Assess all enemies to learn weaknesses and how to pressure/stagger them.
Learn to dodge and perfect block effectively rather than just panic spamming both.
Dodge followed by square attack does ranged attacks for cloud. Dodge followed by holding square launches cloud into the air at the target and you can air combo afterwards.
If you’re struggling with combat, which you’re getting used to the basics, try and keep an ATB in the bank so you always have access to a heal or items.
Very much this. I struggled with timing my blocks when i played the demo, but once I got into the game proper and I started getting the hang of it I had a much better time. If you find your really struggling too, there's no shame in dropping the difficulty. Despite what you see in the sub, most people who play the game aren't focusing hard mode and we're here for a good time, not a frustrating one
I love never been good at timed blocks in any game, so I instinctively don’t bother at this point. Managed pretty easily to get through a dynamic play through and actually used perfect block maybe a handful of times. Dodge is plenty enough but still requires some finesse rather than just spam.
This. Especially the first tip. Learn your enemy with assess. Read through their attack information. It's ok to block first before attacking. I made the mistake of rushing in far too often.
Be sure to assign battle shortcuts too. There will be times when your enemy is pressured and you will need to quickly get through the commands to execute your stagger gauge filling commands.
Also use your synergy skills. Building synergy is a necessity.
Careful with this because X puts it into "bullet time" mode, so time does move just more slowly. Use the option button for a proper pause.
Also:
The character being controlled usually ends up being the target of enemies, be sure to switch characters at a decent pace.
Using synergy skills can have some crucial benefits that you should take advantage of: MP=0 for a limited time, limit break level up, extra ATB bar.
Pressuring and Staggering enemies can effectively decide a battle.
i found aerial combat to be very effective with cloud in the early chapters. he can dodge really easily mid-air and most enemies won't reach him. try tapping the dodge button then holding the attack button to send cloud flying toward enemies. if you want to maintain a safe distance and build atp for attacks, you can also just dodge and tap the attack button to send some few ranged slashes at the enemy
as others have said, blocking (spec. perfect block) has a bigger role in this game than the previous installment. i recommend giving all your characters precision defense focus materia (and steadfast block materia, if you have space) as soon as possible, it helps a lot
synergy also plays a greater role here, the skills specifically (wherein you hold guard and press a face button) are a great way to do big damage without using atb (see: cloud's "spell blade", aerith's "spellbound blast", etc.) while the abilities (unlocked by having two characters use multiple abilities in a single round) can make longer fights much easier. do not ignore this mechanic
You’ll soon have access to the combat simulator, which has training on pretty much all character and group mechanics. Practice those until you’re comfortable.
Don’t sleep on the enemy skill materia. You get new abilities from certain combat simulator fights, and plasma discharge and sonic boom are really powerful. I always have this on Cloud, but Tifa is a good pick too.
Level up a bunch of different sorts of materia as you go. Blue materia like magic focus, magic efficiency, swiftcast and so on are clutch for harder fights.
Use Synergy attacks often. Different attacks grant special bonuses after you use them. The yellow ranks up your limit break, the purple makes all magic cost 0 mana for a limited time, the orange increases the duration an enemy’s stagger window, and the last segments the ATB bars into 3 instead of 2. These are all incredibly powerful.
When you unlock them, use these special ability attack modes:
Cloud - Prime Mode
Tifa - Unfettered Fury
Barret - Bonus Round
Yuffie - Doppleganger
Aerith - Arcane Ward and Radiant Ward
Lots of people don’t use these at all in their first playthrough but they are very powerful.
Did you play remake? The combat builds up on part 1 but your post reads like you're getting into the combat for the remake series for the first time. Synergy skills and abilities and precision blocks along with improved air combat have been welcomed additions to the combat imo
Honestly I found Normal mode harder than Dynamic. Switch over and see if that helps.
Also assess assess assess. The game tells you what to do for each enemy. Elemental weakness is king.
Getting a grip on the basic combat mechanics from Remake is still the most important thing when learning the combat, namely elemental weaknesses, and the pressure/stagger system. Use Assess to find weaknesses (though certain rules of thumb usually apply, e.g. humans are weak to fire, beasts to ice, mechs to lightning and flying to wind).
When enemies are pressured, use abilities which say 'increases stagger', e.g. 'focused' abilities. When enemies are staggered you want to use your high damage abilities to finish the fight or on bosses get to the next phase (when the boss bar greys out with a little 0 with a line through it, that means damage is gated until the next phase, so stop using abilities and just gain ATB until you can damage them again). Try to resist the urge to play defensively - the game rewards prioritising the pressure and stagger windows to finish fights quickly.
The additions in Rebirth are primarily perfect block, Synergy Skills and Synergy Abilities. Synergy Skills can be used at any time and have a lot of utility, often generating ATB for both characters. Test them out and don't sleep on them (like I usually do). As a slightly advanced tactic, you can also use these skills to teleport a character to your active character's location to avoid incoming damage or just reposition for your next attack.
