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

FF7 Rebirth’s Golden Saucer has a treasure trove of minigames for you to explore, but some of them are harder than others. One is definitely the Musclehead Colosseum, which may be harder or not, depending on who you take with you into the fray.

How to win all the Musclehead Colosseum battles in FF7 Rebirth

A thing you should remember is that you’re not required to do any of these colosseum battles now. You can just push the main story forward and take them on with somebody else later in the game. In fact, I highly recommend you do this if you're struggling.

Two Person Bout (Easy)

I’ll be Cloud-centric with my advice for the first two challenges. After all, I’m not sure which partner you have with you during your first visit, and this might be a challenge you want to prove to yourself that you can do at this point—and that’s fine!

The third and fourth challenges are 11 levels above the first two. That’s your sign to come back for them later.

The Zoomies

• Musts: Both members with a Healing Materia, Enemy Skill, Lightning Skills/Materia
• Suggestion: Link Auto Cast + Healing Materia on your partner

Are the Flame Whorls killing Cloud before he can move? No problem! Grab your Elemental Materia and slap it into Cloud’s bracer. Link it with your Fire Materia. At level 2, you’re already immune to Fire Damage but even halved isn’t bad.

All the enemies are weak to Wind. Equip Enemy Skill on Cloud for access to Sonic Boom, a Wind attack that also boosts his ATK/Magic ATK stat. Take full advantage of Cloud’s long distance slashes. Keep a steady distance away, dodge/roll, and press Square. It’ll create an air slice attack and keep you away from danger.

Once your ATB is charged, jump into the fray with a Triple Slash. It’s a skill that hits three separate enemies if it can. And it works for airborne ones too! This should throw those enemies off foot and cancel whatever attack they were preparing. Finish off the ones you can.

Related: Best skills & cores to unlock for all characters in FF7 Rebirth – Folio Guide

In the second round, you’ll be up against J-Unit Sweepers, which are much easier to beat than the Lavalisks. There are only two of them, and both are weak to Lightning. Cast Sonic Boom for the self-buff, and be sure you watch out for their attacks.

Devil-May-Care Desperados

• Musts: Firebolt Blade
• Suggestion: Link Auto Cast + Healing Materia on your partner

Two words: Firebolt Blade. It’s one of Cloud’s Folio-unlockable abilities that lets him release a small fire shot and imbue his own weapon with the element. Hack those bandits into defeat after you do this and move on to the next round.

The White Mousse is not a hard monster to defeat if you know how it functions. It’s weak to magic but absorbs whatever last element you hurled at it. Pick two materia elements and cast those in alternating order. Once the White Mousse is pressured, get Cloud or a partner to spam their abilities on it so it staggers quickly.

Exemplary Exterminators

• Must: Both members with Healing Materia or Chakra if you're using Tifa
• Suggestion: Elemental Materia + Fire and Ice or any Ice elemental weapon ability, Shiva Materia

Now, we get to the hard part of the Musclehead Colosseum. Exemplary Exterminators is truly an annoying challenge, especially in the first round. You need to battle four Junon Flametroopers and four Daemonic Entities for the first round and a Quetzalcoatl in the second.

Luckily, all monsters in the first round are weak to ice. Since I battled this at level 29 while using the Lightning Punch Tifa build, increase her first ATB and immediately cast Plasma Discharge. Having Plasma Discharge procs will increase their stagger bars as long as they get hit by the A.O.E. damage.

Also, you'll need to target the four Junon Flametroopers and try to quickly eliminate them as soon as possible as their flames hurt a lot, especially when you're severely under-leveled me. For Cloud, have him cast Triple Slash every time he gets an ATB up.

Once the Junon Flametroopers are done, kill the rest of the Daemonic Entities as they're not that difficult as long as you're blocking or perfect blocking their attacks. If you're having a very rough time with this round, summon Shiva to help you manage the fight better.

Now that the most difficult part of the challenge is done, you'll face the Quetzalcoatl for the second round. The Quetzalcoatl is one of the most enjoyable bosses I've ever encountered, and it's fairly easy to fight if you know how to pressure it.

