Ruby Weapon

Ruby Weapon is one of the two superbosses of Final Fantasy VII, along with the Emerald Weapon. In Final Fantasy VII, it is one of the two Weapon enemies added in the American, PAL and International versions of the game. Ruby Weapon is one of five Weapons the Planet has produced and dispatched to cleanse any threats to its continued existence. Ruby Weapon is an optional boss that resides in the sand around the Gold Saucer on the world map. To get it to appear, the player must defeat Ultimate Weapon and then fight one random battle afterward to trigger Ruby's appearance, although some players have reported Ruby not appearing at all, or that it appears but is invisible and the player can only initiate the battle by running into it by chance.

The player can only approach Ruby Weapon by airship or chocobo. It can permanently eject party members from battle, has extremely high defence, inflict targets with status effects by its tentacles, and uses some of the strongest attacks in the game.

Defeating Ruby Weapon in the PC version re-release of Final Fantasy VII unlocks the Ruby Weapon achievement.

Battle
The most dangerous part of the battle against Ruby Weapon would not be its main attacks, nor its extreme defenses, which nullify most damage that is not fixed or defense-ignoring, such as Knights of the Round. The most dangerous part of Ruby Weapon is Whirlsand, which removes a party member from battle. However, Whirlsand can only be used roughly after Ruby Weapon gets thirty turns or when its tentacles are not on the screen.

Ruby Weapon will not expose its tentacles unless only a single character is alive, but is immune to all damage until that point. Therefore, it is advisable to open the battle with a single character and cast Life2 linked to an All materia, or the Phoenix summon. Ruby is not immune to Paralysis, meaning Dazers or Hades can keep Ruby from attacking for a few turns.

When the tentacles are present, Ruby attacks using Gravity-based and/or MP-draining tentacle attacks, and casts Ruby Ray and Ruby Flame. Ruby Flame is Fire-elemental and deals roughly 2000 damage, while Ruby Ray deals roughly 3000 damage. Shadow Flare is also used for over 5000 damage to a single character, so Reflect can be very helpful. Ruby also uses Ultima, as both regular attacks and counterattacks to Knights of the Round, so it is important to only summon them if Ruby is Paralyzed.

Ruby Weapon also uses physical attacks and Comet2 if its tentacles are removed, but can no longer use Gravity attacks or damage MP. However, it is advisable not to destroy the tentacles, as it will accelerate the casting of Whirlsand, and the Weapon can create two new tentacles at will.

Attacks

 * Unnamed attack and Big Swing: Claw attacks; only used when tentacles are retracted.
 * Comet2: A powerful magic spell that hits several times. Only used when tentacles are retracted.
 * Whirlsand: Permanently inflicts Eject to one character. Only used after roughly thirty turns or while tentacles are retracted.
 * Ruby Flame: Powerful fire-elemental attack.
 * Ultima: Powerful magic spell that hits the whole party. Sometimes also a counterattack to Knights of the Round.
 * Shadow Flare: Extremely powerful magic; hits one character. Can be Reflected.
 * Unnamed right tentacle attacks: Gravity-elemental attacks; targets MP; only used when right tentacle is present. Can be counterattacks or normal.
 * Unnamed left tentacle attacks: Same as their Right counterparts, but affect HP and used when left tentacle are present.

Knights of the Round
This strategy requires the the W-Item Materia and the item Dazers. Using the duplicate item trick on the Dazers and Megalixirs earns free copies of the items; about 20 of each is enough. The character with the W-Item should use a Dazer on Ruby every turn, then duplicate another few Dazers and Megalixirs, and then use a Megalixir on the party. The other two characters can kill Ruby using regular attacks. This strategy doesn't require a mastered Knights of the Round summon, Mime Materia or level 99 characters, nor killing anyone off before the battle. It is possible to kill Ruby with all three characters using double or triple AP weapons and armor to get a good AP boost.

All Lucky 7s
This strategy uses the All Lucky 7s status to defeat Ruby Weapon. The player should start the battle with a character ready to use a Limit Break with 7677 HP, and having the two other party members knocked out. The player should start off the battle by targeting the tentacles with a powerful Limit, such as Omnislash, and Ruby Weapon will retreat its tentacles. Using a Potion to get the character's HP up to 7777 will activate All Lucky 7s, which will deliver 64 blows to Ruby Weapon, each blow dealing 7777 damage, totaling 497,728 damage (about 62% of Ruby's total HP). Once the character has snapped out of their Lucky 7's, all one has to do is use Comet2 on Ruby Weapon and its tentacles; whenever it "sprouts" its tentacles, the player should use Comet2 on the tentacles, and whenever Ruby retreats them, one should use Comet2 directly on Ruby Weapon. The entire battle should take about ten minutes and the player should not receive any damage at all.

