Ruby Dragon (Final Fantasy VIII)

Ruby Dragon is an enemy and a mini-boss in Final Fantasy VIII. Squall and the party must fight two Ruby Dragons to confront Bahamut in the Deep Sea Research Center. Ruby Dragons are also fought as rare random encounters in Centra forests near Edea's House, and as common random encounters on Island Closest to Hell and Ultimecia Castle.
==Vienne Mountains dragon==
A Ruby Dragon is fought during a particular Laguna dream sequence. While shooting a movie at Vienne Mountains (with Laguna as the protagonist), a Ruby Dragon wanders onto the set in place of Kiros in a dragon suit. Both Laguna and the director mistake the dragon for Kiros, remarking how realistic the "costume" is. Upon realizing the dragon is real the director flees, leaving Laguna to fend it off with a gunblade before fleeing himself, only to battle and defeat it alongside Kiros a minute later.
The player can have Ward Zabac in this scene if they don't read the Timber Maniacs magazine in Shumi Village in Squall's time before the dream takes place. As Squall cannot encounter a Ruby Dragon in the mountains, the implied Lunar Cry near the area that left behind the Trabia Crater, induced by the Lunatic Pandora Laguna spots in the dream, may have been responsible for its sudden appearance.
==Stats==
== Battle ==
Ruby Dragons have a devastating party-wide Breath attack, dealing non-elemental physical-based damage which can be halved with Protect and defended against by junctioning a high-level spell in Vitality, such as Meltdown. Damage from Breath is also nullified with Defend. The dragon will only use Breath if all three party members are alive. This condition also applies to Meteor, Firaga, Flare, and Demi. So if there is at least one KO'd character, the dragon will only cast Fira and Aero.
A Ruby Dragon will cast Reflect on itself if a party member is also reflected. It can still do this against two or fewer party members, which will cause it to bounce back Firaga, Flare, and Demi spells.
High-level Ruby Dragons are valuable for the acquisition of two potent spells that can be drawn from them: Flare and Meteor. Devouring a Ruby Dragon permanently raises the character's HP by 10.
=== Strategy ===
Ruby Dragon is susceptible to Sleep (though with a high resistance to becoming afflicted); having Sleep junctioned to ST-Atk-J is useful. Irvine is handy to have around against a sleeping Ruby Dragon, as his Limit Break, Shot, does not count as a physical attack, and thus will not wake a sleeping Ruby Dragon up. His Dark Shot may also put a Ruby Dragon to sleep if used onto an awake dragon. Demi is another good move to use while the dragon sleeping. After summoning Cerberus, the player can triple-cast it. The player can also draw-cast as not to use up existing magic stocks.
Ruby Dragon can also be defeated instantly with Quistis's Degenerator or Selphie's Rapture and The End Slot spells. A leveled-up Diablos is also effective.
After acquiring the Tonberry GF in Centra Ruins, its LV Up ability can augment Ruby Dragon enough for it to have Flare and Meteor in the draw list. It is advised to have high Magic (above 100) to successfully draw 9x Flare and Meteor per command. The party can put the dragon to sleep and then safely draw while it is inactive.
== Triple Triad ==
Ruby Dragon is a Level 5 Monster Card in Triple Triad used for playing the minigame and for turning into Inferno Fang with Quezacotl's Card Mod.
Ruby Dragon are 1 of 3 monsters that will not yield any boss card when successfully turned into a card. Other is Fastitocalon-F and Geezard
== Other appearances ==
=== Pictlogica Final Fantasy ===
Ruby Dragon from Final Fantasy VIII appears as an enemy in Pictlogica Final Fantasy.
=== Final Fantasy Record Keeper ===
Ruby Dragon from Final Fantasy VIII appears as an enemy in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
===Final Fantasy Portal App===
Ruby Dragon appears as a Triple Triad card.
== Gallery ==
Ruby Dragon FFVIII Color Art.jpg|Concept art.
Ruby Dragon fought in Centra forest from FFVIII Remastered.png|Ruby Dragon in a Centra forest.
Ruby Dragon physical attack from FFVIII Remastered.png|Physical attack.
Ruby Dragon uses Aero from FFVIII Remastered.png|Aero.
Ruby Dragon uses Fira from FFVIII Remastered.png|Fira.
Ruby Dragon uses Meteor from FFVIII Remastered.png|Meteor.
== Etymology ==
 In this instance, the word ruby refers to the dragon's color.
Its Japanese name translates to Rubrum Dragon. 
The colored dragons in Final Fantasy derive from Dungeons & Dragons, where red dragon is one of the chromatic evil-aligned dragons, and gem dragons are neutral, Sardior the Ruby Dragon being their deity.
de:Rubrum-Drache (FFVIII)
it:RubRumDragon
Category:Bosses in Final Fantasy VIII
Category:Enemies in Final Fantasy VIII