I am taking down that midgar zolem

[Gregoriev]

That ugly snake has been bothering me for some time...taunting me as the only enemy i have ever face that i cannot defeat...at least can't defeat with a level 15 cloud.

but now i am a level 29 cloud, so i totally can own that stupid snake if i play my cards right. speaking of cards, you all know alot more about materia and stuff than i do, so i was wondering, what materia would work best against the Midgar Zolem? Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth? what?

Also, i have a pretty good basic battle plan....

1) The first round hit him with every elemental beat i have. Iris, Irit, lightning guy. each are a level two, so i will continue to repeat them as long as they dish out about 600+ dammage.

2) Have aeris do nothing by fight one or two turns, heal everyone the next turn wether they really need it or not.

3) Once MP gets low, i am counting on the Zolm hitting aeris the most, because i will have her using the cover materis. the hits she takes will raise her limit break. i will use seal evil on the zolm (as long as it's possible to use, i don't see why not) then boost the Mp's with elixers.

4) I will pummel the Zolem during this time using the most high power attacks i have, the elementals or the fire/ice/lightning materia. whichever is most effective, all are at level 2.

5) When the zolm wakes up again, i will continue pummeling it, and essentially repeat what i did before, using limit breaks cloud and tifa gain as the come up.

6) i will pretty much prey that the zolm does not flick anyone out of battle, which is totally gay, and also hope i can survive the Beta attack, which as i reall hit me for 1200 dammage, killing everyone easily.

Now i need to know: what is the best combo's for my materia?

CLOUD: Shiva 2 connected to Added Effect on the butterfly edge sword, also, restore 2 and destruct 1, deathblow, and ice 2. i also have lightning 2 connected to the all materia.

TIFA: Ramuh 2 connected to Lightning 2 on the tiger fang weapon, All connected to Time, and restore. I also have Fire 2 on her, as well as counter attack.

AERIS: Ifrit 2 connected to Fire 2 on the prism staff, Titan 1 connected to cover 2 on the staff, restore 2 connected to all 2, and lightning 2.

I guess i can connect clouds restore 2 to the all materia seeing as how i will only be taking on one monster, but what is this talk i hear of a learn enemy trick materia? i have never found that yet (though i haven't been looking all that hard too).

I thought you got beta as long as you defeated the zolem...or am i totally wrong? can somebody enlighten me on this?

[ljkkjlcm9]

uhm dude, the snake will keep coming back over and over, it really isn't worth it, especially later when just attacking once will virtually kill it. It's not worth any effort at all, except to make yourself feel good, but you better hope you're away from the center when you kill it, because if you're weak after battle, the next one will kill you. Oh, and that's a big waste of elixirs, BIG WASTE.

THE JACKEL

[Raistlin]

The Midgar Zolom would destroy a level 29 party, especially with an inexperienced player. Wait until you're above 35-40 and have better materia, weapons, and armor.

Hints:

1. Don't use Aeris. Take more damage with you. Speed is the key.

2. Equip your best rated weapons/armor despite any negative materia growth.

3. Kill the damn thing fast.

4. Don't waste elixirs on the bloody Zolom.

5. Use Hypers on all your characters beforehand. Go into the battle with everyone on their limits(or close to it).


Also, there's four Enemy Skill materia found in the game. When equipped, the character will learn any Enemy Skills cast on them. There's 24 Enemy Skills in the game, Beta being one of them.

[Gregoriev]

so um....where are they on the first disk?

[abrojtm]

You should have at least one already, I believe Red XIII comes equipped with one (either that, or it's the materia that he drops as he pounces on you).

[UltimaLimit]

As for elementals, I don't recall Zolom having any weaknesses. However, I recommend casting Bio a few times to poison it.

Equip Ifrit or Fire + Elemental in Red XIII's armor, and as many E. Skill as you can on the same person. Give him Cure, have him be the healer (no attacking! Midgar Zolom flicks away the character that hurts it most.) Have your other 2 use Bio and Cover to protect Red XIII. When Zolom gets pissed and uses Beta, Elemental protection + Red's good HP should keep him alive. At that point he can cast Beta right back and finish off the Zolom.

BTW, if you have multiple E. Skill materia on one person and a new skill is used by him, all the materia will retain it. (However, if one materia already has that skill, none of the others will learn it.)

Good luck. Like Raistlin said, save your Elixers.

[Mirage]

I killed it with Cloud at level 19 or 20, the others were 18 and 19. Elemental lvl1 only halves the damage, but that's enough to survive Beta if you've got about 700 HP.
I put all my characters on the back row, and had Cloud damage it with his limit breaks, I had climhazard at this point. I had the two others heal mainly Cloud, so that he would be able to survive Beta anytime. I also gave Cloud E. Skill, and used Beta at the Midgar Zolom after he used it at me. That killed him.

-Edit-
Oh yeah, I gave Cloud the Talisman accessory too, +10 Spirit. That reduced Beta's damage from about 800 to about 700.

So basically, you need just a bit more HP than what Beta removes, and then you kill it with your new-learned spell. You'll need like 10-15 more levels to survive an attack after it used Beta on you.
Getting your Elemental materia to level 2 isn't really an option either, as it needs 10000 AP for that.

P.S. Only pussies use a chocobo. :P

That strategy worked for me when I was 10 levels lower, you shold have no problems if you follow it.

[Gregoriev]

Yeah....due to being side tracked by the yuffie side quest, and subsiquent pissed-off-ness at not being to defeat the really gay looking boss at the end of the wutai tower with a level upper thirties yuffie, i power leveled her along with Tifa and Cid...until she was level 45 and had an enemy skill materia equiped with beta.

needless to say, when i took on the zolem at that point trying to get beta because beta ruled and i needed it to cancell out the last guys healing abilities...well...it wasn't really a question of wether or not i could beat the zolem, but wether or not i could try to not kill it before it cast beta...

That snake was a pussy...hell, everything after that point was a damn pussy! I took down the super evil wall thing in the ancients temple with a Tifa limit break and the use of some new materia i can't pronounce...kajt or something...it was a kick ass black dragon that came out of a votex of clouds in the sky and shot a white commet type thing of energy out of it;s mouth for around 2500 damage.

I was done in Two moves, TWO!!! even though i didn't get a YEAH on any of her spinny wheels, she still dealt 1000+ damage with each hit. and that dragon...i mean wow...that just ruled!

Now back to how much i rule!

[TheSpoonyBard]

'That dragon' would be Bahamut. Kjata is a bull. All there is to say now is I hope you look forward to disc 2, and prepare youself for the Carry Armour. It's the second most annoying boss after the Demon's Gate, and most inexperienced people have a lot of trouble with it.

[Destai]

^^ My first time playing I couldnt figure out how to catch a chcobo and after three straight weeks I just gave up and managed to outrun it. yeah Im done sharing now...

[Shoden]

i took zolem down at lv 42 and ultima at 49

[lord shishio]

I never went back to try the snake after I crossed the marshes.

[Gregoriev]

THREE WEEKS!?

I just used the save trick, where you run across the swamp when the zolem is on the other side, then you hit triangle and save your game just before he reaches you. Then you restart your game, and the zolem will be back where he spawn on the other side of the marsh, run some more, then save again before he reaches you. Reload the game and run to the other side.

i heard you can just flat run and make it, but this is alot less trouble, not to mention easier. Three saves should do it, although you may be able to do it in two. Ten shillings to the man with the cajones to do it with one flat out run.

[Destai]

gimme a break, I was six!

[Cuchulainn]

I went back and killed it after the 1st visit to gold Saucer/Desert Prison. My party was Cloud/Barret/Red.

I learned Mighty Guard by manipulating the Plugs at Gongaga Beach, Buggied it bk to Junion via the bent guards. I also had the fire ring which helped a LOT. My only purpose was to learn 'Beta' Enemy Skill, it's worth the effort, especially as it's fairly near the Sleeping Man Cave as I went to get the Myrthil & Bolt Ring off him (or indeed the Great Gospel, Aeris' Final Limit). I also learned White Wind off the Zemzelett's aeround Condor, that comes in handy too (manipulate him too).

