Final Fantasy is considered by many as one of the greatest JRPG franchises of all time, with each successive entry either reinventing the wheel when it comes to the genre’s machinations or pushing the boundaries of gaming to the next level, if not both. From the intense battles to the engrossing stories — Final Fantasy is a series that pretty much any gamer should definitely try out at some point.

Each game in the series ends up being a standalone story of sorts, with common elements being the enemies, items, spells, summons, and other minor things. It’s a similar system to the Persona series, although one has to admit that some of the monsters present in the Final Fantasy series are just a cut above the rest. Out of all these legendary enemies, here are ten such monsters who appear in only the rarest of instances in the games.

10 Mover

Movers are one of the most valuable enemies in the Final Fantasy series, featuring high Evasion stats and a triple-team attack that will put the player in a tough spot unless they manage to either set up their defenses or defeat one of the enemies in this trio.

Given their high defenses and evasive maneuvers, defeating these enemies can be hard but the rewards (such as high EXP and AP returns) make these battles more than worth it. It’s a shame that these enemies can only be encountered in the final stretch of the game, as most players will be too busy powering all the way to the ending to really bother with fighting these annoying enemies.

9 Killbin

One of the rarest Final Fantasy enemies comes in the form of a rather weird die-like creature that most people have probably never even encountered in Final Fantasy VII.

The Whirlwind Maze features a number of enemies that spawn rather gratuitously in other areas of the game. However, Killbin is an exception to this — the only other area that Killbins appear in is the Rocky Path. The low encounter rate in this area coupled with the 5/32 chance of actually encountering a Killbin makes it quite a rare enemy to find indeed.

8 Kactuar

Cactuars are rather fleet-footed enemies present in the Final Fantasy series who can be quite a pain to find and hunt down. So, it’s only a given that their more evolved counterparts are going to be even harder to encounter in the games they’re featured in.

This is exactly the case with the Kactuar, which is easily one of the more annoying enemies one can encounter in Final Fantasy. A one-hit KO attack, high evasion stats, and a penchant to run away after crippling the party make the Kactuar one of the rarest — and frustrating — enemies in the series.

7 Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is another iconic enemy in the Final Fantasy series who definitely makes his presence all the more common in later Final Fantasy games, with Final Fantasy XV being a great example of this.

However, there was a time when the Iron Giant used to be a rarer encounter that mainly used to appear in fixed locations as opposed to being a random battle. The first two Final Fantasy games really went off the rails when it came to this, placing the Iron Giant as a random battle with an encounter rate of just 1/64.

6 Marlboro

Of course, it would be impossible to talk about the enemies of Final Fantasy without mentioning the legendary Marlboro — a creature that has consistently proved to be the bane of many a player’s Final Fantasy playthrough.

There’s a reason why a Marlboro is rarely encountered in most Final Fantasy games — his Bad Breath attack can lead to a quick Game Over for most players, and turning this enemy into a commonly encountered one will make the trek through most areas in Final Fantasy a massive pain.

5 Tyrannosaur

Dinosaurs have been featured many times across the Final Fantasy games, with the T-Rex present in Final Fantasy VIII being one of the more iconic enemies in the game. However, this iteration of the Tyrannosaur is fairly common, along with the random encounters that players can initiate in Final Fantasy VI’s World of Ruin.

However, in the original Final Fantasy, the Tyrannosaur was actually a very rare enemy in either the Yahnikurm Desert or near a lake north of Lufenia. The high XP returns made it a worthy battle, although finding it was a major task.

4 Brachiosaur

The Brachiosaur is the hardest enemy to fight — and encounter — in Final Fantasy VI, featuring a massive HP pool and a wealth of powerful attacks that would completely wipe out a party that is unprepared to take on this fearsome foe.

With attacks such as Meteor, Ultima, and Disaster, any player who decides to take on the task of fighting the Brachiosaur will find themselves participating in a very tough challenge indeed. That is if they even manage to find this enemy in the first place. After all, an encounter rate of 1/16 isn’t really all that promising.

3 Chimera

The Chimera is another enemy that is present throughout the Final Fantasy series, although it’s the enemy’s appearance in Final Fantasy VIII that truly qualifies it for this list.

The earliest that players can fight a Chimera is the Dingo Desert, but players who’ll want to encounter this enemy as soon as possible will find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place due to the rarity of this encounter in the desert.

2 Tonberry

An iconic enemy that is bound to send shivers down the spine of any Final Fantasy player who was unfortunate enough to encounter this enemy when they weren’t ready, the Tonberry ends up being an enemy who serves some brutal karmic justice to any party member who might’ve killed off too many enemies with their attacks.

Their appearance in Final Fantasy X perhaps marks their rarest — and most frustrating — appearance, due to the fact that they only serve as a rare encounter in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, which can prove to be rather annoying for completionists who want to capture ten of these monsters for the Monster Arena.

1 Simurgh

The Tonberry isn’t the only rare enemy in Final Fantasy X who needs to be captured a total of ten times for the Monster Area quest — there’s another enemy that falls under this rather annoying category.

This enemy is Simurgh, situated at the northern end of the Djose Highroad. The rarity of this encounter, coupled with the requirement to capture it ten times, makes it one of the most annoying enemies to encounter on this Highroad.

NEXT: Every Main Final Fantasy Game Ranked On How Long They Take To Beat