Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: Where To Find Elemental Materia

Throughout the course of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, players will face formidable foes, some of them often having huge health pools and damage output. In order to stand any chance in long fights like these, it’s advisable to exploit the elemental weakness of the fiends so that you can stagger them. Thankfully, equipping the Elemental Materia is one of the approaches that players can take to give them an upper hand in battle.

There are just three instances where the Elemental Materia can be collected as rewards and some of these have tough late-game requirements. So follow along the guide to find out exactly how best to utilize the Elemental Materia and where to find it.

How To Use Elemental Materia

Elemental Materia is a support-type materia as noted by its blue-colored orb. This means it can be linked together with compatible green materia like fire, ice, lightning, and wind. Essentially, the Elemental Materia will apply the linked materia’s elemental damage to the weapon or boost the resistance of that element if used in armor materia slots. Therefore, it will either infuse players’ attacks with elemental effect if used in a weapon slot or grant resistance to the player if used in the armor slot. In case of more than one materia being linked to it, the Elemental Materia only applies the effect of the materia in the leftmost slot.

This characteristic of Elemental Materia means that players don’t just need to rely on spells to exploit the elemental weakness of the enemies. Instead, now they can deliver powerful cuts from Cloud’s sword or lethal strikes from Tifa’s gloves while still getting the bonus damage by applying the elemental effect that the fiends are more vulnerable to. In terms of character strengths, since both Cloud and Tifa are the best DPS characters in the game, it’s more fitting to have Elemental Materia equipped for them. The third potential character could be Red XIII, since Yuffie already has a lot of attacks to exploit elemental weaknesses of the fiends.

Although the materia linked to the Elemental Materia can be swapped in for a more relevant one depending on the enemy in front, in most cases, the Fire and Ice Materia or the Lightning and Wind Materia can boast dual-elemental damage so they’re a safer option to go with. Likewise, linking the Elemental Materia to these dual-element materia in the armor slot will grant resistance from multiple spells and enemy attacks that rely on different elemental attacks.

Depending on the level of the Elemental Materia equipped in the armor slot, the elemental damage might be completely nullified or even absorbed to replenish HP for the user. These dual-element materia can be developed by speaking with Chadley in exchange for the regional data points, which are acquired as players complete more protorelics. The Grasslands Data Points will help develop Fire and Ice Materia, while the Junon Data Points will award players with Lightning and Wind Materia.

Where To Find Elemental Materia

All three Elemental Materia are acquired via Chadley’s Battle Simulator. However, in order to unlock the challenges first, there are some objectives in the open world that must be completed. Although the first two can be unlocked upon engaging in relevant Fiend Intel battles in the respective regions, the last Elemental Materia is locked to the end-game, as players will first need to take on and defeat Gilgamesh (after chapter 13) before they are able to unlock the challenge in Chadley’s Battle Simulator. Gilgamesh, by all means, is a rather tough challenge, so you must prepare for the challenge.

Unlocking Gilgamesh is also a challenge in itself because players will be required to complete all protorelics which includes visiting all sanctuaries, finishing all summon battles in the combat simulator, and completing all Phenomenon Intel challenges. Once players have ticked off all those requirements, the Brutal and Legendary battles in Combat Simulator will become accessible, and with them, an opportunity to earn the last Elemental Materia.

The table below covers the requirements to unlock each of the three challenges required to obtain the Elemental Materia in the Combat Simulator.