Slight correction from the video as pointed out by @Crazy-Jukebox. You can't double stack Magic Focus Materia. Apologies for the misinformation there. But that does free up another slot so go ham with a different pairing :)
Hahahahaha Is not our fault The materia system is great, but complex. I'm honestly more focus on having different spells on different casts members for whatever elemental weaknesses on enemies we find along the way, but, as you can see, there's some big massive ways on using the blue materias and sticking to one spell
How does dynamic work cause one one moment I'm absolutely destroying things the next I'm absolutely getting. My shit wrecked and these fuckers are hitting me for 9999 damage like what the hell is going on 🤣🤣🤣
Optinoob's channel got me through all the brutal and legendary challenges as well as the regular bosses on hard mode. His character builds and strategies are phenomenal.
For real! I should post my original kills of those bosses just for a laugh. Someone pointed me to his channel so gave them a blast. The difference was night and day 😅
Oh gosh, this video is insane. I love how the FFVII community has growth cause only has been 6 weeks and there are already videos like this. Thanks a ton man
This is a great video When doing the Gongaga loop, you can quip elemental fire on Cloud and Barret's weapons and then map Cloud's Triple Slash and Barret's Maximum Fury to a shortcut. Give them both First Strike and give Barret the chocoking cape. You'll clear each group of enemies before Barret's and Cloud's attack animations end as long as the difficulty level is on easy. 450 AP with the choco armband and AP up, 150 AP with AP up only. This loop takes a minute and 20 seconds. This includes file saving and loading. To make it go even faster, move the camera to the next enemy group's direction before the attack animations end.
I love how the Gongaga loop has gotten so so much more efficient over the weeks since it was discovered. I'm gonna give this a shot and see how it compares. Thanks for the info!
For even better method you don’t have to save&load every time.. Simply pause and retry battle on fighting last pack of monsters and you can “refresh” all monsters. Saving you from SaveLoad :)
I put fire and ice on swiftcast, then ice and fire each on magnify and magic focus on aerith with hp-mp swap, and either first strike or chocoking cape. Cast level 2 magic and the enemy group dies
Starting off great here for me, since I’ve nearly platinumed the game (have some brutal left) but I had no idea how synergy worked. SUPER happy to see radiant ward on here, that move is BROKEN and under talked about. You can stagger anything with it.
Amazing tips. "Sadly" I already knew all of them, but those are THE best tips to get for the game. I still learned something new via the comments so thats also a W.
Thank you very much for the soothing breeze tip really saved my hard mode replay a lot when i needed to refill hp to my team after a battle without needing to use mp 🙏
Great video GameFather! best one on hard mode tips that I have seen. Great shoutout for Optinoob also, his brumal form video was epic. Going to attempt all brutal missions over the weekend
Did you manage to do them? I tried them again after watching Optinoobs guides and man... I really wish I had watched them the first time round 😂 Could have saved myself hours and hours!
Thank you for this! I was struggling in Hard mode for Mythril golem and this helps me to relook at all my materia set up. This game as been a blast to play indeed!
90 hours in the game at the beginning of chapter 12, and the first tip of this vide let me know that i have beend doing crap damage the whole game so far and havenr evem scratched the surface in terms of materia combos. This was a excellent video and i have saved it for my upcoming hard run.
This guide is AMAZING 👏 🙌🏾 . I didn't know you can equip a magnify on your quick keys. That helps loads! Also that brutal form ATB farm is also great. I'm doing Brutal Challenges and I keep dying off of something small. Looking forward to a Legendary guide if you make one!😅
Hah, well I really don't think I could make any improvements to what Optinoob has already put out on his boss guides :) I was running around for ages using the single target shortcut wondering why it wasn't doing much 😂 Still, glad it was helpful!
Great tips in this! Soothing Breeze is under used in most guides I see, thanks for mentioning it. Really saw its benefits when playing hard mode. Used Optis builds as well and finished all brutal sims, still need one more legendary. But finished hard mode, might go back for the side quests at some point when I get the plat.
