Armored Ventus Nightmare
Japanese	ナイトメア・アーマーヴェントゥス
Rōmaji	Naitomea Āmā Ventusu
Translation	Nightmare Armor Ventus
Type	Nightmare Dream Eater
Game	Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
KH3D tracks Battle theme - The Eye of Darkness

Armored Ventus Nightmare
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
The armored form of someone who wished to protect Sora as darkness closed in. But the armor itself was also mantled in darkness, and posed a serious threat to Riku.

Location	Level	HP	EXP	Strength	Magic	Defense
	Reaction Endurance			Reality Endurance
The World That Never Was	38	1000	0	60	60	29
	40	1042	0	63	63	30
	2 (10s)			Reality Shifts disabled
Resistances	Fire	Blizzard	Thunder	Water	Dark	Light
	x1.0	x1.0	x1.0	x1.0	x1.0	x1.0
Status Effects	Stun	Mini	Sleep	Blind	Stop	Freeze
	X[1]	X	X	X	X	X
	Confuse	Poison	Magnet	Slow	Ignite	Bind
	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Zero Gravity		Time Bomb		Zantetsuken
	X		X		X
Rewards
None
Worlds
The World That Never Was

The Armored Ventus Nightmare is the final boss of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. It is a dark Nightmare version of Ventus's Keyblade Armor controlling Sora's body.

Story

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

After the real Organization XIII succeeds in luring Sora into the darkness, his heart sinks into the abyss of sleep. Just before it is consumed completely, Ventus's light shelters him in his Keyblade Armor, safeguarding it from the darkness that then shackles the armor.^[2]

After the Guardians of Light retrieve Sora and return to the Mysterious Tower, Yen Sid informs Riku that, by opening the seven Sleeping Keyholes within Sora's dreams, he should be able to dive into Sora's dream and awaken his heart.^[3] When Riku reaches Sora's Dive to the Heart, the darkness binding the armor animates as the Armored Ventus Nightmare, manipulating the armor to attack Riku. Riku manages to defeat the Nightmare and free Sora, and although this frees Sora to sink into darkness, he leaves behind his Keyblade, which Riku uses to unlock Sora's Keyhole.^[4]

Design

The Armored Ventus Nightmare is Sora clad in Ventus's Keyblade Armor, which is now black and purple in coloration. The Nightmare Dream Eater emblem is emblazoned on the visor. The boss wields Sora's Kingdom Key, which is also colored black and is translucent, with a reverse grip.

Strategy

The Armored Ventus Nightmare has less health than Young Xehanort (5 HP bars), but often melts into the ground like a Shadow does and more frequently, making locking on challenging. Riku can follow its path by seeing his position on the map in the bottom screen, but this is tricky and may prove too much of a distraction. At these points, it may be better to stop moving and be prepared to guard until Riku has either locked back on or spotted it. In general, the Nightmare mimics Ventus's fighting style, making use of fast combos, counterattacks, and reprisals. Because of this, Dark Barrier and Counter Aura are recommended as they block and hit in any direction and provides invincibility frames from some of its more brutal attacks. As for Dream Eaters, it may help to have at least one with a healing ability, but other than that, it does not particularly matter. Since very few attack commands will be effective, one may consider bulking up on Cure spells and items or on projectiles. Ironically, the air is generally a blind spot for the Nightmare, so if Riku has a command that can be quickly executed from the safety of a double jump like Firaga Burst, that may also help. Flowmotion attacks from above can also help.

The Armored Ventus Nightmare fights against Riku in Sora's Soul World.

When it turns the background white, the Dream Eaters are removed from the party temporarily, and the enemy may follow it up with one of two abilities. It will either generate four orbs of darkness that bounce around the arena and seek out Riku, or attack by moving towards Riku and using combos. In the former case, Riku cannot block these orbs and can only dodge. This is best achieved by using Flowmotion to jump up the sides of the arena, where the orbs will not follow, as dodging normally will not evade all of them. In the latter case, the Nightmare can be damaged. Again, Counter Aura will prove effective here. In either case, timing is critical for defense and it will eventually melt back into the ground, returning the arena to normal.

