FF7 Rebirth - FASTEST way to level materia (full comparison with data)

After many (too many) hours of testing I finally have the answer to which method and location provides the fastest way to level up materia in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
🕹️ Link to the Ultimate AP Showdown Grind Data Sheet:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
🕹️ 21 Godly Tips & Tricks for Hard Mode on FF7 Rebirth:
• FF7 Rebirth - ULTIMATE...
I narrowed the 4 final AP grinding locations down to the following:
1. Southern Gongaga (aka Primal Liquid's AP farming loop)
2. Seahorses World Intel 2 in Corel
3. Devil-May-Care Desperados fight in the Musclehead Colosseum
4. The bees in Nibel as part of the 'My White-Haird Angel' side quest
There was one clear winner from the 4... BUT, I found a bunch of ways to make it even more efficient. This video shows how to get the most amount of AP to level your materia in the shortest amount of time.
0:00 - Intro
0:58 - Gongaga Loop
4:11 - Gongaga Results
4:54 - Corel Seahorses (World Intel 2)
6:05 - Musclehead Colosseum (Devil-May-Care Desperados)
7:47 - AP Grind results so far
8:05 - Nibel Bees (My White-Haird Angel)
9:36 - AP Grind results
9:50 - How to optimise for the most AP per minute
15:06 - Conclusion
#finalfantasy7rebirth #ffviirebirth #ff7rebirth #finalfantasy7 #gameguide #playstation5 #thegamefather

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Note: The Reclaimant Choker is obtained from the Deluxe version of the game. Apologies, I forgot about that. If you don't have one, just equip any other accessory you like, then equip a healing materia to be safe. Thanks to @MrMiyagiYT for pointing that one out. /facepalm Edit: Thanks to everyone that has made some suggestions, I've been testing them and adding them to the Google sheet as I go. There have been some really solid optimisations! AP Farm Comparison Sheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CoWYaou8z7Gp0uLiCJMe8d-a71ATkkdhkbl3BVjT0h8/

[@someguy233]

Was wondering why I never came across that one!

[@ryuuotaku35]

This happens when you finish the game right? 🤔 you get more Exp and Ap?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

@@ryuuotaku35 Correct, it's 300% once you finish the main story.

[@porhawj8075]

@@TheGameFatherUK how you do it ? I see 3,6,9 AP points in every location I try to level up materias

[@lionelteo4159]

Instead of reclaiment chocker, I suggest to use red xii because one of his folio allows him to heals 5% on defeating enemy.

[@dannyg5727]

Dude you have the BEST videos guides. You speak clearly, you are concise, specific and easy to follow along. I hope your channel blows up because it absolutely deserves to. I save a ton of your videos to go back to for reference. Keep it up!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

That comment has absolutely made my day, thanks so much! I'm really glad you've found them useful 😊

[@stevep4236]

Thank you for putting in the hours and work. Appreciate it

[@Homitu]

Just wanted to quickly say this was an EXCELLENTLY made video! Super clear, well edited, great narration, and very thorough. Well done!

[@damcrac]

Baller breakdown. About to start the grind myself. Thank you!

[@13thpersona]

Great data, good pacing on video, and awesome delivery. EZ sub. Looking forward to the rest of your videos.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Much appreciated!

[@therealchecho1868]

You actually went in depth wow props my guy

[@macmittens5475]

Wow !! This was pure gold ! First time watching your content. And the attention and care is evident. You got yourself a Sub ! Can’t wait to see what you’ve got cooking, next !

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Hey, thanks very much for such awesome words! Appreciate it!

[@Caiocsilveira]

Brother thank you for this! This is absolutely insane! You are gonna help so many enthusiasts through this! Can't wait to test a few combinations already! Also thank you for all the attention! Wishing you all the best man hopefully this video will reach as many people as possible! Cheers!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Love that comment, really appreciate my friend! Hope you're having a great day!

