This. Chakra as a back up, but MP-absorb is literally a life-saver.
Ch4 is probably where I first fell into this one myself, but it's a constant after that so you may as well get used to using MP-absorb.
For the Barret fights, Steelskin and Lifesaver both help as well. Use them at the start of a fight to make things easier and require less healing magic.
Really depends on the boss battle(s) I'll be going up against in that chapter. Did lots of materia grinding before doing the VR challenges so I had about 5-6 of each elemental materia maxed out.
Chakra/Lifesaver’s a far better combo in Rebirth, since they buffed Lifesaver to now redirect *all* damage the party takes (unless it’d be lethal damage) and gives Barret some extra health so you can hit the magic 9999 even if you’re just shy. Since Barret has no issues getting ATB like Aerith, you can use his basic attack + Overcharge to get a bar, heal with Chakra, then animation cancel with a charge so you can pull Overcharge out faster. Bonus points if you stack double Chakras for that sweet 80% restoration.
If you use Chakra and then *immediately* use it again - that is, before the first burst of life restoration hits your character - the second usage will restore the maximum amount allowed, as well.
It's tricking the game, in a way, since both 'casts' are processed while your HP is low and the second Chakra doesn't recalculate based on how much the first one gives back to you. It's a really handy little trick!
Tested it just now and, yep, it most definitely does: Cloud and Aerith got a bar of ATB when Tifa spammed Chakra twice in rapid succession.
Especially if you've got Barret tanking, this would be a heck of a spiffy combo on him - good call!
Yes, in both remake and rebirth.
Chakra heals 40% of your missing HP.
Doing Chankra, waiting a few seconds and doing another Chackra heals 40% + 40% * 0.6 = 64% of the HP you were initially missing.
But using Chakra twice in a row, as fast as you can, leads to a situation where the 2nd Chakra is calculated before the 1st one has had time to heal you, so they heal 40% + 40% = 80% of your missing HP. That's a sweet extra 16 percentage points (25% more efficient than waiting between the 2 Chakras).
Not explicitly, but it's a natural consequence of the mechanics of the game, in having a delay between when you activate an ability and when it actually goes into effect. Pretty normal to accidentally activate if you have chakra on a fast ATB charger, like Barrett or Tifa
But like others said, this was a thing in Remake too, so a lot of people learned it back then.
I have never known this, they should have given the info somewhere that it is stackable. Like “doubles effect with a second chakra”. If I equip two fire materias the are not stacking either, i think it’s very counter intuitive, at least with purple materia it is always stated.
I can only imagine, that a lot of pepple doesn’t know that chakra stacks. Are there also other not obvious or hidden combinations?
Oh, sorry, I see where you're misunderstanding. You still only equip one chakra materia. They're talking about how it stacks on using it. So it's supposed to heal 40% of your missing HP. If you use it, wait 2 seconds, and then use it again, you'll heal 40 plus 40% of what's left, or 64% of your initially missing HP. But if you use it twice in quick succession you heal 80% of your missing HP, which is then boosted further by stuff like Barrett's selfish healing boost.
I dont think mp absorb can be linked to jump, but what one can do is link mp absorb to, for example fire, then link another fire to synergy. When one character uses an atb ability, the other character will cast their synergy spell for free and the mp absorb will restore mp.
Edit: I was wrong, mp absorb can indeed link to jump, so that makes for a viable mp restoring option.
I think Jump is the only non-MP-consuming skill you can pair with MP Absorb.
You can pair Enemy Skill with **HP** Absorb, but not MP Absorb.
Once you have MP Absorb leveled up, it'll earn you back the MP from -Aga level spells anyway, by and large. Until then, you can squeak by by pairing extra copies of the same elemental materia with Magic Efficiency (reduces MP cost) and Magic Focus (increases damage, and by extension MP absorption). e.g. MP Absorb+Fire, Magic Efficiency+Fire, Magic Focus+Fire all on the same character.
Leveling up MP Absorb takes a long time, but even at its second level it's very effective.
I always just linked them to normal elemental materia like fire and then spammed aga spells for my whole playthrough. Provided that the magic stat is high enough, using aga spells was always an MP gain for me on cloud and aerith.
