Crisis Core Reunion Minerva Boss Fight Guide

Minerva is the strongest and most difficult boss in Crisis Core Reunion. She is classified as a super boss and requires a very high level and a build specially designed to defeat her.

Key Highlights

• Minerva is the hardest boss in Crisis Core Reunion. She is classified as a super boss.
• Minerva can be fought in Mission 9-6-6: The Reigning Deity.
• You are required to complete missions 8-4-1 til 8-4-6, 8-5-1 til 8-5-6, and the entire Mission 9 section to unlock Minerva.
• You need at least level 75 and a dedicated build comprising of Costly Punch or Aerial Drain materias to beat her.
• Knowledge of her attacks and when to use limit breaks is key to defeating her.

How To Unlock Minerva In Crisis Core Reunion

Minerva can be fought in Mission 9-6-6: The Reigning Deity. Unlocking this mission is a bit of a lengthy process.

• You are required to complete missions 8-4-1 til 8-4-6 and missions 8-5-1 til 8-5-6.
• This will unlock the mission 9 section.
• Complete all the missions in the M9 section to unlock Mission 9-6-6: The Reigning Deity.

Now, you can engage Minerva in a boss battle.

Optimizing Your Build For Minerva

Minerva is the strongest boss in Crisis Core Reunion because she is a super boss. She boasts the highest HP in the game at a whopping 10,000,000 HP. Her attacks will kill any player with less than 60,000 HP. As such, we recommend you level up and optimize your materia with Zack as much as you can before attempting this fight.

Getting High Stats

We recommend that you level up Zack til at least level 75. This will boost your stats to survive Minerva’s absurd damage. 

To break the HP limiter, we recommend you use the Genji Armor Accessory. Using Ziedrich is also recommended because it increases your HP, ATK, MAG, and SPR by +100. It will also mitigate 50 percent of all elemental attacks.

Breaking The Damage Cap

In order to do damage to Minerva, it is of the utmost importance that you break the damage cap on Zack. To do this, you must level up your Buster Sword’s proficiency to 23 percent. Otherwise, you will inflict negligible damage on Minerva.

Alternatively, you can also use Genji Gloves to break the damage limiter. It also guarantees your attacks to be critical hits so we recommend that you use it.

For a more detailed explanation of how to level up Buster Sword’s stats and proficiency, check out our guide.

Recommended Materia

Materia attacks will be your primary source of damage in this fight. We recommend these materia to help you combat the Goddess Minerva because of their damage and beneficiary utilities. If you do not use these materia, the fight will last for too long, and it will not be optimal.

Costly Punch

Costly Punch will be one of your main sources of damage in this fight. At a high level and with 23 percent proficiency on your Buster Sword, you will be able to inflict 99,999 damage on her. Keep in mind, the costly punch, as it implies, can be very costly to your HP. We recommend you bring Curaga materia as well.

Alternatively, you can also use Gil Toss for a lot more damage, provided you have a lot of Gil to spare.

Aerial Drain

Aerial Drain is an extremely powerful damage-dealing attack for this fight. Upon execution, Zack will leap into the air, providing him with invulnerable frames. Then he will execute a leap attack which also restores his HP.

The Aerial Drain materia can be purchased from the Wutai Secret Shop. It can also be created by fusing an ATK Up and Drainga materia.

Curaga

We will be using the Curaga materia to heal ourselves after spamming Costly Punch. Without this materia, healing can become a chore because we will have to waste useful potions. To obtain Curaga, Simply combine 2 Cure or Cura materias.

Drainga

Drainga materia allows you to leech HP from the targetted enemy. This materia can be obtained by fusing an Aerial Drain and MAG Up+ materia. For a detailed explanation of materia fusion list, check out our guide. 

HP++ Materia

Since we are using the Genji Armor to break the HP limiter, we can use the HP++ materia to get an insanely high amount of HP. This is required in order to have some survivability against Minerva’s attacks.

This materia can be obtained from the Sector 8 Materia shop or obtained from mission 8-1-3 and mission 8-4-2.

Wall

The Wall materia will allow you to reduce physical and magical damage taken by 50 percent for 30 seconds. This is incredibly useful to mitigate Minerva’s attacks and ensure chances of success. It can be obtained from Mission 1-4-4, M2-5-5, M6-5-6, M9-1-4, and M9-4-1.

