The Skull Ghost is a foe that was introduced in the first Epic Battle Fantasy. It appears mostly around desolate wasteland areas, such as Volcano Peak (in Epic Battle Fantasy 3) or the final graveyard-themed stages of the first game.
Appearance
It is an undead enemy resembling a cross between a skeleton and a ghost, sporting a skull-like head with numerous spikes, a tattered red cape, and black-feathered wings. Both its wings and skeletal hands appear to float beside its main body, presumably through magic.
Overview
Epic Battle Fantasy
In EBF, the Skull Ghost is the last regular enemy the player encounters before meeting Goku, the final boss of the game. As the game's most powerful foe, the Skull Ghost makes for a very dangerous adversary largely due to its magical prowess. Aside from using hard-hitting physical attacks, it can use magic attacks that can Dispel or Poison the party members. Depending on how the battle plays out, this may lead to the player often having to rely on Antidotes or Purify to ward off the Poison inflicted by Skull Ghosts. However, Skull Ghosts have a natural weakness to Holy attacks, and so can be taken down fairly easily if the player makes use of Seiken and Judgement - the former being particularly effective if Matt is equipped with Heaven's Gate.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
In EBF3, the Skull Ghost is a late-game enemy capable of posing a high threat due to having a variety of elemental attacks with powerful status effects, while not resisting any statuses itself. It is also completely immune to physical damage, rendering Matt nearly incapable of doing any damage (though he can still try inflicting Doom or Instant Death, which are not resisted by the foe), leaving Natalie and Lance to do most of the job. However, perhaps to balance it out, Skull Ghost have mediocre HP. While weak to Fire, they might be accompanied by Fire-resistant creatures, so one should take that in count before using Firestorm or Bullet Hell.
Despite what the description would imply, Skull Ghost uses a mix of physical and magical attacks, rather than only magical. Inflicting Syphon or Berserk may be an effective tactic against it, as it block all of its usual attacks, forcing it to resort to a much weaker claw slash, however, while weak, it may inflict Doom status, so one should still take care afterwards.
Bullet Heaven
Skull Ghosts appear as an enemy in Bullet Heaven; they're seen in the last five levels, which take place in a volcanic wasteland. During gameplay, Skull Ghosts slowly float down the screen and constantly shoot streams of fireballs at the player, and they also release a ring of fireballs every few seconds that spreads out.
Statistics
Epic Battle Fantasy
Skull Ghost | EBF |
---|
Statistics | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wave | |||||||||||||
21 | 45000 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
22 | 40000 | 0.8 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Resistances | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
-50% | -50% | - | - | - | -80% | -100% | 70% | - |
In EBF, foe stats are specifically set per wave, thus two foes of the same type may have different stats (resistances will still be the same). See EBF Foe Waves for a list of all foe waves.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
Skull Ghost | Undead Being | EBF3 | |
---|---|---|---|
Only casts spells. IMMUNE TO PHYSICAL DAMAGE. |
Statistics | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base Statistics |
Exp | AP | Gold | |||||||
200 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4.3 | 33 | 8 | 40 | |
Elemental Resistance |
||||||||||
-80% | - | - | - | - | - | 200% | 200% | -70% | - | |
Status Resistance |
||||||||||
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
Debuff Resistance |
||||||||||
- | - | - | - | - | - |
Item Drop Rate | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Icon | - | - | - | - | |||
Name | Jaw Bone | Curly Horn | Solid Spike | - | - | - | - |
Chance | 100% | 60% | 40% | - | - | - | - |
The Skull Ghost is completely immune to any source of physical damage, any physical attack that hits it will deal 0 damage instead. However, that doesn't prevent status effects nor stat debuffs from being inflicted.
On Epic difficulty, enters the battle with 3x Poison, effectively regenerating each turn.
Attacks and Abilities
Epic Battle Fantasy
Attack List | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Attack | Target | Power | R.Power | Type | Status Effect | RdF | ||||
Head Bash | Single | 1800 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 10% | |||
Slash | Single | 2200 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 10% | |||
Dispel | All | -- | -- | -- | -- | 100% | -- | -- | ||
Toxic | Single | 800 | -- | 100% | 2x | 10% |
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
Attack List | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Attack | Target | Power | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF | ||
Slash | Single | 20 | ---- | 50% | 3x | 100% | 10% | 10% | ||
Notes: Is used only while under the effect of Berserk or/and Syphon. | ||||||||||
Grim Reaper | Single | 5 | 100% | 100% | -- | 50% | 10% | 10% | ||
Notes: On Epic difficulty, accuracy is increased to 110%. | ||||||||||
Dark Flare | Single | 50/2 | 100% | 100% | 50% 50% |
130% | 10% | 10% | ||
Notes: The first hit only debuffs Defence, the second hit only debuffs Magic Defence. | ||||||||||
Poison Cloud | Single | 20 | 100% | 100% | 10x | 110% | 10% | 10% | ||
Hellfire | Single | 55 | 100% | 50% | 1x | 110% | 10% | 10% | ||
Ice Spike | Single | 40 | 60% | 10% | -- | 95% | 20% | 10% | ||
Deep Freeze | Single | 45 | 100% | 60% | -- | 100% | 10% | 10% |
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
- Anything → Head Bash (3/18), Slash (3/18), Toxic (4/18), Dispel (8/18).
The Skull Ghost was also supposed to be able to use Grim Reaper, but due to improper coding its usage chance is taken up by Toxic and Dispel.
Epic Battle Fantasy 3
- Berserked or/and Syphoned → Slash;
- Otherwise → Grim Reaper (1/6), Dark Flare (1/6), Poison Cloud (1/6), Hellfire (1/6), Ice Spike (1/6), Deep Freeze (1/6).
Trivia
- Skull Ghosts share a number of similarities with Wraiths, both in design and attacks. Given that Skull Ghosts do not appear in Epic Battle Fantasy 4, it could be that Wraiths may have been intended as a replacement for them.