How to beat Reno in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

How to beat Reno in Final Fantasy 7 Remake
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Reno appears at a pivotal moment in Final Fantasy 7 Remake when Cloud falls from grace after beating the Airbuster. 

Landing in the famous church and meeting Aerith for the second time, your meet-cute will soon be cut short by a Turk, Reno, who is a particularly difficult boss fight to topple, especially given that you may be worn out after your brawl with Airbuster. 

In this guide, we’re going to show you how to beat the mischievous Reno and what abilities and tactics you can use to make the fight a little bit easier to deal with. 

How to weaken Reno in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Reno has no specific weaknesses, but his cronies are weak to Fire, which is the standard for every human enemy in the game. As such, you’re going to want to use Fire Materia to unlock fire spells, and perhaps combine your Fire Materia with an Elemental Materia in a paired slot so you can deal extra weakness damage with each hit. 

Reno himself won’t suffer any weakness damage, but it’s better than nothing. He’s resistant to Lightning, so don’t go anywhere near those attacks. 

How to beat Reno in Final Fantasy 7 Remake 

(Image credit: Square Enix)

First off, wipe out his goons as quickly as possible by leaping towards the door and slashing in advance of their arrival. Your fire damage should serve you well here. Once they’re dealt with, turn to Reno. 

Reno is annoying but once you choreograph his movements you can take him down easily. Note that he will always dash before he attacks, so save your dodge until after he zips at you, leaving a lightning trail in his wake. If you dodge his dash, you’ll get hit with a nasty combo that is hard to get away from. 

Beating Reno is fairly easy once you figure out that he is woefully weak to Cloud’s block. Given the scale of the Buster Sword compared to Reno’s sticks, he can’t stand up to the metal and will stagger easily if you block a few of his attacks. After he finishes his dash and starts attacking, block the damage and he will quickly stagger. Follow this up with some charged magic attacks (block him first so he’s in recovery) and you’ll stagger Reno in no time.

When you see him use EM Mine Toss in his second phase, you want to respond with a Triple Slash that will attack multiple targets at once. This should make short work of the projectiles before they become a problem, and it means Reno won’t get to use EM Flail, where he hurls the lightning balls at Cloud. If you don’t manage to destroy them, you’ll have to duck and weave between the lightning to get past him, which is a lot to ask of you when the boss is already speedy. Also, make sure you avoid the flowerbed, or Aerith will yell at Cloud for his inconsiderate trampling. 

Jordan Oloman

Jordan Oloman is a journalist and documentarian with experience across the pop culture/tech spectrum writing reported features, reviews. news, guides, op-eds and more for a wide variety of outlets. He is also an affiliate streamer on Twitch and have previous experience in scriptwriting, podcasting, game consultation and creating video content.