Final Fantasy 1, NES version

[Dark Holy Elf]

Totally redone, new and improved. Pretty much all possible mechanical info is documented, now.

NOTE: This is a stat thread for the NES version of the game. See the topic title? Yeah. If you want stuff on DoS or Origins, look (and post) elsewhere. I believe a DoS stat thread is in the works as we speak, anyway...

Interpretation Stuff

All characters are taken at Level 27. I have beaten the game three times, and always end up at this level, for whatever reason. I rarely run, and generally don't stop to gain levels, though I may take unnecessary treks back to towns and such (so this isn't the minimum reasonable level). This is also the level at which L8 spells (L7 for RW) stop being OPB, so... yeah, it does make some sense.

I allow equipment under the assumption that there is one of each generic. Unique stuff and storebought stuff are good. Other equips... I allow the Ninja the elemental armour/shield because the only other character who can use them, Knight, has better equips that cover both resistances anyway, and thus has no need for them. I allow the Sun Sword and Thor Hammer to the Red and White Wizards respectively, because the Knight and Ninja have strictly superior weapons. Notable equipment I do NOT allow are the Masamune, Ribbons, and Protect Capes; all equippable by the entire team (except Master, in the case of the Cape) and in finite supply.

I allow only spells that are learned by at most two PCs. Spells learned by three PCs aren't unique enough in my opinion. I will list them anyway, in italics. Alternatively, you might decide I'm being too generous, and allow only spells learned by at most one PC. Those spells are marked with an asterisk.

(Incidentally, I may make an exception for the Fast spell, which only Red Wizard and Ninja can put to especially good use. It's also applied in a fairly non-unique way because all three classes that have it have differently-powered physicals, unlike Ruse which is always overpowered. I'm still thinking on this one... just a personal note. Allow what you will.)

Damage is taken against the final dungeon averages (rounded): 30 Def, 138 MDef, 62 Hit, 55 Evade.

About elements and status

FF1 has several elements. Four of them are traditional damage elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison.

Poison, however, is also used as an "element" for status attacks, namely Bane, Break, as well as any attack that inflicts the Poison or Petrify status. (Note that I treat Break as a Petrify attack in the DL, however.) In addition, four other elements are used for status.

Death: Your traditional instant death, includes various enemy ID attacks, as well as the PC spells Rub and XXXX.
Earth: Another instant death element, really, although the name harkens it to the more standard damage element seen later in the FF series. Includes only the spells Quake and Crack.
Mind: Sort of a catch-all that includes any status effects which could be considered Mental. Sleep, Stun, Confuse, Silence, Slow, Darkness, and Fear all fall under this category.
Time: A truly underused element, includes only the spells ZAP! (instant death, also known as Warp) and Stop (inflicts Paralyse, but uses a different save from other paralysis attacks). Neither attack is DL-useful, really (low hit rates), but Black Wizard's resistance to the element might be. (I'd see this as blocking other games' Slow and Stop.)

There are probably other elements for various status (I know Stun and Sleep share one, for instance) but I'm not sure yet.

Effects of status:

Slow: Permanent, target's number of hits is reduced to 1. This can be seen as a power-break move in general in the DL, or one that works literally and only affects multi-hit fighters.
Silence: Permanent, seals off spells and various other silenceable abilities (which is everything but Attack and Run, in FF1).
Sleep: A character inflicted with Sleep loses his or her next turn to wake up. Pretty duel-worthless. A sleeping character does take ~50% extra physical damage, however (+25% before defence, to be precise).
Paralyse: Like Sleep (including the damage boost), but lasts much longer. Each turn, the Paralysed character has a 25% chance of recovering. Recovering allows normal action to occur on the NEXT turn (they still lose that turn). This status can be reapplied, and lasts 4 turns on average. Very dangerous.
Confuse: Same duration as paralyse. Instead of missing turns, though, the character will attack either himself or a random ally with the FIRE spell (25 damage, checks fire resistance). This only wears off with time. On the turn it wears off, the turn is lost, but no confusion attack is made.
Darkness: -20% accuracy and evasion. Due to a glitch the accuracy effect is reduced or even eliminated against those with more than 87 hit (which is some endgame PCs and unusually accurate enemies). Permanent, though.
Petrify: On enemies, it's identical to Death. On PCs, it's standard RPG petrify; a form of Death with a different cure where the afflicted character retains his or her HP (but not other status changes).
Death: 0 HP, you can't act, you lose all status, everyone dead = you lose the battle.

