PSA on Fighting Minerva - Don't Use Costly Punch

[Aznjesus990]

DO NOT USE COSTLY PUNCH.

 

Yes, most guides say to use Costly Punch, but after testing, I will say that it is not the fastest way to beat Minerva. It also lowers your health which will put you in the danger zone. Instead, grind up gil and use Gil Toss. It does 5x the damage as Costly Punch, doesn't risk your health, doesn't use any resource (except Gil), and it makes the fight a lot quicker.

 

For reference, I played on Normal difficulty. I grinded gil for an hour (got about 15 mil), got 3 of my stats to 255 (I didn't get magic up), and used Aerial Dive for Health. The fight took me about 2 minutes and I only used 4 mil gil. I didn't even use a feather or Curaga at all (even though I did use Mug at the start). I was also only 80% done with the missions if that matters.

 

For hard, I did use a feather a few times, but the fight took me about 18ish min. 

 

So to repeat, USE GIL TOSS, NOT COSTLY PUNCH. Save your health, time, and frustration for the plat! The game already has you going through 300 missions, so save some time when you can

 

 

[oYazmat]

Yeah it's quicker but not cheaper. thanks for sharing

 

Wondering where you farmed for Gil however?

[Infected Elite]

just use high jump, and when you need to heal aerial drain and sometimes costly punch.

 

there's many ways to beat Minerva. do what works for you.

You can use costly punch with the 99 pheonix downs if you remember to apply them.

[ExHaseo]

Depends what you mean by "faster". If you do the fastest method of going through the game and just bum rushing everything by avoiding fights and using costly punch ASAP, she'll be one shotting you with basically every attack and you'll be mashing phoenix downs anyway. Since you really only need vit up to survive Minerva's LB, and she gives you 99 phoenix downs, there's no real need to raise other stats.

 

Besides that, spending the time to grind out gil would take way longer overall. It only takes about 10-15 min to kill Minerva with costly punch. A far cry from the hour+ it takes to grind out gil. If the Minerva trick was still in the game that would be another story, but they took it out. So there isn't any way to make a hilarious amount of gil in just a few minutes anymore.

 

The game is overall easy though, there's little reason to min-max.

[Aznjesus990]

44 minutes ago, oYazmat said:

Yeah it's quicker but not cheaper. thanks for sharing

 

Wondering where you farmed for Gil however?

 

See below on the video I used to grind out the gil. Like I said, I took a full hour to get to 15 Mil, but I only used 4 mil, so I massively overprepared. 

 

The Costly Punch method adds risk that you may miss timing on healing or "feather"ing for a longer fight. Take the 15 min, grind out the gil, then fight Minerva, finish the fight in 2 minutes with very little risk of restarting the fight.

 

 

 

 

[ThiophenSJ]

It’s good to have multiple strategies, but I cannot agree that your strategy is definitely better.

 

I followed the „standard“ strategy, with Costly Punch, 3x Genji + Ziedrich, 255 VIT/WIL. Beat Minerva yesterday on my first try, died (Phoenix Down) only twice, and the battle took no longer than 5 minutes. There was really no frustration, dodging her attacks is super easy (besides the homing flare). I was just overpowered.

[meecegoatsalot]

If you combine buster sword stance with gil toss you'll be getting 99999 per hit and if your buster sword compatibility is above 50% it will pierce barrier. I did farm up 15 million gil as per the first post and also only used around 4 million but i do wonder given the increase in damage from the buster sword if i couldnt have gotten away with a lot less and still gotten max damage.

[maxfighter23___]

how is final fantasy 7 reunion exactly i am curieus about the game but it cost 60€ i dont know if i buy it in the future i have put it in my wishlist 

[takeshikitano3]

9 hours ago, zalcarezio said:

how is final fantasy 7 reunion exactly i am curieus about the game but it cost 60€ i dont know if i buy it in the future i have put it in my wishlist 

If you were a big fan of FF7 Remake I'll go ahead and say that Crisis Core is a must-play.  I had a lot of fun with it and played through to the platinum.  It will of course wait for you though if you'd rather see that price go down.