Beta owns all for a longf time if u get it here. Only thing is, prey he doesnt sweep away your character with the Enemy Skill equipped...that can annoy. :mad: I was Level 24/20/19 respectively for Cloud/Barret/Red, i tend not to bother wasting time leveling up until i can get to the Allyway at Junion & push the Button to get the Tricky but EXP & Gil Whoreish Shinra Robots that appear, I went from levels 24/20/19 to 30/27/25 in 15 mins solid fighting. Warning tho, If you don't concentrate & plan these Robots have the ability to kick your ass before you know it. But yea, It's with the trip if you couple it with a trip for the other things, definately

[Shoden]

yeah he always somehow knew cloud my enemy skill materia and kicked him out before using beta

[Bubbles1230]

i beat the zolem at 25/24/24 with Cloud/Red/Aeris. It wasnt easy, but definely worth it. Just pound away with poison, the elementals, all summon,and aqualung. You can kill it n 2 shots w/ Clouds lvl 3, meteor-somthing and either of Reds lvl 3.

[Gregoriev]

The flick away is annoying, but it's not hard to get around either. As long as you are skilled enough, just make sure that cloud or whoever has the E. Skill materia deals the least ammount of damage per turn. The zolem flicks away the one who does the most, that's how it works. Since cloud is always Mr. One level higher than everyone else, it's pretty easy to see how he would deal more dammage than the other characters.

My advice is to have anyone else in the party use the e. skill materia, while cloud does his thing. One thing though, how good is Beta afterwards? i know it is priceless in defeating the final Wutai tower boss guy, since it cancells out however much he heals himself plus 1200 or so dammage. But at what point in disk two is this most awsome looking attack religated to the scrap heap?

Speaking of, i think i will be scrapping Shiva, Titan, Ramah, and Irift in favor of Kajt, Black dragon dude, and some other summons i got. Though that's just because the elementals are dealing about 600-1000 dammage to an enemy while a simple physical attack (for me) deals 800-1000 damage and without the loss of MP points. Should i sell them or not? i have some other materia i don't need too...mainly bolt and level 1 restores along with some other crappy ones i never use.

[Sepho]

By scrapping, you surely don't mean selling them?

[TheSpoonyBard]

Never, under any circumstances, sell any magic, summon or command materia. You will require all of these in order to obtain the Master Materia later in the game. These materias are the best, and you don't want to jeopardise your chance of getting them by selling a supposedly worthless piece.

[Shoden]

the problem is cloud has ultima weapon and does 5085 average a hit while the others do 970 average who are vincent and barret

[TheSpoonyBard]

Cloud does 5,085 damage per go? The Midgar Zolom has only 4,000 HP to begin with. If you don't want Cloud to get knocked out or the Zolom to get KO'ed just don't make Cloud attack. Equip him with Gravity materia and use Demi/2/3 to lower the Zolom's HP, or just use him to cure while Vincent and Barret attack. The Zolom should use Beta when he has around 1,000 - 1,500 HP remaining.

[Raistlin]

Never EVER sell summon materia. Also, keep at least one of every other kind of materia.

[Shoden]

vincent has all my restore and lightning ,materia and has about 4020 HP thanks to hp up materia

[Sepho]

I would only advise the selling of any sort of materia under very few circumstances. For one thing, you stand to gain very little profit from the selling of materia, unless you've gained a lot of AP for it, and if you've gained the materia a few levels it becomes much more valuable. It you can sell a materia for a considerable sum of money, it means it's close to being mastered. If that's the case, it makes more sense to get it to Master level, when a new materia will be born.

There are exceptions to this rule. One of them being the selling of All materia, which is the most common way of making large amounts of gil, because of the relatively little amount of AP required to master it, and because it sells for 1.4 million Gil at that level.

[~Tenderness~]

The Midgar Zolom would destroy a level 29 party, especially with an inexperienced player.

