In my opinion, Cloud's best sword is his Bahamut sword at ob10 at the moment. It trivializes close to all content up to ex missions. 

Zack’s crossover weapon is really good and is the only one worth pulling the most. You can basically make any enemies weak to fire(that isnt resistant to fire) and deal great damage. Plus mdef up all is good for survivality.

Cloud for sure and maybe Aerith is getting weapons in 2’nd ani so wait for that. But Zack isnt getting anything so his weapon and costume is worth pulling since its good anyways

This Japanese website is the only place with updated tier lists for each character that I'm aware of.

Honestly, If you’re a new player, I’d skip all the crossover weapons and wait for the anniversary. All these weapons will pale next to what we get in September.

I haven’t started hard yet, but hard edge loaded with purp materia and attack upgrades made later chapters a breeze. The trick is to find ways to speed up your atb gauge for him and spam skills

I ran hardedge with deadly dodge, elemental attack/lightning.

Would just roll into the group combo and have full atb then use blade beam/triple slash to hit multiple enemies with skills. Used infinity edge to deal big damage.

Hardedge gets the highest physical attack stats.

Hardege, it has the highest atk stat

Hybrid Melee/ magic with stinger is my go to. It has +elemental materia dmg along with +dmg to all elemental types. So the base attack stats are lower but with those buffs it does amazing damage especially in hard mode now that you can prep for each boss.

my favorite is the buster sword. i just started my hard mode run and i’m using the iron blade simply for the fact it has trade-off. regaining that MP is clutch. it also has reprieve

For Cloud I just stuck with the buster sword and only used the other swords to unlock their abilities

For the others I swapped around a lot

Anything with Trade Off + a lot of HP increases

Cloud: Hardedge Tifa: Metal Knuckles Aerith: Mythril Rod Barret: Big Berta

I have cloud and Tifa have highest attack damage they can have and Aeris have most magic damage with this setup

Buster sword is pure stats. It's abilities are bad.

You want to be using Iron Blade or Twin Stinger if you care about magic and reprieve. Mythril sabre is probably his best. You do more damage off magic than physicals, and it's high magic combined with -20% magic costs is an incredible boon.

Hard Edge is for pure physical but you don't really want that. Magic is too strong.

• why did I have to wait like 10 minutes to post this?

Its probably the best all around weapon for him I like twin stinger because you can just spam magic.

The passive abilities you learn on the level 6 cores make me not use the Buster Sword. Reprieve, 20% MP cost reduction on healing spells, etc.

Buster Sword is a good all around weapon.

That being said, it doesnt excell at anything compared to Mythrill Saber for Magic Damage and Hardedge for physical dmg.

It really depends on your playstyle and/or the enemies you are fighting to be really honest haha

When I played through I only used the other swords to learn the proficiencies then changed back to Buster as it just feel more right to use it.

You're going to hit all 9s with infinity edge taking 2 atb instead of ga spells taking 1 atb that can be used more freely even when you're not controlling a character because of atb assist building their bars. ga spells also regardless of enemy weaknesses are far more likely to pressure an enemy, such as knocking bahamut down in to pressured state to delay his megaflare.

8K is Very high attack damage. I’m assuming Cid and Red XIII are using their Ultimate Weapons? The damage on those types of weapons do not follow the same formula as other weapons, so it’s an apples to oranges comparison. 1,500 damage from Cloud is more in line with your levels. Maybe a little low, but those are strong enemies you are fighting, so it makes sense.

What materia do you have equipped? Also do you have equipment like a Gigas armlet or Champion belt equipped to Red or Cid to increase their strength?

Materia is what boost them. Go to mideel area and run around and level it up with and double or triple weapons you have.

You should have several level 3 or max buy now

What I would give for those MP numbers in Rebirth hard mode 😭😭

I miss the days of triple digit MP 🥹

I used the buster sword the whole game just because I like the way it looks, didn’t run into any issues

I would buy each weapon and at least acquire the skill for it, then upgrade according to your preferred play style. My favorite weapon was acquired late-game, but it’s down to personal preference.

Should definitely buy every weapon, as you need to use the new weapons to learn their skill. On the weapon stat itself they'll tell you what you need to do to gain proficiency and learn the skill.

Which weapon to use ultimately depends on whether you want to min/max what you do with the weapon upgrades. Personally I stick with buster sword because it looks good.

You will use the original buster sword for about an hour of the 40+ hour game. haha

You should be buying every weapon in the remake, there’s only 5-6 for each character, and some of them are mission rewards so it won’t cost much. All weapons can be used for the whole game, but it’s good to have options+ each weapon has an unlockable skill which can be applied to the others

That leg in the air lol 😆 

Nice work!

Ob10 Cloud turns Cloud with his old weapons into modern dps. Cleared escalation 25 with Cloud fire weapon and his weapon ob10. Yes he broke a stage made to make Sephiroth and magic user shine.that is how strong he becomes.

Sephiroth? His fire weapon is strong and you better get if you do not have Lucia limited weapon. Since I have Lucia focused on Cloud and Sephiroth's other weapon, now ob6 and yes in my opinion this weapon will last far longer since it brings new party buff.

For fire magic if you have been playing for a while you should have Tifa fire weapon + Matt weapon that boost magic and fire. These two weapons in the general pool and get you very close to what Sephiroth can do. More over they hinted that next month Zack 0.5 anniversary fire will get a rework, another powerful fire magic weapon. So, that is why I prioritized Cloud and Sephiroth non.e weapon. By the way, I pulled till end page 3, got 0 copy of his fire weapon and no UW. No regret

Depends how many pulls you got saved but I would get two or three copies of Cloud's and take it to OB6 using those weapon parts then go for Sephiroth's weapon to hopefully get OB6 by the third page and call it a day because anything past page 3 is a shot in the dark.

I went with clouds fusion. I’m kinda nervous about seph honestly. I have a feeling his weapon parts will be very scarce and most of his weapons will be almost exclusively lb’s…just a feeling tho. I have no evidence other than squareenix/appli’s past behavior.

Sephiroth's non-elemental is an amazing weapon for EVERY situation. Great off-hand and it will never be bad. While his other weapon is locked to fire (Amazing for magic, still decent for physical as a support).

Cloud's is good as an off-hand for every situation too. His best off-hand IMO.

NOW, I've seen somewhere that apparently Seph will not get many banners (might not get an other this year) so ... yeah I wish I knew that before pulling ...

Seph is OP.

I thought Ultima Weapon would have been cooler than just a few highlighted colours. I honestly like Murasame as one of his weapons.

How has no one mentioned Ultima Weapon yet? Stunning

The buster sword is an obvious answer but I'll go with some others. The Hardedge is sweet. I also like the butterfly edge looks like a giant combat knife. And a shout out to the crystal sword. I always pretend it's Cecils sword from ff4 because it looks like that.

I like ultima,force stealer looks good too

Loved this in the remake haha. Always finish boss fights with a home run.

I'd rather get hit with kotr than have climhazard used with the nailbat

Ragnarok and apocalypse look dope.