How to Beat Minerva: Boss Fight Strategy Guide

Minerva is a boss you will encounter in mission M9-6-6: The Reigning Deity in Crisis Core: Reunion Final Fantasy VII. Read on to check out Minerva's stats and weaknesses, how to beat Minerva, and their attack patterns here!

Minerva Guides
Weakness & Drops	Boss Guide

Minerva Story Boss Details

Minerva Boss Stats

	Normal	Hard
HP	10000000	77777777
SP	40000
Gil	0

Minerva Weakness and Resistances

Fire	Ice	Thunder
Half Damage	Half Damage	Half Damage

Minerva Locations

Missions	・The Reigning Deity

Dropped and Stealable Items

Drops	None
Stealable Items	・Phoenix Down

Rewards for Beating Minerva

Accessory

Accessory	Effect
Divine Slayer	Sets max damage and HP limits to 99999. Activates Libra effect.

The Divine Slayer is considered to be one of the best accessory in Crisis Core: Reunion. It maxes out Zack's damage and HP limits, freeing up slots for other equipment. This will allow you to build more powerful setups to make battles easier!

Best Equipment and Best Accessories

Trophy

Gold G: 100	Divine Rule Broken
	Defeated Minerva.

The Divine Rule Broken trophy is one of the hidden trophies in the game and considered one of the most difficult to get.

Trophy Guide: How to Get Platinum and All Achievements

How to Prepare for the Battle with Minerva

Recommended Build to Battle Minerva
Recommended Stats
HP	99999	MP	383
AP	999	ATK	255
VIT	255	MAG	162
SPR	255	LCK	47
Recommended Materia
SP Turbo (SPR +99)		SP Turbo (HP +999%)
SP Turbo (VIT +100%)		SP Turbo (HP +590%)
Assault Twister+ (ATK +100)		Aerial Drain (AP +920%)
Recommended Accessories
Ziedrich		Genji Glove
Protect Ring		Adaman Bangle

You do not need to be Level 99 to take on Minerva. What matters are your attacks and the items you use.

Recommended Stats for Zack

Stat	Recommended Value
HP	99,999
MP	Default Value
AP	Default Value - 999 Recommended if you do not have the Costly Punch metria.
ATK	60 or more
VIT	255
MAG	Default Value
SPR	255
LCK	Default Value

You can increase your default stats through Materia Fusion. Check out our guide for a list on Materia Fusion recipes and to learn how to fuse materia.

Materia Fusion Guide and Recipes

Recommended Materia

Curaga	Effect: Greatly restores Zack's HP Stat Buffed: SPR
Aerial Drain	Effect: Zack jumps into the air then lands with an HP draining AoE attack. Stat Buffed: HP
SP Turbo	Effect: Expends SP to increase attack and magic damage. Stat Buffed: HP
Assault Twister+	Effect: Deals damage in an AoE Stat Buffed: ATK
Iron Fist	Effect: Ignores target's VIT and deals damage Stat Buffed: ATK
Costly Punch	Effect: Ignores target's VIT and deals damage at the cost of HP. Damage increases as Zack's HP decreases. Stat Buffed: ATK
Steal	Effect: Steals an item from the target. Stat Buffed: AP
Mug	Effect: Steals an item while dealing damage to the target. Stat Buffed: AP

You can choose one between Mug and Steal. If you don't have one, you can use the other. The recommended Command Materia to use together are SP Turbo (3) and Aerial Drain, as they are both strong and easy to get.

Recommended Accessories

Accessory	Alternative
Ziedrich	-
Protect Ring	Genji Shield
Genji Armor	Adaman Bangle
Genji Glove	Brutal

Besides the Genji Armor, all the listed accessories can be obtained by completing missions under the Great Cavern of Wonders mission category.

