Final Fantasy VII Guides

Battle Square

Mini-games Contents

• Gold Saucer
  • Event Square
  • Speed Square
  • Round Square
  • Ghost Square
  • Wonder Square
  • Chocobo Square
  • Battle Square
• Bone Village

Battle Square. The place where champions are made. And rich people.

This game is actually pretty simple. You pay ten GP to fight a round in the arena, and run through a gauntlet of eight monsters. As you fight more monsters, they get tougher, and therefore, harder. Before each fight, a slot option appears that allows you to select your handicap for the next fight (these vary and are listed later), which also determines your reward amount. After you win or quit (your choice), you can exchange the Battle Points (BP) you win for some really nice items.

In fact, some of the best stuff in the game is bought here (like Omnislash and W-Summon), so if you're looking for the best stuff and the perfect game, the Battle Square is a definite Must See.

But before we go further, some pointers:

• Pick one character before the fight, and strip them of unnecessary materia and equipment. Why use a Cure-All combination when you have only one fighter, or use a Star Pendant when you have a Ribbon?
• Speaking of Ribbons, equip one if you have it. It'll nullify any status ailments you get, so you can pump up your BP winnings easily and harmlessly.
• Put your best armor, weapons, and magic/summon materia on them, and come with a good amount of recovery items. You'll need it.
• Use a (preferably mastered) Final Attack materia coupled with a (also preferably mastered) Revive materia if you have them. The reason should be obvious: if you die, you can come back to life and keep fighting on.
• Come to the Battle Square with a good amount of GP. The reason for that is that if you leave the Battle Square, you lose all the BP you've won, effectively ruining sometimes hours of play. It would be a shame not to get Omnislash because you're 10 GP short. BP can't be stored like GP are, so do use them all before leaving the Battle Square too. To get a good amount of GP, check our Minigames section.
• Keep a stress ball handy if you're a screamer.

Basically, you'll want to build a walking tank to use in the fights. All right, so after you get done there, you'll have to fight the battles themselves. This is the most straightforward part of it all: just pummel away until they're dead. After the first fight, however, you start seeing the option to keep going, or quit and take your BP. If you stay, you see a slots machine appear, with a bunch of status "ailments" you can give yourself. Some help you, some harm you, and the more detrimental ones give you a higher BP return. If you've equipped a Ribbon, you mostly want to keep hitting Mini and Frog (and/or Materia Breaks if you think you're tough enough) and rack up the points. There's one quirky thing with the slots system, though: sometimes when it gives you nothing but Materia Breaks for options, it gets stuck on that option and repeats that one over and over for the rest of the slots, and will only let you break materia for the rest of the gauntlet. This can actually be a good thing... if you can keep hitting the same materia break over and over, you get more points and you don't really get much more handicap. Nice. This happens the most with groups of Red-Yellow-Green-Blue or a slot bar full of All Materia Broken options. Yikes on the last one.

Here is the list of all the status effects and what they do:

Image	Effect	Description
	All Materia Broken	None of your materia works.
	Command Materia Broken	All command materia stops working (and you lose special battle commands, obviously).
	Independent Materia Broken	All independent materia stops working.
	Support Materia Broken	All support materia stops working.
	Summon Materia Broken	All summon materia stops working.
	Magic Materia Broken	All magic materia stops working.
	Mini	Your gladiator is struck with Mini.
	Frog	Your gladiator is turned into a frog. Griiibit.
	Poison	Your fighter's poisoned.
	Speed	Your character's speed is cut in half.
	Sword Broken	Your weapon is broken, and your base strength determines damage.
	Armor Broken	Your armor is broken, leaving your defense to be determined by your character's Stamina.
	Accessory Broken	Your accessory is broken, losing its effect.
	Item Command Sealed	You can't use your item command anymore. No more potions for you!
	1/2 HP	Your HP is halved
	1/2 MP	Your MP is halved
	1/2 HP & MP	Both your HP and MP are halved.
	Zero MP	Your MP is reduced to zero for the rest of the gauntlet.
	10 Levels Down	Your gladiator's level drops by ten points, lowering your stats all the way around.
	5 Levels Down	Your fighter's level drops by five, lowering all of your stats (though less than 10 Levels Down).
	Time x30 Damage	You take damage from the time left in your time gauge from the last fight. The time left is multiplied by thirty, then is used as damage inflicted on you, but it is not fatal.
	Cure	You're fully healed before your next fight.
	Lucky 7's	No handicap!

Using that list, try to pick the harshest ones (like 1/2 HP & MP or All Materia Broken) if you're looking to improve your BP winnings.

When all the smoke clears, you're free to exchange whatever BP you've won for prizes. You also win a consolation prize regardless of whether you win or lose: a Tissue. Har har, Square.

Prize List 1 (Disc 1, after busting out of Corel Prison) Potion 80 BP Phoenix Down 160 BP Shrapnel 320 BP Ether 640 BP Mimett Greens 1280 BP Fury Ring 2560 BP Enemy Lure 5120 BP Pre-Emptive 10240 BP Speed Plus 20480 BP Champion Belt 40960 BP Omnislash 51200 BP (limit 1)	Prize List 2 (Disc 1, when coming back for the Keystone) Phoenix Down 100 BP Remedy 200 BP Mimett Greens 400 BP Enemy Lure 800 BP Bird Wing 1600 BP S-Mine 3200 BP Pre-Emptive 6400 BP Speed Plus 12800 BP Champion Belt 25600 BP Omnislash 51200 BP (limit 1)
Prize List 3 (Disc 2, after Cloud returns) Phoenix Down 100 BP Remedy 200 BP Mimett Greens 400 BP Enemy Lure 800 BP Bird Wing 1600 BP S-Mine 3200 BP Pre-Emptive 6400 BP Speed Plus 12800 BP Megalixir 25600 BP Omnislash 51200 BP (limit 1)	Prize List 4 (Near the end of disc 2) Remedy 100 BP Enemy Lure 250 BP Right Arm 500 BP Pre-Emptive 1000 BP Reagan Greens 2000 BP Speed Plus 4000 BP Stardust 8000 BP Megalixir 16000 BP Omnislash 32000 BP W-Summon 64000 BP

Looking at these lists objectively, most of these prizes can be bought cheaper, easier, and in bulk in general stores, while most others are actually easier to get if you wait until later in the game, like Omnislash and various materia. They'll always be there, but the best and easiest time to get the Champion Belt is when you return for the Keystone. You also have between then and before you get Cloud back to get it, because after that, you can't win it any more.

Also, if you get the Ultima Weapon, Omnislash, and the W-Summon, you can participate in the Special Battles by speaking with the receptionist. Only Cloud can participate to this battle. The battles are harder and the prizes better in this elite class (well, one of them is), if you can win. Here are the prizes and the enemies you'll face:

• Final Attack: After first victory
• Autograph: After second victory
• Combat Diary: After third victory
• Gambler: After fourth victory

After you win four times, you'll simply randomly receive either an Autograph, Combat Diary, or a Gambler, but sometimes you can win a Ribbon. It's even rarer than these other items, however, so be patient if you really want to win one this way.

• First battle: Sea Worm
• Second battle: Ho-Chu
• Third battle: Unknown 3
• Fourth battle: Serpent
• Fifth battle: Wolfmeister
• Sixth battle: Behemoth
• Seventh battle: Maximum Kimaira
• Final battle: Proud Clod