on Lucifer. Lucifer does use De-Kaja and De-Kunda, but infrequently enough that it's worth the effort.
• Dealing with ITBTWD: When Lucifer uses 'In the Beginning There Was Darkness,' your party's HP will be reduced to a fraction. Be prepared to heal immediately.
• Damage Mitigation: Lucifer's attacks have a high critical hit rate and deal All-Purpose damage. Having demons with high HP and resistances, or skills that boost defense, is key.