A description of all of Zeromus' spells can be found at the end of this article.

After the Crystal is used, Zeromus' sprite changes and he starts his initial phase.

This phase is immediately followed by the Virus phase.

If, at any point during this phase, Zeromus takes direct damage (or mp drain), and he's taken 45000 damage or more, he refills his HP to full (61000) and begins Nuke phase on his next turn. Otherwise, this phase repeats.

If, at any point during this phase, Zeromus takes direct damage (or mp drain), and his health drops to 12000 or lower, he begins Meteo phase on his next turn. Otherwise, this phase repeats.

Repeats until the fight ends.

When an enemy starts a chain, all actions in the chain are executed at once, whereas normally it takes one turn to queue a command and one turn to execute it.

This also means Meteo's spell power cannot be modified (buffed/nerfed).

Nerfing works by taking advantage of counter-attacks to modify an enemy's magic power stat before it casts a spell. Since Zeromus sets his magic power to 31 or 32 (8 or 9 multipliers) when casting Big Bang, but sets his magic power to 14 (4 multipliers) when firing a counter-Nuke, a well timed counter can lead to a Big Bang with only 4 multipliers. This drops the maximum possible damage from 2400 or 2700 down to 1200.

Because Zeromus does not set his magic power before the first Big Bang, it can be nerfed at any time. All that matters is that the attack leads to a counter-Nuke. (Crystal will always work; for anything else you have to wait for Z to use his first turn to become vulnerable)

Subsequent Big Bangs can only be nerfed after Zeromus has queued the spell, which makes the timing extremely tight. Due to the number of factors that go into this timing, it is beyond the scope of this article.

Be aware of the current phase's counters when nerfing Big Bangs. For example, Holy magic (White/Meteo) cannot nerf a Big Bang because it does not invoke a counter-Nuke, and in most phases¹⁾, Rydia's summons can actually buff a Big Bang by invoking a 10 multiplier Virus counter.

It's also worth noting that the HP checks take priority over counters. This means that if a spell causes Zeromus to tip into the Nuke or Meteo phase, there will be no counter-Nuke, and thus no nerf if a Big Bang is already queued. If a phase tip is imminent, using non-damaging spells/items such as the Crystal can ensure that a Big Bang is nerfed.

Zeromus only refills his HP and moves into the Nuke phase if he takes (non-lethal) direct damage and his HP is at 16000 or less.²⁾ Reflected spells bypass this check, allowing for much quicker kills. Reflect strats can be safer too, as Zeromus will not enter the Meteo phase.

One way to know when Zeromus changes phases is by counting damage, but there are also visible signs of the transition.

When direct damage tips Zeromus into the Nuke or Meteo phases, it does so by triggering a counter script that is similar to a normal “Do nothing” turn. This script can take a few seconds to run, leading to a noticeable lull in the fight that is indicative of a phase change.

A “fake shake”, where Zeromus shakes but never casts Big Bang, means that Zeromus changed phases in between the shake and the Big Bang. Two shakes without a Big Bang in between are a sign that Zeromus has entered the Nuke phase.

Target: Entire party
Effect: Removes Wall, Barrier, Image, Float and Berserk status, as well as resetting the speed modifier to its default value.³⁾

Effect: Very scary. Does nothing except signal that the next action in the script will be a Big Bang.

Target: Entire party
Multipliers: 8 or 9 (modifiable by inducing a counter)
Effect: 200-300 non-elemental damage per multiplier, and Sap (HP leak) usually lasting 30 ticks.

(Identical to Disrupt)
Target: Entire party
Effect: Removes Wall, Barrier, Image, Float and Berserk status, as well as resetting the speed modifier to its default value.⁴⁾

Target: Single party member
Multipliers: 4 (Scripted cast: modifiable. Counter: not modifiable)
Effect: 400-600 non-elemental damage per multiplier.

Target: Entire party (split damage)
Multipliers: 10 (Scripted cast: modifiable. Counter: not modifiable)
Effect: 128-192 non-elemental damage per multiplier, divided by the number of targets (or possibly always split 5 ways?)

Target: Entire party
Multipliers: 1 (not modifiable)
Effect: 800-1200 non-elemental damage per multiplier.