Aqualung can be acquired as soon as you get to North Corel but walking around on a *tiny* patch of desert that won't get you sucked into the quicksand (you don't have to wait until after the gold saucer, if your guide tells you this). This skill is almost exactly as strong as Beta when cast by you, but on your first playthrough, it is unlikely that you've got Beta at this point in the game. The monster that teaches you aqualung doesn't have enough magic power to deal more than 600 damage with it, while the monster that teaches Beta has enough magic power to make Beta hit for up to 1500 damage.
You can get Beta the very first time you meet Midgar Zolom, but it will require a bit of grinding, a specific gear setup, and a lot of luck. You will need at least 700 HP one one person, and this person will need to use Elemental+fire materia in two linked armor slots (this will halve fire damage taken), as well as the Enemy Skill materia and a Talisman for additional magic defence. You're now just barely able to survive Beta with one character, which is required in order to learn it. After that, you need to kill it with the Beta you just learned, and before it kills you with a follow-up attack.
If you choose to get Beta later, you can make the battle relatively simple if you go back after getting to costa del sol. You can find a Fire Ring here, which completely nullifies fire damage for one of your characters.
Beta and Aqualung are both significantly stronger than Trine, even if Trine is the one you're able to learn last.
Another interesting thing about Enemy Skill materia. You will get more than one of these materia thorough the game. If you don't miss any of them, you can get a total of 4. If one character has two E. Skill materias equipped, and one of them (for example) knows Flamethrower, you will not learn Flamethrower on the other E.Skill if you get hit by it again. If you put the E.skill lacking Flamethrower on a separate character, you can however learn it. Thirdly, if you have two E.skill on one character and *neither* of them has for example flame thrower, both e.skills will learn the attack at the same time when hit by it.
One utilisation for this is for example when killing Ultima Weapon. When it receives its killing blow, it will cast Shadow Flare on the person who killed it, and if you make this person be someone with multiple E.skills, you'll learn it on all of them. There aren't too many places you can get this skill. The next opportunity will either be Ruby Weapon (a much much harder boss), and an enemy deep into the final dungeon.
Enemy Skill is perhaps the most overpowered materia in the entire game, except KotR
Reply With Quote