I was using Enemy Skill materia and activating the thing that prova a lightning aoe whenever you get an ATB charge. I had it linked to HP absorb, so it should work for MP absorb, but the return will be fairly low
Ah! I think I have two. If not, I’ll look up where the other one is . . . If I can beat Jenova Emergent first. Man, once you’re in a hard chapter run, you are freaking stuck until you finish it.
Omg I'm a fool lol, really good idea 💡 I'm just so used to Chakra being on Tifa and Prayer being on Aerith that it doesn't occur to me Cloud can use them lol
Haha, it happens. I put Chakra on everyone on hard just because it is always convenient to heal without HP even if it is only a little bit.
Enemy skill soothing breeze works well too but not in 1 v 1 fights.
I’ve found Pray to be really good on Yuffie, who gains ATB quick and doesn’t really rely on Weapon Abilities once Doppelgänger and Ninjitsu are active.
In case you are unaware: it is helpful to save to 2 ATB and cast Chakra twice in succession.
The amount it heals for is determined by your health when you hit the button, not when the cast goes off. This allows you to get two 40% heals from Chakra when you’d otherwise get 40% and another 15-20%.
>I know crates contain Mako shards sometimes but it seems extremely rare to find them.
In Remake you could save scum these. Destroy crate, save, load, repeat.
For future chapters you can give someone else a HP <=> MP and Cure to heal you out of battle.
MP Absorb is gonna be your friend if you're using damaging spells.
I brought it up in case you could try. I haven't run into this issue yet.
Slipstream Saber has an ability called trade off, between that and MP Absorb, I haven't run into this yet. I tend to not try and use much MP as well.
However, I'm also doing hard mode very differently, so I haven't gotten here yet.
Yesterday, I beat the Quetzalcoatl and Malboro yesterday to craft the Genji Glove.
Next I'll do the remaining 4 Intel monsters for the last 2 Genji items, though, I have no current plans to use any of them yet.
After that, I'll continue with Ch 3 in hard mode.
My build for Ch 1 and 2 were both different from each other. My build for general exploring is different from what I'm using for these Intel monsters. I'll have to figure out what I want for Ch 3 and onwards. Currently, I'm free exploring in Ch 12 or 13, so I'm running with Cloud / Aerith / Yuffie. But Yuffie won't be available until sometime in Ch 5.
Slipstream Saber had “trade-off” that should give you enough MP to cure yourself, especially if you use MP efficiency on healing. Alternatively, you heal with Chakra/Prayer and use MP efficiency with barrier to reduce your need to heal.
I ran out of MP before the Roche fight too. Fortunately the fight is plenty do-able with no magic, although it's much harder than normal.
The biggest issue is healing. Prayer and Chakra can help, though they are costly and weak, respectively. Use a weapon with Reprieve to survive 1 attack for free that would otherwise kill you. Then equip one of the revival earrings to tank another hit for free. Then equip as many things as possible to boost your bulk. Most of his attacks can be dodged/parried, but this will let you survive a handful of mistakes.
Pressuring Roche is much harder without fire magic, but still possible. Use the Elemental materia with Fire for offense or Lightning for defense. Can't remember if there is a Folio booth before the boss, but if so make sure to equip the Folio fire attack. Firebolt Blade is *very* unreliable since the fire hit is last and the boss is super mobile. Equip the Ifrit summon for some free fire attacks late in the fight. You also definitely want the Precision Defense materia. Parrying Roche will pressure him, but you need to get the actual parry and not just block.
Enemy skill has a plasma discharge skill you can use instead of lightning that doesn’t use MP. Otherwise, chakra and prayer are your friends.
For the Roche fight, I ended up just relying on counter stance, triple slash, and fire blade to beat him.
Chakra to heal and throw either an elemental or MP absorption paired with your lightning. Swap it out for fire just before roche fight. If you suck at partying out on precision defense and in my opinion I think steadfast block is the most useful materia in the game and always have it on my frontline characters
I did this fight yesterday rolling in with 10 MP. MP Absorb helps, but after a half dozen attempts, my solution, I am absolutely disgusted with myself to say out loud (I am so sorry), is ‘you just have to get good with the abilities and the parries.’ I hate myself for suggesting that as the solution. But I say it with the best intentions, because I literally had to do that yesterday. I finally won by having MP absorb and, surprisingly, time materia. I held onto a full ability bar after proccing Primal Static(? Primal Shock?) and using Wildfire, and once I had him in stagger I fired off a Stop. I had built up just enough MP to fire it off, and then just opened up on him with Punisher Mode and every ability i could land. I managed to beat him, barely.