[maxfighter23___]

28 minutes ago, takeshikitano3 said:

If you were a big fan of FF7 Remake I'll go ahead and say that Crisis Core is a must-play.  I had a lot of fun with it and played through to the platinum.  It will of course wait for you though if you'd rather see that price go down.

alright i hope i can find the disc version of it 

[Han_the_Dragon]

After beating Minerva a few minutes ago, I really don't understand what's all the big problem about her...

 

There's not really anything frightening about her if you max out defende and have several Phoenix Down just in case of some dodge mess.. no need for Gill grind or even Costly Punch actually..

 

I will leave here my setup as well as how to build it (although, only 2 materias are likely really needed and that's Aerial Drain and Mug), and yes, it's likely way to much of an overkill for what's required..

 

My actual full setup was as follows:

Aerial Drain ATK+100

Hammer Punch HP+800%

Mug VIT+100

Hell Firaga MAG+100

Curaga HP+999%

Status Ward SPR+100

 

Genji Helm

Genji Glove

Adaman Bangle

Ziedrich

 

Stats:

HP 96754

MP 315 (irrelevant)

AP 331 (irrelevant)

ATK 255

VIT 255

MAG 255 (irrelevant)

SPR 255

LCK 45

 

By the way, most of those Materia can easily be "grinded" on mission 1.1.1 by using Status Ward materias with SPR (you get 5 points SPR per level, so 20 points each cycle), then when Mastered, you can cycle it back to a new lvl1 Status Ward for a new cycle (Status Ward M + Esuna = Dispel; Dispel + Hellfire = Status Ward), then fuse it into whatever you want, while changing the bonus stats with an item or two.

 

Status Ward M + HP Up -> Dispel + Steal -> Smart Consuner + Steal M -> Mug
Status Ward M + HP Up -> Dispel + Hell -aga -> -aga + Hell Firaga -> Hell Firaga
Status Ward M + HP Up -> Dispel + Curaga -> Curaga
Status Ward + Aerial Drain -> Aerial Drain

Goblin Punch M (ATK+15) + Iron Fist -> Iron Fist >> Iron Fist M (ATK+19) + Magical Punch + Lunar Harp -> Magical Punch (MP+220%) >> Magical Punch M + Hammer Punch + Zeio Nut -> Hammer Punch (AP+???%) >> Hammer Punch M + Goblin Punch + Fat Chocobo Feathers (use up to you are satisfied)

 

If you prefer Magical Punch, stop the path sooner, and fuse the Magical Punch M with the Goblin Punch to change the stats of the materia (you can also carry on with the path for Costly Punch, but since if I was thinking in "maybe" using it on Minerva, I though that since Magical Punch and Hammer Punch were able to hit for 99.999 with my setup, even without using the Buster Sword stance, there was no point in getting Costly Punch (specially with the 0 AP/MP from the Genji Helm, making their cost 0).

[Jproche44]

On 1/6/2023 at 11:25 PM, Han_the_Dragon said:

After beating Minerva a few minutes ago, I really don't understand what's all the big problem about her...

 

There's not really anything frightening about her if you max out defende and have several Phoenix Down just in case of some dodge mess.. no need for Gill grind or even Costly Punch actually..

 

 

I have tried a few times. I am level 74 VIT is 150 but SPR and ATT is 250. Genji armor and zeidrich accessories. I can get her down to 25% health using costly punch method, then she hits me with a combo of Judgement, spin attack, and plasma. If she knocks me out with one, I don't have enough time to use phoenix down. Super frustrating. Guess I should raise VIT to 250 and learn how to block.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Jproche44

[Infected Elite]

8 minutes ago, Jproche44 said:

I have tried a few times. I am level 74 VIT is 150 but SPR and ATT is 250. Genji armor and zeidrich accessories. I can get her down to 25% health then she hits me with a combo of Judgement, spin attack, and plasma. If she knocks me out with one, I don't have enough time to use pheonix down. Super frustrating. Guess I should raise VIT to 250 and learn how to block.

 

High ATK, use Aerial Drain to heal, and High Jump for 99999 dmg without having to lose HP from Costly Punch. Always have Pheonix Down applied.

 

Blocking isnt needed if you are constantly healing via Aerial Drain.

[Jproche44]

7 hours ago, Infected Elite said:

 

High ATK, use Aerial Drain to heal,

Tried again with Aerial Drain. One try and I was able to do it. 

