In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you level up Materia by gaining AP (Ability Points). These are awarded for every enemy you defeat. You don’t even need to use the Materia in battle, just having them equipped on your active party members is enough. Unlike EXP which level up your characters, AP levels up your Materia specifically. Having fully leveled Materia is extremely useful for the Hard Difficulty playthrough and for the Brutal/Legendary VR Missions.
Note that only the Materia on active party members who participate in the fight will earn AP. Your inactive party members won’t gain AP on their Materia.
The below method is optimized for doing it through Chapter Select (unlocked after the story). It will earn you 288 AP per try. Note that you get +300% AP boost after the story if using Chapter Select.
- After finishing the story you will unlock Chapter Select which gives you +300% AP multiplier. Replay Chapter 13.
- Acquire the Chocobo Armband armor, it’s a reward from Side Quest: Esoteric Secrets of the Elders (first available at end of Chapter 11). It gives 3 times AP for both materia slotted in it.
- Set the game difficulty to Easy.
- On Cloud equip a fully upgraded First Strike Materia, Chocobo Armband, and slot AP up on it next to the materia you wish to level up faster, then slot whatever you want into any other slots. (First Strike Materia is obtained from Chadley’s Combat Simulator Challenge “Grasslands Battle Intel: Horror on the Range”, AP Up is obtained from Combat Simulator Challenge “Corel Battle Intel: Badlands Beasts”).
- Go to Corel Region > Gold Saucer > Battle Square > Musclehead Colosseum (unlocked in Chapter 8).
- Select the 2nd battle “Two-Person Bout: Devil-May-Care Desperados”.
- On the first round use Cloud’s “Triple Slash” ATB ability to kill all enemies, for any that survive just kill them using normal attacks.
- Once the next round starts, press start and give up, then retry the challenge. This is much faster than killing the flan which only gives 9 AP.
You will gain 48 AP per round (after story via Chapter Select), which takes around a minute including all loading times. With an AP Up and the Chocobo Armband you get 48 AP x6 for the slotted materia, for 288 AP per round, which means you can max out high level materia quickly. Other materia will also gain a decent amount of AP as well. The main tricks here are to use the Chocobo Armband which gives you 3 times the AP for materia slotted in it, and to grind the specific Colosseum match for maximum efficiency.
You could use a variation of this method as early as Chapter 8 when you unlock the Musclehead Colosseum, but you won’t have access to the Chocobo Armband at this point so would lose out on the x3 AP multiplier. If you want to farm this earlier in Chapter 8 simply skip Step 1, then keep any grindy Materia leveling until you get the Chocobo Armband, but it will be less efficient as you only get 16 AP instead of 48AP per round.
Julien says
Makes 96 per round not 288, the round gives you 16 and that times six is 96
PowerPyx says
It’s 48AP x 6 = 288 via Chapter Select post-story. You get an AP boost after finishing the story making it a default of 48 AP instead of 16 AP per round x 6 multiplier. If you do it earlier it will be less efficient.
Johnny says
Is it also good for xp farming? thanks
PowerPyx says
You don’t need to farm any XP in this game. Just do all side content and you’ll automatically be max level.
Gael says
Another method that I found very effective was to repeat the mission “My White-Haired Angel” in Nibelheim, where you have to find and rescue Fluffy, former Tifa’s white cat.
Step-by-step:
In the chapter selection, select the chapter 13, reset all quests, put the game on easy mode.
Pass the first cutscene by holding triangle, open the map by pressing the trackpad and teleport to Nibelheim.
Go talk to the NPC Head Chief in old Tifa’s house and launch the quest (pass all the dialogues by pressing triangle again).
Open the map by pressing the trackpad and teleport near the objective, north east from Nibelheim, close to the cat location. Pass the first fight with the bees, follow the cat, kill another pack of bees (once you will where they are, you’ll just have to ride a chocobo to that point without following the cat).
Once the bees are dead, follow the cat once again and go fight the Queen Bee.
The goal is to let live the Queen Bee as much as possible and to focus on the Guard Bees. In order to avoid any high damage on the Queen Bee, remove all “auto materia” from you teammate too before that fight.
