Final Fantasy VII/Junon

The Road To Junon

There are two important things that can be done before proceeding to Junon.

First, directly to the south of the Mythril Mines exit sits Fort Condor. The residents are under constant Shinra attack and ask for your help. This is an ongoing sidequest throughout the game. To be able to shop what little the town has to offer and to rest, you must speak to the man slumping over on the table and accept the offer to help. The first attack is easy and there are only 10 or so enemies. The idea is basically to place units to stop the monsters from getting up the hill. Make sure you have quite a bit of money, as it is 400–500 gil per soldier and you'll need 10–20 of them. To line your pockets, you could repeatedly steal Boomerang (from formula in the woods) and sell it. For the first win here, you'll get the Magic Comb, a great double-growth weapon for Red XIII.

Second, Yuffie can be recruited at this point. Go northwest of Fort Condor and wander through the trees that are near the mountains. Be careful though – there are hordes of small, fast creatures that roam this area. They have the potential to deal 100 points of damage per shot. Matra Magic is highly recommended for this, since it can kill all of them simultaneously. At some point, you will come across a "ninja". She will fight you as a normal monster would. There's no need to go into any fancy strategy, just do what you'd normally do. When the battle is over, you'll meet her. In this area, there will be a save point. Do not use it. Do not access the menu. If you do, or you don't stroke her pride properly, Yuffie will penalize you for the errors of your way and start all over again with finding her. The correct answers to the questions are as follows:

1. "Not Interested"
2. "........Petrified"
3. "Wait A Second!"
4. "........That's Right"
5. "........Let's Hurry On"

Yuffie's escapades

• First Statement: You will be forced into the menu, after which Yuffie will be gone with 200 Gil. Any time you enter the menu, this will happen.
• Second Statement: Yuffie will bump into one of your party on the way out and steal 500 Gil.
• Third or Fourth Statement: Yuffie will leave, but she doesn't steal.
• Fifth Statement: She will run and will take 700 Gil with her.

After that, you can level up a little by wandering around, resting at Fort Condor if necessary. It is recommended getting your characters up to at least level 20, Cloud will surpass as you cannot change party members with him. Also attain Yuffie's and Red XIII's secondary level 1 limit breaks. You can adequately level up your materia and get decent amounts of EXP wandering about in the forest where you found Yuffie, but keep your wits about when it comes to keeping your party alive as the monsters in the forest are fast and deal decent damage. Be sure to set your limit breaks for those that have reached level 2 in order to acquire more limit breaks. Then proceed to Junon. You also now have the opportunity for the first Wutai sidequest but you need to be able to reach Wutai by sea which at this point you don't have access yet.

Important Items

• Magic Comb (Fort Condor, see above)

Enemy Skills

• White Wind can be learned later from the big green and white monsters, Zemzelet. You must have the Manipulate Materia to get them to use it on you.

To Steal

• Be sure to steal a Boomerang from Formula, a sleek purplish bird, in the forest. It is Yuffie's next weapon of choice.

Lower Junon

Recommended average party level: 20

At this point, you can't do much in Junon. You can visit the shop but the shopkeeper won't sell anything right now. Before proceeding, it's definitely important to head out to the field to gain experience, AP and limit breaks. Level 2 spells such as Bolt2, Ice2, etc. aren't required, but they can be a big plus when you need to do a lot of damage as quickly as possible. Hopefully, you will have built up some Level 2 Limit Breaks, as well.

Once in Junon, head down to the beach to find Priscilla calling for her friend, Mr. Dolphin. When she discovers that you're behind her, she yells at you, believing you're with the Shinra. A monster appears from the sea, and it's not clear what happens but soon Priscilla is drowning and you're attacked by Bottomswell.

Bottomswell

Bottomswell is a bit of a challenge. He is obviously water-based but he also flies. The latter presents a problem for physical attacks; he can only be hit with long range attacks. First, attach the long range materia to whoever you want to be able to use physical attacks. (Barret and Yuffie have long range weapons anyway, unless you gave Barret the Atomic Scissors.) The Choco/Mog summon is good against him, but it can only be used once (depending on level). It would be a good idea to use limit breaks as soon as possible, and use level 2 spells linked with All materia; you'll get the MP back soon. Also, make sure you have a Restore materia on at least two party members. Lastly, Bottomswell can be poisoned, so you may want to take advantage of that. It is however possible to defeat Bottomswell with a party of levels 18 and level 1 spells. With low level members and level 1 spells, just spam Choco/Mog and magic along with Bio and use long range assaults.

