One of the best and worst parts of Soul Hackers 2 is their approach to bosses. They’re incredibly powerful, often with moves and abilities that require a fair bit of skill and tactics to overcome. Most of these are pretty straightforward, just find the weakness and attack, but the final boss is a bit beyond that.
In addition to having the usual three phases, Cyber Aion has multiple annoying mechanics and elements that require some preparation. Especially if you want to beat it on hard. Thankfully, it isn’t an impossible fight, it just requires a good plan and a fair amount of preparation.
Going into this fight there is a lot of big and small things to do. To make it easier, we’re going to make each part its own section so you can ensure you’re ready for this final encounter.
Depending on how you’re playing, there will basically be two paths this can go. One is simply going to Mannequin and purchasing the best, in your use case, items he sells. For those leveling characters and progressing in their Axis points, you might’ve earned something better. For example, I have Saizo’s Soul Hat from there, which gives more strength, intelligence, agility, luck and defense, at the cost of 180 HP and 100 MP compared to his Vintage Lighter. Every character will have a different consideration, though it’s important to make sure you have good defense items if you want to survive.
When visiting De La Macha it helps to stock up on Health Food, Herb Sake, Armita Capsule, Chakra Syrup, Chakra Cube, Magical Bottle, Patra Water, Lourdes Water and Chakra Powder. You basically want to be able to heal, give MP or remove status aliments without having to rely on a specific character.
Depending on your position, it also helps to go to Yang Yang Palace and purchase Bead, Bead Shard, Bead Chain, Revival Bead, Balm of Life, Me Patra Ball, Me Lourdes Ball, Amrita Drop, Chakra Bean, Chakra Drop, and Dekunda Pearl.
I also suggest bringing one characters support affinity to at least A rank, purchase as many Mystique slots you can and obviously go for any stat boosts if you haven’t already.
Pick an affinity that works best for your Demons and you at least have one break debuff for and load each character up. I personally do damage and MP cost decrease, though doing two of each under different affinities also work.
That said, your healer absolutely should have Healing Arcana and ideally a high level one. With enough, you can use full heals for almost no cost.
If you have an open slot, it also helps to give characters one of the crystal support items. Instead of boosting something, they outright give characters a support skill. Since these are not detailed on the crystal itself, you can find a list and explanation below.
Basically, get the most versatile set you can and replace any weak demon before entering this fight. One of the mechanics changes your demons randomly, so having a Pixie you’re leveling could result in your character getting killed or at least putting you in a weird spot.
Beyond that, I would make sure to have as many demons that do the following:
Some standout choices include:
Some Demons to avoid include:
It also helps to avoid anything under level 50, lacks a sizable amount of skills and things of the like.
Unlike other bosses, Cyber Aion takes three turns sequentially and can not be scanned. To save people time, you can find the initial affinity line up above. She also does some moves that paralyze, seal and debuff attack, defense and hit/dodge.
In addition to that, debuffs work on Cyber Aion, but are rarely worthwhile. This goes back to her three sequential turns. Due to how Soul Hackers 2 views an action, this is consider three actual turns, meaning her phase will automatically run out the clock on any debuff inflicted on her without something like Support Extender to increase the turn count beyond three. As a result, it’s better to have a demon that can remove debuffs or try to time out your buffs so they give some benefit while nullifying hers.
Beyond that, this fight is more about perseverance. Since she can attack multiple times, it’s incredibly easy and common to get overwhelmed. You just need to be able to stay ahead of the game by not leaving anyone defenseless, while also building momentum against her.
This is best done by having a dedicated support unit, one that can do both and two attackers. From there, either damage her through Force, Physical, Almighty of Piercing attacks. If done correctly, this phase goes pretty fast and is rather doable.
When Cyber Aion hits roughly 50 percent she will summon copies called Cyber Aion Zoa. These copies are colored based off the element they control, so Force, Ruin, Fire and Ice. In addition to that, Cyber Aion is still a participant, but can no longer be attacked. Instead, she will either buff a random Zoa with an extra turn, pick a specific target for every attack or attack herself. On a high note, since these are normal enemies, debuffs work for multiple turns and are great for bypassing some of the affinity system annoyances.
