Summon Board Passive selections:
Numbers listed below refer to the 7 passives to select for each Ultimate Summon Board for the character. Top is 1, bottom is 7.Odin choose 3 / 6 / 7
Bahamut choose 4 / 5 / 6
Usuals:
Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, Brothers 4 / 5 / 7
Leviathan, Pandemonium, Diabolos, Alexander 4 / 5 / 6
For more details and help with summons, check Summon Hub!
A Spheres: Focus only on BRV DMG and/or ATK. ATK +15% or BRV DMG +10% is best. Noel, Cloud, Raijin are among the best, but use the link to pick any sphere in these categories.
D Sphere: Hope/Queen/Cissnei are the clear best spheres, Wakka too if you shove her full of buffs.
Tifa opens with Battle Cry (S2) to get her Zangan Way buff up. The instant turn rate and BRV refund will allow her next attack to hit harder. This skill is also best used when multiple enemies need to be BRV shaved outside of Force Time.
Use Meteor Crusher (LD) next to get her Full Throttle HP attack up. The LD buff itself lasts long enough that using LD uses early isn't too big an issue.
Beat Rush+ is just a very hard hitting skill. Once it's upgraded it's very hard for Tifa to drop it as she just needs to Crit with it which she will always do with her buffs up.
Don’t forget that Beat Rush Recovery Attack Up can be used to get a use back of this skill and some extra buffs.
Battle Cry is an instant and free turn that can be used to chain big damage windows, helpful for lowering enemies to HP thresholds before they get a turn.
HP+ Full Throttle is 1 use after using LD. It can be used whenever you like after the LD, it’s a convenient instant turn skill. The free skill can go to S2 to maintain momentum but if in burst phase or force time, pop that S1+
Dolphin Blow Combo recharges in 2 skill uses generally, but 3 Battle Cry’s since they are instant turn rate. It does a lot of damage, delays and launches the target allowing allies to chase!
Final Heaven (BT) ascends Tifa's damage to new heights with raised HP DMG limit for the party and unlocking 2 more personal follow-up attacks for Tifa adding a whopping 6 HP attacks after her attacks.
Her rotation in burst phase should look like:
Full Throttle -> S1 -> S1 -> LD -> EX -> FR -> Finisher
If you don't have Full Throttle away use:
LD -> Full Throttle -> S1 -> S1 -> EX -> FR -> Finisher
Glitter Strike (FR) is a strong single target attack with fairly easy conditions to meet for Tifa along with good HP DMG Bonuses. You want this for Tifa's BT phase even if you use someone else's FR for better conditions!
Tifa is one of the earliest characters, so many passives are quite useless for the current era of the game. Plenty to remove if you lack CP space
HP Attack+ Up (this can’t even be triggered if she’s MLB)
Chain Bonus (one of the most useless passives in the game)
Power Break (actively bad and useless simultaneously)
Skeleton Slayer (only triggers when using BRV++ against a skeleton type, and if you’re Tifa, you’re almost never using BRV++ against any enemy, and even if you did, extra BRV DMG on a BRV+ attack is generally pointless)
Spite (in the running for most useless passives in the game)
BRV Attack++ HP Attack++ Up (This doesn’t affect her Full Throttle HP+, so it’s fairly useless)