Final Fantasy 7: What Yuffie’s Best Build Is

With the upcoming release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade featuring a new episode that includes Yuffie Kisaragi, more attention is now focused on the young “Mystery Ninja” of FF7. For players revisiting the original PlayStation Final Fantasy 7, or playing it for the first time, the character’s potential may not be immediately obvious, but with the right build Yuffie can be a valuable member of the party. Though Yuffie has relatively low base statistics, the unique properties of her ultimate weapon and limit breaks can be leveraged to make the materia hunter of Wutai into a formidable fighter.

In the original Final Fantasy 7, the universal materia system allowed for any character to be customized to the player’s wishes, leaving their weapon type, limit breaks, and inherent statistics as the main distinguishing factors. Base statistics were less relevant than in most RPGs, as equipping a number of green magic materia could make any character into a powerful magic user, and farming statistic-raising items could offset low inherent values. Yuffie’s limit breaks are primarily based on her weapon attack damage, so players would be wise to focus on the character as a physical attacker, rather than a magic-user.

Yuffie uses a Shuriken, a ranged weapon type, meaning she can be placed in the back row without penalty, and strike at rear enemies without losing any damage. After obtaining a submarine from the Junon underwater reactor, players can detour to a crashed plane, the Gelnika, where they can find Yuffie’s ultimate weapon, Conformer. This weapon has several unique properties that players can use to make item farming much easier.

Like all ultimate weapons in FF7, Conformer has several materia slots, but offers no materia growth, meaning it is not a good weapon to use while increasing materia levels. Each ultimate weapon has a specific formula that modifies its damage, beyond the usual calculation of weapon power and character strength. Conformer’s formula provides a damage multiplier based on the level of the enemy. Against the highest level enemy in Final Fantasy 7, Emerald Weapon, Conformer will do a bit more than six times the normal damage, making a max damage 9,999 hit very likely against strong foes, where it is needed most.

A Well-Built FF7 Yuffie Is A Physical Attack Powerhouse

Another unique feature of Conformer deals with Final Fantasy 7’s Morph materia, which can be found in the Temple of the Ancients. Morph normally causes an attack to do only 1/8^th of its normal damage, but if it kills an enemy, the party is rewarded with an item. Unlike all other weapons, including other ultimate weapons in FF7, Yuffie’s Conformer overwrites the damage reduction with its own damage formula, meaning Yuffie can strike for full damage with the Morph attack.

With this ultimate weapon, Yuffie can aid in acquiring valuable items, such as multiple Ribbons that make a character immune to all negative status effects by morph-killing Ho-Chu or Master Tonberry enemies. Monsters encountered in the Gelnika can be morphed into “source” items, such as the Power Source that raises Strength, and the Guard Source that raises defense, meaning that as soon as Yuffie acquires her ultimate weapon, she can put it to good use turning enemies into valuable stat-raising items.

With the exception of Clear Tranquil, a healing limit break, all of Yuffie’s limit breaks are weapon-based attacks. Players can use limit breaks repeatedly, and slay enemies with Yuffie, to master higher level limit breaks. The level 4 “ultimate” limit breaks are acquired at specific locations for each character, but in Yuffie’s case, the level 3 limit break Doom of the Living is superior to her level 4 ultimate limit break, All Creation. The level 4 limit break strikes all enemies once for an amount equal to eight times the normal value of an attack. Due to the damage cap in FF7 at 9,999, a well-build Yuffie using Conformer, with a high strength from farming Strength Sources, will do more damage with Doom of the Living, as it strikes a total of 15 times for about sixty percent of a normal attack’s damage with each hit.

Picking The Right Materia For The Job Makes Yuffie Excel

Beyond her use in acquiring items, and choosing the right limit breaks, players can make use of proper materia to leverage Yuffie’s powerful physical attack potential with Conformer. A leveled-up Double Cut materia provides the 4x Cut ability, which lets the user strike four times with the attack command instead of once. Yuffie is well-suited to use her action with this Materia when she is focused on damage instead of Morphing enemies. Out of turn damage comes from equipping up to eight maximized Counter Attack materia. Though this requires a good deal of materia AP grinding, when struck with a physical attack, a maximized counter attack materia provides a 100% chance of a counter attack. With eight such materia equipped, a well-built Yuffie will strike for 9,999 damage eight times in response to an attack against her.

Though Yuffie is an optional character in the original Final Fantasy 7, she is much harder to miss than Vincent Valentine, the other “secret” character of the game. From the first time the party is attacked in a forest environment in the overworld by the “Mystery Ninja” enemy, they can select the proper dialogue options to recruit Yuffie and put the energetic shuriken slinger to work. This often-underappreciated character can be an excellent party member, with proper planning, and as the original FF7 remains a timeless classic, gamers can enjoy Yuffie in her original 32-bit form as well as her new debut in Intergrade.

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