Best Materia and Materia Combos (Intergrade Updated) | Best Materia for Hard Mode

This is a guide to the best materia and materia combinations in Final Fantasy 7 Remake (FF7R) and Intergrade DLC. See what the best magic, support, command, and complete materia are, as well as what you should pair with elemental or magnify materia. Additionally, we will explain the best materia builds for Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith to use on Hard mode.

Best Materia

Best Magic Materia

Materia	Rating/How to Use
Healing	Recommendation Level: ★★★★★ ・Basically required to get through the story ・Keep at least two equipped on your party ・Very good to pair with Magnify
Revival	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・The only way to revive fallen allies on hard mode. ・Having two on your team will keep you safe
Barrier	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Makes you only take half physical and magic damage ・Very useful for surviving Bahamut's Megaflare ・Not needed for picking off smaller enemies
Time	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Triggers Haste, which allows you to greatly speed up the ATB gauge ・Be sure and keep one in your party
Lightning	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Very useful against all of the mechanical enemies who are weak to it ・It is guaranteed to hit the attack is not interrupted ・Very good when paired with Elemental Materia
Fire	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Very useful against all of the human enemies who are weak to it ・Very good when paired with Elemental Materia
Ice	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Very useful against biological enemies who are weak to it ・Pair with Elemental Materia on your armor to make easy work of Shiva.

List of Magic Materia

Best Support Materia

Materia	Rating/How to Use
Elemental	Recommendation Level: ★★★★★ ・Increases power when equipped to a weapon, and increases resilience when equipped to armor ・Allows you to block out most elemental based attacks from foes that have them.
Magnify	Recommendation Level: ★★★★★ ・Best paired with healing or support materia ・Only one in the game, so use it wisely
AP Up	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Great when you want to level up certain materia quickly ・Offers no bonus stats or combat abilities, which is the trade-off

List of Support Materia

Best Command Materia

Materia	Rating/How to Use
Assess	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Excellent for learning weaknesses and tips against both smaller enemies and bosses ・Required to complete all Battle Reports ・Make sure to always keep one on your party, and swap to another character if the party changes
Chakra	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Very useful for recovering HP without using MP ・Can cure the poison status ailment ・Equip to a character who takes lots of attacks from enemies
Prayer	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Another method of recovering HP without using MP ・Note that it will use up 2 ATB gauges ・Allows you to recover 2,500 HP.

List of Command Materia

Best Complete Materia

Materia	Rating/How to Use
HP Up	Recommendation Level: ★★★★★ ・Essential on high difficulty bosses / hard mode ・Equip two to each character ・There is a limit, so there is no point to equipping more than three
MP Up	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Great for Hard Mode where MP runs out easily ・Equip two on Aerith, who will use a lot of magic
Magic Up	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Good on Aerith or any character who is attacking primarily with magic ・With two equipped, Cura will restore 6,500 HP, and Magnify will restore 5,000
Steadfast Block	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Allows you to gain ATB faster and take less damage when blocking ・Good for characters fighting at close range
ATB Assist	Recommendation Level: ★★★★☆ ・Will fill up half of your allies' ATB gauges. ・Very good to use with Refocus ・Great on Cloud and Tifa
First Strike	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Gives a huge ATB boost at the start of battle ・Lets you take down weak enemies that show up in an instant ・Not super great against tough boss battles.
Skill Master	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・When triggered, give you about 1.5 ATB bars ・Great on Cloud and Tifa
Refocus	Recommendation Level: ★★★☆☆ ・Extremely good when paired with Gotterdammerung ・If you get KO'd, you'll lose its effect, so watch keep an eye on your HP.

List of Complete Materia

Best Materia Combos

Best Elemental Materia Combinations

Pairing	How to Use
Lightning ✕ Elemental	・Great for increasing a physical attacker's damage output ・Very effective against Sweepers and Cutters, and other mechanical enemies with lots of HP when equipped to a weapon ・Can be equipped to armor to counter enemies with lightning based attacks
Ice ✕ Elemental	・Equipping this to your armor makes the Shiva battle much easier ・Most biological enemies are weak to Ice, so equip it to your armor to fight them
Fire ✕ Elemental	・Most human enemies have a fire weakness, so equipping this to a weapon lets you mow them down ・Not much of a reason to equip it to armor

Best Magnify Materia Combinations

Pairing	How to Use
Healing ✕ Magnify	・Recommended above all pairings ・Equip this and a Magic Up Materia to a teammate who will fight from the back and have them support your other characters ・When using on everyone, the HP recovered will decrease
Barrier ✕ Magnify	・Excellent against bosses like Bahamut who can one shot you very easily ・You'll need to have some way of healing everyone at once, such as Prayer or Healing Winds
Time ✕ Magnify	・Lets you use Haste on all allies and speed up the time battle takes ・Good for battles like Fat Chocobo where the enemies have lots of HP but aren't that tough
Fire ✕ Magnify	・Lets you take out Shinra soldiers in a jiffy ・Very effect against hard to hit foes who use shields.

Can be paired alongside HP Absorption and MP Absorption

Materia Equipped
Lightning ✕ Magnify	Lightning ✕ HP Absorption	Lightning ✕ MP Absorption

Magnify Materia can be equipped at the same time as other support materia to trigger multiple effects at once. For example, when equipping all of the combinations shown above, using Thundaga will allow you to inflict massive AOE damage while simultaneously recovering that damage as HP and MP.

