Punch in Final Fantasy VII is an attribute usually associated with piercing and thrusting attacks, as "to punch a hole", such as Cid's weapons, and Barret's melee weapons and Tifa claw weapons.
Physical damage types generally have no enemies which are weak or resist them, and can all be resisted through the same means, making them mostly superfluous. However, some enemies, such as the Sahagin and Desert Sahagin, are automatically hit by Punch attacks, with no chance to evade.
Weapons
Enemy abilities
Many Punch-type enemy abilities attempt to inflict paralysis.
| Ability | Enemy | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Angle Punch | Dual Horn, Spiral | Moderate Punch-elemental damage. |
| Beak | Cokatolis, Hippogriff, Nerosuferoth, Shake, Skeeskee | Minor Punch-elemental damage. |
| Behemoth Horn | Behemoth, King Behemoth | Major Punch-elemental damage. |
| Berserk Needle | Slaps | Minor Punch-elemental damage and Berserk. |
| Big Horn | Materia Keeper, Stilva | Moderate Punch-elemental damage. |
| Bug Needle | Slaps | Minor Punch-elemental damage as well as Poison and Sadness. |
| Chocobo goes nuts | Chocobo | Punch-elemental damage. Only used if Chocobo's HP is reduced to 0. |
| Chute Attack | Needle Kiss | Minor Punch-elemental damage. |
| Claw | Behemoth, Crown Lance, Dark Dragon, Death Claw, Eagle Gun, Griffin, Harpy, Maximum Kimaira, Tonadu, Ultimate Weapon, Zuu | Minor to major Punch-elemental damage. |
| Deadly Needles | Crown Lance | Minor Punch-elemental damage and Petrify. |
| Death Claw | Death Claw | Minor Punch-elemental damage and Paralyzed. |
| Drilldrive | Scrutin Eye | Minor Punch-elemental damage. |
| Halt Whip | Heg | Minor Punch-elemental damage and Paralyzed. |
| Handclaw | Grunt, Senior Grunt, Special Combatant | Punch-elemental damage. |
| Harpoon | Desert Sahagin, Sahagin | Punch-elemental damage. |
| Hell Spear | Gi Spector | Minor Punch-elemental damage and Paralyzed. |
| Horn | Ancient Dragon, Bagnadrana | Minor Punch-elemental damage. |
| Left Revenge | Ruby Weapon | Reduces MP by 15/32 and inflicts Poison/Slow-numb. |
| Left Thrust | Ruby Weapon | Reduces MP by 25/32 and inflicts Poison/Slow-numb. |
| Paralyzer Needle | Slaps | Minor Punch-elemental damage and Paralyzed. |
| Pile Banger | Helletic Hojo | Major Punch-elemental damage. Only used if Right Arm is still alive. |
| Rabbit Gouge | Stinger | Inflicts major Punch-elemental damage. |
| Right Revenge | Ruby Weapon | Reduces HP by 15/32 and inflicts Frog and Small. |
| Right Thrust | Ruby Weapon | Reduces HP by 15/16 and inflicts Frog and Small. |
| Skewer | Gi Spector | Minor Punch-elemental damage. |
| Spear Attack | Gi Nattak | Major Punch-elemental damage. |
| Spiky Hell | Bloatfloat | Inflicts 200 HP, and is used as a counter against magic attacks once. |
| Stab | Thunderbird | Moderate Punch-elemental damage. |
| Sting | Stinger | Moderate Punch-elemental attack. |
| Sting Bomb | Stinger | Reduces HP by 3/4. |
| Violent Advance | Vlakorados | Moderate Punch-elemental damage. |
Protection
It is possible to reduce Punch damage directly by having a character with the Ziedrich armor, and indirectly by using the Enemy Skill Dragon Force, or via the item Hero Drink, which boost overall defense. Peerless and Shield statuses also make one immune to Punch damage.
Behind the scenes
There is also an enemy ability called Punch, but it is not Punch-elemental; rather, it deals Hit attribute damage.