Keep Haste and Manawall up throughout the fightĪs Boss fights will tend to drag on longer in Hard Mode, you'll want to set yourself up effectively for a long-term battle. Bosses have higher HP than normal on Hard Mode, so if you don't have enough HP and MP to take them out, your MP will likely run out, preventing you from bringing the fight to a conclusion effectively. To maximize your characters' HP and MP stats, you'll need to use HP Up Materia and MP Up Materia. There's a limit to how high HP and MP can go just from leveling. Raise your characters' HP and MP with HP Up and MP Up Materia Cloud's Ability Counterstance has the potential to both reduce the damage he takes while dealing damage to opponents, and will become indispensible throughout Hard Mode. Hold R1 frequently to block your opponents' attacks and wait for the right timing to strike. Instead of forcing your way through with attacks, you'll want to conserve your HP as much as possible on Hard mode. Stacking her with Magic Up Materia before healing will make sure she can heal as much HP as possible. It's also best to specify a single healer with high Magic Attack, predominantly Aerith in the chapters she appears. When you do use MP to heal your team, make sure you do so as efficiently as possible by attaching Magnify Materia to your Healing Materia, so that you can heal your whole party at once. Use Magnify Materia + Healing Materia to heal your team efficientlyĪs opponents' attacks will deal more damage on Hard Mode, you'll need to heal your team often despite your limited MP.