It depends if on hard mode the stats don't really matter when your charector has 300 ish attack after leveling so 10 attack only adds 3% damage which is outclassed by some 5% damage or defenatly 10% crit etc. I wish the weapons displayed all stats to make it easier. Oh and on hard more reprive is very valuable and mp regen and 6500 min hp to not die.

For me Barrett is big bertha or light machine gun I can't choose between the two.

Cloud is iron sword reprive mp regen good hp some other things. That Twin Saber no hp so unusable. Buster it has stats and not much else. Hardege like I said later stats don't do much the nail bat does way more so hardedge has stats about it.

Tifa purple rain great hp other goodies some crit use prayer on her and other no need mana stuff she don't need spells. Feather gloves no hp so you die.

Airith is the easy one silver staff you can't even run out of mana if you try so you can completely skip any mana up and get everything else plus it has hp every thing you need for hard mode this is the best weapon for a char in the game hands down. Not saying Arith is the best but I wish the other heroes had a perfect fit weapon.

If playing easy mode hardege, metal knuckles etc your charectors won't get high level and you can't die no need to heal etc just kill them faster. But still level 30 to 50 stats matter less and less and you won't be killing them faster.

I think I ended up with (now this is Normal game so please don’t jump on me Hard game people)

Cloud - Hard Edge Tifa - Metal knuckles Barrett - Big Bertha Aerith - Mythril staff

My Cloud and Tifa were obviously physical attack oriented, with Barrett an all-rounder and Aeris just slinging spells about

Why is everyone so stuck on the Hardedge? Sure it has the best attack, but all around the Iron Blade has the edge imho. Balanced attack and magic, great health and defence boosts, also Iron Blade has 2 key abilities end game that give it the advantage. Reprieve and Trade Off. Especially on hard mode. Gaining MP is HUGE on longer levels, and It’s pretty cool when your entire party survives megaflare with one HP thanks to reprieve. Long story short I choose: Iron Blade for Cloud Purple Pain for Tifa great crit boosts, speed and reprieve. Arcane Scepter for Aerith for the HUGE mp boost and Reprieve Big Bertha for barrett. Huge health boosts and abilities, no reprieve but with HP materia he has max hp so he can damn near survive anything.

Also end game the OP party doesn’t include Barrett anyways so no reprieve doesn’t matter much.

I feel like even though purple pain cries a lot, the attack stat isn't high enough to do as much damage as you could with metal knuckles or feather gloves. I just switched to feather after using purple pain cor a while , with 2 luck up materia and I'm critting loads but with really high normal attack damage as well.

The only weapon I changed is Barrett's Big Bertha, all other chars I used the default.

You’re gonna want to make each character a different class so to speak. Aerith for me is the person that buffs everyone else whether that’s with using magnify+barrier or magnify+haste or magnify+anything really.

To give you another tip (albeit, pretty specific), don't sleep on Cloud's counterfire synergy ability, it basically automatically perfect parrys any ranged projectile attack, though you do have to somewhat time it. You can generally tell which enemy attacks are counterfire-able if Cloud gets hit by that attack while in Punisher mode and he doesn't retaliate. I say this because for some reason there are some exceptions, like you can't counterfire Odin's ranged spear attacks, but then you can counterfire a Jabberwock's stomp attack. Elemental spells are counterfire-able as well, so if you see an enemy casting Fire/Blizzard/Thunder/Wind at you, you'll know what do.

Tifa + Starshower ability destroys everything, same with Cloud + Firebolt, also consider adding Str Up, and Elemental to Cloud and Tifa. And if all else fails go to options and system and change the difficulty.

I had the opposite problem found the game didn't offer much of a challenge except for the Odin summon which despite completing every sidequest and was past lvl 60 could not beat after 30 or 40 tries.

If you’re doing side content fully you’ll be overleveled on normal difficulty in my experience.

Also prayer materia and first strike materia. Same as remake.

I got through the entire game and most of hard mode without ever using attack magic, synergy skills or punisher mode. So that shouldn’t really be your restriction. I find synergy skills garbage. There’s no time stop so very difficult to implement. You can ignore them, I only used them at the very end of hard mode to boost the relationship with cloud.

