How to Beat Leviathan | Boss Fight Guide

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

How to Find Leviathan

Clear Battle Intel Report 1-14 to Fight it

Leviathan can be challenged in Chadley's Battle Simulations once you've cleared Battle Intel Reports 1 to 14.

These can be cleared by Chapter 11, but you won't meet Chadley again until Chapter 13.

Some of the Battle Intel Reports can also be a bit hard to figure out, so see our guide below if there are any you are struggling with.

List of Battle Intel Reports and Rewards

Leviathan Stats and Information

Basic Information

Leviathan
Species	Movement	Type
Unreadable	Flying	Boss

Description

A summon recreated in virtual reality. This entity is a tutelary dragon deity said to protect people from natural disasters. Today, most of its worshippers live in the vicinity of Wutai.

Assess (Tips)

Tactical data not available.

Leviathan Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	19668	35760	47160
Attack	224		328
Magic Attack	224		328
Defense	256		342
Magic Defense	283		379

Leviathan Weaknesses & Resistances

Weakness / Status Ailments	Lightning
Lesser Resistances	Ice, Magic
Greater Resistances	Fire, Fixed Damage, Proportional Damage
Immunities	Poison, Silence, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Berserk
Absorbed Elements	-

Stagger Rates

Melee	Ranged	Magic	Fire
×1.75	×1	×0.75	×0.25
Ice	Lightning	Wind	-
×0.75	×1.75	×1	-

Stagger Length

Stagger Length	10 seconds

Get the Leviathan Materia

Once you manage to defeat this incredibly tough Battle Simulation, you'll get the Leviathan Materia and become able to summon it.

While you can attempt to clear it in Chapter 13, we recommend waiting till you're around level 30.

Rewards

	Easy/Normal	Hard
Gil	0	0
AP	10	30
Exp	0	0
Items Dropped	-
Rare Items Dropped	-
Steal	-

Learnable Enemy Skills

No Enemy Skills can be learned from Leviathan.

List of Enemy Skills

Leviathan Boss Fight Guide

Leviathan Abilities and Attack Patterns

Name	Element	Blockable?	Knockdown?	Status
Charge	-	Yes	No	-
	Charges at target while shaking its body.
Bite	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Bites a target.
Tail Whip	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Dives underwater and swipes out at party members with its lower body.
Spin Rush	-	Yes	Yes	-
	After diving underwater, spins towards a target.
Surprise Attack	-	Yes	Yes	-
	After diving underwater, surfaces under a target.
Briny Barrage	-	Yes	No	-
	Shoots 6 or 8 orbs of water (4 or 8 while in flight) that go after party members.
Briny Bellow	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Shoots a beam of water from left to right across the arena.
Gyro Spume	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Stores energy while sucking in all party members before releasing the energy in an explosion.
Spinning Dive	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Spreads its wings and charges across the entire arena.
Tidal Roar	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Creates giant whirlpools that cause damage to anyone who touches them. Can suck party members in to deal damage, spitting them out on Hard mode.
Tidal Wave	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Causes enormous pillars of water to appear that collide with all party members.
Aquatic Focus	-	-	-	-
	Charges energy in order to use Tidal Wave

*Status Effects and Ailments Guide

Best Characters, Equipment and Materia for Leviathan

Available Characters

Cloud	Barret	Tifa	Aerith

Most players will encounter Leviathan for the first time in Chapter 13, 14, or 16, so it's common to encounter Leviathan with Cloud, Barret and Tifa. However, it's possible to battle Leviathan with any party.

The best way to fight Leviathan with your chosen party is to finish the main story, then return to Chapter 17. You'll meet Chadley near the start, and he'll allow you to try any of the VR Missions with your chosen group of 3 characters.

Best Characters and Equipment

This Equipment and Materia list takes into account what Equipment and Materia a player in Chapter 13 will have. When fighting Leviathan later in the game, you may want to adjust to use Equipment with higher stats.

Cloud	Role: Attacker Weapon: Hardedge Armor: Sorcerer's Armlet Accessory: Supernatural Wristguards or Timeworn Talisman
Tifa	Role: Healer Weapon: Metal Knuckles Armor: Sorcerer's Armlet Accessory: Revival Earrings or Timeworn Talisman
Barret	Role: Tank & Long-Range Attacker Weapon: Big Bertha Armor: Sorcerer's Armlet Accessory: Champion Belt or Timeworn Talisman

As Leviathan has a resistance to offensive Magic, you'll mostly be hitting it with your standard attacks. Weapons like Hardedge and Metal Knuckles which encourage Physical over Magic Attack are recommended.

