Rufus【NO MP】 Hard Mode Boss Guide - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | FF7 Rebirth

[@10000Needles]

You’re simply a lifesaver my dude. I combined this strategy with saving the lvl3 limit break for Darkstar and caught them both in it and it was over before you knew it. Thanks for this guide!

[@Kingdom_of_Basil]

I fell just short with that so swapped to speed demon keychain and Gilgamesh summon. Gilgamesh took them both out lol. This video got me there tho, what a chore of a fight

[@BunBun299]

This tip did it for me, saving Finishing Touch for Darkstar. I still had to fight very cautiously, but it tipped the scales. Thank you, 10000Needles.

[@jornado8774]

Thanks for all your hard mode boss guides. I've used them quite a bit, particularly Dyne (Ch 8), Roche (Ch 11) and now Rufus. Honestly this fight was very intimidating at first and did take me longer to clear than any of the bosses so far, but that was mostly due to having to master the block timing when he shoots his weapon. For anyone else still stuck on Rufus, I sort of modified this strategy to suit my style. When I used triple slash on him I would just hack him with Cloud's sword 7 times after the triple slash. This is the number I determined was safe and I could still block him when he shoots. About 1 second after the 7th hit, he'll shoot. Once you get this block timing down, if you do a perfect block you'll take no damage and instantly recover an entire ATB. That was the key to being competitive, since I was wasting a lot of ATB on Chakra or Healing spells just to stay in the fight. Enhanced Expeditionary Medal is also a must imo. I was able to get off two limit breaks in the 2nd phase when he brought out Darkstar, and on the second one I had them both so low the limit KO'd both of them. I had around 500 HP left and had taken Rufus' ultimate attack head on twice (luckily had ATB and could instantly cast healing spells to get back to full HP). ATB Boost materia was also huge for me in this fight. Rufus is a tough boss for sure but work on your evasive movements and block timing, once you master that he is not as scary as he seems. Also thanks to everyone in the comments about messing up the retry battle in the menu and having to play the Turks again. I made this mistake in previous chapters that had multiple bosses at this end, but this was one that I especially wanted to avoid that. Thanks to all of your comments I had good awareness not to do it this time

[@DannyPotato]

What things did you have that let you charge limit faster? I never get limit in this fight. By the time I do I would be able to stagger him the second time and kill him that way.

[@jornado8774]

@@DannyPotato For the most part you build limit in this fight by blocking Rufus' shots and taking damage. Obviously you don't want to take damage because of how aggro he is, so it's primarily going to come from getting perfect blocks on his shots. Especially when he just shoots between his named attacks, if you can get blocks on those it'll build the limit way faster. But you absolutely must get a block when he shoots after you pressure him with triple slash, those are freebies once you understand the timing. I had the same problem building limit when I did this. Luckily between blocking and taking his ultimate attack head on, I was able to get two limits and the second one was good for the KO. As far as items on my build that increased the limit gauge, I didnt have any. Enhanced Expeditionary Medal just gives you the Level 3 limit from the beginning but you still have to fill the gauge during the fight.

[@fivebyfivefvs]

You have the best guides. Your Roche one was the only one I could find that actually explained what to do. I had no MP left when I got to him and so many guides just showed them beating him in a minute but didn’t explain anything. Appreciate your videos and the details.

[@imoonie0589]

Thank you! All your boss guides (from Dyne to Rufus) worked for me, you're a lifesaver! Although, not perfectly executed as yours but still managed to beat them with your guide.

[@mnopinion]

Appreciate this dude! I’ve been breezing through hard mode for the most part but I got stumped by this part in particular! But your technique was easily to follow and was able to beat it immediately after. GJ on this one.

[@renrafael8673]

Wow! This is the best one I’ve seen. I hated this fight even before without any guides. I did check 2 strats where it wants you to attack after his abilities, but it’s not that good. This one is the best! I finally beat him! Thank you!

[@julianmarriott2819]

awesome!! watched and did first go after trying loads, thank you for the easy to follow guide

[@ddotlee]

Thank you for this guide! The build and the recommended fight strategy made this very straightforward.

