In Chapter 11 of the main story, in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you will find yourself in familiar territory. You will visit 
Nibelheim once more, although it’s been rebuilt after past events, to have 
Cait Sith access the Shinra terminal. However, it doesn’t work and Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie go up to the Nibelheim reactor to find someone named Murasaki and use his ID. While at the reactor, the crew will encounter their next boss, the Diabolic Variant.
The Diabolic Variant is the boss you’ll face with Cloud at the Nibelheim Reactor.
All of Diabolic Variant’s Attacks¶
This boss will have two different phases, although it can use the majority of its moves throughout the entire fight. The second phase will begin after it first uses Enshadow, which happens at around the 75% remaining HP mark.
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Tentacle Lash: The boss will stick out its right arm and the tentacles will shoot forward, attacking anyone in the way. This is a normal attack, so it doesn’t actually have a name.
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Tentacle Slam: The boss will raise its right arm into the air, then slam it on the ground, extending the tentacles in the process. You likely have to wait to dodge/block at the last second.
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Tentacle Drill: The boss will send its tentacles into the ground, which will travel to a character’s position, then pop out of the ground. It’s best to keep moving, but you can also block this.
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Poison Burst: Not a named move, but sometimes, the boss will do a quick burst of energy that knocks you away whenever you’re up close. This attack can also poison you.
(1 of 3) The boss uses its Right Arm and tentacles for a variety of attacks in this fight.
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Firaga: There isn’t really anything special about this, as it’s something you can do. The third-tier
Fire spell is a big fireball, which can be blocked, if you wanted. -
Toxic Mire:
Unblockable. The boss will create a poison pool on the ground that will damage you, should you enter it. -
Ensnare: Unblockable. Similar animation to the lash attack above, except the boss will try to grab one of the characters. If it does, then it will immediately slam the character on the ground.
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Enshadow: Unblockable. At some point, around 75% or so HP remaining, the boss will use this move, where it envelops the room in a poison mist. There’s nothing you can really do about it, though.
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Reconstitution: The boss will regrow its Right Arm, if it’s been destroyed.
(1 of 3) Ensnare is its attempt to grab a character, after which it will slam them to the ground.
Diabolic Variant Strategy¶
The Diabolic Variant isn’t a particularly difficult boss, but it can get a little annoying at times. When you start the battle, you will notice that the Right Arm is a targetable part of the boss. You will want to go after this, since not only will it get pressured for destroying the arm, but it will also remove some of the attacks it can do. The boss is weak to ice, so you can cast Blizzard/Blizzara on the arm to quickly remove it from the equation.
Regarding the Right Arm, it has two normal moves that don’t have names, a short sweeping attack and another where the boss sticks its arm out, shooting the tentacles at you (Tentacle Lash). As for the other attacks, Tentacle Slam occurs when it moves its arm to an overhead position, and Tentacle Drill will see it push its tentacles into the ground, which will come up below a character. All of these are blockable, so if you don’t make it in time to dodge, you can mitigate the damage a little.
However, Ensnare isn’t blockable, so you will need to avoid it. The animation is similar to the Tentacle Lash normal attack, except the boss will grab the character if it hits, slamming them on the ground afterwards. Toxic Mire is another unblockable move, where the boss will place a poison pool on the ground, but you can easily avoid this. If you destroy the Right Arm, know that it can bring it back by using Reconstitution. At around the 75% HP mark or so, Diabolic Variant will use Enshadow, signaling the second phase.
(1 of 2) The plan is to go after the Right Arm of the boss
The plan is to go after the Right Arm of the boss (left), as destroying it is how you pressure this science experiment. (right)
Enshadow will cover the arena (or most of it) in a poison mist, essentially inflicting that status on everyone. There’s nothing you can do about this, so you just have to accept it and keep tabs on your health at all times, healing when necessary. At around the same time, the boss will start using its clones, which have the full array of abilities that its main body has. Thankfully, when a clone is produced, it will have the same HP values as the main body, so it’s not like they’ll always have full health.
Additionally, the clones don’t have a lot of HP, so you can easily bring them down without much of a problem. If you find the main body, you can continue beating it down, although it might be a good idea to take out any clones to avoid getting blasted with attacks.
Pressing On¶
After the battle is over, go through the door that is shown to dive deeper into the reactor. At the bottom, you will find your man, Murasaki, although he isn’t going to be much help to you in his current state. However, you find his ID, so that will be useful. Scenes will take over here, with the game switching over to the rest of the party at Nibelheim. Your next task is to head to Shinra Manor, with you controlling Cait Sith as the party leader!
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