[@benribarchek894]

What's better than any of the gongaga routes: Don't do the whole route. Just the bounce between the Mimic/Gagighandi + Grandhorn. Save/reload. Then grandhorn + mimic/gagighandi. save/reload. repeat. 25-28/sec total for both fights and that's including save/reload times.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Cheers for the method, I've added it to my list to test. Will stick the numbers on the spreadsheet later :)

[@DeanPuckering]

That’s INSANE. I was doing the bee method but I’d never considered the enfeeblement ring

[@TheGameFatherUK]

It definitely made the biggest difference for me. It's a great spot even if you blast it, but keeping that Queen alive makes it that much sweeter :D

[@Jorge_Cuevas]

@@TheGameFatherUK That's fucking genius bro!

[@khoa002]

This is great content, liked and subbed.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Much appreciated!

[@tiagoj8020]

Amazing comparison

[@BossUpReviews]

This is amazing.. thank you for the hard work

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@JBgolden]

Excellent video! Did have a tip for chocobo's though: You can avoid the time loss if you save while on your Chocobo. When you reload the game you'll already be on it.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Nice little extra tip that is, thanks!

[@MRVN_V]

This is by far the best version of this farm. Keep up the great work!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Thank you!

[@KrogTharr]

Awesome! Im going to try it today!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Let us know how you get on!

[@stevenvegh7964]

The Gongaga loop was something I did back when I maxed out. I ended up making an alteration to it. I did what I call the Gongaga pair where I just killed the little group of Grandhorns and the group with the Chimeras that are really close together, then did the save/load trick and then killed those 2 groups again rinse repeat. It’s insanely fast once you get the hang of it because these 2 mob groups are so close together that you barely have any running to do, and once you get fast at navigating the menu it takes very little time to save/load. Additionally, the grand horns die from a basic fire spell with magnify so killing them is very easy to do no matter how leveled up the rest of your materia is to pull off making the other fights quick (aka you don’t need to have a great petrify set up to do this method well). Definitely wish I had known about the bees back then but this Gongaga was fine enough and I’m happy I figured out how to refine it.

[@ryuuotaku35]

Thanks for the video 😊

[@andersonrodrigo63]

Maaaaan you are the best! Thank you very much!

[@MrMiyagiYT]

Great video, very helpful, regarding the Reclaimant Choker, I think this is only available in the Deluxe version.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Oh bloody hell, I totally forgot about that! I'll add a pinned comment with an alternative, thanks.

[@yam7913]

Props to the only guy that actually explains how to increase level material

[@maglen69]

Quality analysis. well done!

[@mrnmrssimpson2769]

Thanks for the help keep up the info nice work.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Thanks!

[@MaxQuagliotto]

For the 4-location magic grind at the Cliffside Storehouse, for respawning have you tried the "retry battle" trick? I believe It's faster than loading a save. The stipulation is that you have to remember to do it at each end of your loop. Just start the fight, immediately retry battle, then continue the loop until the end, then do it again.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I hadn't considered that, I will add it to my list of places to test, I'll add it to the spreadsheet once I have the data. Thanks!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just ran this a bunch of times and it does indeed improve the Gongaga 4 encounter loop. I've added it to the Google sheet, thanks!

[@MaxQuagliotto]

@@TheGameFatherUK Nice! Can't wait to see your results even if they're not as good as the Bees.

[@masa_411]

Im glad my brain work a bit when trying the bee quest and set enfeeblement ring on everyone except my main, tifa lol

[@albertb.3762]

In regards to the Corel Seahorse method. Do you believe having an upgraded SSD do anything with the 20 sec retry load time. Just curious... Do you personally have an upgraded SSD installed on your PS5?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Interesting idea. My PS5 is stock, it doesn't have an upgraded SSD. I'd be interested to see what the difference is, although I can't imagine it'd tip the bees still.

[@jms214az]

Well this is cool even tho I already leveled up all my materia 🤣 but I can tell my friends (u also earned the sub and the like)

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Thanks! If it makes you feel any better, I had also levelled all mine up too 😫

[@jms214az]

@TheGameFatherUK U had a way longer grind then me homie I pray u take a rest xD I already shared ur vid with 4 ppl (as they have finished the game)

[@jms214az]

Eh yo do u kno of a way to farm SP to finish the folios or do u just have to finish the VR sim like could u just replay story on any mode and get it?

