Tiamat is one of the main final bosses that you will face in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance. She is one of the most difficult encounters in the game and will take you a significant amount of time to take her out.
Tiamat spawns with three heads, each having its own set of skills, resistances, and weaknesses. The main boss body itself is resistant to all attack types, however, the gimmick of the fight is to keep killing the heads.
When a head is downed they revive by draining HP from Tiamat’s main body. So if you have the right party combinations the boss will be much more manageable.
So if you are struggling to take down Tiamat, here is a guide that will help make the encounter significantly easier.
Tiamat (main body) Weakness and Resistance in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Tiamat Elemental Weaknesses and Resistances
| Element | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
 Physical | Resist |
 Fire | Resist |
 Ice | Absorb |
 Electric | Resist |
 Force | Resist |
 Light | Resist |
 Dark | Resist |
Tiamat’s Status Ailments Resistances
| Status Effect | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
 Sleep | Resist |
 Confuse | Resist |
 Charm | Resist |
 Mirage | Resist |
 Seal | Resist |
 Poison | Resist |
Tiamat Skill Proficiencies in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Elemental
| Element | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Physical | – |
| Fire | – |
| Ice | +8 |
| Electric | – |
| Force | – |
| Light | – |
| Dark | – |
Other Statuses
| Status | Proficiency |
|---|---|
 Almighty | – |
 Ailment | – |
 Recovery | +3 |
 Support | – |
Tiamat skills in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Mother Goddess’s Love:
- Increases healing skill effects based on how low user’s HP is
Mediarama (+3):
- Moderate HP recovery to all allies.
Bufubarion (+8):
- Severe Ice attack to 1 foe.
Ice Age (+8):
- Heavy Ice attack to 1 foe. Ignores affinity resistance and Pierces through.
Mabufubarion (+8):
- Severe Ice attack to all foes
Boundless Sea (+8):
- Severe ice attack to all foes. Ignores affinity resistance and Pierces through. Removes stat buff.
Magatsuhi Skill: Annihilation Ray
- Severe Physical attack to all foes.
Dragon Head Weakness and Resistance in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Dragon Head Elemental Weaknesses and Resistances
| Element | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
| Physical | – |
| Fire | – |
| Ice | Absorb |
| Electric | – |
| Force | – |
| Light | Weak |
| Dark | Weak |
Dragon Head’s Status Ailments Resistances
| Status Effect | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
| Sleep | Resist |
| Confuse | Resist |
| Charm | Resist |
| Mirage | Resist |
| Seal | Resist |
| Poison | Resist |
Dragon Head Skill Proficiencies in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Elemental
| Element | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Physical | +5 |
| Fire | – |
| Ice | – |
| Electric | – |
| Force | – |
| Light | – |
| Dark | – |
Other Statuses
| Status | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Almighty | – |
| Ailment | – |
| Recovery | – |
| Support | +2 |
Dragon Head skills in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Musmahhu:
- When user’s HP reaches 0, drains HP from Tiamat and revives with full HP.
Severing Bite(+5):
- Heavy Physical attack to 1 foe. Greater effect if Critical.
Hades Blast (+5):
- Heavy Physical attack to all foes
Impaler’s Animus (+2):
- Increases the damage of the next attack for self and adds Pierce effect.
Luster Candy (+2):
- Raises all stats of all allies by 1 rank for 3 turns.
Magatsuhi Skill: Annihilation Ray
- Severe Physical attack to all foes.
Goat Head Weakness and Resistance in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Goat Head Elemental Weaknesses and Resistances
| Element | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
| Physical | Weak |
| Fire | – |
| Ice | Absorb |
| Electric | – |
| Force | – |
| Light | – |
| Dark | – |
Goat Head’s Status Ailments Resistances
| Status Effect | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
| Sleep | Resist |
| Confuse | Resist |
| Charm | Resist |
| Mirage | Resist |
| Seal | Resist |
| Poison | Resist |
Goat Head Skill Proficiencies in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Elemental
| Element | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Physical | – |
| Fire | +1 |
| Ice | – |
| Electric | +1 |
| Force | +1 |
| Light | – |
| Dark | – |
Other Statuses
| Status | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Almighty | – |
| Ailment | – |
| Recovery | – |
| Support | +2 |
Goat Head skills in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Musmahhu:
- When user’s HP reaches 0, drains HP from Tiamat and revives with full HP.
Agibarion (+1):
- Severe Fire attack to 1 foe
Maragibarion (+1):
- Severe Fire attack to all foes.
Ziobrion (+1):
- Severe Elec attack to all foes.
Maziobarion (+1):
- Severe Elec attack to all foes.
Zanbarion (+1):
- Severe Force attack to 1 foe.
