Materia has been a long-standing element in Final Fantasy titles, and is an excellent magic system. With a wide variety of materia available, it can be hard to narrow it down. Here we will give you five of the best recommendations for each character based on your playstyle so that you can get the most out of your party's dynamics.

If you’re taking on Hard Mode, AP Boost will help you level your materia faster. As it’s not achieved until much later in the game, I won’t have it listed under any party members.

4. Barret 

Barret Wallace, the leader of Avalanche ready for action!

Barret’s move set is pretty straightforward. He works as a ranged tank, and is going to soak up a lot of damage compared to the others. He has a naturally high HP to begin with, and this is further bolstered by his different weapons and materia. He also has two close-range melee weapons to work with, putting him in the center of combat. His magic capacity is pretty decent as well, making him a great secondary spellcaster to Aerith. 

Anything that’s going to boost his HP capacity is a must, to allow him to take as much damage as humanly possible. As a result, I haven't listed HP Up below, as that should be a given, and I recommend equipping it to him whenever possible.

(An honorable mention not listed here is Auto-Cure, which is highly recommended if you are playing on Hard Mode and don’t plan on actively controlling Barret in combat and you want to free up Aerith’s materia slots.)

Best Materia For Barret:

1. Healing Materia

• Healing materia is probably one of the most important staple pieces of materia you’ll ever equip. (Especially in Hard Mode, where Items are unavailable.) When fully leveled up, it will give you Cure, Cura, Regen, and Curaga. Since Barret makes for great secondary magic support, I recommend keeping this on him at all times.
   
• Linking this with Magnify will allow Barret to heal the entire party, and they will only get stronger as they level together. (You only get ONE copy of Magnify in Chapter 9, so don’t miss it!)
   
• If you choose to have Barret take a more melee-oriented role with a weapon like the Wrecking Ball, having healing of his own will be beneficial, especially if you’re playing on Hardmode.

2. HP Absorption 

• When linked with another materia that does damage, Barret will initially gain 20% of the damage dealt by the linked materia. This means that if Barret deals a mechanical enemy Thunder damage, he will get 20% of that damage back in HP. When it’s fully leveled up, that gets bumped up to 40%!
   
• This is another great choice for Hardmode, or when you need to keep Barret alive when Aerith isn’t available.
   
• I recommend this for going through levels with a lot of enemies with elemental weaknesses. Swapping between Fire and Thunder materia will be helpful, and exploiting their weakness can help keep Barret alive during combat.

3. Revival Materia  

• This materia will give you Raise and Arise. Raise will revive an ally and restore their HP a ‘moderate amount.’ Arise will revive an ally and fully restore their HP. You have two opportunities to acquire this materia; first in Chapter Four after fighting Roche, and after that it becomes available in the Sector 5 Materia Shop for 3,000 gil during chapters 8 and 9.
   
• Again, as Hard Mode doesn’t allow the use of items, this is going to be a literal lifesaver!
   
• There are moments throughout the game where the party gets split up, so this is perfect for Barret to help keep the party alive when Aerith isn’t available. 

4. Provoke

• Provoke materia is a complete materia, meaning it provides a passive effect. Equipping this will automatically use Provoke during battle. It will temporarily draw the enemies’ aggro when your teammates are severely damaged. This does not work when Barret is being actively controlled however.
   
• This will be ideal when you know your party is going to be hitting a lot of enemies at once. It’s not effective against bigger, stronger enemies, but it will keep the heat off the rest of your team when you’re going through levels or boss fights with lots of enemies spawning at once.
   
• If you don’t plan on actively playing as Barret very often, this is worth equipping. He can help distract the enemy and sponge damage while Cloud and Tifa get a reprieve from the damage and allow an opportunity to heal them. 

5. Steadfast Block

• Steadfast Block reduces enemy damage and helps fill the ATB faster when guarding. 
   
• This materia will be very helpful if Barret is using Wrecking Ball or the Steel Pincers. Because he is in the thick of the fight, he will be blocking more frequently.
   
• Being able to fill your ATB gauge faster will make it all the easier to pop off Barret's abilities. This will be helpful in Hard Mode as well, so that you can get the most out of his move set. 

3. Aerith 

Flower girl, Aerith. She looks sweet but packs a magic punch.

Aerith is an amazing spellcaster with great stats for magic. Typically, she’s played as the party healer/White Mage, but she also has excellent capacity for offensive magic. She’s typically going to be in the back of the fight, similar to Barret. Her magic stats are naturally pretty high compared to the others, and this can be boosted further with the appropriate materia!

(Not listed here is the Healing Materia, as that is a staple and should go without saying! You’ll want Aerith to have a Healing materia equipped at all times, preferably one that’s been fully leveled up if possible.)
 

Best Materia for Aerith:
1. MP up and Magic Up 

• MP Up materia raises your max MP. Magic Up raises your Magic Attack stat. I’ve included these together because I feel they go hand in hand. The more MP you have, the more damage your Magic attack will do! 
   
