Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Rebirth Boss Guide (All Bosses)

Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Rebirth contains 36 boss fights. This Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Boss Guide will walk you through the best tactics to defeat all bosses in the game, including hard difficulty boss strategies. They are listed in chronological story order below.

Useful Guides for recommended Loadouts:

Boss #1 – Materia Guardian

Chapter: 1
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Evading its capture attempts or freeing captured allies will pressure it. Destroying its legs while it is on the ceiling will also pressure it.

As the first boss, Materia Guardian acts as more of a tutorial for the new battle mechanics than anything else, plus you have Sephiroth who is hugely overpowered. Hit him with physical attacks supplemented with Fire spells when you can, then watch out for when he uses his Hindlegs to grab Cloud. Either swap to Cloud and dodge it with to Pressure him, or if he is captured and in the Bound state, swap back to Sephiroth and hit him with your strongest Fire spells to free Cloud and Pressure it.

After half of its health has gone, it will start attaching itself to the ceiling so aim for its legs to not only Pressure it, but get it to drop down to the ground. After its health hits a certain point, the game will teach you about Synergy Abilities and you will be prompted to use Double Helix which will do huge damage, before finally using your Limit to finish it off.

Hard Tips: Have Elemental-Fire equipped in Cloud’s weapon to exploit its weakness. Make sure to dodge its grab attack to pressure it, or use Sephiroth to attack its Hindleg after grabbing Cloud to pressure it. Make sure to save your synergy bars to use Double Helix when it tries to use Trine, don’t waste it early.

Boss #2 – Midgardsormr

Chapter: 2
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Ice
Lesser Resistances: Fixed Damage, Stop, Petrify
Greater Resistances: Fire
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage by exploiting its elemental weakness will pressure it. Hitting it with synergy abilities will pressure it instantly.

Midgardsormr is by far the hardest enemy you’ve faced yet. Firstly, you’ll want to equip your strongest Ice magic (you should have at least one leveled to Blizzara by now) and it might be handy to bring Barret and Aerith along for their ranged attacks. Also put the Shiva summon on one of your characters in case you get the chance to summon in the battle, and never use Fire attacks.

When the battle starts, Pressure the boss by using your Ice spells and chipping away its health. Soon, it’ll start charging up an attack after a cutscene, at which point run as far away from it as possible. After discharging its flame attack, you can target the Cranial Dome weak point on the serpent’s head, which is where you should focus all your attacks. Build Stagger while using Ice and ranged attacks, and when it eventually Staggers, hit it with your strongest abilities and possibly offensive Synergy Abilities if you’ve built them up.

At about half health, the boss will burn the trees in the area and fire projectiles at you, so hide behind the burning trees for protection until it stops. Occasionally it will also grab a party member in its jaws, so deal enough damage to force it to drop the character. If not, it will swallow the character for a while until it spits it back out and they can rejoin your party.

Hard Tips: As Midgardsormr is fire-based and weak to ice, you can choose to play the offensive here by loading up your party members with Elemental-Ice on your weapons, or go defensive with Elemental-Fire on your armour (with one Ice and Fire). If you choose the former you will likely want to have at least one character with Reprieve as the fire attack can instakill everyone. Cloud, Aerith and Tifa will all have the option for Reprieve, so they are good members to use. If you have Elemental-Ice on your weapons you can simply wail away to exploit its weakness, otherwise use whoever has Ice and Fire to cast Blizzaga on him. As this fight is right at the end of the chapter you can freely use all your MP up here.

Boss #3 – Titan (VR)

Chapter: 2 (Earliest)
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Wind
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk Slow, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Exploiting its elemental weakness, blocking or evading certain attacks, and counterattacking it will pressure it. Destroying its barrier will pressure it for longer than usual.

Despite being a summon, Titan is an easy introduction to these VR bosses, especially if you’ve taken the time to collect all the Divine Intel in the Grasslands region to fight him in his weakest form. He is weak to Wind, so equip your team with Wind Materia and if possible, try and at least have Aerora on your party. Failing that, you can also use the Wind elemental abilities purchased in you Folios, such as Wind Current (Cloud & Red XIII) and Gale Impulse (Barret & Tifa) to easily weaken him.

He likes to attack in an arc around himself, so try not to get too close as he will pummel you and you’ll get hit by falling rocks. If you’re using Wind magic as advised, you don’t need to be too close anyway. If you do find yourself in this situation, just block or try and dodge roll with and more often than not you’ll succeed in pressuring him and build the Stagger bar. When you do achieve Stagger, use Tifa to build the % and use your strongest abilities. When it’s done, he will build a shield around himself which significantly reduces the amount of damage taken. However, the good news is that it doesn’t take much to destroy it, after which he will be pressured for a long time and thus allow you to quickly build the second Stagger bar. By the time you reach Stagger again, he will almost be defeated if not already, and this will be very quick when he’s actually Staggered.

Boss #4 – Rude & Elena

Chapter: 3
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Wind (Rude), Lightning (Elena)
Lesser Resistances: Petrify (Rude), None (Elena)
Greater Resistances: Stop, Sleep (Both)
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Silence, Stone, Morphable Items (Both)
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: Mega-Potion (Rude)
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: Mega-Potion (Rude)
Assess Info: Hitting him with multiple powerful offensive abilities while his guard is up will pressure him. Interrupting his synergy strikes will also pressure him (Rude). Hitting her with powerful offensive abilities will pressure her. Interrupting her synergy strikes will also pressure her (Elena).

This fight is pretty easy as the two enemies are easily pressured, Rude by using Wind magic and abilities, and Elena via Lightning. Use Aerith as your healer, creating a Ward and using Pray/Cure to keep Cloud and Tifa’s health topped up while they use their abilities and physical attacks. Learning the perfect parry timing and knowing when to guard and counter will benefit you greatly here.

The main thing to watch out for is when the two bosses lose roughly a third of their health and team up to start unleashing unblockable attacks. Your best bet here is to keep your distance and dodge them if you can, or if you keep getting hit, just Guard to minimize damage and boost your ATB.

Ultimately, try and pick one boss to defeat first (Rude has more health so is a good choice) since if you Stagger both at roughly the same time, you’ll be splitting your attacking resources and not make the most of the opportunity.

Hard Tips: As Rude and Elena are weak to Wind and Lightning respectively, equip one member with Elemental-Wind and Lightning on their weapon, then Elemental-Wind and Elemental-Lightning on the other members so they can all take advantage of their weaknesses. Use Cloud’s Counterstance ability whenever you get the chance to deal some good damage to them. You won’t use Cloud, Tifa or Aerith again this chapter so feel free to expend all your MP.

Boss #5 – Mythril Golem

Chapter: 3
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning
Lesser Resistances: Fire, Ice, Sleep
Greater Resistances: Physical
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Poison, Silence, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items:
Assess Info: It is resistant to physical attacks, but damaging its head will pressure it, making physical attacks more effective.

This fight presents something of a conundrum as you only have Barret and Red XIII for it, both of whom are physical attackers whilst Mythril Golem is heavily resistant to physical attacks. If you do have Lightning Materia or Abilities with that element, then make those your priority, and if not aim for the Head which is a separate target. Destroying this will make the Golem susceptible to physical attacks for a brief time until it regenerates.

Halfway through the fight, Golem will develop a right arm and spine, both of which increase its attack options but conversely, targets you can take out to greatly boost the Stagger bar and reduce his effectiveness. Keep aiming at his appendages, only attacking the main body if all else is out of commission and he’s open to physical damage. This will be quite a long fight, which works in your favor as it allows you to build up Limits, Summons and Synergy Abilities if you have them to do significant damage.

Hard Tips: Equip both Barret and Red with Elemental-Lightning on their weapons to exploit the Golem’s weakness. Focus on the head, then when it spawns extra parts, focus on the drill weapon. Once again, feel free to use all your MP here as it’s right at the end of the chapter.

Boss #6 – Phoenix (VR)

Chapter: 4 (Earliest)
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Poison
Greater Resistances: Physical, Magic
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: Fire
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items:
Assess Info: It will be impervious to damage while its creations are tethered to it. Inflicting enough damage while it is casting Empowering Flame will both interrupt and pressure it. If Empowering Flame is cast twice without interruoption, it will follow up by using Rebirth Flame.

Firstly, make sure you finish the three Divine Intel objectives in the Junon region to make this battle much easier. Secondly, don’t use any Fire spells or abilities at all because it will just heal Phoenix. When you start the battle, it will be impervious to damage and will spawn a number of enemies including Flans, Ogres and other generic enemies. Kill these first and eventually Phoenix will pressure, and this is when you should focus all your attention on it. Use your strongest attacks and use your ‘Focused’ abilities to build the Stagger bar. If you can, try and save at least 1 ATB charge per character so when you see it using its Empowering Flame attack you can immediately hit it hard to interrupt it and gain an extended pressure.

As always with boss fights, Tifa is very useful to haave for the Stagger phase as this is the only real chance to lay significant harm on a boss, and she can raise the Stagger % as high as 250% if you use Unbridled Strength to raise her Chi Level and use Rise and Fall. Cloud can chip in with Triple Slash or Synergy Abilities, whilst your third character can be the designated healer or use their own attacks if you have enough health. Despite what the Assess info says, Rebirth Flame does not do that much damage and does not cast Auto-Life on Phoenix so it’s not that much to worry about if you don’t successfully manage to interrupt it.

