The aerith mini game ruined my run for the platinum trophy. It’s so random how they change affinity too much and never do body slam when I need them too . Fuck this mini game
@@JMAN320 I fogured it out after figuring out how to play it & mastering it with Yuffie. I watched a TH-cam video on how to crush it with Aerith. You have to use Radiant Ward to kick those Catuar’s asses.
One thing that really helped me nail this which is hardly mentioned anywhere: don't bother using wards when the little guys are grouped up. Just move close to the pack and cast storm then cast a ward to finish off the survivors if needed. Also it might be dumb of me to realize it so late but you can only do basic magic attacks from inside a ward and conversely physical attacks.
Extra tip: add doppelgänger when you're with Yuffie - mimics all your attacks which means you can get more damage off. Also using Banishment near the end is an easy way to do a massive amount of damage in a short time frame With Aerith, I found always having a transcendence ready to be helpful. As soon as it starts use transcendence so by the time the giant cactuar falls, you will have an ATB and transcendence ready to use saving many seconds. Edit: Also, putting it on easy difficulty so your ATB charges quicker.
Did you get things in yours he didnt have to deal with like several shielded cactuars, the stomp move from the big ones used every 10 seconds or your sorcerous storm suddenly doing 0 damage on all targets? This mini game is not possibly with my version of the game. Fucking garbage.
Sharing this for anyone reading/viewing - the game does not explain this well anywhere, but certain minigames (including Cactuar Crush) scale the difficulty based on which (main game) Difficulty setting you’re playing on. In other words, “Hard mode” of Cactuar Crush is significantly easier to clear when playing Rebirth on Easy difficulty or Normal difficulty. Don’t do what I did and torture yourself by trying to clear the Hard mode minigames while on Dynamic difficulty. In addition to Cactuar Crush, this applies to Queen’s Blood, Gears & Gambits, and Fort Condor.
FYI, cuz I legit learned this during these trials, Yuffie's Windstorm damage type changes based on where your Shuriken is. Windstorm does magic if you have it, but does Physical when you've thrown it and is always centered on your Shuriken. So you can actually throw it into a pack of little Gladiatuars to wipe them out quickly.
I was wondering, because sometimes Windstorm lets you choose a target, sometimes it just fires off. Not sure if it really made a difference, but after keeping that in mind, I finally beat the stage.
I love FF7 but these mini games are grinding me down, they’ve zapped all the fun and hype out of the game for me.. I know they’re optional but without them you can’t achieve party rank 10 which means I’m locked out of certain abilities.. I hope Square sees the mistake they’ve made and make part 3 story driven
This has been exactly my opinion on them. They are technically optional, but it doesn't feel like it to me. Having finished them all now they don't seem so bad, but that is definitely not how I felt about them at the time! Especially the piano and 3d brawler!
I’m stuck on the two legs piano song, missed it by 1 note and since then I miss loads every try. Haven’t even attempted the 3D brawler, tried shiva and gave up 😂
@@Leafy_Tree88The thing that helped for me on the piano game on the last couple of songs was increasing the speed. It just felt more naturally in time for some reason
I’m glad I found someone who shares the same opinion as me on the game. I cannot believe I waited 4 years for a game that is full of side quests and mini games. It should not have taken them this long to develop mini games.
I don't know how u did that first Aerith 1 with a minute remaining, what a phenomenal run. I really appreciate commentary with the guid it's so much more helpful than the silent guides. I'm still having trouble with this and running out of time. It takes some practice and determination but I need this for party level 10. Thx for this video.
There is definitely some RNG at play with this challenge, especially around that Body Slam move, I had one run where it took FOREVER to do one. You'll get there, the real hard mode on Rebirth are the mini games 😆
@@TheGameFatherUK yes in the end you need some luck for those large cactus to crash down quickly in the run. I finished em both in succession pretty quickly after perfecting the build and getting comfortable with the shortcut button presets. All thx to your video for the basic formula. Thank you very much. I now have party level 10 and the genji gloves.
That's so weird. With Yuffie I succeeded on hard mode on the first try, for both of them. With Aerith I can't get either of them for the life of me. She's so goddamn slow to build ATB it drives me crazy, I don't know what to do.
Tip that helped me with Aerith..that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere..is to run ahead of some of the groups and plant your flag (put down a light/dark ward) and then use Aegis Ward. This will help from a lot of the pesky Cactuars that try to ambush you. It's really easy to take out the little Cactuars at that point with melee/tempest attacks and build up your ATB for Transcendence for the larger Cactuars. By running ahead and setting up shop, you'll be ready for when the next group spawns and you can take out most of them with a well-timed Sorcerous Storm. Good hunting, fellow gamers 🫡
The problem with the giant cactuar is that the developers made it entirely random when and even if they'll use Body Slam. You could go the entire two minutes with the first one in stage 4 not using it at all.
@@TheGameFatherUK I was finally able to do it with the help of your videos, so thank you so much 😊 I’ve completed every mini game on standard and hard/expert and completed the game.
this will be helpful. took me a while to figure out the normal modes i was not looking forward to hardmodes. really not much difference than how i played, but its just knowing whats coming next.
You are an absolute legend! Thanks to this guide, i was able to complete it eventually. I agree with all the comments, this mini-game is horrendously bad and sucks the joy out of the game.
@@TheGameFatherUK no problem man! Just discovered your channel and binged a few vids! You should maybe do a guide on the brutal fights in the dustbowl? If you have time that is and if it interests you lol
Yeah I have a list as long as my arm 😅 I'm just trying to blast through hard mode now. I'm on 87/88 of Johnny's collectables, I need to go and do Gilgamesh really, been putting it off 😆
I'm only on chapter 3 so far, but now all the world intel is done it's pretty fast! Although the first side quest of the grasslands is hilariously hard when you don't expect it!
This was frustrating to me because it seemed like I couldn't use any materia that I had equipped to either of them. I would have liked to have the enemy skill materia for the discharge ability, as well as the elemental materia for my weapons. I didn't see anywhere where it said that you wouldn't be able to use it in the rules from the goblin, so I was disappointed I couldn't use some of the strategies I'd hoped to
Yeah I think you're right, same could be said about some of the other mini games too. In hindsight they don't seem so bad, but that's definitely not how I felt at the time 😩 curse that piano!
