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I have gone against Ultima Weapon about 20 times and i usually win. but at the last moment he kills one of my characters using Shadow Flare. This causes them to not get any EXP or AP.
Is there any way to make my characters immune or take less damage from this attack without using Reflect(i do not have Reflect yet and am unwilling to work to get it unless i have to)?

If you wanted to go to extremes you could go and get the Shield materia from the Northern Cave and use it on whoever is about to land the killing blow (though that might require a bit of working there). Or if you train enough to the point where they have enough HP to survive (though that is somewhat pointless as well).
The thing I would say is... don't worry about it. EXP isn't that difficult to get (heh heh heh Magic Pots goodbye), so just don't put any materia on whoever will end up killing it, aside from Enemy Skill so you can get Shadow Flare, so you won't have to worry about AP from that one either. What I normally do for the last battle is have either Yuffie or Cid with their Triple AP weapon (Rising Sun and Scimitar in that order) and a Rune Armlet full of materia I want to level; another strong character (I use Vincent or Tifa) as a healer/buffer; and Cloud equiped with the Enemy Skill and maybe a HP Plus or something do the only attacking (if you have Long Range and 4x-Cut use that, otherwise use Magic Breath or some other strong Enemy Skill). It doesn't take long, especially if you get Meteorain, before Ultimate uses Shadow Flare and dies. If Cloud lives YAY, if not oh well, you still get the Enemy Skill and a decent amount of AP from Cid/Yuffie.

This post has been edited by Silvereye on 5th January 2007 03:18

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Oh yeah?
Well, can you kill two stones with one bird?
I didn't think so.

Thx(aka thank you)

Like silvereye said, EXP isn't really an issue.

Pack your characters full of HP Plus materia. Simplest method. Gil shouldn't be an issue either.

Final Attack-Pheonix will work very nicely. Just go into the battle with two characters dead, and pummel weapon until he Shadow Flares your character, and he/she dies, and everyone revives, and you just finish him off with your three fresh characters. It could be a pain to win Final Attack though.

Or, use MBarrier/Big Guard to cut down the damage, using Regen to keep up that character's HP, and recasting MBarrier as needed.

Mystile can help you simply just dodge Shadow Flare and still get it, although its not 100%. I'm not sure you learn it if you dodge it either.

I thought if a enemy skill gets reflected, you don't learn it. I don't know for sure, but that's what I think.

This post has been edited by Zack_Wilder on 5th January 2007 03:54

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My 3 favorite words:
1. Climhazzard
2. Defenstrate: To throw something out of the window
3. Matrix

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'Zack_Wilder' posted:
I thought if a enemy skill gets reflected, you don't learn it. I don't know for sure, but that's what I think.

You do.
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OK, restating. If you just can't survive it through any of the aforementioned ways (really, he covered just about everything), fly over to Cosmo Canyon and stock up to 10 stars of HP plus, that will double your HP (try to keep it full, though...)

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Note:
Tranquilizers also, are there, to be used.  And, Revive also goes with Final-Attack.

This post has been edited by Santa's Envoy on 6th January 2007 03:48

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"D'o!" - Homer Simpson

An alternate and often ovarlooked strategy is the Elemental+anything combo.

Since Shaadow Flare is non elemental, if you pair up Elemental with a Magic or Summon materia that is not elemental, you'll have protection against non-elemental magical attacks. On a side note, this will also provide a protection from the Ultima Beam attack.

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'Mr. Thou' posted:
"... Since Shaadow Flare is non elemental, if you pair up Elemental with a Magic or Summon materia that is not elemental..."

Thats something, I've always thought that Ultima Beam was the only attack that was defended by the elemental-"nothing" combo. Are you sure about it? (I'm not going to play it again to find out, but I need to be positive.)

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"D'o!" - Homer Simpson

If you already have Shadow Flare, you can test it out yourself. Have your own character Shadow Flare your other character with that combo in his/her armor. (I'm assuming that you meant you're not going to go through the game to get to Ultimate Weapon again because you killed him, and you have a save file somewhere after that.)

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My 3 favorite words:
1. Climhazzard
2. Defenstrate: To throw something out of the window
3. Matrix

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'Zack_Wilder' posted:
"If you already have Shadow Flare, you can test it out yourself. Have your own character Shadow Flare your other character with that combo in his/her armor... "

Great tip. However, my problem is a little bigger than that... I've "lost" my save game file. So I guess I will have to go for it... once again...
Thanks anyway.

This post has been edited by Santa's Envoy on 7th January 2007 18:06

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"D'o!" - Homer Simpson

Quote (Santa's Envoy @ 7th January 2007 18:02)

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'Zack_Wilder' posted:
"If you already have Shadow Flare, you can test it out yourself. Have your own character Shadow Flare your other character with that combo in his/her armor... "

Great tip. However, my problem is a little bigger than that... I've "lost" my save game file. So I guess I will have to go for it... once again...
Thanks anyway.

when you say you have "lost" your save; is it a "file is ruined"
if it is, you can use an action replay to bypass it and save again on a different position

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john aiton posted.
when you say you have "lost" your save; is it a "file is ruined"
if it is, you can use an action replay to bypass it and save again on a different position 

- Nope.
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What I've meant is that my memory card 'died'. It happens (after many years).
It already happened to me once. I was on the second disc of ff8, just at the 'Garden X Garden' event, and it 'left' me (that's why I've never finished it).

But if you're really lucky, it sometimes gives one 'last breath'. Thanks to Zack Wilders intusiasm I've been inspired to try once more, and, guess what... I 've managed to acess it. The only 'valuable' thing I had there was that ff7 file, and now I've copied it to a 'fresh' one, so, it is safe... for now.

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And, as I've suspected, It is false. Shadow Flare isn't defended by the elemental-'nothing' combo.
Truth is, I've never believed it would work. But since I'm very sceptical, and the hint came from a forum moderator... I've tested it... and with 4 diferent materias... all at the same time:
Bahamut, Contain, HP Plus and Ultima.

And yes, I have four mastered Elemental materias... see why it is 'valuable'.

This post has been edited by Santa's Envoy on 22nd January 2007 00:52

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"D'o!" - Homer Simpson