[Infected Elite]

Just now, Jproche44 said:

Tried again with Aerial Drain. One try and I was able to do it. 

Perfect! welcome to Team Jump! lol.

Best is if you time it right while she attempts that big swing, you can avoid it, damage and heal all in one blow. 

 

Congrats

[SadisticSymphony]

Yeah nah, I used Costly Punch just fine. Gil Toss would require too much grinding

Edited January 16, 2023 by SecondGenesis

[Lymus]

Counter Punch fight took 10-15 min. Grinding for Gil Toss ammo would probably have taken more. 

[Sykacz]

For Normal mode all you have to do is use High Jump and Curaga. Equip Genji Armor, Genji Glove, Genji Shield and Ziedrich. Make sure you have 255 STR, 255 VIT, 255 SPR and HP over 90k. MAG 255 is also good for better Curaga effects - but as replacement you can use Hi-Potions instead.

 

Get 50+ Somas and some Ethers just in case. Just high jump all the time, occasionally use Curaga to have HP over 60k. When she start casting her ultimate attack just run away on the other side of battlefield and heal yourself to max and prepare to use Phoenix Down after the attack. Attack will hit you for about 65k HP. Now it's time to use Phoenix Down (just in case) and Elixir.

 

Rinse and repeat. During the fight she will use her ultimate attack 3-4 times so you need 4 Elixirs max, about 50 Somas, some Ethers and that's it. You can't die that way, really. Using High Jump will make you evade about 70% of her attacks (including Ultima).

Edited February 10 by Sykacz

[Banananaki]

I did this on hard, and got insanely frustrated but it eventually worked.

 

Idk why everything says costly punch either, Darkness had way better range, and AoE, carried me a long way. Then I found a video about fighting Minerva really easy, with High Jump, and Aerial Drain basically. My modification would be to use Attack Twister+ (or whatever it was) and use the same max VIT, SPR, ATK, HP, with the genji stuff and Zeidrich. I wish I knew about the High Jump and Aerial Drain way before I was 99% and at the end of the game, but it is what it is. Used Mug, SP Turbo, SP Turbo Attack, and the other 3 mentioned.

 

Obviously better to do it on Normal, but I'm stubborn and wanted to do 1 playthrough so instead, I did 800 or so high jumps until I won. Lost many runs to sudden Flash Slash or whatever it was called. Either had to run and dodge, properly time a jump, or Buster Stance and tank it. For the Fire attack, I just did buster stance, tanked it, and did Aerial Drain right after, using the buster stance attack to still hit 99999 and full heal. Ice and Lightning was just a timing thing. The light attack with the tracking things was also really easy to avoid. High Jump everything, Aerial Drain to heal, and if I was close enough during the Light attack, I'd use the Twister+. Twister hits 3x, and if you buster it, it hits 99999 or close enough. Tried to save either summon to cancel out the Physical Barrier she did, as well as Absolute Ward, so I didn't have downtime. Magic didn't matter. When she does an ultimate attack, I would usually be in the middle of a High Jump already, then Buster, Twister+ once or twice, and it would pretty much always cancel it. First two seemed to be tankier so it would do, worst case scenario, 50% for the first cast, and 25% for a few after, otherwise always cancelled it out. You can even sneak in some buster stance Twisters if you are close when she casts something, but you risk getting flash slashed out of nowhere. Have to make sure Phoenix Down stays active, which cancels for Flash Slash and the Ultimate attack. Just check for that Wings Icon. If you get close to zero left, Mug some more, but be ready to dodge in case you get flash slashed lol...

 

To get the materia all statted up, I did the Dark Matter farm method, stacking stats to 99 on a Libra, then merging with another Libra with the stat change you want, then attach the Libra to the materia you want. I think you had to do one of the Materia first for it to stay the same. 

 

Probably faster with Gil Toss, but I was looking into farming Gil and it was not appealing to me. Thought I read somewhere that it was like 40m or more to farm for Hard mode... So, instead I suffered thru the 77m hp and doing over 800 attacks until I lost a run 3 hits away because of nerves and surprise flash slash. She seems to do MORE flash slash after a certain % HP, so you just have to be ready for it.

Edited March 7 by Banananaki