Strategy | Assorted Tips & Tricks

Have Aeris in Your Party Have Barret/Yuffie/Vincent in Your Party Prevent Ambush Lucky 7777 Easy Morph Elemental Attacks Overcoming Reflect Barriers 3x Magic Spells Bonus Potions Unlimited Ribbons

Unlimited Power Sources Unlimited Guard Sources More Unlimited Sources Unlimited Elixirs Gaining Gil Gaining AP Re-using Limit Breaks Gold Saucer Rollercoaster Trick Mideel Materia Cave Trick

---

Have Aeris in Your Party
Generally speaking, it is a good idea to have two good fighters and a healer in your party. With her life-saving limit breaks and high MP, Aeris is the ideal healer when your party is getting beaten.

Have Barret/Yuffie/Vincent in Your Party
Barret, Yuffie and Vincent have a tactical advantage over other characters-- with the exception of a few of Barret's gun arms, all of their weapons are long-range. Have one of these characters in the back row of your party, and they will receive a 50% defensive bonus. Additionally, they can attack their opponents from the rear with no penalty. During tense situations they'll be the ones left standing when all other party members are dead.

Prevent Ambush
If ambushed, you can cancel the effects of a back attack by pushing L1+R1 at the same time. Your party will turn around and fight as normal.

Lucky 7777
If one of your characters enters combat with a HP of 7777, your character will automatically do 7777 damage to any monster. When the battle is over however, your character's HP will be reduced to 1, so have a X-potion nearby. The best way to acquire 7777 HP is to get an initial HP ending with 77, such as 3477, 1577, etc. One way of attaining such a number is to cast Small or Frog on your enemies, as they will only do a minimal amount of damage on your party members in those forms, which makes it easier to reach an HP ending in 77. From there, simply use Potions and Hi Potions as required until you get 7777.

Billsst89@aol.com has a method of obtaining 7777 HP. A particular character must be at level 67. Equip a Mastered HP Plus materia, Ultima, Shiva, Choco/Mog and Ifrit, and your character will be at 7777. I can't confirm this, but it apparently works.

Easy Morph
To morph monsters easily, equip Yuffie with her Ultimate Weapon (Conformer) and the Morph materia. Then simply morph away. Yuffie, when equipped with Conformer, will do the most damage with Morph.

Elemental Attacks
Certain monsters have elemental weaknesses. Use their weaknesses to your advantage.

Monsters Mechanical Ice/Water-based Fire-based Flying Land-based Undead and Jenova

Elemental Weakness Lightning Fire Ice/Water Wind Gravity Holy

Overcoming Reflect Barriers
Some monsters are able to conjure Reflect barriers. Any magical spells you cast on the monster will be cast back on to you. However, this barrier only applies to Magic. If you use Summon, the barrier is ineffective. Unless you have DeBarrier, consider using Summon instead of Magic.

Another method to get around Reflect is to cast Reflect on yourself. Any spells which you cast on yourself will be bounced to the monster, doing damage (the monster's own Reflect barrier is voided in this manner). Just be careful not to cast healing magic on the character with Reflect, and use items instead.

3x Magic Spell
It is possible to cast a Magic Spell three times at the cost of only one spell. Equip someone with the Reflect materia linked with All materia. Then cast Reflect on all your party members. Afterwards have somebody else cast an offensive Magic Spell on your party. Don't worry, your party members won't be harmed. The spell will be reflected onto your enemies three times. Just be careful. If you cast healing magic on your party, it will be reflected onto your enemies.

Bonus Potions
During the very first part of the game when Cloud jumps off the train and attacks the Shinra Reactor, you will find 2 bonus potions if you search the body of one of the Shinra guards lieing next to the train. The value of these potions early in the game cannot be underestimated.

Unlimited Ribbons
You can gain unlimited ribbons by fighting in the Special Battle at the Gold Saucer. Morph a creature called Ho-Chu during the battle, and you'll gain a ribbon. Continue participating in the Special Battle to gain more ribbons. Credit goes out to DejaVu59163@aol.com for the tip.

