Veterans of the original Final Fantasy VII will remember the ever-useful All Materia, which, as clunky as the naming was, made its function clear enough: It would cause otherwise single-target spells to affect all allies or enemies. In Final Fantasy VII Remake this formerly abundant materia was renamed to Magnify Materia and was quite a bit rarer than in the original game. This trend has continued in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and players familiar with the first two games may well be wondering… where is the Magnify Materia in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and what exactly does Magnify Materia do in this version of the game? This page will answer both of these questions.
How Magnify Materia Works - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth¶
In the original Final Fantasy VII, All Materia - the functional predecessor of Magnify Materia - allowed materia equipped in a joined socket to affect all enemies/allies. Generally, most magic materia only affected one target, and being able to hit all enemies with an elemental attack spell or some debuff or debilitative magic was far preferable to casting the spell multiple times. The Same goes for applying buffs and healing on the party. This didn’t cost any extra MP, but the level of an orb of All Materia determined how many times this effect could be applied in a single battle.
In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Magnify Materia functions in essentially the same way; equip it in a linked materia socket with another orb of magic materia (green) and the effects of the paired materia will be expanded to include all enemies or allies. On its own, this was apparently deemed too powerful, as Magnify Materia no longer has a use limit in battle, but instead the effectiveness of magnified magic is significantly reduced. At Lv1 this reduction is 60% of the spell’s potency, which in many cases renders the paired materia of dubious utility. The potency penalty decreases each materia level, as follows:
Magnify Materia | Effect |
---|---|
Lv 1 | Expand range of linked materia (potency modified by -60% of when expanded) |
Lv 2 | Expand range of linked materia (potency modified by -45% of when expanded) |
Lv 3 | Expand range of linked materia (potency modified by -25% of when expanded) |
It may be a bit strong to say that at Lv1 any paired materia is useless, but it’s hard to defend the utility of tickling enemies with offensive spells or providing a tiny amount of healing to the entire party with this materia. To put things into perspective, Prayer Materia will be a superior party-wide heal for most of the game, and that takes 2 ATB gauges to use! At Lv2 Magnify Materia becomes painful, but functional, and at Lv3 it’s pretty damn potent for just about any application. Spreading buffs like Protect or Shell is always a good use (spreading other debuffs are functional, but the AI doesn’t make the most of them), as is the tried-and true late-game lifesaver of Curaga + Magnify, but as with most things, this materia’s utility will vary depending on the enemies at hand.
All Magnify Materia Locations - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth¶
There are technically three orbs of Magnify Materia in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but one of them is functionally useless. You’ll get one Magnify Materia during the prologue in Nibelheim (Chapter 1), but you can’t really effectively level materia here nor do you get to keep anything, so it’s kind of useless in both the long-term and short-term - it’s solely there to tease veteran players with the promise of future materia.
Unfortunately, this promise won’t be delivered any time soon. Just like in Final Fantasy VII Remake you won’t get your first Magnify Materia until you reach Chapter 9, which is around halfway through the game. In any event, there are two orbs of Magnify Materia that you get to use in the main game, and neither are all that hard to find:
Chapter | How to Obtain |
---|---|
Chapter 9 | Acquired automatically when Cait Sith joins the party |
Chapter 12 | Complete the side quest “Victim of Circumstance” in Cosmo Canyon |
Postgame | Complete the Brutal Challenge: Unending Nightmare |
In order to get this materia up to snuff, it’s recommended you equip it in a linked socket with some AP Up Materia, then complete some easy VR battles (Grasslands Region Intel: Level 1 works well for quickly leveling materia).
For information on other forms of materia, or the general rules of materia use, check out the following pages:
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