Kefka Palazzo

Marksman

This madman sows seeds of chaos with his absurd appearance and varied arsenal of spells, many of which change depending on how long you hold down their buttons. Take advantage of his unpredictable attacks and erratic movements to confuse foes.

Original Appearance: FINAL FANTASY VI

Year: 1994

Role: This cackling general of the Gestahlian Empire sought to rend the world itself apart in his madness. He very nearly succeeded, thanks to his heartless manipulation of powerful energy from espers, supercreatures from another realm. Much of his knowledge of them comes from experiments on Terra, the meek half-esper. But despite how close he gets to his goal, it ultimately backfires, as Terra and her friends prove to be Kefka’s undoing.

Other Noteworthy Appearances: DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (2009), DISSIDIA 012 FINAL FANTASY (2011)

Arsenal

Bravery Attacks

HP Attacks

EX Skill

Bravery Attack Breakdown

Charge spells: Kefka’s magic spells have three levels. The first is uncharged, achieved simply by tapping the command. Kefka casts the spell as quickly as he can, and you get the basic version of it, with the lowest range or amount of hits. A Level 1 charge is attained by holding the command until Kefka pulses once. A Level 2 charge is attained by holding the command until Kefka pulses twice, at which point he casts the spell automatically.

Increasing a spell’s charge level takes a little extra time, but it shouldn’t be prohibitive unless enemies are in your face right at that moment. Charging doesn’t take Kefka too long and adds incredible range to most of his magic.

Blizzaga Blitz

Kefka leans back as though he’s sitting in an invisible recliner, relaxing his head in his hands so much he flips backward head-over-heels, kicking up a unique ice attack as he spins. Pillars of sharp Blizzard ice erupt toward the target in a line, angling upward to double-jump height just before dissipating.

Like all Kefka’s spells, Blizzaga Blitz can be charged, which increases its range greatly. Being able to move while charging means you’re not a sitting duck during this period; you can dodge (slow) attacks while charging, or advance toward/retreat from targets as desired, before the attack emerges.

Blizzaga Blitz’s upward angle gives him at least one tool to use against incoming fliers; don’t charge it at all in this case, so it comes out faster and the upward-jetting portion covers airspace closer to Kefka. This pairs well with Core Decoy, which is twice as tall as Kefka, meaning he can create his own temporary cover against melee types dashing in to dive-bomb him.

Plip-Plop Meteor

Raising his right hand, which glows with pink energy, Kefka points at the sky above the target, where a small portal opens and begins dropping one meteor after another.

Trickster that he is, Kefka’s Meteor spell doesn’t work quite like other versions (including those of Terra, his nemesis, and Onion Knight’s sage job). Plip-Plop Meteor lasts much longer, slowly tracks the target, and drops meteors one by one much more slowly. The portal for a single casting of Plip-Plop Meteor is a threat on the battlefield for nine seconds, and drops a slightly random number of bolides, usually between 16 to 18 total.

Plip-Plop Meteor lasts so long that it cuts a slow, lengthy swath across the landscape, continuing to strive for the target till it’s over. The path can scour across up to 2.5 minimap circles from wherever it’s initially placed. This means the real range of uncharged Plip-Plop Meteor is 2.0-4.5; Level 1 Meteor is 3.0-5.5; and fully charged Meteor is 4.0-6.5…well beyond the edge of the minimap.

Anyone can dodge Plip-Plop Meteor if they’re paying attention to it, but that’s not the point. It lasts forever, moving extremely slowly but with terrific homing ability. So, like Core Decoy, it’s an extreme hazard for foes to run into on accident, when they’re dashing away from one of Kefka’s teammates, or avoiding another one of his attacks, or simply moving at an angle where they don’t see the threat till they’re flying into it.

Kefka’s attacks in general are a little less quick, a little less direct, a little longer-reaching, and a little more intentionally irritating than those of other marksman types. Keeping Plip-Plop Meteor active as much as possible goes a long way toward this theme.

Casting Kefka’s Plip-Plop Meteor again while it’s already in progress closes the first bolide portal and starts a new one.

Core Decoy

Kefka gestures with both hands and conjures a false image of a summoning core. The longer Kefka charges the spell, the longer the Core Decoy lasts.

Uncharged, Core Decoys last 10 seconds. At Level 1 charge, 20 seconds. Fully charged, they last 30 seconds. Up to two Core Decoys can be placed at once. Try to place a third decoy, and the first one vanishes.

