Boss Strategies
I know you all hate strategy guides. They always spoil the game. But you want to beat the bosses and can't figure out how. What to do, what to do? Well, you can go out and spend money on a versus book, or you can just read below for strategies on how to beat ALL the bosses in the game!! And best of all, it's FREE!!!! Unless you choose to give me money, because in that case...
NOTE: This is NOT a walkthrough!! These are just strategies on how to beat the bosses in the game!!
No. 1 Reactor: Guard Scorpion
The Guard Scorpion has some deadly attacks, but the combined strength of Cloud and Barret should be enough to overwhelm him.
Have Cloud constantly use the Bolt spell on the boss while Barret uses his normal attack. Use your Limit Breaks when they become available. After several attacks, the Scorpion will raise its tail and begin to shake violently. Whatever you do, DO NOT ATTACK THE SCORPION WHEN ITS TAIL IS RAISED!! It'll counter-attack with its tail laser, causing 75 points of damage. Wait until the tail is lowered before returning to your regular attack pattern. If Cloud or Barret's HP falls below 100, use Potions to heal them.
No. 5 Reactor: Air Buster
Air Buster is a fairly simple boss. Have Tifa equipped with the Lightning Materia so she can cast Bolt on it while Cloud and Barret use their normal attacks. Use your Limit Breaks when they become available and use Cure if your HP gets low.
Sewers: Aps
If Cloud has his Cross-Slash Limit Break, this makes the fight easier. Use Cross-Slash to paralyze Aps for most of the fight. Make sure Aeris has the Fire and Cure-All Materia. Give Cloud either the Ice or Bolt Materia and give Tifa another Cure and any other leftover Materia.
Have Aeris devote her energies to casting Fire spells and healing the party whenever necessary. Cloud and Tifa should use their normal attacks, Limit Breaks, and any magic they have.
Pillar Assault: Reno
Have Cloud equipped with the Fire and Cure Materia, give Tifa the Ice and Cure-All, and equip Barret with the leftovers. Fire and Ice are very effective against Reno, but you can use pretty much any attack.
Watch out for Reno's Pyramid attack. It encases one of your characters in a golden pyramid that prevents them from participating in the battle. If all your characters are encased, you lose. To break the pyramids, have one of the other characters attack it and it'll vanish. Reno will bail out when his HP are nearly depleated.
Shin-Ra Building: H0512 and Sample: H0512-opt
Have Barret in your party and send Tifa to watch after Aeris. Equip Cloud or Barret's armor with the Elemental-Poison Materia combination.
Cloud and Red XIII should concentrate on using spells (but DON'T cast Bio!!) on the boss while Barret uses his normal weapon. Only attack the big guy in the back. If it dies, its little friends in the front rank go with it.
Elevator: Hundred Gunner and Heli Gunner
Barret is the only character who can attack this boss with his normal attack. Aeris and Red must use magic or Limit Breaks. Make sure you equip Aeris and Red well with any Materia you have. Have Aeris cast Bolt, Red cast any other magic, and Barret should use his normal attack. Aeris should also use Cure-All whenever necessary.
When the Hundred Gunner is destroyed, the Heli Gunner descends upon the team. Fight this boss the same way you fought the Hundred Gunner.
70th Floor: Rufus and Dark Nation
Equip Cloud with the Restore Materia, a spell Materia combined with an All Materia, and place the Elemental-Lightning combination in his armor.
First, get rid of Dark Nation. Its Bolt attacks are powerful, and it casts a lot of defensive spells on itself and Rufus. If Cloud has the Elemental-Lightning combination, there's no need to worry about Dark Nation's attacks.
Once Dark Nation is out of the picture, hit Rufus with everything you've got and use Cure whenever necessary. Rufus only attacks with his shotgun, so don't worry too much. When Rufus can't take anymore, he grabs his chopper and flies away.
The Chase: Motor Ball
The Motor Ball gets the drop on the party, so it gets to attack first. Bolt is extremely important in this battle. If a character doesn't have Bolt, he/she should concentrate on using physical attacks and acting as the team's medic whenever needed.
Watch out for Motor Ball's Rolling Fire attack. It can cause as much as 250 points of damage, so keep your HP up!!
