Final Fantasy VII is one of the most iconic games in all of gaming history. Not only are the characters and story widely praised but the weapons in the games have also reached legendary status. There are some amazing weapons in the Final Fantasy VII remake to choose from in each character’s arsenal which makes it quite difficult to make the right decision.
Some of the best weapons in Final Fantasy VII Remake for each main and supporting character have been listed in this guide and we’ve also mentioned how and where to get them.
Read the article below to save yourself the trouble of going through each character’s weapon’s utility and pick the best weapons in Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Hard Mode Considerations
Hard Difficulty is quite a challenge in the Final Fantasy VII Remake. It makes the lives of the player difficult through:
- Enemies are way stronger.
- You cannot use items (healing or otherwise).
- MP is not restored at benches (but HP still is!).
You will have to rely on spells and rationing the MP bar to power through this ordeal. And since the game is so well made and addicting, many players will gladly want to suffer through this.
The reason for pointing this out is that opting for hard difficulty will eventually impact your choice of weapon. Some weapons will provide the right abilities and upgrades to tackle the challenge hence they can be considered best overall.
We will make sure to highlight the weapons that are great for Hard Mode.
Cloud Strife Weapons
Cloud has by far the highest raw strength and is second in magic competency only to Aerith even though his default attacks are physical. This makes Cloud a well-balanced character which reflects upon the weapons at his disposal. His weapons are generally quite balanced in terms of boosting both attack and magic attack.
Hardedge and Mythril Saber are the only two weapons that exclusively boost the physical and magic attack respectively.
Twin Stinger (Hard Mode)
- Ability: Counterstance – Unleash a powerful counterattack after getting hit while guarding.
- Proficiency Bonus: Unleash a counterattack.
At a first glance, the Twin Stinger isn’t going to be the weapon you would gravitate towards. It doesn’t offer much boost to direct damage however it’s more balanced. It gives you more MP and two very important abilities which are game-changing and will help you defeat the hardest bosses in the game.
The Twin Stinger has healing spells MP cost reduction of 20%. This is crucial when playing on hard mode as you won’t be able to restore MP with items or through rest spots. So having healing spells equipped with any kind of MP cost reduction is going to be key to difficult encounters.
The other important ability is Reprieve. This is essentially an auto-revive mid-battle. This lets you survive a fatal attack and leaves you at 1 HP. Having this ability is paramount for surviving the hardest boss fights in the game.
Twin Stinger Location
Chapter 17: Deliverance from Chaos – Hojo Laboratory
After Red XIII assists you to cross the second set of pods, you’ll find yourself in a room where you’ll fight a gauntlet of enemies. After clearing the room, head outside and you’ll see a purple chest on the left side of the stairs. You won’t miss it since you’ll have to reach the stairs to proceed to the next section.
Buster Sword
- Ability: Focused Thrust: Lunge towards an enemy with a piercing strike that hits multiple times. Significantly increases stagger.
- Buster Sword is Cloud’s starting default weapon.
The Buster Sword is Cloud’s iconic weapon from the original game, and as such is used as something of a default sword model for the game. As an initial weapon, the Buster Sword has mixed, well-rounded stats that improve Cloud both as a mage and a physical attacker, while also improving his durability.
The Buster Sword is a balanced, general-purpose weapon for Cloud, with well-rounded stats. Both when obtained and when fully upgraded, it provides an equal boost to Attack Power and Magic Attack. This surpasses most of his weapons, and moderate stats to improve his durability. Its unlock abilities include a +10% boost to Cloud’s MP regeneration and a +5% boost to his limit break damage.
Nail Bat
- Ability: Disorder – Deliver a devastating attack and switch modes in one fluid motion.
- Proficiency Bonus: Strike with Attack or Strong Attack after switching modes.
The Nail Bat is a very interesting weapon as it builds out. The weapon offers zero stat growth but it gives a significant boost to the performance of Criticals by increasing the chance for a critical strike happening and the amount of damage of critical attacks.