Boss #7 – Terror of the Deep

Chapter: 4
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning
Lesser Resistances: Fire, Stop, Petrify
Greater Resistances: Ice
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage on its head while it is in the water will pressure it and cause it to take to the air. Attacking the Water Cells it creates will pop them.

It’s recommended to bring Aerith into this fight since at this stage of the game, with her high Magic stats she’s the only character who can reliably heal the entire party at once with high HP using the Pray Materia or her Healing Wind Limit. Furthermore, this fight is difficult in close quarters due to Terror’s attacks and speed so her ranged attacks help to chip away at its health while staying out of harm’s way. Finally, the boss likes to bind your character by trapping them in a Water Cell, which are resistant to physical attacks but weak to magic, so as Aerith’s regular attack is classed as magical, she can break them easily. Tifa is also handy to have in this fight. Although she will take damage, if you can keep her healed then her ability to build the Stagger bar quickly and raise the damage % during the Stagger phase is invaluable.

The only element worth using against Terror is Lightning, so use that and your stronger abilities on the Head area, which will cause it to Pressure quickly. He will also go into the air, making him easier to hit but you’ll have to be more vigilant about where he is. After a third of its health is gone, a short cutscene will play and then it will start building up an attack called Oceanic Tornado. When released, this will take up a large area in the middle of the square arena you’re on and will do huge damage, likely killing you. Make sure to stay far away whenever you see this move, and even when the main maelstrom is gone, there will be little tornados shooting up from the water below through the floor which you have to avoid.

Still, as long as you’re keeping on top of healing and making the most of the Stagger period and using your abilities, this should be fine. If Aerith doesn’t need to heal, create an Arcane Ward and use your strongest Lightning spells for double casts.

Hard Tips: You know the drill by now, use Elemental-Lightning in your weapons to exploit its weakness. It may be worth bringing either Barret or Aerith here due to their ranged attacks, but you can just use lightning spells instead if you prefer. Try and avoid using MP with Cloud as he will have another boss fight this chapter, but feel free to use everything for your other two characters. If he ever grabs a character, make sure to attack the Tail Fin as it can instantly kill the grabbed character if you don’t attack it.

Boss #8 – Roche

Chapter: 4
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: Elixir
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: Elixir
Assess Info: Exploiting his elemental weakness can pressure him. If Roche is pressured while riding the walls, he will drop to the ground and counterattack. Inflicting enough damage while he is pressured will cause him to spin out.

For all his talk, Roche is actually the easiest boss yet. Firstly, you only control Cloud for this one-on-one fight so you don’t have to faff around and manage other characters, and secondly his low HP reflects the fact you only have one outlet of attack.

What makes this fight easy is how easily Roche is pressured. One Fire spell or fire-imbued ability is enough to pressure him, as is parrying his attacks. As the arena is fairly large and he’s on his motorcycle, it’s easy to see when he’ll turn towards you and drive straight at you. Guard with just as he’s about to hit you and he’ll be pressured, allowing you to quickly build his Stagger bar. If you pressure him whilst he’s riding the wall, he’ll launch into the air and crash down for an AoE attack at your location, so roll out of the way with . His health will go down quickly and at half health he will be a little more aggressive, but it’s still very easy to pressure him, and when he’s finally Staggered you’ll whittle away most of his health by using your strongest abilities or Punisher Mode. You can even use a summon for extra help if you like, but you shouldn’t need it.

Hard Tips: On Hard, he will occasionally cast Reflect on himself, but this shouldn’t be an issue as it doesn’t last long. Use Elemental-Fire on your weapon and Elemental-Lightning in your armour. Abuse Counterstance to parry his attacks, or use regular Punisher Mode parries when you don’t have ATB. When his Reflect is down, poison him to get some extra damage on him, or launch a Fire spell when he’s on the walls.

Boss #9 – Jenova Emergent

Chapter: 5
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Stop
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage will pressure it, at which point certain portions of its body will beome vulnerable to attack. Destroying these discrete parts will significantly fill the stagger gauge.

Jenova Emergent is quite tricky as this batle has a lot of moving parts. You’re stuck with a team of Cloud, Tifa and Barret for this. Initially, Jenova will be stationary at one end of the battlefield and getting up close will usually result in you taking a lot of damage, partcularly from the laser ray she likes to use. Therefore, use Barret’s physical attacks and Overcharge as much as you can from range and use spells with the other two. However, unless you have a lot of Ethers, try and save some of your MP to heal. Once you pressure Jenova, its Head will become a target, at which point you should focus your attacks on that to boost the Stagger bar greatly when it is disabled. Jenova’s Stagger bar lasts quite a while so you should be able to use Tifa’s Unbridled Strength abilities to raise the % significantly and do a lot of damage with abilities.

When she loses a third of her health, Jenova will start bouncing around the map so be vigilant. She’ll also spawn more parts than the Head, included Left and Right Shoulders. However, the main strategy remains the same, focus on those parts as they build the Stagger phase significantly when destroyed and as mentioned, she has a long Stagger phase where you can use Tifa to your advantage.

When two-thirds of her health is gone, Jenova will spawn tentacles around the arena. Whilst they don’t have much health, they can get annoying and interrupt your attacks. If you have AoE attacks, they will clear a lot of them but try and use your ATB charges to focus on Jenova and the body parts which respawn. Just make sure to keep on top of your health as she does hit quite hard, and eventually she’ll go down.

Hard Tips: This is the first boss where Elemental won’t really help at all, as Jenova isn’t weak to any element nor does she use any elemental attacks. She can be poisoned, but beyond this there aren’t really any special tactics to keep in mind. If you have a Ribbon, equip this on Cloud or Tifa to eliminate the risk of status ailments while fighting in close range. Be very careful of the homing gas and lasers she can use in the first phase as these can immediately kill you.

Boss #10 – Grasptropod

Chapter: 6
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning
Lesser Resistances: Ice
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage or landing synergy skills and synergy abilities will pressure it. After a certain amount of time, it will use missiles and drones to capture targets. After using Breakneck Spin, it will overheat, rendering it temporarily inoperative.

For this battle, you will start with either Tifa and Red XIII or Barret and Aerith depending on the choice you made on the beach prior to fighting off the fiends. It doesn’t really matter which you pick as shortly into this battle, one of your party members will be abducted, followed by the second after. At half health, the boss will also abduct Cloud but this is story-related so don’t worry, you’ll get him back soon enough.

Grasptropod shouldn’t cause too many issues because it pressures easily, particularly if you use Lightning spells or abilities. One thing to watch our for is its poison mist, which it spews either in an arc in front of it or releasing it 360 degrees around it. On both occasions, keep far back out the way or you will be poisoned (which you can heal with an Antidote item or Chakra Materia). If you haven’t used Synergy skills much, now is the time to try because not only will they pressure it, but it will build the ATB of two characters at once so you can build up Synergy Abilities to cause more and sustained pressure. Build up the Stagger bar and hit it with everything you have. After a certain point, it will use Breakneck Spin which causes a lot of damage and leaves Grasptropod mostly resistant to damage, so just stay out of the way because afterwards it will overheat, allowing you to get in a lot of damage trouble-free. It has fairly low HP so as long as you keep Cloud’s health up, it should go down quickly.

Hard Tips: Whichever party you pick, make sure to put Elemental-Lightning on Cloud, the others don’t really matter. As most of this fight will be with just Cloud, try to keep an ATB in case you get heavily damaged by one of the unblockable attacks so that you can heal up. Having a Ribbon on Cloud can help with the poison and other detrimental statuses.

Boss #11 – Alexander (VR)

Chapter: 7
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances: Physical, Magic
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: The entity will be largely immune to all attacks until both its arms are crippled. It accumulates karma by using certain attacks. The higher its karma, the more powerful its Divine Judgement becomes. Casting Esuna can remove one level of karma.

Firstly, make sure you finish the three Divine Intel objectives in the Corel region to make this battle much easier. Alexander is one of the tougher VR bosses mainly since you have to take out both of its arms first and it uses a wide range of AoE attacks. Use Lightning-infused abilities or Magic to take them out quickly because the longer you leave it, the more this battle becomes tougher. Alexander loves firing out laser and plasma beams from around its arms, which will fling you into the air and do considerable damage. You’ll have to be doing a lot of dodging and manoeuvring to avoid it and what’s even more annoying is he can teleport to the other end of the arena at will.

When it does certain attacks, your characters will gain up to three karma levels, and when it uses its ultimate attack Divine Judgement, the higher your karma the more damage it will do. Make sure you have Esuna spells handy from your Materia so you can reduce it. When you do destroy both arms, Alexander will stagger and this is your chance to do serious damage. In fact, if you prolong its stagger and raise your Limit Level, it’s possible to kill it in one stagger with your Limit Breaks but in all likelihood, you will have to do it twice. Keep your eye on health and don’t be afraid to take a step back and heal if needs be.