Not likely in a lot of cases. With an inexperienced player maybe. Otherwise not likely I think. I've beaten it with a solo Aeris at level 13 before. Solo meaning I had her fight most of the battle herself by having her use Flamethrower for damage and using her limit to survive when necessary expect for when I had Cloud attack it when I'd lowered it's hp a lot in the hopes it would knock Cloud out of the battle. It did and I was able to have Aeris kill the Zolom herself :) I also learned Beta with her in the fight :)

I've also defeated it with characters in the 15 -20 range and in the 29 -31 range, and the latter was way too overpowered for Zolom in my opinion, Cloud had Meteorain for example and Tifa had a chain of all her limit breaks from level one, two and three.

[pieckey]

If you're planning to attack the midgar zolom, be sure to have the ememy skill materia selected. The midgar zolom uses enemy skill "Beta" when its nearly death. It's a most usefull and powerfull attack to use in future battles.

[Sephiroth2088]

This snake fears one thing... Barret's mindblow limit break... use this.. Midgar Zolom can no longer use it's deadly magic... however if you want Beta... this technique will not work. I took it down at level 17 Cloud like this.

[Joshkabob]

Dude, I hate how the midgar zolem only gives you 400 exp and 40ap, it sucks, I thought he would give you way more than that,

[K-chan]

uhm dude, the snake will keep coming back over and over, it really isn't worth it,

I dunno...if you use the enemy skill materia, don't you get some cool attack or something?

[Cuchulainn]

Dude, I hate how the midgar zolem only gives you 400 exp and 40ap, it sucks, I thought he would give you way more than that,


It does, it gives you 'Beta' ES, get it early enough & you'll own all for a long time.

[Skyblade]

I'm not sure if people are still looking for the Enemy Skill materia, but they are found:
After the boss fight in Midgar where Red XIII first joins you.
In the Intermediate training room in Junon.
In the City of the Ancients.
And from the green chocobo in the Chocobo Sage's house.
If you're trying to master all of the Enemy Skill materia, make sure you collect all four before defeating Godo in the Pagoda of the five mighty gods, as he is the only enemy who uses Trine that you can fight once you have all four materia. Also, be sure to have all four equipped when you face your first Dragon Zombie in the Crater, as that is the only way to learn the elusive Pandora's Box Enemy Skill.

As to the Zolom:
This guy is actually not that difficult, once you learn his tactics. Prepare your team with the ability to negate or absorb Fire damage. Start out by poisoning him, and use Demi or the Enemy Skill Laser to lower his HP without killing him. When he stands up (after losing about half his health) stop attacking him. Have a character not equipped with the Enemy Skill materia that you wish to learn Beta attack the Zolom, but make sure the attack doesn't kill it. That character will then be flicked out of combat. Then continue your barrage of Demi or Laser, and when his HP gets low enough, he will perform Beta. Since Beta is a Fire elemental move, if you took my advice at the beginning, you will have no problem surviving it. Ta da! You've learned a really pimp looking Enemy Skill. I've found this skill useful throughout the entire game. When you face large groups of Parasites in the Crater, Beta can wipe out an entire group with one hit. This move is extremely powerful, but it has one major problem. It costs a lot of MP to use. Trine is cheaper, and overall more useful. But, make sure you know the enemy's elemental weaknesses and resistances. Trine is Lightning, Beta is Fire, Aqualung (another cool attack all opponents Enemy Skill) is Water, Magic Breath is Fire, Ice, and Lightning, Matra Magic is non-elemental (and while really cool when you first get it, not that powerful by the end of the game), and Pandora's Box is non Elemental, and it ignores the enemy's defense.

[sephiroth9006]

Here's a devestaing way to lower enemy HP i'll tell you firstly when you have ultima weapon and are at max level using all the str sources you can get on cloud have 2 mastered 2x's materias yeah it takes awhie but it's damn worth it and 1 mastered counter materia now on a joined solt have the mastered 2x's cut paired with counter attack and have a normal mastered 2x's cut anyhwere you see fit now then cloud is attacked he'll counter with the 4x's cut dealing 9,999 per hit by the time he's finished you should be able to enter commands again then have him attack normally with 4x's cut that's a total of 8 hits in a row doing 9,999 on all hits that's devestaing and when cloud dies a special bonus a mastered final attack paired with pheonix mastered but the 8 hits in a row you'll nearly be doing as much as 99,999 it's good but does take time and it makes emerald weapon the easiest boss ever fought and midgar zolem dies in a hit at that point.
here's a good tip be greviously overlevelled when your there as in level 35 i was and kicked the crap out of everything that crossed me but if you have a life then don't do that it took me close to 30hrs so there you have it.