Yeah, people say something is bad when they are bad at it. Though the piano, I ended up enlisting help. I did right analogue stick and she did left, made it much less overwhelming for the last song. 😅
I didn’t see anyone mention this in the comments but if you are struggling with this challenge, change the game’s difficulty setting to easy mode. Doing so will prevent you from getting interrupted out of your skills. This is especially useful for Aerith because of the long animations. It makes it easier to run into a group and cast your AOE without immediately getting tossed away.
That's not true, I'm on Easy and still get tossed around constantly, and I just can't get beyond the giant at the 4200 point mark, it's just not possible, and even if I do, I barely get more than that.
@@Jdeadevil You have to be mid-animation. It still requires timing to get right, so if you're getting tossed it just means you didn't get the timing right. Try this: when the big one starts to fall, press X and choose Aerith's AOE skill (Sorcerous Storm or w/e it's called). She will do an the animation and the fall won't knock you back. It might take some practice to get the timing, but it does work. Good luck!
I failed at the Aerith or for 5 hours, and then switched the Gameplay difficulty to Easy and beat it on my first attempt. Not exactly sure what Easy did, but I got thru fairly comfortably just following the video. Cheers!
One tip I might add that I’ve found really helps with Yuffie, use her Doppelgänger ability. It basically doubles her damage. You do need to keep an eye on it, and refresh it occasionally, but it helps.
@@TheGameFatherUK I think that’s the biggest design flaw in the Cactuar Crush challenges. Each challenge on Hard does require skill, tactics, and practice… but in reality, success or failure usually boils down to luck. Cactuar Crush is fun on the introductory version, but on the expert version, the mechanics just falter, revealing the flaws that are baked into the design.
Love the video but the must clutch tip is to use tempest after u use transcendence or at least after the cactuar uses “body slam” it does so much damage and is a huge time saver. If u don’t know what tempest is, it’s when u hold square instead of repeating tapping it. So use that when an enemy won’t move and the damage + the amount of atb charge
What helped me with Aerith on hard mode: keep transcendence active and use on the gigantuars, use tempest attack to unleash more damage and if you time changing wards when cactuar attack it can help negate taking hits.
Just came in again to say thanks. I spent a few hours last night fighting for this win and demoralized when I ended what I thought was a solid run with 5860 so I gave up. I knew the first three nuggets are the most important - if you don't nail them immediately, the whole run is toast. And so the next day, an hour ago happened... I played it the same way but this time I was more deliberate. That last mob is an absolute nightmare because you have to shift between light and dark constantly and you can't waste ATB on them because the Gold Cactuar is there for the taking when he eventually throws himself down. Literally clocked 6020, half a second before the buzzer - deliberately targeting one of the little buggers to ensure I finished him for the extra points. One hit from any of them at that point is going to destroy a run - I also didn't even realize my AOE was still working as I timed out but when the bell hit and the score came up, I can't explain how euphoric I was. These challenges are without a doubt some of the hardest I've ever had in any video game ever in the 40 years I've been playing them.
For those commenting on the "optional" minigame. I wouldn't deem something relating to party exp (tying directly into folio abilities) optional. That aside, I also found using Chrono Aegis to be incredibly helpful for me anytime I felt like I were getting swarmed with the little ones. Sorcerers Storm wasn't as effective for me for whatever reason (they just kept skipping just barely outside of the targeted range), but I also found an invincibility frame in between casting the light/dark wards. Aerith doesn't have the best speed when it comes to dodging/blocking/interrupting her attacks so I found this incredibly useful.
Totally agree, it's a 'technical optional' that absolutely does not feel optional at all. I think the game would have been more 'fun' if they were done in a slightly different way.
@@TheGameFatherUK for sure! I wouldn’t have minded most of these minigames if the rewards made more sense. Like yuffie or aerith having like an outfit or something? I’m surprised tifa wasn’t an option for the dolphin minigame. Something that would serve as a nice little incentive without taking too much away from “optional” important stuff. Anyways thanks for the guide. No more cactuar hunting for me thankfully
I used soul drain instead of transcendence with Aerith. Instead of having to charge it up to 2 you can use it for the large cactuses and get them down quicker. I also used Plumose rod with the hermes shoes and. Just keep switching affinities and casting sorcerous storm then soul drain a couple times on the big guys.
It takes me several attempts before realising this and it helped me to ace Hard for both in my first try. For Yuffie, you’d want to Art of war for all enemies but the orange ones, which you’d want NOT to throw shuriken and cast Windstorm. If you throw the shuriken and cast Windstorm, it will activate on the one the shuriken is stuck on and this could potentially not deal the AoE you are looking for. Regarding Aerith, I just kept pushing forward to save time and cast Sorcerous Storm on crowds, regardless of their affinity. Soul drain is a better way to drain health from the big cactuars. I had a lot of time left in both cases, over a minute each I believe.
I'm not going to platinum this game just for this mini game. I did absolutely all the sidequests and that's all I'm missing. Congratulations to everyone who made it, I'm going to give up because I'm close to losing my sanity.😢
Transcendence is the key here. I did not have it and kept getting in th 5000 range every try, after getting it i was able to make the 6000 push by building up casts throughout the match. Those of you having trouble with soul drain, just reset aerith's folio, make sure to go through it again and get transcendence, then come back and knock this hard mode challenge out of the park.
One additional tip for Aerith I have is when you're surrounded by bombs or think you can't dodge an incoming attack, use ward shift, it can get you out of a bind!
There is a trick for that. I forget which weapon it is but if you have her learn windstorm it will group enemies together allowing you to hit multiples as a single target. Hopefully this helps 😉
I recommend soul draining those fast running cacneos at the beginning of aeriths intel 2, sorcerer storm usually doesn’t catch them. After that in general I sorcerer storm the big groups, I sorcerer storms the two gigantuars if they r next to each other, I soul drain any isolated cacneos running around, I soul drain gigantuars after body slam . I went from running out of time in the beginning to getting 6380 trying my strategy and I am generally not great at minigames
You could add ENEMY SKILL linked to Hp absorption and use the at the start the Plasmq Discharge to attack enemies and recover hp everytime you fill up the ATB meter. I hated this minigame (and the little f**ing robots in Cosmo)...
