Caius Ballad ( Final Fantasy XIII - 2 boss ) Caius Ballad is a recurring boss in " Final Fantasy XIII - 2 " . He is fought a total of five times in the main story . After the player has completed the main storyline and repeats the first three battles against Caius with the Paradox Scope fragment skill active , his stats are significantly increased ( see 1a , 2a and 3a in the infobox ) , and defeating him will result in a paradox ending . Caius is also fought in the downloadable episode " " . Strategies . Oerba - 200 AF - ( 1 ) . Caius starts the battle with Heart of Chaos , which bestows Reraise . Despite this status , which usually automatically revives defeated units , the battle will end by reducing Caius ' s HP to zero once . Caius tends to focus all his attacks on a single party member , so the player should deploy a Synergist that can cast Vigilance . Using a Saboteur to inflict status effects , especially Poison and either Deprotect and Deshell upon Caius , is also highly recommended . Caius tends to use Body and Soul often , which bestows many positive status effects upon himself , the most notable being Regen . Thus it is important to defeat Caius before the first stagger period is over , otherwise he will regenerate nearly all of his HP . The player should use Relentless Assault to raise Caius ' s chain gauge close to the stagger point , then switch to a healing paradigm , such as Combat Clinic to restore lost HP , then switch back to Relentless Assault to stagger Caius . About halfway through the stagger period , the party should shift to Cerberus ( three Commandos ) to end the battle before Caius recovers from stagger . The player should use Potions and Phoenix Downs if any more healing is required during the stagger period . Paradox Scope active ( 1a ) . With the Paradox Scope active Caius ' s stats are boosted and he will now revive himself after his HP has been depleted once . Useful paradigms include : The player should begin the battle with Tri - disaster and blast Caius with spells until he becomes staggered . The player can either stay in that paradigm or switch to RAV / MED / RAV , COM / RAV / RAV , or COM / COM / COM based on preference . Once Caius recovers from stagger the party should switch to MED / MED / SEN to heal to full health and then switch over to SAB / SEN / SEN and blast Poison until Caius is poisoned . This will counteract his Regen . Once Caius is poisoned the party should start over from the beginning . Meteor Javelin or Ultima Arrow can be used while he is staggered for extra damage . Void Beyond - Year Unknown - ( 2 ) . Useful paradigms : Caius will focus on launching Serah . The players ' first focus should be to debuff ( preferably Deshell ) Caius and switch to Dual Casting and start spamming Thunder . By the time the party attempts to do this Caius will have cast Graviton twice , or maybe even three times , but it shouldn ' t hurt too badly with quick healing . The player ' s first goal is to stagger him ; in stagger Caius is weak and should pose little danger . The only attack the party should be concerned about is Blast Wave . If Caius casts Chain Break , the player should switch back to Dual Casting and try again . Paradox Scope active ( 2a ) . This battle is significantly harder with the Paradox Scope active as the player has only two party members , and if Serah is knocked out the battle will end . Caius ' s HP and stagger point are not overly high , but he is fast and capable of restoring his HP , emptying his chain gauge and of attacking fast in succession , as well as launching his targets in the air incapacitating them . After his HP is depleted to zero Caius will revive himself and the player must repeat the process . Pairing Serah with a Sentinel ally is a good idea , especially one that cannot be launched even when not guarding , such as the types of monsters with a shell . The Sentinel ally should know Provoke to draw Caius ' s attacks to it , as well as either Steelguard or Mediguard for defense ( Steelguard may be better , because it reduces damage more ) . Useful paradigms include : While the Sentinel ally draws Caius ' s attention , Serah should attempt to apply either Deprotect or Deshell depending on her proficiency , along with Imperil , and possibly Poison . If Caius has both Deshell / Deprotect and Imperil the Ravager job makes his HP drop like a stone , as his physical / magical resistance becomes normal and he becomes weak to elements , taking double damage from Ravager skills . If the player can apply Faith / Bravery with a Feral Link skill , the effect is even greater . What makes this difficult is that Caius is able to restore his status with Absolution , and also keeps buffing himself . Saboteur is able to inflict Wound damage , which is especially useful against Caius as he revives himself after being defeated the first time , but is unable to restore any Wound damage , meaning he will be revived at whatever his maximum HP was at the time he runs out of HP the first time . He is also not immune to Dispel , which also deals damage . Although Saboteur skills don ' t deal much damage when compared to Commando or Ravager , they slow his chain gauge while still building chain , and the Wound damage builds up over time and caps his max HP . When Caius prepares Inferno the player can quickly shift to SEN / SEN to minimize damage , and when the Sentinel is on low HP the player can shift to MED / SEN to heal the Sentinel . Using Wound Potions may be necessary if the battle draws for long . A Dying World - 700 AF - ( 3 ) . Useful paradigms : Caius will start by rushing Noel and launching him up in the air . The player should start by using Protect and on switch over to Saboteur and start casting Deshell . When Deshell sticks the player should switch to Ravager and start casting Thunder , which has the fastest casting time of all spells . Once Caius is staggered Noel should switch over to Commando , but after his health drops to around half Caius will use Chain Break followed by Heart and Soul to counter this . The player should switch to Saboteur and start casting Dispel and once Caius ' s Haste is removed , switch over to Ravager and stagger Caius and switch to Commando for the win . It is possible to lose this battle and still continue playing , but this misses out on a bestiary entry . If this happens and the player still wants to complete the bestiary ( there is a fragment quest that requires this ) they need to close Academia 4XX ' s Time Gate and play on to reach A Dying World 700 AF again . Dying World - 700 AF - Paradox Scope active ( 3a ) . This fight is hard , and it is easy to die as Noel is