How to Avoid Saberhawk’s Stun in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Fiend Intel 3: Top of the Pecking Order)

These birds prefer their prey fried then skewered. Here’s how to avoid being stunned by the Saberhawk in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7).

How to Avoid Saberhawk’s Stun in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Fiend Intel 3: Top of the Pecking Order)

Once you activate the Wasteland Tower in the Corel Region, Chadley will call you and let you know about a new fiend you’ll need to destroy. In this case, the Saberhawk, found just south of the Dustbowl. 

This fiend encounter takes place in a cave, and MIA will request you knock out these three challenges to successfully beat the Saberhawk in Final Fantasy 7:

• Stagger an enemy.
• Don’t get stunned.
• Defeat all enemies within the time limit.

But avoiding getting stunned by the Saberhawk is the most challenging of these requirements, as getting stunned even once will cause you to fail. There are three methods to avoid being stunned by the Saberhawk.

You can opt to try to dodge it. When you’re a potential target for the Saberhawk’s attack, it will turn its body towards you and pause for a few seconds. During this time, you can try to run or dodge to avoid its flurry of attacks. Doing this is ideal if you’re attempting to dodge its stun attack, Zap Claw, as the red banner will likely only briefly appear above the Saberhawk before it attacks. Likewise, the Saberhawk likes to use Zapclaw after it’s already successfully attacked you once, as a successful attack can slightly stagger and slow you, making it easier for it to land Zapclaw.

Another option, and my favorite option, is to kill the Saberhawk before it can use its attack. The Saberhawk won’t start the fight with Zap Claw and will wait until around mid-health. You can take advantage of this by building up the ATB gauge for your party members and then finishing up the Saberhawks with Fire attacks, which will exploit the Saberhawk’s weakness. A strong fire attack will also cause the Saberhawk to hit the ground, stunned, giving you a chance to pummel it into a pile of feathers.

The third option is to cycle quickly between enemies or party members. You’ll only fail the stun challenge if the character you’re controlling is stunned. So, if it looks like your character is being focused on by a Saberhawk, you can press left or right on your d-pad to cycle to a party member who isn’t the focus of the Saberhawk’s attention. This is the most efficient way of avoiding the Saberhawk and whittling down the flocks’ health. Alternatively, you can use Cloud’s Triple Slash to dash quickly between the three enemies, which should be fast enough to avoid getting hit by their attacks altogether.

The Saberhawk isn’t the only annoying fiend in Corel Region. The Bladefin is difficult to pressure, as it has no elemental weaknesses, and the Silver Chimera is just a tank of a beast. But if you want all those World Intel points, it’s a good idea to cull both.