• Sometimes these two get overlooked as Aerith already has decent base stats. Plus, whatever weapon she has equipped will also bump up those stats. therefore some players may give them to Cloud or Tifa. If Aerith is going to do a lot of your magic heavy lifting, you should boost her magic stats as much as possible.
   
• If you plan on having her as your healer and not much more, then loading up on MP Up in place of Magic Up isn’t a bad idea. This will give her more MP available during battle to ensure your party stays alive. 

2. Fire, Ice, Wind or Lightning

• Fire, Ice, Wind, and Lightning are all magic materia that offer elemental damage. They are incredibly versatile too, depending on how they are equipped. These are listed together as your needs may change from battle to battle.
   
• When equipped with one of the two elemental materia, this can provide a good magic defense when set in her equipment slots. If you feel that Aerith is taking more magic damage than you’d like, this will help mitigate some of that damage.
   
• If you want Aerith to take a more offensive approach to her spell-slinging, you should have one or more of each equipped. Having all four equipped if you’re willing to use the slots will ensure that she haswhat she needs to hit any elemental weaknesses the enemy may have. 

3. Auto-Cure

• This will automatically cast cure on severely injured party members up to a certain number of times per battle, given that the character has enough ATB charges and MP. It only works on characters that are not actively being controlled by the player. 
   
• This will be absolutely invaluable if you plan on playing Hard Mode and don’t anticipate actively playing as Aerith during fights. 
   
• If you really want this to pop off, consider equipping ATB Assist to another member of your party. If you plan on having everyone use ATB abilities back to back this can help keep Aerith’s ATB gauge topped off to ensure she can use the Auto-Cure.  

4. Revival 

• Revival gives the use of revival spells; Raise and Arise. Raise will revive a party member and restore a ‘moderate amount’ of HP. Arise will revive your teammate and restore all their health. 
   
• If you’re playing on Hard Mode this is a MUST. There are no potions or phoenix downs to rely on, so this is the only way to bring back a fallen ally.
   
• As mentioned earlier, you’ll find this in Chapter 4 on the Sector 7 Plate Edge; otherwise, it can be purchased from the Sector 5 materia shop. I definitely recommend having at least two, one for Barret and one for Aerith. 

5. Magnify 

• Magnify expands the overall range of whatever spell it’s linked to. Granted, it does reduce the effect of the spell by a certain amount (60% at level one, 45% at level 2 and 25% at level 3). However, if linked with your Healing materia, it can give some HP to your whole party at once in a pinch. 
   
• Unless you have the DLC (which is not covered here), you only get one! So if you don’t plan on giving it to Barret as mentioned earlier, I highly recommend giving this to Aerith for her Healing. If you’re taking a more offensive approach, however, it wouldn’t hurt to link it to a materia that does elemental damage if you’re being overrun with smaller enemies and want to hit their weaknesses easily. 
   
• This can be picked up in Chapter 9 in the Sector 6 Slums, by the Collapsed Expressway. 

2. Tifa

Tifa, the hard-hitting girl next door.

Tifa brings the speed and critical hits, and thusly, the pain! She truly shines as the DPS in the party. Her two best weapons, Tifa's two best weapons, Feathered Gloves and Purple Pain, really highlight those two attributes.While she does have some decent capacity for spellcasting, as I’ll mention later, her speed and attack are the best stats to look towards.

One materia that isn’t listed but is still worth having equipped is Tifa’s Chakra materia. It comes equipped to her by default.  It will let you restore HP relative to the amount of damage taken, so the lower her HP the more it will heal her. It can also be used to cure poison. This will help when items are not available and your healers are preoccupied.
 

Best Materia for Tifa:
1. Deadly Dodge

• Deadly Dodge will deal area damage when an attack command is given right after dodging. At level 2, the potency is increased. 
• Tifa gets up close and personal when she fights, which means she'll be dodging a lot of attacks as well, making this very effective for Tifa. 
• This can first be found in Chapter 2 on Loveless Street; after that, it will be available in Materia Shops starting in Chapter 3. 

2. ATB Stagger 

• ATB Stagger Increases ATB when staggering an enemy. It's pretty simple, and as you level it up to max 3, the boost increases each time.
• A good part of Tifa’s move set is going to help increase that stagger bar. With moves like Omnistrike and gloves like Purple Pain, where you get a lot of good critical hits in, you can get a lot of this materia. It will lend itself to constantly pumping out ATB abilities. 
• This becomes available from Chadley after you complete his Intel Report of Assessing 40 different enemies. 

3. Elemental Materia

• Elemental materia essentially infuses either your weapon or equipment with the magic materia it’s linked to. If you link it to your weapon, it increases elemental damage dealt by 8% at level one and up to 23% at level three.If it’s set in your equipment, at level one it halves the linked elemental damage taken, at level 2 it prevents linked damage, and at max level 3 it absorbs elemental damage taken.
   
