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

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

Abzu Stats and Information

Basic Information

Abzu
Species	Movement	Type
Biological	Grounded	Boss

Description

A giant beast that Don Corneo keeps in the sewers. Much more intelligent than it appears, it uses the surrounding environment to its advantage and attacks with sewer water.

Assess (Tips)

Magic attacks have only a slight effect on its stagger gauge, and ice attacks have no effect on the gauge at all.

Abzu Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	21450	39000	93420
Attack	151		382
Magic Attack	151		382
Defense	110		268
Magic Defense	140		342

Abzu Weaknesses & Resistances

Weakness / Status Ailments	Fire
Lesser Resistances	Ice
Greater Resistances	-
Immunities	Poison, Silence, Slow, Proportional Damage
Absorbed Elements	-

Stagger Rates

Melee	Ranged	Magic	Fire
×1	×1	×0.25	×1
Ice	Lightning	Wind	-
×No effect	×1	×1	-

Stagger Length

Phase 1	Phase 2
10 seconds	10 seconds

Rewards

	Easy/Normal	Hard
Gil	350	1125
AP	10	30
Exp	840	5400
Items Dropped	Phoenix Down (100%)
Rare Items Dropped	-
Steal	Turbo Ether (10%)

Learnable Enemy Skills

No Enemy Skills can be learned from Abzu.

List of Enemy Skills

How to Pressure Abzu

Phase	Situation
−	After taking damage equal to 12% of its max HP.
−	While its on fire after taking fire damage equal to 3% of its max HP until it jumps in the water.
−	For 5 seconds after an unsuccessful Pounce.
−	For 8 seconds after one of its horns is broken.

Breakable Parts

Name	HP	Details
Horns	7％ of Abzu's max HP	Takes .1x damage from physical attacks (1x damage while staggered)

Abzu Boss Fight Guide

Abzu Abilities and Attack Patterns

Name	Element	Blockable?	Knockdown?	Status
Smash	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Slams its left fist into a target.
Ground Pound	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Raises both arms and smashes them into the ground.
Bash and Smash	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Moves towards a target, swinging its fists 3 times (5 once its HP goes below 75%).
Charge	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Charges at a target and swings its horns upwards at them.
Pounce (Fists)	-	No	Yes	-
	From up on a wall jumps down on top of a target, binding them while smashing its fists 5 times. If Abzu takes damage from abilities twice or a Limit Break, it will release them. If Pounce misses, Abzu will fall over instead but can still deal damage in this state.
Pounce (Tongue)	-	No	Yes
	From up on a wall jumps down on top of a target, binding them while licking with its tongue 3 times and smacking them with its tail. Releasing an ally is the same as with the other version of Pounce. Inflicts sadness.
Backwash	-	No	No	(120 sec)
	Dirty water in the ground will come out of a few of the 4 puddles dealing damage to the party. All 4 puddles will release dirty water during phase 2 (and occurs twice on Hard mode).
Backwash Spout	-	No	Yes	(120 sec)
	The puddles of water release tornadoes that chase the party. All 4 puddles will release tornadoes during phase 2.
Provoke	-	No	No
	Does a little dance, inflicting fury on a target.
Counter (Hard Mode)	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Uses Smash as a counterattack.
Enrage	-	-	-	-
	Beats its chest and its horns turn red, increasing its attack power but decreasing its defense.
Triple Charge	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Charges at a target 3-4 times (3-5 time on Hard mode).
Backwater Blast	-	No	Yes	(120 sec)
	Releases a large wave of sewage water from the drains on either side of the arena.

*Status Effects and Ailments Guide

Best Characters for This Boss

Available Characters

Cloud

Tifa

Aerith

Recommended Characters

Information coming soon!

Abzu Attack Phases

Phase 1

	Phase Highlights
1	Abzu will use all attacks but Enrage, Triple Charge and Blackwater Blast
2	Pounce seems to be unavoidble

Phase 2

	Phase Highlights
1	Phase starts at 50% HP, with Anzu using Enrage
2	There's no cutscene, but Abzu's horns will turn red
3	It starts using Triple Charge and Blackwater Blast
4	Backwash Spout now makes water spouts from all puddles, shooting in several directions

Tips & Strategies for Beating Abzu

★ Strategy Checklist ★ (Click to jump)
Summon Ifrit and Use Fire Magic Break the Horns Stay away from the Puddles on the Ground Guard against Charge and Bash and Smash Cast Fire When Abzu is on the Wall Switch Characters if Pounced At 50% Abzu's Horns Turn Red Stay Away from the Large Sewer Pipes

Summon Ifrit and Use Fire Magic

Abzu's weak to Fire, so make sure to use Fire magic and Summon Ifrit to deal the most damage.

