Fighting in SaGa Emerald Beyond without understanding the different types of enemies can be a struggle. Enemies can differ in name only or have a different color which indicates a higher tier of strength. What truly marks a type is its weaknesses and tactics and they always have a different graphical model compared to one another. Most of the higher colors of enemies are unlocked through the difficulty scaling as your characters gain stats. When you start getting stats above level 50 is when you should see a new tier of enemy. Stats above 75 will unlock the final tier. There may be a 25 tier but you probably will not notice it unlocking. There are at least 4 tiers to each enemy. Usually there are renamed versions that are based on events or can be a boss version. The final tier of an enemy is usually used as a boss-like version in normal encounters with the most common exception of Vanitas (a zombie skeleton). Ranas (frog people) seem to not be affected by these tier upgrades, or at least it is hard to remember. Both of these cases are probably because the monsters get used as summons.

First of all, there are in-game race types marked by symbols. These are where the "discriminatory" techs for the "Discriminatory Execution" trial come from. You can reliably hit these enemies with the techs that have a matching symbol. One of the most obvious examples is the "Anti-Beast" tech from cold/water 2 handed guns

This guide will generally be labeled along these lines, but there is no guarantee.

Their capabilities will be similar to yours, but they will only have access to one weapon type. They might be weak to slashing (I think this was true in Scarlet Grace). These are typically special event fights, bosses and recruitable characters (that you probably missed the requirements for). Blind and various other status effects should be good against them.

Pretty obvious, they are like angel warriors. They all are based around one-handed sword techniques. They seem to have no weaknesses and strong status resistances. They are designed to be bosses so take them seriously and equip strong slash resistance equipment to consistently win against them. Airwave is a somewhat common attack that will hit anyone slower than the valkyrie on the timeline. Be worried about stun resistance as well because of their Leg Sweep technique.

Diamond shaped stone faces that are primarily spellcasters. They also have Blaster and Spreadfire which are either shock or pierce element. However, their biggest weakness is actually spells (mostly if they have elements like shock, cold and heat). Sometimes they have complete damage immunity to certain elements. They usually have low HP, but they often have a gimmick in boss fights where you have to lower their HP to 0 to stop them from attacking, but they still exist on the battlefield. Not only that, but they seem to revive after 3-5 turns, but it should not be full health.

This counts as a flying enemy so you should avoid using any attacks that are not magic or labeled anti-air.

These are zombie skeletons and succubi. The zombie skeletons attack with blunt + slash attacks and use gazes that may inflict death, paralysis and petrification (maybe even another ailment like confusion). Succubi use slash attacks and probably a neutral elemental interrupt where they screech. Their weaknesses are slash and fire. Succubi also have many interrupts and counter attacks. They should not be able to interrupt slashes You should defeate a succubus first because they often restrict your actions due to interrupts. Used ranged (quell) skills, preferrably spells. Also, succubi have many status ailment vulnerabilities, mainly paralysis, while zombie skeletons seem to be immune to all.

Slimes are not clear cut in this game. They might be a generic monster. I am not going into the Baum enemies here because I want to avoid true bosses at this point. I forget what they are weak or strong against, but they often cast spells or attack with goop and maybe acid spray and only really appear inside the giant whale world.

They are the most obvious race and have a wolf icon. They are surprisingly strong against heat (as far as I can tell) with the werewolves taking nearly 0 damage from the element. They have a surprising amount of conditionals. They are weak to either blunt or pierce (I forget which one). Bringing cold spells, Heavenly Lightning and Anti-Beast tech (if possible) seems like the only safe strategy. Werewolves will protect often, but they also might have counterattack and interrupt which will hit all characters and is probably non-elemental and debuff. Always hit them with quell if possible. Probably avoid blunt, which includes earth spells.

Weak to pierce. This is a very natural enemy to hit with its weakness because pierce is typically also anti air because of guns. Avoid slashing attacks around the bat enemies when they have a conditional ???. Anti air is extremely important because accuracy is very low against flying types otherwise. You usually want to defend against blind (or have Gourmand support for even better utility).

The dung beetles and preying mantises are weak to blunt attacks and fire. Mantises are powerful foes who need poison resistance and death at the higher or highest tier. Dungbeetles obviously have stench effects (that dungball graphic is so dumb). Both have interrupts, but I think the beetles need to be high tier to get it and I am guessing it is against pierce. Mantises have slash interrupt and it causes poison. It seems like a great monster skill but for me it usually misses the target. I usually prioritize these enemies in a fight if possible.