Since I used Tifa, I equipped the Elemental + Fire and Ice materia on her Kaiser Knuckles. This allows Tifa to continuously deal Ice elemental damage with her normal attacks, and with the Plasma Discharge procs, you'll pressure the Quetzalcoatl in no time.

Remember to use Unbridled Strength two times and fully recharge Tifa's ATB before you stagger Quetzalcoatl so you can inflict as much stagger multiplier as possible. While the Quetzalcoatl is staggered, it's the perfect opportunity to bust out Tifa and Cloud's Relentless Rush Synergy Ability to further increase the stagger multiplier and extend the stagger time.

Ghoulish Delights

• Must: Both members with Healing Materia or Chakra if you're using Tifa
• Suggestion: Elemental Materia + Fire and Ice

Ghoulish Delights is another high-level challenge, which recommends your party to be at least level 40. For the first round, you'll fight four Crawlers and four Grassland Wolves. On the second, you'll fight the malevolent Mindflayer.

This fight is a tad bit easier than the Exemplary Exterminators as long as you bring Elemental Materia + Fire and Ice. Of course, since I had the same setup as the previous challenge, I still have my Plasma Discharge procs.

For the first round, use Tifa and set her up for Plasma Discharge. As Cloud, your goal is to trim the Crawlers as they're weak to fire. Hence, Firebolt Blade is the key. Tifa will be able to quickly dispose of the Grassland Wolves as they are vulnerable to ice.

The second round is more manageable but still difficult since Mindflayer's attacks hit like a truck. The key to cheese the Mindflayer is by using Synergy Abilities. The best way to quickly charge Synergy Abilities is by using weapon abilities.

I recommend Cloud's Focused Thrust for added pressure and a point in his synergy, and as for Tifa, Unbridled Strength or Focused Strike. Once you have two bars of synergy on both of them, use their Synergy Ability called Synchro Cyclone.

Synchro Cyclone will grant you unlimited MP for a limited time, so you can use this as an advantage to heal or buff your party. Repeat until you stagger the Mindflayer, and unleash Tifa's Unbridled Strength stacks to increase the stagger multiplier. If you have any synergy points left during the staggered phase of Mindflayer, use Relentless Rush for more damage!

Related: FF7 Rebirth Biological Intel Head Case guide – How to get Mind Blast

Six Person Bout (Easy)

Once you have Cait Sith with you, you’ll unlock the Six Person Bout in the Musclehead Colosseum. Here, you enter two battles with two separate teams. Be sure you have a balanced composition with at least one healer on each team.

The Uncouth

This challenge should give you no trouble. The first one is arguably harder, so put Cloud there and spam Triple Slash when given the opportunity. Keep a safe distance away and dodge + basic attack to perform long-distance air slashes. Even without exploiting their (Ice) weakness, they show go down quickly.

For the second round, they’re just a group of bandits! Tifa and Omnistrike can very likely defeat each in one hit. You can also use Red XIII here for his AoE attacks.

The Befouled

It’s a little easy to get overwhelmed by the Sandhogs, so just, again, keep a safe distance and deal with damage from afar. A neat trick I did her was use Yuffie. I threw her shuriken and dodged, Ninjutsu-d, dodged, Ninjutsu-d repeatedly. She’s fast enough to pull off a cheat win like that.

The next round, with flans, is where Aerith shines. Arm her with anything that can let her cast Fire/Firaga (either the Fire Earrings or a three-star Fire Materia). Cast an Arcane Ward, build ATB, and have her blast Firaga. Try and control your other characters and have them continuously attack the enemies to draw the aggro away from Aerith.

Peas in a Pod

This is another easy challenge to complete once you have mastered your proper party composition. The first round consists of one Saberhawk and three Fleetwing enemies, while the second round has two Shriekers and two Elite Security Officer.

I recommend putting Barret or Aerith on the first team and Cloud on the second. For my run, I went with the standard Lightning Tifa build and used Leaping Strike to close the gap with the flying enemies. I always kept an ATB gauge ready at all times so I could dodge any enemy attack with Focused Strike to massively increase their stagger gauge.

For the second round, Cloud is the best option since you can use his Prime Mode (i.e. enhanced Punisher Mode) to completely decimate the Shriekers while they are whirling their arms around. The two Elite Security Officers are weak to fire, so you can use Yuffie's Fire Ninjutsu to quickly dispose of them.