Opti's builds are really solid, better than anything I had come up with at that point 😅 And yeah, Soothing Breeze is next level for a group heal in-between fights. How far off the Plat are you now? Must be close if you're that far in the combat sim!
The way u can restore hp and Mp from linking with enemy skill is just genius I thought it only work with spells, the synergy trick with no cost was also neat and petrify with magnify thanks I learned new tricks and some I already know and Optinoob helped me a lot Al in Al thanks a lot
If you keep transcendence Aerith's magic attack will be boosted. Not sure of the numbers but it's stated in the skill's effects. As of now the Hades' armlet respawns inside the chest where you get it so all of your party can have a minimum of 7 armor slots
@@TheGameFatherUK I believe this was intentional or they're not gonna bother patching it. Farming is already very easy with 7 characters via chapter select. Also, the only other benefits you could gain by having multiple is for a 6-person bout (which can be played on easy and have no rewards on hard mode) and maybe the final boss sequence; any other place in the game only requires 3 teammates and the Cetran Braver and Cetran Armlet are both better versions of it.
I tried getting a second cetran armlet for 8 slots, but it wasn’t there. But in the video it looks like he has 2x 8 slots on cloud and aerith. Can anyone confirm you can’t refarm that cetran armlet. I’ll go get the hades one in the meantime
One extra tip regarding Genji Gloves; Some of the Jetsam can only be acquired in Chapter 13 once you're on your way to Northwood. Don't be like me and spend hours scouring the accessible area looking for the last two only to find them when you give up and head to the temple to get the Cetra Bracelet you missed 😂
That's a solid tip right there. I think I got all mine after the first run through so I didn't even connect the dots that they weren't all available at the same time.
so that's why there is that many materia with the same element? I alway's ask myself why the F they put like 9 ice/fire etc materia, i didn't know you could put like 3 ice with 3 blue connected!! I think you just changed my whole life thank you !
For free heals on hard mode equip the hp/mp conversion materia on a non-active party member and they will have over 6K mp so you can use that character to heal everyone after each fight.
Auto pickup should be enabled on all games. I don't know why for games with infinite inventory space people have to press a button to pick something up. No one ever said "Hmmm I already have 5000 of this item, im not gonna pick it up this time."
Had figured out about half the stuff but learned some good setup stuff too. 👍 Idk why I didn’t think about some of the duplicate materia builds seeing as I used some simple ones early in the game but then just forgot all about it lol. Thanks for the tips though, they’re sure to help with the couple of brutal and more than a couple of legendary simulations I haven’t beaten yet
@@TheGameFatherUK Yeah, I ended up using Optinoob’s guides for some of the legendaries and the last 2 (Zack & Sephiroth ones) still gave me fits. I believe the last Brutal fight was kinda tough for me, whichever it was with “Virtual Sephiroth” at the end; but still nowhere near as bad as those 2 legendaries…f’in Odin! 🤬
Great video and I did not know the magic focus materia could actually double up. Almost went about hard mode the wrong way by resetting all the sidequests and doing them over in a hard mode playthrough from ch. 1 I like to use the hp-mp converter materia on a back line character paired with a healing materia. So that character has almost 6k mp to spam heals for free after battle is done.
@@TheGameFatherUK oh no, that setup is for the non active party member. So they use their mp after battle to cast cure via the commands menu. Although there are videos of people using the hp-mp swap as a means to gain massive amounts of limit gauge. Each perfect parry gives a huge chunk so they use it for i-frames and damage.
@@suitonsuiryudan Ah sorry, I misunderstood what you meant by backline :) That does indeed make a lot more sense 😅Good shout though, I didn't think of that one! Come to think of it, I don't think I used any of the conversion materia. Did you find a use for any of the others?
Those are some really good tips that i might have to incorporate. Thanks. Anyway, I always hear people say Gongaga is the best place to farm AP, but for me, it's the desert Corel Region. The little cactuar there gives you 12 AP each. I found a couple of areas where you can encounter 3 of them or 2 of them with a different enemy. Only small issue is its a annoyance to try and hit those little buggers..
Funny you should say that, I've just finished comparing all the best materia/ap farming spots in the game. The best one, by an absolute mile, is the bees in Nibel. They are absolutely crazy for AP (and EXP) farming.
