Emerald Weapon FAQ(1.00!!) Author: Rairi_Fujin AKA Riley McCoy Quote: "I wont become like my father" Michael Corleno' ++++++++++++++++++++++ ++Table of Contents:++ ++++++++++++++++++++++ -Version History -General Info -Copyright -Contact Info Chapter 1: Basic Info Part 1: Needed stuff Part 2: Basic Strategy Chapter 2: Strategies Part 1: Low Level Guide a. Neede stuff b. Set-up c. Strategy Part 2: No Materia Guide a. Needed stuff... b. Set-up c. Strategy d. Battle order(or...Move By Move) Chapter 3: Advanced Strategies Part 1: 1:52 Win Chapter 4: Reader Suggestions Chapter 5: Plot info(or Holes) -Credits ============================================================================== -Version history- .001:9/26/2005 5:38:28 PM: Began writing. My 1st FAQ took 5 days, though I hope this will take less. 1.00:9/26/2005 7:31:54 PM: Finished this FAQ. Sending it in to Neoseeker and GameFaqs.com. I added a bunch of stuff... -General Info- Okie Dokie, my name is Rairi_Fujin. Rairi is Riley in Japanese, and well, Fujin is my favorite supporting character in FF(Though, I enjoy Elena almost as much). I am a guy, though so far you couldn't tell, 8-). I became extremely frustrated with GameFaqs for not accepting my Jenova/Sephiroth FAQ after accepting numerous FAQ's based on topics already discussed in other FAQ's. Oh well, no big deal. I have decided to write an IN-DEPTH look at Emerald Weapon. Not ruby, or Weapon's in general....EMERALD ONLY. I will discuss plot holes, strategies, and reader's FAV. moments. I will attempt to teach those having trouble with emerald strategies to defeat him. As well as the much talked about "1:18" strategy. -Copyright- This is copyrighted Riley McCoy, 2005. I have all the rights to this document. No website, person or entity has any control over this BUT me. Readers can submit suggestions, tips, errors or ideas at their wish. But I am the direct writer of this. This may not be posted on any website unless I have given WRITTEN consent. I had a problem with my last FAQ and a little fan site.... -Contact Info- You can contact me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Send reader suggestions, thoughts, criticism, errors, thoughts, strategies... Blah Blah Blah...just e-mail me with anythoughts. I also use the messengers I have described above. I have Dial-Up though, so do not expect me to reply to every message at ever whim...sorry! +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++Chapter 1: Basic info++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Okie Dokie, where to begin? The first glance you should receive of Emerald (Emmy, from here on out) is after the whole Northern Crater incident. He is the massive, green WEAPON appearing near the end. The first time we actually have a chance to fight him, however, is after the party has received the Shinra Sub. At this point, you can go and fight him. However, I doubt anyone can succeed. Even at LVL 99, you will still lack necessary materia(Even though people have told me of beating without materia) When traversing the ocean, DO NOT RUN INTO HIM. He is extremely tough, and you can tell, as YOU are reading this. After disc 2, during disc 3, though, he is manageable. So without further ado, I bring to you.... -Part 1: Pre-requisist 1.Well, to effectively beat him, you need to be lvl 99. That is a given. I will, however, give a low level strategy. 2. Completed 'Chocobo SideQuests'...in other words...get a gold chocobo(which you can find the solution in other FAQ's). This will net you the three most important pieces of Materia...KOTR(Knights of The Round) 'Quadra Magic' and Mime. I will however, give a No Materia strategy. 3. Have Cloud's, Vincent(with ALOT of kills), Yuffie's...or Cid's Ultimate weapon. Barrets will not be needed, and Cait Sith/Tifa's is useless. Tifa's uses a damage modifier that is based on how many times you FAIL using her limit break. Cait Sith will not be needed, even if he is in your party. His uses HP just as Cloud's, though he is an extremely good magic user, thus.. should not need to attack. Use it only if you want to have 8 materia slots (not likely for reasons stated below). Barret's is more complicated. His damage is modified based on AP equipped inside the Weapon. In other words, the more Materia he has(with alot of high AP materia's) in the 'Missing Score', the more damage he does. Well, Emmy's infamous attack "Aire Tam" does damage based on number of Materia equipped on the character he is attacking(Though, the attack does damage to all members). 