The Ancient Monolith is a recurring foe in the Epic Battle Fantasy series, appearing in Epic Battle Fantasy 3, 4 and 5, and also a summon in EBF4 and 5. It is found mostly around old ruins, such as the Kitten Kingdom Ruins (EBF3), the Temple of Godcat (EBF4) and the Forgotten Ruins (EBF5).
Appearance[]
The Ancient Monolith is a large rock shaped vaguely like a sarcophagus, with a light brown front and a grey-brown back. It is covered in strange glyphs and symbols, most notably a stylized bird and a star near its top.
In EBF5, the Ancient Monolith's markings became more faded, with only the bird and star glyphs being visible. It also has a yellow gem in its center (the bird's "eye") and a few chunks of grey-brown stone hovering around it.
Overview[]
The Ancient Monolith has significantly changed its tactics and even elemental affinity between appearances, but it is always a tough foe with powerful magic, numerous resistances (always including Fire, Bio, and Wind immunity), and high HP. Its signature attack is a massive laser that deals incredible magic damage to the entire party while often inflicting annoying status effects like Dispel or Stun; fortunately, it's also highly telegraphed. It also casts magic that buffs the defenses of all foes.
The Ancient Monolith is always weak to Ice and Bomb; as such, skills like Iceberg, Air Strike, Blizzard, and Frost Arrow should work well. Syphon status is always an option to shut down its magic, although its high resistance to the status can complicate matters.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
The Ancient Monolith is a fearsome magical juggernaut with a non-elemental laser attack that deals immense damage to the entire party with a high chance to Dispel their buffs (on Epic difficulty, it's guaranteed to Dispel unless the party is completely immune to the status). It also uses Cataclysm as a powerful physical option; while single-target, slightly inaccurate, and easier to resist due to its partial Earth affinity, it still hits quite hard and boasts an increased critical hit rate. On top of that, it can heal its allies or buff their Magic Defence; the latter skill also grants a huge buff to the monolith's naturally high Magic Attack, further enhancing its spellcasting power.
When battling an Ancient Monolith, remember that it can only use its laser every third turn (although it will invariably start the battle with it), giving the party some time to rebuff or attack. The Steel Shark is an effective gun against it; it has on-hit Syphon to try and render the Monolith helpless, its Unleash can mitigate the power of its spells (preferably after Dispelling its existing Magic Attack buffs), and its high Magic Attack gives Lance a powerful Air Strike to exploit one of its elemental weaknesses.
The Ancient Monolith is immune to Fire, Thunder, Earth, Poison, and Wind, but it has a big weakness to Bomb, a bigger weakness to Ice, and an extreme weakness to Water. Status-wise, it is immune to Poison, extremely resistant to Death, and extremely resistant to Stun and Syphon.
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
The Ancient Monolith is a Thunder-based foe with a variety of electrifying spells that hit the entire party at once. All of them have a chance to Stun, but the infliction chances on Blue Bolt and Thunderstorm are low enough to be relatively negligible. Its Orange Beam is its most dangerous attack - with high power and a very significant Stun chance - but it's telegraphed by the Monolith gaining a Charge at the end of its turn. On the defensive side of things, it can give the entire enemy wave Defend status and modest buffs to both defenses in a single move, making them much harder to kill off (although Giga Drill can exploit the buffs quite nicely).
Being a giant rock, the Ancient Monolith has very low Evade, but it compensates with high HP and a large amount of resistances. It absorbs Thunder while being immune to Fire, Water, Poison, and Wind; on the other hand, it has serious Bomb and Ice weaknesses. It is also immune to many status effects, including Burn, Stun, Freeze, Poison, and Stagger; additionally, it has a very high resistance to Doom and Instant Death, along with a significant amount of Syphon resistance.
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
The Ancient Monolith is similar to its EBF4 incarnation; a sturdy spellcaster that specializes in strong Thunder attacks. While it won't be dodging much thanks to its poor Evade, an impressive base Magic Attack gives its magic even more punch. In addition to hitting quite hard, its standard spells can inflict Stun or Confuse; the chances are low, but the debilitating effects of these statuses and their associated attacks hitting the entire party can make resistance to them a good idea. It can protect itself and its allies by giving them a solid buff to Defence and Magic Defence. If it gathers energy and gives itself a Charge (which also hits two random players with Thunder), brace yourself - on its next turn, it'll fire a catastrophically powerful beam of Thunder magic!