Mazanbarion (+1):
- Severe Force attack to all foes.
Impaler’s Animus (+2):
- Increases the damage of the next attack for self and adds Pierce effect.
Luster Candy (+2):
- Raises all stats of all allies by 1 rank for 3 turns.
Magatsuhi Skill: Annihilation Ray
- Severe Physical attack to all foes.
Camel Head Weakness and Resistance in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Camel Head Elemental Weaknesses and Resistances
| Element | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
| Physical | – |
| Fire | Weak |
| Ice | Absorb |
| Electric | Weak |
| Force | Weak |
| Light | – |
| Dark | – |
Camel Head’s Status Ailments Resistances
| Status Effect | Resistance/Weakness |
|---|---|
| Sleep | Resist |
| Confuse | Resist |
| Charm | Resist |
| Mirage | Resist |
| Seal | Resist |
| Poison | Resist |
Camel Head Skill Proficiencies in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Elemental
| Element | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Physical | – |
| Fire | – |
| Ice | – |
| Electric | – |
| Force | – |
| Light | +3 |
| Dark | +3 |
Other Statuses
| Status | Proficiency |
|---|---|
| Almighty | – |
| Ailment | – |
| Recovery | – |
| Support | +2 |
Camel Head skills in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
Musmahhu:
- When user’s HP reaches 0, drains HP from Tiamat and revives with full HP.
Hamabarion (+3):
- Severe Light attack to 1 foe
Mahamabarion (+3):
- Severe Light attack to all foes.
Mudobarion (+3):
- Severe Elec attack to all foes.
Mamudobarion (+3)
- Severe Elec attack to all foes.
Impaler’s Animus (+2):
- Increases the damage of the next attack for self and adds Pierce effect.
Luster Candy (+2):
- Raises all stats of all allies by 1 rank for 3 turns.
Magatsuhi Skill: Annihilation Ray
- Severe Physical attack to all foes.
How to beat Tiamat in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
1) Focus the head, avoid the main body
There is a gimmick to the Tiamat fight. The main body of the boss resists all damage types except Almighty while absorbing Ice. So you will need to focus on the heads themselves because when you down one of the heads, it automatically siphons HP from the main body.
The HP value is fixed at 2000, so if you are exploiting the weaknesses and able to take them out every turn, then you are effectively doing around 2000-to-6000 damage to the main body.
2) Buffs and debuffs are incredibly important
As the heads come with all types of elemental attacks it’s not possible to make a party that resists all of the attack types. Hence, buffs and debuffs are extremely important to make the fight more manageable.
Skills like Luster Candy, Debilitate, and Cleopatra’s Frolic will help you avoid damage while dishing out more in return.
Frolic especially has a chance to charm the heads and the main body. If you have Eisheth, she will be able to deal a massive amount of damage to Tiamat by using Impaler’s Animus and Voracious Salvation.
However, do keep in mind that once a head is downed and then revived, its buff and debuff status will reset. So you will have to keep using Frolic or Debilitate often.
3) Have Phy Dampener or Phy Block
When Tiamat gathers Magatsuhi she will use Annihilation Ray on her turn. You will be able to completely negate that skill with a Phy Dampener item or by using a Phy Block skill if you have someone on the team who has it.
4) Pack Almighty Spells and abilities with Pierce
Almighty spells will do a lot of damage to Tiamat’s main body. So when you are activating your Omagatoki: Critical and using Almighty attacks, you can just ignore the heads and go for the main body.
A great Almighty skill will be Heavenly Ikuyumi, which is a Nahobino-only skill that you can exploit in the fight.
Alternatively, if you want to avoid the heads altogether, make sure to have skills that come with Pierce. It will ignore all of Tiamat’s affinities and resistances.
If you do not have Pierce skills and reliable Almighty spells, then just stick to killing the heads.
Best demons for beating Tiamat in Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance
At this stage of the game, the best demons in your compendium will solely depend on the fusion paths that you are going for them. There are no clear-cut “best demons’ for this fight (or for any fight in the end game) and much of your party composition will depend on the type of playstyle that you are going for.
However, here are a few demon choices that we found particularly helpful for the fight:
With the right fusion paths, you will be able to build these demons into great support and DPS choices. Agrat and Eisheth especially will be able to exploit weaknesses and deal crit strikes to help continue the press turn.
Cleopatra and Na’amah will continue to debuff the enemies while buffing your team. Give the Nahobino an almighty skill like Heavenly Ikuyumi so that they will be able to directly damage Tiamat’s main body when she has a lot of debuffs on her. Heavenly Ikuyumi is an Aogami Type-D Skill.
Once you take down TIamat’s main body, you will be able to move on to the next final boss encounter in Atlus‘ RPG.
