FF7 Gjoerulv's Hardcore Mod - Ep.51: Special Battle

The Brave may not Fear the Grave but they sure do fear a bad result on the handicap slots.

Strategy

The enemy for the Special Battle is less the monsters themselves and more the handicap reels. The Proud Clod waiting at the end is a pretty tough incarnation of the Midgar boss and you need a healthy HP pool along with a decent set-up to bring him down; lose any of these along the way and you could easily end up looking at a hopeless fight.

First off, Cloud has a Ziedrich equipped which, along with Dragon Force, boosts his defences considerably. Clod can hit for 6000 damage with some attacks and a healthy critical rate, so you need a solid defence. Also had Magic Counter+Barrier but it never made it to the final fight thanks to the reels. Accessory is a Jem Ring to help the fight with Ho-Chu go in faster, the only other enemy besides Clod resistant to Poison (also morphed a third Ribbon from this guy earlier). Add to that some counter attacks, long range, a HP Plus, and an E.Skill and we're good to go.

Bad Breath is the spell of the hour here, affecting almost everything with poison and sleep. The Sea Worm is quite weak but can inflict Darkness with Sandstorm which is irritating. The Ho-Chu is much worse, able to inflict Sleep and Paralysis which really drags the fight out without protection. Unknown 3 has some pretty nasty attacks and plenty of power, so he can be a threat.

Serpent is like a pit-stop in this battle. His attacks are very weak, so it's a good opportunity to recover and get in gear again.

Wolmeister is next, and laser can cut him down to size. Next is Behemoth who has a vicious horn attack that seems to ignore defence. And then there's a Maximum Kimaihra from the Sister Ray who's also pretty strong but not so when Dragon Force is on. His Northern Star can inflict poison, and he has Freeze at his disposal, but that's it for him.

Proud Clod is a beast. His strongest attacks are Knee Fire/Blend which can hit for 2000 and be used repeatedly, perhaps matched by his Wrist Laser which can also be used twice and hits for similar damage. My strategy was to focus on healing and defending while counters took care of the damage for me, with a Lv4 Limit speeding things along. Had a few narrow scrapes because of White Wind missing, and was convinced Beam Cannon was going to wipe me, but the fight is done and I'm now the proud owner of a Final Attack materia.