Step by Step Guide: Bonds of Friendship - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 

Some tips for Bahamut + Odin: You can still do it even if you mess up and Bahamut goes to God mode, Just prioritise playing defensively and try to block or dodge as many attacks as you can. Heal to stay alive and take small pot shots when you can with both charatcers for ATB. He will then revert to his normal phasel to start his power up process again. Holding R1 while in Punisher mode really helps to reduce damage and buid ATB. With Odin, If you are abit slow during the last phase (1/3rd of his health) He will begin to cast Temporial Imprisonment. This targets your active character (Cloud) and freezes them. To counter this, Save your limit guage until this part of the fight. When he casts it, activate your limit guage and it will give you invulnerability and you won't get GG'd. Another tip, don't be like me and follow this video robotically to the absolute T. Chances are, your opponents RNG will be different, casting different moves here and there. Always play with some wiggle room, if you mess up and need to heal, do that. If you notice an enemy has staggered abit earlier, then go all out. Use this video as a guide of what the fight should look like beats wise, but adapt accordingly to the situation. One more thing, take breaks. Seriously, that's the tip. You will fail, like me, many times. I probaly got this on my 12th attempt maybe. If it gets too frustrating, you will get tilted, and make even more mistakes. Take a breather, then try again. It is doable!! THank you akhafasu for this amazing guide sir!

I already got the platinum, but after watching probably 3 different guides on this I gotta say this is hands down the best one. Straight to the point, excellent commentary, and most important, CONSISTENT strategies

Thanks bro, I spent probably a good 20-30 hours on this, tried several different builds. Your build got me to consistently and quickly kill the first 9 in order to roll the RNG enough to finally kill Odin.

I finally beat Bonds of Friendship thanks to this. This video is EXCELLENT. I really appreciate the instructions being put on screen in order - it is so much more helpful than a voice over alone. Great work!

BEST guide I've found for this. Very comprehensive, and I was able to clear in just a couple tries. Thanks for including a few what if scenarios

Followed your guide and won after my 20th attempt or so. Thank you so much for this detailed guide; it's the best one out there for this challenge!

Best guide on Bonds of Friendship I have seen. Mad props. I'll have this saved for when I finish my hard mode playthrough.

Just wanted to say thank you. I watched a lot of videos showing how to win with this build but yours was the only one that broke it down in a way that worked for me.

Well, I did it. Bonds of Friendship completed and Platinum in hand. I'm kind of shocked I managed to do it since everything seemed determined to go wrong. Zack died in the second fight, he died against the mindflayer since he was determined to run headlong into one of its attacks, requiring that Cloud finish 80% of that fight alone, and against Odin... Well, Odin cast temporal imprisonment on Zack, but targeted Cloud with the follow-up spear attacks instead. I had two ATBs and a hail Mary, threw off an Aeroga just as Odin killed Cloud, and somehow the spell landed and Odin lay defeated. It was a true comedy of errors, but kind of hilarious. I wouldn't have been able to do it without this guide. Thank you so much! You saved me weeks of frustration. :)

After days of grinding, this strat finally worked the best and most consistently. Thank you so much.

So I wrote a comment a few days ago around giving up on this achievement. I took afew days out and managed to finally get this Achievement done - Thank you for your help/time making these guides! With that being said, I'd also like to add a few personal tweaks which may also help: - I used Optinoobs equipment/materia set up and this video religiously to get me to rounds 9/10 easily. I did find that I had to go slightly off script when fighting Bahamut, but you can still get to round 10 comfortably once you understand Bahamuts attack pattern. - I'd advise practising fighting Odin using Cloud to avoid that draining feeling of having to fight 9 rounds just to fail on the 10th. Once I managed to beat him comfortably, I went back into Bonds of Friendship. - After applying Prime at the start of the fight, I also applied Plasma Discharge. - I only really relied on Zack to build SOLDIER HONOR once (which I executed when Odin was pressured). Once he was staggered, I made sure Cloud had 2 ATBs and went HAM with Zack to apply further buffs for him and Cloud. - Save your limit break for Temperamental Banishment as this can resist it. Once Cloud was in the limit break animation, I switched to Zack, built 2 ATB and switched back. - There will be guides out there that say use poison/reraise etc. Don't bother. The key is to know when to dodge/punisher block/counter and when to attack. Apologies for any spelling errors or if i'm slight off with the attack names - I'm sure you'll figure it out! Thanks again and I guess I'll be back here around 2028!

Gotta echo people in the comments this is by far the most straightforward of all the guides for this challenge.

