===============================================================================
GarlandG's Speed Run FAQ/Walkthrough for
===============================================================================
[][][][] [][][][] [] [] [][][][] [][][][]
[] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] [] []
[][][] [][][] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [][][][] [][][][]
===============================================================================
Version 3.2
===============================================================================
Table of Contents
###################
Use quick find (Crtl+F) to easily find what you want. To easily find a boss or
a battle, just look at the Boss & Battle list and type in the code in front
when searching. For example B23 for Demon's Gate.
1 - Important Stuff Boss & Battle List
------------------- ------------------
* 1.1 <> Copyright B01: MP x2
B02: Guard Scorpion
* 1.2 <> Intro B03: Air Buster
B04: Aps
* 1.3 <> Gaming Info B05: Reno
B06: Mighty Grunt x3
* 1.4 <> Frequently Asked Questions B07: Sample:HO512
B08: Hundred Gunner
* 1.5 <> PAL and NTSC differences B09: Heli Gunner
B10: Rufus
* 1.6 <> Perfect Run Info B11: Motor Ball
B12: Bottomswell
B13: Jenova-BIRTH
2 - Walkthrough: Midgar B14: Dyne
----------------------- B15: Sneaky Step x3
* 2.1 <> The First Mission B16: Stinger #1
B17: Stinger #2
* 2.2 <> Aftermath B18: Gi Nattak
B19: Materia Keeper
* 2.3 <> The Second Mission B20: Palmer
B21: Flapbeat x3
* 2.4 <> Back To The Slums B22: Red Dragon
B23: Demon's Gate
* 2.5 <> Wall Market B24: Jenova-LIFE
B25: Stilva
* 2.6 <> Slums Revisited B26: Icicle + Evilheads
B29: Schizo
* 2.7 <> Shinra Headquarters B30: Jenova-DEATH
B31: Attack Squad x2
B32: Train Battles
3 - Walkthrough: The Rest Of Disc One B36: Attack Squad
------------------------------------- B37: Ultimate Weapon
* 3.1 <> The First Continent B38: Submarine Crew x2
B40: Submarine Crew x3
* 3.2 <> Junon B41: Underwater MP x2
B42: Carry Armor
* 3.3 <> The Second Continent B43: Submarine Crew x2
B45: Submarine Crew x3
* 3.4 <> Cosmo Canyon B46: Attack Squad x2
B48: Senior Grunt + AS x2
* 3.5 <> Nibelheim & Mt. Nibel B49: Rude + Attack Squad x2
B50: Senior Grunt
* 3.6 <> Rocket Town B51: Diamond Weapon
B52: The Turks
* 3.7 <> Before The Temple B53: Proud Clod
B54: Hojo
* 3.8 <> The Temple Of Ancients B55: Hellectic Hojo
B56: Lifeform Hojo NA
* 3.9 <> Bone Village & The Forgotten City B57: Jenova-SYNTHESIS
B58: Bizarro-Sephiroth
B59: Safer-Sephiroth
4 - Walkthrough: Disc Two & Three
---------------------------------
* 4.1 <> Adventures In The Snow
* 4.2 <> Gaea's Cliff
* 4.3 <> Whirlwind Maze
* 4.4 <> The Time Without Cloud
* 4.5 <> Junon Underwater Reactor
* 4.6 <> Rocket Town & More
* 4.7 <> Return To Midgar
* 4.8 <> The Northern Crater
5 - Additional Info
-------------------
* 5.1 <> Record Run Results
* 5.2 <> Contacting Me
* 5.3 <> Version History
* 5.4 <> Credits
* 5.5 <> Final Words
===============================================================================
1 - Important Stuff
===============================================================================
The first part of this guide, Important Stuff, is named like that for a reason.
