Blaze Hydra
The Blaze Hydra is a boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 5. It usually populates the Lava Lake section of The Rapture, with a three-headed specimen guarding the Fire Orb. After the v2 update, the Battle Arena features a single-headed specimen with reduced HP as one of the opponents in Lance's solo challenge.
Appearance
The Blaze Hydra appears to be either a skeletal dragon that was covered in lava or a mass of volcanic rock shaped into a skeletal dragon. Its head and neck are made of rugged black stone dotted with fiery orange cracks, while its horns, back spines, and lower jaw appear to be made of molten orange lava. More lava is visible within its nostrils and eye socket, with a particularly large droplet in the latter serving as an eye. Unlike other Hydras, its horns are curled like a ram's; it also has some horn-like protrusions on its face and snout.
Overview
In typical Hydra fashion, the Blaze Hydra uses powerful single-target physical attacks along with multi-target magic attacks. Its exceptional Magic Attack gives its spells more punch, counterbalancing their mediocre base power. It is usually fought in groups, allowing each head to revive the others if they're slain; consequently, it's vital to kill all of the heads simultaneously or within one turn of each other.
As its name suggests, the Blaze Hydra specializes in Fire damage, though it has low elemental degree on its biting attacks. It can also cast multi-target versions of Bullet Bob and Scalding Fume to circumvent high Fire resistance, or expel a cloud of burning smog to deal light magical Dark damage along with a decent Accuracy debuff. Some of its attacks have high chances to inflict Burn, Dry, and even Scorch or Instant Death; on higher difficulty levels, it can also inflict Shroud.
The Blaze Hydra absorbs Fire and resists Bomb, but is weak to Water, Ice, and especially Earth. In terms of status effects, it is immune to Chill, Freeze, Doom, and Instant Death while being greatly resistant to Syphon and Stun; it also has a decent resistance to all stat debuffs except for HP. If "More Foe Resistance" is enabled, it becomes immune to Ice and absorbs both Bomb and Dark. When decapitated, it becomes immune to Earth and has its base Evade doubled.
Defeating the three-headed Blaze Hydra on Epic difficulty awards the player with the "Burning Soul" Medal.
Statistics
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Blaze Hydra | EBF5 |
|---|---|---|
| Each head can replace the other heads, so you want to take them all down together. Fire resistance greatly helps too. | ||
| Statistics | |||||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP | Catch |
| 1888 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 400 | 24 | 24 | 222 | 15 | 3 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 200% | - | -50% | -80% | - | 50% | -50% | - | - | - | ||||
| Status Resistance |
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| - | 70% | 100% | - | 70% | - | - | - | - | - | - | 100% | ||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon | 
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- | - | ||
| Name | Magma Chunk | Iron Plate | Amber | - | - | ||
| Chance | 50% | 75% | 50% | - | - | ||
| Status Damage | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances: | |||||
 Burn
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 Scorch
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 Poison
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 Virus
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 Doom(if Death fails) |
 Regen
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| -1.05% per stack, up to -9.45% |
-2.1% per stack, up to -18.9% |
0.9% per stack, up to 8.1% |
1.8% per stack, up to 16.2% |
Immune | -10% |
| Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down. | |||||
Before the v2 update, had 1666 base HP instead.
|
Blaze Hydra | EBF5 |
|---|---|---|
| Each head can replace the other heads, so you want to take them all down together. Fire resistance greatly helps too. | ||
| Statistics | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP | Catch |
| 1888 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 400 | 24 | 24 | 222 | 15 | 3 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 200% | - | 100% | -80% | - | 200% | -50% | - | - | 200% | ||||
| Status Resistance |
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| - | 70% | 100% | - | 70% | - | - | - | - | - | - | 100% | ||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icon |
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- | - | ||
| Name | Magma Chunk | Iron Plate | Amber | - | - | ||
| Chance | 50% | 75% | 50% | - | - | ||
| Status Damage | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances: | |||||
| Burn
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Scorch
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Poison
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Virus
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Doom (if Death fails) |
Regen
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| -1.05% per stack, up to -9.45% |
-2.1% per stack, up to -18.9% |
0.9% per stack, up to 8.1% |
1.8% per stack, up to 16.2% |
Immune | -10% |
| Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down. | |||||
The head detaches when hurt for >24% of maximum health or >5% when it's <32%, which increases its base Evade by 50% and makes it immune to Earth.
Attacks and Abilities
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Bite | Single | 100 | 
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20%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
Notes: After the v2 update, gets 66% chance of 2x  Dry on Hard or Epic difficulties.
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| Triple Bite | Single | 200/3 |
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20%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: After the v2 update, gets 66% chance of 2x Dry on Hard or Epic difficulties.
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| Tail Crush | Single | 250 |
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---- | 100% | 1x |
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50% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: Cannot be used while decapitated or when <49% HP. | ||||||||||
| Drying Breath | All | 30 | 
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100%
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100% | 3x |
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100% | 10% | 10% |
| Blazing Wyrm | All | 50 |
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100%
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100% | 2x |
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100% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: Status strength increased to 5x on Hard or Epic dificulties. | ||||||||||
| Fiery Smoke | All | 20 |
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100%
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100% | 15% |
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100% | 10% | 20% |
| Notes: Debuff strength increased to 25% on Hard or Epic difficulties. Also gets 50% chance of 3x  Shroud on Hard or Epic difficulties.
