Deprotect is a magic spell in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It is the basic spell provided by 
Enervation Materia. It inflicts the 
Deprotect effect, which reduces the 
Defense of the target, thus increasing their vulnerability to physical damage.
The spell is opposed to 
Protect, which grants the 
Protect effect that improves physical defense attributes. As such, casting it on a target with protect will remove protect rather than apply deprotect. The spell also has a magic damage equivalent, Deshell.
Deprotect is also used by Two Face.
Use[]
Deprotect costs 8 MP to cast. It inflicts an offensive status that reduces the afflicted's physical defense attributes for its duration. The spell is a great means of improving physical damage against enemies and bosses, and boosting the physical damage of the party. When the player relies heavily on physical damage output, this can be an effective spell to cast.
Deprotect competes with Bravery, which boosts the physical damage attributes of a party member. Casting Deprotect on an enemy can be a good way to improve the physical damage output of an entire party against that enemy, as opposed to boosting one party member's damage output against potentially multiple enemies. Alternatively, players can cast both Bravery on a party member and Deprotect on an enemy to maximize physical damage dealt to that enemy.
Because deprotect is opposed to protect, casting deprotect will remove a protect effect but not apply protect to replace it. This has a cheaper MP cost than Dispel, unless one wishes to remove multiple statuses at once.
Deprotect can be cast on all enemies enervation materia is paired with 
Magnify Materia to improve physical damage output against all enemies. However, in this case, it is typically better to simply use Bravery to achieve the same effect.