[@VortexThePrime]

Very cool strat with the bees, and using the enfeeble rings for the other party members. Alternatively, I imagine it isn't a great loss if they are dead right? As far as I can tell AP is still earned regardless.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yep, as long as it's not a total wipe you're all good :)

[@tiagoj8020]

The frog ring accessory was made just for this

[@TheGameFatherUK]

It really makes a massive difference. Other than one of the VR Missions, I can't recall using the enfeeblement rings at all in the game 😅

[@lLarceny]

You suffered so we could flurish. Thank you brother

[@tomassacre]

Did you analyze the Brutal Challenge: Unending Nightmare? It starts with a Queen Bee and its easy to reset. It's 3 characters vs the 2 character one of the bandits. I did that in order to max out the 18k materia

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I did after someone suggested it, it's not as effective as the side quest method for a couple of reasons: the XP is restricted to the active party, it's hard mode only (iirc) which means the bee's take longer to kill but the most annoying factor is that she spawns 2 bees either side of her rather than all in 1 group. The data in on the spreadsheet if you want to check :)

[@PhotoxPanda]

You can retry battle if the Queen Bee gets too low, resetting her health and keeping the ap you earned. Love the video

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Cheers! You only get to keep the EXP on a retry, rather than the AP though :(

[@PhotoxPanda]

@@TheGameFatherUK oh damn didn't realize that! Thanks!!

[@nefael7904]

Awesome video. Personally just been playing the game to max materias, did not need to farm.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yeah that's definitely true. I just wanted to verify the numbers for those that like an efficient grind (including me). Useful for maxing out the big SP number materia ready for the Legendary & Brutal combat sim fights :)

[@flip2damax17]

For the bees, the easiest and most efficient method by far is using yuffie, standing next to the truck and hitting windstorm and mashing square the second the bees spawn. If the queen is near by roll away and fire ninjutsu them. Enfeeble the other party members.

[@Akunza]

I been using Queen Bee strat I finally max my swift cast and magic focus for my Magic build on Cloud for hard mode

[@ao6034]

No one ever seems to mention the "retry battle" option when doing the gongaga loop. It saves so much more time than saving and loading. Right before you finish your loop and you're on the last mob, pause the game while in battle and click restart. Now all the mobs have loaded back up and theres no need to save and reload the game. Continue with the loop until you reach the last mob and rinse and repeat.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

It does make it better, but not by a huge amount. I tested it a bunch yesterday and added it to the sheet. The bees are still considerably better.

[@nyczyar]

Retry battle don't let you keep your AP but experience

[@yeahthatsmax]

thank you

[@emarythomp]

Should be noted that sleek saber actually does slightly more damage than igneous if you equip two attack power weapon skill slots

[@dnakoldarkside6358]

i did grassland region 2 in simulator. magic build firaga with mp absorb, swiftcast, hp absorb and quick setting firaga with magnify on aerith.

[@devinbartlett800]

Does the gambler materia cast healing spells on the enemy? Like if I just had healing materia on the character, and then used gamble, would it heal the queen bee? This way while you wait for the worker bees to respawn you can heal the queen. Edit: I gave it a try. Yes you can heal the queen bee with the gambler materia. However, every single character in the party and not fighting needs to have no green or yellow materia besides healing. Not really the best if you’re trying to level those materia up but maybe good if you want to focus the blue and purple

[@TheGameFatherUK]

What a fantastic idea. And thanks for testing it and reporting back your findings. I agree with your conclusion but still, that's a quality bit of thinking right there 🙌

[@BSeeD06]

For the gongaga loop, pressing start and restart the last fight of the cycle will reset all fiend camp faster than save/load. I'm pretty sure the time gain is significant.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I have been doing a fair bit of testing with that method today, it does certainly improve the AP per minute but it's not by as much as I had expected since it does feel really fast using that technique. It adds about 10 AP per min, which certainly isn't nothing, but it's still significantly slower than the bees method.

