Final Fantasy VII

Disc 1: Buggy to Cosmo Canyon

Buggy, Mythril, Gold Saucer

Once you choose three people, you will be in the buggy. I like to equip both Enemy Skill Materia and Manipulate Materia, then drive around the sand area until I find a Harpy so I can learn the enemy skill Aqua-Lung and steal a .

If you go south across the water and look along the beach, you can manipulate a Beach Plug and have it cast Big Guard on your party. This is one of the best Enemy Skills in the game, so it is worth getting now.

Optional: Fort Condor

Before continuing, decide whether you care about completing as many Fort Condor battles as possible. Battle 04 is available now, and if you skip it, you cannot make it up later. If you are going back for Fort Condor, this is also a good time to stock your newer Enemy Skill Materia. To get back to Fort Condor:

Drive into Costa del Sol without getting out of the buggy, talk to the sailor, and take the cargo ship back to Junon.
Fight Fort Condor Battle 04.
Around Junon, manipulate Zemzelett and teach White Wind to your newer Enemy Skill Materia.
Near the Mythril Mine, fight Midgar Zolom again if you want Beta on both Enemy Skill Materia.
Near the Chocobo Farm, learn Lv4 Suicide from Mu, then use it on a chocobo fed to learn Chocobuckle.
If you are tracking the sleeping man cave rewards, check your battle count while you are back in this area.

For Beta, do not bother stealing from the Zolom. Bio 2, Ice 2, Bolt 3, and Sleepel all help. Use Cure 2 to stay alive until it uses Beta, then kill it quickly. It has 4,000 HP and 348 MP. Sense is useful here.

For Lv4 Suicide, fight Mu enemies near the Chocobo Farm. Kill any bird with them, then defend until Mu casts Lv4 Suicide. For Chocobuckle, buy , find a chocobo, feed it a Mimett Green, then use Lv4 Suicide on it. It should counter with Chocobuckle.

You can also return to Gold Saucer now. Battle Square is possible, but GP is the main problem. You can earn GP by betting on chocobos or playing Wonder Square games. Waiting until after the Tiny Bronco makes some Battle Square prizes easier, and also lets you work toward .

Gongaga Reactor and Village

When you are ready to move on, head south from the Gold Saucer desert. Cross the river and park south of the ruined reactor you see in the middle of a forest. (You might see a small hut to the east, but you cannot trade yet, so skip it for now.) Just park the buggy south of the reactor, exit the buggy, make sure Tifa is in your party, equip everyone in the party for the boss battle described below, and then save and head into the forest by the reactor.

Boss: Reno and Rude

Do not bother stealing; they have nothing. Sleep works surprisingly well. Put them to sleep, attack Reno until he flees, then focus on Rude. Beta and Ifrit can make this very fast. You should receive a and an from this battle.

Afterward, head up the right-most screen and then forward. After the Scarlet scene, walk to the rubble she inspected and choose “Reach for it” to get Titan Materia. Head down two screens and take the left fork. Go left far enough to pick up Deathblow Materia, then take the path leading right to head into town.

In Gongaga:

Talk to people in the graveyard.
Visit the lower-right house, then follow Tifa when she leaves.
The next house sells items.
The next shop sells materia and accessories, including Mystify Materia and Time Materia. The pole leads to a weapons shop, but I usually save Gil for the next town.
The upper-left house works as an inn and has an .
The upper-right house has a .

Head toward Tifa for more story. Rest if needed, then leave by heading down and taking the left fork.

Before leaving the area, get Big Guard from Beach Plug if you have not already done it. In the forests, Touch Me enemies can teach Frog Song if your Enemy Skill Materia is equipped and you wait long enough.

Cosmo Canyon

Go west, follow the southern coast to a river crossing, then head north into the mountains. If you are doing every Fort Condor battle, exit the buggy before passing by or entering Cosmo Canyon. If you drive past the village, the buggy breaks down and you cannot reach Fort Condor for battle 5.

Enter the village on foot. After Red XIII leaves, talk to the guy under the sign and say you are not familiar with the place if you want to watch Barret go “woooooo.”

Important stops:

Right ladder shop: general items.
Bottom-left shop: leads to Nanaki’s room through the far door.
Inn above the bar: Turtle’s Paradise No. 5 is near the room door.
Inn room fridge-looking thing: .
First cave area: save point and Turtle’s Paradise No. 4 near the weapon shop.
Materia shop near the top: HP Plus Materia, MP Plus Materia, Mystify Materia, and Transform Materia.

The weapons here are mostly connected pairs. If you are leaning hard into double growth weapons, you may skip them for now.

Talk to Red XIII and Bugenhagen at the top. Then go collect party members from the village. I usually take Tifa and Barret, rest at the inn, and return to Bugenhagen.

After the planetarium scene, talk to elders on the way down, then gather at the bonfire. Talk to everyone: Yuffie, Cait Sith, Barret, Tifa, Aeris, and Red XIII. Choose a party, equip new gear and materia, save in the first cave, and head up to Bugenhagen.

Optional: Fort Condor

Fort Condor battle 5 is available after starting but before finishing the Cave of the Gi. If you bought HP Plus Materia or MP Plus Materia, make sure you still have enough Gil to place soldiers. Remember that if you try to drive the buggy past Cosmo Canyon, it will break down and you won’t be able to get to Fort Condor.

Cave of the Gi

There are crevices where you can break rocks and fight monsters. Ramuh works well against many enemies here, and Shiva is useful against the snake monsters. A Sneaky Step enemy can teach Death Sentence, so keep Enemy Skill Materia equipped until you learn it. Don’t forget you can manipulate enemies to force them to use a specific skill on a specific character.

Head down the ladders and ropes, then through the doorway on the right.
Pass the first small cave doorway. Open the northern one to break the rock an open the path.
Head north, then walk left across the slick spot. Running makes you hit spikes.
Go down for Added Effect Materia, then return and walk around to the right.
Get the from the bottom chest and from the center chest.
Go back down under the trail and up the stairs on the left.
At the caves shaped like a footprint, the far-left and far-right toes connect, the center is a dead end, and the second-left/second-right paths lead to webs.
Take the second-from-right cave and fight the spider. Steal an if you can; Ice and Bio work well.
After the spider, get the from the box. Do not use it yet.
Backtrack and take the second-from-left cave. After the spider, go left, curve down and right, and get the .
Go to the third spider web, steal if you can, and defeat it.
Head up, then left and down for a .
Go to the top of the screen and prepare for the boss.

Boss: Gi Nattak

Gi Nattak is undead. If you can cast Life, cast it on him and the fight ends. If not, throw the you just picked up at him. Make sure you target Gi Nattak, not the Soul Fire enemies in front.

You should receive Aeris’s weapon . Pick up the powerful Gravity Materia on the way out, then follow the party through the back door. After the cutscene, pick a party and try to leave. Red XIII rejoins and you can leave town.

Optional: Fort Condor

Once you leave Cosmo Canyon, Fort Condor battle 6 is available. If it broke down earlier, the buggy should be repaired now. You will receive 5x if you win.