Weapons are an integral part of Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis' gameplay since they directly affect your team's overall combat power and they're also the main commodity of the gacha system. The game boasts a wide variety of weapons, which are divided into various types that can only be used exclusively by the characters in the game. In our weapon system guide, we will discuss how the game's weapon system works.
Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis - Weapon System Guide
Weapon Basics
As mentioned earlier, each character can use specific weapon types. For example, Aerith can use staves, Tifa can use knuckles, and so on. However, the special case for this is Zack and Cloud. Both of them can use large, two-handed weapons but each of them have their own set of weapons that they can't use interchangeably.
The advantage of this system is that you can ensure that your characters will always have some weapons to use and equipping them is streamlined. On the other hand, getting good weapons for your favorite characters can be tricky since the pool of possible weapons you can draw is spread out. For more information about the gacha system, please refer to our Gacha Guide for more information about the game's gacha system.
Weapon Rarity
Every weapon has a 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star variant. Once you obtain a higher rarity version of that weapon, the game automatically "upgrades" the version that you're using. Let's say for example you leveled up the 3-star version of Tifa's Tiger Fangs. Once you've pulled a 4-star version of that weapon, the game automatically transfers the original Tiger Fang's level to the better version, while the older version gets dumped to the Armory or converted to Parts.
Parts are used for upgrading a weapon's rarity to the higher one. For 5-star weapons, copies of that weapon can be converted to parts that can be used to Overboost a weapon, further increasing its stats and improving its abilities.
Finally, the Armory is the location where lower-quality copies or exact copies of a weapon are dumped. There's really no use keeping weapons dumped in the armory except for converting them into parts. Thankfully, the game has an option that will allow you to automatically convert weapons that are bound to be deposited to the Armory. This option is turned off by default so I highly recommend toggling this setting for convenience and efficiency.
Depending whether you have the auto-convert option enabled or not, the duplicate and lower-quality weapons you'll obtain will have different icons but with the same exact behavior, as shown below.
Equipment Slots
Characters can equip one main weapon (character-specific), an ability (secondary) weapon, and up to three sub-weapons. Each slot has certain effects towards the user so to easily explain these effects, we have listed down the properties of the weapons in each slot/position.
Main Weapon
- Character-specific weapon type.
- The weapon itself will be held by the character in actual combat.
- Core ability will be used by the character.
- 100% value of the weapon's PATK/MATK/HEAL stats will be added to the character.
- 100% value of Reinforce Abilities will be counted.
- Support materia of the main weapon will be reflected.
Ability Weapon
- Character-specific weapon type.
- Weapon's appearance is not reflected.
- Core ability will be used by the character.
- 50% value of the Ability Weapon's PATK/MATK/HEAL stats will be added to the character.
- 50% value of Reinforce Abilities will be counted.
Sub Weapons
- Up to three sub weapons can be equipped
- Any weapon type.
- Weapons' appearances are not reflected.
- 50% value of the Ability Weapon's PATK/MATK/HEAL stats will be added to the character.
- 50% value of Reinforce Abilities will be counted.
Weapon Stats and Abilities
Weapons boost three of the stats for the characters that equip them.
- PATK: Affects the physical damage dealt.
- MATK: Affects the magic damage dealt.
- HEAL: Affects how much HP is recovered.
At the same time, weapons will have Command (C. Abilities) and Reinforcement (R. Abilities) abilities. C-Abilities are the special moves that consume ATB when used in battle. C-abilities vary per weapon and will only be usable as long as the character has the weapon equipped.
R-Abilities are passive abilities that are always in effect. As you level up weapons and uncap them, more R-abilities will be unlocked and strengthen them. You can tap on an R-ability to get a preview of the stat bonuses you can unlock for improving them as well as the required points to improve them.
Each weapon can have up to three support materia that can be unlocked after the weapons are leveled up. A support materia is available by default, and the other two slots will be unlocked at LV50 and LV70 respectively. (Leveling up weapons will also require them to be uncapped) These support materia unlock Support Abilities (S. Abilities) which affects the materia they're paired to. Depending on the pairing, these abilities might have no effect.
Best Equip vs Recommended Party
Deciding on the best combination of weapons and support materia can be tricky, especially if you're new to the game or didn't really want to bother. Thankfully, the game has two options to automatically equip your characters or party with the best gear with a single tap of a button.
However, between the two, which one is better? The Best Equip option is found in the lower-right hand corner of the equipment screen. This will automatically select the "raw" equipment you have in your inventory, with little regard about the materia and other factors.
On the other hand, I recommend using the Recommended Party option before starting a mission. Using this option is more convenient since you can dynamically change the entire party's loadout quickly before starting the actual battle. Not only that, the game will also ensure that you have the best possible gear for the particular mission that you're about to participate in, which includes elemental materia and sigils.
