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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Best Ways to Farm AP for Materia

By
Jarrod Garripoli

In addition to leveling your characters to the max level in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you’re going to want to level your materia as well. Normally, while playing through the main story, you will undoubtedly get some of the materia leveled to the max. However, in order to get through Hard Mode and do everything, you’re going to need a good number of materia leveled. To do that, you’re going to need quick methods on farming AP, which this page will focus on, so look no further.

There are some materia that requires a lot of AP to level up in the game.

Before Grinding AP

Before starting, the best method in which to grind AP is done after completing the main story, as you get a boost to not only AP gained from enemies, but also experience. Unlike grinding experience, though, difficulty does not matter at all when going for AP, so it’s possible to simply play on Easy when doing this. There are two things that can make the grinding go a lot quicker, which are "AP Up Materia" iconAP Up Materia and the Chocobo Armband. The former have multiple locations in the game, while the armor is the reward for completing the Esoteric Secrets of the Elders quest.

AP Up Materia, when linked to another materia on a piece of equipment, will double the AP received for it. The Chocobo Armband only has two materia slots on it, but it multiples the AP gained by materia equipped on it by three. If you combine the two, then you can get up to six times the AP for the other materia linked on the armor. As you can see, this is great for those Support Materia that require a lot of AP to level.

Corel Fiend Intel Method

This method will involve using Barret, who you want as your party leader. He’s the only one who should have anything specific equipped to him, so the rest of the part can have whatever they want. You will want the "First Strike Materia" iconFirst Strike Materia on him, as well as Elemental and "Ice" iconIce in linked slots on his weapon. If First Strike is mastered, that’s even better, but for this method, you will be going to the "Corel Region" iconCorel Region, specifically right outside of Costa del Sol.

(1 of 6) The grind in Corel uses the Fiend Intel 2 on the beach outside Costa del Sol.

Look for Fiend Intel 2: Seahorsing Around on the beach outside of the little resort. You will be fighting some "Heliopora Terpsicolt" iconHeliopora Terpsicolt enemies here, which are weak to ice (hence the materia setup above). Start the battle and immediately use Overcharge, which should hopefully get you two ATB. If not, do some regular attacks until you do, then you can use a full-powered Maximum Fury. On Easy, all enemies should die from this, so it’s just a matter of doing the slow grind.

Each battle will net you 24 AP and only takes a few seconds to do. The only slight problem is that there seems to be a bit of a cooldown before you can retry the battle again. It’s not too long, though, and the good thing is that you don’t have to move around too much to try this method.

Gongaga Grinding Method

The method that involves Gongaga will require a bit of preparation, as you want a few materia. Ideally, you’d use Aerith, as she has the highest magic stat of the group. You will be using the Quake spell here, since that spell has some of the biggest range in terms of attack magic. You can only get two "Petrify" iconPetrify Materia, both from Chadley in the "Gongaga Region" iconGongaga Region. Additionally, there is the "Poison" iconPoison and Petrify Materia from Chadley in the "Cosmo Canyon Region" iconCosmo Canyon Region. That means you have three different materia for linking on Aerith (or whomever you use).

(1 of 3) The Gongaga grinding method will go to the Cliffside Storehouse area on the southern end.

Start off by putting the First Strike Materia on here, as well as "Magic" iconMagic Up Materia. If needed, the "ATB Boost Materia" iconATB Boost Materia can also be used at the start of combat to get you the extra ATB for casting the spell. For the rest, you will want to pair one Petrify with the MP Absorption Materia, another with Magnify, and the third with Magic Focus. Preferably, you’d want the MP Absorption mastered, since you won’t be getting a lot of MP back from using the spells. Now, spells like Firaga and Blizzaga cost less MP than Quaga, but the coverage isn’t as big. If you have the HP-to-MP Materia, then you can also use that, which would give you a very large MP pool to work with, especially if your MP Absorption is low.

With everything set up, it’s time to start the grind. Head over to the Gongaga Region and fast travel to the Cliffside Storehouse, which is the area on the southern side of the map. There are four sets of enemies around this area, one of which is just outside of the main entrance. The other three are inside the premises, more towards the center/eastern side. As soon as the battle starts, use ABT Boost if needed to get the two ATBs, then cast the highest level spell. After defeating all four sets of enemies, save your game and reload it to respawn the enemies.

(1 of 4) Start off by using ATB Boost to get two full ATB bars.

Queen Bee Method

The last method on this list might have the best output for grinding AP, assuming things go your way. That involves the My White-Haired Angel quest in the "Nibel Region" iconNibel Region. Chapter 12 has a longer start time due to the boat ride, but it’s better, since you have access to Cait Sith and thus, more materia. If you wish to know the ins-and-outs of the method, check the Best Experience Grind page for more info. Basically, you start that quest and get to the part with the Queen Bee. If you defeat all of her Guard Bees, then she’ll spawn more and thus, you can continually kill them to keep gaining EXP.

The catch is that you don’t want to kill the Queen Bee, which is easy to do on the Easy difficulty. You can bypass this a little bit by giving "Enfeeblement Ring" iconEnfeeblement Rings on the non-Cloud party members. Additionally, using his charged normal attack is better, as this will pull the normal bees towards you, without doing anything to the Queen Bee. The upside of using this method is that you can continue as long as you want, but defeating the Queen Bee means you have to start over again. Don’t forget healing, just in case you need it, especially since the bees can poison you.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Square Enix
  • Platforms,
    PS5
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    15 February 2024
  • Last Updated
    31 August 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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The second in a trio of games, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues with the epic retelling of the original Final Fantasy VII story. Follow Cloud Strife and company, as they chase Sephiroth, after the events that unfolded in the city of Midgar. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will contain the same action-based combat system introduced in Remake, with additions to keep it fresh. To help you along the way, this guide plans to contain the following content:

  • Breakdown of gameplay elements and combat mechanics
  • Detailed guides on how to play every playable character
  • Boss strategies for those who might be struggling
  • Walkthroughs for the harder-to-complete Side Quests
  • Locations of any and all Collectibles
  • Extensive list of all Minigames, with thorough guides on all of them
  • Roadmap and guide on how to unlock the coveted Platinum Trophy

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