Final Fantasy 12 - Pylraster location, requirements and strategies for the Rank VII Who’s the Strongest
How to take on Pylraster in Final Fantasy 12.
Here on this page of our Final Fantasy 12 Hunts and Marks guide, we'll be taking you through everything you need to know in order to defeat Pylraster - a Rank VII Mark for thr Who's the Strongest Hunt - including the Petitioner and Mark's locations, the Hunt requirements, and strategies for the battle itself.
If you're looking for one of the other Marks however, you can head back to our Final Fantasy 12 Hunts and Marks locations, requirements and strategies hub. For other tips and explainers meanwhile, head to our Final Fantasy 12 The Zodiac Age guide and walkthrough, where we cover plenty more.
Pylraster and the Who's the Strongest Hunt location and requirements
Before you get to the actual battle, here's everything you need to know about Pylraster and the Who's the Strongest Hunt:
- Prerequisites: Complete the Pharos.
- Recommended level: 65+
- Petitioner location: Balfonheim Port, Saccio Lane
- Mark location: The Pharos at Ridoran, They Who Thirst Not
- Reward: 8000 Gil, Grand Mace, 2 Scathe Motes
Speak to Rikken at the end of Saccio Lane and agree to his sporting endeavour (you may need to speak to him twice to trigger it) and you'll be in for a foot race - it doesn't matter if you win or lose, but there's a whole Potion in it for you! Once the race starts mash X and O on the controller to run, and mash X to turn left and O to turn right. The course is pretty short, and if you can get ahead of Rikken and veer directly in front of him he'll just keep running in to you, but for this race just mashing should work fine.
He'll ask if you want to race again - say no for now, but you can come back later: there are 100 levels in all, and the prizes get pretty good, but it's a very slow way to grind for stuff.
Now he'll get on to what we're actually here for: the hunt. Your mark is in Ridorana Cataract, and the quickest way to it is to teleport to the Pharos and exit through the door.
Pylraster strategies and how to defeat it
Bubble Belts or Bubblega are essential for this fight as at its peak you'll be regularly taking 4500HP or more damage if you get hit, and without Bubble that's a two-hit kill regardless of your level.
For more help with? Final Fantasy 12? Our Final Fantasy 12 The Zodiac Age guide, walkthrough, Switch and Xbox differences gives an overview of the game to get you started. Elsewhere, there's our hidden Espers strategy and locations and Elite Hunts and Marks pages, how to get the best Zodiac Jobs for each character, advice on farming LP from Jellies and even how to get the Zodiac Spear.
Start with targetting Pylraster with the usual Dispel followed by Slow, and make sure to regularly recast it during the fight. Equip your tank with gear that gives them a high evasion rate, hit them with Haste, Protect, and Shell, then cast Decoy on them. While Pylraster is busy attacking (and more often than not missing) your tank, have the rest of your party spam the big guy with Scathe, Firaga, or Ardor, and/or heavy weapons, but make sure healing your decoy takes precedence over dealing damage.
At 50% HP Pylraster will use Growing Threat to double his level, and this is where the damage can get out of hand. Make sure he's under the effect of Slow at all times, and you may want to switch one of your non-decoy characters to focusing entirely on healing the decoy to be safe.
Head back to Rikken and claim your reward; again you may need to speak to him twice to get it to work. The Gil is nice, but the Mace is the star - it's the second best available, and looks pretty cool to boot.
Be sure to cycle back to our main Final Fantasy 12 Marks and Hunts strategy guide for more on those, otherwise head to our primary Final Fantasy 12 The Zodiac Age guide and walkthrough hub for plenty more on the game in general!