How to beat Zahira in Queen’s Blood in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Queens Blood is played all across the region in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. The rules are pretty fleshed out, but you’ll become addicted if you stick with it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed early on, here’s how to beat Zahira in Queen’s Blood in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

How to beat Zahira in FF7 Rebirth

Zahira can be a frustrating opponent in Queens Blood, as you’ll face her while you’re still unfamiliar with the rules. Still, she is beatable with the starter deck when you know how. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

The Mulligan can decide the match

At the start of any Queens Blood game, you can swap any cards you don’t like in the Mulligan phase. While keeping your high-rank cards is tempting, I recommend aiming for at least three rank-one cards in your opening hand. Low-rank cards are always playable with little setup.

I recommend trying to get the Security Officer card in your starting hand, as it’s excellent for opening the board for future turns. 

The Strategy

If you’ve got the Security Officer card, put it down on the back row in the middle as your first move. The card will open the square in front while increasing the rank of the two above and below it. If you have another, you can play that in the middle row on turn two to open a ton of spaces for future turns. Playing offensively with the Starter Deck is hard because your card options are so limited. Fortunately, you have a couple of high-scoring Elphadunk cards in your deck. The Elphadunk cards are worth 4 points each and are one of your win conditions against Zahira, but they don’t allow you to push forward. With this in mind, they are good options if you have rank two spaces on your back row.

Try to push forward with any cards that will open up more spaces to play on. Remember that you can take your opponent’s spaces if there’s no card in the way. Sometimes, it’s worth letting Zahira push forward so you can steal her places with cards like Levrikon and Grasslands Wolf, which hit spaces in front of them. 

The Win Condition

Zahira’s cards lack synergy, so you can usually beat her simply by controlling more spaces than she does. Occupy as many spaces as possible, and remember that you don’t need to win on every lane. Your Elphadunks are high-scoring cards and worthy candidates for your rank two spaces toward the end of the match.

Can I rematch Zahira in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth?

You can take Zahira on for a rematch, but she’s far more dangerous in future encounters. Zahira has a formidable deck with cards that power each other up, and she’s such a pain that the Starter Deck is simply insufficient. If you want to take Zahira on for round 2, I only recommend doing so later in the game when you have more cards and can freely fast-travel back to Kalm.

Queens Blood can be a little overwhelming, but if you buy cards from any vendors you find and take a few losses on the chin, I guarantee you’ll be hooked. If you’re looking to pad out your Materia options, you can add Enemy Skill to your collection.