Final Fantasy VII Guides

All About Weapons

Symbolizing the Planet's will to protect itself, the Weapons are formidable opponents. They will be released by the Planet in the course of the game as the situation becomes more dire. During the FMV in the Crater, you can see five giant monsters spread out in the world: they are named WEAPON (sometimes called Sapphire Weapon based on color, but this is never given as an official name), Diamond Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Emerald Weapon and Ultimate Weapon.

In the course of the game, WEAPON will be eliminated by the Shinra by firing Junon's massive cannon. You will encounter Ultimate Weapon for the first time in Mideel, but it will flee before you. You will defeat (hopefully) Diamond Weapon when it tries to attack Midgar. However, the final two Weapons are not a part of the canon storyline, and are simply optional.

So why should you go against them? Aside from Ultimate Weapon, who has the power of a standard boss, Ruby and Emerald are the most powerful beings of the game. They're even more powerful than the final boss itself. They represent the ultimate challenge of the game, and beating them will be a great achievement. Furthermore, you'll get unique items this way, and some very valuable materia.

We've got strategies for the three Weapons you can encounter:

• Ultimate Weapon
• Ruby Weapon
• Emerald Weapon

Ultimate Weapon

Ultimate Weapon is the flying Weapon that attacks Mideel when you go back to get news from Cloud. After this fight, it keeps flying around the world. When it is flying, you won't be able to attack it, since it is far too powerful. However, after running into it several times, it will stop over specific areas, apparently absorbing energy from the planet. When it stops, you can attack it.

Depending on the area where it stops, you will fight it in the air or on the ground. This will change some things - when you fight it in the air, you will need long-ranged weapons (or the Long Range materia), and you will be able to Steal a Circlet from it (provided that the character that will attempt the theft is equipped with Long Range). When it's on the ground, you can steal a Reflect Ring from it instead, and it is susceptible to Earth based attacks.

To fight it in the air, go look for it over these areas: the lake near Junon, Mideel, Mount Nibel and Mount Corel. If you prefer a ground battle, check these areas: Gongaga, Fort Condor, Midgar, the Northern Crater, Cosmo Canyon (right over the city).

In each of these battles, Ultimate Weapon will flee after taking some damage. Once it has sustained enough damage, it will fly off for one final battle, over the mountains of Cosmo Canyon. Get ready for this battle, and equip one of your characters with the Enemy Skill. Since this Weapon isn't very difficult, you might want to consider equiping with Double or Triple materia growth equipment (instead of your most powerful equipment), to benefit from the good amount of AP it will send your way.

Ultimate Weapon	Level	HP	MP	Attacks
	61	100000	400	Quake2, Ultima Beam, Shadow Flare
	Absorbs	Blocks	Strong Against	Weak Against
	Steal	Morph	Win Item	Enemy Skill
	Cursed Ring, Circlet, Reflect Ring		Ultima Weapon	Shadow Flare
	EXP	AP	Gil	Location
	35000	3500	25000	Mideel
	Immune to Status		Notes
	Strategy
	This battle can be rather easy if you are prepared. Hit him with high powered spells and be ready for strong magical attacks. Casting Regen is a good idea for this fight.

This battle isn't very difficult in itself: Ultimate Weapon will use some powerful attacks, but it's still manageable. Casting Big Guard will be, as usual, quite helpful, as well as Regen. The most powerful attack of Ultimate Weapon is the Ultima Beam, which is a non-elemental attack. It will also use Bolt Ball, a Fire based attack contrary to its name (feel free to equip with Fire-absorbing equipment, in order to prevent damage from this attack). Be advised that this battle will be aerial, so you won't be able to attack the Ultimate Weapon unless you have Long Ranged weapons or the Long Range materia equiped. Other than that, use the usual powerful spells to take care of it: Ultima, Contain and Comet will be very efficient.

Note that whoever deals the final blow will be the target of Ultimate Weapon's last attack: Shadow Flare. Since learning this specific skill is quite difficult, you should use this opportunity and try to deal massive damage with the character equipped with the Enemy Skill materia (using Cloud's Omnislash will make this quite simple).

When you defeat Ultimate Weapon, you will be rewarded with Cloud's most powerful weapon, the Ultima Weapon. What's more, you will now have access to the Ancient Forest.

Ruby Weapon

Ruby Weapon is located in Corel Desrt, around the base of the Gold Saucer. It appears as two little red sticks, moving in the sand. You need only to fly to it with the Highwind to make it jump out of the sand and attack you. Be warned, however — this opponent makes Ultimate Weapon looks like your arthritic grandmother.

Ruby Weapon	Level	HP	MP	Attacks
	59	800000	2560	Big Swing, Comet2, Whirlsand, Ultima, Ruby Ray, Ruby Flame
	Absorbs	Blocks	Strong Against	Weak Against
	Steal	Morph	Win Item	Enemy Skill
			Desert Rose
	EXP	AP	Gil	Location
	45000	45000	30000	Corel Desert
	Immune to Status		Notes
			Ruby cannot be damaged until it first puts its hands into the ground.

Beating Ruby Weapon will require some powerful skills. For one thing, it's a virtual requirement that you possess the Knights of Round, the Mime and the W-Summon materias. Having Final Attack paired with Phoenix will be a safeguard, but is not mandatory. To get these specific materias, go check our chocobo breeding and minigames sections. Bear in mind also that if you fight Emerald Weapon before Ruby, you now have at your disposal a Master Command and a Master Summon materias: this fight is definitely one where you would want to use them.

