Final Fantasy XIII: How to beat Cid Raines

Final Fantasy XIII has already thrown some pretty tough battles your way, but as you approach the battle with Cid Raines, things are getting tougher and tougher. At this point in the game you really need to have fought most battles in the game to ensure that you’ve got some really tough characters going into the fight. Also, hopefully along the way, you’ve found most of the treasure chests and have a very good supply of healing potions – you’re going to need them in this battle and going forward.

• Start out by using Libra tof find Cid Ranies’ weaknesses – from now on Libra becomes more and more important.
• Buff up as much as you can early on and then debuff Cid Reines.
• Start by either using slash and burn or diversity to start building the chain gauge – keep the HP above 50% and switch to relentless assault when possible.
• Some of the combinations Cid does in his offensive mode are pretty damaging so make sure you have protect and shell up, and keep an eye on HP, switching to a healing paradigm when needed.
• Keep switching back to diversity and slash and burn to continue to build up his chain gauge.
• Once you have the chain gauge, switch to solidarity paradigm – but be ready to heal!
• Cid Raines will eventually use his metamorphosis and the second stage of the battle will start.
• You should keep your buffs up and be prepared to heal as Cid Raines second (angelic) form will deal out a lot of damage.
• Debuff Cid Reines.
• Really be careful with your HP here – Cid Raines attacks are much faster in the second section and you’ll find your HP going down very quickly – use potions as necessary as you really need to keep up the pressure on the chain gauge.
• When Cid begins doing combination attacks you should switch to a defensive or healing paradigm – in this mode he can quickly knock characters out of the game and you really need to be prepared to heal.
• Keep using slash and burn and relentless assault to build the chain gauge – making sure your buffs are intact, and debuffing Cid when you get the chance.
• Eventually, after a long and tough battle, you will stagger Cid Reines – continue on with relentless assault, or switch to tri-disaster – the aim is to get as much damage done as possible. If you can, try and launch Cid Reines, otherwise he will go into Guard mode and it becomes very very difficult to do much damage to him then.
• If he does go in to Guard mode, then simply re-heal and re-buff yourself, and debuff him…try to keep his chain gauge going though.
• Some of Cid Reines attacks do a lot of damage, so you need to learn what these are and when he is going to use them – you should go into a sentinel paradigm at this time.
• Keep up the pressure and eventually you should defeat Cid- you can call on one of your Eidolons when things get really hazardous, but generally you shouldn’t need to.