FF7 Rebirth: How to beat Biological Intel: Head Case

Welcome to Biological Intel: Head Case, a battle where many things can go wrong and where success depends on luck as much as skill. If you’re here, I’m sure you’re beyond annoyed from retrying this battle over and over again. 

Well, I’m here to help. Here’s how to beat Biological Intel: Head Case in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Biological Intel: Head Case preparation in FF7 Rebirth

To prepare for the Biological Intel: Head Case in FF7 Rebirth, here’s what I recommend you bring: 

• Your party should consist of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith.
• Equip Cloud and Tifa with any Materia that boosts ATB recovery (First Strike, ATB Boost Materia, ATB Assist or ATB Stagger).
• Bring Time and Haste and equip them to either Cloud or Tifa.
• Equip Aerith with a Healing Materia.

Most of all, you need luck. No, not the Luck Up Materia, just plain dumb luck. Get used to replaying this fight over and over again until you finally get lucky enough to beat it. Sadly, that’s just the reality of it all.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about how to actually win the fight.

FF7 Rebirth: Biological Intel: Head Case explained

In Biological Intel: Head Case in FF7 Rebirth, you fight against one Mindflayer and two Experimental Varghidpolises.

To beat this fight, you need to kill the Mindflayer before you kill any of the two Experimental Varghidpolises. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong.

Experimental Varghidpolises essentially have a death wish and love nothing more than to self-destruct whenever they get a chance. The Mindflayer, being a mini-boss, has plenty of health to spare before it kicks the bucket. 

So, the key to winning this fight is to focus only on the Mindflayer while completely ignoring the Experimental Varghidpolises. This is easier said than done, though. Each Experimental Varghidpolis has an area attack called Deafening Screech. If one of your party members gets caught in this attack, they’ll be stunned. Once they’re stunned, one of the Experimental Varghidpolis will make its way to them, wrap around them, and blow itself up. This will, in turn, kill not only the party member but also the Experimental Varghidpolis, which means you’ll fail the battle, since the dumb things technically died before you managed to kill the Mindflayer. My head hurts just thinking about it.

How to beat Biological Intel: Head Case in FF7 Rebirth

There are two things you need to keep in mind to win this fight.

Focus only on the Mindflayer

The key to winning this fight is to kill the Mindflayer as fast as possible. This is why you should bring lots of ATB boosting Materia. To Pressure the Mindflayer and eventually Stagger it, you need to use a Synergy Ability on it. To use a Synergy Ability, you need at least three Synergy bars with two party members (in my case, these were Cloud and Tifa). 

Start the battle, and if you have First Strike, use any ability immediately (preferably an attack on the Mindflayer) to start building those Synergy bars. As soon as you do, use ATB Boost Materia to get more ATB bars and attack the Mindflayer again quickly. Do this with both Cloud and Tifa, and as soon as you can, launch a Synergy ability attack on the Mindflayer to pressure it. Once you pressure the Mindflayer, go for the Stagger and do as much damage as you can. Do this until you kill the fiend, then kill the Experimental Varghidpolises any way you like (you can even let them blow themselves up on one of your party members, and it will still count).

Don’t get stunned by Deafening Screech

This only works if the Experimental Varghidpolises are busy with Aerith, and they often aren’t. I suggested you bring Aerith because her attacks don’t do a lot of damage, and she can, hopefully, keep the Experimental Varghidpolises busy without killing them while Cloud and Tifa take out the Mindflayer. I tried using Sleep or Stop, but they don’t last long. 

So, while Cloud and Tifa are fighting the Mindflayer, they also need to make sure they aren’t near one of the Experimental Varghidpolis when they use Deafening Screech. It also doesn’t help that the Mindflayer loves to teleport around the arena, often where the Varghidpolises are. Fortunately, AI controlled party members can’t be stunned by the Deafening Screech; only the member you are controlling can. 

So, if the Mindflayer ever gets close to where the Experimental Varghidpolises are, back away. Back far away with your controlled character and try to bait the Mindflayer into following you. Seriously, it’s incredibly easy to get caught in the range of Deafening Screech, and when you do, you’ve pretty much lost the fight. Before you ask, NO, you cannot remove the stun effect from Deafening Screech with Esuna.

This is why you need luck. You need to be lucky enough to kill the Mindflayer without the Experimental Varghidpolises stunning you, which can be really difficult to do. Keep trying this method; luck will eventually smile upon you, and you’ll never have to go through this nightmare again.