Junon Harbor: Bottomswell
Bottomswell is a flying creature and only characters equipped with long range weapons can use their normal attacks. Unless you've already gotten Yuffie (see secret characters for more info), then Barret is your only character who can use his normal attack. Equip Cloud with the Long Range Materia so he can use his sword attacks as well. Have Barret and Cloud use physical attacks with your third character concentrates on healing and spell-casting.
Bottomswell has an attack called Water Bubble which encases one of your characters in a bubble. The downside is that it can only be popped with magic, so try to use spells that will attack both Bottomswell and the bubble at the same time.
Bottomswell uses an attack called Big Wave which can cause about 100 points of damage to each character. He usually uses Big Wave as a final attack, so make sure your HP is above 150.
Shin-Ra Boat: Jenova-BIRTH
Use your most powerful spells and Limit Breaks on Jenova. The Enemy Skill Flamethrower is very useful, but only if you've learned it in the Mythril Mines. Use the Choco/Mog and Shiva Summon spells as well, which cause serious damage.
Corel Prison: Dyne
Barret fights this battke alone, and throughout most of the fight, you'll just continue trading blows with Dyne. Keep your HP up while casting spells and using your Limit Breaks whenever they're available.
Dyne has a magic attack called S-Mine, but it's no stronger than his normal shot. It's dangerous because he can use it immediately after his normal attack, which causes about 300 points of damage. Keep Barret's HP around 350 to be safe.
Gongaga: Reno and Rude
Have Aeris in your party and set her Limit Breaks to Level 1, and have one character equipped with the Fire Ring while another has the Elemental-Fire combination in their armor.
Have Aeris use her Seal Evil Limit Break as soon as possible, which will paralyze the two Turks. Attack Rude first before going after Reno, since he's performing all the healing.
Gi Cave: Gi Nattak and Soul Fires
This is actually the easiest fight in the entire game. Just use an X-Potion on Gi Nattak and he'll die instantly. I'm not joking!!
Shin-Ra Mansion: Lost Number
To fight Lost Number, you first need to open the safe on the second floor of the Mansion. Go to secret characters for more info.
NOTE: Lost Number is an optional boss. But defeating him means you get the Odin Summon Materia as well as the Key to the Basement which can be used to find Vincent. You can perform this in Disc 2 if you want.
Have Aeris in your party with her Level 1 Limit Breaks. She can use Seal Evil on Lost Number and paralyze it. While it's paralyzed, pummel it with strong spells. You should be able to knock it down to half size before it recovers.
If the purple side dies, the red side will begin casting strong spells on the party. If the red side dies, the purple side will use physical attacks. Fight the red side with physical attacks and the purple with magic. The Choco/Mog Summon may paralyze it again. If not, have Aeris use Seal Evil the next time it's available.
Mt. Nibel: Materia Keeper
First thing's first. If Vincent is in your party, do NOT have him transform into the Gailan Beast!! His Beast Flare attack will cure the Materia Keeper!! Equip him with lots of Materia, including the Deathblow Materia if you must have him in your party.
The Materia Keeper is pretty damn tough. Most of its attacks cause 200-300 points of damage or more, it's invulnerable to Gravity, and Fire spells heal it. Its Trine attack can cause 500 points of damage, so be ready with a Cure-All. The upside is that if you have the Enemy Skill Materia equipped, you can learn Trine.
Use your Limit Breaks (except Vincent's) coupled with hard-hitting spells like Bolt2 and Ice2. Summon Materia (except Ifrit) can also come in handy. Cure-All is a must-have for this battle. When the boss' HP gets low, it casts Cure2 on itself.
Rocket Town: Palmer
Palmer's not a very tough opponent. Immediately use your Choco/Mog Summon or Aeris' Seal Evil Limit Break to paralyze him. Then hit him with your hardest spells and Limit Breaks. Speed up the team with Haste and keep pounding away. When executed correctly, you'll be able to finish off Palmer before he can even attack you.
If things don't go smoothly, prepare to face Palmer's Mako Gun, which can hit the team with several types of magic.
Wutai: Rapps
NOTE: Wutai is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL!! But once Yuffie steals your Materia, you have NO CHOICE!! You may want to come back and do this in Disc 2, though.
This fight is difficult since you don't have your Materia. Have Barret in your party and immediately have him use his Mind Blow Limit on Rapps, which removes most of its MP and prevents it from using the Aero3 attack. Use your other Limit Breaks and any magic items you have in your inventory (Bolt Plumes, Fire Veils, etc). If Aeris has her Level 3 Limit Breaks, have her use Planet Protector on the team to make them temporarily invulnerable, then Pulse of Life when her Limit is built up again to heal the party. Keep lots of Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs ready.
