Ruby Weapon

Ruby Weapon one of the two optional superbosses in Final Fantasy VII, along with the Emerald Weapon. In Final Fantasy VII, it is one of the two Weapons added in the American, PAL and International version of the game. Ruby Weapon is one of five Weapons that the planet has produced and dispatched to cleanse any threats to its continued existence. In terms of difficulty, Ruby is probably the second hardest to defeat.

This is not the final boss, but rather an optional boss which has a lot of HP, which is somewhere in the range of 800,000-850,000 (about 7 times as much as the final boss). Ruby Weapon is a huge monster, which resides in the sand around the Gold Saucer in the later discs of the game. You can only approach it by airship or chocobo. It can instantly and unpreventably kill any character with one of its attacks, unless you're at a high level with high stats, making it an extremely hard boss. And yet, with the right strategy and equipment, a player will be able to defeat Ruby Weapon in 10 minutes or less, given that Cloud's stats are maxed out.

Strategy 1
This strategy requires Cloud to be completely maxed out in stats. He should have Ultima Weapon equipped and have the following materia:
 * Master Magic paired with Quadra Magic (mastered)
 * A second Master Magic paired with All (mastered)
 * W-Magic (mastered)

Start the battle with Cloud being ready to use Omnislash, having 7677 HP and having the two other party members knocked out (yes, they should be knocked out, this is not an error). Start off the battle by targeting the tentacles with Omnislash. Ruby Weapon should now "retreat" its tentacles because of the damage dealt to them. Use a potion to get Cloud's HP up to 7777. This will activate Lucky 7's which will deliver a lot of blows to Ruby Weapon, each blow dealing 7777 damage. Once Cloud has snapped out of his "Lucky 7's berserker drive", all you have to do is use Comet2 on Ruby Weapon and its tentacles. So whenever it "sprouts" its tentacles, use Comet2 on the tentacles, and whenever it retreats them, use Comet2 directly on Ruby Weapon. Keep doing this until it is defeated (The entire battle should take about 10 minutes and you won't receive damage even once).

Strategy 2
Another strategy that takes advantage of the Lucky 7's mode is the use of Barret Wallace. Max out Barret's stats (especially his luck and speed stats) and equip him with a Ribbon and a mastered Mime Materia. Make sure he has his Level 3 Limit Ungarmax/Angermax and that it is full and ready to go in battle. Finally, make sure he has 7677 HP. Kill off your other characters and get into the fight. Ruby, on account that the other party members are dead, will put his hands into the sand, making him vulnerable for the rest of the battle. On Barret's first turn, have him use a Potion on himself. This will bring his HP to 7777, thereby setting off the Lucky 7's effect. Barret during this berserk mode will take off about a little over half of Ruby's HP. After the berserk mode finishes, use Ungarmax on Ruby. Then mime it twice more to finish him off. During this battle, if Ruby does any other attacks beside extracting MP, reset (Time for this strategy is a little over or around 4 minutes).

Strategy 3
This is a rather simple strategy and isn't all that hard to do. First you'll have to get your hands on Knights of the Round, Hades, W-Summon, and Mime. Final Attack and Revive aren't necessary but couldn't hurt. Now, kill off two of your party, and place the previously mentioned materia on the last member, any extra slots can be whatever you'd like, but don't put Counter Attack on because that could possibly disrupt the Mime Chain you're going to be doing if Ruby manages to get a hit in. Now, make sure you're party member has at least a few thousand Hit points just to be safe. Though at this stage of the game you should definitely have that many without worrying about it. Once the fight starts immediately use W-Summon and summon Hades, then Knights of the Round in that order. There you have it. When your turn comes around again just mime yourself until he's dead. Hades will paralyze the main body so he can't counter your Knights of the Round, and after 8-10 rounds depending on how much damage you're doing you should win. He should only get two attacks, and you only need level 1 Materia. A recommended level would be around 70.

Strategy 5
You should be level 99, have Master Summon, Master Command, Mime, 2 W-Items, 1 W-Summon, all ultimate weapons, 2 Mistyles, 1 Ehrgheiz, enough HP and MP Pluses to get your HP and MP at maximum, Master MP-Turbo, 99 Dazers, 99 Megalixirs.