4. W-summon. For one particular strategy 5. W-item. Another strategy. 6. Counter(you get it from chocobo races) and mime. Preferably 5 or more of each. For another strategy. 7. Underwater Materia. You need Morph materia. You will need to head back to Junon. proceed into the underwater Reactor, as you did during the story line. When you reach the tunnel with ocean life on all sides of it, stop and fight monsters. Eventually, you will come across "Ghost Ship". He has roughly 9,000 HP, and thus, is very hard to morph. Unless, you have Yuffie's ultimate weapon. Then it becomes easier. But, I will assume you need the underwater materia....Thus...you will not have Yuffie's ultimate weapon(Though, sometimes you will have the ultimate weapon, and STILL need the underwater Materia... in that case, just get the underwater materia =)). Set your cursor to 'Memory' and use scan on the monster. His stats will now be displayed permantaly. Just morph once, see how much damage it does. Then attack until he is at/around that much HP left. Morph...BINGO! 8. High Speed...roughly 75 or more. 9. Mystile...though, you might have only two. Use a wizard bracelet on your magic user(assuming Vinny or Cait Sith). 10. Ribbon is not useful here. NOT USEFUL IN THIS BATTLE. 11. Omnislash helps greatly. Urgnmax(SP?)...and Highwind help alot as well. 12. Small thing, but have your characters in HYPER status. This will help limits fill up faster. 13. MP TURBO materia, VERY USEFUL. This is gotten during main storyline(north crater). HP Absorb/MP ABOSRB: I don't number this, but....if you don't want to use MP turbo, put KOTR with MP absorb. This way, the caster never loses MP. 14. Well...not needed...but master materia NEVER hurts....hehehehehehe. Part 2: Basic Strategy Okie Dokie, You have gotten all of the above Items, materia's and Limits. Now what? Take your submarine and head underwater. Head directly into the big green monster moving underwater. He will instantly begin a battle, with a catch, a 20:00 min time limit. Now, if you took my advice, you have gotten the Underwater Materia. This will eliminate the timer. So, don't even worry about it. Now, I want you to under- stand that I do not mean this is an End All Be All strategy. By no means. One, you might want to know a low lvl way to beat him, for another, you might want to beat him without taking 40 minutes(lol). But anyway, I will provided a well known strategy. Have Cloud equipped with the mime materia...and Vinny/Cait Sith summon KOTR. This, junctioned with MP turbo materia, should cause 129,987. If you have W-summon, this will cause 259,974 in damage. Have cloud mime this. That is another 129,987/259,974 in damage. So all together, we have caused roughly 500,000 in damage...1/3 of his total HP. Have the odd man out heal the magic user. The magic user should then cast KOTR again, and again, have cloud mime his last action. MIME takes no MP. NOTE: If you don't want to use MP turbo, put KOTR with Mp ABOSRB. This way, you will never run out of MP. But, you will cause less damage. Your choice. You will not need a ribbon, so that is one accessory of your choice, though, you should use a stat boosting accessory. Well, do you see? The Kotr Strategy takes FOREVER! to complete. So, I suggest you keep reading. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++Chapter 2: Strategies++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++ So, now we get into complicated matters. The above strategy is used ALL over the internet. It is spread by 'Word Of Mouse'. But these are lesser known strategies. So, Let's Rock N' Roll.... Part 1: Low Level Guide- A: Pre-requisist This is intense. I consider a low level to be level 60 and under.Many people I have talked to say 30...but...I believe 60 is considerably for fighting emerald. If you are lower than 50...don't blame it on my guide. Check a low level walkthrough for idea's. You need(assuming you didn't get most of the powerful materia's I.E KOTR, Q- Magic...mime) Bahumat Zero, Ulitma Weapon, Omnislash, Mystile(hopefully 3 using the glitch in the game, though, I assume you have 2) A BOAT LOAD OF ENEMY SKILLS...and alot of items. The fact is, that is all you need. Case closed. Alot of items can be morphed during the game. So, elixers and megaelixers should be in ready supply(At least 25 of them). Hero's are important, but I feel they take up too much time. Mystile will let you evade alot of