Final Fantasy X: Dark Shiva

Dark Shiva is a superboss in Final Fantasy X, and one of the Dark Aeons.

Location

Dark Shiva can be found in the Macalania Temple after getting the airship, where you will be forced to fight her if you try to enter. If you did not get the Destruction Sphere treasure before getting the airship, you will need to defeat this boss in order to obtain Anima, the Magus Sisters, and Yuna’s Celestial Weapon.

Prep

You will want a high Defense, Strength, Accuracy, and Agility for this fight. Dark Shiva is capable of instantly killing party members and Dispelling frequently, so you will want your armor fully prepared. This way you can revive fallen members quickly and your important buffs don’t fall off.

Strategy

Dark Shiva has extremely high Agility and her attacks are quick, so she will be able to attack frequently. Her physical attack will Dispel the party member attacked, while her Heavenly Strike will cause Instant Death, Berserk and Confuse.

Her Overdrive is Diamond Dust, and it deals around 80,000 damage to the party. Her Overdrive gauge increases by 10% when attacking, and by 10% when being attacked.

At 1,100,000 HP, you can take out Dark Shiva quickly with Celestial Weapons. Use Quick Hit and high damage Overdrives for the most frequent damage. You will want at least one party member with Auto-Life to survive Diamond Dust if your HP isn’t over 90,000 (also make sure it doesn’t get Dispelled by a physical attack). Alternatively, you can summon an Aeon just before she uses it to take the damage for you.

Rewards

When you defeat Dark Shiva, you will earn 20,000 AP (30,000 on Overkill), but no gil. You will also regain access to the Macalania Temple.