Quetzalcoatl Hard Mode Guide | Grasslands Classified Intel Boss

Quetzalcoatl is a secret boss in Grasslands Region of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7 Rebirth). Learn how to beat Quetzalcoatl in Hard Mode and normal difficulties, its weaknesses and resistances, and a list of its moves and attack patterns in this guide!

Grasslands Classified Intel Boss Location

Location

Full Map
Enlarged Map
In-Game Location

How to Unlock Quest

Chapter	2 - A New Journey Begins
How to Unlock	Complete four of the six Expedition Intels from the Grasslands Region
Rec. Level	Lv. 22

The Classified Intel Report: Winged Lacertilian of Yore can be unlocked by first going to any four of the six Expedition Intel Reports in the Grasslands Region and analyzing the Lifesprings there.

All Lifespring Locations (Expedition Intel)

Quetzalcoatl Weaknesses and Stats

Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	14156	20223	92190

Weakness and Resistances

Weaknesses	Lesser Resistances	Greater Resistances
Ice	Slow Poison Stop Morphable Items	None
Absorbed Elements	Immunities
None	Proportional Damage Stone

Changes When Staggered

Weakness / Effective	Resistance
Ice	None

How to Pressure Quetzalcoatl

How to Pressure

Exploit Its Weakness by Using Ice Damage

Inflicting enough damage by exploiting its elemental weakness will pressure it. Each time it moves between the air and ground, it will unleash a powerful attack.

How to Pressure and Stagger Enemies

How to Beat Quetzalcoatl

Equip Ice Materia on Your Main DPS Use High Stagger Moves When Pressured Use Magic or Aerial Attacks When It Takes Flight Get Away from Quetzalcoatl When It Uses Spark Snare

Equip an Ice Materia on Your Main DPS

Quetzalcoatl has a weakness to Ice, and constantly applying Ice-damage will pressure it. Therefore, it's a good idea to equip an Ice Materia onto your Main DPS and have them attack with Blizzard Spells.

Ideally, you would want to use either Aerith or Yuffie, if you come back to this when she's unlocked, since they can cast spells twice with Arcane Ward and Doppelganger respectively.

Use High Stagger Moves When Pressured

After applying enough elemental damage via Ice attacks, Quetzalcoatl will be pressured, giving you an opportunity to hit it with moves like Cloud's Focused Thrust or Barret's Focused Shot to quickly build up its stagger bar.

Use Magic or Aerial Attacks When It Takes Flight

While not a problem for Aerith or Barret thanks to their ranged standard attacks, Cloud or Tifa will need to do aerial attacks to hit enemies in the air without ATB. Each character has different moves that can be used while in the air, and their method of getting up differs as well.

How to Use Aerial Attacks

Character	How to Attack
Cloud	・Evade, and then hold the ▢ button to combo mid-air ・Attacks can be performed by chaining them together
Tifa	・Use Synergy Skills like Soaring Flurry or Heavenly Ascent to get into the air, then attack

How to Attack Flying Enemies

Get Away from Quetzalcoatl When It Uses Spark Snare

Quetzalcoatl will emit a large Lightning attack nearby itself after using Spark Snare. This second move's range is quite large, so when you see it preparing for the first attack, you should try and put as much distance between yourself and Quetzalcoatl as possible.

Quetzalcoatl Best Party and Builds

Notice	This party setup is built for Hard Mode. If you don't have certain members, equipment, or Materia available, you could replace them with the closest alternative that you have available.

Recommended Party Setup

Recommended Party Setup
Yuffie	【Magic DPS】 ・Ninjutsu converts basic attacks to Ice. ・Double casts Ice with Doppelganger. Recommended Level: 70
Tifa	【Physical DPS】 ・Heavily increases stagger damage. ・Also has Healing in case of emergencies. Recommended Level: 70
Aerith	【Support】 ・Primarily used to buff the party. ・Save ATB for emergency healing. Recommended Level: 70

Yuffie Spams Ice Attacks

Yuffie will be your Main DPS on this team due to Ice Ninjutsu, Icy Banishment, and Blizzard Spells being able to quickly put Quetzalcoatl into pressure.

After it's been staggered, she can fire off a Blizzaga or Icy Banishment III with her Doppelganger active to double cast it and deal massive damage to Quetzalcoatl.

Tifa Increases Damage Dealt During Stagger

Once Quetzalcoatl gets staggered, Tifa can use the combination of Rise and Fall, Omnistrike, and True Strike to massively increase the amount of damage it takes while staggered.

Combine this with Yuffie's powerful Ice-type attacks and Quetzalcoatl will go down in no time.

Aerith Casts Buffs on the Party

If you're playing well and able to dodge and block Quetzalcoatl's attacks, Aerith's ATB Charges will go towards buffing Yuffie and Tifa with spells like Haste, Faith, and Brave instead of having to heal the party.

Do note though that it's still recommended to save some ATB Charges to heal the party in case someone's HP gets too low.

Quetzalcoatl Best Materia to Use

Recommended Materia for Yuffie

Weapon: Crescent Sickle	Armor: Valkyrian Bangle
ATB Assist ATB Stagger HP Up MP Up Magic Up Luck Up	Magic Focus Ice ATB Boost Assess Chakra Prayer
Summon:	Gilgamesh

Magic Focus linked to Ice will be your primary damage source outside of Icy Banishment III, so make sure that you have this equipped.

ATB Boost and Stagger are used to give Yuffie a boost to her ATB so that she can continue to spam commands while ATB Assist is great for charging up Tifa and Aerith's ATBs without you needing to swap to them.

