Malboro Final Fantasy Guide

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Bryan Hughes

Bryan is a writer who first fell in love with JRPG’s with titles like Breath of Fire II and Secret of the Stars. After his family fell under some hard times, he had no connection to video games or way to enjoy them except vicariously. That was until one Christmas morning when two things popped up under a tree. A Sony PlayStation and the game Final Fantasy VII. At the time, it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen, every square polygon and cut scene, every story beat. He’d been transported into the future. Here we are more than twenty years later and several FF titles under his play-through belt and now Final Fantasy VII: Remake reminds him that no matter how far things advance, the best stories last forever.

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The Malboro is a giant, green, large-mouthed, many-tentacled, recurring monster in the Final Fantasy (FF) series, first appearing as early as FFII.

It is often one of the most formidable monsters in a title due to its recurring ability to cause multiple status effects. The Malboro usually comes with its signature attack, Bad Breath.

This monster is often one of the few where tactics are more required, and perhaps this makes it both a fan favorite and a feared one. Let’s explore the evolution of this impressive enemy.

Final Fantasy II

The first incarnation of the Malboro did not have the fabled Bad Breath.

Malboro: Decent HP, weak to Lightning, and resistant to Fire and Poison. Attacks can cause paralysis.

Terra Malboro: Slight increase to all stats. Resists Lightning and Fire. Attacks can cause venom or paralysis.

Great Malboro: Another increase in stats from the Terra. No resistances. Attacks paralysis, venom, silence, sleep, confuse and/or mini.

If you are playing Final Fantasy II on the PSP or the phone, you can face a fourth Malboro enemy.

Malboro Menace: Less HP but the same combat stats as the Great Malboro. It drops a lot of Gil and some great items! Attacks cause multiple status effects.

Final Fantasy IV

Malboro: Decent HP, immune to pig, mini, and Death. Uses Bad Breath and Digestive Acid. Drops a Remedy at a 100% rate.

Great Malboro: Increased stats/HP. Everything else is the same.

Malboro Menace: Increases stats/HP. Immune to more status effects and strong VS Fire. No longer immune to Death. May drop a Ribbon.

FFIV The After Years

Malboro: Similar to FFIV except for no longer being immune to Death. Drops Bacchus’s Wine at 100% now. No Digestive Acid.

Great Malboro: Stat increase. Big Gil drop. Slight chance to drop a Megalixir. 100% Remedy drop. Gains Doom and Bile.

Malboro Menace: Increased Stats. More Status Immunities. Weak to Fire. No longer drops Megalixir.

Final Fantasy VI

Malboro: Decent Stats. Weak to Fire. Immune to Imp, Silence, Critical, Doom, Sleep. Drops Remedy or Holy Water. Uses Bad Breath.

• Rage- Attack, Bad Breath
• Sketch- Drool, Bad Breath
• Special Attack- Drool

Great Malboro: Stats increase. Weak to Fire. Immune to Silence and Darkness. Can Steal a Teleport Stone. Uses Bad Breath.

• Rage- Attack, Bio
• Sketch- Poison, Bad Breath
• Special Attack- Infernal Kiss

Malboro Menace: Huge increase to stats. Weak to Fire. Immune many status effects, including Petrify for the first time. Can use Bad Breath, Diabolic Whistle, and Blaster. Only drops potions.

• Rage- None
• Sketch- Attack, Tentacle
• Special Attack- Tentacle

Final Fantasy VII

You can learn the Enemy Skill: Bad Breath by equipping the Yellow Materia “Enemy Skill” onto a character and having them struck by this Attack.

Malboro: Decent HP and Stats. High Magic Defense. Weak to Water, Immune to Gravity and absorbs Poison(Bio). Immune to Poison, Petrify, Confusion, Frog, Small, and berserk. Uses Bad Breath, Frozen Beam, and Bio2.

If you fight the Malboro in the Battle Square, its Attack and Magic Attack increases, and its HP is doubled.

Final Fantasy VIII

Enemies in FFVIII grow in level alongside the player.

LVL 1-19: Good HP. Magic and Attack are decent. Slow. Uses Bad Breath, Dissolving Acid, and Eerie Sound Wave. May get Cursed Spikes. Immune to all status except Petrify. Weak to Fire, slightly weak to Ice, immune to Poison Damage.

• Draw: Bio

LVL 20-29: Large HP. Magic and Attack are still balanced. Slow. Except for its Draw, it is otherwise the same.