• With Tifa constantly dealing out quick damage, I like to equip this to her gloves with either fire or lightning depending on the type of enemies I expect to face.Tifa also has pretty decent magic stats so it also gives her the potential to throw some offensive magic around as well. 
   
•  If you’re on Hard Mode, having these set in your equipment can help mitigate any elemental damage Tifa may take, and help take the load off of healing. 

4. Barrier 

• Barrier offers spells that provide defensive spells: Barrier halves physical damage at level 1, Manaward halves magic damage at level 2, and Manawall halves magic and physical damage at level 3.  
   
• Tifa’s going to be taking a decent amount of damage in some fights, and Barret won’t always be able to soak it all up. This gives Tifa a way to lessen that damage. 
   
• You can get Barrier as early as Chapter 4 from Jesse; otherwise, it will be available for purchase from Materia shops starting in Chapter 5. 

5. HP Absorption 

• As mentioned earlier with Barret, HP absorption will allow you to recover HP when you use an attack from a linked materia. 
   
• This can pair really well with the Deadly Dodge materia mentioned earlier. Linking these together on Tifa’s Purple Pain gloves can lead to some pretty decent HP gains in the middle of combat. If you’re playing on Hard Mode this may be worth your consideration. 
   
• This can be obtained quite easily through Chadley. All it takes is defeating ten unique enemies to fulfill the Battle Intel Report 19. 

1. Cloud 

Cloud Strife, the quiet protagonist.

Our main character! Cloud has probably the most versatile playstyle compared to the rest of the party. Whether you prefer a full physical damage force (my personal approach!), a more magic-based approach, or straight down the middle, there are a lot of possibilities for his build. With so many weapons and materia combinations possible, it can be hard to narrow it down!

(I didn’t list any of the elemental materia such as fire, ice, or lightning or the elemental materia itself as it’s been covered earlier; however, if you like doing a lot of magic damage, they’re worth equipping as well.)
 

Best Materia for Cloud:
1. Deadly Dodge 

• As mentioned earlier, Deadly Dodge will allow Cloud to deal area damage when performing an attack command right after dodging. Assuming you’ll be controlling Cloud quite often and dodging attacks, this will be quite useful. 
   
• If you do plan on using the Buster Sword, this would be a good addition, allowing you to do a little extra damage during the fight to help make up for the lack of Attack Power compared to other weapons. 
   
• It’s easy to acquire, as mentioned earlier, and you can get more than one, so it’s worth the effort! It links well with HP Absorption as well, so if you don’t give that to Barret, Cloud is a great option.
   

2. Steadfast Block

• Another thing that was mentioned earlier: this would be fantastic for Cloud, who will be blocking a lot of attacks. Especially when you're up against larger enemies who hit from a distance before reaching Cloud's level.
   
• This plays nicely with ATB Assist also being equipped to help further boost the ATB gauge. 
   
• Cloud uses a lot of ATB abilities during combat, so don’t miss out on keeping his gauge topped off.
   

3. HP Up 

• HP Up increases Cloud’s max health points. At level one, it starts with a max boost of 10% and ends in a max HP of 50% at level 5. You can stack HP to a max of 100%, meaning you can equip two fully leveled HP Up materia to Cloud. 
   
• Cloud is going to be on the front lines at all times. There are also times when Cloud is fighting on his own and won’t have other party members to help heal him. If you intend to take a more physical approach to his playstyle, equipping him with two fully leveled-up materia won't hurt.
   
• HP Up is available to purchase from Materia Shops starting in Chapter 6.
   

4. ATB Stagger

• Mentioned earlier on Tifa’s list, this is just as effective on Cloud as well. With some of his hard-hitting attacks adding pressure, he can get a lot out of this materia. 
   
• ATB Stagger can get a lot out of a party member who has ATB Assist and really sends off his ATB Gauge!
   
• Acquiring this materia might seem like a grind, but it could be well worth your time! Especially if you intend to play Hard Mode, as you will be able to pop your ATB abilities much faster and win battles much faster.
   

5. MP Up and Magic Up

• Like earlier, I listed these together because they are best when they go hand in hand. If you plan on having Cloud take a spellcaster approach, these are almost a must. While he has good magic stats, especially when equipped with either the Mythril Blade or the Twin Stingers, this will help bolster that further. 
   
• If you only want to take one over the other, take a look at what you want to focus on. If you’re wanting Cloud to focus on Healing or Revival, then MP Up will be your best bet. If you’re wanting to focus on throwing Fire and Ice around, then Magic Up will boost your attack and let them do more damage. 
   
• If you equip Cloud properly, he can be a great alternative spellcaster to Aerith and Barret. Equipping these together will really help round him out for some proper magic output and damage! 

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