FF7 Rebirth: Best Aerith Build [Abilities, Gear & Playstyle]
After 40+ hours, here is my take on the recommended Abilities, Weapons and Materia as well as a playstyle for Aerith.
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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth expands the total party member roster, featuring new characters to experience in gameplay, such as Cait Sith and Red XIII. However, this guide is aimed towards the main mage of FF7 Rebirth, Aerith Gainsborough, where I will discuss her combat role, the best gear, and abilities, including the optimal playstyle in short detail.
- Author’s Note: After playing through FF7 Rebirth via an early review copy and clocking up to 40+ hours, you can rely on the information here about the character guide for Aerith.
- Aerith Gainsborough is a Mage character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, with her main weapon being a Staff to cast ranged magic attacks.
- Aerith’s best abilities can provide powerful support opportunities and magic damage to targets.
- A disadvantage of Aerith is that she’s one of the most nimble characters in the game, and she can die easily.
- My overall build of Aerith is focused on Healing/Support while providing additional elemental spell damage if required.
Below is a summary of my best build guide for Aerith, including every element from her Abilities to the Gear:
| CATEGORY | CONTENT |
|---|---|
| BEST ABILITIES | Chrono Aegis, ATB Ward, Radiant Ward, Arcane Ward, Transendence, Cold Front |
| BEST MATERIA | Prayer, Magic Efficiency, Barrier + Magnify, Dual/Twin Elemental, Vitality Up |
| BEST GEAR | Weapon: Gambanteinn Armor: Varvados Bracelet Accessory: Healing Carcanet |
| BEST SYNERGY SKILLS & ABILITIES | Body Guard, Combat Savior, Spellbound Blast, Sweet-and-Sour Salvo |
What Is Aerith’s Role In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Aerith is primarily the mage-focused character as she wields a staff, casting spells from afar via her normal attacks, along with high magic and MP stats.
As someone who’s completed the main story, I consider her a vital party member, one that I hardly switched out of, especially during boss fights when some of them took to the skies. While she has a couple of tricks to deal close-range damage, Aerith will always shine at range as both a group healer and dishing out powerful magic damage to her targets.
- High Magic and MP.
- Best Character for Healing Spells.
- Range DPS.
- High Magic damage Abilities.
- Nimble and low HP stats.
Best Abilities
The ATB Ward ability increases charge rate of the ATB Gauge. (Image Captured by eXputer)
In the rare chance that you don’t know, most ATB Command abilities are obtained via weapons in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth. You will essentially need to master the weapon’s proficiency to unlock the associated ability and use it across other weapons permanently.
Below are the Weapons and their Abilities I suggest getting for Aerith in FF7 Rebirth:
| ABILITY NAME | ASSOCIATED WEAPON | EFFECT | REASON |
| Chrono Aegis | Timeless Rod | Raise a Barrier that damages and temporarily freezes enemies who attempt to strike you. | While it isn’t very effective against larger fiends, I found this extremely helpful in crowd-control battles to knock back aggressive targets charging at Aerith. |
| ATB Ward | Ceremonial Staff | Conjure a Ward. Fill ATB Charges within the ward to increase your allies’ ATB gauges. | One of my favorite abilities from the previous entry. Extremely beneficial in boss fights to charge up ATB Commands faster, especially when placed near targets during Stagger DPS. |
| Radiant Ward | Empress’s Scepter | Conjure a Ward that grants invincibility while casting spells—Strenghten’s Aerith’s basic attack. | Became one of my most used abilities from the early game towards the end, as they turn Aerith’s normal attacks into lasers. |
| Arcane Ward | Guard Stick | Conjure a Ward. Attack spells cast within the Ward will automatically be cast twice. | A memorable ability I used in the previous game’s Pride and Joy boss battle returns in FF7 Rebirth. I found it helpful during certain boss battles to expose elemental weaknesses via the party’s attack spells and double them. |
| Transcendence | Folio Skills
|
Focus your magical energy to unleash non-elemental magic attacks. Has various effects while charging, such as increasing magic attacks. | Viable against enemies or bosses who don’t have particular elemental weaknesses, it also boosts your magic attack damage, which is helpful in late-game scenarios. |
| Cold Front | Folio Skills
|
Unleash an Ice magic attack without expending MP. | I frequently used this ability to avoid MP usage on certain boss battles, as most of them were weak to Ice, if not fire later on during the mid-game stages. |
Best Materia Setup
- Prayer Materia is absolutely essential for Aerith. (Screenshot Grab: eXputer)
Materia is a crucial element of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and much like the previous game, it functions pretty much the exact same way, equipping it on characters’ weapons or armor slots and leveling them up using AP. The higher the level of the Materia, the greater the spell level or bonuses it provides.
