How to defeat the Weapons in Final Fantasy VII ---------------------------------------------- Written by Arun Kishan Please send corrections, suggestions, etc. to akishan@stanford.edu. Intro ----- The US version of Final Fantasy VII, as many of you know, features three enemies which are not found in the Japanese version. These are the Diamond, Emerald, and Ruby Weapons. I. How to Defeat Diamond Weapon ------------------------------- This should not be a problem. Fight as you would any regular boss. Unlike the other two bosses, this one is not secret; however, you will get 3500 AP and an immense amount of experience. II. Prerequisites ---------------- 1) Get the Gold Chocobo and the Knights of the Round and Mime Materias. 2) Get Cloud's Apocalypse sword from the Ancient forest. 3) Make sure you have Phoenix Materia. 4) Win W-Summon materia at the Battle Arena. 5) Fight in the Battle Arena until you can fight in the special round. Win the Final Attack materia, and go outside to talk to the lady to get Sprint Shoes. 6) Get some Enemy Lure materia from the Battle Arena. 7) Learn the Enemy Skill "Big-Guard". 8) Morph the Ghost Ship in the Underwater Reactor to get a "Guidebook". Give this to the man in Kalm to receive an Underwater Materia (a must!). Read any FAQ to obtain this information. To get Apocalypse, you will need a Gold Chocobo or you will have to have killed Ultimate Weapon (who is very easy). Any level above 60 should work (the author was 64). Make sure you are on Disc 3. Once you have the above items in your possession, you are ready to begin the annoying part. Equip three materia (KOTR, Mime, and Final Attack) in Cloud's Triple sword. Also, increase the level of any HP Plus (bought at Cosmo Canyon) and Phoenix materia you may have. Enter the Northern Cave (Disc 3), and when the path divides, take the left path. Enter the strange room with nests and webs. Now, start getting into fights. Use all your Elixirs on the pots, and kill them to win 1000 AP/pot, or with Cloud's sword, 3000 AP. 10% of the time you will encounter Movers which award 2400 AP * 3 = 7200 AP. Keep at this for on hour or two. Use may wish to use your save crystal in the vicinity if you have not already done so. Master Mime materia, and get at least three stars on the other three materia (Phoenix, Final Attack, and KOTR). If you are patient enough, get one more Mime; if you are impatient, don't worry; two are good enough. At this point you should be around level 74 (the author was 77). III. Fighting Emerald Weapon ---------------------------- (If you have three Mime Materia, skip this step) Switch one of your three top characters out of the party. Put a weak character in your party and kill them off. This is the method used by the author. This is so that in case you win when the third character is dead, the character you use most of the time still gets 50% of the experience. Equip W-Summon, KOTR, and MIme on Cloud (Triple sword), and Phoenix linked to Final Attack, Underwater, and Enemy Skill materia on the other character. Equip HP Plus materia as you see fit. 9999 HP is ideal; place all characters in the back row. Use Big-Guard as soon as the battle starts; cast Regen if you can as well. Then, cast W-Summon KOTR with Cloud, and continue to Mime this with the other character(s). One summon should destroy the lasers Emerald has which drain MP and HP. If he drains MP, don't worry at this time; just keep Miming. If Aire Tam Storm kills your party (which it often does), Phoenix will be summoned and it will revive all deceased members. Simply cast W-Summon KOTR or KOTR and Bahumat Zero. Mime this with your characters (if your third character does not have Mime, simply use 4x-Cut along with an ultimate weapon, for example, Cait Sith and HP Shout to inflict great damage). Hopefully, Emerald will be destroyed at this point. 6 W-Summons, all told, should do the trick. You will win 50000 EXP and 50000 AP for defeating this monster. Make sure to give the Earth Harp to the Kalm Traveler to receive Master Magic, Summon, and Command materia! (You should not gain more than two levels -- maximum -- from this step. Hence, if you follow the author's direction, you should be roughly level 78 now. You should now have at least 3 Mime materia.) IV. Defeating Ruby Weapon ------------------------- Go to the Corral Valley behind the Sleeping forest. Steal "Dazers" from the enemies known as Bound Fats. Once you have 10 or so, you should be ready. Make sure you equip W-Summon, KOTR, and Mime on Cloud (Triple sword), and Phoenix linked to Final Attack, Underwater, and Enemy Skill materia on the other character(s). Equip HP Plus materia as you see fit. 9999 HP is ideal; place all characters in the back row. Get in a fight and kill off two of the characters. When the battle with Ruby begins, he will put his hands into the sand. Use Phoenix materia to revive the deceased. As soon as you can, cast "Big-Guard" and use a "Dazer" on Ruby. He will be frozen for one round. W-Summon/Summon KOTR and Mime it until Ruby wakes up. Then, use another Dazer on him and keep going with attacks and magic. Just be careful to attack with KOTR, etc. only when he is frozen, or else he will counterattack with Ultima. Also, when his hands are not in the sand, he can throw party members outside the ring, so keep freezing him and this should not be a problem. You will win 40000 EXP and 50000 AP. Trade in the Desert Rose for another Gold Chocobo (yay!). --------------------------- Congratulations! You have beaten both secret Weapons at well under level 99. Good job!