If you use Aerith's Arcane Wand Ability, spells will automatically be cast twice, so make sure you give her Fire Materia before the fight.

Break the Horns

Destroying the Horns of Abzu will give you a big attack opening. They don't take much damage from physical attacks and can be hard to hit, so use Fire magic and Ifrit to break them.

Stay away from the Puddles on the Ground

Abzu can use moves like Backwash and Backwash Spout to makes poisonous sewer water shoot up from the puddles on the ground, so avoid getting too close to them.

Guard against Charge and Bash and Smash

Abzu has a high Attack, so it's important to Guard against it. Especially against Charge and Bash and Smash, as these attacks deal a lot of damage and knock you down.

Use Fire When Abzu is on the Wall

When Abzu jumps onto the wall, he will often use Pounce to jump on a character. This results in the character being Bound and continuously licked, so in order to prevent this cast Fire on Abzu's body to light him up and send him diving into the sewage to cool off.

Switch Characters if Pounced

In the event you cannot cast Fire quick enough and one of your party members gets Pounced, switch to another character to attack and help out.

Abzu will not let up no matter how hard you hit him, however, so watch the Pounced party member's HP and heal them if necessary.

At 50% Abzu's Horns Turn Red

When Abzu's health reaches 50%, it will use Enrage and its horns will glow red. When Enraged, Abzu's attack will go up and each of his abilities will easily deal more than 500 damage, so keep an eye on your health and try to stay about 70%.

Stay Away from the Large Sewer Pipes

Another move used when Abzu jumps onto the wall is Blackwater Blast, which will cause large amounts of sewer water to burst out of the huge pipes in the side.

It will almost reach the other end of the map and can cause around 900 damage and poison you, so move to the side and avoid it.

Abzu: Hard Mode Guide

Best Characters and Equipment

Cloud	Weapon: Buster Sword Armor: Force Bracelet Accessory: Champion Belt
Aerith	Weapon: Mythril Rod Armor: Chain Bangle Accessory: Circlet
Tifa	Weapon: Metal Knuckles Armor: Force Bracelet Accessory: Champion Belt

Balanced Cloud

Even with Abzu being weak to Fire magic, it would be best to still have some Physical damage. Even with Abzu's weakness to fire, magic does not fill up its focus gauge. Buster Sword having both Physical and Magical makes Cloud much more flexible depending on the situation.

Aerith as the Offensive Mage

Having Aerith deal as much damage with her Magic can shorten the fight. This will help you save MP for the rest of the chapter. Using Mythril Rod for the damage or Silver Staff for the MP regen and reduction are both solid choices.

Heavy Hitter Tifa

With Aerith already dealing tons of Magic damage, Tifa can fill the role of pure Physical damage. With Magic only having a slight effect on the stagger gauge, having Physical damage output is a good idea.

Best Materia to Use

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

Cloud

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

Aerith

Weapon (6 Slots)
Magnify+Healing		Fire
Revival	Steadfast Block	ATB Stagger
Armor (4 Slots)
MP Up	MP Up	HP Up
HP Up
Summon
Shiva

Tifa

Weapon (6 Slots)
Elemental+Fire		Cleansing
Steadfast Block	ATB Stagger	ATB Assist
Armor (4 Slots)
Revival	Healing	HP Up
HP Up
Summon
Ifrit

★How to Beat Abzu on Hard Mode★
Hit repeatedly with Fire Magic Have Cleansing Equipped on a Party Member Summon Ifrit to Save MP Watch out for repeated Charges

Hit repeatedly with Fire Magic

Just like in Normal Mode, you'll want to use Fire Magic on Abzu to cause him to flinch, creating a sizeable opening to attack. With Aerith's high Magic Attack stat, she can hit him hard and back up the other party members by repeatedly slamming Abzu with Fire.

You can essentially use the same strategies as Normal Mode to take down Abzu. If you lead with Fire Magic and time your hits from there, Abzu isn't a particularly threatening foe on Hard Mode.

Have Cleansing Equipped on a Party Member

Abzu's attacks that have a poison effect on them can be hard to avoid. Getting hit by them means wasting a lot of MP to heal the lost HP. Have Cleansing equipped and use Poisona to get rid of the effect. Alternatively you can use Regen to offset the damage from Poison.

Summon Ifrit to Save MP

Make sure to summon Ifrit and make use of his summon abilities. This is a great way to use fire attacks while still saving MP for the rest of the chapter.

Watch out for repeated Charges

On Hard Mode, Abzu will not simply use its Charge Ability once as in the other modes; instead, it will Charge multiple times in a row, allowing little space for counterattacks. Instead of trying to hit back, simply avoid its Charges until the series of attacks is over.

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)