Limit Break Guide (The Acquisition and Retainment of the Ability to Break the Limits)

Information for each character's requirements for every non-final limit break, and a section for each character's final limit break item location, and how to get it.

Limit Break Information

...overly verbose title aside,

A Limit Break in Final Fantasy VII is an attack, or supportive spell that either works on a single target or multiple targets.

To use a Limit Break, simply take enough damage for your Limit Break meter to fill in-battle, and your otherwise "Attack" command will be replaced with a rainbow colored "Limit" command. When you select this command, you will either choose from 1 of 2 Limit Breaks, depending on whether or not you possess the latter Limit from the tier you've set (or the character can obtain the latter Limit).

For more information on the specific Limits for the characters, you can use the "Check" command in the "Limit" menu in-game.

Limit Break Requirements

                        1-1    1-2   2-1   2-2   3-1   3-2    4

         Cloud Strife   Ini.    8    120    7    200    6    Omnislash
       Barret Wallace   Ini.    9     80    8     80    6    Catastrophe
        Tifa Lockhart   Ini.    9     96    7     96    6    Final Heaven
  Aerith Gainsborough   Ini.    8     80    6     80    5    Great Gospel
      Red XIII/Nanaki   Ini.    8     72    7     72    6    Cosmo Memory
            Cait Sith   Ini.   nil    40   nil   nil   nil   nil
         Cid Highwind   Ini.    7     60    6     76    5    Highwind
      Yuffie Kisaragi   Ini.    8     64    7     64    6    All Creation
    Vincent Valentine   Ini.   nil    40   nil    56   nil   Chaos

• x-1 - To get this Limit Break, you must kill the specified y amount of enemies
  
  There are a few exceptions to this, as some things will not count towards you "killing" an ememy
  
  1. Battle arena kills
     
  2. Death Sentenced enemies
     
  3. Odin's Steel Cutting Sword
     
  4. Manipulated enemies killing other enemies
     
  5. Poison killing an enemy that isn't the cast of the spell
  • To get both 2-1 and 3-1 Limit Breaks, you must kill both 2-1 and 3-1's requirements combined (e.g. 320 total kills for Cloud's 2-1 and 3-1 Limit Breaks)

• x-2 - To get this Limit Break, you must use the x-1 Limit Break y amount of times

• nil - They do not possess this limit break

Limit Break - Omnislash (Cloud Strife)

To obtain this Limit Break, you must participate in the Battle Arena in the Gold Saucer, and buy it. Buying Omnislash requires 32,000 Battle Points on Disks 2 and 3, but more on Disk 1 (it CAN be obtained the first time you go to the Gold Saucer, I am just unsure of the exact amount it requires.) Entrance to the Battle Arena requires 10 GP, which can be won from the minigames in the Gold Saucer.
Note: Leaving the Battle Arena will reset your Battle Points to ZERO.

If you happen to find the Gil to GP trader in the Gold Saucer (in the area you first arrive in,) you can buy 100 GP from him for 10,000 Gil, this can be extremely useful if you do not wish to play the minigames. You can continually come in/out of the Gold Saucer (from the hub to the entrance,) he has a random chance of spawning.

The Battle Arena can either be difficult or easy, but the more "difficult" it is, the more Battle Points you will earn, e.g. having all your Materia broken.

Here are my recommendations

• Use Cloud
  
• Equip the Ribbon (first found in the Temple of the Ancients) as your accessory
  
• Equip the Escort Guard (this nulls Lightning, Earth, Water, Poison and also gives good defense) as your armor (found in the Sunken Gelnika)
  
• An enemy skill with Magic Breath and Beta (as some enemies heal from Magic Breath) will help tremendously
  
• A single, powerful summon Materia should suffice if you happen to lose your Command Materia
  
• A mastered Recover/FullCure Materia (Regen can be quite useful as well as Cure 3 if you have large amounts of HP (or use White Wind, an Enemy Skill))
  
• Double Cut (either mastered or not) can also help (found in the Sunken Gelnika)

NOTE: The Ghost Ship enemy CAN fling you out of the Battle Arena, and you WILL NOT gain any Battle Points, kill it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Once you have 32,000 Battle Points (or the required amount, depending on which Disk you are on), use the machine to the left of the exit (please be careful as to not walk out of the Battle Arena...) and choose "Next Page", then buy "Omnislash".

Limit Break - Catastrophe (Barret Wallace) [ Story Spoilers ]

After you save North Corel from the train incident involving the Huge Materia, there is a female NPC in the house below the Inn, speak to her and she'll give it to you.

Limit Break - Final Heaven (Tifa Lockhart)

Note: Tifa must be in your party to acquire this.

