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Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII – Weapon FAQ

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Would you recommend this Guide? Yes NoHide 

Weapon FAQ by The_Key_of_E

Updated: 08/09/2012

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------------------------------------------
---Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII---
------------------------------------------

Weapon and Part Comparisons and Recommendations

-OR-

What is the best way to upgrade my guns as I progress through Normal mode to
Ex Hard mode?

by The_Key_of_E

8/8/2012

-----------------------
---TABLE OF CONTENTS---
-----------------------

1. Introduction 00INTR
2. Comparison of Weapon Types 00COMP
3. Choose Your Upgrade Branch 00UPGR
A. Handgun
B. Machinegun
C. Rifle
4. Other Parts 00OTHR
A. Barrels
B. Scopes and Optional Parts
C. Accessories
5. Summary of What to Upgrade 00SUMM
6. Weapon Setups 00SETP
A. Typical Setup
B. Ex Hard Mode Setup
C. Variations
7. Acknowledgements and Copyright 00ACKN

------------------
---INTRODUCTION--- 00INTR
------------------

This game is now almost exactly six years old (North American release 8/15/
2006). Despite that, I'm replaying it for the third time. I've gone through
Normal mode and Ex Hard mode all three times. Overall it's not a great game,
but it is pretty good. Those who aren't already Final Fantasy fans may find
less to like here, but I personally rate it as one of my favorite games of
all time.

This guide is mostly just my opinions on what gun parts to use and when/how to
upgrade them. This is mostly from personal experience, though I have drawn
some from other FAQs (noted in the Acknowledgements). I do not list stats or
any other specifics because there are already other FAQs with this info.
Instead, this is just a general overview of parts and upgrades.
At the end of each level, you get a choice of leveling up or trading your
experience points for gil. On Normal mode, I like to alternate each level bet-
ween spending the EXP or trading it for gil. For the last few levels (Chap-
ters 11 and 12) where you don’t really need the experience points, you should
trade for gil to give you a monetary head start if you decide to play on Ex
Hard mode (New Game Plus). When playing on Ex Hard mode, you will need the
extra HP and Defense from leveling up, so don’t trade experience points for
gil on Ex Hard.

I don’t have a lot of experience playing on Hard mode, but it seems it may
actually be comparatively more difficult than Ex Hard mode. This is because
Ex Hard mode is only slightly more difficult that Hard mode, but in Hard mode
you don't get to keep your upgraded weapons from your previous play-through.

--------------------------------
---COMPARISON OF WEAPON TYPES--- 00COMP
--------------------------------

Overall, handguns are the best weapons and machineguns are the worst, with
rifles somewhere in between.

Handguns tend to have better stats all around, plus they have the bonus of
shooting three bullets at once so you can do damage more quickly. The downside
of this is you burn through ammo quicker and can run out if you’re not
careful. The balancing factor is handgun ammo is the cheapest to buy if you
do run low.

Machineguns on the other hand, have the worst stats all around. No matter
which upgrade branch you choose, they tend to be heavy, inaccurate, and weak.
Their higher rate of fire is NOT enough to make up for these drawbacks. How-
ever, they are not without use as they are can be useful in boss battles to
conserve your handgun ammo (see below).

Rifles are definitely better than machineguns, but not as good as handguns.
They tend to be powerful and accurate, but heavy and slow. The main advantage
of rifle over handgun is rifles are more conservative with ammo.

--------------------------------
---CHOOSE YOUR UPGRADE BRANCH--- 00UPGR
--------------------------------

This is just my perception, but it always seemed to me like the game wants you
to choose upgrade branches as follows, building on the inherent strengths of
the three types of frames.

Cerberus – M (magazine) branch

Griffon – S (speed) branch
Hydra – P (power) branch

This is not the most optimal. While the S branch is the best for the Griffon,
the Cerberus is best in the P branch, and the Hydra does better in the M or S
branches.

---HANDGUN---

As stated above, handguns are the best weapons overall. The Ultima Weapon is
obviously the best weapon in the game, and the Cerberus is the best of the
“normal” weapons.

For most of the game upgrading your Cerberus should probably be your first
priority. Once you can choose an upgrade branch, go for the P Cerberus and
when you have the cash available upgrade it all the way to the Powered Cer-
berus. The reason the P branch is best is because the extra power combined
with the Cerberus’ ability to shoot three bullets at once lets you one-shot
most normal enemies. With the Power Booster accessory, you can still one-shot
enemies even on Ex-Hard mode.