To me, only one type of plant fits into a normal enemy role, but I guess mochs (the coconut trees) are another. They are weak against slashing and fire. I think they take extra damage from impact divide from axes. Mandrakes/Red Radishes are the peskiest enemies. They have HP drain and can inflict provoke and confusion on the whole party or provoke on one character. They also have instant death through their self-destruct called Shriek. They often force you to end up on turn five with none of them dead and you have to deal with Shrieks instead so you could just focus on instant death resistance. I am not sure if you can get their HP absorb as a monster skill because of how rarely I can beat them and how often they only provide Nudge.

As for the boss-like Mochs, they are tanky as well as very heavy hitting, but their attacks usually only target one opponent and do not cause status effects. They might have an interrupt against pierce or blunt and they might have a counter. (I get my impression of them mixed up with Scarlet Grace very strongly because they were an obstacle to restoring LP).

Rana are probably the only amphibian monsters. They focus on blunt and stun. Stun protection is absolutely vital. They also can use two deadly techniques - Typhoon (maybe) Squeeze and Summoning. When any enemy summons reinforcements in this game, the reinforcements attack on the same turn, meaning that there is no defense against their actions. Thankfully, they will only show up at the end of the timeline and usually just use hammer blow, which is not too damaging. Typhoon Squeeze always seems to defeat one of my characters and is probably pure cold or non-elemental. These enemies always put up a good fight, especially with their ability to cause delay or stunning someone with an important move (because the AI cheats in Emerald). You absolutely need stun resistance to survive fighting them consistently.

Mechs are the same as what your recruitable characters can be. They are typically stronger than most enemies, but they can be stunned or paralyzed by the right moves. I actually have not been abusing stun on them to be honest, but that probably is your best bet beyond paralyzing them with Heavenly Thunder. They are always weak to lightning and might be weak to pierce.

The flying ones usually cast buffs so either target them first or try to deal as much damage as possible to the more offensive mechs as soon as possible. Mechs are actually really difficult opponents and since they usually use guns they also are hard to conditional against. Debuffs and buffs may be the key to victory if things get too rough.

Not sure what these creatures are typed as. The fairy/imp creatures are spellcasters which usually are not a problem if you attack them first, but the Rascal is a boss type version which means it is usually best to save for last. I believe they usually cast Metal magic (why can't the game give it to us then????????????????).

Then there are the emoji-like statue enemies. I am not sure how to beat them, but they block a lot of damage. It might alternate between complete physical defense and complete magical defense, but I think it is just complete magical defense. Their HP is low, but they have a lot of power and they are hard to damage.

These are enemies that strictly appear as bosses with boss music and can appear completely alone and be a higher difficulty fight.

It is hard to describe this one. It is basically a cursed generic beast perhaps resembling a wolf. This enemy never gives me trouble in this game, but it used to be very dangerous in Scarlet Grace. It's biggest annoyance is that it can delay all spellcasters and it often abuses this and makes spellcasting completely unviable. I believe there can be more than one which leads to Distract being so powerful, but there is Distract status protection, I just never used it.

It looks exactly like the demon that killed Gandalf in Fellowship of the Ring. This is a purely single target attacker, but it probably does more damage than any monster in addition to having delay and instant death effects. Just hitting it with sunlight or incinerate should make it an easy win though. I think it has a slash interrupt which is like tornado blade in Scarlet Grace.

There are at least two Amphibian Bosses. One is the Kraken, which is weak to lightning and maybe pierce. The main thing to watch out for is Maelstrom, which will hit and instant kill anyone later on the timeline than the Kraken. Either equip fast techs or equip instant death protection. When you have death protection, this boss is usually easy. It can blind multiple targets, but blind is usually not a factor in this game because united attacks, showstoppers and spells have 100% accuracy.

Then there is the flying zombie whale. This enemy is extremely rare and has a powerful radiation attack which is non-elemental. I think you should watch out for blunt and cold damage, just like the Ranas and Krakens.

There is also the Drake enemy boss that I am going to include in reptiles even though Drake means duck basically.

All reptile enemies seem to be bosses. Thankfully there is Anti-Reptile on cold 2 handed guns. The first is the Drake (at least that is what I am putting here). It is probably the weakest boss type monster. It has a strong single hit attack and a cold breath attack. It might be weak against pierce. Shockwave is probably its most dangerous move. Focusing on this enemy as soon as possible should prevent too many Shockwaves.

The Lizard Fortress type is a boss that looks more like a dragon, but grounded. It does very heavy blunt attacks, including an conditional that does enough damage to usually defeat a party member in one attack. It also has a cold breath that hits everyone and a shocking move that hits everyone. It is weak to pierce or blunt (not sure). Watch out for the brutal fight on the Deus Mare.