Critical strikes to approximately double damage. So if you bolster Cloud with the right set of materia he should be able to become a bit of a wrecking machine. However, you will have to take into consideration not providing any support function or having much defense.
Nail Bat Location
Chapter 8: Budding Bodyguard – Sector 5 Slums, Leaf House Orphanage
Rewarded for completing the Side Quest: Kids on Patrol.
Tifa Lockhart Weapons
Tifa is much more of a pinch-hitter. She is best utilized when enemies are in vulnerable states to unload tons of physical damage and increase the capacity for other characters to do the same. Tifa has very high mobility and high speed which allows her ATB meter to charge faster. She has the second-highest strength of all the characters.
Her weapons are therefore geared around maximizing these aspects of her character and there’s a strong bias towards improving attack as opposed to magic attack in terms of raw power.
Purple Pain (Hard Mode)
- Ability: True Strike – Unleash a powerful blow. Huge bonuses to stagger damage
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Strike a staggered enemy.
Purple Pain has a decent attack stat at 82 which might be lower than others but there are other benefits to these gloves. This weapon also has Reprieve which just helps her survive any kind of fatal hit which in our opinion makes it the best option for Tifa.
These gloves offer her a lot of good stat boosts like a Critical hit rate 10% boost amongst other important additions.
Purple Pain Location
Chapter 16: The Belly of the Beast – Shinra Building 1F Entrance
Once you play solo as Tifa, you will have to climb over some lights and then drop down to the lobby. Climb the car and hop along the row of blocks to get to the mini-labyrinth.
But before climbing the first ladder, go around the pillar and use the monkey bars to find a purple chest on the other end. The weapon is inside the chest.
Metal Knuckles
- Ability: Overpower – Use in conjunction with basic attacks to more effectively pressure enemies
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Follow up with a basic attack combo after using the weapon agility.
In terms of raw power, the Metal Knuckles win by a landslide. They are acquired quite early on. No other weapon that Tifa can use has more attack and by the end of the game, this is amplified in a significant manner.
The Metal Knuckles have 37% more attack power than the Feather Gloves which have the second highest. The Metal Knuckles can also boost damage when attacking from the rear and improve Tifa’s ATB charge rate, making them great for sustained pressure.
Metal Knuckles Location
Chapter 5: Dogged Pursuit – Former Rail Yard
Automatically obtained after defeating the Crab Warden.
Aerith Gainsborough Weapons
Aerith Gainsborough is by far the best magic user in the game. She has the highest magic and spirit. As a result, she can deal massive amounts of magic damage while also being a great healer. Her weapons ultimately reflect the same foundation.
Unlike the other three characters, there is a very strong bias toward magical attack in every single weapon. This is only accentuated further as you level up her weapons as there are no increases to the attack stat on any of them.
Guard Stick (Hard Mode)
- Ability: Arcane Ward – Conjure a ward. Attack spells cast within the ward will automatically be cast twice.
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Conjure a ward (one time only during activation).
- Guard Stick is Aerith’s starting default weapon.
Even though the Guard Stick is Aerith’s first weapon in the game it can still be considered the best. The benefits of this weapon include:
- When guarding she has physical damage and magic damage 10% reduction which helps her out a lot since she’s kind of fragile. Her defense stats are not very high.
- It has MP regeneration boost of 10%. So you can build up MP to consistently make use of magical abilities.
- Boosts healing spells cost reduction by 20%.
- Reprieve, which will help her survive those insane attacks by certain bosses, especially in hard mode.
Reinforced Staff
- Ability: ATB Ward – Creates a ward around Aerith in which abilities used by her and her allies will partially refill their ATB gauge.
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Conjure a wad (one time only during activation)
The Reinforced Staff comes with a slight reduction in magic attack but in the right hands can make Aerith very dangerous. It gives a damage boost when casting with high HP and also increases the damage output of Tempest.
In addition, defense is increased when guarding and self-healing is more effective when cast in a low HP state.
