Tantarian Tantarian is an optional boss in " Final Fantasy IX " . It can be found in Alexandria Castle ' s library , but there are only two chances to fight it : during the time the party is rescuing Garnet who is being held in the castle basement , and later when the party arrives to save Garnet and Eiko during the Battle of Alexandria . If the player misses out on these two opportunities , Tantarian cannot be encountered again . It ' s a challenge to face Tantarian the first time the battle is available , because his highly damaging attacks can weaken the party quickly . In addition , battling him then eats away at the 30 - minute time limit imposed on the party for finding Garnet in Alexandria Castle ' s basement . Tantarian can be found by examining the book case on the left in the library . Though often referred to as a boss , the boss battle music will not play , and the party will be rewarded with EXP . There is a moogle in the Knights ' Guardhouse to save the game before attempting the battle , but only during the second chance to fight it . Battle . The battle begins with Tantarian inside the book . Physical attacks will open a page , the page number being the cumulative damage it has taken from the party . Tantarian is generally found between pages 150 - 200 . Its defense is high while hiding within the book . When out of the book , Tantarian ' s defense is lowered greatly , though physical attacks will cause it to retreat in the book . Tantarian ' s deadliest attack is Paper Storm , which inflicts hundreds of points of damage to all party members , though it can only be used while it is inside the book . When Tantarian opens , it can only attack using Poison , which can easily be countered by equipping Antibody . When Tantarian is open , the player should only use magical attacks , such as Bio and Fira with Vivi , and Sword Magic with Steiner ; physical attacks will close it again . Tantarian is weak to Fire damage , and Zidane ' s Thievery is also effective because it ignores Tantarian ' s high defense . Tantarian will automatically close after a few rounds , meaning the player may have to find him several times before defeating him , depending on how much damage their characters can deal out . It ' s possible to steal the Demon ' s Mail armor from Tantarian , a very powerful piece of equipment early on , but the armor is notoriously difficult to steal . It may take a few reloaded saves to successfully steal it . Strategy for the first chance to fight Tantarian . Before engaging into battle with Tantarian all characters should be equipped with Antibody and make use of the Alexandrian guards outside the hall just before the library . When battling the guards the player should use Freya or Zidane to attack Steiner to take down his HP , then defeat the guards and open the menu , use Potions to heal Steiner until he is 150 - 200 damage off his max HP . For example , if Steiner had 1000 HP the player will be wanting to aim for 800 - 850 . The reason is because Tantarian is located on pages 150 - 200 in battle ; by Steiner having the HP difference , his Sword Art Minus Strike will deal damage equivalent to the HP difference he is away from his max HP . Any inflicted damage above 200 gets added to the current page number , then subtracted by 200 , and the remainder is counted as the page the book opens at . I . e . : 320 damage = ( 320 - 200 ) = 120 , so the book would open at page 120 . If another 100 damage was then inflicted : ( ( 120 + 100 ) - 200 ) = ( 220 - 200 ) = 20 , so the page number would become 20 . In both cases , the book page is not between 150 and 200 , so Tantarian will not appear for the party to attack . When the fight begins , the player should use Minus Strike with Steiner , and the book will open to reveal Tantarian . Zidane can steal and Vivi use Fira . When it comes to Steiner ' s second turn , the player should use Fira Sword to inflict thousands of points of Fire damage ( Tantarian will not close due to Steiner ' s attacks , because Fira Sword is considered a magic attack ) , and keep stealing with Zidane and keep using Fira with Vivi . Freya should be on standby to use Ethers on Steiner and Vivi if they run low on MP . After about six turns Tantarian will revert to his book form ; at this stage the player must make sure to have Steiner on standby to immediately use Minus Strike when he changes , not afterwards , to reveal Tantarian again ; at no point during this battle should any healing be done ( this includes Freya using Reis ' s Wind ) since Tantarian should never have the opportunity to inflict damage . Once Zidane has stolen all items of interest from Tantarian , he should become the standby character ready to use Ethers , and Freya should switch to using Lancer to inflict moderate damage each turn . Strategy for the second chance to fight Tantarian . The party members will be Zidane , Vivi , Amarant , and Freya . It helps if each character have these additions : The party should begin the fight by attacking with all characters including Vivi . The goal is to get Tantarian open as soon as possible without attacking physically an extra time and having Tantarian close again . The player should keep track of how much each party member does . When Tantarian is open , Amarant can revive any character that may have died and Freya cast Reis ' Wind if the party has been damaged , but the party should take no damage this round . Zidane should keep stealing , and Vivi use Focus during the open phase . Casting Slow helps keep Tantarian open as well as allowing the party to possibly get through a closed phase without taking damage or getting Doom cast on any members , but is not necessary . As Freya ' s and Vivi ' s MP drops through the fight , Chakra can be used to keep up their MP as Amarant will be useless during the open phases . Zidane can easily keep stealing . The party should only take damage in the closed phase once or twice depending on the party ' s ATB . It is worth stopping stealing during closed phases to get Tantarian open faster . After the player is done stealing , or if they decide not to steal , they can simply follow the regular strategy of burning Tantarian down with Fira . Etymology . In the French localization this enemy is called Lovecraft , most likely a reference to the author .