Key fights
Midgardsormr
The first boss with phases, weak to ice. It dives; while it is under, heal, switch and bank ATB. When it rears up to charge its flame, the cranial dome is exposed: spend everything there.
Roche
Both duels are the same lesson: Punisher stance, block his combo, counter the last hit. Spells are ATB wasted; the counter is the damage.
Dyne
Barret alone, so no synergy. Block the barrage, punish the reload with abilities, and keep Overcharge for the moment his shield drops.
Gi Nattak
No elemental weakness, and the party is Barret and Red XIII. It summons soul flames that curse and casts Doom, a countdown that kills when it reaches zero: kill the flames first, keep it pressured so the countdown never matters, and let Red XIII’s Vengeance do the healing you cannot item your way to on hard.
Yin and Yang
Cait Sith alone, weak to fire. Two heads, each taken down on its own: neutralise one and the pair is pressured. When a head goes berserk, ride the moogle — it takes the hits he cannot.
Rufus and Darkstar
Cloud alone against a gunman with a reload rhythm and a dog that covers it. Perfect blocks open Rufus; Darkstar dies first so the rhythm is readable.
Moss-Grown Adamantoise
The shell is the fight. Tifa's chi abilities push the stagger multiplier, everything else waits for the stagger. Slow on purpose.
Sephiroth
Go in with limit breaks banked and the synergy gauge full: the phases reset positioning but not your gauges. Every character will be used; equip all seven before chapter 14.
Rules that hold for all of them
- Assess in the first ten seconds. Every boss has a pressure condition, and half of them are not an element.
- Elemental materia on armour turns a boss's signature element into healing or nothing. It is the cheapest hard-mode strategy there is.
- A phase change is telegraphed; have one ATB segment and a synergy ability ready for the moment after it.
- Retry from the last checkpoint is free and keeps consumables used before the checkpoint. Learning a boss costs nothing but time.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 16 September 2026 against the guides of PowerPyx, Game8 and Push Square. Not from a playthrough: checked against the sources above. Still to confirm in-game.