Yuffie is easy with Windsor and dopple. Aerith is harder, while mainly use swap lumi/shadow. You need use tempest on big cactuar (hold square), and use thunderstorm on small mainly. Also last small cactuat will cast annoying mana ward
This game really is RNG based. Doppelganger on Yuffie helps during her run. For Aerith, I found that spamming L2 and R2 to change wards, seems to give you I-frames. It may have been just me. But I did finish the challenges thanks to this guide.
Tell me about it, I've wiped 4 times tonight on fight 10/10 on Bonds of Friendship and definitely 2 of them were RNG 🤬😭 Glad you managed to get the Cactuars though! They are properly annoying!
I didnt really have an issue. Aerith: Sorcerous storm disregards the light/dark wards, just need quick ATB to handle the gigangtuars Yuffie: windstorm handles basically everything; with her shuriken in hand it counts as magic damage but when used while her shuriken is thrown, its physical. Again it mostly comes down to having something on hand to quickly deal with gigantuars (blindside, banishment, etc)
With Yuffie I found that also using Doppleganger helped immensely since she'll double cast Windstorm and clean up whatever stragglers the first one might have missed. It's also nice to have that extra damage on the big ones. I just can't seem to put out enough damage with Aerith to beat the hard mode levels and its getting really freaking frustrating
Why the fck does aerith sometimes not stopping with her physical attacks? I cant get her to use her magical staff attacks like its bugged… this minigame drives me crazy 😂
@@makomichael it’s been a week for me so I don’t remember precisely, but there is an exploitable “invincibility frame” for Aerith. You might be able to interrupt her regular combos by casting a luminous/shadow (i forgot the name) ward, and she can’t be damaged during the animation. For Aerith I ran first strike x chocoking cape and prematurely cast a transcendence spell in between gigantuars. Yuffie was the occasional doppelgänger, art of war/windstorm (forget my shortcuts), and brumal form is good for dodging, blindside almost always helpful as I tried to get banishment lvl 3 as quickly as possible for the gigantuars
Honestly even after knowing what moves to use, passing all of these take luck. That being the case, I suggest equipping AT LEAST 3 luck materia maxed out for both yuffie and aerith. It becomes much easier trust me, I beat them all first try.
I'd say the brawler mini game was the worst. Figuring out the timing to block and dodge was a nightmare and not fun at all. I'm up for all challenges but some of these were just frustrating and annoying
You know theres a difference between something being rewarding hard and something being annoying hard ive accomplish most of the mini games in rebirth and let me tell you i did not enjoy how unnecessary hard some of them were. This one right here takes the cake on most annoying mini game of ff7 rebirth
Yeah I really think they went a bit overboard with the mini games. I'd love the last installment to be a balance of the best bits of Remake and Rebirth and for the mini games to actually be fun. Subjective I know, but still.
I am not seeing her Transcendence ability for an attack... I have her at level 50 and I have 6 of her weapons... I am on Chapter 13... Trying to do this Cactus B.S. on Hard Mode and it is about to drive me insane! Can someone please tell me how I get her the Transcendence ability for attack because I do not have Transcendence anywhere on her currently.
I love you man. I wish I watched your video earlier. Wasted 3 hours of my life on this. I hate it. Other ppls video said just use soul drain. Totally useless. Thank you so much man!
Having trouble with the big Cactuars, its taking 30+ Seconds to kill them and I'm running out of time. windstorm, ninjitsu, banishment, regular attacks barely even scratches them. Same problem with Aerith, big Cactuars are taking way too long to kill and eating up all my time. can barely get to 3,000 points.
I hated absolutely every moment of this minigame. Aerith's were tough but took a few tries, Yuffie's first was easy enough, but her second one took literally a full day of attempts just praying for perfect rng, by the time all the cactuars were cooperating I had gotten so good at maneuvering Yuffie that I finished with a full minute to spare. It's hard, about as hard as any of the legendary combat challenges, but it is doable.
My issue with yuffies parts is that sometimes windstorm does nothing. Doesn’t damage or pull enemies but the atb is used and there’s the moves animation. This happens about once every three or four uses and I don’t get why
Sorry I missed this comment. Yuffie's shuriken changes from magic damage to physical depending on whether or not it's in her hand or if she has thrown it out. If it's in her hand you get magic damage (good for the orange cactuars) and it it's thrown out you get physical.
Trying these challenges as soon as they became available - I’m level 48 and don’t know what transcendence or supreme art of war are 🤦🏻♂️ should I come back after completing the remaining chapters?
It's up to you really :) Transcendance is a folio ability on Aerith near the top. Art of war you should already have. It turns into the supreme version when you use it in quick succession.
@@TheGameFatherUK Oh, I love the piano. Although, my least favorite song was Two Feet? No Problem. Even Let The Battles Begin was fun. I'd say that was the only mini game I didn't mind being hard. Just needed to get 🅰️ ranks, not ⭐ Ranks. Otherwise, I'd be just as frustrated as I was with these mini games.
Absolutely, that video was recorded on my first play through. You can always reset Aerith's folio tree in a town and get it that way, as long as you have the party level needed. But if you're this far into the game that shouldn't be an issue anyway:)
With Yuffie, is it not worth using one atb at the very start to cast doppleganger? Wouldnt that give you double cast on all abilities for pritty much the whole run
It’s like unorganized and it drives me INSANE haha. I remember completing world intel with the protorelics being one of the last of the region so to go from fighting monsters to dancing cactuar was NOT okay 😤
I'm still struggling with this, I'm not sure I fully understand when to start 'charging' Transcendence, because usually when I have one full ATB I'm surrounded by the small bastards so I feel like I rarely get a chance to use it. I'm hoping setting it to easy lets me get through this easier. Edit: The game just doesn't fucking let you get past 4200, I'm so tired of this, and easy didn't change shit. Platinum trophies just make people contemplate suicide.
It's quite hard to say when to specifically use an ability because each run is slightly different with different RNG. I literally finished the Plat today after a many many wipes on the last legendary fights in the simulator. Changing to easy should make a bit of a difference, albeit not a great one.
I think I ended up using chrono aegis instead of sorcerous storm because it wasn’t reliable for me (and it damages and freezes them in place when they attack, and lasts a few seconds for versatility). I tried to always prep a transcendence whenever I could (maybe in between rounds?)
Are you using it after throwing the shuriken out? IIRC the shuriken does magic damage (which you needs for the orange ones) but only when it's still in Yuffie's hand. If you throw it out, the Windstorm does physical damage, rather than magical.
