One of Metaphor: ReFantazio’s hardest optional bosses has a glaring weakness – itself

As JRPG fans delve further into Atlus’ enormous new fantasy game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, an incredibly silly, cheesy method to easily defeat one of the toughest optional side quest bosses has been discovered, and I’m now in immense pain thinking about all the time I spent trying to do it the hard way.

This article contains spoilers for a side quest boss found near the end of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Proceed with caution!

(Image credit: Atlus / Sega)

The boss in question is the Devourer of Flames – a big ol’ dragon that the party must take down to complete one of the Trial of the Dragon side quests. It’s a high-level foe that packs a serious punch, including an insta-kill Fire attack that’ll take down anyone it touches in a single hit if they don’t have a way to repel or nullify it. On top of that, the dragon is able to inflict the Charm status effect – potentially making your party members attack each other rather than their scaly opponent – and it can also deal massive damage with swings of its tail and claws.

Ways to repel and block Fire help significantly, but generally speaking, you can still expect a pretty long fight, especially since the Devourer of Flames is resistant to Fire itself, so any reflected attacks usually do nothing. However, the key there is usually. As highlighted by Reddit user thecastroregime, if your party includes someone using the Masked Dancer Archetype lineage, as well as someone else using an Archetype from either the Mage, Summoner, or Masked Dancer lineage, you can pull off the Synthesis move Hellfire Dance to inflict the foe with a weakness to Fire for one attack. Do this before it pulls off that aforementioned insta-kill attack, and as long as you have a way to repel it, it’ll bounce right back for some serious damage. 

The Reddit user notes that the dragon takes damage from however many party members manage to reflect the move, so that’s up to a whopping 9,999HP per person per turn if you set things up properly. They do say the best defense is a good offense, and that works both ways in this situation. 

Be sure to check out our Metaphor: ReFantazio review to find out why it’s one of this year’s best JRPGs.