Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth - EASY WAY to defeat RUFUS on Hard Mode
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- čas přidán 9. 04. 2024
- All explained in the vid with commentary, this is my BEGINNER'S GUIDE in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on how to defeat the RUFUS on Hard Mode easily!
Below is my FF7Rebirth playlist where you will find other helpful guides ;)
• Final Fantasy 7 remake
#FF7R #FinalFantasy7Rebirth #FF7RebirthBossGuide #FF7Guide - Hry
![How to Cheese Rufus on Hard Mode [Step by Step Guide] - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CoU7CiZU1mY/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Cheese Rufus on Hard Mode [Step by Step Guide] - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth](/img/tr.png)
It took the president showing up to finally make optinoob put in a healing materia into the loadout. Democracy truly is a powerful force
Ur ass is a powerful force. May ur ass be with you. Always.
I could literally not once switch to punisher mode and get even one combo off before he countered, but I used your strat modified with regular faster operator mode combos. He transitioned to phase 2 without staggering but I cast bravery, did one quick attack and that tipped him over. And that did the trick! Your guides have gotten me through all of the toughest content in the game! Thanks for all of the amazing content!
Really helpful thanks 👍
Same - I couldn’t get punisher mode to turn on, but I just used regular attacks. I also used sonic boom for bravery instead of having to cast. I was out of mp
The most infuriating thing about this fight is that it resets your load out EVERY TIME you have to restart. Morons.
and you can't even save the game between this fight and rude/elena. if you have to leave, you have to do rude/elena again. so stupid
I KNOW RIGHT? Horrible game design 🤦🏻♂️
Hopefully they give us load outs next time
Wait, it does????? Holy jesus christ.. *writes extra entry in Reasons To Stop Buying Square Enix Gamees list*
Hate this too.
Your guides helped me through all the Chadley combat simulator challenges. Just beat hard mode. You taught me well. Appreciate you and all your help. Keep up the great work!! A real one
Anyone having trouble with this battle, I would advice swapping triple slash with Disorder, it builds his stagger incredibly fast. Also use Enhanced Expeditionary Medal instead of gotterdammerung, Clouds level 3 limit break destroys the dog in the second part of the fight!
this is what did it for me. I didn't think i would have a limit break by phase 2 but i barely got it when i staggered Rufus. From there finishing touch was 🤌
This is what worked for me perfect .. first try thank you !
Purely done like that, with the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal , following your tactics exactly, and when the second part of the battle came, with the limit at level 3 I destroyed it
Once you get to the second part, the limit loads if you take a while in the first fight
100% This. Triple-Slash has a longer reach, but landing the timing is brutal. Going Triple Slash -> Punisher -> Hold Square gives almost no time for a mistake to be made.
Using Disorder is much easier. You need to keep a little closer, but once Disorder hits and auto-pushes you to Punisher, you can just hold square. No need to dance around tricky timings, just Disorder -> (Hold Square)x4 to get your four heavy hits in, then run away and rinse/repeat. Don't be afraid to hold back and fire ranged attacks to build up extra ATB either! We're not all nearly as skilled or fast as Optinoob.
Dropping a level 3 limit on top of Rufus in the second half to finish him - feels absolutely amazing.
This made the difference for me! Thank you both!!
I used Enhanced Expeditionary Medal.
Whenever I successfully blocked his shotgun dash I answered with Disorder, then did a Punisher Mode combo until his shield went back up.
Rinse and repeat until I got at least 3 staggers to fill the Limit.
As soon as Darkstar joined, I summoned, then did Finishing Touch, which pressured him, then Thundaga and beat him.
Limit filled up again when the Summon did its move, and then another Finishing Touch and Rufus went down.
Let me tell you, it was HARD, had to restart the fight multiple times, because he kept hitting me with his unblockables.
And there was also the case of Square's BS design of "Retry Before the Battle" on the menu which I accidentally picked and had to repeat Rude and Elena.
