Aerith provides the heavy lifting when it comes to supporting your entire team, but it's hard to build around her character, especially if you don't fully know her capabilities. In this guide, I created a few best builds for Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
If Aerith's moveset is not your cup of tea, check out our other Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth builds:
- Best Builds for Cloud
- Best Builds for Tifa
- Best Builds for Barret
- Best Builds for Red XIII
- Best Builds for Yuffie
- Best Builds for Cait Sith
Best builds for Aerith in FF7 Rebirth
Aerith can provide your team with lots of support. From healing to giving helpful buffs as well as becoming a mage for your party, here are a few builds you can use as a base and improve along the way!
Passive Support Trope Build
If you don't feel like using Aerith much or do not understand her kit well, this is the best build for you.
| Slots | Equipment Name |
| Weapon | Timeless Rod |
| Armor | Metal Bangle or Midgar Bangle Mk. II (pre-order bonus) |
| Accessory | Earrings |
| Summon | Chocobo & Moogle Materia, Shiva Materia or Leviathan |
| Materia 1 (Weapon) | Healing Materia |
| Materia 2 (Weapon) | Auto-Cast |
| Materia 3 (Weapon) | Prayer Materia |
| Materia 1 (Armor) | Wind or MP Up Materia |
| Weapon Skills | Enduring Ward |
| Spell Shortcut 1 (L1 + Square) | Soul Drain |
| Spell Shortcut 2 (L1 + Triangle) | Sorcerous Storm |
| Spell Shortcut 3 (L1 + Circle) | Cure/Cura |
| Spell Shortcut 4 (L1 + X) | Arcane Ward |
Since you'll primarily be healing throughout the battle, here are some of the Folio nodes I recommend for this build:
- Bodyguard
- Max MP Up
- Divine Punishment
- Jet Stream
- Combat Savior
- Synergy Damage Up
- Not-So-Fleeting Familiar
- Elemental Damage Up
To be fair, you won't really need much micro-managing with this build. You can just ignore Aerith throughout the battle, as she will automatically heal your party when she has the opportunity. However, you still have the option to use her normally to cast Synergy Skills like Bodyguard when she gets enemy aggro.
Aerith's elemental strength will primarily be the wind elemental in the early game, as your other party members can simply have the Fire and Ice materia and one Lightning materia to exploit enemy weaknesses.
Her playstyle will mostly revolve around ward placements across the field and teleporting if the enemies get too close to her. Since Aerith's dodge is really meh compared to others, Ward Shift will be her primary go-to mobility skill.
Balanced Sorceress Support Build
The Balanced Sorceress provides a well-rounded experience for Aerith. This is perfect for players who only want to control her for a limited amount of time without getting a doctor's degree on her entire kit.
| Slots | Equipment Name |
| Weapon | Timeless Rod |
| Armor | Shinra Bangle Mk. II (pre-order bonus) or Woodsprite Armlet |
| Accessory | Earrings |
| Summon | Chocobo & Moogle Materia, Shiva Materia or Leviathan |
| Materia 1 (Weapon) | Fire and Ice |
| Materia 2 (Weapon) | Prayer |
| Materia 3 (Weapon) | HP Up |
| Materia 1 (Armor) | MP Up |
| Materia 2 (Armor) | Healing Materia |
| Weapon Skills | Enduring Ward |
| Spell Shortcut 1 (L1 + Square) | Soul Drain |
| Spell Shortcut 2 (L1 + Triangle) | Chrono Aegis |
| Spell Shortcut 3 (L1 + Circle) | Cure |
| Spell Shortcut 4 (L1 + X) | Arcane Ward |
Here are some of the early-game Folio nodes I recommend for this build:
- Bodyguard
- Max MP Up
- Rolling Thunder
- Divine Punishment
- Jet Stream
- Synergy Damage Up
- Combat Saviour
- Not-So-Fleeting Familiar
- Elemental Damage Up
This is an overall well-rounded build for Aerith, and she's much more usable in this state as she can also dish out damage while providing healing to the entire team. Bodyguard is still the staple Synergy Skill to use in this case, as you can always ask Cloud or Red XIII to defend you whenever you're building up your ATB.
At the same time, you can also cast your Arcane Ward while you pummel the enemy with powerful spells from your party. Be careful about Aerith's positioning in this case, as she can't Ward Shift to another location using this tactic.
Elemental Sorceress Supreme Build
As the name suggests, as Aerith, you're expected to cast a plethora of spells during the battle, making her much more proactive rather than the passive build.
| Slots | Equipment Name |
| Weapon | Timeless Rod |
| Armor | Shinra Bangle Mk. II (pre-order bonus) or Woodsprite Armlet |
| Accessory | Earrings |
| Summon | Chocobo & Moogle Materia, Shiva Materia or Leviathan |
| Materia 1 (Weapon) | Fire and Ice |
| Materia 2 (Weapon) | Lightning |
| Materia 3 (Weapon) | Prayer |
| Materia 1 (Armor) | MP Up |
| Materia 2 (Armor) | Healing Materia |
| Weapon Skills | Enduring Ward |
| Spell Shortcut 1 (L1 + Square) | Soul Drain |
| Spell Shortcut 2 (L1 + Triangle) | Chrono Aegis |
| Spell Shortcut 3 (L1 + Circle) | Jet Stream |
| Spell Shortcut 4 (L1 + X) | Arcane Ward |
Since you're an elemental sorceress, you'll need the following nodes to further optimize your build:
- Bodyguard
- Max MP Up
- Rolling Thunder
- Divine Punishment
- Jet Stream
- Combat Savior
- Cold Frost
- Not-So-Fleeting Familiar
- Elemental Damage Up (Must have)
- Heatwave
All of the nodes above give you a boost in magic potency and use-case, like Jet Stream, Cold Frost, Heatwave, and Rolling Thunder. All of those elements cover a huge variety of enemy weaknesses, and Aerith will be able to exploit them with much more power compared to Cloud or Tifa hybrid builds.
I added Chrono Aegis on the Spell Shortcuts as Bodyguard is not always readily available as a Synergy Skill. There are instances where you have no choice but to protect yourself, as Aerith and Chrono Aegis will be able to cover that aspect, at least temporarily.
If you can't get enough of our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth guides, check out Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Enemy Skill List right here at Pro Game Guides!
Jay is a Weekend Senior Staff Writer for PGG and has been playing video games for over two decades now. He is a Mechanical Engineering graduate who transitioned into writing as he realized that his passion truly revolved around video games.
With over two years of dedicated experience as a writer specializing in the video gaming industry, Jay's passion for video games is seen through his art of crafting meticulously detailed video game guides, news, and reviews.
His expertise spans a diverse range of gaming genres, most notably ARPGs, JRPG,s FPS, and TPS. Jay's favorite titles and franchises include Final Fantasy, Dragon's Dogma, Soulsborne, and Call of Duty.