For synergy skills you have to hold, you don’t need to keep holding the face button. While guarding, tap the face button to initiate the command, and keep holding guard until you want to perform it. Synergy Skills also build two characters’ ATB meters at once, meaning you don’t have to switch to someone and attack to be able to use abilities, cast spells, or use items. It’s really worth it to get used to them early.
Aerial Combat Is Much Easier Now
Aerial Combat in FF7 Remake was a bit messy, as Barret and Aerith were the only ones who could do it reliably, so Cloud and Tifa felt a bit useless in those moments by comparison. Rebirth gives myriad ways for melee characters to attack airborne enemies, such as the aforementioned Synergy Skills, like Aerith’s Heavenly Ascent.
With Cloud, after dodging, your attacks will be projectiles, and if you hold the attack button, you’ll zip up to airborne enemies. Experiment in the combat simulator with different combinations to figure out your preferred way of taking the fight to the skies, and keep in mind when selecting your party that some characters, such as Red XIII, are not nearly as effective against aerial enemies.
Pay Attention to Ability Symbols
The small symbols in black boxes at the bottom of the screen when selecting them in combat tell you which properties that ability has, such as building stocks for Synergy Abilities, an ability that will launch you airborne, or an ability that can be used while in the air.
They’re really small on screen, so you’ll need to actively look for them, or check the in-game manual for refreshers until you remember which ability has which effect.
Switch Party Members On the Fly
You can very quickly change your party members in the field by bringing up the command menu and pressing R1 and L1 to toggle between your three pre-made party makeups. This is a good way to quickly swap out a party member with low health or MP in favor of a fresh one and avoid having to use an item or healing spell. If you do need to use items, hold L1 while selecting them to enable Multiuse– this means you can keep the menu open and keep selecting options. Otherwise it’ll close every time you use something.
Chocobos Are More Convenient Than You Think
Other than actually fighting, chocobos can do almost everything else that you can while on foot. You can open chests, pick up resources, traverse the environment, and even repair chocobo stops, the small blue bus-stop looking areas with the fallen sign, without ever getting off. Collecting resources is actually quicker on Chocoback because one button press will pick up all the items grouped together on the ground.
Also, when you start a fight while riding, Cloud does a cool flip. That’s reason enough to stay mounted right there!
Protorelic Requests Move You Across the Map
One of the best ways to explore the open-world areas is to follow the Protorelic Quest. These quests are multi-part quests that take you all across the nearby area, so by choosing this as your active mission, you’ll naturally come across a majority of what the zone has to offer as you travel from place to place.
Moogle Medal Retrieval Methods
Moogle Medals make a return in Rebirth, and they’re a very valuable resource, especially for expanding your character folios. They can be used at the Mogstools, the mushroom houses the Moogles reside in, after you complete the Moogle Mischief minigame for each one. You can repeat these Moogle Mischief minigames as many times as you want, and you’ll receive a medal for each completion. You’ll also find a lot of them in the breakable Shinra crates spread throughout the world, especially on or around Remnawave Towers. Even if the switch to activate the tower is at the base, always climb up to the top and collect all the medals you can!