How to defeat Homo Fulquillo in Metaphor ReFantazio

Before Metaphor ReFantazio players leave the Nord Mines, they will come across Homo Fulquillo. A bird-like creature, it is known as a “Human” in the world Atlus has crafted. Humans are monstrosities, and so far, most of them have resembled birds, from hatching out of eggs to having avian-like appearances. Naturally, they are a massive mystery - a mystery that you need to defeat to move on.

There aren't a lot of options for your classes or archetypes at this point in the game. This is what makes the fight challenging, although you can easily overcome it if you know what to look for. Here’s how to handle Homo Fulquillo in Metaphor ReFantazio.

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Tips to defeat Homo Fulquillo in Metaphor ReFantazio

You do not want to get caught in this attack! (Image via SEGA)

For the Homo Fulquillo battle in Metaphor ReFantazio, we had the Hero (Seeker), Strohl (Warrior), and Grius (Mage). If I could do it over, I'd turn the Hero into a Warrior or Mage, because Seeker is weak to fire. Having a few more levels on a Mage helps here since Homo Fulquillo is Weak to Ice, resists Wind, and takes normal damage from Fire and all of our melee options.

While this is an unfortunate turn of events, you can avoid most of its most powerful attacks. When you see Homo Fulquillo cast Hyper and see the message “The Front row is being targeted!”, you need to move all three party members to the back row, with the down arrow on the D-Pad when it’s their turn. This way, you will be able to avoid Homo Fulquillo's attack Bonfire of the Vanities, which will hit everyone in the front row on the very next turn.

This is an excellent tutorial in disguise because many might not be aware that you can even go to the back row in this game. You lose melee damage but gain defense. On top of it, some archetypes, like the Gunner, have abilities that can only be used in the back row.

The Seeker will likely crumple repeatedly to Fire spells (Image via SEGA)

It doesn’t cost you a turn to move between rows, so you can swap at your leisure. It’s also a good idea to keep spellcasters back there, anyway. One combo that Homo Fulquillo can use is Vitalja (Attack and Defense rise dramatically) followed by Powerful Strike, which is a single-target melee hit. Backrow people take significantly less damage from it.

It’s also worth it to cast Tarukaja on Strohl to increase his attack power since the Seeker isn't very useful in this fight. However, around the halfway point, this boss can do some serious damage with its AOE spell, Gabot. This is an AOE fire strike, and unfortunately, the Seeker is weak to Fire.

That means that Homo Fulquillo will be able to strike again, and in my case, it cast two more back-to-back Bot (Fire) spells, which KOed the Protagonist. Thankfully, you don't get a game over from that, so use Revival Medicine on him and keep an eye out for more Bonfire of the Vanities since it will assuredly show up at least one more time in this battle.

This boss battle in Metaphor ReFantazio won’t feature any other special attacks, but the Gabot is already dangerous enough. The AI is smart enough to focus on your weaknesses, so you may have to revive the protagonist more than once. Once you’ve whittled down its HP, you’ll receive 200 EXP, 100 A-EXP, 600 MAG, 1000 Money, and a Magla Potion (restores MP).

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Metaphor ReFantazio is Atlus’ latest JRPG and will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms from October 11, 2024.