Defeating the Ruby Weapon (v1.1) by da chicken Ruby Weapon is without a doubt the most difficult enemy in all of FFVII. Not because he has 1,000,000 hp. But because his tactics of battle are so rude. This file is an attempt to explain the easiest method for defeating him. Note that by the time you are capable of defeating him, you'll likely already have a Gold Chocobo, so the victory is somewhat hollow, but still impressive nonetheless. If you can't find something I list here, check out the FFVII FAQ on square.net. Here's a quick rundown on the Ruby Weapon: Hp: 1,000,000 Weakness: None(?) Absorb: All but Gravity Immune: Gravity Exp: 50000 AP: 50000 Win: Desert Rose Ruby weapon is _immune_ to almost everything that damages it _unless_ his claws are in the ground. He likes to club you with his claws when they're not in the ground. They hit for a few thousand each. He's also very fond of the Comet 2 spell. This causes 4 strikes causing 2000+ each. To make matters worse, this battle is considred an attack from both sides, so there is no back row to hide in. His most annoying attack is . Ruby randomly choses a character and removes them from the combat. So eventually, it'll be a one on one battle. There's an easy way to avoid the worst of this attack (see below) which is when he eliminates your "buff" character intended to kill him. NOTE: You _can_ cast Exit to get out of this combat. You return to the overworld and the Ruby Weapon stands there staring at you. When his claws are buried, two "fingers" appear behind the party. Each claw has a few thousand hp... not sure of the exact amount. One of the claws hits for physcal damage (a few thousand times two for attack from rear), and the other, more dangerous, claw stikes causing several hundered MP to be lost. Only Knight of Round, Bahumut, Neo Bahumut, Bahumut ZERO, and Ultima (not sure about this one) can hurt Ruby Weapon with his claws out of the ground. These are "unblockable attacks". I've heard rumors that Hades can be used to mute/sleep/??? Ruby Weapon. Have not confirmed this. Method 1: First, since you know he'll eventually eliminate two of the three characters, it is best to kill off the other two who you won't use before combat ever begins. I usually use Cloud and have him kill off Tifa and Cid (my other two characters I normally use). This prevents Ruby from getting rid of Cloud, who has all the equpment to take Ruby on. Here's my equipment list: Weapon: Enhance Sword/Ultimate Weapon Use Enhance Sword if you want the several thousand AP the Ruby has available to grow your materia. Both have 8 linked slots. Armor: Mystile 50% Evade and 60% MEvade means you almost never get hit. Also has 6 linked slots. Found at Midgar City (Disc 2) north of Proud Clod, Northern Crater (Disc 3) right path. Acc: Ribbon One of RW's fingers will do a 30 second Petrify attack, so this is useful. Get one by Morphing Master Tonberry (left path of Northern Crater) if you don't have one. Materia: Master Summon (get this from Emerald Weapon) W-Summon MP Absorb HP Plus MP Plus Revive Final Attack (get from battle Square special battle) Enemy Skill Skills: Angelic Whisper-- Found in Northern Crater. Take the right path. Eventually you'll run into a scantily-clad woman (Pollen Salitas) who always casts Charm on you. She has Angelic Whisper. You'll need Manipulate to get it. Big Guard-- Gongaga. You'll find "Beach Plugs" (squids) on the beaches nearby. You must Manipulate them to get them to use it on you. White Wind-- Junon/Fort Condor area. Look for green-white catus looking guys (Zemlezett). Often, they appear alone. They have a "Thunderbolt" attack which looks like a smoke cloud. Anyways, you need to Manipualate him to get that, too. Be sure to bring an Ether. One Thunderbolt reduces his MP below 34 (the casting cost of White Wind). Normally, you'd want to link Phoenix to Final Attack, but since you want the others to remain dead and Fire _heals_ the Ruby weapon, Revive is better. Preferably you have a Master level Final Attack, so you'll have 5 "extra lives". I used the Enemy Skill Materia more than Master Magic. Angelic Whisper just rocks. For 50 MP, you fully heal (if you're high enough level) and/or cast Life 2 on the character. It can't be beat. Get this from the scantily clad women on the right path in the Norther Crater. You must Manipulate them to get it. Big Guard casts Wall and Haste for 56 MP. Get this from the Beach Plugs on the beaches near Gongaga. You must Manipulate these guys to get this one, too.. White