I tried the Barret solo method I’d seen somebody do but got too frustrated. I ended up using Cloud and Tifa(less characters to control the better) so I could use synergy attacks. Spam magnify+sleep to keep the adds from getting too close then unleash onto Mindflayer. Rinse and repeat til he’s dead.

The only way I was able to beat this BS challenge was to solo Yufi, run around a bunch, sometimes cast magnify+sleep. I basically ran in quick and did as much damage as possible and then ran around avoiding the area effects and the spheres the mind flayer lobs at you. Every other character was too slow and would keep getting caught in the area effect garbage. It took like 7 mins but it was better than the 50 times I tried everything else. It was Yufi with Speed Materia, Magnify+Sleep, Lightning (because of the weapon buff), Healing, Enemy Skill, Time (used Haste a lot). Such a pain.

I used barret and tifa. Took couple tries to not have barret unload on the little guys but was able to beat it. 

I put that hoe on easy mode and used sleep on the little worm assholes. That shit worked

Cloud and Red work pretty well here and was able to beat in like 2-3 attempts (after days of trying other techniques).

Essentially just keep running away and using ranged howling smash synergy skill. Use sleep with magnify when you have a lot of ATB built and want to spam on the mindflayer without worrying about the tentacle dudes or are about to unleash a synergy ability and want to make sure mindflayer won't disappear or accidentally hit the little ones.

Casting slow (or stop) on mindflayer also calms the situation down. Steadfast block to build atb at a distance and precision block to get extra stagger damage when you strategically move in with Cloud for focused thrust.

Cloud and Reds synergy skill raises the limit so once you've staggered him (and try to time with sleeping the tentacles) then for a lvl2 limit and nuts with ATB attacks to get the mind flayer close to dead.

Keep running away and using ranging howling smash afterwards till you can finish him off.

The big win here is howling smash as it teleports red to you (avoiding the stuns and suicide attacks hitting him) and you just focus on keeping distance with Cloud.

You can do a similar and even better version of this with Barret and the bullet batter skill (does way more damage on the mind flayer) but Cloud and Barrets synergy ability is kinda useless in this battle and doesn't pressure the flayer. Cloud and red have a great synergy ability to pressure and damage him and unlock next level limits.

The red dragon guardian made me very frustrated. His upgraded ability to drown the area with lava is explained poorly in his description, so there was a lot not trial and error.

Felt so fucking good after I beat him on the 10+ try.

If you've done your due diligence and assessed the bosses on Normal, it's pretty easy to set yourself up for succes using their weaknesses on Hard Mode before you go into the fight.

Having said that, GI Nattack was a bit of a bastard for me on my second hard mode run. Any boss that has an insta-wipe move stresses me out and I make bad choices 😂

Aerith has Lustrous Shield that just blocks everything. After you cast firaga once and weed their numbers it's bearable.

Fire spells to exploit weakness.

With Aerith, I ran behind a rock that blocked their seed shots. Arcade Ward+ATB Boost+Firax2=Victory fanfare.

Not really a boss but the Cait vs two adjudicators in Chapter 11 took me many retries because I couldn't figure out how to dodge the sudden 9999-damage attacks

Not even a boss but the quest Flowers on the Hill on hard mode is a complete nightmare if you don't think of using a particular spell, and it's literally one hour in. It's one of the few times I died during the story of hard mode.

Playing a caster in any kind of voice chat can be kind of funny when a round goes from "dude why did you ditch us to go to cathedral we really needed help with that miranda flower" to "ohhhhhhh I see thanks dude," if you're able to drop blood/blackflame or find a good AOE heal for night 3. I think the heal is what I'm usually happiest to see on recluse or duchess, as you can sometimes be pretty hard up for ways to help people who are down more than one bar, and preventing that situation from existing is usually worth prioritizing over everything else. I do hope that this everdark cycle helps more players take a closer look at seals, but especially non-casters who can benefit from some healing or weapon support incants

Easiest is to use Raider and stock up on Damage Negation passives & warming stones throughout the run. I stayed in one spot with occasional dodging from bubbles and of course just dodging to the side for the laser beams.

i lost count hahah, it had to be around 20 attempts. i’m not some virtuoso on the sticks and i found that boss TOUGH. if i took significant damage i gave up and restarted so that drove up the attempts counter quite a bit as well.

i used Tifa and Aerith, started with A to get her wards in place and her tempest made short work of the enemies Phx will spawn. the trick was to ensure that upon the 1st stagger everyone’s ATBs are full and Tifa’s Unbridled Strength is maxed out. then like most bosses, spam Tifa’s multiplier abilities, Clouds Limit, Aerith Blizzaga (can attach Level Up to Ice) and that should do it. when i finally got it it was comically easy and over in about a minute, i felt pretty cool

I told my friend who was having difficulty in the later Chapters of Remake to use Barret cuz he's very forgiving. Being more tanky and ranged. In Rebirth I'd still say to those having trouble try using Barret and Yuffie more.

I feel like im doing something wrong here...

Aerith basically feels impossible to use as the enemy hyperfocuses on her the second you swap. Is there no breathing room or anything?

Fun otherwise, but this is annoying.

EDIT: Maybe im just a bit rattled from the difficulty spike... Guess ill just have to keep using her until i figure out how heh.

I know you don’t have to tear something down to build something up, but I just want to say it’s so weird to me that this studio (albeit a different team) also made FF16 at the same time.  I understand some people like that game’s combat, but I hate it so much.  Normal attacks feel weak and pointless, boss fights are giant damage sponges, and the cooldown based combat (with again, ineffective feeling normal attacks) means that I just perfect dodge around (which is way too easy and has no consequence for failing if your timing is off) and do chip damage while I wait to unload almost all of my skills in the same rotation on the next boss stagger.  This is straight up bad.  It’s all spectacle and no substance. 

