Chimera (Kingdom Hearts)

The Chimera is a unique form of Heartless that appears in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. Appearing in Halloween Town, this monster appears to be constructed out of random materials, mainly fabrics and mechanical items. Its body is barrel-shaped and emblazoned with the Heartless emblem, its left arm is overly long ending with a humanoid hand and its right arm consists of bellows segments and ends in a pair of sharp shears. Its legs appear to be jars of green liquid connected to a bowl-shaped waist by metal cables. Finally, its head is actually three spherical heads floating inside a large jar of the same fluid as in its leg-jars.

The Chimera can be encountered later in the game, after Sora and friends have defeated Oogie Boogie and destroyed his mansion. The Chimera appears in the Manor Ruins area after Sora and co. have unlocked the Red Trinity mark in the area. A strong physical defense build is essential when preparing to fight the Chimera, along with the highest-strength Keyblade on hand. The Chimera has tactics to explode and cause wide-area damage, and can spawn Gargoyles to back it up. Having party members cast support spells such as Aero and Cure can be useful. Thunder and Blizzard are also handy for offense.

The Chimera has two different sets of HP: one when first encountered and a second, longer set when the three heads fly out of the jar it carries. Depleting the second HP bar ends the fight, but its defenses are extremely high at this stage; the trick is to repeatedly strike the colored heads that bounce around, knocking them back at the main body and dealing much higher damage than regular attacks are capable of. If the second HP bar hasn't been depleted after a set time, the heads will fly back into the jar and Sora must take out the first HP bar again.

A good strategy is to take out the surrounding Gargoyles first; casting Gravira or Graviga on Chimera just as it is summoning them will hit both the Chimera all four of its minions, knocking off most of their HP right off the bat. A single Thunder spell should finish them off; alternatively, leave them for your allies to take care of and focus on Chimera at this point.

The Chimera has attacks that can knock back Sora and the party so maintain safe distance where possible. The main threat lies in its high damage and wide-area attacks, thus optimized defense and high-strength party-wide healing are a strong asset for the fight. Its attacks are, however, fairly easy to dodge. Stay in the air and hit it with aerial combos to avoid its shockwave attack, and dodge roll out of the way of its flying corkscrew strike, to keep damage to a minimum. It tends to corkscrew when low on health in its first HP bar, so knocking its health down to zero with a rapid flurry of attacks is also a solid option.

To increase the number of Blazing Stones the Chimera drops, reflect the heads it releases nine times, and it will drop one for free. This is easiest to perform successfully when the Chimera is atop the rock; it will always jump there to summon its Gargoyle minions. Cast Aeroga for best effect in deflecting the bouncing heads more easily.

Trivia

 * The term "chimera" is used in genetics to describe organisms bearing the genes of multiple types of life-form. The term originates from the Chimaera of Greek mythology which possessed the body of a lion and three heads from a lion, a goat and a dragon.
 * Though named "chimera", the Chimera Heartless' constructed nature would make it more akin to a golem or a homunculus.