RPGClassics.com - Final Fantasy VII Shrine

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Viper Halberd, Bolt Armlet, HypnoCrown, Megalixir, Magic Plus materia, Power Source.

You'll start off outside of one of the shell-shaped buildings on the east side of the Ancient City. If you walk to the left, Cloud will have another attack and you'll see the ghostly form of Sephiroth leaving the Ancient City. Once Cloud has recovered, follow Sephiroth by heading north, then east along the path you couldn't take before. Note that you're free to go back through the Forest and return to the World Map, but there's no point in doing so unless you wanted to buy some items or find Vincent or Yuffie (unless you already have them). Although you're now on Disc 2, none of the other events that occur in this disc will actually happen until you get the Highwind in section 4e (meaning that if you were to return to the World Map, you couldn't go on the Huge materia quests yet, dig up the Gate 5 Key, or bring Bugenhagen back to the Ancient City).

In the next area, ignore the white, spiked object for a moment. Instead, walk behind it (look for a path to your left). This will allow you to reach a chest containing a Viper Halberd (a weapon for Cid). Once you've gotten it, climb up the spiky object. It's a little tricky to navigate due to it's spiraling shape, but you'll eventually reach a cave entrace after making your way to the top.

Inside, walk to the left and press against the second cleft in the wall. You'll climb to the top and be given two options (Right or Left). Pick the bottom option (Left). Walk over to the next cleft and climb up it, then choose the bottom option when you reach the top to land on a little ledge with a chest above it. You can open the chest from where you are; there's a Bolt Armlet inside. Face the cleft and choose the bottom choice, then the top one to jump to the other side. Now, go to the right and when two options appear, pick the bottom one. This lets you climb down to where the first chest is; there's a HypnoCrown inside of it. Climb back up to the top of the cleft, pick the bottom option, then press against it to try and get back on. When two options appear, choose the top one. Then, make your way up to the ledge with the chest, and pick the top option. You can now take the Megalixir from inside the chest. Get back into the cleft and choose the bottom option to jump to the west side of the path. Work your way to the left, climb up the cleft, and head left a second time to reach a long ladder. Selecting the bottom option will left you climb down to the bottom of the ladder.

If you search using the O button, you'll find a purple materia (Magic Plus) near the lower-left corner of the screen. When you approach the ladder, you'll automatically climb up to the ledge you were at. Now pick the top option after nearing the ladder and climb all the way to the top. Once you're off the ladder, run to the right and go through the opening on the north wall. In the next room, take the contents of the treasure chest (Power Source) before exiting through the far opening to the northwest.

Once outside, keep to the east. After heading along the coastline for a while, you'll come across a sharp curve that turns to the west. Just beyond it is a village and a deep valley, which you can't enter without exploring the village (Icicle Inn) first.

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: X-Potion, Hero Drink, Vaccine, Turbo Ether, Mind Source, Safety Bit, Elixir, Added Cut materia

Go to the far end of town and talk to the man in purple standing near the trees. Pick the top option. Two Shinra members will show up, along with Elena (a Turk). After confronting Cloud, she will try to knock him out. To avoid her strike, press left, right, or up just after you see the transparent message box. If she does hit you, you'll wake up in one of the houses, but if she doesn't, then she'll roll right out of the town. It doesn't make a difference whether you get hit or not.

After that's done with, go to town entrance and check out the house that's just to your right. In the back room, there's a boy, a cat, and a snowboard. Talk to the boy and the cat will leave the room, enabling you to take the snowboard by examining it. You'll need it for the upcoming event. Now, go to the inn, head to the upper floor, and examine the window in the lower left-hand corner to get an X-Potion. You can also check out the bar beneath the main room (look for a door near the reception area). Now, leave and enter the house on the far right (near the snowman). Take the items in the back room (an Hero Drink and a Vaccine), then examine the map on the wall in the main room. You can examine it by choosing the top option, but before you leave, you'll want to choose the bottom option to take it.

Finally, go into the house on the left side of town, just to the right of the weapons shop. If Elena KO'd you, this is where you'll wake up :) If you go down the stairs and look by the windowsill, you can get another item (Turbo Ether). You can also take a look at the machinery on the ground floor to see a series of prerecorded videos dating back many years ago; they show Aeris' mother (Ifalna, a Cetra just like Aeris) and her father, a 'renegade' Shinra scientist named Gast. There are several videos, but watching them has no effect on the game itself, aside from cluing you in to Aeris' past. There's a device to the left that will allow more light into the room, but it doesn't have any purpose.

Before you leave the town, you may want to buy weapons, Hi-Potions and Tents at the shop. When you're ready to go, simply walk past the man in the back of town (the one near the trees), and the snowboard sequence will start up:

S Brake
X Jump
Pad Move left or right, down to brake
Start Pause/unpause
L1/R1 Quick turn to the left or right when used with control pad

Basically, you want to make your way through the mountains. You can collect balloons along the way, but I don't know what they do for you. There are also obstacles to crash into, like dead wood, pine trees, igloos, moogles, snowmen, rocks, ice boulders, and chocobos. I believe there are four different 'exit' paths; I'll take the left path twice and go from there in this FAQ.

My characters came to in a white forest. Did yours? From this point onward, you can press S to look at the map you took (but not in some screens), which shows where you need to go but not where you are. I spent hours trying to map this place out, only to discover that there's almost nothing of interest in this area. So, I've simply described each location and where it is on the map; getting there isn't much of a problem. Your ultimate goal, BTW, is to make it to the red check mark shown on the map.

ENTRANCE (looks like a square at the bottom-center of the screen) Heading south from this area takes you back out to the World Map. If you return to Icicle Inn to heal yourself, you'll have to snowboard in here again.

MOUNTAIN CAVE (small opening just to the right of the ENTRANCE) You can hop across the ledges to the top of the screen, but in the next room, there's nothing to do but choose to fall/not fall down an icy chute that has no effect aside from ejecting you back into the world map. The entrance to this cave is hard to see; it's in the lower-right area of the T-junction screen. You can also get here by going right from the LAKE CAVE area.

FOREST (forest divided by Y-shaped paths) In the main forest screen, there's an item (Mind Source) at the foot of a tree near the upper left part of the screen. If this is where you landed after the snowboarding event, then it's just up and to the right of where you crashed.

LAKE CAVE (cave in the middle of the central lake) On the surface of the frozen lake, near the shore, there is a green item (a Potion). Be sure to get it. Then head to the left to reach a screen full of ice floes. Here, you'll have to jump on the floating ice chunks to get across, but the chunks surrounding the one you're currently standing on will submerge or raise depending on how they looked when you arrived there. If you mess up and they are all submerged, you'll have to start all over. The key is to make sure that you're not jumping onto a floe when the ones surrounding it are all raised, or else they'll all submerge and you'll fall into the water. To get on the ice floats, choose the top option, then use the O button and the controller to jump around. Enter the cave in the next area, grab the item bag (it contains a Safety Bit accessory), and leave.

ICE BOULDERS (northwest corner, left and below the STONE FACE) Go into the small cave entrance and grab the item in the northwest corner of the cavern (an Elixir), then go out the other entrance.

STONE FACE (left of the red check mark) Nothing here. Seem familiar? The stone face has also appeared in Secret of Mana and FF5j.

STEAMING LAKES (south and east of the check mark) You can touch the water on the lefthand bank if you want. In fact, you should, since you can't get the Alexander Materia any other way. (Keep reading for details.) Just maneuver yourself as close to the shore of the left lake as you can, and when an option appears, pick the top one.

MOUNTAIN CROSSROADS (top of mountain east of the STEAMING LAKES) Once you reach the crossroads (da dum da da :)) head to the upper right corner of the screen to go off the map. In the next area, work your way up and to the left. When this screen repeats a second time, look for a Blue Materia (Added Cut) near the beginning of the screen, in the upper-right part of the path. This road takes you to the Steaming Lakes area, but if you try to back the way you came, you'll see that the screen has changed. Put another way, you couldn't have gotten the Materia unless you took this path since the 'switching' road isn't marked on the map.

If you're fast, you can reach the 'lost in the snowfield' section (the red checkmark) before anything bad happens. But if you waste your time in this area, you'll pass out. (This will still happen to you even if you reached the snowfield, but then returned to any part of the 'first area'. If that happens, go to the next section. If you made it to the snowfield area, then skip the first paragraph to find out where you are.

Personally, my suggestion is that you follow the example in the FAQ and take the left path twice so that you land in the Forest. From there, you can go right to the Lake Cave area, then continue right past the Mountain Cave area (the T-junction), and up into the Mountain Crossroads, where you can take the switching path to the Steaming Lakes, and then head left into the snowfield. Not only is this a fast way to get through this area, but it also lets you pick up all the items along the way and get the Alexander Materia later on (since you touched the lake on your way out).

