Learn Beta at the beginning of disc one: Here's how

[Lord Chainsaw]

Here's something to try if you just feel like breezing through disc one:

When you get to the chocobo ranch you must catch a chocobo to cross the swamp. If you don't ride your chocobo, the Midgar Zolom will kill you. Right?

Wrong. You can kick his ass, and the ass of every other boss on the rest of the disc. How, you ask?

With Beta of course. But how will you ever survive that attack that does 2k to everyone in the party?

Well you aren't gonna get hit by it. You're going to bring in Aeris with a full limit bar into the fight with the Midgar Zolom and proceed to fight him like normal. You must have the enemy skill materia on you in this battle, but that is a given of course. When he gets into the low HP range and is getting ready for Beta you proceed to unleash Planet Protector. Now when he uses beta, it will do a whopping 0 damage to you and you will learn it. Now you kill him and move on to the rest of the disc.

Makes the first half of the game such a breeze. Go ahead, turn on your playstation and try it right now.

[Flying Mullet]

Good points. Another good thing to do is to attach a fire materia to the elemental materia on you rarmor to reduce damage just in case you make the mistake of not casting Planet Protector in time.

[Sefie1999AD]

Otherwise a good strategy except you'll need to level up a really long time to get Aeris to learn Planet Protector because she has to kill 160+ enemies (80 to get limit level 2 and another 80 to get limit level 3) to learn it. And that isn't so easy with her because her attack power isn't really great, and you only have one summon by the time you face Midgar Zolom for the first time. I'd say you'll get to something like level 20-30 until Aeris learns Planet Protector, and by that time, Disc 1 will be a breeze even without Beta.

Don't get me wrong, your strategy is very good. It's just that it takes so long to get Planet Protector.

[Lord Chainsaw]

You don't have to fight around that much before you get planet protector. You can also get mad exp with a group of those grass people near the swamp while you're at it.

If you still don't have enough for planet protector you can always go back to the swamp when you get it, which shouldn't be too far from that point.

[ForeverZeroUltima]

it's nothing against you guys...but i prefer Trine (learned from Materia Keeper on Mt. Nibel or Godo in Wutai). it deals lightning damage and does slightly more damage for slightly more MP.

[Rainecloud]

I'll have to try that on my 11th attempt at the game.

[Mo-Nercy]

Originally posted by ForeverZeroUltima
it's nothing against you guys...but i prefer Trine (learned from Materia Keeper on Mt. Nibel or Godo in Wutai). it deals lightning damage and does slightly more damage for slightly more MP.

See, the problem with that is, you're already through half of disc 1 anyway. It's a good strategy, I suppose it shouldn't be too tough if you just make sure Aeris gets most of the finishing blows. I've gotton Cloud onto Meteorain by Junon, I expect this will raise the bar in terms of difficulty. Maybe I'll try it just for the fun of getting Aeris to Planet Protector.

Then I'll be bored outta my mind as I wipe out everything that stands in my way.
(I suppose that would require a mind to be bored out of...)

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Beta really isn't worth going to all that trouble.

[ForeverZeroUltima]

sigh...why am i even trying to learn beta right now? i'm at the part right before you go to the golden saucer and date, and i'm training Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, and Cid. in just ten minutes, Aeris learned Breath of the Earth, Cid learned Dynamite, Cloud learned Climhazzard, and Aeris learned Fury Brand! I'll be at Planet Protector before i know it! (now all i have to do is fight up to 600-700 battles to get the Mythril to trade for Great gospel...but i've only fought 193 battles! )