Final Fantasy 12 has plenty of optional bosses and enemies to challenge even the hardiest of players, with many of these relating to the Hunt system, where you accept sidequests and track down a specific mark that you have been asked to defeat. One of these is Deathgaze, a Rank VII Mark that is a great flying wyrm.
Defeating Deathgaze will earn you the "Eagle Eye" trophy/achievement. We've got everything you need to know about how and where to undertake this hunt, as well as how best to defeat Deathgaze just below. Happy hunting!
Unlocking the Visitor on Deck Hunt
You can start the Visitor on Deck Hunt by visiting one of the Aerodromes and finding a young boy NPC named "Traveler", or "Son" if you have already spoken to him before. For this hunt to become available, you must have progressed past the events in Giruvegan.
Deathgaze Location
After speaking with the hunt petitioner, there is a chance that Deathgaze will spawn any time you board a skyferry, but the odds of it appearing are initially only 4%. Don't worry, you can raise your odds. Each time you board a skyferry and travel to the next Aerodrome, you should find and speak with the young boy again as this will raise the odds of Deathgaze appearing on your next skyferry journey. Each time you speak with the young boy, the odds of Deathgaze appearing are doubled until they max out at 64%.
Choose to take a private cabin each time to make the process a little quicker, and eventually, when Deathgaze decides to spawn, you will be interrupted by an NPC asking you to help fight it. Deathgaze can be found on the top level of the airship.
Battle Strategy
A suggested quick-win strategy for players who have both Reverse and Renew is to cast Reverse on Deathgaze quickly followed by Renew to reduce it to 1 HP. You then just need to cast Cure in order to kill it.
When you first enter the top deck, don't immediately go up the stairs to where Deathgaze is and instead buff your party on the lower section before starting the battle properly. It's best to wear Fire-absorbing armor for this fight and you can have your party equip two-handed weapons if you like as Deathgaze's attacks ignore shields' evasion.
Deathgaze likes to inflict a lot of negative statuses on your party and most of its hardest-hitting attacks are Magick-based too, so aim to Silence it as soon as possible. Set up a Silence Gambit for one of your party members, or inflict Silence by using the Nihopalaoa and Remedy trick.
It's really important to maintain buffs for this fight, especially Shell and Bubble, as these will reduce the damage done by Deathgaze's worst attacks and also stop it from inflicting Disease on your party. Keep on top of healing as its attacks can be quite devastating, with some moves like Crushing Fangs being able to one-shot characters depending on your level and setup.
At some point in the battle, Deathgaze will use a physical paling and become immune to all physical attacks, so switch to Magick attacks at this point. It can also throw up a Magickal barrier, making it immune to Magickal damage. Should both the physical and Magkickal immunities occur at the same time, you can use Techniks or Quickenings to deal damage.
Deathgaze will use Restore on itself if it is not silenced, and even if silenced, when it reaches low HP it will use Renew and fully restore its HP. Because of this, try and kill it as quickly as you can when it is close to death. There's also a chance of Deathgaze casting Reverse on itself, so switch to healing Magicks if it does this.
Once you have defeated Deathgaze and safely landed in the next Aerodrome, you can speak to the young boy once more to receive your reward of 3,400 Gil and two Elixirs.