Abzu Hard Mode Guide

Abzu is a boss in Chapter 12: A Golden Key of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7 Rebirth). Learn how to beat Abzu on Hard Mode and normal difficulties, its weaknesses and resistances, and a list of its moves and attack patterns in this guide!

Abzu Weaknesses and Stats

Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	51716	73880	136578

Weakness and Resistances

Weaknesses	Lesser Resistances	Greater Resistances
Fire	Ice Stop	-
Absorbed Elements	Immunities
-	Proportional Damage Slow Poison Silence Sleep Stone Petrify Morphable Items

Changes When Staggered

Weakness / Effective	Immunity
Fire	Ice

How to Pressure Abzu

How to Pressure

Inflict Enough Fire Damage Make It Hit a Wall With Ferocious Charge Dodge Its Pounce Attack

Inflict Enough Fire Damage

Hitting Abzu with enough Fire attacks will cause it to catch on fire and become pressured. Take this opportunity to raise its Stagger Bar while it's flailing around trying to put out the fire.

Make It Hit a Wall With Ferocious Charge

Once Abzu drops below 50% HP and it goes into a Frenzy, you'll no longer be able to pressure it with Fire attacks. At this point, you'll need to dodge Abzu's Ferocious Charge and make it hit a wall to pressure it.

Just make sure that you have a wall directly behind you and not to your side when you dodge the attack to ensure that Abzu charges into the wall. If Abzu grazes the wall with Ferocious Charge, it won't register as a direct hit.

Dodge Its Pounce Attack

Similar to Ferocious Charge, dodging Pounce will also make Abzu pressured once it's Frenzied. Thankfully, you don't need it to hit a wall and all you'll need to do is dodge the attack.

How to Pressure and Stagger Enemies

Abzu Best Party and Builds

Cannot Change Builds In Between Rounds

Do note that you cannot change builds in between rounds, so you'll also need to beat the first 3 rounds with these builds before challenging Abzu.

Normal Mode Builds

Recommended Party Setup

Recommended Party Setup
Yuffie	・Use Yuffie as the active character to attack Abzu from a distance ・Use Fire Ninjutsu to infuse Fire on your ranged attacks Recommended Level: 44
Cloud	・Hit Abzu with Firebolt Blade to deal more damage ・Only switch to Cloud if Yuffie has low HP or the boss is staggered Recommended Level: 44
Chapter 12 Date Partner (Fixed)	・Depends on which character has the highest affection level once you reach Chapter 12. ・Cait Sith will automatically be the third member if the Relationship Level is not enough. ・Use Tifa for single-target damage if Yuffie is your Date Partner. Recommended Level: 44

Best Materia to Use

Materia	How to Use
Fire	・Gives the ability to cast Fire spells ・Can be equipped on all characters
Healing	・Gives the ability to cast healing spells ・Can be equipped on all characters
HP Up	・Equip to increase HP ・Can be equipped on all characters
ATB Boost	・Doubles ATB after activation ・Best equipped on Cloud or Yuffie
Time	・Apply Haste to match Roche's speed and accumulate ATB charges quickly ・Best equipped on Yuffie
Item Master	・Increase the effect of items like Potions ・Can be equipped on all characters
Chakra	・Can be used to recover HP if you're out of potions or MP for healing ・Can be equipped on all characters
Barrier	・Barrier reduces the damage of all of Abzu's Physical attacks.
Magnify	・Allows you to cast healing and buffing spells on the whole party.

Hard Mode Builds

Notice from Game8	These Hard Mode builds use equipment that are at least Weapon Level 8. If you don't have enough Materia slots or the right Weapon Skills to complete a setup, consider using a different weapon or collect all of the character's Manuscripts first.

Best Build for Cloud

Cloud Support
		Weapon		Armor
		Slipstream Saber		Cetran Armlet
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Enhanced Psychic's Charm		Gilgamesh
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Vitality Up Spirit Up Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus			Magnify and Healing Magic Efficiency and Revival Magnify and Barrier Time First Strike
Weapon Skills
Max MP +3			Max MP +3
MP Recovery Rate Up			Trade-Off

Cloud is required for this fight and cannot be swapped out even on Hard Mode.

Cloud will primarily provide support with recovery spells like Curaga and Arise, as well as buffs like Barrier to reduce the damage of Abzu's Physical Attacks. He can also quickly stagger Abzu with Focused Thrusts or deal massive damage with Infinity's End when it's staggered.

Besides those Materia, Cloud also has HP and MP Up for generally great stat boosts, Steadfast Block and Precision Defense Focus to minimize damage taken while blocking, and First Strike to cast Barrier at the start of the fight.

For the flexible options, you can replace Vitality Up, Spirit Up and Time with other Materia that you may find more useful. Also, you can replace Enhanced Psychic's Charm with either Enhanced Karmic Cowl for more defense, or Gotterdammerung so that Tifa can instantly Siphon his Limit Gauge.

