Necrophobe (Final Fantasy V)

Necrophobe, also known as Necrophobia, or Necrofobe, is an optional boss and a Demon of the Rift in Final Fantasy V. He is hiding in the final area in the Interdimensional Rift, and when the party defeats him, they are rewarded with the final save point. In the Finest Fantasy for Advance and the 2013 versions, he is also fought in the Sealed Temple's Cloister of the Dead.
==Stats==
The reason Necrophobe's HP is comprised of fours is based on a pun of the Japanese word for death, 死 (pronounced "shi"). The same pronunciation is used for the number 4.
== Battle ==
Necrophobe enters the battle with four Barrier monsters. He spends his first turn boasting about his invincibility and does nothing for the rest of his turns. While the Barriers are alive, Necrophobe is invulnerable.
The Barriers have permanent reflect status and bounce Holy, Flare, and group-casts of Blizzaga, Firaga, and Thundaga off themselves. They are vulnerable to petrify, death, silence, slow, and stop, and lack the Heavy flag.
When the Barriers are defeated, Necrophobe mourns them and starts to fight himself. He starts off by casting the Blue Magic Flash once, then begins his attack rotation.
Necrophobe takes two actions per turn, mainly using normal physical attacks and Vacuum Wave, his specialty attack that does 1.5x normal damage and inflicts sap. He also uses Hurricane to set the whole party's HP to single digits, and very rarely Death to try to instantly kill one target.
Necrophobe is weak to all elements. He is vulnerable to darkness, slow, and silence. He is susceptible to Level 3 Flare and Level 2 Old.
A scene with Gilgamesh will occur if Necrophobe has 9999 HP or fewer left. Gilgamesh will erase the last 9999 HP from Necrophobe. This scene does not play if the player kills Necrophobe very quickly, or if they did not fight Gilgamesh back at Castle Exdeath. If the party is the one to kill him, Necrophobe's last words will be to try to call out to Exdeath before being cut short.
Gilgamesh will not reappear against Necrophobe in the rematch at the Cloister of the Dead, even if he survived from the first battle.
===Strategy===
As the Barriers are not Heavy, they can be eliminated immediately through instant death or petrify attacks. The guaranteed method is to Mix Death Potions for all four of them. Summoning Odin will not work as Necrophobe has Heavy, so Odin ends up using Gungnir instead. However, using Odin via the Magic Lamp will work since the Magic Lamp Odin always uses Zantetsuken. Other petrify and instant death attacks can be used, but all others have a chance to fail, and spells to inflict them (such as Break or Death) must be reflected off the party.
For Game Boy Advance or 2013 Matrix Software ports, Chaos Cannon is more efficient as it inflicts instant death on all targets at 100% chance for only a single Dark Matter and Blitzshot.
The Barriers can otherwise be destroyed through conventional attacks, as they have low HP. As there is no way to negate reflected magic, the party should have a dedicated White Mage to heal off the damage. The Barriers can also destroy themselves if the entire party hides, as reflect does not trigger if there is no valid target to bounce a spell into.
Once the Barriers are destroyed, Necrophobe should not take too much trouble. As his only damaging attacks are physical, summoning Golem, or using Guard with Cover (Cover can take advantage of his Hurricane), Image, or Blink can block all of his damage. Flash can also cause him to miss the majority of his attacks.
As Necrophobe is weak to all elements, any powerful elemental attack proves highly effective, such as Holy, Holy Spellblade, and Leviathan.
For GameBoy Advance or 2013 Matrix Software ports, Finisher can deal extreme damage fairly often.
Once Gilgamesh appears, the party can steal his Genji Armor and simply wait for the battle to end.
== Other appearances ==
=== Pictlogica Final Fantasy ===
=== Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade ===
Necrophobe appears as an enemy during an event called "Shattered World". In battle, Necrophobe uses Firaga.
FFAB Necrophobe.png|In-game appearance.
Necophobia Brigade.png|Enemy Icon.
Necrophobe Sighted Brigade.png|Necrophobe sighted inside a Gate Crystal.
EX Boss Necrophobe Sighted Brigade.png|EX Boss Necrophobe sighted inside a Gate Crystal.
FFAB Firega.png|Firega.
=== Final Fantasy Record Keeper ===
=== Final Fantasy Trading Card Game ===
Necrophobe from Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade appears as a trading card. It is ice-elemental.
== Etymology ==
Despite the enemy name of "Necrophobe" in the Anthology release, battle messages will credit his speech to "Necrophobia". Necrophobia literally means "fear of the dead".
== Related enemies ==
* Barrier
* Gilgamesh
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Category:Bosses in Final Fantasy V