The Ultima Weapon is an interesting case. To get it, you have to upgrade the
Model Gun you find early in the game, but it costs 250,000 gil to upgrade
fully. The best way to do this is to complete the repeatable mission near the
end of Chapter 10 (Deepground) where you have to kill 100 enemies that come at
you in waves. It can be challenging but is not overly difficult and will earn
you about 80,000 gil per run. However, if you do decide to get the Ultima Wea-
pon this way, I wouldn’t use it during Normal mode; it’s so powerful that it
seems like cheating. Wait until Ex Hard mode and then use it to your heart’s
content.

Some on the message boards recommend replaying the last level of Chapter 12
and repeatedly dying. Each time you die, convert EXP to Gil and retry, gaining
cash pretty quickly to afford the Ultima Weapon. I've never tried this, but it
seems it would be faster but more boring than the repeatable mission in Chap-
ter 10. If you decide not to spend the time and money required for the Ultima
Weapon, your Powered Cerberus will still serve you well in Ex Hard mode.

---MACHINEGUN---

The Griffon is the worst of the “normal” weapons. It is weak, inaccurate, and
has a woefully short range, and its high speed does not make up for these
drawbacks. None of upgrade branches really help, either. Against normal enem-
ies, it’s not worth using because it takes so many bullets to kill them that
you will probably take a lot of damage in return.

However, as stated above the Griffon is not completely useless. It can be very
useful in certain boss battles. If you put the Power Booster and your best
barrel on it (the Faerie L Barrel works well), you can run circles around
slower bosses while keeping up a continuous barrage of damage. This works well
against Azul, any of the Black Widow mini-bosses, or even Nero. (Note: you
will want to turn on Semi-Auto Aim when doing this, even if you normally use
Manual Aim, because the recoil makes it hard to keep your machinegun on
target without Auto Aim.)

I find the S branch upgrades to be the best for this purpose. The P branch
upgrades are far too heavy and the extra power doesn’t make up for their other
drawbacks, while the M branch doesn’t add anything over the S branch. The
higher rate of fire of the S branch makes up for the lower power, and it has
longer range. Plus if you upgrade it all the way to the Sonic Griffon it has
99 bullets just like the Starry Griffon.

This is how it usually works for me: I use handguns and rifles for most lev-
els, collecting machinegun ammo as I go. Then when I get to the boss I use up
most or all of my machinegun ammo on it and switch back to handguns and rifles
to complete the next level. By the time I get to the next boss, I’m usually
full on machinegun bullets again and can use them on the boss. I find I con-
serve my handgun ammo much better this way. You don’t want to make upgrading
the Griffon your top priority, but don’t neglect it either because it does
have its uses.

The Blast Machinegun you can get halfway through chapter 10 is nearly useless,
though. It’s undeniably the weakest weapon in the game, and its knockdown
ability is not nearly enough to make up for its low stats. Sure, you can knock
an enemy down and then switch to another weapon to kill them before they get
up, but it’s simply easier to just kill them with another weapon to begin with.

---RIFLE---

The Hydra is a good all-around weapon. It’s heavy but powerful, slow but accu-
rate, and has the best range. When comparing the Hydra and the Cerberus, what
really makes the difference is that the Cerberus can put out more damage be-
cause it fires 3 bullets. The Hydra is still useful, especially when trying to
conserve ammo.
Because of the long range and good accuracy, any of the Hydra variants are
good for sniping. If you put a Normal barrel on it instead of a Long barrel,
it instead becomes a strong medium range weapon that makes a good stand-in for
your handgun.

Of the 3 upgrade branches, I would say avoid the P branch. The P Hydra starts
out pretty good, especially if you’re big into sniping, but the later P vari-
ants are too heavy and have low ammo. The P Hydra Gamma has only 3 bullets and
the Gigant Hydra has only 1 bullet, which makes even sniping difficult. You
can equip the Auto-Reloader to help with this, but that takes the same slot as
the Power Booster. I would rather use one of the other Hydra variants with a
Power Booster than use the Gigant Hydra with an Auto-Reloader.

I find the M and S branches to be better choices. The M branch ends in the
Velvet Hydra and the S branch ends in the Feather Hydra. Of the two, I think
that the Feather Hydra might be slightly better. It’s lightweight but still
with enough accuracy and power to be effective. Its biggest problem is its
magazine is too small to really take advantage of its higher rate of fire. The
Velvet Hydra is a good all-around weapon, with the same accuracy as the Fea-
ther Hydra but higher damage and lower speed. It is also heavier and has more
ammo capacity than you will ever need. Both are still great for sniping and
don’t suffer from having lower power than the Gigant Hydra.