About the stats

HP: Unlike every other RPG in the DL to use this stat, HP is not a measure of durability and instead exists only to determine the odds of the LOCK spell actually doing anything, divided by 4.33 * 10^28.
Atk: Directly affects physical damage dealt per hit.
Def: Defence, greatly reduces physical damage.
MDef: Functions as magic defence by raising your chance to be hit by the "weak" version of a spell instead of the "strong" (which does double damage). Also affects the chance to be hit by status. Every 2 points of MDef decreases chance of status magic hitting by 1%.
Hit: Accuracy (2 points = 1% hit). Due to a glitch, this is capped at 87. It also determines how many hits PCs (not enemies) get, and this works even for hit stats past 87.
Evade: Evasion. 2 points = 1% evade. Against average endgame enemy Hit, 40 evade is needed before enemy accuracy is overcome, so effective evade is (this stat - 40) / 2. In FF1, all attacks always have 0.5% hit chance and 0.5% miss chance, minimum (this includes status).
Critical: This number can be taken literally... it's your chance of scoring a critical with each attack. Criticals add (Attack .. Attack * 2) damage to a given hit, and this bonus is ITD.

Resistances: Elemental resistances ensure that the PC is -always- hit by the aforementioned "weak version" of spells, then halves that damage. The resulting effect is about a 70% cut to damage received, and should probably be taken as such. For status, resistance is essentially immunity; status will always fail except for a 1/201 chance.

All damage magic in FF1 has a 17% chance of doing its "strong" damage instead of its "weak" damage, against average endgame enemy MDef. The exceptions are Nuke/Flare and Fade/Holy, for which the chance is 58.5%, making these two spells much better. In the interests of space, only the average damage of each spell is listed. All of these are lower than the average damage which used to occupy this thread, though.


Knight

Excalibur (+45 Attack, +35 Hit)
Dragon Armour (+42 Defence, -10 Evade, Resists Fire/Ice/Lightning)
Aegis Shield (+16 Defence, Resists Poison/Petrify)
Opal Helmet (+8 Defence, -3 Evade)
Protect Ring (+8 Defence, -1 Evade, Resists Death)

HP 608
Atk 68
Def 74
MDef 93
Hit 123 (100%)
Evade 63 (11.5%)
Crit 20%

Attack: 4 hits, average 370 damage

L1 Magic (4)
Cure: Restores 24 HP
Fog: +8 Defence, stackable
Ruse: +80 (40%) Evade, stackable
L2 Magic (4)
Lamp: Heals Blind status
Mute: Inflicts Silence, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
L3 Magic (4)
Cure 2: Restores 48 HP

Comments: Resists all FF1 elements and two fatal statuses, game-best HP and Defence by a long way, good MDef... make no mistake, Knight is a TANK. He also has good damage (though not as godly as some think) and game-best accuracy. He gets owned by Evade&Counter and the likes, but otherwise is very solid. High Heavy.


Ninja

Katana (+33 Attack, +35 Hit)
Ice Armour (+34 Defence, -10 Evade, Resists Fire)
Flame Shield (+12 Defence, Resists Ice)
Silver Helmet (+6 Defence, -3 Evade)
Protect Ring (+8 Defence, -1 Evade, Resists Death)

HP 423
Atk 47
Def 60
MDef 67
Hit 92 (100%)
Evade 64 (12%)
Crit 19.5%

Attack: 3 hits, average 163 damage
Attack, after Fast: 6 hits, average 326 damage

L1 Magic (4)
Fire: 18 Fire magic damage
Bolt: 18 Lightning magic damage
L2 Magic (4)
Ice: 35 Ice magic damage
Slow: Reduce target's number of hits to 1, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
L3 Magic (4)
Fire 2: 53 Fire magic damage, MT
Bolt 2: 53 Lightning magic damage, MT
Hold: Inflicts Paralyse, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate
L4 Magic (4)
Ice 2: 70 Ice magic damage, MT
Fast: Doubles physical offence
Confuse: Inflicts Confuse, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT

Comments: Below average damage and nothing else. Well, decent physical durability! Spells (mostly Fast) help him a bit if allowed, but not that much. Low Middle.