If it leaps into the air, resist the urge to attack it, as it is about to fire orbs of darkness into the ground that cannot be blocked. Even if Riku avoids the initial attack, it will split apart and travel across the floor of the arena. If he manages to avoid both, it will often quickly follow up with one of the white background attacks. The Nightmare may spin-dive into Riku like Ventus's Fever Pitch, or melt into the ground and reappear behind him to attack. These are all best handled with Dark Barrier and Counter Aura. A trickier ability it has is when it gives the arena a purple tint and causes darkness to swirl around it (mimicking an Aero or Tornado spell). Since this all happens near-simultaneously, and since it often uses it when being damaged many times in rapid succession, the attack is very difficult to avoid. If hit, the attack will do moderate damage and hurl Riku backwards, negating whatever action he happens to be performing.

While Counter Aura is crucial in this fight as it hits in any direction, it does little damage and its range is short, so relying on it to finish the boss may be tedious. It is generally safe to unleash a short combo whenever the Nightmare emerges from the ground and does not immediately launch into another attack. It will quickly attempt to counter, in which case Dark Barrier may be utilized. It may be tempting to use multi-hit attacks like Dark Aura or Dark Splicer on it, however, this does not work as well as it did on Young Xehanort. The Nightmare can change tactics quickly, opening Riku up to damage and/or knocking him out of the attack early, effectively wasting the command. It will often use Dark Tornado to accomplish this.

Once its HP is brought down to 1, the battle will shift. If the background is currently white when this happens, Riku must weather the attack until it returns the arena to normal, otherwise it will head straight for the center. He should be at full HP for having better chances of surviving. Once there, a cinematic will play in which the Nightmare uses Dark Charge, a "Shotlock" style ability, on Riku, who counters by using a special Dual Link: Nightmare Clash. The results are the same no matter which Dream Eaters Riku is using and if the Dream Eaters Link Gauges are full or not: he will begin glowing and all of his commands will be locked, leaving him no way to heal him, and with his Attack command replaced by Nightmare Clash. The Nightmare will restore its HP by one bar, which must be brought back down to 1 to finish the battle. Once More allows Riku to survive the strikes at 1 HP only if he doesn't attack before getting reduced to 1 HP, so Once More will not be able to save him while he repeatedly strikes his enemy. Riku may get hit if he times his charge too late compared to the enemy's, or too early, in that case in the eventuality Riku warps to the destination of the Nightmare's current charge. Should he succeed, the Nightmare will be stunned and the Finish command will destroy it for good. This command cannot miss, so perform it as quickly as possible, otherwise the Nightmare will regain consciousness, and Riku will be forced to repeat this sequence with diminished HP.

If Riku has the Auto-Life status and has his HP depleted, a fatal error can occur where the Nightmare Clash command will be replaced by a disabled Attack command, requiring the player to reset the game if Once More is equipped.

