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Anyone who goes on E. Skill gaining raids knows what Beta is. A strong Fire-based spell, extremly useful if you get it early enough in FFVII.

My question is this: Do you train/lev. up to the point where you can withstand Beta to gain it? (Getting hit and killed don't count, even if the game says you learned it.... trust me)

I'm trying this at the moment, so far I'm level 25 (1100 - 1150 Hp with Cloud and full materia he can hold)

From what I can tell you need at least 1300 - 1400 hp to survive Beta, so I haven't tried it yet, but I will. ^-^ My goal's to get all E. Skills this time around (And yes, I know it's possible to get it later, I just want it now)

What about the rest of you?

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Link: "What is it?"
Mario: "It's coin, what the hell does it look like?"
Link: "Well.... What do you do with it?"
Mario: "You buy lives with them."
Link: ".... Isn't that slavery?"
~Mario/Link crossover comic~

I don't have a reason to withstand Beta that early on except for just saying I did it. Usually I make the trip to to Costa del Sol, get the Fire Ring from the villa basement, double back on the cargo ship, then learn Beta that way.

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

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Usually I make the trip to to Costa del Sol, get the Fire Ring from the villa basement, double back on the cargo ship, then learn Beta that way.

O.O.....

God damnit! Why didn't I think of that!?

Well, time to go get that ring ^-^ Thanks

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Link: "What is it?"
Mario: "It's coin, what the hell does it look like?"
Link: "Well.... What do you do with it?"
Mario: "You buy lives with them."
Link: ".... Isn't that slavery?"
~Mario/Link crossover comic~

Uh, no. I prefer to play the game the way I was supposed to. occasionally I'll do what Shotgunnova does, if I feel like making the next part of the game 100% easier all the way until past the temple of the ancients.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

I've never found E. Skill useful enough to bother getting any of them unless I was getting all of them.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

What are you talking about? trust me if you get beta on the first disk its sicking at how many monsters can be killed with it, in one shot for only 35 mp

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procastinate now, dont put it off

Hey ive just started 7 again and im just about to go to temple of ancients but i got beta like this i got to costa del sol then got the buggy at golden saucer. by which time i was level 30 then i went back to junon with the buggy and beta was mine after getting the snake to cast it of course but it was really easy

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"you did something I saw as your suicide: you refused to an admin WITHOUT GIVING ANY PROPER REASON.
"
SilverMaduin 4th September-2006
Heh Heh... Rap music....

I usually stick to wait until I get Trine wich has the same damage formula and costs 20MP instead. And I think FFVII is too easy to get Beta so early to make the game even easier... As if Diamond weapon was hard, LOL ; I'M just saaying that he's the easiest boss ever. I never had any trouble with any boss in FFVII exept maybe Ruby with non-materia.

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Sayonara

I somtimes do but this last time I went back to get it at like lvl 45 or somthing any way whats funny is that I had to do it like 4 or 5 times not because it would kill me but because I would kill it with my counter lol.

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Money is no good unspent.
There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity.

Aqualung was extremely hard to learn after you beat JENOVA Life. I think she's the only enemy who can use it. I only have Frog Song, Death Sentence, Flamethrower, Trine and Matra Magic. Took me a long time to get Matra Magic and also steal Atomic Scissors from the Custom Sweepers.

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Yunalesca: "Hope is...comforting. It allows us to accept fate, however tragic it might be. "

Yunalesca: "Poor creature. You would throw away hope. Well... I will free you before you can drown in your sorrow. It is better for you to die in hope than to live in despair. Let me be your liberator. "

Quote (Blizzard_Wizard8 @ 19th March 2005 17:14)

Aqualung was extremely hard to learn after you beat JENOVA Life. I think she's the only enemy who can use it. I only have Frog Song, Death Sentence, Flamethrower, Trine and Matra Magic. Took me a long time to get Matra Magic and also steal Atomic Scissors from the Custom Sweepers.

FYI, Blizzard: http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/ff7/w_magic.php?spell=Aqualung

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Thanks, it's just that I spend too much time on the forums and not enough time on the actual website...

