Shin Megami Tensei 5: How To Beat Zeus
Table of Contents
Zeus can be quite the challenging boss to beat in SMT V, so here’s exactly what you need to know to defeat him.
You Are Reading :Shin Megami Tensei 5 How To Beat Zeus
Quick Links
Shin Megami Tensei 5’s Taito region is the last of the vast open-world segments the game has to offer. Containing some of the hardest enemies, strongest bosses, and the most difficult Abscesses, simply surviving is a tall order.
Taito is home to three tremendously powerful, titanic bosses who oversee the majority of the map – Odin, Vasuki, and Zeus. Zeus, being the Greek God of thunder, is pretty easy to figure out on paper. Even with that foreknowledge, however, he is no pushover and will flatten you if you don’t prepare adequately.
Zeus’s Potentials, Attacks, and Resistances
Potentials
As is fitting for the almighty Zeus, he has some of the highest Potentials in the entire game, specifically when looking at his Electric Potential. Whilst this is his most powerful form of attack, his Physical prowess is not to be underestimated, nor is his sneaky inclusion of Almighty.
Zeus backs this up with a fantastic statline, coming with a 75 in Strength, and 70 in Magic. It doesn’t matter how Zeus hits you, he is probably going to hurt.
Attacks
As you can see from Zeus’s attacks, he is no pushover. He deals single target and AoE damage, he can buff and debuff with ease, and he can punch through your defenses with any of his attacks. Even bringing the ideal party along, there is no guarantee Zeus won’t just use Impaler’s Animus and ruin your day.
Of all of his attacks, Keraunos is Zeus’ most dangerous. Not only does it deal Severe damage, but it natively ignores resistances and has piercing. Thankfully, it’s a single target attack, but that doesn’t diminish its strength. You will want to make sure your party – especially Nahobino – can take a hit from this.
Impaler’s Animus is the wild card in his kit. When Zeus uses this skill, nothing is going to save you from a hefty chunk of damage. On the plus side, this skill still takes up one of Zeus’s valuable turns so whilst you are almost guaranteed to take damage, you aren’t getting slapped as many times.
Luster Candy is a skill you need to deal with. Zeus is already monstrously powerful with amazing stats, a high level, and a great kit. If Zeus pumps up every stat, even once, then he becomes much harder to face. If he stacks it, you may as well throw in the towel if you have no answers. Dekaja or Debilitate are very valuable in this fight.
Madness Glint is too random to be considered a real threat damage-wise, and because it’s Almighty damage, there isn’t anything you can do about it in terms of resistance. The elephant in the room, however, is the Seal effect. You will want to bring items and skills to remove Seal if you want to keep your offense and defense healthy.
Panta Spane is another one of Zeus’s unique attacks. This one deals decent damage, but the real kicker is the reduction of your party’s attack and defense. Dekunda should be considered as a direct counter to this.
Brave Blade is just a beatstick skill. If it lands a critical, then Zeus will gain a bonus turn, which isn’t ideal. You will want to try and have as many demons resistant – or even immune – to Physical as possible to counteract this.
Resistances
Zeus only has one weakness, and that is to Force damage. Zeus is completely immune to Electric, Light, and Dark to boot. Something to consider is Zeus’s lack of Physical resistance. Physical demons, at this stage in the game, will do more damage to Zeus than Force-based magic users. The downside is you won’t get as many turns – unless you are landing Criticals.
Recommended Party Setup
Because Physical demons are so much more effective now, there is going to be a focus on them for your ideal party. Some support demons are also required to counteract Zeus’s trickier abilities.
Thor
The best way to counter a god of thunder is to bring your own. Thor is a powerhouse in this fight thanks to his beefy frame, powerful attacks, and his ability to drain Electric attacks. With creative fusion or transferral, you can make Thor resistant to Physical damage, making him even harder to take down.
There are plenty of powerful Physical attacks you can transfer onto Thor, but honestly, his base kit should do. If you want more damage, getting Physical Pleroma and Charge into his lineup would be for the best.
Remember that Power Punch is Thor’s strongest attack, but it requires him to be at full health to be effective. Having Thor after your healer in your party order is always a good idea.
Mara
Mara is more than capable of dealing with Zeus’s shenanigans thanks to the ability to drain Electric damage and coming with Enduring Soul as standard.
On top of that, Mara can thrust its undeniably potent form at the enemy with Hell Thrust and deal significant damage. Consider transferring Physical Pleroma and Physical Resistance onto Mara to fully deal with Zeus and his nonsense.
