artikel

Final Fantasy 7 FAQ and Walkthrough

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

No comments:

Post a Comment