How to Beat All Card Carnival Challenges in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (FF7 Rebirth)

The Queen’s Blood card game is one of the best minigames available in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, so much so that there is an entire set of card puzzles to test your knowledge. Called the Card Carnival, knowing how to beat all these challenges will test your knowledge of the game and ability to learn new mechanics on the fly.

Spoiler Alert: While the Card Carnival takes place entirely in the Queen’s Blood minigame, I do mention location, story, and monster details you won’t see for a few hours.

Every Card Carnival Solution in FF7 Rebirth

Initially, only a few Card Carnival Queen’s Blood Challenges are available, specifically during the Costa Del Sol section, where you need to acquire Companion Cards to get beachwear. You don’t need to complete all of the first available card puzzles to earn the Companion Card, but if you like Queen’s Blood, the cards awarded for the harder puzzles will make your decks a lot stronger.

How to Complete the First Easy Card Carnival Puzzle: Three-Card Stud

In this challenge, you have three cards: the level one Fleetwing and two level two cards, namely Zu and Quetzalcoatl. Your job is to place the cards such that they outscore the three cards on the opposing side. To do so, place the cards in this order:

1. Fleetwing in the available level one space on the bottom-right. This opens up a level two space in the top left.
2. Zu in the new level two space in the top-right. Doing so creates a level two space in the middle.
3. Quetzalcoatl in the middle level two space.

With this orientation, Zu outscores the trooper card in the top row, and Quetzalcoatl outscores its counterpart, leaving you with five points to the opponent’s four. You’ll receive the Fleetwing card as a reward for solving the puzzle.

How to Complete the Second Easy Card Carnival Puzzle: Go for Choco-Broke

This second puzzle makes the first look like it was lying down. Here, you’ll be using the combined abilities of the Chocobo & Moogle card to increase the power of your cards and the Posh Chocobo to add three additional points to its winning row. The order of playing cards is as follows:

1. Fat Chocobo in the level three space in the bottom left. This creates level one spaces at the top left and bottom right, both enhanced by the Magic Jar card.
2. Posh Chocobo in the level one space in the bottom right. This ensures you win the row and activate the card’s special ability: granting three additional points to your final score because you won the row.
3. Chocobo & Moogle in the level one space between Fat and Posh Chocobos. This move puts you at 14 base points, plus three from Posh Chocobo’s ability, outscoring your opponent 17-16.

I admit, this solution probably took me the longest to unpack, but it was very satisfying to pull off once I wrapped my head around the nuance. And for those efforts, you and I both walk away with the Posh Chocobo card.

How to Complete the Third Easy Card Carnival Puzzle: Mischief-Making Moogles

The third Card Carnival puzzle asks you to learn a new card mechanic: adding new cards to your hand by playing one to the board. The Moogle Trio card automatically adds Moogle Mage and Moogle Bard to your hand, and you need to use those and the other two cards to outscore the opponent. The order of card placement is:

1. Moogle Trio to the level two space at the middle left. This move generates two level one spaces to the top and bottom right and adds the two new cards to your hand.
2. Fleetwing to the level two space in the middle. This move generates two more level one spaces at the top and bottom left.
3. Moogle Mage to the level one space at the bottom middle. This move destroys the Cactuar card on the enemy’s top row, costing them score and opening a space for you where the card once sat.
4. Moogle Bard to the level one space at the top left. This move enhances both Fleetwing and Moogle Mage, so their respective powers increase by 2.
5. Grasslands Wolf to the level one space at the bottom left. This move wins you the row, and thus the match.

This challenge was the first that really got me to read the card ability descriptions at the bottom of the screen and think about what each might mean. Before I went off the spaces each card granted, I got a better appreciation for card abilities going forward. For those efforts, I — and now you — get the Moogle Trio card.

At this point, you can stop playing Card Carnival if you so choose. You’ll have your companion card from the event and can use it to buy Cloud some beachwear, but there are three more advanced puzzles that you can solve as well (at first, anyway).

How to Complete the First Advanced Card Carnival Puzzle: Spears and Needles

The first Advanced Card Carnival puzzle is a test of the basics. Good card placement, swapping enemy places for your own, and enhancing are all key to completing the challenge. You have all the tools you need to win, it’s just a matter of using them in this order:

1. Cactuar to the level one space at the top-middle. This enhances the level two enemy space at the bottom-right.
2. First Spearhawk to the level one space in the middle. This opens up a level one space to its right.
3. Second Spearhawk to the level one space at the middle-right. This turns the level two enemy space into an allied space and additionally raises the space’s power by two.
4. Quetzalcoatl to the level two space in the bottom right. The +5 power bonus on the square puts the Quetzalcoatl card at eight power, and because the middle row is tied, neither player gets it, putting the final score at 8-6 in your favor.

This particular challenge is a bit tricky, with multiple moving parts. There are no real gimmicks here, just solid mechanical knowledge (if I do say so myself). You get the Cactuar card as your reward for beating the challenge.

How to Complete the Second Advanced Card Carnival Puzzle: Sea Devils By Night

Don’t let how full the board is in this card challenge intimidate you. It’s fairly straightforward. The whole thing revolves around the Sea Devil card’s ability: it gains one power every time you play a card from your hand. Your goal, then, is to play as many cards as you possibly can. You’ll notice that at the beginning of the puzzle, two squares are already marked with a one-power reduction, which eventually will give you the ability to destroy cards you play to level up your Sea Devils. The order of cards played is:

1. Security Officer to the level one space in the bottom-middle. This destroys the card but creates two safe level three spaces for your Sea Devils.
2. Both Sea Devils to the two level three spaces. This ensures they can start increasing in power as you play additional cards.
3. All but one Mandragora and Mandragora Minion card to the bottom-middle and bottom-right spaces to destroy them. These moves boost the Sea Devils up to four and five power.
4. The final Mandragora Minion to the middle-left space. This last move increases your Sea Devils one last time and adds the point you need to win the middle row.

Sacrificing, or sac-ing, is a common strategy in real-world trading card games, with many championship-winning decks using the ability in some fashion. Now that you’ve got the mechanic down in Queen’s Blood, you get the Sea Devil card for your trouble.

How to Complete the Third Advanced Card Carnival Puzzle: A Kingly Clash

The final Card Carnival challenge is a doozy, and relies on your ability to not only play cards intelligently but, like the last challenge, to know when to destroy them, as well. Tonberry King, the core card in this puzzle, gains two power when allied cards are destroyed, regardless of their original power level. The order of operations is as follows:

1. Either Zu card to the level two space at the top middle. This opens up additional level one spaces on the board to use.
2. The second Zu to the level two space at the bottom middle. This creates two more level two spaces on the board.
3. Tonberry King to the level two space in the middle right. While this move doesn’t do anything right away, it will shortly.
4. Mindflayer to the level two space at the middle left. This move reduces the power of the two Zu cards and the spaces above and below Mindflayer by one, all of which will be useful in a moment.
5. One Deathwheel to the two level one spaces at the top and bottom left. This move destroys the trooper cards above and below Tonberry King, and also sees the Deathwheels auto-destroy thanks to Mindflayer.

You should notice a cascade effect. The Deathwheels disappear automatically as they’re placed, and the “containing” of reduced power spreads to the other cards, leaving Tonberry King with a power of 15 which, combined with the Midflayer’s one power, wins the row and thus the game. You get the Tonberry King card for beating this puzzle.

Those are the six Card Carnival Queen’s Blood challenge puzzles you have when you get to Costa Del Sol. I’ll be updating this guide with solutions for additional ones in the coming days, so stay tuned. For more on Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, check our guides hub.