Once that is done, choose a party, give W-Summon to Cloud and link Master Summon with MP-Turbo. The rest of his Materia doesn't really matter. Then give your other two members Mime/Master Command and W-Item. Give them Phoenix just in case. Start the battle with just Cloud alive. When Ruby sticks his tentacles in the ground use W-Summon Hades and Phoenix. He should now be paralyzed. Have your other two members use W-Item Dazers and Megalixirs and Cloud should cast W-Summon Knights of the Round the whole time.

Strategy 6
Should have 1 W-Summon, Hades (at least level 2), Knights of the Round, and 3 Mimics. Start with the 2 dead people having a mimic each on them. Have the character who starts out alive cast Hades immediately. This will freeze Ruby weapon and immobilize him. Then, resurrect your other 2 characters. Have your main character summon Hades, then Knights of the round. Then everyone just mimic that until death. Hades will deal damage and keep Ruby immobilized, while knights of the round deals the damage. While it may take a few more rounds than the above, it requires less set up and is a very easy way to neutralize what is considered to be a difficult boss. The main advantage of this strategy is that all three characters will benefit from the EXP and AP rewards for winning the battle.

Strategy 7
This strategy requires one character at level 99 with Strength max, Luck max, Dexterity max, 50 Elixers, 5 Hero Drinks, Slash All (not max), Slow, Haste, 5 Counter Attacks Max and Ribbon. At the beginning of the fight is cast haste and use all 5 Hero Drinks. Use Elixirs when attacked. Attack the tentacles, followed by the main body. This should take about 3-4 min.

Strategy 8
This method requires one character with maximized Magic power, preferably Cloud, wearing the Zeidrich, and the materia combinations Master Magic=MP Turbo, Contain=Quadra Magic, Counter=Mime, W-Magic and HP Plus. Cloud should start the battle in a state of 'Sadness', and the Config settings should have battle speed at maximum, Wait mode on, and Cursor set to 'Memory' rather than 'Initial'. At the opening of the battle, cast Haste and Slow on Cloud and WEAPON respectively, before using any restorative spell (FullCure is fine) on the caster and Tornado on Ruby. Tornado should hit four times for about 250 damage each hit. Keep miming the attack, or simply leave the cursor over the Mime command and use an Auto-fire pad to keep selecting the command. Cloud will keep fully restoring himself, dealing 1000 damage to Ruby, each turn and each time he is hit by one of Ruby's attacks. Because Mimed magic does not require MP (unless it is not the first mimed move in a series of counter-attacks), Cloud will repeat ad infinitum. Leave Cloud to it, and eventually Ruby WEAPON is guaranteed to fall.

Strategy 9
This method requires some actual skill more than just holding down circle or using knights of the round. First off, Cloud should be about level 80-85 at least. Have him equipped with a Master Magic Counter linked to a Master Restore, Double cut that's at x4, Enemy skill (with at least Big Guard, White Wind, and Pandora's Box), Counter Attack, HP Plus, and Phoenix. Have Cloud with Ultima Weapon, Ziedrich, and Ribbon. For this strategy to work you'll need at least 20-30 turbo ethers. X-Potions and Elixers are recommended. Start the battle with Cloud alone, and begin the battle with Phoenix. With all three members alive, get Cloud buffed up with Big Guard, Regen, and a Hero Drink. At this point you kill off your other two members and attack ruby's arms. It usually takes 1 or 2 4x attacks to to make him bring his arms back up. Once his arms are up start pelting him with Pandora's Box and Omnislash. If you make sure you keep your barrier and regen up, you should be able to recover from most of his attacks without even taking an action. After pounding away at him for awhile, his mp will eventually run out. At this point you can forget about your barrier since his remaining attacks ignore it anyways ( make sure he doesn't have enough for a final shadow flare, try a magical hammer or two.) Once his MP is gone he's a cake walk, just make sure you don't revive your other members and watch out for his massive physical attack. This strategy will take about 1-2 hours.

Related Enemies

 * Ruby's Tentacle
 * Diamond Weapon
 * Emerald Weapon
 * Ultimate Weapon