I recommend equipping the following Materia for Aerith in FF7 Rebirth:
- Prayer: An essential Materia for Aerith that can greatly heal at higher levels, considering she’s a mage and healer of the party in most scenarios.
- Magic Efficiency: Reduces the MP cost of linked Materia spells depending on the level. Another Materia, which I found beneficial for Aerith to easily spam spells without worrying about draining her MP.
- Barrier & Magnify: While I usually had these on either Cloud or Tifa, I would swap them with Aerith on certain occasions to provide buffs to the group due to her high MP. Barrier’s Manaward buff is extremely helpful in a few boss fights towards the late game.
- Twin Element Materia: In FF7 Rebirth, you can acquire certain Materia that possess dual elements, such as Thunder and Wind, in one. These, in general, are a must to expose weaknesses in Fiends and other enemies. Still, due to their Mage capabilities, I recommend this Materia for either character like Aerith or Barret.
- Vitality Up: In my opinion, Aerith is a rather squishy character that can easily get KO’ed if you’re not careful, so having at least one Vitality Up Materia on her helped me quite a bit to increase her survivability.
Recommended Gear
Below is the gear I recommend for Aerith, which includes the recommended weapon to use, armor, and the accessory item that I mainly used towards the mid-to-late-game stages:
| GEAR NAME | TYPE | STATS | EFFECTS |
| Gambanteinn | Weapon |
|
Noble Sacrifice: Sacrifice yourself to revive fallen allies, restore their HP, and remove detrimental status effects. |
| Varvados Bracelet | Armor |
|
N/A |
| Healing Carcanet | Accessory | N/A | Increases the effectiveness of healing items, spells, and abilities during battle. |
Synergy Skills & Abilities
Synergy Skills & Synergy Abilities are brand-new combat elements introduced in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the former which can be performed by holding down the Guard button and doesn’t consume any ATB charges. They are also mapped to your R1 accordingly as either Offensive or Defensive.
Meanwhile, Synergy Abilities are triggered from the command bar after their meter is charged, allowing you to unleash powerful attacks with a party member to deal high damage or other properties.
Following are a few Synergy Skills and Abilities I recommend using for Aerith in combat:
- Bodyguard: Since this Synergy Skill works with any party member, I found it especially helpful when I needed to reposition Aerith while also shielding her from an incoming attack.
- Combat Savior: I’d honestly say this Synergy Skill works both offensively and defensively as it not only saves Aerith from incoming enemies but also lets the partner slightly damage them back.
- Spellbound Blast: My most used Synergy Skill with Partners like Tifa and Yuffie allows Aerith to deal decent damage, considering she doesn’t have the highest raw DPS.
- Sweet-and-Sour Salvo: In my opinion, this is the best Synergy Ability for Aerith with Barret. It allows you to increase your attack power and Staggered Time duration on downed foes.
My Experience With Aerith
Before I wrap up, as I’ve stated with all the details regarding her, I strongly suggest keeping Aerith as a Healer/Mage hybrid in the party. While FF7 Rebirth offers flexibility in designing your active party, Aerith is a quintessential character that I heavily regretted not keeping for a few encounters. With the best abilities, Materia, Gear, and Synergy Skills I’ve listed, you shouldn’t face too much trouble setting her kit up.
This concludes my guide; if you enjoyed reading this, then be sure to check out Hamid Shah’s Review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, where he praises it as a successful follow-up sequel to the Remake from 2019. If you have any questions or queries about the guide, notify me in the comments below!
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