Grand Master

---
Gold Bracelet (+24 Defence, -1 Evade)
---
Cap (+1 Defence, -1 Evade)
Protect Ring (+8 Defence, -1 Evade, Resists Death)

HP 459
Atk 54
Def 33
MDef 96
Hit 83 (98%)
Evade 69 (14.5%)
Crit 27.5%

Attack: 6 hits, average 440 damage (431 after accuracy)

Comments: Take Ninja, switch around the physical and magical durability, and give him better damage than Ninja has post-Fast. That's Grand Master in a nutshell. He's below average at taking physicals, but above at taking magic (although, no elemental resists), and hits things quite hard. Reminiscent of Peter; a winning Middle.


Red Wizard

Sun Sword (+32 Attack, +30 Hit)
Gold Bracelet (+24 Defence, -1 Evade)
Buckler (+2 Defence)
Cap (+1 Defence, -1 Evade)
Protect Ring (+8 Defence, -1 Evade, Resists Death)

HP 384
Atk 44
Def 35
MDef 72
Hit 89 (100%)
Evade 68 (14%)
Crit 12.5%

Attack: 3 hits, average 133 damage
Attack, after Fast: 6 hits, average 266 damage

L1 Magic (9)
Cure: Restores 24 HP
Fog: +8 Defence, stackable
Ruse: +80 (40%) Evade, stackable
Fire: 18 Fire magic damage
Bolt: 18 Lightning magic damage
L2 Magic (7)
Lamp: Heals Blind status
Mute: Inflicts Silence, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
A-Lit: Gives Lightning resistance, MT
Ice: 35 Ice magic damage
Slow: Reduce target's number of hits to 1, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
L3 Magic (7)
Cure 2: Restores 48 HP
A-Fire: Gives Fire resistance, MT
Fire 2: 53 Fire magic damage, MT
Bolt 2: 53 Lightning magic damage, MT
Hold: Inflicts Paralyse, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate
L4 Magic (6)
Pure: Heals Poison status
A-Ice: Gives Ice resistance, MT
Ice 2: 70 Ice magic damage, MT
Fast: Doubles physical offence
Confuse: Inflicts Confuse, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
L5 Magic (5)
Cure 3: Restores 96 HP
Fire 3: 88 Fire magic damage, MT
Bane: Inflicts Death, Poison/Petrify elemental, 25% hit rate, MT
Slow 2: Reduce target's number of hits to 1, ignores status resistance but not MDef, 37% hit rate
L6 Magic (4)
Invis 2: +40 (20%) Evade, stackable, MT
Fog 2: +12 Defence, stackable, MT
Lightning 3: 105 Lightning magic damage, MT
L7 Magic (2)
Ice 3: 123 Ice magic damage, MT
A-Rub: Gives Death, Earth, and Mind resistance, MT

Comments: Jack of all trades, but truly a master of none in the DL. Damage of both types, but not great at either. Status attacks and healing, but both, frankly, suck. Light.


