I am taking down that midgar zolem

[Gregoriev]

That ugly snake has been bothering me for some time...taunting me as the only enemy i have ever face that i cannot defeat...at least can't defeat with a level 15 cloud.

but now i am a level 29 cloud, so i totally can own that stupid snake if i play my cards right. speaking of cards, you all know alot more about materia and stuff than i do, so i was wondering, what materia would work best against the Midgar Zolem? Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth? what?

Also, i have a pretty good basic battle plan....

1) The first round hit him with every elemental beat i have. Iris, Irit, lightning guy. each are a level two, so i will continue to repeat them as long as they dish out about 600+ dammage.

2) Have aeris do nothing by fight one or two turns, heal everyone the next turn wether they really need it or not.

3) Once MP gets low, i am counting on the Zolm hitting aeris the most, because i will have her using the cover materis. the hits she takes will raise her limit break. i will use seal evil on the zolm (as long as it's possible to use, i don't see why not) then boost the Mp's with elixers.

4) I will pummel the Zolem during this time using the most high power attacks i have, the elementals or the fire/ice/lightning materia. whichever is most effective, all are at level 2.

5) When the zolm wakes up again, i will continue pummeling it, and essentially repeat what i did before, using limit breaks cloud and tifa gain as the come up.

6) i will pretty much prey that the zolm does not flick anyone out of battle, which is totally gay, and also hope i can survive the Beta attack, which as i reall hit me for 1200 dammage, killing everyone easily.

Now i need to know: what is the best combo's for my materia?

CLOUD: Shiva 2 connected to Added Effect on the butterfly edge sword, also, restore 2 and destruct 1, deathblow, and ice 2. i also have lightning 2 connected to the all materia.

TIFA: Ramuh 2 connected to Lightning 2 on the tiger fang weapon, All connected to Time, and restore. I also have Fire 2 on her, as well as counter attack.

AERIS: Ifrit 2 connected to Fire 2 on the prism staff, Titan 1 connected to cover 2 on the staff, restore 2 connected to all 2, and lightning 2.

I guess i can connect clouds restore 2 to the all materia seeing as how i will only be taking on one monster, but what is this talk i hear of a learn enemy trick materia? i have never found that yet (though i haven't been looking all that hard too).

I thought you got beta as long as you defeated the zolem...or am i totally wrong? can somebody enlighten me on this?

[ljkkjlcm9]

uhm dude, the snake will keep coming back over and over, it really isn't worth it, especially later when just attacking once will virtually kill it. It's not worth any effort at all, except to make yourself feel good, but you better hope you're away from the center when you kill it, because if you're weak after battle, the next one will kill you. Oh, and that's a big waste of elixirs, BIG WASTE.

THE JACKEL

[Raistlin]

The Midgar Zolom would destroy a level 29 party, especially with an inexperienced player. Wait until you're above 35-40 and have better materia, weapons, and armor.

Hints:

1. Don't use Aeris. Take more damage with you. Speed is the key.

2. Equip your best rated weapons/armor despite any negative materia growth.

3. Kill the damn thing fast.

4. Don't waste elixirs on the bloody Zolom.

5. Use Hypers on all your characters beforehand. Go into the battle with everyone on their limits(or close to it).


Also, there's four Enemy Skill materia found in the game. When equipped, the character will learn any Enemy Skills cast on them. There's 24 Enemy Skills in the game, Beta being one of them.

[Gregoriev]

so um....where are they on the first disk?

[abrojtm]

You should have at least one already, I believe Red XIII comes equipped with one (either that, or it's the materia that he drops as he pounces on you).

[UltimaLimit]

As for elementals, I don't recall Zolom having any weaknesses. However, I recommend casting Bio a few times to poison it.

Equip Ifrit or Fire + Elemental in Red XIII's armor, and as many E. Skill as you can on the same person. Give him Cure, have him be the healer (no attacking! Midgar Zolom flicks away the character that hurts it most.) Have your other 2 use Bio and Cover to protect Red XIII. When Zolom gets pissed and uses Beta, Elemental protection + Red's good HP should keep him alive. At that point he can cast Beta right back and finish off the Zolom.

BTW, if you have multiple E. Skill materia on one person and a new skill is used by him, all the materia will retain it. (However, if one materia already has that skill, none of the others will learn it.)

Good luck. Like Raistlin said, save your Elixers.