• Draw: Bio, Demi

LVL 30-100: Massive HP increase starting at LVL 50. Its magic begins to grow significantly. May now drop a Hypno Crown. Immunities and Weaknesses are the same.

• Devouring it will now give a Morale boost.
• Draw: Bio, Demi, Quake

An LVL 100 Malboro in FFVIII is a beast! It has 146,000 HP and a 251 Magic Stat.

Final Fantasy IX

The Malboro in this title has no weakness and becomes a widespread random encounter during the End Game.

Malboro: Good HP. Decent stats. Immune to Virus, Confuse, Berserk, Scan, and Gravity. Uses Thundaga, Absorb, Osmose, Virus Tentacles, and Bad Breath. It is LVL 57, so Quina’s LVL3 Def-Less works against it.

• Eat- Quina learns Bad Breath

Related: Comprehensive Quina Guide

Final Fantasy X

It is one of the most challenging random encounters in FFX. Its Bad Breath is far more effective, with a 100% chance to cause Silence and Darkness and Confusion(80%). It causes poison at 150% chance, thereby ignoring poisonward armor.

If you encounter the first Malboro without confuseproof, use Provoke with Tidus as quickly as possible or summon an Aeon. It won’t use Bad Breath while Provoked or against Aeons. It is not good to use Provoke against the stronger Malboros; however, Aeons are still helpful.

Malboro: High HP. Decent Stats. Weak to Fire and Ice. Immune to all status except Provoke. Immune to Water. Steal a Remedy. Uses Bad Breath and Gastric Juice.

• Lancet- Kimahri can learn Bad Breath
• Bribe- 675,000 Gil for Wings of Discoveryx4

Greater Malboro: Huge HP increase. Small Stat increase. Weak to Fire and Ice. Immune to all stats except Provoke and now resists Breaks. Immediately casts Bad Breath at the start of combat! Uses Bad Breath, Gastric Juice, Munch, and Full Auto.

• Lancet- Kimahri can learn Bad Breath
• Bribe- 1,600,000 Gil for Wings of Discoveryx8

To unlock the next monster, you must capture all the fiends in Kilika and return to the Monster Arena. Save before combat.

Malboro Menace: Massive HP. Double the Greater Malboro’s Stats. Absorbs Water. Weak to Fire. Immune to ALL status. Doom takes 200 turns! Uses Chow Time, Gastric Juice Blast, Mega Gastric Juice, and Putrid Breath.

• The battle always starts with an Ambush and Putrid Breath.
• May drop Dark Matter.
• It drops great weapons or armor with the Poisonstrike or Poisonproof skills and possibly up to 3 more status-type skills of equal power.
• This equipment has a hidden 6% critical boost chance for the wearer, higher than Celestial Weapons.
  Its Attacks can cause Petrification.
• The status effects from its Putrid Breath ignore resistances. They can only be stopped by wearing “proof” type equipment or the very rare Ribbon skill.
• Worth fighting for item drops but use CAUTION.

Final Fantasy X-2

In Final Fantasy X-2, monsters, when overhunted, can randomly turn into Oversoul versions of themselves with increased stats, HP, and additional skills.

Malboro: Decent HP. Good strength, poor magic. No weaknesses. Immune to Gravity. Immune to all Status except Darkness. Uses Bad Breath and Gastric Juice.

• Oversoul- Defeat 14
• Blue Bullet- Bad Breath
• Oversoul Skills Gained- Chomp, Halitosis, Ingest Antidote, Ingest Eye Drops

Great Malboro: Good HP. Increased defense. No weaknesses. Immune to ALL status and Gravity. Uses Chomp, Staccato, and Really Bad Breath.

• Oversoul- Defeat 24
• Blue Bullet- Bad Breath
• Oversoul Skills Gained- Halitosis, Ingest Antidote, Ingest Echo Screen, Ingest Eye Drops, Ingest Holy Water, Ingest Remedy, Staccato
• Bribing a Great Malboro if it enters Oversoul for 124,606 Gil will grant you White Tome x2.

Final Fantasy XI

It appears in a family of Morbol. It can still be considered dangerous with its Bad Breath. Still, more importantly, they have an attack called Extremely Bad Breath, which causes instant Death to any of your party members.

• It is weak to Fire and strong VS water and Dark.
• HP and stats in this title vary with an RNG based on the location found and the number of different jobs, job types, and players in the party.

Final Fantasy XII

FFXII is an Action RPG; you will see the Malboro before you fight it, so you can better prepare.

Malboro: HP and stats range from okay to good. Weak to Wind. Immune to Doom, Confuse, Reverse and Lure. Technicks are Lunge, Cloying Breath, Bad Breath, Purify.

