The FF7 Remake Tonberry fight in Chapter 14 might start out like a joke, but you won’t be laughing when this creature destroys your party. The Tonberry is a mainstay of the Final Fantasy series, and these comical little fellows are some of the most potent monsters you’ll run into. Fortunately, the fight with Tonberry in Final Fantasy 7 Remake doesn’t have to be hard if you stay on your toes.
How to beat Tonberry in FF7 Remake | Chapter 14 Fight
The first time you fight a Tonberry in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is during Chapter 14. You’ll track down a band of Corneo’s goons to the circular arena in the Sector 5 Slums where you fought Rude earlier as part of the Malicious Goons sidequest. Instead of facing you themselves, these cretins unleash a single Tonberry on the party.
If you’re not familiar with Tonberries, the scene in the Malicious Goons sidequest might seem like a joke. However, longtime fans of the Final Fantasy series will know just how dangerous the situation is.
The Tonberry is a ponderous, slow monster that never gets in a hurry about killing you. However, at extremely close range, a Tonberry can perform its Chef’s Knife attack, which one hit KOs any party member. Since you’ll be fighting the creature with a party of Cloud, Barret, and Tifa, it means that your two close-range party members are always in danger of being hit by Chef’s Knife.
You’re going to have Barret act as your healer in this fight since he can keep his distance to the Tonberry. Equip him with Restore and Revive Materia, and keep his AP gauge charged. The Tonberry is a relatively meaty enemy with 18960 HP and high defense. You’ll want to pummel the Tonberry with Cloud and Tifa. These two will inevitably get downed at least a few times, if only because the AI is really bad at staying out of the Tonberry’s way.
Fortunately, even with close-range characters, you can keep reasonably safe while fighting the Tonberry, at least when you’re controlling them. As stated above, Tonberries are slow and steady monsters, so you increase your chances of avoiding Chef’s Knife by attacking your foe from the rear and sides. When the Tonberry is about to use Chef’s Knife, it will totally stop, so as long as it’s walking, you should be fine. However, the Tonberry can rapidly turn as part of its Chef’s Knife attack. To avoid this, when it stops moving, dodge backward immediately. The attack should miss you since it has a very short range.
The real threat from the Tonberry is its Scourge and Bone-Deep Grudge attacks. If it loses aggro on a close-range enemy, it will case Scourge, which holds one of your characters in place for about 10-15 seconds. This can allow the Tonberry to close distance and use Chef’s Knife. Bone-Deep Grudge is cast more infrequently but is highly dangerous because it inflicts Stop status and has an area effect. If you’re incredibly unlucky, your whole party can be stopped and picked off with Chef’s Knife attacks in rapid succession.
The Tonberry is tough to take down, but as long as you use the tactics above, you shouldn’t have too hard of a time.
How to beat Tonberry in FF7 Remake | Shinra Battle Simulator Fight
You’ll face Tonberry again in the second round of the Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend scenario in the Shinra Combat Simulator. This fight is more complicated than the first face-off against Tonberry for two reasons:
- You can’t use items.
- You have to play on Hard Mode.
The biggest thing you can do to help win this fight is to equip everyone with Revive and Restore Materia. If you want even more insurance, make sure everyone has a pair of Revival Earrings equipped. Keep constantly reviving characters that are downed, and keep pummeling the Tonberry until it’s down. Unfortunately, Tonberry gains a new attack in the simulator, Gloom and Doom, which instantly KOs a character, even at range. It’ll mostly still stick to trying to Chef’s Knife your party, but you can’t rely on your ranged character having a higher chance of survival anymore.
I recommend a party of Cloud, Tifa, and Barret in this fight as well. Aerith deals a decent amount of damage, but Barret has higher DPS. The key is just to keep your team in the fight long enough to outlast the Tonberry, which isn’t too tough as long as everyone can revive and heal.
