An immense serpent that dwells in the swamplands. It strikes at any creature who enters its territory, pulling the newfound prey into its coils, and then swallowing them whole. A potent venom drips from the base of its fangs, toxifying the waters in which it lives.
Enemy Intel
The Midgardsormr is a boss in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth fought at the end of Chapter 2, "A New Journey Begins" in the Swamplands. While its counterpart in Final Fantasy VII was an optional boss, Midgardsormr is a mandatory encounter in Rebirth.
Stats[]
Battle[]
The serpent strikes.
The Midgardsormr is a vicious and massive beast that employs powerful physical attacks, many which cover a large area. Many of its moves are telegraphed and with build-ups, but executed quickly. The fight is divided in three phases.
When the boss uses Coil, it'll assume a defensive stance and reveal its weakpoint: the cranial dome on its head; attacking it will inflict more stagger than the body. If the dome is destroyed, the serpent's stagger gauge will raise significantly and instantly pressure the creature. The dome will not regenerate, but can still be attacked; however, it'll not have a healthbar, and any damage will transfer to the boss itself directly.
Its most dangerous attack, used in all phases, is Devour. The boss will first plunge at a player character, and moments later will dive in the swamp waters, becoming out of reach and untargeteable. The player can track the serpent's location by looking at the bubbles emerging from the water's surface. Moments later, the boss will leap out of water and attempt to bite a character; if the attack connects (which cannot be blocked), the victim will be trapped between its jaws, and after a few seconds the Midgardsormr will swallow the character, temporarily removing them from combat. The victim will be spat after some time has passed automatically when the boss uses Disgorge; pressuring the boss will cause them to be released earlier.
Aside from Devour, the boss will occasionally emerge from the water and coil around on one of the decayed trees, becoming out of melee reach. From there, it may lunge at targets from a safe distance, and also use Corrosive Fluid, spitting poisonous purple projectiles that inflict 
Deprotect.
On occasion, the boss will use Toxic Water, sinking its fangs on the swamp waters, seeping its venom and spreading over the battlefield. Any characters that touch the toxic water will be inflicted with Deprotect, 
Slow and 
Poison. However, standing on the patches of dry land found in the arena will prevent it completely.
The serpent burns the swamp.
Once the Midgardsormr's HP reaches around 70%, a cutscene will play and it'll enrage while generating heat from its body. It'll immediately use Scorching Breath, releasing flames from its mouth while slowly turning its head to spread it over the battlefield. This attack deals multiple hits of 
Fire damage that can rack up high damage. However, the attack can be completely avoided by taking refuge behind trees. The boss will then resume using is previous attacks, in addition to Impale, where it punctures a character with its tail.
Once the serpent' HP drops around 40%, another cutscene will play where itll enter is "Beta stance", spreading fire over the entire battlefield and gaining a permanent Bravery effect for the rest of the fight. In the third and final phase, the boss will occasionally use Thermal Absorption, where it'll drain heat from the trees and build-up energy to use Scorching Breath or Beta; the latter being a concentrated heat beam that causes a massive explosion, dealing devastating Fire damage. The boss will continue using all its previous moves.
The Midgarsormr is weak against 
Ice.
Strategy[]
Inflicting enough damage by exploiting its elemental weakness will pressure it. Hitting it with synergy abilities will pressure it instantly.
Enemy Intel's assess information
An effective team to fight alongside Cloud is Barret and Aerith. Since many of the serpent's attacks are physical and can be blocked, Cloud remains a solid player-controlled character as he can use counter attacks from Punisher Mode.
Barret can apply consistent pressure while the boss slithers through the battlefield. Aerith should ideally take refuge behind one of the trees and cast Arcane Ward next to it (but not directly behind). This makes useful to avoid the boss' Devour and Scorching Breath.
Ideally, all characters should equip 
Ice Materia. The boss is significantly easy to pressure with ice spells, and using any Synergy Abilities will instantly pressure it; Aerith and Barret's Arcane Blast is particularly useful since it grants unlimited MP, allowing them to release a barrage of Blizzard back to back on Aerith's Arcane Ward for devastating effects.
If a character gets hit by Devour, it's possible to prevent them from being swallowed by dealing enough damage. If one of the party members ends up being swallowed, its best to play defensively and try to force the boss to spit them out by dealing enough damage.
The player should save limits for the third phase, as using those in the previous phases may result in them being wasted as phases change with HP thresholds and interrupt any actions. Summons, particularly Shiva, can be used on the second phase.
Hard Mode[]
The serpent is exceptionally dangerous in the hard difficulty. All its physical attacks are devastating, capable of dealing over 1000 when not blocking, and around 600 even with 
Steadfast Block Materia equipped.
Scorching Breath in particular can easily take down even the healthiest of characters with 9999 health, as it'll deal full damage even when blocked, dealing around 1200 to 1500 per hit. Beta can deal over 5000 damage.
However, if properly prepared, this boss isn't so dangerous. It's highly recommended to equip the 
Elemental Materia linked with Fire Materia on all characters' weapons to nullify its fire attacks. If elemental is maxed out it'll absorb fire instead, healing the party. The same party and strategy from the normal mode works, but the player can also replace Cloud or Barret for Tifa in order to increase the stagger damage with True Strike and her Unbridled Strength's unique skills.
Ideally, Barret should be the leader to start the fight as the controlled character: with 
ATB Boost Materia he can quickly use Turbulent Spirit and Lifesaver, then build-up ATB to use Steelskin and Bonus Round, completing his setup for the rest of the fight. The player can have him equipped with a Barrier Materia to cast 
Barrier in order to mitigate the damage from the boss' physical attacks.
Aerith can be equipped with ATB Boost Materia, First Strike Materia and the Choco King's Cape to quickly cast all her wards in succession to bombard the boss with spells. ATB Ward should be cast first, followed by Radiant Ward, to provide invincibility while casting magic, and then finally Arcane Ward. She can be equipped with the Synergy Materia linked with Ice Materia, as well the Auto-Unique Ability Materia to guarantee she'll automatically teleport to the wards while not directly controlled and issued a magic command.
Cloud can serve as a secondary magic caster or built as a solid frontline to keep the boss busy while countering attacks with Punisher Mode and Counterstance.
Defeating the Midgardsormr on Hard Mode for the first time grants Tifa's The Way of the Fist Vol. VII.
Musical themes[]
The boss theme is "Midgardsormr" (ミドガルズオルム, Midogaruzuorumu?), which is an arrangement of "Let the Battles Begin!", arranged by Yoshitaka Suzuki with additional composition. It is track 22 of disc 1 on the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Original Soundtrack.
Other appearances[]
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius[]
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Etymology[]
The name hails from Norse mythology, in which Midgardsormr (Old Norse: Miðgarðsormr; also known as the World Serpent or Jörmungandr) was the middle child of Loki and a giantess named Angrboda. Odin threw it into the ocean that encircles Midgard and it eventually grew large enough to reach around the entire world and bite its own tail. It had been foreseen that on the day of Ragnarök it would battle with its arch-nemesis: Thor, the god of thunder. The sky would darken from the poison mist emitted by Midgardsormr, and the battle would end in the death of both. Thor would first kill Midgardsormr and then stagger nine steps before dying from its poison.