Beating Emerald and Ruby weapon?

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Originally Posted by Lazerface

I'm going to do a second playthrough of FFVII. This time I'ma beat Emerald and Ruby weapon, Any advice or suggestions on how to take em down? I know I probably have to be lvl 99.

With the right materia setup you don't have to be lvl 99, though it helps, obviously. Some necessities for Emerald Weapon, especially if you want to do it before 99:
Mystiles. Two at the very least. Getting 3 requires glitching (I think).
The Underwater Materia. Unless you're just going to blast the smurf out of him with KOTR and Mime. (Speaking of which, killing Ruby gives you access to a golden chocobo without having to do all the breeding trout, so if you want to use KOTR on EW, kill Ruby first).
Sprint Shoes
Final Attack+Phoenix (necessity if you're doing low-level)
HP+ materia (especially @ lower levels...you want 9999 hp ideally, almost a necessity).
Megalixirs.

Beyond that, there are a few different ways to go about the fight. There's Bahamut 0, KOTR, along with W-Summon and Mime, 4xCut, and of course the upper tier Limit Breaks (notably Cloud, Cid, Barret, and Yuffie's) for damage. Hero Drinks are cool. Oh, and you want to be HYPER going into the fight with anyone whose LB you will use (Some characters' LBs are a waste of time here, namely Cait Sith's thought I also don't use Tifa's or Vincent's). Big Guard at the beginning of the fight (and anytime it drops during the fight) can be helpful, but I if I use it, I want that character to either be my healer or to be doing damage via Enemy Skills so I don't have to use extra slots. Why? See below.

Keep in mind that one of EW's attacks is based on how much materia you have equipped, so once you get a strategy down, unload any materia you don't absolutely HAVE to have equipped.

Part of the trick to EW is timing your attacks so he doesn't get in back to back to back hits which will kill you quickly. You want to have one character whose primary responsibility is healing in some capacity. That character might get in some attacks here and there, but they should be focused 90% on healing (mostly with megalixirs--you can heal via other methods, but run the danger of mp or speed issues).

Ruby weapon is a different challenge altogether. No matter what your level is, without knowing ahead of time what your plan is, you will die. Not because Ruby is harder than Emerald, but because Ruby has cheap/impossible mechanics. Without prior knowledge this makes Ruby harder. With the necessary knowledge, though, it makes Ruby a cakewalk.

Some of the setup is the same. You want Final Attack+Phoenix (even though Phoenix will heal Ruby a bit, doesn't matter). Bahamut ZERO + Mime is nice. I'm assuming you don't have KOTR, of course. Hero Drinks and Big Guard are always helpful.

The differences between Ruby and Emerald are vital.
For Ruby you want Ribbons equipped on all characters.

Secondly, you want to have the Hades materia. Or lots of those items, whatever they're called, that cast stop on the enemy. Ruby is immune to almost everything except stop status. But that's fine because stop makes the fight simple. Stop means Ruby's not going to retaliate against your attacks with Ultima, and if you're going to lose (assuming you do everything correctly) it's because of Ultima spam.

Lastly, you want to go into the fight with only one man or woman standing (typically Cloud), because otherwise you're perma-losing two teammates.

From there, attack Ruby when he's got his arms in the sand, and heal up/play defensive when his arms are out. Use W-Summon Hades+BahamutZERO then mime the trout out of it.

You can actually do the fight without Final Attack, and may even want to, because there's a chance that when you revive Ruby can do his whirlwind bulltrout and eliminate a teammate. I'm not altogether sure what triggers the move exactly, but I do know I've noticed it happen upon reviving teammates, and it is possible to do the fight without dying.