Great Malboro Hard Mode Guide | Gongaga Classified Intel Boss

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

Gongaga Classified Intel Boss Location

Location

Full Map
Enlarged Map
In-Game Location

How to Unlock Quest

Chapter	9 - The Planet Stirs
How to Unlock	Complete four of the six Expedition Intels from the Gongaga Region
Rec. Level	Lv. 38

The Classified Intel Report: The Sultan of Stench can be unlocked by first going to any four of the six Expedition Intel Reports in the Gongaga Region and analyzing the Lifesprings there.

All Lifespring Locations (Expedition Intel)

Great Malboro Weaknesses and Stats

Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	31242	44632	95605

Weakness and Resistances

Weaknesses	Lesser Resistances	Greater Resistances
Ice	Morphable Items	None
Absorbed Elements	Immunities
None	Proportional Damage Berserk Deprotect Deshell Debrave Defaith Slow Poison Silence Sleep Stop Stone Petrify

Changes When Staggered

Weakness / Effective	Resistance
None	None

How to Pressure Great Malboro

How to Pressure

Destroy the Mouth When It Uses Its Breath Attacks

Shattering their mouth will make them susceptible to staggering and prevent them from using Bad Breath. If left unchecked, Bad Breath will steadily increase in potency. Its mouth will regenerate after a certain amount of time.

How to Pressure and Stagger Enemies

How to Beat Great Malboro

Great Malboro Boss Fight Tips
Use Ice Attacks Against the Great Malboro Equip Everyone With a Cleansing Materia Stay Away From Its Breath Attacks Destroy Its Mouth to Prevent Future Breath Attacks Save ATB Charges to Burst It at Low HP

Use Ice Attacks

The Great Malboro is extremely weak to Ice attacks. Equip your Main DPS with an Ice Materia and spam Blizzard spells on the boss to quickly take it down.

Ideally you'd want to use Yuffie so that she can also use Ice Ninjutsu basic attacks and Icy Banishment III in between her spell casts.

Equip a Cleansing Materia

Having a Cleansing Materia equipped on everyone makes this fight significantly easier. Casting Resist on your party members prevents them from getting inflicted with any negative status effects from its Breath attacks while Esuna will remove any statuses if you didn't have Resist active.

Stay Away From Breath Attacks

If you don't have Resist active, the Great Malboro's Breath attacks will inflict a myriad of detrimental status effects on your party. Make sure that you avoid the area of its attack so that you won't be left vulnerable to its other moves.

Destroy Its Mouth

Whenever it uses a Breath attack, make sure that you destroy its mouth. Doing so will prevent the Great Malboro from using any other Breath attacks until its mouth regenerates.

If you don't have Resist on your melee attackers, use a ranged attacker like Yuffie or Aerith so that you can target its mouth while staying out of the Breath's attack range.

Save ATB Charges When It's at Low HP

When the Great Malboro is close to dying, it will use Fetid Haze which rapidly drains your entire party's HP. Make sure that you have enough ATB Charges saved up so that you can unleash your strongest abilities and spells before you lose too much health.

Great Malboro Moves and Attack Patterns

Abilities and Attack Patterns

This section is under construction! Stay tuned for updates!

Battle Icons, Status Effects, and Ailments Explained

Great Malboro 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	【Main DPS】 ・Multiple sources of Ice attacks. ・Doesn't require Resist to be effective. Recommended Level: 70
Tifa	【Stagger Support】 ・Increases damage dealt while staggered. ・Needs the Resist buff to safely fight. Recommended Level: 70
Aerith	【Buffing Support】 ・Applies buff and cleanses statuses. ・Stays away from Breath attacks. 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 deal massive damage to the Great Malboro.

She even has powerful commands like Blizzaga and Icy Banishment III that can deal 9999 damage even if the boss hasn't been staggered.

Tifa Increases Damage Dealt During Stagger

Once the Great Malboro has been 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 the Great Malboro will go down in no time.

Aerith Casts Buffs on the Party

Aerith will mainly be casting Resist on the entire party to prevent anyone from getting afflicted with detrimental status effects. Aside from that, she can also cast multiple other buffing spells and she can heal the rest of the party if their HP gets too low.

Great Malboro 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 Cleansing ATB Boost Assess Prayer
Summon:	Gilgamesh

The important materia that you should have on this build is Cleansing for Resist and Esuna, as well as Magic Focus linked to Ice for your primary source of damage outside of Icy Banishment III.

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, Prayer is useful in case you need to quickly heal 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 Garm Bangle
HP Up Strength Up Luck Up Skill Master ATB Stagger ATB Boost	Magnify Healing Revival Cleansing 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 the Great Malboro gets staggered.

Magnify linked to Healing, Revival, and Cleansing are used in case no one else has ATB Chagres to cast the spells associated with those Materia.

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
Cleansing Time Empowerment Barrier	Magnify Healing Swiftcast Revival Magic Efficiency Reraise HP Up MP Up
Summon:	Phoenix

Cleansing will be the most important buffing Materia for this build because of Resist, while Time, Empowerment, and Barrier are secondary buffs to increase the party's ATB recharge rate, offense, and defense 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.

Great Malboro Rewards and Details

Rewards

Quetzalcoatl Rewards
Easy/Normal						Hard Mode
・3806 EXP ・18 AP ・564 Gil						・12012 EXP ・18 AP ・1361 Gil
Items Dropped						Rare Items Dropped
・Great Malboro Tendril						None
Stealable Items						Morphable Items
None						・Great Malboro Tendril
Hard Mode Exclusive Drops
・Fortunes Untold Vol. VIII ・Slimy Malboro Tendril

Great Malboro Tendril is Needed to Complete a Side Quest

The Great Malboro Tendril is a required material to craft a Legendary Bait for the Trouble in Paradise side quest. Once you've gathered all the other required crafting materials, you'll be able to make the bait and continue the side quest.

Trouble in Paradise Walkthrough and Rewards

Drops the Slimy Malboro Tendril on Hard

Beating the Great Malboro on Hard Mode will award the player with a Slimy Malboro Tendril, which is required to craft the Genji Gloves accessory.

Genji Gloves Effects and How to Get

Basic Information and Details

Great Malboro
Location	Chapter Unlocked
Gongaga Region	Chapter 9
Species	Movement
Biological	Grounded
Details
These grotesque fiends live in Gongaga's jungles and boast countless tentacles springing from their heads. From their giant maws, the spew corrosive liquid and the most acrid of breath. Exposure to mak has made them bigger, uglier, and stinkier. Shattering their mouth will make them susceptible to staggering and prevent them from using Bad Breath. If left unchecked, Bad Breath will steadily increase in potency. Its mouth will regenerate after a certain amount of time.

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