Also the enemy skill materia in this game is really good. Sonic boom and plasma discharge you should use all the time with melee attackers.

Get multiple copies of the same meteria (specificly stuff like fire, ice, lightning, wind, and healing)

Pair these multiple copies with blue materia like hp and mp absorb. That way, whenever you attack using magic, you both heal your character and refund some mp at the same time. You can also use a magnify materia at the same time so you can take out large groups quickly. Use first strike and atb boost materia to speed this up.

Healing materia paired with magnify and magic focus materia at the same time is more effective than prayer materia, it heals more and only costs one atb bar rather than prayer materials two. Aerith can use soul drain to regain the mp she loses using healing materia (the only downside since prayer doesn't cost mp). Putting a healing carcanet on Barret with the prayer materia is a decent alternative.

Master elemental blue materia as soon as possible and always use assess on new enemies, while it's useful in the weapon slot it's even better on armor, several enemies in the game become nearly unable to damage you at all, if you max out elemental it will even heal you, lots of enemies do elemental attacks, these attacks can be viewed after using assess so you can plan accordingly.

Once you obtain Yuffie and Aerith has the skill atb ward, you can do the best strategy in the game. Equip yuffie with the speed Demon key chain (you get it for beating Roche at Junon with all your soldiers still alive), then while in battle use a time materia to apply haste to Yuffie and have Aerith place an atb ward down underneath Yuffie. When Yuffie uses brumal form with this setup and standing on the ward, it won't consume any atb, you can use it infinitely so long as Haste is active and while she uses it on the ward it will also charge your allies atb Guage, you can instantly use skills that would normally cost two atb charges repeatedly.

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

Nice !!

Thank you !!

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.

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 ...

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.

Seph is OP.

Some of these are more for subweapon purposes, but if you want to have a good value of balancing being at least somewhat useful in both mainhand, offhand, and subweapon roles:

Cloud: Murasame or Skysplitter

Barret: Electrocannon or Enemy Launcher

Tifa: Depends on phys/mag, but almost anything

Aerith: Fairy Tale

Red: Silver Collar

Yuffie: Arctic Star or any elemental debuff weapon

Cait Sith: Flower Vase

Vincent: Chiron or S1976

Zack: Twinkling Star

Sephiroth: Depends on phys/mag, but almost anything

Glenn: Ultimatic

Matt: Centipede

Lucia: Mad Minute

But really, you want to focus on having ways to buff your party (PATK/MATK, but especially PDEF/MDEF all) and debuff opponents (PATK/MATK/PDEF/MDEF, and ideally resist for all elements). Gather weapons to boost an Arcanum character's damage and weapons to boost heal/buff debuff extension for supports. Also, characters like Caith Sith and Vincent and even older ones like Lucia are going to be far harder to build up than characters like Cloud and Tifa.

Best bet is to mostly save crystals until Anniversary. Likely be at least some free pulls before then, so just work with what you get and then figure out the holes you need.

It's honestly a difficult question because a weapon's use is subjective to the content you're doing. For example, Maritime Sword would be great on Cloud if you're fighting Ramuh, but not so much on other stuff that isn't weak to water. No character really has a full time best in slot setup that requires a specific weapon, you'll be mix and matching for the content you're doing, and if a character lacks the weapons/utility needed, it'd be swapped for a character who does provide it.

The big standouts lately have come from the Monster Hunter and Limit Break banners. Most character's have a smattering of useful weapons for specific elements or to fill in for a crucial buff or debuff, you'd just have to review each to determine if it'd fit your needs. Then there's the matter of R abilities, some weapons may not be useful in a given situation but their R abilities are useful. A few standouts for their use as a main/offhand weapon from the general pool though:

