Mega Tonberry

Mega Tonberry is an enemy in Final Fantasy X-2 found wandering the halls of Via Infinito. In the remastered versions, Mega Tonberries can also be found in the Fiend Arena where they appear in random battles. Mega Tonberry is one of the strongest enemies. A regular Tonberry always accompanies a Mega Tonberry in the original version. It uses Master Tonberry's model from Final Fantasy X, albeit enlarged and with new sounds.
Mega Tonberry is the only enemy to teach the Blue Bullet skill, Cry in the Night, when Oversouled and in low health.
== Stats ==
== Battle ==
Mega Tonberry has high Agility and immense Attack Power and will kill a party member in one hit unless they have over ~16,000 HP and are equipped with the Iron Duke or Adamantite accessories to have extremely high Defense. If the party survives its physical attack, the Mega Tonberry can still petrify and poison the party and finish them off with the Karma attack that also drains half of remaining HP and MP. Should they survive the petrifying and poisoning parts of Karma, it also ignores Confusion-protection, which can especially be dangerous for L-sized captured fiends. As the Mega Tonberry's AI operates on an action counter device, the action counter will increase by one point every time the Mega Tonberry takes a turn or is targeted. Once this action counter reaches 15, Karma is then used and the action counter resets to zero.
Oversouled Mega Tonberry is the only enemy to teach the Cry in the Night Blue Bullet skill, which is notoriously difficult to learn. As Tonberry and Mega Tonberry always appear together, it is random which one oversouls. If the player gets the wrong Tonberry, they cannot run from the battle to try again, but in the HD Remaster Mega Tonberry can be fought alone.
=== Strategy ===
Mega Tonberries in the original versions are easiest dealt with the Cat Nip strategy. High health and Defense are needed, so it is recommended to use two Dark Knights with the Valiant Lustre Garment Grid. One should give the two girls all the Defense and HP possible with any accessories available. The third girl should equip the Gunner dressphere with Trigger Happy mastered for maximum combo time and the Highroad Winds Garment Grid for its First Strike auto-ability. She should equip the Cat Nip accessory and have HP Critical health upon entering the battle. Haste drastically increases the amount of hits dealt with the Trigger Happy salvo.
When the battle begins, the two Dark Knights should concentrate on healing and buffing, whereas the Gunner executes Trigger Happy. It should not take too long before the Mega Tonberry falls. If the Gunner is killed, reviving her takes priority. This strategy only works in the original version; in the International + Last Mission and HD Remaster versions, Cat Nip gives Auto-Berserk and Auto-Slow, disabling the use of Trigger Happy.
A strategy without Cat Nip is using a party of Warriors who have learned Sentinel. When the battle starts two girls should use Sentinel and Mega Tonberry will attack with Chef's Knife; if it hits a girl in Sentinel, it will deal 1 HP damage. The other girl can dispose of the regular Tonberry. After the Sentinel runs out, the player should use it again with two girls, but not always use the same girls since Mega Tonberry picks its targets randomly. If it downs a girl not using Sentinel, a Phoenix Down can be used to revive.
Another strategy is to use powerful captured fiends that know First Strike and Auto-Haste, along with Black Sky to stunlock the Mega Tonberry while the player's creatures bombard it with chains of physical attacks. Ultima, Flare, Meteor, and Fireworks are also useful for dishing out massive damage.
=== Strategy for learning Cry in the Night ===
Mega Tonberry is the only one to have the Gun Mage's ultimate Blue Bullet skill, Cry in the Night, which is tricky to learn, especially for all three girls.
One way is to use the Gunner equipped with Cat Nip accessory strategy (original versions only), by making sure the Gunner is in low health and has the First Strike ability. The other girls can be in Dark Knight job for better Defense and HP. When the battle starts the Gunner should use Trigger Happy three to five times. The player should wait for the girls to get their ATB up and switch to the Gun Mage dressphere and use the Gun Mages to bring the Mega Tonberry down to less than 10,206 HP for it to use Cry in the Night. Annihilator or Mortar are good attacks for them to use.
Scan can be used to check the Mega Tonberry's HP.
A strategy without Cat Nip is to start with three Warriors with the Break HP Limit from the Higher Power Garment Grid with Crystal Gloves and Crystal Bangles equipped. When the battle begins the party should use a Stamina Tonic, a Megalixir and a Chocobo Wing, then use Sentinel to protect against Mega Tonberry's Chef's Knife attack.
The party can either stall out until Mega Tonberry uses magic, or keep using Sentinel and keep in sync with Mega Tonberry's attacks and attack right after it does. Once the Mega Tonberry has around 10,206 HP remaining, the player should wait for the girls' ATB to fill and spherechange to Gun Mage. Mega Tonberry should use Cry in the Night when it has 10,206 HP or less left. The party can survive due to their high HP.