Core Decoys basically serve as gigantic land mines for Kefka. Any enemy who runs into a Core Decoy will cause it to explode, splashing them with Bravery damage. Meanwhile, Kefka and his teammates can safely stand right next to a Core Decoy, where enemies cannot follow without setting it off. Opposing enemy projectiles don’t cause a Core Decoy to burst prematurely, either.

Core Decoys are somewhat useful for their obvious purpose as red herrings, since enemies will sometimes expend a little mental energy wondering whether a Core Decoy is a real summoning core, leaving them momentarily misdirected. But Core Decoys’ primary purpose is to serve as Kefka’s land mines—as mobile cover, territory control, and traps. The spell-casting time for a max-duration Core Decoy isn’t that much longer than for the shorter-lasting version, so it’s worth the stretch, unless you’re dropping a Core Decoy in a panic to give Kefka an impediment before an onrushing assassin, in which case, of course just get it out there and then run away through it.

Zigzag Firaga

From mid-air, Kefka puts his whole body into a forward pitch, overhand-tossing a curious sparkling fireball. It sizzles toward the target, but a little beyond the halfway point of its travel, it starts behaving erratically to confuse enemies before it sputters out. Across about the last third of its flight path, Zigzag Firaga slows suddenly, surges forward, slows again, then surges one more time.

During this slow-fast-slow-fast portion of the attack, it also happens to reach farther than any other standard neutral  projectile spell of its kind. The fully charged Zigzag Firaga can chase foes clean off the minimap!

On a successful hit, the fireball slowly hits the enemy three times, holding them in place, before the final hit launches them away. Friends who react quickly can initiate their own attacks on the victim while Zigzag Firaga is holding them in place.

The stutter-speed portion of Zigzag Firaga also incidentally works as a boost to its homing ability at the end; the slow parts prevent the projectile from overshooting targets too badly near the end of its travel, so it may circle back and strike someone it missed on a first pass.

The range and versatility of this spell make it Kefka’s mainstay attack. It goes well with long-lasting Meteor and Core Decoy spells.

Snap-Crackle Thundaga

Kefka glides while batting the air before him with both hands, generating more small lightning bolts the longer he waits. On release, the lightning bolts all zip off together, pummeling the target one after another.

Snap-Crackle Thundaga’s purpose is to give Kefka a quicker option for striking at mid- to long-range foes, and to give him an option to hold enemies and enable combos for teammates. Snap-Crackle Thundaga is one of very few attacks in DISSIDIA that doesn’t knock the enemy off their feet when completed. It’s for harassing, stalling, and pinning foes, but can’t be a finisher on its own.

It does lead to chances for Kefka to potentially self-combo enemies, if Plip-Plop Meteor is chewing its away across the arena first. Cancel out of a Meteor cast with a neutral dash cancel, air-dashing just off the ground at the target, then release in mid-range and charge +  (glide around while charging Thundaga as necessary for targeting or evasion). With a little luck and cooperation from the target, Thundaga’s eight hits will hold the foe just long enough for the Meteor portal to catch up with them, dumping a rock on top that combos.

Boom-Boom Ultima

With a flourish, Kefka uses both hands to fire a finger-gun at a down-forward angle, aiming below him. Where he points, uncontrolled magic energy gathers in a wide radius before exploding as an enormous Ultima discharge. Above, during the detonation, Kefka blows magical smoke off his fingers.

Boom-Boom Ultima is a tricky but powerful attack to learn to use. First, it always goes off below Kefka’s height, so if you do it too low to the ground, like just after hopping or when using a neutral dash, the explosion may basically occur underground, harmlessly. So you must learn to use this attack with some clearance under Kefka. Uncharged Boom-Boom Ultima, in a way, strikes the same vector assassins look for when trying to swoop in on unsuspecting prey from above.

The other thing to get used to is that Boom-Boom Ultima doesn’t track the target by distance. You must do that, based on how long you charge up the attack. For uncharged, closest-range Boom-Boom, tap the command to center Ultima 1.5 circles away on the minimap. For Level 1 Ultima, charge until Kefka pulses once, putting it 2.5 circles away. Long-range Ultima goes off automatically when Kefka pulses twice while charging, hitting 3.5. Boom-Boom Ultima’s splash radius is enormous and has a good chance of catching foes around it in any direction.