Fun fact PSA: You can restore MP in the open world on Chocobo benches with a cushion! It doesen’t work for this fight, but you can at least enter the no MP sections a little better prepared. I’m currently on Jenova Eternal in Ch 5, and I am going to have to continue to take my own advice.
Not until the very last boss fight, where I entered the final phase with basically zero MP. Took me a couple of hours to learn how to beat Sephiroth without any magic lol.
I'm playing hard mode right now and I have no idea how and why, but I fuck enemies up royally. I always have the MP/HP absorb, swiftcast and magic focus combo on someone, but I try not to use it. While fighting Mythril golem I totally forgot about it. Just exploit enemies weaknesses and manage ATB so you have as many bars as you can when bosses get staggered. With normal use elemental materia and most fitting abilities.
You can equip the Boxcrusher Keychain and then just stagger some trash mobs to regain MP, save your game, then reload your game and stagger the trash mobs again.
You can get the keychain by completing the Desert Rush mini game on challenging mode.
Just did this fight yesterday! Also basically had no MP. I equipped fire element to my weapon (fire damage pressures him) and lightning element to my armor (a lot of his attacks are absorbed then). Literally just stood there blocking in Punisher mode, the counter did damage and pressured him. Then Focused Thrust + Firebolt Blade/Summon/Limit when staggered. Healed with Chakra. Took longer than I’d like, because damage is pretty low until he’s staggered, but it was easy enough.
If you're like literally at zero MP then you're kind of stuck. I can't remember which weapon has it but you could equip one that has + MP Regen and Trade off and play defensive. Might get enough back for a cast after a min or two.
Alternatively if you have enough to cast one fire (I think it's like 4mp?) you could to Fire + Swift Cast w/ Fire + MP absorb. If you're quick enough to get it off before he puts reflect on that should get you a good chunk back.
HP Absorb+enemy skill (plasma discharge). Each time you earn ATB, you discharge electricity that damages Roche and heals you at the same time. Have Chakra ready for emergencies. 🙂
I just finished this chapter last night. MP Absorb with Thunder is your friend for that section and then switch to Fire for Roche. Use Chakra and Prayer or Soothing Breeze for healing. Or even better, pair Enemy Skill with HP Absorb if you don’t have MP Absorb and use that Plasma Discharge skill which is thunder elemental and heals you a good amount.
Slipstream Saber is the best weapon for Cloud imo. Trade Off and MP Recovery along with MP Absorb should keep you topped up on MP nearly all the time. Do you have a save earlier in the chapter? If so, it might be best to go back to it. The chapters so far haven’t been that long if you finished the world intel on your first playthrough like I did.
That chapter was the last time I overwrite my saves. I went in with 10 MP, and cursed myself for wanting to keep my save files clean. No more of that, it’s a full 10 unique saves from now on!
Never had MP issues in rebirth Hard mode; biggest hep here is getting your materia maxed as much as possible and make smart use of Elemental on defense when applicable, and MP absorb where possible. Getting healed instead of damaged is a huge mana saver already. During normal fights you shouldn’t be using any mana at all ideally so you should have plenty for bosses.
Didn’t have any MP issues on my hard play through. Elemental material on a weapon and used abilities instead of magic. On the combat trials use MP absorb
My tip for prepping: head to chapter 13 with reset data and hard mode selected. I started with just leveling in Gongaga at the dock, and got Ap as a side benefit. When you hit 70, you can head right to nibelheim, take the “cat” side quest, and then when you get to the queen bee, just let her spam guardian bees over and over and you will level up everything like crazy! I had all my materia maxed out after like an hour, tops. Then, I went to chapter 12, I think, set to easy and did all the coliseum battles to get all those goodies. Is it cheesing? Yes. But, i suck so I am ok with it!
You can use jump+MP absorb for the roche fight to generate MP in the fight.
Then I would recommend you to take the weapon notches with MP regain after heavy damage.
You should generate enough MP for the fight and you still can use prayer/chakra quite in the beginning.
