Final Fantasy 7 was the first in the Final Fantasy series to give good rewards for beating seemingly impossible optional bosses found only in the US version of the game, Emerald and Ruby Weapon. These bosses when taken like any other boss can be very difficult, but there are ways of whittling down even their godly 1,000,000 hp.
Emerald Weapon should be your first of the two super-bosses. Things to keep in mind when fighting him:
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Emerald Weapon does not have extremely high physical or magical defense. Magic and physical attacks do about the same amount of damage.
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Emerald Weapon is very high level, Yuffie's ultimate weapon (the conformer) will almost always do 9999 damage to him every hit.
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Emerald Weapon does not cast any spells that cause status effects.
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Fighting Emerald Weapon normally has a 20-minute timer that he must be killed in or you will die. You can elimate this timer by equipping the Underwater materia. This can be obtained by finding the Guidebook and giving it to the man collecting items in Kalm. This Guidebook can be obtained by morphing a Ghost Ship found either in the tube on the way to the underwater reactor, or in the battle arena in the gold saucer.
Here are 2 main ways of defeating Emerald Weapon. I used a combination of both in my fight.
The first is to use Knights of the Round paired with MP turbo. Then use w-summon to cast it twice in one round. Have your other 2 members use mime to cast it a total of 6 times. This has the ability of doing up to 779,922 damage. That is over 3/4 of Emerald Weapon's total hp! Repeat until he is dead.
The second way is get as many mastered counter-attacks as you possibly can (I used 9). Then equip Yuffie with the conformer which does more damage based on the level of the enemy. Since I assume Emerald Weapon is level 99, and he does not have much physical defense, Yuffie always hit him for 9999 damage. With this setup I use my other characters to keep everyone alive while Yuffie counter-attacks 9 times for 9999 damage each hit (89,991 damage to be exact) every time Emerald Weapon hit her. Don't worry about a cover materia during this battle, all of Emerald Weapon's attacks are uncoverable.
For beating Emerald Weapon you get an Earth Harp which can be turned in to the guy in Kalm for one of each master materia.
Ruby Weapon is the next and sadly the last of the American super-bosses. Here are a few tips when fighting Ruby Weapon:
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Ruby Weapon will suck away two of your party members at the beginning of the fight, leaving you with only one. This makes the battle a lot tougher. To choose which characters stays, kill the two you don't want before the battle and Ruby will not suck away anybody (unless you revive the others somehow).
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Ruby Weapon's physical defense is extremely high, much higher than his magic defense. Don't even think about killing Ruby with physical attacks.
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Casting Knights of the Round on Ruby will prompt him to counter-attack with Ultima.
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Ruby Weapon likes to confuse your character every once in a while. Use a ribbon to prevent this.
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A mystile armor will really help you dodge those castings of Ultima. Plus it has 6 linked slots.
Ruby is one tough boss to kill, much harder than Emerald Weapon, but it can be done. Here are 2 ways to beat him.
The first I have done myself and it works. It works on the idea that one cannot counter-attack against a counter-attack. So Ruby cannot counter-attack with Ultima when I counter-attack with Knights of the Round. This way requires a good bit of materia leveling-up. First attach a master summon (the one you got from killing Emerald Weapon) to a hp-absorb materia. Then attach an at least level 2 Knights of the Round to a MP-turbo materia. Finally put as many command counter - mime combinations as you can fit in your materia slots, saving room for a hp plus, a magic plus, and maybe a w-summon (it really helps, but is not necessary). At the beginning of the battle cast Knights of the Round on Ruby's stalks then sit back and watch. Every time Ruby hits you, you should counter-attack with Knights of the Round draining about 8000 life with each casting for each command counter - mime you have (times 2 if you w-summoned Knights of the Round). Ruby should fall after 8 or 9 castings.
The second way I have planned but not actually used. It requires a little more time because you are not casting
Knights of the Round but other spells that do not prompt him to retaliate. I would choose either contain or Ultima. Ultima would probably work a little better but is a little harder to level up than contain. First hook an Ultima with quadra magic, then another Ultima with hp-absorb, and another with mp-absorb. An mp-turbo attached to an Ultima would also be helpful. Then stick a magic plus, w-magic, and a few command counter - mimes. Start off by using Ultima on the stalks and when they die start hitting Ruby. Use mime when your character gets a turn so the quadra magic
materia doesn't run out. I would also recommend not equipping a mystile since if Ruby misses you, you don't get a counter-attack.
For beating Ruby Weapon you get a Desert Rose which can be turned into the guy in Kalm for a gold chocobo.
Final Fantasy 7 was a great game and I'm glad I finally wrote something on it. Hope these help someone!