Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: How To Beat Specimen H1024 & Crimson Mare Mk. 2 | Ch. 9 Bosses

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The toughest bosses in the game so far appear in Chapter 9 — both Specimen H1024 and Crimson Mare Mk. 2 can wipe your party if you don’t target their weaknesses. You’re stuck using specific characters for both boss fights, so don’t rely on your usual strategies. You’ll need to change things up and reset your Materia for the best chance at survival. Bring Ice Materia for the first fight and Fire Materia for use against Scarlet herself. The Specimen will slowly absorb more Mako until it unleashes a killer attack that hits your entire party — there’s no dodging this, you’ll just have to suppress it by dealing high damage while it attempts to absorb. Interrupting it is your only option. The Crimson Mare has a similar mechanic. If you don’t destroy both arms of the mech (before one is repaired) then she’ll continue to hammer you with deadly attacks. Try dealing damage to both equally before quickly crippling. And that’s just scratching the surface of these encounters. Learn more about each boss in the full guide below.

The first party that arrives at the Abandoned Reactor will fight this weird mutant. The boss fights in this chapter are some of the more difficult ones in the game. I recommend preparing. Complete side-quests and other activities in the previous regions to level up before attempting these bosses.

For this fight, you’ll have access to Cloud, Barret, Red XIII and Cait Sith. I highly recommend using Red XIII over Cait Sith — Cait can be really useful, but if you’re still learning the systems of FF7, his random abilities and weird features can be a challenge to overcome. Especially against a genuinely difficult boss fight. Red XIII is much easier to get to grips with and has immediately useful abilities. Give the Magnify Materia to Barret or Red XIII and combine with Barrier or Healing. You can protect your entire party for the cost of one spell.

Equip Blizzard Materia — this is VERY important. The Specimen will unleash a deadly attack if you don’t stop its