????
Ruby Weapon can be defeated with the use Dazers and the ???? Enemy Skill. The player should equip the characters with Enemy Skill Materias, Ribbons, and Mystile or Ziedrich armors. It is helpful to have high Luck and Dexterity. The player should move Dazers, Phoenix Downs, and Turbo Ethers to the top of the item list and it doesn't hurt to equip Final Attack with Revive/Phoenix, but with any luck it won't be needed. One can also use W-Item or Mime, but neither are necessary. For Dazers, 25 is enough if one is efficient, but one can stock more to be safe.

The player should begin the battle with two characters dead and one character with low HP. Ruby will plant his tentacles and the player should ignore the tentacles entirely. The tentacles cannot kill a character because they deal Gravity-based damage. Once the tentacles emerge, the player should throw Dazers at Ruby Weapon, then begin reviving the others. One does not want to bring anyone to full HP, but rather keep their HP low for the ???? Enemy Skill to be effective. The party should begin attacking Ruby Weapon with ????, but use Dazers when the Paralyze status wears off. Once all characters are revived, the player can cast Big Guard or Haste to allow for twice as many attacks for each Dazers item thrown at Ruby. The key to this strategy is timing: if one throws Dazers at Ruby while Ruby is in the Paralyze status, the Dazers will miss. Sometimes Dazers will miss and then immediately thereafter Ruby will become active and attack. The trick is to know how many character turns one is allowed before Paralysis wears off, and to hit Ruby with Dazers as soon as it wears off. Generally one can hit Ruby 4-5 times per Dazers throw if the characters have Haste and high Dexterity. Much of the time the player can deny Ruby a chance to attack, but other times Ruby and the tentacles will get in a turn while the Dazers are queued. If someone dies from a main body attack they should be revived only after throwing Dazers. The only real concern with this method is that Ruby Weapon will wipe out the party with Ultima, but it tends to miss when Luck and Dexterity stats are high and Mystiles are equipped, as does Shadow Flare.

Limit Breaks
The player can kill Ruby Weapon using powerful Limit Breaks if they use Hero Drinks on the attacker. Good Limit Breaks to use are the attacks that hit multiple times, such as Cloud's Omnislash, Cid's Highwind and Barret's Ungarmax. The player should enter the battle with two members of the party dead to stop Ruby from using Whirlsand, and before the battle use the W-Item duplication glitch to get a stock of Elixirs and Hero Drinks. The main character should use Elixir and Hero Drink every turn they get and once their Limit Break activates use it. Because of Hero Drinks the character can deal good damage even with Ruby's enhanced defense. To fill the Limit Break gauge faster the player can use the Fury status. The character must equip the Ribbon to protect against status effects.

Glitch
There is a glitch that makes the battle not end even after Ruby Weapon is defeated. In this situation, the only way to get out is to escape. To make the glitch happen the player must kill both of Ruby's tentacles once, so that Ruby Weapon will remove them. Once Ruby Weapon puts the tentacles back the player must kill only one of the tentacles. Even if the second one is still alive, Ruby Weapon will remove both. After Ruby has pulled the tentacles away the player must kill Ruby Weapon itself, triggering the glitch. The battle isn't over because one tentacle is still alive, even if there is nobody for the party to fight.

AI Script
AI: Setup {
 * TempVar:DfltIdle = Ruby Weapon's IdleAnim
 * TempVar:DfltHurt = Ruby Weapon's HurtAnim
 * Remove Ruby's Tentacles
 * Turn off Death Handling for all of Ruby's Tentacles
 * Ruby Weapon's Additional Absorbs = Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Hidden
 * Ruby Weapon's Physical Immunity = On
 * Ruby Weapon's Magical Immunity = On

