Easy Limit Break Training

This guide will help you get all of the level 3 limit breaks very early in the game, thus helping you get the achievements for the level 4 ones sooner, as well as having more powerful limits for parts that usually stump you.

BREAKING YOUR LIMITS

Level 4 Limit Breaks are some of the most powerful attacks in the game, and can be learned from items! How could it get any better than that?! There is just one problem. You first have to have every other limit for the previous 3 limit levels first (with the exception of Cait Sith, who only gets 2 limits altogether). Getting the level 4 limits not only helps you play the game, but it also earns you achievements. You can train them any time, or even passively by playing the game, but bearing in mind you can get both Aerith's and Red XIII's level 4 limit breaks in part 1 of the game, this trick may help for the achievements, especially seeing as *MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT (at least for the 2 or 3 of you who didn't already know)* Aerith dies at the end of part 1.

What Are Limit Breaks?

A Limit Break is simply an attack that can be unleashed with either greater damage output or a supportive effect once a character has taken enough damage.

What you should be asking is how to learn them. There are 2 ways to learn limits, most characters needing to use both in turn.

First of all, to get the second limit of your set limit level, you must use the first one a set number of times. For example, to get Cloud's Cross-Slash on Limit Level 1, you must use Braver 8 times.
To obtain the first limit of the next limit level, the character must kill a set amount of enemies. In Cloud's case, he will get Blade Beam after 120 kills, and Meterorain after 320 kills. It is possible to get the first limits of each level before the second one of the current level (i.e. you can get Cloud's Blade Beam before you get Cross-Slash), but you won't be able to use the item to learn the level 4 limit until you have learned all limits on all levels.

There are 2 exceptions to this process. First of all is Cait Sith. He only has 2 limits, which are Dice and Slots. All he has to do is kill enemies until he gets Slots. The other is Vincent. Again, all he has to do is kill enemies. The following table shows how many times you need to use each limit and how many kills you need to reach the next limit level for each character.

THE TRAINING

So where are the best places for training in part 1? There are 2 areas I think are great for this.

Limit Training Method 1 - Learning Limits by Using Limits
I find Junon is a great area for farming limit usage, as you will get fast charges by taking a relatively large amount of damage at this point in the game, but you will have to wait until you have got the buggy after the chocobo race later on.

Make your way in the buggy back to the resort town, Costa De Sol, without exiting the buggy (this lets you take it back over to the Junon side of the ocean). Go to the port and there is a sailor next to the boat. Bribe him to get on as stowaways (he wants 100 gil). You should now be back in Junon. Go to the area that looks like this.

Keep going down this corridor until you see a red panel on the wall.
Press it. It will set off an alarm.

Now, you will be stormed by a lot of enemies that are a fair bit stronger than you. Do not worry. So long as you keep yourself healed, you will be fine. There is also the nearby Junon Inn you can use to heal up between battles for a mere 30 gil. Manipulate materia (Cait Sith has this materia when he initially joins the party) is incredibly helpful here by allowing you to make the enemies focus on the character you want to train.

I also recommend having Aerith in your party when you do this, especially when training Limit Level 3 on characters. Aerith's level 2 limit, Fury Brand, instantly fills all limit bars except her own. To speed up the process, you can use Manipulate to focus attacks on Aerith, whose level 2 limit will charge faster than all level 3 limit bars, and simply use Fury Brand to instantly fill your trainee's limit bar up. It will also help during level 2 limit training as you can fill both her bar and your trainee's bar at the same time, and via Fury Brand, use your trainee's limit in quick succession. Incidentally, not only does the high damage output in Junon fill your limit bars fairly quickly, but the enemies here give decent EXP and AP making farming your levels and materia at the same time a little easier too.

Limit Training Method 2 - Learning Limits by Killing Enemies
Mythril Mine (the cave area by Fort Condor) is a great place for this phase. Enter at the Junon end and go through doorway to the north.
The room you want to be in looks like this.

This is by far the best early spot to farm limits unlocked via kills. Enemies will always attack in groups of 4 or 5 here, and are easy to kill at this point in the game. This makes farming for the limits that you gain via kills super easy.

If you have Enemy Skill Materia with the ability Matra Magic learned, then this is a great way to kill enemies (you can get Matra Magic from the Bullmotors in Corel Prison, Custom Sweepers on the World Map near Midgar and the Death Machines in the corridor back in Junon). The enemies here should generally all die in a single hit from it, which is nice as it attacks all enemies at the same time. The only enemy that may need an extra hit is the Ark Dragon, which you should look out for and manipulate for another decent Enemy Skill ability, Flamethrower. If you don't have Matra Magic, then using All materia with some magic may be of assistance (I recommend Poison as nothing in the cave resists or absorbs it). I do recommend quickly popping to Junon for Matra Magic though, as it costs a measly 8MP to use, unlike other magic strong enough to take out the foes here, such as the 22MP level 2 spells, or Beta (another Enemy Skill) which costs 35MP.