Near the end of Chapter 10 (Deepground), right after the repeatable mission,
you can get the Bayonet Rifle. It is VERY similar to the Velvet Hydra, being
just slightly worse in all stats except for a slightly higher speed and a
smaller magazine. It also has the added bonus of improving your melee damage.
This is a minor benefit since melee is not very effective, but combined with
the Power Cross you can do good damage. If you want to conserve cash, you can
actually avoid upgrading your Hydra all the way and just start using the Bayo-
net Rifle as soon as you get it.

-----------------
---OTHER PARTS--- 00OTHR
-----------------

---BARRELS---

Short Barrels are crap. Don’t use them. They are lightweight and increase
speed, but they have horribly low power and accuracy. Even short range accu-
racy is bad, and the advantages do NOT make up for the drawbacks. Don’t waste
money upgrading the Short Barrel unless you’re a completionist (like me) who
wants to upgrade everything.

The Lucky S Barrel you can get in Chapter 10 is flat out the worst in the
game. Even though it doubles EXP earned, because it’s so bad I haven’t found
a way to take advantage of it. Some others have suggested using it on your
magic-focused weapon, to get the double EXP from enemies you kill with magic.

Normal Barrels are good all around. In my opinion you should use Normal Bar-
rels on your main weapon, though some players prefer to use a Long Barrel. As
you upgrade the Normal Barrel, it stays pretty average in all stats until the
final upgrade which increases accuracy by A LOT. The Master N Barrel is argu-
ably the best barrel in the game.

There is also the Guard N Barrel, which increases your defense. Stat wise it
is very similar to the Normal Barrel Gamma (the second to last upgrade). When
combined with the Cerberus Relief, the Guard N Barrel can be a huge benefit in
Ex Hard mode where the enemies do more damage. The biggest problem with the
Guard N Barrel is that it’s so hard to get--you have to save all the WRO mem-
bers in chapter 6 which can be very difficult to do.

Long Barrels are also very good. They have great accuracy at Long range and
even their Short range accuracy is decent enough that you can use a Long Bar-
rel on your main weapon instead of a Normal Barrel. Naturally they are perfect
for sniping when combined with the scope. Even without the scope, you can
still shoot enemies from further away, often before they can see/shoot you
(Semi-Auto Aim helps with this). In addition to long range and accuracy, the
Long Barrel also has high power but its biggest drawback is its very high
weight even when upgraded.

About halfway through Chapter 10 you can get the Faerie L Barrel. Compared to
the fully upgraded Nova L Barrel, it has less power, range, and accuracy, but
weighs almost nothing while the Nova L Barrel is quite heavy. I personally
think the Faerie L Barrel ties the Master N Barrel for best in the game. It
has similar power and speed to the Master N Barrel, but with more range, less
weight, and less accuracy. It is great for sniping at long range, while still
performing well at medium and short ranges. If you want to conserve cash, you
could avoid upgrading the Long and Normal Barrels all the way and instead
switch to the Faerie L Barrel as soon as you get it.

---SCOPES AND OPTIONAL PARTS---

There are only two scope slot accessories, the Sniper Scope and the Materia
Floater. The former is almost required equipment, but luckily you get it in
the first chapter. The Materia Floater is also important, and you will prob-
ably want to use it in preference to the Materia Booster because it opens up
the option slot for other accessories. Upgrading the Materia Floater is expen-
sive, but definitely worth it.

The Power Booster is the best optional part. Being able to kill enemies more
quickly with fewer bullets is always preferable. The first upgrade isn’t too
expensive, and you can probably wait until later for the second upgrade. Some
other guides state that the Beta and Gamma upgrades both give the same bonus
of +60% damage. I’ve tested this and found it to be wrong. The Beta upgrade
gives about +45% and the Gamma gives the full +60%. I can only assume it was
a typo in the Official Guide that propagated this error.

The other optional parts are of dubious usefulness. I used the Gravity Float-
er my first play-through, mostly to counteract the high weight of the Long
Barrel, but no longer find it of use. The Auto-Reloader doesn’t provide enough
benefit; reloading in combat really should not be a problem. It could be use-
ful on a Gigant Hydra to get around the 1 bullet magazine, but I wouldn't want
to use the Gigant Hydra anyway. Lastly, the Materia Booster is useful early
on, especially when combined with the Materia Floater, but once your Materia
Floater is upgraded you won’t use the Booster anymore.

