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The Final Battle (1999 A.D. / ???)


If you take the time portal inside Lavos's shell after you defeat the outer portion in the Black Omen, you'll wind up back at the End of Time, where Gaspar will congratulate you on freeing Zeal. Also, all the villagers who previously commented on the Black Omen will now just talk about the weather instead. Depending upon which period you destroyed the Black Omen in, you may be able to go back and face it again, but all the bosses will be gone except for Zeal herself, and Lavos's outer shell will already be destroyed.

There's not much left at this point aside from fighting Lavos, although you can collect clones and Poyozo dolls for everyone, except for Crono, depending on whether or not you saved him from getting killed by Lavos in the Ocean Palace, as mentioned in the last chapter. Keep in mind however, that if this is your first time playing through the game after you beat Lavos, since you went through the Black Omen you'll be able to start a New Game+ carrying over all the old data from your game. A few special items don't carry over, and none of your money carries over, so if you want to save your cash you should probably spend it all on items you can sell. After you defeat Ozzie, Medina offers the best rates on items compared to their resale value. When you're ready, fly the Epoch into Lavos, take the bucket at the end of time, or go through another version of the Black Omen to confront Lavos again. The outer shell will have disappeared if you’ve gone through it before, but he has still two forms to go.

Boss refights[edit]

This phase occurs during all Lavos fights except for the Ocean Palace fight and if you challenge Lavos via the 1999 A.D. Epoch crash. Thus, an easy way to get past Lavos' first phase and outer shell is to use the Flying Epoch to crash through it (set the time gauge to 1999 AD). You won't even have to fight this form of Lavos. However, if you're going for the NewGame+ feature, you will have to face the shell at the end of the Black Omen.

During the first phase of the fight, Lavos will take on the behavior of each major boss you've fought so far, with extra "bits" to imitate their various parts.

Lavos (phase 1)
CT monster Lavos phase 1.png
HP
Variable
Weaknesses
None
Strengths
None
Absorbs
None
Charmables
None
Drops
None
XP
0
TP
0
Gold
0
Attacks

The nine "modes" (bosses) that Lavos mimics and notes about how to defeat them:

  1. Dragon Tank: the left side heals all three parts, the right side charges, and the middle fires missiles.
  2. Guardian: the sides will counter and modify the incoming attack. Either defeat the sides whenever they are alive, or focus on attacking just the center.
  3. Heckran: immune to physical damage.
  4. Zombor: the top partially absorbs lightning while the bottom partially absorbs shadow. It casts MP Buster on defeat.
  5. Masamune: use Crono's Slash tech to dissipate stored wind energy.
  6. Nizbel: will become stunned and weak against lightning.
  7. Magus: immune to all magic except the element that it casts. It removes its shield when casting Dark Matter. The Masamune lowers its magic defense.
  8. Azala/Black Tyrano: destroy the shoulder piece (Azala), then the center.
  9. Giga Gaia: destroy the sides (hands), then focus on the center.
Description/Strategy

Lavos' outer shell goes through many different "attack modes" (see attacks), featuring the attacks from previous bosses you have fought. Just remember the strategies you used for those bosses and use them to defeat Lavos each time. Each form is as strong as when you originally fought it, so the first boss you face, the Dragon Tank, should only take 1-2 hits per element (the side aliens and Lavos himself).

He'll start with the Dragon Tank, then the Guardian, then Heckran, Zombor, Masa & Mune's fused form, Nizbel, Magus, Black Tyrano, and finally Giga Gaia, before uttering his trademark scream and using the attack mode he used against you at the Ocean Palace, although thankfully he's not as ridiculously overpowered and you're better equipped.

You can heal up between each fight, but make sure you have status protection so he doesn't cast chaos on you and ruin everything. The various forms will have the same elemental resistances and absorption as they did before, as well as counter-attacks, so think back and be careful. Magus's form is particularly tricky since you don't have as many helpful messages telling you what barrier is active, but the barrier will always match the type of spell that Lavos will cast. For example, if he casts fire spells, you can only use fire spells. Having Magus along for these fights makes them simpler since he has all elemental magic types at his disposal. Most of the fights will be easy in comparison to your current levels, but heal and restore mana when you need it.

After all of the attack modes, you will have to defeat the shell of Lavos for real in phase 2.

Lavo's shell[edit]

Lavos (phase 2)
CT monster Lavos mouth.png
HP
10,000
Weaknesses
None
Strengths
None
Absorbs
None
Charmables
None
Drops
None
XP
0
TP
0
Gold
0
Attacks
  • Destruction rains from the heavens!: Damages the entire party for about 150 damage.
  • Chaotic Zone/Chaos: Damages the party for about 30 damage, attempts to inflict the chaos status on them as well.
  • Needle Spin: Damages an ally for about 150 damage.
Description/Strategy

This is the boss as you've seen before, although toned down a lot since the Ocean Palace fight. He deals less damage, has less HP and should be quite easy at the end of the game.

