My Guide To Getting Enemy Skills Aqualung, Big Guard, Flame Thrower, and White Wind.

Getting ES Beta (..Aqualung, Big Guard, Flame Thrower, and White Wind) easy in FF7.
This was my setup for everyone I used in my party while doing this on disc 1.

Characters :
Cloud (Lvl 23, 920 HP, 191 MP)
Red XIII (Lvl 22, 890,167)
Tifa (Lvl 22, 779, 160)
: All equip slots using materia for each character. :

Equipment :
Cloud : Force Stealer, Silver Armlet, Star Pendant.
Red XIII : Mythril Clip, Carbon Bangle.
Tifa : Motor Drive, Carbon Bangle, Talisman.
: NOTE : Force Stealer and Motor Drive both give out Double growth on materia. If your looking to grab Master Magic, etc early on taking advantage of their use is advised. :

Materia Used :
Cloud :
FS : Manip.*, Restore**, Heal*
SA : All**+Poison*, ES, Lightning**

Red XIII :
MC : All*+Fire**, Sense*
CB : Trans.*, Earth*, Ifrit*

Tifa :
MD : Steal*, Revive*, Seal*
CB : All**+Restore**, ES
: NOTE : Stars represent individual materia’s lvl. :

Right out of getting out of the prison and having two ES materia I went directly to the desert (world map) and fought a Harpy to get both ES materia Aqualung. Which was quite easy, I got it on my first shot and no one died on me. Next I took the buggy down to the Coral Shoreline and manipulated a Beachplug with ease to grab Big Guard for both ES. Then I drove to Costa Del Sol, and for 100 G got smuggled across sea back to Junon. On the screen with the white suited man you can catch a lift from helicopter to right outside of Junon. I took up the offer and was on the map outside of it. You can now drive and grab White Wind while your on your way to grabbing Beta by fighting and Maniping a Zemzelett now. Once you do that enter the Mythril Mine and you can also now grab Flame Thrower by Maniping an Arkdragon for the 2nd ES or both if you didn’t get it previously for the first. (You don’t have to manip these really, they use Flame Thrower alot in battle which all I did to get it for the first ES is wait till it used it on my character.) In the main menu options arrange / customize the first couple items accordingly for your next fight with the Midgar Zolom : Hi-Potions, Ethers, Phoenix Downs, Elixirs. (All as precautions.) Then save on the world map right before the marsh and battle with the Midgar Zolom.

Midgar Zolom Battle :
This battle I thought was pretty easy honestly with my set up. (You can make this even more easier by having Cloud, Red & Tifa’s (Or whatever your party is) limit breaks ready to go at the start of battle. I used Cloud as my person to grab Beta for the ES, so my strategy was pretty much for Tifa or Red (or both) to use their limit breaks, and have Cloud use Big Guard right at the start of battle. When fighting the Zolom don’t have Cloud attack till after the party is hit with Beta. Just use him as the healer with Cure’s and support with Big Guard and you’ll be set and he wont get whipped out of battle. When that’s taken care of have Red use Fire2 and Ifrit. Have Cloud use Restore when needed. If your party gets into a jam HP wise have Tifa use All+Restore when not attacking with Enemy Skills and reg attacks. The Zolom will get up and whip either Tifa or Red out of battle. Continue hitting the Zolom with the remaining person and Cloud cause after this happens a couple of times I’ve done this it goes straight to using Beta for me right after. If so immediately heal Cloud (I usually had the other remaining member alive also at this point but really low on health as long as Big Guard was still enabled when Beta hit) and the other member if still alive. Then hit it back with any high hitting attacks you have. You prolly will have a limit break or two you can use at this point. Which will make him fall very quickly. When dead go into your menu screen and swap ES materia from Cloud to Tifa so that Cloud now has the new ES that doesn’t yet have Beta. Repeat the battle process. You can now use Beta at the beginning or mid battle to do more damage and have a quicker fight.
: NOTE : You may during battle need to use one Ether or Elixir on a party member to keep up the MP. :
Congrats, now both materia have Beta, White Wind, Flame Thrower, Big Guard, and Aqualung (all moderately to HIGHLY useful) early in the game.