My yuffie is just tposing at the start and i cant move. Edit: i fixed it. Not sure what caused it but i changed her outfit, removed all materia except first strike and moved to chapter 13 instead of 12. Then it worked.
What a weird bug! Thanks for sharing. Considering the size of this game, I don't think I've come across a single bug which is pretty impressive really, especially when compared to Spiderman 2 where I had looooaaaaaddss
@TheGameFatherUK ya, this was the first bug i encountered. It was really smooth sailing up to that point. Only need to finish the combat simulator and all chapters on hard for my plat now. So close... yet so far lol. Thanks for the tips on this mini game, they helped.
Windstorm is dependant on if the shuriken is currently thrown or not. Yuffie having it in hand makes windstorm do magic damage. Windstorm with a thrown shuriken is physical damage
Lets do a mini game requiring you to do lots of dps quickly to a large group of enemies that require magic and melee to kill them. Also you need to be really mobile and have a really good dodge. Oh, nice. So a Yuffie and Red XIII mini game that's fun! No... Yuffie and Aerith! Uh....what?
I hardly managed to do the yuffie challenges... but OMG the ones with Aerith suck so hard... when they cast manawall on themselves i really don't know what else to do then wait for the cast to end... which costs to much time... i hate Square Enix for this...
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The aerith mini game ruined my run for the platinum trophy. It’s so random how they change affinity too much and never do body slam when I need them too . Fuck this mini game
Plus they do a lot of fcking manaward and you have to chase them to physically hit them
@@JMAN320 I fogured it out after figuring out how to play it & mastering it with Yuffie. I watched a TH-cam video on how to crush it with Aerith. You have to use Radiant Ward to kick those Catuar’s asses.
You can get them to slam by staying close to them, otherwise at range they’ll use Earthquake (or more rarely, charge).
One thing that really helped me nail this which is hardly mentioned anywhere: don't bother using wards when the little guys are grouped up. Just move close to the pack and cast storm then cast a ward to finish off the survivors if needed.
Also it might be dumb of me to realize it so late but you can only do basic magic attacks from inside a ward and conversely physical attacks.
Extra tip: add doppelgänger when you're with Yuffie - mimics all your attacks which means you can get more damage off. Also using Banishment near the end is an easy way to do a massive amount of damage in a short time frame
With Aerith, I found always having a transcendence ready to be helpful. As soon as it starts use transcendence so by the time the giant cactuar falls, you will have an ATB and transcendence ready to use saving many seconds.
Edit: Also, putting it on easy difficulty so your ATB charges quicker.
This was a HORRIBLE minigame that I would not EVER wish to do again after completion.
Let's all sing the FF7 Rebirth mini game mantra together ... "Never Again. Never Again" 😁
Agreed.
Did you get things in yours he didnt have to deal with like several shielded cactuars, the stomp move from the big ones used every 10 seconds or your sorcerous storm suddenly doing 0 damage on all targets? This mini game is not possibly with my version of the game. Fucking garbage.
Square enix trying not to add the most insufferable fucking minigames in the history of gaming challenge (impossible):
Sharing this for anyone reading/viewing - the game does not explain this well anywhere, but certain minigames (including Cactuar Crush) scale the difficulty based on which (main game) Difficulty setting you’re playing on. In other words, “Hard mode” of Cactuar Crush is significantly easier to clear when playing Rebirth on Easy difficulty or Normal difficulty.
Don’t do what I did and torture yourself by trying to clear the Hard mode minigames while on Dynamic difficulty. In addition to Cactuar Crush, this applies to Queen’s Blood, Gears & Gambits, and Fort Condor.
You're right, the game does not make this very clear.
Doesn't apply to the cactus unfortunately
FYI, cuz I legit learned this during these trials, Yuffie's Windstorm damage type changes based on where your Shuriken is. Windstorm does magic if you have it, but does Physical when you've thrown it and is always centered on your Shuriken. So you can actually throw it into a pack of little Gladiatuars to wipe them out quickly.
I did not know that! Thank you for commenting with it, very useful information!
I was wondering, because sometimes Windstorm lets you choose a target, sometimes it just fires off. Not sure if it really made a difference, but after keeping that in mind, I finally beat the stage.
Good info! Thanks for sharing!
Yea, I learned this back in the remake dlc trying to beat the box breaker challenge. Yuffie was way more busted in that game.
Did you not play intermission?
Exactly the guide I needed. Still struggled with Aerith's in stage 2, but both of Yuffie's and Aerith's stage 4 were easy peasy lemon squeezy.
It's been too long since I read 'easy peasy lemon squeezy' 😁 Thank you for bringing that back into my life 🫡
I added doppelganger just to have another yuffie attacking. Helped tremendously.
I love FF7 but these mini games are grinding me down, they’ve zapped all the fun and hype out of the game for me.. I know they’re optional but without them you can’t achieve party rank 10 which means I’m locked out of certain abilities.. I hope Square sees the mistake they’ve made and make part 3 story driven
This has been exactly my opinion on them. They are technically optional, but it doesn't feel like it to me. Having finished them all now they don't seem so bad, but that is definitely not how I felt about them at the time! Especially the piano and 3d brawler!
I’m stuck on the two legs piano song, missed it by 1 note and since then I miss loads every try. Haven’t even attempted the 3D brawler, tried shiva and gave up 😂
@@Leafy_Tree88The thing that helped for me on the piano game on the last couple of songs was increasing the speed. It just felt more naturally in time for some reason
@@TheGameFatherUKI'd say half of them are not optional... and if you want the best shit, you can't skip any of them including hard mode
I’m glad I found someone who shares the same opinion as me on the game. I cannot believe I waited 4 years for a game that is full of side quests and mini games. It should not have taken them this long to develop mini games.
I don't know how u did that first Aerith 1 with a minute remaining, what a phenomenal run. I really appreciate commentary with the guid it's so much more helpful than the silent guides. I'm still having trouble with this and running out of time. It takes some practice and determination but I need this for party level 10. Thx for this video.
There is definitely some RNG at play with this challenge, especially around that Body Slam move, I had one run where it took FOREVER to do one. You'll get there, the real hard mode on Rebirth are the mini games 😆
@@TheGameFatherUK yes in the end you need some luck for those large cactus to crash down quickly in the run. I finished em both in succession pretty quickly after perfecting the build and getting comfortable with the shortcut button presets. All thx to your video for the basic formula. Thank you very much. I now have party level 10 and the genji gloves.
