Baal



"You've gotta be kidding! Level 4000?!"

- Laharl, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Baal (バール Bāru) is one of the superbosses found in the Disgaea series. Appearing in multiple forms, he always holds incredible power. Known as "The Lord of Terror" and "The Tyrant Overlord", Baal is a fearsome threat to all worlds in the Nippon Ichi Multiverse. Apart from his almost unstoppable power, he also has the ability to remove his soul from his body and move it to another one. In the Disgaea franchise, he usually appears as a giant and heavily armored Ogre which is assumed to be his true body. Usually, after the battle with him, a harder Round 2 is unlocked in which he uses another body (or multiple copies) to fight the main character while his old body restores itself. In other games like Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom, his appearances take place between his body being defeated and his body being restored as he always has to use a backup body during those times. A typical backup body for Baal is either a Prinny suit or an Eryngi Mushroom as both are common and in ready supply.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Although it is said that King Krichevskoy died by choking on a black pretzel, the true story was that he tried to stop Baal from trying to conquer the Netherworld. Though it cost him his life, he managed to seal Baal away.

He is the second-strongest enemy found in the Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (not counting enemies of the Item World) and even Laharl was shocked by his strength. Baal is fought at the bonus location "Baal Castle" which is unlocked by clearing The Alternate Netherworld and Beauty Castle, in either order the player wishes. Unlike the previous Bonus Stages, you do not need to pass a bill in the Dark Assembly to go to it.

Tyrant Baal's real strength in this incarnation comes from his stats (189,000 at least) and aptitude (all at 200%), rather than his levels. He carries a Super Robo Suit and Nemesis during his first encounter.

After being defeated Laharl is granted the title of "Tyrant", and Baal takes the form of Uber Prinny Baal which is much stronger than a regular Prinny. (Note that despite being in Prinny form he will never explode when thrown.) His minimum level is 6000 with around 6 million Hp and all his stats being 394,000 (at the bare minimum without his equipment). He keeps his evil growl and leaves explosions with each strike of his knives. All of Baal's equipment (Prinny Costume and Nemesis Mk. 2) are max-leveled as well as all of his Prinny moves. His moves have more range than normal prinny moves. As an example, Prinny Barrage has a five target cross pattern instead of a single target attack range. Here, his equipment aptitudes are the highest out of any of his incarnations, being at 300%, which makes Stealing his equipment the first and highest priority.

Etna Mode
In Etna mode on the DS, and the PSP version Baal's Castle is unlocked the same way as in the normal story mode. When Etna encounters Baal, the Prinny that she is with tells Etna that he is the Tyrant Baal, a netherworld conquering monster. When Etna says she has no choice but to fight him, it appears that the prinny accompanying her stands up for her, "Dood! Leave it to me Master Etna!" and walks up to Baal. "He's got guts for a Prinny" Etna remarks, and after saying so that prinny is backed up by a dozen more prinnies and they surround Baal, only to turn on Etna and asking Baal to defeat the hated Etna so that they can get revenge on all the cheap pay and slave labor. When in Etna mode Baal is a little bit tougher because of the geo panels and the symbols, in this order, bottom left corner "Enemy Boost x 3" bottom right corner "Silence" top left corner "No Lifting" and top right corner "Clone", each of the geo symbols is surrounded by four prinnies. After defeating Baal the Prinny exclaims that he can not believe she beat the Tyrant Baal, and Etna exclaims that she is better than an Overlord and that title is now meaningless to her. She then exclaims if the prinnies don't want her to kill them they'd better not betray her again. By defeating Baal in Etna mode, Etna is granted the title "Beauty Tyrant" and the game ends and "Etna Boogie" plays in the credits and the background shows her lying down wearing a cape and crown.

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories
This stage is unlocked after 25 Dark World Maps are complete, and the bill to unlock the stage is passed.

Adell and Rozalin venture to Baal's castle, finding only a statue. However, Rozalin's seal activates, and Baal is released.