Boss #12 – Custom Valkyrie

Chapter: 7
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning, Wind
Lesser Resistances: Stop
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage by exploiting its elemental weakness will pressure it. While it is using Cooling Protocol, it will become easier to pressure.

Custom Valkyrie can be quite annoying since it likes to fly around and spray fire in the arena, and it isn’t too big of a space so it can be hard to evade. Even if you evade its fire jet attacks, the fire stays burning on the ground so you’ll likely run into it and take damage while trying to manoeuvre towards the boss.

The good news is that it is weak to two elements, so pressuring it is fairly easy as you should have numerous Wind and Lightning spells or abilities by now. Not only that, similar to Grasptropod, it will need to cool down after a number of attacks and this is a great time to hit it with either elemental abilities or you strongest attacks and build the Stagger bar. You won’t have Tifa for this fight as you’re locked to Aerith and Red XIII, so try and save your Synergy Abilities and Limits for the Stagger phase to ensure you do as much damage as you can at this point. Other than that, you can block the boss’ machine gun and missile attacks and then just try and do your best to dodge the fire moves. When it finishes an attack, it will always take a moment to recharge before it attacks again, so use this time to press your own attack.

Hard Tips: While Custom Valkyrie is weak to lightning and wind, it is best to put Elemental-Fire into your armours as this will completely nullify the majority of its attacks. Put Lightning and Wind on Aerith so you’re still able to exploit its weaknesses with regular spells. Use Arcane Ward combined with spells as Aerith to pressure it, and use Red and Cloud to attack whenever it is low to the ground or using Cooling Protocol. This is the last combat section for these characters in this chapter so feel free to use as much MP as needed.

Boss #13 – Gigatrice

Chapter: 7
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire, Poison
Lesser Resistances: Stop, Sleep
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Wind, Berserk, Slow, Silence, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage while it is in the air will pressure it and force it to descend. Using elemental magic on the cyclones it conjures will imbue them with elemental energy. It will become pressured if hit by one of these enhanced cyclones.

While it looks menacing, Gigatrice is one of the easier bosses. Firstly, make sure Tifa has Fire or Poison Materia equipped to her otherwise she will spend large portions of this fight having no use since her melee attacks can’t hit the flying Gigatrice. Have Barret use his ranged attacks to build ATB whilst Yuffie should use her Fire Ninjutsu to target Gigatrice’s weakness. In the initial part of the fight, start whittling down its health with ranged attacks and Fire/Bio magic from Tifa. Its attacks aren’t too dangerous bar its Aero magic since the rest are all AoE and you can see when it is charging up an ability, so just run away to dodge them.

Once it is on the ground, you can start building the Stagger bar with Tifa as well as continuing your attacks with the others. If possible, try and activate Synergy Abilities that will either split your ATB into three charges or grant you extended Stagger as by this point it should be close to it. When it’s at half health, Gigatrice will start conjuring cyclones. It is possible to use magic attacks on these and they will become affected with that element, and if they hit the Gigatrice it will presure it (except for Wind element), but this is more hassle than it’s worth and it is best to just focus on the main enemy. At the halfway point you should have access to a Summon by now, so Ifrit or Phoenix is a good choice and if you did a Synergy Ability to have 3 charges, you should easily build enough ATB quickly to use their second abilities which Gigatrice is weak to. Work towards filling its Stagger for a second time and you should pretty much be done, especially if you use Tifa to increase the %.

Hard Tips: Equip Tifa and Barret with Elemental-Fire in their weapons, and Yuffie with Elemental-Wind in her armour as she can just use Fire Ninjutsu. Make sure to also have Poison equipped to someone and keep it poisoned throughout the fight. It may also be worth equipping Ribbons and/or Safety Bits to be immune to its petrification.

Boss #14 – Dyne

Chapter: 8
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Silence, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage will pressure him. When his HP is reduced, he will fuse with scrap metal to perform powerful attacks. During this time, he will be difficult to pressure. However, destroying a discreet part will interrupt his attacks and make him more susceptible to being staggered.

For this fight, you will only have Barret so the difficulty may vary depending on how comfortable you are using him. Make sure you equip him with a levelled up Fire Materia to make pressuring Dyne easier. The main rule for this fight is to not get close to Dyne as he will just use his Point Blank ability and melee you for a lot of damage. Play this fight almost like a TPS, using the scrap metal around the arena as cover, waiting for him to reload before popping out and unleashing an Overcharge or an ability (Fire spell, Maximum Fury or Focused Shot if Dyne is pressured). Note that the metal does not stop his Paralysing Shot attack so you will need to dodge roll with to avoid that (and the Paralysing Wave ability which does the same thing except in larger circles than a straight line towards you) otherwise you will be paralysed for a short time.

After whittling down his health, Dyne will start using Blast Mines so you need to balance keeping away from him and not rolling into the mines. At about half health he will start fusing with scrap metal and start using a variety of attacks from range, such as sending it under the sand like a snake towards you and coming up out of the ground to hurt you, and as a large club to hit you with and as individual guns to fire bullets at you. All the while, you can cripple these pieces of scrap metal to put a lot of pressure on him and disable these attacks until they regenerate. When he is pressured, try to use Focused Shot to get him Staggered then unleash your Limit Break to do significant damage. Keep your health topped up and prioritise dodging over shooting, only firing at him when he reloads, and you’ll eventually emerge victorious.

Hard Tips: This will be the hardest boss so far on Hard difficulty. As you are solo fighting with Barret, you will be very limited with MP and ATB. Equip Elemental-Fire in Barret’s weapon and Elemental-Lightning in his armour. Dyne will regularly stun you and unfortunately this status effect can’t be protected against, so it may be worth using an Otherwordly Crystal to reduce the stun time. Equip Poison and use it on him twice to envenom him for extra damage. Use Chakra as your main source of healing so you’re not quickly depleting your MP with Curaga, however you can still have Curaga for larger heals if needed.
At the start of the battle use Steelskin and Lifesaver to both lower the damage you take and increase your maximum HP. Always stay behind cover when he’s shooting and use this as a chance to charge your weapon with . During the second phase always stay near cover as he’ll regularly do two Repentance attacks that deal heavy damage and destroy cover. For the final phase, save your Overcharge and ATB to use Maximum Fury when he does the attacks with multiple tentacles so you can quickly destroy them all to pressure him, and hopefully stagger him for extra damage.

Boss #15 – Anuran Suppressor

Chapter: 8
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning
Lesser Resistances: Fixed Damage
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Landing limit attacks or synergy abilities will flip it over. Attacking the cockpit while in this overturned state will deal significant damage. Landing several powerful offensive abilities while Palmer is taunting will pressure it.

Anuran Suppressor shouldn’t cause too much trouble. It’s most damaging move, Eradication Ray, needs a little time to charge up and it only fires straight in front of it, so it is very easy to roll around and dodge. Occasionally, Palmer will emerge from the hatch and taunt you. You can actually Assess him but it reveals no tactical information and even though he has a health bar, it will just knock him back into the tank and you can’t ‘kill’ him. However, this will cause a huge amount of stagger so it’s worth saving your Synergy Abilities or even Limit Breaks for when he does emerge, then target him.

Almost all of Anuran’s attacks can be easily dodged by rolling, so just keep chipping away while using as many ATB charges as you can in order to build synergy attacks as this will flip it over. Attack the cockpit for big damage and to build stagger. After half of its health as gone, the tank will become electrocuted and start using a Leapfrog attack, meaning it will bounce around the arena and it will be quite difficult to dodge this, so make sure to keep an eye on your health. At this point, it will also have two extra targets, Left Leg and Right Leg, so focus on these individually as when you take one out, the tank will be crippled for a while and unable to attack. By the time you’ve taken them out, the tank should be nearly destroyed if not already, so use everything a your disposal (Summons, Limits, Synergy Abilities etc.) to finish it.

Hard Tips: After the last fight, this should be a lot easier. Use Elemental-Lightning in your weapons to exploit his weakness. Use synergy abilities to flip it over which makes it more vulnerable, and use Arcane Ward combined with Thunder spells with Aerith to deal massive damage.

Boss #16 – Kujata (VR)

Chapter: 9
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Varies
Lesser Resistances: Poison, Petrify
Greater Resistances: Sleep
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Silence, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: Varies
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: It switches between fire, ice and lightning alignments. Dealing a certain amount of damage by exploiting its elemental weaknesses will pressure it and remove its current affinity. If left unchecked, it will spawn a new elemental being; once it attunes to all three elements, it will unleash Tri-Disaster.

Firstly, make sure you finish the three Divine Intel objectives in the Gongaga region to make this battle much easier. Kujata is one of the easier summon bosses. In his regular bull form, most of his attacks can be easily dodged as he takes a while to charge them up. After that, he will switch between elements and his weaknesses will change. It’s obvious to see which element he has changed to, so use all of you characters to hit him with high level magic or abilities of the opposite element. This will pressure him, so use this chance to build stagger and use Synergy to increase your limit level ready for the stagger phase. You will probably need two staggers to kill him.

The only thing you need to worry about at all in this fight is if you don’t do enough damage to each element and Kujata attunes to it. If it attunes to all three, then Tri-Disaster will almos certainly kill you or at least deal critical damage, but it is easy to avoid.