White Wizard

Thor's Hammer (+18 Attack, +15 Hit)
White Shirt (+24 Defence, -2 Evade, Resists Fire/Death)
---
Cap (+1 Defence, -1 Evade)
Protect Ring (+8 Defence, -1 Evade, Resists Death)

HP 389
Atk 29
Def 33
MDef 72
Hit 46 (79.5%)
Evade 67 (13.5%)
Crit 18.5%

Attack: 2 hits, average 43 damage (34 after accuracy)

L1 Magic (9)
Cure: Restores 24 HP
Fog: +8 Defence, stackable
Ruse: +80 (40%) Evade, stackable
L2 Magic (7)
Lamp: Heals Blind status
Mute: Inflicts Silence, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
A-Lit: Gives Lightning resistance, MT
L3 Magic (7)
Cure 2: Restores 48 HP
L4 Magic (6)
Pure: Heals Poison status
A-Ice: Gives Ice resistance, MT
L5 Magic (6)
Cure 3: Restores 96 HP
*Heal 2: Restores 72 HP, MT
L6 Magic (5)
Invis 2: +40 (20%) Evade, stackable, MT
Fog 2: +12 Defence, stackable, MT
L7 Magic (4)
*Cure 4: Full healing and removes all negative status
A-Rub: Gives Death, Earth, and Mind resistance, MT
L8 Magic (2)
*Fade: 190 non-elemental (holy) magic damage, MT
*Wall: Gives resistance to all elements and status effects, MT

Comments: Tries to play a buffing game with Invis 2 or Fog 2, which aren't very effective generally. Still, Cure 4 helps give her the time to use that game, Wall can handle some other threats, and Fade... well, it might 2HKO the most magically frail. If it doesn't, expect a long fight, as White Wizard's damage makes even Raja's and Cristo's look good. Light/Middle.


Black Wizard

Catclaw (+22 Attack, +35 Hit)
Black Shirt (+24 Defence, -2 Evade, Resists Ice/Time)
---
Cap (+1 Defence, -1 Evade)
Protect Ring (+8 Defence, -1 Evade, Resists Death)

HP 299
Atk 31
Def 33
MDef 72
Hit 66 (89.5%)
Evade 71 (15.5%)
Crit 18%

Attack: 3 hits, average 75 damage (67 after accuracy)
Attack, after Fast: 6 hits, average 150 damage (134 after accuracy)

L1 Magic (9)
Fire: 18 Fire magic damage
Bolt: 18 Lightning magic damage
L2 Magic (7)
Ice: 35 Ice magic damage
Slow: Reduce target's number of hits to 1, Mind elmental, 37% hit rate, MT
L3 Magic (7)
Fire 2: 53 Fire magic damage, MT
Bolt 2: 53 Lightning magic damage, MT
Hold: Inflicts Paralyse, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate
L4 Magic (6)
Ice 2: 70 Ice magic damage, MT
Fast: Doubles physical offence
Confuse: Inflicts Confuse, Mind elemental, 37% hit rate, MT
L5 Magic (6)
Fire 3: 88 Fire magic damage, MT
Bane: Inflicts Death, Poison/Petrify elemental, 25% hit rate, MT
Slow 2: Reduce target's number of hits to 1, ignores status resistance but not MDef, 37% hit rate
L6 Magic (5)
Lightning 3: 105 Lightning magic damage, MT
*Quake: Inflicts Death, Earth elemental, 25% hit rate, MT
*Stun: Inflicts Paralyse, Mind elemental, 0% hit rate if target resists this status or has over 300 HP, 100% hit rate otherwise
L7 Magic (4)
Ice 3: 123 Ice magic damage, MT
*Break: Inflicts Petrify, Poison/Petrify elemental, 37% hit rate
L8 Magic (2)
*Nuke: 238 non-elemental magic damage, MT
*Stop: Inflicts Paralyse, Time elemental, 29% hit rate, MT
*XXXX: Inflicts Death, Death elemental, 0% hit rate if target resists this status or has over 300 HP, 100% hit rate otherwise

Comments: Middling damage and terrible durability, Black Wizard is largely relegated to the role of status whore, and it's not clear how good he is at that. Stun and XXXX are interesting... when do they work? The 300 HP trigger can be scaled in several ways, the most generous of which would leave Black Wizard a high Middle with deadly status. The less generous... well, he needs two turns to do much of anything, but between Break, Flare, and Stop, it's probably not too wise to give him those turns, unless you scale down status or he runs into high MDef. And in the case of the latter, Black Wizard should probably just give up. Light.