Then there are true Dragons, which I am not 100% sure are reptiles either but they probably are. The fight in Avalon is super dangerous but the rewards are worthwhile. I think the best things you can do are bring Anti-Reptile with 2 handed cold guns and have multiple team mates with Deflect from 2 handed melee. I do not think it has a physical or magical weakness and it has breath attacks that hit all characters and are powerful and may have debuff or status effects or both.

I am not sure what else to call this boss, although it is a flying race. This enemy is one of the most pathetic (potential) boss enemies, but it does easily get stench on your characters while being an airborne enemy. This means that anti-air attacks are completely necessary to avoid having this thing dodge all of your attacks. It also has the slash Cyclone attack and the powerful non-elemental Supersonic Wave that often wipes out a character. (I really recommend that monster skill.)

There are at least two boss mechs. First is the Pandora type mech. This thing is pretty obvious as it looks like final boss material. Very damaging and can hit the whole party with a lot of damage. Deflect might be necessary in most cases. It probably is immune to stun and paralysis, but it will still take extra damage from shock. Maybe the shock 2 handed gun could help a lot but I do not know what techs that has. The only real weakness of this enemy is that it is always alone if I remember correctly.

The bulkhead mechs (Administrator Gold) I would consider to be another boss. They have insane amounts of health and I believe they only appear once in any group. You definitely need debuffs and buffs against it because you have no choice to beat the enemies around it first.

There may be a third boss with the Spider Mech, but I only vaguely remember fighting one. You are a lot more likely to recruit one instead.

The actual slime type enemies are Baums and Ogres. I believe that both can appear in multiples within a fight.

Ogres look like a giant version of Mr. S. They are one of the most powerful enemies. They have almost complete resistance to magical elements and they have the Pursuit skill which will cause a party member to die without instant death protection. Hit it with as much physical attacks as possible. And I believe it's final tier is Toxin Master (or something like that), which can do the powerful Poison Mist skill that hits all characters with poison. It is not a spell like in Scarlet Grace so you definitely need poison resistance to safely fight them.

Baums are giant slimes that buff their defense greatly. They also seem to have no weaknesses, but they are not immune to most magical elements. The green ones can use Squall which attacks all enemies with cold and is a guaranteed hit. It's other attacks are Acid Spray, Goop and maybe a shocking attack. Since it can only cause stench and has no evasion, you should just focus on lowering its defense. Even squall only deals low damage.

Even though it looks like a mech, I am pretty sure the giant spider is an insect boss. It should be vulnerable to blunt and fire and probably will appear alone. It has powerful debuffing attack called Wild Pierce that should be Deflected against. It is usually a pushover boss, but I think it is stronger than it was in Scarlet Grace.

This type is usually for final bosses, but there is one fight that definitely is one.

The Specter of Iwanaga Hime is a repeatable boss in Miyako City and maybe another place and it is one of the most difficult enemies to fight in the game. Specters look like they should be mechs, but it is probably part organic. They use a personality shift skill which changes its weaknesses. Without paying careful attention and testing everything, this boss can seem unbeatable. One of its personalities is really hard to beat and the other is easy. The shift happens every three turns. One I believe is weak to slash, blunt and fire. The other should be weak to pierce, shock and cold. I am less sure of the magical eleemtns.

As for the final bosses, they should be easy to figure out the strategy for. Just protect against the worst status effects if possible. And if you use Ameya, you never have to worry about them.

There are two bosses that I am not sure where to put but they may be elemental. One is the Cat Dragon type, which a lot of people will wrongly call Necronomicom if they played the demo and fought it. This is one of the toughest enemies. You should have blunt, paralysis and shock resistances. And it always conjures more enemies, which will probably act in the same turn they are summoned. In the case of whatever that Necronomicom guardian is called, it starts with skeleton zombies which can use deadly gaze status effects and you actually should prioritize defeating them above all else. Then after those are summoned, it should summon fairy/imps. You should kill one of those and keep the other weak or defeat it again. Even if you can consistently beat the minions, I guess you need to make sure your blunt and shock defenses are high enough. Not sure if Lightning Pierce is also piercing element, however....

Then there is another super rare boss enemy (like the whale). You can fight it in Yomi under special conditions or in Grelon under special conditions. It also might be a brutal fight for Mido as one of the spirits. I believe it has fire and non-elemental skills and the main status effect is confuse. When facing non-elemental skills, I feel like increasing all magical elemental resistances helps, but I am not sure. I remember definitely using fire resistance though. I believe it is the only enemy that casts Fire elemental spells exclusively, which is ironic when Metal is supposed to be the rarest.