That's awesome, thanks for letting me know! Grats on the level 10!
Yuffie hard mode seems near impossible for me.. Aerith was way easier once I got the mechanics, but for some reason yuffie is just too hard
impossible, yuffie is literally just unga bunga
aerith? slow ass motion and got hit from all sides everytime
That's so weird. With Yuffie I succeeded on hard mode on the first try, for both of them. With Aerith I can't get either of them for the life of me. She's so goddamn slow to build ATB it drives me crazy, I don't know what to do.
I felt the same way.
Tip that helped me with Aerith..that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere..is to run ahead of some of the groups and plant your flag (put down a light/dark ward) and then use Aegis Ward. This will help from a lot of the pesky Cactuars that try to ambush you. It's really easy to take out the little Cactuars at that point with melee/tempest attacks and build up your ATB for Transcendence for the larger Cactuars.
By running ahead and setting up shop, you'll be ready for when the next group spawns and you can take out most of them with a well-timed Sorcerous Storm.
Good hunting, fellow gamers 🫡
This is really cool, nice work!
The problem with the giant cactuar is that the developers made it entirely random when and even if they'll use Body Slam. You could go the entire two minutes with the first one in stage 4 not using it at all.
Yep, I had an attempt where it was honestly so ridiculous that I almost gave up on it entirely. Too much RNG in some of these minigames.
@@TheGameFatherUK I was finally able to do it with the help of your videos, so thank you so much 😊 I’ve completed every mini game on standard and hard/expert and completed the game.
@@MajesticJoshua That's great! Well done on the completion my friend!
If you stand still when attacking them especially aerith, it’ll trigger body slam. Don’t move so much
this will be helpful. took me a while to figure out the normal modes i was not looking forward to hardmodes. really not much difference than how i played, but its just knowing whats coming next.
Some of the mini games are harder than the actual hard mode of the main campaign 🫣
You are an absolute legend! Thanks to this guide, i was able to complete it eventually. I agree with all the comments, this mini-game is horrendously bad and sucks the joy out of the game.
THANK YOU, yours was the first Yuffie strat that worked for me. Got it second try.
The worst thing about this minigame is how the big cactuars often don't do the body slam. Its total RNG whether they stagger themselves or not.
Absolutely 100%, it can be extremely frustrating when they're just dancing around charging you!
Also Doppleganger and Blindside are great with Yuffie, great video full of tips tho! Thanks!
Cheers, doppelganger hadn't even occurred to me 😅 Aerith is definitely the nightmare one out of the two 🫣
@@TheGameFatherUK no problem man! Just discovered your channel and binged a few vids! You should maybe do a guide on the brutal fights in the dustbowl? If you have time that is and if it interests you lol
Yeah I have a list as long as my arm 😅 I'm just trying to blast through hard mode now. I'm on 87/88 of Johnny's collectables, I need to go and do Gilgamesh really, been putting it off 😆
@@TheGameFatherUK nice one man your flying! I’m 90 odd hours in, wrapping up second visit to Gold Saucer, dunno if I’m gonna attempt hard mode yet 😂
I'm only on chapter 3 so far, but now all the world intel is done it's pretty fast! Although the first side quest of the grasslands is hilariously hard when you don't expect it!
This guide was a god send omg thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
No, a God send would be a patch eliminating this minigame.
Whoever decided to make mr.burns fight cactaurs has their own layer in h3ll
This minigame has officially made me hate aerith. I wont even be upset when she inevitably gets shishkabob'd
This was frustrating to me because it seemed like I couldn't use any materia that I had equipped to either of them. I would have liked to have the enemy skill materia for the discharge ability, as well as the elemental materia for my weapons. I didn't see anywhere where it said that you wouldn't be able to use it in the rules from the goblin, so I was disappointed I couldn't use some of the strategies I'd hoped to
That's exactly how I felt about it too, it really reduces the number of strategies available.
Thank you so much for the tip on using transcendence on the giant cactuars, it was a game changer!
Important! As of patch 1.2.0, aerith has I-FRAMES when using shadow or luminous ward! I’ve tested it numerous times and it’s quite effective
I'll have to check that out!
@@TheGameFatherUK it’s how I was able to clear the challenges with Aerith
Thanks for the guide. It was a great help!
Glad I could help!
I like how the game told you to use magic for orange one but the strat is art of war that is…. Physical. God
Finally I beat it! Thank you! I can’t understand how Square actually thought that would be fun
Thanks for the guide! It was so helpful! I kinda enjoyed the mini game in the end. Once you know how to deal with it it's better than it looks.
Yeah I think you're right, same could be said about some of the other mini games too. In hindsight they don't seem so bad, but that's definitely not how I felt at the time 😩 curse that piano!
I definitely felt more confident with Aerith and Yuffie 😭
Yeah, people say something is bad when they are bad at it.
Though the piano, I ended up enlisting help. I did right analogue stick and she did left, made it much less overwhelming for the last song. 😅
@@FFKonoko seriously that is a great strategy
I didn’t see anyone mention this in the comments but if you are struggling with this challenge, change the game’s difficulty setting to easy mode.
Doing so will prevent you from getting interrupted out of your skills. This is especially useful for Aerith because of the long animations. It makes it easier to run into a group and cast your AOE without immediately getting tossed away.
That's not true, I'm on Easy and still get tossed around constantly, and I just can't get beyond the giant at the 4200 point mark, it's just not possible, and even if I do, I barely get more than that.
@@Jdeadevil You have to be mid-animation. It still requires timing to get right, so if you're getting tossed it just means you didn't get the timing right.
Try this: when the big one starts to fall, press X and choose Aerith's AOE skill (Sorcerous Storm or w/e it's called). She will do an the animation and the fall won't knock you back. It might take some practice to get the timing, but it does work. Good luck!
I failed at the Aerith or for 5 hours, and then switched the Gameplay difficulty to Easy and beat it on my first attempt. Not exactly sure what Easy did, but I got thru fairly comfortably just following the video. Cheers!
One tip I might add that I’ve found really helps with Yuffie, use her Doppelgänger ability. It basically doubles her damage. You do need to keep an eye on it, and refresh it occasionally, but it helps.