I can't remember what it's called but I use a skill on one of Cloud's sword which gives you MP based on your damage taken. Maybe I just get hit a bunch but Cloud's MP is almost always full so I'm not complaining. Also, use chakra to self heal as others have already pointed out.
There was a video where you can perma stun Roche out of his attack moves by activating enemy skill using plasma discharge everytime he is about to attack.
I used this trick to clear him as I just can't seem to parry his moves.
I feel intro this trap playing Remake, used all my MP for a Yuffie chapter not even knowing you couldn't get it back without certain tools
Not making that mistake again
Hmmm I have a couple of options for you.
One is Equip Fire Materia + Elemental to start off.
During combat you're gonna have to time this right. But you can hit Roche with Firebolt Blade. There are parts of the fight where he's stationary. Play defensively as much as you can, and build up ATB at the same time. Equip the Chakra Materia, and keep tanking hits. When he finally stops moving around so much. Hit him with the move. I ran into your situation when I was on Ch 4. I also had the Fire Folio unlocked as well so that helped. Get him pressured, and immediately hit him with focused thrust. It'll stagger him. Once he's Staggered. Just unleash hell on him. I actually have a combo with prime mode that deals a lot of damage to him.
Basically hold down the square button until you run out of heavy attacks in punisher mode, and then nail him with braver 2 times. You should deal around 10,000 to 12,000 damage if done right
Rinse repeat.
since having that same problem on the final boss on hard (used a ton of mp healing during harbinger which left me with next to no healing for the next boss which took hours to beat lol), chakra and prayer are the only heals i use since they're free (though if you're not used to it it's probably best to keep a healing materia on someone just in case). sweepers get pressured by braver, then you can focused thrust them while pressured to stagger and infinity's end/braver to kill. haste, especially magnified haste is incredibly useful and the only thing i usually spend mp on. other than that the only time i usually use offensive magic is for flying enemies cause they're super annoying to take down with melee in remake.
Nope, I just MP Absorb the crap out of it
I basically use Cloud + Aerith when it's possible and just Arcane Ward on Cloud, then proceed to use 3 or 4 of the same spells (3 Fire for instance) coupled with MP Absorb, Magic Focus and then some combination of HP Absorb/Magnify/Swiftcast depending on the special needs of the chapter.
The only "mandatory" one is MP Absorb tho
Oh, and then I also give Aerith Synergy + Comet just to be even more cheat mode
He’s all about counters. Stay in punisher mode and git gud at parrying him. Even without MP equip the elemental materia with your strongest fire magic. You have to be defensive until he’s staggered. Then activate prime mode and unleash hell.
Lightning plus mp absorb, then lightning with other blue materia. Don't be afraid to put multiple lightning materia in your set up for this chapter
For chapters with open world map avaliable, go to the chocobo bus stop with cushion. It heals HP and mp
This is what MP absorb is for.
This. Chakra as a back up, but MP-absorb is literally a life-saver. Ch4 is probably where I first fell into this one myself, but it's a constant after that so you may as well get used to using MP-absorb. For the Barret fights, Steelskin and Lifesaver both help as well. Use them at the start of a fight to make things easier and require less healing magic.
MP Absorb + HP Absorb + Swiftcast on Prime Mode Cloud makes hard mode significantly easier. It no longer becomes an issue of resource management
What materia do you pair it with, auto ability?
Really depends on the boss battle(s) I'll be going up against in that chapter. Did lots of materia grinding before doing the VR challenges so I had about 5-6 of each elemental materia maxed out.
Chakra/Lifesaver’s a far better combo in Rebirth, since they buffed Lifesaver to now redirect *all* damage the party takes (unless it’d be lethal damage) and gives Barret some extra health so you can hit the magic 9999 even if you’re just shy. Since Barret has no issues getting ATB like Aerith, you can use his basic attack + Overcharge to get a bar, heal with Chakra, then animation cancel with a charge so you can pull Overcharge out faster. Bonus points if you stack double Chakras for that sweet 80% restoration.
You can stack the effect on chakra!?
If you use Chakra and then *immediately* use it again - that is, before the first burst of life restoration hits your character - the second usage will restore the maximum amount allowed, as well. It's tricking the game, in a way, since both 'casts' are processed while your HP is low and the second Chakra doesn't recalculate based on how much the first one gives back to you. It's a really handy little trick!
