If you have a profound hatred for Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit mode, then you’re absolutely going to have a horrible time with thisminigame. With so many builds and strategies you can conjure the minigame, here’s a complete guide and explanation of Gears and Gambits in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Complete Gears and Gambits Guide - Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Since our guide will tackle all aspects of Gears and Gambits in FF7 Rebirth, use the table below to head over to your preferred section.
Gears and Gambits Mechanics Explained
The goal of Gears and Gambits is simple:beat the boss in the middle of the map, anddon’t let your portals get destroyedby leaving them unattended to enemy monsters.
You can summon units onto athree-lane map, and the boss will be able to summon its own minions to counter yours. The game will end upon theboss’s defeat, regardless of how many enemy minions are left in the field.
Elements
Let’s start off with the simplest aspect of the minigame, Elements. There are three elements in the minigame (as opposed to five in the main game):Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Each element hasone weakness and one strength.
Here’s the list of all the strengths and weaknesses of each element:
The elemental shot you equip to your T-Robot indicates itsweaknessesas well (i.e. you put a Fire shot in your gambit, your T-Robot will be weak against Lightning attacks). Additionally, if you equipmore than one elemental typeto your T-Robot, yourelemental weakness will also increase to two. If you decide to equipall elemental shot typesto your T-Robot, your Robot will beweak to all three elemental attacks.
Gambits
Assuming you’ve never played Final Fantasy XII, you may not be familiar with theGambits system. It’s an original combat system specifically for FFXII that allows users toset certain conditionsthat your A.I. party member willfollow throughout a battle(i.e. Ally ≤ 50% HP = Cure; If an ally has less than 50% HP then use cure).
Think of Gambits ascomputer coding, where you set a bunch of"if" parametersthat your program consistently checks. Once an outcome situation falls within the"if" parameter, your program will automatically use a corresponding action or a"then" parameterto complete a single statement.
Theorder of your Gambitscorresponds to thepriority actionsof the Robots provided by Chadley. Here’s an example of the “if” and “then” statement usingT3 Robot’s gambitsin the image below in relation to how it will act in a game of Gears and Gambits:
In addition to all this information,enemies have gambits too! So you should alwaysassessenemies (using thesquare button) while playing the minigame to check on theirgambits and conditions, as some enemies willunleash strong attacksdepending on theirrequirements.
Portal Skills
Portal Skillsrefer topower-upsyou can use during the battle outside of your gambits. The player hasfull controlover when and where they can use these skills. Below are the threePortal Skill presetsavailable in the minigame.
In my experience,Offensive Loadoutis the best option, as you can always equip gambits like Cure, Bravery, and Barrier. TheA.O.E. damagegiven by bothAeroga and Cometwill come in handy, especially when there aremultiple mob summonson the screen.
Standard Mode Gears and Gambits Guide
Phenomenon Intel 1 and 2
For Phenomenon Intel 1 and 2 in the Cosmo Canyon, it’s very straightforward as you don’t have too much flexibility on your builds for both challenges. Hence, you should treat this as thetutorial sectionof the minigame.
Phenomenon Intel 1is very easy; you only have to summon robots that areelementally strongagainst the mob’s affinity. Try to match one mob withtwo robot summonson your side so you can quickly eliminate the enemy and bring damage to theboss in the middle of the map.
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ForPhenomenon Intel 2, I recommend using theAuto-Program feature. To access it, select a T-Robot, andduring the gambit customizationprocess,press Squareon your controller.
After running the Auto-Program feature,check the gambitsandtranslate themusing the example in thegambits sectionabove to dissect how each unit will play during the battle. This will not only help you furtherunderstand how gambits work, but you’ll also be able toimplement your own setupsin the succeeding challenges.
Use thesame strategy as the first protorelic challengeand summon elementally stronger robots against the mobs. As long as you use theAuto-Program featureand strategically counter enemy summons, you won’t lose this battle.
Phenomenon Intel 3
Phenomenon Intel 3is where things start to get a bit more challenging. Of course, you can stilluse the Auto-Program feature, but that won’t help once you get intohard modeas this feature is disabled.
Here’s myrecommended Gambit setupper robot:
The trick to this stage is to know aboutAirborne enemies. Technically, you can still beat them with elemental shots, but this is not optimal due to the limited charges of the skill. Instead, our gambits ensure that all robots arecapable of dealing aerial damageto airborne enemies withgravity shotsandmissiles.
I also introduced Foe = Lariat as a condition for skills likeGravity Shot, which does not damage airborne enemies. Instead, it forces them tostay on the ground. After casting Gravity Shot, instead of expending elemental shots, your robots will instead use a"free" skillinstead withLariat.
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Phenomenon Intel 4
Phenomenon Intel 4 gives you a glimpse of what’s to come for Gears and Gambit’s Hard Mode. You gain a new skill and additional conditions in this challenge.
Here’s myrecommended Gambit setupfor Phenomenon Intel 4:
This Gambit setup may be too aggressive for most people, but the catch with Standard Phenomenon Intels is you caninfinitely summon as many unitsas you want as long as you have the ATB to spend.
This setup also takes advantage of the new skills added to your gambits, likeAugmentation, Nullemental Field, and Haste Field. These are skills with additional conditions required in order to use them.
In this example, I usedAugmentationon the T1 Robot. Augmentation boosts your non-elemental attack damage, and withMissile and Lariat, this means you’ll be able to deal more damage to non-elemental and airborne foes.
Nullemental FieldandHaste Fieldcan be interchangeable. It’s a matter of personal preference which element you want to utilize for either skill. As with the previous challenges, you only need to match your enemies' summons with their opposite elements.
If you become overwhelmed by the summoned enemies, useAeroga or Cometto trim them down and have your unitsgo all out on the boss. Congratulations, you’ve finished thestandard mode of Gears and Gambits!
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Hard Mode Gears and Gambits Guide
Now that you’re finished with standard mode, it’s time to multiply your gambit knowledge by 10 with Hard mode. Once you engage hard mode, you’ll instantly unlock aplethora of new conditions and spell gambitsat your disposal. Another addition to hard mode is that you’re only limited tonine total summonsorthree for each robotfor the entire round.
Here are myrecommended Gambit setupsfor each robot:
I’d like to name this setup theKamikaze build. Basically, this setup allows each robot to cast anelemental -ga shot, which translates to some of thebest spell materiasin FF7 Rebirth. This usually happens when they are fighting the boss, allowing you to deala tremendous amount of damageand ending the battle with time to spare.
Another strategy I noticed during my experimentation with this difficulty is to treat it as aturn-based strategy RPG. The boss summons one monster, you summon your counter, and so on and so forth.
The boss also seems to have adefinite summon patternwhenever you take turns summoning monsters. This means if you interrupt the boss’s turn, it will summona random monster(usually in an empty lane) to counter your extra turn. I recommend playing this challengeas slow as possibleand only responding to the boss’s summons so you don’trun out of robotsbefore the timer ends.
Lastly, at50% health, the boss will summon a bunch of monsters at the same time. This is the perfect opportunity to useAeroga or Cometto clear them and let your robots take down the boss with theirelemental-ga spells.
For more in-depth guides onFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth, check outFF7 Rebirth: Queen’s Blood Best Decks & Strategiesright here at Pro Game Guides!