The first battle against Baal is by himself, as he is level 4000. As a reward for the battle, the Makai Wars accessory is obtained.

When the player revisits the stage, Baal has taken over a Prinny body, becoming level 8000, and has revived four copies of his original body, each at level 4000. Prinny Baal carries a Prinny Suit on the first visit and will continue to carry it until stolen.

In the Land of Carnage Item World, from floors 91 to 99, a quartet of Baals appear as pirates, and defeating them causes the stats of every enemy on the next map to double.

However, Prinny Baal also appears as a pirate, and defeating him grants Adell the "Lord Master" title. With this title, all enemies on the next map have quadruple stats. Revisiting Baal castle will reveal Prinny Baal who has a total of 160 million HP, making this the most demanding encounter in the game.

In Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, Baal serves the same purpose as he did before. However, his title as the strongest enemy in the game was taken by an even harder boss, Pringer X. His soul is a major component of Pringer X.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
Throughout the game, these characters will reveal they've had something stolen:

After all of this, Baal is revealed to be in the form of a Red Eringa, hiding in this form to heal after his last battle against Laharl's group.

Baal's only special, "Enigma Crisis", causes his regular incarnation to appear and cover him in energy, leading up to an incredibly powerful attack. The move does incredibly high damage(Power Level of B) and a 3x3 Blast Radius, with a free range of 4.

After the battle, Mao demands that Baal returns all of the stolen items, only for Baal to say that he never took said items, and that he'd already given everyone what they wanted, causing everyone to reflect. Saying that it felt good to do this sort of thing every once in a while, he runs off, making this the only time where he isn't finished off...

One of Baal's equipped items in this battle is the Makai Wars accessory which (ironically) can only be acquired by stealing it from him. Also, the highest level Sword Weapon in the game is the Baal Sword.

Subsequent fights has Baal becoming level 8000, but aside from his HP doubling, nothing changes.

When fought in the Land of Carnage after his first defeat, Eringa Baal has 400 million HP and around 50 million in each stat, which is enough to nearly kill anyone in one hit. Beating him here unlocks the "Shura Support Group" Club bill for Classroom Assembly. Fighting him here means he also carries the Baal Body Monster Weapon, which makes acquiring it both simple but tough, as your thief needs to be at max level to steal it, and it only appears on the first time you fight him in the Land of Carnage.

In the Raspberyl DLC, Baal applies to Evil Academy as a teacher (this mostly being determined by him holding an application) in his old body from Hour of Darkness, and Mao offers him a position as vice-principle if he can beat the main characters. In this new battle, Baal is accompanied by 2 copies of himself and also has 2 Enemy Base Panels behind him, one that summons more Baal copies and one the summons Omega Sentinal level Majins. Defeating him in this stage unlocks a powerful Sword Weapon called the Baal Horn. In this form, the Baals are at level 5000 with at least 30 million HP each and stats exceeding 2 million. They have 2 Evilities: the initial cancels out any damage and the more Baals there are, the more times the damage can be cancelled out. Baal can also Magichange into a large blunt object (possibly a Club or Crowbar) which is regarded as an Axe weapon. The Baals each carry Baal Bodys, Trapezohedrons, Infernal Armors, and Cosmos Muscles which the player can steal if they wish. After losing, as Almaz notes that the Tyrant will be out of a job if they force him to leave, Mao decides that leaving him unemployed would be digraceful to the title of Overlord and hires Baal as a teacher.

In Absence of Detention, Baal has more HP and a new Evility. Compared to the original PS3 version, Baal while fought in the Land of Carnage will have 1.2 billion HP as opposed to 400 million HP. Baal's new Evility, "Overlordiness", decreases the amount of damage taken based on the player's Honor Quotient.

It is also possible to steal the Magichanged Baal Axe by using the Puppy Paw Stick. The Baal Axe has extremely high stats compared to other stolen Magichanged weapons and perfected Rank 40/41 weapons. Also, in the original PS3 version, the Baal Axe's HP is zero while in the Playstation Vita version, the Baal Axe's HP appears as normal and can have over 300 million HP by itself if stolen in the Land of Carnage with max Stronger Enemy levels.

