In Brilehaven, we can access the Varmareno Coliseum, a den of battles and fury that will test the mettle of the most determined Metaphor: ReFantazio’s players.
To be honest, not really. Varmareno Coliseum is challenging, especially when you reach the Gold Rank. Still, it’s much more manageable than any secret boss in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
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Even so, preparation is everything before entering a fight, and that’s what we aim to do here: show you how you can get ready before tackling all the league ranks of Varmareno Coliseum.
There are 12 contests in total, including the certification battle, rank qualifiers, the final battle, and a 30-battle Gauntlet Challenge. I hope you’re ready to carve your name into the annals of the Coliseum.
Where to Find Varmareno Coliseum
After reaching Brilehaven, you can visit other city areas by catching a ride with a boatman.
You should head to Arenafront Wharf, climb the ramp next to the Elderly Entomohile, the Gold Beetle NPC, and proceed northwest to reach the Varmareno Coliseum.
On your first visit to Brilehaven, you won’t be able to participate in the Coliseum. The Coliseum is available when you’re preparing for Louis’s soirée.
Fighting in the Coliseum takes up either an afternoon or a night, and you can’t join the battle in stormy weather. It’s recommended to save before entering a fight, because if you lose, you spend half a day.
All Battles in Varmareno Coliseum
There are two types of battles in Metaphor: ReFantazio’s Coliseum. One attendant registers you for Ranked Leagues, while the other offers a 30-battle Gauntlet.
There are 12 ranked battles in total. The first is a certification battle, where you can showcase the full power of your Archetypes.
After the certification battle, the rank battles begin, starting at Bronze Rank III and going up to Gold Rank I. After defeating Gold Rank I, there’s the final battle.
Each battle grants a reward and boosts your Courage Virtue. The best rewards come from rising through the categories, but all of them are worthwhile.
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The 30-battle Gauntlet is quite a bummer, as we expected a super item but only received Courage points. However, there’s a trophy/achievement tied to it.
For context, we completed all the Bronze and Silver Rank battles with a party averaging level 35. Gold Rank was tackled after level 55, much later in the game, using the protagonist’s best Archetype and some rewards from hunting all Metaphor: ReFantazio’s gold beetles.
Given the vast customization options with Archetypes, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy at this point in the game. We’ll share our winning party composition and the enemies faced, but feel free to adapt it to the Archetypes you have available.
Certification Battle
The certification battle is against a Crag Manjula, a stone-skinned manticore. The monster blocks Fire and resists Pierce skills, but is weak to Strike attacks.
It reduces the party’s attack and defense before using fire-based AoE spells and poison attacks, but it doesn’t hit too hard.
We had a Swordmaster Archetype Strike skills inherited from the Pugilist lineage, which made the fight much more manageable.
Heismay used the Thief Archetype’s Lurking Nightblade to lower the monster’s Hit and Evasion, guaranteeing some dodges.
The Certification Battle is straightforward and should be effortless. Focus on Strike attacks for extra turns, avoid Archetypes weak to Fire, and you’ll win in no time.
Certification Battle Reward:
- 25,000 Money (37,500 with Alonzo Ability Bonus)
Bronze Rank Battles
Bronze Rank III
The Bronze Rank III battle is against five Goborns, all frail monsters. We recommend bringing some area-of-effect skills.
Our Swordmaster cast the Vorpal Blade Synthesis skill paired with a Faker, dealing massive physical Slash damage to all and killing the Goborn mage in one go.
The General Archetype cast Megidola with the Faker, wiping out the fodder minions, leaving only the Goborn King.
The Goborn King responded by buffing his hit and evasion, but it wasn’t enough. A few more single-target skills to his head, and he died by the second turn.
Bronze Rank III Reward:
-
x1 Man O’War Gloves (Gear)
- DEF 80 EVA 0 Strength +3 Magic +3 Effect: Prevents Paralysis
- +4 Courage
Bronze Rank II
Bronze Rank II is different because you face enemies on the field instead of a turn-based battle.
