How to Beat Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds

This is a guide on how to beat Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds in the Combat Simulator of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7 Rebirth). Check out the unlock requirements and rewards, a list of enemies and bosses in each round, and the best party, equipment, and Materia to beat this challenge.

Best Party and Builds

Best Party for Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds
Yuffie	Tifa	Aerith

Yuffie Equipment and Materia

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 Speed Up Precision Defense Focus Steadfast Block			First Strike ATB Assist Elemental (should be ★3) Fire and Ice Lightning and Wind Revival Assess Prayer
Weapon Skills
Shuriken Mastery			Precision Defense ATB
ATB Charge Rate Up			Opening ATB Bonus

Yuffie will be the Main DPS for this team thanks to her ability to target multiple elemental weaknesses and because she can attack safely at range.

Since Yuffie will be your main character, she will hold the ATB Assist Materia to fill the other party member's ATB Gauges and Prayer since she will have her ATB full most of the time compared to the other two who would rather use Curaga's one ATB charge to heal.

It's also important to have Elemental linked to Fire and Ice for this challenge to make the 1st and 5th Rounds more manageable.

Do note that Assess is only used so that you can scan Virtual Sephiroth. If you don't care about completing your Enemy Intel, you can always swap it with something else more useful, like taking Subversion from Tifa and giving her Limit Siphon instead.

Tifa Equipment and Materia

Tifa Flex
		Weapon		Armor
		Kaiser Knuckles		Valkyrian Bangle
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Enhanced Expeditionary Medal		Odin
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Strength Up Skill Master Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus			Magnify Healing Elemental (should be ★3) Fire Subversion Revival
Weapon Skills
Martial Arts Mastery			Concentration
Synergy Damage Up			Enemy Parts Damage Up

Tifa will have a flexible role for this challenge since she can deal massive damage when the enemy's Staggered, but she'll also need to heal and revive party members if Aerith doesn't have 2 ATB Charges. She also does a lot of damage with her Level 3 Limit Break even when the enemy isn't staggered.

As for the other notable Materia choices, Skill Master is used so she can spam her abilities when a target is downed, Elemental linked to Fire to help with the 1st and 5th Rounds, and Subversion to remove Gilgamesh's buffs in the 4th Round.

Aerith Equipment and Materia

Aerith Support
		Weapon		Armor
		Ceremonial Staff		Cetran Armlet
		Accessory		Summon Materia
		Enhanced Karmic Cowl		Phoenix
Weapon Materia			Armor Materia
HP Up MP Up Steadfast Block Precision Defense Focus First Strike Cleansing			Magnify Healing Magic Efficiency Revival Magnify Barrier Elemental (should be ★3) Fire
Weapon Skills
Reprieve			Max MP +3
Altruistic Buff Up			Altruistic Buff Up

If you don't have a Ceremonial Staff with 6 Materia Slots, you can use Gambanteinn with Spiritual Harvest, Max MP +3, Reprieve, and ATB Charge Rate Up instead.

Aerith will be the traditional support for this challenge with healing and revival spells like Curaga and Arise, as well as defensive buffs like Barrier and Manaward to mitigate the enemy's damage.

Other useful Materias equipped are Elemental linked to Fire and Ice to help with the 1st and 5th Rounds, and Cleansing in case you need to cast Esuna on anyone with a negative status effect.

Remember to always have at least 1 ATB Charge at all times in case you need to cast an emergency healing, revival, or buffing spell. If Tifa has an ATB Charge to heal or revive, it's recommended to use her first over Aerith.

If you've unlocked Aerith's lv3 Limit Break, Rising Fury, from the her Folio Skill Tree, we also recommend using it to fill Yuffie and Aerith's Limit gauges. You might even use their Limit Breaks back-to-back with Aerith's help!

Level Up Your Materia to the Maximum

Some of the materia required in this build, such as Elemental and Magic Efficiency, require a lot of AP to level it up. Make sure to level up most of your materia to rank 3 before taking on the challenge. You can increase your AP by linking the materia with AP Up or by equipping the Chocobo Armband.

