Evade, then unleash a charging attack. Moderately increases stagger. can use while airborne.
Description
Focused Strike is an ability for Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and is one of her two default abilities alongside Unbridled Strength. It consumes one ATB charge and causes her to jump backward to dodge an attack, before leaping forward and striking an opponent, backflipping then dropping back down. Doing so evades an attack, greatly increases an opponent's stagger gauge when hitting them, and does moderate damage. Perfectly dodging an enemy with Focused Strike will recover ATB.
The ability returns from Final Fantasy VII Remake, in which Focused Strike would also recover ATB upon hitting an enemy, and had to be learned from a weapon. These are not true in Rebirth, in which it is a default ability and does not recover ATB, making it still useful but less spammable.
Mechanics[]
Focused Strike is an offensive and defensive ability for Tifa that deals physical melee damage. She quickly will jump backward to evade attacks, then lunge forward to strike the target, and backflip to finish the move.
Timing Focused Strike to perfectly dodge an enemy attack will recover ATB.
Use[]
Focused Strike enables Tifa to dodge an attack before hitting them for moderate damage but greatly increasing their stagger gauge. Though the damage is lower than other abilities, such as Divekick or Starshower, the ability to boost an opponent's stagger gauge and to evade attacks make it very potent. Given Tifa can rapidly build ATB, she can take advantage of Focused Strike's ability to dodge effectively, and in some cases can interrupt the animation after Tifa performs the leap away to simply use it for evasion and not to attack.
By memorizing an enemy's attack patterns to use Focused Strike to perfectly dodge attacks, Tifa can spam Focused Strike rapidly, and use it in combos. One such combo is to perform Divekick right after her backflip is performed at the end of Focused Strike, greatly cutting the animation time for Divekick. Another is when a party member uses 
Synergy Materia (which casts spells for free), using Focused Strikes can be a cheap way to trigger it. Against enemies where one can perform perfect dodges with Focused Strike often, keeping an ATB charge handy for it can be very effective.
Outside of perfect dodges, Focused Strike is still an effective defensive move, albeit a more costly one. This can be mitigated with United Refocus, or with materia that boosts ATB such as 
ATB Boost Materia, 
ATB Assist Materia, ATB Stagger Materia, or Skill Master Materia. A defensive alternative to Focused Strike is Tifa's synergy skill, Slip and Slide.
Focused Strike as an offensive move should be reserved for when enemies are pressured. Using Assess Materia the player can learn how to pressure an enemy, and once pressured, Focused Strike will stagger them very quickly. Aside from this, it should primarily be used as a defensive move, as its damage on its own is much less than her other offensive abilities can produce.