On Hard and Epic difficulty, the Ancient Monolith will have several new tricks. Its Thunder Laser can Stun the entire party with some regularity, its defensive buff also comes with Defend to halve incoming damage, and it can cast Falling Star to circumvent the party's Thunder resistance. Most pertinently of all, it gains a countermeasure to having its magic sealed; when suffering from Syphon or Berserk, it can teleport itself on top of a player, dealing heavy physical damage that also ignores Invisible. In this situation, the best way to neutralize the Ancient Monolith is to try and raise its Catch Score while making the entire party Lovable; applying Syphon or Berserk to it in this condition will force it to do nothing or even Surrender (depending on how much HP it has left).
The Ancient Monolith absorbs Thunder and Holy; it is also immune to Fire, Earth, Bio, Wind, and most status effects. Its main weakness is Bomb, but Dark and Ice will also do increased damage against it. In terms of status effects, the only ones it isn't immune to are Bad Luck, Curse, Wet, Dry, Heavy, Light, Dispel, and Syphon (the last of which it resists); it also has a good amount of resistance to stat debuffs aside from HP and Evade.
With "More Foe Resistance", the Ancient Monolith becomes neutral to Dark and Ice while its Bomb weakness becomes slightly less severe. It also becomes immune to Dispel, Bad Luck, Curse, and Accuracy debuffs while gaining even stronger Syphon resistance.
It is worth noting that the Ancient Monolith has a chance of dropping a Fried Egg, although the odds of this happening are incredibly low. On the other hand, it serves as a prime source for Brick farming, being guaranteed to drop three at a time when it is defeated. It's also the best source of Gold Plate drops outside of late-game bosses like CORALIA and Natalia; while the drop rate is still only 15%, this can be helpful in the midgame while attempting to upgrade various Flairs for desirable resistances against Laurelin.
Statistics[]
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
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Ancient Monolith | Unmovable Stone | EBF3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uses extremely powerful attacks and buffs. Dispels your buffs. | |||
| Statistics | ||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | Gold |
| 520 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 220 | 15 | 120 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 100% | 100% | -70% | -100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | - | - | -60% | |
| Status Resistance |
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| 100% | 70% | - | - | - | 70% | 80% | ||||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon | 
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- | - | - | - |
| Name | Light Rune | Emerald | Gold Plate | - | - | - | - |
| Chance | 80% | 60% | 20% | - | - | - | - |
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
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Ancient Monolith | EBF4 |
|---|---|---|
| A monolith from a forgotten epoch. Uses extremely powerful thunder attacks and can defend other foes. | ||
| Statistics | ||||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP |
| 490 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 190 | 17 | 17 | 100 | 25 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 100% | 200% | -80% | - | 100% | -80% | 100% | 100% | - | - | |||
| Status Resistance |
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| 100% | 100% | 100% | - | 100% | - | 100% | 50% | - | - | - | 80% | |
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon |
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- | - | - |
| Name | Gold Plate | Topaz | Paper Talisman | Concrete | - | - | - |
| Chance | 30% | 30% | 60% | 80% | - | - | - |
| Status Damage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances: | |||
| Burn
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Poison
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Doom (if Death fails) |
 Regen
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| Immune | Immune | 12.5% | -16.(6)% |
| Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down. | |||
Prior to the Battle Mountain update, no Monoliths had any Syphon resistance.