@TheGameFatherUK I saw that one and it's pretty insane but I'm lazy. I don't want to constantly reload the game just to redo the side quest whenever the queen bee gets killed. (Even on hard) lol.
Im here to give you a comment and a like but i am not going back through this game a second time. Maybe I'll rerun through the arena or replay some of my favorite moments, but rerunning the entire game on hard? I actually value my sanity
also note, you can stack up different blue materia with same green, but you cannot stack 2x Magic Focus. check the dmg with 1 pair and a 2nd one, dmg stays the same. wasted 2 slots.
@@TheGameFatherUK i had the same idea and tested it, but it didnt work. later i saw your video and was wondering if i made a mistake testing. i tried to put the combination in armor, in weapon (coz why not testing) but always came to same result that only 1 pair is working.
@@TheGameFatherUK another note about the grinding, forget Gongaga, try the 1st Brutal in Chadley Sim (Army of the Damned) with following setup: Cloud or Aerith as Caster: Petrify Magnify, Petrify Swiftcast, 1st Strike + ATB Stagger and Chokobo King for 2 ATBs. quick bind Quaga. Even if it says "Brutal" its easy AF and all 10 battles are 1-shot even if you go in naked. basically 10 fights under 40sec and hit re-challenge at the end.
@@Crazy-Jukebox I've stuck a pinned comment at the top about the double Magic Focus. I'll have a bash with your suggestion for the brutal. My only hesitation for that is if you have a lot of materia to level then you won't get the benefit of all characters receiving the AP. For targeted levelling on priority materia like swiftcast though, it could be golden!
Geez thanks for these tips! I already got the platinum and 100% Play Log, but apparently I just hit my head against the brick wall until it fell, because I didn’t use half of these strats. I’m on Ch. 12 of a new save file and I’m suddenly looking forward to hard mode now.
Honestly, if you're like me and have gotten to the point where you are just a few trophies away from Platinum, this guide is pretty much all you need to follow. I've maxed out everything else except Hard Mode Chapter Select and the Brutal/Legendary challenges. Using your strats for HM Chapters will be my go to and I'll check out OptiNoob's content as well. Honestly, just getting to this point has been a fucking MISSION - with some of the mini-games and post game challenges making me rage quit and coming back later... looking at you Sephiroth 3D and the Cactuar HM challenges. I'm currently at 340 hours and counting lol... but only a few more to go now!
This gives BG3 vibes. I had a familiar buffing me before leaving the camp :). Great stuff, man. Some of materias are a mystery for me in the sense why I should use them. I only used it for AP farming but your comment opened my eyes somehow :)
@@TheGameFatherUK I actually equipped HP - MP Materia on Cloud, because it gives him so little health that blocking any attack gives him a third of the limit gauge. Combined with reraise, all of the block materia, and the enhanced expeditionary medal, and he will spam limit breaks. Additionally, when performing a limit break, if you get hit it counts as a perfect block, so you can actvate limit when an enemy is about to hit you and (assuming they hit you 3 times) get your limit back.
DUDE, okay all the tips are fine, but putting on multiples of the same materia to attach multiple blue effects is genius, opened my eyes to so many new builds
Cloud's last weapon has HP/MP recovery on stagger (a few other weapons too, but I find Cloud is the easiest to stagger enemies with the Thrust ATB move), it recovers 10% MP every time he made the stagger hit. I use that and Aerith's Soul Drain to keep my MP up for all times except for the Boss battles throughout hard mode
It's pretty rare to pump 130hrs into a single playthrough of a game, reach the end credits, and think "lets start again" Rebirth is just such an amazing game that hits a special place in my soul
Wow I never knew about double pairing a new materia of the same kind for additional effects. This is a game changer. Was this in Remake or even the OG?
Nearly 200 hours in (almost getting the plat for it) and I'm still learning some new things. This game has a crazy amount of interactions between abilities, items and whatnot.
It's definitely a game with a huge amount of choice on how to play it. Hope you get the Plat, it's definitely one of the more challenging ones I've done!