[@sclinton562]

This MAKES A LOT OF SENSE NOW!! I am definitely going to try these tips!!! I think this will help me progress. Ill keep you posted!

[@OurHeroXero]

Wonderful guide and very clean fight!

[@nathanking5137]

This is the 2nd boss in hard mode I genuinely got stuck on. Thanks for the guide!

[@samwise8031]

who was the other?

[@nathanking5137]

@samwise8031 Gi Nattak gave me some grief and i had to look up a guide. Thought I'd struggle against galian beast but that was actually pretty easy.

[@HeavenOnHigh]

You can still tripple slash "tread softly" if you put elemental materia s2 × thunder in your armour slot. It's electro damage, and once you're immun to it, you are also imun to its stun. Ask reno, he hates that trick.

[@SeymoreGlutes]

best explanation of this question ever! Thankyou!

[@GatorWitAGat]

THANK YOU FOR BRINGING UP THE TRIPLE SLASH. All other guides say to just triple slash when he reloads. It made this fight so much longer than it needed to be, I literally beat him two tries after watching this

[@Bodhinaut]

SAME!!! This dude is a god send.

[@mamoruchiba752]

People can't read anymore it seems. Game literally tells you he's staggerable during many of his attacks

[@GatorWitAGat]

@@mamoruchiba752 the game specifically says AFTER he attacks, not during or before, so still, this guide specifying to use it as soon as you see the name of the move pop up is still valid

[@LumaRose24]

Thank you so much for this! This fight was driving me mad! 😡 I tried a few other videos but they weren’t working for me, but managed this strategy on my first try! 🙌🏻

[@ssbenj3523]

fire and elemental on armour You can then braver through “think fast” to instantly stagger.

[@wizrad1277]

I've been having a surprisingly (I'm not really a gamer) easy time with hard mode so far until Rufus. I rage quit after 2 hours of following other guides and failing miserably, then trying my own strategy and getting SO close until Rufus and Darkstar pingponged me. I'll try your method tomorrow when I am no longer seething. Rufus, buddy, I love ya, but please, for my sanity, cooperate tomorrow. 😔

[@TSouL22]

Best of luck

[@beanznriceboi1]

Same here, I struggled a little in Shinra mansion with Galiant beast, and then Roche with no MP left, but this fight is def giving me trouble. I REALLY don't want to fight Turks again, but I have like 1/3 of my health and like 9 MP left on Cloud. I'm determined to not start this series of fights over.

[@loztpm]

This is exactly what I was looking for! The gimmick builds I found just don’t mesh well with my play style and I really just wanted tips for improving my skills to beat him without having to use builds that aren’t familiar to me/don’t feel natural

[@nonyabusiness4151]

I hate altering my load outs for one fight. I want that perfect loadout...

[@dacabbage]

Amazing video. Thank to you this fight was so much easier. I staggered and got Rufus down to the minimum then when darkstar entered, I saved my limit break, unleashed on rufus and the battle was won! Thank you!

[@areksarguez1835]

Thanks to your tips, I managed to beat him! Thanks so much!

[@anthonychez688]

Man I can't thank you enough, I was beyond discouraged because I just couldn't beat him on hard no matter how much and hard I tried, for like an hour flat just about; I needed to see this more than you know, now I feel hopeful I'll be able to beat him; I never thought to focus thrust and triple slash him while he's attacking or right after evading it, plus it's been taking a lot longer for my atb gauges to fill up I see why now! I'm gonna try again tomorrow with this strategy as well as the Aeroga magnify one or kinda mix them; do you got Discord by any chance?

[@atthakrit.l143]

Finally some useful guide thank you

[@tommyirish9685]

This was so helpful! Thank you

[@mason0448]

Raged so hard and then I beat him with this loadout after a couple tries, triple slash as he’s beginning a special move really made the difference for me, had no idea I could interrupt him

[@TheDavieSeal]

Yesssss!! Beat it first try with this strat! Was actually so easy just applying a little patience 😂

[@JakuvalTraidz]

Thank you for this guide. Rufus is a tough boss, but this strategy worked well for me!

