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Final Fantasy 7: Ultimate Strategy Guide; Disc 1 (Repost)

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psycoskunk On December 24, 2020
Funky-Footed Skunk





A fort made of stinky socks, C
#1New Post! Oct 25, 2016 @ 18:16:20
The original guide I made a long time ago is sadly gone so I'm going to do my best to quickly and accurately recreate it without spoiling too much story-wise just in case there are some who haven't played it yet. But in any case, without further adieu, here's Disc 1.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Space... the final frontier... These are the voyages of the USS Enterprise. It's 10 year long mission, to boldly go where no man has...

*Aeris' face appears.*

Wait, never mind. It's Aeris... iz jus Aeris.


*Screen pans out and the logo and title card pop up. Skunky sings along to the music.*

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! DEH NEH NA NA NAA NA NAAAAA... THOOM THOOM, DEH NEH NA NUH NEEH NANUH.... (THOOM THOOM) DU NUH NAH NU NAH NUNUH... NEEEH NE NUH, NE NUHHHH UH.... DEE NEE NEH, NE NEH, NE NEH, NE NEHHHH!!!... Final Fantasy 7!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reactor 1

Remember!: Remember to check the bodies of the guards Biggs and Jessie take out before progressing. They each have a Potion.

So at the start, there's those obligatory 'here's how you fight' fights, which levels you immediately. There's honestly no real challenge here until you get to the boss, so it's good to figure out which attacks work for which enemies. That being said, don't use your magic on any of the grunts. Save it for the real problem later on.

Remember!: Remember the layout of the reactor floors. It'll come in handy in case you need to beat a speedy retreat. And also, in the entrance room of the reactor, the small area off to the right holds an Ether.

Skunky Pro Tip!: I recommend stocking up on Ethers as much as you can as they're a great source of money early on in the game. You'll sometimes get them from battles from enemies, but there are quite a few you can find on the ground as items on the map. At 750 gil each, that's a whopping 10,750 gil when you sell 10 of 'em, which is more than 1/3rd the cost of a Golden Ticket [more on that later]. Besides, with your low-level spells, you don't consume much MP yet anyway, so there's no point in using them at all for now.

The moment you get Barret, change him to the back row. Do this by selecting Order in the menu, then pressing circle on Barret twice. His portrait is now closer that Cloud's, meaning he's now in the back row. Because Barret's got a long range weapon, he'll deal the same regardless of where he is AND he'll take less damage for being in the back row.

Make your way to the reactor core and grab the Restore materia, then proceed to the core. After Cloud has a little mini freak-out moment, he installs the bomb and an alarm sounds. Cue Guard Scorpion:

Guard Scorpion (Lvl. 12, HP: 800)

Your first real test, although he's a bit of a softy. His pattern is as follows: scan target, attack scanned target next turn, rinse ad repeat. Just keep wailing on him with Barret's attack and have Cloud spam Bolt magic on the Scorpion, although on rare occasions I've had Ice deal more than Bolt a few times. But Bolt is your go-to attack for this one. Just keep hitting him until he's dead. OH, and DON'T ATTACK WHEN HIS TAIL'S UP! I can't stress this enough. It's the only way he can truly hurt you. When you attack when his tail's up, he'll shoot a high-damaging laser at both characters that can seriously mess them up. Just wait it out and when his tail goes back to normal, resume attacking. Potion yourself when you get to 120 or less HP.

After the fight, you get the Assault Gun and a countdown timer. Reactor explosion in 10 minutes?! YAAAAAAAY!!!

Immediately equip the Assault Gun to Barret the moment you can move, and then get the hell out of there. As you're climbing up the metal scaffolding just before the stairs, immediately turn around when on the highest-most beam and rescue Jessie, whose foot was caught in the scaffold. You literally can't leave until you rescue her, so don't make the same mistake I did on my very first playthrough and just run past her. Not a good idea.

Follow her to the elevator and then talk to either Biggs or Jessie to get the doors open. I can't remember the order, but it's one then the other. If you have plenty of time left when you reach the entrance (3+ minutes), feel free to grind for experience. Because odds are, you ran away from fights to get to the door as quickly as possible.

