Chainsaw (Final Fantasy VII)

The Chainsaw is a weapon for Barret in Final Fantasy VII. It can be purchased at Wutai, and has stats on-par with other weapons available there. It is a melee weapon with five Materia slots, four of which are linked. It can be equipped to Barret or thrown.
==Obtained==
The Chainsaw can be purchased for 6,300 gil at Wutai after completing the "Homecoming of a Miserable Daughter" sidequest. Depending on when the player chooses to travel to Wutai, this may be early in the game or later. The Chainsaw is weaker than weapons such as the Microlaser, acquired after Icicle Inn, but stronger than all weapons before it.
==Mechanics==
As the Chainsaw has a base Attack stat bonus of 52, the base damage for physical attacks when the Chainsaw is equipped is in the following formula:
:\text{Base Damage} = \text{(52 + Strength)} + \frac{\text{(52 + Strength)} + \text{Level}}{32} \times \frac{\text{(52 + Strength)} \times \text{Level}}{32}
where "Level" is Barret's current level and "Strength" is his Strength stat. The Chainsaw also has an Attack% (Accuracy) of 100%, and grants a +10 bonus to Barret's Magic stat.
==Use==
The Chainsaw is a melee weapon with fairly strong stats if acquired as soon as Wutai is available. It has four linked Materia slots, and one unlinked slot. Although the weapon is melee, meaning Barret cannot hit ranged targets or deal full damage from the back row, it is otherwise more powerful than all weapons available before it.
The Chainsaw has two sets of two linked Materia slots. Barret can link Magic Materia or Summon Materia with several Support Materia, such as Elemental. At this stage, Barret is a competent user of Magic, due to his decent Magic stat, the boost to Magic provided by the weapon, and having plenty of HP to make equipping more Magic Materia on Barret less detrimental than on other characters. The unlinked slot can use Independent Materia or Command Materia without needing to take advantage of Support Materia. However, the player can also include more Command or Independent Materia and simply take advantage of Barret's Strength stat.
Chainsaw is the strongest weapon for Barret before Icicle Inn, when the Microlaser can be purchased. Between it and Heavy Vulcan, Chainsaw is better in stats and has an extra Materia slot, but lacks the Heavy Vulcan's range. This means that the use of the Heavy Vulcan depends on how important Barret's range is to the player.
Category:Weapons in Final Fantasy VII