Welcome to Sash’s Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7 FAQ and Walkthrough Table of Contents Introduction.....................................................int01 Basic Game Mechanics.............................................bgm01 Equipment and items..............................................eai01 Mission Complete Menu............................................mcm01 Basic Game Plot, as of the first mission.........................bgpo1 Beginning the Game...............................................btg01 Walkthrough......................................................walk1 Chapter 1........................................................cha01 Chapter 2........................................................cha02 Chapter 3........................................................cha03 -Obtaining the Ultimate Weapon Chapter 4........................................................cha04 Chapter 5........................................................cha05 Chapter 6........................................................cha06 Chapter 7........................................................cha07 Chapter 8, part 1................................................cha8a Chapter 8, part 2................................................cha8b Chapter 9........................................................cha09 Chapter 10.......................................................cha10 Chapter 11.......................................................cha11 Chapter 12, part 1...............................................ch12a Chapter12, part 2................................................ch12b Secret Ending....................................................sece1 Tips and Tricks..................................................tip01 ====================================================================== Introduction.....................................................int01 ====================================================================== Howdy, and thanks for reading my guide to Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. This guide is intended to assist you as you play through the game from beginning to end with descriptions of maps, enemies, and bosses. At the very least, this guide will outline all steps necessary to complete the game on normal mode. The only real difference between normal mode versus hard and extra hard are the amount and frequency of enemies faced and the amount of damage Vincent takes from being shot or mauled. I will put in as a side note any significant differences between hard and extra hard, but since you should not be playing extra hard before at least completing the game on normal mode, I doubt it will be that crucial to your success at that point. As a side note about extra hard mode, Vincent will retain any weapons and gil he has acquired as of the final auto save in the Omega chapter to be carried over to the beginning of the game should extra hard mode be selected. Levels and ammunition do not carry over. ====================================================================== Basic Game Mechanics ............................................bgm01 ====================================================================== DoS is at heart and action shooter game with elements of a Role Playing Game added in. As Vincent progresses he will gain levels and be able to upgrade his weapons. - Saving/Loading The game has 2 options for saving. As Vincent explores a level, the game will auto save and create a log of Vincent’s exact inventory at that point. The player can at any time replay the game from that auto save point, even if he has progressed farther in the game. If, while replaying, Vincent reaches another auto save point he has reached before. The current data will override what has been saved previously. Hence, if on your first attempt, you reach an auto save point with an inventory of 2 potions and 150 bullets, any time you replay from there you will start with those items. If, however, you play from a previous point in the story and reach that auto save area with an inventory of 4 potions and 225 bullets, that new data will replace the old. - Leveling Vincent will not gain levels during missions, only after a mission has been completed. As you progress, the game will keep score of the amount of kills and gil you acquire. After a mission is over, you will be given the option of using all the experience you gained to increase Vincent’s level, or convert each exp point into 10 gold. - Upgrading After missions have been completed and you have chosen to level up or receive money, you will be given the option to modify weapons and accessories. Each basic gun can be upgraded 2 times before you must decide how to specialize it. What you choose is really based on your particular play style and what you find most useful. All guns have advantages and disadvantages versus other guns. - Memory Capsules Hidden throughout the game (some hidden much better than others) are memory capsules which when shot will cause an auto save file to be created in your “Extra Features” menu which can be accessed from the games main title screen. Once a capsule has been acquired you need not ever find it again in any version unless you should happen to erase your game data from your memory card. Once acquired, you may enter your “Extra Features” menu and scroll to the “Event Viewer” to see a video sequence that appears somewhere in the game. Should you find all the capsules you may watch every video file the game has to offer. -Critical Hits vs. Normal Hits. Enemies in this game have HP. When shot in vital areas, more damage is done. You will know if you scored a critical hit because the damage done appears in orange rather than white. All humans will suffer a critical hit if shot in the head. Other creatures and machines have different weak points. ====================================================================== Equipment and Items .............................................eai01 ====================================================================== --Basic Equipment-- -Guns: Vincent’s main form of combat, your gun is your best friend in this game. Cerberus Vincent’s basic gun, has average stats at all ranges, best for medium/short range fights Hydra Vincent’s rifle. Most useful for long range combat. Shoots at a slower pace and reloads slower, but has highest damage. Griffon Machine gun. Best at short range combat, unloads many rounds quickly but harder to aim and does less damage. -Barrels: Short barrel: Quick fire rate. Does less damage the further away the enemy is. Medium barrel: Mainly for use in fighting enemies who are not in places Vincent can reach on foot. Long barrel: Used to fight enemies at long distances, power decreases the closer an enemy is to Vincent -Materia: Materia can be attached to a weapon and cast using Vincent’s mana pool. There are 3 kinds Fire Materia: When cast, Vincent will shoot a ball of flame which explodes on impact, damaging all nearby opponents. Lighting Materia: Vincent fires a powerful bolt of lighting which damages enemies in a straight line. Blizzard Materia: Vincent shoots a ball of ice that seeks out his single target automatically. -Accessories: Can be attached to weapons, enhancing their abilities. Many can be upgraded at the machine shops. Sniper Scope: Allows Vincent to zoom in on a target. Useful for getting critical hits. Materia Floater: Increases the level of equipped Materia Power Booster: Increases the weapons power as well as weight, making Vincent run slower while carrying it. Gravity Floater: Decreases the total weight of the weapon. Materia Booster: Another accessory to increase the level of equipped materia. Auto Reloader: Auto reloads a weapon when ammunition has been depleted. Cerberus Relief: Slightly increases defense. Power Cross: Slightly increases power of melee attacks. Recoil Limiter: Reduces Recoil, making aiming that much easier. L-Adjuster: Increases accuracy of long range shots. S-Adjuster: Increases the accuracy of short range shots. Manaheart: Gradually replenishes MP, secret item found in Chapter 6. -Items: Can be used during missions for various effects. Be careful, the use of too many items in a mission can lower your score. Potion: Heals a small amount of HP Hi-Potion: heals a moderate amount of HP Mega-Potion: Heals a large amount of HP X-Potion: Fully heals Vincent. Ether: Restores some MP Elixir: Restores all HP and MP Phoenix Down: When used, the next time Vincent is KO’d he will return to life at full health. Limit Breaker: Unleash the beast! Vincent will morph into a new were- wolf type creature with devastating melee attacks as well as gain the ability to throw balls of fire. Defense will be increased dramatically and all HP will be restored. Vincent will return to normal after a short time or you can remove the effects by holding L1+R1. Red Potion: Heal a random amount of HP Red Ether: Heal a random amount of MP -Bullets Handgun Bullets: Used in handguns, Cerberus will fire 3 at a time. Rifle Bullets: Used by the Hydra weapon. Machine-Gun bullets: Used by the Griffon. --Specialty Weapons/Items— Bayonet Rifle: When carried, increases the power of Vincent’s melee attacks. Blast Machine Gun: Does little damage but knocks enemies down. Ultimate Weapon: Just what it sounds like. Will make the going a lot easier on you. Refer to my Chapter 3 section for details on how to acquire. Lucky S Barrel: Gain more XP for killing enemies with this barrel attached. Fearie L Barrel: A long barrel that quickly fires. Elixor: Fully restore all MP and HP as well as gain the effect of Phoenix Down. Potion: Will appear in your inventory labeled “Potion” but will only restore 1 hp. They won’t stack with normal potions so get rid of them if you see them. Moogle Dolls. Rare, and if you find them, just sell them at the nearest shop, all they are good for is extra cash. ====================================================================== Mission Complete Menu............................................mcm01 ====================================================================== At the end of each mission you will receive a score for that mission based on your performance, granting you either a D, C, B, A, or S. Here is what the game evaluates. Targets Destroyed: Easy enough. Kill more people, get a better score. Accuracy Rate: Based on how many bullets found their marks. Damage Sustained: How many HP you lost during this mission. This one is probably the toughest to get a good score on, as there are times where you just can’t avoid getting shot. Critical Hits: How many times did that little orange number pop up in the mission? Killchains: Whenever you kill targets in rapid succession you get a kill chain. This doesn’t measure what your max kill chain was, just how many times you acquired a kill chain, be it 2 enemies in succession or 50 (though killing 50 enemies in succession would earn you 49 kill chains). Interesting note: barrels and boxes count as targets so if you see them stacked together, shoot them one at a time to get a kill chain. Items Used: The fewer items you use in a mission the better your rank will be. Magic Casted: How many times Vincent uses materia per mission. Easy to get a good score on this one, if you run across a mako field with full mana, fire off a few magic rounds at nothing before running over it, you’ll get your score up and won’t lose any mana. Mako Collected: This measure how many of the Mako Fields you ran over during the mission. Sometimes they refresh after you have run over them, so check back. Times KO’d: How many times Vincent died in the mission. Time Expired: How long it took you to complete the mission. This score is almost always low if you are watching the videos, because for some reason they did not program it so the timer stops while you watch one. Whatever. ====================================================================== Basic Game Plot – as of the first mission........................bgp01 ====================================================================== 3 years have passed since Meteorfall and the city of Midgar has been deserted. Reeve Tuesti, also known to others as Cait Sith, has been placed in charge of a militant organization known as the World Restoration Organization, whose goal is to aid in the planets survival and longevity after the devastating effects of the encounter with Sephiroth. Recently, screams have been heard at night coming from inside Midgar, and a team was sent in to investigate. None returned. As the game opens, Vincent is resting in the town of Kalm during a celebration of its recovery from Meteorfall. During the festivities, Kalm is attacked by an unidentified group of soldiers. Vincent must save the citizens and determine what is going on. ====================================================================== Beginning the Game...............................................btg01 ====================================================================== If you have yet to complete the game, you will be prompted to choose Normal or Hard mode. If you have already completed the game once and have an auto save file in the Omega and Chaos chapter, you may chose Extra-Hard mode and your games information will be carried over. Once you have selected the mode you want, you will be prompted to configure the game, with options such as Vibration and Sound Output. I suggest putting on subtitles, as dialogue can be lost in many area with lots of background noise or characters who speak softly. You may also choose how you want your sight to work, Automatic, Semi- automatic, or Manual. Pick whatever, based on how hard you want the game to be. ====================================================================== Walkthrough......................................................walk1 ====================================================================== Here I will take you through a step by step process of the games levels. What I describe is based on the games Normal Mode. The main difference in the game modes is the amount of enemies faced as well as damage taken and how much damage the bosses can sustain. If there is any significant change I will highlight it by adding in a *Extra hard Mode* qualifier. I will also note where the game Auto Saves. This Walkthrough will NOT discuss Memory Capsules, nor