Players of Metaphor: ReFantazio may find themselves struggling against Trove Imitec, one of the game’s boss fights if they stumble across it too soon. It is very easy to come across it very early in the game, and that can make it a challenging fight for anyone unprepared. However, there are a few ways you can make this fight much easier on yourself, and you can avoid some of the frustration that this fight can cause.

Already acclaimed as one of the best RPGs of 2024, Metaphor: ReFantazio allows players to craft a party and then customize it to their liking based on the various Archetypes and moves that each character can learn. In order to master the various boss fights in this game, players can utilize these techniques to build a team that can handle any challenge no matter what part of the game you are at.

How To Prepare For The Trove Imitec Boss

The Right Items & Archetypes

One of the things you're going to want to do to prepare if you have the chance is to purchase three Mint Charms at night from the merchant in Gloamhall, which prevents sleep. This will help you avoid the most frustrating part of the boss fight against Trove Imitec, but there are other ways to do so.

You can also buy or bring along Thrilling Tintinnabulators, which will at least cure you of the Sleep ailment if not prevent it. And if you equip Patra to the Healer, you could also use that to cure status ailments in Metaphor: ReFantazio as well. Any of these are potential options, and it is up to you to figure out which one of those will work best.

Patra is a Recovery Skill that you can learn that takes away any status ailments for an ally.

As for setting up your Archetypes, you are going to want to have one of each of a Brawler, a Healer, and a Merchant. At this point in the game, you may only have three party and thus three Archetypes to use. However, you can recruit Heismay at this point, which will unlock the Thief Archetype. If you do and you can enter this fight with four party , you will have an advantage.

To unlock the Merchant and Brawler Archetypes, you may have to do a little more work. You can find Brigitta in Grand Tran to unlock the Merchant. Heismay will unlock automatically in the main story, so if you do not have him, you can choose to wait until after you have recruited him to do this dungeon.

With those Archetypes in mind, here are the best party to take advantage of it to ensure success.

Best Party Combos For The Trove Imitic Boss

Pick Everyone

You are unlikely to have much choice in which playable characters will your party for this one in Metaphor: ReFantazio. However, choosing who goes where can be important. With that in mind, players will likely want the following combination:

• Protagonist: Merchant With Second Highest Agility/Endurance
• Strohl: Brawler With Highest ATK
• Hulkenberg: Healer With Highest Magic
• Heismay: Thief With Gold Attack

The main reason for this setup is that we want to be able to use the Protagonist second. This is because the Protagonist can then distract Trove Imitec on their turn, making him miss a turn while Strohl attacks with heavy damage.

This guide is based on the Normal mode difficulty, your success with higher difficulties such as Hard mode might prove difficult.

Moreover, if you can have the Protagonist inherit the Strike Dodge ability, this will allow you to have a stronger evasion and potentially cancel out several of Trove Imitec’s turns. Having Hama on your Healer will also be quite useful, and if you have a Thief, make sure they have a Gold Attack. If not, the Merchant can also use it.

If you cannot use this exact setup, you can use two Brawlers and a Healer instead, so that they can each other and the Healer can continue to use Hama without much issue. The Thief is more of an extra body for this fight, but they can make it a lot easier to finish the fight. If you cannot get to him, don’t worry as the guide will still help you through it.

How To Defeat The Trove Imitec

Exploit His Weakness

One of the best ways to understand the Trove Imitec is to understand its strengths and weaknesses. While it has a normal reaction to most elements, the following two are the ones to pay attention to:

• Light: Weak
• Dark: Resist

Additionally, here are the moves that the boss can use against you:

In order to successfully beat him, first have the Brawler hit with an Energy Ray. This will allow you to do Light damage to the boss immediately, which is his weakness. After that, the Merchant can follow up with a Gold Attack, which can cause a distraction, as shown in the video by YouTuber Naz talgic.

Last, have the Healer use Hama to hit the boss with more Light damage. This is not the strongest attack, but it will hit for more with Trove Imitic’s elemental status. These three moves can then be used on rinse-and-repeat to eventually beat the boss, but there are other ways to do so.

For instance, you can let the Healer or Brawler use Strike Dodge to make it so you have a much better chance of escaping Trove’s own strikes. And, if you do have Heismay in the Thief Archetype, you can use him to do the Gold Attacks, opening your other options a bit wider.

If necessary, the Merchant can heal and use other items to heal the Party, as your Healer should be using Hama. No matter what you do, focus on Light damage where possible and other moves when you are ready. And soon, you will be escaping to the next adventure in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Source: YouTube/Naz talgic