AP Farming Guide

How to Beat All Rounds

General Tips and Tricks

Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds Tips
Play Fights Slow and Safe Conserve MP and ATB Charges Use Synergy Abilities to Mini-Stun Bosses Save Limit Breaks to Stagger Enemies Cast Barrier or Manaward Before Ultimate Attacks

These are a few general tips and tricks that apply to all five rounds of this challenge. Always keep these tips in mind during every fight since these are some of, if not, the hardest fights in the game.

Play Fights Slow and Safe

Play each round slowly and safely so that you don't waste too many resources healing or reviving party members. It's better to take extra time and play each round safely rather than having to redo the entire thing because you died from playing too risky.

Remember to only use spells and abilities with long animations when you're 100% sure it's safe to do so.

Conserve MP and ATB Charges

You'll always want to have at least 50% of your MP on all your characters and 2 ATB Charges on Aerith. This is so that you can go into the next round with full MP and Aerith can cast any emergency healing, revival, or buffing spells in a pinch.

Use Synergy Abilities to Mini-Stun Bosses

Using Synergy Abilities will provide a mini-stun on the bosses until the Synergy Ability's animation is finished. This lets you build up ATB Charges on your third-party member and gives you some breathing room to heal or reset buffs.

For this party composition, prioritize using Tifa and Aerith's first so that you can still attack with Yuffie, then use Yuffie and Aerith's next for unlimited MP. Only use Tifa and Yuffie's if you need to crowd-control a boss since the actual ability is not that great.

Save Limit Breaks to Stagger Enemies

It's recommended to use a Limit Break right before a boss gets staggered so that you can stagger them during the Limit Break's animation. This is better than staggering a boss manually without Limit Breaks since you might take unnecessary damage in the process.

Cast Barrier or Manaward Before Ultimate Attacks

Buff	Boss
Barrier	Gilgamesh / Virtual Sephiroth
Manaward	Titan / Kujata / Alexander / Bahamut Arisen
None	Phoenix / Odin

If a boss is about to use one of their ultimate attacks, like Gigaflare or Octoslash, make sure to have Barrier or Manaward active to halve the damage taken.

Do note that casting this before Zantetsuken does nothing since it's always 9999 damage. Also, you don't need to cast Manaward before Rebirth Flame since you will absorb the damage anyway with Elemental-Fire.

Round 1

Jump to Round
1	2	3	4	5
Enemies		・Phoenix ・Kujata

This round should be a walk in the park since Phoenix will constantly heal you with its Fire attacks thanks to everyone having Elemental-Fire equipped on their armor.

Prioritize killing Kujata first since Phoenix won't take any damage until it's dead. Remember to check Kujata's weakness regularly as it can switch elemental affinities.

Once it's dead, Phoenix will revive it with Rebirth Flame. From there, focus down Phoenix with Yuffie's Ice attacks and only swap back to killing Kujata when Phoenix is gone.

Round 2

Jump to Round
1	2	3	4	5
Enemies		・Titan ・Bahamut Arisen

At the start of the fight, Titan will put up a shield on both him and Bahamut. Focus on destroying Titan's Shield with Yuffie's Wind attacks, and once it's destroyed, both of the bosses will get pressured and stunned.

From there, keep on hitting Titan with Wind attacks and quickly finish it off with multiple Aeroras or Aeolian Banishment III once it's staggered. After Titan goes down, you can focus on killing Bahamut without needing to worry about Titan's attacks.

Remember to use Synergy Abilities and destroy its wings whenever it uses Particle Charge so that you can quickly pressure and kill it once staggered.

Round 3

Jump to Round
1	2	3	4	5
Enemies		・Odin ・Alexander

This fight can be annoying since you'll need to attack and dodge away from Odin while simultaneously dodging Alexander's attacks like Tracking Beam that can take out an ally if you're too distracted to dodge.

