Final Fantasy VII/Huge Materias

What next?
Now would be a good time to spend an afternoon getting yourself a Golden Chocobo. This is the first occasion to get one, and it's good to have a reasonably well-grown Knights of Round materia around for the big end battles.

Basically, do whatever you want - once you're bored, go to Junon.

The Red Submarine
In Junon, head up to the airport. Wow, did you notice something seems to be gone from the city? Can't quite put your finger on it yet.

The basic idea of this section - as revealed to you, the idea is to head to the Underwater Reactor - is quite simple. You go down the tunnel that begins from the upper level; head the way you went to the cargo ship, until you come to the narrow tunnel to the left where Shin-Ra soldiers are doing drills. They head to the tunnels. Fight your way through (none of the enemies here are very tough), go through the seafloor tunnel, take elevator up, fight more Soldiers, and stop Reno from loading the Huge Materia to a submarine. (Oh, by the way, in the seafloor tunnel you can Morph the Ghost Ship enemies to Guide Books, items the trader in Kalm wants. Trade them for Underwater materia, which can be handy when fighting the Emerald Weapon.)

Of course, there's a little snag in our perfect plan: Reno gets the thing packed to the sub, leaves in a hurry to his next appointment, and leaves the party to fight the single most frustrating boss in the game. (I don't say I hate it as much as Demon's Gate though, as that boss merely inspires me to have emotional rage; this boss inspires throughoutly cold methodical hatred.)

Carry Armor leaves God's Hand, a nice weapon for Tifa. After the fight, you get the bright idea to get into the other sub. In the submarine bay, be sure to check every box: Battle Trumpet (for Cait Sith), Scimitar (a weapon for Cid that has triple materia growth rate!) and Leviathan Scales key item, which will douse the flames of Wutai cave.

In the other sub, you first need to fight your way in. There's a save point in the entryway. In the command cabin, you have the option to either fight the commander and two soldiers, but who has the heart to fight Cloud's old (if brief) friends? So, you can take them hostage.

Hunting the Red Submarine
The submarine hunt minigame is very simple: directional buttons control where the thing is going, like an airplane. psx: T increases speed, psx: X slows down. psx: S fires a torpedo, and it will hit more surely if you have a lock-on. psx: R1 for sonar view, psx: R2 to change views. Speed after the red sub, and when you get a lock-on fire the torpedoes.

If you fail - well, you did save in the sub entryway, right? If not, it's not that bad, you just missed the Huge Materia. If you succeeded, the thing stays safe in the bottom of the ocean until you grab it, no need to hurry though.

You get orders to return to Junon. Once you do, all you see is an airplane going to...

...Rocket town! Darn! Looks like they're carrying out their meteor-smashing plans!

Blasting Off
The next destination is Rocket Town. New item chests have been scattered around if you haven't been here since picking up Cid. In the room behind the weapons shop is a Fourth Bracelet. In the item shop is a Guard Source.

As you wander around Rocket Town, you find out Shin-Ra is fussing all over the rocket. As you head to the rocket, the soldiers spot you and attack you. Fight them off.

If Cid isn't in your party, he comes along now, obviously eager to defend his beloved rocket. (Rearrange your stuff here if needed.)

Climb up. Rude and a few soldiers are responsible for this Huge Materia shipment - time to knock them all down!

In the rocket, there's one more baddie to beat. Enter the cockpit. Cutscene follows: Cid's workers leave the rocket to Cid, and then we hear that Palmer is launching the rocket. Eep.

Once in space, you can go fetch the rocket by using the ladders to right. The combination lock needs button key presses; If you get it wrong, you have three minutes to get it right, listen to Cid's ideas. The correct combination is [OK], [Switch] , [Cancel] , [Cancel] (on Playstation, psx: C, psx: S, psx: X, psx: X).

To get to the escape pod, go left. There's a cutscene involving Shera, who shows up and leads you to the pod.

The rocket will hit the Meteor, and won't cause much damage to it at all, not even if you leave the Huge Materia in the rocket.

What then?
Red XIII has the bright idea that we should go to ask Bugenhagen what to do next - and that would be prudent. However, at this point, the immediate danger is gone; you can explore a bit if you want.

For example:


 * Take the submarine and visit the sunken Gelnika (near Costa del Sol).
 * Grab the sunken Huge Materia too (you should be able to find the red submarine on the ocean floor somewhere around the Junon area, if you killed it straight off the bat it will be due west of The Temple of the Ancients - just move your sub close to it and you should pick it up automatically). This, of course, assuming you managed to stop the red submarine!
 * If you have the Guide Book, Visit Kalm to exchange it to Underwater materia - even if you probably are way too weak to face Emerald Weapon right now...

If you were victorious in all materia tricks, it would be a good time to see that Bugenhagen has all of your Huge Materias. Leave them to his care when you visit Cosmo Canyon and ask the old man what to do next!