"Fanatics" plays with additional wailing noises. The three parties walk in and spread out to show their full numbers. Cefca is not immediately in evidence, but his laugh soon interrupts.

The members of each party are resorted at the beginning of the scene so that whichever character comes first in the internal character ordering (the order used on the characters and skills page) becomes the party leader. One effect of this is that Tina will always act as one of the party leaders if present.

A shimmering pyramid appears, then Cefca inside it.

Cefca floats the lead character from the right party around.

Cefca floats the lead character from the left party around.

Cefca flings the floating characters back to the ground. Whichever character leads the center party steps forward.

The screen pans up and the sky dims.

The character who previously stepped forward walks up, back into view, despite the apparent lack of anything to walk on there.

Cefca flings the defiant character around, but to no avail.

The music abruptly cuts off with Cefca acting revolted, and his theme starts playing.

Okay, the self-help booklet line is fairly clever, I have to admit.

This line, not so much. He's not directly threatening the characters themselves, but rather the things that give them purpose.

Cefca laser beams some terrain. When the screen returns to the confrontation, the party has been rearranged into preset positons, with Tina's in the center a step in front of a long line consisting of the positons for, in order from left to right, Edgar, Mog, Relm, Shadow, Mash, Lock, Celes, Cayenne, Stragus, Setzer, and Gau, while Gogo's spot comes behind Relm and Umaro's behind Setzer.

The surroundings buckle, and Cefca rises up on a flaming pillar of jagged rock.

A party member rises up on a similar, but non-flaming, pillar of rock. The character chosen is the first one present from the following list: Tina, Edgar, Mash, Shadow, Relm, Mog, Gogo, Umaro, Gau, Setzer, Stragus, Cayenne, Celes, Lock.

Cefca hops up and down in a typical hissy fit.

A second party member rises up on another pillar of rock. The character chosen is the first one present from the following list: Lock, Celes, Cayenne, Stragus, Setzer, Gau, Umaro, Gogo, Mog, Relm, Shadow, Mash, Edgar, Tina (in other words, the reverse of the previous list).

Cefca zaps another swath of terrain. Everyone winds up back on the ground.

Wait, does anyone ever even call her that except in this scene?

She transforms and flies away.

This next line helps transition back into the scene if Tina's side event occurred.

The final battle takes place across four "tiers" of combat, culminating in Cefca himself. But before the festivities begin, it's time to select a lineup. The four characters selected first will start the battle. Any character who is out of commission ('incapacitated', 'zombie', or 'petrified') when the battle advances to the next tier will be replaced with the next character from selected order. An effective starting lineup is important, of course, but make sure that at least the first few alternates are fully capable as well, just in case.

Other than the automatic character swapping, nearly everything carries across tiers, including HP and MP, status effects both positive and negative, and (unfortunately) whether a Genjuu has been summoned yet or not. A few things don't, though. Probably the most important are that Dance and Rage status are removed, allowing the users to select new options with each tier. Golem's Earth Wall doesn't carry over either, so if you're thinking about using it (and that's not a bad idea), don't waste it on the first or second tiers.

As an additional note, none of the enemies in the upcoming battles are affected by Control, Libra, or Mash's Meteor Strike, nor will Sketch work on any but Cefca himself. They are also immune to 'transparent', so there's no using Vanish/Doom to cheese your way through. Finally, most of them have permanent 'levitate' status, so earthshaking spells are of little use, but if, for instance, you give Gau a Medal and use the Sniper as a weapon, well...

Don't forget to wear Ribbons on as many characters possible, or at the very least, White Capes to prevent 'silence'. They'll help.

The first movement of 3-14 "Dancing Mad" plays, looping as needed until the first tier is beaten.

This tier consists of three targets, internally called Short Arm, Long Arm, and Face. All can be handled with relative ease.

It's difficult to call Short Arm (bottom right) anything but boring. The most interesting thing about it is an unimpressive special attack called Shinkuu Ha, just like one of Mash's skills. Unfortunately, the connection was lost in the official localization, where it became VacuumWave (actually a more accurate translation) rather than Air Blade. The arm is vulnerable to 'slow' and weak against Water. Kill this one last, since the other two have special counters if finished off when alone.

Long Arm (bottom left) is marginally more interesting, with a chance to use Shockwave and the possibility of countering with it up to three times if killed last, but it's also the weakest link. Lacking immunity to instant death or 'petrify', it should be the immediate target of the Air Anchor or Break. The weakness to Wind won't end up mattering in a normal playthrough, and neither will its susceptibility to 'berserk'.

Face (top) poses the greatest threat, but a weakness to Flame makes racking up damage easy enough. It acts infrequently at first, using Slip Hit (inflicts 'slip') or Reverse Polarity now and then, plus Protect or Haste on a random arm every five turns. After losing 19,760 of 30,000 HP, it starts spamming Slip Hit and Dread, with an occassional chance for Magnitude 8 or Reverse Polarity, instead. If it's killed last, be ready for a Quake counter.

There's little real challenge here, so kill off the Long Arm, burn the Face to death, then take all the time you want applying beneficial effects. Maybe some 'protect', 'shell', 'haste', 'regenerate', even 'reraise' if you feel like it. Save Golem for later, though, assuming anyone has it equipped.