There is also the Manaheart. You can only get it on Ex Hard mode by killing
the Dual Horn in Chapter 6 (which is not as easy as it sounds). It lets your
magic slowly recharge. This is not a great benefit in the normal game, but is
a HUGE benefit in the Bonus Missions if you have it in mind to complete them
all. The upgrades are very expensive but increase the recharge rate. Some
guides state it also upgrades your magic but this is not true; you still need
a Materia Floater to increase your magic damage.

---ACCESSORIES---

These are the little charms that hang from the chain on Vincent’s guns. They
include the three types of Materia and the three accuracy adjusters, plus the
Cerberus Relief, Power Cross, and Recoil Limiter.

You WILL need to use magic at some point, and it can be a great help in cer-
tain situations. Of the three types, Fire and Thunder are better. Fire is
great for taking out groups at long range and Thunder is great for taking out
groups at short range. Blizzard homes in on the enemies, but doesn’t do as
much damage and I’ve never found a good use for it. Always use at least Level
2 magic, preferably Level 3. Don’t waste your time with the basic Level 1
spells.

The S/M/L Adjusters improve your accuracy at that specific range. They seem
like a nice idea, but the boost they give is small and I’ve never had enough
problems with accuracy to need them. Maybe if you were using the Griffon a lot
or liked Short Barrels you might need the accuracy boost, but I don’t recom-
mend using either of those. The Recoil Limiter is the same way; I’ve just
never had enough trouble with recoil to need it. Maybe if you were using the
Gigant Hydra or Dueling Griffon then recoil could be a problem, but again I
don’t recommend using either.

Lastly we have the Power Cross and the Cerberus Relief. The former isn’t very
good by itself, but when combined with the Bayonet Rifle can make your melee
attacks quite powerful. It is fun to play around with but overall isn’t of
great use. The Cerberus Relief doesn’t increase your defense a lot, but it is
enough to make a difference, especially when upgraded. On Normal mode you
don’t really need the defense boost, but on Hard and Ex Hard modes the extra
defense will make a significant difference.

--------------------------------
---SUMMARY OF WHAT TO UPGRADE--- 00SUMM
--------------------------------

This is a quick recap of my opinions on what to upgrade first, what to upgrade

later, and what to skip. Ignore this if you are the kind of person (like me)
who spends the time to upgrade everything, regardless of its usefulness.

---HIGH UPGRADE PRIORITY---

Cerberus (P branch)
Normal Barrel
Power Booster

These three will serve you best throughout both Normal mode and Ex Hard mode.

---MEDIUM UPGRADE PRIORITY---

Hydra (M or S branch)
Long Barrel
Materia Floater
Cerberus Relief

These will be very useful to you but should not be your first priority

---LOW UPGRADE PRIORITY---

Griffon (S branch)
Materia Booster

Situationally useful, so don’t worry about upgrading them as much.

---EX HARD MODE UPGRADES---

Ultima Weapon
Manaheart

The Ultima Weapon can be obtained at the very end of Normal Mode and the Mana-
heart about one-third through Ex Hard Mode. They’re both very useful in Ex
Hard mode and the Bonus Missions.

---NON-UPGRADABLE PARTS TO ACQUIRE---

Bayonet Rifle
Faerie L Barrel
Guard N Barrel (skip it if it proves too frustrating to get)

The first two are very useful and easy to get, but come late in the game. The
third comes earlier in the game but is harder to get.

---NON-UPGRADABLE PARTS TO SKIP---

Blast Machinegun
Lucky S Barrel

Easy to acquire late in the game, but not very useful.

---DON'T NEED TO UPGRADE---

Short Barrel
Gravity Floater
Auto Reloader
Power Cross
Recoil Limiter
S/M/L Adjusters

These parts are not very useful, so don’t purchase or upgrade them unless you
have a lot of extra cash.

-------------------
---WEAPON SETUPS--- 00SETP
-------------------

My normal setup is to have one weapon for normal fights at medium to short
range (usually handgun), one weapon for long range (usually rifle, sometimes
handgun), and one for magic (usually handgun, sometimes rifle).

---TYPICAL SETUP---

This is what I would be aiming for by about the middle of a play-through on

Normal Mode.

Normal Fights: P Cerberus with Normal Barrel Beta,

Power Booster Beta, and Cerberus Relief

Long Range: S Hydra with Long Barrel Beta,

Sniper Scope, Power Booster Beta, and Cerberus Relief

Magic: P Cerberus with Guard N Barrel,

Materia Floater, Materia Booster, and Thunder or Fire Materia

Playing through the game, I would generally like to have stuff fully or almost
fully upgraded by the start of Chapter 11.

