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.
List of Contents
Abzu | ||
---|---|---|
Species | Movement | Type |
Biological | Grounded | Boss |
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.
Magic attacks have only a slight effect on its stagger gauge, and ice attacks have no effect on the gauge at all.
Easy | Normal | Hard | |
---|---|---|---|
HP | 21450 | 39000 | 93420 |
Attack | 151 | 382 | |
Magic Attack | 151 | 382 | |
Defense | 110 | 268 | |
Magic Defense | 140 | 342 |
Weakness / Status Ailments | Fire | |
---|---|---|
Lesser Resistances | Ice | |
Greater Resistances | - | |
Immunities | Poison, Silence, Slow, Proportional Damage | |
Absorbed Elements | - |
Melee |
Ranged |
Magic |
Fire |
---|---|---|---|
×1 | ×1 | ×0.25 | ×1 |
Ice |
Lightning |
Wind |
- |
×No effect | ×1 | ×1 | - |
Phase 1 | Phase 2 |
---|---|
10 seconds | 10 seconds |
Easy/Normal | Hard | |
---|---|---|
Gil | 350 | 1125 |
AP | 10 | 30 |
Exp | 840 | 5400 |
Items Dropped | Phoenix Down (100%) | |
Rare Items Dropped | - | |
Steal | Turbo Ether (10%) |
No Enemy Skills can be learned from 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. |
Name | HP | Details |
---|---|---|
Horns | 7% of Abzu's max HP | Takes .1x damage from physical attacks (1x damage while staggered) |
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
Cloud | Tifa | Aerith |
Information coming soon!
Phase Highlights | |
---|---|
1 | Abzu will use all attacks but Enrage, Triple Charge and Blackwater Blast |
2 | Pounce seems to be unavoidble |
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 |
★ Strategy Checklist ★ (Click to jump) |
||
---|---|---|
|
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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 |
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.
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.
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.
The number of slots in your Weapon may vary depending on your Weapon Level.
Weapon (6 Slots) | ||
---|---|---|
Armor (4 Slots) | ||
Summon | ||
Weapon (6 Slots) | ||
---|---|---|
Armor (4 Slots) | ||
Summon | ||
Weapon (6 Slots) | ||
---|---|---|
Armor (4 Slots) | ||
Summon | ||
★How to Beat Abzu on Hard Mode★ | ||
---|---|---|
|
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
All VR Mission Bosses | |
---|---|
Chapter 8 | Shiva |
Chapter 9 | Fat Chocobo |
Chapter 13 | Leviathan |
Secret Boss | Bahamut |
Superboss | Pride and Joy Prototype |
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 |
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 | |
---|---|
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) |
No no blackwater blast means he ain't playin
How to Beat Abzu | Boss Fight Guide (Normal & Hard Mode)
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Equip Star Pendant to all characters (on Hard) - it will help a lot. Also avoid Pounce after monster was sitting high, such as after Blackwater Blast. And of course use Fire mostly on Arcane Ward.