[@BSeeD06]

@@TheGameFatherUK the bees method looks unbeatable indeed 😉

[@tarvinwashere]

How do you get Aerith’s magic attack up to 558? My magic stat is 160 and MATK is barely over 500

[@zildog]

I'm 300 hours in (LOL) and doing absolutely everything but this is hands down one of the craziest combos for farming AP. - especially with Tifa and Barret enfeebled!! Great idea! Post end-game, you really do need Swiftcast and MP efficiency, plus all your purples maxxed out to give yourself an edge. I went after the bees and got my Swiftcast from level 1 to 4 in 20 minutes by plugging it into the Chocobo Bracer with an AP Up. Fuckin' MENTAL!! I did however make some changes. I used MP Absorb, Elemental and Magnify with fire on all three and after a few slashes, dropped a Firaga nuke on them and enjoyed watching as all of the worker bees got blown to hell in one blast. On dynamic mode the Queen is tanky enough to survive about 30 minutes of the carnage I unleashed on her and her little pests. GREAT fun!!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I didn't have much luck when trying with spells, the Queen kept on taking too much accidental damage. Dynamic does give her the most HP though so that's an interesting take on the strat :)

[@Jenks404]

Dude's the Raxxanterax of FF7 Rebirth. That spreadsheet is dope!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

A compliment of the highest honour! I just need to refine my MS Paint skills and get a blue hoodie 😄

[@bryce7289]

fellow diablo player

[@gustogusto4519]

I'm finding that I'm getting the same amount of AP per encounter on materia, regardless of if AP Up is paired or not. The AP UP paired materia is not gaining any extra AP points after the latest patch. Has anyone else noticed this?

[@johnpoole1128]

Putting AP Up in the Chocobo Armband may seem like an awesome idea, but keep in mind that you're just trading off two 300% AP slots for one 600% slot. I would only do that if I had literally one materia left to master. Still a great video, thank you!

[@emarythomp]

I only do that with the swiftcast because it takes so long to level

[@supersaiyanzero386]

I was training in unending nightmare so I spent 3 hours leveling materia on just 3 party members with the queen bee. I prefer something where I can keep my data. I have 180 hours and I forgot how data works lol Muscle head seems good for me but bee did wreck low level materia and almost fully got my blues up. round one of the unending nightmare fire ninjutsu and Quakera and or fira paired magnify, the queen bee is a tank and can take like 30 splash hits!

[@Tubemint455]

Do it on dynamic, use cloud magic sword and equip mp and hp regain when you stagger with petrify. Have another team use sygnify with petrify. You will always stagger and gain everything back. Don’t worry about getting hit when you’re casting. Save and reload in gongogga.

[@tiagoj8020]

Do you know if you can get more of the rarer materia on replaying the missions that had it?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

No you can't unfortunately, certainly not the good stuff anyway. I'd have loved some extra swiftcast materia though, that would have gone down a treat!

[@tiagoj8020]

@@TheGameFatherUK thanks

[@someguy233]

I used grasslands intel #2 with a quaga build to level the more difficult materia, like magic focus (after having farmed the 4 pack gongaga route for the easier materia across all party members). I tell people who are struggling or intimidated by farming ap via normal gameplay to use this strategy. Very curious to see how grasslands level 2 (full clear w/ quaga) compares to the queen bee method! Also, approximately how many packs can you farm using this method before you inevitably kill her? If you only have to reset every 20 packs or so, then I can definitley see switching to that if I had to do it over again :)

[@someguy233]

Forgot to say, awesome video! I can't think of a better sign for a gaming community than a detailed analysis on how best to farm a single player game. Very much appreciate the time you put into this!!

[@TheGameFatherUK]

@@someguy233 It's been my genuine pleasure and pretty interesting :) As for your Grasslands spot. Is that the Region Intel 2 in the combat simulator or the world intel 2 spot with the elphadunks? Oh, as for the Queen bee, it is actually about 20 packs with relatively careful play.

[@someguy233]

@@TheGameFatherUK 20 packs is solid! I’ll try that sometime if I want to level up some more materia to sell. I was referring to Chadley’s VR mission “grasslands intel #2”, and not the world intel location. Sorry for the confusion.