Another important thing to notice about Ruby is that it's invulnerable. Period. Full stop. Well, okay, not really: it becomes vulnerable once it sticks its hands in the ground, and that only happens when only one out of the three characters of your team is still breathing. This means that you need at some point to create this situation, and we urge you to create it yourself beforehand. If you don't do it, Ruby will take care of it for you, and you probably won't like the way it does it: it will either involve killing the whole team with an incredibly powerful Ultima or a well-placed Ruby Ray. It can also send a character out of the battle with its Whirlsand attack. Ruby has only one flaw: it is vulnerable to the Stop status ailment. Knowing this, every strategy we'll use will involve starting the battle with two characters dead, and stopping Ruby at one time during the battle.

A final note about preparation. Since with the strategies proposed here, Ruby won't damage you (hopefully), we will not use the Final Attack + Phoenix. Since we will use magic to take out Ruby, you'll do well by using characters with good magic, and boost them with Magic Plus materias. Finally, we suggest that you equip your characters with Double or Triple materia growth equipment and place hard-to-master materias on it, to take advantage of the incredible amount of AP that Ruby will land you.

First Strategy: Knight Rampage

This strategy will require that your Knights of Round materia is at least level two. We recommend that you have at least two Mime materias, and one of your characters should come equiped with the W-Item materia. You will also need some Dazers.

Come with two characters dead: Ruby will start the battle by sticking its hands in the ground. Now, revive your partners, and use Dazers on Ruby and its tentacles. After that, get ready for the Mimic cycle. Cast two KoR using the W-Summon materia. After it's done, mimic it, then mimic it again and again, until Ruby dies.

If Ruby isn't stopped when you attack, it will use Ultima in retaliation: that's why you need it to be stopped when you mime your double KoR attack. If it's not, you'll just have to hope that the cycle will kill it.

However, if you have the Final Attack + Phoenix combo equipped, you don't have to worry about that. Ruby will kill you, but you'll be revived. Just use Dazers again, and resume your pounding. Of course, this will require that your Knights of Round materia is at level four, otherwise you won't be able to use the mimic cycle efficiently.

With this tactic, assuming that KoR deals maximum damage on each hit (higher than 9000 will be enough), it will take three cycles. Make your own calculation when you see how much damage you deal to Ruby with each KoR hit.

Second Strategy: Knights and Dark Magic

This strategy will require far less preparation, and is available as soon as you have the Knights of Round materia, since it requires only one casting of KoR to work. You do need to have at least one Mime materia, as well as the Hades materia.

Come with two characters dead: Ruby will start the battle by sticking its hands in the ground. Now, revive your partners, and use Dazers on Ruby and its tentacles. After that, use the W-Summon command and summon Hades then Knights of Round. The first will stop Ruby, the second will damage it.

This cycle is a lot safer than the previous one, since you do not have to worry about Ruby getting out of the Stop status. However, it's a longer method. It will require six cycles (provided that KoR deals around 9000 damage on each hit).

When you defeat Ruby, you will be rewarded with the Desert Rose, an item that can be traded to the traveler in Kalm for a Gold Chocobo.

Beating Emerald Weapon

Emerald Weapon is the green form you can spot diving when you take a tour on your submarine. While it is possible to fight it when you first see it, it isn't recommended, as it would probably crush you without even noticing it. Instead, just wait until you're a little bit more equipped.

You will need several things to beat Emerald. First, it's better if you have the Underwater materia, otherwise you will be forced to take out the seven-digit HP of your opponent in less than thirty minutes, which is not easy. Second, it is almost essential that you have the Knights of Round materia, possibly at level 2 or higher, and possibly the W-Summon. Additionally, you will need the Mime materia (having two copies or three would be better, but you can get it done with only one). Finally, though not mandatory, having Final Attack paired with Phoenix would be a safeguard in your attempt.

To get all this you will need to check our relevant guides, as stated above. The Underwater materia is held by the the traveler in Kalm, who will give it to you in exchange for the Guide Book, an item that you can Morph from Ghost Ship on your way to the Underwater Reactor under Junon.

When you're all set, just save near Junon and embark on your submarine. You just have to ram in Emerald Weapon to begin the fight.

Emerald Weapon	Level	HP	MP	Attacks
	99	1000000	100	Emerald Shoot, Emerald Beam, Aire Tam Storm
	Absorbs	Blocks	Strong Against	Weak Against
	Steal	Morph	Win Item	Enemy Skill
			Earth Harp
	EXP	AP	Gil	Location
	50000	50000	50000	Underwater
	Immune to Status		Notes

Emerald is a powerful opponent, but can be beaten with some good preparation. In fact, all you need to do is setup the mimic loop, and hope that Emerald doesn't disrupt it. It would be wise to equip the Underwater materia, otherwise you will have to beat Emerald within a 30 minute deadline (amazing that all these characters can hold their breath for that long, especially when you consider that some of them smoke).

To beat Emerald, just double summon KoR, and mimic it. Provided that you deal at least 8000 damage with each hit of your KoR summon, it will take four mimic cycles to finish off the beast. As with Ruby, having the Final Attack paired with Phoenix would be a safeguard in your attempt, but would prevent you from starting your mimic cycle over, unless the KoR materia is at least level 3.

Since you do not have to be very well equipped to achieve that, feel free to step into the war with Double or Triple materia growth equipment, to benefit from the incredible amount of AP you'll get after beating Emerald. Beating Emerald will also land you the Earth Harp, which can be exchanged to the traveler in Kalm for a set of materia you won't want to miss: a Master Magic, a Master Summon and a Master Command.