Limit Breaks
Limit breaks are a relatively simple concept in Final Fantasy VII. Basically through the game whenever you receive damage, the little meter beside your name marked 'limit' will fill up. When it reaches the top your normal attack is replaced with the flashing word 'limit.' At this point you can unleash a special super powerful attack on the enemy. What that attack is depends on which character you're using and you're current limit break level. When this is used the meter resets to minimum and the process starts over. Only enemy attacks can fill this gauge, you cannot fill it by attacking your own teammates.
Note: The hyper and sadness effects on your characters will lower and raise the rate of gauge increase respectively.
Everyone starts with a single level 1 limit break. Generally this is just a single enemy attack but they can vary from single enemy attacks, to all enemy attacks, to multi-hit to healing to transformations. In order to acquire new limits breaks you must meet either of two conditions, those are defeating 80 enemies with a particular character, or using a particular limit break a certain number of times. Which of these you need to fulfill is listed below.
For everyone's final limit break with the exception of Cait Sith, an item is required to learn the level 4 limit. You cannot learn this limit break until you have learned every other one manually for that character. each character has 7 limit breaks with the exceptions of Cait Sith and Vincent.
Cloud Strife
Lv Name Description
1 Braver Attacks one opponent.
1 Cross Slaash Attacks and (can) paralyze one opponent.
2 Blade Beam Attacks one main target for heavy damage, then diffuses to hit other opponent(s) for smaller damage.
2 Climhazzard Attacks one opponent.
3 Meteorain Attacks all opponents. Looks cool.
3 Finishing Touch Blows away all opponents or if opponents can't be blown away, eg bosses, damages them. Also looks cool.
4 Omnislash Get 32,000 points in the Battle Square at the Gold Saucer.
Aeris Gainsborough
Lv Name Description
1 Healing Wind Restores the party's lost HP.
1 Seal Evil Casts this spell on all enemies, causing them to stop and be silenced.
2 Breath of the Earth Cures the party of any status conditions.
2 Fury Brand Gives the other characters a full limit bar.
3 Planet Protector Aeris makes a barrier around the party that makes them temporarily invincible.
3 Pulse of Life Cures the party of all status conditions, HP, and MP.
4 Great Gospel Talk to the sleeping man near Midgar (see Side Quests) When you have fought a number of battles that would have the last two digits of the number the same. (88, 99, 100, 166....), he will give you the piece of Mythril that can be exchanged for that limit break, which is in a small box at the Weapon Seller near Gongaga.
Tifa Lockheart
Lv Name Description
1 Beat Rush Attacks one opponent using a combo of punches.
1 Somersault Attacks one opponent with a flipping kick.
2 Waterkick Wave of water washes over an opponent.
2 Meteodrive Attacks and opponent by delivering a backdrop.
3 Dolphin Blow A dolphin delivers an uppercut.
3 Meteor Strike Attacks an opponent by grabbing an opponent and jumping into the heavens before slamming them down to the ground.
4 Final Heaven Go to Nibelheim and enter Tifa's house. Go upstairs to the room with the piano and play the tune located below. After playing the tune, check the sheet music and you will receive Final Heaven. You will need Tifa in your team.
Barret Wallace
Lv Name Description
1 Big Shot Attacks one opponent.
1 Mindblow Depletes one opponent's MP.
2 Grenade Bomb Attacks all opponents.
2 Hammerblow Sends opponent into orbit, and completely removes them from combat. Doesn't work against bosses.
3 Satellite Beam Satellite targets and damages all opponents.
3 Ungarmax Attacks all opponents.
4 Catastrophe Talk to the woman in North Corel after the train crash. After talking to her, she will hand over the Catastrophe manual.
Red XIII
Lv Name Description
1 Sled Fang Attacks one opponent.
1 Lunatic High Casts Haste and increases Defense for all allies.
2 Blood Fang Reduces opponent's HP and MP and transfers it to Red XIII.
2 Stardust Ray 12 attacks on enemies for moderate damage.
3 Howling Moon Casts Berserk and Haste on Red XIII.
3 Earth Rave Hits five times for elemental damgage against random target each.
4 Cosmo Memory Open the safe in Nibelhiem, using the combination 36,10,59,97, you can't go past the number and must enter it with O on the number exactly. Defeat Lost Number (for strategy, See Side Quests, Getting Vincent Valentine/Safe in Nibelhiem) and get Cosmo Memory manual.
Cid Highwind
Lv Name Description
1 Boost Jump Cid jumps in the air and directly attacks the opponent.
1 Dynamite Cid hurls a stick of TNT at the enemies. This damages all enemies in the group.
2 Hyper Jump Cid leaps to the air and attacks the group of enemies.
2 Dragon Cid summons a dragon to attack just one of the enemies. This limit break will take MP and HP from the enemy and will be delivered to Cid.
3 Dragon Dive Cid attacks a group of opponents. This will bring cumulative damage and can do 9,999 HP per hit. There are about 6-8 shots.
3 Big Brawl Cid attacks the group or solo enemy many more times than the Dragon Dive. Although it hits for less, it may be a greater limit break than Dragon Dive.
4 Highwind Get into the submarine and look for the downed Shinra plane, the Gelnika (go the docking bay on the world map near the Gold Saucer. Submerge, look around and you should see a broken plane on the seabed) Go into the cargo hold (left then south). In there is a treasure chest with his limit break manual in it.
Yuffie Kisaragi
Lv Name Description
1 Greased Lighting Hits one enemy with a quick hit that causes a lot of damage.
1 Clear tranquil Replenishes a small amount of HP onto the entire party.
2 Landscaper The ground rises up from the enemies and explodes.
2 Bloodfest 10 deadly blows are given to the enemies. This is a cumulative attack.
3 Gauntlet A blue tornado beneath the ground rises to hit the opponents. It causes a large amount of damage to all enemies on the screen.
3 Doom of the Living This is stronger than the Bloodfest and is cumulative which makes the Gauntlet look pretty bad.
4 All Creation Go to the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods in Wutai, after completing Yuffie's side quest. When you beat Godo, you get the limit break manual.
Cait Sith
Lv Name Description
1 Dice Cait throws out several dice onto the playing field. This takes the sum x 100 to get the total amount of damage to one enemy.
2 Slots List of the possible outcomes:
3 Stars - Mog Dance - This restores the party's HP, MP, and all negative status conditions.
3 Kings - Toy Soldier - Toy soldiers shoot at the enemies for a good hit of damage.
3 Bars - Summon - A random summon spell in which you have already used before.
3 Mogs - transform - Cait transforms himself into one person with the team-mates inside him with a combined effect of all 3 characters, but HP and MP do not go past 9999 and 999.
3 Hearts - Lucky Girl - Party's Hit% is 100.
2 Cait Sith and 1 Bar - This kills your party to end the game, but this doesn't happen often.
3 Cait Siths - You win the battle automatically.
Vincent Valentine
Lv Name Description
1 Galian Beast Vincent uses Beast Flare and Berserk Dance, both with fire elemental attacks.
2 Death Gigas Uses Gigadunk and Livewire, attacks with lightening element and is strong against enemies with physical damage attacks.
3 Hellmasker Splatter Combo and Nightmare, and is strong attacks enemies with magic attacks.
4 Chaos See Side Quests, Vincent's Waterfall.
