Of the myriad of wea🦄pons in Final Fantasy VII Remake, perhaps the most missable is Aerith’s Bladed Staff, a weapon that trades raw magical power for a boosted critical rate.
The main selling point of the Bladed Staff is its ability, Lustrous Shield, as it protects Aerith from long-range attacks— perfect for when you have her slinging spells from a distance. With Lustrous Shield and Arcane Ward active, she’s a near unstoppable font of magical damage. Anoth♌er perk is that t🥃he weapon, with the right upgrades, near guarantees critical hits when Aerith is at low HP.
The reason the Bladed Staff is missable is that it requires at leꦿast one extra materia to acquireꦿ, two if you’re not aware of its location at all. The Assess materia given to you by Chadley will reveal that this weapon can be stolen from Eligor, the main boss of Chapter 11.
This requires the Steal materia, which can be bought from Chadley upon completing the battle intel quest Magic Elements Pt. 2. The objective of this quest is to exploit the elemental weaknesses of 15 different enemy types using magic, which shouldn't be too difficult if you’ve been d💖iligently assessing your opponents and using their weaknesses against them. If♛ you have not, you may have to reload, or otherwise wait until NG+ to revisit certain areas via Chapter Select before reattempting Eligor.
The actual stealing of the Bladed Staff from Eligor is simple enough: equip the Steal materia on a character before entering the battle, and spam the ability until you successfully swipe the weapon from him. It may take a few tries depending on your character’s luck stat, but you’ll have ample opportunity to try again during the long battle. Your best bet would be to have Tifa attempt to steal the weapon, as she builds ATB the fastest and luckiest 🌊out of the available characters that chapter.
Unfortunately, you won’t have a chance to have Aerith practice Lustrous Shield once you get the Bladed Staff, as she’s whisked off by the plot shortly after🤡. Still, once you get her back (and fo༒r NG+), it’s more or less an essential ability that lets her stay within her Arcane Ward without having to flee incoming attacks as often.