Not reading it is not a wise choice if you want to do a Speed Run, so take your
time to read it. I know you will anyway.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1 <> Copyright
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This guide is Copyrighted © to Audun Arnseth, 2004 - 2007, and is for private
use only. You may download it and print it out, but you are not allowed to
reproduce it, sell it or use it for any kind of profit. You may host it on your
website if you get my approval, but the contents may not be changed, and I must
be given credit. If this is desired, you can send me an email and ask for my
permission. However, should I find it necessary, you will have to remove it at
my request. Violation of my copyright will be taken very strictly, and I will
consider it an ethic violation and breaking of moral. It also shows lack of
respect for other people's work. And most importantly, don't forget that
copyright violations are illegal and you might come in conflict with the law.
Most of this guide is my work, and is written out of my own gaming and my own
experiences. When other sources of information are used in the process of
making the guide, credit will be given in the credits section.
Final Fantasy VII and everything that has to do with this game is copyrighted
(C) to Squaresoft, 1997 & 1998. Squaresoft and Final Fantasy are registered
trademarks (R) to Square Co. Ltd.
If you break my copyright, I will hunt you down and kick your ass and it will
hurt, so I advise you not to do it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2 <> Intro
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Speed Run is in my opinion the best challenge for any game ever. You have one
simple goal: Beat the game as fast as you can, using whatever the game has to
offer, except bugs and glitches. That's it. But why would that be the best
challenge ever? Well, there are many reasons. First of all because it's fun. If
you think you're good at a game, you can test your skills and knowledge in a
Speed Run. You will most likely do some mistakes the first time, but just give
it another try and you will beat your record. You can do it many times, and it
won't get boring until you can't beat your record. I have done eight FFVII runs
myself, including three test runs, and so far it has just gotten more and more
fun each time. Of course, this increases the replay value of the game.
It's also the most popular challenge out there, and you can find many websites
dedicated to Speed Runs. People from all over the world come to these sites and
discuss strategies and they even record their runs so that everyone can see
them. As of June 4th, Farringa has recorded a complete FFVII run, that should
be available at the Speed Demos Archive (http://speeddemosarchive.com/) within
the month. As for me, I'm currently recording my "perfect" run and I will
submit it to SDA when it's done. In the meantime, I will upload every segment
to Youtube as I proceed.
My Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/GarlandTheGreat
This FAQ will guide you through the challenge and by following it, you should
be able to beat the game in less than 12 hours, even if you've only beaten the
game once. You will find all the necessary information you need in order to
complete the challenge and the walkthrough will have all the best and fastest
strategies for shaving off time. Every time you have to save, you will find my
record time and recommended times for 9, 10 and 12 hour runs. The 12 hours run
is for beginners, the 10 hours run is for advanced players and the 9 hours run
is for experts. Since my record is 8:57:59, I won't make any recommended times
for a 9 hours run this time. If you have beaten the game a fair amount of times
and have some experience, you should have no trouble beating it in 10 hours by
following the guide. I have received emails from several people saying they
beat their first run in less than 10 hours, so it's far from impossible.
A Speed Run is similar to a Low Level Game in many ways. To save time, you can
only fight boss battles, other mandatory battles and certain enemies to learn
enemy skills, so your levels will always stay low. Your levels won't be any
higher than 45 by the end of the game. Because of that, it is recommended to
have beaten a regular Low Level Game if you want to achieve a good time. If you
aren't used to fighting on low levels, this challenge could get far more
difficult than you had expected. Well, challenges are supposed to be difficult
after all, so I won't stop you even if you've only beaten the game once.
Some people deny the fact that this is a true Speed Run. They claim that a
Speed Run must be beaten in one sitting and the time spent from the very moment
you select "NEW GAME" until Sephiroth is dead is your final time. Anything you
do in the meantime will be included in the final time. In other words, you
cannot load up and play a part over again if you screw up. If you do that, you
will just get a crappier result. I get the point, but I couldn't disagree more.
That's more like the ODINS and HDINS challenges (these have an own section in
this new version of the guide), just that you're allowed to save in case you
should get a game over. The challenge described in this guide is indeed a Speed
Run, and I can't understand why you shouldn't be allowed to save, load up and
play a part over again until you achieve the best result. That's what a Speed
Run is all about after all.