Scratch That

This challenge is a bit more difficult than the first two, as it has an enemy without a weakness, an enemy who mostly blocks attacks, and another that only has a specific vulnerability window. Round 1 consists of four Experimental Varghidpolis, and Round 2 has one Shoalopod and two Crown Lances.

For the first round, I recommend using Cloud. The trick to fighting the Experimental Varghidpolis is to quickly eliminate them. Their numbers may overwhelm you, especially when they use the move Screech. Using Cloud, consistently cast Triple Slash, and when you see an enemy with half an HP left, use Braver to trim their numbers down.

The second round is arguably the most frustrating during my playthrough since Shoalopod can consistently block attacks, and the Crown Lance can dodge through most of your attacks if you don't wait for the right time to strike. Both enemies are weak to fire, so I recommend a spellcaster like Aerith to quickly dispose of the two Crown Lances first, then the Shoalopod last.

Match Made in Pain

Match Made in Pain is an all-around "fun" challenge for me. The first round involves 1 Zu and Cockatrice, while the second round has a Bagnadrana and two Death Claws. Zu is weak to Wind, Cockatrice to Fire, and Bagnadrana to Ice.

For the first round, the easiest way to eliminate Zu is to use the Enemy Skill Sonic Boom. Afterward, you can focus on the Cockatrice with fire attacks or, alternatively, use an Elemental + Fire materia.

The second round is trickier than the first. The Bagnadrana works similarly to the Shoalopods as they only receive full damage in the frontal area. I suggest you take out the two Death Claws immediately, as they can pose a huge threat if you have no Safety Bit equipped for your party members. After taking care of the Death Claws, use Ice attacks to eliminate the Bagnadrana.

League of Reprobates

League of Reprobates is among the most annoying challenges I've faced so far. It includes Burt and Deathwheel in the first round and Barnaclaw and Tonadu in the second.

For both rounds, I suggest you use Tifa on one team and Yuffie on the other. In the first round, eliminate Burt as early as possible. He is weak to fire, so any fire attacks from Aerith or Yuffie will quickly take him down. For the Deathwheel, avoid trying to chase it down while it's moving; wait for it to halt, and unleash either Fire, Ice, or Wind attacks.

The second round is a bit more manageable, as you only need to focus on Tonadu. Tonadu is weak to wind, so Tifa with the Enemy Skill Sonic Boom is still very viable. I recommend using Tifa's synergy skill, where her allies throw her up in the air to close up on Tonadu. Lastly, use Fire attacks on the Barnaclaw once it is in its Defensive Stance.

Pecking Order

Pecking Order includes several bird-like enemies, such as Levrikon and Tonadu. In the second round, you'll need fire and ice attacks on Levrikon and wind attacks on Tonadu.

The first round is straightforward, as you only need to fight three Levrikons. I suggest trimming the numbers down with Cloud's Triple Slash, Firebolt Blade, and Prime Mode, as Levrikons primarily deal with physical attacks.

For the second round, I suggest using Tifa or Yuffie. I used Tifa for my run and mainly fought the Tonadus in the air. I dodge their attacks using Tifa's Focused Strike, as it has a dodge animation prior to the strike, which also increases Tonadu's stagger bar.

Related: FF7 Rebirth Tempering Trials Guide – How to beat all shrine summons

Access Denied

This challenge is the most difficult I've faced in the Musclehead Colosseum so far. In it, you'll fight two Mystic Dragons in the first round and two Modded Sweepers in the second. So, the challenge includes two boss fights per round.

For the first round, I recommend using Tifa with Sonic Boom. Since Mystic Dragons tend to fly higher in the air when pressured, Tifa is your best aerial combat option for them. In aerial fights, you'll want to utilize Tifa's Focused Strike to quickly stagger the Mystic Dragons and bring them down.

The second round is very tough as each Modded Sweeper has two arms and a main body to target. You can use Yuffie with Lightning Ninjutsu for this fight, as one of her Folio Nodes allows her to deal more damage to specific parts of an enemy. You can also use the Ramuh Summoning Materia to quickly take out one of the Modded Sweepers.

For more help with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, take a look at Best Synergy Skills and Abilities in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth here at Pro Game Guides.