How to Beat The Arsenal | Boss Fight Guide (Normal & Hard)

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

The Arsenal Stats and Information

Basic Information

The Arsenal
Species	Movement	Type
Mechanical	Grounded	Boss

Description

An autonomous mobile weapons platform manufactured by Shinra's Advanced Weaponry Division. It is armed with an extremely powerful cannon on its right arm and rotary cannons on its left. Equipped with cutting-edge combat AI, it calculates the most efficient method of annihilating its targets based on the situation.

Assess (Tips)

While it runs an elemental defense protocol, attacks of those element have only a slight effect on the stagger gauge. Its stagger gauge is not affected at all when its barrier is online.

The Arsenal Stats

	Easy	Normal	Hard
HP	47573	86496	124974
Attack	297		508
Magic Attack	297		508
Defense	145		212
Magic Defense	197		288

The Arsenal Weaknesses & Resistances

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

Stagger Rates

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

Stagger Length

Stagger Length	11 seconds

Rewards

	Easy/Normal	Hard
Gil	1300	2250
AP	10	30
Exp	1300	4500
Items Dropped	-
Rare Items Dropped	-
Steal	-

Learnable Enemy Skills

No Enemy Skills can be learned from The Arsenal.

List of Enemy Skills

The Arsenal Boss Fight Guide

The Arsenal Abilities and Attack Patterns

Name	Element	Blockable?	Knockdown?	Status
Saturation Fire	-	Yes	No	-
	Rapid fires its gun arm.
Secondary Fire	-	Yes	No	-
	Shoots with its gun arm at a nearby target.
Primary Fire	-	No	Yes	-
	Charges its cannon arm for 5 seconds and fires at a target. If its weak point takes 1500 damage or is hit by Focus Shot, Maximum Fury, or Overcharge, the attack will be stopped.
Homing Laser	-	Yes	No	-
	Charges its frontal cannon for 5 seconds before releasing a wave of purple homing lasers. Can be stopped the same way as Primary Fire.
Voltaic Discharge	-	No	No	Stun (5 sec)
	Releases charges of electricity along the floor in 5 directions that Stun if hit by.
EM Field	-	No	Yes	-
	A blue disc shaped light will follow targets around and create a field of electricity that persists for 10 seconds.
Charge	-	Yes	Yes	-
	Charges in one direction towards a target.
Focus Fire	-	No	Yes	-
	Stronger version of Primary Fire that charges for 2 seconds. On Hard mode, actions to stop this ability must be performed twice.
Obliterating Laser	-	Yes	No	-
	Stronger version of Homing Laser that charges for 7 seconds. On Hard mode, actions to stop this ability must be performed twice.
Fire Wall	-	No	Yes	-
	Unleashes red lasers from each of its arms, creating walls of fire that persist for 20 seconds.
Pulse Cannon	-	No	Yes	-
	Charges the cannon on it stomach for 12 seconds before releasing a laser that can one-hit kill a target. Dealing 2000 damage (3000 on Hard mode) to its weak point will prevent it from going off.
Cry Havoc	-	No	Yes	-
	Charges the cannon on its stomach for 45 seconds before releasing a last-ditch effort attack that will wipe the party.
Physical Defense Protocol	-	-	-	-
	Gains Resistance to Physical attacks.
Lightning Defense Protocol	-	-	-	-
	Gains Resistance to Lightning attacks.
Fire Defense Protocol	-	-	-	-
	Gains Resistance to Fire attacks.
Wind Defense Protocol	-	-	-	-
	Gains Resistance to Wind attacks.
Ice Defense Protocol	-	-	-	-
	Gains Resistance to Ice attacks.

*Status Effects and Ailments Guide

Best Characters for This Boss

Available Characters

Barret

Aerith

Recommended Characters

You're going to want to be on the offensive for most of this battle, so Barret is your best choice to keep the damage coming with his fast attack rate. Equip Barret with an Elemental Materia + Fire, Ice, Thunder, or Wind to hit its weak points.

Aerith's no slouch either – if you've got Magic at Level 3, like Firaga or Thundaga, switch to Aerith every time her ATB Gauge fills to use one of these attacks and deal heavy damage. If you want to nuke The Arsenal harder, cast Arcane Ward to Aerith first before casting your highest damaging elemental spell.