Pagoda: Gorki
NOTE: All the Pagoda fights are optional, and you don't need to fight them all in a row. Even if you do go to Wutai, you don't need to climb the Pagoda. However, doing so gets you the Leviathan Summon as well as Yuffie's Level 4 Limit Break. Yuffie fights in the Pagoda alone, though.
Equip Yuffie's armor with the Elemental-Gravity combination, plus give her Restore, Haste, Barrier, and Counter-Attack Materia as well as any other Materia orbs you feel will help. Immediately cast Haste and keep Yuffie's HP up. Gorki will deplete his skill power quickly, and then it will come down to who can hold out the longest.
Pagoda: Shake
Caste Barrier and Haste immediately and keep your HP up. Use Choco/Mog to paralyze Shake and the fight will be a breeze.
Pagoda: Chekhov
Equip Yuffie with the Jem Ring which prevents Chekhov from using his Stare Down, which can paralyze Yuffie. Haste will enable you to take advantage of Chekhov's slow speed while Barrier will cut his Absorb attack in half.
Pagoda: Staniv
All Staniv does is hit you with his main weapon. He has an attack called War Cry that causes Sadness, but it only affects your status. Cast Barrier to cut his attacks down to 150 points of damage and then Haste. Sound familiar? Just keep Yuffie's health up and keep recasting Barrier as it wears off. You can use spells, but it's not necessary.
Pagoda: Godo
Those past fights may have seemed simple, but Godo is nothing like them. He has three faces, each with its own talents. The red face attacks with Beast Sword, causing 250-300 points of damage, and can cast Trine, which causes about 1000 points of damage. The gold face casts Sleepel, Mini and Cure2 when Godo's HP gets low. The white face casts Drain, Bio2, and Demi3.
Equip Yuffie with Counter-Attack, Restore, Time, Barrier, Heal (or if you have it, use the Ribbon) the Added Effect-Poison in her weapon, and any other Magic or Summon Materia. This makes her attacks stronger and she can poison Godo. When the battle begins, cast Haste, Regen (if you have it), and Big Guard Enemy Skill (if you learned it in Costa del Sol). If you don't have the Big Guard Enemy Skill, then use Barrier and MBarrier if you have it. Hit Godo with strong spells and use Yuffie's Limits as they become available. Keep recasting Barrier as it wears off and keep Yuffie's HP up. Cast Slow on Godo to give yourself a speed advantage. If Yuffie's levels are low, you may not be able to defeat Godo. So leave Wutai for now and come back at another time. If you win, you receive Yuffie's Level 4 Limit Break and the Leviathan Materia.
Temple of Ancients: Red Dragon
Fire spells heal the Red Dragon and it's immune to Gravity. When the battle starts, cast Bio2 on the boss to poison it, then cast Big Guard (if you have it) or Barrier and Haste on the entire team. If you can, use Regen and keep a close eye on the HP. Deathblow is also effective.
Temple of Ancients: Demon's Gate
Quickly cast Slow on Demon's Gate. The creature can attack quickly even when slowed, but its attacks are more manageable. If you have Aeris Great Gospel Limit Break, use it to make the entire team invincible for a short period and to heal the entire team. If you don't, use Big Guard Enemy Skill or Barrier and Haste and Regen if you have it. Have Esuna ready to prevent the Demon's Gate from using the Petrify attack, or if you don't have it, bring along a few Softs and Remedies. The Gate is immune to Poison and Gravity spells and resistant to Earth. Use your strongest spells and summons. Bahamut works really good here, so use it.
Forgotten City: Jenova-LIFE
Equip Cloud with the Water Ring before you enter this fight. Jenova-LIFE's attacks are all water-based, so giving him the Water Ring will make him invincible. Use Big Guard immediately or MBarrier and Haste. Have Cloud deal physical attacks while the rest of the team casts strong spells and summons. Use Regen if you have it. Also use Quake2 or 3 depending on your experiance. If Cloud has the Water Ring, it's impossible to lose this battle.
Gaea Cliffs: Schizo
Schizo is invulnerable to Gravity spells. Start the fight by casting Big Guard or MBarrier and Haste along with Regen if you have it. Make sure your characters are equipped with armor or accessories that protect against Fire or Ice. Cast Ice3 in Schizo's right side and Fire3 on the left side. Bahamut Summon works really well. Don't cast Ifrit or Shiva unless one of the sides is already dead. Note that both heads get a final attack that causes up to 1000 points of damage.