Rebirth combat is the anti-16.  Normal attacks are meaty and powerful, and aside from doing legitimate damage and stagger they build up the atb meters.  The perfect parry system creates a real risk-reward gambit and requires more attentiveness than 16’s dodging.  I’m constantly making tactical decisions about how to best use my atb meters, and I’m controlling three characters simultaneously, each with their own unique moves and role on the battlefield, partially dictated by their stats and move set and partially determined by my choices in their materia loadout.  This is fantastic.  It’s succeeding as both an action game and an rpg.  

Anybody else feel the same way?  I know I can’t be alone in thinking this. 

I woulda preferred an aggro system, ngl.

It is overarchingly fun, its just "Some" bosses seem to have a hateboner for Aerith.

Barret was a good tank in the first game, so i could see that happening.

Espicially once i got access to lifesaver, so i dont have to worry about aerith dying too fast.

This is easily closest to Kingdom hearts 1-2 transition in terms of improving combat. It’s flashy like 16 but it actually has substance and isn’t just waiting on cool downs to refresh.

Aerith’s new moveset is bonkers. Radiant ward turning her into a turret machine with a built in teleport is fantastic. My least favorite character in remake easily turned into one of the best. Cloud being able to perform Aerial Combos at will with the blade beams makes him feel so strong and a lot faster.

Then there’s Tifa who has absolutely insane aerial combos. Unbridled strength allowing her to literally dunk enemies in the air is fucking bonkers. When you can ragdoll the enemies, Tifa’s combos are so cinematic.

Red XIII is our first true tank and they’ve managed to maintain a fast paced loop while being able to cancel into a guard at any point with sentinel stance.

Barrett is most similar but I feel like he is there to help transition the player into understand rebirth combat.

This game is already proving to be amazing. I cannot wait to see Yuffie in action. All the characters are so perfect and unique that I’m having trouble choosing what team composition I want to play. They’re all so fun and good. Thursday can’t come soon enough

There are videos up of ppl soloing that fight with one character and taking no damage.

There's a Tifa one that is "no damage, no limit breaks, no magic"

I think it took me 3 tries in my first playthrough with Cloud+Tifa+Red, but I got lucky with timings and multiplying stagger damage before it could do the big attack.

On my second playthrough with Aerith instead of Tifa, it was more challenging as I had to do manaward and fire+elemental in armour in order to tank the big attack, otherwise I would get wiped!

That fight is all about surviving the big attack and recovering quickly afterwards to finish off the boss. It is predictable because it always happens once you take more than 50% of its health, so you need to have enough ATB up by then.

If you get a game over against the final Sephiroth fight, isn't there a checkpoint for the fight and you can open the menu to change your builds. No need to start the whole gauntlet over?

I hear you about not comparing games too directly but I think when you’re focusing in on combat or hard fights it makes more sense to compare those elements to other games for that specific discussion

People don’t typically talk a lot about builds here that I see but some days I’m only scrolling by. I welcome it, post whatever you think is helpful and doesn’t take much of your time. People will see it, people will find it in search.

We still have lots of people who haven’t done all of Hard Mode or even played Rebirth and we have people who are waiting for Part 3 so there are plenty who will benefit still

Congratulations, Rebirth is easier than remake 😅😅.

How did you do the score attack thing for Yuffie? I tried it for ages and didn't get it.

I hear ya! I'm not trying either of them, congratulations to you for even getting this one. I love final fantasy games, always have. I've played them all, but they are known for some brutally hard trophy lists. I'm looking at you ff9 and ff10, lol.

I also have that plat. I thought the hell house on hard was gonna be impossible, but I got really lucky and beated first try, maybe the dragon shit was difficult? But once you have the right set is a walk in the park. 10/10 game imo, the platinum not so much, it’s a grind for real and made me wanted to take a break from the series.

Working on this now, on chapter 5 hard mode, it’s kind of a fun challenge so far. Congrats!

Again. Viking being the hidden gem of FF3.

I remember having to spam Provoke on FF3 Remake superboss just so he wouldn't anahilate my entire team.

How…? Wouldn’t Particle Beam just insta-wipe you?

Hold on, actually? How did you manage this?

Is this 1/1/1/8, using the Viking's critical HP increased defence buff to tank the Particle Beam spam?

I think I’m decent at games. And then I see things like this. I hated my no exp ff6 run. It was torture. I can’t imagine ff3

Creative lol

Back when the game first came out in my infancy of RPG playing, I didn't grind like I do nowand I pulled a super stupid move. I put the Save Crystal the entrance of the Northern Cave. So I ahd to fight all the way down, beat everyone and not die. My characters were around level 60. Didn't have all the cool shit: No Knights, not many mastered Materia, no mime. It was brutal but it was one hell of an experience.

Don't do what I did. Lol.

Fast breed a gold chocobo (there’s a YouTube video on it ) knights of the round + quad + mime and it’s over for anyone

I did some grinding for a couple of hours, leveled up my materia and my characters, and I finally beat it. It took me 23 years to finally beat this game.

Replace Cid with Yuffie or Barret so everyone is in the back row.

Go grab some HP Up materias to get everyone to at least 8000 (possible 7777).

Get the ultimate weapon for everyone in your party (this will help far more than leveling up).

Equip a Ribbon on at least one party member, but preferably all of them.

Make sure everyone is Sad.

Get the enemy skill, Big Guard and spam it.

Use Limit Breaks that hit multiple times.

Lastly, keep Regen up and Cure 3 as needed.

Should be cake.

Stigma ballz in your mouth! Haha gottem