Thank you sir, I’m attempting again tomorrow. Odin has been so demoralizing but this guide looks more straightforward than others

Thank you so much,I finally did it!this is definitely the most difficult challenge in the game.your guide helped me immensely! For the people still struggling,don't give up.try to find your own way of following the guidelines shown here.For bahamut,prime mode blocking saved me,and I found it better to be more aggressive.same for odin,try to do as many aerogas as possible.the synergy attack is also very useful.The whole challenge clicked for me when I started treating it as a solo challenge for cloud,with a few helpful commands from zack.also,try not to restart,even if it seems like a bad run.the more times you fight the enemies,the more you learn their patterns and sometimes the tides can turn in your favor. Thanks again akhafasu!

I've gotta say man, thank you so much for this. I've been dreading this bout ever since I started the game after seeing discussions about it online and was mentally preparing myself for the torture... but with this guide, I managed to get the whole thing done within 3 hours and FIRST TIMED ODIN! Really wasn't expecting that at all. Having the text prompts on-screen helped massively and I took some screenshots of them to create my own lil guide and it helped tremendously. Thank you so much for this and saving me hours upon hours of struggle!

I’ve tried a few different guides and this one by far is the best and helped finally finish bonds of friendship. One thing to note, and he mentions this in his description, his weapons level is 9, which means he’s collected all the other manuscripts and his weapons is more powerful than what you, and I, have at level 8. But I did it, and so can you! In addition to this I also practiced solo with this build against the summons. When I was able to defeat Odin solo consistently I came back to this fight and was able to take care of him with added protection of manawall from Zack and use him as support. Thank you for this guide and the step by step process! Truly appreciate it!!

You’ve earned yourself another subscriber. This and your other hard-mode guides are superb; keep up the excellent work!

Production was great as it looks like it is ideal for following wave by wave. Look forward to a smooth completion of the fight. Thanks!

Best guide hands down! I just beat this as my last legendary challenge and I cannot thank you enough for this guide. Now to finish the Platinum Trophy!

Only needed these last 2 for platinum but ended up quitting (1st platinum I’d ever give up on )went away for a few months and played some retro Zelda games ,came back this week as it’s been bugging me ,finally got platinum,thanks so much for all your guides

Dude this guide helped me so much. It took a while just to get used to prime mode (i never used it) but after that, solid all around. cheers

Really awesome to have the text there too, I'm gonna have this up as I try! Thanks a lot!

After reading so many comments of people annoyed by this challenge, I was worried I'd struggle quite a bit. But I kept pausing and paying attention to what you did in your run and somehow managed to do it first try. Thank you so much! :)

All i gotta say is thank you. Been trying this off and on for months and was super frustrated. Saw your video and followed it and 4-5 runs later I have my victory. Amazing sir. Amazing.

I love the ffx-2 music in the video. Suits well. Nicely done bro

I Lost on Odin...He has 1HP left. I cry.

Finally did it! after so many tries losing to Hueyacoatl and a couple to the others (not much really), Bahamut only killed my once and Odin was first try, I'm amazed. Hueyacoatl was, believe it or not the one who ended my runs the most lol. Thanks again for the amazing step by step guide!

This was the best guide I could find for this. Your step by step guide made it possible for me to finally beat Odin. Cheers and I hope your channel blows up as your content is gold!

Love the FFX-2 music👏

I finally got this plat. Your guide helped me all the way to Odin, but over the course of trying a few times a day for 2 weeks, Odin kept killing me over and over, UNTIL TODAY! Cloud got killed as usual, but I fought tooth and nail by the skin of my teeth with Zack to get one last stagger in and used raise on cloud during the stagger, had cloud immediately use limit ascension, cloud died AGAIN and I hit him with a firaga with Zack for the kill. I screamed.

Thanks a lot dude!! Your video was super helpful! I was struggling with Bahamut, after watching you video I realized that I should take a more defensive actitude and wait for the right moment to strike. Odin only took me two tries, but Bahamut was really frustrating until I found your video, love how you include strategies when everything turns out really baaad.

Finally beat this after 6 hours. Thanks to your detailed tutorial!

Haven't got my Platinum yet but finally beat this challenge after using your guide for the To Be a Hero bout and then using this one for Bonds of Friendship. Admittedly took quite a number of tries for this one (Brineborn Demon almost always opened with Slaughter which didn't help) and I lucked-out my win after Cloud got downed by Odin's Reprisal but got their health low enough for Zack's Limit Break to kill him, but up until that point your guides got me through the rest of the rounds relatively unscathed. Cheers!

