A greatsword inscribed with characters from a mystical, ancient script.
Description
The rune blade is a weapon for Cloud in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. It starts with four materia slots, and teaches Cloud the Disorder ability, which deals damage and quickly cycles between Punisher Mode and Operator Mode for one ATB charge. The weapon's attributes and weapon skills gear Cloud toward magic damage output.
Obtained[]
The rune blade is found in a treasure chest in chapter 4, "Dawn of a New Era", in Junon. Specifically, it is found by the rest stop vending machine in the Starboard Connecting Passage.
Upgrades[]
| Level |  ATK |
 MATK
|
Materia slots | Skill slots | New weapon skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 19 | 56 |  
|
1 |  Attack Power +20 - Increases attack by 20. Magic Attack Power +20 - Increases magic attack by 20. Enemy Parts Damage Up - Increases damage to discrete enemy parts by 5%. Synergy Damage Up - Increases synergy skill and synergy ability damage by 10%.
|
| 4 | 23 | 68 |
|
2 | Stagger Recovery - Restores a small amount of HP and MP when staggering a foe.
|
| 5 | 29 | 87 |
|
2 | Improved Punisher - Increases punisher mode strong attack damage by 10%.
|
| 6 | 37 | 110 |
|
3 |  ATB Charge Rate Up - Increases ATB recharge rate when performing actions by 10%.
|
| 7 | 44 | 132 |
|
3 | Full-Power Magic - Increases damage dealt by MP-consuming attacks by 10% when at max MP. |
| 8 | 53 | 158 |
|
4 | Limit Break Damage +10% - Increases limit break damage by 10%.
|
| 9 | 63 | 189 |
|
4 | Trade-Off - Recovers MP upon receiving significant damage.
|
Use[]
The rune blade is geared heavily toward magic damage. It has the highest Magic Attack of Cloud's weapons by some way, but the lowest Attack Power. Because of Cloud's high MP and natural magic attributes, it is entirely possible to build him this way and take advantage of him as a mage, albeit one who is more defensive than some other options in the party. However, of his weapon abilities, only Blade Burst is magic-based, meaning this somewhat wastes some of his physical damage potential.
The weapon skills of rune blade also gear Cloud toward spellcasting, as many of them recover MP or ATB charge rate. This is in contrast to 
Crystal Sword, which is similar built toward damage output and has a higher magic attack than attack power, but has weapon skills based around critical hit rates. The Slipstream Saber for Cloud also tilts him toward magic damage and has similar MP-boosting weapon skills, and a greater attack power than rune blade, but lower magic attack.
In comparison to other weapons, the crystal sword or slipstream saber work as alternatives for players who still prefer Cloud's magic damage output but with less of a sacrifice toward his physical damage output. Other weapons for Cloud, such as Buster Sword or Umbral Blade, succeed in helping Cloud's magic damage, but are overall balanced toward physical and magic damage, if players do not want him to specialize.
Etymology[]
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter. Historic anthropology regarding the Germanic and Norse peoples that used runes also note that the language was also highly used in magical practices related to these cultures, whether it be in divination, enchantment, and incantation.