As I said, I have done eight Speed Runs myself, including three test runs and
the HDINS Challenge. Here are the results:
1. Early 2003 - 11:04
2. Late 2003 - 10:14
3. April 2004 - 9:29
4. June 2004 - 9:46 (test)
5. July 2004 - 8:39
6. May 2005 - 11:50 (HDINS)
7. September 2005 - 10:41 (test)
8. April 2006 - 8:36 (test)
All the times are from the final saves. The 4th, 7th and 8th runs were test
runs where my only intention was to test new strategies, so I didn't put much
effort into them, something you can see from the results. I wrote the first
version of this FAQ during the first test run, but I found out a lot of things
that could've been done better during this run. I also had three people testing
this version of the guide; KADFC, lolo26 and Bergqvist, who also came up with
a lot of new ideas and strategies, so I decided to start over and re-write the
FAQ. I ended up beating my old record with 50 minutes and I set a record that
everybody thought was incredible. However, I knew that I had made a couple of
mistakes, so I decided that I would do another run one day, but first I needed
a long break from Speed Runs. In May 2005, me and lolo started discussing Speed
Runs again and we came up with a lot of new strategies. Lolo did a test run
with the PC version where he tested these new strategies and he set an
incredible new record. We came to the conclusion that the game could be beaten
in less than 9 hours. Then, a guy named BrutalAl showed up and he had a lot of
new ideas as well, so we all started testing stuff again and finally we came to
the conclusion that the game could be beaten in less than 8:30. Time will show
when the final perfect run is over. I'm the guy writing this guide, but we have
all contributed with ideas and strategies and my record would never been as
good without the other guys.
If you've played FFIX, you may remember what Amarant says before entering
Ipsen's Castle.
"working alone beats working in a team any day, and I'm gonna prove it."
You know what? I just proved him wrong. As I said, my record would never have
been as good without the other guys. Co-work rocks!
There's one more thing I'd like to say in this intro. After completing the
third Speed Run in April 2004, I created a topic about it on the message board
and most people didn't believe me. Beating the game that fast was impossible
and I was obviously lying since I didn't have any evidence. They said that the
world record was 14 hours (or something like that), so there was no way I could
reach the bottom of the crater in 9:29. That was two years ago. Now, I have
beaten that record with more than an hour. What if I'd said 8:25 back then? The
main reason why I couldn't beat the game that fast was because the bosses would
pwn me on low levels and other crap. No good arguments whatsoever. Back then,
I was really pissed, but today I just find it amusing. I mean, there are just
too many ignorant people in this world that don't know what they're talking
about. I have proved the n00bs on the message board wrong so many times it's
almost scary. Thankfully, you don't see many of these n00bs nowadays. Now, you
can usually post a challenge topic without ten people saying it's impossible. I
guess this FAQ and all the other challenge FAQs are the main reason for that.
Although there are many idiots out there, some people just can't be blamed.
Let's take an example. When I was playing FFIX for the first time back in 2001,
this guy told me that you have to reach the end of the game in less than 12
hours to get the best weapon. I was like "no way, that's not possible" as I had
spent like 60 hours beating the game. But then I did some thinking and realized
that I had too little knowledge about the game to question the challenge, and
that's my advice for all the unbelievers out there. Don't question a challenge
if you have too little knowledge about a game. There are always better players
with tons of skills, knowledge and experience out there, and these people can
do stuff you never thought was possible. I have beaten FFVII in less than nine
hours and it's up to you if you want to believe me or not. But seriously, do
you honestly think I've spent hundreds of hours writing a joke FAQ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3 <> Gaming Info
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS SECTION IS VERY IMPORTANT, AND I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO READ AND
UNDERSTAND IT BEFORE YOU START PLAYING. YOU WILL FIND THE MOST IMPORTANT INFO
YOU NEED IN ORDER TO SAVE TIME HERE, SO YOU HAVE TO READ IT, NO MATTER WHAT.
Rules
#######
Yes, there are a few rules for the challenge.
* The save point must be placed at the bottom of the crater, in the area where
you meet up with the party before the last battles. This place is also known
as the point of no return, and if you open the menu here, it will say "Bottom
of Nothern Cave". That's right, another typo. Think of this area as a clock,
and place the save point at 8. At least don't go any further than 9, or the
cutscenes will start.