[Swordicanus]

did anyone 1 ever just run across the marsh with the snake without a chocobo

[Cuchulainn]

I do it all the time now, i refuse to pay 4000 Gil for something u get free later. You stand at the farthest tip of grass (kinda in the centre) and wait until the Zolom headbangs in the left corner over & over then run. You beat it....JUST.

[Swordicanus]

weirdly enough i got ff7 on its day of realease all them years ago and ive allways just ran across the marsh with the snake even 2 this day i havnt bothered using a chocobo 2 do it

[viet-cong111]

Who was the person talking about selling the materia. OH MY GOD i have already sold one i think it was but i should be able to buy it again oh yeah i just thought of that. :shoot: :screwy:

[viet-cong111]

I alway use a chcobo its like a thing i just always do!

[Sepho]

If one is uncapable of making it across the marsh without running into the Zolom, one has only to save in the middle of the marsh, and reload one's game. At this point, there should be plenty of space between the Zolom and one's position once one's game is reloaded.

[Rinen]

For me, Midgar Zolem does me only three uses. A challenge very early in the game, Beta E.Skill, and slightly the X-Potion if you want to spend the time morphing it.

I always fought the Midgar Zolem when I first get there, usually I'd end up saving Meteorain before hand (yeah, I spend the time to get almost all character's limits to their lvl 3s), so the zolem was always easy for me, plus, if Meteorain didn't kill him, it was iminent that he'd end up casting Beta on my party, since I knew what to do, not a single character died.

[zpforter]

i never really cared to much about that thing. i mean it did prove difficult, but there were so many other things in that game that i was more concerned about. so i basically leveled beyond belief...i think i might have had climhazzard or meteorain for that fight. it's been such a long time since i've been to that part of the game. i can't believe i would do it, but i may have even gone with the chocobo. i don't remember....i was just after the story.


and as for the Materia selling....oh man. you disgrace the name of FF gamers everywhere. i am so sad now. :crying2:

[sayen]

THREE WEEKS!?

I just used the save trick, where you run across the swamp when the zolem is on the other side, then you hit triangle and save your game just before he reaches you. Then you restart your game, and the zolem will be back where he spawn on the other side of the marsh, run some more, then save again before he reaches you. Reload the game and run to the other side.

i heard you can just flat run and make it, but this is alot less trouble, not to mention easier. Three saves should do it, although you may be able to do it in two. Ten shillings to the man with the cajones to do it with one flat out run.

i get accross on foot first time everytime lol

[Seto Fett]

This is of little revelance to the topic, but someone said you can only get the Trine enemy skill from Godo. That's not true, you can also get it from the Materia Keeper in Mt. Nibel. (The big scorpion you fight before leaving Mt. Nibel)

[Mercen-X]

I just used the save trick, where you run across the swamp when the zolem is on the other side, then you hit triangle and save your game just before he reaches you. Then you restart your game, and the zolem will be back where he spawn on the other side of the marsh, run some more, then save again before he reaches you. Reload the game and run to the other side.

i heard you can just flat run and make it, but this is alot less trouble, not to mention easier. Three saves should do it, although you may be able to do it in two. Ten shillings to the man with the cajones to do it with one flat out run.
My first time through, I had to use the save trick.
Two more playthroughs, I mastered the ancient of art of outmaneuvering the ugly thing (without the saves, that is).
On my fourth playthrough, I got caught and managed to beat the Zolom with my LL party. I think I must've stun it with the Cho/Mo mat. By the end, one of my characters had been thrown out, one of them was KO'd, and I believe Cloud had like 3HP left. I couldn't make it to the other side of the marsh 'cause the Zolom caught me again. Needless to say, I didn't survive again.