Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

This Game Will Kick Your Ass If You Let It

Look, I'm gonna be real with you. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is gorgeous. The music hits you in the chest, the characters feel alive, the city of Midgar is the most detailed, grimy, beautiful hellhole I've ever walked through in a video game. I've played the original FF7 maybe twelve times since 1997. I know that game backwards blindfolded. So when I booted up the Remake, I expected a nostalgic victory lap.

I got my shit kicked in within the first three hours.

The Remake is not the original. It's not even close. The combat looks like real-time action but it's actually a hybrid that punishes you if you play it like a pure action game or like a pure turn-based RPG. I spent my first few runs trying to mash square through fights and wondering why I was dying to random soldiers. The game straight-up does not tell you that blocking is more important than dodging ninety percent of the time. It doesn't tell you that Assess, that little blue spell you probably ignored, is the single most important ability in the entire game. It doesn't tell you that the "easy" difficulty is actually kind of bullshit because the tutorial tips vanish faster than your HP against the Scorpion Sentinel's tail laser.

This guide is me sitting you down and telling you everything I wish I'd known before I wasted forty minutes dying to the Airbuster. I'm gonna tell you why you're struggling, what to actually do about it, and which "pro tips" you should ignore because they're overrated garbage. Grab a drink. We're gonna be here a while.

Why You're Probably Already Stuck (And It's Not Your Fault)

Let's cut to the chase. You're here because something is frustrating you. Maybe you're stuck on the first real boss, the Scorpion Sentinel. Maybe you're burning through potions faster than Tifa burns through her limit breaks and you're constantly out of MP. Maybe you feel like you're doing zero damage while enemies just shrug off your attacks.

I've been there. The first time I fought Reno in the pillar, I ran out of Phoenix Downs three times and spent fifteen minutes panic-rolling around the church. It was embarrassing.

Here's the core problem most new players face: the game's tutorial system is dogshit. It throws a lot of systems at you — ATB, Stagger, Pressure, Assess, Materia combos, weapon upgrades — and then assumes you just got it. But you didn't, because this combat feels like nothing else. It's not Devil May Cry. It's not Kingdom Hearts. It's not the OG turn-based system. It's its own weird, beautiful, punishing creature.

The specific pain points I see people hitting over and over:

• You can't stagger anything. You're hammering away with basic attacks, the stagger bar barely moves, and you're wondering what you're doing wrong. The answer: you're not using Pressure. Most enemies have a specific weakness or behavior that puts them in a "Pressured" state, which makes them stagger faster. Hitting them with their elemental weakness, hitting them when they're charging an attack, or breaking their guard does this. Basic attacks don't.
• You're hoarding your ATB. I did this. I kept saving ATB bars for the "perfect moment" and then died with two full bars. The ATB system is meant to be a resource you spend constantly. If you have a full ATB bar and you're not using it, you're basically fighting at half power.
• You're ignoring your party members. You're controlling Cloud and forgetting that Barret and Tifa exist. The game is designed so you need to cycle characters constantly. If you stay on one character, the enemy AI focuses you harder and you miss free damage opportunities. Switch characters every few seconds.
• You think Aerith is a "healer bot." She's not. She's the highest-damage character in the game when built right. Her basic attack does more damage than Cloud's if you charge it. Don't bench her.
• You're not using Assess. Every single enemy in the game (except like two) has a weakness. Assess tells you exactly what element they hate, what puts them under Pressure, and how to stagger them. Use it on EVERYTHING. If you don't know the enemy's weakness, you're guessing. Stop guessing.

If any of that sounds like you, stop beating your head against the wall. The game isn't unfair — it's just bad at explaining itself. Let me fix that.

First Steps — What I'd Tell My Past Self Before Starting

If I could go back to the moment I first loaded up this game, I'd slap the controller out of my own hands and give myself a checklist. Here it is.

1. Buy the "Chocobo & Moogle" Materia from the first weapon vendor. It's in Sector 7, right before you meet Aerith. This Materia gives you HP Up and MP Up linked to it. The HP boost alone is the difference between surviving the Scorpion Sentinel's laser and getting one-shot. I skipped it my first time because I thought it was a summon Materia (it is also that, but the stat boosts are the real prize).