[@johnc4948]

Great however im only able to gain a max of 6 maybe 7 Ap per battle Question is the AP based on the speed at which you defeat the fiends or the amount of fiends you defeat. Quakera or Quaga with Magnify leaves some fiends still kicking and I have to finish them off so the also I dont get the MP back from MP as your showing here. The only Materia I dont posses yet is Swiftcast any suggestions?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

AP is set per mob, some are worth more than others but speed doesn't matter. You'll receive a lot less AP if you've not already finished the main story (it's a 300% permanent boost). As for Quarga, it needs to do enough damage to refund the MP which isn't possible on Easy, it needs to be Normal difficulty or above. Make sure your main spell caster has Petrify linked with MP Absorb, another Petrify linked with Magic Focus (since you don't have swift cast) and your last Petrify linked with Magnify. If you're using a shortcut to cast the spell, make sure you enabled the magnified version of the spell in your combat settings with L1.

[@kaylee42900]

Fiend Intel 5 in Grasslands also gives 24 AP and the mobs die in less that a second on easy (literally 1 triple slash from cloud). Much faster than seahorses. The reset has you closer to the mobs as well.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just finished testing that one, it does indeed come out slightly faster than the Corel Seahorses.

[@BeastmanWatchUrMouth]

This is prolly my preferred method. A little slower than the others but no hassle at all

[@simarsingh2935]

I am having a little different question as I don’t anyone with game to ask. I used to play ps3 on rent in city,czz i lived in village so games were always a dream. Now that i can buy one,I can’t decide any. I am getting Normal Ps4 500gb for 120$console and 140$ with 🎮. and slim is about 140$ without and 170-180$ with 🎮. Someone said normal os4 makes noise. I have lot of space at home.Should i buy normal or slim one ?? Is 500gb enough for new gamer because we can use cd’s as well.

[@BJames8686]

For Gongaga loop have you tried fast traveling to all other protorelic spots? There is one protorelic spot that gives a ton of AP and all the fiends are right by the fast travel point. I’ve been doing this and it seems pretty fast for me

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Can you recall which specific spot it is? I'll check it out and add it to the sheet :)

[@BJames8686]

@@TheGameFatherUKafter running gongaga loop fast travel to the first protorelic spot north of the loop section. There are 5 fiends all stacked together right by the fast travel spot. Then fast travel to the further north protorelic spot, then the one by the airstrip, then back to the original loop section. That’s what I’ve been doing and it may take longer but am not sure. It’s just better than mindless rinse and repeat in my opinion.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Thanks! I shall take a look at that!

[@Excalidon]

A bit late to the party, but I have a replacement for the sea horses. Either the sahagins in cosmo canyon fiend Intel 1, for 27 AP, or the pyretails in nibelheim fiend Intel 1, for 27 AP. Perks of the sahagin warriors is that when you "retry" you spawn right next to them. As for the pyretails, sometimes they spawn nibel wolves so you occasionally get 45 or more AP per go.

[@Excalidon]

Chocobo armband and AP materia with these two locations nets you 162 AP per run, and that's about 486 AP per minute since it takes about 20 seconds to finish the fiend intel (on easy). Also best to unequip all other unleveled materia so you get the most out of it since the AP will only go towards the one you wanna level up.

[@henrytep8884]

I think you should include the queen bee/elephantdunk vr mission that is unlocked under brutal for easy access to the Queen bee meta. I forget which mission it is, but it is a good place to farm for leveling high AP required materia.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I've added it to my list to check and test :) I'll add it to the spreadsheet when I have the data

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just tested it twice. It was a pretty interesting test actually. There are a couple of issues; first is that it has to be done on Hard with it being a brutal VR fight. Second is that you have to dispatch the Elphadunk first which adds a bit of time. Thirdly for some reason the Queen spawns the guards 2 each side of her really far apart which makes killing them together tough. And lastly, because it's on hard mode the guards have a lot more health so to kill them quickly you have to throw in a few abilities and sometimes the Queen takes a little splash damage. Oh and with it being VR, only the active party receives the AP, not all characters. Worked out at 86.08 ap per minute though so whilst it's not beaten the easy mode bees it was definitely worth checking out! I've added it to the spreadsheet. Thanks again!

[@henrytep8884]

@@TheGameFatherUK yeah it’s definitely not the best for overall AP grind on a mass scale. I was using it as a lazy man’s version to get the materia you gain from the brutal vr(the elemental and the magnify), but definitely would not recommend this method for anyone needing to max out the full cast of materia. Thanks for doing the test, much appreciate your work. I also like that you don’t have to be too gentle with the queen bee since you can always access her on the first round.

