This Shinra Combat Simulator match takes place in Chapter 2: Covert Ops, once you’ve completed the main story for the first time. It involves a battle against Pride and Joy Mk 0.5.

Pre-battle Preparations¶

This matchup is the ultimate test in INTERmission and as a result, you’ll need to carefully prepare if you want to stand any chance. To begin with, Level 50 should be a given at this stage of the game and it helps to have Weapon Level 6 unlocked so that you can purchase the Reprieve ability on your weapons, if you haven’t, return to Hard Mode and earn some more Manuscripts before returning. You’ll need four Manuscripts to unlock it so it’s best to just start Chapter 1 on Hard Mode and win some matches of Fort Condor that will now reward a Manuscript.

Once you’ve hit that milestone, equip the Boomerang to Yuffie and ensure you’ve unlocked both Reprieve and MP Regeneration 50% Boost. Sonon is better with the Martialist’s Staff, the upgrades there are the most beneficial. Equip the Chthonian Armlet for Yuffie and the Firebird Armlet for Sonon, this will give him a resurrection once per battle. Finally, for accessories, equip the Ribbon to Yuffie and the Kindred Cord to Sonon.

On to the matter of Materia and you’ll want to have the Elemental at MAX and set to Yuffie’s Armor along with Fire Materia, allowing her to absorb Fire damage. Next up, you’ll want to ensure that both characters set Healing (with Yuffie having a Magnify paired) and have Yuffie set Revival as Items are forbidden.

Following this, you’ll want to assign some HP and MP Ups to your characters, ensuring that both Yuffie and Sonon sit with at least 7000+ HP and that they have enough MP for liberal use of it. You’ll also want to make sure that you have Ramuh assigned to someone, he’ll come in use during the final battle. If you’re looking to complete the Assess list, you’ll also need to bring that along as there are three enemies that can only be encountered here. Finally, ATB Stagger is useful on Yuffie to make the most out of every Stagger opportunity. Finally, ensure you slot a Magnify with a MAX Barrier for Sonon to help against Bahamut and Ramuh.

Round 1/3¶

Round one is by far the toughest round in this entire matchup and arguably in the entirety of INTERmission. You’ll find the majority of tactics for Bahamut on his VR Mission page (albeit with Cloud’s party) but there’s one nasty twist to this battle, at 50% HP, Bahamut will summon Ifrit to the battle and this is where all that preparation will pay off.

Bahamut alone is enough of a threat but with Ifrit alongside him, he’ll be dealing massive damage towards the whole party and with both of them attacking, you won’t survive. If you managed to slot an Elemental-Fire on Yuffie’s Armor however, you can actually use Ifrit to heal her. You’ll want to make Bahamut your primary target at that point.

It’s never been more important to keep Manawall on all your characters just before Bahamut uses Megaflare, without it you will die regardless of how much preparation you did so do not neglect it, it should be your highest priority. If you managed to buy the Reprieve abilities for your characters, you can survive one Megaflare but any more than that and it’s curtains so keep your HP topped and Manawall on.

Umbral Aura is a lot more deadly on Hard with the HP drain it deals to characters inside it ticking for more HP per second, switch to a ranged character and keep your distance if you find yourself caught in this. This is where Yuffie shines, being able to keep her distance and use Ninjutsu combined with Windstorm can deal some serious damage. Although it can be tempting to bring Sonon to your side with Synergy, it’s best to keep him focused on it so it takes the pressure off Yuffie from time to time. Should Sonon go down, be sure to use Arise on him immediately, you’ll need him up to make use of Self-Sacrifice should you go down yourself.

Synergized Art of War will deal a lot to drive up the Stagger gauge, as will Fighting Spirit and should you be using the Martialist’s Staff, make use of the Synergized Limit Break to deal massive damage to Bahamut. Once he falls, it shouldn’t be long before Ifrit follows due to the preparation beforehand.

This battle is by far the largest test in INTERmission, if you can best this battle then you should have no troubles with anything else in the game.

Round 2/3¶

The Lord of Levin returns for a rematch for the second round, despite still dealing a lot of damage, this is much more manageable than the previous battle due to there being just one target. You can find a rundown of the skills you can expect to see Ramuh used over at the Ramuh VR Mission.

The main goal here is to use Synergized Wind Ninjutsu and Windstorm to build the Stagger gauge, unleashing Banishment III once it’s available to use. The big dangers to watch out for here are the Sparks, you’ll want to focus on taking them down as soon as possible to avoid any nasty buildup of attacks. Get used to using Precision Defense against Voltaic Lance, it’s relatively easy to time and will cut down massively on sustained damage. Hopefully, you can get away with using a Magnify-Regen throughout this battle to save some MP for the final battle.

Like Megaflare in the previous battle, ensure you have Manawall up in time for Judgement Bolt, just for the extra security. Outside of that, keep up the pressure, use a Limit Synch if available and Ramuh shouldn’t cause you too much hassle.

Round 5/5¶

This is it, the secret boss of INTERmission and provided you got through the previous battle with enough resources, you should be able to take down Pride and Joy MK 0.5, especially if you already defeated it with Cloud’s party, despite the slightly different name, this really is no different. With that said, you should take a look at the Pride and Joy Prototype strategy to get a feel for what kind of attacks you can expect.

Obviously, there are a fair few differences to this battle, the most obvious being that you can only control Yuffie. On the plus side, Yuffie is both agile and excellent at long-range, and having Lightning Ninjutsu at your fingertips is always useful due to it not costing any MP. It is, however, likely that Sonon will find himself being grabbed often, if this happens, immediately target the right arm to free him or risk him getting knocked out. Alternatively, if you see the grab coming in advance, activate Synergy and use a Ninjutsu to pull Sonon to your side and avoid it.

With Elemental-Fire set to Yuffie’s Armor, you should be able to heal yourself by wading into the pools of fire that it leaves on the ground, saving more precious MP. As for your method of attack, Lightning Ninjutsu, followed by Windstorm and Banishment III should deal significant damage. A Limit Synch is always worth using as soon as it’s available and finally, you have a good use for the Ramuh Summon. With Lightning being its weakness, you’ll deal plenty of damage to it and Judgement Bolt will take a significant chunk off its HP. If you was able to defeat Bahamut and Ifrit, you should have grasped Yuffie’s combat system enough to have little issue here, ensure your HP remains above 6500 and you should be able to emerge victorious.

Upon winning this difficult match, you’ll obtain the Ultimate Weapon 2.0 Trophy along with two Götterdämmerungs, the most powerful accessory in the game. This will allow you to start every battle with a full Limit gauge and it will regen after the first usage, making Hard Mode far simpler.