• Weakest is in Golmore Jungle. It can drop a Malboro Vine.
• Feywood Malboro Hunt version is ONLY IMMUNE to Reverse. It can drop a Malboro Flower.
• Strongest is in Lhusu Mines. It can drop a Malboro Flower.

Great Malboro: Although called Great, it is similar to the Malboro found in Golmore Jungle.

• Poach for Foul Liquid.

Malboro Overking: Weaker than the Malboro found in Lhusu Mines. Weak to Holy instead of Wind.

• Poach for Putrid Liquid.

Malboro King: This Malboro is barely stronger than the one found in Feywood during the hunt but has the usual Immunities and is no longer weak to Wind.

Cassie: Good HP. Decent Stats. Weak to Wind. Immune to many Status effects except Petrify and Silence. Techniks are Lunge, Cloying Breath, Purify, Bad Breath, Soul Etude, Time Requiem, and Putrid Breath.

• Rare steal is a Chaperon.
• Can Poach into a Keto Board.

Vivian: Vivian is a slightly weaker version of Cassie.

•  A rare poach is the Cleric’s Robes.

Kris: Great HP. Decent Stats. Weak to Wind. Absorbs Earth. Now Immune to Petrify, Poison, Stop and Disable as well—all usual Techniks and Hero’s March and Putrid Breath.

• This is a Rare Game enemy as part of the Hunt Club sidequest.
• Always drops an Odiferous Trophy

Carrot: Massive HP. Decent Stats. Halves all magic damage except being weak to Holy and absorbing Dark. Immune to everything except Silence and Slow. Techniks are Lunge, Putrid Breath, Purify, Time Requiem, Growing Threat, and Hero’s March.

• This enemy is part of the Jovy sidequest

Wild Malboro: Massive HP. Decent Stats. (High strength in Zodiac.) Weak to Wind. Absorbs Earth. Immune to everything except Blind, Darkness, Oil, and Slow. Techniks are the same as Cassie except for Hero’s March instead of Time Requiem.

• This is a Rank VI Mark Hunt creature.

Final Fantasy XV

Malboro: Good to Great HP and Stats. Weak to Fire. Strong to Ice and Light. Causes multiple status ailments. Resists Death and Alterna.

• Great Swords do more damage.
• You can see it breathing in to know when to avoid its breath attack.
• Stronger ones are found in Costlemark Tower and on a hunt in Duscae.

Malbodoom: Massive stat and HP increase. The weaker version is the same as the prior Malboro. Two stronger versions are now weak to Ice but strong to Fire.

• Greatswords are weak against the larger versions, but Daggers are strong.
• Stronger ones found in Cleigne for the Dreadful Legend quest and on a Timed Quest in Cape Caem.

Malboro Sprout: Decent HP. These are identical to the first Malboro in this title except now Weak to Ice and resisting Lightning.

Malboro Brat: Great HP and Big Stat increase but otherwise identical to the Malboro Sprout.

None of these Malboro’s are immune to Instant Death, Frozen, or Stop. Take advantage of this if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Final Fantasy Tactics

The three Malboro’s in this title are Malboro, Ochu, and Great Malboro.

• They are all Weak to Ice, have good HP, and can walk on water.
• You need to worry about Bad Breath from the Great Malboro. It can cause Stone, Confuse, and Toad among other things.
• If you have a Beastmaster next to one of your Great Malboros, it gains the ‘Malboro Spores’ skill.
• Using Malboro Spores on an enemy turns them into a Malboro, forever.

Crisis Core: FFVII

Malboro: High HP. Weak to Fire. Immune to Instant Death, Stop, Stun, Silence, and Poison. Uses Bad Breath and Gastric Juice.

It’s not too difficult in Crisis Core. Simply get behind it and hit with Fire.

There is a stronger version of it called the Gaea Malboro which can cast Ultima, making it a bit more challenging.

Other Titles

I believe they do make an appearance in FFXIV mimicking FFXI’s Morbul grouping. In any other title, the formulae are general, High HP, and cause status effects. Try out fire or ice for weakness first and you should be good to go.

FAQs

Overall

In this Malboro Final Fantasy guide, we’ve seen that the Malboro is a status spraying menace and will usually cause you great trouble if you don’t have a way to deal with it. If you’ve come to the point in the game where a Malboro is an enemy, make sure your healer has status protection and Esuna, or you’ve stocked up on Remedies.

There’s a reason this monster has a reputation as one of the most troublesome from the franchise.