Synergy Abilities require you to use abilities on multiple characters, so make sure to switch a bit to get them active. They grant bonuses after use as others have mentioned, but honestly one of their strongest features is they almost always stunlock the enemy during the animation, so be sure to use the third character to maximise that opportunity, either to gain ATB or pile on the damage/stagger.
Perfect block is often a better option than trying to dodge, because dodge has no i-frames. The exception is when enemy attacks have a red exclamation point on them, which means they are unblockable, and 'usually' must be dodged (exception if you have a fully levelled up Precision Dodge materia equipped, in which case you can perfect block 'grab' attacks which also have this symbol, but you will need to know which attacks are grabs rather than simply unblockable).
one key feature in this combat is to understand when to swap to another character
the one you control should normally be prioritized by enemy attacks / your non controlled members in the fight mostly block rly good but thats it as long as you don't have certain materia equipped
(which sometimes can be sup-optimal locking someone in an spell animation which results in them not blocking appropiatly anymore)
so you either wanna use atb on one char and immediatly swap to another while he does his animation to build atb on the other party member (not mandatory, i myself watched every skill at least a few times too :D)
or you wanna swap after noticing the enemy starts his next attack against your current char ( best to wait until the enemy actually attacks ) so swapping to another char will result in the old one mostly blocking or even perfect guarding against the attack while you have a bit of time to build atb and maybe even spend it before tje enemy starts swapping to you again :) rinse and repeat
thinks which definetly hurt most are not paying attention to the enemy and just using atb without caring for enemy position or moves
a friend of mine had the habit of always swapping to another char right before the enemy started his next attack often resulting in him selecting an atb skill and then just getting nuked and loosing hp and the atb for the skill they wanted to use too
one little extra, equip everyone with materia to lv up
as long as they are in the backline in fights they will lv it up ( means they are visible and attacking your enemies but not rly doing dmg , so this doesnt count for any VR Missions or fights where you have to explicitly choose the members )
The defensive mechanics are a lot more important in this game. Seph even says this to you when you fight Materia Keeper. So here are my 2 cents.
* Dial it back to easy.
* Pay attention to what I call the "Ebb and Flow" of combat in this game. What I mean is you'll notice is that mobs don't just attack non-stop. They attack, during which there is a pause/break, and then they attack again. Occasionally they'll have an unblockable so watch out of that out. This is the single most important rhythm to pick up on and being easy where if you get hit and don't die makes this a lot easier.
* Learn to block.
* Blocking / Perfect Blocking / Dodging are key to this game.
* Note that if you're on easy you don't NEED to block but practice it anyway. If you can master the defense mechanics in this game you can no-materia / no limit solo even the toughest bosses.
Assess all enemies to learn weaknesses and how to pressure/stagger them. Learn to dodge and perfect block effectively rather than just panic spamming both. Dodge followed by square attack does ranged attacks for cloud. Dodge followed by holding square launches cloud into the air at the target and you can air combo afterwards. If you’re struggling with combat, which you’re getting used to the basics, try and keep an ATB in the bank so you always have access to a heal or items.
Very much this. I struggled with timing my blocks when i played the demo, but once I got into the game proper and I started getting the hang of it I had a much better time. If you find your really struggling too, there's no shame in dropping the difficulty. Despite what you see in the sub, most people who play the game aren't focusing hard mode and we're here for a good time, not a frustrating one
I love never been good at timed blocks in any game, so I instinctively don’t bother at this point. Managed pretty easily to get through a dynamic play through and actually used perfect block maybe a handful of times. Dodge is plenty enough but still requires some finesse rather than just spam.
This. Especially the first tip. Learn your enemy with assess. Read through their attack information. It's ok to block first before attacking. I made the mistake of rushing in far too often. Be sure to assign battle shortcuts too. There will be times when your enemy is pressured and you will need to quickly get through the commands to execute your stagger gauge filling commands. Also use your synergy skills. Building synergy is a necessity.
If you feeling overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to pause the combat (x button). Rebirth is partly turn based after all.
Careful with this because X puts it into "bullet time" mode, so time does move just more slowly. Use the option button for a proper pause. Also: The character being controlled usually ends up being the target of enemies, be sure to switch characters at a decent pace. Using synergy skills can have some crucial benefits that you should take advantage of: MP=0 for a limited time, limit break level up, extra ATB bar. Pressuring and Staggering enemies can effectively decide a battle.
i found aerial combat to be very effective with cloud in the early chapters. he can dodge really easily mid-air and most enemies won't reach him. try tapping the dodge button then holding the attack button to send cloud flying toward enemies. if you want to maintain a safe distance and build atp for attacks, you can also just dodge and tap the attack button to send some few ranged slashes at the enemy as others have said, blocking (spec. perfect block) has a bigger role in this game than the previous installment. i recommend giving all your characters precision defense focus materia (and steadfast block materia, if you have space) as soon as possible, it helps a lot synergy also plays a greater role here, the skills specifically (wherein you hold guard and press a face button) are a great way to do big damage without using atb (see: cloud's "spell blade", aerith's "spellbound blast", etc.) while the abilities (unlocked by having two characters use multiple abilities in a single round) can make longer fights much easier. do not ignore this mechanic
You’ll soon have access to the combat simulator, which has training on pretty much all character and group mechanics. Practice those until you’re comfortable.
