Tseng and Elena Hard Mode Guide

Tseng and Elena are bosses in Chapter 13: Where Angels Fear to Tread of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7 Rebirth). Learn how to beat Tseng and Elena on Hard Mode and normal difficulties, their weaknesses and resistances, and a list of their moves and attack patterns in this guide!

Tseng and Elena's Weaknesses and Stats

Tseng Weaknesses and Stats

Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	35616	50880	81947

Weakness and Resistances

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

Changes When Staggered

Weakness / Effective	Resistance
-	-

Elena Weaknesses and Stats

Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	29680	42400	68289

Weakness and Resistances

Weaknesses	Lesser Resistances	Greater Resistances
Lightning	-	Sleep Stop
Absorbed Elements	Immunities
-	Proportional Damage Slow Silence Stone Morphable Items

Changes When Staggered

Weakness / Effective	Resistance
-	-

How to Pressure Tseng and Elena

How to Pressure Tseng
Block or Evade His Combo Finishers Attack Him When He Charges an Ability Interrupt His Synergy Attacks
How to Pressure Elena
Strike Her Twice With Powerful Abilities Interrupt Her Synergy Attacks

Block or Evade Tseng's Combo Finishers

Tseng will attack you with a series of moves, and blocking or evading the final attack of his combo will pressure him. Make sure that you're constantly guarding or dodging his attacks so that you can quickly stagger Tseng.

Attack Tseng When He Charges an Ability

Whenever Tseng charges an ability, like Asuran Shockwave or a Chi Blast, strike him with powerful abilities or Blizzard spells to stop the attack and pressure him.

Strike Elena Twice With Powerful Abilities

Unlike her previous boss fights, you'll need to strike Elena twice with powerful abilities to pressure her. Save up 2 ATB Charges so that you can hit her with back-to-back attacks.

Interrupt Their Synergy Attacks

Once Tseng and Elena pair up to use their Synergy Attacks, attack them with powerful abilities or spells that they're weak to stop the attack and pressure them both.

How to Pressure and Stagger Enemies

Tseng and Elena Best Party and Builds

Normal Mode Build

Builds by Difficulty
Normal Mode	Hard Mode

Recommended Party Setup

Recommended Party Setup
Yuffie	【Main Attacker】 ・Can quickly get ATB charges ・Can switch between Ice or Lightning ranged attacks with her Elemental Ninjutsu ・Best used as the active character because of her speed Recommended Level: 48
Red XIII	【Substitute】 ・Switch to Red XIII if you want to take the aggro away from Yuffie ・Build up Vengeance to increase power and speed or use it to heal the team with Watcher's Respite Recommended Level: 48
Aerith	【Spellcaster】 ・Cast Lightning and Ice spells to damage the bosses ・Limit switching to Aerith as she doesn't have enough speed to evade attacks Recommended Level: 48

Best Materia to Use

Materia	How to Use
Ice	・Gives the ability to cast Ice spells against Tseng
Lightning	・Gives the ability to cast Lightning spells against Elena
Healing	・Gives the ability to cast healing spells to heal your party
HP Up	・Equip to increase HP
Time	・Apply Haste on your party to increase their overall speed
Item Master	・Increase the effect of items like Potions

Hard Mode Build

Builds by Difficulty
Normal Mode	Hard Mode

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 character setup, consider using a different weapon or collect all of the character's Manuscripts first.

Best Build for Yuffie

Jump to Character Build
Yuffie	Aerith	Red XIII

Yuffie Main DPS
		Weapon		Armor
		Crescent Sickle		Cetran Bracer
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Genji Gloves		Gilgamesh
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Magic Up Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus First Strike			MP Absorption and Ice MP Absorption and Lightning Revival Skill Master ATB Assist Prayer
Weapon Skills
Precision Defense ATB			Synergy Damage Up
ATB Charge Rate Up			Opening ATB Bonus

Yuffie will be the main character that you control since she can easily swap between different elements to target Tseng and Elena's weaknesses. Outside of elemental spells, she also has her Elemental Ninjutsu and Banishment abilities to exploit their weaknesses without using MP.

Since she's the character you'll control, you want to have the Skill Master and ATB Assist Materia equipped so that you can generate ATB Charges on the other party members without having to directly control them.

Best Build for Aerith

Jump to Character Build
Yuffie	Aerith	Red XIII

Aerith Support
		Weapon		Armor
		Ceremonial Staff		Cetran Armlet
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Ribbon		Phoenix
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus			Magnify and Healing Magic Efficiency and Revival Magnify and Barrier Time Prayer
Weapon Skills
Altruistic Buff Up			Altruistic Buff Up
Max MP +3			Reprieve

You can replace Aerith's accessory with the Gotterdammerung if you have it unlocked.

Aerith is the main support for this fight since she can equip two Altruistic Buff Ups to increase the duration of the Barrier buff she casts. Also, she can use Radiant Ward to make her invincible while she's casting a spell.