[@mikkeey7]

I’ve been doing the first 6 person battle at the battle square. First round using yuffie as lead and doing windstorm. Should kill all the fiends with one. Second round using cloud as lead and going with blade burst. In totality it takes about 20 seconds and you can redo it right away. It leveled up a lot of materia at the same time.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yeah that's a decent one too. The biggest problem with all the VR challenges are that the reload times between rounds are comparatively really long and the AP is only shared between the active party. But, having said that, it's just as viable as other options in the game (apart from the bees, they are OP).

[@JesseT63]

i just did the bee method max out all of my materia today

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yeah, it's definitely the best way to level materia. Ran all the numbers over the last few days.

[@hlyknightx]

I just did Aggrevrikon intel in the grasslands it’s kinda like the seahorse but a little faster since you just need to cast a quick fire spell to kill them both. It wouldn’t touch the bees farm but it also took zero effort so I could just watch tv while mindlessly doing it

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yeah that's the same reason I kept the seahorses in the video, it's such an easy one to do with almost no attention required :) Thanks for the location, I''ll check it out.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

You're dead right, it's almost identical to the Corel Seahorse. Same amount of AP, same reset time but due to their being less mobs, you can do it a fraction quicker which does put it just slightly above the Seahorses in terms of efficiency :) I've added it to the sheet, thanks!

[@Guitarmonade]

I tried the Gongaga method but got frustrated because its speed relies on Swiftcast. It's one of the hardest materia to level, so I don't understand the logic in an AP farming method using Swiftcast fully leveled unless you went out of your way to boost it. And you get the Chocobo Armband so late in the story...I'm not sure most would have had the time. So I did find the bees method the best, even with having to restart Chapter 12 occasionally. All the advice is good here (enfeeblement ring x2, warding & poison, chocobo armband on someone, etc). However, my main was Tifa instead of Cloud. The Queen Bee always spawns a new brood next to the truck, and you can assign Starshower to a shortcut to instakill 2-4 at a time. Even better when the Queen glows red, the worker bees eyes glow red. They swarm you and it's pretty much guaranteed for Starshower to nuke them.

[@MinyNeo]

Nice, that someone mentioned my comment from an other video here in an own video about the frog ring

[@Chico38able]

I used optinoob's loadout for OuterWorld (Yuffie spam Brutal Form + Aerith Fire magic) and I was on Hard mode for Nebilheim grind. Insta kill guard bees with unlimited AB)

[@CrankyCrabChaos]

There is one very easy change to Gongsga that drastically increases AP/minute to almost 170AP. Don't run between mobs. Positioning yourself correctly right on the outside of the agro range against the chimera bug and the two lizards (they give 28ap per battle, the highest of the mobs in the area). As soon as you reload the game, do a slow step forward and you can start battle and shortcut cast level 3 magic with magnify (and mp absorb, obviously). As soon as the battle ends Cloud steps backward automatically after casting, putting you outside the agro range and thus at the range to save and reload and respawn. Save and reload. Slow step forward, swiftest on shortcut, save and reload. If you have the positioning correct you get about 6 or 7 kills a minute which is just about 170ap a min. Saving and reloading is faster than running between groups of mobs and with the right positioning there is next to no run time. I used this to max out my materia very quickly. I don't know why no one has considered this, it's beastly.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Thank you for this. I have added to my list and will get the data on the spreadsheet later this evening. Thanks for the comment, looking forward to getting the numbers on it!

[@SuperEkkorn]

I used this, although I eventually included the two grandhorns in my grind, it was very efficient, I just need a bit of variety.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Which specific group of mobs is it that offers 28ap? Highest I can find is the 3 grandhorns for 27.

[@SuperEkkorn]

@TheGameFatherUK op is slightly off, that group offers 21 ap, and the two grandhorns next to it offer 18, probably a small mixup.