The enemies are Gangaflos and Serpetias. Gangaflos are painless since their attacks are well-telegraphed, but Serpetias have a mean tail swipe that’s tough to dodge.
To make things easier, switch the protagonist to a Gunner or Faker Archetype and rain long-range death upon them. The monsters won’t be able to do much and will fall quickly.
Bronze Rank II Reward:
- x10 Blessed Water
- x5 Graced Water
- x2 Heavenly Water
- +4 Courage
Bronze Rank I
The Bronze Rank I battle is against a Vesp and a Nocross. The main restriction here is that the protagonist must fight alone.
The Vesp is weak to Pierce skills, so take advantage of that. We placed our protagonist in the back row to maintain survivability while keeping damage output intact.
To do that, we went as a Sniper, the second Archetype in the Gunner lineage, since all its Pierce skills can only be used from the back row.
We abused the Wild Salvo skill, as it granted extra turns when hitting the Vesp. Even though Nocross wasn’t weak to Pierce, it died after four attacks.
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A Mage Archetype could also work, but aim for enemy weaknesses and attack twice. Staying in the back row increases survivability.
Bronze Rank I Reward:
-
x1 Fortune’s Grasp (Gear)
- DEF 77 EVA 0 – Receive 1.5x Archetype experience. Luck +10
-
x1 Rainbow Bathblossom
- Use while bathing to increase Protagonist Max HP, Max MP, and St/Ma/En/Ag/Luk by 2.
- +4 Courage
Silver Rank Battles
Silver Rank III
The first Silver Rank battle is against Homo Tentas, monsters that resemble human teeth. The challenge is that each enemy has a different weakness or resistance and unique skills. For example, one uses Electric skills, another Pierce, another uses Wind, and so on.
Detecting all their weaknesses was too much of a hassle, so we focused on area-of-effect physical skills. First, we cast the Masukunda Synthesis skill from the Faker, paired with a Magic Knight Archetype, to reduce the enemies’ hit and evasion.
Then, with the Swordmaster, we used Vorpal Blade Synthesis, paired with the Sniper, dealing damage to all enemies. Only one Homo Tenta resisted the attack.
We used a Knight’s Proclamation with the Magic Knight to draw enemy attention and lower their damage output. In the next turn, we used Myriad Shot Synthesis with the Sniper and Faker, plus another Vorpal Blade with the Swordmaster. Two enemies died in the process.
Only three Homo Tentas remained, and we continued using physical skills until they all fell. If you’re taking heavy spell damage, inherit Medi or Medica from the Healer Archetype to keep your party topped up.
Silver Rank III Reward:
-
x1 Miracle Igniter (Accessory)
- Enables the KO recover skill Mage Revival when equipped.
- +4 Courage
Silver Rank II
Like Bronze Rank II, this battle is fought on the field, relying on Metaphor: ReFantazio’s action-mode gameplay. The enemies are five Goborns, two Gargoz, and two Orgo.
However, this time, you have a timer and must defeat all enemies in one minute and a half. This battle has the potential to be your first roadblock on your way to becoming a gladiator.
The first wave consists of five Goborns and one Gargoz. After that, a solo Orgo will spawn. After the Orgo dies, another Orgo will spawn alongside a Gargoz.
You can try using a Gunner or Faker Archetype to keep a safe distance, but your damage output might not be enough to defeat them within the time limit.
We succeeded by setting the protagonist with the Seeker Archetype. As a Seeker, the protagonist has a Hero Passive to make party members attack more frequently. And believe us when we say that every bit of damage will matter in this battle.
Make sure to avoid taking any hits because keeping your damage uptime is crucial. If you take a hit, you can heal using the Auto Recovery shortcut.
The ideal approach is to start by focusing on the Goborns and hoping they cluster together, allowing you to kill multiple enemies simultaneously. The Gargoz will attack you from a distance, but avoiding their strikes is easy.
