Tifa/Gameplay

Strategy
You will encounter Miss Lockheart three times in the Hades Paradox Cup. The First time with Yuffie, the second with Cloud, the third with three other Bruisers from Final Fantasy. Tifa's battle style is very direct: she always rushes you, never giving you a moment to breathe. She will get up to you and try and force you to block her fist with your face. The fact that Yuffie is teleporting around hurling shuriken at you like a demented fly doesn't help either. But you also have Donald and Goofy so they can be helpful. You have the luxury of Final Form here, so use it! Yuffie seems to be more annoying here than she is in Round 49, because she'll interrupt you when you're trying to fight Tifa. Try to bait Tifa into attacking you, and do whatever you can to get behind her, but do not stay out in front. Final Heaven HURTS, and she can use it as a combo finisher whenever she wants. Let her spend her energy and punish her when she's through, but watch out for Yuffie. Of course, if you enter this round with enough Drive Gauge to go into Final Form, then go nuts on the both of them. When Tifa comes up close and starts her punch combo, if you don't hit up Reflega immediately, you're gonna pay for it. Tifa is VERY weak against Refleaga, and mashing it repeatedly will chip her health away. However if you are interrupted in Reflegapalooza by Yuffie or in any other way, Glide, Run or Swim away immediately, as with a cry of "Here we Go!" or "Don't Say I Didn't Warn You!" she will jump high in the air (you can't stop her) and yell "Final Heaven!" which will launch several explosions in front of her, and all of them are dying to meet Sora. The second time around, Tifa is with Cloud, Leon and Yuffie, which makes this even harder. Reflega is still your main weapon of choice for her in this round BUT NEVER stay in one place. If you remain stationary in round 49 for even one second, either Yuffie will get you, Leon will shoot at you, or Cloud will try and cut you in half. A good strategy is to glide away from Tifa and use Thundaga, but only two or three strikes, then you must, must, must get moving again or one of the other three will get you, and they all hit like freight trains. Tifa should be defeated without much bother if you use Reflega and Thundaga together, but watch out for the others, cause (unfortunately) she doesn't fight alone.

Hades Paradox Cup: Round 49
First things first: equip ALL of the following abilities. If you don’t have ‘em yet, then get them. NOW.
 * Retaliating Slash
 * Explosion
 * Aerial Finish
 * LV3 Glide
 * LV3 Aerial Dodge
 * LV2+ High Jump
 * Scan (not really needed, but it really, REALLY HELPS)
 * Reaction Boost (I don’t remember if there are any Reaction Commands for this battle, but you should always have this one active anyway)
 * Combination Boost (so that your Trinity Limit does more damage)
 * Leaf Bracer (might not seem like much, but trust me—you NEED this)
 * Magic Lock-On (just making sure you don’t waste your MP)
 * Blizzard Boost
 * Thunder Boost
 * MP Rage
 * MP Haste
 * Second Chance
 * Once More (YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE THESE TWO!!!!!)
 * Defender (every little bit helps)
 * Berserk Charge (just for the end)

You have all that, right? Good. Equip the Ultima Weapon Keyblade (Fenrir might be stronger, but it doesn’t matter much here) for MP Hastega. Then, equip any accessories you can that will increase your Defense and Magic stats.

Now, when we actually get to the fight, you’ll have to fight Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, and Tifa ALL AT THE SAME TIME. As you can probably tell, this won’t; be a pleasant experience (unless you’re a masochist).

The main strategy here can be summed up as follows: run, heal, use magic, heal again, run, run some more, and then repeat.

Now for details: Cloud can’t hit you from long range, but he’s fast enough that it hardly matters. Leon (as I remember it) can shoot fireballs at you, but you can dodge these without too much hassle. Yuffie can teleport and enhance her shuriken with magic, and also can use it in a huge area attack. Tifa herself, of course, can hit like a Darkside on steroids, and she has mid-ranged attacks to go with it.

That’s why such a fair part of the plan here is running away. Or, to be specific, jumping and Aerial Dodging as high as you can before you glide away (LV3 Glide is necessary so you can stay off the ground and move fast enough to stand a good chance at survival).

Oh, and for the shortcut, you should have Curaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, (Firaga doesn’t work well here), and Reflega. (I used “Circle=Curaga”, “Triangle=Blizzaga”, “Square=Thundaga”, and “X=Reflega”, myself.)

For offense, you’ll mainly need to spam Thundaga whenever you get a chance. You don’t really need to focus on any one of them in particular, but since Cloud and Yuffie are able to cross the “battlefield” faster than anyone else, it’s recommended that you take them out first. Of course, knocking out ANY of them is wonderful, but those two are the biggest pains in the ass.

For the sake of simplicity, let us suppose that you go after Yuffie first, since she can teleport.

Don’t worry about attacking anyone else, but keep an eye out for their attacks—Cloud and Tifa in particular are positively BRUTAL, and so is Leon when he activates Blasting Zone.

Whenever needed, go ahead and heal with Curaga and run away until the MP Charge has finished, at which point you may continue your electric bugaloo.

When you finally bring Yuffie down, you can start going for Cloud.

By the way, if you manage to defeat someone else before Yuffie goes down, consider yourself lucky.

Cloud's worst attack is his Omnislash--he'll start crackling with blue electricity, and then he's moving at least twice, (if not three or four times) faster than normal. When he starts this move, just repeatedly use the Aerial Dodge + Glide to run away until he slams his sword back into the ground, signalling that it's over. From there, continue attacking him with Thundaga.

When Cloud is defeated, you're now left with Tifa and Leon--and each of them are both slower AND have less range to their attacks than Yuffie and Cloud did.

Now you can go ahead and focus on Tifa (finally!).

Mostly, she'll just come at you with martial arts-style attacks, but some of them like Water Kick have range to them. If the pair starts swarming you, go ahead and use Reflega for defense. Also, you can go ahead and start using Keyblade combos now, since you're more likely to survive more than just a couple of hits.

When you bring one of the two down, heal with Curaga and use Berserk Charge on the survivor, hitting him (or her, depending on which one you defeated first) as much as possible until your MP finishes recharging and you can deal the finisher. Then use Trinity Limit to land a few more hits on them and bring you back to Berserk Charge. Just keep this up until you've finally won.

Battle Quotes
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" "'Final Heaven!" "Here we go!"

Interactions
Tifa is met as both an enemy and an ally. Tifa can be fought as an enemy in the Hades Paradox Cup, in Round 10 with Yuffie, Round 30 with Cloud, and Round 49 with Leon, Cloud and Yuffie. Tifa fights alongside you as the 3rd Ally on the Ravine Trail, using the same tactics as in her battles in the Hades Paradox Cup.