There are numerous bounties to be fought in Metaphor: ReFantazio, which will lead you to a bunch of optional dungeons. Near the end of the game, you will gain access to some new bounties, one of which is for the Bandit Chief Cistus. This will lead you to the Disgraced Ruins, to the far north of Grand Trad. Make it through to the end, and you’ll come face-to-face with the bandit chief, although there is a little twist at the end.

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You’ll face Bandit Chief Cistus at the end of the Disgraced Ruins.

Bandit Chief Cistus Location¶

You won’t be able to get this bounty until 9/26 on the in-game calendar, which is the beginning of the finale. Once you reach this date, go to any of the recruitment centers to pick up the new bounty (along with two other ones). For the Bandit Chief, you will open up a new dungeon to the north of Grand Trad, the Disgraced Ruins. Make sure you go to the Informant in Grand Trad to get some info, then head to the runner and set a course for the ruins.

This place is a proper dungeon, like many of the other optional dungeons, with it containing some annoying enemies. The two types of Bandits will like to hide around corners to try and ambush you, so always be looking at your minimap to spot them. It’s a good idea to have some of the Merchant’s gold-tossing attacks here, since they can cause the bandits to waste turns by being distracted. The skeletons here are nothing special, since they mostly function the same as most of the other ones from earlier in the story. You will also encounter the final tier of mimics here, the Bloodcoin Imitec. They’re just basically stronger versions of the others, but they do have the ability to inflict Charm, so be careful.

Once you make it to the very end, you will find the usual save point, as well as the door leading to the boss.

Bandit Chief Cistus Boss Guide¶

When the battle first starts, the Bandit Chief will be accompanied by two other Bandits, which are the same ones you’ve encountered in this dungeon (one hooded and one non-hooded). Remember that the hooded one is weak to Pierce and Strike, while the other is weak to both Fire and Ice. As for the Bandit Chief himself, he’ll be weak to Light and has some resistance to Dark. The general idea is that you want to defeat the adds here, even though Cistus can use Summon to bring more into the fight.

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(1 of 5) Cistus will always start his actions by using Soul Cry.

You definitely don’t need to have three sources of damage on your party here, but the Bandit Chief won’t always summon more. Cistus will pretty much use Soul Cry on his lone action to get two more Turn Icons, then go from there. He can use Mage Stored Power to make his next physical attack more powerful, which is usually followed by Mage Almighty. Since he charges up the physical attacks, they can definitely hurt a lot. If you can debuff his attack or hit rate, make sure you do that.

Note that the Merchant’s gold-tossing attacks are especially useful here, as the Bandit Chief can be distracting by them, causing him to use up some of his Turn Icons. This is honestly not too hard of a boss fight, but there is something else lurking beyond the Bandit Chief. Upon defeating him, you will be thrown into another boss fight, this time, against Homo Sondro.

Homo Sondro Boss Guide¶

Homo Sondro is a more challenging fight over the Bandit Chief, especially since it reflects Slash, Pierce, and Lightning, as well as resisting Light. Thankfully, it is weak to Strike, so hopefully you have some attacks for that damage type. Shield Arts is a great attack here, since it is Strike damage, plus it also lowers the target’s hit rate and evasion. The boss here will use some physical attacks, plus it also has access to Lightning ones, so make sure no one is weak to that.

By far, one of the more annoying abilities it has is Ceremonial Stomp, which is physical damage, but it also lowers the character’s attack/defense/hit rate/evasion by three ranks for three turns. If you have Dekunda on someone, feel free to use it, since those debuffs will make the battle longer and more arduous. It will also use Breath of Battle to boost both its attack and defence, but thankfully it won’t do anything with its hit rate/evasion. This will make it that much better to use Shield Arts (master the Knight) here.

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(1 of 5) Homo Sondro is weak to Strike and Shield Arts is great to use because of the extra debuff.

One thing you will want to watch out for is when it uses Hyper, as it makes the next magical attack stronger, so this will make Kandeon/Gakandeon more powerful. You might not get a chance to do anything, though, as it might use Hyper first in a turn. The debuffing of its hit rate should prove extremely useful, though, here to hopefully dodge those physical attacks. Keep up on your defences, exploit its weakness, and debuff its hit rate to make this a fairly simple battle. Don’t forget that the protagonist has Prince and its Royal Sword synthesis skill is quite powerful.

Once you defeat the Homo Sondro, you’ll receive the quest item that you can then return to the recruitment center in any town to finish up the bounty.