Aerith Gainsborough (VII Remake party member)

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## Aerith Gainsborough

エアリス・ゲインズブール (Earisu Geinzubūru?)

**Aerith Gainsborough** is a playable character in *Final Fantasy VII Remake*. She is a ranged character who provides support and healing spells, and wields a File:Aerith staff from FFVII Remake icon.png Staff weapon. Rather than striking enemies with her staves physically, she sends out magical projectiles from a distance that home in on her target. Aerith is the best spellcaster in the party, and provides excellent supporting abilities.

Aerith joins the party in Chapter 8, "Budding Bodyguard." During this chapter, she can partake in many Odd Jobs, which both determine Cloud's affection score with her, and the audition dress she wears in Chapter 9, "The Town That Never Sleeps." She remains in the party until the end of Chapter 12, "Fight for Survival" and then rejoins in Chapter 17, "Deliverance from Chaos."

If Aerith is transformed into a toad, she has a little pink ribbon on her head. Becoming a toad is her only means of inflicting physical damage. If attempting a toad-only challenge run with Enfeeblement Rings, her high attack staves may find some use.

## Battle

 File:Aerith normal attack from FFVII Remake.jpg
Aerith is a ranged support character with the highest File:Magic attribute from FFVII Remake icon.png Magic and File:Spirit from FFVII Remake icon.png Spirit attributes, making her most powerful spellcaster. He basic attacks consist on shooting slow moving projectiles that hit hard, and deal damage based on her magic attribute. Her File:Playstation-Button-T.png ability is Tempest, a ranged attack that can be charged to a greater effect. Aerith is also unique in that her limit breaks heal and strengthen other party members rather than deal damage. Aerith is one of only two ranged attackers in the game along with Barret, though her attacks are distinct in that they are purely magic based.

Aerith is locked into a spellcasting role, and the only variation is if she focuses on defensive spells, offensive spells, or a mix. Aerith excels in this role, as she has the greatest spellcasting damage potential, particularly when using the more powerful "-ga" spells, making her unmatched at exploiting enemies' elemental weaknesses in burst magic damage. Her abilities, such as Arcane Ward, capitalize on this even further, helping both herself and her allies cast spells at a high rate.

Aerith's weaknesses lie in her poor HP and File:Vitality from FFVII Remake icon.png Vitality attributes (both the lowest in the game) and limited mobility, which can cause her to be overwhelmed by enemies in close range. Her low durability means she relies on the other characters to protect her, and she is best staying at as far a distance as possible. Her damage output is also purely magical, including her basic attacks. This renders her File:Strength from FFVII Remake icon.png Strength attribute moot outside of toad form.

### Equipment

Main article: Aerith's staves
Aerith wields staves used as a focus for her magic. Rather than physically attacking with them, she shoots non-elemental magic orbs from the tip at enemies; these can hit enemies in area when they are near to each other. Because Aerith's normal attacks rely entirely on her magic attribute, the main choice between her staves comes down to the unique abilities they unlock when leveled up, rather than choosing between an increase in File:Magic Attack from FFVII Remake icon.png Magic Attack and File:Attack Power from FFVII Remake icon.png Attack Power (the latter is irrelevant unless Aerith is in frog form). Aerith can earn SP for her weapons with Telluric Scriptures manuscripts.

Many of Aerith's weapons have upgrades that reduce the cost of spells, as well increasing her magic attack power and maximum MP. With two exceptions, most weapons eventually unlock Reprieve, allowing her to survive powerful attacks at 1 HP, greatly helping with her durability problem.

Aerith's default staff is the File:Aerith staff from FFVII Remake icon.png Guard Stick, which provides varied upgrades that improve her MP regeneration and attack damage a modest amount, but more notably provides abilities to increase her durability slightly. Her File:Aerith staff from FFVII Remake icon.png Reinforced Staff has a similar role and can lengthen the duration of buffs, as well as improving her resistance and healing.

File:Aerith staff from FFVII Remake icon.png Silver Staff provides the best MP regeneration boost at +50%, while also having abilities that greatly reduce spell costs. This makes it her most MP-friendly weapon. Mythril Rod provides her the highest raw magic attack increase of any weapon, as well as Bloodsucker to allow her to recover HP after defeating enemies. Between the two, Silver Staff can be better for sustained fights if Aerith is having MP issues, and also in fights where she needs Reprieve to survive, as Mythril Rod does not have it. However, Mythril Rod can deal more raw damage when casting spells, making it often the best weapon for her.

Aerith's File:Aerith staff from FFVII Remake icon.png Bladed Staff and File:Aerith staff from FFVII Remake icon.png Arcane Scepter have unique roles. The Bladed Staff provides several boosts to her critical hit rate and unlocks that improve her normal attacks, making it best if Aerith wishes to improve her regular attacks instead of focusing on improving her already powerful spells. Arcane Scepter, on the other hand, increases her regular damage and elemental damage, and reduces spell costs, while also providing Stagger Siphon to recover HP from a staggered enemy. This makes her more well-rounded in terms of regular attacks and spells.