When the fight starts, kill 3 Guard Bees. When there is only one Guard Bee left alive, the Queen Bee will summon 4 another bees. So just make sure to let only one Guard Bee alive and not focus the Queen Bee and you’ll be able to maximize the killing of the Guard Bees! The fight will last as long as the Queen Bee is alive. Barret is my best choice to focus on one bee at the time (don’t use any special command and just attack by holding square).
Each Guard Bee is worth 12AP. Given that you use an AP Up materia, the linked materia will earn 24AP(12×2) for each Bee killed.
If you equip the Chocobo Armband, which multiplies by 3 the AP on each materia on it, that will be 36AP (12×3).
And if you equip on AP Up materia on the Chocobo Armband, and one another materia that you need to level up fast, it will be 72AP!
Once the fight is over (ultimately, the Queen Bee will die), don’t finish the quest and go to the chapter selection menu to repeat the process.
At this rate, it should takes very little time to upgrade all the materias that you have 🙂
Enjoy!
J says
I’d recommend using Cloud’s Blade Burst ability that is on Igneous Saber. Costs 1 ATB and has nice range
Thanks for the guide. Very helpful.
Runestone says
I’d like to add that you’re entire party does get AP for their equipped materia. But I’m unsure if that’s true in the battle square. So this might be a great way to level up 1 materia really fast. You can level up way more by farming a route in chapter 12 sign all your characters filled up with materia.
thewidowsbite says
Your entire party that is present, even on the background (not fighting) will all earn AP only if it is the open world.
It does not apply to simulator modes or other challenge areas like colosseum because no one is there aside from the 1-3 players you choose.
Also, in the real world, when anyone is not actually present, even on the background, they will not earn AP.
I don’t know if any of this applies to EXP as well.
MrBlue says
Couple small notes for efficiency. Load up your 2nd party member (and your main on their weapon) with other materia you want to level too (kinda obvious but still), and ideally ones that don’t coincide with the one you’re grinding out primarily (the one on the chocobo armlet), that just makes it easier to see at a glance if the one you’re focusing levelled up without backing out of the menu. They won’t get as much AP but it adds up.
Have as many materia slots available, for both you and your other party member. This is why it’s better to do late game, you’ll have more slots available.
Chocoking Cape + maxed First Strike gives you 2 ATB charges, so you can use 2x Triple Slashes and that’ll take care of that mob ASAP.
But the primary thing I wanted to share. If you are grinding out a bunch of materia at once, the game will NOT autosave. So if for some reason the game gets closed, power goes out, etc…. you lost all that time. So save after you finish grinding out one of the big materia and go to slot new ones. Better safe than sorry.
Daisy says
Post game – chapter 12 – hard mode – Colosseum – first easy 6 man bout. (Grasshoppers and Brutes). I put 2 AP UPs on the first group. 1 AP Up and the Triple AP bangle on Cloud who was in the second group. – takes between 20 seconds and 40 seconds .. rinse and repeat. Maxed out a bunch of materia including 3 elementals within an hour.
Chris says
Hi, using a similar method. Have Yuffie, equipped with Chocoking (for 1ATB start gauge). And windstorm. Goto 2man Popularity Contest. Junp straight in with windstorm and spam it. 8s win.
thewidowsbite says
I find that it’s better to farm AP in the real world (not simulator or any challenges) because EVERYONE on your team gets AP, even members on the background not actively fighting. As long as members are actually present, they will get AP whether they are in the actual fight or not.
I like to use chapter 12 (13 has Cait Sith unavailable, so you lose a lot of potential AP for additional materia).
Then follow Primalliquid’s Rebirth 80,000 AP Farming Guide (I think he’s overexatgerating, but it DOES work quite well).
What he didn’t mention that I will is that your level 3 attacks might not kill all enemies if any of them are too far apart. Since Cloud will be extra vulnerable, as we are focusing on high MP instead of HP, switch to another member to take out any remaining foes, then go on the path to take out the rest, save, load, and repeat.
Also, obviously, make sure to outfit everyone else with a bunch of materia you wish to level up. Just fill all the slots, I say.
thewidowsbite says
Forgot to mention:
As others stated, and what Primalliquid doesn’t do in his guide:
Use Chocobo Armlet, place an AP blue orb in one of the armor, then place the materia you want to upgrade as fast as possible in that second slot.