Wind is also useful. Some people prefer to use Regen and/or FullCure. Also take a handful of Turbo Ethers/Elixers. That MP draining Claw is annoying as hell. Link Final Attack to Revive Link MP Absorb to Master Summon Option: Enough HP Plus to max you out. (strongly recommended) Option: Enough Magic Plus to get to 255 Magic Power (maximum). Now start the battle (run the airship into his head sticking out of the ground). First, set up a Big Guard. Now just Defend and heal until he buries his claws. Now the boring part begins. W-Summon Knights of Round. Target the first at his claws, the second at his body. The Claws die, and you do about 70,000-100,000 damage to Ruby. Keep in mind he has 1,000,000 HP, so you'll need to do this about 10 or 11 times. So you get to watch Knights of Round 20 times. You'll gain 2400 MP from the claws and 1000 from the Ruby, so you'll be full. Ruby retalliates to KoR with Ultima, which deals 7000 damage if it hits (this is why you use Mystile: 60% MEvade rocks). If it hits and you don't die (you shouldn't) you'll have time to cast Angelic Whisper while Ruby retracts his claws. Now he usually casts Comet 2 a few time before burying his claws again. Rinse and Repeat. :) Ruby usually runs out of MP on about the 6th time you Knight him. After that, the battle is a breeze since he can no longer cast Ultima or Comet2. Method 2 (thanks to amalricantero!): This method is much less complicated, and only requires you to have a Gold Chocobo. It _should_ work farly well vs Emerald Weapon, too. Indeed, I used the Quadra-Ultima version to beat EW last time. Physical attacks work better on Emerald Weapon though. Materia: Knight of Round (level 2) linked to HP Absorb W-Summon Mime Option: Enough HP Plus to max you out. (strongly recommended) Option: Link Mime to master Counter [Command] (strongly recommended) Option: Enough Magic Plus to get to 255 Magic Power. Option: Final Attack linked to Revive Option: Change KoR to Ultima, W-Summon to W-Magic, and add Quadra Magic (level 2)-Ultima (yup, ya need 2 Ultimas) Rest of equipment (Armor, etc.) is the same. Any questions? E-mail me at bmaiken@svsu.edu. =============================BONUS HINT==================================== Ruby Weapon _can_ be hurt when his claws are not in the ground. You need to use an "unblockable" magic attack. This includes the 3 Bahumut summon materias, Knights of Round, and (possibly) Ultima, Shadow Flare, and "????". =============================BONUS HINT 2================================== This has nothing to do with Ruby, but it's still pretty cool. Once you find the W-Item materia (raid on Midgar) it is possible to use it to boundlessly multiply any item you can use with it. This includes excellent stuff like Megalixers, Elixers, Hero Drinks, and several other rare items. First, equip the W-Item materia, enter combat, and choose the W-Item command. It is useful to put ATB in "Wait" mode and to put the cursor on Memory. Next, select the item you wish to multiply and use it like normal (ex: select and Elixer and select it for use on Cloud). Now, when you return to the Item select screen, choose a different item (ex: Potion). Be careful! Don't use the second item! Now, while the finger is waiting for you to select who to use the second item on, instead press the cancel button "X". Now press "O" again to select. Keep alternatic between the "X" and "O" key. Every time you press the "X" key, you get a free copy of the first item you choose! This works very well for getting lots of Elixers to feed to Magic Pots (found in the water area of the left path) so you can get massive amounts of AP (1000 for each Pot). Give the Pots an Elixer so you can hurt them (you can't if you don't). =============================BONUS HINT 3=================================== OK, so I'm bored. Those who missed these are going to wonder why it took so long to load up. Unlimited Sources! In the Sunken Plane, the upper room has 3 types of enemies. If you Morph them, you get either a Power Source, a Magic Source, or a Guard Source. These 3 enemies can all be hit by Demi3! Use W-Magic and Demi3, Mime it, and have the third player Morph. In addition, you get either 150, 200, or 300 AP per battle. Eventually, you could max out (to 255) these three attributes! The Cargo area allows you to fight more enemies and get more sources, but the flying dragon is, of course, immune to gravity based attacks (as all fliers are). You can use the FFVII FAQ to find out where to get Mind, Speed, and Luck sources.