[Mirage]

I killed it with Cloud at level 19 or 20, the others were 18 and 19. Elemental lvl1 only halves the damage, but that's enough to survive Beta if you've got about 700 HP.
I put all my characters on the back row, and had Cloud damage it with his limit breaks, I had climhazard at this point. I had the two others heal mainly Cloud, so that he would be able to survive Beta anytime. I also gave Cloud E. Skill, and used Beta at the Midgar Zolom after he used it at me. That killed him.

-Edit-
Oh yeah, I gave Cloud the Talisman accessory too, +10 Spirit. That reduced Beta's damage from about 800 to about 700.

So basically, you need just a bit more HP than what Beta removes, and then you kill it with your new-learned spell. You'll need like 10-15 more levels to survive an attack after it used Beta on you.
Getting your Elemental materia to level 2 isn't really an option either, as it needs 10000 AP for that.

P.S. Only pussies use a chocobo. :P

That strategy worked for me when I was 10 levels lower, you shold have no problems if you follow it.

[Gregoriev]

Yeah....due to being side tracked by the yuffie side quest, and subsiquent pissed-off-ness at not being to defeat the really gay looking boss at the end of the wutai tower with a level upper thirties yuffie, i power leveled her along with Tifa and Cid...until she was level 45 and had an enemy skill materia equiped with beta.

needless to say, when i took on the zolem at that point trying to get beta because beta ruled and i needed it to cancell out the last guys healing abilities...well...it wasn't really a question of wether or not i could beat the zolem, but wether or not i could try to not kill it before it cast beta...

That snake was a pussy...hell, everything after that point was a damn pussy! I took down the super evil wall thing in the ancients temple with a Tifa limit break and the use of some new materia i can't pronounce...kajt or something...it was a kick ass black dragon that came out of a votex of clouds in the sky and shot a white commet type thing of energy out of it;s mouth for around 2500 damage.

I was done in Two moves, TWO!!! even though i didn't get a YEAH on any of her spinny wheels, she still dealt 1000+ damage with each hit. and that dragon...i mean wow...that just ruled!

Now back to how much i rule!

[TheSpoonyBard]

'That dragon' would be Bahamut. Kjata is a bull. All there is to say now is I hope you look forward to disc 2, and prepare youself for the Carry Armour. It's the second most annoying boss after the Demon's Gate, and most inexperienced people have a lot of trouble with it.

[Destai]

^^ My first time playing I couldnt figure out how to catch a chcobo and after three straight weeks I just gave up and managed to outrun it. yeah Im done sharing now...

[Shoden]

i took zolem down at lv 42 and ultima at 49

[lord shishio]

I never went back to try the snake after I crossed the marshes.

[Gregoriev]

THREE WEEKS!?

I just used the save trick, where you run across the swamp when the zolem is on the other side, then you hit triangle and save your game just before he reaches you. Then you restart your game, and the zolem will be back where he spawn on the other side of the marsh, run some more, then save again before he reaches you. Reload the game and run to the other side.

i heard you can just flat run and make it, but this is alot less trouble, not to mention easier. Three saves should do it, although you may be able to do it in two. Ten shillings to the man with the cajones to do it with one flat out run.

[Destai]

gimme a break, I was six!

[Cuchulainn]

I went back and killed it after the 1st visit to gold Saucer/Desert Prison. My party was Cloud/Barret/Red.

I learned Mighty Guard by manipulating the Plugs at Gongaga Beach, Buggied it bk to Junion via the bent guards. I also had the fire ring which helped a LOT. My only purpose was to learn 'Beta' Enemy Skill, it's worth the effort, especially as it's fairly near the Sleeping Man Cave as I went to get the Myrthil & Bolt Ring off him (or indeed the Great Gospel, Aeris' Final Limit). I also learned White Wind off the Zemzelett's aeround Condor, that comes in handy too (manipulate him too).

Beta owns all for a longf time if u get it here. Only thing is, prey he doesnt sweep away your character with the Enemy Skill equipped...that can annoy. I was Level 24/20/19 respectively for Cloud/Barret/Red, i tend not to bother wasting time leveling up until i can get to the Allyway at Junion & push the Button to get the Tricky but EXP & Gil Whoreish Shinra Robots that appear, I went from levels 24/20/19 to 30/27/25 in 15 mins solid fighting. Warning tho, If you don't concentrate & plan these Robots have the ability to kick your ass before you know it. But yea, It's with the trip if you couple it with a trip for the other things, definately