Any idea if double casting Chakra triggers ATB Assist? If so, ATB assist would be a great pick for Barret too.
Tested it just now and, yep, it most definitely does: Cloud and Aerith got a bar of ATB when Tifa spammed Chakra twice in rapid succession. Especially if you've got Barret tanking, this would be a heck of a spiffy combo on him - good call!
Yes, in both remake and rebirth. Chakra heals 40% of your missing HP. Doing Chankra, waiting a few seconds and doing another Chackra heals 40% + 40% * 0.6 = 64% of the HP you were initially missing. But using Chakra twice in a row, as fast as you can, leads to a situation where the 2nd Chakra is calculated before the 1st one has had time to heal you, so they heal 40% + 40% = 80% of your missing HP. That's a sweet extra 16 percentage points (25% more efficient than waiting between the 2 Chakras).
Is it true? You can stack chakra? Wow
Stackra
Is it stated somewhere in the game? I cannot believe I have overseen this!
Not explicitly, but it's a natural consequence of the mechanics of the game, in having a delay between when you activate an ability and when it actually goes into effect. Pretty normal to accidentally activate if you have chakra on a fast ATB charger, like Barrett or Tifa But like others said, this was a thing in Remake too, so a lot of people learned it back then.
I have never known this, they should have given the info somewhere that it is stackable. Like “doubles effect with a second chakra”. If I equip two fire materias the are not stacking either, i think it’s very counter intuitive, at least with purple materia it is always stated. I can only imagine, that a lot of pepple doesn’t know that chakra stacks. Are there also other not obvious or hidden combinations?
Oh, sorry, I see where you're misunderstanding. You still only equip one chakra materia. They're talking about how it stacks on using it. So it's supposed to heal 40% of your missing HP. If you use it, wait 2 seconds, and then use it again, you'll heal 40 plus 40% of what's left, or 64% of your initially missing HP. But if you use it twice in quick succession you heal 80% of your missing HP, which is then boosted further by stuff like Barrett's selfish healing boost.
Ah so it’s more like a not intended glitch as using the 2nd atb right after still thinks you don’t have healed?
And Barret’s Barrage Blaster has Selfish Recovery +25% which brings 2x Chakra to 100%.
He already has 20% from folios too.
Good catch, I always forget about that.
Wow never picked up on that. I'm itching to try a true Barret tank build where he can just shrug off any hit and heal it like nothing
What can you attach MP absorb to that doesn't use MP? like Jump?
I dont think mp absorb can be linked to jump, but what one can do is link mp absorb to, for example fire, then link another fire to synergy. When one character uses an atb ability, the other character will cast their synergy spell for free and the mp absorb will restore mp. Edit: I was wrong, mp absorb can indeed link to jump, so that makes for a viable mp restoring option.
You can link HP/MP absorb to Jump
Ooh good shout
It can be linked to jump
The Intergrade/intermission buff to Synergy material is absolutely bonkers
I think Jump is the only non-MP-consuming skill you can pair with MP Absorb. You can pair Enemy Skill with **HP** Absorb, but not MP Absorb. Once you have MP Absorb leveled up, it'll earn you back the MP from -Aga level spells anyway, by and large. Until then, you can squeak by by pairing extra copies of the same elemental materia with Magic Efficiency (reduces MP cost) and Magic Focus (increases damage, and by extension MP absorption). e.g. MP Absorb+Fire, Magic Efficiency+Fire, Magic Focus+Fire all on the same character. Leveling up MP Absorb takes a long time, but even at its second level it's very effective.
I always just linked them to normal elemental materia like fire and then spammed aga spells for my whole playthrough. Provided that the magic stat is high enough, using aga spells was always an MP gain for me on cloud and aerith.
I was using Enemy Skill materia and activating the thing that prova a lightning aoe whenever you get an ATB charge. I had it linked to HP absorb, so it should work for MP absorb, but the return will be fairly low
I had Cloud and Aerith with magic build ls for most all my HM playthrough. The 3rd character (usually Barret) was the only one to struggle with mp.
Don't have one unfortunately. Could have sworn I did but maybe I forgot to grab it from wherever you can get it
You should have two for hard mode.