Skunky Pro Tip!: If you can, try to run away from exactly 11 fights, and then don't run after that. There's a reason behind this, which I'll explain later.

As you escape, you're treated to a cool, 1997 CGI cutscene explosion! There goes Reactor 1. Mission accomplished!

((I'll post the other parts later on, probably over the course of a few days. I can't type the whole thing out right now. ))
psycoskunk On December 24, 2020
Funky-Footed Skunk





A fort made of stinky socks, C
#2New Post! Oct 27, 2016 @ 17:46:34
Between Reactors

After Jessie sets a charge to clear the debris and everyone escapes, they split up to meet back later at their rendezvous at the Sector 7 Slums. Once you regain control of Cloud, exit the area, where you'll run into a certain charming 'flower girl' who'll ask Cloud about what happened. Tell her it was nothing and then mention that you don't see many flowers in the Slums. She'll sell you one for a gil.

Decision!: If you're going for one of the special dating scenes at the Golden Saucer, it's best not to buy one, or if you do, to give it to Tifa. For those who don't know, there's a scene at the Gold Saucer later on involving Cloud and Aeris (the flower girl) having a romantic evening and depending on the choices you made leading up to it, you'll either get her or Tifa. There are also 2 other options, but you have to ignore both of the girls for the most part. If this is your first playthrough or you just like being a nice guy, buy it.

Afterwards, she'll leave. Follow where she leaves, picking up the various items along the way (Potion, Phoenix Down, etc...) and exit to the south in the next screen. You'll come to an empty street... but it won't be empty for long. Shinra soldiers show up and try to apprehend you. You can choose either to fight or flee, but it's free XP and they really can't harm you much, so feel free to take them all out. Soon, Cloud gets surrounded, but then he checks the time and realizes he has a train to catch, so...


The train ride itself is pretty uneventful. It mostly serves to explain some of the lore for Midgar (how the poor live beneath the plate, how Shinra essentially rules the city, etc...) and you can bother passengers on the train, (which really pisses off one of the workers). That being said, it introduces one of the most 'important' characters in Final Fantasy 7...

DISGRUNTLED SHINRA EMPLOYEE!!! Yaaay!!!! ;plabonga:

He's the douche who makes a comment on always being stuck on the trains with the weirdos. He hates his job and contributes nothing to the game whatsoever! Keep an eye out for him because he appears a few times after the train scenes in some interesting places.

The train stops at the station and everyone groups up with Barret, who tells them to meet at 7th Heaven, the local bar/AVALANCHE headquarters. I wouldn't recommend going to the right as it's mostly blocked off and you go through there at some point anyways. On the second screen, going up takes you to a locked gate showing the support column for the plate for Sector 7. If something were to happen to that column, the entire slums would be destroyed, flattened by the upper level. An old man mentions this to you. He seems so nice. I hope nothing bad happens to him... Oh hey, save point!

Going to the next screen triggers a scene of Barret kicking random people out of the bar so they can have their meeting. Feel free to explore the houses. There are a few items and some gil, but two items you have to wait to get later. You also could buy a Fire materia from the store, but you come across one later on that already has some experience on it, so I'd wait.

Go inside the bar to trigger the next part. A little girl runs around frantically looking for her dad as the bartender, your old childhood friend greets you. After you talk for a bit, you get the option of giving the flower to either Tifa (friend) or Marlene (little girl). Giving the flower to Tifa goes a long way towards the date while giving it to Marlene helps her to warm up to you, as well as make her daddy happy. Who's her daddy? Well, as you go to exit, he rushes in and is immediately greeted by his daughter. If you gave her the flower, Barret will ask who gave her the flower, to which she'll shyly reply "Cloud did." Barret, seemingly shocked, replies "Oh... Did you thank him?" and then Marlene happily replies "Thank you Cloud! Don't worry, we'll look after you!" Such a sweet girl.

