Epic Battle Fantasy 4 Glitch Boss ??? guide
Video of the Glitch Boss battle.
The Glitch's surprised face when being hit in battle.
The Glitch (real name unintelligible) is an optional boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 4. It is a computer virus that somehow gained a physical form, becoming a bizarre entity that defies the laws of reality.
The Glitch is responsible for the chaos within the Waste Disposal Plant during the events of the game, as it somehow seized control of the facility's many computers and robots including mighty Praetorian. If the heroes manage to penetrate the heart of the plant and bypass the barriers in the way of the room where the Glitch first spawned, they can battle and defeat it, ending its reign over the plant and its robots.
Getting to The Glitch
The Glitch lurks inside one of the deepest rooms of the Waste Disposal Plant, behind a special door. It can only be opened if certain switches (and only those switches) within the factory are activated. The necessary combination is as follows:
- Switches II, III, VI, IX, and X must be ON (green light).
- Switches I, IV, V, VII, and IIX must be OFF (red light).
Achieving this combination creates a single, winding path to The Glitch's lair. Although you can see the door on your first trip through the Waste Disposal Plant, the absolute earliest you can battle The Glitch is when you discover Goldenbrick Resort; not only do you require the Hammer (obtainable after beating the Praetorian) to open a certain path, but the final switch (Switch X) can only be accessed from the Waste Disposal Plant's third (desert) exit - an exit that can only be opened from the outside.
Once the necessary combination of switches has been triggered, the massive door will open, allowing access to The Glitch's lair. However, you will need a Copper Key and a Steel Key to pass the two locks within the room. Once the blocks are removed, ransack the first three treasure chests and make sure your equipment is set; when you're ready, attempt to walk over to the fourth and final chest in the back of the room to trigger the battle against The Glitch.
Fighting The Glitch
Preparation
Before the fight, make sure everyone is equipped with a non-elemental weapon. More specifically:
- Anna should equip herself with Eagle Eye, Iron Tooth, The Departed, or the Alchemist's Bow. The Eagle Eye is recommended for its great accuracy bonus.
- Matt can use the Bone Blade, the Blood Blade, the Chainsaw Blade, or the Equilibrium - Chainsaw Blade is recommended for its high offensive properties, but Blood Blade is useful for keeping Matt above 50% HP, Equilibrium offers a great power and possible auto-revive status, but lowers possibly important accuracy.
- Natalie should be armed with the Crystal Staff, Alchemy Set, Road Sign, Epoch, or the Shooting Star. The Shooting Star is recommended for the handy non-elemental boost and the possible free Star Showers, but the Alchemy Set's regeneration bonus can help keep Natalie above 50% HP, and the Road Sign provides a decent accuracy boost.
- Lance should come in with the Super Snipe, Chainsaw Gun, Ultra Zapper, or the Accelerator. The Chainsaw Gun has the highest attack boosts and a useful chance to cast Triple Sawblade between turns, the Super Snipe offers increased accuracy, and the Accelerator provides a chance for Accuracy/Evade boosts and one-turn Hyper Beams.
Equipment-wise, defensive stats are irrelevant, so equip gear that boosts your attacking power, your accuracy or have useful special effects, especially giving the Morale and Auto-Revive statuses, Regeneration will also work well if Morale is used beforehand. Such items include:
- Dragon Helm and The Tr*force for Morale
- Pope's Dress, Angel Pin, and mentioned above Equilibrium for Auto-Revive
- Green Cross for Regeneration
For skills and summons, you'll want non-elemental skills like Star Shower and Sawblade/Triple Sawblade, and skills that base their element on the equipped weapon's element (since you're using non-elemental weapons, they will also be non-elemental) even including limit breaks such as Cleaver, Power Blast and Rapture if having trouble. However, your main concern should be having Revive, strong healing spells, and the Kitten Fort summon (which is a reward for quest in Lankyroot Jungle given by Tabby), Slime Bunny summon may also prove useful but if you feel unsure about your amount of SP then don't use it and keep them for Kitten Fort. You could also pack some Coffee.
The Glitch: Attributes and Attacks
The Glitch absorbs every single element (200% resistance) and is immune to all status effects and stat debuffs. Its only attack is an "overflow" move that hits a member of the party for 0 damage, but immediately kills them. This is distinct from the Death status effect, and protection from Death will not protect from it - however, Morale and Auto-Revive act as normal. In addition, The Glitch summons two replicas of itself every turn that share the same resistances and use the same attack, but at Level 0 (and thus, with very low HP, defences, and evasion).
The battle against The Glitch is an ambush, occurring automatically when the party steps on a certain tile, and cannot be fled from.
Strategy
Except for Morale and Auto-Revive, there is no real way to prevent The Glitch from killing at least one player per turn. Its minions, however, must be destroyed at all costs. Ideally, your party should consist of one member using a multi-target attack to destroy the minions and deal some damage to the boss (Matt's Swift Slash, Natalie's Star Shower, and Anna's Arrow Rain are useful here.), Anna or Natalie with Revive to raise the fallen or apply the Auto-Revive status if necessary or heal damaged ally with normal healing spells to keep Morale active, and the last member to deal focused damage to the boss or use Coffee on the party member with Revive if she gets killed.
Apart from its many immunities, The Glitch's main defensive asset is its above-average Evade stat. Since you can't reduce its evasion, you can increase your accuracy with Lock On skill, but the difficulties in keeping your party healthy may make this an inefficient option. Instead, you can use multi-hit attacks like Combo Shot, Arrow Rain, Legend, Star Shower, and Double Shot, or attacks with increased accuracy like Piercing Shot, Quick Slash, and Snipe to increase your chances of hitting The Glitch. Equipping accuracy increasing equips is also a viable option (especially Eagle Eye, Cowboy Hat and Shirt, and Target Badge). Despite its power, The Gitch has fairly low HP, and it can quickly be brought down once you can mitigate the problems of its "overflow" attack.
If you have the Kitten Fort summon, the battle becomes significantly less of a headache; cast it on the first turn to kill the Glitch's two minions, damage the boss, and apply a five-turn Morale status to all of your characters. With the Morale status up, you only need to worry about keeping everyone's HP over 50% (such as by summoning Slime Bunny or casting Heal/Refresh/Medipack) while you keep wearing down The Glitch and slaying its minions. This strategy also turns The Glitch's constantly-spawned minions into something of an asset, as they each give 25 SP (only 3 SP before Battle Mountain update) when killed, effectively regenerating your SP meter by fifty points per turn (so in two turns you receive enough SP to cast both Kitten Fort and Slime Bunny while they last for five turns).
Reward
Once you successfully beat The Glitch, you can loot the chest behind it for a Dark Rune, a Dark Matter, and the powerful Cosmic Monolith summon. You will also receive "Leet Hacker" medal regardless of set difficulty.
Trivia
- The Glitch is a tribute to video game glitches, notably glitched characters such as Pokémon's Missingno..
- The Glitch is formed of data images and several different EBF-related images such as Matt and pumpkin Slimes.
- Which further reference to Missingno. as pumpkin Slimes don't actually exist in game, similar to how some of Missingno.'s forms take appearance of not existing Pokemon.
- When being hit, it will often show the Tundra Mammoth's head or Slimes "critical hit" expression.
- When dying, it will use a dying Kitten Warrior animation.
- After defeating The Glitch, Natalie will wonder how a computer virus gained a physical form. Lance proceeds to lean on the fourth wall by speculating that "all of reality is a computer game".