On my channel I did this some weeks ago. I blocked 3 of his attacks normally (no ATB ability) and then I used the limit level 3
I put also the hp>
Recently subscribed as been using your guides for the brutal and legendary bouts. Should have waited for these hard mode guides but decided to do chapters 12-14 before waiting and you make what I struggled through look like easy mode lol
You are a genius when it comes to this game, seriously. I had to take a break about 4 days ago, I came close but just couldn't do it. So I decided to wait until you put this video up. On my second try, I beat him, it was messy, he kept interrupting my attacks after pressured, then Darkstar came to the arena before I could stagger Rufus, but when I did stagger him pretty quickly, I did my limit break and he was done for. I honestly think the main key for this victory was the Darkside Materia. I had no problem ever with Rude and Elena, but your way just made the fight over before it began. For Rufus, I used up the 4 Empty slots with 2 Healings, with a Magic Efficiency and Swiftcast linked to each Healng, just in case. Thanks Again.
Brilliant guide, as always!
One thing to note for everyone - if you change / put together your build mid cut scene, it won't save if you retry. So just make sure you check you're setup on each attempt!
Really? That's why I don't see my enemy skill abilities like plasma charge when I retry! So, how do I setup my materia again after retrying?
Managed to beat this one today. Great guide as always!
I squeezed in a couple of vitality materias for the extra defense and found that activating prime mode made it easier to get the timings right to stagger him. Also, going into the second phase with fury active means you don't have to cast bravery, so you don't have to save that extra ATB bar. I also kept my distance and used the range attacks to build up ATB whenever I got low on it.
Took awhile to figure the triple slash to the punisher but using your material build and strat worked. Thank you for sharing!
After failing with this strat 5-6 times, what ended up working was not using regen at the start. The gains are very negligable and if u just do the triple slash to punisher right u dont need it. I also found saving an atb boost just in case for the next phase to be helpful in case i didnt fill enough atb to start. Otherwise fantastic strat
Whoever designed this fight needs their head examined, for me he's worse than Sephiroth which is absurd. Thanks to your strat I was able to get him but it took nearly 2 hours of trying to nail down the timing and executing. I had Healing tied to Swiftcast and Magic Efficiency and also Steadfast Block helped a ton during his charging regular attacks to negate damage and give me free ATB which can be a huge pain to get this fight.
I gave up after my power went out and turned off my ps5 forcing me to have to fight the turks again as well as rufus lol
Dude I think a lot of y’all just suck at playing. I didn’t use this dude’s strategy and I beat Rufus on my second attempt. Perfect blocking and timing attacks was king, yea there at the end the fight got tense but I don’t think it was that hard.
Thanks for the guide! Only thing I changed up was that I used magic focus and empowerment together and cast bravery prior to phase 2 in between his abilities on phase 1 and used disorder to gap close after Rufus uses abilities instead of triple slash since it automatically switches you to punisher mode so you can immediately start your combo. I found this made it easier to get his health as low as possible before the transition and made it so you don’t have to worry about having an ATB and casting an ability when phase 2 starts. You can just immediately use lb and kill him.
Took me an hour to beat Rude and Elena. Took me almost two hours to beat Rufus. And I refused to stop for fear that my PS5 might crash or something.
Couldn't quite get your strategy to work for me as Rufus always knocked me back when I tried to attack in Punisher mode. But I swapped out Triple Slash for Focus Thrust, and that worked like a charm. It especially helped in building his stagger gauge. Once I got to phase 2 I hit him with a Limit Break and, after a close call, I managed to knock him out with two more focus thrusts.
Thanks for the help Optinoob. Your videos have been very helpful as I go through hard mode.
Man, you're a genius. It took me over 2 hours to beat this fight and you made it look so easy. I should've waited for your guide 😂
It took me all day with my own strategy jajaja
With this strategy?
@@Optinooby not at all, it took me all day with MY strategy jajaja with yours i presume 1 hour maybe
You could also count to 8 bullets consumed and when he reloads do a Braver to stagger him right away, with ATB Stagger it can help inflict a lot safely.
Adding Prime mode can help smoke him even faster.
Instead of calling Bravoury you could do Sonic boom as the cool down does not matter in the end.
Great video as usual, thanks a lot 🙏
Good shout on Sonic Boom, never use it as it ends too quick, but you're right, would have been perfect for that last bit, considering the damage from the initial cast doesnt affect mess up the strat
I wish I had seen this guide weeks ago when I fought him. I believe he was the only “wall” I faced in Hard Mode. I had to adapt and without Gotterdamerüng, relied on the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal and stressingly precise blocks to bring him down.
Of all the already annoying fights in Hard Mode, I believe his reigns at the top
Doing my hard mode boss rush after your videos helped me get through the horrendous VR challenges. Rufus was giving me trouble, and here you are with a vid on him. Turns out if you get the HP lock on phase 1, you dont need Berserk active on phase 2 for the limit break 😅 mine ran out right before i got the limit break started.
