FF7 Remake Enemy Skill Materia How To Unlock And Use It

The Enemy Skill Materia in Final Fantasy VII Remake offers players a unique tactical advantage by allowing them to learn and use powerful abilities directly from hostiles. Inspired by the classic Blue Mage archetype, this command orb gives your party access to self-healing, heavy elemental bursts, and debilitating status effects. Mastering its mechanics provides both practical combat utility and progress toward complete trophy collection.

How to Unlock the Enemy Skill Materia

Acquiring this rare Materia requires completing Battle Intel Report 16 for Chadley, which becomes available during Chapter 14. The task requires players to use the Assess Materia on 30 unique enemy types encountered across Midgar. Any scans completed earlier in your playthrough count retroactively toward this requirement.

Once the assignment is registered as complete, speak with Chadley in the Sector 5 Slums to purchase the Enemy Skill Materia for 100 gil. Because Chadley stocks only one orb per playthrough, only a single active party member can utilize these techniques at any given time.

Mechanics of Learning and Executing Enemy Skills

To acquire a new ability, you must equip the Enemy Skill Materia onto a character and take damage from the specific enemy technique in battle. The character must actively withstand the hit while holding the orb; otherwise, the skill will not register in your command list. Using the Assess command beforehand helps reveal if a creature possesses an absorbable power.

Once successfully learned, the technique permanently becomes part of your action roster under the Command menu. Executing these skills during combat consumes ATB charges just like standard character abilities.

Available Enemy Skills and Where to Learn Them

Final Fantasy VII Remake features four distinct skills that players can absorb from specific foes. Algid Aura can be acquired from Cerulean Drakes in Chapter 15, surrounding the user with continuous ice damage. Spirit Siphon is learned from Phantoms in Chapter 14, granting an area-of-effect aura that drains health from nearby targets.

Self-Destruct is obtained from Smoggers or Bombs, delivering massive explosive damage at the cost of incapacitating the user. Finally, the iconic Bad Breath ability can only be learned from Malboro inside the Shinra Combat Simulator on Hard Mode, inflicting multiple severe status ailments at once.

Best Combat Strategies for Enemy Skill Materia

Pairing the Enemy Skill Materia with high-HP or tanky party members like Barret ensures they can safely absorb incoming enemy strikes during the learning phase. Skills like Algid Aura work exceptionally well when combined with melee combatants such as Cloud or Tifa. Meanwhile, Spirit Siphon provides reliable sustainability during overwhelming mob encounters without relying solely on healing magic.

Collecting all four abilities unlocks the Master of Mimicry trophy, making it an essential objective for completionists. Mastering these techniques drastically expands your tactical versatility when tackling higher difficulty challenges.