2. Upgrade your weapons immediately. The game doesn't pressure you to do this, but you should never have unspent weapon SP. The SP system is a permanent stat multiplier. Always, always invest it. My strategy: rush the Titan Sword's "Reprieve" ability (at 60 SP, it gives you a free revive with a small chunk of HP when you take fatal damage). That alone will save you from dying to cheap hits probably ten times before you leave Midgar. Also, every weapon has a core skill you learn by leveling it up — the Nail Bat (which you get from the side quest in the Wall Market gym) has "Counterstance" which is borderline broken. Get it.

3. Put a Fire Materia on Barret. Everyone puts Fire on Cloud because "main character." Wrong. Barret is a ranged attacker. He hits flying enemies that Cloud can't reach. He also gets Overcharge which instantly gives him a full ATB bar. Put Fire on Barret, use Overcharge, then spam Fira on flying enemies. They die before they hit the ground. I figured this out at the end of Chapter 8 and felt like a complete idiot.

4. Learn the block timing for the "Punisher Mode" counter. When Cloud is in Punisher Mode (hold R1), tapping square will do a counterattack against melee strikes. This does huge stagger damage and stops enemy combos. The first time I pulled this off against Reno, I felt like a god. The timing is generous — you just tap square the moment you see the enemy's attack start to connect. Practice on the grunts in Chapter 2.

5. Don't sleep on the Item Materia. I ignored this for my entire first playthrough. It lets you use items as ATB commands, which means you can heal or buff without spending your regular ATB. It also doubles the potency of potions and makes them cast faster. Against the Hell House, I was popping potions so fast with the Item Materia that I barely had to heal with Cure. It's not flashy, but it's practical.

6. Always stack two Materia in linked slots if possible. You'll get "linked" slots on your weapons and armor — they look like two circles with a line between them. Put a spell Materia (like Fire) with a Support Materia (like Magnify or HP Absorb) in those linked slots. Magnify + Fire turns your single-target Fira into an AOE fireball. HP Absorb + Fire heals you for a percentage of fire damage dealt. These combos are the difference between a decent build and a broken one.

Expert Tips That Only Come From 200+ Hours

These are the things I learned after my third playthrough, after I'd platinumed the game on Hard Mode and started doing challenge runs. Most guides won't tell you this because they're written by people who played on Easy.

1. The "Focused Thrust" / "Focused Shot" / "Focused Strike" abilities are the most underrated tools in the game. These are the abilities that do extra stagger damage against Pressured enemies. The game barely explains "Pressure" or "Stagger" mechanics. Here's the deal: when an enemy is Pressured (they have a little icon that looks like a stagger meter filling up), using these Focused abilities fills the stagger bar TWICE as fast as normal attacks. If you get an enemy Pressured, spam the Focused ability of whoever you're controlling. You'll stagger them in three hits max. I've seen so many players complain that "staggering is impossible" and then they're using basic attacks against a Pressured enemy. That's why.

2. The "Flamethrower" ability on the Heavy Arms (Barret's gun) does 45 base DPS but ramps to 120 DPS after 3 seconds of continuous fire. Most people never use it because it feels awkward (you have to hold the button). But if you time it right — when an enemy is Staggered or Pressured — it melts health bars. The Scorpion Sentinel is massively weak to fire. I don't care what any build guide tells you, if you put the Flamethrower on Barret and start cooking that robot, it dies in under a minute. The trick is to start the Flamethrower just as the stagger starts, because the ramp-up time means you waste the first 3 seconds otherwise.

3. Tifa's "True Strike" ability is a stagger multiplier. This is something the game literally doesn't tell you. When an enemy is Staggered, Tifa's True Strike and Omnistrike increase the Stagger Damage Multiplier (the number that starts at 160% and goes up when you hit them). Every True Strike you land during a stagger pushes that multiplier higher, up to 350% or more. The strategy is: stagger the enemy, then spam True Strike twice with Tifa, then go to town with your hardest hitter. I've hit for 9,000 damage on a single Braver with Cloud because Tifa pushed the multiplier to 400% first.