Typically, when an enemy gets its extra turn it will cast Makarakarn. This is an AoE that repels a single magical attack. It makes damaging any of these Zoa a bit risky, though there are ways of countering it as well. My advice is to use this to your advantage and try to have Demons that block, reflect or ideally heal based off an element in question.
For example, I used Mazandyne on my Pazuzu, which hit every enemy with Force damage and reflected it back at me for a nice 600+ heal. By doing this, not only is my character healed, every Zoa can be attacked with magic for the remainder of my turn.
To further make this easier, you can find the Zoa affinities for each type above. Generally it’s best to focus on their weakness, though Almighty, Piercing and so forth will also do considerable damage to them without worrying about Makarakarn. After defeating two of Zoa their affinities will change slightly.
Due to differences in teams and skills, there will likely be two Zoa that are easier to kill than another two. In my case, the easy ones were Ruin and Ice, but the two you kill doesn’t really matter as long as you can quickly drop them.
My main cycle of attack changed based off turn order. If I had someone who could take a reflected magic hit on the first or second turn, I would use their safe AoE and proceed to damage the exposed Zoa. In the event I didn’t have a safe unit on the first turn, I would typically consider a buff, debuff or heal. In the event I couldn’t safely remove Makarakarn by the third character, I would either use support skills to make the following turns easier or focus on Almighty, Physical and other safe actions.
The main thing to keep in mind is Cyber Aion’s will often dictate what happens. While she will usually give a random unit another turn, she sometimes attacks giving everyone debuffs or targets a specific unit. In the event of the ladder, just make sure that unit can survive, either by healing, guarding or whatever needs to be done. Or, if you want to play really wild, sacrifice them and revive on the following turn, as Zoa should be unshielded during this attack phase.
Once you get to the final two, it should be a pretty straightforward fight. They’re not overly powerful units and when there are two, any passive skills will make it easier to gain momentum against them. The only thing I would say to keep in mind is defeating the last Zoa puts Cyber Aion back into the fight. This follows the previous rules, so if you don’t want to give her a turn, make sure you defeat the last Zoa with units that can deal the final blow. She should have the amount shown in the picture above, so not much, but also not a guaranteed win if you hit her.
Cyber Aion is a slightly different boss. Instead of being a really tactical battle, it’s mostly about running down the clock. Similar to the previous form, Cyber Aion gets two turns, making debuffs slightly more valuable. Beyond that, this is a battle that comes down to staying alive and matching its affinity weakness. Initially it’s basically strong against everything and immune to Ruin, with various weaknesses appearing overtime.
The general rotation seems to be two turns and weaknesses appear and then they move counter clockwise, with Ruin never being an option. So, Elec/Force, Ice/Fire, Physical/Gunfire and then back to Elec/Force. This makes it easier to predict, anticipate and make the most of to quickly defeat the boss.
After about four or so turns it will summon a new enemy called a Cyber Apostle. They’re not powerful, nor do they do much, but you’re still better off killing them as quickly as possible. Since they have no strengths or weaknesses, AoEs of the weak element and other things will make quick work of it.
Around the same time the Cyber Apostle appears, Cyber Aion will use a new skill called Sing. It’s a charged attack, which ends with a devastating AoE on the following turn, that comes down to what makes the most sense to you in that moment. If your allies are in good shape like in the picture above, I would generally roll the dice and take the hit. However, if they’re weak, healing, boosting defense, reducing attack helps as well. If your team can not easily take the hit, consider guarding.
Towards the end Cyber Aion will use a new skill called Logos Collapse, which as you can see above, swaps equipped Demons. This is why I mentioned dumping any Demon that isn’t powerful, as the few times I did this fight it seemingly picked the weakest Demons I had.
Thankfully, this move can be completely mitigated through Master Conversion. Simply swap back to the right Demons, or the ones that make the most sense given its weaknesses, and continue the fight.
At the very end Cyber Aion will use something of an enrage mechanic. Basically, it will boost its attack by increasing its weaknesses. The idea is, you either kill it or it will overwhelm you. At this point it’s best to be as hostile as possible, pushing as many powerful attacks as you can.
With some luck, it will be enough to defeat Cyber Aion and complete Soul Hackers 2.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I do not know how to get both endings. I can tell you through testing, saying I agreed with every spirits choice and then tried disagreeing with every choice and got the same ending. I just wanted to include this so anyone reading doesn’t think to immediately do the opposite and get the other ending.
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