Final Fantasy VII/Enemy Skills

Enemy Skills are special attacks used by enemies.

The characters can learn the enemy skills by having the Enemy Skill materia equipped when the monster attacks them. The skill will only appear in the Enemy Skill materia of the targeted character; if the skill hits all characters (like in case of Beta, Aqualung, and many others) the skill will then appear in all Enemy Skill materias the party has equipped. The skill can only be learned if none of the other Enemy Skill materias equipped on the character trying to learn it have the skill. Frequently, the most effective way of learning the enemy skill is to use Manipulate on creatures that know the skill. After the skill is learned, they're used by choosing the E.Skill combat option.

Materia locations
Four Enemy Skill materia can be found in the game, more than enough for each member of your party. However, the Enemy Skill materia only stores the spells which have been cast on it, meaning you will have to have each materia learn all the spells you want it to be able to use. The four locations are:


 * 1) The 67th floor of the Shinra Headquarters, the Containment Room where Hojo was attempting to "breed" Aeris and Red XIII.
 * 2) The intermediate level training hall in Upper Junon (it's in one of the houses…)
 * 3) In the room in the Forgotten Capital where you're able to rest, behind the top bed. Enter the house, and choose not to rest here, then examine the end of the bed.
 * 4) At the Chocobo Sage's house, the green chocobo has it.

Summary table
Some can only be learned by using Manipulation, some others can be missed permanently.

Enemy skills that can be missed permanently
20 MP: Trine

Causes lightning damage on all enemies. Can be learned from the boss Materia Keeper (Mt. Nibel), the Stilvas (Gaea's Cliff) or Godo (Yuffie's Sidequest - Wutai Pagoda). Note: This is the only enemy skill apart from Pandora's Box that can be missed permanently. In order to learn this enemy skill on all four materias, you should not do Yuffie's sidequest until you have the Highwind: this will allow you to reach Chocobo Sage's hut on the northern continent to get the 4th enemy skill materia.

110 MP: Pandora's Box

Moderate non-elemental damage to entire enemy party. Learn from Dragon Zombie in the Northern Crater. This attack is piercing, meaning it ignores defense. It hits all targets and does large damage. Furthermore, this spell can be reflected. When reflected the spell only hits one target per reflect. If your entire party has reflect set up, you can hit a total of three targets once or one target three times.Very effective against bosses. Note: This is a one time event, you will need to kill the 1st dragon zombie you encounter quickly so to save its MP, as once it's defeated it will cast it, but it will only do this once.

Healing/support enemy skills
These enemy skills can only be learned by Manipulating the enemy. In case Manipualte wouldn't work, the enemies can be Confused instead.

3 MP: Death Force

When Death Force is cast on your party members, it prevents death. Go the one of the beaches near Wutai and fight the big huge turtle (Adamantaimai).

19 MP: Dragon Force

Raises Physical and Magical defense of one target. Get from Dark Dragons in the Northern Crater.

34 MP: White Wind

Essential! Cures status ailments and heals each party member an amount of HP equal to the current HP of the caster. Can be learned from Zemzelett (green-white bird) in Junon region.

50 MP: Angel Whisper

Heals all HP and status effects of one target, and also revives dead characters. Get from Pollensalta in the Northern Crater.

56 MP: Big Guard

Essential and nerve-sparing. Casts Barrier, MBarrier and Haste on party. This is both MP-wise cheaper and faster than using any of the spells individually, spares Materia slots as well, and is by far the easiest way to shield the party in boss fights; indeed, Big Guard is integral to effective boss-fighting. Look for Beach Plugs (green-brown little crawling squid-like things) near Costa del Sol/Corel/Gold Saucer/Gongaga region beaches.

Debuff enemy skills
3 MP: Magic Hammer

Recommended. This enemy skill makes the target lose 100 MP and the character gains it. Using this a lot makes some magic-based enemies far less annoying, especially ones that rely entirely on magic. This can be learned from the Razor Weed, which can be found on the grassy areas of the Wutai continent. This is best used on JENOVA-DEATH, whose only attacks are magic.

5 MP: Frog Song

Induces Sleep and Frog Status to one target. You can learn it from Christophers in the Northern Crater, or any frog enemy in the game. This is easy to get at Gongaga, so you can use it on the Stingers in the Caves of Gi.

58 MP: Bad Breath

Recommended. The signature attack of Malboros (look like D&amp;D Beholders, just has feet, and a lot of mouths instead of eyes), which in FF7 can be found in Gaea's Cliff, and Northern Crater on the Right path. This attack afflicts any non boss enemies with numerous status conditions similar to Hades summon.

