FFVII - Materia - Combinations
Added Effect Tricks - Put an Added Effect materia in one of your weapon slots and have it linked to one of the following:
Poison - sometimes poisons the enemy that's been hit.
Contain - sometimes confuses, stops or petrifies the enemy.
Time - sometimes slows or stops.
Destruct - sometimes causes instant death.
Mystify - sometimes causes confusion or berserk.
Seal - sometimes causes sleep.
HP and MP absorb - at the same time try linking a spell or summon with HP absorb and then a second version of that spell or summon with an MP absorb. When you cast the spell you'll get MP and HP back at the same time. There is a catch; the spell or summon have to be of the same level.
Counter Attacks - the more counter attacks you put on one person the more he/she will counter attack, place three counter attacks on a character and, when attacked, he/she will strike back up to three times (depending on how high of a level your counter attacks are; remember the lower level counter attacks don't always work). Try doing the three counter attacks with a magic counter and when attacked you'll retaliate with three physical attacks and one spell. Link other versions of that spell with MP and HP absorb and once attacked you'll hit back 3 times physically, once with a spell (or a summon if you want) and get HP and MP back. That's not bad considering technically you're just retaliating, you haven't even had your turn on offense yet!
Final Attack combos - Combine the Final Attack materia with either a mastered Revive materia or with a Phoenix materia. With the Revive materia your character will come back to life after being killed (you can usually do this once per level of the Final Attack materia). With the Phoenix not only will every dead character come back to life but your opponent will get a moderate amount of Phoenix Fire damage too. Again you can only do this once per level of your Final Attack materia.
Sneak Attack + Knights of the Round - sneak Attack is a nice blue materia that will let you (as you increase its levels) begin a battle. Before anyone else has a turn, friend or foe, with the equipped summon or spell. Link this with KOR and most battles will be over before the bad guys even get to think about attacking--link additional KORs to HP and MP absorbs and not only will most battles be over before the enemy got to start, but you'll also gain MP and HP without ever having been hit. If the enemy you hit is big enough you often get back more MP than it costs to cast the KOR.
Steal As Well + Deathblow - when this works it's a pretty nice combonation; you can steal something at the same time you attempt a deathblow move.
Quadra Magic + Contain - ok, say you've mastered both of these materia, Quadra lets you cast a spell four times for the price of one, link this with contain and choose any of the four spells to cast it four times in a row. If you have W-Magic you get to cast it 8 times in a row (or cast one of them 4 times and then one of the others four times) and it only costs you the MP of having cast it twice--that's six free casts of some pretty nasty contain magic. If you have your other characters mime you then they get to do the same thing you did but it doesn't cost them any MP--so you get to cast a contain spell 24 times and it only costs one player the MP cost of casting it twice!
Here's a confusing but effective combo - if you've got the slots and the materia for it (remember to try and have the spell materia you use all be at the same level). Try Quad Magic with (for example) fire, have steal as well linked to a fire, an HP and/or MP linked to a Fire, and Added cut materia linked with a fire and have the W-magic equipped too. What do you get? This combo will cast fire 4 times, between each casting is a steal move, you will gain HP and/or MP for each casting of fire and one regular physical attack (via the added cut-fire combo) for the price of one fire casting. With W-Magic you get to then do the whole thing again--so you get all this for the cost of casting fire twice--chances are you'll get more MP back than it costs you and will knock your opponent into a different zip code. Have your other two characters mime this! Remember, it doesn't cost them any MP to mime but they will gain MP from the MP absorb (if that was part of your attack). You can do this same thing with a W-Summon and use with a summon of your choice, have other versions of the summon linked to HP and/or MP as well as with the added cut materia. You'll cast the summon twice (but it will cost you the MP for two castings) but you'll get HP and/or MP back too and get a physical attack to boot--have your other characters mime this and they'll cast the summon spelltwo times each and it won't cost them anything
Added Effect + Hades on your weapon - it creates the opportunity for Hades to cast one of his 7 different condition spells on your opponent, each time you hit there's a good shot at a new condition being added to the one the bad guy got last time.
Counter Attack + Mime - Link these two materia together and when attacked you'll counter with the last move made before you were attacked. Excellent.
Master Command + HP/MP Absorb - If you link an HP or an MP absorb to your master command materia then any time you use Morph or Deathblow you'll absorb based on which materia you're linked to--but this combo has an extra benefit, if you just do a regular physical attack (using no spell, summon, command or limit break) you will still absorb HP or MP--so once you make this combo, say MASTER command and HP absorb, every time you swing that sword you'll get HP back!
Finally For a good way to get some MP back try linking an MP Absorb to the Alexander materia. Alexander does a great deal of damage for relatively little cost (and absorbed MP or HP are determined by the level of the absorb materia, level of the materia it is linked to, and the damage it does to the thing it hits). You will often get a good deal more MP than you used.
Materia Combinations: In Short
1- Ultima / Summon linked to Quadra Magic Spell casted 4 times on all enemies. Try this with W-Magic. 2- Hades / Contain linked to Added Effect Added effects on enemies. Try this with Slash-All. Also try with other materia which gives odd statuses (eg. Time, Seal, etc....).
2- Master Magic linked to All along with Mega All Up to 10 times all magic can be casted on all enemies or allies. Try putting some more Mega All Materia.
3- Master Summon / Master Magic linked to MP Turbo All spells on the Master Materia casted are more powerful.
4- Summon Materia linked to Added Cut along with W-Summon Summon spell casted once, then a slash, then a Summon, plus one more slash. Try this with Mime.
5- Magic Matera linked to Added Cut along with W-Magic Similar to the above.
6- Phoenix linked to Final Attack If every character dies, should the character perform this final attack, all characters will be revived to maximum HP.
7- Revive linked to Final Attack along with Mega All Similar to the above. If without Mega All, the character will revive him / herself.
8- Steal or Morph along with Long Range Enables you to steal from or morph unreachable enemies e.g. Ultimate Weapon.
9- Multiple Counter Attack Materia equipped Counter multiple times.