This sums up all you have to do to learn your limits nice and quickly. All that remains is to play the game, get the limit level 4 items, and get your achievements. Just remember, you may be able to learn limits via killing enemies, unlocking later limit levels sooner, but for a character to learn their limit break on limit level 4, they need to know ALL of their other limits. Cloud can't learn Omnislash with only Braver, Blade Beam and Meteorain; he needs Cross-Slash, Climhazzard and Finishing Touch as well.

Limit Level 4

Finally, this section is going to tell you where and how to get the level 4 limits.

Cloud - Omnislash
"Okay, got it!"
Omnislash can be bought from the Golden Saucer's Battle Square after getting the Tiny Bronco (Cid's little plane you use as a boat). It will cost 51,200 BP. It sounds easier than it is, as the moment you leave the Battle Square, your BP reverts to 0. You also need GP to take part in the first place, which you can buy later in the game. Eventually, a man starts to randomly appear in the background by the save point, and will sell you GP. It may be worth waiting to get until this point, not just for the convenience of buying GP, but also because Omnislash will have also dropped down to 32,000 BP.

Barrett - Catastrophe
"Heh! No sweat!"
Obtainable after obtaining the Huge Materia in Corel. Talk to the woman in the ruined building near the inn in North Corel.

Tifa Lockheart - Final Heaven
"Hmm, so that's it."
After Cloud returns to the party after a temporary absence during the Huge Materia quest, go to Tifa's house in Nibelheim with Tifa in the party. Play the piano. The keys you need to play are as follows:
[CANCEL], [SWITCH], [MENU], [PAGEUP]+[MENU], [PAGEUP]+[SWITCH], [CANCEL], [SWITCH], [MENU], [PAGEUP]+[CANCEL], [OK], [CANCEL], [SWITCH], [CANCEL]
(The buttons you press will vary to your keyboard/controller layout - check your game options before launching if you are unsure as to what you have set to what).
A letter from Tifa's teacher Zangan will be found and read, containing Tifa's final limit.
Playing this at other times will not give you Final Heaven. Playing the tune in part 1 will yield a single gil, and playing it with Tifa as the party leader will yield an Elemental materia, only available at this point.

Aerith - Great Gospel
"This should be okay."
This limit is the reason I wrote this guide. After Aerith dies, that's it; you'd have to start a new game to get it. You can start preparing to pick this up once you have the buggy. In the north of the Junon area, a little bit of exploring should reveal a hidden cave that you have to cross shallow water for (that's where the buggy comes in). The cave should look like this on the World Map.


And it should look like this inside, but with a sleeping man in it.

Talking to him can reveal 1 of 3 things about the player, but the only one that matters is battles fought. If he doesn't say that, leave, enter again, and talk to him again. Keep doing this until he tells you the number of battles. If the number's last 2 digits are the same and odd (for example, 311), then he will give you Mythril. If not, just battle until they are. Even numbers will instead yield a Bolt Ring.

Once you have the Mythril, and the first visit events in Rocket Town have unfolded (i.e. you have the Tiny Bronco), you need to find this house.

It should be somewhere between the Golden Saucer and Gongaga Village. Give the man here the Mythril and when you get the choice, pick the safe upstairs. It should contain Great Gospel.


Red XIII - Cosmo Memory
"Right, I've got it."
Red can learn his last limit the soonest. You get the item for it from the optional boss, Lost Number, which resides in the safe at the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim. This boss is also needed to be beaten if you wish to obtain Odin and Vincent Valentine.

Yuffie - All Creation
"Cool! This should do it!"
Simply defeat Godo in the optional Pagoda side quest in Wutai Village.

Vincent - Chaos
"I'm becoming less human..."
There is a hidden waterfall cave that you need the submarine later on to reach (unless you are really good at Chocobo breeding - green will suffice, but black and gold can get there too). To find it underwater, simply look for the long tunnel where you can surface back to the world map at the end of it. The cave should look like this.

Enter with Cloud and Vincent in your party. Here you will meet someone from Vincent's past (the woman Vincent loves, and former assistant to Hojo, Lucrecia, mother of Sephiroth) who will explain a lot of things that help understand the story and Vincent's origins. When she finishes, leave, fight 10 fights, and go back in. She will be gone, but you can now obtain Vincent's Death Penalty gun and the limit Chaos.

Cid - Highwind
"Hey I like this! Lemme use it!"
Highwind can be found in one of the chests in the Gelinka, the sunkern plane you need the submarine to access.

As previously stated, Cait Sith only has 2 limits.

Which Limits Are The Best Ones?

This might seem like an obvious answer. You'd think that each character's level 4 limit would automatically be their best one. However, that is not always the case. This section will cover which limits I think are the strongest for each character.

Cloud
Cloud's is fairly obvious. It's Omnislash. Omnislash, by default, hits with 75% damage per hit, forces every hit to be critical, and hits 15 times. Naturally, this can be made to have easy 9999's with a couple of Hero Drinks, making this move one of the most deadly in the entire game. It's well worth the trip to the Battle Arena at the Golden Saucer.