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| Bullet Bob | All | 42 |
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100%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 30% | 10% |
| Scalding Fume | All | 40 |
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100%
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50% | 2x |
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100% | 10% | 10% |
| Respawn | None | -- | -- | ---- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Notes: Spawns a new head with full health to replace a dead one. This ability requires a turn to passively "charge" it after a head has been killed, separate for each alive head. Does not take up the head's action, cannot be used if unable to act due to Stun (or catch score >55 and all players being  Lovable while it's Syphoned). The new head will be at the same level as the user.
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Battle Logic
The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.
Action
- If Syphoned, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Nothing;
- If catch score >55 and all players are Lovable → Drying Breath (1/2), Fiery Smoke (1/2);
- If Syphoned or Berserked → Triple Bite;
- <49% HP or the head has been decapitated → Triple Bite (1/5), Drying Breath (1/5), Blazing Wyrm (1/5);
- If a randomly selected player has an Accuracy debuff → Bullet Bob (1/5), Scalding Fume (1/5);
- Otherwise → Fiery Smoke (2/10), Bullet Bob (1/10), Scalding Fume (1/10);
- Otherwise → Bite (1/5), Drying Breath (1/5), Tail Crush (1/5);
- If a randomly selected player has an Accuracy debuff → Bullet Bob (1/5), Scalding Fume (1/5);
- Otherwise → Fiery Smoke (2/10), Bullet Bob (1/10), Scalding Fume (1/10);
* Blazing Wyrm and Drying Breath have up to a 66% chance each to be replaced by Bullet Bob and Scalding Fume (with their use chance equally split between them) depending on player party Fire resistance.
Counter (only if Counter-Attacking Foes is enabled)
- If the head has been decapitated → 100% → Bite;
- Otherwise → 25%;
- If Syphoned → Bite;
- Otherwise → Fiery Smoke.
Additionally, whenever the number of Hydra heads is lower than what it was at the start of the battle, the Hydra will charge up its Respawn ability and then use it on its next turn (neither the charge up or the actual Respawn take up the Blaze Hydra's action). Respawn cannot be used or charged if the Blaze Hydra is unable to act, either due to being Stunned or due to its catch score >55 and all players being Lovable while the Hydra is Syphoned. On Foe Remix, the Blaze Hydra has a 50% chance to summon a Zombie Hydra instead of a Blaze Hydra when using Respawn.
Strategy
Equipment
Fire resistance is obviously helpful, but the Blaze Hydra also has Bomb, Dark, Water, and non-elemental attacks; however, its Dark attack has very low power and should have the least priority for resistances. In the event the Blaze Hydra inflicts Scorch on a player, they should remove it to avoid the HP debuff.
Because the Blaze Hydra's heads can "regenerate", it's recommended to have a strong Limit Break that can finish off all of its heads at once, such as Seven Swords or Tsunami. Means of applying Heavy or Wet can be useful to amplify its weaknesses to Earth and Ice, respectively. Keep in mind that while Earth is the most powerful option, it will become immune to Earth when decapacitated; as such, Ice is a better choice overall.
Battle
The Blaze Hydra is encountered twice, but multiple heads are present in both of them. The Hot Ash weather can Burn the heads to give them some passive healing, but this is not a big threat. Water damage will remove Burn, and many Water skills can also Wet the heads to further expose their Ice weakness. More importantly, it's not completely immune to Stun; sufficiently dedicated status builds can overcome its resistance and leave it helpless.
Because the Blaze Hydra can be hit with Stun, any other strategy is irrelevant - the player can have two pieces of status boost gear on Anna and NoLegs, give them their respective Stun weapons (Thor's Hammer and the Neon Lightbulb), and spam weapon-elemental AoEs. The player can also hit the heads with Weaken, Curse or Tired to keep them perpetually debuffed and set up potential capturing attempts. From this point on, you can handle them at your leisure.
The following is assuming the player does not want to stunlock the Blaze Hydra; otherwise, it is easier to just keep it completely Stunned.
The Blaze Hydra has a few methods to inflict Dry on the players (especially on Hard or Epic), increasing the damage of its Fire and Bomb skills. Fortunately, the player should be fine as long as they have Fire resistance, as nearly every attack at the Blaze Hydra's disposal is at least partly Fire-elemental; it does have Water and Bomb attacks to use if the party's Fire resistance is high enough, but they're not quite as powerful as its Fire spells. Virus, Weaken, Curse, and Tired should be used liberally to wear the heads down over time.
Like all Hydras, the Blaze Hydra can respawn fallen heads after at least one turn, and a seriously strong hit will decapitate them and increase their Evade significantly while making them immune to Earth; the HP threshold for this drops significantly once it falls below 32% of its maximum HP. Since the heads can respawn indefinitely, the Blaze Hydra is a great way to farm for resources; however, it's far less Gold-efficient than farming Dark Matter from a Zombie Hydra, and there is little need to grind for EXP or AP.
Summon
The Blaze Hydra can be captured and used as a summon. It hits all foes for magical Fire damage and a high chance of a slight Burn effect; it's also quite accurate.
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Blaze Hydra | SP | 
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smashes all foes with powerful fire magic, which also burns them. | 87 | Cured | |||||||
| Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| All | 220 |
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100%
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100% | 2x |
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150% | 10% | 10% |
Trivia
- So far, the Blaze Hydra is the only Hydra species to have curled horns instead of straight ones. It is also the only Hydra to have a visible eye in its socket.