Sneak Attack is a Support Materia in Final Fantasy VII. It can be linked with a variety of Materia, including all Magic and Summon Materia, as well as many Command Materia. When linked, it provides a chance to perform a command from the linked Materia as soon as the battle begins. The likelihood of this increases based on the level of the Sneak Attack Materia, up to 80% chance.
Sneak Attack can be paired with all Magic and Summon Materia, as well as Steal, Sense, Throw, Morph, Deathblow, Manipulate, Mime and Master Command. If paired with Master Magic, Master Summon, or Master Command, a random ability contained in the Materia is chosen. If paired with Command Materia, the ability highlighted in the menu is used for the attack. If paired with a Magic Materia, the highest spell the Materia has learned will be used. If Sneak Attack activates with Throw, a random throwable weapon is thrown.
The PlayStation version's battle message has a spelling error, which was later fixed for the PC release.
Obtained[]
Sneak Attack is a rare Materia, won from the Chocobo races at the Gold Saucer in A and S classes.
To obtain additional Sneak Attack Materia, one must master the Materia. This requires 150,000 AP, and the best way to do this is to equip weapons and armor with Double or Triple AP.
Stats[]
| Level | AP required | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 20% chance for equipped character to use linked Materia when battle begins. |
| 2 | 20000 | 35% chance for equipped character to use linked Materia when battle begins. |
| 3 | 60000 | 50% chance for equipped character to use linked Materia when battle begins. |
| 4 | 100000 | 60% chance for equipped character to use linked Materia when battle begins. |
| 5 | 150000 | 80% chance for equipped character to use linked Materia when battle begins. |
Use[]
Sneak Attack provides a chance to perform a command from the linked Materia as soon as the battle starts. This will either be the highest-level Magic spell when paired with Magic Materia, the highlighted ability on a Command Materia, or a random ability from Master Command, Master Magic, or Master Summon. Sneak Attack picks a random target based on the ability's default target (allies or enemies). If the player equips multiple Sneak Attack Materia combinations, each of them is considered independently when calculating the probability of activation. Additionally, the order of activation depends on the order in which the combinations are equipped. Within two linked slots on a weapon/armor the order (i.e., Sneak Attack before or after the paired materia) does not matter.
Sneak Attack has a variety of uses. When paired with offensive attacks, it can be used to end fights quickly, or cripple bosses when the battle starts. When used with Hades, for instance, it can be devastating to bosses by applying many negative status effects. With Odin, it grants a chance to kill all or most enemies as soon as the battle starts. This can be especially useful when capturing the "Wonderful Chocobo" for breeding, as it tends to run away on its first move. Sneak Attack can also be used with simple Materia, such as Steal, if the player is simply hunting for an item to steal.
A great use is to equip two Sneak Attacks and a Mega All to Yuffie while she uses the Conformer in the Sunken Gelnika; the first should be paired with Morph, and the second with Mime (or another Morph). Source-farming is made almost automatic this way. The majority of enemies in the Sunken Gelnika have over 9999 HP and so a second Morph is needed.
Sneak Attack should not be linked with Life or Phoenix, as if it is used to revive fallen party members, their ATB bars will never fill up.