Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Beginner Tips & Tricks

Pressure and Stagger

One of the very first things you learn in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is how to Pressure an enemy, and deal increased damage to them in a Staggered state. The Stagger system was first introduced in Final Fantasy XIII, and it works in a similar way here.

Basically, every enemy has a Stagger bar beneath their health bar, and once you fill it up they’ll enter a Staggered state, which stuns them and allows you to deal a lot of damage to them. Just using basic attacks will build that bar up, but if you know how to use your abilities and spells, you can build it up even faster.

As a general rule of thumb, magic spells will help to build the bar quicker and even Pressure them if you hit their weak point. When an enemy is Pressured, the Stagger bar builds up at an even faster rate, so you’ll want to make use of that opportunity to spam your abilities and spells to Stagger them.

You also need to keep an eye on your ATB charges, which determine when you can actually use your spells and abilities. One good tip to keep in mind is to have all your ATB charges ready to go right before an enemy gets Staggered, and once they do, expend your charges on your spells and abilities for massive damage.

You can get by with just basic attacks early on in the game, but once you come across the Shock Troopers and the Guard Sentinel boss in the first chapter, you’ll need to start using everything at your disposal.

SP Applies to Every Character and Weapon

Once you reach the Sector 7 slums in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Biggs will offer to mod Cloud’s Buster Sword, which means that you’ll finally be able to start upgrading your weapons.

To upgrade weapons, you need SP, which is gained by leveling up in battles. From your main menu, you can then spend SP on weapon upgrades to unlock stat buffs and abilities for specific weapons. The important thing to remember here is that every weapon and character will get the same amount of SP and they’re all separate, which means that you don’t need to worry about saving your SP for one character or weapon, and you can upgrade everything at the same time.

In addition to that, it’s also possible to reset your weapon upgrades. In the Sector 7 slums, after you unlock the ability to take on side quests, you’ll meet an NPC named Chadley. Talk to him, and you can pay him some Gil to reset upgrades for a weapon, and you can respend your SP.

Hoard All the Materia

Speaking of Chadley, he’ll be one of your best sources of Materia early on in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Again, after you unlock side quests in the Sector 7 slums, be sure to speak with Chadley to start taking on his Battle Intel quests. These quests are mostly pretty simple things, requiring you to assess enemies in combat, hit weaknesses, or Stagger them a certain number of times.

For each Battle Intel quest you finish, Chadley will develop a new piece of Materia that you can buy at a discount. Most of his Materia orbs are unique, and can improve your dodge and ATB efficiency.

Aside from that, you can also buy Materia from item shops and vending machines. Similar to the original 1997 game, characters can only use spells and abilities if they have the associated Materia equipped. Because of that, you might want to consider purchasing two of the same Materia. Most orbs can be found in the open world, but if you have the Gil to spare, it can be a good idea to buy an extra at the shops.

This way, you can ensure that you have multiple characters with some spell overlaps, which can be helpful for keeping your party, or hitting an enemy’s weakness quickly. A quick pro tip: Thunder and Fire should cover most enemy weaknesses throughout the course of your playthrough, so keep those handy.

Do All the Side Quests

To be perfectly honest, the side quests in Final Fantasy 7 Remake really aren’t that great. There are a good handful of filler quests, and other annoying ones that require you to just walk around blindly looking for people or objects. However, sadly enough, they’re still worth your time if you want to eke out as much story content as possible from this game.

Completing all the side quests in an area will usually unlock a new purple Discovery quest with whichever character Cloud is hanging out with, giving you a new scene that fleshes them out a little more. It’s a very nice touch that helps to develop the characters even further, and they’re certainly worth the effort.

Not to mention the fact that you get all sorts of useful rewards from the quests themselves as well. Quests can reward you with new Materia, weapons, and equipment, so take some time out to knock those out when you can.

Buy the Yellow Items at Vending Machines

New to Final Fantasy 7 Remake is the addition of vending machines and benches. Whenever you’re exploring the world or traversing through a dungeon, you may come across a vending machine with a bench right next to it. You can rest on the bench to restore your party’s HP and MP, and make use of the vending machine to stock up on supplies.

While looking through the vending machine’s inventory, you may also find items marked in yellow. That means they’re currently being sold at a discount, and you can easily nab Hi-Potions or Phoenix Downs at just a few hundred Gil each. That’s a really good deal, and you should definitely grab those whenever they’re available.

By and large, try not to pay full price for healing items, or buy them at all from shops –you’ll usually be able to build up a healthy supply just by battling and opening up chests. You’ll want to save your Gil for the more expensive stuff like extra Materia or equipment.

Be sure to search for Twinfinite or check our guide wiki for more tips and information on the game.