I feel like a dumbass posting this..but I am actually playing FF7 for the first time in muh life! (Go ahead...laugh *waits*) Anyway the purpose of this thread is to ask anybody with prior knowledge of playing the game or beating it..to give me a run-down for beginners. I know about the Materia and that stuff..blah blah.

If you can give me some neat tips on leveling up like a pro..that would be great, who knows..if you treat me right I will put your name in and I give you an X-box or something..heh yeah right..tho everything is possible I do make video games for a living ^_^

Hmm.. Well my opinion for playing FF7 the first time is to not use any walkthroughs and just play the game through, cos its always more fun on the first time :D

Thats what i did and the story line is fairly easy to follow. Just remember to save lots, and when ever u find a decent set of monster/s somewhere that give u a fair amount of exp, practice for a lil bit there and get a few levels up.

Thats about all i can think of... *Thinks*

Best places to level up:

Disc 1 - Wutai area with those lightning birds
- Temple of Ancients
- Nibel area

Disc 2 - Mideel area

Disc 3 - North crater with Magic pots

hope that helped a little mate...


Master Of Darkness

If you ever want to get your characters stats maxed, every single source you need is in the sunkern ship (gelnika) on disc 2/3.

You need to get their life low and kill them using the attack Morph, then you will get the source.

To get luck source, you have to go into the part where you meet the turks to fight enemies called Bad rap. Morph them and get the source.

Hope that helped.

I feel like a dumbass posting this..but I am actually playing FF7 for the first time in muh life! (Go ahead...laugh *waits*)

Oh my... anyways, the best place to level up in the first disc is the sleeping forest, for me it was, the best place to level up in the second and third disc is Mideel and the Northern Cave, hope this helps.

hmm... best place for AP is the northern crater ..... for power sources, u have to morph unknown 1( red thing), for magic unknown 2(purplething), and for vit unknown 3 (plant looking thing), for speed, (blueish things that fight with rapps), and for luck .. like ^^ siad....

ummm... one tip..dont rely on ur materia... u can waste ur mp fast.... and work on ur limits early....

The best advice I can give you with out revealing anything is.

1. Save often, use each save point you reach and save just before entering any town ( or just after leaving leaving )
2. experiment with Materia, the right combination can make you team invincible
3. Take a bit of time to level up you characters and learn their strengths and Weaknesses
4. Take your time exploring each place you get to, you never know what you will find...

The best advice I can give you with out revealing anything is.

1. Save often, use each save point you reach and save just before entering any town ( or just after leaving leaving )
2. experiment with Materia, the right combination can make you team invincible
3. Take a bit of time to level up you characters and learn their strengths and Weaknesses
4. Take your time exploring each place you get to, you never know what you will find...
dude, he can find that stuff at the back of the manual!

my opinion on it is that u should not use a walkthrough becuase it will ruin it for you........always save....everytime u see a save spot use it
make sure to heal alot
some people tell u the best spot for leveling but it really all depends on what level u are prior to getting to the spot they say....whenever u find a place where enemies give u nice exp and arent ridiculously hard then u should stay there and train for a while
if u get stuck...think things through cause there arent really alot of overly difficult puzzles or anything in this game

pay attention to detail....listen to what each character has to say becuase the story of this game is one of the best ive ever experienced so keep your eyes open
and just have fun with it man.......oooh oooh and u should always try to collect enemy skills if u can.....some are really good

my opinion on it is that u should not use a walkthrough becuase it will ruin it for you........always save....everytime u see a save spot use it
make sure to heal alot
some people tell u the best spot for leveling but it really all depends on what level u are prior to getting to the spot they say....whenever u find a place where enemies give u nice exp and arent ridiculously hard then u should stay there and train for a while
if u get stuck...think things through cause there arent really alot of overly difficult puzzles or anything in this game

pay attention to detail....listen to what each character has to say becuase the story of this game is one of the best ive ever experienced so keep your eyes open
and just have fun with it man.......oooh oooh and u should always try to collect enemy skills if u can.....some are really good
you don't have to cure so often, just when you need to...but yeah, don't use a walkthrough...it's quite boring then...and if you get stuck, just ask us, we can help you...