What kills my aerith runs is not being able to hit 1 or 2 cacneos because they never stop running for a good 10 seconds and waste my time
Yep, they are absolutely infuriating. You just gotta get that one good run where it all comes together. Then never again! 🫡
@@TheGameFatherUK I think that’s the biggest design flaw in the Cactuar Crush challenges. Each challenge on Hard does require skill, tactics, and practice… but in reality, success or failure usually boils down to luck. Cactuar Crush is fun on the introductory version, but on the expert version, the mechanics just falter, revealing the flaws that are baked into the design.
Cast soul drain on them. Doesnt miss and one shots them
Hate this mini game with a passion lol. Thanks to you I was finally able to beat it. I did test out using doppleganger as well and it worked wonders.
Glad it was helpful! In hindsight I should have included Doppleganger in the video.
Love the video but the must clutch tip is to use tempest after u use transcendence or at least after the cactuar uses “body slam” it does so much damage and is a huge time saver. If u don’t know what tempest is, it’s when u hold square instead of repeating tapping it. So use that when an enemy won’t move and the damage + the amount of atb charge
What helped me with Aerith on hard mode: keep transcendence active and use on the gigantuars, use tempest attack to unleash more damage and if you time changing wards when cactuar attack it can help negate taking hits.
Thanks did this with no problem with your setup
Glad it was helpful!
Just came in again to say thanks. I spent a few hours last night fighting for this win and demoralized when I ended what I thought was a solid run with 5860 so I gave up. I knew the first three nuggets are the most important - if you don't nail them immediately, the whole run is toast. And so the next day, an hour ago happened...
I played it the same way but this time I was more deliberate. That last mob is an absolute nightmare because you have to shift between light and dark constantly and you can't waste ATB on them because the Gold Cactuar is there for the taking when he eventually throws himself down.
Literally clocked 6020, half a second before the buzzer - deliberately targeting one of the little buggers to ensure I finished him for the extra points. One hit from any of them at that point is going to destroy a run - I also didn't even realize my AOE was still working as I timed out but when the bell hit and the score came up, I can't explain how euphoric I was.
These challenges are without a doubt some of the hardest I've ever had in any video game ever in the 40 years I've been playing them.
For those commenting on the "optional" minigame. I wouldn't deem something relating to party exp (tying directly into folio abilities) optional. That aside, I also found using Chrono Aegis to be incredibly helpful for me anytime I felt like I were getting swarmed with the little ones. Sorcerers Storm wasn't as effective for me for whatever reason (they just kept skipping just barely outside of the targeted range), but I also found an invincibility frame in between casting the light/dark wards. Aerith doesn't have the best speed when it comes to dodging/blocking/interrupting her attacks so I found this incredibly useful.
The accent definitely makes the content more enjoyable (fire vid, hate the cactuar with a passion)
Totally agree, it's a 'technical optional' that absolutely does not feel optional at all. I think the game would have been more 'fun' if they were done in a slightly different way.
@@TheGameFatherUK for sure! I wouldn’t have minded most of these minigames if the rewards made more sense. Like yuffie or aerith having like an outfit or something? I’m surprised tifa wasn’t an option for the dolphin minigame. Something that would serve as a nice little incentive without taking too much away from “optional” important stuff. Anyways thanks for the guide. No more cactuar hunting for me thankfully
I used soul drain instead of transcendence with Aerith. Instead of having to charge it up to 2 you can use it for the large cactuses and get them down quicker. I also used Plumose rod with the hermes shoes and. Just keep switching affinities and casting sorcerous storm then soul drain a couple times on the big guys.
It takes me several attempts before realising this and it helped me to ace Hard for both in my first try. For Yuffie, you’d want to Art of war for all enemies but the orange ones, which you’d want NOT to throw shuriken and cast Windstorm. If you throw the shuriken and cast Windstorm, it will activate on the one the shuriken is stuck on and this could potentially not deal the AoE you are looking for. Regarding Aerith, I just kept pushing forward to save time and cast Sorcerous Storm on crowds, regardless of their affinity. Soul drain is a better way to drain health from the big cactuars. I had a lot of time left in both cases, over a minute each I believe.
Thanks brother... You save my night❤
I'm not going to platinum this game just for this mini game. I did absolutely all the sidequests and that's all I'm missing. Congratulations to everyone who made it, I'm going to give up because I'm close to losing my sanity.😢
Don't give up! Not just for this mini game! Have you tried it with the game set to easy?
@@TheGameFatherUK
I won't give up! It's a matter of honor! Thanks for the encouragement.
@@TheGameFatherUK I managed to beat this f**** minigame! Finally! Thank you for the tips!
Yes @Carlos-Arruda! Congrats on beating it, FOR THE HONOR!
@@Carlos-ArrudaOn easy?
I can confirm using Transcendence Level 2 on the big guys is clutch.
Definitely made the difference for me too, underrated ability for sure!
Transcendence is the key here. I did not have it and kept getting in th 5000 range every try, after getting it i was able to make the 6000 push by building up casts throughout the match. Those of you having trouble with soul drain, just reset aerith's folio, make sure to go through it again and get transcendence, then come back and knock this hard mode challenge out of the park.
Aerith is not easy on hard mode But this helps so it makes me complete this
One additional tip for Aerith I have is when you're surrounded by bombs or think you can't dodge an incoming attack, use ward shift, it can get you out of a bind!
Nice reminder, thanks!
Cast Sorcerous Storm when they queue up Body Slam will cause massive damage to the big cactuars and will let you flinch, saving up a lot of time.
Cheers for the extra tip!
Ive been trying Yuffie's for 4 hours now. These mini games are making me hate this game
There is a trick for that. I forget which weapon it is but if you have her learn windstorm it will group enemies together allowing you to hit multiples as a single target. Hopefully this helps 😉
Use banish more than art of war
Same
I recommend soul draining those fast running cacneos at the beginning of aeriths intel 2, sorcerer storm usually doesn’t catch them. After that in general I sorcerer storm the big groups, I sorcerer storms the two gigantuars if they r next to each other, I soul drain any isolated cacneos running around, I soul drain gigantuars after body slam . I went from running out of time in the beginning to getting 6380 trying my strategy and I am generally not great at minigames
Thanks for the comment! This seems like a great alternative for Aerith.