• Cloud: Bandaged Sword - MDEF party buff utility.
• Barret: Microlaser - Makes him a solid enough healer, with Assault Gun and Electrocannon as further support options.
• Tifa: Bunny Gloves + Feather Gloves - All in one magic water damage dealer, just needs someone to water imperil.
• Aerith: Floral Wand - I honestly have a hard time recommending a specific one that stands out. Floral Wand is really it, to pair with Sephiroth while retaining her ability to heal the party.
• Red XIII: Ivy Collar and Silver Collar - Takes care of 66% of the imperils in the game, with Seaside Collar taking care of thunder imperil. I'm sure we'll be seeing earth imperil from him in the coming months.
• Yuffie: Arctic Star - Double physical attack buff, allows her to buff your main DPS to full and mid buff herself to support DPS.
• Cait Sith - Yellow Megaphone - Hard to recommend this without the costume, but crit hit shenanigans can have a use in some content.
• Vincent - I can't really recommend a specific one, a lot of them are good for different builds and situations. We'll have to see what new content brings us because going off of all prior content, the low HP potency effect is going to be difficult to manage.
• Zack - Ceremonial Sword (Z) - Solid R abilities, useful buff, and a hard hitting non-elemental weapon. Helps enable his physical builds.
• Sephiroth - Dark Heavens + Shinra Military Sword - All in one wind physical damage dealer, just needs someone to wind imperil and defense break (like Aerith with Floral Wand).
• Glenn - Ultimatic - Solid non-elemental option plus good R abilities.
• Matt - Centipede - Fantastic healing weapon with a useful buff attached and good R abilities. He has other good options too such as Syringe Rapier and Bramble Spine.
• Lucia - Mad Minute - The other characters I picked useful weapons to main hand/offhand, but Lucia is a bit scattered in her role IMO. I'd vote Mad Minute just for the desired R abilities.

Well it depends, but usually I consider buff and debuff weapons to be best. For Sephiroth I’d go with Aonibi and Shinra Military Sword (Aonibi gives magic buff, SMM gives physical and wind buff)

Aerith is Sun Umbrella and Fairytale

Zack is twinkling star (It debuff MATK and PDEF on enemies, and can also be used for a healer build.) and ceremonial sword (gives a good PATK buff and also does high damage)

Matt is Centipede and Syringe. Centipede gives a good PDEF buff AND good healing, Syringe gives a good PDEF AND MDEF buff. 

Honestly that’s all I got for advice for weapons

Lifeguard Gloves-Tifa for area healing Centipede-Matt for same, also double barrier 4 Point-Yuffie for Shuriken Throw Marine Shooter-Lucia for double Fire Breach Sleek Collar-Red for double Manaward Gilded Age-Vincey for Gilded Spirit Fairy Tale-Aerith for Curaga Battle Trumpet-Cait for Battle Drum Flower Vase for Hang In There (Haste) These are in the top 5 for these characters, but they're mostly buffs or debuffs.

Crystal Sword (C) Lifeguard Wraps Fairy Tale Prime Number Centipede Platinum Collar (weak) and Flower Vase (also weak) all provide area healing.

I mean, the game just doesn’t work like this really. Different setups are useful for different scenarios.

I’d say as a new/returning player, focus on getting OB1 of the weapons you need most for current content. If you have arcanum outfits for any characters, let that guide who you primarily turn to for hitting elemental weaknesses.

This perspective comes from a player who has only completed the Gongaga section on his first playthrough.

• Yuffie & Aerith: Easily the most overpowered characters and incredibly fun to play—I fully believe in Doppelganger/Radiant Ward supremacy.
• Tifa & Barret: Rock solid since Remake, and they just keep getting better in Rebirth. However, Yuffie and Aerith completely outshine them in terms of sheer fun. Barret’s Bonus Round makes certain boss fights feel like a joke >!sorry Dyne and Mythril Golem!<, while Tifa remains the stagger queen, melting bosses with ease. Yet, I barely use them in Rebirth—they're almost too strong, making the game feel unchallenging in a way that isn’t enjoyable.
• Cloud: A massive improvement from Remake—he’s actually fun to play in Rebirth! That said, I still mostly use him as a Haste/Resist/Refocus/Assess bot for Yuffie and Aerith, at least until Hard Mode, where I can swap him out for Cait Sith and run a full DPS party.
• Red XIII: He’s... fine. Not bad to play, and I don’t mind using him in party-locked encounters, but he feels a bit too vanilla. His Vengeance mechanic and the party-wide Haste are neat, though.
• Cait Sith: Just got him last night, and controlling him feels like piloting a helicopter. I might get the hang of it, but for now, he's already an incredible auto-support bot.

