Once you’ve beaten every Queen’s Blood player in FF7 Rebirth, the time will come for you to face off with the nerve-wracking presence of the Shadowblood Queen. Fortunately for you, we’ve taken her down ourselves and can show you how.
Queen’s Blood is the greatest Final Fantasy mini-game ever, and that’s a hill I’ll die on. You can keep your Blitzball and Tetra Master—not that they’re bad, but Queen’s Blood is sensational. The variety in the deck and versatility in how you can go from normal one versus one matches to complex puzzle-solving situations defines Queen’s Blood in FF7 Rebirth.
As the hours fly by in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, you’ll win a lot of Queen’s Blood matches, until you need to beat the Shadowblood Queen herself—the final boss.
Best deck to beat the Shadowblood Queen in FF7 Rebirth
This is the exact deck I used to conquer the Shadowblood Queen, and as you can see, it still has quite a few basic cards in it. My deck features a nice mix of power level one and power level two cards, hardly any power level three cards, and a healthy amount of cards you can use to replace your existing ones.
Basics like the Security Officer are a cheap way of securing free spots or spaces occupied by an enemy presence. The Space Ranger punishes your opponent for enhancing cards, lane-score-enhancing cards like the Chocobo Jockey and Maloceros are vital, and the Insectoid Chimera duo can ultimately win you the match.
Here’s every card I used and what they do. We also have a full guide on how to find every Queen’s Blood Card in FF7 Rebirth to help you track down their locations.
| Card name | Description |
|---|---|
| Security Officer | This card has no abilities. |
| Security Officer | This card has no abilities. |
| Queen Bee | This card has no abilities. |
| Chocobo & Moogle | Raise power by one for each other enhanced allied card. |
| Space Ranger | Raise power by one for each enhanced enemy card. |
| Mu | Raise the power of allied cards on affected tiles by one while this card is in play. |
| Disgorgon | When played, raise position ranks by two. |
| Titan | When played, raise position ranks by two. |
| Rufus | Creates an intimidatingly large number of positions around him when played. |
| Chocobo Jockey | When you win the lane, receive a score bonus of 10. |
| Emerald Witch | Raise the power of allied and enemy cards on affected tiles by two while this card is in play. |
| Maloceros | When you win the lane, receive a score bonus of 10. |
| Insectoid Chimera | Destroy an allied card and replace it. |
| Insectoid Chimera | Destroy an allied card and replace it. |
| Kelmelzer | Replace an ally and lower the power of allied and enemy cards on affected tiles by the replaced ally’s power. |
How to beat Shadowblood Queen in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The key to setting yourself up for the final few moves of the match is to not push the board too hard, and ensure your existing occupied spaces are well-upgraded to the point that you can place level two and level three cards when you need to.
In the beginning of the match, we ideally want at least one Security Officer, the Space Ranger, Mu, and either Titan or Disgorgon. I like to put Space Ranger in the bottom-left tile to boost the column and create an opening into the next column. From there, you can use Mu, Titan, or Disgorgon to branch out further, with the latter automatically giving you level two spaces.
In FF7 Rebirth Queen’s Blood matches earlier in the game, you can suffocate most opponents quite quickly to win matches, but as the Shadowblood Queen proves, even once most of the board fills up, higher-level AI will rely heavily on special zero power level cards to replace their old cards and have a huge bearing on the battlefield.
Don’t be afraid to skip a go. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but as long as you’re ahead overall, it might be better to let the Shadowblood Queen make a move, knowing she has to or she loses, and you can mop up any enemy spaces she may have claimed.
This is why I suggest you don’t branch out at the speed of light as the Shadowblood Queen will have plenty of tricks up her sleeve in reserve to win back those spaces with ease. Instead, bide your time, level up your spaces, and always see if you can wait for the Shadowblood Queen to make a move on a fresh space so you can claim it.
With this deck, two Security Officers give you leeway in the tile-taking department thanks to their versatility and low cost. I also favor the two “win the lane” cards for obvious reasons, as you can conceivably lose the other lanes, but having an extra 20 added to your score with the Chocobo Jockey and Maloceros is a huge help.
I recommend saving the Insectoid Chimeras and Kelmelzer cards until the end. Remember, even if you can get an early foothold somehow and leave no opportunities for the AI to make traditional moves, the Shadowblood Queen will retaliate with these types of cards and quickly turn the game in her favor. So save them for as long as you can.
You only need to look at the final result of my battlefield above when I played the Shadowblood Queen to see how deadly and effective this deck is. Not to brag (well, maybe a little bit), but this was my first go. As long as you manage your cards and board well, then the inevitable endgame, attritional warfare shouldn’t be a problem.
If you need more advice where Queen’s Blood is concerned, we also have plenty of tips for completing Queen’s Blood Carnival Puzzles in Costa del Sol.