Outside of that, Aerith also has amazing supportive Limit Breaks in case she doesn't have MP or ATB Charges to cast a spell. Her Level 3 Limit Break also fills up Yuffie and Red's Limit Gauges, allowing Red to use back-to-back Limit Breaks by using Limi Siphon.

Best Build for Red XIII

Jump to Character Build
Yuffie	Aerith	Red XIII

Red XIII Limit DPS
		Weapon		Armor
		Mystic Collar		Valkyrian Bangle
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Enhanced Expeditionary Medal		Odin
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Strength Up Speed Up Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus			Magnify and Healing Swiftcast and Revival First Strike Limit Siphon
Weapon Skills
Attack Power +20			Invigorating Vengeance
Weapon Ability Damage +5%			Weapon Ability ATB Recovery

Red XIII will mainly be used to spam Limit Breaks so that you can interrupt Tseng and Elena and crowd-control them for the duration of the attack. This way you can also attack them with Yuffie and use her elemental attacks while they can't fight back.

Besides spamming Limit Breaks, Red will also be your pseudo-tank since he'll want to be blocking anyway to build up his Vengeance Gauge. Make sure that you occasionally swap to him so that the bosses automatically attack him instead of Yuffie.

How to Beat Tseng and Elena

Tseng and Elena Boss Fight Tips
Exploit Their Elemental Weaknesses Cast Barrier to Halve Physical Damage Focus on Taking Down Tseng First Swap Characters to Divert Attacks Save Limit Breaks to Interrupt Attacks

Exploit Their Elemental Weaknesses

You'll want to take control of Yuffie this fight so that you can easily exploit both Tseng and Elena's elemental weaknesses. Remember to swap Yuffie's Ninjutsu to Ice against Tseng and Lightning against Elena to maximize your damage output.

Cast Barrier to Halve Physical Damage

Considering that all of Tseng and Elena's attacks deal Physical damage, you'll want to have Barrier active at all times to halve the damage that they deal. You'll also want to have a Magnify Materia linked to it so that you can buff the whole party with a single cast.

Focus on Taking Down Tseng First

Unlike Rude, Tseng is more aggressive and will constantly go after you with his combo attacks. Focus on taking down Tseng first to give you some breathing room and make the fight easier.

Taking down Tseng will also instantly stagger Elena, allowing you to follow up with a Thundaga to kill off both bosses in one go.

Tseng Revives Elena With a Phoenix Down

If you take down Elena first, Tseng will revive her with a Phoenix Down. This is another reason why you should avoid Elena and prioritize taking down Tseng first.

Swap Characters to Divert Attacks

In between Tseng's combo attacks, you'll want to swap to a different character so that he focuses on them instead of the character you want to control. This way you can safely build up ATB Charges and spam Ice attacks without worrying about getting hit.

You also want to do this when Tseng and Elena use their Synergy Attacks so that the character you want to control can safely attack them without taking any unnecessary damage.

Save Limit Breaks to Interrupt Attacks

Save your Limit Breaks to interrupt Tseng and Elena's attacks so that you can instantly pressure them without having to use ATB Charges or MP. Also, try to save them for the second phase so that you can hit both of them when they're using their Synergy Attacks.

Remember to use Limit Siphon on Red XIII so that you can use his Limit Breaks and you can freely use Yuffie while they're crowd-controlled.

Tseng and Elena Rewards and Details

Tseng Rewards

Tseng Rewards
Easy/Normal						Hard Mode
・2742 EXP ・50 Party EXP ・10 AP ・2580 Gil						・5526 EXP ・30 AP ・3900 Gil ・The Way of the Fist Vol. XV
Items Dropped						Rare Items Dropped
None						None
Stealable Items						Morphable Items
None						None

Basic Information and Details

Tseng
Location	Chapter Unlocked
Star Life Room (2nd Floor)	Chapter 13
Species	Movement
Human	Grounded
Details
The coolheaded leader of the Turks, and Rufus's right-hand man. He has a knack for managing his eccentric subordinates. He takes the lead in battle, using a style of martial art that is, by turns, defensive and offensive. Blocking or evading his combo finishers will pressure him for a short time. Once he has recovered, he will begin to charge up for a powerful technique. Inflicting enough damage while he is charing will pressure him. Interrupting his synergy strikes will also pressure him.

Elena Rewards

Elena (Chapter 13) Rewards
Easy/Normal						Hard Mode
・2150 EXP ・50 Party EXP ・10 AP ・2150 Gil						・6500 EXP ・30 AP ・3250 Gil
Items Dropped						Rare Items Dropped
None						None
Stealable Items						Morphable Items
None						None

Basic Information and Details

Elena (Chapter 13)
Location	Chapter Unlocked
Star Life Room (2nd Floor)	Chapter 13
Species	Movement
Human	Grounded
Details
A new operative with the Turks unit of Shinra's General Affairs Division. She is searching the temple on the president's orders. Being partnered with Tseng has made her even more eager to prover herself. Hitting her with two powerful offensive abilities or interrupting her synergy strikes will pressure her.

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