Emeralds attacks. Omnislash as a helpful "Oh gee...thanks" Attack. Ultima weapons, as it is powerful(same goes for all the Weapons I listed in the first section. Use those characters AND their respective Ultimate Weapons). The Enemy-Skills....hehehe....A little trade secret of mine. Trust me, they will be needed. B: Set up Cloud, Vinny/Cait Sith, Yuffie. This will allow you a VERY balanced attack. Caitsith has a nice magic stat(same with vinny), while Yuffie is VERY quick naturally. Cloud is a no brainer. Equip Cloud with the Mystile, Ultima Weapon and Sprint shoes. Materia should consist of: Enemy-Skill=Hp plus....Speed plus=Speed Plus.... EDIT: Forget 4xcut..gotta have that. Cait Sith/Vincent Should have Hp Shout/Death penalty, Wizard Bracelet(Mystile for those cheaters) and a Circlet. Materia should consist of: Enemy-skill(your best one)=HP plus.... Magic plus=Magic plus....Bahamut Zero......Bingo Yuffie should have her conformer, Mystile and a Chaos Ring Materia should consist of: In the armor only: Added Affect=Death.... Enemy-skill...slash-all...phoenix materia=Final attack C: Strategy ================================== Emerald Weapon: = = LVL: 99 HP: 1,500,000 Mp: 9999 = ================================== Not very much help, but I thought I would include that. Enter the battle, and IMMEDIATLY set up "Big Guard". Whoever attacks first should cast this spell. It is an enemy skill. Then have Caitsith summon Bahumat zero(Unless he is first character to act). Have Yuffie or Cloud use White wind everytime, well almost. Cloud should attack If Yuffie is using White Wind. When the shoulder pads come out, watch out! Switch White Wind casters with Cloud. Have Yuffie attack with Slash-all. This will take about four turns. Cait Sith should use the most powerful spell...namely Shadow Flare. If you don't have it (you should..if you got Ultima weapon) use beta or something. If Big guard runs out, have the first character IMMEDITALY recast it. If Cloud limits, use Omnislash. If Yuffie limits, use "Doom of the Living" NOT 'Clear Tranquil'. The first is a LVL 3 limit break, so make sure you have it set. If Cait Sith limit breaks....Do not use it. 'Tis not worth it. My lvl 64 cloud did 6789(average..rounded) in damage each cut. Yuffie did around 6000...lower than cloud. This was only due to the chaos ring. Which, due to the materia combo, shouldn't kill her after 60 sec's. Mega-elixers come in huge handy, which you can morph tonberries into them. Also, if you have w-item, you can exploit a massive cheat...involving duplicate items. Though, that is cheap, and we should have EARNED our mega-elixers/elixer and other rare items. Enemy skills are massively important. You can get 20 spells in one materia slot. Also, Shadow Flare IS stronger than Ulitma, though it cost more. You should have enough items to cover for this. YOU CANNOT COMPLETE THIS WITHOUT ITEMS!.... When Emmy begins his "Aire Tam" attack...watch out. If you have died once or twice...you might be screwed. It will cause about 4k in damage...to all party members. If you have yet to die...fear not. You will be instantly revived due to Phoenix. And it will cause a big amount of Damage. Lets do some calculations: I do 6789x4=27156. So, every turn...or round, I should cause 27,000. 27,000 goes into 1,500,000 about 55 turns. Um...that is a tad bit too many to actually survive. I would take about 12 turns for Yuffie attacking the shoulder pods, while cloud is casting white wind. That should be 67 turns now. I also take away 3 turns for death. I HOPE you have Final Attack lvl past 3. Then, this battle should be a cinch. But, you will take another 3 turns for that. So...70 turns. But, of course, we must take away a few turns for our limit breaks. Omnislash(Without Hero)=15x6,000(roughly)=90,000 Omnislash(WITH Hero)=15x9,999=149,985 Doom of The Living(without Hero)=10x5,000=50,000 Doom of The Living(With Hero)=10x8 or 9 k=80/90,000 So, I say should get the two limits twice. Roughly(I got DOTL 3 times while Omnislash twice). Expect to only use a Hero on cloud. Yuffie's limit is not damaging enough to waste turns on getting her stats up. With all this said, 280,000 subract from 1,500,000 is 1,220,000. Subract another 150,000(Yuffie's limitx3) and you should come up with= 1,170,000. But..we are forgetting Cait Sith's(hopefully) 7k attack each round. But, we still have to subract 20 or so turns from CaitSith's attacking, as he will be healing(or supporting) the part about half the time. 7,000x30=210,000 SO....after all is said and done, take 55 turns for regular attacking, add 12 for yuffie attacking shoulder pods(while cloud is white winding)...and 3 more for deaths(if you do die). Now, we get confusing. Take away 10 turns...as that is how many it would take for Cloud to cause 280,000. Another 7 or so, as that is how many turns it would take for cloud to cause 150,000. These are the limit break attacks. Take away another 9 turns, as that is how many it would take for cloud to cause 210,000(Im estimating here). Now....27 from 55 is 28. 