Final Fantasy Resonance’s First Boss Will Give You Hell Unless You Grab These Key Items

You'll come up against a handful of tutorial bosses during Chapter 1 of Final Fantasy: Resonance's lengthy adventure. However, none will pose nearly the challenge of its first esper boss, Siren, whom you'll find awaiting you at the top of her spiral tower.

This tough opponent can hit hard and cast Charm on your party, which certainly poses a problem if you're not prepared to deal with it. But don't worry, as we've got some tips for dealing with Siren below.

How to beat Siren in Final Fantasy: Resonance

When Siren reaches around half health, she'll begin using an attack called Allure, which will immediately cast Charm on your entire party. Charm causes your characters to attack one another, which can cause damage to add up quickly. If you aren't prepared to combat Charm casts--on Normal or Expert difficulty especially--there's a reasonable chance Siren will get the best of your party.

Monk's Prayer Beads are the way to go for Charm nullification.

Luckily, there are three ways you can prepare to nullify this annoying effect ahead of time--though there's definitely one that stands above the rest, which we'll tell you about at the end of this list.

Monk's Prayer Beads - This accessory nullifies Charm on whoever is wearing it. You can purchase two of these from the armor merchant in Granport Harbor for 1,500 gil each, or you can obtain them naturally. One can be easily found in a chest on your way up the tower to the boss, while another can be obtained by completing the very straightforward Secrets Unearthed sidequest from Chloe in Felicitas.
Equipping Leah - You can grant one character Charm immunity by simply having Leah equipped to them. Her "Nullify Charm" passive assures at least one party member is safe, and we'd recommend that be Fina if necessary. Read on for why that is.
Esuna or Pray - Esuna is a spell that can cure any ailment, and Pray is an ability that does the same thing. Since Siren can occasionally cast Silence on a character, Pray becomes unusable. Having Leah equipped on Fina is the best bet for this option, as she'll have access to Pray even if she's Silenced. In this case, you can quickly remove Charm from any party member who has been affected.

Of the options above, you'd ideally want to obtain three Monk's Prayer Beads (buy at least one and find two), allowing you to equip the Tronn to Fina instead. Tronn will allow her to use Lightning spells, which, as we're about to find out, is very useful.

Become the storm (as in, cast a lot of lightning)

Siren is weak to Lightning spells, which means you'll likely want to bring along a character with Tronn equipped that you can repeatedly blast Siren with the Thunder spell.

While you can equip Tronn to Lasswell (since they're both Breakers), it's ideal to have Cloud equipped to Lasswell and Tronn equipped to Fina. This allows both characters to have access to Lightning-based spells (Tronn's Thunder and Cloud's Thunder Surge). Meanwhile, Rain should keep Warrior of Light equipped so that he can keep unleashing Thunder Blade when able.

When you get off a beautiful Sweeping Stagger and have an opportunity to really lay into Siren, you'll also get the option to use a Resonance skill. Always use Ascension (Cloud's ability), as its massive Lightning damage will put a significant dent in Siren's health bar.

The rest is by the books

Beyond knowing how to nullify Charm and exploiting Siren's weaknesses, the remainder of the fight is fairly straightforward. The main thing to note is that you'll want to be level 11 or higher before facing her. Going into the fight at a lower level puts you at a significant disadvantage, both in terms of damage taken and your ability to stagger her quickly.

Siren doesn't have any particularly high damage attacks, though multiple hits without some healing can add up. Make sure to have one or two of your characters keeping enough MP aside for topping you all off as needed.

Siren will sometimes cast Silence, and if it manages to affect one of your characters, you'll be unable to use magic spells for two rounds. Make sure you've got some Potions handy to stay healed up during rough patches.

If you're prepared for this fight, it's not particularly difficult to come out victorious. And once you do, you'll gain access to Siren as an esper you can summon to fight alongside you in future battles. Awesome.

Final Fantasy: Resonance is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.