The worst thing he does to you is Waterpolo. It creates an HP stealing bubble around one of your characters, just like Reno's Pyramid. Whenever this happens, you have to target it with magic. Make sure you hit the bubble and not your teammate. A good way of dealing with this is to just attack with a spell linked to All. It will also target the bubble. Make sure to keep your HP up. When Bottomswell dies, he automatically casts Big Wave, a pretty strong move that deals ~100 damage to the entire party.

Level	Hit Points	Magic	Weak against	Strong against	Absorbs
23	2500	100	Wind	Gravity, Earth	None

After the monster is dead, it's time to breathe life back into Priscilla. The controls will be explained. Exhale when the CPR meter is full (9 breaths). Repeat five times until Priscilla is revived. Don't worry if this seems to take longer than it should; a slightly mistimed breath will cause you to start over. Her father will take her home to rest, and you should take rest too in the rightmost house in Junon, there's an elderly woman standing guard in front of that house, speak to her and she will accommodate you for your trouble.

Upper Junon: infiltrating Shinra

Select controller:

PlayStation 2,Windows

After a disturbing dream about Tifa, you wake up and find out something funny is going on outside. Note: there is a battle at Fort Condor available between the time you get up and when you talk to Priscilla. If you want to, do that now. If not, go outside and up the steps. Priscilla is awake, and shows her gratitude by giving you the Shiva materia, a very nice ice-based summon. Now, music can be heard from above, which means that Rufus is having a parade in his own honor. It looks like he's going to cross the ocean too, and you'll need to get aboard the ship.

Priscilla helps you get up to the Junon proper. Your friends leave climbing electric towers to pros, which means Cloud is going to have to go alone. Barret takes your PHS too, so it doesn't break if you fall into water.

Note: There is yet another Fort Condor battle available now, after entering the beach water with Mr. Dolphin but before you actually jump as in simply get into the beach water and then leave.

Priscilla calls Mr. Dolphin to jump for you, so follow the instructions once again. Try to find the proper spot for the jump; it's fairly easy. The solution is to not move at all, and then just jump once and then jump again from where you landed. Once up, climb the ladder to the airfield.

On the airfield, head toward the screen, then head downward and use the yellow switch to make the elevator go down. Head to the building on the lower edge of the screen. There's a save point in the corridor. The officer wants you to get properly dressed. Do so by going to the open locker. After the little tutorial, head out and do as they say.

Note that while between the parade events, it's possible to sneak into some of the Upper Junon buildings, such as the weapon shop. If you have tons of cash, and you probably do if you went killing creatures before going to Junon, you should pop into at least the weapon store to pick up good weapons like Hardedge, Grand Glove, etc. Also be sure to stop by the beginners hall for enemy skill materia.

Rating	Award
50+ %	5,000 Gil
40+ %	6 Ethers
30+ %	6 Potions
0+ %	Grenade

When the officer says "charge", run straight through the soldiers (not behind them), and you'll find yourself in position. Once in position, march with the soldiers and rhythmically press and release Enter. Each press will increase the ratings, but only if you're in position. If you're not in position, nothing will happen. If you're lucky, the ratings will start high, but if not you should still be able to make 50% after a few tries. The Shinra TV company, according to the sources, mails this kind of stuff to thank you for your influence to the ratings.

After the parade, there's a brief scene with Heidegger and Rufus, and you need to train for the next event: a proper military gun salute. Just push the buttons the officer says. In the training, the sequence is normal and straightforward; in the actual event, the commands are random. This should be simple enough after a few tries (some players recommend turning your volume down, as the music can throw off your concentration). Rufus' mood gauge determines what prize Heidegger will give to you.

Before going to the next event, you should look around for sources (Mind, Luck, Guard, and Power). There are four of them on the upper levels of the inn with the dogs and cats in it. Behind the soldier on the ground floor (talk to him to get him to move) is an entrance to the basement, where you can find one of the 4 enemy skill materia in the game, and revisit any tutorials you'd like to read through on the basics of the game. There's also the 1/35 Soldier to pick up, but useless. There's another through the third door in the next area. They are not hard to find. If you visit the basement of the weapons shop, you'll get your chance to see Rude wasted with a group of men. If you go past the area where Heidegger had a showdown with Rufus and then turn left, you'll find an engineer who will explain about the submarine dock and an underwater Mako reactor. When you're done, head to the left to do the real drill. There are yet a few more shops to visit, also another Turk at the bar. There's a materia shop with a Save point on the second floor in the building next to the bar. On the third floor, there's an accessory shop carrying Silver Glasses and Headband. In the next building, there’s a Speed source through the grey door and another useless 1/35 soldier upstairs. Finally, there's another weapons store in the last building before heading out to the dock. When it is over, collect your prize then head into the ship.