Using walkthroughs I think spoils it on the first time through.... you should use one after you've completed it to see if you missed anything.
**Possible Spoilers**

































Also, work your limits as much as you can. Try and get Beta from the Midgar Zolom (Enemy Skill Materia Required)..... also get the choco/mog materia from the chocobo ranch

If you just talk to people in the game you'll find all the information you need to get everything in the game...

Just keep fighting
just keep fighting
just keep fighting fighting fighting
cept when hp is low;low

Well thats how it worked for me, annoying but its worth it.

best place overall is the crashed gelinka (or the WEAPONS lol) - they have the xp, the sources and the besst money

dude, he can find that stuff at the back of the manual!

Still it is the best advice...

Thank you people, I am pretty far in the game, and I can only thank it to you people on this forum. Right now I am in the middle of the second disc, and everyone has atleast Level 4 Limit breaks, and I THINK I have every Materia up to now. All I have to start working on now is breeding those chocobos..what do yall say too early? Should i wait a little bit before I get into all that?

Dude...that is crazy. Halfway through second disk and you got all that?! Holy Crap! I got all that after I beat the game! Nice work.

How do you like the story? Neat, huh? who do you like better..Aeris or Tifa?

What can i say? I fight a lot of battles..I think I got like over 55 hours already in the game and about 78% of that is battles. I can't tell you what level i am right now but its pretty high, i gotta go check it out. Oh yeah, I think Tifa and Cloud are the true lovers..Tifa and Cloud..thats the two i can see getting married and having lots of children lol. But anyway, I choose Tifa over Aeris anyday.

i'm a big fan of FF7, but i like to have a job system, so I tend to specialise my characters. Tifa is my 'Touch me and die!' character, she's bout Lvl90 and has counter attack, counter/deathblow and magic counter/KOR. (oh and she's got cover too, so she can do all that countering even when the enemy attacks someone else!) Plus, having alternate physical attacks like Mug-all or Deathblow-all keeps her limit gauge up, which is vital with the Premium Heart weapon! (All her materia is mastered.) Long range materia helps me sort out high/ far away enemies.
Yuffie is my Mage, who sports a shiny mastered Magic Plus materia, and has one spell... Ultima! W-magic, quadra magic, and Ultima, with a nice Sneak attack/ultima combination to boot! (yes i did have to master Ultima and use the 'born' materia!) MP consuming u ask?- well not with the MP-HP materia! She's immune to physical attacks whilst Tifa's covering her, and if she gets killed by magic she comes back using Phoenix/Final Attack! O_o
And there's Cloud who is my 'Jack of all Trades'. 4xcut with Ultima Weapon gets the job done, but he's got each of the master materias just incase! ^_~ This leaves him with a lot of space, so i just give him the Zeidrich and he's good.
Plus, having a Ribbon on each party member rox! (morph 'Master Tonberrys' to obtain more than one. They're in Sephi's crater on disk 3. I'm surprised no-one gave that advice yet!)

Oh yeah, I think Tifa and Cloud are the true lovers..Tifa and Cloud..thats the two i can see getting married and having lots of children lol. But anyway, I choose Tifa over Aeris anyday.

I'm happy that you see the light then. That's good. ^^;

Start Chocobo Breeding on Disc 3, before you battle Sephiroth. Try to beat the WEAPONS, Ultimate WEAPON, upon destruction, gives you Cloud's Ultimate Weapon sword. If you beat Ruby, take the Desert Rose to the Trader in Kalm, and he'll give you a GOLD Chocobo. How you got all Materia I'll never know. Do you have Knights of the Round Summon? Or do you have Master Summon etc.?

Oh no Cloud, when i said I had all the Materia I meant all the Materia so far at where I am in the game..and no..I do not have the almighty KOR summon, thats why i was asking about Chocobo breeding..so i can go ahead and get things set up to get me a Gold chocobo. I really don't care how long it will take..Im not easily frustrated and I have fulfilled some pretty big challenges in my life lol. But anyway..I wanted the Gold chocobo.

Oh right, sorry. You should be able to beat the WEAPONS then if you have everyone's Limit Breaks. Where are you currently?