You could add ENEMY SKILL linked to Hp absorption and use the at the start the Plasmq Discharge to attack enemies and recover hp everytime you fill up the ATB meter. I hated this minigame (and the little f**ing robots in Cosmo)...
DON'T FORGET DOPPLEGANGER FOR YUFFIE GUYS! Makes it so muuuuch easier!
Yuffie is easy with Windsor and dopple.
Aerith is harder, while mainly use swap lumi/shadow. You need use tempest on big cactuar (hold square), and use thunderstorm on small mainly. Also last small cactuat will cast annoying mana ward
Thank you for this guide!
This game really is RNG based. Doppelganger on Yuffie helps during her run. For Aerith, I found that spamming L2 and R2 to change wards, seems to give you I-frames. It may have been just me. But I did finish the challenges thanks to this guide.
Tell me about it, I've wiped 4 times tonight on fight 10/10 on Bonds of Friendship and definitely 2 of them were RNG 🤬😭 Glad you managed to get the Cactuars though! They are properly annoying!
WHY DOES AHE SWITCH BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND MAGICAL!
I didnt really have an issue. Aerith: Sorcerous storm disregards the light/dark wards, just need quick ATB to handle the gigangtuars
Yuffie: windstorm handles basically everything; with her shuriken in hand it counts as magic damage but when used while her shuriken is thrown, its physical. Again it mostly comes down to having something on hand to quickly deal with gigantuars (blindside, banishment, etc)
With Yuffie I found that also using Doppleganger helped immensely since she'll double cast Windstorm and clean up whatever stragglers the first one might have missed. It's also nice to have that extra damage on the big ones. I just can't seem to put out enough damage with Aerith to beat the hard mode levels and its getting really freaking frustrating
@@Thwagger for aerith i had to either spam soul drain or prep her late folio skill 'transcendence' to burst kill the gigantuars
Why the fck does aerith sometimes not stopping with her physical attacks? I cant get her to use her magical staff attacks like its bugged… this minigame drives me crazy 😂
Physical = not in ward. Have to stay in a shadow/luminous ward.
@@makomichael it’s been a week for me so I don’t remember precisely, but there is an exploitable “invincibility frame” for Aerith. You might be able to interrupt her regular combos by casting a luminous/shadow (i forgot the name) ward, and she can’t be damaged during the animation. For Aerith I ran first strike x chocoking cape and prematurely cast a transcendence spell in between gigantuars. Yuffie was the occasional doppelgänger, art of war/windstorm (forget my shortcuts), and brumal form is good for dodging, blindside almost always helpful as I tried to get banishment lvl 3 as quickly as possible for the gigantuars
Honestly even after knowing what moves to use, passing all of these take luck. That being the case, I suggest equipping AT LEAST 3 luck materia maxed out for both yuffie and aerith. It becomes much easier trust me, I beat them all first try.
3? but the cap is 100% and they give 50% each max.
worst mini game
I still prefer it over the piano, those 'A' ranks were achieved through blood sweat and tears 😭
@@TheGameFatherUK Got my brother to control the left analog stick while i controlled the right... easiest A ever lol
@@squalllionheartfe Haha, that is amazing! Wow 😁
I'd say the brawler mini game was the worst. Figuring out the timing to block and dodge was a nightmare and not fun at all. I'm up for all challenges but some of these were just frustrating and annoying
@@richavila4417pause cheese
You know theres a difference between something being rewarding hard and something being annoying hard ive accomplish most of the mini games in rebirth and let me tell you i did not enjoy how unnecessary hard some of them were. This one right here takes the cake on most annoying mini game of ff7 rebirth
Yeah I really think they went a bit overboard with the mini games. I'd love the last installment to be a balance of the best bits of Remake and Rebirth and for the mini games to actually be fun. Subjective I know, but still.
I am not seeing her Transcendence ability for an attack... I have her at level 50 and I have 6 of her weapons... I am on Chapter 13... Trying to do this Cactus B.S. on Hard Mode and it is about to drive me insane! Can someone please tell me how I get her the Transcendence ability for attack because I do not have Transcendence anywhere on her currently.
Hi, it's actually not a weapon ability, you get it from her Folio :)
Thank you, much appreciated!
I love you man. I wish I watched your video earlier. Wasted 3 hours of my life on this. I hate it. Other ppls video said just use soul drain. Totally useless. Thank you so much man!
So glad it was helpful and you got it! :D
Thank you so much for this!
Glad it was helpful!
Having trouble with the big Cactuars, its taking 30+ Seconds to kill them and I'm running out of time. windstorm, ninjitsu, banishment, regular attacks barely even scratches them.
Same problem with Aerith, big Cactuars are taking way too long to kill and eating up all my time. can barely get to 3,000 points.
transcendence for Aerith, use ATB actions for big ones.
Thanks man, was able to get through these on hard mode with your help....to echo everyone else here.... GD Square-Enix wtf?????
I hated absolutely every moment of this minigame. Aerith's were tough but took a few tries, Yuffie's first was easy enough, but her second one took literally a full day of attempts just praying for perfect rng, by the time all the cactuars were cooperating I had gotten so good at maneuvering Yuffie that I finished with a full minute to spare. It's hard, about as hard as any of the legendary combat challenges, but it is doable.
My issue with yuffies parts is that sometimes windstorm does nothing. Doesn’t damage or pull enemies but the atb is used and there’s the moves animation. This happens about once every three or four uses and I don’t get why
This happens to me, too, and it never damages the orange cactuars. Those ones are such menaces.
Sorry I missed this comment. Yuffie's shuriken changes from magic damage to physical depending on whether or not it's in her hand or if she has thrown it out. If it's in her hand you get magic damage (good for the orange cactuars) and it it's thrown out you get physical.
@@nathangravitt5982 windstorm does magic damage when you hold the shuriken; physical damage when it's in the air.
Should probably mention how to get transcendent dnt you think
Quite possibly :) it's in Aerith's Folio near the top, for anyone wondering.
Very helpful thanks
Dumb question but cant figure it out....how do you hotkey the shadow ward and luminous ward to L2 and R2
Trying these challenges as soon as they became available - I’m level 48 and don’t know what transcendence or supreme art of war are 🤦🏻♂️ should I come back after completing the remaining chapters?
It's up to you really :) Transcendance is a folio ability on Aerith near the top. Art of war you should already have. It turns into the supreme version when you use it in quick succession.
