Joker Hard Mode Guide

Joker is a boss in the Sand and Circuses side quest of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7 Rebirth). Learn how to beat Joker in Hard Mode and normal difficulties, its weaknesses and resistances, and a list of its moves and attack patterns in this guide!

Joker Weaknesses and Stats

Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	17226	24609	?

Weakness and Resistances

Weaknesses	Lesser Resistances	Greater Resistances
Wind	Sleep	None
Absorbed Elements	Immunities
None	Proportional Damage Stone

Changes When Staggered

How to Pressure Joker

Evade Soul Sucker Ability and Lower HP

Evade Soul Sucker Ability. Drop its HP to 30% to Keep Pressured.

The Joker can be pressured by simply waiting for then dodging its Soul Sucker ability. It will activate Anima Howl when it's pressured which can act as an indicator for the perfect time to build stagger, so watch out for it.

In addition, once you can lower its HP down to about 30%, the Joker will remain pressured until defeat.

How to Pressure and Stagger Enemies

How to Beat Joker

Joker Boss Fight Tips
Exploit Wind Element Weakness Dodge Soul Sucker Ability to Pressure Keep HP Full and Save ATB for Heals Bring Subversion to Cancel Shield

Exploit Wind Element Weakness

The Joker is weak to wind element attacks, so it is recommended to equip Wind Materia to gain Aero Spell.

You can also complement the spell with Elemental Materia to infuse your equipment with the wind element or Swiftcast Materia to be able to cast Aero faster.

Dodge Soul Sucker Ability to Pressure

The Joker can be pressured by dodging its Soul Sucker ability. The success of this will be indicated by the Joker's activation of its Anima Howl ability. Watch out for the ability and get ready to stagger it with abilities such as Focused Thrust or Aero Spell when the time comes.

Always stay within melee distance so that it triggers the close-distance version of the Soul Sucker ability, which is easier to dodge.

The Joker will also remain pressured once its HP is lowered to around 30%.

Keep HP Full and Save ATB for Heals

The Joker has the Destiny ability, which draws a random card, providing different results depending on the drawn card. 3 out of 5 of these results deal a lot of damage, even potentially incapacitating Cloud on a single hit.

During the fight, maintain a near-full HP at all times. And always have an extra ATB ready for either healing items or a Cure spell in case you are unable to dodge the Destiny result.

Bring Subversion to Cancel Shield

The Subversion Materia can help in this fight as its Breach or Dispel spells can remove the shield spawned by the Diamonds result of the Destiny ability.

How to Get the Subversion Materia

Joker Rewards and Details

Rewards

Basic Information and Details

Joker
Location	Chapter Unlocked
Corel Region	Chapter 12
Species	Movement
Biological	Grounded
Details
Gus's cursed ace-in-the-hole: an evil jester that has bathed itself in the blood of its enemies. It feeds on the souls of its opponents while drawing cards that foretell the future. Evading Soul Sucker will force it to extract energy from itself and enter a pressured state. Once its HP drops low enough and it goes berserk, it will remain pressured.

Joker Location and Side Quest

Encountered During Sand and Circuses Side Quest

You can encounter Joker during the Sand and Circuses side quest in the Corel Region. Joker will appear in round 5 of the solo battles, which you will fight one-on-one with Cloud.

Sand and Circuses Walkthrough

Encountered During Can't Stop, Won't Stop Side Quest

You can also encounter 2 Jokers during the Can't Stop, Won't Stop side quest at the Golden Saucer in Chapter 12. The Jokers will appear in 4th wave of the Musclehead Colosseum minigame.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Walkthrough

FF7 Rebirth Related Guides

Boss Fight Guide and List of All Bosses

Story Bosses

Optional Bosses