Dark Valefor is an optional boss in the International, PAL and HD Remaster versions of Final Fantasy X. She guards the entrance to Besaid Village when the party returns after they have the Fahrenheit. Dark Valefor must be defeated to acquire Anima if the player did not obtain the treasure chest in the Besaid Temple earlier.
Stats[]
Battle[]
Energy Ray.
Dark Valefor uses physical attacks and Sonic Wings, which inflict Delay (weak), and can also use Energy Ray at any time. Unlike the summon Valefor's Energy Ray, Dark Valefor's Energy Ray is considered magical damage and can be reduced by a high Magic Defense stat or other protections against magic.
Dark Valefor's Overdrive is Energy Blast, which deals around 50,000 damage regardless of stats. Unlike the other Dark Aeons, Dark Valefor cannot break the 9999 damage limit except with Energy Blast, which always deals 47,136 to 53,225 damage, and cannot be reduced with anything but another aeon's Shield. Dark Valefor's Overdrive gauge increases by 5% when attacking and 15% when targeted.
Strategy[]
Energy Blast.
It is best to use Auto-Life, or summon an aeon when Dark Valefor's Overdrive gauge is full to take the blow.
If the party is sufficiently advanced on the Sphere Grid, Dark Valefor can be defeated quickly, before she causes trouble. The party should have high Agility and Luck. High Strength and Defense are also useful, but all stats should be well into three digits. Break Damage Limit is recommended; Dark Valefor is also perhaps the one enemy where Break HP Limit provides more benefits than drawbacks due to her inability to exceed 9999 damage. Valefor's Overdrive gauge charges up quickly, so the party needs to be fast.
As both the regular attack and Sonic Wings are physical attacks, one strategy to reduce damage from them is to have one character use Sentinel. This character should have high Defense, Protect and/or 5x Cheers. It also helps to give this character a weapon with Counterattack or Evade & Counter so they can do more damage.
If his Strength is high enough, Wakka can take Dark Valefor out with a single full volley of Attack Reels. Yuna can summon Anima and use her Overdrive Oblivion, or Tidus can use his Overdrive Blitz Ace or Slice & Dice.
As with any other enemy, Dark Valefor can be killed instantly by the aeon Yojimbo's Zanmato. This strategy is available to players whose party members do not have attributes in the three digit range, and can be used to retrieve the Besaid Temple Destruction Sphere if still needed to obtain Anima; however, this will likely take multiple attempts since Yojimbo's Zanmato is somewhat unpredictable, even when his compatibility with Yuna is high. As with any strategy when facing a Dark Aeon, using the spell Auto-Life and equipping armor with Auto-Phoenix is recommended. Fully charging Yuna's Overdrive and using Grand Summon to call upon Yojimbo increases the chance of Zanmato. Forming the party with the characters with the highest Agility scores (if higher than Yuna's), usually Tidus or Rikku, ensures the highest chance of getting a turn before Dark Valefor. If they do, they can immediately swap out for Yuna, who can then summon Yojimbo and take a turn before Dark Valefor attacks.
Dark Valefor glitch[]
Occasionally, in the International PS2 version, a glitch will occur and the game will crash during either the cutscene before or after the fight. If this glitch happens once, it will always happen in that save file, effectively preventing the player from ever fighting Penance, acquiring the Jecht's Sphere in Besaid Village, acquiring Valefor's Energy Blast Overdrive if not obtained on the first visit, and even from acquiring Anima (and subsequently, the Magus Sisters) if the player did not get the treasure from Besaid Temple at the beginning of the game. To bypass this glitch, one must simply open the PS2 CD tray while the scene that is supposed to freeze starts (the scene will stop while the tray is open) and then close it. The saved game editor FFXED is also capable of fixing a glitched save file.
The Greatest Hits version partially fixes the glitch. A new game started in this version will never have this issue; however, the glitch will still occur when loading an already-glitched save. The PAL version fixes the glitch completely, even when loading a glitched save from the International version. By extension, the glitch is fixed in the HD Remaster.
Musical themes[]
Dark Valefor, together with Dark Anima and Dark Magus Sisters, are the only Dark Aeon battles where the random encounter battle theme plays.
Other appearances[]
Final Fantasy Record Keeper[]
This section about an enemy in Final Fantasy Record Keeper is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.
Behind the scenes[]
After the battle with Dark Valefor, the game reuses two lines of dialog of two non-player characters from the fireplace scene in Besaid Village. The reused lines are "Stay away from the summoner!" and "You're a bad man!"
Related enemies[]
- Valefor
- Pterya
- Dark Anima
- Dark Bahamut
- Dark Cindy
- Dark Ifrit
- Dark Ixion
- Dark Mindy
- Dark Sandy
- Dark Shiva
- Dark Yojimbo