Ruby Weapon

Ruby Weapon in Final Fantasy VII is one of the two Weapons added in the American and International version of the game. Ruby Weapon is one 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 Golden 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 Phoenix 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 4
For a really easy way to beat Ruby Weapon, have one character (I used Cloud) have HP Absorb, Knights of the Round, Command Counter, mime, and W-summon. Have HP-Absorb paired with KOTR, and command counter paired with mime. Kill off two of your characters before you go in, and have Cloud (or whoever), Cast Knights of the round twice (if possible, if not use it once and another powerful summon), then sit back and watch the fight progress, Ruby will retaliate with Ultima almost every time, dealing approximately 7000 damage, but KOTR will heal you for 9999 every time. You can actually start this chain then leave for twenty minutes and come back and he will be dead. Easy as pie. Best thing about this plan is, immediately after you defeat Ruby like this you can go right to the Emerald Weapon and use the same strategy!

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 Materias don'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.