Boss #17 – Specimen H1024

Chapter: 9
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Ice
Lesser Resistances: Stop, Sleep
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Fire, Lightning, Slow, Poison, Silence, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Strengthens itself by ingesting mako, then unleashes a powerful attack after a certain amount of time has passed. Inflicting enough damage after Mako Ingestion will both interrupt the subsequent attack and pressure it.

This is one of the simplest boss fights yet and should pose no trouble. Despite its imposing figure, Specimen H1024 holds no surprises or even extra appendages. Its attacks are easy to dodge and it will regularly use Mako Ingestion which does not damage you and is preparation for a powerful attack. Save your ATB charges for when it does this, then use them to cancel the subsequent attack and pressure it. This should build Stagger quickly and you can then use your most powerful abilities like the recently-learned Infinity Edge from Cloud’s Crystal Sword, Blizzaga if you have it and Limit Breaks.

When it has about a third of its health left, it will use Mako Inhalation which will turn it purple and give it abilities such as Barrier and Manaward as well as significantly boosting the power of its attacks. Conveniently, the game just gave you a Subversion Materia at the previous rest stop (you could have also gotten one earlier) so use the Breach ability to remove these shields. Then carry on as normal until it goes down.

Hard Tips: Nothing much to this one, put Elemental-Ice in everyone’s weapons to exploit its weakness and use ATB after Mako Ingestion to pressure it. Use Moogle Knuckle with Cait Sith when it’s staggered to increase the stagger damage by 50%. Feel free to use as much MP as you want here.

Boss #18 – Crimson Mare Mk. II

Chapter: 9
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Lightning
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances: Stop
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Destroying the weapons on both of its arms will allow you to target Scarlet. Knocking her out with presure the battle armour.

Crimson Mare is definitely a step up from the last couple of boss fights. Firstly, in order to pressure it, you need to take out the Left and Right Sabers, which will then expose Scarlet. You then have to hit her to pressure the rest of the armour and you don’t have a particularly long window. Lightning is the best way to do this, so put a Lightning Materia on your characters. Hopefully at least one is Thundaga by now, but Thundara will do. For best result, use Arcane Ward with Aerith and get two casts for one ATB charge while using Lightning Ninjutsu with Yuffie to damage Mare while keeping distance from the sword swipes. Unfortunately, Tifa can’t do much from a distance except cast Lightning magic, so it might be worth making her the healer for this fight.

After you defeat the Sabers and pressure Mare, it will regenerate with two Makocannons instead, which changes the dynamics of the fight in the sense that these will fire plasma rays at you from distance rather than getting up close and slashing with the swords. You can block these attacks to minimise damage, but it wll be much harder to avoid completely. Again, do what you were doing before in terms of focusing on the arms first, and try to save your Synergy Abilities and Limits for when the main armour is pressured.

Finally, for the third stage Mare will spawn Gauntlets in each hand which are like huge fists, doing more damage than the blades did but swithing the fight back to how it was in the first stage in terms of dodging and blocking melee attacks rather than ranged one. At this stage, Mare should nearly be defeated anyway so just focus on taking away its last bit of health with your strongest attacks.

Hard Tips: Equip everyone with Elemental-Lightning in their weapons to buff your regular attacks, but for the most part in this fight you’ll just want to use Arcane Ward with Aerith and pummel with double Thundagas. Do note that while using the Gauntlets it won’t be weak to lightning, so when using these weapons just use regular attacks and abilities, rather than wasting MP on Thundaga.

Boss #19 – Bahamut Arisen (VR)

Chapter: 10
Weaknesses/Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements:
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Scattered particles will attach themselvs to you if touched and explode after a certain amount of time. Using synergy skills or synergy abilities will pressure Bahamut Arisen, remove any attached particles, and eliminate any others floating around.

Bahamut Arisen hits hard, so it’s wise to always have a dedicated healer at hand, but there isn’t any attack which can really cause you too much trouble where you’ll be scraping to survive. His main trick is to scatter particles, which are basically pink orbs, around the arena and when you inevitably touch them (they are hard to avoid), then Bahamut will use a move called Gather Particles and they will charge up and explode, dealing heavy damage.

The best way to avoid this is save up your synergy abilities and use them when he is gathering, not only removing them from you but also pressuring him. Note that when he does the gathering move, his Right and Left Wing both appear as weak points, and destroying them both will stagger him, but the time you have to deal enough damage to both to achieve this is so short that it’s best not to bother.

Keep plugging away, make the most of the stagger phase and he’ll go down eventually.

Boss #20 – Gi Nattak

Chapter: 10
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances: Fixed Damage
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough damage will pressure him. A curse will activate when the soul flames possess a statue (Ruby: Halve HP, Amethyst: Halve MP, Emerald: Deplete ATB, Amber: Shrink Battlefield). Staggering Gi Nattak will also undo the curse. Doom will inflict instant death after a certain amount of time.

For this battle, you only have Red XIII and Barret so it may be harder or easier compared to how often you run them in your main party. Regardless, Gi Nattak is not overly tough. In fact, since Red is quite a heavy damage dealer with his regular attacks (especially if followed by Stardust Ray) and Barret can also use Overcharge and Maximum Fury to inflict heavy damage, you can pressure him quite quickly.

When about a third of his health has gone, Gi Nattak will summon Soul Flames which will float around the battlefield for a while before heading to any of the four soul statues around the arena. These provide a variety of detrimental effects, but you can actually kill them before this happens if you have saved up powerful AoE abilities like Stardust Ray for Red, Smackdown for Barret or their Level 2 Limit Breaks. If you kill the Soul Flames quickly, they’ll never activate the curses and you can continue your assault on Gi Nattak who as previously mentioned, is quick to pressure and thus stagger. Of the curses, halving HP is probably the worst and means you just need to stay on top of healing more. Halving MP isn’t an issue as you should only use Magic to heal as Gi Nattak has no weaknesses, the ATB depletes much slower than you can build it with attacks so isn’t an issue, while shrinking the battlefield isn’t much of a trouble either as his ttacks are fairly easy to dodge. Ultimately, his HP isn’t that high, so this shouldn’t be a long fight.

Hard Tips: Gi Nattak is one of the few bosses who neither has an elemental weakness nor attacks with any elements, so you can finally give those Elemental materias a break. He can be poisoned, so equip a Poison onto either Barret or Red (or both) and immediately poison him twice to envenom him. Whenever two Soul Flames are spawned make sure to kill these immediately, as if they survive they will instakill one character for each Soul Flame still alive. When the big group of Soul Flames are spawned, use abilities like Stardust Ray and Maximum Fury to kill these as quickly as possible, but if you do get cursed Gi Nattak should be near staggering which will remove the curses so it shouldn’t matter if you get cursed.
When his health gets low, Gi Nattak will cast Doom on both Red and Barret, which starts a countdown before inflicting Instant Death on them both. For this reason make sure to equip Safety Bits on both of them, as this will nullify the Instant Death but instead deal heavy damage, so if the timer is going to run out make sure you’re on high HP. To completely avoid dealing with Doom, you can simply save your limit breaks and summon for when he casts it and you should be able to finish him off before the timer hits 0.

Boss #21 – Odin (VR)

Chapter: 11
Weaknesses/Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith
Greater Resistances: Fixed Damage, Poison
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Petrify, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements:
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Landing ATB commands, evading attacks or inflicting detrimental status effects will put Odin on the backfoot, both thrilling and pressuring him. Conversely, taking too many of his attacks will leave him disheartened, leading him to sound Gjallahorn’s Warning and unleash his Zantetsuken.

Odin is by far the most difficult of the summon bosses, mainly due to his Zantetsuken attack which will deal 9999 damage to you and instantly kill you without any way of blocking it.

A team of Cloud, Yuffie, Tifa will work well here. Play mainly as Yuffie, playing at range makes it easy to dodge Odin’s attacks (Yuffie is agile and good at dodging). Start by casting Haste (Time Materia) on Yuffie to recharge ATB faster. The way Odin’s Zantetsuken works is that there’s a hidden scale between him getting weakened when you hit him with lots of ATB Abilities, or him using Zantetsuken if he lands too many hits on you. You need to evade almost all his attacks, and keep hitting him constantly with ranged ATB Abilities to swing the hidden scale towards weakening him, and keeping him from using Zantetsuken. As Yuffie, spam spells or ATB commands on him. Equip everyone on your team with a Revival Earring, these can be bought infinitely from vending machines, for example from the one in Cosmo Canyon at Kamaria’s Ranch. These will autorevive you when your HP goes to 0. Additionally, have Phoenix as your summoning materia, you can use his Reraise to give yourself an autorevive. Also equip Cloud’s weapon “Umbral Blade” and its weapon ability “Reprieve”, this lets you survive a death blow with 1 HP (the weapon is found in Chapter 8). Ideal would be if you have the Materia “Reraise” which you can craft at Chadley but it’s not available until you reach Gilgamesh Island in Chapter 13. This Materia lets you cast an autorevive on a character, which lets you survive Zantetsuken. Equip all 3 characters with Revive Materia, which are also bought from the vending machine in Cosmo Canyon at Kamaria’s Ranch. The first Zantetsuken you’ll survive thanks to the Revival Earrings, but keep in mind these are 1 use only and will break upon death. Then you must cast the Reraise Materia to survive.

