Shadow Mir



The first phase of the final battle of Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, this monstrosity is a Song Magic construct made by Mir, which embodies all of her hatred, sadness and despair; and considered by many as the hardest enemy in the game. The battle strategies for it change significantly depending on if you're fighting against it for the Bad Ending or (any of the three variations of) the True Ending.

Each one of Shadow Mir's parts has a different set of attacks, although they all share innate regen, status immunity and use the Circling Soul  skill upon attacking, which takes one of them out of the battlefield (can't be damaged or targeted) to be replaced with other of the parts, in the following order: Head -> Body -> Arms -> Head. The parts are still affected by the regen when they are out of the battlefield, so you have to be fast and powerful to outdamage their regen if you don't want your attacks to become mere wastes of turns.

The attacks used by each one of these parts are as follows:
 * Head: has the least number of attack and skills, although the ones it has are extremely dangerous. Can use Light , which deals extremely large physical damage to a single target; and Howl , which lowers the Speed of all your party members and dispels all buffs and debuffs inflicted upon everyone.
 * Body: it's the middle point in the number of skills. It can use Sonata , which deals a random number of physical hits to all vanguards; Destruction , which causes large physical damage to all vanguards in addition to delaying their turns; and Embrace , which Curses all vanguards and deals damage ignoring their defenses.
 * Arms: Have the largest number of available skills, and a few of them can be quite a danger. It can use Burst Crush , which hits for all the elements and can cause a random status ailment to a single target ; Burst Crush , which causes large physical damage to a single target; Burst Crush , which deals a random number of hits to all vanguards; and Suction , which reduces the MP of your Reyvateil.

Bad Ending
Under these conditions, you won't have access to the ultimate equipments for anyone in the party, neither you will have the best Grathnodes or Ayatane in your party, so you'll be severely handicapped.

Although using Song Magic isn't really recommended in this battle due to the Arms' Suction  skill, which will most likely force your Reyvateil to release a low-Burst Song Magic, you won't have much choice, as your vanguards won't be able to deal much damage to any of Shadow Mir's parts at this point. It's recommended that you synth many of the best healing items you have available, such as the BBQ Soda or the Supernatural Ice, aside of a few Bolt Angels and Coffins of Grief and Joy for whenever anyone is knocked out. Also, make sure to stock up in Replica Horns and Opal Rices. Likewise, and although they can be nullified by Howl , make sure to craft a few debuff items and use them against it, and to Install and equip the best Grathnodes you have at the moment, so you can have a chance to defeat it. However, make sure to not use up all of the magic charges on your best Song Magics, as you will still have one more battle left.

True Ending
At this point Ayatane will have joined you, and you had an ample chance to level up all of your characters and upgrade their equipments and Grathnode selections, making this battle much easier than its Bad Ending counterpart. Still, make sure to not lower your guard, as Shadow Mir is still a very strong enemy, and can easily mop the floor with you if you don't pay attention to what you're doing. Make sure to unleash your best skills, such as Break Blade, Eternal Rain, Gunfire and Roaring Blade against the part currently present in battle, and also, use any debuff items you might have available. Finally, make sure to take care with your Reyvateil's Song Magic, as Suction  can ruin your chances of using a powerful song like Ar tonelico, Tower Connection, Boe, Aurica Mk.I, Child of Light, Thunderclap or Meteor, so give her some Supernatural Ices or Tranquilities whenever her MP is too low. Also, don't take any chances and use Blue Magic if all your vanguards are too injured and you find yourself lacking in healing items.

Other Appearances
Although it doesn't physically appear on it, Shadow Mir also shows up in Frelia's Binary Field in Ar tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalica, in which Miu summons it in order to defeat Leila. Leila accusses Miu of cheating due to this, but Miu treats that as a non-issue and proceeds to utterly defeat her. This event also allows Jakuri to use said summon as a Dual Song called Sonata , in which Shadow Mir appears and uses the strings on its body to launch energy beams that cause devastating damage to all enemies. However, this is different from the original Sonata  attack, in which Shadow Mir raised the enemies towards the middle of its strings to then damage them through the strumming of the strings.