FF7 Rebirth Tempering Trials Guide – How to beat all Gilgamesh Island summons

The summons in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are pretty tolerable until you get to Gilgamesh Island. Now, not only are they overpowered, but you fight two of them at once every trial. Here’s a guide to help you clear all three of them—even on Dynamic difficulty!

How to defeat all Enkidojo shrine summons on Gilgamesh Island – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tempering Trials

Once you get to Gilgamesh’s Island, you will have to battle your summons, 2v3, to clear each shrine. None of the tempering battles are easy, as the FF7 Rebirth developers thought it was really funny to team up summons that work well together.

Still, here’s a guide to help you march your way into Gilgamesh’s lair.

How to beat Bahamut Arisen and Titan

As mentioned, the summons in every shrine are the yin to the other’s yang. These two are resistant to either physical attacks (Titan) or magic attacks (Bahamut). You need a well balanced team you can trust for this battle—but do bring Barret. He’s non negotiable.

For this fight, you must kill Bahamut Arisen first. Gigaflare is a lethal, one-hit KO attack that targets the entire party. You can’t dodge it and, most importantly, you can’t cancel it. Titan’s Earthen Fury will, at most, deplete 2/3s of your HP. With a Mist Mega Potion tossed right after, you’ll be okay.

Plus, Titan doesn’t produce those annoying orbs that follow you around the arena.

How to defeat Bahamut Arisen

Bahamut Arisen is actually less of a menace compared to Remake’s Bahamut (and thank Minerva for that). You only need to remember two things:

• It’s resistant to magic
• Synergy skills and abilities pressure it

With that in mind, we can cook up a pretty simple but effective strategy: bring physical attackers into the fray (Cloud, Barret, Tifa, or Red XIII) and spam synergy skills with your R1 + input button.

In fact, there’s a Barret/Cloud Synergy Skill called Bullet Batter that works perfectly against Bahamut. Bullet Batter is a synergy skill that delivers three consecutive ranged physical attacks. Meaning, not only is it a non-magical action, but you don’t have to get close to Bahamut Arisen to trigger it.

Barret must be in your team if you want to live an easier fight. The only way to stop Gigaflare is to stagger Bahamut Arisen while it’s charging the attack as well—which Bullet Batter can really help you with. Once it's pressured, use ATB commands that increase stagger damage, like Tifa’s Unfettered Fury, Cloud’s Focused Thrust, and Barret’s Focused Shot.

Hoard ATB as much as you can. Just spam basic attacks and synergy skills to do idle damage. Only use ATB after it’s pressured or staggered.

Related: Best Synergy Skills and Abilities in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

How to defeat Titan

Once you’ve gotten rid of Bahamut Arisen, Titan is easy picking. Unleash Wind attacks, like the enemy skill Sonic Boom, and it’ll get pressured pretty quickly. It also moves slow-ish, so it’s easier to dodge its attacks compared to Bahamut.

How to beat Odin and Alexander

Odin by itself, with its unrelenting attacks, was annoying—and now it's with Alexander, the area-wide attack summon. This was probably the fight I struggled the most with, simply because of how aware you need to be of both of their movements to survive.

You must deal with Odin before you deal with Alexander. If you don’t dodge its attacks, it will unleash Zantetsuken—his own version of Bahamut’s Gigaflare. You can’t cancel it; you can’t dodge it. Once it’s unleashed, it’s a lethal 9,999 damage to your entire party.

Once Odin has been battered by enough attacks, it will use Vanish. This is your opportunity to deal with Alexander until it comes back.

For this shrine, my most recommended fighter is Yuffie. You also need to be equipped with cleansing items to survive Alexander.

How to defeat Odin

But before we talk about Alexander, let’s talk about the strategy to use against Odin. Odin likes the “thrill” of the battle. “Pressure” for it is excitement. There are three ways to excite Odin:

• Evade its attacks
• Use ATB skills repeatedly
• Give it a negative status effect (like Poison or Stun)

Consequently, getting hit by attacks—regardless of whether they’re from Odin or Alexander—will bore the summon and convince it to use Zantetsuken to end the fight. So, while you must be actively looking at Odin due to its eccentric attacks, do watch the ground to avoid Alexander’s.

To get rid of Odin, start every encounter with Bioga (Poison Materia). It’s resistant to Poison, however, so it may take a few tries. Control Yuffie or another speedster (Tifa, Red XIII), and be extra sure you dodge its attacks. Unleash ATB commands relentlessly, and it’ll actually be pressured fairly quickly.

You can use Cloud as well; he’s fast enough to roll dodge the spears.

Speaking of Enemy Skill, I actually found that if you cast Plasma Discharge and Odin, which is in range whenever it charges, it counts as an “ATB skill” too and contributes to the pressure.