Possible scalings of XXXX/Stun, from best to worst for the BW:

-Average final dungeon enemy HP is 268. Therefore if the target's HP is below 112% of his cast's average, he is hit.
-Average PC HP is 427. Therefore if the target's HP is below 70% of his cast's average, he is hit.
-Average damage is ~256, therefore average PC KO damage by the 2.5x rule is 640. Therefore if the target's HP is below 47% of his cast's average, he is hit.

Averages

HP (AVERAGE = 427)
Knight (608) > Master (459) > Ninja (423) > White Wizard (389) > Red Wizard (384) > Black Wizard (299)

Damage (AVERAGE = 256)
Master (440) > Knight (370) > Black Wizard (238) > White Wizard (190) > Ninja (163) > Red Wizard (133)

3-turn damage (AVERAGE = 257 with Fast, 241 without)
Master (440) > Knight (370) > Ninja [w/ Fast] (217) > Black Wizard (200) > Red Wizard [w/ Fast] (177) > Ninja [no Fast] (163) > White Wizard (139) > Red Wizard [no Fast] (133)

As you can see, if you allow Fast, the 3-turn average is basically the same as the the one-turn. If you don't, it drops a bit. The kill points for the three averages are 640, 642.5, and 602.5, respectively.

Defence (AVERAGE = 44.67)
Knight (74) > Ninja (60) > Red Wizard (35) > Master = White Wizard = Black Wizard (33)

Physical durability (lower is better, average 1)
Knight (0.338) > Ninja (0.735) > Master (1.086) > White Wizard (1.319) > Red Wizard (1.337) > Black Wizard (1.742)

Magic Defence (AVERAGE = 79)
Master (96) > Knight (93) > Red Wizard = White Wizard = Black Wizard (72) = Ninja (67)

Magical durability (lower is better, average 1)
Knight (0.67) > Master (0.88) > Ninja (1.05) > White Wizard (1.12) > Red Wizard (1.14) > Black Wizard (1.46)

Accuracy (AVERAGE = 76, or 94.5%)
Knight = Ninja = Red Wizard (87) > Master (83) > Black Wizard (66) > White Wizard (46)

Thanks

Special thanks to Sir Donald, for making the original stat thread which I used for ages myself, and pointing me in the right direction for learning about the workings of FF1.

Also, thanks to various others, particularly Super and Meep, for encouraging me to make this and letting me bounce stuff off of them.

And thanks to Ben Siron, Patbuns17, AstralEsper, and various other FAQ authors and random web sites I made use of when learning about FF1 and writing this guide.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Bosses!

There used to be notes here about how I derived the defences each boss faces. If anyone is still curious about the nitty-gritty details, I'll repost them. I did finally correct Black Belt's defence, though!

Bosses included here: The four fiends (original forms), Chaos, WarMech. I may add Garland, Astos, or ToF forms of the fiends if there's considerable demand.

Overarching notes:

-All bosses have a 1% crit rate. Not likely to be relevant!
-All bosses have a 0.5% chance to be hit by any status attack, even ones they "immune". Even less relevant, probably!
-All bosses (and indeed, all FF1 enemies) are slightly faster than PCs. The difference is small but they should beat the purely average speed in the DL. (I'd also probably see FF1 PCs losing tiebreaks, for similar reasons.)
-The PCHP figures I use for bosses are based on my own scaling methods. Everyone's scaling is different, of course! The numbers are there for you to calculate it however you will.


LICH (PC stats: Lv 13, 232 HP, 22 Def, 47 MDef)

400 HP (faces 89 damage average, 0.51 PCHP)
40 Defence (takes 34.8%, 32.4% after evasion)
120 Magic Defence (takes 83.4%)
49 Hit (+10.5% vs. average)
24 Evade (7% raw)

Weak (+75%) to Fire, Strong (-60%) against Ice. Immune to Poison/Petrify, Mind, and Death. Lich is 35% resistant to status he does not immune. Is undead (takes damage from Harm spells, in-game).

