Game:

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Duration: 8:31

32,608 views

173

Weapon: Master Fist
Armor: Wizard Bracelet
Accessory: Curse Ring
Materia: Double Cut, W-Item, 6x Counter Attack, 2x HP Plus, Final Attack=Mime, Final Attack=Revive
Other: All of Tifa's stats are at 255.

Who is harder? Ruby or Emerald? This has been a popular question for more than 12 years now, but if you ever ask me, I'm gonna have to say pass. It all depends on how you fight them. Some times, Emerald will be easy and Ruby nearly impossible, and vise versa. In this challenge, Emerald is by far the hardest. Ruby is easy because most of his attacks can be avoided or rendered harmless, but all of Emerald's attacks are instant death.

Although it wasn't part of the rules, I never used any Sources in this challenge. Unfortunately, I had no choice this time. With regular level 7 stats, it's simply not possible to defeat him without using KotR. I know I've proven myself wrong before (LLNMNI Carry Armor and Safer-Sephiroth), but this time it's for real. If you manage to prove me wrong, you will be awarded with knighthood of the Royal Order of St. Garland.

Emerald Weapon has one million HP, and in order to deal that much damage without KotR, you need to survive a lot more than five attacks. As you probably know, Auto-Life will only work five times. However, his attacks still deal damage in the four digit range even with max stats, so what do you do? Double them, of course. After four Hero Drinks, Tifa's Atk, MAtk, Def and MDef stats are at 510 and Emerald's attacks have been reduced from total destruction to gentle tickling.

That leaves only the issue of dealing enough damage. Since the character's level is such an important part of the damage formula, you're not gonna deal a lot of damage even with 510 Atk. Thankfully, Tifa's got some weapons with pretty unique mechanics. With the Master Fist, she deals more damage, the more negative statuses she's inflicted with, up to a total of 11 times normal damage. With Sadness, Slow, Darkness, Silence, Death Sentence and Critical (yellow) HP, she'll deal 8 times normal damage, and dealing enough damage is no longer an issue.

The game allows a total of 8 different counter attacks per battle, and since you need Final Attack=Mime and Final Attack=Revive in order to use four Hero Drinks in the beginning of the battle, that leaves room for six Counter Attack materias. Combine that with 4x Cut, and you'll be able to attack up to 10 times per turn.

With the battle speed on the fastest setting and ATB at Wait, the Death Sentence countdown will hardly budge at all, and I manage to defeat him before it reaches zero. Had it run out, I simply would have used a Vaccine. Be aware, though, that Emerald Shoot removes Resist status, so you're in trouble if he uses it when the countdown's at 1. Without Death Sentence, Tifa "only" would have dealt 6 times normal damage with yellow HP (5 times without).

I guess that covers everything. Even though Tifa has max stats, this is a great battle that solely relies on strategy and not luck. That's just the way I love it.

Music: Boss themes from FFIX, FFVIII and FFVII, in that order.

Other Statistics