To augment all of these materia, we will be using the Genji Helm to reduce MP and AP costs to 0. For a detailed explanation of how to get Genji Armor, you can check out our guide.

Recommended Items

Items are incredibly useful if they are used in conjunction with beneficiary spells. That is why we recommend bringing along these items to use in the fight.

Elixir

Elixirs will automatically restore all of your stats to the maximum. It is incredibly useful against Minerva as she has an attack that reduces all of your stats to 1. You will have to rely on an Elixir to recover yourself as fast as possible.

Elixirs can be bought from the Shop by pausing the game.

X-Potion

You will be using X-Potion in conjunction with Curaga and Drainga to keep your HP topped off at all times. Her attacks are brutal, which is why we need multiple sources of HP recovery.

X-Potions can be obtained from Sector 7 shop and from multiple missions.

Phoenix Down

Death will be almost inevitable in your first few tries of this fight, as the fight is a bit lengthy at 10 minutes long, and there is very little room for error. Stock up on Phoenix Down potions as insurance to revive with full HP in case you die.

Phoenix Down potions can be obtained from the shop in the pause menu.

Ether

Since we will be continuously spamming MP-related abilities, we will have to stock up on Ether as well. This will allow us to restore our MP in the heat of battle.

Ether can be obtained from the shop in the pause menu.

Aroma

If you are using some abilities against Minerva that require AP, stock up on Aroma from the shop in the pause menu so you can restore your AP easily while in the middle of combat.

Summons

It is incredibly important to obtain all summons for this fight. Their limit breaks can prove incredibly useful in interrupting her attacks. That alone can make a big difference. Phoenix can also grant you a free Phoenix Down buff, saving you a potion.

If you wish to know how to unlock all summons, check out our guide.

Things To Keep In Mind Against Minerva 

Once you’re all geared up and ready to go, we can start focusing on the actual problem. Minerva’s attacks are very damaging and somewhat tricky to dodge. We will go in-depth on each strategy that you should use against her.

Patience

The very first thing you should be is patient. Minerva has 10,000,000 HP. Even with the strong and effective Costly Punch and Aerial Drain spam doing 99,999 per hit, it can still take up to 10 minutes to defeat her. You must be patient and focused at all times, look at every single move she casts and dodge accordingly, lest a tiny mistake be the downfall of your entire boss run.

You can use the Gil Toss materia to reduce the length of the fight by quite a lot, but you will need to grind out a lot of Gil to use this attack, which can be a bit tedious.

General Game Plan

The general game plan you will be following is

• Using a Phoenix Down potion at the start of the fight as insurance in case you die.
• Spamming Costly Punch and Aerial Drain to deal damage. These are your primary damage-dealing attacks for the entire fight.
• To mitigate Costly Punch’s HP cost, use Curaga and Drainga to be topped off at all times.
• Use Wall to keep up damage mitigation at all times.
• Save 1 Limit Break as insurance to cancel her attacks at all times.
• When Minerva is casting a strong attack, you can instantly use Limit Break to cancel the cast, saving a lot of your HP regenerating resources.

Avoiding Her Attacks

Now that you have a general game plan in mind, you can start focusing on her attacks. Minerva boasts a variety of deadly elemental and physical attacks that she can use against you. We will go through all of them and mention the best ways to dodge them.

Photon Feather

Upon casting Photon Feather, Minerva will fire small projectiles toward Zack Fair. They can be easily avoided by staying at close range and dodging them as soon as they come into contact with you.

Krysta

If she casts Krysta, Minerva will erect an ice pillar on Zack’s current location and freeze him. This can be tricky to avoid. The key here is to dodge as soon as the ice effect on her staff disappears, but this requires a lot of awareness. Aerial Drain spam also works in avoiding this attack, and even if you get hit, you get to regenerate HP on hit.

Thor’s Hammer

Minerva will attack with a lightning strike after casting Thor’s Hammer that will track Zack’s current location. It can be avoided by dodging as soon as she swings her hammer down. Your Aerial Drain can also end up avoiding this attack.

Flash Slash

Upon casting Flash Slash, Minerva will execute point-blank slashes with her sword. This attack is very fast, so we recommend that you either just tank it with mitigation or power through it with Buster Sword’s attack mode. Dodging it is possible, but it requires you to react as soon as the cast appears on the screen, which can be difficult.