Worked like a charm. I had don't have the Gatterdammerung yet, so I used the Enhanced Draconic ring instead. Just focus on blocking his rush-ins to build limit meter but did your attack strategy and used Dark Matter + Bravery. Owned him pretty fast. Thank you.
I don't know how you're getting those punisher attacks off. I push triangle and it takes about 5-7 business days for Cloud to do it
Disorder works very well too if you have trouble timing the attack after tripple slash. Great guide as always!!
Man, you are an absolute godsend. I was losing my mind at this boss, I never thought I'd see the day where I needed to look up a guide for how to beat a storymode boss but here we are.
What an absolute shit fight, as if fighting him on normal wasn't painful enough. Whoever designed these fights needs to be fired.
For an even easier way that doesn't really require any skill, just use the super magic strategy. Each Aeroga for me did a ton of damage to him, and you can just build up your ATB again by hitting him with the sword beams from a distance. I also recommend having Haste on to build up ATB faster.
But isn’t he invincible unless he’s reloading?
@@amplifiedheart Nope, magic damage always hits him no matter what. I also got him into a loop where I stood not too far from him and kept spamming ranged attacks then dodging so Cloud didn't fly towards him, and he would just sit there and do nothing while I built up ATB. It would say his moves, but then he would just sit there and block since I was hitting him so quickly.
@@AnaverdGaidendid you get up back?
@@cocoplops4982 What do you mean?
@@AnaverdGaiden whoops I might to say. What did do you do when the dog spawns in?
Thanks so much for your videos! They are super helpful.
Thanks again man! You’ve been a great help! God bless you
Thanks for taking time to make the guide, this is very stable method. Normally 1 braver stagger need some time to familiar with his move, and it not as stable as this guide. I did this when not have the LB accessory yet, have to take out dark star before giving rufus the infinity edge with dmg limit break XD
Alternatively you can put Darkstar to sleep and just get straight back to focusing on Rufus, though you need to stop using Triple Slash then as you will wake up the dog (slot stuff to increase sleeping time)
So I just discovered something. If you go into this fight with a different materia set up you have to redo this materia setup upon every retry. Idk if you can get around this but if this is true that is a hard oversight on the devs part.
Fun fact: ive been stuck on this Rufus boss fight for 5 hours. Yay.
Not done it on hard yet, but even in normal I found it so hard to hit him with Braver when he reloaded for the instant stagger. Seemed easier in Remake to pull off.
he is most vulnerable to braver when he do the ricochet move, evade left or right then braver and it a stagger, if you have genji gloves, 1 infinity edge will make it phase 2
Great, great, great guide!!! Thanks a lot. I used bravery before end of 1st stage. Works too. 5-6 tries with this method. Before I was learning about 3 hours with others. Now it's simple.
PS. I had only 3MP :) played without regen (chakra instead) and 50% cost reduce on bravery. 1 spell is enough for this battle.
Genius thank u may the algorithm be good with u
This fight + the vr mission with zack are finally the things that made me uninstall it. I tried...i dont have the patience.
You must have saved me about 3 hours hahhaha, you are the best of all and I wouldn't be getting platinum if it wasn't for your help, thank you so much! 😍❤️
Brilliant, another great strategy 👍🏻
What would you consider a good alternate if I don't have the limit accessory yet?
Use sleep on the dog and then focused thrust on rufus then as triple slash will wake up the dog. Put magic focus with the binding to make it last longer. With the dog asleep, just repeat the 1st phase strategy, but again, use focused thrust instead
It’s funny I realized on my 10th battle with him on hard that if you just killed him first on second phase you were done lol. Well done 🙏🏾
you're the best, Opti
Your guides r really helpful thank u
Takes some practice to get this fight right. When you do triple-dash, wait until the third dash to hit triangle. Tap square three times quickly, then hold on the third. If you hold it, you will be countered. I practiced this a bunch of times to get the timing right before swapping the materia since that takes so damn long.
Also, if you need to charge ATB, dodge backwards and tap square three times and repeat. You won't do damage, but you'll keep Rufus locked up while you charge ATB.
bro, thank you for explain the punisher timming, I was struggling with it
Once again sir, your strategy saved me from insanity. Was able to down him in one go after watching this - I had spent probably 3 hours trying to get him prior. 👏
Worked like gamebusters, Thanks!