Also, you'll start off at the bottom end of the snowfield when you first get there, so you can just head up to the cave to get the All materia (mentioned in the next section), then keep heading north to reach the old man's shack (if you're in need of healing and a Save Point). After talking with him, you can go to the Stone Face Area, head south to the Ice Boulders area where an Elixir is, then backtrack to the snowfield and go to the right in order to get the Alexander Materia before returning to the shack. Voila! You've just cleared out this _entire_ area in only a few minutes!

Remember, you _will_ pass out eventually if you return to the first area--there's nothing you can do about it, even if you've already gone to Holzoff's shack. If you don't want to waste too much time backtracking just run around in the same few areas until it happens, then leave the old man's shack and continue exploring. Why this still happens to you after clearing out this area doesn't seem to make much sense, as it's more of a nuisance than anything else, but there's not much you can do about it. If you return to the first area after falling unconscious and wait around there again, you'll pass out a second time. In fact, this will always happen to you, so get moving!

You'll awake in the house of an old man named Holzoff. Go up the stairs and let the old man talk to you; choose the bottom option twice when he asks you two questions. When you wake up the next morning, check out the Save Point (since you probably haven't saved prior to entering the Icicle Inn). If you want to spend the night again, talk to the old man in the first room and choose the top choice. When you leave the shack, your friends will be waiting outside. Make a new party if you wish, (see below for directions) then head south. You may have noticed that you can talk to Holzoff from the ground floor even though he is above you :)

Go directly through the snowy field to the shack (head north) so that you won't pass out. There, you'll meet an old hermit named Holzoff. Talk to him, and when he asks you a question, answer any way you like. The second time he asks you a question, choose the bottom reply. You'll spend the night at his shack, and when you leave the next morning, your allies will be standing around outside. Choose either choice when an option appears. Then talk to any member and pick the top option to accept a party change or the bottom option to decline, if you want to change your members.

If you don't want to explore the snowfield any more, skip to section 4.4. After all, you can return here at any future point in the game, providing you have the Highwind. Otherwise, head south to leave the shack area.

Outside, you'll be in a large snowfield. Use the O button to set down spikes that you can use to track your location (since your direction changes when the wind picks up). If you want to explore the rest of that first area that you left/passed out in, head south. When you leave the first area from the Steaming Lakes exit, you'll see a rock formation with a cave entrance if you keep walking north. Inside, a Blue Materia (All) is lying near the tent.

If you head east, you'll go through some snowy areas, then arrive at a cave entrance. Talk to the purple lady inside to enter a battle, but only if you touched the water back at the Steaming Lakes.

You can't Control or Morph her, but you can steal a Circlet during the battle. Her cold-based attacks (Cold Breath and Ice 2) are nothing to worry about, but be careful if she Fascinates (charms) one of your own members.

If you are victorious, she'll disappear and a Summon Materia (Alexander) will drop to the floor, so don't miss it. While you can use the map here, you can't reach this place normally from the first area. If you go right, then down the snowy path, you'll end up at the 'switching' crossroads in the first area, though (sort of like a one-way path).

Going west from the snowfield takes you to an alternate entrance to the first area. There's not that much to do there, anyway, unless you want a shortcut to the ICE BOULDERS area where an item is lying in a cave (refer to the previous section for more information).

If you're really having trouble navigating around, think of the snowfield like this:

So no matter how far you are along a boundary, you'll still enter that area when you hit it. The same applies to the corners -- you'll hit one boundary or the other, so going in a diagonal direction won't get you to a new place. Don't worry about finding an 'exact' spot to enter an area, just head in that direction. The only real landmark is the cave with the All materia, but if you head north from the Steaming Lakes exit, you're bound to spot it.

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Ribbon, Javelin, Elixir, Fire Armlet, Megalixir, Speed Source, Enhance Sword, Dragon Fang, Neo Bahamut materia, Ether, Hi-Potion, Kaiser Knuckle, Reflect Ring, MP Turbo materia, Poison Ring.

Once you've had your fun in the snowfield, return to the old man's house and heal up or save your game if you need to. Then, go north from the shack to arrive at the slopes of a icy mountain. Keep in mind that you can't explore this area at any time other than right now in Disc 2, so make sure to get all the items and other stuff.

Now, get ready for some finger-smashing fun! The meter that appears on screen when you're outside is your body temperature: it goes down because of the cold climate. To keep your temperature up, you need to rapidly hit the S button. The highest temperature you can get to is 38, while the lowest is 27. Any less than that (26), and you pass out and find yourself back in Holzoff's shack. It sounds like keeping your heat up is easy, but you can only increase it when you're on one of the ledges, not while you're climbing up the rock face. So for those long climbs, you have to max out your heat and climb as quickly as you can. Luckily, your heat doesn't go down during a battle. Remember, it's not how hard you press the S button, but how fast you press it, so try to get in as many presses as you can to max out your temperature.

I had made a GameShark code for this part of the game in the Japanese version of FF7, because it was so hard. But in the US version, you'd have to really mess up to have your temperature dip below 34, even. That's right, here's another example of Square making an easier game even simpler. In the Japanese version, you _destroyed_ your fingers trying to keep your rapidly-decreasing body heat up. ^_^;

In this area, there's nowhere else to go but up, so climb along the rock face until you arrive at the cave entrance, pausing at each ledge to restore your body heat. Always keep an eye out for the red flags; they indicate which part of the wall you can climb. Inside, go through the two archways into the next cavern. Here, climb up the stairs and go through the south exit. In the adjoining area, walk all the way to the right to find a hidden chamber with a chest; inside it is a Ribbon. Then return to the main path and head north, then west, through the entrance. Cross the icy bridge in the third cavern and press the SELECT button to bring up the cursor; it'll help you navigate through the twisting passage before you. Once you reach the top, examine the boulder and choose the top option when it presents itself. This will make you push the boulder and free up the blocked passage beneath you. You can still move while the boulder is rolling--notice that you can stand right where it falls and you will recieve no damage (then again, Cloud is the same guy who can run around in the cold wearing a sleeveless shirt and not die of hypothermia... must be those corn flakes).

Go back to the other room (where you got the Ribbon), and open the purple chest to the northeast; there's a Javelin lying inside it. Now, return to the room that you exited from the south (the one with the formerly blocked passage), and go north along the passage until you reach another exit. This leads to the upper path above the chest with the Javelin--keep following it and you'll find yourself outside.

Build up your temperature, then climb up the wall. After going a short distance, you're given a choice (up, down, or right). Pick the top option (up), and head up until you reach a ledge. Keep climbing upward, and you'll be prompted with another choice (right or down). Pick the top option and head right to arrive at another ledge. Then climb up until you reach the next ledge; it has a path going left and an unmarked path that goes to the right (i.e. there's no flag by it). The right path is a dead end, so take the left path and keep climbing up along the wall (you'll find another ledge on the way) until you reach a second cave entrace.

This large cavern is pocked with holes. There's an exit and a treasure chest, but they are too high to reach, at the moment. Don't miss the Save Point between the chest and the exit. Nab the other chest in the lower right corner of the room (there's an Elixir inside of it), then go north from the chest to find a passage that leads outside. Once you're out in the open again, head north, then go around the bend and head south and east.

In the next room, examine the area immediately to the right to find a chest with an Fire Armlet inside. There are four huge icicles here that you need to knock into the holes in the lower cavern. This is done by 'fighting' them. Each icicle is guarded by several yellow bats.

TIPS: ICICLE LV: 30 HP: 3000 MP: 300
(weak against Fire, Earth, and Gravity)
EVILHEAD LV: 28 HP: 740 MP: 45

The Icicle can counter with an Icicle Drop attack. It will do this to any person who attacks it, tries to steal from it, or the like. You don't have to kill the bats in order to win the battle (all you have to do is 'kill' the icicle), but since they can Silence your characters and recover HP when they attack you, you may want to get them out of the way before attacking the icicle. Or, use Beta to inflict damage on all of them at once. Killing the icicle is worth 500 exp, 0 AP, and 0 gil, so if you want some AP and gil, you may want to kill the Evilheads too (which, incidentally, you can Morph into Holy Torches).

Each time you win a battle, you'll be given an option. If you pick the bottom choice, you'll drop down to the room below, while picking the top choice lets you stay where you are (so you can continue to 'fight' the other icicles. After knocking down the last icicle, choose to stay where you are so that you can get the chest on the far left (it has a Megalixir inside*). Then, go back along the path. Just before you reach the door, an option appears; pick the bottom choice to jump down to the room below.

