How to gain Skill Points for weapon upgrades in Final Fantasy VII Remake

The upgrade system in Final Fantasy VII Remake is a huge improvement over the weapons system that was found in the original game. Final Fantasy VII saw the player gradually find more weapons as the game went on, and each one generally offered a boost in both power and in the number of slots that you could place materia on the weapon, while also affecting the growth of them.

While this may have worked for improving characters over the course of the game, in retrospect, it meant that a lot of old weapons were simply discarded, and that means within the first two hours of play, you have no reason to continue using Cloud’s iconic Buster Sword.

How skill points work in Final Fantasy VII Remake

In Final Fantasy VII Remake, the upgrade system using Skill Points allows you to add upgrades to each weapon, with base stats that affect the way you play with that character. This means that all of the weapons that you gather throughout the game can be upgraded to work in compositions or to serve certain purposes. Want to turn Cloud into a tank or Tifa into a powerful wizard? The upgrade system will help you do it.

Skill points are not shared amongst the weapons, but instead, weapons are all allocated the character’s maximum amount of Skill Points. For example, if you have 20 Skill Points, Cloud’s Buster Sword and his other weapons each get 20 Skill Points to spend on upgrades, to specialize the weapon.

How to gain skill points in Final Fantasy VII Remake

When it comes to gaining Skill Points, the main way to do this is to level up your character. You gain more than one Skill Point per level, typically four or five, but quests typically offer items and XP, so the only way to see solid upgrades to your character is to continue playing and take on side quests to increase XP.

Later on in the Sector 5 Slums, you will be able to exchange Moogle Medals for books (known as manuscripts) that will allow you to increase the Skill Points of certain characters too. There are also further ways to receive books to increase skill points for each character by simply completing all side quests and battle simulations. Once all have been completed on Normal or Easy, you should have received five books in total for a boost of 50 skill points. There are also plenty more to pick up during a Hard Mode play through.