Technique		Element	Status	Power	Block?
Dark Rave (ダークレイヴ, Dāku Reivu)	Rising Horizontal Swing	Physical	—	0.5 per hit	△
	Spin Swing	Dark	—	0.5 per hit	△
	Rush Swing	Physical	—	0 x2 + 0.5 x2	△
	Rush Quadruple Thrust	Physical	—	0.5 per hit	△
	Dark Tornado	Dark	—	0.5 per hit	△
		Attacks with a variety of moves. Uses up to 3-4 attacks in succession.
		Rising Horizontal Sweep has the user perform a spin attack while jumping and releasing a few dark liquids around it. Spin Swing performs several sideways swings while airborne. Often used after Rising Horizontal Sweep if Riku is above the user. Rush Swing is a four-hit combo, with the first two hits dealing no damage. Often used after Rising Horizontal Sweep if Riku is on the ground. Rush Quadruple Thrust is an advancing spin attack similar to the combo finish of Fever Pitch. Often used after Rush Swing or Spin Swing if Riku is on the ground. Dark Tornado is a dark pillar surrounding the user that knocks the opponent back and surrounds the arena's scenery with a purple aura. Often used after Spin Swing or Rush Swing if Riku is above the user. Can also be used as a separate attack.
Crawler Attack (クローラーアタック, Kurōrā Atakku)		None	—	1.0 per hit	X
		Dives underground and moves directly beneath the opponent, then jumps out and attacks with a Keyblade swing and whirlpool of darkness.
		Temporarily turns the arena white, and removes Riku's Dream Eaters from the party (Abilities are still kept), unless a Link Style is active. During that time, the Armored Ventus Nightmare never uses Night Snake or Dark Charge. The ferocity of its attacks is increased afterwards, and it cannot dive underground anymore until the arena turns back to normal.
Crawler Shot (クローラーショット, Kurōrā Shotto)		None	—	1.0 per hit	X
		Jumps up and gathers strength, then scatters dark liquid forward in three directions. The dark liquid slowly follows the opponent while moving in an arch.
		Can be interrupted when it starts charging. The jump and charge of the attack is performed similarly to Ventus's Firestorm's finish command.
Night Snake (ナイトスネイク, Naito Suneiku)		None	—	0.5 per hit	X
		Dives underground and summons three blobs of dark liquid that fly toward the opponent.
		Used at the start of the battle and when at 50% HP. Telegraphed by its movement to the middle of the arena. Temporarily turns the arena white, and removes Riku's Dream Eaters from the party (Abilities are still kept), unless a Link Style is active. The Armored Ventus Nightmare is invincible during this attack. The blobs have a limited vertical range and cannot reach Riku beyond a certain height while he climbs the walls using Flowmotion.
Dark Slash (ダークスラッシュ, Dāku Surasshu)		Dark	—	1.0	△
		Moves behind the opponent and swings its Keyblade.
		The slide behind the opponent resembles Ventus's Reversal, while the swing resembles his Counter Rush.
Dark Raid (ダークレイド, Dāku Reido)		Dark	—	1.0 per hit	△
		Repositions itself in the air and throws its Keyblade. The Keyblade will return to its hand after traveling a certain distance.
		Often used after getting knocked back. The Keyblade can also hit multiple times if Riku is in the farthest distance it can reach. Performed similarly to Ventus's Payback Raid.
Dark Charge (ダークチャージ, Dāku Chāji)		Dark	—	2.0 per hit	X
		Only used at 1 HP. Locks onto Riku multiple times, recovers to 200 HP, then charges forward until Riku's Dream Eater Link Gauges drop to 0. Can be nullified by using Nightmare Clash.
		Used after moving to the middle of the arena. The start of the series of charges is delayed in the international releases of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD. The Armored Ventus Nightmare will remain invulnerable until its first charge.[5] Once Riku reduces the Armored Ventus Nightmare's HP to 1 with Nightmare Clash, the Armored Ventus Nightmare will be left stunned, while Riku will gain access to the Finish command, which is required to drop the Armored Ventus Nightmare's HP to 0. If Riku has the Auto-Life status and has his HP depleted, a fatal error can occur where the Nightmare Clash command will be replaced by a disabled Attack command, requiring the player to reset the game if Once More is equipped. Should Riku revert from Nightmare Clash before the Finish command is available, the Armored Ventus Nightmare will finish by falling and summoning a pillar of light with its left hand in the ground. Riku then takes heavy damage no matter his position.
When the arena is normal, the Armored Ventus Nightmare frequently dives underground and moves while underneath it, becoming invincible and cannot be locked-on during its movement.
Guard/Block: △ = Can be blocked; O = Can be blocked and interrupted (melee) or deflected back (projectile); X = Cannot be blocked.

Gallery

• 

  The black version of the Kingdom Key wielded by the Armored Ventus Nightmare.

Video

Notes and references

• Nightmare Dream Eater
• Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance bosses