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

This is a guide to beating the Boss Reno in the game Final Fantasy 7 Remake (FF7R). This article explains Reno's attack patterns, weaknesses, and tips and strategies for defeating him on both Normal and Hard Mode.

Reno Stats and Information

Basic Information

Reno
Species	Movement	Type
Human	Grounded	Boss

Description

An operative with the Turks unit of Shinra's General Affairs Division. Fast and extremely agile, he leaps in to attack with his special Shinra-made security baton.

Assess (Tips)

Magic and lightning attacks have only a slight effect on his stagger gauge.

Reno Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	3343	6079	15563
Attack	124		328
Magic Attack	124		328
Defense	103		268
Magic Defense	103		268

Reno Weaknesses & Resistances

Weakness / Status Ailments	-
Lesser Resistances	-
Greater Resistances	Lightning, Proportional Damage
Immunities	Silence, Slow, Berserk
Absorbed Elements	-

Stagger Rates

Melee	Ranged	Magic	Fire
×1	×1	×0.5	×1
Ice	Lightning	Wind	-
×1	×0.5	×1	-

Stagger Length

Stagger Length	7 seconds

Rewards

	Easy/Normal	Hard
Gil	600	2250
AP	10	30
Exp	600	4500
Items Dropped	Ether (100%)
Rare Items Dropped	-
Steal	Ether (10%)

Learnable Enemy Skills

No Enemy Skills can be learned from Reno.

List of Enemy Skills

Reno Boss Fight Guide

Reno Abilities and Attack Patterns

Name	Element	Blockable?	Knockdown?	Status
Beatdown	-	Yes	No	-
	Swings at a target 4 times if contact is made (cannot be stopped on Hard mode) followed by a kick.
Rushdown	-	Yes	No	-
	Does a jumping attack with his stun rod. Kicks 3 times if contact is made (cannot be stopped on Hard mode).
Shock Swipe	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Charges himself with electricity and dashes at a target.
Counterattack	-	No	No	-
	Dodges an attack or ability and counters.
EM Shot		No	No	Stun (5 sec)
	Shoots an orb of electricity that homes in on a target, stunning them.
EM Flail		Yes	Yes	-
	Grabs an EM Mine and swings it at a target.
EM Charge	-	-	-	-
	Charges up an EM Mine with electricity.
Bright Spark		No	Yes	-
	Uses EM Mines to stun a target and slams down on the target.
EM Mine Toss	-	-	-	-
	Tosses out 2 EM Mines.

*Status Effects and Ailments Guide

EM Mine

Name	Element	Blockable?	Knockdown?	Status
Electric Current		Yes	No	-
	Creates a chain of electricity with other EM Mines.
Discharge		No	No	Stun (5 sec)
	Expels a burst of energy that stuns.
EM Pulse		Yes	Yes	-
	Explodes after receiving a charge of electricity from Reno.

*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 Weapon: Buster Sword Armor: Titanium Bangle Accessory: Power Wristguards

Best Materia for Cloud

Weapon (3 Slots)
Fire + Elemental
Assess
Armor (2 Slots)
First Strike	Healing
Summon
Ifrit

This fight is all about dodging projectiles and using Punisher Mode's auto-counter on Reno's melee attacks. Use Triple Slash on the EM Mines and heal yourself if needed.

Reno Attack Phases

Phase 1

	Objectives
1	Uses Shock Swipe to rush you with lightning charge attacks
2	Also uses EM Charge, a slowly charging energy ball that he throws at you
3	Uses a series of quick swipes and kicks

Phase 2

	Objectives
1	Starts when Reno reaches 50% health
2	Will summon 5 EM Mines
3	Get rid of the Mines quickly as they make electrical links between them that deal damage
4	Reno will use Beatdown to unleash a series of blows

Tips & Strategies for Beating Reno

★How to Beat Reno on Hard Mode★
Fill up his Focus Gauge by Countering Will become more powerful at 50% HP Destroy the EM Mines first EM Shot will inflict Stun Watch out for EM Flail

Fill up his Focus Gauge by Countering

As Reno moves quickly around the stage, he'll frequently dodge attacks you throw at him if you try to simply swing at him with your sword. Instead, switch to Punisher Mode and wait for him to come at you in order to counter his blows. Most of Reno's Physical attacks can be countered in this way.

