Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands the skill system seen in Rebirth by replacing the skill trees tied to weapons with Folios, bigger skill trees that allow you to unlock new abilities, enhance stats, and improve some of the character’s unique traits, such as Cloud’s Punisher Mode and Barret’s Overcharge.
Unlike the previous entry in the series, however, it is not possible to spend SP obtained by leveling up or by getting character-specific manuals at any time, as you will require the services of bookshops found in towns and cities, indicated with a book icon on the minimap. It is also possible to unlock Skill Cores using SP via the Maghanata Automat, which can usually be found in the field together with benches and item vending machines.
Best Skills Cores to Unlock First in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
While the available Skill Cores are determined by Party Level and Weapon Level, you do have some choices to make even at the start of the adventure, as the SP at your disposal is limited. As such, there are some Skill Cores you will want to unlock as soon as possible to have an easier time in battle and to expand your combat options to make battling enemies more fun.
Among the first Skill Cores you should unlock are the elemental attacks that consume ATB charges without spending MP. The skills such as Wildfire, Snow Flurry, and Wind Current have different names depending on the character, but they essentially do the same: deal a limited amount of elemental damage and improve the actual elemental magic such as Fire and Blizzard. While they do not grant Synergy charges required for Synergy Abilities, they are great abilities to pressure regular enemies without spending MP, as most of them must be damaged with elemental attacks they are weak against to enter this state. Against stronger enemies and bosses, these abilities do very little, but they still grand an enhancement to regular elemental magic, so they can still be helpful, although not directly.
Other Skill Cores you should unlock as soon as you can in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are Synergy Skills and Synergy Abilities. The former expand each character’s combat toolkit in some interesting ways, giving them new options that not only work great in certain situations but also increase ATB of the two characters that perform the skill. Tifa, for example, has Synergy Skills with all party members that launch her and the enemy in the air, allowing her to keep enemies in the air almost indefinitely with the right abilities and attacks. Red XIII, to make another example, doesn’t have any ranged combat option, but using his Synergy Skill Wild Charge, he can get closer to enemies while guarding and having another party member wail on the enemy.
While it is unlikely you will need them in regular combat encounters, Synergy Abilities are extremely useful in battles against bosses and stronger enemies on the field, such as those involved in the Enemy Intel events. These abilities, which require Synergy charges obtained by spending ATB, not only deal tons of damage, but also buff characters in several ways, such as granting them infinite MP temporarily, increasing their Limit level to unleash Level 2 and Level 3 Limit Breaks, increasing Stagger duration and damage, and partitioning the ATB in three segments, like Refocus did in Remake. As such, they are extremely important to learn as quickly as possible to make the most difficult fights in the game more manageable.
