Suggestions

[Yumyums]

Does anyone have any tips for the battle arena in gold saucer.

[Sephitachi7]

have your limit break almost full, other than that it depends on what disk you're in.

[RiTaPuffy]

Plus Hp Materia, have 9999hp, MUST
Ribbon
Strongest weapon

[d£v!l'$ ph0£n!x]

Equip a minimal amount of materia to keep ur hp hi. counter attack is a must, cure (obviously), haste, i wouldn't rely on summons so don't use em. If u hav 2x cut i would use that instead of slash-all (u only get multiple enemies in the early battles n their easy to beat anyway, 2x cut can take the harder enemies down quicker). also, it sounds tedious but if u go into config and put the battle time down to as slow as it can, then the "timeX30" slot will do a minimal amount of damage. n like rita puffy sed, ribbon and ultimate weapons are a must. if ur using ultimate weapons, be sure to keep hp high (unless ur using yuffie, barret or cid. i wudn't use anyone else as cloud, yuffie's, barret's n cid's limits do awesome damage. leave yuffie on lv3 with doom of the living) ther r probly toher tips but these shud make it easy enough

[* White Aeris *]

oh and if you're going for the points, make sure your phisical attack can do quite a bit of damage, and try to get 'Break materia' or something like that. 'Break Materia' gives you a load of points if you chose it last! i got Omnislash and W-Summon in no time. ;)
or and try equiping a ribbon and then try chosing status slot things. you will get the points but not the status effect. :)

[Light Mage]

Added-Effect + Hades (in your weapon) = FUN!

I think if you have Deathblow + Added-Cut, and Mime... or Deathblow + Hp Absorb may be better.

However, don't use Mime if you have a counter-attack, as it screws you up by only miming the counter attack.

ALTHOUGH if you have Mime, you can mime your own limit break! (As long as you don't have Counter-attack, as mentioned.)

A WARNING ABOUT ULTIMATE WEAPONS:
Remember their power changes according to your own power - when your HP (or MP in some cases) is low, your attack power is really bad!

Yuffie's Conformer is (in my opinion) THE BEST to use, as it dosn't suffer from low power when you're in trouble...

[boys from the dwarf]

link together a mastered counter materia and a mastered cure materia. also can you junction as many counters as you want so when an enemy attacks you you counter with E.G.cure 3,life 2, KoTR,ultima and meteor or something because if you can that would be the best way to defeat the weapons.

[Light Mage]

Counter with Meteor...?

Whoa!

;)

[=Angelus=]

If you're on disc one entering the Battle arena, i suggest
Hp plus materia (get your hp to be arnd 5000+ at least, maybe 2 lvl3 HpPlus materia)
CounterAttack (you need to maximise your attacking opportunities)
EnemySkill Materia (Heres where you can pack some high dmg affect-all spells like Trine, Beta and Aqualung, also could save your life if your weapon broke)
Time Materia (for haste)
Heal Materia (unless you already have ribbon, even so, keep some remedy just in case your ribbon breaks or otherwise)
Most importantly, Odin!! :bigbiggri this could save your life at the last moment..
as for weapons and armour, try to find a balance between a high attack, and sufficent materia.
Leave your limit gauge arnd 3/4 full, so you need not spend it on the earlier monsters

Yups! thats the typical strategy i follow

[Lost Number]

Final Attack + Phoenix
Easy.

[Sephitachi7]

Why would you go in the battle arena if you already have Final Attack? I guess some people just do it for fun...

[Lost Number]

It is a game. What exactly do you expect?

[KoShiatar]

Casting Regen on yourself at the beginning of the battle helps a lot, too. And you can get Sources in the sunken Shinra plane to raise your characters' stats.

[Sephitachi7]

Oh I didn't mean to offend you Lost Number, sorry. I just personally don't like fighting if it doesn't help level up, or if isn't part of the story. But if it offended you I'm sorry. Didn't mean to.

[=Angelus=]

lol.. usually if you had sources.. battle arena wouldn't be much of a challenge...

i think this guy is trying out the battle arena in disc 1.. thats a real pain, especially if you already spent who knows how many hours at the dunk machine saving up GP, and God-knows how many hours in that battle-arena, trying to achieve that Omni-Slash before you leave... *sigh*... those where the times :)

[Light Mage]

It's very hard without a Ribbon, but creative use of the Added-Effect Materia in your armour can help make up for it.

I find the Aqualung enemy skill very useful, it's surprisingly powerful!

A little MP heavy, but that's what Ethers are for.

You can get Aqualung from the Harpy creatures in the Gold Saucer desert area (on the world map) which is useful before you fight Jenova in the Ancient City.

Of course you need to already have done the Gold Saucer part and obtained the Buggy to be able to access the desert area of the world map.

(PS - Aqualung is also quick and easy for defeating the two Turks at Gongaga.)

[=Angelus=]

how much mana does Aqualung consume anyway? :p i typically used Trine for its dmg divided by cost ratio..