Mood	Award
100+	Force Stealer (sword for Cloud)
60–90	HP Plus materia
0–50	Silver Glasses accessory

The cargo ship

Aboard the Shin-Ra ship, there's not that much to discover. You won't run into any enemies at first, so talk to every person on the ship. You'll note that the rest of the party has, indeed, managed to sneak onto the ship properly disguised. Even Red XIII, who has slight problems standing on two feet - though it's not really the walking style that stands out, it's the tail. Yuffie, if she's in your party, wants Tranquilizers.

In the loading hold, there's a box with an Ether and an All materia (if you can't get there, just leave it be for later). On the deck, there's a save point. One of the sailors can sell you a revitalizing drink for 250 Gil, so if you didn't heal up before going up in Junon, this is your chance, otherwise it's just wasting money. Another sailor will sell you Potions and Phoenix Downs.

Eventually Aeris will ask about Barret's whereabouts. Find your way to the bridge where Barret is looking through the window to the captain's cabin. Then comes an intruder alert. After a fit of confusion, it becomes apparent that they aren't looking for your party.

Jenova

Head back to the deck. This is the time to choose who will participate in the huge fight that follows. Pick your two best-trained characters besides Cloud, and give them the best weapons. If a party member you don't want to use for this battle has all the materia, you can choose them, remove the materia and then talk to the any of the remaining party members to reorganize. Save at the save point before continuing.

Below deck, if Yuffie was blocking your way, you can now pick up the All materia. The guard posted on the door will now no longer resist letting you into the cargo hold proper. The cargo hold is also a good place to encounter enemies if you desperately need to level up your party in preparation for the next boss. It is a good idea to bring your party's limit breaks to maximum before Jenova-BIRTH. Be sure to steal a few Shinra-Beta accessory off Marines, as this is the only time you can obtain one. If you're going to do that, just make sure you don't go anywhere near the soldier in red near the door.

You'll finally find Sephiroth, who doesn't seem to stick around, which leads you to fight something else entirely.

To Steal

• Shinra-Beta from a Marine

Jenova∙BIRTH

This can get hairy if the party on average is way below level 20, so hopefully you spent good time in the bush looking for Yuffie before you went to Junon. It's possible for sub-20ish characters to kill Jenova with sheer luck though, but it won't be easy at all. If you're on level 20-25, there should be very little problems, however, especially if you have level 2 elemental spells and a good healing strategy. Various fire attacks, like Fire2 spells and the Flame Thrower enemy skill work great here, as does ice. Especially the Shiva summon. Physical attacks do work, to some extent. The nastiest things Jenova can do here are Tail Laser (damage all around) and Stop.

Level	Hit Points	Magic	Weak against	Strong against	Absorbs
25	4000	110	None	Gravity, Poison	None

Jenova leaves a White Cape accessory. After the fight, you'll have to make sense of this Jenova's tentacle that seems to have been left behind. It's time to get out of the ship, but before you do, take everything in the room: the red glittery thing on floor is Ifrit materia, and in the chest on the catwalk is Wind Slash, a weapon for Yuffie.

After you get out of the ship and head to Costa del Sol, Rufus shows up, makes it clear he doesn't like what Heidegger is doing, and disappears with a helicopter.

Costa del Sol

There isn't really that much to do here, though you can pick up bits and pieces of information and a few handy items, and stock up with various interesting items. Hojo was lying on the beach, just before you arrived, and Hojo's guest seems to give you the idea that Sephiroth was seen in the town and fled to another direction.

In the basement of the big house, you can find free items:

1. Motor Drive (weapon for Tifa)
2. Fire Ring
3. Power Source

The Fire Ring is a pretty neat accessory, so don't forget that!

There is an armor merchant in the bar selling Platinum Bangle, Carbon Bangle, Four Slots, and Molotovs. Be noted that the Four Slots will no longer be available after a certain event. There is also an item shop by the Inn, the patron seems to suggest buying Softs, so grab some for the road ahead; as well as a materia shop.