will I provide descriptions of what happens in videos. You can skip a video at any time by hitting “start” and then X button. Chapter 1: Sea of Flames.........................................cha01 ------------------------ Stage Missions Protect the Civilians! Save the abducted girl! Locate the card key! Assist the WRO! After the opening video you will be facing 3 soldiers. Shoot them quickly, they probably won’t have time to even fire on you. Walk to the right, across the pipes, and pick up the potion. Climb the ladder and shoot the soldier on the platform. This will alert the other soldier on the platform above. If you move fast enough, however, he will not have time to shoot you before you eliminate him as well. Once you are on the wall, take a right and destroy the box you come to for 500 gil. Turn around and continue until you see a group of soldiers on a platform. Take care not to go far enough the can see you. You will notice a barrel next to this group of soldiers. Any barrels you see like this one throughout the game will explode when shot. Shoot the barrel and it should kill all the soldiers on the platform. *Extra Hard Mode* The barrel is not on the platform, it is along the path the soldiers will run to get at you. Once past this area you will see 2 more soldiers standing in front of a doorway. Take them out but don’t go into the door just yet. Continue past it until you see a briefcase containing a potion. To the left of this briefcase is another soldier standing on the roof of a house with his back turned. Take him out and head back to the door you passed. Head down the stairs. As you go down a voice will say “Area clear!” After you hear this you will see 3 soldiers standing on the steps. Kill them and move on. Auto Save Head down the street until you see a group of civilians running toward you. You need to save as many civilians as you can in this level. Start here by positioning yourself between the civilians and the soldiers chasing them and shooting the soldiers before they can kill the people. Once you have killed those soldiers take a left and eliminate the ones holding the kids hostage. Don’t worry about shooting civilians. You can’t do it, even on purpose (if that makes you sad, seek help). Continue down the path and a robotic dog will jump out at you, kill him fast as 2 more soldiers will be chasing a boy toward you and you need to kill them before they kill the boy. You can take a right at this point but don’t do it yet. Continue straight until you reach the fire blocking your path and take a left. Kill the 2 soldiers and the dog and follow along until you reach a fence. Past it is a case with 500 gil and 2 places where you will get a cut scene of Vincent telling some kids the path is safe. Come back and head down the path you passed up before. Run over the mako field and get the fire materia. Remember to equip it. Continue down the street and take out the guards in the alley. Careful you don’t shoot the explosive barrel if you are next it. Break the boxes for any items they may have and walk over to the laser gate. After you realize you need a key, a soldier will run out of the house behind you. Kill him and the 2 more coming down the path and get the key to the gate. Continue on and you will see a group of civilians fleeing a helicopter. You can’t do anything for them at this point, so just keep moving. Down the next street step into the mako field and be prepared as soldiers will jump out from inside the buildings. One will drop the Limit Breaker item. Eventually you will get a cut scene with a girl being dragged off by robot dogs. This is your first side mission, to save her. Don’t waste bullets on the dog as it drags her into the crate, you can’t kill it yet. Once she is inside, kill off the enemies that attack you, making sure you get the dog terrorizing the mother to your right as well as the soldiers in the windows. After you have defeated the first wave, walk over to the crate and open it. Now you have to fend off attackers until the timer reaches 0. When it does approach the crate and kill the dog inside. The girl is safe; don’t you feel like a hero? *Extra Hard Mode* You must defeat 30 enemies in this mode rather than wait for the timer. Follow the street and take a right when you can, you will be prompted with another stage mission, to locate the card key. Keep going the only way you can and you see a girl being attacked by soldiers. Kill them, talk to the girl, and be on your way. Next you will acquire the sniper scope. Attach it and keep going straight down the street until you see a fire on your left. People will appear running from guards only to be trapped by the fire and you can’t reach them to save them. If only you had a way of seeing enemies from a long way off. Use R3 to test out your new scope and pick off the guards before they kill the civilians. Head back to the path you passed on the way to the fire and follow it. Get the mana and kill the guards that pop out (shoot the barrel). The card you need is on the right. Head back to the laser gate. Inside some guards will come running down the steps, you can take all 3 out with a blast from your fire materia, same for the 2 shooting you from the top of the steps. Down the other side, kill the 4 guards and pick up the Long Barrel and attach it, you’ll need it for this next fight. Get the Handgun Bullets and Hi-Potion before you walk out the door. Auto Save Your first boss fight. You ready? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Dragonfly A giant helicopter. Depending on how well developed your shooting skill is, this can be over in less than a minute. Aim at him as he flies over and just unload all your bullets, using the long barrel you just acquired. His machine gun is hardly even worth avoiding it does so little damage, but watch out for his rockets, they follow you. The best way to avoid them is to position yourself so they crash into the pillar in the center of the square. Once he has made a pass over the square he will drop a group of soldiers to fight you. Take them out as fast as you can, use the barrels to your advantage if they are close to them, and continue blasting away at the helicopter, eventually it will go down. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Auto Save After the video you will find yourself in a building. Behind the table is a Phoenix Down. The room on the left has 500 gil and the room on the right has 500 gil and a shop machine. The next room also has 500 gil and bullets. Keep going down the hall where you can pick up a short barrel. Honestly, I don’t even use this attachment as the medium/long barrels are better suited for 99% of the situations you find yourself in throughout the game. Put it on your 2nd or 3rd weapon if you want as you are about to encounter a fight in a tiny room with many enemies. Once you walk upstairs and watch the video and kill all the soldiers who enter the room. Auto Save Afterwards you are back out in the square you just fought the helicopter in, killing more enemies. There is a Limit Breaker on top of the pillar if you want it. The enemies will spawn forever until you run to the SE and WRO members come in to join you. Kill all the bad guys in the square and head out the direction the WRO came in when the way is clear. *Extra hard mode* You will start in the square with the WRO and the Deepground soldiers will come in from the SE. It’s actually easier this way because you can kill them as they file in. Talk to the soldier if you want and then follow them as they run down the path, picking up the Griffon and bullets. You don’t really have time though to equip it because you need to follow the WRO soldiers to save them. At the fork, take a right first and kill all the Deepground soldiers before they kill your allies. Run to the area behind the DG soldiers and get the keycard inside the box, but don’t use it to open the gate closest to you, move to the other side of the alley and open that gate, getting the 500 gil and the extra card key. Still, don’t go through the laser gate yet. Head back to where you saw the fork and go the other way this time. Again, assist the WRO before they get killed. Now go back to the laser gate you haven’t opened yet and go through. Down the street are 2 WRO members under attack from snipers. Take them out with your Long Barrel. There are 2 on the roof to your right and 2 on the ground. Make a U-turn at the edge of the ramp and get the mana and Handgun bullets. Now head down the street and into town square for Vincent vs. Dragonfly: The rematch. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Dragonfly GL I guess the GL stands for “Good Luck winning round 2 with a busted up helicopter”. This time the Dragonfly moves much slower and doesn’t fly as high in the air. Stay farther away and use the Long Barrel to aim for his damaged right wing. After blasting that for a few clips, the helicopter will fall to the ground, exposing its weak point on top, shoot it as many times as you can before he recovers. Repeat the process. He still fires missiles at you and they are a bit harder to dodge as you have no structures to hide behind. No soldiers this time though, so he should go down no problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: Showdown in the Wastes................................cha02 --------------------------------- Stage Missions Eradicate the Guard Hounds! After the videos, you will be given control back with Vincent equipped with a mounted machine gun. Take out as many of the guard dogs as you can, don’t worry about ammunition. The more you kill the better your score at the end of this Chapter. After a while you will be given a cut scene where Vincent jumps on the roof of the vehicle. Auto Save Once again, kill as many of the dogs as you can. They will jump on the transport, damaging you in the process so try and kill them as they are in the air. Once you are past this you will be given another cut scene where the transport crashes. Auto Save Walk over the 3 mako fields behind the transport before you advance into the ravine. You will find a mini boss in the next area. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Crimson Hound As the fight starts he will jump up on a pillar and let his buddy dogs chomp on you for a bit. Kill them as fast as you can, if you are quick enough none will get away and start running in and out of the stones. If they do just strafe around the outside and shoot them as you see them. When all are dead, target the boss on top of his perch, and blast away. Eventually he will come down to fight you. Kill him fast enough and he won’t summon any more help. The best way to do it is run backward while shooting him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- After the Crimson Hound is “dead” get his key card and head into the next area, making sure to watch the cool video of Vincent finishing the dog off. You will get another cut scene and fight the real bosses of this level. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Pegasus Riders Five on one? Hardly seems fair, maybe Vincent should let them surrender. He doesn’t of course. This fight seems daunting at first, but there is a trick to beating them. Let them circle you a few times and then move out of their pattern. Eventually they will break ranks and charge you, which is when you want to shoot them, as they are vulnerable from the front. One shot is sometimes enough to kill a single rider. Just make sure they don’t hit you if they are charging, it will knock you down and if you don’t jump up fast you are vulnerable to another charge. They share a collective life bar, so you don’t have to do all that damage to every one. Pick them off one by one and that’s all she wrote for this mission. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I suggest upgrading your long barrel at least once here. Chapter 3: Silent Edge...........................................cha03 ---------------------- Stage Missions Protect the Boy! Eliminate the Snipers in Hiding! When you get control of Vincent, turn around and head left. You will see a case at the end of the alley with handgun bullets, take care of the 2 dogs on your way there. Make your way through the mini maze and kill any dogs that show up. Eventually you will cross the street and find a mako field. Past that is a dieing soldier who tells you where to go to save the people of Edge. Get his keycard (more dogs in the alley past him if you want to get a few extra kills) and head back to where you started the mission, opening the gate. Inside are a potion and another new toy, the Hydra Rifle. This is for shooting those pesky snipers and enemies that are a long way off. Put it in one of your weapon slots and stick the long barrel on the end of it and a Sniper Scope on it, your about to get some practice. Don’t equip it yet though, you need your handgun to take out the 4 dogs in the alley you will enter next. Once you’re past those, put on the new rifle and walk towards the town square. You are now engaged in one of the mission Special Objectives which is to kill as many snipers as possible. Snipers are possibly the most annoying enemies in this game cause they almost never miss and they do a lot of damage, on top of being very hard to see. Honestly, the best way to avoid damage is to know where they are going to pop up in advance and have your rifle ready to shoot them before they shoot you. And that requires you play a mission several times. I’ll do the best I can here telling you what to expect. The worst thing you can do here is to run into the middle of the square, because you’ll be getting shot from all sides. Back up into the alley you just came out of and look for the sniper on the roof to the North (your left from where you start). Take him out as fast as possible since he’s already shooting at you, and if you did not enter the square, no other snipers should have noticed you yet. To the right of that first sniper is an orange tarp, and a bridge to the right of that. There is another sniper there on the left side of that bridge. In the center of the square is a pillar, to the right of it is another sniper on the roof of the houses directly across from you. There is another to the right of him on the building with the white masonry. To the right of him is a spotlight, when it is at its farthest