Those who have played a Final Fantasy game before should already be familiar with the concept of super bosses. For those who haven't, they are exactly what their name suggests: incredibly powerful enemies designed to put players' skill and mastery of the franchise to the test. There are two of them in Final Fantasy VII, both of which can be fought once players have defeated Ultimate Weapon.
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The deadly duo can be tackled in any order, though Emerald Weapon is generally considered to be the easier of the pair. For this reason, and due to the excellent rewards players get for defeating it, most players opt to try their luck against Emerald first. Final Fantasy VII's other super boss, Ruby Weapon, requires a lot more prep work and a much more complex strategy. With the right plan of attack though, Ruby Weapon can be taken down without too much trouble.
How To Prepare For The Battle With Ruby Weapon
There are a few different approaches for the battle with Ruby Weapon, though the easiest relies on the use of a particular Enemy Skill. The ???? ability, which can be learned from either the Jersey or Behemoth enemies, deals physical damage equivalent to the user's max HP minus their current HP and ignores all defenses. This allows it to deal close to 9,999 damage with each use at a cost of just 3 MP. With this in mind, players should equip two orbs of Enemy Skill materia and then head to the room with the safe at the Shinra Mansion. Once there, they should run around until they encounter some Jerseys and wait until one of them uses ???? on the party member with the materia equipped.
Being able to dish out decent damage is a good start, but it all counts for nothing if players can't survive long enough to deplete Ruby Weapon's ridiculously high HP. Thankfully, the super boss has one glaring weakness: it's susceptible to the Paralysis status effect. Hades can be useful in this regard, though using items is perhaps better due to Hades' high MP cost. This means getting hold of a large stack of Dazers, either by using the W-Item glitch or tracking down an enemy that can drop or be morphed into them. Boundfats are perhaps the ideal candidates here, as they can be easily found in large groups in the Sleeping Forest just past Bone Village.
The final bit of preparation involves heading into battle and killing two party members. This may sound counterintuitive, but players won't be able to damage Ruby Weapon until it raises its tentacles, which it won't do if all three party members are alive. Worse still, its Whirlsand attack will permanently eject party members from the battle, potentially leaving players to take the super boss on with just a single fighter. By entering the battle with two party members unconscious, however, players can minimize the chances of this happening.
In terms of setup, it doesn't really matter which party members the player takes into the battle, although their max HP does. The two unconscious party members should each be equipped with an orb of Enemy Skill materia that knows ???? and enough HP Plus materia to bring their max HP up to 9,999. The other party member should also have decent HP and it doesn't hurt to have an orb of Time materia as well as Final Attack and Life materia paired together in their weapon or armor. W-Item can also be useful, though isn't essential. All three players should have Ribbons equipped and, if possible, a Fire Armlet. With all that taken care of, it's time to head to the Gold Saucer desert and crash the Highwind into the red tentacle sticking out of the sand.
How To Beat Ruby Weapon
Assuming players enter the battle with two party members unconscious, Ruby Weapon should raise its tentacles straight away. Once this happens, players should use Dazers to paralyse it and then use Phoenix Downs to revive the two fallen party members. The aim is to keep their HP as low as possible, so it's best not to use magic like Life or Life2. These two party members should then begin repeatedly using ????, while the other uses Dazers on Ruby Weapon whenever its paralysis starts to wear off.
Though the tentacles will still be able to attack, the damage they deal is fractional, meaning they'll never actually be able to kill a party member. In fact, they'll eventually bring everybody's HP down to 1, allowing ???? to deal 9,998 damage with each use. The other party member can use Haste to speed things up a little, but their primary focus should be ensuring that Ruby never gets a chance to attack. In the event that it does, Final Attack should revive them, at which point they'll need to quickly toss another Dazers at the super boss before reviving the other party members so that they can continue with the ???? onslaught.
Given Ruby Weapon's monstrous 800,000 HP, it's going to take quite a while, but providing players can keep it locked down with paralysis, it becomes a fairly straightforward battle. There are more complex strategies, like using the Magic Hammer Enemy Skill to deplete Ruby Weapon's MP or pairing the Knights of the Round Summon with Mime materia, but these each have their own risks. A combination of all three strategies can be effective though and could help speed up the process a little if players lack the patience to whittle down Ruby's HP with ????.
The Reward For Defeating Ruby Weapon
Upon defeating Ruby Weapon, players will obtain the Desert Rose. This can then be taken to Kalm and traded with the traveler who lives in the house to the far right of the town. He'll offer Cloud and co a Gold Chocobo for the rose, which can then be used to access the round island and pick up the Knights of Round materia if players haven't done so already. Given that it's possible to breed one's own Gold Chocobo though, it's a fairly underwhelming reward, particularly when compared with the Master materia that's obtained by defeating Emerald Weapon.
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