If the party doesn't have access to Break HP Limit, and won't use the Cat Nip strategy, they can start the battle as Dark Knights wearing Crystal Gloves or Crystal Bangle and the Valiant Lustre Garment Grid. Dark Knight should be next to the Gun Mage on the Garment Grid and the grid should be full of dresspheres. When the battle begins the party should use a Stamina Tonic and Megalixir, and although the Stamina Tonic won't affect the Dark Knights, it will have an effect for the Gun Mages.
Dark Knights can withstand Mega Tonberry's Chef's Knife attacks if they are on a decent level. If the party uses a Twin Stars or Three Stars item, the Dark Knight will not lose HP when using Darkness. To get a boost to the party's Defense, the party can spherechange around the Garment Grid going through all the nodes to get the Magic Defense and Defense way up. After using Dark Knight's Darkness six to seven times, the party should switch to Gun Mage, attack until Mega Tonberry has 10,206 HP or less remaining, and wait for it to do Cry in the Night. The damage is mitigated by the defense boost gained by going round the Garment Grid.
== Creature Creator ==
The Mega Tonberry can be recruited into the party by way of a Trap pod M in Bevelle during Chapter 5 after the player discovers Via Infinito. It comes into the party having learned Ailment Def. (complete protection against negative statuses), Gillionaire (double the earned gil per battle), and Double Items. It can use Quartet Knife, an ability otherwise exclusive to Paine through her Mascot dressphere's Cutlery ability set. As it comes with Gillionaire and Double Items, it can be useful for doubling the amount of gil and items earned from a battle, which can be doubled even further with another character either with a fully mastered Lady Luck dressphere or a Key to Success accessory equipped.
The Mega Tonberry's Strength is extremely high, true to its enemy counterpart, although it must be given Break Dmg. Limit to be able to deal massive physical damage. Its other stats are similar, but it cannot naturally learn any new abilities (excluding those the player has made it unlearn), thus leaving the use of Garment Grids and consumption/equipping of accessories and Garment Grids as the options to make the Mega Tonberry use different attacks. An ideal setup would involve putting the Mega Tonberry on the Higher Power Garment Grid for Break HP Limit and then consuming an Invincible to teach Break Dmg. Limit, as Mega Tonberry comes with three auto-abilities already learned and has room for an additional one.
=== Fiend Arena ===
Mega Tonberry appears in the Fiend Arena as part of the Tonberry the Ripper team, which appears in Grand Cup: Hard after three wins (alongside another highly dangerous enemy team, Shady Duo, consisting of a Mushroom Cloud and Black Elemental) and, later, the Fiend World Cup. The Mega Tonberry decimates any computer-controlled competitor it faces, with some exceptions, including Aranea, God Wife (Lacerta and Great Malboro), the aforementioned Shady Duo, Omega Weapon, and Almighty Shinra (always). As it is an extremely dangerous enemy at the point it is first encountered, the player should either employ powerful fiends with extremely high Defense and Strength stats, or hope they don't get matched against the Mega Tonberry, especially in the Fiend World Cup when it first appears as Fiend portal, where losing to any enemy team causes a Game Over.
An ideal strategy for fighting the Mega Tonberry, especially before Chapter 5, is to have a mid-high level, high stat Tonberry equipped with the Thief dressphere (allows for a preemptive strike and the ability to steal items), Unerring Path Garment Grid (obtained by talking to Tromell four times in Macalania Woods in Chapter 1), Power Gloves, and Adamantite (obtained by completing a sidequest that involves capturing and completing the stories of the Killer Hound, YSLS-Zero, and Machina Panzer). With the Adamantite's defense-increase, the Tonberry will survive the Mega Tonberry's deadly Chef's Knife, which will only do about 800 HP of damage to a character with 255 Defense and Protect (for captured creatures, this is assuming the Cheer Meter is already set very low). The other party member should be a Chocobo, equipped with the Thief dressphere, Abominable Garment Grid, and a Rabite's Foot (obtained from the Chocobo Cup). The third party member should be any Elemental fiend (not the Black Elemental, as it is M-sized instead of S-sized), equipped with Minerva's Plate to be able to cast Black Magic and Flare very quickly. With this, the player should be able to take down the Mega Tonberry, but must quickly lower the Cheer Meter to 1 star every time the Mega Tonberry lunges at the party with Chef's Knife.
=== Fiend Tale ===
In the Fiend Tale endings, a notable Mega Tonberry was befriended by Yuna and gives his life to protect her from his old nemesis "Karajishi" Tonberry.
== Gallery ==
Mega Tonberry in Via Infinito.jpg|Mega Tonberry in Via Infinito.
FFX-2 Chef's Knife.png|Chef's Knife.
FFX-2 Cry in the Night.PNG|Cry in the Night.
== Etymology ==
== Related enemies ==
*Tonberry
=== Final Fantasy X ===
*Don Tonberry
*Master Tonberry
*Tonberry
=== Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission ===
*Mega Tonberry
*Tonberry
Category:Enemies in Final Fantasy X-2