Basically, you’ll have to dodge all of Odin’s attacks while continuing to land ATB Commands and Spells on him. If you can’t beat him, wait until later when you’re level 70 and leveled up your Materia some more (even though Odin scales to your level it will be easier when you leveled up some Materia and have access to stronger endgame gear).

Boss #22 – Diabolic Variant

Chapter: 11
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Ice
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Destroying the tentacles on its right arm will pressure it. It will summon a clone once it has taken enough damage.

The Diabolic Variant spawns with a Right Arm, which should always be your priority. It has surprisingly low health and when destroyed, the Variant will be pressured for a long time to accumulate stagger. Its attacks are also very weak, so the only complication in this fight is when it clones itself after taking damage. However, the good news is that the clone spawns with the same health as the original rather than full health. This means that this fight is just an exercise in persistence, as destroying one Variant means you can go back to the original one, whittle its health down more, and when it clones again, this will be with lower health and thus repeat.

Always focus on destroying the Right Arm when you can before hitting the main body, and use your Synergy Abilities to Refocus your ATB and upgrade your limits so you can take the Arms out quickly and then hit the pressured main body with powerful attacks. You have little to worry about defensively, this just might take a little while.

Hard Tips: Equip Ice-Elemental on everyone’s weapons and focus on the right arm to pressure the Variant. When it staggers, use True Strike and Unbridled Strength with Tifa to increase stagger damage. Avoid using MP with Cloud as he will have two more boss fights this chapter.

Boss #23 – Yin & Yang

Chapter: 11
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire
Lesser Resistances: Magic
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Becomes pressured when either head is incapacitated, but the remaining head will go berserk.

Yin & Yang is more of a powerful regular enemy than a boss, and doesn’t have high health, but can still cause quite some damage if you’re not careful. Firstly, the hardest part about this is you only have Cait Sith, who is your newest party member and quite different from the rest, so if you haven’t been using him you might be a bit stuck.

Firstly, make sure you have a Lv. 2 or 3 Barrier Materia equipped so you have Manaward or Manawall, as the boss will use powerful Lv. 3 Magic such as Thundaga and that is the only way to minimis the damage. Of course, have a Healing Materia too or at least some powerful potions.

Dealing enough damage to the boss will cause one of its heads to stop working (the heads aren’t separate parts you can target, but just a natural result of dealing enough damage), but this makes the other head enter berserk mode and attack more often and more powerfully. Dodging and Guarding (or using Barrier also from the Barrier Materia) helps, so you can focus on attacking rather than healing.

When you can, hop on your Moogle with Let’s Ride then work on building its stagger with Moogle Mine to quickly build the stagger bar. When it gets close, hit it with some physical attacks to build your ATB more ready to unleash Moogle Knuckle (obtained from the Golden Megaphone found earlier in this chapter) as soon as it hits Stagger. This will boost the damage % to 200% and even higher if you have two uses stored. You should also have a Limit Break by this point, so try and use it while Yin & Yang has a high stagger % for maximum results. By the time Yin & Yang hits its second stagger, or even before, he should be dead.

Hard Tips: This is a solo fight with Cait Sith, so it can be a bit difficult. Equip Cait with Elemental-Fire in the weapon and Elemental-Lightning in the armour (if you have a maxed Elemental, put it in the armour for some healing).
Yin & Yang will have two styles, one that is melee and one that is magic. The magic one isn’t threatening with this setup as it will basically just use variants of ice and lightning magic, with the ice magic being easy to avoid and the lightning magic being either nulled or even healing you, depending on your Elemental level.
The melee variant is far more deadly however due to its Despondent Strikes ability. You will want to try to stagger it while it is in this form to deal enough damage to destroy the head, as having the melee variant for the final phase of the fight makes him spam Despondent Strikes constantly. If you get your limit or summon during this fight, make sure to use them during the final phase to end it quickly. For healing it is recommended that you use Chakra or Prayer, as Cait Sith has two more boss fights in this chapter so you will want to try and conserve MP. If you do use any MP here, it’s best used on a Barrier if you get stuck with the melee variant to lessen the damage from the constant spam.

Boss #24 – Forgotten Specimen

Chapter: 11
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough physical damage will make it resistant to physical attacks, while magic damage will make it resistant to magic attacks. Force it to switch resistances multiple times will pressure it. Physical damage will dispel Reflect, while magic damage will dispel Shield.

Forgotten Beast can be a little annoying as it swaps its resistance from physical to magic. Your party is locked with Barret and Aerith, and Cait Sith’s regular attacks count as magical so at the start, you’re stuck with Barret to deal any meaningful damage. The other two can use support magic to buff your party if they like, taking the time to boost their ATB charges for Synergy Abilities.

When you’ve done some damage, the Specimen’s resistance will change to physical so it’s time to use Cait Sith and Aerith. The best thing to do for the latter is use an Arcane Ward then build up two ATB charges to use your third-tier magic such as Firaga, Thundaga etc. and get two casts for the price of one, dealing significant damage. In fact, the resistance will soon chage back to physical so you’ll return to using Barret. After the resistances have changed a few times, the boss will pressure and this is when you should used you stagger-building abilities like Focused Shot and Moogle Mine to stagger it. Use Moogle Knuckle to raise the stagger % and also the Synergy Ablities which give you unlimited MP so Aerith in particular can spam high-level magic.

When the boss hits about half health, it will Metamorph into a mixture of both resistances and cast Reflect. Use physical damage to break this, at which point it will cast Shield and you need to use Magic attacks to break that. After this, it will pressure again and you should easily be able to kill it during the second stagger phase, particularly if you time Moogle Knuckle right to raise the percentage above 200% and use Limit Breaks.

Hard Tips: Equip everyone with Elemental-Lightning in their armour to nullify his Thundagas, then equip them all with either Star Pendants or Headbands to nullify the poison or sleep, whichever you prefer. Nothing much special here, just make sure to use Barret when it’s weak to physical attacks and Aerith when it’s weak to magical attacks. Feel free to use MP with Aerith and Barret as you won’t need them again, unless you choose to make one of them your third member for the next boss.

Boss #25 – Galian Beast

Chapter: 11
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith
Lesser Resistances: Poison
Greater Resistances: Fixed Damage
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough physical damage will pressure him. Making him flinch during Inner Turmoil or Chotic Consumption will make him easier to pressure until he recovers.

Galian Beast is perhaps the toughest boss you’ve faced so far, at least in terms of how aggressive he is. He attacks quickly and often, so you need to make liberal use of the Guard button and if you are comfortable or skilled with the parry mechanic, you’ll find this fight much easier as it’s the best way to stun him and get some hits in. You can also make this much easier if you have maxed-out Enervation and Disempowerment Materias as Galian Beast is one of the very few bosses weak to Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave and Defaith. Inflicting him with some or all of these will make both his ability to deal and prevent damage much weaker.

Therefore, for this fight it might be best to have at least one dedicated healer (Aerith works well especially with Arcane Ward giving her two casts per spell) and another who can also heal the entire party in one, such as Cloud with a Magnify-Cure or a Pray. Then have the other building pressure, with the others chipping in if your health is at a good level. Try to save your Limit Break for the Stagger phase and your stronger 2 ATB abilities since you want to be doing as much damage in this phase as you can and killing him before his relentless attacks take their toll.

Hard Tips: Before you start this fight, you can edit your party to use whoever you like, the only character you’re forced to use is Cait Sith. It may be best to use two characters who have full MP other than Cloud (as he has another boss fight still), to allow you to take full advantage of the MP available to you, but this is entirely up to you. Whoever you choose, equip them with Elemental-Fire on their weapon (or armour if you’re using Yuffie), as well as Enervation and Disempowerment materias on someone. Galian Beast is weak to fire as well as the spells on these materia, so use them to your advantage to weaken him, especially during his second phase when he’s more dangerous.
Try and build up your limit level for the second phase so that you can use a level 3 limit on him to heavily increase stagger and deal heavy damage, as well as save your summon for this phase. Make sure to use Cait’s Moogle Knuckle whenever he staggers to increase stagger damage. This boss is very aggressive but you can dodge most of his attacks so you will need to stay on your toes and try not be overly aggressive.

Boss #26 – Roche

Chapter: 11
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Stop
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: Elixir
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: Elixir
Assess Info: Inflicting damage after he performs special attacks will presure him.

Roche is the last boss in this gauntlet of bosses you’ve just faced, and perhaps the easiest if you can time your parries pretty well. He’s similar to the earlier fight in that it’s 1v1 with Cloud and he mainly deals in physical attacks with his sword. He varies between faster combos and slower, heavier hits, but they can all be parried. The special attacks can’t, but they are easy to dodge with the button and that’s when you should strike with a Triple Slash or Braver. When pressured, used Focused Strike to Stagger him then unleash your Limit Breaks or Infinity Edge to do huge damage. As this is a 1v1 fight, his health is pretty low so you will probably kill him even before his second stagger.

