Final Fantasy VII

Disc 3: North Crater

Cavern

Did any of your materia level up during the last battle? If so, you probably want to think about swapping them out now. You’re welcome.

Pilot the Highwind directly over the Norther Crater and press the cancel button to land.

Take the ladder down. Don’t worry, you can get back up. Head down and left. On the next screen, Cloud will complain that “we can only slide down.” Select “Alright, let’s go.”

When you have control again, the box past the cave has a in it.

Navigating the Northern Crater

Enemy Notes:

Gargoyl: un-morphable two-stage enemy. Steal an . It will kill off any character whose level is divisible by four. Luckily 99 isn’t, so I’m OK. Hit the first stage with anything at all, because it’s invulnerable until you hit it. When it wakes up, smack it around a bit. You can win an from it.
Dark Dragon: steal a , then morph it into a . If you manipulate it, you can learn the Enemy Skills Dragon Force and Laser.
Parasite: steal a , then morph it into a . This guy can hit you with Sadness, so have a or handy. Better yet, equip everyone with a accessory. Don’t have three of those? Just read the next bullet. :)
Master Tonberry: steal an and morph it. Even if you lose a guy or two, it’s worth it. It morphs into a . If you have Yuffie’s and her Morph does 9,999 damage, it’s possible to farm Ribbons here. I’m not 100% sure why you’d want to, but I’ve validated that it is possible. If instead of morphing you just kill them off, there’s a possibility you’ll get a from them.
Scissors: steal an . I’m pretty sure you don’t need them by this point, but I figured I’d tell you anyway.
Armored Golem: steal a and morph it into a .
Mover: these show up in groups of three. If you’re using Yuffie’s weapon with Sneak Attack Materia and Morph Materia, great. These guys can be morphed into a and will give you 800 AP each. In other words, you’ll get a total of 2,400 AP just because you ran into them. That’ll level up your Knights of the Round Materia somewhat more quickly than you were probably expecting.

This dungeon can be confusing. You’ll go down part-way as a full party, then the party will split up and meet at the very bottom.

First Descent

Head left from the cave to start your descent. You’ll jump across the ledge and go counter-clockwise in a spiral around and around and around, down to the bottom. Frankly, I like to equip all my Enemy Away Materia on this screen. You won’t find Gargoyl enemies after you get to the bottom of this pit, and they’re annoying.

Along the way you can open a box and for a . When you get to the bottom of the cave, you’ll be on a screen with a bunch of switchbacks.

Head left and jump down to the next level.
Go left and climb up the ledge at the end. Open the box for a .
Head all the way right and get the HP Absorb Materia.
Go back and jump down to the previous ledge.
Go right on the next level and open the box for an .
Wind your way right-left-right and down to the next level with a box. Open it for a .
Go down one more level and right. At the end, go up the other ledge.
Climb all the way back up to the top and go down the other side.
The first box this way has a .
The second box has a .

Jump all the way down and go to the next level/puzzle.

Note that you’re a bit more likely to hit the Tonberry and other high-level enemies here. This screen has six levels and various caves in it. The first time you go through here you’ll want to get all the loot. The second time, just head right on level 1 to jump to level 3, then jump right, go into the cave, come out down on level 5 and head left, right, left, left, and then on to the next screen.

Head slightly left to jump down to the first level.
Go into the cave on the far left.
Head down and right into the hidden cave-looking thing, then come out above.
The chest here has a .
Toward the bottom is another chest with a .
Exit the cave using the bottom exit.
Go right and open the chest there for a .
Go back into the cave and go to the top.
Exit the cave and go right until you fall down.
On that level, walk left until you get to a chest. Open it for a .
Walk right and jump up to the previous level.
Walk left and jump down to the next level, then go into the cave on the right.
There’s a here.
Go out, jump back, then walk right.
Go down twice and use the loop-around cave to get to the next level.
Walk left and jump down, then right and jump down, then left and jump down twice.
Finally, go right and you’ll be at the next area.

Head right and climb down the icicle things. It’s time to split your party - and your choices here actually matter.

Party Split

I’ll pause here for a second.

You’re going to split your party, and depending on which directions folks go, they’ll possibly pick up something to share with you when you reach the bottom of this area. If you stop before getting to the bottom of the area, you can backtrack through where they went and pick up those items, thus effectively getting the same item twice.

If you go with people who go left, you can then direct them to go up or down, which determines what they’ll find. If you go right and send the rest of the folks left, you can end up with more loot - but not the BEST loot.

Of all the items you can find here, I think the Mega All Materia is the one I’d like to get two of. To make SURE you get it, head left with Vincent and then tell him to go down while you go up. Then after you’ve gone through the rest of the area, backtrack through the place he went down and grab the Mega All Materia.