Ice 2 = 98 ice magic, MT
Fire 2, Bolt 2 = 73 fire/lightning magic, MT
Fast = Double physical offence
Sleep = Sleep, Mind element, 62.5% hit rate, MT. Target misses one turn only.
Sleep 2 = Sleep, ignores status protection, 82.5% hit rate. Sleep causes the target to miss exactly one turn.
Hold = Paralyse, Mind element 82.5% hit rate. Target misses four turns on average.
Slow = Reduces target's number of hits to 1, Mind element, 82.5% hit rate, MT.

Physical = 1 hit for 38
Physical, after FAST = 2 hits for 38 = 76 total

Physicals have a 26.5% chance per hit to inflict Paralyse. Two hits = 46%. This attack pierces status resistance but can be nulled by fire resistance or modified by MDef.

Lich's damage isn't terrible, though it's also certainly not good. His real boon comes from his status magic. Slow is good for screwing over fighters (or certain types, anyway), and Hold is extremely dangerous.

Low Heavy, Hold is just evil enough to get him there, despite relying on 3HKO ice magic. He has some resistance-piercing status options too, but they're not great. Durability... he's tough against physicals, but easily 2HKOed by average magic damage, and gets roasted by fire.


KARY (PC stats: Lv 15, 264 HP, 25 Def, 52 MDef)

600 HP (faces 98 average damage, 0.70 PCHP)
50 Defence (takes 32.3%, 27.1% after evasion)
183 Magic Defence (takes 77.2%)
63 Hit (+6.5% vs. average)
48 Evade (16% raw)

Strong (-50%) against Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Immune to Poison/Petrify. Kary is 30% resistant to Mind status (despite being "weak" to it), and 71% resistant to any other status she does not immune.

Fire 2 = 72 fire magic, MT
Dark = Reduces target accuracy/evade by 20%, Mind element, 60% hit rate, MT
Hold = Paralyse, Mind element, 80% hit rate. Target misses four turns on average.

Physical = 6 hits for 35 = 210 total

Ouch. She has quite a powerful physical (OHKO to half the cast). Her fire magic isn't much, but Hold, like Lich's, is deadly.

Heavy/Godlike. Mean damage, mean status, mean defence, mean resistances... yeah. Probably the best non-Chaos boss, her only real weakness is being in big trouble against those who spoil both physicals and paralyse, as well as her slightly sub-PC magic durability against elements she is neutral to.


KRAKEN (PC stats: Lv 23, 372 HP, 46 Def, 71 MDef)

800 HP (faces 197 average damage, 0.46 PCHP)
60 Defence (takes 36.5%, 30.5% after evasion)
160 Magic Defence (takes 83.8%)
87 Hit (+13.5% vs. average)
84 Evade (16.5% raw)

Weak (+78%) to Lightning, Strong (-53%) against Fire. Immune to Earth. Kraken is 44% resistant to status he does not immune.

Ink = Reduces target accuracy/evade by 20%, Mind element, 50.5% hit rate, MT

Physical = 8 hits for 29 = 232 total

Solidly 2HKOing physical. That's... literally all he has, though. Kraken does literally nothing better than Kary; after scaling, she even matches his crappy Darkness move, and has superior damage and much better durability, not to mention Hold...

High Middle. 2HKO and good physical durability see him well against plenty of opponents, but on the other hand he's barely half PC magic durability even if you don't hit his lightning weakness. So yeah, physical semi-spoiler with enough damage to annoy some Middle healers.


TIAMAT (PC stats: Lv 25, 394 HP, 48 Def, 75 MDef)

Note: The item needed for Excalibur is found in Tiamat's dungeon. To get Excalibur you must leave the dungeon in the middle and redo it. Average damage and effective defence for Tiamat are thus listed twice: once with excalibur and once without, in that order.

1000 HP (faces 233/213 average damage, 0.49/0.54 PCHP)
80 Defence (takes 36.5%/31.4%, 33.4%/28.7% after evasion)
200 Magic Defence (takes 76%)
80 Hit (+15% vs. average)
72 Evade (8.5% raw)

Strong (-50%) against Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Immune to Earth. Tiamat is 48% resistant to Poison/Petrify (despite being "weak" to them), and 88% resistant to any other status she does not immune.