YOU ARE MY HERO. This was truly the ONLY video that got me consistently beating Bahamut. And while I died at Odin 3 or 4 times, I finally beat him. Thank you thank you thank you. Platinum, here I come baby!

I DID IT MY FRIEND!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH. Could not have done this without you and your guides! I have reached the top!

Not only is this a great guide but I love that you used the FF16 battle music! That was literally my favorite FF soundtrack

Just got the platinum, thanks to you. I don't think I would have been able to do with with any other guide. The way you listed the steps made so much of a difference being able to pause and reference them. 220 hours. I'm glad to have it behind me now. I went from Remake to Rebirth for a total of 340 hours of Final Fantasy. It'll be really nice to play something else again. 😂

This is the third guide I've watched and the only one that worked for me. I could barely get past round two using the other's and the farthest I got was Kujata after maybe thirty attempts. I got to Odin on my second attempt using your strategy and finally beat him today

Thanks for you guide. You saved my platinum trophy. I got a different rng on Odin. Different attack patterns not in the same order as your video. After he split the screen I used Zack to force him to imprison him instead of cloud. I didn’t have a limit available at the moment. It worked. After some more hits I got limit with cloud. Another level 3 wind and done. Yaaaaaa so f$&@ relieved I completed all of this bullshit challenges. This game gave me so much ptsd lol I don’t remember playing a harder game. Not even Elden ring was this hard for me.

I finally beat this challenge and got the platinum thanks to your guide. It's so precise and easy to replicate.

Finally did it with this guy build. Took maybe 300 attempts but I'm done with Chadley completely. All done. Odin freeze even my Cloud... Zack quick build some ATB, cast Limit Break, few attacks again then Cloud was available somehow again!! Cloud quickly Limit Break and Aero Lv3 and I won. It was super lucky. Thanks for video, for build author. Great job, super good explained. Almost Platinum - Hard Mode ONLY.

OMG after trying for literally 13 hours over the course of a WEEK and always dying at Odin, I watched your guide and got it first try. THANK YOU. Using Synergy ability when he pressures himself is such a good idea. In the end, Zack died so I thought it was over but I got a limit break which staggered him the second time and I finished him off with one Thundaga. My tips to help people: Instead of using HP Absorb, I equipped ATB Stagger and Healing. This helped ensure I could get more spells when they are staggered, and I didn't find myself needing HP Absorb as for most battles I didn't take much damage once I got the hang of the mechanics. If needed, heal with Zack and Cloud can heal himself or Zack in an emergency. Also instead of using Swiftcast and MP Absorb on Wind, I attached it to Lightning, with Magic Focus on Lighting and Wind. This is because Thundaga cast is much faster than Aeroga and means I'm more likely to cast it while Bahamut is still pressured, I can more quickly interrupt enemies and I can get into my basic attacks quicker to build ATB faster while the enemy is recoiling. It also helps take out Bahamut's wings faster. Lightning is also effective against Ironclad, you can kill him with 4 Thundaga's. Also you only need two Thundaga for Alexander. You can still beat Titan and Hueyacoatl easily using Aeroga or a combination of Aeroga and Thundaga. Against Brineborn Demon, if you dodge with Cloud and press B you use a ranged Magic attack. If you do this when he has his shield up, he will counter with fire and heal you. Against Kujata, if you let him take on fire or ice elemental and use Thundaga immediately after, his attacks will heal you and he won't take on other elements as long as you repeatedly cast Thundaga on him. Against Mindflayer, use Stop. Use Synergy Ability to pressure. Against Bahamut, use Counterfire to pressure him. Your Synergy skill will also pressure him. You can also save your ATB Boost at the start and after you use Thundara on one wing, use ATB Boost, cast Thundara on the second wing to pressure him and you will have 1 ATB straight away to build on to cast Thundaga while he's pressured. Against Phoenix, use Zack's Blizzaga to stagger it after killing Grandhorn. Then finish off with Clouds Blizzaga.

I just want to give you a big thank you for this. I've been looking at a lot of guides while I struggled with this fight, and this is the best one, hands down in terms of detail and ease to follow. I finally finished this fight 10 minutes ago, and I have to say it feels extremely, extremely awesome to be able to put this fight to bed. I really appreciate the hard work you put into making this. So thanks so much again. On to Sephiroth's.

Thankyou so much! Beautiful guide, took a whole day to finish this. I kept dying at odin then practiced him a bunch individually before finally clearing. Definitely couldn't have done it without all your step by step details.