[@mmorrel1989]

Thank you so much for this!!

[@YouDaMANRAJ]

Highed reccomend enhanced expeditionary medal and then farm limit gauge by blocking in phase 1 so you have a full limit gauge for phase 2. Then once you stagged him in phase 2 use infinity blade into lvl 3 limit.

[@bdof1]

Just beat him using a fair amount of this strategy guide. Finding when I can use focus thrust was absolutely pivotal. I used heal/regen with quickcast and haste. ATB boost saved my bacon a few times too. That 2nd stage was utter trash. So glad I saved Gilgamesh for the 2nd round. Absolutely crucial that he pressured them and I had a Cross Slash in the bank. Still came down to a last millisecond focus thrust to stagger him and finish him off. I was a fraction of a sec away from being countered like a bum. Soooooo relieved.

[@davidhunter1555]

Great video. I was doing this on hard and blew all my MP on the Turks because I'd forgotten all about Rufus. I'm using the queued Chakra trick to get better healing when I have 2 bars.

[@tomhughes4831]

Bro thank you so much. Great video.

[@kitty1931]

Anyone else's cloud decide to jump at Rufus randomly instead of chaining windblades?

[@DannyPotato]

You’re probably holding the button or pressing too many times. No other reason for him to do that.

[@kitty1931]

@@DannyPotato i press dodge once and then attack 3 times. Sometimes he just jumps at him

[@wingsONE]

just lost a decent fight to him bc of this. lightly tapping square and Cloud just charges. so frustrating

[@mistmorphine]

Same problem. I can be miles away and Cloud still jumps right at him instead of using windblades 😢😢

[@mistmorphine]

Oh, you need to press circle first then attack. My bad.

[@beanznriceboi1]

Hiw do you not get countered? Everytime i attack him while hes pressured, he counters immediately

[@Savzannah]

Okay so I fought Elena and Rude for an hour and a half, and Rufus for an hour and a half, and then went to reset and accidentally hit restart from first battle. I rage quit. I went back and used these techniques and beat Rude and Elena in less than five minutes and got Rufus in about ten. Thank you!

[@MelyssaMicallef]

Just want to say thank you so much for your hard mode boss videos. Such great advice and they’ve saved me a lot of time and frustration. I do want to ask: what camera settings do you use? I can’t seem to keep Rufus in the frame. I understand that him moving so fast and frequently is part of the difficulty, but it seems like I’m using my right toggle way more than I should be. It makes dodging/blocking pretty difficult. Maybe I just need to be patient and practice more.

[@TSouL22]

I set the distance to 3 (max) and keep everything else default. I tried the manual camera movement with the right stick, but it got annoying since you constantly need to readjust when changing targets.

[@Its-Time-To-Cleave]

Thank you, I was going to quit Hard Mode because I used all my MP on Rude and Elena

[@XDD50Hz]

disorder is also a pretty good gap closer

[@JenovaGirzz]

After watching this, i have spent 2 1/2 hours raging because of getting stun locked to death in phase 2. Everytime i try to dodge the assault attack, it catches me mid-roll anyway. I'm so frustrated. Regardless of what I do i get stun locked to death. Would be great if I didn't have to change my loadout after every attempt

[@JenovaGirzz]

I did it... after 4 1/2 hours I finally did it... never again

[@kensuke0]

@@JenovaGirzzThis stupid fight is straight up bullshit.

[@mickeyd0098]

We need a guide on the brutal and legendary challenges

[@SPM-tv]

Stupid question but is anyone else’s screen move so much you can’t keep an eye in on Rufus?

