If you’ve enjoying your time in Sector 5 in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you might be keenly aware that you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. Fans of the original game will certainly feel that way, and after taking down Reno, it was only a matter of time til Rude came around to kick your teeth in. Here’s our Final Fantasy Remake guide on how to beat Rude and to show this other Turk who the real boss is.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake How to Beat Rude

If you’re someone who’s had a bit of trouble with the zippy Reno in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, then you might be a bit miffed to hear that Rude isn’t any easier. In fact, we found him a bit of a harder fight because Reno gave a little bit more breathing room. If Reno is still giving you a hard time then you might find our guide on how to beat him helpful – we’ve relinked it here for your benefit. Once you’ve sent him packing, however, then you’re going to eventually have to deal with his partner-in-crime which is somehow much less flippant about the whole affair.

While Reno had a huge preference for monologuing at you from afar and throwing forward a whole bunch of ranged skills designed to electrify and terrify the opposition, Rude is much more about getting up in your grill with his fists and his feet. He also has the ability to incapacitate Aerith if she gets close, so if you’ve been relying on just controlling Cloud to get through fights then you’re going to want to have to watch it. Here are some basic Type weaknesses or considerations when it comes to dealing with Rude:

• Key abilities: Sweet Dreams, Hammerblow, Haymaker, Running Tackle, Spinning Axe Kick
• Resists: Fire
• Weak to: Wind
• Immune to: Berserk, Silence, Slow

The thing with Rude is that he’s going to want to get close to you as an offensive strategy. What we’re talking about here is grapples or close-quarters combat. You’re going to want to be able to dodge the Running Tackle so that you don’t get suplexed, and you’re also going to want to dodge the rest of his physical abilities like Haymaker, Spinning Axe Kick, and Hammerblow. The good thing about the Rude fight is that you can actually outrun a bunch of the abilities so long as you can put enough distance between him and yourself, but you’re going to want to also watch him switching off you and onto Aerith when things get tough. 

You can probably Assess to get a grasp of those weaknesses yourself as well, but what you’re going to generally want to do is to make sure that you’re dodging the attacks so that you’re not immobilized by his abilities. He can hit decently hard if you’re stuck in the ground after an ability so it’s important to not get trapped in those situations. We would put as much distance between you and Rude as possible unless you have the space to pop in for a Counter. For this, Punisher mode is going to be absolutely essential. The fact that you’ll be slower to move is something that you have to watch out for when you’re trying to gauge the direction in which you have to deflect the quickly-moving human projectile that is Rude, but enough cycles if his attacks and you’ll start to notice the difference. Save your ATB for using Aero on him and also to use Aerith if necessary for a Summon. 

Rude has a ranged ability, Shockwave, which will be easy for you to dodge because you get quite a lot of warning when it holds up. When you’re at range, it’s easy to keep firing off Aero when you have to put that distance between you. Just make sure to close the gap after dealing with his close-range attacks when they rotate back into his combat cycle, and you’ll slowly whittle down his health over time through a combination of spells and countering. We would also watch out for Rude’s ability to counter your own attacks which can deal quite the devastating blow, so keep a watchful eye out on his stance.

Now that you have our guide on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake guide on how to beat Rude, it should be a little bit easier for you to get past that particular hurdle in the game. It’s not like you can opt out of this particular encounter so it’s in your best interest to be as prepared as possible even if you think you’re the bees’ knees when it comes to using that Buster Sword. If you’re curious about other things in Final Fantasy 7 Remake that you reckon you might need some help with, why not check out our dedicated guides hub which is packed full of tips and tricks for players just like you?

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