Emerald Weapon (Final Fantasy VII)

Emerald Weapon is an optional superboss in the North American, PAL versions, and International versions, and one of the toughest of the five Weapons (the others are Ultimate, Diamond, Ruby, and the non-battled Sapphire). Emerald Weapon is released when Sephiroth summons Meteor; Weapons are released when the Planet is under grave threat, to work as its protectors. Emerald Weapon is one of the only two superbosses in the game, along with Ruby Weapon.

Emerald Weapon is located at the Bottom of the Sea, accessible by the submarine. A battle will ensue after making physical contact, although it is possible to avoid him by piloting the sub at its maximum height.

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

Battle
The player will have 20 minutes to complete the battle unless they have the Underwater Materia equipped. With one million HP, Emerald might take less time to defeat than Ruby because of his low Defense and Magic Defense, but it will probably take longer than 20 minutes.

One of the things that makes Emerald a dangerous opponent is its Aire Tam Storm attack — "Aire Tam" is actually "Materia" spelled backwards, and the attack deals damage to each character equal to the amount of Materia equipped on them multiplied by 1,111. As such, having nine Materia or more equipped on a character means certain death. It is possible to manipulate the characters' Materia configuration as to get All Lucky 7s if a character only has two Materia equipped and 9999 HP. All Lucky 7s makes a character go berserk causing massive damage to either Emerald Weapon itself or its eyes.



Emerald, unlike Ruby, follows a specific attack pattern. After using a random number of Emerald Shots, which deal a few thousand damage to each of their targets, it uses a physical attack, hitting the whole party for thousands of damage. He then uses Emerald Shoot and Emerald Beam, as well as reviving the eyes. They are different entities from Emerald entirely, unlike Ruby's tentacles, and use magical attacks that hit for thousands of damage to either HP or MP. If one is to attack Emerald's main body at this point in a way that is not a Limit Break or a Bahamut summon, it retaliates with Revenge Stamp, which is similar to its physical attack. Destroying the eyes prevents Revenge Stamp and restarts the pattern, but otherwise Emerald simply casts Emerald Beam again and then uses Aire Tam Storm. He then alternates between the Beam and Aire Tam Storm until either dying, or having his eyes destroyed.

However, after using Revenge Stamp ten times, Emerald will use Emerald Beam and Emerald Shoot both half as often, and after reaching Aire Tam Storm, will use it over and over again. Emerald also uses the Storm as a counterattack to Knights of the Round, so although the Knights will destroy the eyes, summoning them will not prevent Aire Tam Storm.

Maxing out the party's stats with Guard Sources and Mind Sources will render all of Emerald's attacks, save Aire Tam, harmless.

Attacks

 * Foot Stamp: Hits the whole party for a few thousand damage. Only used when the eyes are not present.
 * Emerald Shoot: Hits a single character for massive damage, usually between 6000 and 8000 with average defenses. Only used when the eyes aren't present and after an attack. Also cancels out most positive status ailments.
 * Emerald Beam: Hits the whole party for Gravity-elemental damage, does approximately 63% of each characters current HP, and cancels most positive status ailments. Only used when the eyes are present.
 * Revenge Stamp: Counterattack; hits the whole party for several thousand damage. Only used when the eyes are present.
 * Aire Tam Storm: Deals damage to the entire party equal to the amount of materia that character has equipped * 1111. Only used when the eyes are present and after two Emerald Beams, or one after Revenge Stamping ten times; or as a counterattack at any point in the battle after taking 500,000 damage, to Knights of the Round.

Phoenix
If the player has a mastered Phoenix materia paired with a mastered Final Attack Materia, his or her characters will come back to life five times in total. If the player is using relatively maxed out characters with their level four limit breaks unlocked and the Knights of the Round materia with W-Summon, there should be no need to use the Underwater Materia in this battle.

HP Absorb linked to Knights of the Round
For an easy way to beat Emerald Weapon, the player should have one character equip HP Absorb, Knights of the Round, Command Counter, Mime, and W-Summon, with HP Absorb paired with Knights of the Round, and Command Counter paired with Mime. The player will then kill off two characters before going in, and have the remaining character cast Knights of the Round twice, if possible. If not, the player should use it with another powerful summon. When the character is attacked, they will proceed to counter with Knights of the Round being healed in the process.