Whirlwind Maze: Jenova-DEATH
Equip your characters with armor or accessories that protect against Fire to make this a short fight. Cast Regen and Big Guard or MBarrier and Haste on the entire party. Then use Slow on Jenova, which gives you a slight speed advantage. Normal attacks cause a decent amount of damage as do Level 3 magic attacks. Also, have Esuna ready if Jenova casts silence on the team.
Mideel: Ultimate WEAPON
All you need to do is survive this fight. Cast MBarrier immediately to soften Ultimate's attacks and keep everyone healed. Use everyone's Limit Breaks since they'll be built up in one or two turns. These should cause enough damage to make Ultimate WEAPON fly off.
Underwater Reactor: Carry Armor
At the beginning of the battle, cast Regen immediately as well as Big Guard (or MBarrier and Haste). Don't try casting any status effects like Slow or stop. Use Bolt3 and Ramuh to deal some serious damage, while concentrating your attacks on the right and left arms. With the arms out of the way, it's left with the center torso and the Lapis Laser attack. MBarrier should cut the Laser's attack from about 1500 points to 750. Keep casting MBarrier as it runs out.
During the battle, the Carry Armor may pick up one of your characters. He/she can't participate in the battle and the time bar and any status effects will be locked in place. The only way to free your ally is to destroy the arm carrying the character or killing the character and reviving him/her after the Carry Armor drops the lifeless body. If the Carry Armor picks up two of your characters and kills the third, then the battle is over. So waste no time in freeing your characters and destroying the arms.
Rocket Town: Rude and Attack Squad
Start the battle by getting ride of the Attack Squad, or they'll try to put your team to sleep. Rude isn't too tough. He uses Bolt2 and his normal attack causes about 300 to 500 points of damage. His Grand Spark can cause about 1000 points of damage and Rude can use it as many as three times in a row. Having an MBarrier will cut the damage down to 250-500 points.
Midgar Area: Diamond WEAPON
Start this fight by casting Regen and Big Guard or MBarrier and Haste. Casting Barrier is also a good idea (if you have Big Guard, Barrier is automatically casted with MBarrier and Haste). Attack this WEAPON with your strongest spells and summons. Ultima, Comet, and Knights of the Round work really well. WEAPON can't be harmed by physical attacks, so stick to magic unless you try to mug the beast. You can steal the Rising Sun from it if you're successful.
Beware of Diamond WEAPON's countdown. When it reaches 0, it uses the Diamond Flash, which causes 1500 to 3000 points of damage to each character and mutes those who survive. Make sure one of your characters is equipped with the Ribbon so you can quickly heal the rest of the party.
Midgar: The Turks
This is an optional fight, but you can steal some neat items from the Turks if you do battle them.
Elena is with Rude and Reno this time, so watch out for her. She casts Confusion and uses a fire attack that damages the whole group. Rude uses his fists, but can inflict critical hits that cause as much as 4000 points of damage. Reno is always a threat, but doesn't play a big role in this battle.
Start out the fight by casting Big Guard (or Wall [Barrier and MBarrier] and Haste) as well as Regen. Use attacks that damage all three Turks at once. Summon spells work really well and use Bio3 to poison them. Also, you can steal a Ziedrich from Rude, a Minerva Band from Elena, and a Tough Ring (which is mispelled Touph Ring) from Reno.
Midgar: Proud Clod
Once you get to the base of the Sister Ray, you're stopped by Scarlet and Heidegger's new toy, the Proud Clod! Proud Clod has two parts, armor and body. First, target the armor. After destroying this you'll cause more damage to the body. Proud Clod has three attacks to be worried about. The side guns (500 to 1500) and the Beam Cannon (1000 to 1500). Also, watch out for the Rainbow Ray, it casts Reflect on one of your characters, so immediately use DeBarrier to get rid of it.
Set up the usual defense of Regen, Wall, and Haste (or Big Guard) and use attacks that damage both parts of Proud Clod like Slash-All, Ultima, Comet2, and summon spells. If you have Knights of the Round, then you can just cast it and call it a day.
Midgar: Hojo
Hojo's first form can be the quickest of the three fights. Concentrate your attacks on Hojo and leave his capsule companions alone, they'll regenerate if killed. Cast Haste on the party and use Deathblow and strong magic attacks.
