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Return to the Gold Saucer and take on a series of tough bosses in the Chapter 12 Arena. All the bosses are back in this bonus round — you’ll fight Don Corneo, the Turks and even President Shinra himself in one big throwdown. The Turks are exactly what you’d expect and haven’t changed much since their initial appearance, but Don Corneo is full of dirty tricks.
His pet Abzu is back for round two and it’s a lot tougher than it looks. Meanwhile, Rufus is even more difficult this round. He’ll always counter your attacks unless you counterattack him — trying to attack Rufus while he’s simply walking (or standing) and you’ll get an auto-grab that deals high damage. You’ll need to master the art of guarding, evading and parrying Rufus’ ridiculously fast attacks. And yes, his big monster dog is here with him. Get all our strategies for the Chapter 12 bosses below.
Boss: Abzu
- Weakness: Fire
- Inflicting enough fire damage will light them on fire and pressure them. When their HP falls below half, they will begin evading fire spells and Corneo will douse any flames. They will crash into the wall if Ferocious Charge misses, pressuring them and causing Corneo to faint.
After a grueling series of battles you’ll take on Corneo riding Abzu — a boss from Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Equip Fire Materia to light Abzu on fire and pressure it. To further pressure, use Tifa’s Unfettered Fury twice to charge up her abilities and deal more stagger damage. I also recommend using Magnify + Healing for this fight.
In the second phase, Abzu will douse itself when lit on fire, giving you a shorter window of bonus pressure. You can easily hit it after it performs its Ferocious Charge — after certain attacks it will rest, giving you time to hit it with Elemental Magic. Cloud’s Firebolt Blade also works well here.
Evading its Ferocious Charge is surprisingly difficult and isn’t required to take down the boss. When it enters Counterpose stance, be prepared to Perfect Guard or Evade its quick follow-up attack.
Boss: Elena & Rude
- Elena Weakness: Thunder
- Landing powerful offensive abilities or interrupting her Turks’ synergy strikes will pressure her. While she is in Rogue Stance, striking her with two powerful abilities will pressure her.
- Rude Weakness: Wind
- Hitting him with multiple powerful offensive abilities while his guard is up will pressure him. Interrupting his synergy strikes will also pressure him.
Like the first Turks encounter in Chapter 3, this fight follows the same basic strategy. Focus on Elena first and defeat her. Use powerful offensive abilities like Focused Shot, Braver, Moogle Knuckle, Sidewinder — basically anything that delivers a strong hit of physical damage. When she enters Rogue Stance, command two party members to unleash powerful attacks to break her stance and pressure her.
Rude is similar. Use multiple abilities when he guards to break his guard and pressure him. Usually, two is enough but may require three. This is a straightforward fight that’s a prelude to the next big — and much tougher — boss fight.
Boss: Rufus
- Weakness: N/A
- Immune: All Elemental Damage
- Striking him while he is reloading or landing an ATB command after he attacks will pressure him. ATB commands will leave him open longer than basic attacks. Hitting him with certain attacks while he is reloading or after he attacks will stagger him instantly.
An extremely difficult boss fight. You’ll be stuck using Cloud solo for this fight — no Elemental Materia required, because Rufus is immune to almost everything. Only standard attacks will work against him. He will counterattack any time you attempt to strike him while he’s standing still or walking. You can only hit Rufus while he is pressured.
Wait for Rufus to unleash an attack. He often uses ranged attacks, so Triple Slash is an extremely strong counter — this attack teleports Cloud directly to Rufus and ignore any damage. It happens instantly and can’t be interrupted, making this a perfect ability to use for countering.
- Darkstar
- Inflicting enough damage or severing its link with Rufus will pressure it.
Darkstar appears after Rufus is down to about 40% health. Defeating Rufus will defeat both of them. While linked, Rufus can heal Darkstar or vice versa. While Darkstar adds a challenging extra wrinkle to the boss, the fight still plays out the same.