Hard Tips: Like with the previous fight against Roche, Counterstance will be your best friend here. Use it (or regular Punisher Mode parrying) whenever he uses regular attacks. All his named attacks are unblockable so don’t even attempt it on those, just dodge away whenever you see an attack name appear. Roche has no weaknesses and doesn’t use any elemental attacks, nor does he inflict any status effects, so you’re free to leave the Elemental behind and use whatever accessory you want to buff your stats.

Boss #27 – Abzu

Chapter: 12
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire
Lesser Resistances: Ice, Stop
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Poison, Silence, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Inflicting enough fire damage will light them on fire and pressure them. When their HP falls below half, they will begin evading fire spells and Corneo will douse any flames. They will crash into the wall if Ferocious Charge misses, pressuing them and causing Corneo to faint.

Abzu is weak to Fire, so load your three characters with Fire Materia, equip Elemental-Fire on Cloud and make sure one character can summon Phoenix or Ifrit. You can also use your Fire-elemental abilities like Yuffie’s Fire Ninjutsu if you pick her for your party. The tried and tested method works well here; Cloud as the main damage dealer while your other characters (Tifa is recommended) buld stagger or heal. Despite Don Corneo riding Abzu, you can only target Abzu so there’s no need to worry about split targets. When pressured, make the most of the chance to build stagger by using your ‘Focused’ abilities.

After he hits half health, Abzu will have Enrage cast on him and his attacks will do more damage but the strategy remains the same. Keep exploiting his weakness, use your Limit Breaks where possible and use your Fire-elemental summon abilities since the are free unlike Magic spells. most of his attacks involve him pounding the ground around him or jumping into the air and slamming down, so your best bet is to always dodge roll to the outside of the arena rather than try and block. This is particularly important during Ferocious Charge because if you avoid his charges, he will hit the wall and be stunned for a while leaving him open to attack.

Hard Tips: First of all, the team you use for this fight will be Cloud, your Skywheel date, and a third of your choice. If you want a particular person as your date for this fight, go to System > Extra Settings > Chapter 12 Companion to pick them (you must do this before resting at Ghost Square).

With your team decided, equip everyone with Elemental-Fire in their weapons. Avoid using MP with Cloud as he will have two more boss fights after this. If you have Tifa or Aerith, they will be in the next boss fight so be wary of your MP with them too. For the most part you will just want to dodge Abzu’s attacks and get in attacks when you can, the main thing you want to be aware of is his Upheaval attack. When you see this, get as far away as possible, as he will slam down and release a shockwave covering half the arena and dealing enough damage to instakill just about any character. If you have MP to spare or characters who aren’t in the upcoming fights, feel free to throw some Firagas at him to deal heavy damage and pressure him faster.

Boss #28 – Rude & Elena

Chapter: 12
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Wind (Rude), Lightning (Elena)
Lesser Resistances: Petrify (Rude), None (Elena)
Greater Resistances: Stop, Sleep (Both)
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Silence, Stone, Morphable Items (Both)
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: Mega-Potion (Rude)
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: Mega-Potion (Rude)
Assess Info: Hitting him with multiple powerful offensive abilities while his guard is up will pressure him. Interrupting his synergy strikes will also pressure him (Rude). Landing powerful offensive abilities or interrupting her Turks’ synergy strikes will pressure her. While she’s in Rogue Stance, striking her with two powerful abilities will pressure her (Elena).

This fight is tougher than the earlier one as the two, particularly Rude, are more aggressive and it’s hard to get hits in without being interrupted. Your best opportunity is when he used Shockwave and you can dodge roll behind him for a few hits. For Rude, use your Wind magic and abilities, and on Elena use Lightning. Use Aerith as your healer, creating a Ward and using Pray/Curaga to keep health topped up while your other party members (Cloud and Tifa are good) use their abilities and physical attacks.

The main thing to watch out for is when the two bosses lose roughly a third of their health and team up to start unleashing unblockable Synergy attacks. Save up your ATB charges for this (splitting your ATB into three by Synergy Abilities greatly helps here) and use your strongest abilities like Infinity End and Starshower to interrupt their attacks and pressure them. Also try to raise your Limit level and save them for when the bosses finally stagger, ideally at around the same time. If not, focus on Rude first as he is the most dangerous.

Hard Tips: Just like the previous Rude & Elena fight, you will have the same team and will want to adopt the same strategies. Equip one member with Elemental-Wind and Lightning on their weapon, then Elemental-Wind and Elemental-Lightning on the other members so they can all take advantage of Rude & Elena’s weaknesses. Whenever Elena uses her Rogue Stance, try to hit her with two offensive abilities quickly to pressure her.

The biggest threat is when they start preparing for their synergy ability, Turk Two-Step. If they manage to unleash this attack without either being interrupted, they will likely kill your entire party or bring them all to 1 HP if you have Reprieve active. Try and avoid the shockwaves and stun grenades that preempt this move as they will stun you, then unleash all your abilities on each of them to try to pressure them before they release their assault.

If you defeat one, the other will eventually revive them with about 20% HP with a Phoenix Down. Given they don’t do this immediately, it is still worth finishing one off so you can focus on the remaining Turk and whittle their health down as much as possible before the first is revived.

Boss #29 – Rufus & Darkstar

Chapter: 12
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances: Posion, Sleep (Both Darkstar only)
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items (Both except Poison and Slep for Darkstar)
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Striking him while he is reloading or landing an ATB command after he attacks will pressure him. ATB commands will leave him open longer than basic attacks. Hitting him with certain attacks while he is reloading or after he attacks will stagger him instantly (Rufus). Inflicting enough damage or severing its link with Rufus will pressure it (Darkstar).

You’ll only have Cloud for this fight but if you played Remake this is almost exactly the same fight so you shouldn’t have any issues if you know what you’re doing. The first thing to note is that Darkstar won’t appear until Rufus is down to a third of his health.

Rufus is a little tricky to get used to if this is your first time fighting him, and the Assess blurb doesn’t give us much of a clue. Only using ‘a certain ability’ will Stagger him. Luckily, using powers of deduction, the only ability Cloud has had since the start that wouldn’t require any mastery of other abilities is Braver. Therefore, your aim should be to build ATB and use Braver whenever Rufus reloads or finishes using an ability. Never try to attack him physically unless he is Reloading or he will just counter attack you for significant damage.

Thankfully, hitting him with Braver at the right time will Stagger him instantly, and by this point you should also have a limit break so hit him with a Cross Slash to do huge damage, then maybe an Infinity’s End if you have the ATB for it.

When Darkstar appears, Rufus will use Heel which binds the dog to him. This connection acts as a shield and powers up their attacks so immediately make it a priority to cut this bond and defeat Darkstar first by using your stronger ATB abilities against it. Once he’s down, another Braver on Rufus and Stagger should finish the fight.

Hard Tips: Immediately after the Rude & Elena fight, make sure to hold during the cutscene to be able to change Cloud’s materia, as this fight will start right after. Unfortunately these changes won’t be saved, so if you need to retry this fight at all you will need to make these changes every time. It is recommended that you have a non-MP method of healing alongside Curaga (like Prayer or Chakra), as well as ATB Boost and Haste to increase how often you get ATB. For your accessory, you can use either the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal to have a level 3 limit break, or the Corsair’s Compass to increase the ATB to 3 segments when using 5 types of commands.

This will probably be the most annoying fight on Hard so far, as it’s completely different to every other fight. You will need to play very defensively by blocking and dodging all of Rufus’ attacks until he reloads, then use an offensive ability on him to pressure him. You can stagger him instantly if you manage to land a Braver on him as he reloads, but in order to even hit this you need to anticipate when he will reload while also being close enough to him to land it, because if you even see the text “Reload” above his head, it is too late for Braver to hit him. Personally I found it easier to simply use Triple Slash whenever he reloads or after him doing a special attack and slowly stagger him this way, rather than trying to anticipate the reloads to get instant staggers with Braver.

At half health, his hound Darkstar will join in the fight. Deal with Darkstar as quickly as possible, as fighting both of them can be very overwhelming. The best way to pressure it is by blocking when it does Corkscrew, or just unleashing multiple offensive abilities on it (but don’t use Triple Slash for this as you’ll inadvertently attack Rufus who will simply counter you). With any luck you will have a full limit break ready after the first section that you can unleash on Darkstar as soon as he’s pressured to stagger him, then immediately follow up with Infinity’s End to just about kill it entirely.

Once Darkstar is defeated, it will be back to how it was at the start of the battle, so just continue using the same tactics you did initially to finish him off. Try and keep Haste up where you can, healing with Curaga if necessary, and resorting to Chakra/Prayer if you run out of MP or want to conserve it for Haste casts.

Boss #30 – Red Dragon

Chapter: 13
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Ice
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Fire, Berserk, Stop, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Striking the scorched pillars and bringing them down on the dragon will pressure it. Destroying one of its wings while it is flying will cause it to plummet, pressuring it. Attacking its chest will reduce the range of Crimson Breath.