For anyone having trouble with punisher timing after triple slash, try focused strike instead. It's a more forgiving window to switch to punisher mode and get the 4 hold/cancel combos off.
Great guides, I’ve used just about all of them. Thank you. You’re insane, especially with this fight! I cannot hit Rufus on reload every time and getting that punisher combo down just right is hard asf for me lol anyways great stuff.
some find eaiser using Focused Thrust or Disorder.
Yeah im usually quite good and making accessible strategies, just for whatever reason, a lot of players are finding this more difficult than I anticipated
@@Optinooby well, for me it’s bc there’s such a tiny window of opportunity to do damage. It feels like I’m too busy worried about dodging his attacks and can’t focus on offense. Before I know it, I’m dead, I’ll keep at though.
Awesome, thanks again.
Some extra tips I learnt if you are an idiot like me and spammed MP until you don’t have enough to pull through Rufus on hard/ or your Darkside Braver materia is not levelled.
1. Brace the shotgun blasts with perfect blocks with precision and steadfast
2. Wait till one ATB charged then boost to get max bang for your buck ATB
3. For the Ricochet move you gonna have to pull a Malenia dodge move and dodge diagonally to his left or right side, backwards usually don’t work.
4. If you don’t have Gotter, use the Enhanced Exp Medal just rinse repeat triple slash or better yet Disorder until he pops, but when he staggers don’t bum rush him down until his second phase, summon Gilgamesh until his final move brings him to second phase and *even lower*. Which should be just enough to limit him to death with a Finishing Touch stored all this while. Just pop it immediately or you’ll get ganged on
5. It will take quite a while but it’s possible put down the controller if you’re ever getting dizzy trying to spin the camera around Rufus and take a break
Good Luck 🤞
I am taking my break right now lol... Rufus is so annoying. I thought Vincent was bad! But this makes me wonder how hard the final bosses will be....
Man, I'm tired haha after 2 hours I mastered the punisher mode and beat it! It's a little difficult for me to understand you (I'm not a native English speaker) but your guide is wonderful, I appreciate it a lot :)
I was able to beat this guy first try on hard mode! I didn’t exactly use you setup (cuz I don’t have a gottodamerung or however you spell that) but I did use your first hit operator mode combo so thanks! This dude was wayyyyy tonight for me in normal mode 😅
I need to " git gud " I'm not understanding the dodge, combo technique, Rufus still gets me and eats me alive, what am I doing wrong?
And another one thanks to you!! I couldn't switch to punisher mode in time to start the staggering combo, so i added to the strategy running around like a coward waiting for the gotterdammerung to fill my limit gauge 😂 and it worked! Thanks boss
Another option here that makes this much easier and doesn't really require reaction times as much is to use plasma discharge, which will pressure him the same amount as an ATB move if it activates when you block one of his moves and he's close enough to get hit by it. Even nicer, this allows you to have an extra ATB bar when he is pressured.
Very helpful tip.
something really cool about this fight is learned. if u shoot clouds ranged blades at him non stop u can lock him in place. it’s cheap, long and cheesy but it’s free atb.
so long doing it that way, the 4 x punisher combo trick is great because it deals dqmage, also locks him in place, builds up 1+ ATB and grants berserk so increases next attack as well
@@Optinooby yeah i had 0 idea that was a thing. very eye opening. excited to see your jenova guide, honestly. can’t wait to see what u come up with
Great build thanks man, but if anyone is stuggling with triple slash to punisher, try staying in range and do focus thrust instead => longer pressured window for more atb build-up and faster stagger. You can even have spare times to cast bravery in phase 1. Couldn’t pull it off as the guide but I pulled focus thrust off 1st try.
Trying to get Cloud to switch to punisher mode is something else... HOW DO YOU DO IT?!!
Cloud might do the switch IF you stop moving & stop playing, count to 5, then try to do it. I've seen the same thing with Yuffie and it's SO frustrating, especially since it's not a complicated thing to expect the game to be able to accept a button press in the middle of a ″battle sequence″...
Press it around the final slash triple slash think it is
1 try brother. 1 try with your method. It does help that I familiar myself with Rufus moves over many many attempts 🙏👍
Gosh, I thought my grinding days were over, but ive never equipped Darkside at all. Ugh
Improves the damage quite a lot here, so the strategy may not work without it. May be worth a try though!