With the Goborns dead, focus on the Gargoz until it’s gone. When the first Orgo spawns, focus everything on it until it dies.
By then, the other Orgo and Gargoz will have appeared. Focus on the Gargoz, and the Orgo will come to you. Try to strike them both simultaneously and avoid their attacks. Hopefully, you can win in time.
Silver Rank II Reward:
-
x5 Hero’s Jewelled Root (Use Item)
- Increases Archetype experience by 3000.
- +4 Courage
Silver Rank I
This battle comes with a new restriction as well. This time, the protagonist can only fight alongside one ally, and both must assume a Brawler Archetype to face a duo of bandits.
For context, we were level 36, the protagonist didn’t have any Brawler skills, but Strohl was already a Pugilist, the first evolution of the Archetype.
Even so, the battle was tough. We recommend tackling it at a higher level or with two well-trained Brawlers.
The bandits duo consists of one focused on magic attacks and the other on physical attacks. The mage is weak against Strike skills, but the Warrior is resistant.
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The issue is that every Strike skill from the Brawlers consumes HP, putting our heroes in a dangerous situation. The mage also constantly casts ice spells, the Brawler’s weakness.
To make things worse, if you kill the mage first, the Warrior gets stronger and starts using ice-based physical area-of-effect attacks, which hurt a lot. The same happens if you kill the Warrior first.
We went with a safe, long-term strategy. Both bandits are susceptible to almost every status effect, though it’s tricky to sticky the debuff on them. We used the retry button to exhaustion.
We used the item Poison Stinger on the Warrior until the poison worked, and then we focused on hitting the mage with one Brawler. The second Brawler inherited Hama magic, the Warrior’s weakness, and a Medi spell to heal the party.
After lowering both enemies’ HP evenly, when both were on the brink of death, we used items that dealt fixed damage to them, regardless of the element.
Ultimately, we triumphed, but looking back, we felt we were still under-leveled for this battle. Our sheer stubbornness led to our victory, and the reward made it all worthwhile.
Silver Rank I Reward:
-
1x Full Moon Medal (Accessory)
- Effect: Large MP recovery every turn in battle.
-
1x Chain of Bonds (Accessory)
- Effect: Relaxes conditions on skills requiring multiples of the same Archetype.
- +4 Courage
Gold Rank Battles
Gold Rank III
We saved these Rank Battles for after we reached level 55 and unlocked the Prince Archetype for the protagonist. The first battle is a duel against Lina, the genius engineer obsessed with Gauntlet Runners.
Even with the Prince Archetype and at a higher level, we died to her out of carelessness, but on the second attempt, it was manageable.
Lina uses physical and magical attacks, buffs herself, and removes buffs from our protagonist—she’s the complete annoyance package.
The engineer is weak against Ice, but we didn’t even take advantage of that. Our strategy was to set the protagonist with the Prince Archetype in the back row and spam Radiance until she turned to cosmic dust.
We inherited Deiamahan from the Soul Hacker, the final evolution of the Seeker Archetype, and cast it to top off our HP when needed.
Since the Prince Archetype has no weaknesses, and depending on your Rank, it may even resist all elements, Lina never dealt enough damage.
Eventually, Lina used Mage Mirror, raising a barrier to reflect spells. We threw a Mindbreak Hammer item to dispel her Makarakarn effect and continued with Radiance.
Mixing magic damage and healing was enough to defeat Lina and claim the first victory in the Gold Rank.
Gold Rank III Reward:
-
x1 Jade Jian (Seeker Weapon)
- ATK 365 HIT 96 – Can be purified at a church.
-
x1 Heavenly Breeze (Jade Jian after Purify)
- ATK 420 HIT 96 Magic +5 Effect: Significantly increases Wind attack strength.
- +4 Courage
Gold Rank II
Yet another action-combat battle, this time against Kokasados and Leogryph. Compared to the previous rank, this battle is way easier.
The gimmick here is that you can’t get pounded—it’s a one-hit KO affair, so avoid the enemies as if your life depended on it because it does.
