Final Fantasy XIV will receive a new monster in February 2020 that is quite formidable. Ruby Weapon is a notorious mega-boss from Final Fantasy VII. Here is everything you need to know about him.
What is Ruby Weapon in FFVII? Many veterans of the Final Fantasy series will experience collective PTSD at the name Ruby Weapon. Ruby Weapon is one of the planet’s protectors in FFVII, created 2000 years ago to fight against the threat of Jenova.
However, the battle did not take place and the Weapons fell into a deep sleep in the Northern Crater. Therefore, Ruby Weapon is actually not evil. However, that does not prevent it from being a real pest in battle.
The beast has a ridiculously high defense value and is immune to all elemental attacks. Additionally, it can permanently remove 2 out of 3 characters from the fight. This, along with many other annoying abilities, has made Ruby one of the hardest bosses in the FF series.
Warning: Spoilers from Patch 5.1 of Final Fantasy XIV follow.
How does Ruby Weapon appear in FFXIV? As is often the case with monsters from other FF games, Ruby Weapon will also be directly integrated into the story and lore of Final Fantasy XIV. The quest line concerning the Weapons will revolve around Garlemald and the new unexpected ally Gaius Baelsar.
At the end of the story from Patch 5.1, Estinien returns from his journey to Garlemald, where he was traveling with Gaius. He recounts that their paths separated after escaping from the imperial capital.
According to Gaius, a new threat has appeared on the scene that he urgently needs to address. From the producer’s letter, we now know that this danger is Ruby Weapon.
It will be introduced in the new quest line “The Sorrow of Werlyt,” which starts at the end of the story from Patch 5.1. And it can be assumed that this is again related to Allagan technology.
Ruby, however, is just the first trial fight of the quest line. The fights will, as usual, take place over several patches, similar to the quests for the four elemental deities from the Stormblood expansion.
It is therefore quite possible that Emerald and Sapphire Weapon from Final Fantasy VII will also have their own trial fights. Ruby is expected to be released around mid-February 2020 with Patch 5.2.
What could the battle against Ruby Weapon look like? Final Fantasy XIV is known for creatively incorporating the attacks and battle mechanics of bosses from previous games into the MMORPG’s combat system.
For example, the raid fight against Kefka features the statues of the gods from which he draws his power in FFVI, or from Neo-Exdeath in Final Fantasy V, his attacks Crand Cross and Almagest.
I firmly believe that we can also expect some of Ruby Weapon’s old attacks to return. I think the following iconic elements will appear in the trial fight in one way or another:
- Whirlsand: The probably best-known attack of Ruby, which completely removes team members from the combat until only one remains. It could only be evaded if you entered the fight against Ruby with 2 dead characters.
- Tentacles: They were also a central element of the fight against Ruby. The tentacles drained large amounts of HP and MP from the characters and inflicted annoying status effects. However, as long as they were on the field, Ruby did not use Whirlsand.
- Ruby Ray: One of Ruby’s strongest attacks, which also causes the status effect Confuse.
Especially with Whirlsand, I see many options for fun combat mechanics. In Final Fantasy XIV, it is not possible to enter an instance with dead characters. This means the development team would have to come up with a different trick in that regard.
For example, I would find it cool if we received a special command for the mechanic, like Vril with Lakshmi. The tentacles would work great as adds in the fight, and Ruby Ray has the potential to become Ruby’s strongest attack, preceded by a DPS check.
But however the battle may ultimately look, it will surely evoke a lot of nostalgia for FFVII fans.
