Once you step into the world of Zack Fair, you will realize how complex it is to be in his shoes. Even the fighting style has its own way of being known as Zack’s.

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Status Buffs Leveling System Limit Breaks Summons Emotion Gauge

If this is your first time playing Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core Reunion, you may be getting confused about the slot machine-like mechanism that keeps on rolling every time you are in a battle. To tell you, that is the Digital Mind Wave or DMW.

DMS is one of the fundamentals that you should understand in order for you to elevate your fighting skills as Zack Fair.

To help you out, we made this guide to explain everything that you need to know about DMW.

Digital Mind Waves or DMW

DMW is the thing that looks like a slot machine on the upper left side of the screen when you are in a battle. If we base it on the game’s story, we can say that the DMW is the representation of Zack’s emotions and memories during the fighting scenes.

As you can see, DMW has two elements: the number and the portrait. Sad to say, but you have totally no control over what is going to appear here.

What happens when you get three matching numbers or portraits, Zack will be granted a reward while he is battling. Some examples of rewards that you can get are temporary status buffs that will die over time, buffs, the ability to use limit breaks, summoning an ally, or increasing Zack’s level.

If you are still at the beginning of the story, you might notice that most of the portraits are just silhouettes. The only way to unlock these is by meeting them.

Status Buffs

Status buffs are one of the things that you can get as a reward from the DMW. You can get these if the DMW showed three matching numbers between 1 to 7.

Here is a list of all the buffs you can get for each combination:

1-1-1: 15 seconds invincibility
2-2-2: No MP cost for the rest of the battle
3-3-3: 15 seconds magical immunity
4-4-4: No AP cost for the rest of battle
5-5-5: 15 seconds physical immunity
6-6-6: 20 seconds all attacks are critical
7-7-7: 15 seconds invincibility (or Level up)

Aside from all these, there are still more possibilities for you to receive a rewards despite not having three matching numbers. You will also be granted if you get a result that has at least one 7.

7-7-#: No MP cost for 15 seconds
7-#-7: 15 seconds physical immunity
#-7-7: 15 seconds magical immunity
7-#-#: No AP cost for 12 seconds
#-7-#: No MP cost for 12 seconds.
#-#-7: 20 seconds endure status

Leveling System

Unlike other games, Zack’s experience points are not earned by taking down enemies. The progress of its exp is not shown as well. But the leveling up of Zack’s character is tied up with the DMW.

Plus, this will only happen if Zack got a lucky 7 combination. With that, it is also possible to experience multiple level-ups in one fight if you are lucky enough to draw a lot of triple 7s.

Limit Breaks

Limit breaks are what we call the situation wherein Zack unleashes his superpowers. This also triggers an awesome cutscene demonstrating how every move is executed.

You can enable limit breaks if the DMW showed three matching portraits. However, if the three matching portraits are still silhouettes, the only attack that will be activated is the chain slash.

What’s good about limit breaks is that it does not automatically activate after appearing in the DMW. You can actually stack it and then use it when you feel like it is the perfect timing. However, all the unused limit breaks will be voided after the match. Meaning, you cannot save it for the next match.

Summons

Basically, summon works the same with limit breaks. This will be triggered when three matching portraits of the summon appear in the DMW.

You can also use this on your own accord by pressing these buttons.

Emotion Gauge

As you can see under the DMW, there is a line that keeps on waving. That is an emotion gauge of Zack.

When the emotion gets heightened, the waves get higher and the color changes as well. This has five levels which are low, normal, high, sky-high, and heavenly. As the emotion gets more intense, the higher the success rolls of the DMW are.

ALSO READ: All the Secret Missions That You Might Have Missed in Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion