Zombie Hydra

Zombie Hydra
Group	Hydras Dragons (EBF3)
Roles	Boss, Summon
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 2 Epic Battle Fantasy 3 Epic Battle Fantasy 4 Epic Battle Fantasy 5

"Keep killing it until it dies"

―"Zombie Hydra" medal description, EBF2

The Zombie Hydra is a recurring boss in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. It is a mandatory boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 2 and 5, an optional boss/elite enemy in Epic Battle Fantasy 3 (under the name of Zombie Dragon), and an optional boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 4 since the Battle Mountain update. It is also a Summon in EBF5.

Appearance

The Zombie Hydra appears as a skeletal dragon with multiple heads; two and three are the most common, but it sometimes appears with as many as four or as few as one. As with most multi-part enemies, each head counts as a separate foe (like the Pyrohydra), but the lore treats them as the appendages of a single being. Each head has two large horns on the back of its skull, huge jaws full of sharp teeth, a long neck dotted with large spines, and numerous smaller spines on its skull. Certain attacks reveal that it also has a large tail that ends in a massive bone spike, yet it has no visible body in combat, and the overworld sprite in EBF3 looks like some sort of serpentine creature.

In EBF4, the Zombie Hydra has been completely redrawn; more notable changes include being white instead of off-white and the horns being merged with the skull into a single structure. Its heads can now be severed from their necks, leaving them floating in the air as an orb of red light appears in the skull cavity.

Despite appearing completely skeletal, the Zombie Hydra/Dragon is implied to still have some flesh on its body in EBF3; its Bestiary entry calls it a "Rotting Hydra", and it can drop Dragon Scales when defeated. Later games eschew this notion by having the monster drop nothing but bone and darkness-themed Materials, implying that it is nothing but skeletal remains animated by dark magic or some other evil power.

Overview

In all appearances, the Zombie Hydra mainly favors powerful physical attacks and Dark magic; it also has some Bio and Fire options, depending on the game. Its signature ability allows it to revive its heads when their HP is depleted - only by slaying all of its heads at once (or in quick succession) can this be averted. Every head has identical stats and abilities, besides any changes (such as via debuffs) that happen during the battle.

The Zombie Hydra is generally resistant to Dark, Bio, Syphon, Freeze, Stun, Doom, and Instant Death, but has serious weaknesses to Holy and Fire.

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

A two-headed Zombie Hydra is the penultimate boss of the game, appearing in Wave 19. It has a balanced set of attacks, including physical, magical, and status-based assaults, as well as Grim Reaper — the proto-Instant Death spell which deals over 99999 damage to one of the players if it hits, being guaranteed to kill them. Its physical damage output and use of Grim Reaper will likely get the player into the habit of using Auto-Revive, which is extremely helpful for the rest of the game.

The Zombie Hydra resists Dark, Poison, and all status effects and debuffs; it's also completely impossible to Poison. However, its weaknesses to Holy and especially Fire can be easily exploited by both Matt and Natalie.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

Zombie Dragons only appear in the game's final area, The Rift. There are two battles involving them; a single headed specimen, and a classic two-headed specimen. They are essentially downgraded versions of the Zombie Hydra that appears in Epic Battle Fantasy 2, lacking some of its strongest attacks (like Syphon) and its ability to revive others of their kind. However, they are still very powerful foes, boasting strong non-elemental attacks. Fortunately, all Zombie Hydra battles are optional, and there is no reason to actually fight them unless the party hasn't reached the level cap yet or the player desperately needs Solid Spikes and Dragon Scales for some reason.

The Zombie Dragon's resistances are straightforward; it absorbs Poison and Dark, is immune to Doom and Instant Death, and greatly resists Stun and Syphon. On the other hand, it is weak to Fire and especially Holy. It also has high HP backed by above-average Evade.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

The Zombie Hydra is located in the western tomb of Graybone Cemetery, surrounded by red clouds that can only be crossed with the Winged Boots. Unlike most optional bosses, there is no reward for killing it apart from the enormous amounts of experience and ability points accumulated from its reviving heads (while said to be revived, each new head increased the reward pool as if it was another enemy), and as such can be fought as an experience farm.

Unlike many returning bosses, the Zombie Hydra has undergone significant changes in appearance and abilities. It has three heads instead of two (likely to compensate for the increased player headcount), can cast Fire spells in addition to Dark magic, and now has twice as many Instant Death abilities. Each head can also deal enormous physical damage, being capable of killing one of the players at full health if caught off guard. Its offensive stats are very high, allowing it to deal a lot of damage per turn. Additionally, if a head suffers a powerful attack (over 16% of its maximum HP in a single blow), it will detach from its spinal cord, permanently increasing its Evade by 50%.

Much like its EBF2 counterpart, the Zombie Hydra is able to regenerate its fallen heads again, with the specific condition of each head "charging" its revival skill on its next turn after a head has been destroyed. This means that the party has to kill all of its heads within two turns to prevent them from reviving each other.

A four-headed Zombie Hydra appears as the final opponent of Battle Mountain's Miniboss Marathon. However, it suffers from a coding error that prevents the first head to be destroyed from being revived; the other heads will revive each other normally.

Holy and Fire attacks are the best options against the Zombie Hydra, being literally twice as powerful as normal; on the other hand, it strongly absorbs Dark and Bio damage. It's also immune to Freeze and very resistant to Syphon, Stun, Doom, and Instant Death. With "More Foe Resistance" enabled, it absorbs Fire and halves its Holy weakness while gaining a new weakness to Earth; it also gains a resistance to all stat debuffs.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Two Zombie Hydras appear near the end of the game; a two-headed specimen appears in a cave in The Rapture, guarding the Earth Orb. A three-headed specimen appears in The Beyond, blocking the passageway to the final boss screen. A single-headed specimen acts as backup for Annabelle in the Temple of Trials; if "Foe Remix" is activated, another one-headed Hydra appears in Matt's Battle Arena challenge.

The Zombie Hydra looks and acts similarly to its EBF4 version, but it has some new attacks, including Gravity Surge, Screamer, and Sacrifice. Its Tail Crush has slightly more accuracy and The Reaper now does noticeable damage when the Instant Death doesn’t happen; on the other hand, Triple Bite can now only be used when decapitated, Berserked, or Syphoned, Tail Crush’s accuracy is no longer increased on Hard or Epic, and The Reaper has less accuracy overall. Once again, each head will passively "charge" a revival ability when another head is destroyed, requiring all of them to be killed in the span of two turns; however, they can't revive themselves, even if other (non-Hydra) foes are still active. Its offenses are average, but its Evade has increased; being decapitated only further amplifies this. Its decapitation threshold is now 25% of its maximum HP...unless it's got less than 32% of its health remaining, in which case the threshold becomes a mere 5%.

The Zombie Hydra absorbs Dark and resists Bio while being very weak to Fire and Holy. It also has an immunity to Chill, Freeze, Doom, and Instant Death, a strong resistance to Syphon and Stun, and decent resistance to all non-HP debuffs. "More Foe Resistance" lets it absorb Bio and Fire, leaving Holy as its sole weakness.

Defeating the three-headed Zombie Hydra on Epic difficulty rewards the "Triple Death" medal. It's also worth noting that the Zombie Hydra is one of the best possible targets for Gold farming due to the relative accessibility of its Dark Matter drop; a fully-upgraded stealing build can easily swipe two or three Dark Matters per head, with the party fleeing and re-entering the battle as needed.

Statistics

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

It should be noted that HP, Attack, and Magic Attack also will be multiplied by the wave modifier. Check Epic Battle Fantasy 2 Foe Waves to see the value of the modifier for a specified wave.

	Zombie Hydra	Undead Dragon	EBF2
	The heads revive each other! Also watch out for instant-death magic.

Statistics
Base Statistics						Eva	S. Hit
	200000	0.8	1	0.9	1	1x	22000
Elemental Resistance
	-70%	-	-	-	-	-	50%	50%	-60%	-
Status Resistance
	100%	66.6%	66.6%	66.6%	66.6%	66.6%	66.6%	66.6%	66.6%
(De)buff Cap	Buffs	Debuffs
	-	20%

Stealable Item
Icon
Name	Max Ether

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

	Zombie Dragon	Rotting Hydra	EBF3
	Attacks with dark and poison magic.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	Gold
	600	4	4	6	4	4	4.3	400	60	400
Elemental Resistance
	-90%	-	-	-	-	-	200%	200%	-100%	-
Status Resistance
	-	80%	-	-	-	80%	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon			-	-	-	-	-
Name	Solid Spike	Dragon Scales	-	-	-	-	-
Chance	100%	80%	-	-	-	-	-

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

	Zombie Hydra	EBF4
	Uses dark, fire and instant-death attacks. Summons more Zombie Hydra Heads, when others are killed. Evade increases if decapitated.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	1666	6	4	6	4	4	4	666	25	50	260	8
Elemental Resistance
	-100%	-	-	-	200%	-	-	-	-100%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	80%	100%	-	-	-	-	80%	-	-	-	80%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon						-	-
Name	Solid Spike	Bottled Darkness	Dark Matter	Burger	Orange Juice	-	-
Chance	100%	20%	10%	10%	10%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
2.24%	-0.48% per stack, up to -4.32%	4%	-5.(3)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Zombie Hydra	EBF4
	Uses dark, fire and instant-death attacks. Summons more Zombie Hydra Heads, when others are killed. Evade increases if decapitated.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	1666	6	4	6	4	4	4	666	25	50	260	8
Elemental Resistance
	200%	-	-	-50%	200%	-	-	-	-50%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	80%	100%	-	-	-	-	80%	-	-	-	80%
Debuff Resistance
	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%

Item Drop Rate
Icon						-	-
Name	Solid Spike	Bottled Darkness	Dark Matter	Burger	Orange Juice	-	-
Chance	100%	20%	10%	10%	10%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
-1.12%	-0.48% per stack, up to -4.32%	4%	-5.(3)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

	Zombie Hydra	EBF5
	If you chop off a head, its evade will increase. If you kill a head, the remaining heads will replace it.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	1777	4	4	6	4	4	4.4	333	22	22	200	15	3
Elemental Resistance
	-80%	-	-	-	50%	-	-	-	-80%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	70%	100%	-	70%	-	-	-	-	-	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%

Item Drop Rate
Icon				-	-
Name	Razor Claw	Bone Spike	Dark Matter	-	-
Chance	50%	75%	5%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
1.89% per stack, up to 17.01%	3.78% per stack, up to 34.02%	0.45% per stack, up to 4.05%	0.9% per stack, up to 8.1%	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 1555 base HP instead.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Zombie Hydra	EBF5
	If you chop off a head, its evade will increase. If you kill a head, the remaining heads will replace it.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	1777	4	4	6	4	4	4.4	333	22	22	200	15	3
Elemental Resistance
	200%	-	-	-	200%	-	-	-	-80%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	70%	100%	-	70%	-	-	-	-	-	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%

Item Drop Rate
Icon				-	-
Name	Razor Claw	Bone Spike	Dark Matter	-	-
Chance	50%	75%	5%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
-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 >25% 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

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	RdF
Bite	Single	4000		----	50%	20%		100%	10%
Multi-Bite	Single	4000/2 2000		----	--	--	--	100%	10%
Notes: On Epic or higher difficulties, each time after doing first two bites, has a 66.(6)% chance to loop back and do them again (limit of one loop). Before the EBF Collection update, number of loops was not limited.
Tail Crush	Single	8000		----	--	--	--	60%	10%
The Reaper	Single	999+	--	----	--	--	--	40%	10%
Notes: 99 999 999 Power, reduced to 6000 on Zero, 7000 on Easy, and 8000 on Normal difficulties. Isn't affected by user's Attack, but still affected by target's Defence. On Epic or higher difficulties, accuracy is increased to 120%. Before the EBF Collection update, this attack's damage was reduced by target's Magic Defence instead of Defence, and didn't have its Power lowered on lower difficulties.
The Dead	All	2600		50%	50%	1x		120%	10%
Haunt	All	800 800 800 800		100%	60%	20%		120%	10%
Dark Flare	All	3000		100%	30%	3x		120%	10%
Revive	Dead Head	--	--	----	--	--	--	--	--
Notes: Revival heals health to full and resets any statuses the dead head had. On Epic difficulty, it was supposed to slightly damage both players (2500 magical damage, 120% accuracy) on top of reviving a head, but this damage is never actually applied.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	50		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Multi-Bite	Single	70/3		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Notes: On Epic difficulty, attacks 5 times, each with 23.(3) power as usual, raising total power to 116.(6).
Tail Stab	Single	120		----	--	--	--	80%	10%	10%
Grim Reaper	Single	5		100%	100%	--		50%	10%	10%
Notes: On Epic difficulty, accuracy is increased to 110%.
The Dead	All	33		60%	70%	2x		110%	10%	10%
Poison Cloud	Single	20		100%	100%	10x		110%	10%	10%

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	70		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Triple Bite	Single	138/3		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Tail Crush	Single	180		----	100%	--		40%	10%	10%
Notes: On Hard and Epic difficulties, accuracy is increased to 80%.
Hellfire	Single	45		100%	50%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Fire Spin	All	45		100%	100% 50%	5x 15%		130%	0%	10%
Antimatter	Centered	80		75%	--	--	--	120%	10%	10%
Grim Reaper	Single	30		50%	100%	--		40%	10%	10%
Revive	Dead head	--	--	----	--	--	--	--	--	--
Notes: Revives a head with full health and clears any (de)buffs and status effects it had, including the Evade boost. This ability requires a turn to passively "charge" it, separate for each active head. The charge and usage condition is "less than 3 foes are present" — thus, the first head to be slain in the Battle Mountain variant of the battle will stay dead.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	100		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Triple Bite	Single	200/3		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Notes: Can only be used when decapitated, or when Syphoned or Berserked.
Tail Crush	Single	250		----	100%	1x		50%	10%	10%
Notes: Cannot be used while decapitated.
The Reaper	Single	120		100%	100%	1x		25%	10%	10%
Fire Spin	All	55		100%	70% 100%	15% 3x		100%	10%	10%
Hellfire	Single	50		100%	66%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Can only be used on Hard or Epic difficulties.
Screamer	All	40		100%	100%	20%		200%	10%	10%
Gravity Surge	All	30/3		100%	50%	25%		100%	10%	10%
Antimatter Flux	Centered	65/3		100%	100%	25%		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Added to its movepool in the v2 update.
Sacrifice	All	30		100%	100% 50%	20% 3x		150%	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.

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.

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

• Sealed → Bite (1/3), Multi-Bite (1/3), Tail Crush (1/3);
• Otherwise → Bite (1/8), Multi-Bite (1/8), Tail Crush (1/8), The Dead (1/8), Dark Flare (1/8), Haunt* (1/8), Grim Reaper (1/8), Revive* (1/8).

* When both heads are alive, Revive becomes Grim Reaper instead.

* Haunt becomes Dark Flare on Normal or lower difficulties.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

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.

• Berserked or/and Syphoned → Bite (1/3), Multi-Bite (1/3), Tail Stab (1/3);
• >48.5% HP → Bite (1/6), Multi-Bite (1/6), Tail Stab (1/6), Grim Reaper (1/6), The Dead (1/6), Poison Cloud (1/6).
• ≤48.5% HP → Multi-Bite (1/5), Tail Stab (1/5), Grim Reaper (1/5), The Dead (1/5), Poison Cloud (1/5).

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

• Berserked or/and Syphoned → Triple Bite;
• Otherwise → Bite (2/8), Tail Crush (2/8), Hellfire (1/8), Fire Spin (1/8), Antimatter (1/8), Grim Reaper (1/8).

Getting hurt for >16% HP in a single hit breaks this head's neck/spinal cord, boosting its base Evade by 50%.

The Zombie Hydra was originally supposed to change its pattern when decapitated and not Syphoned/Berserked, losing the ability to use Tail Crush and replacing it with Triple Bite instead, but due to checking for the wrong variable, this switch never happens.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Action

• If Syphoned, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Nothing;
• If catch score >55 and all players are Lovable;
  • <49% HP → Screamer (2/6), Gravity Surge (1/6), Antimatter Flux (1/6), Sacrifice (2/6);
  • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/4), Antimatter Flux (1/4) Sacrifice (2/4);
• If Syphoned or Berserked → Triple Bite;
• If the head has been decapitated → Bite* (1/2);
  • If playing on Hard or Epic → The Reaper (3/20), Hellfire (1/20), Fire Spin (1/20);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);
  • Otherwise → The Reaper (3/20), Fire Spin (2/20);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);
• Otherwise → Bite (1/4), Tail Crush (1/4);
  • If playing on Hard or Epic → The Reaper (3/20), Hellfire (1/20), Fire Spin (1/20);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);
  • Otherwise → The Reaper (3/20), Fire Spin (2/20);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);

* Bite becomes Triple Bite when decapitated and <32% HP.

Before the v2 update, the chance to use Antimatter Flux was taken by Sacrifice instead.

Counter (only if Counter-Attacking Foes is enabled)

• 25%;
  • If Syphoned or decapitated → Bite;
  • If playing on Hard/Epic → The Reaper (3/5), Hellfire (1/5), Fire Spin (1/5);
  • Otherwise → The Reaper (3/5), Fire Spin (2/5).

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 or the actual Respawn take up the Zombie Hydra's action). Respawn cannot be used or charged if the Zombie Hydra is unable to act, either due to being Stunned or due to having a Catch Score >55 and all players being Lovable while the Hydra is Syphoned. On Foe Remix, the Zombie Hydra has a 50% chance to summon a Blaze Hydra instead of a Zombie Hydra when using Respawn.

Strategy

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

Don't underestimate the Zombie Hydra's revival ability: if one head is defeated, the other can revive it with full HP on any subsequent turn. Consequently, you must carefully manage the two heads' HP in order to bring them down in rapid succession, preferably in a single turn. This can be complicated by any automatic attack skills equipped by Matt and Natalie.

Defensively, the main concern is the Grim Reaper spell, which can instantly kill either of your characters if it hits, regardless of their health. On higher difficulties, its accuracy becomes dangerously high — if both heads use it simultaneously, the fight can end before it really even begins. Thus, it is advised to keep Auto-Revive up as much as possible (via using Natalie's Revive on a living player, and keeping her Magic Attack buffed up for more health restored upon revival); ideally, you should have a few turns of Auto-Revive left from the previous battle. The Survivor and Angel skill bonuses may help, but they cannot be relied on much.

The boss has a significant and easily-accessible weakness: both Grim Reaper and Revive, along with other magical abilities, can and should be blocked by hitting the heads with Seal (preferably via Rune Blade's Unleash, for guaranteed application), significantly simplifying the fight and removing the need for Barrier and other Magic Defence buffs. Auto-Revive is still welcome, and Protect/Defence buffs become vital to endure the Zombie Hydra's viciously powerful physical attacks.