Here's some tips:

1. Click on the search button at the top.
2. Use it!!! :)

Everyone says Emerald Weapon is harder than Ruby, but its the other way around! I beat Emerald on my 2nd attempt with characters around Lvl70-ish, but it took me countless attempts to kill that Ruby scum! (beware, he counters KOR with ultima, doing about 7000 to ur party!) U want armour with high magic defence or magic evade to get by, such as zeidrich and mistile. When your fightin Ultima weapon, make sure uve got someone holding an enemy skill materia, cus he uses shadow flare on u before dying.
Here's a hint for chocobo breeding; save before mating em! if it doesnt work u can just restart the console and try again. If it still doesnt work, u've probably got the wrong type of chocobo, or he needs to be a higher racing rank.

Thats true, I beat emerald easily (i say that loosely) on my first attempt at lvl.99, Ruby though took me at least 7 or 8 tries

i remember on one of my attempts against RW, Cloud got 7-fever when his health fell to 7777. Not convenient when the other two members are incapacitated and ur only means of resurrection is hacking away at the toughest boss in the game!

Master Final Attack and Phoenix materia and have them equipped on joining slots.

Then you will have multiple lives. ;)


Because this is your first time playing the game DO NOT use a walkthrough.
There are several plot twists that are better left to find out no your own.

Master Final Attack and Phoenix materia and have them equipped on joining slots.


A brilliant strategy, if you can get Final Attack..... If not, you're stuffed against some of the optional bosses

If you want my help you mustn't mind some spoilers I'll tell you what team is the best.

here is the best party: Cloud ,Cid ,Vincent

Vincent is a bit pap. his limit breaks are good, but aint too handy against the Weapons. His stats are poor too. Also, late on in the game, most characters can kick up more of a shitcloud than Vincent's Chaos form. Vincent is good through the first two discs, but loses his edge when fighting bosses on disc 3. His ultimate weapon leaves much too be desired. (attack power goes up with the amount of enemies killed. NOT as good as it sounds!)

Okay this is my last post for a long time so here I go. This is secrets the world may never know.

When you fight Ruby Weapon (you seem like you will be lvl 85+when you fight him) Equip Cloud with an armor called Mystille. Let the other two party members get sucked in because you dont need them. Have FInal attack +revive so you never die(Mastered so you revive 5 times in case you die) and then Mystille allows you a 98% dodge rate for Ultima. Cloud will dodge Ultime 9 out of 10 times if you have that armor on him during that battle. Just make sure you attack Ruby with Kotr at the Right times and make sure to use Big Gaurd to protect yourslef. Big Gaurd is an Enemy Skill that gives you all the barriers and crap. WIth this strategy you will be fine.

Just have Fianl attack and revive and emerald weapon is done.

Once you get Vincent's final weapon USE Vincent. A lot. The more you use him, the stronger his weapon becomes. It is scary how strong he gets. Trust me.

Use the W item trick to get 99 elixers and megaelixers. Then proceed to the North Crater where there is a certain area where you encounter little pot enemies. They ask for an elixer. GIve it to them (you have 99 so its all good. You can get more with the W item trick). After you give to them, you can kill them and get CRAZY amouts of AP.You can master KOtR and whatever else materia you have on your characters in 2 hours. Repeat to get mastered materia in everyhting easily.

Everyone says Emerald is hard but if you do the above mentioned method you can master Final attack 5 times in 3 days. Then you can equip it to your three party members that are fighting Emerald and they will come abck to life 5 times when FInal attack + Revive is used. Try to mime omnislash on Emerald. Skip the other two character's turns for one round and use Omnislash. It hurts. A lot. And then proceed to Knights of the Round. Done.

By the end of the game, the final boss shouldn't be a problem for you. I am not even going to suggest it.

One of the main pieces of adive I will give you is that you should breed your own chocobo. The guide on how to do it is stickied on the forum. It is 100 times better than the one you get after you beat Ruby weapon and it is really fun to race witha fast chocobo. DO yourself a favor and raise your own chocobo.

Ribbons are important. Someone already mentioned that. Get it form the Master Tonberry.

Sell the ALL materia (mastered) for about 2 million+ gil. Use the pot trick and you will be fine. It is not that hard to master materia man. Trust me.