Try to have both bosses on screen at the same time so that you can easily react to their animations rather than having to look out for their attack's text to pop up.

For this round, prioritize getting rid of Odin first so that you're not under constant threat of him using Zantetsuken. After enough damage has been dealt, he will use Vanish to disappear from the battlefield.

With Odin now gone, you can give your full and undivided attention to beating down Alexander with Lightning attacks. Make sure to take it down as soon as possible otherwise, it'll use Divine Judgement, dealing massive damage and causing Odin to reappear.

Once Alexander's been dealt with, you can turn your attention to Odin and kill him with Synergy Abilities and Limit Breaks.

Round 4

Jump to Round
1	2	3	4	5
Enemies		・Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh will start the fight with all of his weapons drawn, so make sure that you're blocking his blockable attacks and dodging the ones that aren't. It's also advised to have Barrier active at all times to reduce the damage of his multiple physical attacks.

Once Gilgamesh uses Genji Shield, have Tifa cast Dispel to immediately remove all the buffs that he gets. Once it's gone, continue pelting him with Fire attacks until he goes down. Remember to use Fiery Banishment III whenever possible to help pressure him, causing him to drop one of his weapons.

Round 5

Jump to Round
1	2	3	4	5
Enemies		・Virtual Sephiroth

First things first, always have Barrier active during this fight. This is necessary to survive Sephiroth's devastating Octoslash attack, which he uses once everyone's been bound by Shadowy Chains. As long as you have Barrier active, it's okay to tank the final Shadowy Chains and eat the Octoslash so that you can heal and recast Barrier as soon as possible.

Keep on repeating the process of casting Barrier and healing Octoslash's damage until you can stagger Sephiroth and bring him down to half HP. Once he's at half health, the fight becomes much easier since he'll stop using Shadowy Chains and Octoslash as often, favouring casting elemental spells instead.

This first part of phase two should be easy since he'll start with Fire attacks that everyone absorbs. While he's using Fire, he'll also be weak to Ice, so take advantage of this and deal as much damage as possible with Yuffie's Blizzard spells and Icy Banishment III.

Eventually, he'll swap to a different element, so keep on having Yuffie cast elemental spells that he's weak to so that you can pressure him and kill him with Tifa's wide range of powerful attacks.

Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds Unlock and Rewards

Basic Information
Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds A series of three-person fights in which you pick your team. Defeat deiform entities that rule over worlds unseen. ・Items cannot be used ・Only available on Hard difficulty
Level	70	Rounds	5	Team	1-3
Rewards		・Gotterdammerung
Unlock Requirements
・Complete Brutal Challenge: The Seventh Seal ・ Complete the main scenario

To unlock Brutal Challenge: Rulers of the Outer Worlds in the Combat Simulator, you will first need to beat Brutal Challenge: The Seventh Seal and complete all Chapters of the main story. Once you've done these two things, you'll be able to attempt this Combat Simulator challenge.
Brutal Challenge: The Seventh Seal Guide

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Related Guides

All Combat Simulator Battles and Rewards

All Combat Simulator Articles

Combat Simulator Guides
Brutal and Legendary Combat Simulator Guide

Biological Intel

List of Biological Intel Missions
Know Thine Enemy	Blinded by Light
Breath of Life	At Any Cost
Head Case	That's the Smell
Stony Stare	-

Brutal Challenges

List of Brutal Challenges
Army of the Damned	Requiem for the Scorned
Unending Nightmare	Hellions' Intonement
The Seventh Seal	Rulers of the Outer Worlds

Legendary Bouts

List of Legendary Bouts
Cloud vs. The Warriors	Barret vs. The Colossi
Tifa vs. The Martialists	Aerith vs. The Magi
Red XIII vs. The Beasts	Yuffie vs. The Wronged
Cait Sith vs. The Abominable	Bonds of Friendship
To Be a Hero	-