In terms of accessories, early on Aerith benefits from Earrings to boost her magic, or Bulletproof Vest to mitigate her frailty. Later, Aerith is the best choice to equip the Spectral Cogwheel due to her emphasis on spellcasting, meaning that with the accessory, she will quickly build up her limit gauge as she spending MP. The Circlet is also a great choice for Aerith, as improving her magic attribute and her MP simultaneously takes advantage of her best traits. Healing Carcanet is arguably a must for Aerith during tough boss battles, as it increases the recovery effect of all items, spells and abilities, including her Healing Wind limit.

For armor, Aerith should focus more on improving her durability than on increasing her materia slots.

### Abilities

Aerith's abilities add a lot of versatility to her kit and bring unmatched utility to the party, ranging from allowing double-casting offensive abilities to protecting allies from projectiles. She has a good deal of offensive abilities to help her conserve MP. A few of her abilities are costly to cast in terms of ATB.

 File:Arcane Ward from FFVII Remake.jpg
Aerith's default ability Soul Drain allows her to restore her MP. This is initially lackluster, but improves further in the game. The ability can be useful as she will be casting spells often and her MP is precious, though she has other ways of restoring her MP.

Arcane Ward is core to her moveset. It places a circle on the ground, and party members who stand within it while casting offensive spells will cast the spell twice, at a reduced cost and potency. Depending on good placement of the ward, it can make Aerith a powerhouse for spellcasting, and buff the entire party. Aerith also obtains ATB Ward, which has a similar effect, but will boost the ATB fill rate of those within it when they cast spells. ATB Ward has a high ATB cost to place, but is still a worthy luxury ability. Aerith can use Lustrous Shield to place a shield in front of these wards that can block ranged damage.

 File:Soul Drain from FFVII Remake.jpg
Aerith has three offensive abilities. Ray of Judgment is the only ability outside of Tifa's abilities that allows her to boost stagger bonus damage, and is great to use before casting spells on staggered enemies to increase incoming damage thereafter. Sorcerous Storm deals great damage in an area-of-effect around Aerith, making it good for pushing enemies away from her when they gang up on her. Finally, Fleeting Familiar provides supplemental damage to her attacks.

Tempest from FFVII Remake.jpgTempest.Sorcerous Storm from FFVII Remake.jpgSorcerous Storm.Fleeting Familiar from FFVII Remake.jpgFleeting Familiar.Ray of Judgment from FFVII Remake.jpgRay of Judgement.Lustrous Shield from FFVII Remake.jpgLustrous Shield.ATB Ward from FFVII Remake.jpgATB Ward.
### Materia

 File:Fira All on Abzu from FFVII Remake.jpg
Aerith joins the party with File:Magic Materia from FFVII Remake.png Ice Materia, a File:Command Materia from FFVII Remake.png Prayer Materia and a File:Complete Materia from FFVII Remake.png Refocus Materia. Because of her magic attribute, Aerith is the best character to equip a variety of File:Magic Materia from FFVII Remake.png Magic Materia, especially those dependent on the attribute, such as offensive magic or healing magic. Generally, she should equip damaging magic materia of whatever element the enemies are weak to, or at least do not resist.

Aerith is the best character to give File:Support Materia from FFVII Remake.png Magnify Materia paired with a spell to maximize its effectiveness both with her Arcane Ward and her magic attribute. For a defensive role, this can be paired with File:Magic Materia from FFVII Remake.png Healing Materia or File:Magic Materia from FFVII Remake.png Revival Materia to quickly bring the party back up after being hit by a powerful attack, as it is more ATB-efficient than Pray. For offensive use, it can also be extremely potent when paired with a damaging spell.

 File:Curaga spell from FFVII Remake.jpg
Other File:Support Materia from FFVII Remake.png Support Materia that greatly benefit Aerith when paired with offensive magic materia are File:Support Materia from FFVII Remake.png MP Absorption Materia and File:Support Materia from FFVII Remake.png HP Absorption Materia. The former provides sustainability and allows her to cast spells constantly, while the latter is an efficient way to heal her. Though she has less use from File:Support Materia from FFVII Remake.png Elemental Materia with regard to augmenting her damage than others do, she can nonetheless effectively equip it on her armor to provide much-needed sustainability.

Equipping File:Complete Materia from FFVII Remake.png MP Up Materia can be beneficial for Aerith in long fights with how frequently she will be spellcasting. File:Complete Materia from FFVII Remake.png Magic Up Materia can also benefit her spells even further to truly maximize her damage output. Conversely, File:Complete Materia from FFVII Remake.png HP Up Materia can help mitigate her low durability.