Sorcerer's Armlets are encouraged for all three party members, as Leviathan will attack primarily with Magic attacks. Having this boost to each character's Magic Defense will make this fight go much more smoothly.

With Tifa as your primary healer, Revival Earrings are a solid choice, as having Tifa down can make the fight much more difficult for the whole team. Timeworn Talismans are also solid choices to further up your party's Magic Defense.

Many of these Equipment items are available from the Weapons store in Center District or from the Weapon seller in Evergreen Park. It might be a bit of an investment, but these will serve you well in the long run.

You can get the Champion Belt by stealing from the Grungy Bandit you encounter alongside Beck, Burke and Butch in Chapter 13.

Chapter 13: A Broken World Story Guide & Walkthrough

Best Materia for Cloud

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

Weapon (4 Slots)
Lightning + Synergy
Steadfast Block	ATB Assist
Armor (3 Slots)
ATB Boost	Chakra
Healing
Summon
Ifrit

Best Materia for Tifa

Weapon (4 Slots)
Healing + Magnify
First Strike	Barrier
Armor (3 Slots)
Revival	Time
Magic Up
Summon
Shiva

Best Materia for Barret

Weapon (4 Slots)
Elemental + Lightning
HP Up	HP Up
Armor (3 Slots)
Healing	Provoke
Refocus
Summon
Fat Chocobo

In battle, control Tifa and continue weaving in close when it uses Briny Bellow, and moving away when it prepares Gyre Spume. Continue raising its Stagger – if you've acquired the Focus Strike Ability, it's a good one to use. Cloud's Focused Thrust will have the same effect.

When it uses Aquatic Focus, move in and let loose with attacks, but run away as quickly as possible to avoid getting hit by its Gyre Spume that comes next.

When using Tifa, heal when other players need it and allow Cloud and Barret to continue attacking automatically, and switch to Barret to target it directly when Leviathan is flying.

Use the immediate ATB charge from First Strike to allow Tifa to set up Manaward on Cloud.

Don't use the Ifrit or Shiva Summons – these are only used to increase the characters' respective stats. When your Summon is charged, use Fat Chocobo.

Leviathan Attack Phases

Phase 1

	Phase Point Summary
1	Leviathan will use all attacks, including Tidal Wave
2	All attacks have long animations and hits wide areas

Phase 2

	Phase Point Summary
1	At around 50% HP, Leviathan will start flying after using Tidal Roar
2	Several large water spouts will appear, blocking damage if Leviathan is behind them
3	Will sometimes fly low
4	Will continue to use Briny Barrage and Spinning Dive from above

Tips & Strategies for Beating Leviathan

★ Strategy Checklist ★ (Click to jump)
Equip Healing and Magnify Materia Stick close to Leviathan Use Barret after Tidal Roar Guard when you see Attack names Heal Immediately when Tidal Wave Appears

Equip Healing and Magnify Materia

We recommend equipping a character with a Healing Materia boosted with Magnify to allow for party healing for this battle.

Leviathan's attacks have a wide range and it's very easy for several of your characters to be low on health at the same time, so take advantage of Magnify and keep everyone's HP up.

Magnify will reduce the effectiveness of whatever it's attached to, but can be leveled up to only reduce the effect by 25%.

How to Get the Magnify Materia

Stick close to Leviathan

Try to fight with your party members as closely together as possible, and stick close to Leviathan as well. This allows you to heal everyone, and Briny Bellow will miss and give you a great opening to attack it in.

Use Barret after Tidal Roar

Once Leviathan uses Tidal Roar and flies up above you, you'll want to switch to Barret as no one else can reach it.

If you manage to Stagger it, the water spouts will disappear and it'll fall to the ground, giving you a chance to attack it.

The water spouts will block attacks if they're in front of Leviathan, so don't use Overcharge when they're in the way!

Guard when you see Attack names

Since all Leviathan's attack animations are long, you have plenty of time to block once you see the attack names appear on the screen.

Even if the attacks are slow, most of them hit very hard and can easily take out big chunks of your HP, so keep your guard up!

Heal Immediately when Tidal Wave Appears

When Leviathan starts preparing Tidal Wave, you'll know you have an Ultimate attack coming your way! Heal up immediately and try to Stagger Leviathan before it finishes charging if possible.

It takes quite a while to charge, so you have a decent shot at Staggering it.

Leviathan: Hard Mode Guide

Bait Briny Bellow with Aerith

Just like in the VR Mission on Normal Mode, Leviathan will target far away characters with Briny Bellow, its beam attack. Take advantage of this by switching to Aerith and standing far away to bait out Briny Bellow, then quickly swap back to Cloud and go to town.

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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)