Best Build for Yuffie

Yuffie Magic DPS
		Weapon		Armor
		Fuma Shuriken		Cetran Bracer
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Genji Gloves		Phoenix
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Magic Up Speed Up Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus			MP Absorption and Fire Revival Skill Master ATB Assist First Strike Prayer
Weapon Skills
Magic Attack Power +20			Max MP +3
Fire Damage Up			ATB Charge Rate Up

Yuffie will be your main carry and Leader for this fight since she can exploit Abzu's weakness with Fire Ninjutsu basic attacks, Darkness boosted Fiery Banishments, multiple Fire elemental spells, and summoning Phoenix.

Since she's the character you'll be controlling, make sure that she has Skill Master and ATB Assist equipped so that she can fill the other party member's ATB Gauges without you having to control them. Also, use Prayer since she'll have 2 ATB Charges more often than not.

Besides that, she also has the generally useful stat boosting and block enhancing Materia, Revival in case someone goes down, and MP Absorption so that she has near infinite MP as long as she casts Fire spells.

Set Yuffie as Your Date in Extra Settings

Since the other required member for this fight is Cloud's date during Chapter 12, you'll want to make sure that his date is Yuffie since she's the most important character for this boss. Set your Chapter 12 date to Yuffie in the Extra Settings menu, so that it will always be her regardless of everyone's affection levels.

Best Build for Tifa

Tifa Physical DPS
		Weapon		Armor
		Dragon Claws		Valkyrian Bangle
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Enhanced Expeditionary Medal		Odin
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Strength Up ATB Stagger			Magnify and Healing Revival Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus Limit Siphon
Weapon Skills
Attack Power +20			Attack Power +20
Enhanced Techniques			Weapon Ability Damage +5%

Tifa does a lot of single-target damage once Abzu is staggered, especially when you boost the Stagger Damage Bonus with her Unique Ability and True Strike. Also, these moves have their damage boosted thanks to her Weapon Skills.

Another key point for this build is that Tifa can use Limit Siphon to instantly use her Level 3 Limit Break, without using Synergy Abilities, thanks to the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal.

For the rest of her Materia, she has the always useful stat boosting, block enhancing, and recovery Materias, as well as ATB Stagger so that she can spam out her high-power abilities. Just make sure that you swap to Tifa before Abzu gets staggered so that she can benefit from this boost.

How to Beat Abzu

Abzu Boss Fight Tips
Use Yuffie to Attack From a Distance Cast Barrier to Lower Damage Taken Exploit Abzu's Fire Weakness Use Limit Breaks to Interrupt Abzu

Use Yuffie to Attack From a Distance

Use Yuffie's ranged attacks so that you can put some distance between you and Abzu. Since most of its attacks are melee, hitting it from far away lets you see what it's about to do and you can react accordingly.

This is especially important once Abzu goes into a Frenzy because it will become a lot more aggressive and you'll need the space and time to react.

Cast Barrier to Lower Damage Taken

Cast Magnified Barrier with Cloud at the start of the fight to lower the damage of Abzu's attacks. Since all of its moves deal Physical damage, having Barrier halve the damage of all of its attacks becomes vital for your survival.

Exploit Abzu's Fire Weakness

Exploit Abzu's Fire weakness to deal massive damage and pressure it. Use Fire Ninjutsu attacks and cast Fira with Yuffie to set Abzu on fire and pressure it. You want to cast Fira over Firaga so that you can quickly proc ATB Assist and build up Fiery Banishment charges.

Once Abzu's pressured, quickly stagger it with Focused Thrust and Focused Strike so that you can deal massive damage with Tifa's abilities, Yuffie's Firaga or Darkness-boosted Fiery Banishment, and Cloud's Infinity's End.

Can Still Use Fire Spells Once It's Frenzied

Even though the yellow text when you Assess it says that it evades Fire attacks when it's below 50% HP, you can still use Fire attacks as long as it's locked into an animation where it stays still, like Upheaval.

Use Limit Breaks to Interrupt Abzu

While it seems like it'd be better to save a Limit Break for when Abzu's staggered, it's better to use it as soon as possible so that you can interrupt its attacks. This way, you're still doing massive damage while stun-locking it, and your other party members can use their own powerful attacks that could otherwise miss.

Abzu Rewards and Details

Rewards

Basic Information and Details

Abzu
Location	Chapter Unlocked
Gold Saucer	Chapter 12
Species	Movement
Artificial	Grounded
Details
A seedy undercity businessman and his precious pet, both currently on the run from Shinra. Despite the don's wanted status, he finds himself in the center of a heavily advertised battle with Director Dio to rebrand the Saucer as a Corneoland. Lascivious to the core, he's always sizing up potential brides—even in the middle of a heated battle Inflicting enough fire damage will light them on fire and pressure them. When their HP falls below half, they will begin evading fire spells and Corneo will douse any flames. They will crash into the wall if Ferocious Charge misses, pressuring them and causing Corneo to faint.

FF7 Rebirth Related Guides

Boss Fight Guide and List of All Bosses

Story Bosses

Optional Bosses