Final Fantasy VII

Sunken Gelnika

So… Why Am I Here?

The sunken ruins of the Gelnika is an optional area that can be easily missed. But if you take the time to find it, you can turn an average party into absolute gods. This is where you find Yuffie’s - the weapon that lets her use Morph without the normal damage penalty. Since basically any enemy in the Gelnika can be morphed into one stat-up item or another, this becomes Level-up Central.

You can come here as soon as you have the submarine, and I recommend you do. You may want to wait until you have Mega All Materia and more master level materia before serious grinding, but get the as soon as possible.

Finding the Gelnika

Take the sub across the sea to the bay directly west of the Junon Harbor dive spot and look for a wrecked plane at the bottom of the ocean. That’s the wreck of Shinra’s Gelnika. Approach it with the sub to get inside.

Warning: When you first descend with the sub, you may encounter Emerald Weapon. If you do, head back to the surface and try again. You’re almost certainly not ready to fight THAT yet.

First Visit: Get the Conformer

When you first come down the ladder, you’ll find a chest with . Get it, then save. Head through the door by the save point. Go straight ahead and off to the right to find a box with a inside. Afterwards, head back toward the entrance and go to the far right for a box containing .

Now go down those stairs to your left and into the far back-right corner for Double Cut Materia. Yup. It’s a Command Materia. Despite the fact that it’s clearly purple on the screen there, it’s a Command Materia.

But the real prize here… The far-left back corner has . This is without question the best weapon in the game. Really.

Conformer Setup

If you don’t have Yuffie in your party at this time, head back up the stairs to the save point and swap her in. Equip the to her.

This weapon doesn’t allow growth, so equip one or two of those master level HP Plus Materia until she’s at 9,999 HP. You pretty much only want master level materia on this weapon, since it’s got no growth. If you have them, equip master level Cover Materia and any master level Enemy Lure Materia you’ve got. Fill the slots up with whatever master level stuff makes sense: Speed Plus Materia, Luck Plus Materia, Pre-Emptive Materia, and similar Support Materia.

Now equip a Rune Bracelet and give her the Morph Materia. With this weapon equipped, every time Yuffie uses a Morph attack, it will do FULL POWER, not that annoying 12.5% or so that morph normally does.

If you picked up the Steal as Well Materia from Wutai, you can pair that with Morph Materia to farm items while morphing.

If you went to Gold Saucer and got a Sneak Attack Materia, you can pair it with Morph Materia. As soon as you obtain the Mega All Materia on Disc 3, give her that, too. With Sneak Attack and Mega All, Yuffie can literally start the battle with an attack that does 9,999 morph damage to all enemies before they get in a single attack.

Serious Overkill: But really, why stop there? Each Sneak Attack Materia you equip has a chance to activate at the start of battle. The higher the level of the materia, the higher the probability (from around 33% to around 80%). Now imagine you have seven maxed Morph Materia and seven maxed Sneak Attack Materia paired together on the and along with the Mega All Materia. Yuffie can start the battle with several attacks in a row - each of which will do nearly 10k of damage to all enemies. This makes grinding so much easier, and in my opinion it’s worth waiting for.

If Yuffie isn’t killing everything off in a single shot, you can also consider pairing Time Materia and Added Effect Materia together in one of the connected slots on the to infect your enemies with slow or stop.

Now that you understand how seriously OP the is, check out the Leveling Up section. The optimal path is to get Yuffie’s strength and vitality maxed out, then return here for speedy grinding.

Second Visit: Looting for fun and profit

You should have cleared out all the loot in the first room during your first visit. Now it’s time to get the rest of the loot and then grind some serious buffs.

Head left from the save point and talk to the Turks. You can steal and , then, if you have it, just summon Knights of the Round and be done with them.

After the Turks battle, head through the door at end of the hallway. Just in front of you is a box with a . Head all the way to the far end of that catwalk, and then all the way to the right. You should see a box at the end with Spirit Lance in it.

Head back the way you came and go down the stairs. At the bottom, head straight to the right toward the crashed helicopter. There’s a glowing red orb just below the entrance to it. That’s Hades Materia. Pick that up and then head toward the bottom of the screen.

There’s a box at either end. The right one contains , which teaches Cid his ultimate limit break. The one on the left contains Vincent’s weapon. Grab them and head out.

Enemy Notes

If Yuffie isn’t wiping the floor with enemies before they can even attack, equip one of the other two characters with master level Gravity Materia, and the other with Mime Materia. Casting Demi 3, Mime, Morph, Mime is really effective against enemies that are vulnerable to gravity damage. Strategies like this will let your non-Yuffie characters also morph enemies. Depending on your level, that may or may not be necessary.

Here’s a list of the sections of the plane, what you can find there, how to beat them, and what you get.

Cargo Room and Research Room

These are the room with the busted-up helicopter and all the boxes (one screen up and one screen left from the save point) and the room with the large reactor (one screen up from the save point.)

Enemy	HP	MP	Counter	Demi	Gives	Strategy
Unknown	11,000	110	None	Yes	1,500 XP, 150 AP, 5,000 Gil	Demi 3, Mime, Demi 3, then Morph and Mime until all are gone.
Unknown 2	13,000	130	None	Yes	3,000 XP, 300 AP, 10,000 Gil	Sleepel, Demi 3, Mime, Demi 3, then Morph and Mime until all are gone.
Unknown 3	15,000	150	Creepy Touch, which inflicts Sadness	Yes	2,000 XP, 200 AP, 7,500 Gil	Sleepel, Demi 3, Mime, Demi 3, then Morph and Mime until all are gone.
Serpent	14,000	290	None	No	1,400 XP, 70 AP, 2,500 Gil	Weak against Wind; Sleepel, Tornado, Tornado, then Morph and Mime until gone.

Hallway

The hallway is located exactly one screen left of the save point. This is one of my favorite places to level up. You get great XP and AP, and the morphables pile up quickly. As an added bonus, your guys get faster with time because of Speed Sources, so it takes even less time as you do it. You can steal a from the Poodler enemies, and if you have Sleepel-All paired, you can even make sure you almost never get hurt.

Enemy	HP	MP	Steal	Counter	Demi	Morph	Gives	Strategy
Bad Rap	9,000	120		None	Yes		1,100 XP, 70 AP, 2,500 Gil	Demi 3, Mime, Demi 3, then Morph and Mime until all are gone.
Poodler	6,000	220		Fire, unless you drain its MP with Magic Hammer	Yes		900 XP, 70 AP, 2,500 Gil	Demi 3, Mime, then Morph and Mime until all are gone.

See the Leveling Up section for more general grinding strategy.