Note that it says you get a 'Last Elixir'! Yes, this is the power of the Square translators at work. 'Last Elixir' was the Japanese name of the Megalixir item, and if you look at your menu, you will have gotten an extra Megalixir, not a new item called 'Last Elixir'. Didn't they do a good job on the translation? :)

When the icicles drop down here, the floor of the cavern is 'raised'. After knocking down 3 of them, you can reach the exit, knock down all 4 and you can get the chest on the ledge in the upper left corner of the room (which contains a Speed Source). When you're ready, go through the now-avalible exit by hopping across the stones. This leads to the left side of the outer path. Be sure to examine the chest that's here to get an Enhance Sword, then follow the path as it curves back on itself and leads to the lower passage in the icicle room.

Keep following the path, and you'll find yourself on the side of the mountain yet again. Grab the rock face and climb to the right. After a while, three options will appear (up, left, or right). Pick the bottom choice and keep holding right to make Cloud ascend the side of the mountain. When you reach the next ledge, raise your temperature and take the path that leads to the left. As you're climbing, another set of options will appear (up, down, or right). Choose the top option and keep climbing up. Once you've made it beyond the second ledge, you'll find a final cave entrance.

This area has a hard-to-miss Save Point in it, and if you examine the nearby pool of light, your HP and MP will be completely restored, and all dead characters will be revived. Now is a perfect time to stock up on goodies--you can use the pool to stay healthy while fighting the enemies for exp, AP, and gil, and you can learn Smelly Breath from the Molbors just outside (be sure to wear a Ribbon!) Plus, you can win Dragon Armlets from the Blue Dragons in this cave, which will halve damage taken from Fire, Cold, or Lightning attacks, and win M-Tentacles from defeated Molbols. There's a boss encounter coming your way, so make sure you're ready to do battle, then exit the chamber by going to the far right.

In the adjoining hallway, you'll see one of those shrouded creatures (similar to the ones in Nibelheim) be thrown to the floor. Before you have a chance to examine it, you'll be attacked by a two-headed boss.

BOSS TIPS: SCHIZO (Right) LV: 43 HP: 18000 MP: 350
SCHIZO (Left) LV: 43 HP: 18000 MP: 350

In case you're confused, the 'right head' is the scaly one, and the 'left head' is the one with horns. Anyway, you should have the Aurora, Bolt, and Fire Armlets equipped on your members to reduce damage from the scaly head's Fire breath and the horned head's Ice breath. The Bolt Armlet will defend you against the heads' final attack, which damages all members for 1400 damage. Use MBarrier to up your defense, then Haste yourselves. Try using Earth and Comet spells, as well and summonings, like Alexander, Leviathan, and Bahamut to soften the boss up. However, don't use Poison (which does no damage) or the Kjata summon spell (which will heal both heads). Ice works well on the scaly head, and Fire works well on the horned head, but don't confuse the two since you will heal a head instead of hurt it. You may also want to use Elemental and attack a Fire or Ice materia attached to your weapon in order to attack with that sort of element (but don't attack the other head, for the same reason). In addition to breath attacks, the boss can also use a dual Ice/Fire breath attack, it can cast Quake 3, and has the previously mentioned final attack that it uses once when each head dies (and if you kill both heads at once, you'll still lose if both final attacks kill you off. When it's defeated, you'll get a Dragon Fang from the boss.

If you were badly beaten during the fight, you can always return to the room with the pool to heal yourselves. Otherwise, continue down the passage; it leads outside (Cloud sure moves slow out here, doesn't he?) Then climb the icy wall up to the top, where an automatic sequence will play. After it finishes, head along the side of the inner crater. In the next area, Tifa will talk with you if she's in your party; if she isn't, she'll promptly appear and insist on coming with you, which means you'll have to kick a member out of your current group. Head to the left.

In the next area, climb down to the lower path and look for a red materia (Neo Bahamut) near the bottom edge of the screen. You can't do anything about the shrouded guy leaping off-screen, so ignore him. After getting the materia, you can hop up to a small island of rock where there is a Save Point. When you're done there, jump again to return to the top path, and walk to the left. You'll see a short intermission with the three heads of Shinra and several scientists heading towards the Crater in the Highwind, the airship you saw back in Junon Town.

Once the intermission is over, walk left and you'll reach the first of three 'shield' screens. Talk to the two shrouded men, and they'll each leave behind an item when they die (an Ether and a Hi-Potion). To get past the flickering shield that's in front of you, stand as close to it as you can, then wait until the green aura is almost gone. Now, quickly run through it or you'll be knocked back when the shield's aura grows stronger. If you mess up, you'll be repelled by the shield and will be attacked by a monster:

For starters, you can steal a Hi-Potion from the Wind Wing, and you can transform it into a Phoenix Down. Even better, you can control it using a Manipulate materia and make it attack itself! In other words, this is an easy battle.

If you happen to touch the shield from the other side, you'll get knocked back to the front of the screen, so be careful.

In the next screen, more of those shrouded creatures are running around and dying. Ignore them, but don't miss the chest near the first left turn of the path; there's a Kaiser Knuckle inside it. Follow the path until you reach the next screen. The second shield is here, but unlike the first one, there's a surge of energy traveling along the shield that will knock you back even if the shield's aura is almost gone. So, wait until the energy surge has passed _and_ the aura is nearly invisible, then dash across. If either defense knocks you back, you'll have to fight a second Wind Wing (see the above strategy).

Beyond the shield, Sephiroth awaits. He'll cut down two more of those black creatures before turning invisible and toying around with Cloud. After he attacks the party, he'll summon a second version of Jenova to kill Cloud and his friends.

Jenova will try to Silence your members from time to time, and uses a Red Light attack often (usually after being attacked with magic). It causes little damage, but too many of these will really mess up your party. Jenova's last form of attack is a spurt of fire bubbles (even weaker than the Red Light attack). As you can see, this battle is not hard at all; just hack away with physical attacks, or if you think you have enough HPs, use Comet and cast Bahamut, Neo Bahamut, and Alexander. It's advisable that you wear the Fire Armlet or Dragon Armlet, since Jenova's attacks all cause Fire-based damage. Give the Fire Armlet to your best spell caster, and you can knock out Jenova and gain life back at the same time :) You'll win a Reflect Ring when the battle's over.

After the boss is killed, you'll get the Black Materia back (and it's actually black this time :)) Once you're back in control of Cloud, he confesses that since Sephiroth was able to manipulate him last time, he might try it again. Therefore, someone else should hold the Black Materia and stay here while Cloud and the others follow after Sephiroth. The first time I got here, only Red 13 would take the Black Materia. This second time, only Barret would. In the US game, they both offered to keep it...! ^_^; Well, just give it to whoever will take it--simply choose the top option when it is available (you won't get an option if that character refuses to take it). Finally, talk to Tifa.

When you're in control of Cloud again, head north. There's a materia here (MP Turbo, but notice that it's yellow when you pick it up!), as well as a Save Point and a chest containing a Poison Ring. If you go north from here, you'll run into the third and final shield. In addition to having all the defenses of the previous shield (the glowing aura and the moving energy surge), bolts of lightning will strike the ground repeatedly. Since the lightning strikes in short bursts with long pauses in between, wait for the shield's aura to fade, the energy surge to pass, _and_ wait for a pause in the lightning strikes before attempting to pass through the shield. If you're hit by any one of those defenses, you'll have to fight a Wind Wing again (refer to the strategy section above). Once you're past the shield, head along the path. It leads to an exact replicate of Nibelheim.

This next scene is sorta like a 'semi-interactive' flashback. You get to see Sephiroth run around in Nibelheim, but this time, there's another guy following him (Zack, the guy you heard about in Gongaga Village). Talk to your other party member, then to Tifa. In the next scene, Zack will look around Nibelheim (which has been reduced to smoldering rubble), and chat with Zangan, who was Tifa's mentor. (BTW, you can go to the Main Menu while Zack is running around. It's pointless, but I thought it was sort of amusing :)) Then, your party appears in a flaming building, and Sephiroth appears. Instead of attacking, he talks to the party. When you can move, talk to Sephiroth and he'll teleport around the room. When you're in control of Cloud once more, talk to Tifa twice. Sephiroth warps around some more, then shows Cloud a picture of him, Tifa, and Zack. After that, Cloud has another fit, and the screen fades out.

In the next scene, Rufus, Scarlet, and Hojo (the scientist) arrive at the crater. Before them is a monster encased in ice. It's one of the five 'Weapons', which awakens and watches them, then starts moving. Following that, Sephiroth appears in the guise of Tifa and knocks out the other characters, then tricks whoever is guarding the Black Materia to go to the center of the crater. Your party will appear in the area where the Shinra members are at, and the person with the Black Materia gives it to Cloud, who then flies to the structure where Sephiroth is at (though you can move around up here, the game takes over your controls in a few seconds anyway). Once Cloud's given the Black Materia to Sephiroth, the whole crater starts to break apart and your party (sans Cloud) escapes on the Highwind along with the rest of the Shinra crew. Notice that the FMV will suddenly switch to the five Weapon monsters escaping; this is new to the US version of Final Fantasy. The remaning FMV has also been altered (five streaks of light representing the Weapons shoot out of the crater). Gee, I dunno, I kinda liked the Japanese FMV better (really!).