Elemental attacks
10 MP: Flame Thrower (element: fire)

An easy skill to acquire early on, you can learn it from the Ark Dragon in the North-West room of Mithril Mines, or the Dragon in Mt. Nibel.

16 MP: Laser (element: gravity)

Deals damage equal to half of the target's current HP. Can be learned from Death Claw (Desert Prison) or Dark Dragon (Northern Crater). It will kill in one hit any enemy weak to Gravity, but it will heal any creature that absorbs Gravity.

20 MP: Trine (element: lightning)

See above.

34 MP: Aqualung (element: water)

Causes water damage on all enemies. The most obvious enemy to learn this from is Jenova-LIFE. You can get it as soon as you get the buggy from Harpys in the desert around the Gold Saucer. It's immensely useful for most disc 1 fights after that. Can also be learnt from the blue serpents in sunken gelnika and Harpy Corel area.

35 MP: Beta (element: fire)

Causes fire damage on all enemies. Can be learned from Midgar Zolom (the big snake swimming in the swamp near the Chocobo Farm). It should cast Beta when it gets close to death.

75 MP: Magic Breath (element: fire+ice+lightning)

Recommended. Causes multiple different types of elemental damage (Fire, Ice, Lightning) on all enemies. Can be learned from Stilva (Gaea's Cliff) or Parasite (Northern Crater). Warning: if you use it on an enemy that absorbs, halves, or voids Fire OR Ice OR lightning damage, it will absorb, halve, or void even if they would take damage from any one particular element.

Instant-death attacks
6 MP: Roulette

Randomly kills a character or enemy. Learn from Death Dealer in the Northern Crater. To learn, kill one of the Death Dealers (they always come in pairs), manipulate the remaining one, cast Death Force on everyone (including the manipulated Death Dealer) and have it use the skill until all your Enemy Skill materias get it. It is best if you cast Death Force on your party (or the one who has the enemy skill materia(s) equipped) so that they don't die.

10 MP: Death Sentence

Kills an enemy after a countdown of 60 "time units" (not exactly 60 seconds). Can be learnt from Sneaky Steps in the Cave of Gi (one time dungeon in disk 1) or Bound Fat in Corral Valley. It does not affect boss enemies.

22 MP: L5 Death

Kills all enemies whose level is a multiple of 5. Get from Parasite in the Northern Crater. Death Force will allow you to learn the skill without suffering the effect. Your own level does not have to be a multiple of 5 in order to learn the skill.

Non-elemental attacks
0 MP: Goblin Punch

Go to the goblin island, northeast end of the map, the island has a forest on it, encounter a goblin and you can either just fight it or manipulate it.

3 MP: ????

Deals non-elemental damage equal to damage the caster has taken (max HP - current HP). Get from Jersey in Shinra Mansion (can't manipulate), and Behemoth (Midgar) There are other enemies which may use this skill randomly. This is a handy skill to have in conjunction with Laser and white wind, i.e. have someone Laser a character, have them barrage a boss with ????, then White Wind before the enemy can attack.

3 MP: Chocobuckle

Does non-elemental damage to a single opponent. Cast L4 Suicide on a Chocobo whose level is a multiple of four after feeding it a Mimett green (the Chocobos that are grouped with Elfadunk (Blue Elephant) are always level 16). The Chocobo will counter by casting Chocobuckle on the member that casted L4 Suicide. These Chocobos can be found in the tracks right outside the Chocobo Ranch.The Chocobo enemy skill does damage equal to the amount of times you've escaped from battle. Therefore, if you escape 2,222 times, you can use it on anybody with full 9999 HP, engaging the Lucky 7 effect.

8 MP: Matra Magic

This enemy skill is a handy one early on in the game since it targets all enemies and does a fair amount of damage. You can learn it from the Custom Sweeper in Midgar, the Death Machine around Junon, or the Bullmotor/Death Machine in the desert prison.

10 MP: L4 Suicide

Causes Near-Death and Mini status to all enemies whose level is a multiple of 4. Get from Mu near the Chocobo farm. Mu have a very small probability (around 1/14) to use L4 Suicide per turn, and cannot be manipulated. Your own level need not be a multiple of 4 to learn this skill.

100 MP: Shadow Flare

This will cause massive non-elemental damage to one enemy. The skill can be learned from Ultima Weapon, Safer Sephiroth, as well as the Dragon Zombie enemy in the Northern Crater Cave. Ultima Weapon will use it against the character that deals the final blow against it. Equip all your Enemy Skill materias to one character and have that character deal the final blow to learn this skill on all your Enemy Skill materias.

110 MP: Pandora's Box

See above.