Materia Guardian is the first of many boss battles you'll squareꦦ off against in . It comes at you hard and fast around the middle of the game's first chapter, an extended flashback involving Cloud and Sephiroth some five years past.

It's easy to assume the Materia Guardian will go down in a flash. After all, you can control Sephiroth throughout the first chapter, and Sephiroth is nothing if not mighty. But this boss actually can put up something of a fight, and besides, you m♕ay wish to knock it could in style. Here's how to do justℱ that.

Materia Guardian Overview

The Materia Guardian is a fairly massive six-legged beast that regularly attacks with its forelegs at a rapid enoug🃏h clip to deal some real damage over time. It has the following special attacks:

• Dual Tail Lash, which is wide enough in range to strike both Cloud and Sephiroth simultaneously if they're close enough
• Seizing Claws, which can inflict Bound status, eliminating your control over a character temporarily
• Hellish Pounding, which hits around ten times in rapid succession before finishing off the combo with a final hit that sends the target flying backward
• Mucous Jet, a long-range attack that it only uses once it's up on the ceiling

There are three distinct phases to your skirmish 🦹with the Materia Guardian. Each of them carries a few aspects forward, but each has some wrinkles as well.

1. In the first phase, which lasts until around half its health bar has been depleted, it remains on the ground. During this time, you can expect frequent regular attacks and a few instances of Dual Tail Lash. You'll likely encounter Seizing Claws once or twice.
2. In the second phase, which occurs at the halfway mark, the Materia Guardian leaps onto the ceiling and spams Mucous Jet for however long it's up there.
3. In the third and final phase, which you'll encounter when the boss is at roughly a quarter of its HP, the Materia Guardian leaps into a pool of mako halfway up to the ceiling before returning to the ground far more powerful than before.

You'll probably want to make Sephiroth your actively-controlled character, and not only to seize the opportunity to take charge as the legend himself. He also has access to a wider array of spells and abilities and his physical attacks are faster,

Materia Keeper Battle Strategy

The first thing you ought to know about the battle against the Materia Guardian is that it's always safer to be behind it or to its side than to remain at the forefront.

This is sometimes easier said than done, as it will attempt to readjust its angle, but you'll avoid its various foreleg-centric strikes, including Dual Tail Lash, which can inflict over a thousand points of damage once the combo is completed.

One way to avoid constantly getting stuck in front of the boss is to periodically switch your active character for around ten seconds. Enemies in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth tend to target the player-controlled character more frequently, so you can take a few hits and then swap back to Sephiroth.

As long as you're doing your best to evade the Dual Tail Lash and regular attacks, this first phase shouldn't give you too much grief. You will see Seizing Claws here at least once, which will take its target out of commission for🥃 a while, leaving you with one party member.

In our experience, it tends to target Cloud far more frequently - another reason to stick to Sephiroth

Of Forelegs And Flames

In the second phase, you will be introduced to the concept of discrete enemy parts. The game will teach you about enemies with numerous 'side targets', so to speak, once the Materia Guardian has launched on to the ceiling.

You will now be able to target the forelegs and midlegs in addition to the Materia Keeper's main spot (head and torso). Do so posthaste, because each one has low HP, and crippling these works to your advantage as the boss will fall back to the ground.

This limits the amount of time that you're exposed to the long-range Mucous Shot, which sends narrow streams of high-impact spit at you, and deals several hundred damage.

The Materia Keeper is weak to fire, and Sephiroth has all three Fire-elemental spells. He also has nifty attacks like Hell's Gate, which sends Sephiroth flying upward before thrusting his sword in a downward slash. This is excellent as a last-second means of evading attacks.

It's a better idea to use Fira rather than Firaga, since Firaga requires two ATB charges to Fira's one. The Materia Keeper fight is fast-paced enough that you'll want to strike it more swiftly.

Synergize To Wrap Things Up

Once the Materia Keeper has absorbed mako in the last quarter of the fight, its stats will improve, and its speed will increase even further. Another pesky round of Seizing Claws is highly likely. Staying to the side is even more critical now.

Between the introductions to Synergy Attacks with Double Helix and Limit Breaks near the end of the fight, you won't have to handle the mako-charged Materia Keeper for long, so keep whittling away that HP until they activate, and the battle will be won!