Nightmarish Survival is the toughest challenge of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and I’m sure you’re here because you’ve had a hard time trying to beat these 5 rounds of madness. This challenge is even tougher than the Shadowblood Queen herself, but heed my words: you need her cards for this one indeed.
The set of cards I used (shown above) is a mix of cards that I believe are best for such a challenge. You have a limited number of draws throughout this challenge, so you will need cards that can win you the most points, along with cards that will grant you extra cards in your hand. Here is the breakdown of the list:
1 x Archgraon
1 x Flametrooper
1 x Reapertail
2 x Rictus
1 Cait Sith (gives you extra card)
1 x Cid (gives you extra card)
1 x Ogre
1 x Chimera
1 x Jabberwock
1 x Moogle Trio
1 x Chocobo Jockey (gives you extra card)
1 x Ifrit (or Odin)
1 x Dio
1 x Shadowblood Queen
So why this set of cards? Because all the enfeeble boosted cards like Shadowblood Queen, Chimera, Rictus, and Jabberwock will give you a huge boost towards the final round, while Dio and Ifrit will help you in the first two rounds. The extra cards selection will help you with the pure survival rounds.
ROUND 1: Try to have Dio and Ifrit in your first hand. Dio works well against your opponent’s Space Ranger at the beginning to help win that row. This is all you need; save Ifrit for the second round. You can win a second or all rows for the extra cards if you want, but here, you just need to stop the Space Ranger from accumulating crazy points.
ROUND 2: This is Ifrit’s round. Try to put him in the corner, as the entire arena is just a booster game for him. Try to win the last row here and leave the rest for the next rounds. Use as many low-yielding cards as there are in the enhanced spaces to buff Ifrit up (you can alternatively use Odin here.
ROUND 3: Don’t worry much about this round; let them win the middle space unless you really want it. You can have your own Space Ranger here to do it, but it really isn’t necessary. Win the first and second rows with Chocobo Jockey if you can.
ROUND 4: The Shiva round. All you need to do here is to stop your opponent from advancing. Don’t fill the rest of the empty spaces, as Shiva will do so. Just keep filling the spaces where you can stop them from progressing, and they will give up easily. Trust me.
ROUND 5: The massacre round. This is the final round, and what you have now is what you can try to win with. Prioritize setting your Shadowblood Queen where theirs is, and also have Rictus and Chimera ready if you didn’t have to use them prior to this round. The rest is just an enfeebling game, so enfeeble as much as you can, and the round and win will be yours.