Best Weapon For Every Character

The four playable characters in Final Fantasy VII Remake can each utilize a variety of weapons. Each weapon raises or lowers specific attributes of the wielding character, catering towards different play styles and team dynamics. Additionally, each weapon has an ability the character can use while it’s equipped.

Unlike the weapons from the original Final Fantasy VII, FFVII Remake encourages finding and using every weapon available in the game. In the original, when a new weapon was found, there was little reason to use the older option. For this reason, players could sometimes skip over weapons because they already had a better one.

In Remake, you’re incentivized to use every weapon by the unique weapon abilities tied to each one. With enough use, the ability becomes a permanent addition to the character’s arsenal. Additionally, each character gets skill points every time they level up. Those skill points can then be used on all of their weapons. This makes sure no weapon becomes utterly obsolete as the game progresses.

On the other hand, the versatility of these weapons makes it difficult to decide which weapon is the best. When considering which weapon to use for any given character, it is important to look at their role in the team. Ideally, the characters all together should fulfill any need from battle to battle, such as close-range/long-range, physical/magic damage, healing, buffs, and debuffs.

Each character—outside of weapon buffs, armor, accessories, and materia—has certain strengths and weaknesses, and overall abilities that help influence what roles they can and can’t be proficient in. While the right weapon for a battle can be situational, the best weapon in FF7 Remake for each character can be determined from their general effectiveness in combat across the game.

The Best Weapon For Cloud In Final Fantasy VII Remake

You Can’t Go Wrong With The Classic

First up is the main character for Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife. Cloud’s best weapon is the Buster Sword, despite this being Cloud’s first weapon. Cloud is good at physical and magical attacks, and focuses on close-range combat.

He also has a unique stance system that makes him versatile in combat. Cloud can switch between Operator Mode, which is a balance of physical and magical attacks, and Punisher Mode, which makes him slower but more powerful. In Punisher Mode, Cloud cannot block, but he gains a counterattack if he’s attacked physically from close-range. The best builds for Cloud are rooted in his need to be up close to the enemy and skillfully utilize his two stances.

Cloud needs to be in the thick of battle to be the most useful. Even when blocking and countering, he’ll be taking lots of damage, both physical and magical. Out of all the weapons, the Buster Sword is the only weapon that gives a defensive boost to both the physical and magical defensive stats.

Being the first weapon of the game, the Buster Sword will naturally be the weakest of all the weapons without upgrades. However, as the game goes on and more skill points are unlocked, the Buster Sword gains a strong physical and magical damage balance. While the Hardedge and Mythril Saber can be used to focus heavily on one kind of damage, the Buster Sword’s balance allows Cloud to be able to jump into a fray and deal close-range damage.

He can then use his built-up ATB abilities to continue laying on the physical damage or back out and use offensive magic, instead. Since both spells and abilities pull from the magic attack stat, this allows Cloud’s abilities to deal good damage alongside his normal attacks.

The Best Weapon For Barret In Final Fantasy VII Remake

The Best Option To Deal The Most Damage

Barret’s best weapon is Big Bertha, as it focuses on long-range physical attacks and can deal lots of damage. Barret has the largest amount of health and the highest natural physical defense stat.

In combination with his lower movement speed and slow dodge, the best defensive option for Barret is to block and tank the hits he gets. Barret also has a low magic attack, magic defense, and MP, making him a poor choice for lots of offensive magic usage. Certain weapons like the Steel Pincers can mitigate this, but at the cost of long-range physical damage. You can theoretically create an offensive magic build for Barret, but its usefulness will be limited.

Instead, it’s better to lean into Barret’s strengths as a tank: being able to do lots of damage and take lots of damage. Big Bertha boosts Barret’s maximum health, physical attack, and defense at the cost of lowering magic damage. Along with the stat boosts, Big Bertha’s Maximum Fury ability is an excellent attack for clearing out a room of weak enemies.

The Best Weapons For Tifa In Final Fantasy VII Remake

This Close-Range Fighter Packs A Punch

Tifa’s best weapon is the Feathered Gloves. Like Cloud, Tifa is a close-ranged fighter with some decent capacity for magic. What makes her distinct in battle is her mobility, especially when she’s paired with a parry materia. Tifa can quickly travel the battlefield.

Her lower defense is compensated by her ability to dodge and avoid most attacks. Tifa’s Unbridled Strength ability enables her to increase her Chi level. Her martial technique attack gets stronger with every Chi level, and she gains access to longer strings of normal attacks.

The trade-off is that Tifa needs to use a bar of ATB to activate Unbridled Strength. Plus, when she uses her martial technique, she drops one level of Chi. To keep on the damage, Tifa benefits from builds that constantly build ATB so she can use it on Unbridled Strength.

Along with giving a boost in physical and magic attacks, the Feathered Gloves significantly increase Tifa’s speed attribute, which determines how quickly a character’s ATB fills. This speed increase allows Tifa to use Unbridled Strength more often, as well as all her other abilities. The ATB increase can also make Tifa a good support or magic character, as she’ll have access to materia abilities like Assess, Prayer, or Enemy Skill more often.

The Best Weapons For Aerith In Final Fantasy VII Remake

It’s Magic Or Nothing With Aerith

Aerith’s best weapon is the Reinforced Staff. Aerith is a long-ranged magic-user whose physical attack is practically useless. Her normal and Tempest attacks use her magic attack stat, leaving her physical attack for her actual staff.

Aerith’s physical defense, mobility, and the amount of physical damage dealt (even with the Bladed Staff) leave the use of physical attack completely nonviable. Therefore, the best builds for Aerith should be focused more on her magic capabilities—a balance between MP, magic attack, and defense.

While it does cut into Aerith’s MP and health, the Reinforced Staff gives additional magic attack and magic defense. The Mythril Rod is also a good option, since it increases magic attack even more than the Reinforced Staff. However, it provides no defensive boosts and reduces Aerith’s MP even more.

As such, the Reinforced Staff strikes a good balance across more situations. It’s the best option when choosing a weapon for Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Systems

Released

April 10, 2020

ESRB

t

Developer(s)

Square Enix

Publisher(s)

Square Enix

Engine

Unreal Engine 4