Check out this guide on the Monsters of Legend battle in Final Fantasy 7 Remake (FF7 Remake, FF7R)! Learn how to beat Tonberry, Malboro, best materia, tips, tricks, and more!!!
Table of Contents
How To Unlock 3-C Soldier Challenges & Rewards
Location And Rewards
| Location | Shinra Battle Simulator ※HARD Mode, Chapter 17 |
|---|---|
| Mission | Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend |
| Reward | Refocus Materia |
Recommended Equipment For All Characters
Best Characters & Equipment
 Cloud | Weapon: Hardedge Armor: Force Bracelet Accessory: Revival Earring or Protective Boots Limit: Ascension |
|---|---|
| Aerith | Weapon: Reinforced Staff Armor: Chain Bangle Accessory: Revival Earrings Limit: Healing Wind |
| Barret | Weapon: EKG Cannon Armor: Force Bracelet Accessory: Revival Earrings Limit: Catastrophe |
Recommended Party: Cloud, Aerith, Barret
Although it's definitely possible to swap out Barret for Tifa, we recommend the above mentioned 3 for your party. This is because having two melee will simply increase how often Tonberry uses Chef's Knife to melee one-hit you.
Bring Revival Earrings
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Revival Earrings | Enter battle with the Auto-Life status effect. Revives you when you die once. Breaks on use. |
Revival Earrings will be key here because you'll be facing not one but two Tonberries (in separate battles). This means your characters are sure to die, so having at least one free rez will help you out substantially. Revival Earrings can be purchased at the vending machine near the Battle Simulator in Chapter 17.
Recommended Materia
| Materia | Rating | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Revival | ★★★ | ・Absolute must for Tonberry. ・Bring one for each character |
| Healing | ★★★ | ・Bring one heal for each character! |
| Magnify | ★★★ | ・Combine with Healing Materia on Aerith! |
| Subversion Materia | ★★★ | ・Combine with Warding Materia on Cloud to prevent Tonberry insta-kills |
| Warding Materia | ★★★ | ・(See above) Rank 2 reduces chance of dying to 50%, Rank 3 makes you completely immune to death |
| Ice | ★★★ | ・Lets you deal with Bombs easily |
| MP Up | ★★★ | ・Lets you stall longer during Tonberry fights ・Bring at least 2 |
| HP Up | ★★・ | ・Helpful to take hits from Behemoth ・Bring one for each character |
| Barrier | ★★・ | ・Barrier will be very useful for the Behemoth |
| Time | ★★・ | ・Hasting Cloud increases DPS a lot ・Can Slow Tonberry |
| ATB Stagger | ★★・ | ・Helps slightly to deal more damage during Staggers |
| First Strike | ★★・ | ・Lets you get off a Haste first thing in the fight |
| Fire | ★・・ | ・Link with Elemental Materia (Rank 2 or higher) in a piece of armor, not a weapon to become immune to Fire Damage ・Helps you deal with Bomb easily |
| Elemental Materia | ★・・ | ・See above |
| Steadfast Block | ★・・ | ・Helpful for the Behemoth fight sometimes |
Warding + Subversion For Tonberry
Link Warding and Subversion Materia on a character, as this will reduce (Rank 1/2) or entirely eliminate (Rank 3) their chance of getting one-hit-killed by Tonberry! This is perhaps the most important choice you can make here. Read below for more details on how to take out Tonberry.
HP and MP Up For All Is Best
This series of fights will strain your MP and require quite a high pool of HP. It is recommended to have max rank HP & MP Up Materia for all 3 characters. If you can't do this, prioritize HP Up for Cloud & MP Up for Aerith.
Fire + Elemental Is Possible
If you have extra materia slots, it's possible to link Fire and Elemental (Rank 2) Materia in a piece of armor, not a weapon, to nullify damage taken from the Bomb in fights 1 & 4.
Bomb Guide
Key Points- Use Ice Moves To Build Up Its Stagger
- Move Away From The Fire Breath
- Use Blizzaga During Stagger
Counterattacks During Inflame
When the bomb swells up and uses the ability "Inflame", attacking it will deal damage back to you. At this point, switch to a character that can take the hits. If you have an Elemental + Fire Materia absorb combo set up, use that character exclusively for this fight!
Avoid The Breath
The Bomb will start spewing fire in a particular direction. Don't sit there spamming auto attacks at it while this happens, dodge away immediately! Other than that, this enemy should go down after one stagger.