[@emixsam7316]

And i thought you could only get him pressurised or open when he was reloading....too bad i beat him before i saw that, but great video man 👍🏼

[@ryanhorton9594]

How do you gain access to the enhanced crafts? Im in hard mode byt only the Genji items are listed as new crafts. Edit: you get the enhanced recipe from one of the Gold Saucer or Corel Prison arena rewards. Dont recall which

[@luisandrade7171]

i believe those are found by the scent from chocobos on each region

[@Bozomojo]

Guide helped me get close after about a dozen tries and resetting my loadout over and over again before Rufus just decided to not get pressured when I hit him with Triple Slash when he had a sliver of life left, killed me, and then I accidentally restarted before the battle with Rude and Elena. Hours of my day wasted. I'm done with this for a long while. Edit: I finally got a good pattern similar to this vid and managed to finish him off. I will never play this Chapter on hard mode ever again. Lol

[@nukikadiman9847]

Thank you

[@LLJW4]

Cheers!

[@librashooter]

How to use charged attack? Did you just hold attack button?

[@TSouL22]

Yep, just hold square

[@swaggaroo69]

Gongaga? Triple slash

[@asmoday2838]

Still dying. I know this works cuz I've almost gotten it a few times. I keep forgetting to put triple slash back on my shortcuts each time I have to redo it. I see his health sub 10% and I get excited, lose focus, and get careless

[@FitWithCalisthenics]

Reminds me of Malenia, Blade of Miquella with the aggro and the frustration .

[@Modioman69]

Agreed! But damn this fight was harder than Malenia, and I’m talking both melee and magic based builds in Elden ring. Rufus adds artificial gimmick difficulty by randomly making the countering mechanics different than any other fight in the game. Of course it’s much easier once you know what to do but still didn’t feel fun or satisfying to win like it was with Malenia, countering her aggro was hard but with the right weapon arts she is a cake walk vs Rufus the dufus where it felt like I just learned gimmick spam counter.

[@confounded_feline]

Think i lucked out and first timed it. I found the Turks harder. I ate a lot of dirt at the beginning of the fight but adapted as it went on and i rememeber his deal from part one and the dynamic mode run. He honestly reminded me more of a Sekiro boss. The key was to learn exactly when his short punishment windows are, when you cant attack him or should dodge rather than block and not be punished by him. My Cloud had no magic materia save for Barrier. The rest was command and complete materia mostly. Chakra most important Darkside Enemy skill (sonic boom primarily) ATB stagger Skill master Strength Up maxed Precision def Steadfast block First strike Thats what i rememeber off of the top of my head. Gear. Igneous saber for max attack One of the grade XII or XIII armlets Enhanced Karmic Cowl (i think) Video is on my channel. Im not a youtuber but i like archiving fights I enjoyed. I'm not a particularly skilled player so i think the materia and equipment loadout carried me.

[@DannyPotato]

I wish I could practise the second phase parrying the dog without going through the first one every time. The dog attacks pretty often before Rufus uses a move.

[@mangomariel]

I wish I knew I could counter before his attacks, I thought you could only do it right after he finish them.. so I dodged everything.

[@chazclark86]

This fight was a pain in the arse

[@sean6977]

Just use enemy skill plasma, it pressures Rufus and you can use multiple thrusts to stagger in first phase. Should be able to stagger continuous in 2nd phase but I was lucky I didn't need to you thrust to break free. Lastly use your ultimate. Clouds non wind element ATB can pressure but didn't always work and Rufus is quick at times!.

[@fable23]

This. Plasma Discharge + Steadfast Block means that blocking his attacks will get you enough ATB to pop, which will pressure him for free if he's close enough. You can then mash on him for a good bit for pressure and another pop, or you can go right into Focused Thrust.

[@confounded_feline]

Bro just trivialised him when i just brute forced it... aggressive ATB recovery, chakra heals outpacing his damage and parrying/punishing when i could.

[@kensuke0]

This fight is made harder because of how fast his stupid ass is with his attacks. You choose the wrong ability at the wrong time and you get F’d. Then when you get to the damn dog, they purposely made it so you can’t see whether or not the dog is attacking you cause it goes off screen. It’s so sadistic.