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Enemy Skill materia, Chocobo Lure materia, Fourth Bracelet, Yoshiyuki (if you didn't get it the first time). Note that none of these items are actually found in Junon Town, but since I talk about them in this section, they're listed here.

When you come to, you'll find yourself incarcerated back in Junon Town. Without Cloud, you'll be taking control of Barret and Tifa for most of this section. As Tifa, talk to Barret. Rufus and Heidegger will show up. Now that you're in control of Barret, follow Tifa as the guards take her away (don't miss the Save Point), and prepare to execute her. Once Junon Town is attacked by the freed Weapon, one of the Shinra officials knocks out Scarlet. It's turns out to be none other than Cait Sith, who helps Barret fight the two soldiers who are guarding him. Why not make use of the new 'Exchange' materia option to fully equip Cait Sith before he joins you? :)

Physical attacks will do the trick here, although you can control them if you want. If this battle gives you trouble, you need to gain some levels at some point in the game.

Notice how the guard will run away and disappear after the battle? I guess that glitch went unnoticed...anyway, examine the door in the lower right corner of the screen and use the controller or the O button to make Barret try to pull it open. An FMV sequence follows in which the Sister Ray (the mako cannon) is readied and Junon Town prepares to engage the approaching Weapon. When it collides with the city, gas starts pumping into the chamber Tifa is trapped in. When you're in control of Barret, go and talk to Cait Sith. Then go out the door and when it closes, head right, then out the door. Outside, head down the road. If you got Yuffie, she'll be here masquerading as a newscaster; talk to her to make her join you, then continue to your left. Once the Weapon rises out of the water, continue to the left until you arrive at the Airport. Then, run to the center platform and examine the yellow box to be lifted to the upper level. From there, continue towards the airship by heading right.

When you're in control of Tifa again, you have to pick up the key on the ground so you can free yourself from the gas chamber. Your controls are:

You'll need to press the buttons in this order: X, X, T, X+T, T+O, O. (Or, press X, X, T, X+T, T+S, S if you want to free her other hand instead...it makes no difference).

When you press X, Tifa will stretch out her legs. Pressing X a second time makes her drag the key towards her. Then press T to sit back in the chair. Then press T and X at the same time (you don't need to hold them, just press them), and she'll lift the key up with her feet and take hold of it with her teeth at the same time. After that, T+O together will make her free her arm using the key. Finally, press O so that she can grab the key and use it to release her other arm.

Feel free to take your time doing this since waiting around won't do anything to you (Tifa's invincible! Mwa, ha ha!!)

Examine the back of the room by the left side of the chair to shut off the gas, then examine the door. After the Weapon provides you with an exit, climb outside and work your way down the front of the tower (don't worry about the guards). When you reach the bottom, head toward the upper left corner of the screen (note that the SELECT cursor won't appear over your head as it did in the Japanese version). In the next screen, make your way down to the frontmost cylinder of the cannon (spelled 'Canon'!), then press up to go along the front of it and end up on the cannon barrel itself (this can be a little tricky). Just as you reach the edge of the cannon, Scarlet. She'll start slapping you, so press the O button to slap back (go Tifa, go)! If you're fast enough, you'll slap her to the floor after 5-6 good hits. If she gets in more slaps, you get knocked over. Despite the outcome of the 'fight', Tifa will still be rescued by Barret in the Highwind.

Once in the airship, head to the cockpit where you'll talk with Cid. When he finishes, talk to Red 13 and Cid again, then chat with the man piloting the airship. After that, go to the room marked 'Operations' and talk to the man there. He will let you assemble a new group with Tifa as the leader. From this point onward, you can return to this room and talk with the man to activate PHS, restore your HP and MP, or save your game. Now that you have a party, return to the cockpit and talk to the man again. Choose the top option, and you can control the Highwind! To pilot it, use these controls:

S When held, you can use the Pad to fly without changing the direction you're facing
X Press to land
O Move the Highwind in the direction you're facing
T Takes you inside the Highwind
Pad Press left/right to turn, up/down to rise or descend
Start Reveals/enlarges/hides the map
Select Same as Start

Notice that your other vehicles (the Buggy and Cid's airplane) are gone for good. BTW, you enter the Highwind by pressing O when you're close to it (like other vehicles). To gain control of it again, just talk to the man at the wheel and pick the top option. At this point, you'll probably want to look around and go to various places. However, you can only land on _green, grassy_ ground, and nowhere else, which limits the areas you can explore (this doesn't include the canyon floor on the Northern Continent). There are two areas you can now reach with the Highwind. The first one is a cave with a sleeping man that's just beyond the mountain range near Midgar City (you can go here with the Buggy, but since you no longer have it, you'll have to use the Highwind). Also, there's a house to the east of Icicle Inn, you can talk to the green Chocobo inside to get a free Enemy Skill Materia, and the purple geezer who lives here (Chocobo Sage) will sell you various chocobo foods. Finally, if you return to the Chocobo Farm, you'll find a purple materia (Chocobo Lure) near the edge of the now-empty Chocobo pen. From now on, you can breed Chocobos here (refer to the 'Secrets and Strategies' section for details).

If you look, there's a lake near Junon now (I thought this didn't appear until Disc 3 *sheepish grin*) There's also a barrier surrounding the Crater, and of course, a huge meteor is hanging in the sky (the result of Sephiroth casting Meteo via the Black Materia). A lot of places now sell different items, among them Junon Town*, Fort Condor, Costa Del Sol, and Rocket Town. There's also some new treasure to be found in Rocket Town: there's a chest with a Fourth Bracelet in the store that sells accessories, in the back of the adjoining room. And if you didn't get the Yoshiyuki from the old man in Disc 1, you can get it now.

In very last area of Junon, there's a man standing out in the middle of the road. If you talk to him and choose the bottom option, nothing happens. But if you choose the top option, the Shinra helicopter lands and you're given another choice. Pick the top option and you can ride it back to the first area of Junon Town! If you choose the bottom option, you'll be flown back out to the World Map.

Finally, keep in mind that there are some things that Tifa can't do, like enter the Gold Saucer or play the piano in her house in Nibelheim. Ditto with Cid, who becomes the leader during the next section (keep reading).

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Curse Ring, Elixir, Contain materia, Ultima materia, Catastrophe manual.

Get in the Highwind and fly to the Southern Continent. Look around until you spot a forest with a small village nearby. Land in the grass, and enter the village, Mideel. Look around, and be sure to do some shopping; the items here are expensive, but well worth your money. When you're done, go to the weapon shop and examine the door in the back of the room. You will try to knock on it. Go outside and climb up the stairs, then walk along the floorboards behind the house where you can buy accessories. You should hear a sound. If you press O to examine the floor, you'll receive a key. Return to the weapon shop and examine the door in the back again. When an option appears, select the top choice. You'll mess around with the door. When the shopkeeper asks what's going on, pick the bottom option, and he'll give you the Curse Ring accessory. (If you want to see your character act funny, pick the top option instead--works better with Tifa than with anyone else, IMO. Of course, you'll have to reset and try again if you want the Curse Ring.)

There's a hyperactive kid running around here, buying everything. Make sure you talk to the kid in every store (see the price listing for Mideel if you want to know why). If you have some Mimett Greens on you, you can feed the kid's white chocobo (your character says that it wants 'Samolen Greens', but they really mean 'Mimett Greens'. More fun from the Square translators, no doubt!) Feed the chocobo a Mimett Green, then choose to scratch behind it's ear and you'll get the Contain materia.

When you try to explore the north end of the town, Tifa automatically goes over to the cat in the middle of the screen. While playing with it she hears that a strange man has been brought to the hospital--inside is none other than Cloud, who survived the blast of energy back at the Crater. However, he's nothing more than a vegetable now. Tifa insists on staying by his side. Back at the Highwind, Cait Sith reveals that the Shinra are hunting for the four Huge Materia, which they plan to use in order to destroy the Meteor before it crashes into the Earth. Barret gets distressed when he learns that the Shinra plan to destroy to get the Huge Materia from North Corel then Cid becomes the new party leader! Despite his dorky running style, Cid makes a good front man. Once you're able to control him, go to the Operations room and make a new team.

Before you go anywhere else, land and return to Mideel. You can now check out the house in the middle of the town, where an old man sits betting his cat. There's a large green item on the man's bed (an Elixir). If you try to leave, the cat turns out to be a ferocious dog! When an option appears, pick the top one to admit that you took the Elixir. However, the man will let you keep it. On the other hand, if you pick the bottom option, Cid will feign innocence, until the old man tells him that the Elixir was rotten (it's not). Either way, you still get the item. There's nothing else to do here (at least for now, anyways), so leave the town behind and board the Highwind.