However, there's still a chance to get a Game Over no matter how you play if you're doing the fight on Epic difficulty. The Zombie Hydra's Multi-Bite can deal massive damage on Epic if you're unlucky, so it can outdamage your healing and revival options if it uses it frequently enough; a possibility that becomes much more likely if most of its skills have been sealed. You can try to Blind the heads to reduce their hit rate, but it's more reliable to destroy one head to halve the boss's damage output. Kyun (Natalie's Limit Break) can be used to create breathing room in a tight situation, though it might be better to save Limit Breaks for the upcoming final boss (as they take longer to charge each time one is used in this game). When one head is down, the battle is basically won — as long as you keep the other head under Syphon, it will not revive the first head or use multi-target attacks, so it shouldn't be too difficult to finish it off.

Before the EBF Collection update, on Epic, the Zombie Hydra was affected by the Dispel handling bug, Dispelling a head on Epic difficulty would decrease its physical strength by ≈11.7% (not stackable with itself) for the whole battle. It paired well with the possibility to restrict the boss to use only physical attacks. This bug only happened on Epic.

Epic Battle Fantasy 3

The Zombie Hydra mostly uses physical attacks, with the exception of the magical Poison Cloud; because of this, it barely uses its great Magic Attack stat. Most of its damage comes from its non-elemental bite and tail attacks, which have high base power but no special effects. In contrast, its elemental attacks are weak but can apply Poison or even Instant Death. It becomes even more powerful on Epic difficulty; The Reaper becomes very accurate, and Multi-Bite hits five times instead of three. As said earlier, any chances of head regeneration are thankfully nil in this incarnation, so focus only on defense and damage.

When fighting the Zombie Hydra, focus on high Defence and resistances to Poison (either the element or the status) and Instant Death; remember that The Reaper has pitiful attack power if it doesn't trigger Death, so Dark resistance is irrelevant. Syphon and Berserk can prevent their status shenanigans at the cost of letting it spam its strongest attacks; additionally, it resists Syphon and gets stronger when hit by Berserk. Be ready to cast Purify or Medipack as needed to clear up Poison stacks from Poison Cloud.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Preparation

Syphon has become a much riskier strategy, but high resistance to both Dark and Fire will nullify most of Zombie Hydra's magical damage output, possibly enabling players to go without Magic Defence buffs. The rest of the party's equipment should boost Defence and HP as much as possible (without increasing vulnerability to Fire and Dark), since the Hydra's physical damage output is staggeringly high. As one more upgrade from the EBF2 version of the boss, it can now use three (four in the Battle Mountain fight) Instant Death abilities on the same turn — make sure to resist them too, especially since Dark and Death resistances often come in pairs.

Offensively, you may want Fire and Holy-based weapons to exploit the Zombie Hydra's severe weaknesses. If you're worried about setting off their Evade boost, however, you may want to focus on weapons that raise your defenses and relevant elemental resistances. As the Hydra's revival ability can no longer be blocked, the only way to win is to bring the heads to low health and then slay them all in one or two turns before they revive — mind your counterattacks and automatic abilities to avoid killing a head too early. Nuke and Supernova, being quite strong on their own and even stronger due to the Zombie Hydra's Fire weakness, work well for finishing the fight, especially when both are used in a single turn and/or have further boosts from equipment and buffs.

Battle

Even with high Defence and corresponding buffs, the Zombie Hydra's Tail Crush and Triple Bite still deal extreme damage. Your best bet is to buff own Evade (via Guardian, Reflex or/and Energy Drinks) and reduce the heads' Accuracy (via Solar Flare, Sand Dune, Coal Bat summon or/and the Tired status effect) to decrease their hit rate, as well as frequently apply Auto-Revive or/and Morale to guarantee survival if the attack hits, hoping the other heads won't pick off a weakened player.