Since I’m playing on an emulator, I like to take a snapshot before splitting the party, and another before getting to the very bottom of the crater and seeing what people have. That’s what the dialog from here will show.

If you want to force a character to get a particular cool item (I’ll skip the low-value loot) here’s the direction to send various folks. Note that sending them two directions means you have to go with them to the first split.

Character	Direction	Finds
Tifa	Right
Yuffie	Right
Red XIII	Right, then Up	Shield Materia
Yuffie	Right, then Up	Counter Materia
Cid	Right, then Up
Vincent	Left, then Down	Mega All Materia

Since I want to two of those Mega All Materia, I’m heading left with Vincent and sending everyone else Right.

Left Path

As soon as you get to the next screen, you’ll send Vincent down and head Up.

Upper-Left Path

This screen is a puzzle with loot and places to either cross on roots or swim to new locations. Follow the root along the bottom of the screen and grab the chest with a . Backtrack to the start of the room and this time head up and right. You’ll jump in the water and swim to the other side of the room. Head up and left to find a box with a , then backtrack a bit and head out the exit in the upper right.

The next room is another roots and swimming paths puzzle. Follow up roots up and to the far left corner for a , the head right and up to get the Shield Materia. This part is weird. Go a little left and down until Cloud jumps into the water. You’ll emerge on the left where you can open the box for the . Go down and he’ll swim to the far right of this room. Follow the root path left and down so you can get the final box with a . Go back to where Cloud emerged from the water and exit out the upper right.

On the next screen there are two materia you can grab. At the top kind of hidden by vines is the W Magic Materia. In the center of the glowing pool is a Counter Materia. Head to the far left of the screen to find the exit. But read the next section first.

As soon as you get to the next area, you’ll see a green chest on your right and a large green pit in the middle of the room. DO NOT go left or you’ll trigger an event that prevents you from back-tracking and getting extra loot. Head up past the chest and into the cave.

Lower-Left Path

On this next screen, you should see two boxes, between which is a floating materia kind of hidden by a waterfall thing. Grab the box on the right to obtain a , then head left to jump down.

Go up toward the platform and Cloud will jump to that platform, then immediately jump left. While he’s jumping, if you time it right you can use the circle button to grab the Mega All Materia. If you miss it, just keep jumping back and forth until you get it.

If you have Yuffie’s and are morphing enemies, be sure you give this Mega All Materia to her. That way she’ll morph ALL enemies she runs across, not just one. This will be super handy as you continue to level grind stat-up items.

The box here on the left has a . Once you have all these items, head right and follow the path to a box with an . Grab that, then head out the exit at the top of the screen.

On the next screen, follow the path to the left, then curve around to the right, behind the platform in the middle. There’s a box here with a . Continue down and back right to open the box there for a .

Once you have that, backtrack a few steps, then jump up and climb up the pillar in the middle. Exit the screen via the path (it’s in the upper left).

Follow the path on the next screen and pick up the in the first box, then the in the next. Head right and jump down, then jump/climb to your upper right to get the final box with an . Jump back down and head left, then exit via the screen by jumping up on the pillars to your upper left.

You should now be back at the point where you split from Vincent earlier. Take the exit at the top of the screen to return to the place where you split your part.

Right Path

On the next screen, wind down the spiral until you get to the next screen, then head right and go down. The box here has a , and the there is an .

Continue spiraling down until you get to the next screen. The obvious box here has a . Head down and slightly right to find another box with the marginally useful .

Head back up, take the right path toward the top of the screen, but go take the left fork when you come to it. The box up here has a . Backtrack and open the box on the far right for another . Continue up to the next screen.

This one is a little tricky. You’re going to wind down the spiral again, but this time the spiral changes direction partway down. When you get to the bottom you should emerge on to the screen with the big glowing green pool. Go ahead and open the box now for a .

If you’re on an emulator and gambling with Vincent having picked up another Mega All Materia, take a snapshot before going any farther.

Head past the chest and go left to join your team again. Talk to everyone who wasn’t in your party to see what they picked up along the way. Again, the way I play it, 50% of the time Vincent will give you a marginally useful . But the other 50% of the time you’ll get the way more useful second Mega All Materia.

STOP - READ THIS!

At this point you can continue on and beat the game, or more likely you’ll want to backtrack to the beginning of the crater and jump back on the Highwind to go level up more, try to beat all the Weapons, etc.

Now that I have the Shield Materia (the final Magic Materia for a blend) and the extremely helpful Mega All Materia, I like to go farm items near Mideel and then come back here and farm Magic Pots to level up to the best materia. See the Leveling Up section for more detail.

When you’re TOTALLY done and ready to move on, continue to the Final Battle section.