Each target has an Elixir as a common steal, so feel free to stock up.

"Dancing Mad" transitions into its second movement once it reaches the appropriate point in the music, then loops as needed until the second tier is beaten.

This tier consists of four targets, internally called Tiger, Machine, Magic, and Hit. These names roughly describe their respective functions.

Tiger (bottom right) is slow, and other than a rare normal attack, acts only once every four turns. However, that action will be Northern Cross, Southern Cross, or Flare Star. Make killing it a priority, and take advantage of the Ice weakness. After losing 18,480 of 30,000 HP, Tiger begins acting each and every turn, and may also use Corpse Fang (causes 'zombie') in the same turn. Finish it off quickly.

Machine (top center) doesn't deviate much from a typical mechanical opponent, using an assortment of Sorcery Laser, Diffusion Laser, Atomic Ray, Gravity Bomb, Missile, and Delta Attack. After losing 12,480 of 24,000 HP, Atomic Ray is replaced with Absolute Zero. However, instead of targeting its predictable weakness against Thunder, it's quicker and easier to just kill it outright by using the Air Anchor or Death against its glaring vulnerability to instant death.

Speaking of glaring vulnerabilities, Magic (top left) is susceptible to 'silence' despite only using spells. Toss a Silence at it, and it won't be able to do anything until being taken out, at which point the status will be removed and it may use Graviga and up to two Dispel spells before keeling over.

Magic is actually fairly interesting when not prevented from casting. Initially, it uses Haste / Kappa / Hastega, then Figa / Figa / Confuse, then Poison / Drain / Bio. After losing 10,280 of 41,000 HP, this switches to Reflect / Stop / Reraise, then Blizzaga / Thundaga / Sleepel, then Holy / Flare / Slowga. Another 10,624 HP later, it settles on Thundaga / Thundaga / Silence, then Holy / Flare / Raspir, then Figa / Blizzara / Thundaga. 9,856 HP after that, it gains a 1 in 3 chance to counter with Graviga. Once down 5,120 HP more, or in other words when on its last 5,120 health, two 2 in 3 chances to cast Dispel are added to the counter. Magic is also weak against Earth, for what it's worth.

Hit (top right) is the most boring opponent on this tier. As the name suggests, all it does is hit, with mediocre, at best, attack power at an unremarkable 100 hit rate. In case that's still not dull enough, 'slow' and 'stop' work on it, too. When beaten, Hit uses its special attack, 10-Hit Combo, immediately followed by an additional nine normal attacks to create the illusion that the special really is striking ten times. Target the Poison weakness if that helps.

If you know what you're doing, Tiger is the only real threat. Eliminate Machine with your favorite instant death attacks, neutralize Magic with 'silence', then freeze Tiger dead. Recover if needed, finish off Magic, then take all the time you like recasting any lost buffs before ending Hit. Continue saving Golem for later.

As in the first tier, each target has an Elixir as a common steal.

"Dancing Mad" transitions into its third movement once it reaches the appropriate point in the music, then loops as needed until the third tier is beaten.

This tier consists of two targets, internally called Maria and Slumber. And this time, they're actually dangerous.

Maria (top left) primarily serves to keep Slumber alive. Most of her turns will be spent using White Wind, and she'll cast Araise on Slumber as needed (though it can only recover 9,999 HP, not his 40,000 total). She'll also occasionally use Tranquility, a no-damage special attack that inflicts 'sleep'. Maria absorbs all elements and has every status immunity that exists.

And because Maria is technically weak against every element in addition to absorbing them, Edgar's Weakmaker can't touch her.

Slumber (bottom right) is the real threat here. His basic script combines a smattering of normal attacks with Death Sentence, Tornado, and Melton. That last one will heal Maria, though Slumber still takes damage. However, things get worse once he loses 29,760 of 40,000 HP. After that point, every turn will be (enemy) Meteor, and every attack against him may be countered with Meteor or Trine, which inflicts 'darkness' and (more importantly) 'silence' on all allies. Slumber is no kinder in death, using its own version of Tranquility to inflict instant death on a random character, then possibly using it a second time.

Take out Maria first so she can't heal or revive Slumber. Once that's done, try to kill Slumber as quickly as possible to avoid the onslaught of attacks. If anyone has Golem or Fenrir equipped, now is a good time to summon, since they'll ensure that Tranquility won't hit anyone on the way out. Remember, anyone that goes down will be replaced on the way to the last tier, leaving no chance to revive them. Applying Reraise in advance works too.

The Elixirs on previous tiers may not have been enough to appease your kleptomaniac urges, but this tier ought to do the trick, as it's hoarding two of the game's top weapons. Maria has a Ragnarök and Slumber has an Ultima Weapon, both as the common steal, so grabbing them should be little trouble.

Remember that you can change equipped weapons during battle by entering the Items menu and pressing up. Some remakes of the game will also allow you to save after the final battle and carry over anything you stole along the way, providing the only legitimate method of having both the Ragnarök magicite and the Ragnarök sword (or Lightbringer) at once.