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Yunalesca: "Hope is...comforting. It allows us to accept fate, however tragic it might be. "

Yunalesca: "Poor creature. You would throw away hope. Well... I will free you before you can drown in your sorrow. It is better for you to die in hope than to live in despair. Let me be your liberator. "

It's not hard at all to get Beta before passing through the marsh caves. Elemental materia! As long as you can put an elemental materia next to a fire materia on your armor, you should be able to take a good "beta-ing" and make it out alive (beta should only do between 600 and 800). Sure, you might die a few times, but thats what saving is for!

Quote (Xenovacivus @ 20th March 2005 13:03)

It's not hard at all to get Beta before passing through the marsh caves. Elemental materia! As long as you can put an elemental materia next to a fire materia on your armor, you should be able to take a good "beta-ing" and make it out alive (beta should only do between 600 and 800). Sure, you might die a few times, but thats what saving is for!

True, but is it really worth it that early? If you're like me and want three mastered E.Skills (best materia in the game, IMO), it's a better idea to come back later once you have three or four; it's way easier and it saves you having to do it really early. For those of you that didn't find E.Skill useful, Big Guard, White Wind, Magic Hammer, Angel Whisper, Pandora's Box, Shadow Flare, and Bad Breath make it better than any magic or summon materia.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I would definetly say yes because of how overly powerful it is at that point in the game. It's kinda like the Knights of the Round materia for the first part of the first disk! Well, maybe thats a bad metaphor...

Since this is my second time through the game (somewhere around 4th or 5th time through the first disk, I keep losing memory cards over the years) I decided to get everything in the game as early as possible. Plus, why back down from a challenge?

I always make sure to have Planet Protector before heading to the marsh cave, then i just slap that on after zolom stands up, and bam! Beta is mine. Not too tough, considering Aerith can slaughter every creature around the chocobo farm with Matra Magic, and hyper builds limits up mighty quick.

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"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

Whats the point its really just a waste of time !
unless your boring you just want to get on with the game
You dont need it and i think aqua lung and trine are better
P.S The best enemy skill CHOCO BUCKLE!
just because of sheer randomness

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So youre saying that odin turns into Raiden?
yes i am.
But i thought he turned into Gilgamesh?
...Jeez...

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P.S The best enemy skill CHOCO BUCKLE!
just because of sheer randomness

If your referring to 'randomness' damage-wise, then I think your incorrect. Not that I've ever gotten it myself.... yet, but It is supposedly meant to do damage equal to the amount of times you run from battle. (In other words, If you have some spare time, go run into 9999 enemeis and run away, lol)

--------------------

Link: "What is it?"
Mario: "It's coin, what the hell does it look like?"
Link: "Well.... What do you do with it?"
Mario: "You buy lives with them."
Link: ".... Isn't that slavery?"
~Mario/Link crossover comic~

Honestly, I never found Beta so invaluable I needed it then. In fact, the only "must-have" enemy skill I ever wanted was Big Guard. The rest were nice if I could get them, but Big Guard is the first spell cast in EVERY boss battle.

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M777: lightweight 155mm howitzer
3/11 rules over all artillery!

Beta was just about the coolest looking thing I'd ever seen in a video game the first time seeing it (done on me) and then even more cool when I went back and got it. Just the sound and everything, just like a big red evil hurricane that hurt 3000 which was amazing to me at the time. Those were good days.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

My first time through FF7, I completely ignored most Enemy Skills and went through the entire game with only Flamethrower, Aqualung and L4 Suicide, all of which I got purely by accident seeing as how I only vaguely understood how the materia worked.

My last time playing through the game though, I made sure that I'd get them all, so I spent a good deal of time running around that half of the continent leveling up as much as I could. I had Cloud and Red XII on level 39 and Tifa on level 36. By this point, I also had Fire2,Ice2 and Bolt2, along with the Elemental materia.

Needless to say I gave that Midgar Zolomn a beating I'm sure he'll never remember, problem was, that first battle, I killed him before he even used Beta. Upset much? So I had to do it again, but let me tell you, considering all the leveling up I had done just to get it, I didn't need it in terms of making the game easier. Still, for completion's sake it was nice to have and it DID do a hefty amount of damage on most enemies, though it wasn't as useful in Boss Battles.

