How to Beat Roche | Boss Fight Guide (Normal & Hard Mode)

This is a guide to beating the Boss Roche in the game Final Fantasy 7 Remake. This article explains Roche's attack patterns, weaknesses, and tips and strategies for defeating him on both Normal and Hard Mode.

Roche Stats and Information

Basic Information

Roche
Species	Movement	Type
Human	Grounded	Boss

Description

A 3-C SOLDIER operator who loves bikes, speed, and anyone capable of going toe-to-toe with him. He is ostracized by many in the organization, however, due to his antics and general disregard for anyone's safety.

Assess (Tips)

Hitting him with physical strikes and blocking his attacks will eventually make him easier to interrupt.

Roche Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	4488	8160	35370
Attack	84		373
Magic Attack	84		373
Defense	47		194
Magic Defense	47		194

Roche Weaknesses & Resistances

Weakness / Status Ailments	Fire
Lesser Resistances	-
Greater Resistances	-
Immunities	-
Absorbed Elements	-

Stagger Rates

Melee	Ranged	Magic	Fire
×1	×1	×1	×1
Ice	Lightning	Wind	-
×1	×1	×1	-

Stagger Length

Phase 1	Phase 2
10 seconds	10 seconds

Rewards

	Easy/Normal	Hard
Gil	255	1913
AP	10	30
Exp	300	4500
Items Dropped	Elixir (100%)
Rare Items Dropped	-
Steal	Elixir (5%)

Learnable Enemy Skills

No Enemy Skills can be learned from Roche.

List of Enemy Skills

How to Pressure Roche

Phase	Situation
Phase 1 Phase 2	・Consecutive attacks that knock Roche down will pressure him.

Roche Boss Fight Guide

Roche Abilities and Attack Patterns

Name	Element	Blockable?	Knockdown?	Status
Relentless Assault	-	Yes	No	-
	Attacks 3 times with his sword (unless the target is in the air). Potency increases with each strike.
Plunge	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Swings his blade down on Cloud after chasing him.
Wind Slash		No	Yes	-
	Hurls a blade of wind at Cloud. Can sometimes deplete Cloud's ATB.
Vacuum Wave		Yes	No	-
	A long-range attack which slashes with a cutting wave/
Blizzard		Yes	No	-
	Casts Blizzard.
Blizzara		Yes	No	-
	Casts Blizarra.
Thunder		Yes	No	-
	Casts Thunder.
Thundara		Yes	No	-
	Casts Thundara.
Mow Down	-	Yes	No	-
	Charges at Cloud with his sword.
Combustion Sword	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Jumps in the air and executes a powerful sword attack. Can use up to 3 times in a row.
Ignition Flame		No	No	-
	Creates a straight beam of fire in front of him with his sword. On Hard mode 3 beams come out.

*Status Effects and Ailments Guide

Best Characters for This Boss

Available Characters

Cloud

Only Cloud is available for this battle.

Best Equipment for Characters

Cloud	Role: Attacker & Healer Weapon: Iron Blade Armor:Star Bracelet Accessory: Power Wristguards

Best Materia for Cloud

Weapon (3 Slots)
Fire	Healing
Assess
Armor (2 Slots)
HP Up	Deadly Dodge
Summon
Ifrit

Since Roche is weak to Fire, cast Fira for extra damage whenever you counter his attacks with Punisher Mode's auto-counter since he will pause for a while before attacking again.

Roche Attack Phases

Phase 1

	Objectives
1	Keeps up his assault with continuous attacks and some magic. Taking his attacks or guarding them will wear him out. When Roche runs out of steam he'll be open to attacks for 5 seconds.

Phase 2

	Objectives
1	After his health drops to 70%, he will start using Ignition Flame and Combustion Sword. On Hard Mode, Roche will counter with a dash attack if attacked from behind and Combustion Sword if attacked from the side.

Tips & Strategies for Beating Roche

This is the proper Boss battle in a while, though he is kind enough to completely heal you up before the battle starts! Keep in mind that in Hard Mode, Roche won't recover Cloud's HP and MP before the battle as he does in other modes.

★Strategy Checklist★ (Click to jump)
Weak to Fire Take advantage of Punisher Mode's Counter After taking some damage, starts to get serious

Weak to Fire

Roche is weak to Fire Magic, so by equipping Fire Materia to Cloud, you'll be able to put pressure on him repeatedly throughout the fight by casting Fire on him.

How to Get the Fire Materia

Take advantage of Punisher Mode's Counter

Although not all of his attacks are susceptible to it, many of Roche's attacks can be successfully countered by switching to Punisher Mode and holding R1. When Roche comes in with an attack, Cloud will counterattack and deal significant damage back to him.

After taking some damage, starts to get serious

After he's taken a few hits, Phase 2 of the battle will begin, during which Roche will start to use his rushing attack which can't be countered with Punisher Mode at certain ranges. He'll become harder to stun with Fire Magic as well, and will dodge often and avoid your attacks.

Attack once or twice, then wait and see

Since Roche won't take as much knockback from your attacks in Phase 2, hitting him with repeated strikes will just set you up to be hit by his next attack. Instead, go for one or two good swings, then watch to see what he does next. If he starts returning with an attack of his own, hold R1 to block and set yourself up to counter his move.