The music suddenly fades out when the third tier is beaten...

...and after quoting the begining of the Opening Theme, "Dancing Mad" launches into its final movement, which essentially remixes Cefca's theme.

Such a dramatic entrance. Cefca's come a long way from when Mash beat him up in an army camp.

And after laughing maniacally, Cefca kicks off the battle with Heartless Angel, reducing all allies to 1 HP. There's nothing to be done about that but heal, as quickly as possible. Afterwards, he settles into a mix of normal attacks (which, between having the fourth highest attack power of any enemy and being level 71, may actually pose a threat for a change), Figa, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Trine, and, more often than anything else, his quad-damage special attack Wing of Destruction.

These are all blockable, of course, and Gau or Mog with the Snow Muffler can reach 255 defense for effective immunity to everything that isn't magic. However, Cefca has 190 hit rate, the best of any opponent in the game, so you'll need over 60 MEvd just to begin to have any chance of blocking his physical attacks.

Also... he won't necessarily open with Fallen One; all you have to do is knock him out of his initial attack pattern first. It's not something that would normally happen, but if a high-powered character or three are in the middle of a Jump (especially with Wyvern's Horns) when he comes up, well... with enough attack power and some luck it's possible to finish him off even before he says anything.

Cefca has permanent 'levitate', but is unsurprisingly immune to every other status effect possible and has no weaknesses. Poison has no effect; all other attack types work normally. Locke's Sniper can deal hefty damage thanks to the floating, and the Maneater also gets double damage here.

Sketch isn't completely worthless, since it usually yields Ultima. Sure, it's cast at Cefca's lackluster magic power, but hey, free Ultima.

Once Cefca loses 29,360 of his 62,000 HP (second highest total of any enemy appearing in the game), a strange message appears:

A head briefly pops into being, the screen begins to shake, and after charging for a little while, Cefca hits with something called Missing (Goner). On paper, Missing is the game's most powerful magic attack, stronger even than Jihad's Cosmic Breakdown, but at least it's defendable damage, and as already noted Cefca's magic power isn't particularly impressive. With magic defense around 170, which is quite doable, it hurts less than a multitargeted Ultima from him (which has its damage halved, unlike Missing), and having 'shell' in place will reduce that further.

After using Missing, Cefca spends two turns using Trine, Revenger, or Wing of Destruction. The first of these turns may, and the second usually will, include a second Wing of Destruction for more pain. Revenger, incidentally, removes a wide variety of positive status effects from the entire party, so in some ways it's worse than a damaging attack. Once these two turns are over, Cefca will repeat from charging up for Missing.

2,560 HP worth of damage after the above change, Cefca gains a counterattack, which has an equal chance of being a normal attack, an unblockable defense-ignoring magic attack called Hyperdrive, or nothing at all. Expect Hyperdrive to inflict roughly 3,200 to 3,600 damage to a single character, as well as 'slip' status if not immune. On the plus side, Celes can nullify it with Magicseal Sword. Furthermore, Cefca will NOT counterattack during the Missing sequence, starting when he begins charging and ending the turn after casting. It may be preferable to avoid attacking when he's not in Missing mode if sealing Hyperdrive isn't an option.

In case that wasn't bad enough, once Cefca loses another 19,840 HP, Hyperdrive is replaced with Ultima. Coming from him, it inflicts roughly 2,000 to 2,300 damage per character, doubled if against a single target. That's nothing to laugh at, but it's barely a third of the casting strength Magic Master had, so it could be worse, and remember, Magicseal Sword is available here and does work against it. Counterattacks continue to be disabled during Missing mode.

2,560 HP later, or on his last 7,680 HP in other words, Cefca spends more time in Missing mode, with just a single Meteor between each sequence. While that will only inflict about half the damage of Ultima, no amount of care in attack timing will avoid it, and Magicseal Sword won't do anything either. At this point, just finish him off as quickly as possible.

Ideally, everyone should equip Ribbons and either have high MEvd or combine elemental defenses with maximum defense power. His initial pattern should pose no difficulty with this setup. Once he shifts into a Missing pattern and starts counterattacking, it's best to keep Magicseal Sword up at all times if possible. Otherwise, consider refraining from attacks outside of the Missing sequence, since both Hyperdrive and Ultima hit regardless of MEvd and ignore defense.

Ultima is an obvious choice for offense if available. Otherwise, you'll be happy to know that Cefca's defense is a bit on the low side of average, and his MDef isn't much better. It's still high enough that Flare outdamages -ga spells, though, unless they're boosted by a transformed Tina or taking advantage of an artificial vulnerability from Edgar's Weakmaker. Mugen Toubu and Grand Trine both outperform Flare, while Shadow will prefer to throw high-end weapons. Good weapons also work quite well when wielded, especially with appropiate accessories. Gau can deal obscene amounts of damage even at low levels by combining Stray Cat Rage (50% chance of Cat Kick for quadruple damage) with the Sniper (triple damage half the time) or slightly weaker Maneater (double damage all the time).

And in case that inner kleptomaniac is still eager to go, Cefca has a Last Elixir, as a common steal.