At this point in the game, two of the four Huge Materia sub-quests are available to you: you can either get the Huge Materia in North Corel, or get the one at Fort Condor. The choice is yours. If you want the one in North Corel first, keep reading. If you'd rather pick up the one at Fort Condor first, skip to section 4.7 below. Remember, you DON'T have to succeed at Huge Materia Quests; in fact, you can lose all four and still proceed with the game (if you decide to do this, just ignore any mention of Huge Materia for the remainder of the FAQ).

Please refer to Section 8 to discover which Materia you will get from which location before continuing, please!

Ready to go? The next thing you have to do is stop a train from moving the Huge Materia out of the Corel reactor. You can pilot the Highwind to two places; North Corel, and then work your way back through the old train tracks to the Makoro furnace, or you can land at the nearby cave-like entrance that leads to the furnace and take the train from there. Either way, you'll still have to do a bit of walking, so it's up to you (check out section 3.14 if you don't remember what I'm talking about). Anyway, once you reach the furnace, head to the center and you'll be attacked by some Shinra guards (easy to defeat). After you do them in, a train will leave the furnace. What you have to do is catch up with it before it leaves the Corel mountains. The next scene finds you and your companions on a train trying to catch up to the Shinra train.

Remember the digit-damaging fun you had back at Gaea's Cliff? Well, this time, it's worse. You have to press Up and the T button in a steady, yet _extremely_ fast motion to make Cid pull the levers of the train so that you can catch up to the Shinra train. Even worse, there's a time limit--you have to reach the train, board it, kill the enemies on board, and stop it all within 10 minutes. If you practice, you should be able to catch up to the train in about 23-30 seconds, but remember that you'll need about 4 minutes, at best, to beat the enemies on board, so work quickly. You fight monsters each time you leap to a new train car, (five battles in all) and while they're relatively easy to win, they do take up your time (the enemies are: Gas Doctor, Gas Doctor x2, Wolfmeister, Eagle Gun, Attack Squad). If you have learned it by now, Remove can be used in the first two battles for a quick win. If you're low on time, don't use Summon Materia because the counter still decreases during the casting (which usually takes some time).

Assuming you get to the locomotive with time remaining, wait for the conversation between Cid and your other characters to stop. You can now do the following; press up + T to slow the train, or down + X to speed it up. Once Cid grabs the controls, press:

Up + Triangle, Down + X, Down + X or: Down + X, Down + X, Down + X or: Up + Triangle, Down + X, Down + Triangle

You can't enter either command while your buddies are talking to you, so skip through the conversations when they occur. The train will speed up, but will slow just as it reaches the town, if you've done it correctly.

If you never made it onto the Shinra train, you'll arrive at Corel and will not get the Huge Materia, nor will you get the Ultima materia.

If you made it onto the Shinra train, it goes out of control and crashes into North Corel. You won't get the Huge Materia, but you can buy the Ultima Materia from a little kid for 50000 gil.

If you made it onto the Shinra train and stopped it, Corel won't be demolished. You'll get the Huge Materia and will be given the Ultima materia for free, as a reward from the kid.

In any case, go to the house below the inn and a lady in a hat will give you Barret's Level 4 Limit Break Manual. Remember, it's really in your best interest to save the town and get the Huge Materia.

(Remember, you can do this before or after the North Corel Huge Materia quest; it's your choice).

Pop into the Highwind and fly back to the blue tower with the big gold bird on it (read section 3.12 if you don't remember where it was). Enter it, and climb to the top of the tower. Talk to the man in the room with the locked door. Choose the middle option, and you'll get to control another mini-battle. For instructions/strategies, please refer to the 'Having Fun' bit in section 7.6.

When you win, you can open the sealed door. On the rooftop is a red materia (Phoenix), and if you talk to the man in white wearing the large hat in the lower room, you get a Huge Materia. For a condor's baby, that bird sure looks like a Chocobo if you ask me....

If you fail the mini-battle, you're kicked out of Fort Condor and can _never return_. You can't get the Huge Materia or the Phoenix materia, either.

Head back to the village on the Southern Continent where you left Tifa and Cloud behind (Mideel). When you talk to Tifa, the screen will start to shake. Go outside, and you'll be attacked by a huge black dragon, the second of four Weapons.

This boss has only three attacks, Quake 2, the Ultima Beam, and a claw swipe. He's pretty easy to beat, so just keep summoning your best monsters and use physical attacks to deal out damage. After you've injured it enough or it runs out of MP (use Magic Hammer on it), it will fly away. You can absorb Ultima Beam attacks by equipping the Elemental materia plus any non-element materia, like Transform, Exit, etc.

The next scene with Tifa and Cloud is so funny! They're puffy and superdeformed, and well let's just say any sense of danger or surprise at this sudden attack is forgotten once you see their wide- eyed faces as they escape the crumbling village.

After Tifa and Cloud take a dive, you'll find yourself playing with Tifa, who's in a strange world filled with Cloud's memories. First, talk to the northmost Cloud. You'll head into his memories of the trip he took to that one town near the Jenova plant with Sephiroth. When Cloud shows up, speak to him again. When you reach the 'center' of Cloud's mind again, speak to the Cloud on the left. Once you're in control of Tifa, converse with the Cloud sitting on the steps to the right (near the 'kid' Cloud).

Then talk to the 'kid' Cloud and look in the window. When you can move Tifa, talk to the 'shadow' Cloud. Once you're back in Cloud's mind talk to the 'real' Cloud and go back to the town area again. Everything else unfolds by itself (you can go to the Main Menu during the burning of Nibelheim--again!) At the end, speak with Cloud one last time, and you'll return to the 'real' world.

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Contain materia (if you didn't get it already), Guide Book, God's Hand, Battle Trumpet, Scimitar, Leviathan Scales (it's a Key Item, but since you don't have to get it, I'm listing it up here.)

Back at the airship, prepare a new team and take control of the Highwind. You can buy goods that weren't available before back in Mideel, and you'll want to get the Contain materia orb at some point. To get it, climb up the slope on the west side of town to where the hyperactive kid is running around. If you didn't get the Contain materia in Mideel the first time, then, talk to his White Chocobo and pick the first option (make sure you have at least one Mimett Green on you). When a list of six options appear, pick the fifth one from the top ("scratch behind it's ears"). The chocobo will then reveal the Contain materia, which you can take.

Furthermore, if you went into each store in Mideel and talked to the hyperactive kid in each one, he will now be selling all the items that you could normally buy there! However, if you didn't go into any of the shops, or only talked to him in one shop or two shops, then he will only be selling items from those stores or will be selling nothing at all.

Also, at this point in the game, the man who lost his keys will appear outside Midgar City, enabling you to get the Sector 5 Key, among other things. You might want to take some time now to breed Chocobos, do some shopping, or maybe have some fun at the Gold Saucer (since you can now get in with Cloud in your party).

Also, there is an extra scene new to the US release--return to Nibelheim and go down into the library in the Shinra Mansion. Examine the tanks in the back of the room for a flashback.

Whenever you're ready to proceed with the game, head to Junon Town for the third Huge Materia quest (you can't do the fourth one until later). Head into the center of Junon, and go down the main road (you'll see a scene with Cloud inspecting the damage that the Weapon inflicted on the town earlier). Keep walking until you arrive at the gray underpassage where a commander is drilling his men. He will order his men to run away when he sees you. Continue down the passage until you see a door labeled '1' against the left wall. Enter it, and you'll find yourself in an elevator. Two guards in here will attack you; dispatch them and let the lady take you down to the bottom of the elevator shaft.

When you step out, you'll be attacked by more Shinra soldiers. Ignore the dog and go down the slope, then through the door. In the next room, head down the set of stairs until you reach another door. Past it is yet another set of stairs, and at the bottom is a Save Point. Go through the door here to reach a second lift which takes you to the bottom of the sea floor. The area is shaped like a huge glass tube. If you go north to the second screen (in front of the Mako reactor), and fight enemies, you'll eventually meet up with the Ghost Ship. 'Morph' it into the Guide Book; you'll need that item later.

Head north until you reach the underwater tunnel, and follow it until you arrive at the Mako plant. Inside, examine the red light on the far wall to pump water out of the chamber. Step outside and you'll find yourself in a huge undersea dock where several submarines are sitting. Go along the walkway--it leads to a hall with a Save Point. Walk north from here to arrive at a room filled with guards.