On Disk 2, go back to the piano in Tifa's room in Nibelheim. You have to play a melody to obtain the item "Final Heaven".
If you attempt to do this on Disk 1, you will only receive her "secret stash" of 1 gil (and if you don't do this on Disk 1, you will receive it when you do it for the Limit Break Manual.)

The melody,

• X ( C ) [ B ]
  
• Square ( Insert ) [ LeftBumper ]
  
• Triangle ( V ) [ X ]
  
• R1 + Triangle ( PageDown + V ) [ Back + X ]
  
• R1 + Square ( PageDown + Insert ) [ Back + LeftBumper ]
  
• X ( C ) [ B ]
  
• Square ( Insert ) [ LeftBumper ]
  
• Triangle ( V ) [ X ]
  
• R1 + X ( PageDown + C ) [ Back + B ]
  
• O ( X ) [ A ]
  
• X ( C ) [ B ]
  
• Square ( Insert ) [ LeftBumper ]
  
• X ( C ) [ B ]

The controls are a little misleading, so in the parenthesis next to the controller buttons on the PlayStation, I labeled the default PC keyboard keys to use; in the brackets are the default Xbox 360 controller buttons.

Limit Break - Great Gospel ( Aerith Gainsborough ) [ Story Spoilers ]

Obtaining Great Gospel is a little different from the other Limit Breaks, but it's not exactly challenging, just maybe time consuming.

First of all, if you're doing this on Disk 1, you need the Buggy, no exceptions. You can get the Great Gospel item whenever, however, if Aerith is dead (Disk 2+) you can't exactly teach it to her.

• When you acquire the Buggy, go back and drive into Costa del Sol and board the ship back to Junon.
  
• Leave Junon, and drive from there to the river on the other side of the mountain. There should be a spot where you can drive over, and on the right side of that is a cave entrance.
  
• In the cave there is a sleeping man, if the last two numbers of the amount of battles you've fought are odd (and the same, e.g. 11 or 22), you'll get a piece of Mithril, otherwise you'll recieve a Bolt Ring (thanks to Dante589 for the correction.)
  
• Drive the Buggy back into Junon, and go back to Costa del Sol.
  
• Take the Mithril to the Blacksmith in the little house south of Gongaga and give it to him
  
• Once you give it to him, open the small metal box on the second floor, NOT the large chest to the right of the entrance; you'll receive Great Gospel.

Limit Break - Cosmo Memory ( Red XIII/Nanaki )

Once in Nibelheim, in the Shinre Mansion there is a safe, within that safe is "Cosmo Memory." To open said safe, you need the combination which totals to 4 different numbers which all can be found in various parts of the mansion.

• Note: You cannot go past any of the numbers, or the try fails.
  
• Note: There is a 30 second time limit on the safe.
  
• Note: You will have to fight a boss when you do this.

If you're lazy, then the combination is R36 L10 R59 R97.

Otherwise, here are the locations of the combination

• In the chest in the room left of the safe, examine it after you loot it.
  
• In the hallway on the floor in the left room in the area right of the top of the staircase.
  
• On the floor near the piano.
  
• Written on the paper left of the entrance is an invisible option.

You will automatically get Cosmo Memory when you open the safe and do what you do best...

Limit Break - Slots (Cait Sith)

Cait Sith only has a 1-1 Limit Break and a 2-1 Limit Break, simply kill 40 enemies using him to acquire his 2-1 Limit Break.

Limit Break - Highwind (Cid Highwind) [Game Spoilers]

After you acquire the Submarine, find the Sunken Gelnika, it's a gray cargo plane near Costa del Sol.
Once inside, go past the savepoint and fight a well known enemy. Enter the back room, and the Highwind will be in one of the chests down the stairs.

Note: You also get the Double Cut materia here, which is extremely useful (in the room before the savepoint, down the stairs in the top right of the room.)

Limit Break - All Creation (Yuffie Kisaragi)

Note: Yuffie needs to be in your party to do the All Creation/Leviathan sidequest.

In Wutai (Yuffie's hometown), you will find a 5 story building, which has 5 bosses you will need to kill. The last boss, Godo, will drop All Creation when you defeat him (as well as give you the Leviathan materia.)

Note: You can do this sidequest right after you acquire the Little Bronco.
Note: If this is your first time visiting Wutai, something different will probably happen. Do this first then re-enter Wutai to do the All Creation/Leviathan sidequest.

Limit Break - Chaos (Vincent Valentine)

Note: Vincent needs to be in your party to acquire this.

