This is the Valentine’s Day Nemesis for loners with no-one to spend time with, except fighting this boss. Aww, we’re just kidding! When you first select this Nemesis, you’ll see a picture of Mammon, but the real battle couldn’t be further from the truth–it’s Bravely Default’s OTP, Barras and Holly out for blood!

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Holly… or White Fox, rather, is pretty simple, spamming Curada on Barras or herself and Holy to smite one character. Barras can use Strong Strike, which deals a hefty amount of damage to one. But this next bit is really going to hurt: Barras can Default and then on his next turn use Invigorate twice–the one that deals massive damage to everyone, including himself and White Fox.

For a chance of survival, you either need to double everyone’s HP with a Giant’s Draft from a Salve-maker or use the Ninja‘s Utsusemi and/or Templar‘s Rampart to block out Invigorate’s damage. We recommend you do both! Once you can survive the Invigorate spam, the battle isn’t too rough.

Barras has super-high Physical Defense, so magic works best on him, while White Fox has maximum Magic Defense. If you have Pierce Magic Defense (Black Mage) on your characters, you can easily punch through Barras and White Fox with your magic; otherwise you’ll have to alternate between powerful physical and magical moves.

You Can Do It!¶

Close to the quarter HP mark, Barras will forgo Defaulting and Brave twice instead, unleashing three non-stop rounds of Invigorate and leaving him immobile for two turns. You really need double HP and Utsusemi/Rampart to survive all three hits, even when Defaulting. Angelic Ward (White Mage) or Absorb Physical Damage (Vampire) can soften the blows too.

If you’re good with your numbers, you can quickly focus your attacks and wipe out Barras just before he reaches the quarter HP threshold. Even if you can’t make it in time, if you survive Barras’s first round of Braving, you should still have time to finish him before his next round, providing he didn’t drop your party to the floor.

Otherwise, if you want to play it safe, the Stillness strategy works ace here because Barras and White Fox both have relatively low Speed (60 and 50), making it a cinch to tier your characters’ Speed. We kind of prefer the Rampart strategy as Barras will constantly blow up White Fox, but the choice is yours…