If you talk to the guard who's walking around, he'll attack you. You'll then fight the two other guards by the opening in a second battle. If you don't talk to the walking guard, then all three will ambush you. However, if you let yourself get ambushed, you won't have to fight the second set of soldiers by the other opening. Decide what you want to do (fun, isn't it?) and fight the guards accordingly. Then go through the opening to your right to find a chamber full of machinery. Cloud will automatically stop in front of one of the machines as you walk past it. When you can control him again, head to the right to see the Red Huge Materia being loaded onto a Shinra submarine. Reno of the Turks is here, and he'll summon a mechanical freak to take you out while he makes a hasty retreat.

BOSS TIPS: CARRY ARMOR LV: 45 HP: 24000 MP: 200
LEFT ARM LV: 45 HP: 10000 MP: 100
RIGHT ARM LV: 45 HP: 10000 MP: 200
(all weak vs. lightning)

This boss is composed of three parts. It can imprison two of your characters in his arms, and they recieve 1/3 the amount of damage that it receives from your attacks. However, since it has three parts, if you're making an attack that hits more than once, your ally gets struck twice or even three times! Furthermore, if the third character is killed while the other two are imprisoned, the battle is instantly lost. Destroying it's arms should be your top priority, but the arms rotate and switch sides when they are hit, so adjust your attacks accordingly. Summoning spells and enemy skills work well here. The boss' attacks are not so strong, but they come quickly. The worst one is the Lapis Laser that strikes all members for +1600 damage. BTW, the only way to free a character is to destroy the arm that's holding them, or have him or her die. This makes the Phoenix summon very useful if you just freed a friend and want to revive and attack at the same time. You'll get the God's Hand weapon when you kill it and both arms.

With the Carry Armor out of the way, head to the left to find a chest with the Battle Trumpet inside it. Then go back to the right and run along the pier until you reach the gray submarine. Open the chest by the stairs to get the Scimitar. To the left of that chest is a chest holding a Key Item: the Leviathan Scales. You'll need it later so be sure to pick it up. Go up the stairs to find a bunch of soldiers running around in place (ha!) who will fight you. Cloud will then enter the submarine and be ambushed by three soldiers. You may win a set of 'Shinra Beta' armor from the guards, but it's not that great. Anyway, there's a Save Point here, and when you're done using it, head through the northern door to reach the bridge of the submarine.

Here, you'll meet two guards and their scared-as-hell commander. You can either choose the bottom option and let them live, or you can pick the top option and kill them. You can steal the 'Shinra Alpha' (_very_ strong armor) from the captain if you choose to fight. Whatever your choice is, examine the captain's seat when you're able to and you'll be given three options. Pick the second one to climb into the chair. From there, pick the top option to see a description of the sub controls, or the bottom option to start up the sub and enter the submarine mini-game (explained below).

S Shoot torpedoes (only when you're near an enemy craft)
X Backward thrust
T Forward thrust
Pad Move left/right or descend/raise
R1 Switch between close-up or bird's eye view
R2 Switch between near, overhead, or cockpit view
Start Pause; show control screen

The walls of the ocean floor are shown in blue, and there are diamond- shaped mines that are invisible until you get close. You can tell how far they are from the floor by the red columns beneath them. The purpose of this 'mini-game' is to destroy the the main Shinra sub (red) in the time allotted, although you can kill some of the ten yellow submarines if you want to. During the mission, the following warnings will appear:

WARNING When an enemy sub is approaching
ALERT When an enemy sub is firing
MINE You are about to run into a mine
CONFLICT The sub cannot move because you are steering it against/along a rock face

The sub game plays much faster than it did in the Japanese version, and the control isn't as sloppy as before (it still takes getting used to).

You lose the game if one of two things happen; time runs out (you have 10 minutes to destroy the submarine), or if your life bar (which is represented by the red/green bar at the bottom of the screen) is depleted as a result of being hit by missiles, crashing into the walls or floor once too often, or ramming another sub. If you win, then the submarine you're in is automatically piloted to shore. If you mess up, your characters will jettison themselves from the sub. Either way, you'll learn that a Huge Materia is being transported from the Junon Airport. You can go there (it's the same place where the Highwind was docked) to see some FMV of the plane taking off, or not (it's optional).

At this point in the game, you have two options available to you. You can either sneak back into Junon and get yourself another submarine, or you can go to Rocket Town and do the fourth and final Huge Materia quest. If you already have a submarine, then you can do some underwater exploring or do the last Huge Materia quest (refer to section 4.10 for the former and section 4.11 for the latter). If you need to get a second submarine, then keep reading.

Go back into the main part of Junon Town and work your way back to the gray hallway, down the elevator with the woman, and to the room with the guards, a dog, and the sloping floor. Beat the guards and examine the dog. When he moves aside, follow him and examine him again. Choose the top option, and you'll enter the red Shinra submarine. When the guards show up, choose the top option to let them go, or the bottom option to fight them. In the cockpit room, choose the top option to save the commander, or the bottom option to fight him and his men. Either way, you still get to pilot the sub. Note that if you got the gray sub, you can't go through here and get the red sub.

New to the US version is the 'Weapon' scenario--you can now fight the Emerald Weapon underwater, and meet and trade with the man in the upper- right house in Kalm Town. Refer to section 6.5 for details.

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Huge Materia (listed here because you don't have to get it), Heaven's Cloud, Escort Guard, Conformer, Double Cut materia, Megalixir x2, Elixir, Spirit Lance, Outsider, Highwind Manual, Hades materia, Key to Ancients (listed here because you don't have to get it just yet), Oritsuru, Steal as well materia.

This section outlines a series of side-quests and optional events. While some have to be done at a certain point, the others are listed here only because you now have a submarine and can explore the ocean. You can skip this section and go on to 4.11 for the final Huge Materia Quest if you'd rather do the things in here at a later point.

X Submerge/Ascend
O Propel forward (doesn't work in overhead view)
Pad Move in any direction (raise or lower while underwater)
L1/R1 Turn to the left or right
L2/R2 Switch from side/overhead view (doesn't work while underwater)
Start Show/enlarge/hide map (cannot enlarge map while underwater)
Select Same as Start

The submarine can cross deep water, but not shallows. If you can't get by an area while skimming the sea, try submerging and looking for a passage. If you can't get over a rock wall while submerged, try ascending and looking for another way around. Also, the sub can only land at docks such as the one near Junon Town. BTW, the mini-game at the Gold Saucer also becomes available once you have a submarine.

If you sunk the red submarine, then get in your submarine and look at the map. Head to the chain of small islands southeast from the weaponsmith's house (the guy who lived near the Gold Saucer). Submerge and you'll find the red submarine. Should you touch it, Cloud will retrieve the Huge Materia from the wrecked submarine. If you failed to sink it earlier, then it won't be here. Note that you can wait and pick up the Huge Materia in Disc 3 if you'd rather not get it right now.

Next, return to the Junon Town dock and go west until you reach a jutting peninsula (or go north from where the red submarine was, assuming you sunk it). Go around the penninsula and head south until you reach land (you'll be in a little bay, near a dock, and you should be able to see the Golden Saucer from where you are). Descend and you'll find a wrecked plane lying on the sea floor. It's the prototype Shinra air carrier 'Gelinka'. Touch it to board the sunken plane.

Inside the plane, go down the ladder. Run to the left to find a Save Point and a treasure chest (inside is the Heaven's Cloud sword). Enter the northern door (the one with the Shinra emblem on it) and head east along the walkway. There's a green chest here with an Escort Guard in it. Go down the incline to the lowest level of this room and head to the upper-left corner. Hidden by a pipe is another green chest; inside it is Yuffie's Ultimate Weapon, the Conformer. Now to all the way to the upper-right corner and search the wall for a hard to see yellow materia (Double Cut). Finally, return to the entrance and go north and then east across the beams. This leads to the final chest which has a Megalixir inside of it.

Return to the main room and go through the door on the left wall. In the adjoining chamber are Reno and Rude of the Turks, who will talk to you briefly before attacking your party.

Rude (the bald guy) can cast Ice 2 and Fire 2, while Reno will attack you with his Neo Turks' Light Ray attack. They also have the nasty ability to confuse you, which can be a serious problem if the confused member has a Double Cut or Slash All materia equipped. Once you inflict enough damage on one of them, that person will leave. If you kill Reno, then Rude will simply stand around until you lower his HP to zero. Since this battle is tougher than it might seem, Haste your characters and use your best attacking and summon spells. If he's learned it, Cloud's B3/1 should be used whenever possible. You'll get an Elixir when the battle is concluded.

With the Turks out of the way, go through the northern door. A chest sitting near the entrance contains a Megalixir, and if you continue along the walkway and go all the way to the right, you'll find another chest with a Spirit Lance inside. Go down the stairs to the lower area; near the bottom of the screen are two chests; one to the left and one to the right. The left one has an Outsider gun in it, and the right one contains Cid's Level 4 Limit Break Manual (Highwind). Before leaving, look by the wrecked helicopter for a shimmering red sphere (it's lying between the body of the helicopter and one of the broken, detached parts next to it). It's the Hades materia, so pick it up and then head back to your submarine. You don't need to return to the wrecked plane again, although you can fight the monsters here and transform them into various '-Source' items (you can also do this to several of the monsters in the Mideel Area). Considering this game's difficulty (the lack of, that is), you shouldn't have to do this, though.