There’s no time limit, so no rush. The Prince Archetype is one of the strongest in field battle, and you should be able to eliminate the monsters effortlessly. If you lack confidence in your reaction skills, go with the Gunner or Faker Archetype long-ranged strategy.
First comes a lone Kokasados, then a Leogryph, and in the final wave, both monsters together. Attack them, dodge cautiously, and victory will be yours.
Gold Rank II Reward:
-
x10 Hero’s Jeweled Root
- Increases Archetype experience by 3000.
- +4 Courage
Gold Rank I
We arrived at the last ranked battle in the league, but not the final one in the Varmareno Coliseum, as the attendant hinted all along.
The last battle is against a human, a slightly amusing situation because no one in the Coliseum was aware of that.
The Homo Luano is resistant to all types of damage and has a vast HP pool. Still, it’s not much of a threat since its attacks are sparse.
That’s because the Homo Luano attacks once per turn, applying a specific weakness to an ally. In the next turn, it charges its attack and will likely kill the weakened ally.
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Sometimes he uses an area attack like Slam Shatter, but it shouldn’t be enough to take down your party. Still, have someone with a healing spell that targets all allies.
As long as you bring an Archetype with Recarm or rely on items, your party will keep standing, and Homo Luano won’t wipe you out.
Our strategy to hurt him was a simple back-and-forth of Synthesis Skills between the Prince and Berserker Archetypes.
The Prince has the Royal Sword skill, which deals Almighty damage, bypassing any resistance and even causing increased damage against humans.
The Berserker can use Wanton Destruction to inflict a one-time weakness to Strike on the enemy and repeatedly hit that weakness in the following turns.
The other two allies were there to support the damage dealers, either buffing their attack or debuffing the enemy’s defense. They also resurrected anyone who died.
It may take a while, but eventually, the human will fall. Stick to your strategy, and you’ll notice the Gold Rank I battle isn’t that difficult.
Gold Rank I Reward:
-
1x Gambler’s Manual
- Effect: Doubles critical hit damage.
-
1x Overlord’s Sash
- Effect: Increases the MP cost and strength of Synthesis.
- +4 Courage
Believe us when we say these are two of the best accessories in Metaphor: ReFantazio. Double critical hit damage speaks for itself—it’s exceptionally powerful.
But we still think the Overlord’s Sash is better. It triples the MP cost of Synthesis skills, which can be dangerous for your MP management, but the damage increase is spectacular, especially if the attack lands a critical.
These two accessories carried us through many endgame dungeons and even guaranteed a first-turn victory against the final boss to show you how powerful these effects are.
Final Coliseum Challenge
There’s still one more challenge in the Varmareno Coliseum league against a Guptauron.
This might bring back some trauma from Belega Corridor, the dungeon to unlock the Merchant Archetype, as Guptauron is one of the first threats in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Guptauron isn’t a hard boss, but as always, there’s an extra condition to win this battle. You need to kill the monster in two turns or less.
The monster is weak against Pierce and Ice attacks and is immune to Fire. The secret here is either debuff the Guptauron’s defense or buff your allies’ attack. We went with the latter strategy.
We used the spell Summon Genma with the Devil Summoner to deal Pierce damage and decrease the monster’s defense. With the Persona Master, we cast the Masquerade Charge Synthesis to increase the party’s physical damage.
With a Destroyer, the evolution of the Berserker Archetype, we used the Wild Bore Synthesis, an extreme physical Pierce damage skill. We followed with the same skill on the Prince’s turn.
The Prince was equipped with the Overlord’s Sash, and the results speak for themselves. The damage was enough to kill Guptauron in the first turn, securing victory.
Final Coliseum Challenge Reward:
-
1x Yggdrasil Crown (Gear)
- DEF 130 EVA 00 Magic +5 Effect: Prevents mental status ailments. Prevents Charm, Daze, Forget, Sleep, and Rage.
