Here on this page of our Final Fantasy 12 Elite Hunts and Marks guide, we'll be taking you through everything you need to know in order to defeat Shadowseer - a Rank VI Elite Mark for the God or Devil? 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.
Shadowseer and the God or Devil? Hunt location and requirements
Before you get to the actual battle, here's everything you need to know about Shadowseer and the God or Devil? Hunt:
- Prerequisites: Complete Pharos.
- Recommended level: 70+
- Petitioner location: Rabanastre, Clan House
- Mark location: Pharos, Subterra (Unknown Floor)
- Reward: 10000 Gil, 2x Megalixir
- Note: you must bring at least one Elixir with you.
If you've just finished Fishy Dreams you're in the right place already, but if not, teleport to Pharos and use the lift to descend to the Penumbra.
Each of the floors in this area is very similar: there's an inner ring filled with enemies that can easily overrun you, and in each of the corners there's a small room. We'd advise spending the minimum amount of time in the ringed area, and just using Flee to head to one of the corner rooms and relative safety.
In each room on each floor you'll find a Pedestal of Night, and your goal is to place a specific number of Black Orbs (remember them?) on each altar on a floor to gain access to the next one down. Leading out of each pedestal room will be one or more doorways to areas that won't appear on your map, and when you first enter it'll be very dark so we recommend navigating by sticking to one wall and just following it round. There's a very high chance that killed enemies will spawn a Necrofiend, so make sure you grab the Black Orb from your first victim before fighting the Necrofiend otherwise it'll despawn. Enemies in the central ring do not drop orbs, so don't waste your time on them.
Oh, and whatever you do, do not put too many Orbs in an altar as it will reset all of them on the floor and you'll have to start again.
We'll cover each floor a corner at a time heading clockwise from the lift to keep things simple:
The Penumbra
This is perhaps the toughest floor mainly due to the scarcity of Black Orbs - you'll probably have to clear out each corner more than once to get enough.
Penumbra: North West
The pedestal here requires 9 Black Orbs. In the single room behind it you'll encounter a number of skeletons, and when they're all defeated a Nightwalker will appear.
Penumbra: North East
The pedestal here requires 18 Black Orbs. The room to the right of the pedestal contains a few enemies, and on the north wall is a Fool's Facade. Make your way through the darkness and you'll eventually come to a large ancient door, behind which is a boss fight.
Boss fight: Phoenix
Another enemy with random elemental weaknesses and absorptions, so stick to non-elemental attacks. Use Dispel to rid him of his buffs, hit him with Blind, and use Flare, Scathe, Shock, or Holy on him. His attacks do around 1500HP damage and he can chain quite a few together, but he doesn't really do anything particularly out of the ordinary and as boss fights go this one is pretty simple.
Once he's down turn off your gambits and head through the door on the far side (if you've got disoriented, the door you want is the one that's on the left end of one of the longer walls). In this room you'll come across a Magick Pot; he won't attack you, and if you wait the Combat Log will tell you he's waiting for an Elixir. Give him one, and he'll start hopping around like crazy, and your job now is to kill him - he won't hit back, but he also won't keep still, so you may be chasing him for a while and there's not really a lot that can be done to improve your odds of hitting him. Just go for whatever your fastest ranged attack is and hope for the best. (You can steal an Elixir back from him at this point, too, but it's not easy!)
Important note: if you attack him or attempt to steal from him without giving him an Elixir first he will be disappointed, and will attack you. He's completely invincible so your only option is to leave the area and return.
Penumbra: South East
The pedestal here requires 3 Black Orbs. All you'll find here enemy-wise is a single Dragon Lich.
Penumbra: South West
The pedestal here requires 6 Black Orbs. In the rooms behind you'll find an array of Dragon Liches, Reavers, Necrofiends, and a Nightwalker.
Once all the Pedestals of Night are activated head for the lift and descend to the Umbra.
Umbra
Black Orbs are more plentiful here. You'll need 57 for this floor, but once you've filled all the Pedestals here we'd recommend you gather another 75 orbs before descending - the floor below is best left unexplored as much as possible!
Umbra: North West
The pedestal here requires 9 Black Orbs. The room on the left of the area leads to quite a few more, so remember to hug an edge so you don't end up wandering round in circles.
Umbra: North East
The pedestal here requires 15 Black Orbs. The room on the right has a Fool's Facade on the eastern wall.
Umbra: South East
The pedestal here requires 15 Black Orbs. The room to the east has a Fool's Facade on the south wall. There's another Magick Pot here.
Umbra: South West
The pedestal here requires 18 Black Orbs. The room to the south has a Fool's Facade on the back wall.
Abyssal
The enemies in the central ring are a lot more chill than on other floors, but the enemies in the rooms behind each altar are decidedly unchill so if you've brought your Orb requirement with you you should have an altogether more pleasant time - we'll leave it to you to decide whether to brave it or not.
Abyssal: North West
The pedestal here requires 21 Black Orbs.
Abyssal: North East
The pedestal here requires 15 Black Orbs.
Abyssal: South East
The pedestal here requires 27 Black Orbs.
Abyssal: South West
The pedestal here requires 12 Black Orbs. There'll be a Dragon Lich just up the steps as you enter.
Once all the Pedestals of Night are full go down in the lift to Unknown Floor - the boss fight will start immediately!
Shadowseer strategies and how to defeat it
Dispel the Shadowseer of whatever buffs he's placed on himself, then weigh in - he's weak to Light attacks, but just clobbering him works wonders. He'll usually open with Shining Ray which hits for 1200HP, then follow it with Darkness for another 2000HP, but he'll then switch to mostly physical attacks - these will occasionally cause Immobilize.
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.
Once things have settled into a bit of a rhythm Shadowseer will start to summon some of the bosses you've faced previously in the Pharos; Pandaemonium, Slyt, Fenrir, and Phoenix are all back for another round.
While his summons are active keep an eye on Shadowseer - he'll put up a shield that makes him immune to attack and will start throwing status ailments onto the party. He may also erect a physical shield over his summon meaning you'll have to resort to magic, but apart from that each summon should be tackled in the same way as before.
Shadowseer will also start using Fearga to drain your MP and invert to swap your HP and MP. On the one hand this combo can cause instant death, but on the other hand it'll also completely refill your MP, so apart from a brief pause while a character is brought back to life the overall effect is beneficial.
Once his last summon is down Shadowseer is more or less out of tricks - his shields will drop and he'll be wide open. He'll continue to attack and can still do a reasonable amount of damage, but without the backup of an oversized ally he's not going to hang around for long.
The reward isn't particularly exciting, but it's also not to be sniffed at - if you're going to want to take on the last Mark then there's no such thing as too many Megalixirs!
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!
