I know many people are having difficulties with this fight. I was, too, until I combined some stuff from other guides, worked out my own strategies, and talked through them. I hope this helps you all.
FF7 Rebirth Legendary Bout: Bonds of Friendship Strategy
Refer to the video below for the strategy to beat each phase of the fight.
The materia and equipment setup for Cloud are listed below.
Cloud’s Materia & Equipment Setup
Weapon and Materia:
Sleek Saber
Location: Chapter 2 Chest
(Elemental) – (Lightning and Wind) (Revival) (Strength Up) (Speed Up) (Enemy Skill)
Armor and Materia:
Cetran Bracer
Location: Chapter 13 Chest
(Magnify) – (Healing) (Elemental) – (Fire and Ice) (Skill Master) (First Strike) (HP Up) (MP Up)
Accessory:
Götterdämmerung
Location: Brutal VR 6: Rulers of the Outer Worlds
Weapon Skills:
- Weapon Ability ATB Recovery
- Selfish Buff Up
- ATB Charge Rate Up
- ATB Charge Rate Up
Summon:
Phoenix
Explanation:
Elemental + Lightning and Wind allows to exploit weaknesses on Titan, Kujata*, Hueyacoatl, Brineborn Demon, Ironclad, Alexander, Sea Dragon, and King Zu. This is 11 of the 20 encounters across these 2 bouts and makes a massive difference. Even without weaknesses, it still adds damage.
Revive is self-explanatory. Sub it out for Reraise if you prefer that and are consistent with applying it.
STR Up and SPD Up increase your damage a lot, either via raw damage or quicker ATB charge. This also helps with preparing for Synergies.
Enemy Skill gives good basic stat boosts and also provides Sonic Boom, a wind elemental skill that casts Bravery and Faith, massively increasing damage.
Magnify + Healing for you and the boys.
Elemental + Fire and Ice will let you absorb 2/3 of Kujata’s damage, all but 1 Phoenix attack, almost all Sea Dragon damage, Ironclad’s Firaga, and all but one King Zu attack (don’t let him Swansong, Tornado is meh damage).
Skill Master gives you more ATB, which means more damage and synergy.
First Strike lets you Sonic Boom immediately before Cross Slash, meaning with weakness the 3 hits of Cross Slash will hit around 15k. Big starting damage.
HP Up and MP Up are self-explanatory; we have limited MP in the arena, no use of items, and stuff hits REALLY hard.
One thing was brought to my attention, thanks to @keanu8890 on YouTube. It doesn’t involve tweaking the build at all, but I definitely neglect to use it. Stop (the Magic Spell)! It works on a fair few of the enemies in these rounds and is already a part of Zack’s toolkit. It might end up making your life even easier!
What’s next? Legendary Bout 9: To Be a Hero
The same strategy works for the Legendary Bout with Cloud and Sephiroth. But it’s much easier because Sephiroth is stronger than Zack and has a better materia build that includes Skill Master and Reraise.
Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comments section below.