- 90,000 Money (135,000 with Alonzo Ability Bonus)
With this victory, you’re crowned the champion of the Varmareno Coliseum and Metaphor: ReFantazio’s mightiest gladiator.
Gold Gauntlet Challenge
But the challenges are far from over. The attendant on the left side of the Varmareno Coliseum invites you to take on a Gauntlet Challenge, which consists of 30 consecutive battles.
Since there are no rewards besides Courage points for completing them, we won’t provide tips for beating the Bronze and Silver Gauntlets.
However, there’s a trophy/achievement for beating the Gold Gauntlet Challenge, so here are some tips if you’re trophy hunting.
The party composition we used was:
- The Protagonist with the Prince Archetype, simply because it’s the strongest of all.
- Someone as a Tycoon, the evolution of the Merchant Archetype. The Tycoon’s area-of-effect attack spends money instead of MP and is the best way to save your magic points throughout 30 battles. Hopefully, you’re rich enough.
- An Elemental Master to cast area-of-effect elemental spells.
- Strohl as a Royal Warrior to unleash area-of-effect physical skills.
The secret to the Gauntlet Challenge is that battles are random but always deliver the same enemies. You might encounter the same sequence of Raging Corvosta or, if you’re unlucky, numerous Moldilich.
Since there’s no set pattern, we’ll list the monsters we faced so you can build your strategy accordingly.
- Four Raging Corvost, bird-monsters weak to Pierce attacks. One Golden Soldier Synthesis from the Tycoon might be enough.
- A Grotesque Chimenzahn, a double-headed manticore weak to Ice and Wind but immune to Electricity and absorbs Fire. It has high HP, but its attacks are weak.
- Three Potolpo Brua, weak to Electricity, immune to Strike, resistant to Fire, and reflects Ice. The Elemental Master’s Gakandeon Synthesis wipes them out in the first turn.
- Four Noctiluca Papyrmas are weak to Pierce, Wind, and Darkness but reflect all other elements. One Golden Soldier Synthesis from the Tycoon does the job.
- Three or four skeleton soldiers, weak to Strike and Light, resistant to Slash, Pierce, and Darkness, and immune to Electricity. Golden Soldier, AoE Ice spells, and some loose attacks will finish them off.
- A Moldilich, the strongest enemy in the Gauntlet Challenge. The Moldilich is weak to Strike and resistant to Light but reflects all other elements. Unfortunately, it has a spell that can cause instant KO. Rely on the Prince’s Royal Sword and the Royal Warrior’s Brave Blade skill. It might take some time, but the Moldilich will eventually fall.
- Four bandits, the warriors are weak to Fire and Ice but resistant to Physical attacks. We didn’t notice the weakness of the mages because they all died from a Golden Soldier followed by an AoE elemental spell.
- A Kokasadors, weak to Pierce and Fire, but reflects Ice and Dark. The Prince and Elemental Master’s fire spells should handle it.
- Three Spekto of Fury and one Rigopetia. The Spektos are weak to Ice and Light, absorb Fire, and reflect all physical skills. Rigopetia is resistant to Fire and immune to Wind but weak to Ice. Spam area-of-effect Ice spells.
- A Balmy Alento and a Kaprasarto. Balmy Alento is weak to Fire and resistant to all other elements but absorbs Light. Kaprasarto is weak to Electricity and Darkness but blocks Ice, reflects Light, and is resistant to Fire. They’re both weak, so hit them with their respective weaknesses.
- Four Obsilhas, weak to Ice. An area-of-effect Ice spell from the Elemental Master is overkill.
These were the sort of monsters we encountered in the Gauntlet. As we said, the encounters started repeating themselves, so we employed the same strategy over and over.
The Tycoon Archetype helped save MP from the other Archetypes when facing weak enemies so that they could unleash everything against the Moldilich and kill it as quickly as possible.
Still, it’s a bummer that there are no rewards for finishing the Gold Gauntlet Challenge other than a trophy and some minor Courage boost. We only recommend doing it if you’re looking for a challenge or want the trophy/achivement.
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