The Zombie Hydra's high weaknesses to Fire and Holy make it an easy target for spells like Judgement and Eruption. As the greatest non-limit single-target source of Fire damage in the game, Hellfire may seem like an attractive spell, but its chance to inflict Berserk — thereby making the Zombie Hydra's physical attacks even stronger — can be more trouble than it's worth. Powerful single hits also run the risk of severing the heads from their vertebrae, increasing their Evade. This can be prevented by using multi-hit abilities instead, such as Legend with Heaven's Gate or Magma Hammer, as well as Bullet Hell. The Evade boost can also be circumvented with high-Accuracy abilities (such as Judgement), buffing the party's Accuracy, and/or lowering enemy Evade (via Bind and Tired).

If farming for experience, a good idea is to try to keep all the heads at low HP in case the party is starting to get overwhelmed by the Hydra to quickly finish off the fight with a Limit Break. Alternatively, you can switch the difficulty to Easy — it wouldn't impact experience gain, while making the boss' damage output a non-issue.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Equipment

The Zombie Hydra wields an array of Dark and Fire attacks, so resistance or immunity to those elements will greatly lower its damage output. It also has two rather inaccurate attacks that inflict Instant Death; if the player does not use Death-resistant equipment, they can also use Bless, Morale, or Auto-Revive to protect themselves. In terms of raw power, the Zombie Hydra's strongest abilities deal physical damage.

In terms of offense, Fire or Holy-elemental weapons are an obvious choice for this battle. The player should have Fire or Holy-elemental Limit Breaks/Summons on standby in order to kill all the Hydra heads at once.

Battle

Regardless of which encounter it is, the Zombie Hydra appears with multiple heads (2 in The Rapture and 3 in The Beyond). As per usual, Hydra heads can be respawned at least one turn after they have been killed. The Zombie Hydra's magical abilities have lower power, but inflict a wide variety of stat debuffs and most of them are aoe. Conversely, the Hydra's physical attacks mostly just deal high damage to a single target.

If the player gets tired of constant stat debuffs, they can Berserk/Syphon the Zombie Hydra to block their magical skills. However, this will cause the Zombie Hydra to spam its incredibly powerful Triple Bite until the status expires. This behavior can be exploited by a Target Tank character with high Defence or the Invisible status to absorb the damage while other players keep the heads Berserked/Syphoned.

The Zombie Hydra is susceptible to Tired, Weaken, and Curse, which should all be exploited to greatly decrease the heads' stats (Curse can also further amplify their Holy weakness in addition to lowering their defences). As with all Hydras, receiving a strong attack may decapitate the heads, greatly increasing their Evade and making them immune to Earth attacks; using multi-hit attacks can mitigate this risk.

Summon

In EBF5, the Zombie Hydra can be captured and used as a summon; it can also be called between turns by the Alt Human Skull. It casts an empowered version of The Reaper against all enemies, dealing mild physical Dark damage with a huge chance of Instant Death.

The Zombie Hydra summon is objectively one of the best direct sources of Instant Death in the game; not only does it have a massive infliction chance, it hits all enemies at once and has very high Accuracy. However, it suffers from a high SP cost, late availability, and generally being overkill on most relevant foes; by the time it is available, the party should have other options for mass Death that let them save on SP (e.g. Spine Snapper Lance or "Doom Archer" Anna with Firecrackers support).

	Zombie Hydra							SP
	Instantly kills all foes, or if that fails, hits them with some physical dark damage.							124	Cured
Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
All	100		100%	200%	--		150%	10%	10%
Note: Before the v2 update, cost 144 SP instead.

Trivia

• The Zombie Hydra was most likely inspired by the Dracolich from Dungeons & Dragons.
• The Zombie Hydra may also have inspired the Pyrohydra boss in EBF3, and in turn the Dragons of later games.
• The Zombie Hydra's theme in EBF2 is "Twins of Duality".
• In EBF2, the Zombie Hydra's roars are taken from the eponymous character of the Godzilla film series. Later games would give it a more generic roar.