Trials of the Dragon King DLC Walkthrough - Stranger of Paradise: FF Origin

Welcome back, Warrior of Chaos. Thank you for joining us for our coverage of the first DLC expansion for Strangers of Paradise, the Trials of the Dragon King! In this guide we will cover the four Main Missions added by the DLC, as well as how to unlock these Missions to begin with. There are no secrets to be found in any of them, but their boss battles can definitely be challenging — we will have some tips for you in this guide. Note that you can only begin this storyline after completing the story in the base game first.

Let’s get started!

Once you complete the main storyline, you will notice that a new area, the Ancient Chaos Shrine, just got unlocked. When you are ready, go here to start the new storyline.

Light of Possibility

You will see a cutscene picking up immediately where the base game left off, then be put into a fight with the Warrior of Light. This looks like a boss battle at first, but the Warrior of Light has very little health and won’t do much damage to you. Just block his attacks and keep attacking him in turn, and he will go down quickly. The Mission will be over after this fight.

Once you get taken to the World Map, you will see a new area, The Dragon’s Cave. Go here to begin the Main Mission, ‘A Strange Presence.’

A Strange Presence

There are no enemies or hidden areas in this level. Simply walk forward and open the large doors, then watch the cutscene to complete the Mission.

Once you do, you will unlock the Bahamut difficulty. You can learn more about it in our Bahamut Mode Guide, but Bahamut is essentially a harder version of Chaos.

How to Unlock ‘Trials of the Dragon King’

From this point forward, you will need to be on this difficulty to continue with the story — in order to unlock the last two Main Missions you will need to collect Dragon Treasures, and you can only acquire these by completing Missions in Bahamut Mode.

You can collect Dragon Treasures from any Mission you would like.
As you collect Treasures, you will unlock new Conversations with Bahamut (found in the new ‘Bahamut’ tab in the Main Menu). You can track how many you need to unlock the next Conversation when selecting a Mission.

Once you unlock and play ‘A Singular Vision’ Conversation, you will unlock the next Main Mission — appropriately titled ‘Trials of the Dragon King.’ When you’re ready to continue, head back to the Dragon Cave to begin this Mission.

Trials of the Dragon King

Just like with the last Mission, there are no enemies or hidden areas here. Simply make your way forward until you reach the large doors, and then go through to fight the boss.

Bahamut

Phase 1

Bahamut is an aggressive opponent who is able to both attack at a distance, as well as quickly close the gap between him and his target. He also has a couple of attacks that will target everyone around him.

He can slash at you with a blade up to two times, typically following up with an Ability immediately after.
Bahamut may also use a somersault kick, hitting you and pushing himself back.
Additionally, he can use a sweeping kick to hit everyone surrounding him.
When using Dragon Impulse, he will jump in the air and stab down at the ground with two blades, dealing damage to anyone in a small area around him.
Dual Cross will have him slam the ground with one of his blades. It’s a weaker, but faster attack compared to Dragon Impulse.
Overdrive is an unblockable attack where Bahamut will fly towards you, with up to four blades sweeping the ground to his right.
Dragon Claws is another unblockable attack, where he will briefly jump in the air before slamming the ground.
Ultima Blade will have him shoot the blades on his back into the air, which will then fall down on you. The blades on his back restore afterwards. This can be stolen as an Instant Ability.
Dragon Blade shoots his blades out directly at you. The blades on his back restore afterwards. This can also be stolen as an Instant Ability.
Flare Breath is an attack with two different variations:
- The first variation is a sweeping breath in front of him.
- The second has him shoot a large ball of energy quickly at you.

You will notice up to eight blades floating behind Bahamut’s back. Many of his attacks have him using one or more of these blades. Once he completely runs out, he will shortly pause all attacks to regenerate them. This is your best chance to attack him. Otherwise he does not leave a lot of openings, so be ready to block his attacks, and counter when you can.

