Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Queen's Blood Nightmare Survival Challenge Guide

In this Queen's Blood Nightmare Survival Challenge Guide we'll go over the rules, what deck we used, and the strategies we implemented for each round that scored us the victory.

Queen's Blood is an incredibly addicting card game that Cloud can partake in across the entire world. With it's own quest line and various optional challenges if you're into the game there's a LOT of way to play it.

The hardest Queen's Blood challenge however is the Gold Saucer Nightmare Survival Challenge. This challenge completely changes the way you need to play the game and any deck you've been using will be no help here.

What are the Nightmare Survival Challenge rules?

In Survival Challenges players will compete in a series of rounds, for the Nightmare difficulty it is five rounds. The rules are:

• You will draw five cards at the start of Round 1, 2, and 3. For rounds 4 and 5 you use whatever cards remaining in your hand
• You cannot draw cards from Round 4 onward
• You cannot draw cards during the Round

For Round 1, 2, and 3 there will be treasure chests on the board, if you end the round and you've won the lane then you will earn a card from the treasure chest. At the end of each round the scores of either side will be tallied up and points awarded, and then the game will proceed to the next round. You want to end round 5 with the most points.

The key thing to figure out for the Nightware Survival Challenge is balance, when is it worth using a card and when is it worth suffering a loss in one round to then have a big success in a later round.

Nightmare Survival Challenge Deck

The deck we used to complete this challenge included the following cards:

• #20 - Archdragon
• #21 - Ogre
• #30 - Flametrooper
• #46 - Chimera*
• #53 - Maloceros
• #61 - Reapertail
• #62 - Jabberwock
• #74 - Rictus*
• #78 - Special Forces Operator
• #92 - Cait Sith
• #93 - Cid
• #100 - Odin*
• #110 - Moogle Trio
• #141 - Dio*
• #145 - Shadowblood Queen*

A number of these cards are key to the strategy of defeating the Nightmare Survival Challenge. Important cards that should not be replaced are marked with an asterix (*).

The logic behind some of the other cards in this deck are:

• Maloceros is a valuable card as it has a high placement cost, but winning a lane will net you a bonus 10 points.
• Cait Sith, Cid, and Moogle Trio all spawn additional cards which are useful when your hand is so limited
• Jabberwock has a high point total, playing it early you can not hurt any cards but gain a powerful ally
• The rest of the cards have been picked for their range or points

Nightmare Survival Challenge Strategy

The most important thing to remember throughout the entire Nightmare Survival Challenge is that you should always save the following cards for Round 5; Shadowblood Queen, Chimera, Rictus. Round 5 is also where the most points will be earned so if you're slightly losing ground over the game but reach Round 5 with a lot of cards that can be powered up that's ok.

Round 1 - Space Ranger

Round 1 will start with three chests in the middle and a Space Ranger on your opponents side. You will also draw Gigantaur x2.

Before you even start the game you want to make sure that Dio is in your starting hand and that no other Level 3 cards are. If you don't see Dio, or if the Shadowblood Queen or Maloceros appear in your hand then restart until your hand is good.

Play Dio across from the Space Ranger, as they both gain power on enhanced cards that's an automatic victory for that lane. Try to win at least one of the other lanes, don't worry about winning all three

Round 2 - Ifrit

Round 2 has a chest in the top left and bottom right, with Ifrit in the middle. That means that every space in the middle three columns will empower cards by 2.

For this round the focus should just be on winning the lowest lane, if you have a chance to win the middle lane or stretch over to their side then you can take it but it's not as important this early. If Odin is in your hand play it in the lower left to pretty much guarantee winning the bottom lane

Round 3 - Mythril Golem

This round is similar to Round 1 but instead of a Space Ranger that can grow in power as buffs are placed on the field there is a Mythril Golem with 8 power taking over the center row.

This is where cards like the Jabberwock will come into play letting you get out a comparably powerful monster early. For the rest of this round just try to win at least one round, but it's not worth wasting cards on.

Round 4 - Shiva

For Round 4 Shiva is in play and will activate at the end of the round. Try to play as many cards as you can that will expand the number of spaces you can play cards. This is another round that it's not as important if you win or lose, but just try not to lose by a lot.

Round 5 - Shadowblood Queen

For the final round the game starts with the Shadowblood Queen on your opponents side of the field. This round will all be about the opponent enfeebling their own monsters to power up the Shadowblood Queen

The first thing you should do is place your own Shadowblood Queen opposite it and then place cards to get Rictus on the same lane. This means that for each boost they'll be giving to their Shadowblood Queen they'll also be boosting two of your cards so they never win that lane.

After ensuring victory in a lane the next steps you take should just be to get as much of your cards on the board as possible. It ends up looking extremely complicated but if done right victory should be yours.

Completing this optional challenge will reward you the Card Slayer item for Johnny's Treasure Trove in Costa Del Sol, as well as all of the other rewards!