• Guide

How to stagger enemies in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Learn how to stagger enemies and open them up to even more powerful attacks in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Josh Hawkins

March 2, 2020 9:20 AM

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As you dive into Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you’ll find that quite a bit has changed from the original game’s turn-based combat. Instead of simply choosing attacks from a list, players will have much more control thanks to a more free-form combat system. Cycling attacks, hitting combos, and even learning how to stagger your enemies are all important components in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and we’ll teach you the basics of staggering your enemies in this handy guide.

How to Stagger enemies in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Learning all the new combat mechanics in FF7 Remake will take time, but if you’re going to succeed earlier on, then you’ll want to have a firm grasp of the Stagger system. This system basically allows Cloud and his cohorts to knock enemies down for a period of time, granting a short moment of extra damage without having to worry about taking hits from the enemy.

You can cause just about any enemy in the game to stagger, though some will take much more work to knock down. Every enemy has a Focus gauge that appears underneath its health. This can easily be seen in the screenshot below, where you can see that the Focus gauge is starting to fill from our continued attacks on the enemy.

Once this gauge fills, the enemy will stagger, causing it to become vulnerable to all attacks. This is the best time to use Limit Breaks, as these powerful attacks won’t be able to be dodged or blocked. Staggering enemies really all comes down to continuously hitting them and striking them with attacks that they are weak to.

For example, if you’re fighting against normal guards, then you’ll find that they stagger fairly quickly, while much stronger enemies like Sweepers will take quite a few hits to knock down and stagger. It really all comes down to staying on top of the enemy and whittling away at its Focus gauge. Keep up the barrage of hits and you’ll eventually be rewarded with a knocked down enemy open to any attacks you can hit it with.

You can dive into the Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo right now to practice with the Stagger system. Remember to dodge enemy attacks and keep hitting them to build up the Focus gauge and open them for attack. For more help in Final Fantasy 7 Remake head back over to our main hub.

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.