4. The "Purple" materia (Time, Barrier, etc.) are not optional, despite looking weird. Barrier (the green one with a shield icon) gives you Manawall, which halves all damage for the entire party for no MP cost if you have a turn. Against every major boss from Chapter 10 onward, casting Manawall before the fight even starts will save you from dying to their ultimate moves. I beat the final boss on Hard Mode because I had Manawall up before every big attack. Don't sleep on this.

5. If you're playing on Hard Mode (you will, eventually), the "MP Absorption" Materia is broken. Hard Mode disables item usage and makes MP scarce. MP Absorption (linked to a spell) restores 2% of your max MP every time you deal damage with that spell. Slap it on Fire and just spam low-cost spells on trash mobs. You'll never run out of MP during boss fights. I did the entire final chapter of Hard Mode without resting at a bench because MP Absorption + cheap spells kept me topped off.

6. The "Cutting Cable" enemy in Chapter 3 (the one that looks like a big electric dog) is the best grinding spot in the game early on. It gives 55 EXP and 110 AP per kill. You can respawn it by leaving the area and coming back. I spent 20 minutes here before the Scorpion Sentinel to level my Materia to Rank 2. That one decision made the entire first half of the game easier because my spells hit harder and my Haste lasted longer. It's boring but it's worth it.

7. Limit Breaks are triggered by taking damage, but also by dealing damage. This is a common misconception. You build Limit gauge by getting hit, but also by hitting enemies with abilities. If you need to farm a Limit Break for a boss, use Tifa's Unbridled Strength to build her Limit gauge faster (it builds on-hit, plus it gives her charges for her combo). Cloud's Cross-Slash can be ready in two encounters if you spam his Punisher Mode attacks.

Common Mistakes That Got Me Killed (Don't Repeat Them)

I'm going to list the specific mistakes I made, in order, so you can avoid being the dumbass I was.

Mistake 1: Selling old weapons for Gil. Don't do this. Every weapon can be upgraded with SP, and every weapon has a unique ability that carries over to your other weapons once you learn it. If you sell the Buster Sword, you lose access to "Reprieve" on your future weapons. I sold the Nail Bat in Chapter 7 because I thought it was ugly and regretted it when I found out "Counterstance" was the best counter ability in the game. Keep every weapon. Always.

Mistake 2: Ignoring the "Steal" Materia. I thought Steal was a waste of a slot. Turns out there's a Gotterdammerung accessory (starts every fight with a full Limit Break) that you can only get by stealing from the final boss of the Top Secrets fight in the Battle Simulator. I missed it my first Hard Mode run. Also, you can steal Elixirs from most bosses in the endgame. Just keep Steal on one character at all times. You never know when a boss has a rare steal.

Mistake 3: Not using "Refocus" Materia on everyone. Refocus gives you a third ATB bar temporarily. On Normal difficulty, it's fun. On Hard Mode, it's mandatory. The Airbuster fight on Hard Mode requires you to take down three giant energy pillars while it's charging its laser. With Refocus on all three characters, you can chain together so many abilities that you destroy the pillars in seconds. Without it, you're scrambling. I learned this after wiping on that fight for two hours.

Mistake 4: Holding L1 to block too long. The block in this game is almost instant and has no cooldown. You don't need to hold it. Just tap L1 the moment before an attack lands. Holding it makes you slow and reduces your ATB generation (since you're not attacking). I used to hold block like I was playing Dark Souls and wondered why my ATB was always empty. Tap, don't hold.

Mistake 5: Dismissing Aerith's Tempest attack. If you hold square with Aerith, she charges a staff attack that does massive damage and knocks back enemies. The charged version also leaves a magic circle on the ground that buffs the next spell cast from it. I didn't know about the magic circle for my entire first run. It's a 50% damage boost. Cast that circle, step into it, and then hit with a Fira. It's effectively 50% more damage for free.

Mistake 6: Trying to "combo" enemies like in Devil May Cry. This isn't DMC. Enemies have super armor on a lot of their attacks, and you can't infinite combo them. Trying to be flashy gets you killed. Focus on Pressuring, then Staggering, then unloading. It's a rhythm game, not a combo game. I spent hours trying to do crazy aerial combos with Cloud and kept getting knocked out of the sky by basic soldiers. Stop showing off and start playing smart.