Aerith can benefit from File:Complete Materia from FFVII Remake.png First Strike Materia to either begin a battle with a powerful spell that can pressure an enemy, or to begin it with Arcane Ward. Alternatively, especially for boss battles, File:Command Materia from FFVII Remake.png ATB Boost Materia also provides her with a quick ATB fill that is useful for emergencies, such as having to heal a party member in a critical state, or to exploit an enemy weaknesses who is staggered.

Aerith Parry from FFVII Remake.jpgParry.Aerith Deadly Dodge from FFVII Remake.jpgDeadly Dodge.Aerith Fire Elemental from FFVII Remake.jpgFire elemental materia.Aerith Ice Elemental from FFVII Remake.jpgIce elemental materia.
### Limit breaks

 File:Healing Wind from FFVII Remake.jpg
Main article: Aerith's limit breaks
Aerith's level 1 unique limit break is Healing Wind, which restores health for the party. As this comes at no ATB or MP cost, it is a very strong healing ability, albeit not a substitute for prayer or healing materia. Her level 2 limit break is Planet's Protection, which applies File:Shield from FFVII Remake icon.png Shield to the entire party for a duration, rendering them immune to physical damage. As a level 2 limit break, setting it to this means her limit bar takes longer to fill.

Aerith is the only character whose limit breaks provide utility rather than damage output. Both her limit breaks are used to aid the party's survivability in dire situations, though they have different purposes. Planet's Protection is very useful for surviving fights against enemies who rely on physical damage, but cannot protect against powerful magic attacks. Healing Wind provides a more simple heal which can be used whenever the party is in trouble.

By equipping the Spectral Cogwheel accessory, Aerith builds the limit gauge further as she expends MP. This can allow her to use Healing Wind much more often, or to use Planet's Protection earlier in a battle. Once obtained, Gotterdammerung allows her to open the battle with Planet's Protection.

By equipping Refocus materia, Aerith can use the Refocus ability. This gives her three ATB bars for the rest of the battle, allowing ATB charges to be filled more rapidly. This can be beneficial for her due to the high ATB cost of some of her abilities, and also to aid her role as a supporting character. If using this, Aerith should keep her limit break set as Healing Wind so that her limit bar fills faster, unless she is using Gotterdammerung and can open the battle with it.

Planet's Protection from FFVII Remake.jpgPlanet's Protection.Refocus from FFVII Remake.jpgRefocus.
## Quests

Aerith joins Cloud in Chapter 8, "Budding Bodyguard," in "Head for the Station." After Cloud escorts her home, she will ask Cloud to help her deliver flowers to Sector 5 orphanage. Afterwards, she assists Cloud in the Odd Jobs, and fights against Rude at the end of Chapter 8.

Aerith leaves briefly after defeating Rude, but rejoins in Chapter 9, "The Town That Never Sleeps." After passing the Underground Colosseum quest, Aerith leaves and won't assist Cloud with Odd Jobs during the chapter. She rejoins before Honeybee Inn quest and remains in the party until "Evacuation Orders" in Chapter 12, "Fight for Survival."

Aerith rejoins the party in Chapter 17, "Deliverance from Chaos." During "Find the Others," she forms a party with Tifa.

Aerith dress 1 from FFVII Remake render.pngAerith's first dress.Aerith dress 2 from FFVII Remake render.pngAerith's second dress.Aerith dress 3 from FFVII Remake render.pngAerith's third dress.
## Interactions

See also: Affection mechanics (VII Remake) or Dress mechanics (VII Remake)
File:Aerith Flower Choice from FFVII Remake.jpgFile:Aerith Flower Choice from FFVII Remake 2.jpg
During the "Rescue Tifa" segment at Wall Market in Chapter 9, "The Town That Never Sleeps," Aerith's audition dress depends on how many sidequests the player completed in the Sector 5 Slums. During the Honeybee Inn segment, Aerith's reactions are more excited the better the player performs in the rhythm minigame during the dance.

After falling into the sewers, the player can progress by talking to either Tifa or Aerith who lie on the ground; the scene is different depending on whom the player picks.

Depending on the player's affection score with Aerith, she may appear in the resolution scene in the quest "Resolve" in Chapter 14, "In Search of Hope" that takes place in Aerith's garden. If the player gets Aerith's scene, Cloud will dream of meeting her in the garden.

## Gallery

Aerith Battle Stance from FFVII Remake.jpgBattle stance.Aerith Defend from FFVII Remake.jpgGuarding.Aerith Evade from FFVII Remake.jpgEvading.Aerith Victory Pose from FFVII Remake.jpgVictory pose in Corneo Colosseum and Shinra Combat Simulator.Toad Aerith from FFVII Remake.jpgToad status.Aerith KO'd from FFVII Remake.jpgIncapacitated.