Throughout the entire game, there will be five WEAPONs that will emerge from the depths of the Earth. Two of them are totally optional; one you will have to fight, but not kill; another you will HAVE to fight; and the last one you will not have to fight at all.
This is the WEAPON that you will have to fight. It will emerge from the water just shy of Midgar and will proceed to attack. It will be up to you and the team to stop him.
Diamond is hard, but is nowhere near as hard as Ruby or Emerald. Begin the battle by quickly casting MBarrier, Barrier, Regen, and Haste on the entire party. Also, make sure that at least one of your characters is equipped with a Ribbon to ensure no negative status ailments.
He will be immune to any physical attack, so all you'll have is magic to defeat him with. As soon as you give your party all the above spells, cast the most powerful ones you have on him. Ultima, Comet, and especially Knights of the Round will do a pretty good job. Keep it up until you see him starting to count down. If you've played ''EarthBound'' (''Mother'' in Japan), then you'd know about Starman's countdown attack. This is no different. Who ever is holding the Ribbon, use the Defend command until the attack is over with. When the timer reaches zero, he will use his Diamond Flash attack. No matter how powered up you are, three of these will kill you. If the first blast doesn't do you in, it will put Mute on you so it will be very difficult for quick healing. That's where the Ribbon comes in. If you're equipped with the Ribbon, cast Cure 3 (if you know it), then provide the entire team with Echo Screens so they can use magic again. Continue this process until Diamond is dust.
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This is the WEAPON that you will not have to fight. While you're on Junon awaiting execution, this WEAPON will attack. Because of the brute power of Junon's cannon, it will take care of this WEAPON before it can really attack.
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This is the WEAPONS that you will have to fight, but not kill. You will first encounter Ultimate when you're in Mideel (I won't tell you why you're there as to spoil the story). You will only have to survive this battle.
Like Diamond's fight, begin this one the same way, with MBarrier, Barrier, Regen, and Haste. Just give him everything you have: magic, physical attacks, the whole nine yards. So long as you keep your energy up, this fight will be pretty easy.
The second time you fight Ultimate, it will be during Disk 3. Remember Doom Gaze from Final Fantasy III? Yep, you guessed it. Same concept. Only this time, Ultimate won't be a random battle. If you run into him, he'll fight.
After you fight him in Mideel, he'll be floating around over the small lake near Junon. Keep in mind that you don't have to fight him at this point; but, if you want Cloud's ultimate weapon 'Ultima', then you'll have to beat Ultimate WEAPON.
Run directly into him. When you begin to fight him this time, he's going to give it all he's got. Don't worry, just fight this one like you fought him in Mideel. After a few thousand HP damage, he'll fly away again.
He can't re-heal himself between battles, but you can. Re-heal your team and go after him again. He'll be flying around this time rather than just standing still like before. Just keep an eye on him (and he's a slippery little, er, big devil) until he stops again. For some strange reason, his favorite spots seem to be Mideel, Midgar, Nibelheim, and Cosmo Canyon.
Keep up this sherade until he finally stops over Cosmo Canyon. That will be his final resting place. Now, just because his HP is low doesn't mean that he'll have equally weak attacks. He'll fight the same way as before so don't drop your guard. When you defeat him this time, he'll go crashing down over Cosmo Canyon and make a passageway to the Ancient Forest and you'll recieve Cloud's ultimate weapon 'Ultima'.
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Now this is the cream of the crop. The best of the best of the best. This is the cookie that will be hard, if possible, to swollow. This is it. The toughest enemy in the entire game. Ruby WEAPON.
Now, if you keep calm, this battle will not be that hard. Who am I kidding? You're in for the fight of your life!!
From the beginning, give it all you got. He'll whirlsand two of your comrades and take them out of battle and leaving one person to deal with. Continue pummeling him with everything. Knights of the Round, Bahamut ZERO, Limit Breaks, the whole nine-point-one yards.
Notice something wrong? Nothing is hurting him. Even Knights of the Round is causing 0 HP damage a pop. When he buries his tentacles into the ground, just reach over to the PlayStation console and hit the Reset button.
Now, on to business. If you were like me and went into this thing guns blazing, then hopefully you saved your game outside Gold Saucer so you could come back again after your game was over. Unlike all the other battles in this game, there are some things that you must do BEFORE confronting Ruby. Here goes:
Have plenty of Elixrs/Ethers and Potions. Be sure to have a Ribbon. If you go into this battle naked besure to have a Ribbon tied somewhere. Also, have a Final Attack materia, as well as a Phoenix or Revive materia (it will be best to have the Revive materia, I'll explain in a bit). And finally, you need to have a pretty powerful Knights of the Round and Mime materias.
Now, roam around outside the Gold Saucer on the ground. Keep going until you encounter a random battle (equip the Enemy Lure if you have to). During this random battle, take Cloud, who should be your most powerful character at this point, and use him to kill off your other two comrades. Yes, you heard me right. Kill them off. Don't de-equip them. Just kill them, I'll explain later, but be sure to give them the Mime materia before you kill them. If you're desparate for GPs, APs, Exps or any other kind of P's, go ahead and kill the enemy, too.
Next, you need to power Cloud up to full strength. Give him both a HP Plus and a MP Plus materia; put the Final Attack/Revive orbs on [Why Revive and not Phoenix? Because Phoenix hits with a fire attack before healing. And when Ruby is hit with magic, he retaliates with Ultima. That means that you'll bring Cloud back to life just to be killed again.]; give him the Ribbon and W-Summon and W-Magic. Now, you're ready.
