Enemy Skills

Let's face it, the Enemy Skill materia was just ridiculous in this game. Between Trine, Aqualung, Beta, Magic Breath, Big Guard, and White Wind, a lot of magic materia was rendered nearly obsolete fairly early in the game. True, you had to know where to learn them, but once that was done one tiny materia became a complete powerhouse. Hell, if you can manage to get Beta early from the Zolom (which is admittedly very difficult), you have your most powerful spell for a good while.

What is your favorite Enemy Skill? I think Pandora's Box is really cool, but I hate that you can't learn it earlier. Big Guard is obviously the most useful, and quickly became a mainstay for me for boss fights. White Wind is also amazingly useful, healing for a large amount of damage for all allies, though is less useful if all of your characters have low HP (I believe it heals based on the HP of the caster).

The Enemy Skill materia is definitely a powerhouse item, even more so if you use the extra copies. I'm trying a run-through where most magic (green) materia is disallowed, as are summons. So my only way to use damage-dealing spells is through E-Skill. We'll see how that goes.

As for my favorite one, I liked Aqualung and Trine because they look cool. The one unfortunate thing about E-Skill is that some of them are just plain stupid and/or irrelevant after a time. Examples: Matra Magic, L4 Suicide, Chocobuckle.

i used beta to grind on the southern islands on disc 1
i was at 80
i wonder where that mem card is
i think i named all the characters after people i knew irl so it'd be embarassing to show it anywhere unfortunately

Enemy skill is utterly baller in this game.

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Originally Posted by krissy

i used beta to grind on the southern islands on disc 1
i was at 80

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Was this when you were trying to save Aerith? :p I also like to grind around Mideel, too (I assume that's what you're referring too).

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Originally Posted by Alpha

As for my favorite one, I liked Aqualung and Trine because they look cool. The one unfortunate thing about E-Skill is that some of them are just plain stupid and/or irrelevant after a time. Examples: Matra Magic, L4 Suicide, Chocobuckle.

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There are plenty of crap E Skills, but you never have to actually use them. Trine and Aqualung are also very useful in the first disc, especially if you learn them as early as possible.

yeah....yeah it was
although her name was Alex in that game, after a girl from my 7th grade class that reminded me of her :blush:

edit: or 6th grade? frick i don't remember. perhaps even 5th.

I always just stuck to Beta, Trine, and Big Guard. Those are game breaking enough. My favorite? Beta, just for how the animation and sound is!

Hey, let's discount the ones you have to hunt for, and just grab the ones that fall right into your lap, and look at those.

Matra Magic is godly when you first get it. Cheap enough to spam, yet wipes out every group you face in one shot until at least the Corel Prison.

Flamethrower is pretty much useless, because, oh, hey, Matra Magic.

Laser is the first Gravity attack you get, and equal in power to Demi 2, and makes one of the best Morph aids in the game for picking up early Sources.

Trine may not be Beta or Aqualung, but it's still a solid addition to your lineup.

Frog Song, like most status effects, is usually more trouble than its worth, but it can come in handy in places.

Magic Breath is awesome. Sure, it's easier for enemies to resist than the other elemental nukes, but it does great damage.

Shadow Flare is powerful, even if it is rather pointless by the time you get it, since you have so many other hard hitting abilities by that point.

I thought they are like collectors' items!! Useless but valued for the sake of collection. :bigsmile:

Only if your everyday collector's item has the potential to absolutely decimate your foes!

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Originally Posted by Christmas

I thought they are like collectors' items!! Useless but valued for the sake of collection. :bigsmile:

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Big Guard and White Wind are two of the best spells in the whole game, from any materia.

First playthrough I powerleveled because I saw the snake and was like challenge accepted​. Beta made the beginning of this game really easy lol

Trine man... I absolutely love the noise it makes. I very often cast it when it's unnecessary because it's relatively cheap and the sound it makes is excellent.

In my current playthrough, I just picked up the second Enemy Skill in Junon, and I realized that you can't cast E-Skills on yourself to have the person learn them. What a shame, I was looking forward to two characters spamming Matra Magic like there's no tomorrow.

I have never bothered to acquire all of the Enemy Skills in this game. This game is so ridiculously easy to begin with and you have so many ways to overpower your characters, that it renders Enemy Skills almost completely useless. Trine was useful early on and against the Materia Keeper (name?) and Magic Breath had its moments. Only one really worth using is Pandora's Box, but then again, it just seems a complete waste.

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Originally Posted by Alpha2099

In my current playthrough, I just picked up the second Enemy Skill in Junon, and I realized that you can't cast E-Skills on yourself to have the person learn them. What a shame, I was looking forward to two characters spamming Matra Magic like there's no tomorrow.

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Yep.

There's also a learning limitation if you equip one character with two Enemy Skill Materia.

Let's say that Cloud has an empty ES Materia and an ES Materia with Matra Magic. If you go into battle and an enemy uses Matra Magic against you, the empty Materia will not learn Matra Magic.

However, if an enemy then uses, say, Flamethrower on Cloud, both Materia will learn it.

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

There's also a learning limitation if you equip one character with two Enemy Skill Materia.

Let's say that Cloud has an empty ES Materia and an ES Materia with Matra Magic. If you go into battle and an enemy uses Matra Magic against you, the empty Materia will not learn Matra Magic.

However, if an enemy then uses, say, Flamethrower on Cloud, both Materia will learn it.

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That must be a stacking issue. I guess the developers hadn't considered that scenario.

Or they just didn't care. :D

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Originally Posted by VeloZer0

Or they just didn't care. :D

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That too.

Both will learn the skills then? That's pretty handy to know. Ever tried it with three?

I've actually done it with four when learning Shadow Flare from Ultimate Weapon.

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Originally Posted by VeloZer0

I've actually done it with four when learning Shadow Flare from Ultimate Weapon.

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Yep, I've done it with four with Pandora's Box before. Not sure I've ever tried three, but I see no reason it wouldn't work.

Big Guard and White Wind. :)