@13:05 I can't even begin to explain how much stronger I felt after finishing all the manuscripts. Weapons levels scale amazing after level 8 it seems.
you know I clicked on this being all smug like yeah tell me some obvious shit but hell, I learned some valuable stuff here. This absolutely improved my approach to some of the hard mode stuff I have yet to do.
Hoping someone can help, I’ve searched but cannot find an answer. Magic attack. I’ve seen vids where Cloud n Aerith have magic attach close to 500! I’m struggling to get to 400 and I’m level 70, completed the game and all side quests…..appreciate help
@@TheGameFatherUK definitely enjoying! I’m 60 hours in and just started chapter 9, I’m completing this to the end! Thanks to you, feel like I’ll be able to tackle hard mode afterwards! 😁
Thanks! For MP management you just need to make sure that Aerith has an MP-Absorb materia connected to whatever your offensive spell of choice is. So for example, if you're using Ice; you'd want an Ice materia paired with MP Absorb, another Ice paired with Swiftcast, another Ice paired with Magic Focus and another paired with Magnify if you're doing AOE damage (it will reduce the damage though for a single target, so only use if you're definitely doing AOE).
That's right, it returns MP based on the damage dealt via that particular spell. So when you have all your materia linked (and a purple Magic Up for extra damage) you should be dealing significant damage with that spell which should refund you more than you spent :)
I found an easy way to get the 300% stagger trophy. At the end game, I faced titan at full strength with aerith, tifa, and cait sith since they all have abilities that boost stagger damage. Everyone was level 70 and I managed to get everyone set up for the stagger to use moogle knuckle with cait and ray of judgement with aerith as soon as it started, and then spammed unbridled strength and omnistrike with tifa. I ended up killing titan in that one stagger but still got up to almost 400% stagger damage before he died
@@TheGameFatherUK Completely filling the limit guage at the start of battle is a game changer compared to just having the boost. So like I said, once you have that accessory you can basically do any battle easily.
I really hope that the final game in the trilogy allows the classic “Mastered materia gives birth to new materia” I kinda get why they blocked it for these first two games, but that was such a clutch feature in the original
I've crafted every single item (even some twice) and I'm still at level 15. I am one slice away from level 16 but can't reach it and I can see the options for the genji gloves. What am I missing???
in remake, i beat pride and prejudice on both remake and integrade first time. it having lighting weakness making it stupid easy. the bahamut in its fight is harder than it. then we have weiss which is even easier to deal with, just play as tifa and equip her with parry materia and he is piece of cake. other story and non story bosses also not pushover. especially with that limit break accesory + refocus materia, both have 3 available for all 3 active party members.
I don’t seem completely immune to hits with Yuffie’s brumal form on atb ward when there’s more than 1 enemy at once near her. I’m using the shortcut window too, hm…
Yeah I'm not sure really. I suppose they didn't really need to worry about that in Remake since it was so linear. It's only beneficial in the open world because once you're deep into the story you can't fast travel to a chocbo stop. Chapters 13 and 14 are especially true of that with the chain of boss fights.
the mp benches only work for side content, so it's def deliberate imo; also only the first and last quests are actually hard, the rest were a cakewalk compared to them
Ngl, the Hellhouse Hard mode fight in Remake traumatized the hell out of me, so much so that I didnt finish hard mode and I actually spaced out with that thousand yard stare for a sec when playing Rebirth and realising what hard mode would entail for such a massive game. Great tips, but I'll probably stay away from Hard mode forever
To be honest, I found Hard Mode quite nice, especially the pacing since I had completed everything on my first run through. And yeah... I remember the hell house very well 😆
*Seeing the tip on using quake* *Meanwhile I already maxed out all Materia with the loop, but used fire and Ice magic* *Needed to use Arcane Ward on the Amphidex/Frightflower stop, cause one shot wasn’t nuking everything.* *Quake nukes everything* Kill. Me. Now.
Don't feel bad, in hindsight when I was grinding it was the slowest slog of my life. I've since found a much much better way with a setup that makes it super easy too. Video out this evening if you're interested :)
