Final Fantasy VII

Disc 2: Junon Breakout to Mideel

Breakout

BEFORE YOU TALK TO BARRET, equip him with a , and make sure you’re happy with his weapon, armor, and materia. While you’re at it, use Exchange on the materia screen to make sure Cait Sith has his materia configured appropriately. Now go and talk to Barret.

You’ll become Barret after a minute. Follow Tifa out the doorway and save the game. As far as I know, you can’t really do anything yet. Just follow everyone and pay close attention. You’ll notice a few names you recognize, and you’ll see the guard accidentally drop a key in front of Tifa.

When Weapon appears, you’re gonna have to fight as Barret and Cait Sith. That’s why you had to materia them up, and put a on Barret. (Is it just me, or does it sound weird to say that)?

Anyway, after that fight, re-equip Cait Sith as needed. I recommend one of your Enemy Skill Materia for this area. Go and try to get into the chamber. After a few cut scenes, you’ll have control of Barret and Cait Sith again.

Go talk to Tifa, then head out the door he was guarding. Cait Sith warns you to run toward the airport. Head out the door to the right and run toward the near end of the screen. See the reporter there? Go talk to her. Don’t forget to use your Enemy Skill Materia here.

When Yuffie (you DID acquire Yuffie earlier in the game, RIGHT?!?) joins your party, be sure to equip her and materia her up. When you have Yuffie ready, head toward the near end of the screen. You’ll be magically whisked to the airport. Head to the yellow square in the middle of the screen for the elevator controls, then, at the top, head to the airship on the far right.

Tifa’s Escape

When you again have control of Tifa, press X for legs until the key is right in front of you, then use X-Triangle to pick it up, X-Square to unlock your arm, then Square to unlock the other arm and get out. You may have to do it a few times.

Run around to the top and press the button to turn off the gas, then run to the exit and watch the cut scene.

When you have control of Tifa, don’t bother to equip and materia her up. Just climb down. The Shinra guys are morons; they won’t be able to catch up to you here. When you get to the bottom, run to the end of the gun barrel at the top of the screen. Slap her around, then run to the end of the cannon. Watch more cut scenes, then enjoy the Highwind.

The Highwind

Explore the ship and talk to everyone. See the guy by the Operation room? Ask him about how to fly the ship; he lies. You DON’T press Select to move ahead, you press OK. The translation here leaves a bit open to the imagination, I guess. ;)

Anyway, head toward the bridge. Talk to everyone here. When you talk to the pilot, Cid will tell you he has to instruct the dude how to land. Go to the Operation room and choose a party, then come back to the bridge and talk to everyone again for control of the Highwind.

Optional: Fort Condor

You can participate in Battle 15 at Fort Condor now. See the Fort Condor section of this walkthrough for more information.

Optional:

See the Chocobo Racing section for directions to the Chocobo Sage’s house. If you go there and talk to the Chocobo, you will receive the fourth and final Enemy Skill Materia.
Now that you have all three Enemy Skill Materia, feel free to take on the Wutai Pagoda quest if you put it off earlier. This is the only chance you’ll get to learn Trine on the final Enemy Skill Materia.
After that, go teach the last one or two Enemy Skill Materia all the best enemy skills you’ve learned for the first ones.
This isn’t the best time to go and do the Chocobo side quest, for starters because the Gold Saucer is closed, but there are some really powerful materia you can get now if you do. :)
Be sure to read through the Chocobo Racing section to find out how you can get things like Mime Materia, Slash-All Materia, Quadra Magic Materia, Typhoon Materia, HP<->MP Materia, and . You won’t be able to get Knights of the Round Materia yet, though; that requires a gold chocobo, which requires the Gold Saucer be open.

Mideel

Go to the Chocobo Ranch, talk to the girl in the stable, and buy one of every kind of green.

After that, head down to Mideel. Head right as soon as you go into the city; don’t go under the overpass. There’s a lot of shopping you can do here, and there’s a white chocobo running around. Now that you have the type of greens it likes, scratch it behind the ears like Chloe told you and you should get a Contain Materia.

You can buy one or more Wizard Bracelets here. I like having at least three of these on hand; they let you use all the slots for materia. You can also buy pretty decent weapons here, too.

If I don’t have enough cash to make these purchases, this is when I’ll usually sell off a master level All Materia. At the very least, if you didn’t already do it back in Cosmo Canyon on Disc 1, I would also buy HP Plus Materia and MP Plus Materia for each of the three party members I’m using. I tend to equip them in the last two defensive slots; that way I remember where they are, and I have them handy.

Anyway, when you’ve bought all you want, head to the lower level and talk to the dog just under the overpass. You may want to head out of town and save your game first, though. Anyway, you’ll be forced into a conversation and you’ll meet someone you haven’t seen in, like, a WEEK.

Of course, Tifa has only really been awake a few hours… Whatever.

After a LOT of cut scenes, you’ll end up as Cid on the Highwind. Head to the Operation room and talk to the people there to choose a party, then head up to the deck. Go right back to Mideel and go into the house you couldn’t get into before, next to where the dog was.

There’s an on the bed. You can also buy Gravity Materia and Destruct Materia.

While you’re in Mideel, walk up the stairs across the entry to town and examine the boards above, screen-wise, the accessory shop. It’s just to the left of the lady who says she’s praying for you. Now you can try to get into the door at the back of the weapon shop. After examining it, go back and examine the boards again. You might have to examine a few times to get the beat up useless old key.

Go back and try that key in the “door” at the back of the shop to - if you apologize - get the . Curse Rings are interesting. They will boost all your stats (no, not status, which the in-game text confusingly states), but more importantly also give you 60 seconds to finish a battle before you’re auto-killed. I found them useful when morphing certain enemies. YMMV.