[@CrankyCrabChaos]

@TheGameFatherUK my mistake if I got the exp wrong! It has been a while since I used it. But the group of mobs is the one in the Gongaga loop closest to the water. It's a chimera bug and two armored lizard dudes. I forget their names. There is a spawn of two Grandhorns near them but not 3 (maybe UK and Canada has different spawns?). I just used the spawn that gave the most AP of the 4 groups in the initial loop (3 egg dudes/two frogs and two flowers/chimera bug and 2 lizard dudes/2 grand horns). I hope that helped narrow it down. Realistically this method would be best in the open world on whatever group of mobs gives the most AP but I figured it out on that group of mobs and stayed there. I think it would be far too much effort to try and find the absolute best group in the entire game though (that can be oneshot with magic) lol

[@nimaiiikun]

since I completed the Bee quest in Nibelheim, can I re-do it so the bees reappear?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yes, but you'll need to have finished the story and unlocked chapter select. You'll also need to reset your side quest data in order to pick that quest back up again.

[@notyourbusiness6428]

I quite like the cosmo fiend Intel 1 for 6 people

[@Jeatkid]

So, what if the party dies? Wouldn't you be able to retry with the current AP and EXP?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I'd have to double check, but if the whole party died, I'm pretty sure you'd lose the AP. Certainly if you pause and reset before the queen dies and Retry, the AP you gained is lost, so I'd imagine it'd be the same. Will check though!

[@andrewsingleton1352]

Grass region level 1, Cloud with swift cast + lightning, magnify + lightning, first strike, set thundara (level 2) to shortcut. Have Barret with auto unique ability so he will use overcharge for rounds 4 and 5. Start the battle, literally just hit the shortcut. Watch KZbin/whatever you want, because you don’t have to pay any attention to the game aside from hitting triangle and restarting the combat. Great for the final few materia, as focused on 3 party members only. The grind feeling disappears as able to get on with something else while doing this.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just had a test of this one, it's fairly low in terms of AP per min, but you're right in that it's really simple to execute and repeat! I added it to the Google sheet :)

[@berbuck]

so can you just die to the bees and do it again, do you keep your AP like the VR challenges?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

If you reset/retry or have a party wipe, you don't get to keep the AP unfortunately.

[@aidanklobuchar1798]

I didn't test thoroughly, but this matches my observations of a bit Gongaga vs. doing the bees with Yuffie (could oneshot with her Windstorm skill) + double enfeeblement. Found the method in a comment on the PowerPyx guide. Funny how the vastly inferior methods get talked about more.

[@skootdiggity1301]

Can't you cast cure on the Queen Bee when her health gets low?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

No, unfortunately you can't cast any beneficial spells on her.

[@VapourXY]

Bee’s seem more less of a pain than running around and respawning mobs lol

[@nyczyar]

I think Gongaga is better because it's flexibility for material change when they're maxed. For killer bees, you need to complete battle to swap out material.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Valid point. If you're playing on easy though it's only about 8 minutes and considering the difference of AP per minute, I'd still say the Bees are a better choice. Each to their own though, I levelled most of my materia in Gongaga and it was fine :)

[@Jimbobob5536]

I think I'll stick with the colosseum. The reset time on the bee fight is just too annoying, whereas with the colosseum I can grind for a bit here and there at my leisure.

[@Crazy-Jukebox]

put 1st Brutal fight in chadley VR (easy 10 rounds, even if its labeled as Brutal) can get it done in less than 40sec for all 10 fights. AP is absurd like 450 base AP for 40sec, im surprised no one mentioning it. just use magnify -ga magic each round for one shots.

[@xzentix]

The 40s refer to in game time (times goes slower while in combat menu + you have to add loading time between fights). But I’m curious what this fight does in numbers. I used this way by myself. I didn’t knew any other at this point

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I have added it to the list to test, thanks. I'll update the spreadsheet with the data later :)

[@Crazy-Jukebox]

@@TheGameFatherUK looking forward to it :) Quaga on shortcut is the best skill for that as it has the biggest aoe. swiftcast makes the runs also much much faster.