right-facing arc, move your scope a bit farther to the right and you’ll see another. After you have all 5 of them taken out, inch out of the area you are in with your character facing north against the wall. Once you are a few feet into the square look up and see a sniper right above you. Kill him. Follow along the wall where he was standing and you will see a rusty bridge, there is another sniper on the building behind that bridge. Now turn around. In the alley opposite the laser gate you can see is the last sniper who currently poses a threat to you, he’s behind a box on the ground next to a mako field. Kill him and head into that area, when you come out of it you see a kid running in front of you, follow him. In the building he runs to, you need to kill the 2 soldiers on the 2nd floor. There is a shop machine here and the 3rd floor has a potion and machine gun bullets. Head back down and the kid will run out. Follow him again and kill the soldiers who chase him. After you have killed all 4 of them, you get another Special Objective, which is to follow the kid and don’t let him die. Auto Save A dog jumps down and grabs him before you get to the first building, kill him before he gets to the kid if you can, it isn’t really an issue if he does, just kill him before he mauls the kid to death. Follow the kid in the building, get the 1000 gil on the bottom floor before you go up the steps. Once he gets outside and climbs up the ladder, he looks into an alley. Don’t bother going down there, it leads to a case with 1 gil. Follow a bit farther and save him from the 2 dogs that jump out. Across another bridge 2 soldiers will start shooting from on top of a sign to your right. Just kill them and move on. Another group of dogs jump out while you follow here. After that group, switch over to your rifle again and when the kid stops moving and makes a frightened sound, look across the square to see another sniper, he’s above the orange tarp you see directly across from you if you are standing behind the kid. Kill him and the kid lets you into the building you are standing at. Inside is a normal soldier with the key card. Grab it. IF YOU WANT THE ULTIMATE WEAPON, READ THIS PART!!!!! When you have control of Vincent again after escorting the kid around the square, turn around and head back into the building behind you. Inside there is a case with a Model Gun. Grab it. That is the non upgraded version of Ultimate Weapon. That’s the good part. Here is the bad. That weapon will cost you almost 300k gil to make into its best form. You can’t even upgrade it until Chapter 8 anyway, and at that point, you’re going to need to convert all your exp into gil for the rest of the game and not spend any of it. Maybe if you do that you can afford it by the last level when you have Vincent’s Death Penalty gun which is the most powerful weapon on the game. So why did they put this in? Well, if you plan on playing the Extra Hard Mode, you will NEED this gun. So your options are: Ignore it, finish the game because you kinda like Final Fantasy and you plan on forgetting you ever played this as soon as it’s over. Or, option 2: Starting at chapter 8, don’t buy any more levels or upgrades, kill yourself trying to beat the game with under leveled and underpowered Vincent in hopes you can afford the Ultimate Weapon before you reach the final boss because your ego is directly proportionate to the size of your gun. Then play the game through on Extra Hard blasting away with it and feeling like a real man. (That’s what I did). All joking aside, once you have it, the gun is pretty amazing. It holds 99 rounds, does more damage than any gun save the Gigant Hydra (which only holds 1 round and reloads very slowly). Only this gun does max damage from all ranges. It completely destroys bosses all the way through the game because you almost never need to reload it, so you can stand there and have a shooting contest with just about every boss for the first 2/3 of the game without even moving and win, and the rest of the game you may only need to use 1 or 2 potions. The battle with Weiss at the end of the game when you are at the reactor is easier on Extra Hard mode if you have that gun than it is on Normal mode if you don’t. Oh well, it’s your choice. Back to the game *Extra Hard Mode* at this point, more snipers will appear on the rooftops, kill them for the best rating at the end of the mission. To kill them, don’t move at all. If you stand still, none will notice you. Now just search the rooftops and pick them off one by one. Head past the big laser gate and fight the enemies that jump out at the end of the alley. Head in the only direction you can. Before you jump out into the next area though, slowly make your way forward and look up to the top of the building in front of you. Kill the sniper before he sees you. This will alert the guard below who will begin stalking toward you, jump out and kill him. Around the next corner is another sniper on the fire escape above you at the end of the alley. Shoot him before he sees you and duck behind the wall again. Wait for the next 2 guards to come into sight and pop out to shoot them. Follow until you see a box across the street from you. Don’t run out into the street, slowly make your way to the edge and look at the bridge above you, snipe the girl standing there. Climb the steps to your left and as you walk out onto the bridge you just killed the guard on, look across the street to the NE, a sniper is on the roof in the corner. There are some guards in the street with boxes ahead of you. Try and kill them with stealth if you can, but I find the best way is to jump out and blast with Cerberus. Kill them and continue on, there is 3000 gil in the box on the roof to your left. Auto Save You will be at a point where there is a cut scene and you can see some guards on a stairway. First, snipe the barrel above you and kill that guard, then jump out and kill the guard on the lower steps. Hide again behind the wall and wait for the 3rd. Kill him when he comes down. When you get up the steps 2 guards will pop out, and one is below the stairs you will descend after that. Along the path 2 more guards will show up and then you will jump down into an alley you can’t get back out of. One guard is at the end, kill her and snipe the guard you can see between the buildings after you make a U-turn. Wait for the 3rd guard to come around the corner and kill him. You will see a fallen steel support beam. Jump down to it and in front of you is a mako field with a soldier near it. Kill him and the other guard to his left. Find the limit breaker under the spot you jumped down from and climb the fallen steel support. Pull out your rifle and aim over the fence past the mako field to kill the sniper. Before you run to get the mako field, look to your left and kill the guards behind the fence, once again, barrels are your friend. The last sniper in the level is above you across from the shop machine. Buy anything you need and step inside for the boss fight. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Heavy Armored Soldier You have to move from the start in this fight because he has 6 friends shooting you and if one of his rocket blasts get you it’s a lot of damage you’ll be taking, you may die before you can even recover. Kill his friends first, you may want to use fire materia on his friends in the catwalks to your left and right. After you hurt him a bit he drops the rocket launcher and uses a machine gun. Stand behind the boxes to avoid the spray of bullets. The last stage he uses a sword which is the easiest version to beat. Just back up and fire as he runs at you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4: Headquarters Under Siege..............................cha04 Stage Missions Assist the WRO members! Hurry to the Command Center! Swiftly eliminate the reinforcement squad! It’s all action from the start during this mission. While you are waiting for the Mission Objective screen to go away you can pull out your gun and just fire at anything it may auto aim at. As soon as you can see, however, train your gun onto the 2nd floor and take out the rocket launcher up there. Clean up the rest of the bad guys on the first floor (there is one to your left, don’t miss him) and run up the steps, killing the guy that pops out. Once upstairs, to the right are some boxes with items, break them if you want. Once you get back to the steps, go left and when you take another left, look across the building to the bridge on the 3rd floor. Take out the rocket launcher up there and the gunman who is shooting at you. Turn right again and blow up the barrel because it may get shot in the next fight when you are standing next to it. As you progress, 3 soldiers will appear around the corner. Kill them and move on where the next steps will be blocked by a laser gate. Keep going along floor 2 and kill the enemies you encounter to get the key. Head up and assist the WRO members fighting on the 3rd floor. Don’t stand near them because a rocket launcher will be shooting at you from the 4th floor to your left and you don’t want the explosion kill your allies. Kill the 2 guards on the bridge and the rocket launcher and follow your WRO members back to the open door. Inside is a Limit Breaker, Shop Machine, and bullets. When you come out go along the path until you come to another locked laser gate and kill the enemies who show up. Use the door to your left to circumvent the gate. A solder is in that hallway as well as a mako field. Head out and collect anything the solders you killed dropped. There is a mako field to your left once you are outside. Get it and head up the steps. Once you are up you will see 2 WRO members running from some enemies. Kill the bad guys and follow your WRO members. Before you go anywhere though, look across the building from the steps you just came up. See that explosive barrel? Shoot it now, if you don’t it will get shot in an upcoming fight while several WRO members are standing next to it. Run across this floor and assist the members in a firefight. Keep going and save the last WRO member on this floor who is pinned against the wall by 2 Deepground soldiers, one will drop a card key. Head up to the top floor and take a left. When the DG soldiers see you they will jump onto the elevator. Follow them down to the 3rd floor and kill them. Hop onto the elevator which will go back to the 4th floor and get off on the opposite side (West). Be careful on this next part. You see ahead of you one of those mounted machine guns? A DG soldier will run and jump on it as you approach. If you’re a crack shot you can take him out, the best way to do it though is to use a fire materia blast, or shoot the barrel next to him. When he is dead, head into the room. After the cut scene you have 60 seconds to get to Reeve to get the best rating on the special objective. Follow the green arrows on the wall and kill anyone who gets in your way. Be careful of the rocket launchers. Head back and get the mako field and bullets. On your way out you will get another cut scene. After it is over, you may notice the door on the opposite side of the top floor that was locked is now open. If you head through the hall and make it to the other end you can jump on the mounted gun and get a Special Objective, which is to blast as many solders as you can as quickly as you can. This really screws your accuracy rating for this mission, so it’s up to you. Head back to the first floor via the elevator, there is a mako field on the 3rd level if you want to go get it, but you’ll have to climb the long way. Head back to the shop machine in the corner and buy anything you need. After, go through the door and down the hall. Assist the WRO girls when you get to them and don’t miss the Limit Breaker and Bullets near them. Keep going down until you see several DG solders run past you, get behind them and take them out before they kill your WRO allies. The last one will drop a keycard. Grab it and get the mana from your left. Open the laser gate and you will be faced with a long hall of DG soldiers. The best bet is to just blast into them with a fire materia, it will kill the soldiers behind the shields. Again, the last one in the hall will drop a keycard. You have 2 more soldiers to kill before you get to a shop machine and a door to your right which will lead you to a fight with the Tsviet, Shelke. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Shelke She moves really fast, this is actually one of the tougher fights in the game if you are inexperienced. Double jump to avoid her charges and if she gets too close melee her till she falls and back up, then shoot when she regains her feet. A few key crit shots and she goes down really fast, but don’t go zooming in on her because she will destroy you if you do. After she gets low she will step up her melee attacks and they become even faster and more devastating. If you want to end it fast, use a Limit Break and go after her, beating her down every time you get close. If you use Limit Break before she gets below 50% you can throw fireballs at her when she’s in a corner and she can’t ever recover. That doesn’t work, however, as soon as she starts leaping off the walls to attack you. Eventually you’ll finish her and you get another cut scene. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- After you regain control, buy anything you need and head into the hall for another encounter with Azul. Auto Save During the video, Vincent makes the only joke I think you may ever hear come out of him, and then you are thrown into a fight with…… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Azul the Cerulean This fight can be the easiest boss fight in the game if you do it right. You can’t shoot Azul because even a critical hit to the head causes minimal damage, however, the explosive barrels will kill him in no time flat. As soon as the fight starts aim at the barrel to his left and blow it up. Back up and blow up the other two near him and then hide behind the pillar to your right. Azul has 3 attacks. He will shoot his cannon at you, he will use a machine gun or he will slam the ground causing a shockwave in all directions. The pillar will block all 3 quite nicely, though you may want to jump to avoid his shock wave just in case. Run out and pepper him with bullets if you want, just take care not to get hit with his cannon. If you can position yourself correctly behind the pillar you can shoot him with a sniper shot and he cant hit you, when he is standing still this is great for racking up the critical hits. Eventually Azul will walk to the center near more exploding barrels, just wait for him to do that and shoot them when he is near. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 5: Manor of Despair......................................cha05 --------------------------- Mission Objectives Eliminate the Sahagin! Sneak by the DG soldiers! Collect the Omega Report files! Deactivate the mines! As this mission opens Vincent finds out he is not alone in this sewer, and one of the mission objectives is to kill all of the Sahagin. They are great targets because they run right at you and their weak point is where the gun tends to auto aim, almost every shot yields a critical hit. The best strategy for killing multiple targets is to back up and let them come at you and pick them off one at a time. Kill the 3 in here and proceed down the hall, getting the items in the rooms and killing the bad guy who jumps down at you. To the right of the laser gate is a ladder, go up and get the mana on top and jump down. In front and above you a mage like Sahagin will begin throwing something at you, shoot him and several will jump down on top of you. Kill them all and get the card key. Keep moving through the sewer, nothing you haven’t seen 100 times already will happen, just look in all directions for items, don’t miss the Blizzard Materia to your left. Eventually one bad guy will give you a card key for a laser gate on your left. Inside you will fight a group of them and it will lead to a case with 2500 gold. Go across the sewer from there, up 2 ladders and kill all 3 monsters on top and use the switch to open the gate. Once that gate is open you can proceed to the next area, explore some more and find the last few Sahagin to kill, the climb the ladder past the gate you opened. Once up the ladder, shoot the guard you see at point blank range in the back of his head for a laugh, then look above you. Slowly move to the right and snipe the guard up there and wait for his friend whom you will also kill. On the other side of the elevator are 2 more guards. Past those 2 is a door you must duck under. Inside is a room with 500 gold and a power booster and an infinite supply of Deepground soldiers. Kill as many as you want for XP, just remember your wasting a lot of health items. Once you are done, head back and get inside the elevator and step off on the 2nd floor. Take the mana behind the elevator and head down the hall, killing the lone guard running up, and buy anything you need from the machine. Head back to the elevator and get off on the 3rd floor. You will cross a bridge in the next room and the door will slam in your face, turn around and try to head back and the other door will close. After this, the wall to the east will open and a series of soldiers will come out to shoot you. After you have killed them, the door will close and the west side will open. Kill that group and continue on… *Extra Hard Mode* Between the two groups inside the walls another group drops down from the ceiling to attack you on the bridge you are standing on. Auto Save Surprise! Now you get to play as Cait Sith for a short time. Take a right from the beginning and watch the video. In this Stage Mission, you can’t let any DG guards see you. Fortunately those helmets they wear seem to severely impair their vision. Wait for the first guard to turn his back and get behind the box. As he comes back toward you, sneak by him and go to the end of the platform. Jump as far as you can off and try to land on either the platform below you or the pipes before it. If you fall don’t worry, just climb the ladder back up. Now you will need to get past 2 guards. When they both have their back turned follow the one on your right and get behind the box at the end of his walking pattern. Get close to that ladder and watch the cut scene. No guards can see you from where you are standing now so don’t worry. Look down. There is a guard below you who walks back and forth. To your left are pipes leading up and you can see an exploding barrel behind them. You need to jump behind those pipes when the guard below you has his back turned. Careful not to go too far though, because there is another guard on the other side who wanders back and forth. When that guard has turned around, move toward the barrel and get a short cut scene. When the timing is right, walk up to it and push it at the guard to kill him. Careful not to accidentally jump instead of pushing it or you’ll be seen. If you are, you can always restart from the beginning of the Cait Sith mission, or make a mad scramble to the pipe. Once that guard is dead move down the path to the 2nd exploding barrel and another guard beyond it. Push it when both he and the first guard have their backs turned and dash across. Climb the boxes and jump behind the 2 guards and climb into the pipe. In the next area, wait till the guard on your right heads around the pillar and run to your left, jumping over the barrel, and push it on the guard below when he is in position. Move past this area and time your next dash between the 2 guards walking in a circle. Jump into the pipe in your right. Auto Save Back to Vincent. Head across the hall using the shop machine if you need, but trigger the cut scene with Lucrecia. A new Stage Mission now becomes available, to find all of the Omega Report Files. There are 4 total. I’ll guide you to them. You have one already from the cut scene, so no need to worry about that. Start by going to the east room and collecting the items there, kill the 3 guards. Head back to the room you regained control of Vincent in and head south. A soldier and his pet robot dog will attack you, and in the room to the left is a potion. Head to the right and open the sliding doors, kill the soldier who runs in. Exit the wooden door. Across the hall is a 3 room area with 1 soldier and a mako field. After that, head west, kill the soldier and dog in this hall and enter the room on your left, with a Limit Break and Bullets. Beyond that room is another with a soldier and dog and behind the last bookshelf is the second omega report. Back into the hall, head east this time and keep going until the end and you enter an area that looks like a cave. There is a door on your left here and inside may look familiar to the fans of the Final Fantasy 7 RPG. Square-Enix missed a great opportunity for a nostalgic moment here, as this is where you meet Vincent for the first time in the old game. All they did was put a weak ninja type soldier in the coffin where Vincent slept for 30 years. Kill the guy and get his 1000 gil drop. Keep moving into the cave, killing the guards as they show up. When you get past the laser gate, it activates and a Stage Mission begins. You must deactivate 4 mines in the time limit. It’s actually rather simple. Walk until the beeping becomes fast and then slow down, but keep moving forward. When the mine appears, back up a few steps and shoot it. There are 4 total, 2 on the right wall, 1 on the left, and one in front of the laser gate on the other side of the cave. The last one you kill will drop a card key. The next area has a moving bridge you must activate to get across. It doesn’t go all the way across and you have to jump the last 2 feet. You may want to fall down once though to kill the dog and get the mana down there. Keep going after this until you see a group of guards wandering by an exploding barrel. Shoot it and take them all out at once. The door to the left of the charred guards leads to an area with a shop machine, mako field, and a few items, and eventually back to where we started this part of the level. When you have got what you need, head back to the cave and continue on. You will come to a room where 2 ninjas and a gunner will run at you, take them out and as you enter the next area 2 guards will be shooting you from above. Using a fire materia is the best way to get rid of them fast. Head up the spiral steps and kill the 2 guards at the top and the 2 more that run in at the same time you do. The upstairs rooms of the Shinra Mansion have a few items, make sure you kill the guards down below as you head into the main area, and make sure you kill the guard in the far west room to get the third Omega report. Once downstairs, more guards will spawn above you. After you kill them, head all the way east, then north, and behind the bookshelf is the final Omega Report. The only place left to go is west from the downstairs area. Through the next few rooms you will fight guards and eventually you will run into Rosso the Crimson, who loves to monologue. After listening to her talk for far too long, there will be a chase scene that leads back to the main room of the Shinra mansion (make sure to jump over the mines). Auto Save Here you will fight the Chapter 5 boss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Black Widow Another fight against a machine. The secret to this boss is to never stop moving. He has 2 very mean attacks that can combo to take you out in a snap. As the fight starts he will charge you, knocking you over if he hits you. You have to keep strafing around him and shooting. If you run into a wall, start strafing back the way you came, just don’t stop moving and don’t move in a direct line away from him; always try to run in circles. He will periodically stop and use his beam cannon on you, which is easy to dodge if you just keep moving, but will do tons of damage if it hits you. After a while he will climb up on the wall and shoot you with his machine gun. You may not even want to attempt to avoid this, especially if you decided to buy the M Cerberus with additional ammo capacity. Just trade bullets and you will come out on the winning end. Just make sure to start running if you see his beam cannon charging. What you want is for him to crawl to the roof. When he does that unload everything on him and he will fall on his head, exposing his critical weak spot. Shoot him over and over if that happens. While he is on his head, if you want to end the fight in 10 seconds, switch to Limit Break mode and melee him to death. It just depends on how well your fights going, if you have managed to avoid taking damage up to that point it’s probably not necessary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 6: Deepground Strikes Back...............................cha06 Mission Objectives: Destroy the helicopters attacking the base! Assist the WRO members! As the chapter opens you will fight 3 rocket launching robots at once, just keep moving and it shouldn’t be a problem, make sure not to get too close after you kill one or you will take explosion damage. Get the card key and head past the machine shop. You will follow a path through the woods, get out your rifle and snipe the guard dogs as you see them, many times you can kill them before they see you. You will also pass a group of odd looking birds, I don’t know if they are supposed to be chocobos or not. Shoot them if you want, they drop red potions. *Extra Hard Mode* At the end of this ravine there is a giant pink bull (Dualhorn) who will charge you. You can’t kill him, so duck behind a rock and wait for him to go by; if he hits you it causes massive damage. *** update *** It would appear you can kill this bull; I did it by running through the ravine with all the dogs on my tail and stopping just short of where the dual horn spawns, then killing all the dogs at once to get my combo meter up. When the dual horn passed by I used the Ultimate Weapon with the best medium barrel. I hit his weak spot by standing about 2 feet away when he passed by me. It only took about 4 shots. When you kill him you get the new weapon accessory, Manaheart, which gradually replenishes mana. *** Eventually you will come to a cave with a beetle inside of it. Kill it and move on slowly, taking out the 2 guards you hear talking. After that, stop and look to your right, you will see a camp of DG soldiers below you. Your first target should be an explosive barrel on the right side, after that use your rifle to look across the camp. There is a hole and inside are several more of the beetles you just killed. Shoot them immediately after you shoot the explosive barrel and they will run out and attack the surviving DG soldiers. Pick off anyone whose left during the confusion. When you jump down, 2 soldiers will pop out from the tent to the left. Kill anything left in the camp and stock up on bullets at the shop machine. Head into the cave and assist the WRO members under assault at the end of the path. Aim for the barrels and use your rifle. After you have finished them off comes a Mission Objective, which is to kill the helicopters who are attacking the WRO base, there are 15 total, they attack in groups of 1 to 3 at a time. You can use the mounted machine gun to kill them, but a long barrel Cerberus is just as effective. Additionally, if you use the mounted machine gun the missiles fired by the approaching helicopters will cause damage to the WRO members who will be standing next to you. If you use the mounted gun, make sure to jump out when you see missiles coming for you. You will know when you have killed a helicopter because the number on your screen will advance, but it won’t crash, it will just fly off. Don’t waste bullets by shooting at it after its dead, even though the WRO members do. The helicopters attack from 4 directions. Here is the order: First one from the NE Second from the NE Third from the NE Fourth from the NE Fifth from the SW Sixth from the SE Seventh from the NW Eighth from the NE Nine from NW Ten from NE Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen from the NE together Fourteen and Fifteen from the NE together You may want to use the mounted gun for the last 2 because helicopter 15 has a lot of HP. After the last one flies around a bit he drops 3 heavy armored swordsman. Kill them and get the cardkey they drop and move into the base. When you come back outside, kill the guard in front of you and the dog on the crate ahead of you and run to your left behind the crate, killing the guard who will start shooting you from the ground. Be quick here because 2 snipers are on the bridge ahead of you. Get a location on them (they are just to the right of the middle) and kill them with your rifle. Move to the left and keep your gun trained on the bridge, another sniper will appear. When all the initial guards are dead, move forward and more will spawn. Just run back behind the trailer and take them out with your rifle, there are seven or eight of them. Try to move forward again and you will be delayed again by several dogs. Now move forward. On the second half of this bridge you will be attacked by another dozen or so guards, only this time you can’t be as conservative because WRO members are also under fire. It really just requires quick action and good shooting to come out of this situation with all your allies alive and most of your health. Don’t miss the sniper on the bridge above you. When all enemies are dealt with, head inside the open door and get ready for some fancy shooting. A WRO member will be under fire from DG soldiers, and everyone is standing in a narrow hall with explosive barrels all around. If you run in guns blazing you will hit a barrel and kill your ally along with the DG soldiers. Just do your best to quickly get a bead on the enemies and take them out. Get the 1000 gil and put on your long barrel weapon and head out. You come to another bridge like the one you just passed with crates randomly strewn about. 