Note that the Support (blue) Counter materia is the one to link to the mime materia, not the independant version, otherwise the counter will only be normal physical attacks.

Chocobuckle and All Lucky 7s
Chocobuckle always does a set amount of damage based on a formula surrounding how many times the player ran away. That, along with Max HP, is a factor he or she can control. He or she must just make sure that at least one of the character's Max HP is equal to 7777 plus the amount of damage done by a Chocobuckle. The player can then Chocobuckle that character. If not used when the eyes are present, this will deal 489,951 damage in total to Emerald Weapon. This is just under half its HP.

Fury and Lv3 Limits
Another effective strategy that requires almost no Materia, excessive grinding or preparation, is to use Fury and Lv3 Limit Breaks. The player should come with one character equipped with W-Item, one equipped with Underwater, and all three equipped with HP Plus so that they have 9999 HP. By exploiting the W-Item glitch, one should amass many Elixirs and Megalixirs, at least 20 of each, and put them on the top of the inventory, along with 15 Hero Drinks. All three characters should be in Fury status and have Lv3 Limits; this is crucial because Lv4 limits take too long to prepare, and Limits need to come frequently for this strategy to work. Additionally, any other Materia is unnecessary, and Aire Tam Storm should rarely be used, so bringing whatever Materia needs leveling is fine. The player should begin the battle by responding to every Emerald Shoot with an Elixir, while the characters begin buffing up with Hero Drinks. A stomp attack should prompt a Megalixir. The player should keep at least one person ready to heal at all times, as the strategy is ruined if anyone gets KO'ed. Once the eyes appear, the party should be at max health when they are hit by Emerald Beam. All three party members will likely hit their Limit Breaks, but one should select to use a Megalixir while Emerald Beam's animation is just beginning, and the others should quickly select their Limits. Since Limits take priority, they will override the Eyes' attacks and hit first, likely killing a couple of Eyes before they can move. The Megalixir will go off and heal, and the player should use the third Limit. If any Eyes persist, the player should wait for the second Emerald Beam and repeat again, which should finish them before Aire Tam Storm hits, reverting Emerald to his previous phase. The party should resume with Hero Drinks and Elixirs until five have been used per character, in which case they should attack or use Limits. As long as the player keeps their HP maxed, Emerald Beam will always prompt Limit Breaks due to it being a gravity attack, the eyes will never get many turns, and Emerald will never kill anyone. The best Limits to use are Cloud's Meteorain, Barret's Angermax, Tifa's moves up to Meteor Strike, Yuffie's Doom of the Living, Red XIII's Earth Rave, and Cid's Big Brawl or Dragon Dive.