He will begin the fight with Destruction rains from the heavens! (which does massive damage to your party) and then continue with just Chaotic Zones and Needle Spins. He can do 300-400 damage at a time even with the best equipment available and high levels, so heal up often and make sure you remove all chaos status ailments from your party as soon as they are inflicted with them.

Hit him with the best magic spells, dual techs, or triple techs that you have available. Luminaire, Dark Matter, and Flare seem to be the best damage dealing techs, although Shock can be good too if you raise Robo's magic high enough.

Eventually you'll destroy him, and you'll be able to enter his outer shell. Inside Lavos' shell there will be a savepoint, and a time portal, which will lead you back to the end of time. You'll end up outside the bucket that led to the day of Lavos and be able to return to fighting Lavos any time you want, but the outer shell will already be defeated. You have now reached the final chapter.

Lavos's Second Form[edit]

Lavos
Chrono Trigger Lavos inner.png
HP
20,000 (Head), 12,000 (Left Arm), 8,000 (Right Arm)
Weaknesses
None
Strengths
None
Absorbs
None
Charmables
None
Drops
None
XP
0
TP
0
Gold
0
Attacks
Head/body
  • Laser Beams/Doors of doom open.: Damages your party for about 400 physical damage.
  • Crystal Explosion: Damages your party for about 100-300 fire damage.
  • Obstacle: Damages your party for about 100-200 lightning damage, chance to inflict Chaos status no matter what.
  • Shadow Slay: Damages your party for about 50-100 damage, chance to inflict Poison status no matter what.
  • Flame Battle: Damages one ally for about 50-100 fire damage.
  • Shadow Doom Blaze: Damages your party for about 100-400 fire damage.
  • Evil Emanation/Lavos's Attack Pwr up!: Increases the damage Lavos deals.
Left hand
  • Curse: Removes Status Immunity.
Right hand
  • Span Death/Arm revives main body...: Heals the body for about 1500 HP.
  • Protective Seal/Disables Def Status: Reduces an ally's defense and deals about 100 shadow damage as well as voiding status immunity.
  • Freeze/Stop: Deals about 10 damage to one ally and attempts to inflict the Stop status.
  • Cutters: Damages an ally for 50-100 damage.
  • Curse: Removes Status Immunity.
Description/Strategy

Again with three parts (hands/head), he'll begin the fight with the Laser Beams attack. Take out the arms simultaneously (left arm has 4,000 HP more) to avoid the use of Curse, then the head. Always heal and remove the chaos affects caused by Obstacle. Not much different than what you've experienced so far.

You'll have the same party for this and the next form, so here's what you need to keep in mind: you'll probably want a strong healer, some prefer characters like Frog or Robo who can heal the whole party although Marle does have Life 2, Cure 2, and Haste. You might want to consider bringing along two characters with healing powers for maximum safety. Ayla and Frog's Slurp Kiss, or Marle and Frog's Double Cure are both excellent choices for the occasion. You'll also need a strong physical attacker since one of Lavos's forms can only be damaged by physical strikes, Ayla's Triple Kick, Crono's Confuse, and Robo's Uzzi Punch are all decent choices. However, the best way to deal damage by far is powerful triple techs or single techs such as Dark Matter, Luminaire, or Flare. Choose your party however you like, if you're going for all the endings you'll probably end up doing this with every conceivable combination anyway, just make sure you equip the best equipment and have status protection. One last comment is that since a New Game+ is based upon the contents of your save file when you save, there's absolutely no reason not to use all the Megalixers and Elixirs that you want, since this is the point of no return.

This form has three parts, Lavos' left arm, right arm, and body. The body's defense will be too high to damage at first, so just use your most powerful magic attacks to damage the left and right arms. The left arm will probably die first, then the right arm, and the body will remove its defense when it casts obstacle. Heal as necessary, its attacks may do in the 500 range in the best case, and keep wearing it down, it will break apart eventually. Be careful of Shadow Doom Blaze (Dark Flame's Embrace) as that does massive damage.

It is highly recommended that you have everyone equipped with a status-immune helmet or armor. The last part of this fight will spam status-based moves that can cause problems. In addition, it is a priority to defeat both arms at the same time to avoid the move Curse, a move that removes that status immunity, from being used.

Lavos's Final Form[edit]

Another cutscene takes place with dialogue to and from characters. You'll now start battling Lavos's final form, which is a humanoid, whilst two bits surround it.

Lavos Core
Chrono Trigger Lavos core.png
HP
2,000 (Left Bit), 10,000 (Lavos), and 30,000 (Right Bit)
Weaknesses
None
Strengths
None
Absorbs
None
Charmables
None
Drops
None
XP
0
TP
0
Gold
0
Attacks

Interestingly, trigger abilities such as Lavos core shuts off defense, Lavos core defense restored! and Time warp... can all be counterattacked by Rage Band or Frenzy Band's effect despite dealing no damage to anything.