2 soldiers will pop out from your left as soon as you exit the base. Kill them and the 2 more soldiers behind the crates. Then take out the 2 dogs and get the card key. Head back into the base once again. Auto Save In this next area you will be attacked by DG soldiers hiding all over the place, which includes on the rafters above you. As you move forward, more will spawn, so make sure to kill everyone you see before heading deeper into the room. After all are dead, slowly head up the steps. Don’t move more than 1 pace past the stairs and turn to your right. Make sure to stay as close to the edge of the building as possible so as not to trigger the next boss fight, its best to try and walk along the lip of the cliff that looks like a rusted iron support. Follow around and move to where you saw the soldiers shooting you from above. There is a case up there with 5000 gil. Grab it and head back for another fight with the Black Widow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Black Widow II Same guy as before really, only this time he has 4 soldiers to help him. If this is Normal mode you should be able to take them out with 1 shot, so if your strafing skills are up to par you can just move in a circle around him and take out the guards as they come into your field of vision. There are a few things you can do to this boss. You can use the same strategy as last time and run circles around him, avoiding his charges and beam cannon, just try not to fall off the platform. You can Limit Break and melee him to death real fast. His weak spot is under him, and if you can get him positioned to fire at you while you are standing on the steps leading up to the platform you can get repeated critical hits from below him. You can also run back to where I told you to get the case with 5000 gil and hop on a mounted machine gun and blast away. That is dangerous though because you can’t avoid his beam cannon if he decides to use it. You must also use the mounted gun to blast any incoming missiles because you can’t avoid those either. Whatever you pick, he isn’t any harder than before. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Auto Save You are now in the ruined WRO building, get the mako field behind you and go down the hall, there is a DG soldier around the first corner. When you open the door ahead of you there is a big fight going on. Your first target should be the rocket launcher to your left. After that pick off the regular soldiers one by one and move fast so you can save your allies. Head into the room beyond and kill the 4 DG enemies you will encounter in this hall. Keep going and watch the long cut scene. Mission over. Either way you choose to allocate your XP points for chapter 6, I suggest you don’t spend any money yet, because there is a shop machine in the next chapter which sells items you can’t buy at other shop machines and it sells bullets for 10% of their normal price. Chapter 7: The Shera.............................................cha07 -------------------- A breather chapter, there are no enemies to fight. When you have control of Vincent, go talk to any of the crew you want, none of them say anything relevant. Head outside and to your right is Yuffie, talk to her and keep going to the right, past the door you will come to and to the end of the hall. Inside is Shelke, talk to her and then leave. Go back to the door you passed. The discount shop machine is here; you can buy and do any upgrades you need. Talk to Reeve and then watch the cut scene that unfolds. Auto Save When you have control again, go talk to Cid 2 times, Yuffie, and then talk to Reeve until Cait Sith tells you to go get some rest. Go back and talk to Shelke again and then head back to where Yuffie is, go into the door you haven’t entered yet and down into the engine room. As you try and leave, another cut scene occurs ending this chapter. *Note* Chapter 8 is divided into 2 sections Chapter 8: Midgar Assault.......................................cha8a -------------------------- Mission objectives for part 1 Escort the WRO squad to the central complex! Save the surviving WRO members! Defeat the Deepground commander! Many areas of this chapter are a maze, as the majority of it occurs in the Midgar train graveyard. I’ll do the best I can to guide you. As the level opens you will see 2 WRO members ahead of you who run into a line of bullets and get mowed down. I don’t think it’s possible to save them. Shoot the barrel on the right side of the group of enemies to take them all out at once. There is 2000 gil behind a crate in the SW corner of this area. Move until you see a shop machine and a group of WRO soldiers who are lost, you have to escort them to their commander. After the initial fight with the DG soldiers you encounter after agreeing to help the WRO keep moving past the open door and rescue the WRO soldier who is hiding behind the box, then come back and head inside. Through the hallway is an area with a group of DG soldiers waiting for you. Kill them with 2 blasts from fire materia and get the card key. Outside is another fight. There is a sniper on the tower behind you. Keep going until the next cut scene and another fight begins. When you have control again, turn around and head back up the way you came and kill the guards sneaking up behind you, then run back and assist the WRO members with the remaining DG guards. After all of them are dead, walk to the laser gate. You don’t have the card key yet so turn around and head back the way you came. A heavy armed swordsman will drop down. Kill him and get the card key. There is another fight in the next alley, if you run ahead far enough you can take out all the soldiers before your allies even show up. Keep going to the laser gate and when the WRO members get there, they will be assaulted by guard machines like the ones in the training mission. Kill them all (fire materia works great) and get the card key. Head inside. Auto Save As you exit the building, look up and to your right. There is a sniper on the tower. There is a mako field behind the train ahead of you here; you have to jump over some boxes to get there. *Extra Hard Mode* there is also 10000 gil in a case behind these boxes There is 2000 gil behind the tower you shot the sniper on, grab it and head to the right at the fork. Get the 2000 gil in this area and head back to take a left. Jump inside the abandoned train and head inside. When you jump out, look for 2 more snipers on another tower to the NW. When you have killed them head along the path until you reach a point where you see 2 WRO members shooting at some enemies who are behind a train. Do not run out to assist them. Look to your right. You will see another tower. On top is a foursome of DG soldiers with mounted machine guns, one facing each direction. You need to snipe/fire materia the 2 that can shoot you from here. Next, use your rifle and crouch down, but do NOT approach the 2 soldiers under fire. Turn to the train blocking your view of the soldiers currently shooting at your allies. If you run too close to the WRO members they will automatically be blown to bits by a rocket launcher. If you are in the crouched position with the scope on though, you can see the legs of the soldiers they are fighting. You need to kill the soldiers by shooting them from under the train. You will know when it is safe to approach because your WRO allies will stop fighting and move to positions of safety behind the train. Afterwards, as you move forward, a group of soldiers runs out to fight you. For some reason in this game, Vincent can not hit targets which are moving into a fighting position to save his life. So back up and wait for them to all get ready for you, then run out and kill them. Around the next corner are 4 WRO members being attacked by the 2 remaining mounted machine guns. Kill them as fast as possible; else you will lose some allies. Under the tower is a box with another 2000 gil. In the next building are 3 DG soldiers and another 2000 gil. Once you exit, the next area has no enemies, but another 2000 gil and a limit breaker can be found here. Go into the next building. 2000 more gil on your right, and another 2000 on the west wall. Eventually you will enter a train with a soldier who is apparently blind. He tells you he searched all over for the exit but could not find it, despite the fact that it is 2 feet away. Shelke helps you out and you can use the shop machine here before you enter the next area with a mini boss fight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mini-Boss fight: Deepground Commander The only thing that makes this challenging is the number of enemies. Take out his normal soldier bodyguards and ignore the rocket machines, just make sure to keep moving so you don’t get blasted. After the soldiers are dead, kill the machines and then focus on the Commander. You’ll get really tired of hearing him yell “HAIL WEISS” over and over again and you want to kill him just to shut him up. After his initial group of allies has been slain, he summons 3 heavy armored swordsmen. He has quite a few HP, but he’s nothing special. Get his card key and the 2000 gil behind the train to the east. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Go back and buy anything you may have consumed during the fight from the shop machine and head into the underground alley. Get your sniper rifle out and turn to your left, getting against the wall. Turn around and look at the soldiers at the other side of the tunnel. Snipe the one in the middle and if you can kill him in 1 shot he won’t warn the others in the hallway beyond. Kill his 2 friends, and if he did get to yell out, kill the heavy armored swordsmen who come in to help. If he did not call a warning, snipe the 2 swordsman when they aren’t looking in the next hallway, and use the fire materia to kill the enemies who run in at the end of the final area. Now you are back outside. If you take a left you come to a train with a shop machine inside of it and 2000 gil beyond. To the right is a mako field. When you are ready, head to the center of this area and to the North, you will encounter another boss fight here. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Shrikes This fight is very annoying. These guys share a collective life bar like the Pegasus Riders, so you only need to hit each one a few times. In the beginning, try and take at least one out before they have a chance to split up and you lose line of sight on them. The best thing to do, as soon as the battle starts, is to target one and shoot it while you are backing up as far as you can. They all fly over your head and if you keep them in your range of vision at the beginning, you can take out 3 or even 4 before they break formation and begin traveling in random patterns. Eventually they will be flying all over the place shooting you from all different directions. Use your damage indicator map to see where they are coming from and search the sky for targets. You may be tempted to stand next to the trains to prevent taking damage from all directions, but this severely impairs your own vision and you lose sight of targets much too fast. Just keep moving and blast away when you get one in your crosshairs, none can last more than a few hits. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the end of part one of chapter 8, you allocate your XP points and upgrade here. Chapter 8, part 2: Fight for the Central Complex.................cha8b ------------------------------------------------ Mission Objectives Avoid the aerial mines! Destroy the robotic assault units! Assist the WRO members! Defeat the sentry robots! Follow the WRO members and kill the 3 guards on your left, getting the card key. Open up the laser gate and as you walk through a horde of enemy soldiers will attack. Just kill them as best you can, once again, fire materia to the rescue. Follow the route and take out the enemy soldiers until you get to another group of WRO soldiers. At this point a stream of DG soldiers will come out of the room to the left. You can use the mounted machine gun to kill them, but it is much more efficient to just blast them as they run out of the room one by one. *Extra Hard Mode* There will be 3 mounted machine guns the DG soldiers will use as they run out of the hallway. The best thing to do is get behind them so the enemy soldiers will be in a crossfire between you and your WRO allies. Snipe them, as they seem to have trouble targeting you when you are that close. Continue until you reach a ladder and you are thrown into a Mission Objective of avoiding the floating mines. It is not that hard, just wait until more than 1 laser gate is down in a row to minimize the amount of time spent in their path. Halfway through, a DG soldier will appear in front of you, shoot him before he begins blasting. Continue on and assist the WRO members against the DG soldiers in the next room. Follow the soldiers who run into the next area. Auto Save Here you must destroy the assault robot before he reaches the end of the hall. It’s no big deal if you fail. The only way to do it is to run all the way to the steps before he enters the hallway and shoot his weak underside before he comes down, scoring a few critical hits, then back up and fire while he chases you to finish him off. If he makes it to your WRO allies they will die, and if he runs into you he blows up for big damage. After the next shop machine is a soldier at the end of the hallway with a mounted machine gun. If you can position yourself exactly right, you can snipe him between the pipes on the wall and he can’t hit you. Alternatively you can use Limit Break and your defense is so high he can hardly hurt you as you run down the hall after him. Kill him and head back the way you came into a room with a maze of laser gates. If you look closely, in this room are several black mines, shooting them deactivates certain gates. There are 5 total, they aren’t hard to find. Shoot them all and get 2000 gil and a Hi-potion. Go back to the mounted machine gun. For a bit of fun, you can hop on and about 10 DG soldiers come running down the hall after you. This part is completely optional. Up the ladder, kill the girl that comes out of the room to the right. Put on your rifle and run past the room she came out of to the WRO soldiers. You must duck and use your scope to kill the DG soldiers who attack your allies here; you need to fend them off until the WRO have managed to open the lock. The super high tech strategy for opening it is to whack it 40 times with the butt of your gun. After this is over, follow the soldiers down the hall and save them from the assault. DG soldiers will shoot down barrels, you have to shoot them many times to blow them up, and you need to blow them up before they reach the bottom, else your allies will be killed. Once you are done here, head up and get the items, especially the G-Report file. There are 3 of these in the game and if you want the “secret” ending, you need to get all 3. More details on this at the bottom of this guide. Head back to the room you passed before and kill the half dozen soldiers inside, and head into the elevator. *Extra Hard Mode* in addition to the fact that there are more soldiers in this room. A mine will be dropped every few seconds from the ceiling. You have to keep moving or it will blow up and do about 50% damage to you. Up the elevator there is another suicide machine you have to kill before it reaches your allies. Good luck with this one. You can run into it and blow it up yourself before it kills the WRO members if you want to save their lives. Up the steps is another Mission Objective. You have to kill all the sentry robots. Just run into the elevator but don’t hit the button. They can’t follow you and you can shoot them. *Extra Hard Mode* Apparently Square-Enix knew about that trick because there is a laser gate in front of the elevator. Oh well, they are just sentry robots. Get in the elevator and equip your rifle. Once upstairs, don’t come out of the elevator yet because there are more sentry robots. Use the rifle to snipe the 2 rocket launcher enemies at the end of the hall. Just move back and forth to avoid the rockets. Once they are dead head out of the elevator and spawn more sentry robots. Use the same trick as before to kill them. Down the hall is another shop machine, use it before you exit the area and you will encounter... An Auto Save! and also... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Bloodburst Rosso Listen to her flap her gums again and after an eternity she will start attacking you. You need to be constantly moving to avoid the bullets, and make sure to be ready to double jump out of the way when she charges. She can be hard to target because she sprints around so fast, but just keep strafing and wear her down. There are lots of ammo boxes around, so you can pick up anything you are low on. After she is hurt about 20% she talks some more and then rejoins the fight. Now she starts hurling slow arcing discs at you, they are harder to avoid than missiles, but can be done with quick dashing or jumping at the last second. Another way to avoid them is to fight near the giant pipes and move Vincent so the discs crash into them instead of him. Listen to her totally sexy and never tedious Russian accent as she taunts you over and over and over and over again during the fight. Use the same strategy as described above, just being careful to avoid her discs and her other new attack, which sends a streak of light toward you in a quickly moving line that will knock you over if it hits you. If you use Limit break and can get her pinned against the wall, you can hurl fireballs over and over and she can never get up. You should be able to outlast her with a full assortment of items. Just stay far away and use a long barrel, and keep moving. After you beat her, more talking and she commits suicide just before Vincent slits his own wrists so he can stop hearing her voice. End of chapter 8. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again, don’t buy any items at the break between 8 and 9; just do the upgrades if you can afford them. Chapter 9: An Empire in Ruins....................................cha09 ----------------------------- Mission Objectives Collect top secret Deepground data files! Destroy the surveillance mines! Begin the mission by running and collecting all the items you can from the courtyard, then head to the shop machine and get the items you need. Head inside and take care of the ninjas in here. When you reach the east side of the 2nd floor, a group of enemies will run in from the entrance of the building. Kill them as they come through the door. Head up to the third floor and drop down the elevator shaft after you get the 1000 gil case. Head through the hallway area, killing the bugs who jump at you and Vincent will shoot out a grate to lead him to the next level down. In this new hallway as you walk forward a dog and 2 soldiers will come around the corner. In the next room soldiers will run in on the top walkway and start to shoot you. More will come from the other side after that. Continue into the next room with the bug on the window. Another will drop from the ceiling. In the next room a bug is guarding a mega potion, if you shoot him a group of them will drop from the ceiling. Keep going and shoot the barrel you see when the DG soldiers run out in front of it. In the next room a dog will jump over the lockers to attack you and more soldiers are on the other side. Keep going until you reach a room with no enemies in it and several exploding barrels and boxes. Don’t shoot any of them. As you enter the room, a DG soldier will run in from up top. Kill him quickly. Now look up. See that case floating in mid air? If you haven’t already blown the barrel under it to bits, jump on top of it and then double-jump to get the 5000 gil inside the case. In the next hallway, you will get a quick cut scene of bugs landing behind you. Use a fire materia blast to take them all out and then run down the hall. The bugs will spawn forever here, your only choice to get away is to open the 2 doors and run into the next room past the mako field where you will fight a boss. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Black Widow TW Deepground loves these machines. This time there are 2, one on the ceiling and one below it. This encounter is probably the easiest of the 3 however. If you have the Quantum Cerberus you can take out each robot with 1 clip, you may not ever even have to move. Target only the lower one at first and just blast it to death. Your strategy shouldn’t be any different than before, you just have less room to move around here. I suggest staying in front of both of them the whole time however, the BW on the roof will drop bombs if you run near him. After the lower one is dead get the one on the roof. He’s pretty easy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Get in the elevator and head down. Your new mission objective is to find the secret Deepground files, there are 5. There is no map here so I’ll just say start by going in a clockwise direction. The first corner room has sentry robots and a Limit Breaker/Mako Field. The next room has no enemies, just 3000 gil. Next you will see a door, don’t go through yet. The next room has 2 guard dogs and a DG soldier, and a case with machine gun bullets. The last room has the first Top Secret File. Now go back through the door you passed. Through the next hallway are 2 flying soldiers, they have far fewer HP than the boss ones you fought earlier, just shoot both of them twice and they will go down. The next 2 rooms have normal soldiers; you can deal with them, but make sure to grab the second Top Secret File in the room with the 2 dogs and female DG soldier. As you walk around the next hallway, 2 soldiers will pop out and run away from you, just shoot them in the back. More soldiers come out of the next door and then you get to another cut scene. After this you have a map of the complex. The next area leads to an elevator and a new Mission Objective, which is to destroy the floating mines. Do not get too close to them when you shoot because they blow up. If you blow up one while it’s near another, it will chain kill them. Once you are down the elevator, head out the door and across the bridge. The next door leads to a large room that is sub-divided into 4 smaller rooms. In the First, second, and fourth rooms you will have to fight DG soldiers who are so well entrenched you will probably lose a lot of life in the process if you don’t do it right. To beat them, you need to get into the room before they do and shoot them as they come through the door. If you waste all your potions go back to the shop machine at the bridge you passed to get here. The final 3 Top Secret Files are in this area as well, in the first, third and fourth room. The next hallway has soldiers who shoot you from behind shields. If you have the mana, a few fire materia blasts will take care of them, otherwise you’ll have to snipe them. The next bridge leads to another elevator with mines to kill. This time, however, they move faster and pass overhead, which means if you blow them up while they are above you, you’ll take lots of damage. Also, soldiers come to shoot you on the way down. At the bottom head out and into a room with 3 heavy armored swordsmen. Just run away from them and shoot them. Go through the next hallway, and in the next room you fight 2 rocket launcher enemies in close proximity. Don’t get hit with 1 missile because a second is always close behind. Use the exploding barrels. Travel again down the hall, killing the enemies as they pop out until you reach a room with a shop machine. The next room has the final boss of this level. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Neo Azul/Arch Azul His first form is exactly like has old form, except you can damage him for normal damage instead of being forced to shoot barrels. Use the same strategy, he’s super easy. The fight becomes challenging when he switches to Arch Azul, the bull on crack. He will charge you and ram you with his head if you get too far away, it can be dodged but it’s hard. He also can’t be damaged by bullets. You have to melee him to death. The problem is that when you get too close to his head he swipes you for big damage, and if you try to approach anywhere else he swing his tail around for even bigger damage. The secret is to run in to his front side and hold for a split second, then run out again which will trigger him to use his claw swipe. After he does that jump in and 3 hit combo him while you are in the air, then wait around in front of him again until it is time to dodge him claw swipe. If you are good enough you can get him in a forever loop like this and as long as you dodge his claw every time, you can kill him and he won’t even move. I usually 3 hit combo him, when I land I turn a circle on the directional stick as fast as I can and end with me facing away from him, then I run away just in time to avoid the claw. I jump back in for another 3 hit combo and repeat the process. Your Limit Breaker form does a lot more melee damage, but it is harder to avoid his attacks because after you slam the ground you are vulnerable. The difference being that it only takes 3 or 4 rounds of melee attacks to finish him in Limit Break form, even on Extra Hard mode. After you get him low you can use ice materia to finish him off. Also, after he gets below 50% he starts using a missile attack. You will see him charge energy from his horns and shoot them at you, they aren’t hard to dodge. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 10: Shinra’s Dark Secret.................................cha10 -------------------------------- Mission Objectives Eliminate the pursuers! Swiftly neutralize the enemy onslaught! Defeat 100 enemies! As the mission opens, you are on a platform overlooking an underground city. As you walk forward, you will have to kill a swarm of gargoyles. They can be hard to find sometimes. After you kill them all and the soldiers that pop out, you get a card key. Jump down, kill more bad guys and head down the hall with the mako field. When you come out you will be on a platform with 2 soldiers on the steps below facing the other way. Snipe them real quick but don’t head down the stairs just yet. See that case ahead of you in the crevice? There is another crevice to the left of it. Take a note of it Also, do not shoot the barrels on the far side of the room. Now head down and a soldier will start shooting you from the platform to your left. Kill him. As you run down the steps, a laser gate will activate and 2 aerial mines will pop out, only these start spraying bullets in all directions and moving back and forth. These things have a lot of HP and the best way to avoid getting hurt is to run into that crevice I pointed out and shoot them as they fly by. The bullets rarely hit you there. Once again though, if you kill them when they are too close you will take damage. Get the card key and jump down, try to avoid the barrels that will start rolling at you. On the next platform there are many items to grab, but a DG soldier grabs them first. If you can kill him before he gets them I tip my hat to you, I have never been able to. Keep moving along and when another laser gate blocks your way, a heavy armored swordsman will advance on you from behind and several DG solders will start shooting you from the other direction. Your best bet is to kill the swordsman before he gets to you, he drops the card key. Now turn around and take care of the gunners. You can do this quickly by shooting the barrels above them, which will fall and explode. If you already blew up the barrels, I guess you just have to take them out the old fashion way. In the next area you encounter some of the most annoying enemies in the game; a soldier who can’t be killed with bullets. The have the protection spell on them. When you begin the fight, take out the commander in the center who CAN be killed with bullets, it will just take several shots to the head, the dude has a lot of HP. Then go around and melee the other 4, you can also use magic on them. In the next room, before you jump down, you can snipe the 3 guards you will see walking around. Make your way down to the bottom floor, more guards jump out at each level. Get the card key and head back up to the laser gate. Once you are in the next hallway, move slowly into the room and some bullets will rain down from above. After the spray, move forward to the next corner and as you turn, more bullets come down. Then run to the end of the hall. Auto Save Jump on the cart and away you go. You have a mission objective here to eliminate the enemy pursuers. You can shoot them or the cart they are on. I suggest the cart because that also counts as one of the targets to eliminate and if it dies, so do they. The last pursuer is a helicopter. I think it follows the same rules as the ones from chapter 6. Even if you destroy it, it won’t stop flying its route. Every single time I have killed it, it died at the last possible second, I don’t think that is a coincidence, just that I had done enough damage throughout the chase that it was considered dead long before it blew up. *** update *** Upon replaying this part, I did in fact confirm the helicopter will die automatically at the end of the chase, assuming you did enough damage to him *** So just shoot it until it moves out of your line of sight behind some buildings and when it comes back and starts blowing up chimneys, save your ammo. If you have been scoring hits the whole time previous it will die. Continue along the path and don’t worry when it falls out from under you, you can’t get across anyway due to the invisible barrier. Exit the pipe. Auto Save For some reason, in this area alone, Vincent starts talking to himself. I don’t know why. In front of you is an explosive barrel, don’t bow it up. Use the shop machine if you need and then kill the soldiers to the east. Follow this path and kill the Protection Soldiers who jump out. After you kill them and their buddies, turn around and aim at that barrel I told you not to shoot (you didn’t shoot it anyway did you?). Use it to kill the guards who show up and quickly run back to get the elixir and 5000 gil, they disappear rather fast. Keep moving and 2 more Protection Guards pop out with a friend. Kill them and on the same roof they are on is another of the “secret” ending G reports, that’s 2 of 3. There is 3000 gil in the case above it. In the next building, 3 ninjas will jump out in a small area. Kill them, get the card key and in the next hall a heavy armored swordsman appears. Kill him and move on. Use the barrels to kill the guards below the next area and take out the other guards who aren’t in the blast radius. As you progress, you will hear Vincent say “Great...snipers.” Look to the rooftops and try and shoot them before they see you. Don’t go under the bridge with the case yet. There are a total of 4 snipers in Normal mode, a lot more in Hard/Extra Hard. Now get the card key, backtrack and go under the bridge. You will pick up a new weapon, the Blast Machine Gun. If machine guns are your thing, you may like this one. It does less damage but knocks over enemies that it hits. You can’t upgrade it. Time to move on. When you progress past the laser gate here you will see a box on a brick balcony above you. Don’t shoot it. Instead, use a sniper scope to aim past it and you will see an explosive barrel. Shoot that instead and it knocks the box down to reveal a Fearie L Barrel, which has better speed and weight than a normal long barrel, but less damage. Jump over to the next area and you see a mounted machine gun. Hop on and start a Mission Objective, which is to kill the enemy forces as fast as possible. I believe it must be done in under 2 minutes to get the best score. Just kill bad guys as you see them. You will know you are at the end when 2 Black Widow type robots appear. The second one drops a keycard. Use it to open the gate behind the mounted machine gun rather than the one in front. Get those items and the extra key card and then move forward. Kill the spawning bad guys and move past the laser gates blocking your way to about 5 or 6 boxes. Around the corner above you are 4 barrels. Shoot the second one and a Cactaur pops out. I haven’t been able to kill him, feel free to email me if you know what he drops. Head inside the room with all the boxes and pick up the gil. You will be attacked by Protection Soldiers from the other side of the laser gate and normal soldiers from the exit to the room. Once you have killed them all head to the shop machine and stock up. When you cross the bridge, the laser gates will activate and you will have to fight several waves of bad guys. Use the Limit Break if it gets overwhelming. After that, cross over and... Auto Save After the cut scene you can’t go back, so the only direction is forward. Get anything you need from the shop machine and head up. Kill the soldiers that pop out, the shop machine up here is a soldier in disguise. In the next room you have an option of how you want to progress. The first thing you should do is shoot the barrel above the exit door. Now, look at all the black bombs. You can sneak by them slowly if you want, or you can shoot them. If you choose to blow them up by shooting them, or involuntarily blow them up by stepping on them, a group of soldiers run out below you and start blasting, watch out for the rocket launcher. Once past this room you see a hallway of boxes. Shoot the boxes and kill the soldier that pops out, but don’t run into the room yet. After all the boxes are gone, run halfway into the room and then back out to where you were. A soldier should pop up. Kill him and wait for the aerial mine to blow itself up. Then sprint across the room avoiding the other mines. The next area has an unending supply of exploding barrels being thrown over the wall, and a soldier who jumps down when you open the gate. You can shoot them (the barrels) over and over to get kill chains up if you want. When you are ready to go, just wait until both barrels are thrown over the edge at approximately the same time and run. Past this room is another, and when you enter it, a timer starts. If you wait out the timer, a Cactaur appears on the opposite side of the broken bridge you can’t cross. He disappears real fast and I have never been able to kill him. Make your way and out onto the steel steps. Across the way you will see a roof with some soldiers hiding on the other side. Shoot one and 5 run out. Kill them all. Now look to the NE. You will see a sniper on the roof. You need to kill some soldiers in a certain order here or they will all start firing on you. Kill the one in plain site on the rooftop. Now look down/left. You will see another in a window, kill him. Now kill the other one in plain site who was below the first. Move down to the item case on the balcony below you and zoom in on the ground. Snipe the gunner on the mounted machine gun, which will cause alarm. Kill at least one more before they see you. Now look top left at the barrel on the rooftop. Shoot it, it will fall and blow up a few more soldiers, then move down the steps. Use the shop machine and snipe the far soldier from the window in the next room. Then head downstairs, kill the soldiers congregating at the door, walk out and look top/left for a sniper on the roof. Kill the other soldiers that jump down and get the key card. Now you have an option. If you want to participate in the optional Mission Objective here, go back to the shop machine and buy every potion and bullet you can and come back out, head through the laser gate to the east in front of the mounted machine gun. Go down and kill all the enemies in the room, get another shop machine spawn and use it if you need. Continue along here and you will find yourself in a room where the mission objective is “Kill 100 enemies”. You must kill all 100 without dieing or leaving, which you can do at any time; you just can’t come back in. You can also be knocked out of the room from a rocket blast. If you finish it you make almost 90,000 gil after you sell the gold moogle doll reward and collect the drops, plus the tons of XP. It’s your choice. The only advice I can give you is to kill the snipers that appear on the roof as soon as they spawn every time, they will cause the most damage by far, assuming you can dodge the rocket launcher attacks. *** update *** You can in fact reenter this room after you leave. In fact you can go back to the shop and buy back all the potions you used and then do the mission as many times as you like. Great for money/XP, bad for your mission score. *** If you decide to skip it or you have finished the side mission, go back to the other laser gate but keep going past it to the end of the rubble. Look to your right and you will see 2 mounted machine guns and 2 soldiers. Kill the bottom machine gun first, then the top and then the 2 regular soldiers. Go past the laser gate now and get the 3000 gil and mako field. Head down and you get another Mission Objective, which is to find 4 items in this area. In order to get them you need to follow these instructions and don’t use any of the card keys until you have collected everything you can. Start by taking a right and killing the guard who pops up. In that pipe is a mine on the ceiling. Shoot it and get the card key. Next go up to the mounted machine gun and look across the path to see a box, shoot it down, but before you go get the key inside look to your right, there is an exposed pipe with a mine in it. Shoot that mine. Now go down and get the 2 keys. Go back to the machine gun and keep moving past it, kill the 2 guards in the path. Climb the ladder past the second guard and see the card key at the top; you have to jump from the top of the ladder to get it. Climb the 2 ladders and blow up the box at the top for another key, there is also one hidden behind the shop machine up here. Jump down and follow the path till you reach a small cliff. There is a card key at the lip of it, slowly move forward and get it, but don’t fall because you can’t get back up. Now head back to the beginning, there is a gate with 2 card keys behind it, open it up and get them. Now go back to where you saw 7 gates in a row, open them all up and get the Lucky S Barrel. When you kill enemies with this, you get extra XP. Pretty useless this late in the game, but if you plan on doing Extra Hard Mode you will have it the entire time. Go now and open all the remaining gates. One has Bayonet Rifle which allows for more melee damage and one has Elixor, which fully restores all HP and Mana and adds a Phoenix Down effect, and one is a normal Limit Break. Go back to the cliff from before and jump down, get a cut scene. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Nero the Sable You finally get to face off against this guy, and it’s a rather disappointing fight. If you have the Quantum Cerberus on normal mode you can out-damage him simply by standing there and shooting and using a Hi-Potion when you are low. Eventually he will split into 3 forms, just focus on one at a time. He may blast you with some energy attack you can dodge, he also has a spinning melee attack you can double jump away from. If you get in trouble, for some inexplicable reason there is a shop machine here. Use it to buy potions/bullets and come back to finish him off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 11: Beginnings..........................................cha11 ----------------------- Mission Objectives Defeat the gargoyles! Defeat the gargoyles 2! Defeat all the targets on the central pillar! Defeat the gargoyles 3! Start the mission by collecting the cases and mako field in front of you. As you follow the path, two Protection Soldiers will attack. Kill them and the sentry robot. Beyond them is another PS who is on the pipe and can’t be hit with anything but magic. Use Blizzard Materia. Keep going until you reach the next mako field and kill the gargoyle. Then kill the PS shooting you by shooting the barrel he’s next to. One more PS on the pipes after that to kill, you have to use magic or your limit break form again. Head past this room and restock at the shop machine. In the next room is a Mission Objective to kill the gargoyles. Use the rifle to get the sniper on the path way off in the distance and kill the other 2 gargoyles. Move into the next room. Jump down and kill the sentry robots. In the next area there are several PS, don’t miss the one to your left. Eventually a rocket launcher soldier will show up, kill him quick. If this area looks familiar it is because this is where you controlled Cait Sith earlier in the game. Jump down to the floor with all the gil cases and when you walk over the mako field a group of beetles will attack, the last one dead drops a card key. The next room has another “Kill the gargoyle” mission, use the mounted gun if you don’t care about accuracy points. Keep moving. Auto Save This room has a group of PS soldiers and rocket launchers on a pillar in the center. The mission objective is to kill every one of them. The way to do it is to snipe the boxes above them and shoot the barrels that fall around them. Use magic on any surviving PS and conventional arms on any rocket launchers. Every 10 seconds or so a sentry robot will spawn while you are in the room; 2 robots on extra hard mode. Good luck, this mission is a huge pain. The next room has the final “Kill the gargoyle” mission. In