AI Script
AI: Setup {
 * BattleVar:EyesLeft = 0

} AI: Main {
 * If (Count == 0) Then
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Emerald Shoot on Target
 * If (2/3 Chance) Then
 * Count = Count + 1
 * }
 * If (TempVar:Angry != 0) Then
 * Count = 3
 * }
 * } Else If (Count == 1) Then {
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use  on Target
 * If (4/5 Chance) Then
 * Count = Count + 1
 * }
 * If (TempVar:Angry != 0) Then
 * Count = 2
 * }
 * If (Emerald Weapon's HP <= 50% of Emerald Weapon's Max HP) Then
 * Count = 2
 * }
 * } Else If (Count == 2) Then {
 * Choose Random Opponent
 * Use Emerald Shoot on Target
 * Count = Count + 1
 * } Else If (Count == 3) Then {
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> (Revive Eyes) on Target
 * Emerald Weapon's IdleAnim = Open Eyes
 * Emerald Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Open Eyes)
 * Leg's IdleAnim = Leg: Open Eyes
 * Leg's HurtAnim = Leg: Flinch (Open Eyes)
 * Stage = 1
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Emerald Beam on Target
 * Count = Count + 1
 * If (TempVar:Angry != 0) Then
 * Count = 6
 * }
 * BattleVar:EyesLeft = 4
 * Activate each Eye
 * Set each Eye's HP to Eye's Max HP
 * } Else If (Count == 4) Then {
 * Count = Count + 1
 * If (TempVar:Angry != 0) Then {
 * Count = 6
 * }
 * If (BattleVar:EyesLeft == 0) Then {
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> on Target
 * Count = 0
 * Emerald Weapon's IdleAnim = Closed Eyes
 * Emerald Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Leg's IdleAnim = Leg: Closed Eyes
 * Leg's HurtAnim = Leg: Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Stage = 0
 * }
 * } Else If (Count == 5) Then {
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Emerald Beam on Target
 * Count = Count + 1
 * If (BattleVar:EyesLeft == 0) Then {
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> on Target
 * Count = 0
 * Emerald Weapon's IdleAnim = Closed Eyes
 * Emerald Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Leg's IdleAnim = Leg: Closed Eyes
 * Leg's HurtAnim = Leg: Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Stage = 0
 * }
 * } Else {
 * Count = 5
 * If (BattleVar:EyesLeft != 0) Then {
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Aire Tam Storm on Target
 * If (Emerald Weapon's HP > 50% of Emerald Weapon's Max HP) Then
 * TempVar:Angry = 0
 * }
 * } Else {
 * Choose Self
 * Use <> on Target
 * Count = 0
 * Emerald Weapon's IdleAnim = Closed Eyes
 * Emerald Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Leg's IdleAnim = Leg: Closed Eyes
 * Leg's HurtAnim = Leg: Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Stage = 0
 * }
 * }
 * Count = 0
 * Emerald Weapon's IdleAnim = Closed Eyes
 * Emerald Weapon's HurtAnim = Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Leg's IdleAnim = Leg: Closed Eyes
 * Leg's HurtAnim = Leg: Flinch (Closed Eyes)
 * Stage = 0
 * }
 * }

} AI: Counter - General {
 * If ((Last Command wasn't Limit) & (Stage == 1)
 * & (BattleVar:EyesLeft > 0)) Then
 * If (Last Attack was Bahamut, Neo Bahamut or Bahamut ZERO) Then
 * TempVar:Angry = 0
 * } Else {
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Revenge Stamp on Target
 * TempVar:RvStamp = TempVar:RvStamp + 1
 * }
 * }
 * If (TempVar:RvStamp >= 10) {
 * TempVar:Angry = 1
 * }
 * If (Last Attack was Knights of Round) Then
 * TempVar:Angry = 1
 * If ((Emerald Weapon's HP <= 50% of Emerald Weapon's Max HP)
 * & (Stage == 1))
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Aire Tam Storm on Target
 * }
 * }
 * Choose All Opponents
 * Use Aire Tam Storm on Target
 * }
 * }

} AI: Counter - Death {
 * Choose Self
 * Use  on Target
 * Remove all Eyes
 * GlobalVar:EmeraldDefeated = 1

}

Glitches

 * There is a glitch that involves casting Ultima against Emerald Weapon with Quadra Magic, while the Ultima Materia is also linked to HP or MP Absorb. Casting Ultima with this setup may freeze the game.
 * Emerald Weapon can be killed in one hit using the Overflow Glitch with Vincent or Barret if their ultimate weapon is powerful enough. This is notable because Emerald has one million HP, making Overflows to Emerald Weapon more powerful than any other attack in the game.
 * Defeating Emerald Weapon when the timer hits zero causes a game over and victory at the same time.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
The still-frozen Emerald Weapon appears as an Easter egg in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, buried in Banora Underground. In the northern sections of the first area "Depths of Judgment," Emerald Weapon's shoulders can be seen emerging from a large formation of crystal. The ridges and slots on the shoulders for Emerald's four orbs identify it, but the player is unable to move Zack or the camera in such a way as to see past the crystal. Emerald Weapon lies beyond the map borders, and the player cannot get any closer to it other than this distant view. The same Emerald Weapon sighting might be encountered on background in mission 9-6-6, during the battle with superboss Minerva.

Related Enemies

 * Eye
 * Diamond Weapon
 * Ruby Weapon
 * Ultimate Weapon