Midgar: Hellectic Hojo
Take out the right arm immediately, its HP are lower than the rest of Hojo's body. Hojo can also cast Sleepel or Confu on one of the party members, but it's not much of a threat. After the right arm is destroyed, concentrate on the torso section. You can off Hellectic Hojo without attacking the left arm.
Midgar: Lifeform-Hojo
This Hojo has super-fast attacks that cause close to 500 damage each and a negative status. Its Combo attack launches several of these punches against one or more opponents. If it attacks a character with the Counter-Attack Materia, each punch can be countered. Hojo uses a lot of status effects and spells that can hit the entire party at once. Keep Esuna ready or you may find your entire party poisoned, silenced, slowed, or put to sleep. You may want to set up a usual defense of Regen and Big Guard (I don't need to tell you what it is AGAIN, do I?). Use your strongest spells and summons against Hojo, but Gravity won't work.
The Crater: Jenova-SYNTHESIS
Jenova-SYNTHESIS has three parts, the torso and arms. It's important that you enter this fight with Slash-All or attacks that can damage all three parts at one time. Doing so enables you to knock out the weaker arms quickly. When the arms fall, focus on the torso. Begin the fight by setting up Big Guard and Regen. This makes it easy to keep your HP up and provides solid protection from Jenova's attacks. Watch out for Jenova's final countdown. Once it reaches 0, it attacks the entire party with Ultima.
The Crater: Bizarro-Sephiroth
If you have Knights of the Round, just cast it once and you're finished, not to mention having full HP for the final battle.
However, if you don't have KotR, then you're in for a tough fight. Bizarro-Seph attacks with several types of magic. Be sure to keep Wall up and use lots of Cure spells. And watch out for the Heartless Angel. It reduces the whole party's HP to 1. Make sure you have Regen already casted on you and use Cure3 right away.
Depending on how the fight with Jenova went, you'll be prompted to split your characters into one, two, or three teams. One being the easiest configuration, three being the hardest. If you did really well in the Jenova fight, you'll be in three-team setting. If you did poorly, you have one-team. If you did so-so, you'll be in two team.
When you have two or more teams, constantly hammer away at Bizarro-Sephiroth and switch to one of the other teams whenever a part dies. Eventually, you'll kill this boss.
The Crater: Seraph-Sephiroth (NOT Safer-Sephiroth)
First thing's first: cast Wall, Regen, and Haste on the party and heal anyone who was seriously injured in the previous battle. Don't worry about conserving any items. You won't have another chance to use them.
Seraph-Sephiroth has powerful attacks including the Pale Horse which hits one character with every status effect. Make sure you have Esuna or a Remedy ready after this. Next is the Shadow Flare, which causes nearly 7000 points of damage. Make sure you have your HP maxed out so you don't need to worry about it as much. Deen is a fairly weak attack, causing 1000 to 1500 points of damage. Watch out for the Super Nova, Sephiroth's summon spell. This summon is more powerful than KotR and and does about 3000 to 5000 points of damage. Make sure you have a Cure3 ready after this one.
Keep Wall, Regen, and Haste up and quickly remove any status effects. Use DeBarrier to remove Sephiroth's Wall and to stregthen your attack. Use attacks that hit more than onces. Level 4 Limit Breaks, 4x Cut, Comet2, KotR... anything. Keep your characters alive and their HP up, restoring depleated MP whenever necessary with Ethers and Turbo Ethers (or using the Magic Hammer Enemy Skill and steal some of Sephiroth's).
The Planet's Core: Sephiroth
Cloud fights a shirtless Sephiroth in this battle. Both are armed with only their swords and no armor or Materia or items of any kind. Cloud's Limit Gauge will be filled up the instant his Time Bar is. I'm not sure, but I think that even if you don't have the Omnislash, it will be available now. If you want, you can let Sephiroth attack first, but then you don't get to see the more CG-like Cloud perform Omnislash, not to mention watching the final glances exchanged between the two. And you can't die in this battle, no matter what. If Sephiroth attacks Cloud, Cloud will simply counter-attack.
Well, those are all the bosses in the game. The only bosses that are missing from here are Ultimate WEAPON, Ruby WEAPON, and Emerald WEAPON. I'll put up a strategy to defeating them later, or if you have one, then you can send it to me.
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