The best place from which to aim Boom-Boom Ultima is around double-jump height so the full explosion strikes as an airburst just off the ground, covering lots of airspace too. Boom-Boom Ultima has a mild Draw-in effect just before the explosion goes off, which isn’t as impelling as Terra’s Tornado, but is still nice to have. It’ll sometimes get you the rest of the way there on a blast that would otherwise miss by pixels.

Kefka Cannonball

While dashing on the ground or in the air, Kefka suddenly springs forward, propelled by a strange explosion, both hands clasped on his smoking backside in surprise. It seems one of the mad jester’s pocketed explosive parlors tricks detonated unintentionally! After trailing smoke over a brief arc that’s halfway between a jump and a sidestep, Kefka hops several times at the end to compose himself, patting out flames.

Kefka Cannonball is a special movement-oriented action, not really an attack. No matter which direction Kefka is dashing, he can suddenly literally explode into movement in any other direction, throwing off pursuers and dodging projectiles from any angle. The hopping portion at the end can be canceled by guarding, attacking, jumping, or sidestepping; the only thing you can’t cancel Kefka Cannonball’s hopping recovery into is another dash.

In function, it’s somewhat like Onion Knight’s Rush, also a special movement out of a dash. Technically, Kefka Cannonball can hit foes, but only when his behind is exploding at the beginning, and only in a limited area, and the Bravery damage isn’t great. Think of this as a Kefka-only leaping sidestep, something that aids both his unpredictability and his keepaway game plan.

HP Attack Breakdown

Forsaken

After rearing back and holding his head in seeming agony, Kefka whips upward and launches forward a strange dark spell that warps the fabric of reality around it with static lightning. The dark projectile picks up speed as it goes.

The longer Kefka charges, the farther Forsaken travels. At full charge, it’s his longest-reaching HP Attack by far; only fully charged Hyperdrive comes close.

On hit, it not only depletes HP, but also inflicts a debuff called Forsaken. This temporarily lowers victims’ HP by 30% for 10 seconds. When characters get hit by HP Attacks, they’re rendered invincible for a while as they recover, and this eats up all but the last couple seconds of the Forsaken condition. However, someone recovering from an HP hit can return to the fray faster by attacking, which gives up the remaining invulnerability. In this case, there may be several seconds where this character is easier to KO than normal as a result of having just eaten a Forsaken fireball.

Havoc Wing

Kefka spins in place in a forward somersault, sprouting enormous, ominous wings. When he releases his momentum, he comes out of the somersault with both fallen angel wings extended far forward, working as melee stabs.

Havoc Wing is the one and only physical move in Kefka’s whole repertoire (unless you feel like counting Kefka Cannonball). This enhances his abilities up close and contributes to allied melee combos and wall hits, where normally he’s left out, or too busy casting more delayed, devious spells.

Charging Havoc Wing doesn’t extend the range or up the damage; it just delays the hit and allows for movement during the preparatory spin.

Trine

Kefka capers with his hands joined above his head, arms forming a triangle, until actual triangles begin appearing out of thin air around the victim, stabbing them and erasing HP. The longer Kefka charges Trine before unleashing the spell, the more times Trine strikes at enemies. One group of triangles appears to strike uncharged, two groups at Level 1 after a single charging pulse, and three groups fully charged.

When it hits, Trine inflicts a unique debuff called Trine. For 10 seconds, the enemy’s screen is darkened as with Blind, and they cannot use common EX Skills (this isn’t quite Silence, since Silence also disallows unique EX Skills).

Trine isn’t as quick as Kefka’s other HP Attacks, especially if you charge it. But it’s tricky and flexible, and when you do charge it up all the way, it’s more like three HP Attacks in a row. Trine triangles are precision strikes; they don’t shatter in grand explosions that might splash the whole team in addition to the intended target. But opponents must keep moving to dodge all the stages, and Kefka’s charge mechanic creates uncertainty about how many stages they’ll have to dodge. Couple that with a previous cast of Kefka’s crazy Meteor spell advancing toward them, plus Kefka’s teammates swarming, plus maybe a friendly summon afield, and it’s easy to see how Trine’s triple triangle groups can end up clipping many enemies.

Hyperdrive

Kefka cavorts in a circle, clapping and charging energy, then releases it as a pillar of ferocious energy as he uses his hands to project a flaming heart into the air in front of him. Kefka’s more than a little nuts. In any case, this shockwave speeds toward the opponent with good tracking, erasing HP on hit.

