Final Fantasy VII/Wutai sidequests

Wutai sidequests are entirely optional, but are highly recommended because there's a whole lot of fun to be had with all of the new materia and items. Also, while the first quest takes an evening to accomplish, at least it saves you from the trouble of doing one more boss fight later.

Both sidequests need Yuffie to be in your party, preferably trained up somewhat also. For instructions on how to get her, see the Optional characters page.

Stolen materia
The first of the subquests can be done any time between getting the Tiny Bronco on Disc 1 and before going to Midgar to stop Hojo in Disc 2. Once you get into the Wutai area for the first time, Yuffie stops you. And then suddenly, Shinra Troops appear out of nowhere. A fight ensues, and afterward you find that you no longer seem to have any of your materia except for one or two. What follows is a series of melee battles.

Follow Yuffie northward. If you came by Tiny Bronco, this means a long foot trek, and the mountains are very treacherous. If you see any birds, consider running if you have a hard time dealing with high-level bolt magic. You are left with the only recourse to use items such as Potions, Hi-Potions to keep your party's HP up. Hopefully, you have been stealing plenty of potions, Hi-Potions up to this point. Be sure to equip the necessary accessories to make up for the lack of materia such as poison ring. Eventually you'll reach Wutai Town. When you enter, you see Yuffie running. Visit the houses there, including Turtle's Paradise, where you'll meet the Turks, who are on vacation.

You have to search out Yuffie in the following three places:
 * 1) In the box in the shop next to the save point.
 * 2) In the old man's house (to the right, near where you entered Wutai) behind the folding screen.
 * 3) In the big vase outside of the Turtle's Paradise.

When you find her the last time, you and the rest of your party are able to box her in and catch her.

After a brief cutscene, you're in Yuffie's house. Pull a lever, which results in your other party members getting trapped in a big cage. Once you get them out, head to the pagoda in the distance to the far left, but only after you look at the Turtle's Paradise's post #6 in the hallway opposite of the staircase. Yuffie's obscure hint of "steel" probably reminds you of the big iron bell on the left if you did indeed venture that far out yet left of the save point. The house on the right from the bell has three mats where you can rest up for free, you'll have to open the door to get into that room though. In the left corner of the screen, behind the japanese banner, there is hallway that leads to a treasure chest which contains the Magic Shuriken for the thief. In the right corner where you see a hallway, open the secret door and you'll find a treasure chest holding the Hairpin. Ring the bell to reveal a door. When you enter, you'll find that both Yuffie and Elena of the Turks have been kidnapped by Don Corneo.

Grab what is inside the two treasure chests and find your way upstairs. You'll be entrapped by Corneo and need to fight Shinra soldiers, who manage to delay you enough for the kidnappers to escape. Get out, rest up on the way, and you manage to strike a truce with Reno and Rude.

Now another search operation begins. It's highly recommended you purchase a lot of Bolt Plumes or Fire Veils from the store (10-20 of them should do). For the upcoming boss fight, arrange your Item menu like so:
 * Bolt Plume (or Fire Veil)
 * Phoenix Down
 * Hi-Potion
 * X-Potion

Once you're healed up at the save point and have tons of helpful items, head to the Da-Chao, mountain of statues. There's a lot of stuff to see here, and you can find the Dragoon Lance for Cid in a cave where Rude stood. You can return here on Disc 2 or 3 if you have Leviathan Scale to get more interesting items.

After a lengthy search, you'll find Corneo, Yuffie, and Elena. Corneo doesn't really like his love games interrupted, and is still mad at you for destroying Aps in the sewers, so here comes the retribution: Rapps.

After the fight, you see the Turks getting rid of Don Corneo in their own way. Yuffie returns the materia to you, but it isn't automatically replaced the way it was, so you should spend some time fixing up the order of your materia. The MP Absorb you found in the Yuffie's first hiding place is yours as well. Head back in town and go to that little shack full of cats beside Yuffie's house, you can now go upstairs and grab the HP Absorb materia! You'll notice that the weapon shop that was previously unavailable is now available, so grab your opportunity to purchase the newest weapons for each and every single characters (Hopefully, you have enough gil to purchase each as they are from 5500 to 6500 a piece)!

Climbing the pagoda
This section will walk you through the series of one on one boss fights with Yuffie against the Five Sacred Gods in the Wutai Pagoda. You should be able to manage most of the victories without training Yuffie at all, unless her level is terribly low.

Each Sacred God exhibits different characteristics, and will become progressively more difficult. You should take a moment between fights to equip Yuffie with the proper gear and materia. You will also need to restore any hit points, magic points and any hangover status effects gained from previous battles. Besides your normal setup, the only out-of-the-way ability you may want is the L4 Suicide Enemy Skill. You can learn it from a Mu, which are the little squirrel-like creatures near the Chocobo Ranch.