@@Optinooby I can barely touch Rufus so I can't even tell you. Worst boss ever
Is there something in this fight that sometimes prevents atb boost from doing anything? Multiple times now i have used it in various points in the fight and i get 0 atb from it.
You can get interrupted and completely waste it
I LOVE YOU, OPTINOOB!!! 😭
Nice, I had to use the Infinite ATB strat from a different video to beat this fool last night. Finished him off in style with the third limit break after staggering him. Can't wait to see what easy strat you'll come up for the bosses on chapters 13 and 14
Infinite ATB? thought only Yuffie can do that kind of, or I guess Tifa with her Rage and Fury......??
@@Optinooby You can do it with Cloud as well. Basically you dodge once and three air slashes at Rufus. It keeps him from attacking and while your attacks don't damage him, it does help build up ATB in conjunction with Haste. It's not really reliable as what you've done in this vid; but it does help when in a pinch. As for dealing with his mutt. I had the enhanced expeditionary medal (The one that max's out the limit to level 3) and had the limit ready for him. So I used Cloud's third limit on the dog to pressure him, few attacks later to stagger, then Infinity's End to get him knocked out. After that it was back to dealing with the spoiled brat. His health was really low from the limit attack and dealing with his dog got my limit gauge close to full, so after a few blocked attacks and staggering him again, the limit gauge was full again and I popped off Cloud's limit to finish him off.
Oh that, yea its not infinite, you're just building it up normally. I had tried that but really dislike it as its mega slow still and that slowness has a big effect on everything else
@@Optinooby technically it kinda is, if you keep the pressure on him he won't get out of it; but ideally it isn't since he can come out of it if you're not fast enough and it's slow even with Haste. It's like two sides of the same coin. While it is slow, cumbersome and unreliable to pull off, on the flipside it does help out in a pinch when you need to build up ATB to either attack when he uses a move, rebuff or heal using chakra.
Dang, that was a smooth finish. I got so sick of dancing with this fool I ended up letting my limit break charge twice in the second phase. Didn't think to use Bravery with Berserk right at the start, cheers!
I actually kinda begun with trying to double limit break, or even get limi 3 ready for phase 2, but this strategy came out on top for me ;)
You are saving my life big bro
I made a comment four hours ago about how I Miss Crisis Core reunion specifically I might add and Remake.
My take at 350 or so hours (400 because I accidentally overwrote a save, just had to recollect Intel and stuff a while back) I'd say the first 140 hours I was enjoying myself but it was after about the 90 hour mark that I started to realize something was wrong when I was doing all these mini games and somewhere in the combat simulator I realize that these fights aren't really tough in the way that is fun. I've had a lot of fun but it was all concentrated in dynamic and normal mode and easy mode. It seems like hard mode doesn't know what difficulty it wants to actually be I mean THIS fight right here that took me 4 hours to do and about 30 minutes with this strategy here that's pretty good, I wouldn't consider a fight like this fun. I wouldn't say it's hard in a traditional sense but there's so many little gimmicks. I guess that's why the combat doesn't really flow for me. They lob these curve balls at you that break the story immersion but they also incentivize you to do it while simultaneously making it a bad experience or at least very dull and repetitive.
The story of the original Final Fantasy 7 is soul legendary that even with some of the questionable choices it takes it from like "S+ tier story" only down to like "B+/A tier".
Something about the adaptation into action RPG real time kind of struggling with these games even though I love the battle system something just feels off I think ATB generation should be FASTER AND THEY SHOULD IN THE THIRD PART give you default multiple segments so each bar has a faster base regeneration rate kind of like the original in active x3 but they should also in my opinion have three ATB bars in the next game AND KIND OF DO WHAT THEY DID WITH STORMS FURY but with the other abilities. KOTR Summon. That's a good example of something that should cost a bunch of ATB, I DON'T WANT TO GO ON AND ON but the summons really feel kind of useless in this game. They are only good for early game nobody wants to waste an ATV on something that's going to do 500 damage when you can do that with a basic attack and that is another thing that they should have kept the 9,999 as sort of an end game thing like...HP up... Basic strong attacks should be able to do that much... There needed to be more multiple slash attacks that did more damage. I hope we get everything we got in the mid to end game of Final Fantasy 7 into rebirth. Though I'd like to see them use bigger numbers like in Crisis Core to signify that cloud is now on the level of his old war buddy. It seems fitting given his combat experience and his soldier memories. He eventually has to get stronger and it should be reflected.