If you would've kept your other two partners alive, upon first attack (which would've did nothing to him) Ruby would've used his Whirlsand attack and take a random teammate out of battle. If they're dead, then after one or two weak physical attacks on his part, Ruby will bury his tentacles into the sand.
Now, it's time for the nitty gritty. When he puts his tentacles in the sand quickly cast Life 2 on your comrades. When they're alive, THROW EVERYTHING YOU GOT AT HIM INCLUDING THE KITCHEN SINK!! Have Cloud cast Knights of the Round courtesy of W-Summon. Then have your partners Mime. This should create an infinite chain of Knights of the Round attacks. Well, not infinite, it will stop eventually. When it does, Ruby WILL retaliate with Ultima. Heal those who aren't killed. If Cloud is killed, hold out until the Final Attack Revive kicks in. Then, if he doesn't take in his tentacles, do the Knights of the Round Summon chain again. If he does take in his tentacles, immediately kill off your two partners again until he puts his tentacles down again. About two more Knights of the Round chains will kill him.
Sounds easy? That was just the offensive part. Remember, Ruby won't just stand there and take a beating. He has a Ruby Ray that will do a considerable amount of damage. He has Comet that will do more. Of course, you know about Ultima, and finally his most powerful attack doesn't even come from him. It's his tentacles. This is where you will need the Ribbon. One strike from Ruby's tentalces will cause every negative abnormality possible. Amoung which include: Mini, Toad, Confu, Bezerk, Slow, and the removal of any barrier that you have cast on yourself. In other words, Ruby gives you the slow way to go. In addition to mercilessly pummeling you with the Ruby Ray, you'll eventually kill yourself via Bezerk and Confu. But, with the Ribbon equipped, the tentacle will cause about 7500 HP damage -- damage that can be healed with Cure 3 (or Regen if its still on you). Before even attempting this battle, be sure you have all levels of limit breaks (if possible) and are at least at Level 90 experience. If you don't meet these two conditions, then you won't have a chance.
Your reward for this feat will be the Desert Rose. It's not much now, but after you beat Emerald WEAPON, you hang on to it like a page in the Bible.
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This underwater WEAPON isn't as hard as Ruby, but he's equally frustrating. Like Ruby, Emerald has well over 500,000 HPs meaning that those Knights will be pretty exausted after this battle. The first time you see him, it will be when you're travelling around in the submarine. Avoid him then. If you get curious, he'll make quick mincemeat out of you.
After picking up the Underwater Materia from the Kalm Traveler [morph a creature in the Underwater Reactor called Ghost Ship into a Guide Book. The Kalm Traveler will give you the Underwater Materia for it. Forgot to get it? Click Here] Head back down into the water via the submarine and look for Emerald. Be sure the Underwater Materia is equipped before you enter battle.
What the Underwater Materia does is eliminate the timer used. Instead of have a mere twenty minutes to kill him, you will have Chicago-Street-Fight rules against him.
Now Emmy isn't as frustrating as Ruby can be, but he can be equally hard. His weakest attack will take about 3000 HPs a pop so you don't want to underestimate him simply because you took out Ruby (if you took him out).
Pummel him with the same tenacity that you used on Ruby. After a Knights of the Round chain (see Ruby WEAPON), Emmy will let out a pained groan and reveal six jems on his body. These things will make you cry if not handled properly. Immediately cast Wall on everybody if you have it. Hell, use any type of barrier that you may have! Then immediately after that cast ONE Knights of the Round Summon [I'll explain later]. After the summon, Emmy will counter with an attack from each of the jems altogether taking off up to 9999, or rather all, of your HPs IF you didn't use some type of barrier. If you did, then these attacks would've inflicted half the damage.
Why cast just one KotR and not an infinite chain? Because after one casting, you will kill each of the jems. And, just like you, each of the jems have a final attack. You will be damaged greatly and you will have to hold out through all the KotR summons before you can heal. And in between these KotR's, Emmy will use a couple of physical attacks to weaken you further.
Keep this up, and Emmy will be a piece of cake.
[For those of you who couldn't get the Guide Book from the Underwater Reactor or just like a challenge]
Forgot the Guide Book, huh? Well, looks like you're in a pickle. But, even pickles can taste good if eaten at the right time!
Unfortunately, after you leave the reactor, it will be locked, so it will be impossible to go back in. So, if you didn't get the Guide Book on the first run, then you won't get it at all.
Here's the plan for Emmy. First off, the infinite chain of KotR is out of the question, you don't have time. Instead, give Cloud the W-Summon with the KotR summon, give your second member all the healing magic that will fit with W-Magic, and give the third party member a little of both.
Now, you have a healer, an attacker, and a guinei pig. Use the attacker to cast KotR. After Emmy counters, use the healer to heal the party. If the third member isn't dead already, use him/her to fill in the gap (KotR if the party is healed or Cure 3/Life 2 if not) or just use him/her to cast spells like Wall, Haste, Regen, or the like.
Now this method is very hard seeing that each KotR attack takes up 1 minute 16 seconds of your time. That's about 13 good casts considering that you have to wait for Emmy to attack and for your party to heal.
If you use this method without wasting time figuring out what to use, you should take care of Emmy with about 4 minutes left.
Your reward for winning will be the Earth Harp.
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