Left Bit
  • Attack: damages one ally for about 100 damage.
  • Heal: heals Lavos for 1000HP.
  • Drain MP: steals about 10 MP from one ally and gives it to itself.
  • Protective Seal: Voids status immunity.
  • Attack / Will attack with no center bit: a counter attack if you've destroyed the center bit.
Central Bit (body/decoy)
  • Punch: damages one ally for 200-999 damage.
  • Crying Heavens/Hidden blow: damages one ally for about 200-1600 lightning damage depending on resistance modifiers, magic defense and which character it is. If the character is wearing a White Vest/Mail, it will heal instead!
  • Time warp...: changes the time period, which changes the background of the fight and is used to determine the super attack used (see below). If you have either the Rage Band or Frenzy Band equipped, you can counter this pseudo-attack.
    • Spell/Random Status (Leene Square 1000 AD): attacks one ally for 150-300 damage and attempts to inflict a random status ailment.
    • Evil Star/Reduces HP by 1/2 (Magus's Castle 600 AD): reduces each ally's HP by 1/2.
    • Dreamless/Ultimate Magic attack (Lab Ruins 2300 AD): deals 100-500 magic damage to your party.
    • Invading Light/Slow (Mammon Machine 12000 BC): damages the party for 100-200 damage and attempts to inflict Slow.
    • Grand Stone/Ultimate phys. attack (Hunting Range 65,000,000 BC): damages the party for about 250-950 physical damage.
Right Bit (core)
  • Prisma Drain: damages one ally for about 100 damage.
  • Lavos Core shuts of def: removes both physical and magical defense. If you have either the Rage Band or Frenzy Band equipped, you can counter this pseudo-attack.
  • Active Life / Revives the Lavos Bit!/Resurrect: Revives Lavos Pods: Decreases the defense power of the Right Bit for a certain amount of time to bring back both the Left Bit and Lavos back to life. This move will only be used if either the Left Bit or the Center Pod are destroyed.
  • The Lavos Core's Def pwr restored!: the Right Bit's physical and magic defense increases to the maximum. If you have either the Rage Band or Frenzy Band equipped, you can counter this pseudo-attack.
Description/Strategy
CTLavosCore.png

A suggested minimum level for this fight is 45. With a lot of practice, it's not hard to solo Lavos with any character at level 55+.

This battle can be confusing, so you need to understand your enemy before attempting to kill it. It works like this: there are three bits, but the middle bit looks like a humanoid. This is supposed to make you believe that the middle is the main target, but it isn't! In fact, it's the right bit that you need to focus on destroying. Once you kill the right bit, the Left Bot and Center Pod are automatically destroyed and defeat Lavos. The only problem here is that the right bit's physical and magic defense is maxed at the start of the fight so you will only deal 1 damage if you attempt to attack it, magic or no magic. Also, the left bit constantly heals, while absorbing magic attacks, so if you make the mistake of using magic on the left bit, it will heal. (however it cannot withstand more than a few physical attacks). It can also remove status immunities. The center form, Lavos, will use the most powerful magic and physical attacks in the game, which can kill your entire full-HP party in one hit if you're not prepared. The attack used depends on the background, indicating the time period and theme of the attack (see attacks, above, for details).

When either the Left Bit or Center Pod goes down, the right bit will shortly lower its defense to charge up "Active Life". This move revives all destroyed bits, but does not heal a surviving bit. After using Active Life, the right bit will use The Lavos Core's Def pwr restored! and its defense will return to maximum, so you have to repeat the process.

Always start with the bit on the left because of its ability to remove status immunities at any point in the battle, making the fight much harder than it should. Never use magic as it will heal. Since it has 2000 HP, calculate who can damage it in 1 hit. Examples include Crono equipped with the Rainbow + Prism Specs (70% chance due to criticals), Crono's Confuse, Ayla's Triple Kick, and physical Double and Triple Techs. If you don't kill it in 1 hit, immediately have someone attack it again.

Once the Left Bit is destroyed quickly, you have to make choices on what to attack: The Center Pod, the main Right Bit, or both. The Center Pod will be the most offensive and dangerous in the battle. The Right Bit is what you need to destroy. Because you destroyed the Left Bit, it will take time to lower its defenses to prepare. At this given time, you can either unleash your strongest 1-target attacks on the right bit or spam your strongest hit-all attacks at this point, single tech, dual-tech, or triple-tech.

If the Left Bit and/or the Center Pod are revived, repeat strategy as above.

Once you've destroyed the bit, Lavos will die, the time portal around him will shatter, and you'll see a silhouette of the left bit appear just for a second as you fade away (suggesting it may have survived). Now sit back and enjoy the ending!

After the credits, you have two options to wrap up the game. Check out the endings if you want to see other end results, or get ready to start a New Game + (which may be necessary to reach those endings).

Challenging Lavos[edit]

If you challenge Lavos during this chapter, you should get The Main Ending, although you are able to reach this chapter without Crono as well, in which case you would get The Reunion Ending. There are several variations depending on whether or not you crashed the Epoch into Lavos, spared Magus, and a few minor ones depending on how you completed Fiona's sidequest, and how many cats you have. The basic theme of the ending is that Crono and company get honored for their work in saving the past, and have a farewell party. You should also have activated the New Game+ by finishing the game in this chapter, so you can now restart your game with ridiculously powerful characters and try for some of the other endings.