Dude thanks so much, I basically had to look at two guides to help me with this, but you mindflayer strategy was super consistent for me

This strat was the only one that worked for me. Spent four days of trying until I practiced just Odin for a bit. But finally got it. The RNG is hellacious and Zack might have the worst AI of any companion in the game but finally got it. Thanks, @akhafasu! Great vid! Great guide!

Badass guide brother! 🔥🔥🔥Great breakdown for each fight and made my journey to platinum that much more attainable. Beat it today, one sim left😁🤙🏽

This is literally the last simulation fight I have missing. Didn't try it yet because I know it will be a pain, but this guide seems so solid, that I'll definitely try this strategy first. Very good job my friend

Just completed bonds of friendship using this guide! Never would have completed it without it, really appreciate it, thank you! Only to be a hero left and ive 100 percented rebirth.

Thank you! It was helpful to see the steps written and I got the play log crown. Wishing for the developers to give us some friendly QoL improvements in Part 3.

Thank you. I finally beat Bonds of Friendship. I messed up a little towards the end of the Odin fight but managed to finally beat him. 🎉🎉

After a few days on and off... FINALLY! Bahamut was my run ender. Always messing up something with Zack but once I got past him I got Odin with these tactics first try.

In the end, after a few days of tests and attempts, I did it, more or less following your tactic which seemed to me to be among the simplest... It took me a while because I often ended up with Bahamut or Odin killing me regularly (often due to too much haste)... I miss the fight with Sephirot and it will finally be a platinum trophy Thanks for the video my friend ;)

Finally beat this damn challenge. & let me tell you!! I have never saved my game so fast after beating a boss lol whew shit had my heart rate at 10. Was stuck on this for days. Thanks so much for the help. Struggled with Odin for the longest and finally went and fought him solo for practice and it paid off big time.

Thank you so much for this guide, i was finally able to do it after a few hours!

There are a lot of sloppy content creators out there. Not THIs MAN. Thanks for the video, I credit you for my Platinum and Play Log completion. Excellent video man!

this video is soo freaking good and i LOVE the music you used from all the different final fantasies

Heyyy man it took me a few attempts but I finally beat this challenge today yayyyyyy this guide is so far the best! I improvised a bit here and there but this guide has been most helpful!! 🎉

Big thanks for the very detailed guide! I foolishly thought I’d try and vary a couple strategies (like using Faith instead of Manawall on Alexander… and dying 😣), so I made sure to follow your steps and beat Bahamut and Odin the first time I reached them! Definitely still needed to improv at times, especially on Bahamut. I finished him off with a second Synergy Ability, and watching my gameplay capture I saw that Cloud was down to just 250 HP on the kill!!! Thanks again!

Love the final fantasy 13 music

I’ve really been struggling with this challenge. I’ve seen other videos and tried their strats but my god; I followed this to a T and I made it effortlessly to bahamut. I died at bahamut, something went wrong lol. But I’d only been able to make it to Alexander before that. Thanks a lot! I’m sure I’ve got this in no time now with this video in my pocket!

I attempted this for 3hrs. Bahamut or Odin would kill my run. This video might be the key to success. I'll try tomorrow. Edit:I'm back took 5 more tries but I DID IT. The Odin/Baahmut sections Really helped me out

Thankyou bruh i did this challenge like 80 times but i made it thanks to this guide🙏🏽platinum getting closer

Based on your strategy, finally I could win this Friend of Bonds. Thank you for your very detailed explanation!

OMG this helped SO much. This right here everyone is the true hero.

BRO THANK YOU FOR THIS GUIDE! ODIN ALMOST KILLED ME BUT I HIT HIM WITH A LAST DITCH EFFORT FINISHING TOUCH 😭🙏🏿🙏🏿

Omg your tip on using limit to nullify Temporal Imprisonment... THANK YOU!!! Got it after 3 tries after using this strat.. You're the best!!

Managed to scrape this 1st time watching this with some slightly underlevelled materia, Odin almost had me at the end cos I timed some moves wrong but managed to pull it off before ny heart exploded out of my chest. Thanks bro.

He kicked my ass 3 times in a row unfortunately but I finally beat Odin with weapon level 8, thank you so much 🙏🏻

You my friend, are a legend. Took me a liiiiiitle while to pull it off (also did it without genji gloves yay for me) but i can proudly say I’ve completed it. Thank you once again!!

