Young Xehanort/Gameplay

Young Xehanort (Also known as the Unknown in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep) is a boss in the North American, PAL and Final Mix versions of Birth by Sleep and a boss in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

The boss battle is unlocked when the player defeats the Vanitas Remnant, with any one of the three characters, then returns to the Land of Departure on a save file in which it is still accessible. This will make the battle available to all three characters. Despite this odd situation, his scene is within canon, and is considered to occur at the save file's point in the story. Defeating Young Xehanort grants the player a unique Keyblade named "No Name".

Kindgom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Young Xehanort is a powerful boss and arguably the strongest one in the game. His attacks are varied and hard to predict, similar to those of the Lingering Will. Not only is he immune to all status effects, but he has a great deal of HP as well. The boss is very swift, with his attacks generally reducing the player's HP to 1. For this reason, both the Second Chance and Once More abilities are a crucial necessity in ensuring victory over Young Xehanort.

Young Xehanort has a variety of attacks, all of which can kill the player instantly on any game mode if unprepared. He mainly attacks by battering the player with his swords, and can replicate himself to attack players from all sides. Another attack involves him shooting an "X"-shaped blast of energy at the protagonist, similar to that of Vanitas and the Vanitas Remnant.

Young Xehanort has an attack similar to Sonic Blade in which he quickly darts around, hitting the protagonist and hoisting them high into the air. He can also shoot a tornado at the protagonist which, if hit, will blow away the protagonist's deck commands, and scatter them across the battlefield, similar to Marluxia's Whirlwind to the Void Sleight.

Young Xehanort can use Mega Flare, wherein he shoots a large fireball that explodes shortly after being launched. He can also conjure many blue orbs that shoot lasers, which can be one of the most deadly attacks. Young Xehanort has an attack similar to Collision Magnet where he leaps into the air and pulls the protagonist up with an energy whip to damage them. This attack is possibly one of Young Xehanort's most dangerous attacks, as it will often be followed up by a combo, Tornado, or another Collision Magnet before the protagonist is able to recover, resulting in immediate game over.

He can utilize Raging Storm, wherein he approaches the protagonist with three fiery pillars revolving around him. Young Xehanort can also cast a spell that rewinds time a few seconds, healing him. However, this is only used when the player uses direct physical or Keyblade attacks. He can cast a meteor spell. Young Xehanort also attacks with Doom, a web-like energy blast which, if it connects, traps the protagonist, leaving them with roughly four seconds to break free, or if the player is not able to in the time given, automatically displays the 'game over' screen. The more often this attack is used, the smaller the countdown becomes. Though if he replicates himself between the times that he uses the web-like energy blast, the countdown will reset.

He can also turn invisible to elude the protagonist, leaving only the swords and some distorted areas of the battle ground to indicate his location. Despite this, he is still vulnerable to damage. He's also able to defend himelf with Renewal Barrier which slightly heals his HP.

As his HP dwindles, he may start to combine his attacks for maximum damage. Examples include combining Raging Storm with his sword swings and the web blast with his laser orbs. If Young Xehanort snares the protagonist with his Collision Magnet, he will often follow it up with another Collision Magnet, a sword combo, or a Whirlwind to the Void, none of which the protagonist is given the chance to avoid, resulting in an immediate game over.

Collision Magnet can be avoided easiest by simply dashing towards Young Xehanort when he jumps in the air, and also seems to be canceled if he pulls the player up against a wall or the borders of the battle area. In the Final Mix version of the game, Young Xehanort's Collision Magnet was weakened to make it easier to dodge. Young Xehanort's version of Mega Flare can also ignite the protagonist.

Young Xehanort will attack whenever an opening to do so presents itself, but it is easy to heal safely by simply dashing far away from Young Xehanort first, with either Slide, Dodge Roll, or Cartwheel, especially after the X attack, Tornado, or Collision Magnet. It is also somewhat easy to guard against Young Xehanort's attacks by mashing, so the protagonist can also heal by using Renewal Block or Renewal Barrier.

Because Young Xehanort leaves little time for the protagonist to act, it is unwise to use any advanced or ultimate commands, as they take too long to fire and reload. If the player gets lucky, Shotlocks are also good options, but Young Xehanort often tends to evade the targeting reticule, and can often evade damage midway through by using his Renewal Barrier, which will also heal it. To avoid this, the player should try to keep the Lock-on count to five or less.