[@Temet79]

Sorry but this is wrong. Just the 10 load times for each fight is more 40 seconds. It's a good spot, but takes several minutes for each clear.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just finished testing this one. The loading times between the battles is what drags it down, otherwise it would have been great. You get a total of 267 AP for clearing all 10 rounds which you can beat almost instantaneously with a good Quarga build. The average total time was 04:35 including the tiny reset, so that works out at 58.41 AP per minute. I ran it 3 times once I got the setup working well. I've added it to the sheet, thanks!

[@loveinthevalley]

The ap gain isnt adding up on my end. I think things have been nerfed

[@tiagoj8020]

Can you cast protect on the queen?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Unfortunately you can cast beneficial spells like that on her, otherwise that would have been a great way to keep her alive 😀

[@kurchak]

I wonder what the best method will bee!?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

10/10 pun-age

[@supersaiyanzero386]

I appreciate the reminder that Cloud can do tons of damage with that cool saber I believe I can get his attack up to around 450 without equipping strength up or any abilities with them I can get it to 500 Well ok 404 before setting abilities. I do kind of wish Auto attacks did more but I guess I like the abilities but sometimes I just want to run around and slash up some bad guys I wish my auto attack was at a thousand, but alas, that'll be part 3

[@ozaiobee]

I rarely hit the "like", but this deserved it. Thanks for the math.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Thank you! Glad it was worthwhile 🙂

[@scienceofone]

If I die on the bees do I lose my SP?

[@TheGameFatherUK]

If your party wipes, you lose the AP yes. That's one of the reasons to play on easy. You can also throw a healing materia on Cloud too if you're worried about that.

[@ForzaTerra89]

Why they put the AP cap so high on magic focus and swiftcast is just an unreasonable amount of grinding

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Especially since swiftcast is obtained fairly late on.

[@jleang12]

If the queen is low on life, I believe you can restart/reset the queen battle without needing to go through the startup again.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

You can, but you lose the AP when you reset without finishing, otherwise that would have been absolutely golden!

[@jleang12]

@@TheGameFatherUK do you lose AP? I know EXP isn’t lost.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

You do lose the AP, yes. I triple checked it, I'm sure they set it that way purposefully to stop any kind of infinite exploit.

[@XultanisDragon]

You forgot the bee's in the 3rd brutal chadley challenge. The first fight has queen bee and elephant. Just nuke the bees and the queen will call more. If you do it right you can keep rinse and repeating and its a faster reset.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I tested that after the release of the video and added it to the spreadsheet. It's not bad, but it still isn't as good as outside of the VR.

[@ClassyCrustatio]

When anyone argues with me bow I'm going to just show them this video because I'm so tired of arguing with peoppe about how the bees are the best AP farm and the gongaga one is NOT.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Yeah that's why I wanted the numbers, the bees are definitely the top spot although I now have a couple of others to test from the comments :)

[@pack_5176]

Retry the last battle of the loop so you dont need to reload

[@MaxQuagliotto]

This exactly -- I commented too about this before seeing your comment. Retry battle is so much quicker than loading the save. They should update the video with this strategy and see how it compares.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

I'm re-testing with that method later on, will add the data to the spreadsheet after :)

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just ran this a bunch of times and it does indeed improve the Gongaga 4 encounter loop. I've added it to the Google sheet, thanks!

[@rustylopez6191]

If you restart a battle, it will respawn all the mobs so you don’t need to save and load.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Just ran this a bunch of times and it does indeed improve the Gongaga 4 encounter loop. I've added it to the Google sheet, thanks!

[@notelkz_]

In terms of farming AP from the bees, you can pause > retry battle and keep any EXP/AP earned and It'll spawn you right back by the queen bee fight.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Unless something has changed, you do not get to keep the AP, only the EXP.

[@notelkz_]

@@TheGameFatherUK Then something must have changed, I've been doing this and am keeping my AP.

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Oh ok, I'll have a look at that later. At what point are you pausing and retrying? Just before the queen dies?

[@lastdragon5]

Did the retry method work for AP too?

[@zeroswagg3809]

Update pls?

[@lloydmeadors]

Aggrivrikons fiend Intel in grasslands also does 24 AP, with max level and elemental materia paired with fire, ice, or fire and ice is dead with one triple slash

[@TheGameFatherUK]

Cheers, I've added it to my list. I'll test it later and add the results to the spreadsheet.