Mistake 7: Saving Elixirs and Ethers "for later." The game will give you enough Ethers to use them freely in boss fights. I finished my first playthrough with 45 Elixirs in my inventory because I was "saving them for a tough fight." The tough fight was the last one. I could have used them ten times over. Use your MP-restoring items. You will get more. Hoarding is the #1 killer.

Quick Answers to the Questions You're Googling Right Now

Q: How do I beat the Scorpion Sentinel?
A: Switch to Barret immediately. Shoot it in the head while staying at range. When it goes into "Overdrive," run behind a pillar to block its laser (it tells you "Missile is online" or something, just get behind cover). After it takes enough damage, it will land and become Pressured — switch to Cloud, use Focused Thrust, and stagger it. Then unload. Repeat. Use Fire spells on the little adds. Do not get close to it when its tail is glowing red.

Q: What's the best weapon for Cloud?
A: The Buster Sword is solid for early game. The Hardedge (bought in Wall Market) has the highest base attack and is better for physical damage builds. The Nail Bat (from the gym side quest) is the best for defensive play because of Counterstance. The Twin Stinger (from Chapter 14's Corneo Vault) is the best all-rounder later. Don't sleep on the Hardedge — it does the most damage per hit in the game.

Q: I keep dying to the Hell House. Help?
A: Hell House cycles between three elements: Fire, Ice, Thunder. It also has a "god mode" phase where it's immune to damage. The trick: Assess it every time it changes form to see its current weakness. Attack the opposite element when the door opens — hitting it with Thunder when it's in Fire mode does massive stagger. Save your limit breaks for the phase where it summons Tonberries (they're annoying). Also, use the "Reprieve" trick I mentioned earlier on at least two characters. It will oneshot someone with its final attack.

Q: Is the game harder on Hard Mode?
A: Yes, but not for the reason you think. Hard Mode disables item usage and limits MP recovery from benches. It's a resource management puzzle, not just a damage check. You need to have several Materia sets (like HP Absorb + spell for healing, MP Absorption for sustain) or you'll run out of gas in Chapter 13. If you go in with your Normal Mode build, you'll hit a wall at the Airbuster.

Q: Do side quests matter?
A: Yes, more than I thought. They give you rare Materia (like the Elemental Materia from the "Angel of the Slums" quest), weapon upgrades (the "Mithril" armor for Aerith is from a side quest), and a huge chunk of EXP and AP. I skipped most of them my first run and regretted it because I was underleveled for the final boss. Do them. They also unlock scenes with your party members that change the ending slightly.

Q: What's the deal with the "Assess" Materia? Do I really need it?
A: Yes. On every single new enemy. The Assess data saves permanently. Once you've Assessed something once, you can see its weaknesses in battle for the rest of the game. There's also a trophy for Assessing every enemy type. More importantly, knowing that a boss is weak to Lightning or that it becomes Pressured when you hit the glowing orb on its back saves you from guessing and dying. I cannot stress this enough.

Q: My game keeps auto-saving at bad times. What's up with that?
A: The auto-save system is aggressive and there's no manual save in combat. This can screw you if you're in a boss fight and your save is right before it. The fix: before every major story event (the game will usually warn you with a "point of no return" message), save manually at a bench or save point. The game gives you a manual save option. Use it.

Q: Is Tifa actually good, or is she just popular?
A: She's the best single-target DPS in the game. Her True Strike and Rise and Fall combos do insane stagger damage. She also has the fastest ATB generation in the game if you use her dodge attacks and Parry Materia. But she's fragile — she has the lowest HP of the party. If you keep dying with her, it's because you're not blocking. Put the First Strike Materia on her for an instant ATB bar at fight start so you can pop a Haste or Power Up immediately.

Q: How long is the game?
A: First playthrough, doing all side quests and some grinding, took me about 45 hours. Speedrunning it is around 25 hours. Hard Mode adds another 30-40 hours for a completionist run. The game is just the Midgar section of the original, but it's almost 50 hours long. Don't rush it — the pacing is deliberate and the character moments are where the game shines.