Once you're in the submarine, look at your map. Just south and east of the southeastern tip of the Northern Continent are three islands in a sort of a curving pattern. If you can't quite tell where you are, just go along the coast of the Northern Continent until you reach an area surrounded by shallows where there are three islands (you should be near snowy ground with patches of grass, in addition to a large mountain). Submerge the submarine and look for an underwater tunnel around here (guide the submarine into the dead-end and turn around; you should see it as you're moving). The short tunnel leads to a twisted, spiky object which you will take (it's called the Key to Ancients; Bugenhagen asks you to find it later on when you return to the Ancient City in section 4.12).

Finally, get back in your airship and fly to Wutai on the Westernmost Continent. Go up into the Dachao Statue area, and head along the path until you reach the path that heads north. Follow it past the statue's head until you reach another crossroads with a cave entrance nearby. Enter the cave. Try to walk into the first fire-pit twice and Cloud will use the Leviathan Scales (a double-mistranslation; the game calls it 'Water God Scales' in this part which is correct) on the fires each time, exposing a green chest which contains a Oritsuru (a shuriken for Yuffie). Explore the rest of the cave until you find a second fire-pit. Press against it to douse it with the Leviathan Scales. This allows you to take the blue materia lying on the floor (Steal as well).

Return to Rocket Town (it's beyond the mountains near the Gold Saucer). Go to the launch pad. It's swarming with Shinra soldiers! Make your way to the stairs leading up to the rocket and you'll be attacked by two soldiers. Deal with them and you'll be attacked by another pair of soldiers. At the top of the stairs, you'll fight two more soldiers and their captain. After killing them, Cid will show up and insist on joining if he's not already with you. After you've made a party, press X to continue playing, T to go to the Main Menu, or O to change your party's configuration (but Cloud and Cid cannot be removed from the current party). After you choose to continue playing, climb up the ladder and you'll face off with two Shinra soldiers and Rude of the Turks.

BOSS TIPS: RUDE LV: 42 HP: 9000 MP: 240
ATTACK SQUAD LV: 34 HP: 1300 MP: 100
ATTACK SQUAD LV: 34 HP: 1300 MP: 100

Use physical attacks to kill the soldiers and injure Rude, especially if you've got the Double Cut and Slash-All materia equipped. Rude can use a jumping wave attack, but it only causes about 500 points of damage. He can also create a MBarrier which he usually casts when one or both of the soldiers are killed, and he can cast Bolt 2 and heal himself for about 1100 hit points. Despite all his powers, he's still easily beaten. If you kill Rude before finishing off the guards, you'll automatically win the battle. You may win an S-mine once you win the battle.

Go inside the rocket ship--you'll have to fight another battle, but it's easily won. Press O to open the northern door, then go into the main room, where Cid will talk to the workers. After the rocket lifts off, go to the right into the next room and climb up the ladder. Examine the Huge Materia in the next room and choose the top option. Cid will chat with Cloud and several numbered boxes will appear. When they do, punch in the following code, one press per message box:

First Message (1): O
Second Message (2): S
Third Message (3): X
Fourth Message (4): X

If you did it correctly, the glass tube will open and you can take the Huge Materia. If you mess up, you'll have 3 minutes to get the code right, and Cid will try to clue you in to the correct code. Should the timer reach zero, the Huge Materia is lowered into the ground.

Whether you got the Huge Materia or not, return to the entry room and climb down the ladder; when you get near the sparking tanks, they will explode. With a little help from Shera, you'll free Cid from under a piece of metal. Follow Shera into the next room (which turns out to be an escape capsule). You can go to your menu during the scene in which the people in front of the Shinra Building are looking at the Meteor ^^;. After a lengthy FMV sequence, you'll find yourself back in Highwind, and the Meteor hanging in the sky will now be much closer than it was before. Alternately, you can do this part (see the tanks explode) and then go back and get/not get the Huge Materia, or you can even do this part and then take the escape pod without even attempting to free the Huge Materia (which means you obviously won't get it).

ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Rising Sun, Ultima Weapon, Elixir x3, Megalixir, Aegis Bracelet, Starlight Horn, Max Ray, Power Source x2, Guard Source, Magic Source, Mind Source x2, Speed Source, W-Item materia, Master Fist, Pile Banger, Grow Lance, Behimoth Horn, HP Shout, Ragnarok, Mystile, Missing Score.

Get in the Highwind and return to Cosmo Canyon. Make your way up to the observatory and talk to Bugenhagen. Cloud will use the PHS system to call the rest of his friends up to Bugenhagen's home. They'll all talk about Sephiroth and Aeris, and then leave Cloud alone with Bugenhagen, who offers to keep the Huge Materia at his observatory for safekeeping. Touch any of the Huge Materia you have and pick the bottom option to return to the Highwind. Bugenhagen will accompany you. Pilot the Highwind back to the Northern Continent and land in the canyon where the Forgotten Capital is located. At the crossroads, take the left path and follow it into the chamber with the blue crystal that you couldn't do anything to earlier. Head right along the upper path and take the stairs up to the crystal. Bugenhagen will talk to Cloud and his friends. If you already got the Key to Ancients, Bugenhagen uses it to create a waterfall. If you didn't get it yet, he'll remain here in the Forgotten Capital until you find it and return to him with it.

Once the waterfall has been activated, walk towards the crystal a second time. Pictures of Aeris will be shown in the falling water while Bugen talks to your party. Now, leave the Forgotten Capital. As you do, Cait Sith calls on Cloud's phone and tells him that the Sister Ray in Junon Town has been reinstalled in Midgar City, and that it's going to be used to destroy the barrier around the crater (where Sephiroth's at). After seeing some more FMV, return to the Highwind. Just as you're about to board it, another Weapon monster shows up and starts advancing towards Midgar City. Since you can't attack it while in the Highwind, and you can't reach it using the submarine, wait until it reaches dry land, then try and touch it.

First, cast Barrier on yourselves to reduce physical damage. Then cast Slow on the Diamond Weapon. The Diamond Weapon is normally immune to _any_ physical attack, so use magic: Bolt 3, Tornado, Break, and Ultima all work very well. Enemy Skills and Summons are okay to use, but you're better off with magic. The Diamond Weapon may become susceptible to physical attacks (it won't happen every time you fight it), use Limit Breaks, 4x-Cut, and other strong attacks. The Diamond Weapon's attacks are weak; it has a laser ray (700+ damage) and a foot stomp attack (1000+ damage). When the Diamond Weapon's HP are getting low, it will open it's chest cavity and prepare for the 'Countdown' attack. Unless you kill it in three rounds, it will perform a 'Diamond Flash' that does around 1500 to 3500 damage to all members, in addition to 'Silencing' them. It will keep doing the 'Countdown' and then 'Diamond Flash' until it dies. It seems as if it will automatically become vulnerable to physical attacks (items, thrown items, coins, attacking) once it's used the Diamond Flash at least once. Note that you can't drain MP from it if it makes itself susceptible to physical attacks (because it becomes immune to magic attacks). You can steal a Rising Sun from it during the battle.

Afterwards, you'll see the Sister Ray destroy the Diamond Weapon and the shield surrounding the crater, while the Weapon makes a last ditch attack against Midgar.

At this point in the game, if you return to the lake near Junon Town, the Ultimate Weapon will be hovering over the lake. You can battle the Ultimate Weapon by ramming into it while aboard the Highwind. However, it will fly away after fighting with you for awhile. From this point on, it will fly around the sky and make it's way to various random locations. It might seem as if you could just wait around for the Ultimate Weapon to show up here and there, but the beast will fly in circles unless you find it and ram into it repeatedly. After 4 or 5 tries, it will then head towards a new location and sit there until you attack again. After escaping a few more times, it will make a final stop at Cosmo Canyon (it does this after losing a certain amount of HP, so you may fight it several times or only twice, depending on how much damage you can inflict per battle. You can fight it to the death here (it's a pushover, so don't expect too much of a challenge), and when it dies, you get Cloud's Ultimate Weapon (the Ultima Weapon). Furthermore, it will create a crater when it crashes into the ground, wiping out several of the rock formations around Cosmo Canyon. However, you can now walk across the crater and go into the Ancient Forest! Normally, you can't reach this place unless you're using a colored Chocobo. If you don't want to fight the Ultimate Weapon now, you still fight it during Disc 3.