Phase 2

Bahamut now unleashes his true power. He will become more aggressive with his attacks but, for the most part, the attacks themselves do not change.

There is one major exception, however:

Flare Breath is now replaced with Megaflare/Gigaflare/Exaflare, each of these more powerful than the one before it.
- These Abilities have the same variations as Flare Breath did (sweeping breath and a ball of energy), with an added third one: he can shoot it as a beam in front of him, hitting you several times.
- Gigaflare adds explosions to the attack once the Ability is completed, and Exaflare will make this attack unblockable.

Bahamut will upgrade Megaflre to Gigaflare by using Gathering Power.
He will then upgrade to Exaflare by using Overflowing with Power.
The only way to get rid of his extra power is to stagger him. Note that he is vulnerable while gathering the power to upgrade.

During this Phase Bahamut will no longer lose his blades, taking away that window to deal damage. However, you can now attack him when he is using Gathering Power or Overflowing with Power. Try to take advantage of these windows, attack when you can in between his Abilities, and he will eventually go down.

How to Unlock ‘Cornelia’s Hope’

Once you complete the Mission, you will once again need to collect Dragon Treasures to unlock more Conversations with Bahamut. After you have ‘The Warriors of Chaos,’ you will unlock the final Main Mission for the DLC — Cornelia’s Hope.

When you’re ready, head back to the Ancient Chaos Shrine and select this Mission.

Cornelia’s Hope

There will be a cutscene once you begin the Mission, and you will be taken straight to the boss fight after.

Warrior of Light

Phase 1

Bahamut kept his word on forging a worthy warrior. The Warrior of Light is a very defensive fighter, which can make it difficult to damage him. He also has access to some powerful abilities.

Note that you will be alone for this fight.

He can slash at you up to three times.
He is also capable of using up to two thrusting attacks, which will quickly close the gap between you two.
Shield Bash will have the Warrior of Light attack you with his shield.
Divine Protection grants him several buffs which greatly reduce the damage he takes.
When using Radiant Slash, he will slash at you with two waves of light that will Dispel your buffs if hit. This can be stolen as an Instant Ability.
Shining Wave is an extremely powerful unblockable attack, where the Warrior of Light will send an obliterating pillar of light towards you.

By far the most dangerous move the Warrior of Light can use is Shining Wave. Not only can it take out a large portion of your health, its tracking also makes it incredibly hard to dodge.

As he is great at blocking your attacks and generally being on the defense, the best way to attack him is to force him on the offense. If you wait for him to attack and Soul Shield him, he will always get staggered, giving you a large window to attack him. Keep repeating this cycle and staggering him, and he will go down quickly. If he uses Divine Protection, use his Radiant Slash against him to Dispel his extra defenses.

Phase 2

The Warrior of Light powers himself up and gains a near impenetrable defense. Blocking will not stagger him like before, and he has a new counterattack if you try to hit him at the wrong time.

If you hit him while his aura is up (which it will be for 90% of the of the fight), he will instantly use Shield of Light to block the attack, then follow it up with Shining Saber, a powerful sweeping attack. The only time he will not have this aura up is when you stagger him, which you can now only do with one of the two methods:

Hit him with his Radiant Slash.
Soul Shield his Shining Saber.

The only other window you will get to attack him is if he misses his Shining Wave attack. Although he won’t get staggered, this is the only other time you can attack him without being countered. This makes Dragoon a great Job for this fight, as they can dodge and instantly punish the attacker using Jump, giving them an easy way to deal damage.

However you decide to deal with the Warrior of Light’s defenses, just keep in mind that he can kill you very quickly if you slip. So, be careful. Stay on the defensive and take advantage of any openings you can, and eventually he will be defeated.

Defeating the Warrior of Light will complete the story and unlock two Ebon Memories Side Missions: ‘Hope within Despair’ and ‘Dragon’s Despair’. Congratulations: you have just completed the first DLC expansion for Stranger of Paradise!