[@danielburgess1113]

still on the look out for someone willing & nice enough to do this for me via shareplay

[@sincerely_kathi]

Thank you for the great guide! Still stuck at that fight. I don't want to quit because of all those fights before :( He always gets me

[@TSouL22]

You can change materia and equipment by holding Square during the cutscene

[@sincerely_kathi]

@@TSouL22 thanks! In the mean time I just got myself götterdämmerung which should make this fight a little bit easier 😅

[@misterjogurt4790]

I swear this Boss is awful, thanks for the guide man

[@foxspiritsama]

Definitely saving this on my phone because I had to leave my home pissed off unable to beat him in hard mode. Once I get home I'm triple slashing the shit out of him. (I still dont understand how I beat him in dynamic it just sort of happened 😂😂) Also mad the devs didn't think oh you changed your loadout just before his fight. Sorry it wont save do again. . .oh you lost do it again and again and again. Still though out of the whole game I still believe minigames are the hardest thing to finish 😂😂

[@anhemtoctai5099]

tks

[@Modioman69]

Just wanted to say great hard mode guide. This fight was my least favorite aside from ruler of outer worlds and the games final set of boss fights. They went from Pt.1/remake being a fun challenge to get plat, on to rebirth being a literal slog of drawn out mini game hell and tedious and pointless quests that felt more like chores than actual video game fun. I hope they don’t continue this lame trend for part 3. The legendary and brutal challenges weren’t rewarding in my opinion it was “how can I brumal spam my way to victory or use lame repetitive tactics. Not saying it needed to be easy but Remake/pt1 had the right balance. Even Weiss and Pride and Joy felt good to overcome vs this game it’s terrible challenges and boss fights on hard mode. That’s just my personal opinion and experience I hope many had fun because I didn’t on hard. Now I just resent this game and I did finally get plat by using this guide and other creators for the challenges etc. thank you for such a nice upload. Let’s hope part 3 isn’t so miserable.

[@TheOfficialNewb]

dude it blows my mind that not a single content creator is talking about how braver instantly staggers rufus lol its absolutely wild

[@luigigooigi]

Landing Braver on this fight on hard mode was impossible for me 😩 I just relied on Triple Slash lol

[@TheOfficialNewb]

@@luigigooigi the only way I was able to do it was stay close to him and as soon as he ended an ability that forced him to reload I would start braver before reload even popped

[@mamoruchiba752]

Same lol you actually wanna stay close to him bc of this, now of course this needs knowledge and timing but it's a dance and a fun dance on top of it. Only videos I see are: run away and pressure him lol

[@mamoruchiba752]

​@@TheOfficialNewboh see you too figured out that you have to stay close and dance with him. Well I don't expect much from people nowadays, they want everything to be easy lol (aside from those hardcore gamers)

[@TheOfficialNewb]

@@mamoruchiba752 I thought it was so much fun staying in close I play too many dark souls type games and know combat is always a dance on a thin line

[@benjaminschacht92]

The fact that he's nearly the same as remake makes it so much easier. Got no healing guide coming up for gi nattak?

[@darthcaedus9130]

If i can get past elena and rude, this fight is a piece of cake

[@darthcaedus9130]

Thanks for not using items that I do not have at the moment, the god tier weapon that starts with a G. Almost every youtuber review of the boss fights has it equipped.

[@fabriciorodrigues6884]

It took me 4 long hours to beat him on hard! You lose a lot of times until you get better. but I think nothing is more difficult than the piano mini game

[@Akunza]

I pray this helps cause I HATE Rufus! He's not even a Super Soldier and keeps parrying me and shoots me in the back! >

[@supersaiyanzero386]

Now we can change our loadout AFTER the Turks. However it resets if we lose. Seriously hard mode is just gimmick mode

[@topfranluis1]

Im Sorry, but no Guide hat suggests that I block his bullets is gonna be helpful here

[@snyper1793]

I beat Rufus on hard mode thanks to your guide. I don't think the difficulty spike is the problem it's just that you need to go through the Turks everytime you want to attempt to beat him on hard mode that makes it annoying to practice

[@TSouL22]

You can restart from the Rufus fight and even change equipment w/o doing the Turks again.