Roche: Hard Mode Guide

Best Characters and Equipment

Cloud	Weapon: Hardedge Armor: Chain Bangle Accessory: Champion Belt

You will have to fight multiple battles in a row against multiple enemies to get to Roche, so relying on Physical damage is recommended. This is where the Hardedge comes in handy. With its high Physical damage stat you do not have to worry about using spells.

Its weapon upgrade Bloodsucker is also helpful to make sure you will have enough health when you get into battle against Roche.

Chain Bangle has pretty good physical and magic defense. You will need both against Roche. The extra materia solidfies it as the recommended armor to use!

Champion Belt will further increase Cloud's Physical damage output and give him more health to help survive!

Best Materia to Use

The number of slots in your Weapon may vary depending on your Weapon Level.

Cloud

Weapon (6 Slots)
Elemental + Fire		Healing
Deadly Dodge	Lightning	Chakra
Armor (4 Slots)
HP Up	HP Up	Steadfast Block
ATB Boost
Summon
Fat Chocobo

Fire linked with Elemental is going to be effective against Roche and the human enemies you have to beat to get to him. This will also make sure you will be able to save your MP for healing.

Deadly Dodge is good against the crowd of infantry men you will be facing. It will let you dodge in to get close and do a wide area of attack, hit every enemy near you.

You will need Healing and Chakra to recover your health. Use Chakra as much as you can and only use Healing spells when you need to recover much more.

Hard Mode Basic Strategy

Keep a Balance of Offense and Defense

Doing enough damage and blocking enough damage will break Roche's defense. You will see a barrier around him shatter and he'll look tired right after. This is the time to go all out on offense. Attacking him while he is in this state will pressure him, making staggering him more easy!

Counter His Physcial Attacks

You can counter any of his Physical attacks you can block. Even his dash attack is counterable if at the right distance. Use this to your advantage and keep on the offense!

Tips & Strategies

★How to Beat Roche on Hard Mode★
Cloud Receives a Manuscript Don't waste your HP & MP when fighting normal enemies Same basic strategy as Normal Mode

Cloud Receives a Manuscript

When defeating Roche on Hard Mode, you'll receive Vol. 6 of Cloud's Manuscript, raising his SP by 10. By beating bosses on Hard Mode, you can collect most of the 14 Manuscripts for each character, so be sure to check out our guide to learn where to find each Manuscript!

Manuscript Guide | Manuscript List and Locations

Don't waste your HP & MP when fighting normal enemies

On Hard Mode, Roche will not restore Cloud's HP and MP like he does on other difficulty settings, so you won't have a chance to recover from your wounds taken while fighting the earlier enemies. Try to conserve your HP and MP as much as possible while fighting with the others, especially saving MP for using Fire against Roche.

Same basic strategy as Normal Mode

Similar to the Normal Mode strategy, you'll want to focus on using Fire Magic and countering his attacks with Punisher Mode's auto-counter. Roche will deal significantly more damage than in the original fight, so it's a good idea to set up Barrier or even Manawall on Cloud at the start of the fight to help weather Roche's onslaught of Physical and Magic attacks.

Boss Fight Related Articles

List of Boss Battles

Major Story Bosses

All Major Story Bosses
Chapter 1	Scorpion Sentinel
Chapter 4	Roche
Chapter 5	Crab Warden
Chapter 7	Airbuster
Chapter 8	Reno Rude
Chapter 9	Hell House
Chapter 10	Abzu
Chapter 11	Ghoul Eligor
Chapter 13	Failed Experiment
Chapter 14	Abzu (2nd Fight)
Chapter 15	The Valkyrie
Chapter 16	Specimen H0512
Chapter 17	Jenova Dreamweaver Rufus The Arsenal
Chapter 18	Motor Ball Whisper Harbinger Sephiroth

VR Mission Bosses

All VR Mission Bosses
Chapter 8	Shiva
Chapter 9	Fat Chocobo
Chapter 13	Leviathan
Secret Boss	Bahamut
Superboss	Pride and Joy Prototype

Story Sub-Bosses

All Story Sub-Bosses
Chapter 2	The Huntsman
Chapter 3	The Hoodlums
Chapter 4	Enigmatic Spectre
Chapter 12	Enigmatic Spectre
Chapter 17	M.O.T.H. Unit Brain Pod Swordipede

Monster Variants & Optional Sub-Bosses

All Monster Variants & Optional Sub-Bosses
Chapter 3	Doomrat Cerulean Drake Wrath Hound
Chapter 8	Hedgehog Pie King Mark II Monodrive Venomantis Chromogger
Chapter 14	Rust Drake Tonberry Trypapolis Type-0 Behemoth
Chapter 17	Malboro

Intergrade and INTERmission Bosses

Intergrade and INTERmission Bosses
Chapter 1	Levrikon Gigantipede
Chapter 2	Scarlet & The Crimson Mare Projector Nero the Sable
Optional	Ramuh Weiss the Immaculate Pride and Joy Mk. 0.5 (Top Secrets)