Final Fantasy VII can be completed without defeating the great protectors of the planet, Weapon, but any hardcore gamer up to the challenge of mastering Final Fantasy VII will not pass up the opportunity to conquer these seemingly insurmountable foes. The rewards for defeating these goliaths are sweet but the work involved in bringing to fruition your goal is great.

• Every Character at or near their maximum HP and MP level.
• Make sure Dexterity is high. approx. 90 or higher (For Emerald and Ruby)
• All characters have mastered Counter Attack Materia
• Keep Megalixers Handy
• Equip Mime on every Character if possible.
• Make sure your characters have their best weapon and armor equipped.
• Have Limit Breaks set on 4, especially Cloud and Tifa who can deliver multiple hits with Omnislash and Final Heaven.
• Link Final Attack Materia with Pheonix or Revive.
• Equip W-Summon and Knights of the Round in the same character.
• Putting two characters in the back and one in the front reduces total damage incurred by all characters. This combined with a Long Range weapon is helpful.
• For fighting Emerald Weapon, Underwater Materia is a must.
  Note: Not all of the previous is needed to defeat Ultimate Weapon but is recommended for Emerald and Ruby

• Ultimate Weapon can be found flying around over the landscape. To initiate a fight simply ram the Highwind into him. This will have to be done multiple times until he is over the Cosmo Canyon area.
• You must use the submarine to encounter Emerald Weapon. Emerald Weapon usually drifts around near the bottom, but sometimes can be found near the sunken Shinra Submarine or the sunken Shinra Plane. Ram him with the submarine to begin battle.
• Ruby Weapon is always in the desert near the Gold Saucer. Ram him with the Highwind or encounter him with the Gold Chocobo.

• For Ultimate Weapon it is best to use strong spells such as Contain, Ultima, and Bahamut Zero linked with Quadra. He will retaliate with Shadow Flare and Heal. Overall this Weapon is a cakewalk compared to his significant others.
• For Emerald Weapon you should not let him get a moment of thought. As soon as your Dexterity Bar reaches maximum select Knights of the Round twice (W-Summon allows this) and watch the animation for a couple of minutes. If Emerald Weapon manages to retaliate or destroy a character that character should revive from the Final Attack/Pheonix combo. If HP allow select Mime and watch the second character cast Knights of the Round twice. If an attack is rendered on the party that causes HP to fall to critical levels use a Megalixer that is placed at the top entry of the Item screen. It is recommended that you use Cloud and Tifa to fight Emerald because they have multiple hit Level 4 limit breaks. After a volley of Knights of the Round cast double from each character, and a couple Omnislashes or Final Heavens Emerald Weapon will be history.
• Prior to fighting Ruby Weapon kill off two of your characters. This may sound idiotic, but this simple step thwarts his Whirlsand effect and allows all your characters to engage in battle. When battle starts Ruby Weapon will automatically skip his Whirlsand effect and dig into the ground with his tenticles. Cast Revive (linked with All) immediately or let your remaining character be defeated and all will be revived when his or her Final Attack linked with Pheonix initiates. Cast W-Summon on him twice, one on the tenticles and one on Ruby. Mime the second character on Ruby. If an Ultima is cast against you keep a Megalixer handy. It may take several Knights of the Round summons to defeat Ruby, and a couple multi-hit Level 4's but in the end Ruby will suffer the wrath of your ingenuity. There are more nuances to combining the materia that may reduce damage incurred from any of the Weapons but that is up to the player. The individual who wrote this has done it with everything explained here so far, and I am proud to say I am a Final Fantasy VII master.

• Ultimate Weapon will give you Cloud's most powerful sword, "Ultima Weapon" it has eight linked slots for holding materia and does approximately 120% damage in relation to Clouds HP. Ulimate Weapon will create a crater that allows you to access the Hidden Forest area where there are many weapons, materia, and items.
• Emerald Weapon will give you an item called "Earth Harp." Trade with the old man in Kalm for 3, count'em 3, master materias (1 of each color of course).
• Ruby Weapon will give you an Item called "Desert Rose" which can be traded for a Gold Chocobo. This is probably totally useless at this point because to get the Knights of the Round Materia you already had to have a Gold Chocobo.
• All Weapons release a floodgate of Exp Pts. and AP, so if you want to master a materia fast, defeat a Weapon.