For the flexibles slots, HP, MP, Magic and Luck Up are all generally good stat increases while Assess is useful to check for the boss' stats. Also, Chakra and Prayer are useful in case you need to quickly heal yourself or the party.

Finally, Gilgamesh is used to give Yuffie a balanced boost to her Attack and Magic while also giving a slight boost to her HP and MP.

Recommended Materia for Tifa

Weapon: Kaiser Knuckles	Armor: Enhanced Varvados Bracelet
HP Up Strength Up Luck Up Skill Master ATB Stagger ATB Boost	Magnify Healing Disempowerment Enervation Chakra
Summon:	Odin

ATB Stagger, Boost, and Skill Master are used so that Tifa can spam her abilities as much as possible as soon as Quetzalcoatl gets staggered.

Magnify linked to Healing is used in case no one else has ATB Chagres to heal the party, while Disempowerment and Enervation will debuff the boss and make the fight more manageable.

For the flexible slots, HP, Luck, and Strength Up are all generally good stat increases while Chakra will heal Tifa in a pinch without having to use MP.

Finally, Odin is used because it gives her the highest Attack boost out of all the available Summons.

Recommended Materia for Aerith

Weapon: Ceremonial Staff	Armor: Cetran Bracer
Barrier Fortification Time Empowerment	Magnify Healing Swiftcast Revival Magic Efficiency Reraise HP Up MP Up
Summon:	Phoenix

Barrier, Fortification, Time, and Empowerment are used so that Aerith can boost the party's defenses, ATB charge rate, and damage while HP Up and MP Up help her survive more hits and cast more spells respectively.

For the linked Materia, Magnify and Healing are used to heal the entire party in a pinch, Swiftcast and Revival to instantly revive a downed ally, and lastly Magic Efficiency and Reraise to cast Reraise on an ally at a lower MP cost.

Finally, Phoenix is used because it gives her the highest Magic boost out of all the available Summons.

Quetzalcoatl Rewards and Details

Rewards

Quetzalcoatl Rewards
Easy/Normal						Hard Mode
・150 EXP ・6 AP ・221 Gil						・11440 EXP ・18 AP ・1633 Gil
Items Dropped						Rare Items Dropped
・Quetzalcoatl Talon						None
Stealable Items						Morphable Items
・Quetzalcoatl Talon						・Quetzalcoatl Talon
Hard Mode Exclusive Drops
・The Art of Swordplay Vol. VIII ・Sinister Quetzalcoatl Talon

Quetzalcoatl Talon is needed for the completion of a Side Quest

Completing this Classified Intel is required to finish the Where the Wind Blows Side Quest, as the Quetzalcoatl Talon dropped by beating Quetzalcoatl is a part needed for crafting the Windmill Gear.

Where the Wind Blows Side Quest and Windmill Settlement Location

Drops the Sinister Quetzalcoatl Talon on Hard

Beating Quetzalcoatl on Hard Mode will award the player with a Sinister Quetzalcoatl Talon, which is required to craft the Genji Gloves accessory.

Genji Gloves Effects and How to Get

Basic Information and Details

Quetzalcoatl
Location	Chapter Unlocked
Grasslands	Chapter 2
Species	Movement
Biological	Grounded
Details
A great aerial creature that calls the grasslands home. This particular species has existed since antiquity, its genetic structure remaining largely unchanged to this day. It commands lightning, driving away any who dare enter its territory. Inflicting enough damage by exploiting its elemental weakness will pressure it. Each time it moves between the air and ground, it will unleash a powerful attack.

FF7 Rebirth Related Guides

Boss Fight Guide and List of All Bosses

Story Bosses

All Major Story Bosses
Chapter 1	Materia Guardian
Chapter 2	Midgardsormr
Chapter 3	Rude and Elena Mythril Golem
Chapter 4	Terror of the Deep Roche
Chapter 5	Jenova Emergent
Chapter 6	Grasptropod
Chapter 7	Custom Valkyrie Gigatrice
Chapter 8	Dyne Anuran Suppressor
Chapter 9	Specimen H1024 Crimson Mare Mk. II
Chapter 10	Gi Nattak
Chapter 11	Diabolic Variant Yin and Yang Forgotten Specimen Galian Beast Roche
Chapter 12	Abzu Rude and Elena Rufus
Chapter 13	Red Dragon Ironclad Reno and Rude Tseng and Elena Moss-Grown Adamantoise Demon Gate
Chapter 14	Jenova Lifeclinger Sephiroth Reborn

Optional Bosses

Grasslands
Summon	Titan
Classified Intel	Quetzalcoatl
Side Quests	White Terror
Junon
Summon	Phoenix
Classified Intel	Mindflayer
Side Quests	White Mousse Hell Rider II Sandstorm Drake
Corel
Summon	Alexander
Classified Intel	Tonberry King
Side Quests	Dark Claw Joker
Minigame	Test 0
Gongaga
Summon	Kujata
Classified Intel	Great Malboro
Side Quests	Levridon Mastodon Gorgon Mane Gigantoad
Cosmo Canyon
Summon	Bahamut Arisen
Classified Intel	Jabberwock
Side Quests	Irasceros Gigaworm
Nibel
Summon	Odin
Classified Intel	King Zu
Side Quests	Queen Bee Dranabarga
Meridian Ocean
Gilgamesh's Island	Gilgamesh Titan and Bahamut Arisen Phoenix and Kujata Alexander and Odin
Pirate King's Treasure	Ogre Raider Brineborn Demon Hueyacoatl Sea Dragon