Don Tonberry is an optional monster to fight in Final Fantasy X bred in the Area Conquest section of the Monster Arena after at least one of each fiend in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth is captured. It shares its model with the regular Tonberry.
Stats[]
Battle[]
Don Tonberry's attacks are identical to those of the regular Tonberry and Master Tonberry, but do much greater damage. It counters every attack with a strong Karma, and on each turn, takes a step forward. After taking four steps, it will stop using Karma and attack a random party member on its turn with Chef's Knife.
If an aeon is summoned, Don Tonberry will perform Voodoo, generating a tiny image of the aeon and stabbing it for heavy magical damage; this attack ignores Shell and can be only reduced by Focus and the Shield command. This attack only targets a single aeon, meaning the Magus Sisters can be called by Grand Summon, perform their Overdrive attack, be dismissed, and use Grand Summon again reviving the previously killed aeon with 1 HP, allowing them to combine again.
Damage for Karma is calculated the following way:
Don Tonberry will drop weapons with status strikes and armor with status proofs, the Instant Death versions of these abilities being fixed. Its equipment drops provide a hidden 6% critical hit chance bonus instead of the usual 3% (this is relevant to weapons and armor, but only to attacks that deal physical damage).
AP grinding[]
The player can customize their weapons with the Triple Overdrive, Triple AP and Overdrive → AP abilities, and place two characters' Overdrive in Comrade mode, and one character in Stoic mode (the character attacking being the one set to Stoic).
While fighting Don Tonberry, the player should cast Hastega on everyone and then get Don Tonberry to counter with Karma on the character whose Overdrive mode is Stoic, then revive him/her with the other party members and recast Haste. The player should repeat this until Don Tonberry is dead or gets too close and the player is forced to flee. When Don Tonberry counters with Karma, the damage will fuel the Overdrive, which will triple and then convert into AP, and at the end of the battle the total AP is also tripled. The AP is received even if the player escapes the battle, or the Overdrive gauge is full.
It is possible to go from 0 to 99 Sphere Levels in one battle with three characters using this method; it is only limited by the party's MP and how fast Don Tonberry closes in. The amount of Overdrive received is determined by the amount of damage received which, for Don Tonberry, is the number of monsters a character has killed multiplied by 100. Only the Overdrive → AP ability is needed for this trick, but the other two abilities will boost the amount of obtained AP. The only character that needs to receive damage from Karma is the character whose Overdrive Mode is set to Stoic, meaning one can easily level up a weak character by skipping their turn and having a strong healer and a character who has had a lot of kills to perform the trick. Even weak characters can use this method.
Alternatively, all three characters can be set with Overdrive → AP and set all three to Comrade. When one character dies, the other two will gain experience, and this allows the party to stay even after Don Tonberry closes in. This will result in lopsided AP yield, however, as some party members may get killed more often than others.
An alternate method is to use weapons with SOS Overdrive and Overdrive → AP, armor with SOS Haste, and Auto-Life.
AP grinding with Don Tonberry is the fastest way to accumulate Sphere Levels and travel the Sphere Grid. This is especially useful if one plans on rearranging the Sphere Grid for stat maxing.
One can also use this method with Cactuar King.
Gallery[]
Related enemies[]
Final Fantasy X-2[]
Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission[]
- Mega Tonberry
- Tonberry