Grand Dragon

The Grand Dragon is a dragon-type enemy from Final Fantasy IX. It can be found at Popos Heights on the Mist Continent (can be entered via Gizamaluke's Grotto), Cazedil Plains on the Outer Continent, Lanar Island—which is near the Qu's Marsh on the south end of the Forgotten Continent—and Sacrobless Island on the Salvage Archipelago.
==Stats==
== Battle ==
Grand Dragon's high stats make it one of the most difficult regular enemies. Its Thundaga spell can instantly KO the party if their levels are not high enough. It can also inflict Venom with its Venom Breath.
Grand Dragons are susceptible to various neutralizing ailments, like instant death, Heat, Freeze, Petrify, the Blue Magic spells LV3 Def-less (which lowers their Defense and Magic Defense) and LV5 Death (which kills them outright), as well as Sleep and Mini.
Grand Dragons are weak against Ice.
=== Strategy ===
Quina's LV5 Death (learned from Whale Zombies, Stropers, and Dracozombies) is the quickest way to defeat a Grand Dragon, killing it in one turn and potentially before it can attack. However, it is not available when Grand Dragons first become accessible.
To counter Thundaga, the party can either equip Coral Rings or use the Auto-Reflect ability. When cast on the entire party and reflected, Thundaga can do around 5,000 Hit Points worth of damage. To nullify the effect of Venom Breath, the party can equip the Antibody ability. Distract will help Zidane, Steiner, and Freya evade Poison Claw (Antibody will also prevent the Poison status if it lands).
The Blue Magic Aqua Breath deals 25% of the Grand Dragon's maximum HP (37% with Golden Hairpin or Golden Skullcap equipped), but it only has 50% accuracy. Another good strategy is to inflict Sleep, by either equipping everyone with the Insomniac ability and using Night, or using Zidane's Soul Blade with Ultima Weapon equipped. This will give the party enough time to get ready to attack and prepare for casualties. Grand Dragon can also be petrified using Zidane's Soul Blade with the Sargatanas equipped; this is useful for grinding AP, but experience will not be gained, nor will the victory count towards powering up Freya's Dragon's Crest.
Grand Dragons can be encountered early when the party goes through Gizamaluke's Grotto, which has a route that leads to the upper plateaus of the Mist Continent. The player's best chance of felling a Grand Dragon so early would be to use Quina's Limit Glove learned from a Mandragora near a forest close to Chocobo's Forest, or Mustard Bomb learned from Bomb in the forests on the plateau near Lindblum. Limit Glove deals fixed 9999 damage when Quina is at 1 HP. Then Quina can either eat it, or perform any attack to finish it off. Mustard Bomb inflicts Heat, which will instantly kill the Grand Dragon on its next turn, but it has a low accuracy of 30%.
The same party can return to Gizamaluke's Grotto after the Treno events where Dagger's party can purchase a Reflect Ring from the Auction House. With everyone equipped with Auto-Reflect and Antibody, only Poison Claw can damage the party, and only a single member.
Grand Dragon can give a lot of EXP making it a useful grinding spot early on.
== AI script ==
== Tetra Master ==
== Gallery ==
FFIX Poison Claw.png|Poison Claw.
FFIX Venom Breath.png|Venom Breath.
FFIX Counter.png|Grand Dragon in battle.
== Etymology ==
Category:Enemies in Final Fantasy IX
Category:Final Fantasy IX Edible Enemies
de:Tatzelwurm (FFIX)