Disgaea Infinite
There is mention in this game that he holds the top rank among all overlords: "Badass Overlord".

Coming in second place to him is the Demon God encountered in Disgaea 2, who was also sealed away.

The Demon God's seal reacts with Baal's in the 2nd game, releasing him, for unknown reasons.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
Baal initially didn't make an appearance in this installment of the series, with his normal role of "Super Boss" being taken by Zetta and Pringer X. However, players can acquire the ability to fight Baal via DLC. Like the other characters, Baal's sprite has been upgraded to HD.

The reward for defeating him this time is Great Baal Horn, a sword with an attack range of 4 and the highest default attack of all weapons.

In his scene, Baal apparently answers Fenrich's request for more Hades Party Members, though this frightens both Emizel and Desco. Baal ends up transporting the group to a location similar to the one used for the Pringer X: Poison battle, and sizes up. Val takes the challenge, to show him who the true Tyrant really is.

After his defeat, Valvatorez hires Baal as a Training Instructor, meaning that, much like his Disgaea 3 DLC, this battle can be repeated as many times as the player wishes.

In being sized up as though he performed Demon Fusion, Baal's stats are considerably swelled up into the 40M range, and his skills are appropriately given a giant range along with his normal attack that has a range of 4. He also sports two new evilities. When fought in the Land of Carnage, Baal's stats are maxed out at 99,999,999 and on replays, there are 5 of them, making this fight the greatest challenge in Disgaea 4.

Baal has 200% aptitudes and 75% resistances to all elements. He has the Crowbar, Ultimate Barrier, Makai Wars and Arcadia equipped, making it very worthwhile to steal from him although a Thief must have high stats to survive the initial attack on the base panel.

His first Skill, Saber Basher, is a C-power skill that drops swords onto the target, all of which promptly explode.

His Grand Sword skill is an S-power skill, summoning four swords to box the victims in before blasting them with Star energy.

His new skill is Grave Eternity, another S-power skill. Here, Baal transforms himself into a sword, which splits into eight separate ones before forming a ring with the blades outward. Energy gathers in the center of the ring before blasting the victims, extending outward into space and presumably destroying an asteroid cluster.

Baal's first Evility, Ultimate Force, automatically performs a normal attack on anyone who comes out of the Base Panel. Thus, whomever is drawn out needs an obscenely high Defense and HP score to survive this.

His second Evility, Ultimate Revival, makes it so that he auto-revives upon his HP being depleted. This evility resurrects him four times, meaning he has to be killed five times.

His last Evility is Basic Rule, one of the Evilities of the Android, which makes his attacks deal no damage to his allies. This one only really comes into play during replays of the map, as there are five Baals now on the field.

Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness
Baal returns in Disgaea D2 as an optional boss. He doesn't appear in the initial game(JP version only), being added to the game by Patch 1.30 rather than being offered as DLC. In the NA and EU versions of the game, Baal and Rasetsu Mode are included by default. Baal has extremely high stats, having HP in the high billions and stats that go over the normal limit of 99,999,999. With the Rasetsu Mode multiplier turned on and enemy strength at zero stars, he will have 100 billion HP and 500 million in all stats. He also carries LV 999 items, being the only enemy to have maxed out items equipped by default. Each of Baal's items has 9,999,999 in all stats except HP and SP. Baal's equipment cannot be stolen as well(including use of the Puppy Paw Stick). He also retains his Ultimate Force evility (now called T.O. Force) from Disgaea 4, as well as a new evility called T.O. Analysis that renders him immune to special skills after their first use (similar to Pringer X's evility), and is also fought on the same arena as well. Baal has 6 forms, each with a different evility and color scheme (light blue, black/grey and gold), though any skills he becomes immune to will not work throughout each form. The BGM will also change with every phase of the battle. Baal also does not lose any stationary bonuses for his damage when he moves due to his Super Time Engine equipment.