Anyway that's my super super long comment, I ought to ramble in videos and become one of those hated CZcamsrs that people realize was right 2 years later lol.
@@supersaiyanzero386 Hopefully they fix it with the 3rd Remake.
Is that the new Crisis Core you're talking about? Is it good?
@@Optinooby the remake of the one that was on PSP Crisis Core reunion it was met with critical acclaim some people said they didn't like one of the voice actors but the game was amazing easily made Zack my favorite the combat system is amazing it's revamped it's basically like Final Fantasy 7 remake graphics and style combat but in my opinion it's better there's some really cool materia the whole thing looks amazing. I compared it to the PSP version it is basically a shot for shot remake.
Of course, with better graphics better combat flow and things are just updated it's a proper remake I had so much fun with it that even though I have a copy on steam with about 250 hours that's without a hard mode playthrough, I still bought a copy for the PlayStation 5 from Amazon came in a PS4 case and said PS5 upgrade for free it was pretty cheap only like 30 dollars for the physical copy with the free update/upgrade. The one on the PlayStation store is sometimes on sale and I may be wrong but I saw an Xbox One edition of it as well. It is so worth it even the PSP version from a million years ago looks great.
It's such a great game. Some say doing every 'mission' (apart from the main story) is repetitive but I loved every minute of it! They're super interesting and the way in which they're done is...better than Chadley LOL, It's basically visually Final Fantasy VII remake but shorter with all the crew from before and my boy Zack from his induction into soldier days all the way until right before the events of FF7. BEAUTIFUL game, story, combat. Highly highly recommend.
@@supersaiyanzero386 Hopefully i will cover it of it comes to plus ;), look forward to it
i love how everytime i lose i have to put in the materia again great mechanic square
Followed what you said but changed to operator with combo, dodge, repeat. Also used another heal and magic efficiency to cut mp cost of cura and regain. Also steadfast block to build atb. Don’t have the gotterdammerung so used enhanced expeditionary medal. Had limit full half way through first phase. Saved it for 2nd. Never got to stagger him till 2nd phase when I used final touch right from the start. Then 1 braver and it was over. So thanks for the help. Rufus was hard on dynamic mode but damn near impossible on hard mode for the average player.
but at which point do you have to press triangle to enter punisher mode for cloud? when im doing an attack and press triangle he does not enter in punisher mode
Usually on the last attack of triple slash or near there
@@Optinooby yeah just got it, it takes a while to get the timing right but this strategy is awesome, thanks man
Thanks, did it this way except I used enhanced expeditionary medal because gotterdammerung with level 1 LB was not enough to kill after stagger phase. I think it’s because my strength up and darkside materias are not max level yet. But finishing touch did the job
Is there any way to get the game to remember your build when you have to retry the fight? Having to go in and set up the build each time is more brutal than any boss fight in this game!
Yea i know its annoying, you cant. But thats why I partially set it up beforw Rude/Elena
Phew, gottem. Thanks again, man!
Lol you make this look so easy. I struggled for hours against this guy a week ago. Finally eek'd out a victory. Should've just waited for the guide 🙂
I tried doing this fight using braver to get the instant stagger but the window is so short it never seems worth it, triple slash’s it much safer and easier it just takes a bit longer.
This 100% doesn't work. Idk if they patched it but he now instantly shoots you out of any follow up after triple slash. There's no stun at all on him.
I think its a timing problem, or maybe damage numbers, but this felt quite easy to me but a lot of players just havent found it the same, guess I have to miss sometimes ;(
A lot of players find it easier using Focused Thrust or Disorder instead
@@Optinooby I stuck mostly with the general strategy of triple slash and follow up damage was just in operator stance. Threw in a few focus strikes when I had good attack windows. Just couldn't get punisher to work - changing stances I'd get one attack off then the big smash attack he reliably would attack me out of.
Can confirm it doesn't work because once you go into Punisher mode he counters after that first punisher hit. So it's a bit of a longer fight but still doable. Just don't go into Punisher mode.
This boss fight in particular is hard enough as it is, even on Easy difficulty. Fortunately, it took me fewer attempts than I thought it would with this guide (which I think was 4, maybe 5).
best guide ever. you are a genius
I Counterstance'd Rufus with well over 1/3 of his health and he just flippin' died. WTF?