28 turns. Now I realize...that my math is flawed in the simple fact that if Cait Sith is causing 7k in damage each round, and I have multiplied that by 55(orignal turn number) I get 210,000. BUT...If cait sith is causing sufficent damage, it won't be 55 turns.I NEED HELP WITH THIS PROBLEM!!!!! That is basically the gist of the walkthrough. It SHOULD take you around 35 turns to defeat Emerald. Using my calculations. Though, one more thing. Focus on healing. The minute you stop focusing on that, you will get beat. If you have one person dead, and you have a limit break filled up, HEAL HIM! Do not use the limit. Trust me. Also, if you have full life materia, equip it. Though you don't need it, it does help. -Part 2: No Materia Guide- This is with a doubt the white meat of this FAQ/Guide. This is a very hard feat, and thus, requires alot of patience and training. TRUST ME. NOTE: The Low Level Walkthrough is from a friend. THIS is mine. I wrote the low level walkthrough, but...It was his strategy. This one is completly my strategy, and the one I used to defeat him without materia...bar one, 'UnderWater' that is. A: Pre-Requsist You will need... 1. Level 99. I have never tried combining both strategies(Low Level AND No Materia). This is a given....but I also include an Attack stat ABOVE 200. Speed ABOVE 125...you obviously do not need a magic stat. 2. MEGAELIXERS!!!! Get 30 or more, minumum. Also, Phoenix downs. Elixers do not recover enough of the PARTIES vitals, while mega's do. Hero Drinks are also a must. 3. Underwater materia, is a must. IT will take 40+ rounds to defeat him,thus 20:00 is a little out of the picture. I guess someone could apply this strategy better than me, thus beating him quicker. Even though this is a no Materia Strategy, this doesn't really count =). 4. Ultima weapon, Venus Gospel and Missing Score. 5. Omnislash...Highwind and Ungermax Limit breaks. 6. USE THE DAMN MYSTILE GLICTH!!! If you are too good for that, use a aegis armlet or something SUPER tough in defense, but really lousy materia slots I.E Ziederach B: Set up Not really any particular set-up. Have your limits filled up at the start of the battle, and make sure you are in HYPER status. As a reconmendation, use Barret, Cloud and Cid. Cloud is a no brainer, and Cid has a weapon based on HP as well. Barret,though is a tad different. You want him the Underwater materia. Hopefully, this has a huge amount of AP on it, as it continues increasing until...well...it just is a storage for AP. If it has more than 50k in AP, you are good to go. If you don't have ANY AP on it, go with Yuffie, and her Doom Of the Living limit break. Though, Ungermax is extremely effective. Sprint shoes for ALL characters. C: Strategy =================================== Emerald Weapon: == == LVL: 99 HP: 1,500,000 Mp: 9999 == =================================== Okie Dokie, basically, use your limit breaks. Religiously. They will be your savior(Get it, religion?). You should start the battle out by using a hero with whoever acts first. The second character uses another hero on himself, and the third character uses a mega-elixer. Now, those first two charcters swicth places. Here is what I mean... The first charcter to act uses a megaelixer(Even if everyone is fully healed). The second and third characters now attack. Repeat untill... HIS SHOULDER PODS AWAKEN(or become alive, born, spawn...). Now, you must focus every bit of attention on the Blue ones. They cause HP damage. The yellow ones cause MP damage. And incase you didn't notice, we aren't using MP. Also, Emmy will now counter every attack Execpt limit breaks. Two charcters should use Mega-elixers now. The third character focus' on attacking one blue pod at a time. It should become defeated after...oh..say 2 turns. 