Reinforced Staff Location
Chapter 17: Deliverance from Chaos – Hojo’s Laboratory, Sublevel
Found inside a purple chest inside the room of the starting point for Chapter 17.
Arcane Scepter
- Ability: Fleeting Familiar – Summon a fairy that attacks your enemies periodically as well as after you use abilities and spells
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Unleash a consecutive attack of an ability or spell (one time only during activation)
the Arcane Scepter is perhaps more suited to those players who want to use Aerith as a more traditional black mage. It gives increases to elemental magic, has MP cost reduction on defensive spells, increases MP regeneration, and also offers elemental magic defense.
Arcane Scepter Location
Chapter 9: The Town That Never Sleeps – Train Graveyard, Old Sector 7 Station – Switchyard.
This weapon is obtained as a reward. Simply complete the side quest: A Dynamite Body or Shears’ Counterattack.
Barret Wallace Weapons
Barret essentially fulfills two roles within the Final Fantasy 7 remake gameplay setup. He provides utility as someone who can attack long range and thanks to his high vitality he’s also a physical damage sponge. This makes him a decent tank.
The downside is that Barratt is pretty much the weakest in every other stat area. What makes Barrett unique though is that he can also be changed into a standard melee fighter thanks to the Steel Pincers and the Wrecking Ball weapons. He can also, despite his stats fighting hard against it, also be a decent caster.
Light Machine Gun (Hard Mode)
- Ability: Lifesaver – Take damage intended for other party members
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Restore an ally’s HP (one time only during activation).
Barret’s best weapon in our opinion is going to be the Light Machine Gun. You shouldn’t pay too much attention to the stats. In the Sub-Core 5 upgrades of this weapon, it has healing spells cost reduction of 20% and Reprieve.
These two abilities are insanely useful in hard mode. It will help you so much with conserving MP, even when you rely on destroying crates or boxes to restore MP. Reprieve is a game changer, survivability-wise, especially in very tough battles and boss fights as the enemies hit way harder on hard mode.
Light Machine Gun Location
Automatically obtained after completing Chapter 6: Light the Way.
Big Bertha
- Ability: Maximum Fury – Unleashes all ATB in a flurry of bullets
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Finish off an enemy
If you are looking for pure long ranged physical damage then the best option is Big Bertha. It’s quite tame in comparison to the stat increases seen within Cloud and Tifa weapon selections but it gets the job done.
It also does a good job of transforming Barret into a Paladin. It offers increases to attack when HP is high, defense and self-healing boost when HP is low, and huge increases to his maximum HP.
Big Bertha Location
Chapter 13: A Broken World – Collapsed Expressway, Evergreen Park
You’ll reach an encampment after passing through the Collapsed Expressway. It can be purchased from the Sector 7 Slums Weapons Shop vendor for 2,500 Gil.
EKG Cannon
- Ability: Point Blank – Consumes all ATB to deliver close-range attacks and send enemies flying
- Ability Proficiency Bonus: Finish off an Enemy
The most interesting of Barret’s weapons is the EKG cannon. In terms of base stats its magic attack is way higher than anything prior. It also offers decent physical damage but as the weapon builds out while its magical damage gets amplified further its physical damage ends up being the worst of the bunch.
To help offset this the probability of critical strikes will increase, the damage of criticals is increased, and the damage of Overcharged is also increased which makes it pretty well balanced. It is also great for making Barret a sort of secret magic user.
EKG Cannon Location
Chapter 16: The Belly of the Beast – Shinra Building, 62F Upper-Level Corporate Archives.
Once you’ve spoken to the mayor in his office, speak to the man named Hart who is in front of the mayor’s office. Pay him 10,000 Gil to obtain this weapon.
After looking at what we think are the best Final Fantasy VII Remake weapons for each character, you might have a firm idea about what weapon to choose.
We hope this guide helped you search for the best Final Fantasy VII Remake weapon. However, we recommend returning to the guide if you need help using these weapons. Happy Gaming!