I don't know how but that's what happened, he still had about 1/3 of his HP, Darkstar was still alive and about to cast Fira on me... I had already given up on that attempt since the cat didn't die to a level 1 limit break, used Counterstance out of reflex and Rufus instantly died, cue to the cutscene that follows the fight.
Was that a bug? 'Cause bro, I don't mind winning through a bug, I just wanna finish this 200+ hour platinum.
Holy fuck, this worked like a charm once I got the timing of Triple Slash into Punisher combo. Much thanks!
Ok whuuuuut... How tight is the window for interrupting his attacks? I barely saw "reload" come out when you hit him 3XSlash
As soon as you see the text, Triple Slash. I was pressing it too early sometimes, it did catch me out at one point as you saw
like most people here in comments it seems, I couldn't get the TripleSlash-into-Punisher to work properly. No matter what I tried, Rufus interrupted the first use of Punisher mode, so I took more damage, built less ATB, and built less stagger than this. So I checked another guide and ended up sort of blending the two strategies together. Main differences: blocking with Steadfast Block, using Haste (they didn't use Bravery, so I borrowed that from here), and most importantly, using the Enemy Skill - PlasmaDischarge right up front so every ATB bar after that activated a plasma burst. Catching Rufus in that plasma immediately pressures him, and since you are guaranteed an ATB at that point, you can immediately hit a FocusedThrust for more stagger, and a couple times I immediately had enough ATB to kick off a second Plasma/Focused combo. That helped replace my inability to get the required Triple/Punisher combo described here.
I ignored the dog and toward the end summoned Phoenix just so it would deal some fire damage to Rufus while he was immune/blocking my ranged shots, and whittled him down while playing more defensively.
This is the first of Optinoob's hard-mode strategies I just haven't been able to get to work, so I'm not bent out of shape over it. Not sure if there's some additional notes/advice he can provide around timing that Triple/Punisher bit, since it seems so many have problems replicating his skill there.
I though nothing else to share as I literally got this down almost straight after trying the attacks. Thats why I thought it would be simple for every1, because I learnt it almost straight away, thought timing was not tight.
But for whatever, some are having trouble with it. Maybe its folios upgrades for Punisher which makes the difference, i dont know.
You're right, i perhaps should have cooked this strategy a little more and/or provided alternatives. For example the Focused Thrust or Disorder works well apparently instead of Triple Slash
I didn’t opt for triple slash but I used disorder instead since if a disorder hits you regain back the atb but this is another cool combo
this saved me from wasting so much more time… this is the ONLY boss on hard mode i had to find an easier way to beat.
Only 2 more Chapters to the platinum and it’s all thanks to @Optinoob! I did find a few tweaks helped a ton:
1. In the Rude / Elena fight equip both HP Up & MP Up. Then make sure Cloud is at max HP/MP at the end. I actually equipped all the extra material with those 2 to make preparing the materia faster in between fights. Started off with 7300+ HP & 112 MP. Comes in handy for Curagas if you mistime the dodges or if ATB attacks get countered.
2. I added Skill Master, MP Up (from previous fight) & Time in the 3 empty spots left. Because you use 3 diff types of commands a lot if you need to heal, Skill Master added 1 ATB at least 3x in my fight. Adding Time for the extra slot left because Haste can help widen the cushion to get the ATB & Prime attacks in. (MP Up took up the other spot from the fight before). I also swapped out Magic Focus for Swiftcast for Healing - your healing & regen are good enough the extra saved time is way more important.
3. I started with Darkside without ATB Boost because it gives you 3/4 of a bar back when you cast it. Then I dodged / long distance attack to 1 full ATB. Then I did ATB Boost & did Prime Mode & Regen. With Skill Master I then got 1 ATB bar already when I released the LB.
4. I then hit Limit Break and Prime Mode attack x4. You now have 2 full ATB bars and are fully buffed. If you are low on HP you cast Curaga. If you are ok then Sonic Boom for the Brave / Faith buff or Haste for the extra forgiveness in getting the ATB attack off in time.
Then you go with Dodge / ATB attack with Rufus missing any red line attack except the bullet salvo one.
5. If you miss on your ATB attack and don’t have an ATB bar then do the dodge / ranged attacks. Circle - square x4. Once you have 1 ATB you go back to the offense (unless you are low on HP then Curaga obv). And yes Focused Strike is easier than Triple Slash to get the Prime Mode attacks in after. Disorder probably as well given its shorter animation time wise.