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Ancient Monolith | EBF4 |
|---|---|---|
| A monolith from a forgotten epoch. Uses extremely powerful thunder attacks and can defend other foes. | ||
| Statistics | ||||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP |
| 490 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 190 | 17 | 17 | 100 | 25 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 100% | 200% | -80% | 200% | 100% | -80% | 100% | 100% | 200% | - | |||
| Status Resistance |
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| 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | - | 100% | 50% | - | - | - | 80% | |
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | - | - | - | 100% | - | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icon |
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- | - | - |
| Name | Gold Plate | Topaz | Paper Talisman | Concrete | - | - | - |
| Chance | 30% | 30% | 60% | 80% | - | - | - |
| Status Damage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances: | |||
| Burn
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Poison
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Doom (if Death fails) |
Regen
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| Immune | Immune | 12.5% | -16.(6)% |
| Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down. | |||
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
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Ancient Monolith | EBF5 |
|---|---|---|
| It's just a rock, but it uses incredibly powerful thunder attacks. Get ready to defend if you see it charging up! | ||
| Statistics | |||||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP | Catch |
| 490 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 200 | 19 | 19 | 150 | 25 | 5 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 100% | 200% | -50% | 100% | 100% | -80% | - | 100% | 200% | -50% | ||||
| Status Resistance |
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| 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 50% | - | 100% | - | - | 100% | - | 100% | ||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | 40% | 40% | 40% | 40% | 40% | - | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon | 
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| Name | Brick | Brick | Brick | Gold Plate | Fried Egg | ||
| Chance | 100% | 100% | 100% | 15% | 2% | ||
| 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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| Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | -16.(6)% |
| 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. | |||||
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Ancient Monolith | EBF5 |
|---|---|---|
| It's just a rock, but it uses incredibly powerful thunder attacks. Get ready to defend if you see it charging up! | ||
| Statistics | |||||||||||||
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| Base Statistics |
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Exp | AP | SP | Gold | Hit2HP | Catch |
| 490 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 200 | 19 | 19 | 150 | 25 | 5 | |
| Elemental Resistance |
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| 100% | 200% | - | 100% | 100% | -50% | - | 100% | 200% | - | ||||
| Status Resistance |
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| 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 70% | 100% | 100% | - | - | 100% | 100% | 100% | ||
| Debuff Resistance |
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| - | 40% | 40% | 40% | 40% | 80% | - | |||||||
| Item Drop Rate | |||||||
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| Icon |
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| Name | Brick | Brick | Brick | Gold Plate | Fried Egg | ||
| Chance | 100% | 100% | 100% | 15% | 2% | ||
| 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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| Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | Immune | -16.(6)% |
| 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. | |||||
Attacks and Abilities[]
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Cataclysm | Single | 68 |
|
50%
|
-- | -- | -- | 95% | 30% | 10% |
| Orange Beam | All | 60 |
|
---- | 50% | -- |
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130% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: Is used the first turn, and then each third turn. On Epic difficulty, status chance is increased to 200%. | ||||||||||
| Megalixir | Allies | 4 |
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---- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 0% |
| Buff | Self Allies |
-- | -- | ---- | -- | 70% 35% |
|
-- | -- | -- |
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Blue Bolt | All | 22 |
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100%
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10% | 1x |
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100% | 10% | 10% |
| Thunderstorm | All | 25/5 |
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100%
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3% | 1x |
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115% | 10% | 10% |
| Charge | Self | -- | -- | ---- | -- | 2x | 
|
-- | -- | -- |
| Notes: Charges to fire Orange Beam. | ||||||||||
| Orange Beam | All | 90 |
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100%
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50% | 1x |
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100% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: Used every three turns if able, indicated by Charge the turn prior. Prior to the Battle Mountain update, the attack instead had 80 power and 33% status chance. | ||||||||||
| Buff | Allies | -- | -- | ---- | -- | 20% 20% -- |
|
-- | -- | -- |
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
| Attack List | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Slam | Single | 100 |
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25%
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20% | 1x | 
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100% | 10% | 10% |
Notes: Can only be used when Syphoned or  Berserked on Hard or Epic difficulties.After the v2 update, also removes  Invisible from the target (this effect ignores  Bless).
| ||||||||||
| Thunder x2 | Random | 44/4 |
|
100%
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5% | 1x |
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115% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: Is only used immediately after Charge. Base spell is 2 hit, so retargeting and statuses happen on every second hit. Will not target the same player twice in a row unless they have  Target or no other targets are available.
