Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a trip back in time, and just like RPGs of old, there’s some fights that will catch you completely by surprise. The first ten hours of the game are largely a cakewalk, but one of the side missions upon sector 5, a job clearing out a nearby graveyard, is astonishingly hard. The insectoids always close the distance, interrupt your spells constantly, and frustratingly of all, love putting Cloud and Aerith to sleep.
If you’re not prepared, the trio of Venomantis will give you more grief than some of the earlier boss battles. So if you find yourself stuck, here’s how to deal with them.
The first thing you need to know is that the Venomantis is weak against ice, but they have a habit of closing the distance really quickly. If you’re not judicious about blocking or dodging, you’ll find a lot of your spells cancelled.
So to stop that, make sure both Aerith and Cloud have two-star Ice materia equipped. All three enemies can sleep Aerith and Cloud at will if the fight drags on, preventing either character from moving, attacking or casting spells. Aerith is especially vulnerable because her dodge is super limited compared to Cloud’s. Fortunately, the fight doesn’t have to get to that stage if you prepare well beforehand, and you keep the Venomantis clumped together.
Before the fight begins, make sure you equip Aerith with the ATB Boost materia. This lets her get off a Blizzara almost instantly, or you can try your luck with rolling Cloud in first. If Cloud can keep the three Venomantis occupied, Aerith has a chance to drop an Arcane Ward and a double Blizzara – but it’s more important to get Blizzara cast at all.
You can also get a bit of extra damage and ATB by equipping Cloud with the Steadfast Block, First Strike and Deadly Dodge materias. If you’ve got a two-star First Strike materia already, this fight will be a lot easier since you’ll be able to stagger at least one of the Venomantis within seconds, but it’s not completely necessary.
As soon as the fight starts, have Cloud roll towards the trio and start doing damage. Switch back to Aerith and get your ATB meter going straight away – you can use the ATB Boost here as well – enough so you can launch a Blizzara. You’ll want to regularly be swapping between Cloud and Aerith just so you can manage the aggro properly, but also so you can make sure Aerith doesn’t wander out of her Arcane ward when you go to cast it. A successful double Blizzara will instantly stagger one of the Venomantis, and if another one is nearby, they’ll get staggered and damaged by the icicle’s blast radius, too.
Another way of playing it is to hold Aerith’s ATB Boost until she has enough ATB to put a ward down. As soon as the ward’s up, you can pop the ATB Boost and immediately cast a double Blizzara, guaranteeing a stagger that way. I didn’t use that method in the video below, though.
The trick is to target a Venomantis and hit a second one with the same spell as it explodes. You might have to dodge before casting the spell – if a Venomantis is mid-attack, just make sure you block or dodge otherwise the spell will be interrupted and you’ll lose an ATB charge.
Ideally, you’ll be able to hit two enemies at once either because they’re bunched up, or because you’ll be able to draw a second enemy towards the first one as the spell goes off. That should buy you enough time to get Cloud to cast a Blizzara of his own. That’ll be enough to stagger at least one Venomantis. If a second Venomantis is standing next to the one you targeted, they’ll be staggered too, or at the very least pressured, which buys you more space and time to cast another spell.
Once you’ve got a couple of Venomantis staggered, controlling the fight is easy. The important thing to remember is to always dodge or block as soon as a Venomantis wants to attack. Getting Blizzara cast – don’t waste your time with Blizzard, because you don’t get a lot of space to cast anything – is the most important part of the fight. Because if the fight goes on too long, Cloud and Aerith will get repeatedly slept, and you’ll quickly end up restarting.
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