Baal initially starts out with only having Tera Star and Saber Basher as special skills, and uses his T.O. Force evility. As the fight progress, his later forms will have access to Grand Sword and Grave Eternity as skills.

Baal's second form switches out his T.O. Force for a new evility called T.O. Pandemic, which inflicts all the player's units with all status effects at the end of every turn. The player must have maxed out ailment resistance innocents to prevent this Evility from working. His third form switches to T.O. Illusion, which gives him a 50% chance of evading any attack. His fourth form switches to T.O. Legion, which summons two mini-Baals at the end of each turn. Each mini-Baal is at lv 4000 with 1 billion HP/SP and 400 million in all other stats. They come with all Tera spells and their evililty prevents friendly fire. His fifth form using T.O. Disaster, which damages all the player's units at the end of every turn. His final form switches to T.O. Despair, which will destroy the player's base panel (meaning any character they want to use in the fight should vacate it or they won't be able to use them) and heals Baal for 20% of his HP and SP per every turn as well.

The reward for defeating Baal is the Great Baal Horn, a Super Time Engine (essentially a renamed Hyperdrive) and the Tyrant Title for the character who dealt the finishing blow to Baal. Baal can only be fought in the new Rasetsu mode included in Patch 1.30(JP version only) while he can be fought in the localized versions of the game without any patches. The Rank 40 Monster Weapon(Physical) is called the Baal Stigma and is also found equipped to Baal along with a Super Time Engine, Broken Cellphone and a Trapezohedron.

Defeating Baal on Normal/Rasetsu Mode with no Stars awards a Data Entry in the Data Shop. Defeating him on Max Rasetsu Settings will award another entry in the Data Shop. On max settings, Baal will have maxed out stats in everything including HP and SP. The Data Shop records how many turns the player took to defeat Baal, recording the victory with the least amount of turns taken.

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance
Baal didn't appear in Disgaea 5 initially, instead being added in Patch 1.50 similar to his inclusion in Disgaea D2. In the NA and EU versions, Baal is included by default like in Disgaea D2. Baal is fought in a much different manner compared to his previous incarnations. In the stage where he is fought, there are numerous Geo Effects and Generic classes aiding Baal. In addition, there are multiple Baals on the stage which can summon mini-Baals every turn (with the Overload skill Rakshasa Cataclysm). Baal also has a wide variety of Evilities, providing him with a wide variety of buffs such increasing damage or completely charging his Revenge meter every turn. Baal and his allies will have stats in the 40-50 million range when fought normally. When fought in the Carnage Dimension, they will have maxed out stats.

He also appeared as a Super Overlord instead of just a Tyrant Overlord, overseeing the world as his own effect which deals massive amount of damage to all allies at random turns, labelled one turn before he fires his attack. There is no possible way to nullify this effect, as any summoned netherworlds will be destroyed by him within one turn after the summon, instantly erasing its effect and reverting back to his attacking effect.

Defeating Baal for the first time will reward the player with the Axel Gear. The Axel Gear is a special item which has the Overclocker Innocent. Defeating Carnage Baal will reward the player with the Great Baal Horn which is the strongest weapon in the game, outclassing every other weapon in terms of pure stats.

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?
Baal appears in the bonus map "Martial Tower" inside a prinny body, replacing the previous boss, Prinny Laharl. He can summon aerial swords, ground pound to summon Grand Swords, and has a super move that causes an image of his regular incarnation to appear, which leads to him creating a field of energy in which he bounds around, targeting the Hero Prinny. Unlike his other appearances as a Prinny, Baal's eyes are completely blank and his Prinny Body has a Dark Purple color. Also, despite the fact the he is a Prinny, should the player lift up Baal after stunning him and then throw him, Baal will not explode.

Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!
Baal returns in the sequel as a boss on the hidden stage "Martial Tower: Abyss". He is in his original "Tyrant Ogre" body in this game and is called "Baal Reborn". Baal is also a 3D Model in this game as opposed to a 2D sprite, making this game his first 3D appearance. Aside from his usual swords, Baal can make use of tornadoes, summon energy balls, and even breathes fire. The player has to damage his hands enough so that Baal slams them on the platform, then hip-pound his head four times to stun him.

Should the player repeat the "Martial Tower: Abyss" stage within that current game cycle Prinny Baal replaces Baal Reborn. His attack style is similar to the fight with Prinny Baal in Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? however his attacks are much faster, have less build up, are harder to predict and his Aerial Swords have added, harder to avoid movement patterns, factoring in the fact the the stage is smaller and there are no walls it makes for a considerably more difficult battle.

Also, after beating Prinny Baal, it becomes entirely possible that Baal will jump between either his "Reborn" or "Prinny" states on each visit.

La Pucelle: Tactics
Baal's first appearance was in La Pucelle: Tactics. As a hidden boss in the Dark Shrine (a secret room after the Cave of Trials is complete), he is accompanied by three level 1500 demons (Aliok, Orthros, Gorgan), Baal (himself a Capricorn Demon) being level 2000. If Prier has the Demon Lord title, an infinite number of Baals can be recruited, also being expanded into a trick that allows for an unlimited number of Robot Suits to be collected. One interesting thing is that while in his Capricorn form, Baal would have voice clips during his attacks. While this was his sole appearance in the US release, the European and Japanese re-releases added a number of extra Baal fights (DISGAEA Baal, Phantom Baal, and True Form Baal). DISGAEA Baal's battle took place in Baal Castle on the same map as the one used in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Baal takes the form of a Talos Demon this time and is equipped with a Hyper Unit. Also, more in tune with his other appearances, DISGAEA Baal is level 4000.

Phantom Brave
In Phantom Brave, Baal takes the form of an Eringa monster, but is still level 4000. Afterwards, he joins as a playable character, making this his second playable appearance. Marona noticibly objects, saying his presence may scare away all of the other phantoms.

Makai Kingdom
In Makai Kingdom, Baal has taken residence in Zetta's soulless body, making this the first time Baal has had a voice in battle. Winning this battle allows for Zetta's soulless body to be playable (though Zetta comments on this). Here, it's revealed why Baal always returns: Baal is actually an aggregate of evil souls that has the ability to take over other bodies. If his host body is destroyed, he simply transfers into another body while his real one is being restored, explaining all of his appearances.

However, if Laharl is the leader, he recognizes Baal's aura and, after the battle, destroys Zetta's body via burning, leading to the game's credits and a Game Over.

Later on, Baal returns in a Prinny body, riding the Yoshitsuna Battleship, the most powerful vehicle in the game, which is the prize for winning the battle. Should the player lose though, a scene is shown in which Baal stays in his Prinny body and, with the help of the Yoshitsuna Battleship, invades all Netherworlds and makes Prinnies the dominate species and rulers of the universe. A Game Over Screen appears soon after.

Trivia

 * The theme that plays whenever fighting Baal is called "Great Wilder". Noticeably, in Disgaea 3, the BGM "Last World" or "Windin' Rinding"(on replays) plays instead of "Great Wilder" during his Eryngi form battle.
 * In the English Playstation 2 port of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the theme that played whenever fighting Baal was "The Invasion from Within" by Tsunami Bomb. This was not added to any future ports of the game due to NIS not having the song's rights (which belonged to Atlus at the time).
 * Baal in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea D2: A Brigher Darkness is the only enemy in the entire series (not counting player pirates in Disgaea 4) to carry leveled equipment.
 * The swords Baal uses to attack are used as Rank 40 Swords in Disgaea 3, 4, and Disgaea D2, replacing the former Rank 40 Sword Yoshitsuna (which is now Rank 39). They also are being used by Laharl in his new special move: Overlord Dimension.