After you acquire the Submarine, find the tunnel to a sort of circular area (simply go to Costa del Sol, simply do a U-turn around it, to the right, there is a river at your destination, follow it underwater).
Emerge and walk into the Waterfall, there will be a scene.
Leave, fight some battles and after you've fought enough you can re-enter and retrieve Vincent's Death Penalty (his Ultimate Weapon) and Chaos (his Limit Break manual); simply walk up to the pedestal.

Limit Break Grinding

Note: Setting your battle speed to Fast in the options menu will help this go by quicker.
Note: Killing off the other characters and getting them their limits one by one can be a little less annoying, especially for Limit Break usages.

Kill Requirements

The forests outside Junon/Fort Condor make for a good grinding spot. Low HP enemies, Fire/Bolt/Ice 2 paired with an All will wipe them out.

There will be one of 3 possible battles in the forests, and two different Enemies

• Capparwires (little Tiki looking things)
  
  • 5 Capparwires (they can have their backs turned, but it's less common)
    
  • 2 Capparwires (generally/always a back-attack)
• Forumla (blue/purple/violet colored birds)
  
  • 3 Forumlas (always)

Obviously, fighting 5 Capparwires consecutively will make for quick grinding, but the 3 Formulas aren't bad.

Limit Breaks Usages

Fight the highest damage outputting monsters you can find at the point of the game you're at. Really, that's it.
Oh, and use Hypers on your characters to give them "Fury", it causes them to gain a lot more of their Limit Bar from damage than without it.

I personally fought the Head Hunters in the Mideel forest, cast regen on yourself and just let them go to town on you. Fairly quickly you'll get your Limit Bar filled, if it attacks all of them and kills them, just repeat the process.

[artinum]

If you visit the house to get Great Gospel too early, there's no-one home. I think you'll need to wait until you have the Tiny Bronco, though it might open up before that.

[Fox]

might not be the most reliable of methods but, if you get into battle with a Valron near Mt. Nibel you can Manipulate it and use its Dive Kick move to build up limits to use them quickly, since it's a 25% HP damage move like Demi

[keene409]

I've been grinding for limits in Midgar both before the second reactor and after. It was easy to get Aeris her 3-2 limit break. Both her and Cloud have theirs and Barret and Tifa have their 3-1. The sweepers are good for getting those second limit breaks before the reactor and the "Inn" only costs 10 gil.

[Best Dad]

@Dante589, I didn't notice I worded it like that, thanks for the correction.

[Dante589]

Your section on Aerith's Limit break is only partially correct, the last two number have to be ODD and the same to get the mythril. 11, 33, 55, 77, 99 etc. If they are even, he gives you a bolt ring.

[Find my pages]

An area I highly recommend is Mt. Nibel. The room with the tubes where you fight the materia keeper has a dragon enemy that appears a decent amount of the time that will do attacks that take a decent amount of damage, so it shouldnt be that hard to get the x-2 limit breaks. Then right outside you can fight these locust looking enemies that usually come in groups of 3 or 5 and can be annoying but can be killed with one aqualung, so it can be a good grinding spot for the 2-1 and 3-1 levels.

[Find my pages]

I have been limit break grinding and I have found the easiest tactic to get the 2-1 and the 3-1 levels is to equip the enemy skill materia on the party member you want then go around spamming aqualung until you earn it. It only took me 10 to 15 minutes to get the final limit break for Cait Sith with this tactic and maybe 30 minutes to get Vincent to level 3-1. And the tactic I used for the x-2 levels is to fight enemies that give lots of damage then once you're at limit level 2 where it gets harder to get limit breaks use the limit break Aeris gets called Fury Brand and save that and right after the rest of your party uses their limit breaks use it so you can use limit breaks twice in a row. (but make sure you're still on disc one with this tactic because you know).

[Hamakei]

I've found that an excellent place for grinding the x-1 levels is the Mithril mines - enemies usually arrive in groups of 4 or 5, and they can be easily killed with one shot later in the game making for lots of very short battles...

[PatienttZer0]

OMG, after having Tifa gain about 12+ levels in the harbor region, and making sure that either Tifa or Aeris are the ones to get the kills, FINALLY, Tifa has reached 2-1. Almost feels like she had to get 960 kills to reach this point. I should have had 2-1 LONGGG ago...

[PatienttZer0]

I have gotten SOME limit breaks on my original characters that I was usually playing with, but now I was trying to grind up the rest of my characters. FINALLY, I got Cloud's 3-1 limit break, it it definately seemed to be far more kills than it was supposed to be. Tifa and Aeris are both still stuck on 1-2 and I've gotten far more kills with each of those characters. I've ground probably about 10 levels on each character and nothing. I'll keep this updated if I finally ever get one unlocked.