Doing the above if you have trouble dodging attacks perfectly and you use your Limit Break super early you get it back in time for the 2nd phase. I made sure to have at least 1 more ATB bar when I fired the LB after I died 2x with sliver of HP left on Rufus after the limit.
I hope the adjustments above help others who struggle with this. In to chapter 13 tomorrow!
This would've made my run faster lol
I just ran Barrier linked to Magic Efficiency, Focus, and Swiftcast with Chakra to heal and played patient
For Rufus's second phase I didn't have an ATB guage, so I couldn't do Bravery. But, the Limit Break was enough to kill him anyways. (Maybe because I stacked a bunch of Auto-Unique Ability materia to boost Attack)
Impressive!
Thank you !
Any reason you dont add the stagger bonus materias?
Dont need here, though you're open to slot it yourself with the free slits ;)
@@Optinooby I plat'd the game a few days back and this was one of the annoying fights. I added to stagger and also if he uses guns Akimbo you can use braver and it'll instantly stagger him at any percent
Thank you!!!!!
Is darkside important, i havent had it levelled at all?
increases your damage
Is anyone else having to reset all the materia & combat shortcuts every time you retry this fight? Is there a way around this that I'm just missing? Trying to activate & then successfully use punisher mode is the hardest part of this, but having to redo Cloud's entire set up & shortcuts after each fight is getting a little too tedious.
no way around that, its why i half get him ready on the boss fight before as well, so i only have a few to slot. If u check my guide for the boss before, you will be pretty much be ready for Rufus as well!
@Optinooby Oh, believe me, I already watched that video ha (since you had us set up most of it before, then I only have to add a few materia - which is the reason it has been tolerable to do).
I JUST figured out what I was doing wrong, I must have misheard you in your video. Right after switching to punisher, I would hold square & let go, but Rufus would always knock me out of it JUST before the first blow would connect. After about 20 attempts, I accidentally realized that I should have been TAPPING square once, then holding & letting go... then repeating that cycle 3 more times.... ugh lol. Once I did that, it all started to go just like your video.
*** I should add that after I realized my mistake, I defeated Rufus in one attempt - thanks to your video (and it was the same attempt where I realized the mistake, after already having taken hits and lost atb)
I knock him into stage 2 before I get a chance to stagger and bring his health down, so when I hit the limit it doesn’t kill him; getting mad annoying cause it’s happened like 4 times
once again you bailed me out bro. thanks.
Not even this helped me defeat him. I've been trying for 5 days with hours on end trying to make a dent on him and I can't. He has no pattern. Either reloads after 1 2 or 3 shots but you can't tell which it's gunna be. It's so frustrating !
FUCK YES THANK YOU This was the ticket after trying for over 2 hours. Thank you brother!
Yo I’m gonna save this video, and when I come to Rufus fight I will be back at this video
Wait, you can OPEN the menu between the fights??
Square Enix only gave me the ability to do so 😂.
Sure, just hold square during the cutscene ;)
Yeah you can, it was possible to do so in FF7 Remake as well
@@Optinooby I was hitting skip instantly after the fight so that's why I didn't notice the prompt. Too bad it doesn't remember the equipment setup and I needed to set it again after each try. Got him though after a couple of tries. Looking forward to the next chapter guide.
After losing 10 times in a row, I used your strategy and won my first go! Thanks Optinoob!!!
not sure what i'm doing wrong, i get to his phase 2, add bravery, do limit break, and yet he still has like 5% of hp left. it's pretty much game over after that.
was berserk active?
I hated this guy in remake... now I have to do ti again hard mode xD
All your guides have been AMAZING until this one its not helping me at all, i cant get no hits on him
some have found it easier using disorder or focused thrust instead of triple slash
I’m really struggling to get into punisher mode once he’s pressured. I can see triangle lighting up but not changing. By the time it chances it’s too late 😩
you can try using focused thrust or disorder.
I dunno what it is with this strategy, felt so easy for me but others are not having much luck. Feedback on it so far is it either mega easy for you to do or mega hard
I used prime mode and disorder in the end. An I changed my accessory to the enhanced limit break thingy so cloud would used his level 3 limit break. That got me through. Thank you for this guide!
It’s so frustrating to have to enter the set up every time you retry