This guide is being written from personal experience as well as the scattered information of the inter-webs. I am not the first to collect these findings or these thoughts and do not claim to be.

With that said I shall continue.

I found it incredibly difficult to find good information about the Machina Dungeon that opens up near the end of the story. Information obviously exists but it was mainly just questions and conversation about builds, but not the experience and what to expect and then how to handle it. I will attempt to remedy some of this.

I chose to not use the Gio and Lais method which is listed very commonly.

Makina/Machina Domain is a high level/gear area that opens up later in the game story. it contains some of the most difficult optional bosses and arguably the hardest one of all. This dungeon was DLC for the original release and comes included in the Plus/DX versions. The player must make it to year 4 month 4 day 1 and then visit Hanna to receive access to this dungeon. It is located South of "Modis Ruins."

Here you will find 5 layers, each dedicated to its own specific boss. Some of these bosses are immune to status ailments but all of them are still susceptible to stat debuffs. Each of these bosses have an achievement tied to them.


Note: Bosses 2 and 3 are incredibly easy to activate by mistake as they are not very far from where you enter. Be mindful.

There is also a hidden treasure chest located after Tower Devil but before fighting Hammer Bunnies by taking the left most path off of the screen and continuing up on the left fork. This chest can contain a Medical Linen with both Vessel Essence and Life Essence on it. I and most the people I read from, recommend resetting if you do not receive this on your first encounter because it can only be opened once. These traits can be gotten later but this is a very early and very helpful time to receive them.

• Remember that every time you leave and return each boss will respawn.
• If this is your first time fighting this boss, save assist gauges for staying alive until you are comfortable with which moves are a threat to you and which ones aren't.
• After obtaining Life Essence it is HIGHLY advised that you return after adding it to your armour.
• After obtaining Shadow Essence it is HIGHLY advised that you return after adding it to your weapon.
• After obtaining Infinite Alchemy 2 it is HIGHLY advised that you return after adding Infinite Meteors to your items.

This section is clearly very dependent on my playstyle but I will mention others that I stumbled across while trying to get my things together.

Characters can be broken into 3 attack trait categories: AllStat/AllSkill/Combo They can be used differently but I found this to be efficient for me. Also a character that is Power will probably also use skills but this helps to narrow down what kind of traits are important to them. I personally use Meruru for items and these aren't affected by most weapon traits, so she has no use for skill traits and I opted for things I felt could be used anywhere.

Note: Lower forms of anything listed will work until you can get the stronger versions. No character can have more than 5 traits on any 1 piece of equipment and I will list the favourable options for those slots.

Additional Note: These are not perfect builds. They are strong enough to get through and beat the dungeon and by no means are meant to be the best in any one field.


Luckily I found it easy to just run a generic armor set. Just pick the armor of your choice and apply.

This is I started to have the most difficulty finding solid information about what was worth my time and kept running into what was referred to as the immortal build. I never delved into it and don't know exactly what it is made of and will not be listing it as I do not know its makeup.

These are the Accessories and traits that got me through this dungeon.


Note: The essences, with the exception of Vessel and Life, will start appearing after defeating Makina Boss 3 "Alchemist Squirrel Trio." Bring Tonics for rerolls.

I highly recommend the following items stored with Pamela and in your inventoy for your first attempts into Makina. Now please remember that these are just recommendations and weaker versions WILL work. Bring Tonics!

This method worked easily for my teams of Meruru, Totori, and Rorona/Mimi.




The goal here will be to save assist charges until you are comfortable and use them to fire full power peacemakers while using Pinwheels/Royal Aroma to prevent the boss from getting turns often. The Fortune Die is for applying all stats down. Once they are not moved by the knockback effect, it will help to use this time to add extra damage with meteors until they move up the turn list. They do not have to move up far before becoming susceptible again. The exception to this being when they have a guaranteed attack queued or a phase change, these cannot be interrupted. This however is not flawless as Heavenly Dragon can be prevented from summoning the second set of allies by killing him before it happens.

Once you defeat the trio you will gain access to the gathering points at their cauldrons and the 4th layer points. This is where I would use the tonics until you find a combination of traits you wish to bring back. A few recommendations are: Any of the above listed Essences, God Breaker, Strengthen All, Effect Up (Lone or Swarm), Mach Timer, Veteran Skills,

Note: It is highly recommended to get and attach Shadow Essence to weapons and then make the following items.


You can use the Meteors that were previously made to create the newly obtained Infinite Meteor Recipe. This strategy requires that 2 be made and carried.


Optionally to create an easier fight (I didn't do this).

The reason we have 2 Inf. Meteors is due to how Shadow Essence works. Shadow Essence allows us to make 2 actions for every 1 turn.

On any turn where we plan to do damage, we will use our stronger Inf. Meteor first (the one without Sonic/Mach). We will then use our next action, because Shadow Essence only penalizes us for the 2nd action, in our 1 turn to use any item or ability with a lower cool down like Inf. Meteor 2.

This strategy gives you a constant supply of turns as you are only receiving the wait timer for the fastest item having used it last. Now you mix in Pinwheels/Royal Aroma to keep the boss from making it to the top of the action queue. This will greatly limit the number of turns they receive and in some cases it can almost entirely prevent turns.

With this method and these extremely close/similar items set ups (those are better than mine were), I was able to limit the last boss to only managing one of its truly powerful attack. They still managed to get out the regular attack cards, but the truly terrifying skill was mostly held at bay due to it not getting a proper turn.

These steps will work for any team with at least 2 Alchemists. There are other methods scattered online. I hope this will help you in both collecting useful information and achieving the defeat of the Makina Bosses.

• Will always counter the first damaging hit.
  
• When near death will "Evolve." Once this has happens there will have a long delay before its next turn. It will begin healing a rapid pace from this point on.

• Will summon reinforcements if not killed simultaneously. This can be abused by killing 2 at the same time as that will cause them to replace only 1 of the newly dead 2.

• Squirmerurrel will attempt to use Lithographs even if your party is immune via Angel Charms. It is advised to save her for last.

• Will always counter the first damaging hit.
  
• Near certain health thresh holds it will summon Eternity Goddess and a pair of Eternity Goddesses to take its place on the battlefield while occasionally hitting your party.
  
• Even after removing the Eternity Goddesses, their infinite attack cards will still remain active.

• Guarding will activate an instant counter.
  
• Capable of jumping up the queue if she has multiple attack cards on the list as they fade
  
• Allowing her to get to her turn in the queue will activate devastating attacks.