Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation/VS. Murdaw, Round 3

VS. Murdaw: Phase 1
First of all, if you're playing the remakes, this is a fabulous time to put Carver on "Focus on Healing". Instead of having to guess who's gonna need healing on the next round, you can simply leave it to the A.I. to react to whatever happens during the turn. And if Murdaw fails to do significant damage during the turn, Carver will simply hit him with Knuckle Sandwich (~25-35 Damage if it lands)!

Do not try that if you're playing the SNES version; not only is the A.I. dumber, but it will ALWAYS ignore items. If it had a choice between healing one person for 1 HP by casting a spelll, and using an item that restores 999 HP and MP to everyone in your party for free...it would still choose the spell. Furthermore, even if it was that smart, the SNES version doesn't allow you to only have one person on a specific tactic; either everyone is on Focus on Healing, or nobody is.

In any case, put Nevan in the 1st slot, instead of Carver; he will be Defending for this first turn due to his relative lack of durability. As you do so, cast Buff on him; with any luck, he'll be above 68 HP by the next turn, which means he'll be safe for healing other people in your party. Otherwise, you may wish to have him Defend if his HP is dropping a bit below your comfort level. Actually, you should do that with anyone who looks like they might die from a good Flame Breath next turn (remember, even in the SNES version, Carver and Rex only take a max of 36 thanks to the Iron Shields. And they only take 15-25 if they have Dragon Shields instead).

With that out of the way, you will want to have Carver using the Ghent Staff on someone every single turn, even if everyone is already at full HP (Nevan and Carver himself are prime targets since they're in the first two slots). While you do this, Rex needs to constantly be using the Fire Claw on Murdaw, and Milly needs to Carver, Rex, and herself after Buffing Nevan. And if anyone drops below their regular Defense in the SNES version (you'll need to keep track of this), you'll want to use the Equipment Glitch to restore their Defense to normal.

Then there's this final word of warning: do not try to take out the Prickly Pranksters first. All they can do is physical attacks, so just Buff everyone's HP to the point where they can only do scratch damage. If you DO try to kill them, Murdaw will either...


 * 1) Summon more of them
 * 2) Summon a Harmour instead, an enemy that is stronger and more durable (though one-shotted by the Fire Claw in the remakes).  What's worse, however, is that Harmours can summon Healslimes.  Those little pests will actually use the Heal spell on every enemy in this fight.  Do not let this happen!!

All that said, however, this fight is not actually that hard. It is something of a slog, but Murdaw should die before anyone can get killed. Once that happens, the fight will keep going until you've dealt with the two Prickly Pranksters.

This is actually a blessing in disguise! What this means is that you can kill one of them, and then stall until Carver has healed everyone with the Ghent Staff! So keep Defending with everyone, get Carver and Rex's HP above 101, get Milly's HP above 95, and try to have Nevan walk into the next phase with full HP.

VS. Murdaw: Phase 2
This is arguably the 3rd hardest boss fight, regardless of how well you know this game. The strategy listed here should usually carry you to victory, but...sometimes there's just not a lot you can really do. If Murdaw, for example, decides to attack with Chilly Breath and Lightning on Turn 1, use Lullab-Eyes and Chilly Breath on Turn 2, and then use Lightning and Lullab-Eyes on Turn 3, and then use Chilly Breath and Lightning on Turn 4...you're essentially dead no matter how well you planned things out. Even a Level 19 party would be hard pressed to survive that kind of onslaught.

Fortunately, that is an absurdly unlikely scenario; Murdaw isn't even guaranteed to have more than one attack on each round. He could just as easily Attack on Turn 1, Attack on Turn 2, Dazzleflash on Turn 3 (worthless against the Fire Claw), Attack on Turn 4, Attack on Turn 5, and Dazzleflash on Turn 6. By that point, you'll have destroyed half his HP already!

This is not even counting all of the advantages that the remakes will offer you if you are playing those versions (and have followed this guide). You will have 10x Yggdrasil Leaves to throw around, Armour that significantly reduces the Damage done by Murdaw's spells, much higher Defense...this strategy should be guaranteed to work under those circumstances!

Whatever your situation is, there are some generally rules to follow. First of all, nobody is as important as the other in this fight. You literally need Rex to stay alive, because he's the only one who can deal more than 20 Damage without Double Up. Then Carver is vital to have spamming the Ghent Staff on Rex every turn. After that is Milly, who will want to cast Buff on Rex, Carver, then herself (if someone is put to sleep, and gets hit by a physical attack, they have a small chance of waking up). And then Nevan is essentially just there as an extra person to help with healing and act as a meatshield so the more useful people can live. So basically, Arrange your party like this...

1st Slot-Nevan, 2nd Slot-Milly, 3rd Slot-Carver, 4th Slot-Rex

Now, because the fight can turn into such a mess even with the right set-up, this guide will go to the liberty of giving a rough Turn-by-Turn guide of how a good fight will generally go...

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''Turn 1: Nevan Defends, Milly casts Buff on Rex (you'll need it if Rex gets hit by Lullab-Eyes), Carver uses Ghent Staff on Rex (Carver's low Agility will usually allow him to heal off Murdaw's damage spells before the turn ends), Rex uses Fire Claw.

Turn 2 (assuming Murdaw used at least one spell): Nevan heals Milly, Milly heals Carver, Carver heals Rex, and Rex keeps doing his thing. Nevan then crosses his fingers and hopes not to die soon.

Turn 3 (Rex may be put to Sleep; put him in the 1st slot if this happens): Nevan Defends, Milly helps Nevan if she's got above 92 HP and Defends if she doesn't, Carver and Rex do their thing.

Turn 4: If Murdaw only does Chilly Breath, the PC's are guaranteed to only take one 35-45 Damage spell; use this opportunity to get everyone, including Nevan, filled up while Rex keeps attacking).

Turns 5-11: The fight is too random to give a good Turn-by-Turn after that, but hopefully Milly, Carver, and Rex will be able to stick it out. If Milly dies as well, the whole fight turns into a desperate wish that Carver can keep up on the healing all by himself, and that Lullab-Eyes isn't used too often.

Turns 12+: Murdaw should be almost dead; the Fire Claw does an average of 80 Damage per turn, and Murdaw can't regenerate this time. At this point, it may be best to just start swinging for the fences.''

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It is a very frustrating experience to be in, knowing that you may lose. But again, the Ghent Elder heals you for free, you can always warp back to Murdaw's Castle whenever you want, and the game becomes significantly easier after this Chapter. In the meantime, it is still significantly faster to blaze through, die to Murdaw once, then kill him on the second attempt than it is to try to get all the way up to Level 19 for everyone in your party. That's how high your levels need to be before your HP would increased by enough to make a difference.

Even assuming all encounters were fought, SNES players aren't going to be anywhere close to that without a lot of grinding, and Remake players will prefer to take advantage of the Casino instead. Between Focus Healing, the Dragon Shields, the Platinum Mails, and Yggdrasil Leaves, the Casino is far more helpful than grinding at this point in the game.