* You must be able to beat the final bosses directly from the final save. If
you somehow can't, you will have to go back and obtain whatever's needed and
then save again. The time spent doing this will then be included in the final
time, thus making it crappier. You shouldn't have to worry about this if you
follow the FAQ.
* The game is considered beaten when Sephiroth himself is beaten. That's the
last battle with Sephiroth himself and not the One Winged Angel. Why, you may
ask? Because you can still control the game until that very battle is over.
There is text to skip after Safer-Sephiroth, and then there's the choice to
use Omnislash or not in that battle. No further questions.
Random battles
################
All random battles must be escaped. No questions asked. Trust me, the levels
you may gain from fighting battles will not make up for the time spent.
The time it takes to escape a battle varies. Some times, you will escape before
the enemies get to act, but other times you may not be able to escape before
all the enemies have attacked. Thankfully, you will escape after one attack
most of the time. Since all battles theoretically can be escaped before the
enemies start attacking, you will lose time every time an enemy attacks you
throughout the game. You can live with one or two attacks in a regular run, but
restart if you get attacked too many times.
Attacks from both sides is something you don't want to happen. These cannot be
escaped before you defeat the enemies on one of the sides and needless to say,
that takes time. Also take note that you will lose four times as much health
when an enemy attacks a character from behind in these battles, so you might
get killed if the enemies are too strong. Consider an attack from both sides an
instant restart in most cases. Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often.
Skipping text
###############
All text must be skipped as fast as possible. I will tell you to [skip text] a
million times in the walkthrough, so you better get used to it. Whenever you
see the [skip text] box, you simply have to tap the action button until the
talking is over. If there's only one box of text to skip, I will in most cases
not bother with a [skip text], but simply tell you to skip one box of text or
something like that.
Many times, there will be options to select, like when the guards are chasing
Aerith in the church. You know what I mean. When you have to select the first
option, I won't bother telling you, so it will just say [skip text] as usual.
If another option has to chosen, I will of course let you know, as selecting
the wrong option in most cases will cause you to lose time.
Something you have to do seven times during the game is naming characters, but
you're not free to call them whatever you want. Since it takes a certain amount
of time to display a character, you have to shorten everyone's name to one
character. That's right. This is one of BrutalAl's many brilliant ideas. You
only save a few seconds overall by doing this, but it's still a brilliant idea.
Saving
########
First of all, make sure to use a memory card with no other FFVII files. The
more files, the longer it takes to load the memory card before you get to save.
We save for several reasons in this challenge. The most important ones are
those where we save to avoid a random encounter. Yes, that's true. Many times,
saving will make the next battle go away. The random encounters aren't random
in this game. Start a new game and run through the first reactor as fast as you
can a couple of times, and you'll know what I mean. The battles always occur at
the same places all the time. Yup.
Sometimes, we can save to prevent the next battle from occuring, and since
saving takes less time than escaping a battle, we have to take this opportunity
to save time whenever it's possible. The first time we do this is when we save
before Guard Scorpion. If you don't save, you will get a battle on your way
back to the save point, but by saving, it "disappears". You have to soft-reset
first though. If you continue on after saving, it won't disappear. The same
thing also works on the world map, and not only that; it works all the time!
However, the pattern of encounters can vary from time to time on the world map,
so you can't do a practice run first to find out exactly where the next
encounter occurs and then save just before this point in the major run.
Thanks to this "system" or whatever we should call it (it's definitely not a
glitch), we get to save pretty often without losing any time at all, but
unfortunately, we can't just save at these occasions. Some times, there's a
tricky part that requires luck coming up, and it may have been a while since we
last saved, so saving would be wise. Even though we lose time by saving, we
could have lost more time if we had to play that part over again. It can also
be that we just got past a tricky part after tons of attempts, and you never
know what can happen. Other times we just save because it's been a while, and
playing a long part over again because of a small mistake ain't fun.
Using the menu
################
Since this is a Speed Run, you have to be fast when using the menu, and it's
very important when you have to do many things. You could easily lose a minute
fumbling around in the menu.