After the rest of the team goes downstairs, you can have a drink with Tifa and just talk about stuff. Afterwards, go down the secret passage by the pinball machine. As you go downstairs, you and Barret discuss various aspects of the mission. Barret thinks Cloud s really cocky because he used to be in SOLDIER and acts like SOLDIERs are super strong and whatnot. Cloud doesn't appreciate Barret's attitude. Biggs gets punched in the face by Barret for some reason, and then Cloud says he wants to discuss his payment upstairs. Tifa begs for Cloud to join AVALANCHE and help them, but he says he doesn't want to. She brings up a childhood promise he made to her that he would always be there for her if he became a famous warrior, like a certain white-haired, 6-foot long katana-wielding character in the game. He responds that he's not famous, but then Barret climbs out of the passageway and gives Cloud his cut from the mission (1500 gil). Cloud, feeling ripped off, tells Barret that if the next mission's lined up, he'll do it for 3000, which sends Barret over the edge. Him and Tifa discuss it in secret, then he yells "2000!" Tifa thanks Cloud for changing his mind.

Sleepy Time

The next morning, Barret asks Cloud how to use materia. If you choose to explain it, it'll open up a whole little tutorial, but the just of it is this:

Materia are hardened chunks of Mako energy (the same energy the reactors suck from the planet) that contain different abilities and properties. There are 5 colours corresponding to what their function is and how they interact with other materia.

Green: Green is Magic materia. Equipping one adds the 'Magic' command if it's not already there and allows you to cast the corresponding spell. More spells become available as the respective materia levels up. One of the more common materia. e.g: Lighting, Restore, Poison, Earth, Time.

Blue: Blue is Support materia. Support materia buffs whatever materia it's 'linked' to in the corresponding weapon or armour slot. Depending on what you link, you can create some interesting combinations. The most basic Support is All, which lets you target an entire group of friends/allies with a certain spell at the cost of less damage/health. Other Support materia include HP Absorb, MP Absorb, Elemental, Added Effect and Counter. NOTE: Support is USELESS if set into a single slot. Always pair blue materia with another colour.

Purple: Purple is Independent materia. Independent materia doesn't link with anything and instead directly affects your character, adding little extra effects or buffs to them. Normally the first one you get is Cover, which gives the equipped character a chance to take damage in place of an ally. Other Independents include HP Plus, MP Plus, Chocobo Lure, Long Range and Counter Attack.

Yellow: Yellow is Command materia. These add new commands to your character, allowing them to do more than just Attack, Magic, Summon and Item. Command gives you access to unique and powerful moves and skills. 'Sense' an opponent's HP levels, 'Steal' a strong item from a boss character, gain a chance to either miss or get a critical hit with 'Deathblow.' It's up to you how you build your character! Other Commands include Manipulate, Morph and my personal favourite, Enemy Skill.

Summon: Red is Summon materia. Summons call upon powerful, mystical creatures to inflict mass (usually) elemental damage to all enemies. They take up a lot more MP than regular spells, but there can be no denying the power and efficiency of Summon materia. The rarest of the materia (can only be found once, no doubles unless Mastered), they're all named after the respective creatures, like Choco/Mog, Shiva, Ifrit, Odin and Bahamut.

After everything's prepped, Tifa mentions that she's coming along for the mission too. Once you regain control of Cloud, exit the bar and head for the building at the bottom right. Go up the stairs and examine the bag on the ground for an Ether, then open the chest for an All materia.

Remember!: Remember to pair the Restore materia with All so you can heal all of your teammates in one go. It'll really make the upcoming fights easier if you don't have to use as many items. And if you just want to target a single person, just press R1.

Now that that's take care of... TO THE REACTOR!!!

As you board the train, you get to see disgruntled Shinra employee again. After Barret gets pissed off at him and almost decks him, Tifa runs over to break it up. As she calls you over to check out the train map, the sensors go off... but something's different.

Wedge comes in from the next car, informing the group that Shinra's been tipped off and they're doing a security sweep of the cars. When you regain control, immediately book it to where Wedge was to progress. Keep your eyes peeled in the 3rd car because there's a Hi-Potion on the ground and in the 4th car, some a*****e steals your money. You have to wait until he moves to the other end and stops, then talk to him and when he asks if he's busted, say "Oh yeah!" Get your money and run out of there immediately. When you get to the 5th car, you're in the clear. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie opt to stay behind to give you a better chance to escape.

