Gigantuar ( Final Fantasy XIII - 2 ) The Gigantuar is an enemy in " Final Fantasy XIII - 2 " . Finding Gigantuar . Gigantuar is found in the Archylte Steppe by examining blue cactuar statues , most of which appear once Faeryl is defeated and when the weather is right . One of the stones is surrounded by a group of growing cacti on the east side of the gorge in the Stonestump Wasteland in any weather right from the beginning . The other two statues are in the Clearwater Marshes : one is in the northeast during sunny weather , and the other is in the center during rainy weather . Both statues require Moogle Hunt to find . The player can get to the Clearwater Marshes by teleporting from the yellow cactuar statue , which appears in cloudy weather , or simply jumping across if they have unlocked the correct Fragment Skill from Serendipity . Battle . Gigantuar uses 1000 Needles periodically , which can bring the party ' s HP to low levels and usually inflicts Pain and Fog , which can be lethal . The player ' s strategy dependends on what happens during the 1000 Needles . Gigantuar is weak against Fire . A good stock of Remedies and Potions can help if the party ' s Medic becomes out of action ( certain accessories and Veil can help prevent this ) . Defensive strategy . A defensive strategy can be effective for a low level party . For a defensive strategy , Serah must have unlocked the Saboteur role and should know the abilities Poison and Deshell as well as having access to the Medic role , knowing Esuna and possibly knowing Curasa . Noel should have access to the Medic role and should know Esuna , Raise and Curasa . Having the Synergist role with Faith also helps . A useful Feral Link is a Synergist that has the Faith ability , for example Microchu or Yakshini . Serah is probably the better of the two party leaders . The paradigm s required are Salvation ( MED / MED / MED ) , Perseverance ( SAB / MED / MED ) and Evened Odds ( SAB / MED / SYN ) , which should be the active paradigm . When the battle starts , the player should try to get Poison and Deshell on Gigantuar . Poison will typically take a long time to stick , and so the player should keep on using a manual command set of Deshell followed by Poisons . By the time Poison is on the enemy , Faith should have been cast on the party . Once Poison is applied , depending on the player ' s level , the player may wish to go into a defensive type paradigm , such as Lifeguard or Salvation , to keep HP high . Even in this paradigm the player can deal damage via Feral Links . Alternatively , the player may want to go into an offensive paradigm to raise the chain gauge using Relentless Assault ( RAV / COM / RAV ) or Tri - Disaster ( RAV / RAV / RAV ) . Poison will probably have to be applied more than once to actually kill the Gigantuar . Once the enemy is staggered , Poison becomes easier to reapply , but if the player has low levels they may want to stay defensive . As soon as a party member has been knocked out , the player should switch to Salvation to revive them with a Phoenix Down if possible due to higher healing potential . Eventually , Poison will fully wear out the Gigantuar ' s HP , but it is good to reapply it regularly to prevent it from running out . Alternate strategy . This strategy can be used with parties of a higher level and so less healing is needed . The player ' s Paradigm Pack should consist of a reliable Synergist that knows Faith ( preferably Purple Chocobo or Yakshini ) , a Saboteur who knows Deshell and preferably Curse , and a choice between a Ravager or Medic depending on the party ' s HP . Noel should equip a Ribbon if possible , and Pain and Fog resistant accessories if not . The party ' s paradigms should be Countermeasure ( SAB / SEN / SAB ) , Prudent Planning ( SYN / SEN / SYN ) , Attrition ( MED / SEN / SAB ) , Tri - Disaster ( RAV / RAV / RAV ) , Mystic Tower ( RAV / SEN / RAV ) and Cerberus ( COM / COM / COM ) . Starting with Prudent Planning , the player should manually cast Veil on Noel and then the rest and wait until Faith is on the party . The party should then switch to Countermeasure to apply Curse and Deshell ( and Poison if struggling ) . Once the debuffs are on , the party should switch to Mystic Tower to bring up the stagger gauge . Once the stagger threshold is almost reached , the party should switch to Tri - Disaster to stagger the enemy and bring up the chain gauge further and after a couple of turns use Cerberus to do damage . The last two steps should be repeated if the enemy is not yet dead , and the first two if buffs and debuffs run out . If healing is needed the Attrition paradigm can be used to heal the damage . Paradigm Pack . Gigantuar is a Synergist monster . It can get over 7000 HP , 500 Strength , and 1200 Magic only using Potent materials . Its true strength lies in its ability execution speed , which is only beaten by Sahagin Princes . The Gigantuar crystal can be obtained three times ; if the player does not have a crystal and fights a Gigantuar , they automatically obtain it . The Gigantuar can be leveled to 28 to obtain Auto - Protect , and then infused into another monster . The one big downside to this is the passive ability Fettered Magic , which reduces magic damage . It is a downside because it takes up an extra passive ability slot ; it does not affect the Gigantuar ' s buffs nor its Feral Link . Infusing a Gigantuar into anything other than a Synergist or Sentinel would also gain the Fettered Magic ' s magic damage reduction . Gigantuar also learns Auto - Vigilance on the way to Auto - Protect , but this is arguably a detriment , as it is not valued as highly as Auto - Protect and the like , but is ranked higher than them ( Auto - Protect is Rank 7 , Auto - Vigilance , Rank 8 ) . So Auto - Vigilance is impossible to get rid of without removing Auto - Protect , or the inefficient method of yellow - locking Auto - Protect and then adding it a third time to unlock it again .