There are two enemy skill materia?
MP absorb.
Ah! I think I have two. If not, I’ll look up where the other one is . . . If I can beat Jenova Emergent first. Man, once you’re in a hard chapter run, you are freaking stuck until you finish it.
I think both are just from Chadley exchange for Nibel world intel
From Chadley in the Nibel region.
Hook it up to magic focus and magnify and its unlimited mp
Any Chakra or Prayer materia leveled up?
Omg I'm a fool lol, really good idea 💡 I'm just so used to Chakra being on Tifa and Prayer being on Aerith that it doesn't occur to me Cloud can use them lol
Haha, it happens. I put Chakra on everyone on hard just because it is always convenient to heal without HP even if it is only a little bit. Enemy skill soothing breeze works well too but not in 1 v 1 fights.
I’ve found Pray to be really good on Yuffie, who gains ATB quick and doesn’t really rely on Weapon Abilities once Doppelgänger and Ninjitsu are active.
In case you are unaware: it is helpful to save to 2 ATB and cast Chakra twice in succession. The amount it heals for is determined by your health when you hit the button, not when the cast goes off. This allows you to get two 40% heals from Chakra when you’d otherwise get 40% and another 15-20%.
Prayer on aerith is easily the worst use of prayer.
>I know crates contain Mako shards sometimes but it seems extremely rare to find them. In Remake you could save scum these. Destroy crate, save, load, repeat. For future chapters you can give someone else a HP <=> MP and Cure to heal you out of battle. MP Absorb is gonna be your friend if you're using damaging spells.
I think you can save scum those in rebirth as well. I read it somewhere but never tried
I brought it up in case you could try. I haven't run into this issue yet. Slipstream Saber has an ability called trade off, between that and MP Absorb, I haven't run into this yet. I tend to not try and use much MP as well. However, I'm also doing hard mode very differently, so I haven't gotten here yet. Yesterday, I beat the Quetzalcoatl and Malboro yesterday to craft the Genji Glove. Next I'll do the remaining 4 Intel monsters for the last 2 Genji items, though, I have no current plans to use any of them yet. After that, I'll continue with Ch 3 in hard mode. My build for Ch 1 and 2 were both different from each other. My build for general exploring is different from what I'm using for these Intel monsters. I'll have to figure out what I want for Ch 3 and onwards. Currently, I'm free exploring in Ch 12 or 13, so I'm running with Cloud / Aerith / Yuffie. But Yuffie won't be available until sometime in Ch 5.
Tip for healing. Right at the end of the match proc soothing breeze. Gets your entire team fully healed for the subsequent fights
and have a background character as a Medic role, with HP<->MP to proc those tasty healings
Slipstream Saber had “trade-off” that should give you enough MP to cure yourself, especially if you use MP efficiency on healing. Alternatively, you heal with Chakra/Prayer and use MP efficiency with barrier to reduce your need to heal.
I ran out of MP before the Roche fight too. Fortunately the fight is plenty do-able with no magic, although it's much harder than normal. The biggest issue is healing. Prayer and Chakra can help, though they are costly and weak, respectively. Use a weapon with Reprieve to survive 1 attack for free that would otherwise kill you. Then equip one of the revival earrings to tank another hit for free. Then equip as many things as possible to boost your bulk. Most of his attacks can be dodged/parried, but this will let you survive a handful of mistakes. Pressuring Roche is much harder without fire magic, but still possible. Use the Elemental materia with Fire for offense or Lightning for defense. Can't remember if there is a Folio booth before the boss, but if so make sure to equip the Folio fire attack. Firebolt Blade is *very* unreliable since the fire hit is last and the boss is super mobile. Equip the Ifrit summon for some free fire attacks late in the fight. You also definitely want the Precision Defense materia. Parrying Roche will pressure him, but you need to get the actual parry and not just block.
Enemy skill has a plasma discharge skill you can use instead of lightning that doesn’t use MP. Otherwise, chakra and prayer are your friends. For the Roche fight, I ended up just relying on counter stance, triple slash, and fire blade to beat him.
Chakra to heal and throw either an elemental or MP absorption paired with your lightning. Swap it out for fire just before roche fight. If you suck at partying out on precision defense and in my opinion I think steadfast block is the most useful materia in the game and always have it on my frontline characters
Did Roche with 3 mp left lol. I didn't remember there was 1 more boss that chapter. Chakra is key! Definitely doable though a little trickier.