alone . The above strategy should work fine ( at a higher level ) but focus more on healing and buffing . Academia - 500 AF - ( 4 ) . Suggested paradigms : Caius will usually focus on Serah , and use a nasty spell called Eye of Bahamut ; thus the player should switch over to SYN / SYN / MED and use Protect on Serah . The player should next switch to SAB / SAB / MED and use Deshell on Caius . Caius will likely unleash a barrage of attacks that will launch Serah in the air , but after the Deshell has been applied the player should switch over to RAV / RAV / RAV and spam Thunder . By this time , Caius will again use Eye of Bahamut , but once the party gets Caius down to around half of his HP , he will use Chain Break then Heart of Chaos . Once he does this , the party should switch over to SAB / SAB / MED and start casting Dispel until it rids of his Haste status , then switch back to RAV / RAV / RAV until he is staggered . After Caius is staggered the player should switch over to COM / COM / COM and attack ; if this doesn ' t kill him he uses Chain Break again . The player should switch over to SAB / SAB / MED and Dispel Caius ' s Haste , then switch over to RAV / RAV / RAV and get his stagger gauge to about 200 % , then switch to COM / COM / COM to finish the battle . Valhalla - Year Unknown - ( 5 ) . Useful paradigms : Caius will start the battle by casting Ultima on the party . The player can switch to the Tortoise paradigm to reduce damage , but the spell isn ' t overly powerful . The player should use a paradigm with a Synergist and cast Protect , Shell , Vigilance , and Veil on the party , then switch to Tri - disaster and raise Caius ' s chain gauge . When he is staggered , the party should switch to Cerberus and attack . After Caius performs four or so cycles of attacks , the player should switch to Tortoise to absorb the damage of Caius ' s Inferno attack , which can devastate the party , and then heal if needed . Caius will not do anything for a while , so this opportunity can be taken to deal as much damage as possible before he empties his chain gauge . After this , he will likely cast Body and Soul or Absolution , and start his cycle over again by casting Ultima . The party ' s attacks before Caius empties his chain gauge will likely reduce his health by at least half . Should Caius cast Eye of Bahamut on any of the party members , the player should immediately remove all the status ailments before Caius casts Inferno , as it can easily KO anyone if they have Deshell or Imperil . When his HP is depleted once , Caius will revive himself to max HP , minus any Wound damage . Another strategy is to use SAB / SAB / MED and casting Dispel to remove his Haste then use Deshell and once that sticks switch to Tri - disaster and cast Thunder on Caius to raise his chain gauge . Valhalla - ? ? ? AF - ( Requiem of the Goddess DLC ) . Levels 0 - 2 . Caius will switch between three paradigm stances : Commando , Ravager , and Medic . When he is in his Commando Stance , the player should stay in Paladin and either Shaman or Mage — Paladin used to stabilize the chain gauge and Shaman or Mage to build it . The player should remain cautious of when Caius snaps his fingers , an indication he is about to attack . When he does , the player should switch immediately to Knight and using Immortality negate the damage from the attack . When Caius is in Ravager stance , the player must be alert as they will have to rapidly change between roles . When Caius is not attacking , staying in either Shaman or Mage is advisable , but as soon as he moves , the player must switch to the Knight role to minimize damage from Caius ' s combos , or else be sure to have enough HP to survive the onslaught . At some point the player will be forced to go to the Paladin role to stabilize the gauge . The rapid changing of roles may mean that the player has to stay on the role menu as Lightning is attacking Caius , ready to switch when needed . When Caius switches to Medic , the player has the greatest chance of staggering Caius , meaning they should go all out with either the Shaman or Mage role , perhaps occasionally using the Paladin role to stabilize the gauge . If the player staggers Caius , they should switch to the Paladin role and launch him before switching to the Shaman or Mage role to build up the gauge . As he is in the air , the player can build up the gauge to a reasonable point — normally between 500 - 600 % — before switching back to the Paladin role and keeping him in the air . Just before his stagger ends , the player must be in the Paladin role and be ready to use Smite . The very second Smite hits , the player should use Legion of One if it ' s ready . The player should make sure to switch first , or otherwise Legion of One will be a lot weaker . So long as the player is ready to quickly switch roles to Knight before Caius attacks and they make the best use of his Stagger duration , the battle is winnable . Level 3 - 4 . The strategy remains identical to the one above , but at the start of the battle , the player should enter the Conjurer role and use the " Mighty Guard " spell that casts Protect , Shell , Veil and most importantly Vigilance . As Lightning now has Vigilance and is , in turn , unlikely to be interrupted , when Caius switches to the Ravager stance , the player does not have to switch to the Knight role — unless they need to conserve HP . Due to the buffs from Mighty Guard , the battle will normally go a lot quicker . Also , when Lightning has buffs on , it is recommended to switch to the Knight role and use Immortality as soon as Caius switches to Healer stance , because he will cast Dispelga and attempt to remove Lightning ' s buffs . However , Immortality will conserve the buffs . Level 5 . As before , the player should cast Mighty Guard at the start . This time , when Caius enters stagger , the player should immediately switch back to Conjurer and cast Aura on Lightning to give her Haste , Bravery and Faith . To build the chain while Caius is staggered , it is recommended to use the Shaman role and cast Windstorm . Level 6 - 7 . Same as Level 5 , however , now when Caius is staggered , upon casting Aura on Lightning , the player should switch to the Sorcerer role and cast Chaos on Caius to inflict a number of status ailments , meaning that Caius will take more damage while he is in stagger . Level 8 - 10 . Same as all previous strategies , but now that " Bladestorm " has been unlocked for the Shaman role , it is arguably the best way to build chain when Caius is staggered ; it will render him weak by launching him and the player can constantly keep attacking him .