Sometimes, you have to do many changes in equipment and materia before boss
battles, and in these cases, it's a very good idea to save first. Then you
should practice doing the changes until you get fast and you can do it with
your eyes closed. Of course, you don't have to be lightning fast unless you're
a perfect runner, but even regulars should give it five minutes.
The use of limit breaks
#########################
This is something most people find out the first time they play the game, that
limit breaks have priority before anything else. When you have a character use
a limit break, it will always be used right away, no matter whose turn it is.
Usually, when fighting a single opponent, your characters get one turn each
before it's the opponent's turn again, but by taking advantage of the limit
break system, you can have a character act twice before the opponent's turn.
If all three characters have limit breaks, you can get a total of six turns
between the opponent's turn and thus save time. Let me explain how to do this.
Let's say your party is Cloud, Barret and Cid and you're fighting Proud Clod,
using Magic Breath to deal damage. Proud Clod attacks Cloud and he gets a limit
break. Now you have an opportunity to act four times before it's Proud Clod's
turn again. To make this work, you must have Cloud act first and then the
others. Let's say you have Barret act second and then Cid. Cloud will now cast
Magic Breath first and his ATB bar will start filling up when it's Barret's
turn. Then Barret casts Magic Breath and by the time he's done, Cloud's ATB bar
should be full. Then it's Cid's turn, and now it's time to activate Cloud's
limit break. Just make sure you don't activate it too early, or he will use it
before Cid's turn. Do it when Cid starts moving and you see the text "Magic
Breath" at the top of the screen. After Cid is done casting Magic Breath, Cloud
will use his limit break and you successfully got four turns in a row.
That's how it works. Test it out in a regular battle a couple of times, and
you'll easily learn how to handle it. It's not very complicated after all. Just
take note that when you're fighting on the highest battle speed, which you must
do in a Speed Run, you don't necessarily have to let the character who got a
limit break act first. Since the ATB gauge fills pretty fast, you can let this
character act second and still be able to use the limit break before it's the
enemy's turn again.
Note: This only works with ATB at Active. We change to Recommended and Wait a
few times during the run, so it won't work then.
To do or not to do?
#####################
You can only do the necessary things in order to proceed with the story. You
have no time to visit places you don't have to, like the Chocobo Farm, Gongaga,
the Shinra Mansion and so on. But why would you anyway? I have gotten a couple
of emails from people saying they've beaten the game in 15 hours, but they did
this and that sidequest. Seriously, folks, this is a Speed Run, and in a Speed
Run, your goal is to beat the game as fast as possible. Why the hell do you
want to do sidequests? If you love the sidequests so much, then beat the game
regularly, or save before you do them and then load up afterwards.
Also, you can only pick up the necessary items like the Fire Ring, Bolt Armlet,
Ribbon and so on. In some cases, we will spend time getting a certain item, but
don't worry; the item will make up for the time spent getting it, or else we
wouldn't have gotten it in the first place. There will be some shopping as
well, but mostly for items and materia. All the equipment we need will either
be found or won from enemies, except for one weapon, the Force Stealer, which
is bought in North Corel.
Speed is the key!
###################
This is a Speed Run, so speed is naturally the key to success. If you play
racing games, you should know that you have to cut every turn as correctly as
possible in order to save time. Think racing in the fields and take the
shortest course. Doing so could prevent a battle and saving you 20 seconds, if
not more, so this is not for perfectionists only.
Patience, my friend! Patience!
################################
If you want to achieve the best times, you will have to play certain parts over
and over again until you get the best results. And in some cases, there are
loads of things to do between a save and a boss fight that requires some luck
for the best result. Palmer and Red Dragon can be mentioned. If the battle
fails, you have to go through tons of cutscenes and dialogues before you get
another try. Carry Armor is an even better example, as you have to fight two
battles before you can take a shot at him, and many things can go wrong in
these battles as well. Of course, the amount of patience needed depends on how
fast you want to beat the game. If you have no patience at all, a Speed Run is
definitely not for you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4 <> Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This section contains questions that have been or may be asked. If you have a
question you think should be added here send me an email. Read section 5.2 for
info on how to contact me. Needless to say, only good questions will be added.