Barret
Barret's Catastrophe, without any sort of boosters, is Barrets best limit. However, with boosts, he has one of the strongest limit breaks in the entire game in the form of Angermax. Interestingly, Angermax is a level 3 limit, not level 4. This means it charges faster. Barret's level 4, Catastrophe, hits 10 times at 1.25* damage. Angermax hits 18 times at half damage. Normally, this does equate to 9 full damage hits, and thus is weaker than Catastrophe. However, late game, with some Hero Drinks, this could equate to 18 hits of 9999, regardless of the 0.5* damage multiplier. With the 18 hits, Angermax is joint for the best limit in the game when boosted by Hero Drinks.

Tifa
Tifa is an odd case. She doesn't have one limit. She performs all of her limits up to the point of her equipped limit level, which means she has the potential to perform 7 attacks back to back. The trade off is that she performs her limits via a slot reel, with each reel having "HIT", "YEAH", and "MISS". Each time you land on "HIT" or "YEAH", you will perform that attack, with "YEAH" being a crit, and "MISS" will skip that attack. The attacks have the potential to do a lot of damage if you land "YEAH" due to the multipliers, but when other characters do so much more damage without the risk, hitting way more times at 9999 at times, it does make Tifa's limits kind of null and void. If you want Tifa in your party, it's better to focus on other strategies, rather than focusing on her limits.

Aerith
None of Aerith's limits do damage. It all depends on the utility you want. Level 1 can heal your party for 50% of their HP with Healing Wind, or cast Stop and Silence on all foes with Seal Evil. Level 2 has Breath of the Earth, which is basically Esuna, and Fury Brand, which fills both limit bars of the other party members instantly. Level 3 has Planet Protector, which gives temporary invincibility to the party, and Pulse of Life, which is basically a Megalixir and Esuna together. Level 4, Great Gospel, is both level 3 limits combined. Personally, my favourite of her limits is Fury Brand. The game isn't all that difficult to begin with, so I don't feel the need to focus too much on invincibility or healing when I have healing magic and can instead have my other party members absolutely nuke strong enemies.

Red XIII
Red probably has some of the worst limits in the end game, aside from Tifa. His offensive limits are not worth it. However, he has a couple of limits based around status effects. At level 3, he has Howling Moon, which gives himself Haste and Berserk, making him attack constantly with a massive attack boost. However, Berserk in this game isn't the godsend it is in Remake, locking you into basic attacks, and losing all control of Red until either a, the battle is won, or b, he gets KO'd. For this reason, my personal favourite Red limit is actually on his level 1, Lunatic High. Lunatic High gives Haste to the whole party, and boosts Red's defense% (evasion)by 50% for each party member still alive. If you want Red in your party, this limit is amazing, and can be popped off fairly regularly in the endgame, considering how easy it is to charge level 1 limit bars.

Yuffie
Yuffie's level 4 limit, All Creation, is a let down. Hits all enemies for 8 times damage, but only hits them once each. Doom of the Living, however, hits 15 times for 0.625* damage. Against a single enemy, this does more damage than All Creation does. Also, throw in those Hero Drinks, and this basically becomes Omnislash with less charge time. One of the best limits in the game.

Cait Sith
Dice is basic. You roll dice, and the damage is based on the roll. It doesn't have much potential. Slots is definitely the better limit, but it is a massive gamble. Various results can happen, including insta killing every enemy (even works on bosses and super bosses, although they do have a resistance factor that makes rolling it a lot harder), random summons, healing effects, and giving yourself a game over. Fun to use, but not always the most practical.

Vincent
Vincent's limits all transform him into hideous creatures, giving him stat boosts and special, unique abilities. With the effects and elements of the abilities taken into account, Vincent's best limit is clearly Chaos. However, none of the special attacks hit more times than other characters' big hitter limits do, and Vincent is automatically in Berserk mode for his entire transformation, which will only end if the battle is won or if he is KO'd, making his limits a massive hindrance more than anything else.

Cid
Much like his airship, Cid's best limit is named after himself, Highwind. Highwind is a level 4 limit and hits 18 times for 0.6875* damage each. Without any boosts, Highwind is already a contender for best limit in the game, up there with the likes of Omnislash. With Hero Drink boosts, it is the joint best limit in the whole game, hitting the same number of times as Angermax.

So That's It

I hope this has helped and I hope you all enjoy this masterpiece of a game.

[paladin765]

Excellent guide! I had always wondered what the specific triggers were that unlocked them

[Reply]

hmm yes big useful thanks

[GLORIOUS HONKING CHEESE (Taser)]

Cloud's Omnislash can only be obtained via the Battle Arena. You will automatically get it in the final, scripted fight, but that's not really any good for anything else.

[Ace]

Is there any other way to get Cloud's Omnislash?

[YourAverageFortniteHater]

good stuff

[Anferny Crab]

I found a great trick: You can mime your own limits, and they will count. I legitimately got 5 limits and 3 were mimed to get Barret's second level limit.

[ned83]

Nice guide i remember doing this the first time round wow the good ol days

[Sonic]

Thank you for the trick

[hikaru]

Nice guide, thanks :)

[Nightshades]

nice guide will give it ago when i get further into the game