the next room is a cut scene and when it is over you need to kill the PS before the other soldier gets his mounted machine gun set up. It isn’t hard. Afterwards, jump behind the would-be gunner and shoot him in the back, he doesn’t even turn and defend himself. If you hop onto the gun here, a group of enemies attack you. If the soldier pushing it got it set up in time, you can use it against them, if not you have to kill them normally. In the next room are 3 PS, start the fight with a fire blast and finish them off. The next room has 2 bugs with a ton of HP and the room beyond has a group of PS who shoot you from up above, you can’t kill them so just sprint through. The next room has a swarm of regular bugs; a few fire blasts should do it. The next room has a mako field in each corner and an unending supply of PS soldiers. Just ignore them and stand on the center tile, which rises up. Jump to the west and grab the final “G Report” for the “secret” ending. Head down and get out of that room. Open the big gate and proceed. Auto Save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Dragonfly PT Revenge of the Dragonfly. This time he has gargoyle friends with him who swoop down and knock you off your feet. When you see one above you, take it out quickly. There is also a periodic sentry robot spawn. Other than that, no special tactic here. The best bet when avoiding missiles is to position yourself so that they hit the pillars on either side of the bridge. He will fly back and forth and behind the reactor, just wait him out and shoot him whenever he is in view. He doesn’t have any new tricks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Open the gate to the reactor and head inside. A PS yells “Hail Weiss” and begins to run away. If you want to be a jackass, shoot him in the back with a materia and melee him to death before he gets away. Follow his route and you will come to a group of PS. Fireblast them and run in for the melee kill when they are grouped together. Use the shop machine and head into the next room. Auto Save Long cut scene and another boss fight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Arachnero/Gorgonero He will begin with a shield around him and 4 orbs which fly randomly around the level. You need to kill these orbs. The best way is to wait for one to stop and attack you and break its barrier, then kill it. When all 4 are dead, shoot down Arachnero’s barrier and blast away. Avoid his fireballs like any other missile and make sure to get in as many hits as you can when he has fallen down. Eventually the orbs will repsawn and cast his shield again. Repeat the process until the next cut scene which will occur around 40% life *Extra Hard Mode* You will have to get him down to 0% before the cut scene. Now you will be on a floating rock and Nero will be in front of you. He will teleport to different locations, some in front of you, two behind you and even right on your own little patch of land, you can’t really move so just watch for where he appears and shoot. After a few bullets he teleports again. If you attack him fast enough he won’t even make any offensive moves, which is good because it is hard to dodge given 1 square foot of space. Keep it up until he is dead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Next time you have control, Yuffie is hurt and you can use the shop machine here. Go down the hall and trigger another cut scene. Auto Save The next time you have control, don’t even move, just let Hojo/Weiss kill you, it is part of the plot. Auto Save Now when you regain control again, you can fight for real. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Weiss Empowered He moves really fast and can sprint across the screen in the blink of an eye. The best strategy is to try and stay far away from him and dodge his bullets from behind the pillars. Jump out and shoot him when it is safe but don’t waste bullets while he is twirling his swords. I also don’t recommend fighting him hand to hand; he will knock you down over and over. You can’t turn into your alternate form, but using a Limit Break will fully heal you. During the fight you need to avoid his melee charges, machine gun, and light streak attack, similar to what you saw in the fight with Rosso, as well as a shockwave attack such as you saw with Azul. Periodically, he will jump to his seat in the back and fire some energy beams at you, block them with the terrain and wait for him to come back out, you can’t damage him while he sits there. Just keep your distance and keep shooting. He is pretty tough as far as this games bosses go. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Don’t bother upgrading equipment here unless you are trying to max everything out to carry over the Extra Hard mode. Chapter 12, part 1: Omega and Chaos..............................ch12a ----------------------------------- As this mission opens, Vincent is now in Chaos form with the most powerful weapon in the game, the Death Penalty. It does 2000 damage per attack and can hit multiple enemies at once. Its only downside is that it really won’t score any critical hits, so if you are worried about that score, switch back to your normal weapon. The enemies here are not even challenging, as your new gun will take them out in 1 shot. Just make sure not to let them gang up on you, the lasers can be hard to dodge when multiple enemies are shooting them. There is really only one path to take here. Get the elixir and move along the ruined Midgar structures. Eventually you will fall into a giant pipe and a few steps out of it you will come to a cut scene. When you have control again, go straight and take a right up the steps. Keep moving and don’t miss the Omega report on the next platform, it’s behind the crates. Up another set of steps and across the bridge, you will see a second Omega report. Next, you will find yourself being led to a platform where enemies will spawn all around you, just strafe in a circle and kill them. When they are all dead, there is another cut scene. You will be fully healed automatically here. Auto Save Next time you have control, Vincent is flying through a tunnel. Kill the enemies as they move in front of you. Then in the next room kill them until they stop spawning. You will find yourself climbing a spiral path, make your way to the top and step on the circle. Auto Save You will be on a path in front of Omega with enemies flying around. Kill them if you want, but it isn’t necessary. Just move to the end of the path and you get some stage results. Use the XP for levels. Chapter 12, part 2: Omega and Chaos..............................ch12b Auto Save The rest of this game is essentially a long boss fight. You begin amidst a circle of organisms, the Crystal Feeders. What you need to do here is watch for when a feeder is open and run over and melee it to death. Creatures will spawn all over the place, use the rifle so you don’t waste Death Penalty bullets, it auto aims at their weak point and will kill them in one hit. Just make sure you don’t let too many spawn or you will get blasted from every angle. When all the feeders are dead, the Omega Cocoon rises up. Keep shooting the enemies that pop up and just damage the cocoon as fast as possible, eventually it will break. Now you fight the real and final boss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss fight: Omega Weiss Use the Death Penalty to aim at his center, the shots will hit both Weiss and the robot he is controlling. He will fire slow moving missiles at you like 75% of the bosses in this game, so avoid them like always. Pillars will slowly begin to rise from the ground which actually makes dodging his fireballs easier. After you hurt him a bit he will summon a wall of blue shields in front. Take them out as fast as you can because they become offensive weapons that will knock you over. After they are dead, Weiss may jump down to attack you. Just avoid him and eventually he will jump back into his golem. At this point you will go back to avoiding fireballs and shooting him, be careful not to stand directly in front of him because he has a habit of slapping the group with his giant hand. When you see him retreat into the air and start summoning a big ball of flame, just heal up as much as you can, I don’t think it’s even possible to avoid taking damage from the impending explosion. After that he comes back down and returns to firing missiles, only he is a lot more offensive and moves after you to hit you with his arms. Run circles around the edge of the stage at this point, and keep shooting with the Death Penalty, he won’t last much longer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations, you win the game! Watch the long video, you earned it. There is more video after the song, especially if you found all the files and got the…… ====================================================================== Secret Ending....................................................sece1 ====================================================================== Throughout the game are 3 items you must collect called “G-Reports”. If you get all 3, after you see “The End” on the screen, you can hit X and you will get a special ending. I describe in detail how to get the reports in my chapter walkthrough, so if you need help, you can read that. Briefly, here is where they are: In Chapter 8, part 2, complete the side quest that requires you cover the WRO soldiers while they open the locked gate. In Chapter 10, there is one on the roof where you fight 2 Protection Spell Soldiers and one normal soldier. In Chapter 11, there is one in the room with the 4 mako fields and infinite soldier spawn. If you missed any and don’t want to replay all the way from chapter 8 to see the ending, I will describe here. Don’t read this if you don’t want to know what happens. Setting: A ruined Midgar, the camera pans out and then down, eventually penetrating the ground and leading into a cave below the city where you see the dead body of Weiss lying in the center of a pool. There is an energy disturbance and from within a man American Final Fantasy players have not seen before materializes from within. He walks above the water toward Weiss’ body. Looking up into the air while he picks up Weiss, he says “It is not yet time for slumber. We still have much work to do...my brother.” One wing, such as the one you see on Sephiroth’s One Winged Angel form in Final Fantasy 7, or the CGI movie, appears from behind his body and he flies off with Weiss in his arms. If you look in your inventory at the G-Reports, it tells a story about Shinra, in an attempt to create an all powerful Soldier, identified only as “S”, made another soldier in the process, only identified as “G”. No records of either soldier exist, though there is speculation that “G” was a genetic prototype of “S”. They go on to say that “soldiers branded with epithets of color... These are the hellspawn of “G”. I wrote this on 8/26/06 and this is only speculation. But, assuming that “S” refers to Sephiroth, and “soldiers branded with epithets of color” to be Deepground, it is possible Square-Enix plans on making this “G” a new enemy, Sephiroth’s genetic “brother”. Very interesting.... ====================================================================== Tips & Tricks....................................................tip01 ====================================================================== A lot of these I mention in passing, here are just a few observations I have noticed in the game. -If you want a free heal, wait until you get to a point with an auto save, and then quit the game and reload it, you come back with full HP. -You can beat the game with a technical 0 KO’s if you feel like cheating the system. Whenever you die, instead of using the “restart” option, use the “quit” option. Then reload the game. You will come back at the same spot anyway, but the game won’t have considered you to be KO’d. -I have beaten the game multiple times on every difficulty and I never even equip the machine gun. I know a lot of people like to use it, but it really does not do enough damage to be useful. In all fairness though, I will admit the Blast Machine Gun can be useful as it will keep enemies knocked down. -The “M Cerberus” line is the best gun for fighting bosses because it can hold so much more ammo. Most bosses have moments of weakness when you can shoot them without being counterattacked and you need to spend as little time as possible reloading. However, if you can afford the auto reloader, you need not worry about wasting time reloading. -Same statement as above, but with the S Hydra line. It shoots so fast that you can get in all 8 rounds before they can do anything about it. -If your mana bar is full and you come across a mako field, fire off a few rounds before you run over it. You will get credit for “Magic Casted” and you won’t lose mana for it. -The save system can be confusing. It works like this. Whenever you come to an auto save the game creates a log of exactly what your level/XP and inventory are and remembers it. If you go back and redo part of a mission you will start with whatever the game saved at that point. So, let’s say a mission has 5 auto save locations and you beat it. If you go back to where the first AS happened and replay it, you will have whatever Vincent had when he reached that point. If you pass the second auto save the game will record over the log it made before with the new data, but nothing will have changed for the 3rd 4th or 5th AS unless you keep going past those points as well. -Gigant Hydra will knock enemies over. If you buy the auto reloader attachment, you need not worry about its one-bullet-at-a-time downside. Using it you can knock over those annoying rocket launching enemies and make them stay down. ====================================================================== Well, that’s about it. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped. Howdy to all my old MLF buddies who may be reading this. Legal Stuff Copyright 2006 Kevin Pearson. This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. As of now, no other web sites have permission to use this FAQ other than gamefaqs.com
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Final Fantasy 7 FAQ and Walkthrough
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