Anyway, pilot the Highwind back to the crater when you're ready. Before you can explore it further, Reeve (y'know, the guy who controls Cait Sith) reveals that Hojo (one of the members of the Jenova Project) is planning to use the Sister Ray again, even though the results could be catastrophic considering how much energy it used up last time. So you have to get back into Midgar City and stop Hojo beforehand.

When you're ready to raid Midgar City, fly the Highwind straight towards it, as if you were going to ram into it. Cloud and his allies will gather together on the airship's deck. You can now choose the top option to assemble a new party, or the bottom option to leap off the ship and parachute into the city. When you can move, follow your friend to an alleyway where your pals are waiting. There's also a Save Point here. Talk to whoever is by the wooden panel and they'll open it to reveal a ladder leading down into the depths of Midgar City. At the bottom of the ladder, go along the metal passage and down the slope. Go up the the next slope and when you reach the wall, head left to find a chest containing an Elixir, and then run to the right to find a chest with a Megalixir inside of it.

Make your way back to the area with the ladder and take the stairs down to an area with a ladder. If you climb down the ladder, you'll reach a long walkway; head west and then go north to arrive at another ladder. Climb up it and you'll have access to the green chest you saw earlier; it contains an Aegis Bracelet. Climb back down to the long walkway and run to the right. The floor will give way and you'll be deposited on a lower walkway. Head left, jump on top of the pipe, and then ascend the ladder. When you arrive at another ladder, climb up it, too.

Eventually you'll arrive at a path just below the one you were walking around on earlier. Walk along it until you reach a chute; walk into it and you'll be deposited in a new area. Check out the green chest to the left (there's a Starlight Horn inside it). Then go to the right and open the chest that's near the ladder (it contains an Elixir). Climb down the ladder and press against the right lip of the platform in order to jump down to the chute labled '42'. Enter the chute, and when you arrive at the other end, head left and then go up the ladder. At the top, you'll find a chest to the left; there's a Max Ray inside it. Retrace your steps until you're back at the other area, press left to jump off the chute and back onto the platform, and then climb up the ladder and go up the stairs to your left (it's right next to the chute labled '12').

At the top of the stairs is a Save Point. To the right of it is a crawlway. Make you way along it and you'll arrive in an underground tunnel system. Climb down to the floor and head south. While many of the passages here split off in two directions, one direction will always end in a blocked door, so keep going south. As you keep going, you'll run into your friends (remember, who you meet up with depends on who is and isn't in your group). After heading south for a couple of screens, you'll find a treasure chest lying against the left wall of one of those 'split-passage' areas I mentioned earlier. Inside it is a Power Source. At the next split-passage area that you come across, there is a treasure chest in the area between the doorways. There's a Guard Source inside it. Keep going south, and when you reach the next split-passage area, there will be two chests lying in the area between the doorways. The one to the left has a Magic Source inside it, and the one to the right contains a Mind Source. If you go south from here, you'll arrive at a dead end. In the left corner of this area is a Save Point, and in the right corner there is a yellow materia (W-Item). Note that you can use the W-Item materia to duplicate items (refer to Section 8). If you press against the wall, you'll discover that you can't go any further.

So, go all the way back to the first area (where the ladder was). Try to head to the north and guess who shows up! It's the remaining Turks, and they're here for a final showdown with Cloud and his friends. If you completed Yuffie's sub-quest (saved Elena from Corneo in Wutai), then the Turks will make an offer: fight them or part and go your seperate ways. If you haven't done this optional quest, then you have no choice but to fight them.

BOSS TIPS: ELENA LV: ?? HP: 30000 MP: ???
RENO LV: 50 HP: 25000 MP: 200
RUDE LV: 51 HP: 28000 MP: 250

Elena is healed by lightning attacks, Reno by ice attacks, and Rude by fire attacks. Rude has a punch attack that hits one character for 2000 points of damage, Elena can throw a firebomb that inflicts 500 to 600 points of damage (in addition to a Amulet attack), and Reno uses a spark attack which will cause 800 HPs worth of damage. They all have more attacks than these; but I'm listing the ones the seem to use most often. Alone, they aren't much, but with all three of them fighting together, this becomes one of the toughest battles in game. Barrier and Haste your allies, then use spells like Ultima and Tornado to soften the Turks up i3n addition to Limit Breaks. Try to save Phoenix until you really need it, since it will revive your members but heal Rude. All three Turks will escape once you've defeated them in battle. You'll get an Elixir when the battle is over.

After the battle, go north. When you reach the split passage area, go right. If Cid isn't in your current party, he'll show up here. Take the right path and at the next split passage, take the left path. You'll arrive at a blocked passage, but there's a ladder against the left wall that leads to the Shinra Headquarters. If Cait Sith is in your party, he'll talk to you. Otherwise, you'll see him hop out of the building. If you didn't read Turtle's Paradise Flyer No. 2 the first time around, you can check out the billboard at the back end of the first floor to read it now. Go up the stairs near the front and look for a door marked 'Accessories' near the other end of this floor. In the adjoining room, you can open two chests that a Shinra employee wouldn't let you examine earlier. The one to the right contains a Master Fist and the left one has a Pile Banger inside of it. Before leaving, go up to the 64th floor and look for the lockers (go north from the elevators). If you examine the left end of the row of lockers against the wall, you'll find the HP Shout (Cait Sith's Ultimate Weapon that you couldn't take earlier).

Other treasure in the Shinra Headquarters includes: if you put money into the health drink machines on floor 64, you can get a Speed Source and a Mind Source from them now, if you choose to hit them. On the floor with the 'three coupons' puzzle, you'll find a bag containing the Grow Lance in the room to the left of the entry hall. And a bag containing the 'Behimoth Horn' can be found on the stairwell you may have used when raiding the Shinra HQ (Tifa's method)--it's one screen above the level where you found an Elixir last time (the Elixir will still be their if you didn't get it then, BTW).

Return to the underground passages again. Go south past one split- passage room, and when you reach the second room, take the left path. You'll go outside. Walk towards the lefthand red beam to climb up it and jump onto the main street. Head north and a huge mechanical monster will appear from behind you; it's being controlled by Heidegger and Scarlet. After laughing in your face, they'll attack you.

BOSS TIPS: PROUD CLOD LV: ?? HP: 60000 MP: ???
JAMAR ARMOR LV: 62 HP: 20000 MP: 300

This mechanical monstrosity has two parts; a head and a chest area that you can aim your attacks at. The boss can only cause around 500-800 points of damage, but it can kneel and fire a ray from it's back (the Beam Cannon attack) that causes 1100 damage to all members. Even after disabling the Jamar Armor (it can use it's Materia Jammer attack to disable your Materia), you'll still have to keep attacking the main part if you want to kill it. Spells and summonings work nicely, and you shouldn't worry about your HP until the boss kneels and readies it's laser attack. You'll get the Ragnarok sword once the fight is over.

Once the machine explodes, it starts to rain. Head north. There are two chests near the entrance. The one closest to you has an Elixir in it, while the one that's further away contains a Mystile. Use the Save Point that's nearby if you want to, then climb up the ladders. If he's not in your party, Vincent will be on the lower landing. The second landing is normally empty, but if Barret is in your party, you will see a green chest there. Open it to get Barret's Ultimate Weapon, the Missing Score. If Barret's not in you party, you won't find anything on the landing, even if you search it thoroughly. Once you've climbed all the way to the top, run to the right. Sitting at the Mako Cannon's (Sister Ray's) controls is Hojo, who will attack your party when you talk to him. If Vincent's in your party, he'll trash talk Hojo for a moment beforehand.

BOSS TIPS: HOJO LV: 50 HP: 13000 MP: 250
POODLER SAMPLE LV: 42 HP: 10000 MP: 200
BAD RAP SAMPLE LV: 34 HP: 11000 MP: 120
HELLETIC HOJO LV: 55 HP: 26000 MP: 200
RIGHT ARM LV: 55 HP: 5000 MP: 300
LEFT ARM LV: 55 HP: 24000 MP: 400
LIFEFORM HOJO-NA (can't see his stats.)

Hojo can use his 'Capsule' power to summon the two 'Sample' monsters every time you kill them. So, concentrate on defeating Hojo instead of the lesser monsters. He'll then reappear as a huge monster with two independent arms (Helletic Hojo). Since Hojo can bring the arms back to life, aim your attacks at the main body of the boss. He may cast Confuse or Silence on you, so I hope you have some Ribbons equipped. The right arm will also inflict a lot of damage, so cast Barrier beforehand. In his final form, Hojo can cast Slow and employ a multiple-hit attack (Combo), which will poison whoever is hit by it. As long as you keep your HPs up, this battle is a cinch. You'll receive a Power Source once you've killed Hojo.

You'll return to the Highwind after killing the boss. There's a short sequence with Tifa and Cloud afterward, then the Highwind blasts off into the sky. Well, that's the end of this disc!

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