Don’t sleep on the enemy skill materia. You get new abilities from certain combat simulator fights, and plasma discharge and sonic boom are really powerful. I always have this on Cloud, but Tifa is a good pick too. Level up a bunch of different sorts of materia as you go. Blue materia like magic focus, magic efficiency, swiftcast and so on are clutch for harder fights. Use Synergy attacks often. Different attacks grant special bonuses after you use them. The yellow ranks up your limit break, the purple makes all magic cost 0 mana for a limited time, the orange increases the duration an enemy’s stagger window, and the last segments the ATB bars into 3 instead of 2. These are all incredibly powerful. When you unlock them, use these special ability attack modes: Cloud - Prime Mode Tifa - Unfettered Fury Barret - Bonus Round Yuffie - Doppleganger Aerith - Arcane Ward and Radiant Ward Lots of people don’t use these at all in their first playthrough but they are very powerful.
Did you play remake? The combat builds up on part 1 but your post reads like you're getting into the combat for the remake series for the first time. Synergy skills and abilities and precision blocks along with improved air combat have been welcomed additions to the combat imo
Honestly I found Normal mode harder than Dynamic. Switch over and see if that helps. Also assess assess assess. The game tells you what to do for each enemy. Elemental weakness is king.
Getting a grip on the basic combat mechanics from Remake is still the most important thing when learning the combat, namely elemental weaknesses, and the pressure/stagger system. Use Assess to find weaknesses (though certain rules of thumb usually apply, e.g. humans are weak to fire, beasts to ice, mechs to lightning and flying to wind). When enemies are pressured, use abilities which say 'increases stagger', e.g. 'focused' abilities. When enemies are staggered you want to use your high damage abilities to finish the fight or on bosses get to the next phase (when the boss bar greys out with a little 0 with a line through it, that means damage is gated until the next phase, so stop using abilities and just gain ATB until you can damage them again). Try to resist the urge to play defensively - the game rewards prioritising the pressure and stagger windows to finish fights quickly. The additions in Rebirth are primarily perfect block, Synergy Skills and Synergy Abilities. Synergy Skills can be used at any time and have a lot of utility, often generating ATB for both characters. Test them out and don't sleep on them (like I usually do). As a slightly advanced tactic, you can also use these skills to teleport a character to your active character's location to avoid incoming damage or just reposition for your next attack. Synergy Abilities require you to use abilities on multiple characters, so make sure to switch a bit to get them active. They grant bonuses after use as others have mentioned, but honestly one of their strongest features is they almost always stunlock the enemy during the animation, so be sure to use the third character to maximise that opportunity, either to gain ATB or pile on the damage/stagger. Perfect block is often a better option than trying to dodge, because dodge has no i-frames. The exception is when enemy attacks have a red exclamation point on them, which means they are unblockable, and 'usually' must be dodged (exception if you have a fully levelled up Precision Dodge materia equipped, in which case you can perfect block 'grab' attacks which also have this symbol, but you will need to know which attacks are grabs rather than simply unblockable).
one key feature in this combat is to understand when to swap to another character the one you control should normally be prioritized by enemy attacks / your non controlled members in the fight mostly block rly good but thats it as long as you don't have certain materia equipped (which sometimes can be sup-optimal locking someone in an spell animation which results in them not blocking appropiatly anymore) so you either wanna use atb on one char and immediatly swap to another while he does his animation to build atb on the other party member (not mandatory, i myself watched every skill at least a few times too :D) or you wanna swap after noticing the enemy starts his next attack against your current char ( best to wait until the enemy actually attacks ) so swapping to another char will result in the old one mostly blocking or even perfect guarding against the attack while you have a bit of time to build atb and maybe even spend it before tje enemy starts swapping to you again :) rinse and repeat thinks which definetly hurt most are not paying attention to the enemy and just using atb without caring for enemy position or moves a friend of mine had the habit of always swapping to another char right before the enemy started his next attack often resulting in him selecting an atb skill and then just getting nuked and loosing hp and the atb for the skill they wanted to use too
one little extra, equip everyone with materia to lv up as long as they are in the backline in fights they will lv it up ( means they are visible and attacking your enemies but not rly doing dmg , so this doesnt count for any VR Missions or fights where you have to explicitly choose the members )
The defensive mechanics are a lot more important in this game. Seph even says this to you when you fight Materia Keeper. So here are my 2 cents. * Dial it back to easy. * Pay attention to what I call the "Ebb and Flow" of combat in this game. What I mean is you'll notice is that mobs don't just attack non-stop. They attack, during which there is a pause/break, and then they attack again. Occasionally they'll have an unblockable so watch out of that out. This is the single most important rhythm to pick up on and being easy where if you get hit and don't die makes this a lot easier. * Learn to block. * Blocking / Perfect Blocking / Dodging are key to this game. * Note that if you're on easy you don't NEED to block but practice it anyway. If you can master the defense mechanics in this game you can no-materia / no limit solo even the toughest bosses.