Best Materia Builds for Each Character

Best Materia Build for Cloud

Weapon (6 Slots)
Lightning ✕ Elemental		Healing
HP Up	HP Up	Steadfast Block
Armor (3 Slots)
ATB Assist	Skill Master	First Strike
Summon
Bahamut

This Materia build is based on the idea that you'll pretty much be using Cloud in every battle. For the most part, First Strike allows you to go into battle with ATB ready to go, so you can proceed to use the Triple Strike ability and take down the weaker enemies right away.

Alternatives

Materia	Reason
Chakra	Lets you recover HP without spending MP, making it very useful in Hard mode. Good on the character you'll be controlling
Assess	Great for assessing the enmies right as the battle starts
Refocus	Can be used right away when paired with Gotterdammerung, and very good for boss battles
ATB Boost	Excellent against easy to stagger foes, and allows you to quickly gain access to strong abilities like Infinity's End

Best Materia Build for Barret

Weapon (6 Slots)
Healing ✕ Magnify		Fire
Revival	HP Up	MP Up
Armor (3 Slots)
MP Up	Magic Up	Magic Up
Summon Materia
Leviathan

This build assumes Barret will mostly use magic attacks and heal allies from the back. The Materia loadout is the same as Aerith, but there are very few times where you'll use Barret and Aerith simultaneously, so this is not that big of an issue.

Alternatives

Materia	Reason
Barrier	Great for reducing the damage you take in battle, and very useful in tougher quests
Time	Great for speeding up your ATB gauge with Haste, and very useful in tougher quests
Prayer	Lets you recover HP without spending MP, making it very useful in Hard mode

Best Materia Build for Tifa

Weapon (6 Slots)
Ice ✕ Elemental		Healing
Revival	Time	Prayer
Armor (3 Slots)
HP Up	HP Up	MP Up
Summon Materia
Fat Chocobo

This materia build allows Tifa to fight in the frontlines and provide support. If you mostly want to control Tifa, you may want to change a few of her materia to increase her damage output, while tweeking Cloud's loadout as well.

Alternatives

Materia	Reason
Barrier	Great for reducing the damage you take in battle, and very useful in tougher quests
Chakra	Lets you recover HP without spending MP, making it very useful in Hard mode. Good on the character you'll be controlling
Skill Master	Lets you gain ATB quicker, and good if you plan to control Tifa a lot in battle
ATB Assist	Lets you gain ATB quicker, and good if you plan to control Tifa a lot in battle
Steadfast Block	Speeds up your ATB gauge while reducing the damage you take when blocking, and great for higher difficulty quests

Best Materia Build for Aerith

Weapon (6 Slots)
Healing ✕ Magnify		Fire
Revival	HP Up	MP Up
Armor (3 Slots)
MP Up	Magic Up	Magic Up
Summon Materia
Leviathan

This build assumes Aerith will mostly use magic attacks and heal allies from the back. The Materia loadout is the same as Barret's, but there are very few times where you'll use Barret and Aerith simultaneously, so this is not that big of an issue.

Alternatives

Materia	Reason
Wind	Great for hitting helitroopers and other enemies that fly and are hard to hit with normal attacks
Barrier	Great for reducing the damage you take in battle, and very useful in tougher quests
Time	Great for speeding up your ATB gauge with Haste, and very useful in tougher quests
Prayer	Lets you recover HP without spending MP, making it very useful in Hard mode
HP Up	Additioal HP will grant more safety in battle, so this will be especially useful against very powerful enemies

Best Materia for Intergrade Characters

Best Materia Build For Yuffie

Weapon (6 Slots)
Fire ✕ Elemental		Revival
First Strike	HP Up	MP Up
Armor (3 Slots)
Healing ✕ Magnify		ATB Stagger
Summon Materia
Ramuh

Alternatives

Materia	Reason
Ninja Cannonball	Great to have to make sure Sonon is able to fill his ATB gauge even when Synergizing. It can be on either Yuffie or Sonon to have an affect.
Steadfast Block	Speeds up your ATB gauge while reducing the damage you take when blocking, and great for higher difficulty quests
Time	Great for speeding up your ATB gauge with Haste, and very useful in tougher quests
Prayer	Lets you recover HP without spending MP, making it very useful in Hard mode
HP Up	Additioal HP will grant more safety in battle, so this will be especially useful against very powerful enemies

Best Materia Build For Sonon

Weapon (6 Slots)
Time ✕ Magnify		Steadfast Block
First Strike	HP Up	HP Up
Armor (3 Slots)
Healing	Ninja Cannonball	ATB Stagger
Summon Materia
Ramuh

Alternatives

Materia	Reason
Provoke	Useful to keep enemies away from Yuffie when she is low. Only effective against non-boss fight characters
Auto-Cure	Can auto heal Yuffie and Sonon and useful if you have trouble giving commands to Sonon
Barrier	Great for reducing the damage you take in battle, and very useful in tougher quests
Prayer	Lets you recover HP without spending MP, making it very useful in Hard mode
MP Up	Sonon has a low MP pool, giving him more MP will allow him to use more spells

Materia Related Links

List of Materia

Materia
Magic	Command	Complete	Support	Summon
Best Materia Combos | Best Materia for Hard Mode