Red Dragon is a tough enemy with lots of moving parts. Firstly, make sure you remove all Fire elemetal attack Materia as Red Dragon is immune to it, and swap it for Ice magic. There are four pillars in the arena which occasionally the dragon will set on fire, and they become targetable. They’re also useful to hide behind when it does its Flamethrower attack. Always use this chance to attack them to bring them down on it and get a small window of pressure as you aim to build its Stagger bar as always.

In the early part of the battle, the dragon has a Head as an extra body part which you should take out immediately (it will regenerate) as this limits its attacks and grants extended pressure. Halfway through the battle, the dragon will fly off to a higher ledge and spout a ‘Chest’ body part, which you should make your immediate priority. Hit it with a Limit Break and destroy it before the dragon uses Crimson Breath as it will significantly reduce its range. This attack turns part of the floor into lava, so you want to avoid it as much as possible, which is extremely difficult if it has full range.

After this, the dragon will start flying around the arena so if you have a ranged character or strong Ice magic on someone like Cloud, hit its wings so it plummets to the ground and grants you further pressure. Just make sure to maximise the Stagger time by banking your Limits, raising Tifa’s Chi and using Aerith’s Ray of Judgement.

Hard Tips: You can use whoever you want for this fight, but it’s recommended to have a ranged character to be able to attack it while it’s flying. Whoever you bring, equip them all with Elemental-Ice in their weapons. Even though the dragon breathes fire, it’s not actually fire element so there’s no point putting Elemental-Fire in your armour. You will also want to bring Magnify-Barrier on someone.

When it breathes fire in the first phase, hide behind the pillars to weaken them, then destroy them to pressure the dragon, but make sure the dragon is close enough for the pillar to hit it. Repeat this for all pillars until you reach the second phase, which occurs just before half HP, and try to keep some ATB ready for the second phase. Use your saved ATB to cripple its wings and bring it to the ground, then try to do as much damage as possible before it does Crimson Breath III. Unfortunately on Hard, crippling the chest won’t weaken this attack at all and it will cover the entire arena. In fact it’s better to completely avoid crippling the chest, as this will force it to do Crimson Breath III even sooner. This is where that Barrier comes into play, make sure to have ATB with whoever has this equipped when the attack starts and cast Manaward on the whole team to minimise the damage taken. Heal up afterwards and continue pummeling. With any luck you will manage to defeat it before it manages to get a second Crimson Breath attack off.

Boss #31 – Rude & Reno

Chapter: 13
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Wind (Rude), Fire (Reno)
Lesser Resistances: Petrify (Rude), None (Reno)
Greater Resistances: Stop, Sleep (Both), Thunder (Reno)
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Silence, Stone, Morphable Items (Both)
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: Mega-Potion (Rude), Ether (Reno)
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: Mega-Potion (Rude), Fortitude Ring (Reno)
Assess Info: Hitting him with multiple powerful offensive abilities while his guard is up will pressure him. Interrupting his synergy strikes will also pressure him (Rude). Evading his counters or countering him with powerful offensive abilities will pressure him. Interrupting his synergy strikes will also pressure him.

Hard Tips: This fight will occur immediately after fighting some regular fiends alongside them, so make sure you’re healed up before killing the last of these enemies. For the actual fight, Reno is weak to Fire but resistant to Lightning, and Rude is weak to Wind, so you know the drill: Elementals in your weapons. You should be familiar with Rude by now, but with Reno you will want to either evade his counters or counter him yourself with offensive abilities (like Counterstance) to pressure him. This will be much easier than the last Rude & Elena fight.

Boss #32 – Tseng & Elena

Chapter: 13
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Ice (Tseng), Lightning (Elena)
Lesser Resistances: None (Both)
Greater Resistances: Stop, Sleep (Both)
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Silence, Stone, Morphable Items (Both)
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Blocking or evading his combo finishers will pressure him for a short while. Once he has recovered, he will begin to charge up for a powerful technique. Inflicting enough damage while he is charging will presure him (Tseng). Hitting her with two powerful offensive abilities or interrupting her synergy strikes will pressure her (Elena).

Keep in mind that Tseng is vulnerable to Ice, while Elena is susceptible to Lightning, thus equip your Materia to take advantage of those. Tseng is tricky and you haven’t faced him before, but is best tackled by blocking or evading his string of combo finishers. He unleashes a number of attacks in succession, so focus on dodging or parrying each one if you’re confident. Attacking him during this stage would be unwise as he will just counter you or hit you faster. Just wait until he’s left vulnerable after missing the final strike and he will be pressured, at which point trying and hit him with your ‘Focus’ abilities to build stagger. After this pressure, he will start to charge up so this your time to use your strongest Ice spells because inflicting enough damage will pressure him for much longer in this phase. Elena presents exactly the same challenges as earlier in the game, bar having more health and dealing more damage. Use your stronger ATB abilities for her and make sure if you see her gearing up for her synergy strike and adopting Rogue Stance that you hit her with everything you’ve got so she pressures rather than does powerful attacks with Tseng.

Hard Tips: Another Turks fight. Tseng is weak to Ice and Elena to Lightning, so equip accordingly. Tseng is pressured by blocking or evading his combo finishers. He will do 4-5 attacks in a combo, so make sure to dodge them all and don’t try to attack him until he gets pressured from missing the last hit. Elena is more of the same that you’ve dealt with in the past, just be careful of her Rogue Stance and synergy attack with Tseng.

Boss #33 – Demon Gate

Chapter: 13
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Fixed Damage
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Draws the walls inward to narrow the field of battle. Inflicting enough damage while it gathers strength to move will both interrupt and pressure it. It unleashes elementally aspected attacks from its enormous hands, but striking it with an opposing element will interrupt its assault.

Notoriously one of the hardest fights in the original game, Demon Gate is a little easier this time but does have the caveat of a second Gate joining the fight to pincer you when the first one reaches half health. Don’t worry about that at first though, and instead focus on trying to keep distance between yourself and the wall. The primary concern is the Encroach move where it will draw the walls closer, not only intensifying its aggression but naturally shrinking the area you have to dodge and move. To stop this tactic, unleash all your ATB gauge to pressure it and prevent the arena from shrinking. Upon reaching half health, a second Demon Gate materialises. Should the arena shrink to its smallest size, both walls will incessantly barrage you with attacks and it becomes very tricky to survive, so it is recommended to save your ATB charges and Limit Breaks for when it is gathering strength to interrupt and pressure it.

Demon Gate lacks any specific elemental vulnerabilities, though it sporadically infuses its assaults with one of the four elements. Therefore, trying to cover all four elemental bases with Materia because using the opposing element will stop this attack.

Hard Tips: Demon Gate doesn’t have any specific elemental weaknesses, but it does occasionally imbue its attacks with one of the four elements, and these can be countered by using the opposite element, so it is worth having each elemental materia on you, and potentially Elemental in the armour to nullify 1-2 of these elements.
The main thing to look out for during this fight is Encroach, when it does this attack it’ll draw the walls into you and get more aggressive, so when you see it unload all your ATB to try and pressure it to stop it shrinking the arena. At half health a second Demon Gate will appear, and if they manage to shrink the arena to the smallest size they will constantly unleash attacks. If you get a Limit Break, save it for this moment so that you can deal heavy damage on one Demon Gate while also becoming invincible, as it is likely your other teammates will die during this assault. As this is the last boss fight for this chapter, feel free to go all out with your MP.

Boss #34 – Jenova Lifeclinger

Chapter: 14
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances: Ice, Wind
Greater Resistances: Stop
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Poison, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Unable to read.

For this fight, you will use all your party members so make sure they all have equipment. The combat dynamics will rotate between different characters, with everyone except Cloud commencing with a full Limit Break but don’t use them at the start if you can help it. Initially, attack Jenova as normal until she uses Barrier. At this point, all physical damage will be hugely reduced so us Breach magic to remove it. Keep chugging away at her health, using Lightning and Fire magic to supplement your physical attacks as she is resistant to the other two elements.

After losing a certain amount of health, you’ll be fighting her alone as Cloud so make sure to block and parry, using Punisher mode for strong counters and extra damage while you build ATB for your strongest abilities or to heal. Then you will have Yuffie and Red XIII, so use Red as your tank with support abilities, absorbing Jenova’s attacks to use his strongest abilities and Vengeance Mode counters, while Yuffie attacks from range out of harm’s way. Then as Tifa and Cait Sith you’ll need to destroy the Right Wing. The good thing about these two is they can quickly build the Stagger bar (use Moogle Knuckle for Cait Sith) to eliminate it quickly. You’ll then have Barret and Red XIII for the Left Wing, so use the same tactics as you did before wth Red tanking and Barret the ranged character. Then you’ll have Cloud and Yuffie against the Head which thankfully should pose little trouble as you have your strongest character and the strongest ranged character.

Finally, in the climactic phase Jenova will render herself immune to melee attacks when pressured. Utilise your arsenal of magical abilities to inflict damage or top your health up until she becomes vulnerable. You will have Cloud, Barret and Cait Sith with you so if you haven’t already used your Limit Breaks, now is the time to give it everything you have.

Hard Tips: Before you even get to this fight, do note that the fight with the Whispers prior to this can drain your MP with the Etheric Bleed attack. If you have it, equip Boxcrusher Keychain to someone so they can regain MP when they stagger a Whisper. You may not need all your MP for the upcoming boss fights but it doesn’t hurt to have more.