Q: What's the best time possible for the final save?
A: Last time I said 8:30 if you're unbelieveably skilled, faster than the
lightning and have more luck than you could possibly imagine. Of course I'm
skilled and fast and all that, but the only thing really needed were better
strategies. As of right now, I have no idea what the best time possible is,
but I hope it's possible to beat the 8 hours mark.
Q: What's the best time possible for beating the game?
A: Same as above, but at least I know the game can be beaten in 8:30. I'll
guess 8:15 for now.
Q: Just how good is your record?
A: My current record is not that great. After all, it was only a test run, so I
didn't put much effort into it. First timers will have a hard time beating
it, but you can easily beat it if you're good.
Q: What about Cait Sith's Slots. Can I use them to instantly kill all bosses?
A: No, you can't. Using an instant win attacks is the only thing you can't do
in a Speed Run. Just like Zanmato in FFX. Why, you may ask? Because we use
skills, speed and strategy in a Speed Run, and an instant win attack isn't a
strategy. We have discussed this matter, and our conclusion is that you can
achieve a better result by using the Slots, but not a much better one.
The Japanese Ultimania dudes have completed a Slot Run. Time: 7:26:37 and I
think it was the time at the final save (not a 100% sure here). Also, the
Japanese version is shorter by an unknown amount of time, as described in
section 1.5, so that time can't be compared with my NTSC time.
Q: Is there any way to skip dialogues, cutscenes and FMVs?
A: I don't know if you can do this even with a gameshark, but you're not
supposed to anyway. In a Speed Run, you play the game legitimately and any
use of a cheating device is considered cheating. Text must be skipped by
tapping the action button and all cutscenes and FMVs are to be watched
normally. I know you can skip the FMVs in FFIX by opening the hatch/disc
tray, but that's plain cheating in my opinion. And no, it doesn't work with
FFVII. Thank God.
Q: Will the timer stop if I pause the game in battles?
A: Yes, it will. If you need a break and haven't saved for a long time, then
pause the game during battle. There are no other ways to stop the timer.
Don't ever leave the game in the middle of a dialogue or a cutscene. My
phone once rang at Aerith's house when "listening" to Elmyra's story, and I
had no other choice but to leave the game and then restart afterwards. Make
sure nothing will interrupt you when you do this challenge. You can also
pause the snowboard minigame.
Q: How do you get the seconds for your save times?
A: After saving, I note down the seconds shown by the timer when I get back to
the menu again. If you load a file and open the menu at once, it will show
three seconds more than this. If the seconds are between 00 and 02, for
example 2:07:02, the save file will say 2:06 when you load the file. After
saving at the end of discs, I open the menu at once on the next disc and
then note down the seconds shown.
Q: I don't have a PS/PS2. Can I use the PC version for this challenge as well?
A: Yes, you can, but take note that the PC version is faster than the PS
version, so you can never compare your times with mine. It's hard to say
exactly how much faster it is, and it could depend on how fast your PC is as
well, but I'm not sure about that. However, if you use the PC version, you
have to make sure to play on low resolution, as the timer seems to be very
slow if you play on high resolution. Lolo told me that 60 seconds on the
timer was actually 144, and I don't want any emails from people saying
they've made it in 4 hours... :p
There is a small issue regarding random battles for PC runners. On the way
to the save point at Mt. Corel, you have to get into a battle with two Bombs
on the bridge right before it. Farry2069 ran into some trouble here. When he
first got here, he didn't get a battle with two Bombs on the bridge. Then,
every time he loaded up to try again, he get the exact same battle on the
way there, so he simply couldn't get a battle with two Bombs on the bridge.
Thankfully, he found a solution to the problem too. When you get into the
undesired (the battle you get instead of the 2x Bomb battle), make sure to
kill your party so that you return to the title screen and load up. The
battles should change. If you close the program instead of killing yourself,
the battles won't change. If you don't get the right battle now, you must
kill the party again and load up from the title screen. Do that until you
get the right battle. Once you quit the program, the original battles will
return, including the undesired one.