When The Arsenal uses a Defense Protocol and one of your members starts dealing reduced damage, switch characters right away and start using a different element to keep the damage coming.

The Arsenal Attack Phases

Phase 1

	Phase Point Summary
1	The Arsenal will appear along with three Barrier Drones. It will stay in position. After the first attack against one of the Barrier Drones, the Arsenal will put up a shield and become immune to attacks.

In Phase 1, Take Out the Drones

In the first Phase of the battle, you won't be able to attack The Arsenal directly. Take out its Drones first to release the Barrier and continue to Phase 2.

Phase 2

	Phase Point Summary
1	You'll go toe-to-toe with the Arsenal. It will start moving around, and its Left and Right Front Wheels and Back Wheels will become targets.

Phase 3

	Phase Point Summary
1	The Arsenal's Main Cannon will appear as an additional target.

Tips & Strategies for Beating The Arsenal

★ Strategy Checklist ★ (Click to jump)
Use Elemental Damage Hide Behind the Pillars Target its Weak Points Check its Defense Protocol Focus your Energy on The Arsenal

Use Elemental Damage

The Chocobo & Moogle Materia's final attack, Stampede, has a Wind element and was able to deal a whopping 9999 damage.

Unlike many other bosses with no weak element, The Arsenal itself is weak to all four elements. Although you won't be able to attack it directly until Phase 2, be sure to equip Barret with an Elemental Materia plus one of the offensive Magic Materia, and use Aerith when her ATB Gauge fills to keep the offensive Magic flowing.

Keep in mind that The Arsenal can use Damage Protocols to protect itself from certain elements. It can only do this for one element at a time, so simply switch to a different Spell, or switch characters to the one which can continue to do damage to its remaining weak points.

Hide Behind the Pillars

If this attack, Cry Havoc, hit one of your party members, they'll take 9999 damage and be instantly KO'd.

The pillars will be your rock-solid support for this battle. Make sure that you're taking cover behind pillars for the majority of the battle, especially during Phase 1 of the fight, as almost all of The Arsenal's attacks can be blocked completely. After each attack has ended, simply peek out from behind the pillar to unleash a volley of bullets or an offensive Spell. As both of your characters are ranged attackers, there's no need to get particularly close.

Watch out for its attack Homing Lasers, which can hit your party even from behind the pillars; even still, you'll be far better off than standing out in the open. Its other charged laser attack has a long pre-attack animation, and you should be able to dodge out of the way easily.

As the battle continues, The Arsenal will destroy the pillars one by one, but only at the very end of the battle will you be left with no pillars to protect you.

Target its Weak Points

Whenever the Arsenal brings up its right arm to charge Primary Fire or charges up Homing Laser, a weak point appears. Hit the Main or Laser Cannons with your strongest lightning magic or Barret's Focused Shot to stop the attack and leave the Arsenal open for easier staggering.

Check its Defense Protocol

The Arsenal using Physical Defense Protocol, changing its color to Yellow. This grants it Resistance to Physical damage.

Starting in Phase 2, The Arsenal will begin to use Defense Protocol Abilities. These Abilities will add a Resistance to one of the four elements, or to Physical attacks as a whole. You can check which Defense Protocol it is using by watching the color of the tubes surrounding its body. For example, The Arsenal's color will change to Yellow for Physical Defense Protocol, Blue for Lightning Defense Protocol, and White for Ice Defense Protocol.

The Arsenal can only use one Defense Protocol at a time. So when its Defense Protocol matches the element of your Weapon or Magic, switch to a different element for your attacks or to the other character to ensure that you can keep hitting for maximum damage.

Focus your Energy on The Arsenal

It's highly possible to defeat The Arsenal without taking out any of its Wheels. And even if one of its Wheels is crippled, it doesn't seem to affect The Arsenal's Focus Gauge, and also does not hurt its capability to use movement-based Abilities like Charge. As such, it doesn't seem to be highly advantageous to target any of the alternate targets after Phase 1.

Instead of spreading your damage thin across the multiple targets, simply aim true at The Arsenal and keep the hurt coming.

The Arsenal: Hard Mode Guide

Ice

Fire

Wind

The Arsenal may be weak to Lightning, however there are times when its weaknesses change and not having the rest of the elements at your disposal on Hard Mode can make things more difficult than they need to be. To be fully prepared for this fight, equip the remaining elemental magic materia on Aerith to cover all your bases.

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)