Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake: How to beat Garboyle
Garboyle is hands-down one of Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake’s hardest bosses. In some ways, he’s even more frustrating than Baramos himself. Since he is one of the Archfiend’s lieutenants, players who conquered Dragon Quest 3 on the NES are familiar with this enemy, even if they don’t know it.
The Garboyle is the enemy that Ortega fought during the game’s opening cutscene before he fell into the volcano. If you want to go further, and battle the Archfiend himself, you must first defeat the Garboyle. This, like all the other new bosses, is a serious difficulty spike compared to what you’ve faced before.
Note: This contains minor spoilers for Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake
Tips for defeating Garboyle in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake
The Garboyle is incredibly dangerous in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, but proper use of debuff and status ailment spells can make it a piece of cake. I ran through Garboyle with the Hero, Monster Wrangler (formerly Soldier), Pilgrim, and Sage (formerly Wizard). For the most part, the Hero’s role was to inflict status ailments since he had the highest agility.
The Garboyle can attack twice, like most bosses, and is prone to casting Fire Magic like Frizzle and Boom. I found my Hero did almost no damage to the boss, regardless of melee attacks, but the Monster Wrangler did okay with Attack Attacker.
Garboyle can also use that on you in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, so keep your Magic Defense/Physical Defense buffs up. If you’re going to attack with the hero, cast Zapple — Garboyle’s weak to it. He is also weak to Wind and Ice Magic, interestingly enough.
This boss also has another incredibly frustrating attack — Burning Breath. This can potentially paralyze your entire party, so make sure you have a solution for it or equip anti-paralysis gear going into the battle.
Another solution to make this fight easier is to cast Fizzle on the Garboyle in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. This is partly why I made sure the Hero has a lot of agility. He can cast Fizzle before the boss goes, and if it works, you can get a few turns of him trying to cast spells.
However, I did see a turn where, when Fizzled, he used Attack Attacker three times in one round, which has the potential to be devastating. Make sure you keep your defensive buffs going for these occasions.
Monster Pile-on could be powerful in this fight too. I recommend trying it to see where the damage goes for you.
To keep this fight as easy as possible though, make sure to keep Fizzle on the Garboyle in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. Then, lay on the Monster Wrangler strikes, Zapple, Kacrackle, and Kaswoosh spells; the boss won’t last too long against that kind of onslaught.
Just be careful; in the later parts of this bout, Garboyle has a chance to use three actions a round, and you don’t want to get caught off guard by that. In addition, when at critical HP, he will start casting Inferno, which hits much harder than his spells. It's worse if he does it multiple times a round.
Having a few Prayer Rings in this fight will be important if you don’t have the capacity for Wild Side + Monster Pile-on combo because your damage output will be a bit slower. Thankfully, as we learned during the Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake preview session, there are plenty of Prayer Rings to find in the world.
This boss fight can be a slog, but once you know what Garboyle does in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, you can be better prepared. Success will give you a cutscene; you can then throw Mountaincleaver into the volcano.
Check out our other Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake guides and features
- Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D: Where to find all the Orbs
- Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D: How to find the Bottomless Pot (Boulder Puzzle)
- Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D: How to change classes (Alltrades Abbey)