How to Beat Kraken
Introduction
Kraken is the third of the Four Fiends in Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster, the Fiend of Water sitting in a chamber at the bottom of the Sunken Shrine. The shrine itself is the longest dungeon in the game, and Kraken closes the chapter after five floors of aquatic encounters.
Statistically he’s a step up from Marilith on every front, but the fight has a much sharper hook than hers: Lightning weakness. Where Marilith had no exploitable weakness, Kraken folds to Thundaga, and your Black Wizard becomes the win condition. The other half of his rotation, Ink, blinds your party and crashes physical accuracy, so the cleanest play is to lean into magic damage and let your physicals eat their reduced hit rate without panicking about it.
A few numbers worth flagging. Hits per turn: 8 is the new highest in the game, ahead of Marilith’s 6 and capable of dropping a soft party member in one Fight turn. Weak to Lightning combined with Magic Defense 0 turns Thundaga into a guaranteed-double damage cast, the single most efficient action in the fight. Magic Evasion 160 means a fair share of casts will whiff, but Thundaga on weakness lands for huge damage when it connects, and that’s the win condition. Defense 60 is the highest physical absorption you’ve faced, so unbuffed melee chip is slow; a Saber-buffed Knight is what you need to make swings count. Status immunities: only Stone, so Sleep and Hold can theoretically land if you want a backup plan, though with 160 Mag Evasion they whiff often. Drop rate: 2% with no drops listed, so the bucket is wasted (same as Marilith). Total rewards: 4,245 EXP and 5,000 Gil, the biggest single payday of any Fiend so far.
Strategy
Quick Tips
- Thundaga every turn
Lightning weakness plus Magic Defense 0. Your Black Wizard never casts anything else for the entire fight.
- Brace for 8-hit physicals
50 Attack times eight swings into one member is a wipe-tier turn if HP is low. Cura preemptively.
- Ink blinds the party
Half his turns are a party-wide Blind cast. Magic damage is unaffected, so curing it is rarely worth a turn.
- Haste plus Saber doubles melee
Defense 60 makes raw swings sluggish. Saber from the Giant Glove and Haste turn one keep physicals meaningful.
- Skip Fire and offensive magic
Resists Fire. Magic Evasion 160 wastes everything else. Thundaga is the only cast worth the MP.
To beat Kraken in FF1, the entire fight is built around Thundaga every turn from your Black Wizard. Lightning is his only weakness, and Magic Defense 0 means a connecting Thundaga lands for double damage. That’s the kill clock. Even with Magic Evasion 160 dropping a fair share of your casts, a few connections across a 5-round fight is enough to chunk through 1,800 HP when paired with melee chip.
The 8-hit Fight pattern is the danger you have to weather. Each of his eight swings rolls separately at 50 Attack, and on a soft target the combined turn can wipe a member outright. Open with Protera from your White Wizard and stack Invisira if you have the turns to spare; both flatten incoming physical totals significantly. Saber on your Knight via the Giant Glove (used as an item) gives him a flat Attack boost that shoves through Defense 60. Haste turn one on your hardest hitter keeps the physical clock moving.
The other half of his rotation is Ink, a party-wide Blind cast that crashes your physical accuracy. Don’t bother curing it; the round you spend casting Blindna is a round of lost Thundaga or Cura, and your Black Wizard’s spells aren’t affected by Blind anyway. Just absorb the accuracy hit, keep swinging, and trust the magic damage to carry. Status casts on him are also rarely worth attempting; with 160 Magic Evasion, even Sleep won’t land reliably enough to plan around.
Move Set
Kraken has a tight 2-move rotation, equally weighted:
| Action | Effect | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Fight | Eight 50-Attack hits in one turn | 50% |
| Ink | Party-wide Blind | 50% |
There’s no spell rotation, no buff casts, no special escalation. Every turn is either an 8-hit physical or a Blind cast on the whole party. The fight reads cleanly: did he just hit me hard, or did he just blind me? Plan healing around the physical turns since those are the ones that drop members.
Battle Plan
- Black Wizard: Thundaga every single turn. Don’t cast anything else.
- White Wizard: Protera turn one, Invisira turn two if HP is stable, then Curaja whenever anyone drops below half HP.
- Knight: Giant Glove (Saber) turn one, Haste from your Black Wizard if affordable, then attack every turn. Diamond Armor helps if you have it.
- Master / Ninja: Attack every turn. Bare-handed Master damage stays consistent even through Ink’s accuracy drop.
After the Battle
Kraken falls and the Water Crystal’s light is restored, the third of the four crystals you’ve now relit. A story trophy unlocks the moment he goes down, and a portal warps your party out of the Sunken Shrine entirely.
Rest at the nearest Inn and restock before continuing. The chapter walkthrough picks up the route from here.