Hard Mode

[.Sitka~ (Selling Sets)]

Im playing Hard Mode, trying to finish the game and the other stuffs only apeears in hard mode. Its a good mode, without itens in battle...
then i noticed that is impossible to use item outside battles too, and the mode become more frustating than only complex.

what do you think? (sorry for my english. Not my first language

[Krypto]

Because you can't restore MP by sitting at benches in hard mode, I installed a mod that enables passive MP regeneration at 1 MP every 2 seconds to offset not being able to use items.

[Faindraug]

Items are locked, mana is limited for that chapter, but a few weapons have mana regen as a stat. You can level up by replaying chapters, but the max level is 50.

To me? hard mode feels more like a perfection run. I found myself just using: defense and regen spells when needed, timing my block and parry attacks. Dodge roll… I didn’t find a use for it, other than closing the distance between you and the enemy. When people say “mashing your way to victory”? That’s what it became for me. You don’t need money anymore. Just buy whatever gives you the most materia slots. I ended up putting either fire or lightning as part of clouds attack, because vast majority of these enemies are weak to fire and lightning. (Hell House gains health with fire, so I didn’t use it there).

The biggest thing I would say is “timing your block and parry attacks”. That negated what I keep reading as “capturing the essence of game play”. Hard mode becomes what people like to deny “mashing your way to victory”. There is no way around it. In normal, once I figured out the best way to block and parry? The game became way too easy, even in hard mode…

[Latency]

If you really really need MP, save near some destructible boxes. Break the boxes, get MP shards, save and reload...the boxes will be back. Repeat as necessary.

[Fantasy]

Pray and Chakra carried me through completing hard mode as I saved my MP solely for revives and spells that weakened the final boss for said chapter.

[Karmilla]

You really don't need to be THAT conservative with mana on hard, unless you die literally every fight, but it will force you to time their usage better and/or be smarter with materia slotting. If you use the Synergy materia, you get free casts from say Fire, as long as you use a command with a different character, so try to play around such mechanics. Some weapons also are better with reducing mana costs. Aerith's silver staff hits not as hard as her Mythril rod, but has mana reduction and high mana regen, which will go a long way during non-boss fights. Almost every character has such weapons.

Also, your characters should be close to lvl 50 before you should even bother with hard mode, together with some maxed materia's. If you don't have either of those, I recommend doing some chapters on normal with the 3x exp and 3x materia bonus. Hard mode is geared to those things

[Xengre]

Some tips:

Prayer & Chakra materia make hard mode far easier. Preferably, give everyone Chakra that is being used. Prayer on Aerith is a given due to her insane magic stat. I also personally put the second Prayer materia on Barrett and have him with a hybrid weapon since he generates ATB especially fast and will still heal decently with the healing accessory (you could boost it further going full magic attack build on him if you want). HP Plus boosts health while also further increasing value of Chakra materia.

Elemental + proper element on armor can make many bosses far easier to fight.

An extremely useful materia combo trick is MagicElement (fire, ice, etc.) + MP Absorb paired, then another pair of SameElement + Magnify. This lets you recover MP from hitting groups of enemies thus essentially reducing the overall MP expenditure in hard mode letting you abuse magic with a heavy magic attack oriented build. Boost magic attack as much as possible to benefit further.

This trick above can be taken one step further in hard. There is a third materia pair of SameElement + Synergy. This on a character you aren't controlling with very high magic attack stat like Aerith / Cloud and the prior combo will cause any skills used on other characters like Tifa / Barrett when controlled to cause the character with all three of these materia pair to cast aoe fire/ice/thunder/wind/bio which will also recover MP and costs zero MP to cast resulting in you actively recovering your MP fairly quickly over a few fights. Even though they will be casting the weakest tier of magic the dmg will be high due to 2x Magic Up and a heavy magic stat build. When necessary due to the spare MP this allowos you can use -ara class spells (blizzara, etc.) more frequently without concern (and those, too, will at least recover some MP still).

Example of above trick:
Cloud - Mythril Saber
Fire + MP Absorb / Fire + Magnify / Fire + Synergy / Magic Up + Magic Up
Now you are controlling Tifa and using her skills. Cloud casts 'Fire' at zero MP cost which hits in an area of effect and recovers MP each time Tifa uses a skill.

[Osama]

My tips:

Try to fully complete your first playthrough. This means do ALL sidequests, obtain all weapons/books/materials and summon.

Chakra is a must equip it on all your characters and use it as often as possible. I wouldn't leave a fight without having a proper amount of HP left (50% or above)

First Strike is also a must it makes the battles end quick.

Synergy+element skill and sameskill+HP absorb is a great combo.

Having a couple of HP UP + MP UP on each character is very beneificial.

If you keep getting beaten by a specific boss then it's only a matter of changing your setup.

[bunies]

yea hard mode seems dumb and rushed design

it feels like they either ran out of time or flat out failed to come up with an actuall post game so rush slaped together this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ excuse for a post game

no item use is one of the dumbest decisions i have ever seen in any FF game, i mean what the hell is even the point of items and gil then ? gil is already kind of worthless in this game even more so then in other FF games

the level cap being 50 is also just plain dumb

just massive fails all around and still somehow better then FF15 and the ♥♥♥♥ show that game was