4 for both. If one of your charcters gets a full limit bar, USE IT. Have the attacking character Use a mega-elixer. If two get a full limit bar, have the second one wait hit triangle untill another character comes up. THEN USE the second limit break. Finally, when the pods are dead(And if you use a limit while they are alive, they will be dead QUICK), focus on the first strategy. Your sprint shoes make it an even battle. If they weren't on, he will own you. You will not be able to get in one megaelixer before he is killing two party members. In the case someone DOES die, have the first acting character use phoenix down, even f both remaining characters are in bad health. THEN have the second acting character use Mega-Elixer. I cannot stress this enough, use your phoenix downs, even if Cloud has an Omnislash ready to go. I don't care if Cid AND Cloud have their LVL 4 limit breaks ready. But...and there is a but...this only applies to lone Emmy, not shoulder pod emmy. If he has his shoulder pods out, USE MEGAELIXER BEFORE PHOENIX DOWN. This is the one nd only time you should. Reason being, he has 3 attacks now that cause damage to he whole party, Emerald Beam, and his shoulder pods attack two characters. Now, this seems flawed, BUT, his Emerald beam causes about 4k in damage, while the houlder pod attack causes 6k. One attacks, the other attacks(That being the shoulder pods, they attack indivdually, but at the same time). So, if you have two low HP characters alive, one of them is GOING to die. Simple as that. Pod will attack one of the remaining two for 6k, and the other pod will attack the other remaining character for 6k. Then Emmy will attack with Emerald Beam. Just use a megaelixer THEN phoenix down....or have one use a MegaElixer, then attack one of the pods, and repeat until you get a limit, in which case, you can kill the shoulder pods, and Emmy has only 1 All party attacking move, Stamp or something Aire Tam Storm(Lol) will not be a worry of yours. It will cause 1111 to Barret, and that is it. When Hero runs out(you can tell) stop attacking and use it. I will not add calculations to this, but it should take 30 turns to complete. Limits will come around quicker, as you will be causing him to counter attack more. He won't if you use magic. Battle Order: Here I will give you my exact battle. I list every moved I made, and Emerald made. NOTE: I have it on a sheet of notebook paper, I will update this FAQ with the Info. This is "Fantasy Gamer"'s Techinque, but, I am not plagerizing. This is what happened in my battle. I am just using something he created, listing battle steps. I call it "Move By Move". D:Move by Move 'No materia Emerald Weapon Battle' NOTE: I will use an * for emmy's attacks. I will not display the yellow pods attacks either, as they are useless. If an attack hits all memebers, I list them from down to up....Cid, Cloud, Yuffie... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++Chapter 3: Advanced Strategies++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -Part 1. 1:52 win- This is an easy, easy way to win. Basically, you have one character alive. This one character needs: 5 Mime materia 5 Counter materia(The Support materia, NOT the Counter Attack Materia 1 Mystile 1 Ulitmate weapon 3 Hero Drinks 1 LVL 4 limit break 1 W-item materia Basically, you need to have either Cloud, Barret or Cid. Im not sure about Cid, but Barret and Cloud will take only 1:52 to defeat Emerald Weapon. Have the counter materia junctioned with Mime. Start the battle with Cloud (you could use Barret OR Cid) and he should be the only character alive. Use a hero, and for the second item, use an elixer. Then....Use Omnisalsh. Emmy will then attack you, and you will counter with 5 Omnislashes. If he is still alive, simply use mime wether or not you are at full HP. Even if you manually have to use mime After the 5 Counter= Mimes) you should still use only 2:00 in time. Easy win. But...takes alot of time to get set-up. You need 5 counters and 5 mimes...so....you need to master 1 mime and master the second...ect.. The online record using this method is 1:18...using Barret. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++Chapter 4: Reader Suggestions++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I have none currently. Email me at "[email protected]" Or [email protected]. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++Chapter 5: Plot info(or Holes)++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!! Well, Weapon was created by the planet, for the planet. Specifically, to defeat Jenova...Or the calamity from the skies. Jenova was threating the life of the planet. The planet created a monsterous force to defeat the threat. "Iflana: Yes, but...there is no record of Weapon ever being used. A small number of the surviving Cetra defeated Jenova, and confined it. The planet produced Weapon...But it was no longer necessary to use it." So, Weapon was created to save the planet. But we now know, they were not needed. Instead of just disapearing, they waited untill something else threating the planet(or if jenova were to awaken). That something comes, and it is Sephiroth(OR..Jenova is awakened). "Hojo: ...Weapon. Monsters created by the Planet. It appears when the Planet is in danger, reducing everything to nothingness. That's what was stated in Professor Gast's report." Now, that quote comes out of nowhere right? WRONG...it is leading me into another subject...weapon is created to destroy, in order to help the planet. This is a very popular belief. For one, we see that quote. For another reason, they(Weapon) are seen destroying towns, more importantly, BIG towns. Junon, Midgar, Mideel, cosmo Canyon. The latter two aren't that big...but...you know. Also, Weapon is seen hovering over the Northern Crater(Where sephiroth sleeps. and the original Crisis of the planet). This, with other facts, leads me to believe that Weapon is going to help the planet by supplying it with souls for the lifestream. Just like bugenhagen hints holy will kill humans as well.... "Bugenhagen: It is up to the planet to decide. What is best for the planet.What is bad for the planet. All that is bad will disappear. That is all. Ho Ho Hoooo I wonder which we humans are?" And from wacthing Advent Children, we know the planet was trying to rid itself of humans by causing Geostigma. Though, this was mostly due to Jenova. So that is kinda flawed. Another thing, EMMY weapon is underwater, and WE SEE NO marine life. So, we must assume that Emerald weapon killed off the life. Why would Weapon pursue to kill humans? We know that humans contribute to spirit energy. So, the planet needed to restore the lifstream in order to have a chance agaisnt the new evil force, Sephiroth(Also note how we see the lifestream defeat meteor, though, this could be viewed as Aerith's influence). One more thing, in the japanese version(One with out Emmy and ruby) we still see that huge crater, so perhaps something landed there and killed the marine life(Unlikely, as the water would have slowed the speed of the object that caused the crater, and the crater seems more of a land based one. Perhaps EMMY casted a spell or used an attack that caused the crater, thus... killing the life. But, why no damage to the junon Reactor located right next to the crater?).... One more, Why else would Weapon attack Mideel, AND COSMO CANYON. Both places do not use Mako Energy, and one is dedicated to the study of planet life. Ruby is also seen at a mecha-of-people location, GOLD SAUCER. This..is just my theory. You see.....But why would the weapon, created for the planet, destroy human life? This is what lead me to believe human life got whiped out by the lifestream erupting. This would explain weapon killing humans, the planet viewed them as the threat. When Weapon couldn't due the job, The lifestream, the planets blood is erupted to defeat Meteor(most immediate threat) and then Life... But that pesky AC had to come out.... That is all, any body can Email me at: [email protected] [email protected]. Those theories suck, and are very basic. I have some very deep and philosophical views, but this is mainly a strategy for defeating Emerald... ============================================================================== +++++++++++ ++Credits++ +++++++++++ Thanks goes to DarkStarRdp for his help in the "Low Level" Strategy. Also, thanks to Fantasy Gamer for the inspiration for the 'Move by Move' section.(I will update it..trust me)... Thanks to GameFaqs.com for the inspiration for writing this, as well as NeoSeeker.com...and FF7-Universe.com Thanks to Squaresoft for making this great game, and the greatest optional boss ever(well..omega from V is hard, and ozma...but...)I have a certain rivalary with Emerald. The first time I beat him, I was down to just Cloud, and he had 13 Hp.....and I got lucky and had an omnislash...and used it, and killed him. MEMORIES. Thanks to GaiaOnline.com members for telling me Emeralds HP. Thanks to Holly Hamling for all her emotional support(Just in general life...) Peace =)