Materia Combinations Guide - FF7
In Final Fantasy 7 you are able to use the linked slots in your armor or weapons to pair Materia, allowing them to compliment each other. Some Materia don't do anything when paired together, such as two Summons, two different offensive spells or an ability and a spell. For the most part, red, green and yellow Materia are the ones that don't benefit from being paired with one another.
Blue Materia is typically the modifier Materia or support Materia color. There are some exceptions to these rules which is why I am generalizing so much, however most of the time you're going to be pairing a red, green or yellow Materia with a blue one to strengthen or modify it.
Certain Materia have different effects when paired in your armor and when paired in your weapon, such as the Added Effect Materia and Elemental Materia. For those of you just starting out and still getting used to the Materia system of FF7, I have included guides for a majority of the most basic Materia pairs below, Added Effect and Elemental are amongst these.
Elemental Materia Combinations
Added Effect Materia Combinations
Sneak Attack Materia Combinations
Here are some really basic Materia combinations that you will be able to do early on in Disc 1 and Disc 2.
Choco/Mog + Added Effect (In Weapon): Many enemies are susceptible to paralyze in this game which makes this a fantastic combo
Time + Added Effect (In Weapon): Much like with Choco/Mog before it, many enemies in FF7 are weak to Slow
Lightning + Elemental (In Weapon): Out of all the magics in the game, Lightning is the one least commonly resisted by enemies
Cover + Counter Attack: Your character will counter attack once for every Counter Attack Materia you have, use this to your advantage
More Advanced Materia Combinations
With all of the basics out of the way, let's take a look at some of the more advanced Materia combinations and learn how to best utilize paired Materia. To get started, let's talk about pairing 4 or more Materia together. There are no Weapons or Armor that have more than 2 Materia slots but that doesn't mean you can't pair multiple support Materia to the same spell or ability.
For example, let's say you put an Ice Materia with an HP Absorb Materia in one pairing and an Ice Materia and an MP Absorb in another. This will make your Ice spells restore both HP and MP to you when cast. You can take this even a step further and do HP Absorb, MP Absorb, Quadra Magic, MP Turbo, Steal as well and W-Magic together. This will make you cast the Ice spell 4 times, restore HP and MP with each cast as well as attempt to Steal from the enemy after each Ice.
Basically you can pair an attack Materia with as many different support Materia as you want, getting it to do all different sorts of things, assuming you have enough of the attack Materia. Below are a few pages that cover different Materia Combinations I have discovered or found online. If you'd like to see my recommended Materia combos instead of deciding for yourself, check the bottom of this page instead!
HP Absorb Materia Combinations
MP Absorb Materia Combinations
Final Attack Materia Combinations
Quadra Magic Materia Combinations
Steal as Well Materia Combinations
Almar's Recommended Materia Combinations
These are the Materia Combinations I recommend you use on your characters/Materia combinations that I used on my characters.
Hades + Added Effect (In Weapon): Much like the Choco/Mog combination this one is insanely OP against non boss enemies.. It however can't be acquired as early on as Choco/Mog
Magic Counter + Restore: Every time you're hit, you'll heal yourself
Master Command Materia + HP Absorb: Have this on at least one character, Cloud preferably. It'll make it so you regular melee attacks restore HP
Final Attack + Phoenix: Have this combination on at least one character incase your whole group wipes
W-Summon + Knights of the Round: One of the oldest combinations in the book that's still good to this day. Works even better if you Mime it on one of your other characters.. You can defeat Ruby and Emerald Weapon in just a few turns this way.
Morph + Steal as well: Use this combination on Yuffie when you're farming enemies you have to Morph
Master Magic Materia + Mega All: Every magic you can cast will have All applied to it. Also works if you just pair a Master Magic Materia with an All Materia.
Sneak Attack + Steal: Great combo if you're item farming for something or trying to collect items. Otherwise it's just annoying and takes up time at the start of a fight
Sneak Attack + Slash All: Will end a fight before it even has a chance to start in most areas
Counter Attack (x8) + Cover: Each time you are hit you will retaliate with half an Omnislash; Cover will get you hit more often
(Deathblow + Added Cut) + (Deathblow + Steal as well): Your Deathblow will strike with an additional melee attack plus have a chance to steal from the target. You can add another Deathblow + HP Absorb combo to this if you want.
(Counter + Deathblow) + (Deathblow + HP Absorb) + (Deathblow + MP Absorb) + (Deathblow + Added Cut) + Cover Materia: This will make it so each time you counter with Deathblow and that Deathblow will restore HP, MP and also deal a follow up regular melee attack.
(Magic Materia + Quadra Magic) + (MP Turbo + Magic Materia) + (MP Absorb + Magic Materia) + (HP Absorb + Magic Materia) + (Steal as well + Magic Materia) + (Added Cut + Magic Materia) + (Magic Counter + Magic Materia) + W-Magic: This is an example of an extremely long combo of Materia pairings that you can do. Magic Counter is thrown into the mix as a bonus, it'll launch off the combo even when it isn't your turn.