Ultima

Ultima is an arena-wide explosion that can deal high damage without mitigation. You can avoid this powerful attack by dodging as soon as you see the white explosive orbs appear near her shield. Sometimes, your Aerial Drain spam can also end up avoiding this attack altogether.

You can also use your Buster Sword’s attack mode to add extra mitigation against this attack.

Special Ability – Judgement Arrow

Judgement Arrow is Minerva’s Special Ability. This attack deals incredible damage and can be a one shot at 100 percent power, reduces your AP and MP to 0, and completely removes all beneficiary effects, including defensive buffs, shields, offensive benefits, and the Phoenix Down effect. 

To counter this, you should always have a DMW Limit Break available at all times. When Minerva is casting Judgement Arrow, simply execute the Limit Break to cancel the cast out completely.

If you do not have a limit break ready, heal yourself to full HP as soon as possible. You must immediately use an elixir after getting hit by her attack to recover your stats. Then put on your mitigation with Wall and return on the offensive as soon as possible. Do not panic, and do not let her overwhelm you.

If you are later in using an Elixir, Minerva will kill you, and you will not be able to revive because Judgement Arrow will have removed the Phoenix Down effect.

Rewards For Defeating Minerva

Upon defeating Minerva in Crisis Core Reunion, you will be rewarded with one of the uncontested best accessories in the game, the Divine Slayer accessory. This accessory will give you the following benefits.

• Your AP, MP, and HP will increase by +100 percent.
• Your ATK, VIT, MAG, SPR, and LCK will increase by +50
• It will break your HP, AP, MP, and Damage Limit
• Divine Slayer also grants you Auto-Libra

It may sound grand and glorious, but since you already attained most of these beneficiary effects while preparing to fight Minerva, it feels underwhelming.

Minerva’s Lore And Origins

Minerva’s exact origins and identity are shrouded in mystery. There have been signs of Minerva sharing similarities with summons, as stated by Shinra Corporation, but she has no link to summoning materia. Minerva is first encountered by Genesis Rhapsodos near the lifestream in Crisis Core. 

Genesis believes Minerva to be the goddess from his LOVELESS poems and believes she is the one who can cure his degrading. Genesis abandons Dr. Hollander and his search for Sephiroth’s cells and seeks out Minerva. He tries his best to reenact LOVELESS and believes he is the hero in it, but Minerva wishes to guide him toward his true fate. He is then turned into an avatar of the lifestream by Minerva and proceeds to fight Zack.

After engaging and losing to Zack Fair in combat, he is inspired by the Buster Sword-wielding hero and realizes that the Goddess’s true gift is his pride and honor as a SOLDIER. After coming to this realization, the lifestream leaves his body, and he is cured of his degrading.

We believe Minerva is a simulacrum of the Lifestream itself. The Lifestream is the very life force of the planet governing life, death, and rebirth. This could make Minerva a God in the Final Fantasy 7 Universe. Also, it explains her guiding Genesis Rhapsodos down a path of self-discovery, as stated by the developers.

Reference To Roman Mythology

Minerva is a reference to the Roman Goddess Minerva, who is a Goddess of war and righteousness. This explains the inspiration for Minerva’s attire, as she is dressed like a divine and angelic warrior, and her will to guide Genesis toward his true purpose and save him. 

Summary

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core Reunion is the latest addition to the Final Fantasy VII series, with a variety of new additions, such as revamped combat, enhanced visuals, and updated voice-overs. It is a great remaster of the legendary and iconic prequel to the most beloved Final Fantasy game and a must-play for every avid Final Fantasy fan. The enhancements make it a brand-new experience to enjoy for years.

All Final Fantasy games have an optional super boss, and Crisis Core Reunion is no exception. Even in this remaster, Minerva keeps her crown as the strongest boss in Crisis Core. We hope our guide helps you attain victory against this divine deity of the Lifestream.

Since you’ve defeated Minerva in Crisis Core, why not go for the platinum trophy? Check out our trophy list in Crisis Core Reunion. Mail Completionist can be a tricky trophy to obtain in this game. If you wish to know about another tricky trophy, check out our good match for Aerith trophy guide. The Mako Recovery unit also has a trophy tied to it that players can miss.

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