@@TheGameFatherUK took many tries but managed to get through these 4 hard mode challenges last night, your guide was VERY helpful!
@@fahmz2156 Ah that's great! Congrats on getting them done!
What are the difference between Shadow and Luminous Ward?
Standing in either ward allows you to damage the mobs more. Shadow ward = damage to ogange cactuars. Luminous ward = damage to the white cactuars.
I keep almost getting 6,000, but I can't quite reach it. For Aerith on 4th challenge. (Bladesmen of legend). The first one in your video.
Maaaaan I’ve been doing this, yuffie was east because she’s fast, aerith is slow as all damn….like wth
How can you change clothes without be close to costa del sol?
What's the difference between shadow ward and luminous ward?
I will literally NEVER PLAY THIS AGAIN!!! 😡😡Once I beat them for Johnny's Hotel. 😩
This is the way. One of the many mini games I've not touched replaying hard mode. The piano being the main one!
@@TheGameFatherUK Oh, I love the piano.
Although, my least favorite song was Two Feet? No Problem.
Even Let The Battles Begin was fun.
I'd say that was the only mini game I didn't mind being hard.
Just needed to get 🅰️ ranks, not ⭐ Ranks. Otherwise, I'd be just as frustrated as I was with these mini games.
How do I get this Trancendece ability? I don’t have it.
It's in Aerith's Folios, it's an SP ability unlock near the top of the screen.
@@TheGameFatherUK Can I reach it on the first playthrough?
Absolutely, that video was recorded on my first play through. You can always reset Aerith's folio tree in a town and get it that way, as long as you have the party level needed. But if you're this far into the game that shouldn't be an issue anyway:)
Doppleganger and Banish will nearly one-shot a large orange cactuar, and on only 1 atb
With Yuffie, is it not worth using one atb at the very start to cast doppleganger? Wouldnt that give you double cast on all abilities for pritty much the whole run
What are the Materia you use for Yuffie in the 2nd row you didn't show them or it doesn't matter?
This entire game feels so chaotic and this minigame is no exception. Wish they would concentrate more on the world instead of this so called minigames
I think they play too much of a central role personally, I know most of them are technically optional but they really don't feel like it.
It’s like unorganized and it drives me INSANE haha. I remember completing world intel with the protorelics being one of the last of the region so to go from fighting monsters to dancing cactuar was NOT okay 😤
I'm still struggling with this, I'm not sure I fully understand when to start 'charging' Transcendence, because usually when I have one full ATB I'm surrounded by the small bastards so I feel like I rarely get a chance to use it. I'm hoping setting it to easy lets me get through this easier. Edit: The game just doesn't fucking let you get past 4200, I'm so tired of this, and easy didn't change shit. Platinum trophies just make people contemplate suicide.
It's quite hard to say when to specifically use an ability because each run is slightly different with different RNG. I literally finished the Plat today after a many many wipes on the last legendary fights in the simulator. Changing to easy should make a bit of a difference, albeit not a great one.
I think I ended up using chrono aegis instead of sorcerous storm because it wasn’t reliable for me (and it damages and freezes them in place when they attack, and lasts a few seconds for versatility). I tried to always prep a transcendence whenever I could (maybe in between rounds?)
After completing pretty much every side activity through the entire game I think this is the last straw
Why does windstorm not damage the orange ones at all for me? It doesn’t even hit them at all.
Are you using it after throwing the shuriken out? IIRC the shuriken does magic damage (which you needs for the orange ones) but only when it's still in Yuffie's hand. If you throw it out, the Windstorm does physical damage, rather than magical.
My yuffie is just tposing at the start and i cant move.
Edit: i fixed it. Not sure what caused it but i changed her outfit, removed all materia except first strike and moved to chapter 13 instead of 12. Then it worked.
What a weird bug! Thanks for sharing. Considering the size of this game, I don't think I've come across a single bug which is pretty impressive really, especially when compared to Spiderman 2 where I had looooaaaaaddss
@TheGameFatherUK ya, this was the first bug i encountered. It was really smooth sailing up to that point.
Only need to finish the combat simulator and all chapters on hard for my plat now. So close... yet so far lol. Thanks for the tips on this mini game, they helped.
She just asserting her dominance.
I dont know what in the hell im doing wrong my dude, but when i use " Windstorm " i do 0 damage to magic cactuars ( orange ones )
Windstorm is dependant on if the shuriken is currently thrown or not. Yuffie having it in hand makes windstorm do magic damage. Windstorm with a thrown shuriken is physical damage
We’re doing it for the trophy, otherwise this mini game is so shity
Lets do a mini game requiring you to do lots of dps quickly to a large group of enemies that require magic and melee to kill them. Also you need to be really mobile and have a really good dodge.
Oh, nice. So a Yuffie and Red XIII mini game that's fun!
No... Yuffie and Aerith!
Uh....what?
Cool tips but I won’t be going back to these mission they were too frustrating at the time
The mini games are the true hard mode of this game for sure 😅
@@TheGameFatherUK perfectly said !!
I hardly managed to do the yuffie challenges... but OMG the ones with Aerith suck so hard... when they cast manawall on themselves i really don't know what else to do then wait for the cast to end... which costs to much time... i hate Square Enix for this...
What is your build
I hit 6000 exactly and then ran as far away from them for 9 seconds as possible lmao. I’m free…
Are these completed on the easy or normal overall game difficulty or can they also be completed on Hard mode just as easily?
They are slightly easier on easy, so I'd recommend doing it on that, especially if it's a struggle.
how you get aerith's ability trascendence ?
It's unlocked through her folio, it's up near the top :)
This game is amazing but the Aerith levels are by far the least fun I have ever had in a video game.
I think you need to level up first to 70 because at 50, all these challenges were impossible. Gonna have to save it for the hard mode run.
I just did them at level 49
Is there a reason why the orange big cactaurs aren't getting pressured when they fall? Your game they seem too, but not for me.
Okay. I just had to update my game. Which was annoyed as I removed the update to fix thw g bike glitch.
Did updating the game fix the issue you were having with the cactuars not pressuring?
No doppelganger? No banishment?
I FUCKING HATE SPINE-SPLOSION
What masochist thought these mini games where a good idea?
I'm just hoping the push back on them is enough to at least dial it down in the 3rd and final game!