You could also consider using Toxic Spray. Zeus is resistant to Poison, but not immune. If poison lands, you will deal a decent chunk of damage each turn, and, as a bonus, Toxic Spray lowers Defense. To make this even better, Mara has access to Poison Master on its base kit.
Futsunushi
Another brilliant Physical demon. Coming in with native Physical resistance and Physical Pleroma, Futsunushi is a great pick. Not only that, but he comes with Catastrophe, which deals Severe Physical damage, making him a heavy-hitting tank.
He lacks resistance to Electric but also isn’t weak to it. You could consider transferring immunity or resistance, but a Damper would do the job fine.
Futsunushi can be obtained early by completing the In Defense Of Tokyo quest and is well worth getting.
Rangda
Rangda is the unexpectedly amazing Tank of Shin Megami Tensei 5. Stat-wise, she isn’t all that great, but her Reflection of Physical damage is very handy. She is weak to Electric, however, so you will be required to transfer or fuse over Resist Electric to function in this fight, but that’s not exactly difficult to do.
On top of that, she has access to Force damage, which will generate bonus turns. Finally, it’s a great idea to transfer Taunt onto her. This will direct most single-target attacks to Ranga – and if that attack is Physical, then it will not only hurt Zeus but delete his turns.
Tao
Tao is a pretty powerful demon, but her main draw in this fight is her access to Light’s Order, which not only heals your entire party, but raises all of their stats. This buff is not insignificant, and if you can keep Zeus’s buffing negated with Dekaja, then you can end this fight much quicker.
Lakshmi
Another support demon who can do a lot of work in this fight. She comes with Luster Candy – the same skill as Zeus – which allows her to buff your entire party’s stats for three turns. She also has access to Mediarahan, which makes her an invaluable healer for this fight.
She does come with some downsides, however. Firstly, her skills are very expensive to cast. You will want to pack Chakra Pots or Spirit Drain to keep her topped up and ready to go. She is also weak to Electric, which isn’t great.
To counter her weakness, either run a Taunt demon (like Rangda) or transfer resistance into her kit. Either way, she is well worth taking in this fight – and practically every fight from now until the end of the game.
Preparing For Battle
Essence Fusion
Keeping Nahobino alive is your top priority, which means you need to bring Physical resistance. This will keep you safe from most of Zeus’s damage unless he uses Impaler’s Animus first. Electric resistances are mostly wasted here, so consider Dampers instead.
The only exception to the Damper rule is if your entire party is immune to Electric. At which point, fusing Nahobino to also have immunity makes sense as it would save you having to use Dampers. This will increase your damage output slightly.
You can’t hide from Zeus, however, so having the ability to pump out damage is a must. Murakumo from Aogami Type-0 should be your go-to attack. This is a heavy-hitting Almighty attack that deals even more damage on Critical. You could also transfer over Critical-boosting passives to make this even more effective.
If you have a Magic-based Nahobino, your damage won’t be anywhere near as good. Throw out your best Force skills and build bonus turns as best you can.
In either case, you should also consider Kannabi Veil. This will help keep your party healthy when Zeus uses AoE attacks.
Dampers
Assuming you don’t run a fully immune party, Electric Dampers will come in handy. For 450 Macca, you get to cancel Zeus’s offensive after gathering Magatsuhi and go all out yourself. Well worth the investment. You could also consider Physical Dampers to throw out at the start of the fight to try and scrape out some cheeky free turns.
Gems
If you need to generate bonus turns, then Gems and Shards are the answer. Sometimes you need that extra push to get to a specific party member, and this will do that without having to waste an action passing.
Amrita Showers
Amrita Showers will be useful in this scrap simply because you don’t want to deal with Seal. Pick some up, throw them out when needed. Easy as that.
Battle Strategy
Because of Zeus’s unique kit, even when fully prepared, he might just kill you. That being said, it should be pretty unlikely and this fight should go smoothly. You want to apply party buffs ASAP, then unleash the beat down. Remember to throw out Taunt when needed, and maybe throw out a Physical Damper to take the edge off Zeus’s early game.
Providing you keep your supports topped up on mana, and your brawlers are laying into Zeus with buffed-up stats, Zeus will go down without much hassle. If he focuses on single-target physical attacks, then this fight might be one of the easier bosses. Just remember: never underestimate Impaler’s Animus – it can really mess with your plans.
Once Zeus goes down, you will be one step closer to leaving Taito and starting the final stretch of Shin Megami Tensei 5.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/shin-megami-tensei-5-smtv-zeus-boss-battle-strategy-guide/