The characters that I enjoy the most:

Tifa is my favorite to play as, and you described her perfectly "speed and power". Having the ability to increase stagger damage, a Focused attack, an incredible dodge, air combat, being able to cancel animations, and having a clear weakness (not able having a consistent AoE attack) makes her great. I like that she has a weak point and that she is not perfect.

Aerith has become my second favorite. I have bveen using her Synergy skills and those make her incredible. Combat Savior is so good, she aslo has a charge attack, and her defensive synergy skills are pretty good since she can basically dodge and another character blocks for her. She is more than her wards.

Cloud combat is great, is kinda lame that you cannot change him out of the party in New Game, but his combat is fun even if you do it the whole game. His Synergy skills are cool looking: Spell and power blade, and his counterfire is cool to do also.

Yuffie was my second favorite, but her Synergy skills outside Foxflame are kinda whatever. But everything else about her is fantastic, her regular abilities and her animations in combat are great.

Barret and Red XIII are tied for me. Although I like that they are a bit more of support characters that can dish some damage, there are some abilities that not are not very flashy due their nature, like Chilling roar or Steelskin. Sure they are great, but I feel they need a little more oomph. Also their synergy skills are fine.

Cait Sith last. In one of my playthroughs I made sure to play as him a lot. I kinda learned how to play him in a basic level, but I just don't vibe with his style.

I could probably solo the game with just Yuffie, it’s insane how good she feels to play. I thought for sure they would nerf her a bit from intermission but no, shes still freaking amazing. Especially if you have precision block and brumal form down.

Ok, like almost everyone else, I really did not like playing as Cait Sith at first (still don't like his Manor segment) but after playing with a bit more, he's actually a lot of fun for me personally. Also, Dice rolls are not meant to be consistent. That's the whole point.

My main team was Cloud, Tifa, Barret. I didn't learn how to use Yuffie until late in the game and she is extremely good, but so squishy is my only issue. Aerith is an absolute powerhouse but her ATB is so slow to charge up. You really have to use some tricks with the ATB ward to make her be able to use her magic. Red is a good support with his haste abilities but I still can't use him so I mostly leave him out. By far the worst is Cait Sith. He is so unbelievably weak in every aspect. I hate him.

Oetsu 2/5 is pretty decent

I could be misremembering but isn't stage 8 around the 3 stages where bosses get super buff and then go back to normal? It's a hurdle and it's always a slog to get through those particular ones even when I have great units.

I used TYBW Apache, she performs way better as long as you keep dodging lol

What’s better for Ninny and Noel, a 5*+ Karakoran Alpha or the Ninny and Noel Cards?

It's meant for Noel

Barret is naturally built as a tank. His uniqueness is in the fact that he’s long ranged, which means that he can be switched to to draw agro, while at the same time his Overcharge allows him to build an atb bar pretty much instantly, and he can contribute physical dps and build his own atb continuously without much repositioning.

I played him as a caster, occasionally switching to him for a heal or prayer.

In certain boss fights, his Lifesaver does exactly what it says, coupled with reprieve you’ll see where and how he shines.

I don’t think there is a best materia setup because fights are different from one another

Also why put cure magnify in cloud if he’s physical DPS as you mentioned and not on Aerith to take advantage of magic boost

I love the feathered gloves with tifa, with both luck ups. Hotkey overpower and focused strike and hammer away with em at chi 3, she's always got an atb ready. I give her time to haste herself or cast stop on a stagger, too.

Barret is awesome for support. Steel skin, lifesaver, pray, and magnified barrier. Throw a quick overcharge if you need a fast atb for a cast.

At risk of being pedantic it’s bangle.

I prefer the hybrid build on Cloud. Yeah, Infinity's End can hit the damage cap, but using the 2 ATB on double Blade Burst instead will end up doing more.

Barret works really well as a support/tank or a melee bruiser, depending on what you need.