Golem Overview
Welcome to the first boss of EO5, and boy is it a doozy. Golem is, in my opinion, by far the hardest 1st Stratum boss in the entire series, and definitely the one that takes longest to kill. 2660 HP might not sound like a lot, coming off of Chimaera's effective total of 5500 in EO2U, but trust me, that 2660 goes a lot farther due to how little damage your party deals in EO5 compared to EO2U.

The overall gimmick of the fight is basically controlling the Mini-Golems, or at least damaging them as much as possible before they can form a body part. Before I go any further, I should explain how Mini-Golems spawn. They don't spawn like summons do in EO2U, where the boss can just call them at will. Instead, the Golem Body will use Call Allies, which'll spawn new Mini-Golems at the corners of the boss arena. You can block the two upper spawn points by rotating pillars earlier in the floor--in fact, this is damn near a necessity, since you can get very quickly overwhelmed otherwise. It's in your best interest to bring along as many classes with row-target spells as you can (which, at this point, includes Reaper, Warlock, Necromancer, and Hound), since you ideally want to lop off Mini-Golems' HP while also damaging the Golem body parts. Also, disables. Disables really aren't worth it in the Golem fight unless they're attached to a multi-target spell (so pretty much just Scythe of Numb Stasis at this point), since the Mini-Golems still have FOE/boss resistances to disables. Poison's also less worth it than you'd think, since it doesn't benefit from the Mini-Golems' 300% resistances to everything, and only damages the Golem Body once an afflicted Mini-Golem uses Combine.

Also, note that ignoring the Mini-Golems and just going for the Golem Body is very much not an option, since it's incredibly hard to just eat an Explosion every 4 turns.

As for the Golem itself, it can only one one action from a body part at a time--it'll just pick a random body part to act for the turn, and then pick a skill from that part. The arms are by far the most dangerous part. The legs are entirely physical, and Sumo Stomp is just splash damage--Line Guard can really easily help take care of those. The head just does defense reduction and petrification--don't get me wrong, that's dangerous, but less dangerous than actually trying to kill your party. The arms, on the other hand, have elemental damage, and both Fire and Ice Palm can and will one-shot party members at this point in the game. Ice Palm's by far the more dangerous of the two, since it almost certainly will just take two party members out of the fight, which is incredibly hard to recover from.

One final miscellaneous note before I go to party member descriptions: note that note that if a Mini-Golem is incapacitated in some way (panic, sleep, petrification), even if it is currently in the battle, Call Allies will not summon new Mini-Golems at the spot the incapacitated Golem originated from.


Alexis: Alexis is okay-ish for Golem. Dodge-tanking only really helps for Stomp and Fire Palm--Sumo Stomp will still get its splash damage off, and Ice Palm will still probably one-shot someone in the back row. Still, taking Stomp and Fire Palm out of the equation doesn't hurt. I wouldn't recommend stacking him with Sasha, though, since that'll leave our party a bit damage-starved.

Sasha: Sasha's only real disadvantage is that it's hard for me to predict if Golem's going to use the Legs or the Arms once both of them are in play. Aside from that, she's a fairly decent choice. She can help contribute some damage to a random Mini-Golem or the Golem Body by using Gun Mount every other turn.

Cecil: Golem is the one time in the game where I feel that a Cestus is really not the best option. The infliction rates on the binding skills at low levels are low as-is, and going up against 50% resistances does not help either. On the other hand, both arm and leg binds give me some pretty nice peace-of-mind for a few turns, and due to how the Mini-Golem disable transfer works, accumulative resistance isn't something to worry about.

Raven: Raven's a pretty good choice. Scythe of Numb Stasis costs quite a bit of TP early on, but it's row-target damage and can inflict paralysis if I feel like keeping Miasma Weapon up.

Kaelin: Lightning is about as good for just chipping at everything in the front row as Scythe of Numb Stasis is, and Kaelin has the benefit of having a larger TP pool than Raven. He doesn't do much aside from that, though.

Lanzon: Lanzon's big problem with Golem is that his skills cost way too much TP and drain him dry really quickly, which is a pretty serious issue when you're dealing with a long fight like Golem. Amritas can help, but we only have one or two of them at the moment.

Gram: Gram's passive healing from Animal Therapy is nice, and Flash of Both Wings is pretty good row-target damage. She suffers from the same potential TP problems as Raven, though.

Jana: Note how I made specific mention of what happens with incapacitated Mini-Golems up there. That's because I won my first attempt at Golem solely on the back of stopping Mini-Golem spawns for a solid few turns thanks to Mist Slice. Jana doesn't contribute much (or anything, really) in the way of multi-target damage, but she hits hard enough that she's still worth considering.

Mio: I don't really think much of the elemental Prayers, but Prayer: Cold Rain is nice for reducing the damage of potential Ice Palms. On top of that, Prayer: Eradication means that the party gets more damage relative to how much TP they spend for something, which is pretty important for a long fight like Golem. Mio's also not useless once she's thrown down her buffs--she can help chip off Mini-Golem HP with Cold Wave.

Dosen: Dosen is best combined with Sasha, since he can just patch up the worst damage from Leg skills that were reduced by Line Guard. His high WIS also means he has a chance at not getting one-shot by Ice Palm.

Magda: Poison is "eh" for Golem, and while inflicting blind is useful, Magda's big problem is that she doesn't have much to do after that and Smoke Rot. On the other hand, if Kaelin, Lanzon, or Mio are in the party, Smoke Rot seriously makes their TP go a lot farther.
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