Another way to gain unlimited ribbons is by morphing Master Tonberries in the Northern Crater. They can be found in the area with the brown tree-like formations. These monsters have more than five times as much HP as a Ho-Chu, so you may want to use the Easy Morph trick (see above).

Unlimited Power Sources
There is an easy of gaining power sources, allowing you to max your character's strength to 255. Enter the destroyed reactor at Gongaga, and wander around. You will eventually encounter the monster Heavy Tank. With the Morph materia, morph this creature and you'll win yourself a power source. Continue exploring the area and fighting until you have all the power sources you need. Equipping the Enemy Lure materia to attract the monster can help. Thanks to Aeris for the discovery.

Unlimited Guard Sources
Short of Guard sources? Don't panic, for B. Weaver has provided the following tip. The area around Mideel is populated by Spirals, a certain type of monster. When morphed, these monsters provide valuable Guard Sources. Accumulate enough of these sources, and your characters will become near-invincible.

More Unlimited Sources
J. Morra has provided an excellent tip. If you're looking for an assortment of unlimited sources, visit the sunken Gelnika plane during disk 2 and 3, and morph all monsters inside. You'll be able to gain every source available in the game... perfect for a rainy day.

Unlimited Elixirs
An easy way of gaining those ever-useful elixirs is to morph a monster called Vlakorados, which appears on the Northern Continent, in the grassy plains south of Bone Village (these are the same monsters from which the Carob Nut—which is necessary for Chocobo breeding—can be won or stolen). As the HP for this monster is high, you may want to use the Easy Morph trick (see above).

Gaining Gil
Early in the game, gil is limited. Here are a few ways of gaining additional gil.

• Ethers aren't vitally important in the game. It's much cheaper sleeping at a hotel to restore your MP instead of using an Ether. Sell your Ethers, but keep one or two in reserve. Each Ether sold gives you 750 gil.
• When you first get an All materia, attempt to master it quickly. Give it to a person equipped with an AP-doubling (or tripling) weapon. By the 2nd disc the materia should be mastered, allowing you to sell it for a mammoth 1,400,000 gil.
• Old weapons and armor can be sold too. However, some weapons can only be found once, so they disappear permanently once sold. It is recommended you keep AP-doubling equipment or weapons with a multitude of materia slots.
• If you are desperate to save gil, consider sleeping at places that restore your HP and MP for free. Aeris' House in Midgar and the house in Junon are such examples.

Gaining AP
There are a couple of tried-and-true ways of racking up lots of AP towards the end of the game, which will help make the process of mastering your materia go that much quicker.

• While in the Northern Crater, you may encounter a monster called a Magic Pot, which is invincible unless it is given an Elixir. Do so and defeat it, and you will gain a whopping 1000 AP. Magic Pots can be found in the area to the south, and to the south again, in the room with the tree-like structures.
• Another denizen of the Northern Crater are Movers, which can be found in the same area as Magic Pots. Each Mover is worth 800 AP once defeated; as they typically appear in groups of three, a single battle could yield 2400 AP!

Re-Using Limit Breaks
Equip the Mime materia on all your party members, then have one member of your party fill up their limit break. Have him/her do the limit, then have the other two party members use Mime. They won't be able to, but then have the person who originally did the limit also use Mime, and s/he wil do his/her limit break over and over again. Thanks to Justin for this particular strategy.

Gold Saucer Rollercoaster Trick
If you push 'pause' while playing the Gold Saucer's rollercoaster game for a few hours, when you return, the monsters would have slowed down enough for you to shoot them all. My hat goes out to FirePheonix for the trick.

Mideel Materia Cave Trick
Apparently, the Materia Cave in the Mideel area can be accessed without a special chocobo. Ben writes: "You have to bring the airship to a thin island in the Mideel area where there is a small ledge between the grass and the dirt, where you can only access a cave by going to the end of the dirt strip. When you land, land on the grass and accelerate as you are going down and push toward the edge and the dirt. I usually start out high up, but it may not matter. Going toward the righthand corner (when screen is facing cave entrance) works well. It takes many tries, but eventually you can land most of the ship on the dirt and have the character exit onto the dirt, allowing access to the cave without a chocobo." To see a screenshot of this trick at work, click here.