On top of that, Reno will be susceptible to further blows upon being countered. When comboing a counter with Punisher Mode's Strong Attacks, you can fill his Focus Gauge easily, scoring a Stagger and making the fight go much more smoothly.

Focus Gauge and How to Stagger Enemies

Will become more powerful at 50% HP

When Reno's HP gets below 50%, he'll enter Phase 2 of the battle. He'll start to move faster and his attacks will get more powerful, and on top of that, he'll pull out 5 EM Mines which he can use to execute additional Abilities. It becomes much more difficult to avoid his attacks in this stage, so keep your distance from Reno and move away after landing a few hits on him.

Destroy the EM Mines first

The EM mines should be taken out quickly and you can use both attacks and magic to deal with them.

When Reno gets down to about 50% HP, he'll release 5 EM Mines onto the stage. These can be used to stun and bind Cloud, so before Reno is able to use Abilities with them, take these out first before the battle wears on. You can use Iron Blade's Triple Slash Ability to hit multiple EM Mines in a single attack. They don't have much resilience, so you can take them out fairly quickly if you focus on attacking them.

Keep in mind that Reno can use EM Mine Toss after the first five are destroyed to bring out two new EM Mines; when he does so, be sure to take out the newly released Mines quickly before he can take advantage of them.

EM Shot will inflict Stun

Reno's EM Shot attack will definitely cause a Stun, preventing Cloud from moving for several seconds. Reno will take a few seconds to charge this attack, so be sure to move out of the way when you see this one coming.

Watch out for EM Flail

When Reno uses EM Flail, he'll shoot out a single bolt of electricity ahead of him. If Cloud gets caught by it, he'll be Bound with no other character to free him. Then, Reno will run a current through his rod and make an explosion, dealing around 600 damage on Normal Mode. He'll need to have the EM Mines active to use this Ability, so be sure to take out the EM Mines quickly to prevent him from using his most danagerous Abilities.

Reno: Hard Mode Guide

Best Characters and Equipment

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

Save MP by Focusing on Physical Damage

Focusing on Physical damage is a good idea to save MP for the rest of the Chapter. Magic attacks are not effective for staggering Reno and he has a Greater Resistance against Lightning magic. Equipping Hardege and Champion Belt is the way to go for this fight!

Best Materia to Use

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

Cloud

Weapon (6 Slots)
Time	First Strike	ATB Stagger
Steadfast Block	Healing	Chakra
Armor (4 Slots)
Elemental+ Lightning		HP Up
HP Up
Summon
Leviathan

★How to Beat Reno on Hard Mode★
Same basic flow as Normal Mode Take out the EM Mines with Triple Slash Have Lightning and Elemental Linked for an Easy Fight

Same basic flow as Normal Mode

On Hard Mode, Reno does not show significant differences from his Normal Mode counterpart, and you can take him down in essentially the same manner as on Normal Mode. Now that you have Twin Stinger, you can use Counterstance to hit back against most of his moves.

Take out the EM Mines with Triple Slash

On Hard Mode, Reno will execute additional techniques with his EM MInes. It's best to take these out as quickly as possible using Iron Blade's Triple Slash Ability. While he's summoning the EM Mines, Reno will be vulnerable to attack, so use powerful Abilities like Braver and Infinity's End to hit Reno hard during this period.

Have Lightning and Elemental Linked for an Easy Fight

Having Lightning materia linked with Elemental Lv.2 will make you immune to his Lightning attacks and even the EM Mines attacks. With Lv.3 they can even heal you without you having to spend any MP. Even with just Lv.2 you can ignore the EM Mines and Reno's Lightning attacks allowing you to stay in Punisher mode and counter the whole fight.

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)