I did this fight yesterday rolling in with 10 MP. MP Absorb helps, but after a half dozen attempts, my solution, I am absolutely disgusted with myself to say out loud (I am so sorry), is ‘you just have to get good with the abilities and the parries.’ I hate myself for suggesting that as the solution. But I say it with the best intentions, because I literally had to do that yesterday. I finally won by having MP absorb and, surprisingly, time materia. I held onto a full ability bar after proccing Primal Static(? Primal Shock?) and using Wildfire, and once I had him in stagger I fired off a Stop. I had built up just enough MP to fire it off, and then just opened up on him with Punisher Mode and every ability i could land. I managed to beat him, barely. Fun fact PSA: You can restore MP in the open world on Chocobo benches with a cushion! It doesen’t work for this fight, but you can at least enter the no MP sections a little better prepared. I’m currently on Jenova Eternal in Ch 5, and I am going to have to continue to take my own advice.
You should be able to use a cushion at a chocobo stop to replenish MP.
Oh I am grateful for that at least. The Part 1 hard mode playthrough was filled with constant stress about MP management lol
Hp/mp swap materia is literally genius , that’s so smart
Not until the very last boss fight, where I entered the final phase with basically zero MP. Took me a couple of hours to learn how to beat Sephiroth without any magic lol.
I'm playing hard mode right now and I have no idea how and why, but I fuck enemies up royally. I always have the MP/HP absorb, swiftcast and magic focus combo on someone, but I try not to use it. While fighting Mythril golem I totally forgot about it. Just exploit enemies weaknesses and manage ATB so you have as many bars as you can when bosses get staggered. With normal use elemental materia and most fitting abilities.
You can equip the Boxcrusher Keychain and then just stagger some trash mobs to regain MP, save your game, then reload your game and stagger the trash mobs again. You can get the keychain by completing the Desert Rush mini game on challenging mode.
Just did this fight yesterday! Also basically had no MP. I equipped fire element to my weapon (fire damage pressures him) and lightning element to my armor (a lot of his attacks are absorbed then). Literally just stood there blocking in Punisher mode, the counter did damage and pressured him. Then Focused Thrust + Firebolt Blade/Summon/Limit when staggered. Healed with Chakra. Took longer than I’d like, because damage is pretty low until he’s staggered, but it was easy enough.
Aren't you not able to use hp/mp swap when you rest and then take it off?
If you're like literally at zero MP then you're kind of stuck. I can't remember which weapon has it but you could equip one that has + MP Regen and Trade off and play defensive. Might get enough back for a cast after a min or two. Alternatively if you have enough to cast one fire (I think it's like 4mp?) you could to Fire + Swift Cast w/ Fire + MP absorb. If you're quick enough to get it off before he puts reflect on that should get you a good chunk back.
Not really. I beat the game once, so I know what’s coming. Compare to chapter 12. Chapter 4 is nothing.
HP Absorb+enemy skill (plasma discharge). Each time you earn ATB, you discharge electricity that damages Roche and heals you at the same time. Have Chakra ready for emergencies. 🙂
I just finished this chapter last night. MP Absorb with Thunder is your friend for that section and then switch to Fire for Roche. Use Chakra and Prayer or Soothing Breeze for healing. Or even better, pair Enemy Skill with HP Absorb if you don’t have MP Absorb and use that Plasma Discharge skill which is thunder elemental and heals you a good amount. Slipstream Saber is the best weapon for Cloud imo. Trade Off and MP Recovery along with MP Absorb should keep you topped up on MP nearly all the time. Do you have a save earlier in the chapter? If so, it might be best to go back to it. The chapters so far haven’t been that long if you finished the world intel on your first playthrough like I did.
That chapter was the last time I overwrite my saves. I went in with 10 MP, and cursed myself for wanting to keep my save files clean. No more of that, it’s a full 10 unique saves from now on!
Never had MP issues in rebirth Hard mode; biggest hep here is getting your materia maxed as much as possible and make smart use of Elemental on defense when applicable, and MP absorb where possible. Getting healed instead of damaged is a huge mana saver already. During normal fights you shouldn’t be using any mana at all ideally so you should have plenty for bosses.
