Template:Sideicon The Don Tonberry is a rare enemy in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Equipping the Battlemania Fragment Skill increases the chances of encountering it. Taming the Don Tonberry rewards the Beast Tamer trophy/achievement.
Stats
Battle
Don Tonberry delivers devastating physical and magical attacks and when low on health steals the party members' HP. It halves all damage and is immune to status ailments. It becomes a good enemy to farm once the player's Crystarium becomes fairly well-leveled.
Strategy
For lower levels, having at least 6000HP for both Serah and Noel makes the fight easier.
The recommended paradigms are:
- Cerberus (COM/COM/COM)
- Tri-disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV)
- Discretion (MED/MED/COM)
Starting with Cerberus the party should stabilize Don Tonberry's stagger gauge. After a few strikes the party should shift to Tri-disaster and stagger Don Tonberry. The party should have Haste from the preemptive strike, so staggering it shouldn't take long.
Once Don Tonberry is staggered Serah should unleash Ultima Arrow to help bring the stagger level up to around 750%. With decent stats the player should be able to switch back to Cerberus and finish the battle before the stagger wears off. Noel can unleash his Meteor Javelin just when Don Tonberry is about to recover from stagger for massive damage.
Item farming
Don Tonberry yields Scarletites as a common drop (which sell for 18,700 gil in shops with Haggler) and Hermes Sandals (which sell for 11,000 gil, again with Haggler). With a maxed character equipping a Collector Catalog, or preferably, a Durable Collector Catalog, the player will get a Scarletite essentially every time. This makes Don Tonberry a good monster to farm for money.
Paradigm Pack
Don Tonberry is a quick-hitting Commando. Since its Strength and Magic are nearly equal, it can function as a Magic-based Commando with good spell-casting speed, but cannot use its useful Drain Attack or its Chaser abilities with Ruin or Ruinga. While its HP is lower than most Paradigm Pack Commandos' without HP +30%, it naturally resists status ailments and halves physical and magic damage. Its Feral Link, Hateful Gouge, capitalizes on Strength and inflicts Deprotect, Imperil, Curse, and Slow with a maximum synchronization rate of 300%.
It only has one Crystarium expansion. While versatile, Chichu and Cactuar are better Strength-based Commandos and the Red Chocobo a better Magic-based one. Don tonberry learns Quick Stagger and Bonus CP, but it has Perpetual Poison as a passive ability, which means one has to heal it every once in a while. If the player teaches it some Critical:Buff abilities, in HP Critical Don Tonberry can be blessed with a myriad of buffs, allowing it to serve in a Synergist-like fashion, as it can share its buffs with the rest of the Paradigm Pack.
While Don Tonberry has higher base stats, the regular Tonberry is perhaps slightly better.
Monster stats
Template:XIII2 Paradigm Pack
Abilities
| Ability | Level | Type | Infuse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruin | Initial | Command | |
| Drain Attack | Initial | Command | |
| Perpetual Poison | Initial | Passive | |
| Bloodthirsty | 2 | Auto | |
| Stagger: Wound | 4 | Auto | |
| Fog Chaser | 6 | Auto | |
| Poison Chaser | 8 | Auto | |
| Pain Chaser | 10 | Auto | |
| Curse Chaser | 12 | Auto | |
| Imperil Chaser | 14 | Auto | |
| Deshell Chaser | 16 | Auto | |
| Deprotect Chaser | 18 | Auto | |
| Slow Chaser | 20 | Auto | |
| Quick Stagger | 26 | Passive | |
| Bonus CP | 30 | Passive |
Gallery
Trivia
- The maximum HP of both Tonberry and Don Tonberry—393,939, refers to the maximum HP—39,393—of the Tonberry from Final Fantasy V, the game Tonberries first appeared in.