Crisis Core: FFVII Reunion - Minerva defeated in less than 6 mins ("No Damage" / Hard / Level 6)

クライシス コア: FFVII リユニオン - ミネルバを 6 分以内に倒す (ダメージなし / ハード / Lv6)
The earliest possible place to fight Minerva is at Chapter 3: Mako Reactor 5 but since you are limited to have only 2 accesories there, this setup was not possible, so i fought Minerva at Chapter 4: Sector 5 Slums - Church. Minerva in this remaster has 77,777,777 HP (in the original she had 20,000,000 HP).
I used the Cursed Ring from the beginning of the game (you can get it at chapter 1 by checking 20 times Zack's Supply Pod) to avoid leveling up. Cursed Ring prevents the reels on the Digital Mind Wave from spinning, so you cant get status buffs, level up, use limit breaks, use summons nor level up materia.
SP Barrier spends SP to reduce the damage done to you by enemies (-20% damage for every Level on this Materia), it stacks with SP Master Materia, or copies of itself. Since I don't want to level up to keep my level 6, I had to use 5 copies of SP barrier for a 100% damage reduction.
Depending on the vitality and the spirit you have, you will need more or less amount of SP. The minimum amount needed for this fight is around 25,000,000 SP as long as your VIT and SPR are at 255 and use Protect Ring (halves damage taken = halves the amount of SP taken).
The formula of Gil Toss takes into account the Materia Lvl, Zack's Lvl and of course Gil. The higher the level of the Materia and especially Zack's Level, the higher the damage will be but you will also spend more amount of Gil. Zack at level 6 is more or less an "advantage" since you will need a little less amount of Gil, compared with Zack at level 99, to last the whole fight.
Gil Toss' Base Strength is [Damage * 5], here i will share a list of Damage per coin and Gil needed (without using damage modifiers):
‣ 12,500 damage with 5,910,000 Gil
‣ 25,000 damage with 12,160,000 Gil
‣ 50,000 damage with 24,660,000 Gil
‣ 75,000 damage with 37,160,000 Gil
‣ 99,999 damage with 49,659,500 Gil
If we use Criticals, to start dealing 99,999 damage per coin we will need 24,660,000 Gil (criticals deal 2x damage).
To kill Minerva on hard mode is necessary to use Gil Toss 156 times (dealing 499,995 damage per Gil Toss), 125,000,000 Gil will be the minimum to do so (with Critical hits).
Note: This is the amount of Gil needed if you don't have the buster sword, with Zack at level 6 and using a level 1 Gil Toss materia.
The fastest way to farm Gil is at M9-6-2 by stealing 4 Gold Rolling Pins to Holly Tonberry, selling those gets you 200,000 Gil + 20,000 Gil for the kill (40,000 Gil if you have equipped Precious Watch). Approximately you get 10,000,000 Gil per hour. Another alternative would be to steal Force of Nature from G Enforcers at M3-5-5 (available very late, on chapter 10), each of them is worth 50,000 Gil.
A pity that the old method of stealing 99 Phoenix downs to Minerva and run away does not work in this version.
The fastest way to farm SP is at M9-5-3 by killing Three Stars (Movers). Though enemies bear their own base SP reward in battle, chaining successful kills in battles with multiple enemies without being hurt after the first will allow gained Soldier Points to multiply and stack (up to x9). In that mission there are 3 battle formations:
- 4 Man Hunters (Grashstrike) + 1 Three Stars (Mover)
- 1 Scissor Devil (Death Claw) + 2 Three Stars (Mover)
- 3 Scissor Devil (Death Claw)
If in the 2 battle formations where Three Stars appear you kill them the last (without getting a single hit) they will give you 100,000 SP. Scissor Devils also drop Stop Blade (2,400 SP).
The easiest way to kill the enemies of those 3 battle formations is by using Darkness while in Stance Battle with high ATK, this will 1-shot them all. Approximately you get 20,000,000 SP per hour.
BTW, Scissor Devils are the random encounter enemies that give the most EXP in the whole game (11,281 EXP each), so this place is the best to farm EXP aswell.
The fastest way for stat maxing is by killing Lesser Worms at M6-6-3, they drop Dark Matters and can be killed easily with Darkness (with hight ATK). Approximately you get 99 Dark Matters per 5 mins, if you have equipped Mog's Amulet and Jeweled Ring.
Minerva was defeated in 5:30 mins, counting from the appearance of "Activating Combat Mode" to when "Conflict Resolved" appears.