walkthrough

Best early materia loadout for FF7 Rebirth

The materia you should be slotting on every character before you leave the Grasslands — and the two auto-Materia people sleep on.

“Cure is a go-to option for healing in combat. Characters like Aerith give you a lot of bang for your buck. The various Elemental materias are great when you need to exploit enemy weaknesses. The Time materia is also great as you can cast Haste on your party which allows them to do things even quicker and build ATB gauge even faster. The Magnify materia is something you get towards the middle of the game but this allows you to link it with a spell or buff. Auto Weapon and Auto Unique Ability materia are extremely useful and important and should probably be slotted in every single party member if possible — these are not to be slept on.”

Best early materia loadout

FF7 Rebirth's combat falls apart fast if you ignore materia slotting. Here's the loadout to copy on your first run — Arekkz Gaming runs almost the same setup through to the endgame.

The non-negotiables

  1. Cure — slot it on Aerith, period. She has the highest magic stat and the spell scales hard with her.
  2. Element materia (Fire / Ice / Lightning / Wind) — split across your party. The combined-element materia (Fire + Ice on one slot) is rare but doubles your coverage; grab any you find.
  3. Time materia — once it levels up you get Haste. Cast Haste on your active character before any tough fight; it speeds up ATB charging massively.
  4. Enemy Skill — learn enemy abilities by completing Chadley's combat Intel. The materia also boosts a bunch of stats per level. Slot it once and never unslot.

The two auto-materia everyone misses

  • Auto-Weapon — non-controlled party members will use weapon abilities you've put in their shortcuts. Without this, your AI teammates basically just auto-attack.
  • Auto-Unique Ability — Tifa builds Unbridled Strength, Barret builds Overcharge, etc., automatically when you're not driving them. Equip on every party member.

Mid-game upgrade

  • Magnify unlocks around the middle of the game. Link it to a buff (Haste) or an element to apply it to your whole party / hit multiple enemies at once. Pair with Element on an armor slot to absorb matching magic — endgame defining.

Stat materia (don't skip)

  • HP Up / MP Up / Magic Up / Strength Up are weak at level 1, but at higher levels the bonus is large. Slot them early and let them cook.

If stuck: if your AI teammates feel useless, you forgot Auto-Weapon and Auto-Unique Ability. Crack open the materia menu (touchpad) and slot them on every character now.