Onto the actual boss fight. All six of your current party members will be used during this fight, so make sure everyone is equipped. Everyone should have Healing, Revival, Prayer, HP Up, MP Up, Steadfast Block and Precision Defense Focus equipped, and spread the Magnify and Elemental out (in armour to protect against Ice and Wind).

The fight will cycle between different characters, and everyone except Cloud will start with a full limit break. Don’t use these immediately, but instead wait until you get to the phases where two members are fighting at a time and use your limits during these phases to quickly move on. Do note if you die during this section, there is a checkpoint at the beginning of the duo fights, just make sure to select “Retry from Before Current Battle” from the Game Over screen.

In the final section, whenever she is pressured Jenova will become immune to melee damage, so use whatever means of magic damage you have or simply try to stay healed up and alive until she is vulnerable again.

Boss #35 – Sephiroth Reborn

Chapter: 14
Weaknesses / Status Ailments:
Lesser Resistances:
Greater Resistances:
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith, Slow, Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Unable to read.

This fight unfolds in several phases, but don’t fret if you die because there’s a checkpoint after each party change. The initial phase against Human Sephiroth with Cloud and Zack is straightforward. Utilise your ATB abilities and synergy moves whenever available. Zack, as a new character, can charge his attacks with up to three levels, either by holding the button or pressing it immediately after a normal attack. After synergy moves, Zack enjoys a brief period of unlimited MP, so make used of his various support spells if needed, but this an easy phase.

After this is when the real battle begins against the true last boss, Sephiroth Reborn. You’ll control only Cloud and have to take out the weak point at the botto of the body. Initially, focus on dealing damage while evading Sephiroth’s attacks. Sephiroth likes to use Heartless Angel, leaving you with 1 HP, so make sure to prep a heal either with an Item or Curaga as soon as you see the attack is coming, although don’t use it until it actually hits you.

The next phase sees Tifa, Red, and Cait Sith join the fray against Sephiroth and the recurring Bahamut Arisen Whisper. Concentrate your assaults on Bahamut until Sephiroth lowers his arms, then shift focus to attacking his vulnerable arms (its best to focus on one arm first to completely destroy it, then the other). When Bahamut is being revived is the chance to attack the wings and limit its healing capabilities. Eventually, with both wings dead, Bahamut can’t be healed and so you can finally destroy him.

Following this, you’ll control Zack again against Sephiroth Reborn’s chest, but you can use synergy abilities with Cloud. There’s not much to this phase at all, just attack the chest as much as you can to presure it, then when it gets close to stagger try and get Charge LV. 3 with Zack and save up ATB to use his most powerful abilities during stagger.

Next, you’ll control Red, Barret, and Yuffie. Initially, the core is invulnerable, so direct Yuffie to assault the wings, which alternate between elemental attributes. Utilise Yuffie’s Ninjutsu corresponding to the wing’s weakness (fire for ice, wind for lightning, etc.) to inflict damage. Once the wings are destroyed, concentrate all attacks on the core to defeat it. Be prepared for Sephiroth’s Heartless Angel move again and heal accordingly, then resume attacking the head in between his assaults with the rest of the party.

Finally, you’ll have Cloud again, accompanied by Aerith, facing Human Sephiroth instead of his Reborn form. Whenever he employs a Whisper attack, use Aerith’s magic to damage his wing and Masamune sword. Destroying either will weaken him and apply pressure. Dodge his Grip of Fate or Skewer attacks and anticipate multiple uses of Heartless Angel throughout the battle by always having a healing move prepared.

As you approach victory, Sephiroth will unleash Tempus Finis, rotating slowly with Whisper beams emanating from each side. Continue your assault while evading the beams to stagger him, ensuring to deliver the finishing blow during this window. Failure to do so may result in Octaslash Prime, a devastating attack which will do huge damage, so do everything you can to avoid this.

Hard Tips: After the fight with Jenova, this fight will begin immediately after the cutscenes, so make sure to hold square during the second cutscene if you want to change any of your gear for anyone in your party.

There are lots of phases to this fight, but every time your party changes there’ll be another checkpoint in the event you die, so don’t worry too much if you do die. The first phase with Cloud and Zack isn’t anything special, use your ATB as you get it and your synergy ability when you can. Zack will have temporary unlimited MP after doing this, so use it as a chance to heal up without wasting his MP. He has pretty much every support spell available so use whatever you want.

For the second phase against Sephiroth Reborn, you’ll be stuck with just Cloud. The first part is a short damage phase, simply avoid his attacks and attack the body. When you’re fighting him properly, he will use Heartless Angel which will put you at 1 HP, follow up with several other attacks, then repeat with Heartless Angel. Don’t bother fully healing during this section, just use a Prayer or Chakra after being hit by Heartless Angel and wait for the next one before healing again.

Next you’ll have Tifa, Red and Cait Sith against him and a respawning Bahamut Arisen Whisper. Focus attacks on Bahamut until Reborn lowers his arms, then attack them. You’ll get more time to attack the arms after defeating the Bahamut while it is being revived.

After this you’ll have a solo fight with Zack, however you can still synergise with Cloud. Focus on attacking the chest to pressure it, then unload on him to stagger him and deal heavy damage.

Next will be a fight with Red, Barret and Yuffie. You will need to attack his core, but it’s invulnerable to begin with. Use Yuffie to attack the wings, which will regularly change between the four elements. Use her respective Ninjustu (fire for ice, wind for lightning and vice versa) to damage the wings while ignoring the other two, then once the wings are destroyed unleash everything on the core to destroy it. He will then do Heartless Angel so be sure to heal up, then continue attacking the head in between the attacks to finish up with the rest of the party.

Lastly you’ll be back with Cloud, this time joined by Aerith, and you’ll be against regular Sephiroth instead of his Reborn form. Whenever he uses a Whisper attack, you can do damage to his wing/Masamune with magic so use Aerith to damage it. Destroying either his wing or Masamune during these attacks will weaken him, as well as pressure him. Dodge whenever he does Grip of Fate or Skewer to avoid them, and be aware that he’ll do Heartless Angel multiple times throughout the fight.

When you get him near defeat, he’ll do Tempus Finis where he slowly rotates with Whisper beams shooting out either side, while his pressure bar slowly depletes. Pummel away on him while avoiding the beams to stagger him and make sure to finish him off during this stagger, as otherwise he’ll follow up with Octaslash Prime. This will all but guarantee to kill you, however if you weakened him enough during the stagger he’ll immediately be defeated afterwards, even if you get knocked out by Octaslash Prime.

Boss #36 – Gilgamesh

Chapter: 13 (recommended via Chapter Select after story, after reaching Level 70)
Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith, Poison
Lesser Resistances: —
Greater Resistances: Fixed Damage, Sleep
Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Silence, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
Absorbed Elements: —
Items Dropped: —
Rare Items Dropped: —
Stealable Items: —
Assess Info: Blocking Gilgamesh’s attacks at just the right time or inflicting enough damage will pressure him, forcing him to drop one of his weapons, thus decreasing the potency of his attacks. While his Genji Shield is active, it will absorb all incoming damage. Reduce its HP to zero to destroy the shield and make Gilgamesh susceptible to pressure.

Gilgamesh is the secret Level 70 boss, accessible after completing all Protorelics (Phenomenon Intel) in the game. He will be the very last Phenomenon Intel, in Meridian Ocean. It’s best to finish the story first, then you unlock Chapter Select. Replay Chapter 13 and work through all remaining side content and minigames until you reach Level 70. You can grind levels at the Musclehead Colosseum in Gold Saucer. Refer to All Protorelic Locations Guide to unlock this boss. After finding everything you will get a call from Chadley who will tell you a new area has appeared, it can be found in the north-east of Meridian Ocean in Chapter 13, called Gilgamesh Island. Clear all intel on Gilgamesh Island and the last Protorelic will be this boss.

Gilgamesh will be a long fight. Use Fire Ninjutsu with Yuffie to exploit him, and Poison with Red. If he uses Genji Shield he will get a bunch of buffs and remove Poison, but if you have Subversion on Cloud you can use Dispel to remove all these. Try to perfect block his blockable attacks to try and pressure him, but make sure to dodge away from his unblockable attacks (indicated by the red exclamation mark next to the attack name) as these can be very damaging.

Hard Tips: He will start counting down from five, and when he reaches one he will use Ultimate Illusion. This is purely physical-based, so when he reaches two make sure you use Barrier on everyone with Red to mitigate the damage. Try to keep your health topped up, preferably with Prayer or Watcher’s Respite to avoid using MP. Save your MP for emergency heals when you can’t wait to get 2 ATB or are critically injured, or for revives/barriers/dispels.

Continue this cycle and he will introduce new weapons and attacks, so be careful of these. When his health gets low, he will constantly be counting down from five to do Ultimate Illusion over and over, so you will want to try finish him off as quickly as you can. Refresh Barrier with Red for these to limit their damage, but if you’re full HP you should be able to tank these ultimates without Barrier.

That’s all of the bosses in FF7 Rebirth!

For more guides check out Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Wiki.

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