} AI: Main {
 * If (Count < 250) Then
 * Count = Count + 1
 * }
 * TempVar:TurnTaken = 0
 * If (Stage == 1) Then
 * If (At Least One of Ruby's Tentacles has Death Status) Then
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> on Target
 * Stage = 0
 * Ruby Weapon's IdleAnim = TempVar:DfltIdle
 * Ruby Weapon's HurtAnim = TempVar:DfltHurt
 * Remove Ruby's Tentacles
 * Remove Sleep/Poison/Silence/Haste/Slow/Regen/Barrier/MBarrier/
 * Death-sentence/Manipulate/Berserk Statuses from
 * Ruby's Tentacles
 * Ruby Weapon's Physical Immunity = Off
 * Ruby Weapon's Magical Immunity = Off
 * TempVar:TurnTaken = 1
 * }
 * If ((Count > 32) & (TempVar:TurnTaken == 0)) Then
 * If (Number of Targetable Opponents > 1) Then
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Whirlsand on Target
 * TempVar:TurnTaken = 1
 * } Else {
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Ruby Flame on Target
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Ruby Ray on Target
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Shadow Flare on Target
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Ultima on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Right Revenge on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Right Thrust on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Left Revenge on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Left Thrust on Target
 * }
 * } Else If ((Count > 25) & (TempVar:TurnTaken == 0)) Then {
 * If (Number of Targetable Opponents > 2) Then
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Whirlsand on Target
 * TempVar:TurnTaken = 1
 * } Else {
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Ruby Flame on Target
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Ruby Ray on Target
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Shadow Flare on Target
 * 2/12 Chance: Use Ultima on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Right Thrust on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Right Revenge on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Left Thrust on Target
 * 1/12 Chance: Use Left Revenge on Target
 * }
 * } Else If ((Count > 10) & (TempVar:TurnTaken == 0)) Then {
 * TempVar:TurnTaken = 0
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * 1/6 Chance: Use Ruby Flame on Target
 * 1/6 Chance: Use Ruby Ray on Target
 * 1/6 Chance: Use Shadow Flare on Target
 * 1/6 Chance: Use Ultima on Target
 * 1/6 Chance: Use Right Revenge on Target
 * 1/6 Chance: Use Left Revenge on Target
 * } Else If (TempVar:TurnTaken == 0) Then {
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * 1/4 Chance: Use Ruby Flame on Target
 * 1/4 Chance: Use Left Revenge on Target
 * 1/4 Chance: Use Right Revenge on Target
 * 1/4 Chance: Use Ruby Ray on Target
 * }
 * } Else {
 * If (Count > 15) Then
 * 1/5 Chance:
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> (Dig Tentacles) on Target
 * Stage = 1
 * Ruby Weapon's IdleAnim = Dug-in Tentacles
 * Ruby Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Dug-in Tentacles)
 * Ruby Weapon's Physical Immunity = Off
 * Ruby Weapon's Magical Immunity = Off
 * Remove Death Status from Ruby's Tentacles
 * Turn off Death Handling for all of Ruby's Tentacles
 * Set Ruby's Tentacles' HP to Ruby's Tentacles' Max HP
 * Activate Ruby's Tentacles
 * }
 * 1/5 Chance:
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Big Swing on Target
 * }
 * 1/5 Chance:
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Big Claw on Target
 * }
 * 2/5 Chance:
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Comet2 on Target
 * }
 * } Else If (Count > 6) Then {
 * 1/3 Chance:
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Big Claw on Target
 * }
 * 1/3 Chance:
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Big Swing on Target
 * }
 * 1/3 Chance:
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Comet2 on Target
 * }
 * } Else {
 * If (Number of Targetable Opponents >= 2) Then
 * TempVar:Sequence = (Count MOD 3)
 * If (TempVar:Sequence == 1) Then
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Big Claw on Target
 * } Else If (TempVar:Sequence == 0) Then {
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Whirlsand on Target
 * } Else {
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Big Swing on Target
 * }
 * } Else If (Number of Targetable Opponents <= 1) Then {
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> on Target
 * Stage = 1
 * Ruby Weapon's IdleAnim = Dug-in Tentacles
 * Ruby Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Dug-in Tentacles)
 * Ruby Weapon's Physical Immunity = Off
 * Ruby Weapon's Magical Immunity = Off
 * Remove Death Status from Ruby's Tentacles
 * Turn off Death Handling for all of Ruby's Tentacles
 * Set Ruby's Tentacles' HP to Ruby's Tentacles' Max HP
 * Activate Ruby's Tentacles
 * } Else {
 * 1/3 Chance:
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Big Claw on Target
 * }
 * 2/3 Chance:
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Big Swing on Target
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * Remove Death Status from Ruby's Tentacles
 * Turn off Death Handling for all of Ruby's Tentacles
 * Set Ruby's Tentacles' HP to Ruby's Tentacles' Max HP
 * Activate Ruby's Tentacles
 * } Else {
 * 1/3 Chance:
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Big Claw on Target
 * }
 * 2/3 Chance:
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Big Swing on Target
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

} AI: Counter - General {
 * If ((Number of Targetable Opponents > 1) & (Stage == 0)) Then
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Whirlsand on Target
 * } Else If (Stage == 1) Then {
 * Choose Ruby Weapon's Last Attacker (General)
 * If ((Last Command was Summon or W-Summon)
 * & (Last Attack was Knights of Round)) Then
 * Use Ultima on Target
 * } Else {
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * 1/2 Chance: Use Right Thrust on Target
 * 1/2 Chance: Use Left Thrust on Target
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

} AI: Counter - Death {
 * Choose Self
 * Use Vanish on Target
 * Remove All Enemies
 * GlobalVar:RubyDefeated = 1

}

Related Enemies

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