Midgar Zolom

The Midgar Zolom is a species of giant serpents in Final Fantasy VII that dwell within the marshlands leading to the Mythril Mine. Despite its name, it is completely unrelated to the city Midgar.

The Midgar Zolom is encountered by the party when they first arrive at the marshlands, so it is easiest to cross the swamp by means of Chocobo. It is possible to outrun the creature by foot, but this is difficult. If the party battles Midgar Zolom, they must kill it to proceed - if they flee, they are transported back to the edge of the swamp. If the Midgar Zolom pushes someone out of battle and the other members die, the player will appear on the edge of the chocobo farm side of the swamp alive without facing a game over. Even if killed, the Midgar Zolom quickly respawns to begin chasing them again. Sephiroth easily killed a Midgar Zolom while making his way through the same swamp on foot.

One cheat allowed by the game is to wait for the Midgar Zolom to travel to a far area, run about halfway through the Marsh, and then pull up the menu and save. Reset and load the save, and the Midgar Zolom will spawn in a completely different area, so the player should be able to travel across the rest of the marsh on foot without being attacked and without using a chocobo.

Strategy
When the battle begins, Midgar Zolom attacks only by using its physical attack and Bite, its special. These attacks are very powerful and can kill a low-level character, and severely weaken any other party member. As an up side, the attack will surely fill up a character's Limit Break meter instantly. However, when it takes enough damage, it rises into the air and can use Push to remove a character from battle. It also uses the powerful Beta attack at this point, which is lethal at this stage, inflicting approximately 1,000 damage on the entire party.

Despite its considerable power, the Midgar Zolom is not invincible. Barret can use his Mindblow Limit Break to drain its MP to zero, preventing Midgar Zolom from using Beta. If the equipped character has upwards of 500 HP (achievable at Level 16-17), they can survive Beta by equipping an Elemental Materia connected to a Fire Materia. Midgar Zolom is also vulnerable to Poison, and to Gravity, so the party can use any Graviballs they may have won from Deenglows in the Train Graveyard in Midgar, or just poison it and wait it out (using this strategy will also result in Midgar Zolom not using Beta, as it uses that as a counter attack when its HP hits a certain level).

There is also another method, and this is useful if you want to learn Beta from the Zolom. First, have Aeris in your party. She must have learned her level 3 Limit, Planet Protector, and have it ready to use at the beginning of the battle. If not, what the party needs to do is to prevent doing more than 2,000 damage to the Zolom, as this will prompt it to use Beta. Simply have the Zolom attack her to charge her limit bar. When the Zolom's health is at 1,800, he will raise his head, a sign that he is going to use Beta. Make sure you cast Planet Protector before he does so, since he will fling a party member off the battle, and if it is Aeris, what the player needs to do is just to restart the battle. Due to Planet Protector granting an Invincible status, therefore Beta would be useless. After learning Beta, simply cast it on the Zolom to end the battle.

Alternatively, if you do not wish to buy the Chocobo Lure materia for 2,000 gil and wish to cross the swamp without a fight, you may exploit the save game bug. Simply start to cross the swamp, and when the shadow of the Zolom is nearly upon you, save the game. Exit and reload your saved game, you will notice the Zolom is back on the other side of the swamp. Simply repeat to cross the whole swamp.

Overall, while the Midgar Zolom is surely a challenging enemy, it is very possible to defeat it with the proper techniques. When you are able to return to the swamp in which they reside in after you visit Costa del Sol the battle should be fairly easy.

Etymology
"Midgar Zolom" is an alternate translation of Midgardsomr, a serpent from Norse mythology. Midgardsormr appears with its proper name in Final Fantasy VI Advance and Final Fantasy XII.