[@snyper1793]

@@TSouL22 oh wait I misread that. How? I wish I knew before I dived into it 😆 i think i hit ch 13 hard mode without knowing you can

[@mellotofer]

.....you just hit restart from this battle and not from before the battle... @@snyper1793

[@evanlastname1449]

@@TSouL22 wait what? I can? How?

[@TSouL22]

@@evanlastname1449 Just choose the top option when retrying. And hold Square during the cutscene to go to the Menu.

[@Ccroissant627]

Plasma discharge reduces fight time. Thank me later

[@wontononionslicer1004]

The problem is not how to attack him, it’s how to eat his damage😢😢😢

[@TSouL22]

Keep moving like I do in the examples and there should barely be any damage.

[@ssbenj3523]

Equip fire and elemental on your armour. Elemental should be at least 2 stars by hard mode so at least no damage from think fast. You can then braver through it and stagger him. Keep moving around at distance, equip steadfast block and precision defence and get good at blocking the normal shots he does when he comes in. I used darkside + strength up materia along with the sleek sabre with both attack power buffs and the draconic ring to build limit break during 1st phase. That way when dark star comes out you can sonic boom for the brave status then cross slash Rufus to kill him (or nearly) in 1 shot 2nd phase

[@Akihito_Kanbara]

"No MP required." Do people even use MP? The game is set up so that it's not even worth using in most cases. The only time I ever do is to heal outside of battle or when I'm wanting to be a mage.

[@TSouL22]

It's just another indicator to say not healing and folks that are oom by this fight. Guess I can change it back.

[@Akihito_Kanbara]

@@TSouL22 oh gotcha. Yeah, outside of the simulator I just use items. Kind of don't like how much they seem to veer away from magic.

[@TSouL22]

@@Akihito_Kanbara Don't bother saving Elixirs or rare consumables for Hard Mode (if you plan on playing Hard Mode). You can't use them at all, and MP becomes a precious resource.

[@Akihito_Kanbara]

@@TSouL22 oh my bad completely missed it says Hard Mode. I'm still sitting in Ch.13. unfortunately won't be going any further after finishing the story because Dragons Dogma 2 is going to consume my life for the next few months 🤣

[@ssbenj3523]

Did you beat mythril golem on hard without any MP? I thundaga’d the sh*t out of its head over and over until it died . Would have been a struggle otherwise.

[@supersaiyanzero386]

The limit break accessory isn't even that good that's what's sad. If it gave us the level two or level 3 limit break immediately would be worth it to the only point of it now is for easy content or limit siphon use planet protection for gimmick fights or fuckin rising fury with expeditionary medal on the other character or two in order to be able to cast semi effective limit breaks which were seriously nerfed in this game along with most other things

[@BunBun299]

Rufus just cheats. He ignores the game mechanics about 75% of the time and just hits me even when I'm dodging, or counters even when I catch him after an attack or on Reload. Also, Cloud has a nasty habit of charging forward to strike instead of using his air slash after I dodge. This strategy is helping, I'm making more progress, but it is a frustrating fight. Edit: I did finally beat him, Equipped the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal, and saved my Limit Break for Dark Star. Then summoned Bahamut to finish the job. Had to play very conservatively to make sure I lasted until Bahamut used Giga Flare.

[@Itzdafreakinbat]

Ye doesnt work for me , the peice of shit rufus just keeps on sliding into me until he counters me and keeps damaging me , i cant even beat his first phase

[@nicholasyoung459]

Love ff games but not great video game player. These fights make me stop playing. I quit. Not trying any more ff games if the normal difficulty is this difficult.

[@TSouL22]

Just lower the difficulty and enjoy the story/minigames

[@BSeeD06]

There's an easier difficulty made for people that don't like that kind of challenge. Tbh normal mode is okay. Too bad you had to quit this amazing game.

[@danielpeter9308]

Experience soul game player: First time?