Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: The Best Spot for Grinding EXP and AP

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launched late last month to much praise. No doubt that by now, many gamers have already finished the story and now are ready to start farming for resources in the post game. If you’re looking to maximize the amount of EXP, AP, and gil you earn per hour while grinding in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, this guide is for you. Using the method in this guide, you can earn about 120,000 EXP, 1,200 AP, and 34,000 gil per hour – even more if you have the proper materia and accessories. There’s farming, and there’s farming. And today, we’re doing the latter. Here’s the best spot to grind in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

To truly maximize this farming spot, you need an intricate Barret setup. Furthermore, you’d need to at least be at a level where defeating enemies from the Corel region is somewhat a breeze. If you’ve already beaten Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the easiest way to venture to the Corel region (or anywhere really) without having to go through the unskippable parts of the game is by simply going to the chapter selection menu and choosing the Nibelheim region, which right at the start gives you access to Cid’s fast travel flight services.

The Enemy

Once in the Corel region, make a beeline toward the Fiend Intel 2: Seahorsing Around Chadley mission, which is on one of the coastlines of the map. This, from my observations, is the ultimate grinding spot. This battle, which can be reloaded over and over again since it’s a part of Chadley’s intel missions, has you fighting four Heliopora Terpsicolt creatures, which offer a total of 1976 EXP, 24 AP, and 568 gil once defeated.

This is where the enemy you need to fight is located.

Doesn’t sound like anything particularly special, does it? Especially once you realize that almost soon after the fight starts, the enemies use a move that lets them spin around at incredibly high speeds and deflect any incoming projectiles, making them extremely difficult to hit with anything – even magic attacks. Why even bother with this fight? There are plenty of better ones out there to grind in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, right?

Well, what if I told you there’s a way you can use Barret’s mighty gun arm to defeat all four of the enemies before they even get a chance to use the move and gobble up the entire loot bag in less than 20 seconds? What if, with all loading times and movements included, you can end the entire thing in under a minute and earn an insane amount of EXP, AP, and gil per hour? Now that’s how you grind. It’s definitely possible. In fact, once you get it down, it becomes a simple button combo that you just need to memorize and milk. You just need the right setup.

The Setup

What you need is to set Barret as the leader of your combat – the other two members of the party don’t really matter so much. Barret will also need the highest materia you have of the following:

• Strength Up
• First Strike
• Elemental linked to any compatible green materia.

Depending on what level you are and how much you’ve boosted Barret’s skills in the book shops, you may also need the ATB Boost materia. This tactic will work best when Barret has the highest strength and ATB meter possible as the battle starts. You can always attach Level Up materia to your Strength Up or First Strike materia if you feel they are underwhelming as you try this out.

Barret

Before you start however, make sure all the materia you want to boost is in line – remember that all characters in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth that carry materia will gain AP for them, even when they aren’t in battle, as long as they are with you in the party, so make sure to utilize every equippable materia slot you can as well as the Chocobo Armlet accessory, which grants a 10% AP boost to whoever it is equipped to. Also remember to attach materia that usually takes a long time to level up – such as MP Absorption, Magic Efficiency, Magic Focus, Warding, and Magnify – to AP Boost materia to double up the points it gets. And lastly, if you’re looking to boost a specific character for whatever reason, make sure to attach the EXP Up materia to them.

The Fight

As soon as the fight starts, you should already be Barret if you set him as your leader. The first thing you need to do is use the Overcharge ability to immediately take out one of the enemies. Once this happens, if your First Strike materia is good enough, you should now have two entire ATB gauges at your disposal. If not, you can activate your ATB Boost materia or try attaching a Level Boost materia to your First Strike next time around.

Now, with your two ATB gauges, what you want to do is defeat the other enemies before they activate their incredibly annoying spinning defensive move. The other three can be easily defeated using Barret’s two ATB-cost Maximum Fury ability. However, you need to ensure Barret is strong enough to pull this off quickly, otherwise, the grind won’t be as efficient as it could be.

This is where the Strength and Elemental materia come in. Combined together, they create a decently-sized boost to his attacking power, which should be enough to take down all four of your foes in less than 20 seconds using the combination of Overcharge and Maximum Fury. If you don’t feel like you have enough strength, you could always try attaching Level Boost materia to your Strength Up materia, or switching weapons to one that gives Barret higher attack power.

If done right, after a while, the entire ordeal becomes a simple button combo that you will inevitably memorize – hold triangle to start the trial, hold up toward the enemy for about 2 seconds, press square to initiate combat and automatically switch to Barret, press triangle to overcharge, then press L1 + circle to use Maximum Fury. Wait about five seconds for access to the battle to load up again, and repeat. It can literally be done while watching Netflix or your favorite anime. You can even optimize the combo by switching Maximum Fury to a button that only requires one hand to activate. If done correctly, your run should look like something from the video below every single time.

The Results

If you’re able to pull this off, which isn’t that difficult of a task past level 50, a battle from start to finish could take about 40-60 seconds, depending on your level, specific attributes and loadout. So let’s say on average, it takes about a minute, or 60 completions of the battle per hour. That comes out to a staggering 118,500 EXP, 1,440 AP, and 34,080 gil every hour – and the EXP and AP could even be double that if you have the proper boosting materia equipped! Clearly, this is the best spot to grind.

Result of HP and MP Up materia after grinding for just over 2 hours.

Using this method, I was able to boost brand new Elemental, Magic Focus, Speed Up, Vitality Up, Magnify, and Warding materias to the max level in about 3 hours of grinding. I was also able to take 6 HP Up and 6 MP Up materias to the max level as well. Furthermore, I got my entire party from level 50 to max level (70) in about 5 hours or so. It appears that grinding in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth doesn’t have to be a weeks-long event like in most JRPGs.