Great Cavern of Wonders Missions

Items to Use

Item
Potion x10	Hi-Potion x20
X-Potion x20	Soma x20
Phoenix Down x5	Elixir x5

These are the recommended items and the minimum recommended quantities for each. If you steal from Minerva, that should grant you instant 99 Phoenix Downs.

How to Beat Minerva

Steal 99 Phoenix Down from Minerva

When you steal or mug from Minerva, you can obtain 99 Phoenix Downs that grant you Reraise or automatic resurrection when your HP reaches 0.

This will come in handy for Minerva's more powerful attacks that you will encounter later on during the battle.

Apply Reraise Right After Judgment Arrow

Minerva's Judgement Arrow attack will activate the Ability Power gauge that allows you to deal extra damage. However, this makes you vulnerable to Judgement Arrow that damages not just your HP, but also your MP and AP while removing positive status effects on you.

Use a Phoenix Down to place Reraise back on you right after this attack to grant you automatic revive.

Activate Lucky Stars Before the Battle

Before challenging Minerva, activate Cissnei's Lucky Stars that makes all attacks critical hits for a period of time. The Lucky Stars DMW also raises the likelihood of DMW images aligning during battle, which gives you the advantage with limit breaks.

Equipping more than one also allows the effects to overlap and increases the probability of same images aligning.

Counter Ultima with Jump or Reraise

Minerva's Ultima attack cannot be blocked and it deals 55555 damage while increasing by 11111 with each use to eventually become 99999. You can safely avoid Ultima by jumping just before the screen fully lights up as shown in the video.

Perfecting the timing of the jump can be difficult, so it is good to prepare your Phoenix Down and give yourself the Reraise Status that will revive you automatically when you need it.

Elemental Countermeasures are Unnecessary

Minerva's Krysta, Thor's Hammer, and Crimson Flare attacks may seem like Elemental magic attacks, but they are actually magic attacks with no elemental effects. Therefore, using elemental defenses will not be effective or necessary against these attacks.

Minerva Attack Patterns

Attack Pattern	Description
Flash Slash	A powerful physical attack that has two hits. If Zack's LCK is below 155, this move becomes critical and deals more damage. It can remove Reraise effects on Hard Mode.
Photon Feather	Minerva hovers and hits you multiple times. This attack has low damage but can track you to a degree that makes it difficult to avoid.
Ultima	A powerful magic attack with no elemental effects that deals high damage.
Crimson Flare	Shoots a slow-moving fireball at Zack with no elemental effects that deals high damage.
Krysta	A magic attack that summons ice shards from where Zack is standing. It is easy to avoid with no elemental effects.
Thor's Hammer	A lightnight shocks Zack with non-elemental magic damage when Minerva waves her staff.
Judgment Arrow	Minerva's special attack that triggers the Ability Power Gauge. Removes positive status effects on you while dealing damage to your HP, MP, and AP.
Anti Material	Protects Minerva from physical attacks for 20 seconds.
Anti Magic	Protects Minerva from magic attacks for 20 seconds.

What Happens After Defeating Minerva in Hard Mode

No Difference Between Defeating Minerva in Hard and Easy Mode

Minerva in Hard Mode has a total HP of 77,777,777 and may take 30-40 minutes to defeat. It will take a lot of perseverance to finish her off, so it makes sense if you are wondering if there is a difference in the ending after defeating Minerva in Hard Mode.

However, beating Minerva in Hard Mode will not result into any particular change in the story or rewards.

Crisis Core Reunion Related Guides

All Bosses: Fight Strategy and Walkthrough

All Boss Fight Guides

Bosses
Behemoth	Vajradhara Wu & Vajradhara Tai
Ifrit	Guard Spider
Bahamut	G Eraser
Pile Machine, Cutter Machine, & Shot Machine	Bahamut Fury
Angeal Penance	Genesis (First Encounter)
General's Tank	Guard Scorpion
Sephiroth	G Eliminator
Hollander	G Regicide
Genesis Avatar and 2nd Encounter	Behemoth King
Minerva