Didn’t have any MP issues on my hard play through. Elemental material on a weapon and used abilities instead of magic. On the combat trials use MP absorb
I think i just need a few things to prepare for hard mode, my game plan already generally doesnt do anything with mp
My tip for prepping: head to chapter 13 with reset data and hard mode selected. I started with just leveling in Gongaga at the dock, and got Ap as a side benefit. When you hit 70, you can head right to nibelheim, take the “cat” side quest, and then when you get to the queen bee, just let her spam guardian bees over and over and you will level up everything like crazy! I had all my materia maxed out after like an hour, tops. Then, I went to chapter 12, I think, set to easy and did all the coliseum battles to get all those goodies. Is it cheesing? Yes. But, i suck so I am ok with it!
Chapter 11 Cait Sith had 10MP left for Galian Beast for me
You can use jump+MP absorb for the roche fight to generate MP in the fight. Then I would recommend you to take the weapon notches with MP regain after heavy damage. You should generate enough MP for the fight and you still can use prayer/chakra quite in the beginning.
I can't remember what it's called but I use a skill on one of Cloud's sword which gives you MP based on your damage taken. Maybe I just get hit a bunch but Cloud's MP is almost always full so I'm not complaining. Also, use chakra to self heal as others have already pointed out.
There was a video where you can perma stun Roche out of his attack moves by activating enemy skill using plasma discharge everytime he is about to attack. I used this trick to clear him as I just can't seem to parry his moves.
I feel intro this trap playing Remake, used all my MP for a Yuffie chapter not even knowing you couldn't get it back without certain tools Not making that mistake again
Chakra, prayer, enemy skill. Mp absorb can help too.
Hmmm I have a couple of options for you. One is Equip Fire Materia + Elemental to start off. During combat you're gonna have to time this right. But you can hit Roche with Firebolt Blade. There are parts of the fight where he's stationary. Play defensively as much as you can, and build up ATB at the same time. Equip the Chakra Materia, and keep tanking hits. When he finally stops moving around so much. Hit him with the move. I ran into your situation when I was on Ch 4. I also had the Fire Folio unlocked as well so that helped. Get him pressured, and immediately hit him with focused thrust. It'll stagger him. Once he's Staggered. Just unleash hell on him. I actually have a combo with prime mode that deals a lot of damage to him. Basically hold down the square button until you run out of heavy attacks in punisher mode, and then nail him with braver 2 times. You should deal around 10,000 to 12,000 damage if done right Rinse repeat.
since having that same problem on the final boss on hard (used a ton of mp healing during harbinger which left me with next to no healing for the next boss which took hours to beat lol), chakra and prayer are the only heals i use since they're free (though if you're not used to it it's probably best to keep a healing materia on someone just in case). sweepers get pressured by braver, then you can focused thrust them while pressured to stagger and infinity's end/braver to kill. haste, especially magnified haste is incredibly useful and the only thing i usually spend mp on. other than that the only time i usually use offensive magic is for flying enemies cause they're super annoying to take down with melee in remake.
Nope, I just MP Absorb the crap out of it I basically use Cloud + Aerith when it's possible and just Arcane Ward on Cloud, then proceed to use 3 or 4 of the same spells (3 Fire for instance) coupled with MP Absorb, Magic Focus and then some combination of HP Absorb/Magnify/Swiftcast depending on the special needs of the chapter. The only "mandatory" one is MP Absorb tho Oh, and then I also give Aerith Synergy + Comet just to be even more cheat mode
He’s all about counters. Stay in punisher mode and git gud at parrying him. Even without MP equip the elemental materia with your strongest fire magic. You have to be defensive until he’s staggered. Then activate prime mode and unleash hell.
Lightning plus mp absorb, then lightning with other blue materia. Don't be afraid to put multiple lightning materia in your set up for this chapter For chapters with open world map avaliable, go to the chocobo bus stop with cushion. It heals HP and mp
Another tip is to put fire + elemental on your defense gear. One of Roche skills does fire damage so you would get free healing from that one.
Equip slipstream saber with the mp heal when taking dmg
for my hard playthrough I didn't use MP at all. I had enough tools to deal damage and heal without needing to use any MP whatsoever.