Serpent (Final Fantasy VII)

The Serpent is an enemy from Final Fantasy VII found in the room in Sunken Gelnika with the helicopter, and in the Gold Saucer Battle Square as a random final battle after Gold Saucer reopens on Part 2, or as fourth battle of the Special Battles. When fought on the Battle Square its stats are enhanced with double the normal HP and its Attack and Magic Attack are increased by 25%. Serpent is also fought as the final opponent of the PC version Battle Square demo. Serpent has good spoils and an enemy skill to learn.
==Stats==
==Formations==
#	Formation
 	Serpent
 	Serpent
 	Serpent
 	Serpent
 	Serpent
==Locations==
Sunken Gelnika 	Sunken Gelnika
Cargo Room 	804
Battle Square (with Highwind available)	Battle Square (with Highwind available)
Group A - Battle 8 	804
Group B - Battle 8 	804
Special Battle - Battle 4 	964
==Battle==
The Enemy Skill Aqualung can be learned from Serpent. Serpents can be used to farm for Mind Sources (See: Min-maxing) and Dragon Scales and Stardust.
All of its attacks (except Dragon Dance) are Water-elemental, while Viper Breath is both Water and Ice elemental. Huge Tidal Wave and Dragon Dance are physical while Viper Breath and Aqualung are magical.
Serpent starts out only using Viper Breath to one target every turn. While its HP is 4/5 below the party's average HP level (excluding KO'd party members), it will perform Aqualung every turn. Every other turn, while its HP is 2/5 below the party's average HP level, it will perform the attack Huge Tidal Wave. This attack is similar to Aps's Tsunami attack in that it also attacks Serpent and will do "back-attack damage" to the party. Serpent will not attack on turns in between.
Every third turn that Serpent is below 1/5 the party's average HP level (excluding dead party members) it will perform its only non-elemental attack (and the only attack that does not cost MP), Dragon Dance. This attack will hit all characters with the same power as Huge Tidal Wave, but is not Water-elemental and will not cause "back-attack damage". Serpent will not attack on turns in between.
===Strategy===
Because Serpent's attacks are Water-elemental, the easy way to prepare for the battle is to equip the Water Ring accessory, or to link Leviathan Materia with the Elemental Materia in a character's armor.
Serpent has a lot of HP, especially when fought on the Battle Square, so multi-hit attacks like Limit Breaks work to make the battle faster. If the player wants to morph the Serpents fought in Gelnika, they can obtain Yuffie (Final Fantasy VII party member)'s ultimate weapon, Conformer, in the plane, which does not have the damage reduction penalty when used in conjunction with the Morph command, although the L4 Suicide is also a good way to bring down its HP and works well as a tactic to destroy or morph. Magic Hammer can be used to drain it of MP making the Serpent unable to use many of its attacks, also replenishing the caster at the same time.
==AI script==
AI: Setup
{
 TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial = 1
}
AI: Main
{
 TempVar:HPAverage = 0
 TempVar:PartyNum = 0
 If (1st Opponent doesn't have Death Status) Then
 {
 TempVar:HPAverage = TempVar:HPAverage + 1st Opponent's HP
 TempVar:PartyNum = TempVar:PartyNum + 1
 }
 If (2nd Opponent doesn't have Death Status) Then
 {
 TempVar:HPAverage = TempVar:HPAverage + 2nd Opponent's HP
 TempVar:PartyNum = TempVar:PartyNum + 1
 }
 If (3rd Opponent doesn't have Death Status) Then
 {
 TempVar:HPAverage = TempVar:HPAverage + 3rd Opponent's HP
 TempVar:PartyNum = TempVar:PartyNum + 1
 }
 TempVar:HPAverage = [TempVar:HPAverage / TempVar:PartyNum]
 If (Serpent's HP <= 2 * [TempVar:HPAverage / 10]) Then
 {
 If (TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial == 0) Then
 {
 Choose All Opponents
 Use Dragon Dance on Target
 TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial = 2
 } Else {
 TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial = TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial - 1
 }
 } Else If (Serpent's HP <= 4 * [TempVar:HPAverage / 10]) Then {
 If (TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial == 0) Then
 {
 Choose All Opponents
 Use Huge Tidal Wave on Target
 TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial = 1
 } Else {
 TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial = TempVar:TurnsTilSpecial - 1
 }
 } Else If (Serpent's HP <= 8 * [TempVar:HPAverage / 10]) Then {
 Choose All Opponents
 Use Aqualung on Target
 } Else {
 Choose Random Opponent with Highest HP
 Use Viper Breath on Target
 }
}
==Etymology==
Category:Enemies in Final Fantasy VII