question about Battle Arena

[Numisma]

there's one particular enemy i've faced in the Battle Arena (it was either the 7th or 8th enemy in the series) that i just cannot win against. the enemy looks like a Master Tonberry but doesn't have a rotating star above its head, and it walks around and does nothing fora couple minutes, then uses an instant death attack called Knife.

my usual setup is, Cloud with the Heaven's Cloud, Dragon Armlet, and Ribbon. materia: Restore, Time, Slash-All, Enemy-Skill, HP Plus, Barrier, Counter, and stuff like that. he's got about 9K-somethingHP and 900-something MP.

what happens is, the handicaps i usually get by the time i go against this enemy are, Accessory Broken, Half MP, Half HP & MP, Weapon Broken, and stuff like that. so, by that time, my HP is 4K something, and my MP is a couple hundred.

the problems are, this enemy has a TON of HP, and even using Shadow Flare (e.skill) on it TWICE (causing 7000+ damage) still didn't knock it out. all i know is, i'll spend what seems like an eternity chopping away at this enemy, and all it does it walk around until it finally stands in front of me, uses Knife, and Cloud falls down dead, and i lose several thousand BP XP

any suggestions? will KOTR take it out? if i get the Enemy Skill Death Force, will that make me invulnerable? i don't have that one in that save file, but i got it in a new one.
if you have gone against that battle arena enemy and defeated it, please let me know what you did. what to attack with, any materia i'm not already using, ANYTHING.

[Zifnab]

KOTR should definitly take him out, as should Omnislash or any other multiple-hit attacks. That's plain old Tonberry, by the way.

[GrimmReaper]

yeah, that's just a tonberry. I usually kill those guys when i set up cloud with the ultima sword, and the 4x cut. he does 9999 damage per hit.

[Deandre]

There are two different Tonberries in the battle arena, one is the tonberry, the other is Master Tonberry.

Master Tonberry isn't too hard if you just use multiple-hit attacks.

[Numisma]

gah, i never bothered to have any summon materia on me when i battled, and since Tonberry does nothing except use Knife, i've no chance to increase my limit gauge from whatever it was at the end of the last battle XP plus, i opted for Slash-All rather than the Double-Cut materia (since i only have 2x-Cut rather than 4x-Cut atm).

any idea how much HP the Tonberries have? i've tried using Sense on the MASTER Tonberry but couldn't see, and the bestiary legend in the back of my FF7 guide has it down for only 8000HP or something and i KNOW that's wrong. does Tonberry only use Knife when it's extremely low on HP, like when the Midgar Zolom uses Beta?

[Blathnaid]

I'm pretty certain it's not a desperate attack move, but then again I've usually taken it out before then. I know I freaked when I first faced the Tonberry (hell, I still do. Those guys freak me out) as they had tons of HP and even with my best attacks I couldn't bring it down.

It's really simple though. Tonberry has to take it's time before it can get close enough to use 'Knife' (that's what all the walking around is). The closer it gets, the closer you are to death. And since he is immune to most devastating status effects, he seems invincible. To take him out effectively, you need to hit him multiple times in one attack. KOTR or 4xCut is perfect for this (though KOTR takes a long time to obtain). I usually wear an accessory that gives me haste which is also extreamly effective. Sometimes giving you two attacks before he can even walk forward.

That's pretty much it. I know he has a lot of HP (too much if you ask me), but stick with it and you should eventually conquer this foe. Oh, and watch out. He could easily use an attack called 'Everyone's Grudge' on you that pays back the damage he recieved from that character (built up over time).

[Numisma]

Originally posted by Blathnaid

It's really simple though. Tonberry has to take it's time before it can get close enough to use 'Knife' (that's what all the walking around is). The closer it gets, the closer you are to death. And since he is immune to most devastating status effects, he seems invincible. To take him out effectively, you need to hit him multiple times in one attack. KOTR or 4xCut is perfect for this (though KOTR takes a long time to obtain). I usually wear an accessory that gives me haste which is also extreamly effective. Sometimes giving you two attacks before he can even walk forward.

Oh, and watch out. He could easily use an attack called 'Everyone's Grudge' on you that pays back the damage he recieved from that character (built up over time).

so THAT'S how Tonberry's attacks work. was WONDERING what was behind Everyone's Grudge....

now, i'd been using Haste on Cloud, but hey, in the future, i'm going to have KOTR and will try that. say, can Death Force prevent "Knife", or not?

[ForeverZeroUltima]

What IS Death Force and how do you get it?
anyway, the Tonberry in the Arena has about 30000 HP, maybe 10000 higher (hey, i'm just guessing). the best bet is to caste haste on urself, slow on him, and just keep hacking at him with D. Blow or 4-cut, and Ultima, and you should eventually kill him. By the way, i fought one in the arena and instead of using knife, when it was half-way to me, it used this attack called "Time Damage". Does anyone know what the heck that is and how it works?

Remember, I'M the Master of War! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Deandre]

Death Force makes a character immune to death attacks,
get it by manipulating an Adamantaimai (search for one @ Wutai Beaches)

[Freya Coral]

I believe that the way Everyone's Grudge determines its damage is 10 points for every kill made over time. That's why it always slaughters Cloud and doesn't do much damage to people like Yuffie or Cait.:aimmeh:

[Evil_Cloud]

well be sure to always have a Ribbon on, and preferably 4x Cut. since u have the Ribbon on, try and get all the status changing slots, like poison, mini, frog, etc. in order to get these slots, press the Square button repeatedly, this slows the slots down. which makes it easier to get the slot u want.

[Blathnaid]

Well, since 'knife' is an instant death move, I would guess that 'death force' would work. Not saying that for sure though.

And, Freya Coral, I guess that would make more sense, seeing as how the name is 'everyone's grudge', but I've seen it do little damage to Cloud when he hasn't even attacked yet.

As for 'time damage', I've never in all my FFVII career seen Tonberry use an attack like that, but I would guess that it would slow you down. That's a new one though.

[ForeverZeroUltima]

um, no, it didn't slow me down. Cloud was on Haste when the tonberry did that and he didn't slow down a bit, but the time damage damn near killed Cloud! This, however, made his LIMIT bar completely full right off the bat ^_^!