Thunder = 174 lightning magic, MT
Poison = 156 poison magic, MT
Blaze = 146 fire magic, MT
Blizzard = 114 ice magic, MT

Physical = 4 hits for 26 = 104 total

Commands all the elements, but her best is only high 3HKO... similar story as Lich, with one big exception: no status magic. Unlike what I used to think, she isn't even particularly physically durable for an FF1 boss (still hovers around 2-2.5 average physical durability though).

High Middle. Kraken with elemental defences and slightly better durability, but worse (albeit less spoilable) damage.


CHAOS (PC stats: Lv 27, 427 HP, 49 Def, 79 MDef)

2000 HP (faces 310 average damage, 0.74 PCHP)
100 Defence (takes 34.8%, 27% after evasion)
200 Magic Defence (takes 80.4%)
87 Hit (+12.5% vs. average)
100 Evade (22.5% raw)

Strong (-50%) against Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Immune to Earth, Poison/Petrify, Mind, Death, and Time. Chaos is 84% resistant to status he does not immune.

Nuke = 282 non-elemental magic, MT
Inferno = 217 fire magic, MT
Ice 3 = 154 ice magic, MT
Swirl = 144 non-elemental magic, MT (water flavoured)
Tornado = 144 non-elemental magic, MT (air flavoured)
Bolt 3 = 132 lightning magic, MT
Fire 3 = 110 fire magic, MT
Ice 2 = 88 ice magic, MT
Cure 4 = Full healing and removes all negative status
Fast = Double physical offence
Slow 2 = Reduces target's number of hits to 1, ignores status protection, 66.5% hit rate
Crack = Kills target, resisted by Earth protection, 42.5% hit rate, MT

Physical = 2 hits for 101 = 202 total (10.5% chance of Paralyse per hit, ~20% per two hits)
Physical, after Fast = 4 hits for 101 = 404 total

Physicals have a 10% chance per hit to inflict Paralyse. Two hits at 10.5% = 20%; three hits = 28%; four hits = 36%. This status pierces status immunity but is modified by MDef.

He's got a good array of resistances and is very tough against most physicals as well. Nuke is a solid enough 2HKO, and for longer matches he has Fast. Not only does this make his damage a very high 2HKO, but it applies a deadly, immunity-ignoring status after about three tries on average. Crack is a similar cheaty status option, potentially. So you can't stall against him and he has some decent walls against blitzing, though get past those with elements he doesn't resist or non-typed damage and he goes down fast.

Cure 4's sure to spawn some debate as to when he can use it. Due to how FF1 enemy mechanics work, he can't exactly spam it in-game, so if you want to treat it as OPB that's entirely reasonable. I'm not sure, myself.

Low-Mid Godlike. A decent all-arounder final boss with some unusual strengths and weaknesses.

WARMECH (PC stats: Lv 25, 394 HP, 48 Def, 75 MDef)

1000 HP (faces 233/213 average damage, 0.49/0.54 PCHP)
80 Defence (takes 36.5%/31.4%, 29%/25% after evasion)
200 Magic Defence (takes 76%)
77 Hit (+13.5% vs. average)
96 Evade (20.5% raw)

Strong (-50%) against Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Immune to Earth, Poison/Petrify, Mind, and Death. WarMech is 88% resistant to status it does not immune.

Nuclear = 212 non-elemental magic, MT

Physical = 2 hits for 144 = 288 total

Tiamat with slightly better damage, status resistance, and evasion. Lowish 2HKO to either defences. The superboss hype I've occasionally heard is a bit mystifying, though, since Chaos is clearly better in every way.

Heavy. Obvious enough, really... he's worse than Kary or Chaos, but better than the other Fiends. Same general build.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Stat topic has been thoroughly updated to reflect all the new mechanics information on accuracy, magic damage, status, and magic defence that has come out in the years since this thread was first made, as well as finally including detailed information about boss stats and the average damage they face.