Now in the train tunnels, follow the track all the way up. I can't remember if there's an item down at the other end, but it takes too much time anyways to get down there and it's probably a Potion anyways. After you slide down the access way, keep following the path, grabbing any Ethers and other items along the way. Just before the save point to the entrance of the reactor is a Tent. Use these at save points to restore your HP and MP to full. Save it for now, though. You'll need it for later.

Reactor 5

Slide down the pipe to get to the bottom floor. WHEEEEEEEEE!!!

The first thing you might notice about Reactor 5 is that it's just like Reactor 1, except a different colour scheme. And you're right, for the most part. So just make your way to the core, grabbing anything shiny along the way. Once you get to the core, Cloud has another PTSD episode. This time however, it shows him and a young Tifa inside a very different looking reactor while she mourns the loss of her father at the hands of Sephiroth. She then grabs the sword in front of her and runs off.

BUG WARNING: Some people claim there have been playthroughs where she 'doesn't' grab the sword and it ends up glitching the last room, making it impossible to open and progress. It happens very rarely, but it can still happen. Worst case scenario is that you may have to restart your file if this happens.

When Cloud regains consciousness, he finally goes to the core and sets the bomb. Luckily for the group, Jessie decided that remote-detonated explosives would work better than time-based ones, so you don't have to book it to the exit at a crazy speed or anything.

Go up the elevator towards the exit, which you'll notice is at a different angle than the last reactor. Don't let it throw you off. Go to the room on the left which should trigger a prompt involving everyone pressing a button at once. Tifa and Barret are already synced, you just have to hit it in time with them. Once that's done, save your game and head for the exit.

Skunky Pro Tip!: Before leaving, make sure that at least one or more of your characters have their limit breaks or are close to getting them, especially Cloud's. It'll make the next fight much easier.

As you exit, you'll make your way to the end and realize... it was a set-up! Soldiers are already waiting for you and then the president of Shinra Corp. himself makes an appearance. He comments on how Cloud was supposed to be a successor to Sephiroth, but he just ended up being another failure. Barret gets pissed off and has it out with the president, who mentions that he doesn't have time to play with vermin, so he snaps his fingers and summons a large, air-powered robot named 'Air Buster.' He then escapes by helicopter, leaving Cloud, Tifa and Barret to deal with their new friend.

Air Buster (Lv. 15, HP: 1200)

Your second boss battle and the 1st with the badass music! Also, your first fight showcasing a 'side attack,' where you have the advantage of attacking him on both sides. Whenever he attacks someone, he turns to face that direction. Attacking his back deals a lot more damage, including magic and limit moves. The easiest way to beat him is with two limit breaks to his back, but if you're lucky and get a critical hit, you can do it in only one with Cloud (I managed to get 1215 damage one time on him using Braver. 1st time I broke 1000 damage so early in the game.)

If you don't have your limits, Bolt works too. It's best to give Tifa Bolt as her attacks aren't as strong so early in the game, but with the Buster's weakness to electricity, it compensates for this. And don't forget to make good use out of Cure, because Air Buster can take out characters surprisingly fast with his Big Bomber attack, doing at least 98 damage to a single character. Once you damage him enough, he loses the ability to turn around or do certain moves. Also, he can counterattack, so make sure that your characters are all fairly healthy.

After the fight, you win money, XP, a Titan Bangle and..... he explodes, destroying part of the bridge, with Cloud hanging for dear life. Tifa freaks out, but Cloud says he'll be fine. Barret asks him if he'll be alright, to which he replies 'Just make sure Tifa is somewhere safe.' Barret then says 'Alright, later!' (Bizarre choice of words, considering Cloud looks like he's going to die) and then....

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The reactor explodes, causing Cloud to lose his grip and tumble down into the slums below. Tifa tries to reach out to him, but Barret holds her back and comforts her as Cloud disappears from sight...
psycoskunk On December 24, 2020
Funky-Footed Skunk





A fort made of stinky socks, C
#3New Post! Oct 27, 2016 @ 17:47:10
How'd I get no points for that?!
marahanjas92 On January 10, 2017




Enrekang, Indonesia
#4New Post! Jan 07, 2017 @ 12:57:16
thank you for your guide bro
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