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This skeletal bridal bird debuted as a Nemesis in Bravely Default and a compulsory boss near the end of this game, so it needs little introduction. However, for those unacquainted, this is potentially one of the more troublesome bosses because of its pesky Love status.

Its common attacks include Rake, which deals hefty physical damage to one, Seraph Blast, a crazily strong magic-based attack on one, and finally Sweet Dreams, which also deals heavy physical damage to one and can occasionally inflict Sleep to boot.

Things get tricky when the dove uses Fall in Love to inflict Love on a character. Characters in Love do not follow orders and instead copy the actions of the character they’re infatuated with. Not only that, but if their target of affection gains or loses HP, they do as well.

Even worse, the Ba’al can use Triangular to make two characters fall in Love with the same character. When this occurs, if their target of affection performs an action, the two characters in Love will use Love Rivals to attack eachother like they’re schoolkids fighting over their first crush.

The kicker is that Love cannot be cured unless the character gets KO’d or the Turtle Dove uses Heartbreak to deal humongous magic damage to all characters in Love. Oh and it’s even possible for your whole party to fall in love if the Dove decides to use Triangular twice. Joy!

To boost your chances of winning, ensure you have somebody with the Astrologian’s Status Barrier, plus a way to group-cast it (whether it’s Spellcraft or the Black Mage’s Group-Cast All). This will protect you from Love and Sleep, which would otherwise disrupt your strategies.

Next, it might also help if you geared your characters to have high defences. What you can do is equip somebody with the Astrologian’s Limit Breaker, so you can buff your defences to 200% during the battle, allowing you to shrug off the Ba’als powerful attacks.

As for your own attacks, the dove has mediocre defences, so most attacks are good. Since it can have a lot of HP (depending on how high its Level is), you should rely on attacks that consistently deal 9999 damage, like the Fencer’s Bloody Wolf, Pirate’s Amped Strike, Time Mage’s Meteor, etc.

After falling below 40% HP, the Turtle Dove will start to show its true colours by Braving three times. First it will use Little Gift to give itself 3 BP, then follow with Rake, Seraph Blast and Sweet Dreams. Because of Little Gift, it will be back at 0 BP for the next turn, the little cheat!

At this stage, having sky-high defences is paramount for your survival. An alternative strategy is to use the Ghost Mage Onslaught build that we discussed in the Recommended Builds section moments earlier. In fact, you can easily KO the dove on the first turn using that build.

Neo Version¶

This souped up version of Turtle Dove is essentially the same as Turtle Dove (+) from Bravely Default. By that, we mean it fights the same as before, but has superior stats and–more importantly–9999 Physical Defence and Magical Defence.

Sadly the old strategy to trivialise this super Ba’al no longer works, but that’s not to say that it can’t be beaten without breaking a sweat. One possible way is to use a modified version of the Ghost Mage Onslaught , but swap Chainspell for the Black Mage’s Pierce Magic Defence ability.

Without Chainspell and since your Ventriloquism Wizard won’t have enough ability slots to cause damage, your damage output won’t be nearly as impressive. However, your two offensive mages should be able to chop off just over a third of the dove’s health, even when it has a million HP.

Meanwhile, to keep your tank alive, you should give them the Catmancer’s job command, the Knight’s Dual Shields, Astrologian’s Prescience and gear them for balanced defences. Meanwhile, your Ventriloquism Wizard should have Limit Breaker.

As soon as the battle begins, use Purrfect Stance to reach 200% Physical Defence and Magical Defence in an instant. Because of Prescience, your tank will go before Turtle Dove as well. From there, you can Default to stall for time or use the Guardian’s Soul Mirror if you’re concerned.