| ||||||||||
| Blue Bolt | All | 38 |
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100%
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10% | 1x | 
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100% | 10% | 10% |
| Thunder Storm | All | 45/5 |
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100%
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20% | 1x |
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115% | 10% | 10% |
| Falling Star | Random | 120/2 |
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---- | -- | -- | -- | 100% | 25% | 150% |
| Notes: Can only be used on Hard or Epic difficulties. | ||||||||||
| Charge | Self | -- | -- | ---- | -- | 3x | 
|
-- | -- | -- |
Notes: Will cast Thunder immediately after using this attack (unless catch score >55 and all players are  Lovable).
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| Thunder Beam | All | 120 |
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100%
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-- | -- | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| Notes: Requires and expends Charge. Gets 50% chance of 1x Stun on Hard or Epic Difficulties.
| ||||||||||
| Buff | Allies | -- | -- | ---- | -- | 30% 30% |
|
-- | -- | -- |
| Notes: Also gives Defend on Hard or Epic difficulties.
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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.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
- Syphoned → Nothing;
- First turn and then each 3rd turn or/and Berserked → Orange Beam;
- Otherwise → Cataclysm (1/3), Megalixir (1/3), Buff (1/3).
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
- Spent 2 turns without Charge status → Charge on the same turn;
- Syphoned → Nothing;
- Charged → Orange Beam;
- Otherwise → Blue Bolt (1/3), Thunderstorm (1/3), Buff (1/3).
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
Action
- If Syphoned or Berserked, <49% HP, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Surrender;
- If Syphoned or Berserked, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Nothing;
- If Syphoned or Berserked and playing on Hard/Epic → Slam;
- If Syphoned or Berserked → Nothing;
- If Charged → Thunder Beam;
- If a randomly selected foe has at least a 10% Defence buff → Charge (2/8), Blue Bolt (3/8), Thunder Storm (3/8);
- Otherwise → Buff (1/4), Charge (1/4), Blue Bolt (1/4), Thunder Storm (1/4).
*Charge will immediately be followed by Thunder, unless catch score >55 and all players are Lovable.
Additionally, on Hard or Epic difficulties, Blue Bolt and Thunder Storm have a chance to be replaced by Falling Star depending on active party Thunder resistance (the higher the party's Thunder resistance, the higher the chance to use Falling Star). If all active players have >30% Thunder resistance (not taking into account boosting/dampening statuses), Falling Star will always be used instead of Blue Bolt and Thunder Storm.
Counter (only if Counter-Attacking Foes is enabled)
- 100% and <32% HP → Slam.
Summon[]
The Ancient Monolith is a summon available in Epic Battle Fantasy 4 and 5. In both games, it calls an Ancient Monolith to cast a slightly modified version of its usual multi-target buff, giving all active players the Defend status.
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
- "That monolith would be great to summon when we're being destroyed by a tough boss."
- ―Anna, Epic Battle Fantasy 4
The Ancient Monolith summon can be obtained in Goldenbrick Resort, specifically from the bottom-right chest on the screen with a shortcut to the Crystal Caverns. The path to the chest is blocked by boulders that must be smashed by The Hammer.
 |
Ancient Monolith | SP |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defends the whole party for one turn. | 33 | Kept | |||||||
| Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Allies | -- | -- | ---- | -- | -- |
|
-- | -- | -- |
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
The Ancient Monolith can be captured and used as a summon.
|
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Ancient Monolith | SP | 
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gives defend status to all allies, which offers massive protection for a turn. | 33 | Kept | |||||||
| Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
| Allies | -- | -- | ---- | -- | -- |
|
-- | -- | -- |
Trivia[]
- In Epic Battle Fantasy 3, when the Ancient Monolith uses its beam attack for the first time, Matt will comment: "I once knew a guy with golden hair who shot beams like that. Was rather nasty". This is a reference to Roku, the final boss of Epic Battle Fantasy, who has a similar attack.
- The pictographs on the Ancient Monolith's surface resemble the Nazca Lines, a series of enormous, inexplicable images made in the sand of Peru's Sechura Desert.