Final Fantasy VII/Magic Materia

The magic materia is green. Usually, it has 3 to 5 levels (stars), and each time the materia gains a level it's possible to use a new spell. There are a few exceptions like Ultima. The first star filled at the beginning and the last star being filled means the materia is mastered, thus depending on the stars the materia can usually have 2 to 4 spells; in Ultima's case, only one.

In the various sections Materia are sorted by the AP necessary to master them. Free locations of materia are highlighted in bold.

Restore
The three Cure spells restore the health points of the target; they are associated to the "Holy" element: if cast on an undead enemy, it will be damaged instead. The Regen spell changes the status, and the status will progressively recover health during battle; this spell has not the "Holy" element.

Revive
These two spells will revide a knocked out ally. If linked to a Final Attack materia, the user will be revived automatically whenever he/she is knocked out. Life1 revives the target with minimal HP, while Life2 revives the target with full health. Both spells are Holy-elemental, and will instantly defeat an undead target.

Heal
Poisona cures the "poison" status, while Esuna cures all status ailments. Resist prevents any status alteration: i.e. it also prevents the character from losing any current status alteration.

Fullcure
The Fullcure spell does exactly what the name says: it is a stronger version of "Cure3".

Attack materia
Base magic is computed by multiplying 6 × (your level + your MP). For example, a level 20 character with 30 MP has base magic damage of 300 (6 × (20 + 30)). To find the amount of damage you'll do with a given spell, use the multiplier given with your base magic damage. Using the previous example, if the character cast Comet, he would do 1 500 damage (300 × 5).

Pairing magic with an All materia drops the damage done to 67% (2/3rds) and using Quadra Magic drops it to 50% damage.

Gravity
The Demi spells cause a lot of damage (particularly to fliers), but is not too accurate. Also, most bosses are nearly immune to Gravity effects as well. Effective against Emerald Weapon when used with W-Magic or Quadra Magic.

Contain
Note that pairing Contain with All has no effect.

Spells effect list

 * Field spells: spells that can also be used outside battle.
 * Support spells: battle spells that target the allies.
 * Debuff spells: battle spells that target the enemies but deal no damage.
 * Attack spells: battle spells that deal damage or instantly kill the enemies.

Master Magic
The Master Magic materia basically gives you all the abilities of all the magic materias. It can be gotten either by defeating Emerald WEAPON and trading in the Earth Harp at Kalm, or by mastering all the magic materias and trading them for the Master Magic materia at Cosmo Canyon (if you managed to save that Huge materia anyway). The Master Magic materia can be linked to an "All" or a "Quadra Magic" materia to give all spells the effect of the support materia.

Materia locations
For players who want to master every materia, it may be useful to know how early any green materia can be obtained:

Disc 1, part 1 (Midgar): Disc 1, part 2 (land travels): Disc 1, part 3 (sea travels):  Disc 2:  Disc 3:
 * Lightning (on Cloud)
 * Ice (on Cloud)
 * Restore (Reactor N.1)
 * Fire (shop in Sector 7, or free on Red XIII)
 * [All (Beginner's Hall, Sector 7)]
 * Poison (floor 67, Shinra H.Q.)
 * Heal (shop, Kalm)
 * Earth (shop, Kalm)
 * Seal (shop, Junon)
 * Transform (train tracks, North Corel)
 * Revive (shop, Costa Del Sol)
 * Time (shops after visiting Gongaga)
 * Mystify (shops after visiting Gongaga)
 * Gravity (cave of the Gi, Cosmo Canyon)
 * Destruct (Shinra Mansion, Nibelheim)
 * Exit (shops after visiting Rocket Town)
 * Barrier (shops after visiting Rocket Town)
 * Comet (house, Forgotten Capital)
 * Fullcure (revisit Cosmo Canyon)
 * Contain (White Chocobo, Mideel)
 * Ultima (storyline, North Corel)
 * Shield (Northern Crater)
 * [W-magic (Northern Crater)]

The blue All materia and the yellow W-magic materia are included in this list because they only affect green Magic materia.