If the protagonist decides to rely on Shotlocks, he or she should stock many Elixirs in order to make sure the Focus Gauge never runs out. D-Link's are also ill advised, as Young Xehanort may turn invisible in response. Finally, the Keyblade and Finish Command equipped are not very important, as Young Xehanort leaves no time for Keyblade strikes. The protagonist's Keyblade should be chosen only for its stat boosts, preferably towards the Strength stat.

The safest and simplest way to defeat Young Xehanort is to simply use a deck of 2-4 advanced Cure-type commands, and to fill the rest with Thunder Surge commands. Although Fire Surge is nearly equally effective as a command, Thunder Surge does slightly more damage, and the Thunderbolt Command Style, triggered by the Thunder Surges, has an easier time hitting Young Xehanort than Firestorm does. With this deck, the protagonist can basically use Thunder Surge over and over, even when Young Xehanort is invisible, damaging him if it hits him and often knocking him out of his combos.

The protagonist should make sure to use Thunder Surge so that the player goes through Young Xehanort and winds up a short distance past him, rather than next to him, but should dash away instead if Young Xehanort is right next to the protagonist, as Thunder Surge has a tiny but noticeable start-up lag. The best times to attack in order to avoid getting hit by a most likely fatal combo are after Young Xehanort's X attack, Tornado, and Collision Magnet.

Thunder Surge can even be used as a pseudo-dash in order to avoid Young Xehanort's techniques, like his Collision Magnet, giving the player temporary invulnerability throughout the attack's duration. Despite this, the player will probably spend most of the battle using Dodge Roll, Cartwheel, or Slide, as that is the only way to evade many of his attacks used in rapid succession. Terra's evasion technique is much less effective than that of Aqua and Ven, so Renewal Block is essential.

If the protagonist is ever hit by an attack, the player should immediately start dashing away, normally, and heal with the Cures as soon as he or she is clear from the Young Xehanort. If the player is using Ventus, the player can also use the Wingblade Command Style, which allows for the player to hit Young Xehanort with a combo of Keyblade attacks that he can't easily break out of. However, even after setting up a working deck and overall strategy, victory against Young Xehanort relies primarily on luck, due to his penchant for using unavoidable, instant-death combos.

Kindgom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Young Xehanort fights using his No Name Keyblade this time. His style is different and attacks with swift merciless attacks such as a flurry of shockwaves or turning his Keyblade into a whip for multiple attacks and also perform a spin attack, all of which can be avoided or blocked. However Young Xehanort has a tendence to teleport quickly and multiple times, therefore reaching him can be hard, specially when he can easily attack you from behind doing so, and can also teleport in the midst of being damaged. Young Xehanort can summon boulders of ice that will home at Riku. He can also shoot multiple magic proyectiles at Riku that can inflict him with Slow. While he can be difficult to predict at times, he leaves a rather huge room to attack while he performs his own, therefore avoiding at all times and attack while he does, is a good strategy to reduce his HP. One should make sure to take as much HP as possible before he teleports.

When his HP is at 0, he will attempt to reverse time, as a clock appears. The player must hit that clock until prompted to use the touch screen. Failure to do so will result in Young Xehanort to successfully reverse time and restart the battle although with at most 3 bars of HP.

If successful, the second phase of the battle starts and Young Xehanort will attempt to use a more powerful clock to reverse time. In this phase, one must attack the clock that has its own HP, and reduce it to zero, failure to do so will also result in the restart of the normal battle against Young Xehanort. This time however the clock is not defenseless and will summon clones of Young Xehanort that last for a brief time. However the clock can summon many of them at a time and instead of his new set of moves, they will use the moves and weapons used in Birth By Sleep, limited to his combo, his midair X shockwave attack and Raging Storm. The clones banish as soon as they complete their attack, however they can be long and can push the player away from the clock. The clones are however not active at all times and the clock can leave a wide room to be pummeled. Also even if one is hit by the clones if it is close enough they can still hit the clock. This strategy will get the player hurt, but the damage can be healed easily (although timing is also needed as one can fall prey to the clones's attacks before this is possible) and most importantly, they will damage the clock. For the clock to reverse time, it must make a full rotation on its hour hand, which will take a couple of minutes.

In the case the player is unsuccessful in destroying the clock, but was capable of leaving it very weak in HP, the clock will like Young Xehanort, start with at most 3 bars of HP if it was left below that threshold. Even if its HP is left at such a rather small amount, the clock will need to perform a full rotation to reverse time, giving a huge advantage to the player time-wise.

Once the clock is defeated, the battle will end.