You will spend a lot of time fighting enemies in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which means that you’ll be switching characters quite often. Each of the characters play differently from one another, and Aerith Gainsborough can be one of the trickier ones, due to being more magic-oriented. This page will go over the basics for fighting with Aerith, as well as give tips and tricks on how to utilize her better in combat.

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Aerith using her Healing Wind Limit Break.

How to Play as Aerith - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth¶

As briefly mentioned above, Aerith is a ranged character and primarily uses magic as her main fighting method. With a single press of the Square button, she will launch a small magic projectile towards the targeted enemy, with the combo unleashing more projectiles, should more than one enemy be close to the intended target. In Remake, the Triangle skill was assigned to perform Tempest, but that isn’t the case in Rebirth. You simply need to hold down Square to charge up an attack, then let go to perform Tempest.

This will summon a diamond-like object on the enemy, which will explode after a few seconds. Of course, the enemy can move away from this, so that attack will completely miss. However, it hitting will deal some decent damage, give Aerith a fair bit of ATB and also summon a Fleeting Familiar. This takes shape as a pinkish butterfly next to Aerith and it will attack the enemy Aerith is targeting, as well as make her magical attacks stronger. However, it will dissipate as it shoots its projectiles, until it eventually disappears altogether.

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(1 of 3) Aerith’s normal attack will be a magic-based projectile.

Aerith will have a new Triangle unique skill in Rebirth, called Ward Shift. Whenever she places a ward on the ground, with Arcane or Radiant Ward (more on those below), you can then press Triangle to instantly warp to that ward. This essentially allows her to instantly travel across the battlefield in the blink of an eye. In turn, this allows Aerith to compensate for one of her bigger flaws, mobility, since about the only thing she can normally do is dodge and run.

Best Abilities and Spells for Aerith¶

You will find a list of all of Aerith’s abilities in the table below, which are the ones you learn via your weapons.

Ability	Description
Soul Drain	Unleash an attack that absorbs MP. Absorbs additional MP from staggered enemies.
Sorcerous Storm	Deal magic damage to nearby enemies.
Arcane Ward	Conjure a ward. Attack spells cast within the ward will automatically be cast twice.
Radiant Ward	Conjure a ward that grants invincibility while casting spells. Strengthens Aerith’s basic attack.

Soul Drain and Sorcerous Storm¶

Soul Drain is an underrated move, simply because it will allow Aerith to drain MP from foes. This will save you some money on using an Ether with her, since you can just use this instead and also cause damage at the same time. In FFVII Remake, Hard Mode disabled the use of items, so it might be the same here, making Soul Drain extremely useful. There’s not really much to say about Sorcerous Storm, as it’s a short-ranged magical attack that can hit multiple enemies. However, it’s a great ability for dealing damage, if the enemies are bunched together.

Arcane Ward and Radiant Ward¶

For the last two abilities on the list above, you have Arcane Ward and Radiant Ward. Both of these will place the ward on the ground, underneath Aerith’s feet, and can be used by anyone in your party. Of course, they both do different things, with the Arcane Ward making it so attack spells within the ward are done twice, without costing extra MP. This makes it extremely useful whenever you are up against a stronger enemy with an elemental weakness.

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(1 of 2) Soul Drain is great for recovering some MP without requiring items.

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Soul Drain is great for recovering some MP without requiring items. (left), Arcane Ward allows your party to cast two spells for the price of one. (right)

The other ward, Radiant Ward, grants the user within it invincibility while casting spells. Basically, you won’t be interrupted, so it’s great for that. It also has another function, which is to upgrade Aerith’s basic attacks while she’s standing in it. She will basically shoot little lasers, instead of the normal projectiles, which deal more damage than normal and seem to possibly do more stagger damage. It is possible to have the two wards on the field at the same time, too, and even on top of one another, gaining the benefit of both. However, it might be better to spread them apart, allowing you to use Ward Shift to cycle between them and give Aerith more mobility.

Aerith’s Weapons and What Abilities They Grant¶

Below is every weapon Aerith can use, what abilities they grant, and where to find them.

Weapon	Ability	Chapter	Location
Guard Stick	Arcane Ward	Chapter 2	Initial Equip
Timeless Rod	Chrono Aegis	Chapter 2	Grasslands, Bill’s Ranch. In a chest to the right of Chloe.
Empress’s Scepter	Radiant Ward	Chapter 4	Under Junon, inside Aerith’s room at the inn.
Wizard’s Rod	Lustrous Shield	Chapter 7	Mt. Corel, to the left of a rest station, in a little alcove.
Ceremonial Staff	ATB Ward	Chapter 10	In the Village of Gi’s Outcasts’ Shore Rest Spot.
Plumose Rod	Ray of Judgement	Chapter 12	Inside of Shinra Mansion’s Simulation Controal Room in Mako Research Facility - Section X.
Gambanteinn	Noble Sacrifice	Chapter 13	Under Sorrow’s Descent’s stairs.

All Synergy Skills for Aerith¶

The following table is a list of all the Synergy Skills for Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. These are the skills assigned to the R1 button, in conjunction with a face button. Remember that Synergy Skills do not use up any ATB. She only has a single Synergy Skill revealed thus far, which is Bodyguard. This will cause her to call in the character it’s used with, who will spawn in front of her in a defending position. You can basically just have someone else take a hit for her, which is nice.

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(1 of 2) Radiant Ward will power up Aerith’s basic attacks.

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Radiant Ward will power up Aerith’s basic attacks. (left), Her unique skill, Ward Shift, allows her to instantly teleport to any wards on the field. (right)

All Synergy Abilities for Aerith¶

You will find a list of all of the Synergy Abilities that involve Aerith in the table below. To use these, you’ll need to use abilities and spells with your ATB charges. Each one will fill up a little pip and you’ll need a certain number per character in order to pull off the Synergy Ability.

Ability	Character	Description
Firework Blade	Cloud	Cloud uses Aerith’s magic to unleash a ranged attack. Raises their limit levels.
Divine Punishment	Tifa	Tifa makes use of Aerith’s magic to deal damage across a wide area. Raises their limit levels.
Planetary Roar	Red XIII	Aerith channels her magic through Red XIII’s howl, unleashing a ranged attack across a wide area. Raises their limit levels.