Tonberry Guide
Key Points- Fight With Your Subversion/Warding Character
- Don't Worry About Healing, Focus On Rezzing And Damage
- Try To Dodge Chef's Knife To Stagger It
Revive On Everyone Is A Must
Even with Earrings on everyone, you will need to have Revive on all 3 characters, as anyone could die at any moment. Revival Materia can be purchased at the vending machine in Chapter 17 right near you.
Prioritizes Your Main Character
Generally speaking, Tonberry will prioritize the character you're currently playing as. For this reason, we recommend having a Rank 3 Warding + Subversion Materia linked. This will give you 100% resistance to death. Rank 2 Warding Materia seems to only give you a 50% chance of avoiding death, so be careful!
Watch Out For Bone Deep Grudge
The ability Bone Deep Grudge will freeze time for all three of your characters. After this, Tonberry will walk over to another character and take them out. We saw this ability only when Tonberry failed to kill us with its moves (due to the above mentioned Materia). It's possible it performs this out of frustration as a last-ditch effort to take you out. If you struggle with this, bring Protective Boots.
Staggers Easily After Failing Chef's Knife
The best time to raise Tonberry's Stagger bar is after it fails to use Chef's Knife. The only way to make it fail is to dodge out of the way. However, if you're mid-attack, you won't be able to react in time. Therefore, when you see Tonberry turn toward you, pause for a moment to see if it's about to use Chef's Knife and try to dodge away.
Switch Characters Wisely To Avoid Scourge
Tonberry's Scourge is a ranged ability that will usually be fired at a ranged character, prioritizing ones you're currently using. This means that your Raise could be interrupted if you're not careful! Try to bait Tonberry to use Scourge on one character, then switch to another with a full ATB gauge to use Raise!
Type-O Behemoth Guide
Key Points- Don't Use Magic While The Horn Is Up
- Put Up Barrier
- Attack From Behind Using Cloud
Horns Make It Immune To Magic
The Behemoth cannot be hit with magic spells until its Horns have been taken out. However, taking out the horns takes a long time, so we opted for just not using magic on this fight. We're not sure if this makes the fight take longer, but it's definitely a bit safer, as your healers will always be ready to fire off a Cure.
Take Out Its Legs To Stagger
Focus on taking out the Behemoth's legs one at a time. Doing so will stagger it, at which point you should use your Limit Breaks and go all out. Remember if you have the horns up, you still can't use magic, so try using other abilities with Aerith and Barret.
Keep Barrier Up
Since Behemoth's damage is largely physical, you'll want to have barrier up 100% of the time. Just on Cloud is okay, but Behemoth will occasionally attack other characters too, so it might be worth it to hit everyone with it.
Haste On Cloud + Triple Slash
By applying Haste on Cloud and using Triple Slash, you can get fairly high DPS in. Buff up Cloud, but make sure to dodge around to the Behemoth's rear every time it turns towards you! You can also roll through it. It does a tail swipe as well which will knock you back. Switch to Aerith or Barret at that point.
Tonberry & Bomb Guide
Key Points- Take Out Bomb First Fast
- Same Strategy For Tonberry
Battles #1 and #2 Put Together
This fight is more or less the same as #1 and #2, but at the same time. This makes it a bit more difficult, especially given that you've likely exhausted your Revival Earrings and have lower MP. However, focus on taking out the Bomb as fast as you can.
If You Struggle, Bring Fire + Elemental
If the Bomb is giving you trouble, consider switching to Fire + Elemental (Rank 2 or higher) equipped in an armor slot, not a weapon, to take it out a bit easier. You'll want to get it out of the way ASAP.
Slow Tonberry
Using the Time Materia you can slow Tonberry at the start of the fight so you can have a bit more leeway to take out the bomb.
Malboro Guide
Key Points- Dodge Bad Breath!
- Cure Poison OR Heal Up Regularly
Dodge Bad Breath
Malboro is, fortunately, not a very difficult fight. Simply fight it by running behind it and using melee abilities as Cloud. When it indicates it's going to use Bad Breath, simply run away (either back, or to the sides!) That's it!
Poisons Your Party
Your party will take continuous ticking damaging from some of the poison abilities the Malboro has. Either dispel them with Esuna, or simply use a Healing + Magnify Cure every once in a while as Aerith to keep up your health.