Great guide mate i got the platinum today following this guide and other videos but this helped the most with boo hoo mat Odin should have won as i got stuck with both players on the wrong side of the temporal distortion i used cureaga with zack synogyized and used clouds limit to get through it one more heal when we left it by then his pressure gauge was high so i cast areoga and he staggered i finished him after that thank you so much for a great guide ❤

Really enjoyed the detail in this guide. Everything has been explained step by step; great work! I was planning on doing this one with Gottdamerung (bad spelling) but I might give this a try instead. Thank you!

Got to Odin and sadly Zack ran out of MP and that was it for me. Gonna try again, got the furthest yet with your guide.

After X attempts - this got me through. Thank you, my maaaaan.

Thank you SO MUCH for this guide and your one with Sephiroth. Beat both thanks to you! This fight went super smooth, Zack did die when Odin had like a sliver of health left but it didn’t matter because I had a limit break on Cloud and finished it. Thanks again! Finally can get my platinum now lol

Thank you. Did minor tweaks but used mainly your introduced strategy. Platinum is at reach now

Thank you for this Guide. You really saved my life!

I MADE IT!!! Thank to you because your guides is the amazing ever I've. Honest with you, I had been died a lot till I made it! WHEW!

Just accomplished this today and once again (like To Be a Hero) this guide was the one that pulled through (Bahamut and Odin were still touch and go - but I'm done with them as far as I'm concerned). Once again, thank you so much for helping me put this nightmare to rest.

It worked also for me after 3 or 4 times. Just wanna say thank you. I was really under pressure all the time, and the fight against Odin is just too much haha, but i did it. Thanks a alot.

Thanks mate, you are the best. I didn't follow every step, just used your build and general idea. Took several tries but finally did it. After that I stepped in the challenge where you team up with Seph and did it on the first try. Had to kill one boss by Seph alone though cuz my Cloud got stoned lol.

Your guide has been amazing so far. I have gotten to Odin a few times but ugh I keep dying to him. Going to keep trying.

Great guide. I did this without using any magic... it was hard. Magic really breaks the game, hence why hard mode limits your MP regen. The FF16 boss music is one of the best soundtracks in recent video games

You saved my life with your Odin guide! Thank You so much!!!!!

Saving this guide for later because I still need to finish the Seph challenge before try this one.

I finally beat it thanks to your guide 🙏🏻 Took many tries and a few different variants with techniques Thank you again for helping me and many others beat this challenge Zack is still my friend lol

Thank you very much! Finally found the guide that has super clear and neat explanation. Also human like play style with no precision defense required. Now I will stomp them and get the plat!!

Thanks dude, I did it, it was SO difficult but your guide helped me through, so thankful, awesome job. Keep up your great work!

You are the best! Took me too long to finish this but your guide is simply amazing. Looking forward to more content!

Thank you, I followed your guide tweaked something’s and finally beat it! Platinum here I come!!

I liked hearing XVI’s battle music. I’ve been stuck on Odin for a while. One of these days I’ll get it lol.

I just realized you're playing FF XVI music in the background. That is also a good game with a great soundtrack, but it doesn't top FF7. Thanks again for another great guide. I hope to give this a go soon.

I finally beat this one. The Odin fight literally came down to a matter of seconds. I had reraise on both after he got off his one hit at the end of the fight but he built another OHKO quick. I managed to get off a aeorga. At the last second to win. A tip I picked up, use focus thrust on Bahaumet to build the stagger gauge.

Nice strat, it works. I just made a little order change in the final battles started with faith and not manawall since my magic power is lower 499. Just to be sure that I push max damage since the first spell casted.

This is easily the best video on RU-vid for this challenge. Beat it first try with this guide thank you.

Finally. After umpteen tries i did it thanks to your guide. Hero. Subscribed .

i already did the challenge but came here to check,great guide man

Yesterday I got to Odin for the second time and he had a bit of health left. He used spatial distortion for the second time and he stayed at the wrong side. And because he already used that gjallarhorn a few moments back he just used zantetsuken because I couldnt damage hij enough with only Cloud. Zack was already sleeping with the fishes😂 But the fact I can make it to Odin means it well have to go the right way for me. This guide is simple and easy to follow. Sometimes I do other commands like healing but the road to Odin is there. So thank you for this guide and I'm gonna attempt it a few more times and hopefully I'll get it done😁

I Just finished it. First time passing the fourth, done it. You. Are. Great. Cloud died in the end, I used Zack Limit because no MP... And he sent Odin to the shadow realm.

I finally got this one down after 2 weeks haha. thanks