Normal Fights: Powered Cerberus with Master N Barrel,

Power Booster Gamma, and Cerberus Relief Beta or Gamma

Long Range: Feather Hydra or Bayonet Rifle with Faerie L Barrel,

Sniper Scope, Power Booster Gamma, and Cerberus Relief Beta or Gamma

Magic: Powered Cerberus with Guard N Barrel,

Materia Floater Gamma, Power Booster Gamma, and Thunder or Fire Materia

---VARIATIONS---

(These examples assume you’re using the best upgrade version available for
that part, rather than referencing the specific upgraded parts.)

I mentioned above that I sometimes switch things up, using a handgun for long
range and a rifle for magic instead of the other way around.
 Long Range: P Cerberus with Long Barrel (or Faerie L Barrel),
Sniper Scope, Power Booster, and Cerberus Relief

Magic: S Hydra (or Bayonet Rifle) with Normal Barrel,

Materia Floater, Power Booster, and Thunder or Fire Materia

I will also sometimes use a handgun or rifle for both long range AND magic.
This is super useful in at least a few spots in Chapter 8 where you can snipe
some gattling gunners with a well-placed Lvl 3 Fire spell, but overall it's
pretty niche.

Long Range/Magic: S Hydra with Long Barrel (or Faerie L Barrel),

Sniper Scope, Materia Booster, and Fire Materia

Long Range/Magic: P Cerberus with Long Barrel (or Faerie L Barrel),

Sniper Scope, Materia Booster, and Fire Materia

A rifle can even be used for normal fights, though I only do this when out of
handgun ammo. This makes a very good medium range weapon that still does well
at long and short ranges.

Normal Fights: S Hydra or Bayonet Rifle with Normal Barrel,

Power Booster, and Cerberus Relief or Power Cross.

I’ve also talked about using the Griffon for boss fights. With the right
barrel and accessories you’ll have decent power, decent accuracy, and a high
rate of fire. You don’t have to worry about wasting handgun ammo as you run
around the boss laying down a constant stream of lead.

Boss Fights: S Griffon with Faerie L Barrel (or Normal Barrel),

Power Booster, and Cerberus Relief.

---EX HARD MODE SETUP---

This is similar to the Typical Setup above, but with the addition of the
Ultima Weapon and the Manaheart (often upgraded to Manamind or Manasoul).

Normal Fights: Ultima Weapon with Master N Barrel or Guard N Barrel,

Power Booster Gamma, and Cerberus Relief Gamma

Long Range: Feather Hydra or Bayonet Rifle with Faerie L Barrel,

Sniper Scope, Power Booster Gamma, and Cerberus Relief Gamma

Magic: Ultima Weapon with Guard N Barrel,

Materia Floater Gamma, Manaheart/mind/soul, and Thunder or Fire Materia

Sometimes what I will do is put the Manaheart on the Long Range or Normal
Fights weapon instead of the Magic weapon. This sacrifices some attack power
but lets me recharge mana even when using another weapon.

Long Range: Ultima Weapon with Faerie L Barrel (or Nova L Barrel),
Sniper Scope, Manaheart/mind/soul, and Cerberus Relief Gamma

Magic: Feather Hydra or Bayonet Rifle with Guard N Barrel,

Materia Floater Gamma, Power Booster Gamma, and Thunder or Fire Materia

------------------------------------
---ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND COPYRIGHT--- 00ACKN
------------------------------------

Even though I have drawn inspiration from other guides on GameFAQs, this guide
is all my own work. You can use it for your own benefit, but don't try to
claim it as your own or make money off it. That would be lame.

Some of the FAQs I've used myself and would recommend to you are:
Angelo Heartilly's Gun Customization FAQ
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/924449-dirge-of-cerberus-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/
44992

kigo3000's similar but less detailed Gun Part Data FAQ

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/924449-dirge-of-cerberus-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/
45660

and GoeTeeks' Ex Hard mode guide

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/924449-dirge-of-cerberus-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/
44992

I haven't completed all the Bonus Missions yet, but I've still found
Monastic_Turtle's guide to be helpful
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/924449-dirge-of-cerberus-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/
44698

That's it! Have fun out there shooting stuff with everyone's favorite red-
cloaked anti-hero.

...Wait, that describes a lot of characters besides just Vincent.

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