If you’ve been breezing through Dragon Quest VII Reimagined until Alltrades Abbey, prepare for a dramatic wake-up call. Cardinal Sin, who has usurpued the real High Priestess to trick travelers journeying to the Abbey for a Vocation change, is your first true combat test, the moment where the game stops holding your hand and demands that you quickly get to grips with the basis of the Vocation System.
After you free High Priestess Jacqueline in the Pit of Silence, she will offer you the chance to change your Vocations at Alltrades Abbey. At first, I found it more comfortable sticking with the starter vocations for this fight, but that was a losing strategy.
Here's how you should prepare for the fight, and the abilities and spells you should use to make short work of this formidable enemy.
Table of contents
Preparation - The Best Vocations for the Fight
To handle this boss, you will need to change your vocations to a few specific ones to make it easier. Especially on the Monster Strength: Strong setting, you’ll want to grind your new jobs to at least Level 5 as well.
- Hero (Troubadour): Essential for group healing and party-wide buffs.
- Maribel (Mage): Required for vital debuffs like Blunt and Sap.
- Ruff (Martial Artist or Warrior): Your primary physical damage dealer. I chose Martial Artist as it suits Ruff’s high agility and character theme better, but either works.
Pro-Tip for Faster Grinding: If you want to reach Level 5 quickly, go into your Difficulty Settings and temporarily increase Proficiency Earned. The enemies inside the Abbey award 5 Proficiency points, but on higher settings, they jump to 7, significantly cutting down your prep time.
Why Does this Party Composition Work?
- The Troubadour: Access to Soothing Song (group healing) is a lifesaver. Song of Awakening increases Magic Might, allowing Jacqueline (who fights as an NPC ally) to hit harder with Crackle. Most importantly, Hymn of Fire grants Fire Resistance, which is crucial for surviving the Cardinal’s Fire Slash and Sizzle.
- The Mage: At Level 5, Maribel can cast Blunt (reduce Attack) and Sap (reduce Defense). She also gains Magic Drain, which is very helpful in this fight; it drains the Cardinal’s MP pool, preventing him from spamming high-tier spells for some time.
Step-By-Step Battle Strategy
- Step 1: Have your Troubadour lead with Hymn of Fire to mitigate fire damage immediately. Have Maribel spam Blunt first and then Sap until both Attack and Defense have been lowered twice. If the Cardinal’s attack power isn't reduced, he can easily one-shot a squishy Mage with Fire Slash.
- Step 2: Once the Cardinal is debuffed, have Maribel use Magic Drain while the Hero uses Song of Awakening to buff Jacqueline. Let Ruff focus on buffing his own Attack and use physical skills like the Martial Artist's Flying Knee.
- Step 3: Halfway through the fight, the Cardinal will get fired up. He will buff his own Magical Might and Mending, and most dangerously, he will begin healing himself depending on the damage he deals your party. When he enters this state, try to keep your offense up to offset his healing capabilities, but always prioritize healing, debuffing and keeping Fire Resistance up with Hymn of Fire.
- Step 4: Once the Cardinal cools down, his relentless offense will be easier to manage. If your debuffs continue to be successful, try focusing on offense more, and let Maribel use any of her spells if you can activate The Mage's Rage vocation perk, which guarantees that all of her spells will land critical hits for a few turns. This ensures they will deal decent damage even with the Cardinal's elemental resistances.
Don't panic if a character falls and you have no way to bring them back. Jacqueline is a powerhouse ally, as she can revive and heal the party when she gets fired up, which usually happens twice during this fight
On Monster Strength: Strong, this will be a long, grueling fight. Always prioritize debuffing and healing over raw damage, and ff you play carefully and keep your buffs active, you will be able to take down Cardinal Sin, reclaim the Abbey and get the chance to delve deeper into the Vocations mechanics.
This concludes the guide. For more help, visit our Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Complete Walkthrough and Guides Hub.
NOTE: Guide based on a 50+ hours playthrough in the 1.0 Steam version. Strategy successfuly tested three times against the boss at Strong Monster Difficulty, Normal Damage setting. Screenshots captured from the same version.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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