Once it's pressured, unleash your stagger+ ATB abilities (the likes of Focused Thrust) to stagger it. Deal enough damage and it’ll use Vanish, giving you the opportunity to deal with Alexander until it comes back.

How to defeat Alexander

It’s easy to see where Alexander will hit; just look at the floor. This is the first thing you must mind. Stay in parts where it isn’t glowing. You can even ignore the pillar of lights and focus on damage as long as you stay within their hit range.

If you’re using Yuffie, Throw your shuriken and use Lightning Ninjutsu on Alexander to quickly deplete its HP. Start with its arms, as the body will not take any damage if those aren't.

Pro tip: if Cloud has the Enemy Skill Materia, you can charge him with Plasma Discharge and keep him airborne on Alexander’s arm with Triple Slash. You’ll decrease its HP (and even stagger it) really quickly!

Whenever a character hits a Light Pillar, they will accumulate Karma (depicted as a scale status effect). The higher the Karma (max is 3), the more powerful Alexander's special attack, Divine Judgment, will hit them.

Karma can be cleansed, but only one level at a time. So if you use Esuna (Cleansing Materia), it will only remove 1 Karma. Attach it to a Magnify Materia so one cast can at least cleanse the entire party.

At Karma 1, the damage is more or less 2/3 of someone's HP. Karma 1 is the highest number you should have before it unleashes Divine Judgment. Of course, the best is still no Karma for the least damage. No Karma will kill half their HP, which is still doable for a Mist Mega Potion heal save right after.

Once Alexander unleashes Divine Judgment, Odin will make its return. Just remember to focus on Odin when it's there and hit Alexander when he’s not. The rest is up to your focus and hand/eye coordination.

Related: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Musclehead Colosseum Guide – Best teams, strategies & more!

How to beat Kujata and Phoenix

Kujata and Phoenix, to me, are your taste tests for Tempering’s difficulty. It’s tough, but not excruciatingly, painfully tough. If you’re frustrated with the other shrines, I suggest doing this first.

The strategy against Kujata and Phoenix is very straightforward: eliminate them one at a time, noting how you can pressure them to speed up the process. I personally recommend dealing with Kujata first because of the time sensitiveness of its superpowered one-hit KO special attack. However, a commenter told me that they were able to deal with the situation by having one character survive Tri-Disaster with the sheer tenacity of Elemental Defense and deal with Phoenix first.

Phoenix can revive Kujata, which, I must note, can be prevented. More on that below.

Anyway, bring Tifa to this shrine. She’s the best for dealing stagger damage, which will speed up the Kujata fight. For your third slot Yuffie, due to her changing elements, and Aerith for wards and additional elemental damage are good options.

Bring either Pray, have a Magnify + Healing Materia linked, or a ton of Mist Mega Potions (my preferred option) for survivability.

How to defeat Kujata

Kujata switches between three elements (Fire, Ice, Lightning). It’ll charge into a crystal and look different. To pressure it, just keep hitting it with an element its current one is weak to.

• Fire is effective against Ice
• Ice is effective against Fire
• Wind is effective against Lightning

Once Kujata has managed to turn into all three elements, it will unleash Tri-Disaster, which will deal big damage to the party, wiping you out unless you have crazy Elemental Defenses, Reprieve, or a revive accessory in place. Remember the above and defeat it before that happens.

That's why I highly recommend Tifa here—between her Unbridled Strength and Cloud's Infinity's End, the job gets done quickly.

How to defeat Phoenix

Phoenix can cast Rebirth to revive Kujata for another rodeo, but you can usually cancel the attack by continuously dealing heavy ATB damage (the likes of Starshower and Art of War). A well-timed Limit Break or offensive Synergy Ability can also cancel skills. In fact, in my Dynamic run, I was able to avoid Rebirth completely!

However, some amazing people in the comments have been able to survive Tri-Disaster by equipping characters with revive earrings, Reprieve, and even stack Elemental Defenses. If you're equipped enough for this kind of setup, you can certainly try shifting your focus to Phoenix first before Kujata.

Anyways, back to Phoenix. If you remember from the sim fight, the only way to pressure Phoenix is to deal heavy damage while it’s using Empowering Flame. Save at least one Limit Break for when Empowering Flame happens.

This Phoenix is not weak to Ice—so just treat it like a weaker Bahamut.

Other than that, watch out for its attacks and be sure you don’t get hit. You can also cheat by equipping 2/3* Elemental + Fire on your bracer to null or absorb all Fire damage.

For more help with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, take a look at FF7 Rebirth: Gears and Gambits Guide (Standard & Hard Mode) here at Pro Game Guides.