Drill Arm (Final Fantasy VII)

Drill Arm
(ドリルアーム, Doriru Āmu?)
Availability
Obtained	Rocket Town; Junon purchase
Character users	Barret
Value	3,300 gil
Classification
Type	Gun-arm
Range	Melee
Element	Punch
Specifications
Attack	37
Magic atk	0
Attack%	97
Materia slots	x4

The Drill Arm is a weapon for Barret in Final Fantasy VII, found in Rocket Town. It is a melee weapon with four Materia slots, which have double AP growth, making it useful for level grinding. The player can equip it to Barret or throw it.

Obtained

The Drill Arm can be found in Cid's house in Rocket Town. Later, it can be purchased from Junon for 3,300 gil after the Highwind is available.

Mechanics

As the Drill Arm has a base Attack stat bonus of 37, the base damage for physical attacks when the Drill Arm is equipped is in the following formula:

$\text{Base Damage} = \text{(37 + Strength)} + \frac{\text{(37 + Strength)} + \text{Level}}{32} \times \frac{\text{(37 + Strength)} \times \text{Level}}{32}$

where "Level" is Barret's current level and "Strength" is his Strength stat. The Drill Arm also has an Attack% (Accuracy) of 97%. It does not grant a bonus to Barret's Magic stat.

Use

Promotional render.

The Drill Arm is a melee weapon with moderate stats, but most notably provides double AP growth to Materia in its four slots. Compared to W Machine Gun, which also has double AP growth, Drill Arm has an additional Materia slot and better stats, but is not ranged. This makes it worthwhile to equip if the player is using Barret when level grinding to improve Materia, but it is otherwise not worth equipping due to its subpar stats compared to other weapons available this time.

Since Drill Arm's Materia slots are not linked, none of them can benefit from Support Materia. As this includes the All Materia, most Magic Materia cannot be used to clear waves quickly. Though Barret can use the Enemy Skill Materia to clear waves with abilities such as Matra Magic or Aqualung, the Enemy Skill Materia cannot level up, meaning it would waste a slot on Drill Arm. Therefore, it is better to give a different character the Enemy Skill Materia, or simply equip it on Barret's armor, and use that to clear waves.

If the player is bringing Barret when farming Materia, the Drill Arm is the best weapon for him, and he should also equip the Platinum Bangle or Rune Armlet, which provide double AP to two and four Materia slots respectively. Barret is less useful at Materia grinding than Cloud or Cid, whose Apocalypse and Scimitar respectively provide triple AP, but is equally as good as any other party member for farming AP. AP farming is especially useful for Barret, as his ultimate weapon does more damage the more AP its equipped Materia have combined.