WEll that is all for now. When I return I'll give some more tips. If you are not done by then anyway.

ignore that advice on ruby weapon! DONT let your other two party members get sucked in! Just kill them before the battle to provoke Ruby into withdrawing his tentacles instantly. Use Phoenix or X2-cast Life to rssurect them. This will enable you to kill Ruby 3 times quicker!

I agree about Mistile though. A nice alternative is the Ziedrich, but it has no materia slots so take caution!

Well, he doesnt really need them you know. I beat Ruby one vs one and it was a lot more fun. This guy here trains a lot so I think he can take Ruby one on one.

if you are general good at ff's it will be easy if not use a walkthrough,just remember success lies in good combos of materia

Thats my man rite there

I cant remember where i heard this so soz if it was here but to beat Ruby weopon equip a character with Knights of the round table and also with quadra majic to cast it 4 times. Then equip others team members with mime so they they all copy KotRT 4 times.
Does quadra majic exist? I dont think i found it.
Has any1 done the above strat?

i do that wit ultima and W- magic, so i do ultima like 20 times after i mime it a few times

Knights of the round doesnt work with quadra magic cause its a summon. You could however W summon it and mime that. It takes forever though. I kept goin on coffe breaks when i used W summon with KoTr.

My advice on leveling up is to NEVER run from a battle unless your about to die.

My advice to you about leveling up is to fight enemeys near a town so you can retreat quikly and move on as sone as the enemys become to easy. do this at every town and also find enemys that give lots of experience.

My advice on battling is that you should have a tent handy. At all times.

It just depends on how you fight. Emerald s harder f you don't prepare right.
Ruby is much easier. not as much Hp.

Well, it also depends. You can beat Emerald at lvl 55 but I could never manage beating Ruby till 60. It depends on what you do, how you play, and what materia combos you use that determine which weapon was easier.

It all depends how you like too fight.

Best places to level up:

Disc 1 - Wutai area with those lightning birds
- Temple of Ancients
- Nibel area

Disc 2 - Mideel area

Disc 3 - North crater with Magic pots

hope that helped a little mate...


Master Of Darkness

Disc 1 also in the Forgotten City. Get to lvl. 40 or so before killing Jenova or it will kick your ass and *SPOILER* you will have to see Aeris die over and over.

when you get the materia manpulate use it on some monsters i found it very useful

It is very useful

Enemy skill is freaking awesome too. Try to get all of them.

Well on the first disc, I think it's best to level up in Midgar. and try to get as high as you can, and then when you finally leave Midgar, you should be good. And when they want you to go to Kalm, level up some more. It may take a long while, but its worth it in the end. On disc two, I think the best place to level up, is in the Temple of the Ancients area, On disc three- anywhere where its hard to get to, should have thoguh enimies. I lveled up really good in the Northern Crater area. and when you have the Highwind, theres a little island called "Cactuar Island" and you get to fight cactuars, they don't give you much exp. but its fun. Try to grab all the items you can see. and Fight every battle you get into, unless if you think you can't do it.
~Ami

Well, I think you would get bored if all you did was train around Midgar for 20 hours. Just play normally mna. That is what I did and I could beat Ruby one on one. Don't rush. Don't go super slow. Just normal. Train sometimes...sometimes just chill. You will be fine man trust me.

as some o the others have said, go through the game w/o the players guide or help for that matter fo the first time, unless your really stuck on a part. as for lvling i would suggjest that you just fight a crap load on the world map, in the shinra hq, and gi cave on disk one. on disk 2, junion (after you pull the alarm in the tunnel) the UW reator and the crashed gelinka (mainly in disk 3 though). disk 3 the crater and crashed galinka. go to the crashed galinka after you get clouds apoclips from the A. forest, as it has triple growth on it, and put some of the big materia on it (ei: knights of the round, mime, final attack) and use a gil plus while your donw there, i got 4 mil gil down there from fighting for 7 hours. its also a good place to lvl your chars and getting the limit breaks to where they need to be. save as much as possible and stay away from the weaps until you get kotr maxed a few times, as well as mime, and final attack.

oh and while your in the crater in disk 3, try to morph some master tonberrys, i think the turn into ribbons.