Charging Hyperdrive for longer sends the shockwave farther. The tall shockwaves can also easily glance dashers and jumpers above. Although there’s nothing unique about a shockwave-style HP Attack compared to Kefka’s other options, the classics never die. This is always a strong option to take into battle to add extra bite to his mid-to-long-range attack.

EX Skill Breakdown

Heartless Angel

Kefka rears up, bearing the false halo born of esper experimentation and torture, and unleashes a nauseating wave of disabling energy. Any foes overcome by this wave will have various debuffs inflicted on them. The amount and types of debuffs they suffer depend on how long Kefka charges his special EX Skill. At any charge level, Heartless Angel has enormous range, easily capable of debuffing the entire opposing team at once if they’re fighting in the same area.

This terrific EX Skill fits in with Kefka’s capricious, random nature. To make it truly devastating, you’ll want to hit the opponent with the fully charged version, which should trigger an enormous turning of the tide for your team. However, if Kefka is interrupted while charging for a better Heartless Angel version, he loses the EX Skill altogether and is forced to sit through another cooldown. You must decide how safe you feel charging up Heartless Angel near the other team. This EX Skill has incredible area-of-effect range centered on Kefka, yet that’s still closer than he normally likes to engage enemies.

Heartless Angel Debuffs

Battle Plan

The lunatic Kefka is not only a gifted and ruthless general and tactician, but also a top-shelf sorcerer. Kefka’s unhinged, mischievous personality adds a unique character to his spells, too. These aren’t the relatively direct nukes of most spell-wielding marksmen. Kefka’s spells have odd timings and effects, which he can make more confusing by varying how much he charges them.

This means that ideally Kefka wants space and prep time so he can pick targets and charge sufficiently without being under immediate pressure. On top of simply dashing to the desired spell-slinging spot, Kefka also has the Kefka Cannonball move, which gives him an extra, sudden mobility option to use when retreating from foes and dodging attacks.

Core Decoys can also be used as a defensive tool when crowded in with enemy melee fighters. When under immediate attack, there’s no need for charging; just set down two of the 10-second version and then work to keep them between you and assailants, taking the opportunity to dash away on the other side of the core blockade if it’s safe.

Apart from dropping cores as explosive barriers and using the Havoc Wing HP Attack, Kefka is at a loss in close-quarters battles. Your goal is to juke and run to long range, where he can set up shop effectively.

The first thing to do from afar is to cast Plip-Plop Meteor. This can pay off later in ways you never expected, depending on how and where enemies run into it. Even if all it does is force enemies to divert, it serves a useful purpose by asserting control of the space around it. In between taking opportunities to refresh Meteor here and there, there’s plenty of time to back it up with Blizzaga Blitz and Zigzag Firaga for quicker, direct projectiles, or fully charged Boom-Boom Ultima to mix in a different kind of area control. All the while, Meteor might end up scoring glancing blows.

Continue adjusting your base of operations to keep your melee allies in the middle and your foes on the other side of the minimap. When skirmishes erupt between fighters in the middle, chipping in with charged-up Snap-Crackle Thundaga can help vanguards and assassins score combos and HP killshots, as the bolts shock someone in place. Boom-Boom Ultima also works great as a long-range bombing option to drop into such groups when multiple foes are present. It has such an enormous blast radius that duos dueling your vanguard might not have time to get out. Zigzag Firaga works well at any range to contribute behind allies, perhaps setting up hits or chipping into chains in progress.

This is also the range where charged-up Hyperdrive and Forsaken HP Attacks can catch distracted enemies by surprise, depleting their HP and racking up points for the team. An HP Attack plowing into the opposition will also pry them off your teammates, if needed.

You’ll want to get more aggressive only in certain situations. One is if you’re sporting the Havoc Wing HP Attack, which is Kefka’s closest-range move. This gives him bite if he’s rushed down by assassins, and it’s a great option to tack onto nearby ally combos and wall hits. Another such situation is when Heartless Angel, his EX Skill, is ready. This is a huge debuff explosion centered on Kefka himself, and it requires a bit of charge time if you really want to set back the other team for a while. Like Warrior of Light’s Holy Chain, this EX Skill can swing the entire match if your teammates take full advantage of the situation.

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