I didn't realize until later that I could've gotten it later on in the game, so all in all, I wasted my time. Still, I had a damn near unstoppable force for the rest of the game considering the levels I was on.

Pandora's Box, Shadow Flare and Big Guard are definatly much more worth the time and effort if you look at it in terms of useful spells.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

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Pandora's Box, Shadow Flare and Big Guard are definatly much more worth the time and effort if you look at it in terms of useful spells

.
those are found in northern crater.... not that useful considering one kotr is much more powerful at that point in the game


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procastinate now, dont put it off

Quote (Blythe @ 27th March 2005 21:53)

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Pandora's Box, Shadow Flare and Big Guard are definatly much more worth the time and effort if you look at it in terms of useful spells

.
those are found in northern crater.... not that useful considering one kotr is much more powerful at that point in the game

Yeah but Knights Of The Round consumes quite a bit of MP and has some pretty hefty equip costs. Not to mention you have to sit through the cutscene every time you use it. It deals more damage yes, very few monsters can survive it, but it's only effective if you're high leveled and can manage using it.
Those enemy skills don't have even half of it's requirements and dish out a fairly decent amount of damage, not to mention, they can be re-used. Summons at first can only be used once, even if KOTR once is normally enough to kill something.

Considering they all only become available around the same point in the game, I'd say they all each have their advantages. I always saw KOTR as a last-ditch desprate attack sort of concept.

Big Guard is infintely more useful than KOTR and you get it much, much earlier.

This post has been edited by Dragon_Fire on 28th March 2005 04:53

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Okay, but there was a goat!

To get Beta I normally just train everywhere in Midgar, walk threw the desert, get Beta, kill the snake, and continue on my way . as for the ones I use, Aqualung, Beta, Shadow Flare, White Wind, and Big Gaurd are probably the ones I use the most.

I almost never train up for Beta. I just end up coming back for it after stopping by Costa Del Sol

On my first time through FFVII, I didn't even know about Beta. I didn't get it until after the 3rd disc on that playthrough.

On my second playthrough, I waited until after Costa del Sol when I had access to Fire rings to get Beta. I found it very useful in almost any battle that didn't have enemies that were resistant/immune/absorbed fire. Almost too useful...

Quote (Tidu-who @ 25th March 2005 01:34)

just like a big red evil hurricane that hurt 3000 which was amazing to me at the time. Those were good days.

I think the Beta graphic is a mushroom cloud. I am usually as time efficient as possible during my games so training up to get an ability when I can come back later and get it with ease is not that big a deal. But Beta is damn good until you get Trine. So I take the boat after Costa Del Soul.

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

Quote (Blizzard_Wizard8 @ 19th March 2005 17:14)

Aqualung was extremely hard to learn after you beat JENOVA Life. I think she's the only enemy who can use it. I only have Frog Song, Death Sentence, Flamethrower, Trine and Matra Magic. Took me a long time to get Matra Magic and also steal Atomic Scissors from the Custom Sweepers.

Aqua lung isn't at all that hard to get, all you have to do is go to the chocobo track area by Gold Saucer, and wait for this griffin/hary/chimera thingy? to show up [ It will also show up with a chocobo if you have the lure equipeed ] And all you ahve to do is manip. it and oyu're good to go

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::Yawn + 15.3236::
There are things that must happen, because otherwise, it would defeat the purpose of its name, for it must happen.

Just use Materia combo Fire~Elemental and level your chars up to 30 and you'll have no prob getting it. Levelin outside of junon before you go back to kill him is great for getting Limit breaks up too. I got cloud, yuffie, and tifas limit to Limit set 3 doing that

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Lie in the dark --- where the shadows run from themselves.



Hate the sin --- Love the sinner

I'm doing that at the moment, fire ~ elemental in clouds armour, enemy skill on cloud, the problem being cloud either gets ejected or isn't alive when the zolom casts beta