Q: If I use a PS2, does it make a difference if I set Disc Speed to Fast and
Texture Mapping to Smooth?
A: Yes, it does. BrutalAl did some research and this is what he found out:
I placed myself at the entrance of the 2nd house to the left in Kalm and ran
inside, up the stairs, then down and out again. I repeated this procedure
ten times in a row and then noticed how long it took me with the different
PS2 settings.
Disc Speed Fast, Texture Mapping Smooth: ~78 sec
Disc Speed Standard, Texture Mapping Standard: ~107 sec
My “course” consisted of 40 screen load-ups so Disc Speed Fast saved me
~0.75 sec per screen load in this test. I also did another test where I just
ran back and forth between two screens and in that test Disc Speed Fast
saved me 0.9 sec per screen load (20 load-ups, 40 sec compared to 58).
Also, I didn’t do a full test of this but I did notice that the difference
between Standard and Fast Disc Speed when I…
-Loaded a save (on the world map)
-Ran into Kalm
-Ran into the Inn and then directly out again
-Opened the menu
…was more than 6 seconds on the menu timer.
I tried to determine if Texture Mapping Standard or Smooth was the fastest
but I couldn’t come to an apparent conclusion, though some differences were
observed. The longer course took 78 sec to run on average with Smooth and 79
on average with Standard. The shorter course seemed to average just below 40
sec with Smooth and just above 40 sec with Standard.
Conclusion: Make sure to set Disc Speed to Fast and Texture Mapping to
Smooth before you start playing. Just take note that the PS2 resets these
settings every time you turn it off, so you have to do it every time you
turn it on.
Q: What's a perfect run?
A: As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as a perfect run. That's just
what we call a near-perfect run. The purpose of a near-perfect run is to do
things as perfect as possible and that's why we call it a perfect run. Read
section 1.6 for more info and if you want to do this challenge.
A true perfect run would mean only necessary saves (saving to avoid random
encounters), the least amount of random encounters possible and all of them
had to be escaped at once, before you got attacked by the enemies. You would
also have to beat all bosses as fast as possible, using Cait Sith's Dice for
maximum damage whenever that would be possible. And the list goes on. You
couldn't do it even with all the luck in the world.
Q: What are the ODINS and HDINS Challenges?
A: ODINS = One Day In No Saves. Objective: Start a timer at the exact moment
you select a new game and defeat the last Sephiroth within 24 hours without
saving. You are not allowed to pause the timer, so anything you do in the
meantime will be included in the final time. I'm sure anyone who has beaten
the game at least five times should be able to pull this off without too
much trouble. As long as you know what to do and where to go in order to
proceed with the story, and you don't waste any time doing unneccessary
things, you should have more than enough time to level up for bosses you
think might be a problem. You don't have time to fight every random battle
you get into, but spend some time fighting in areas with good battles. Just
make sure you defeat the enemies as quickly as possible.
HDINS = Half Day In No Saves. Same rules as ODINS, but the time limit is 12
hours. Needless to say, this is A LOT tougher. This challenge is for experts
only and it requires good speed run skills and full knowledge of the game
from beginning to end. You have to be prepared for every thinkable situation
and you must know exactly what to do if something should go wrong. Most
importantly, you have to know exactly how to deal with all the bosses. If
you don't come prepared for a boss, you will most likely watch the game over
screen after a short time and that hurts if you've come far. Since you can't
save, you have to make sure the strategies don't require any luck at all.
Many of the strategies in this FAQ require luck, but with some adjustments,
you can use most of them in this challenge. I won't go into details, as you
should be able to figure it out on your own if you think you're good enough
to do this challenge. I'll give you a tip, though: Learn Magic Hammer!
You can also add other restrictions to the ODINS Challenge. Thundaka has
beaten both NIIENA ODINS and NMIENA ODINS, but those are for true experts
only. Adding No Materia should be more than enough for regular players.
Q: We use Tifa to deal major damage in pretty much every battle starting Red
Dragon. Why is she able to deal so much damage with the Powersoul?
A: Because of the weapon's mechanics. When you check the weapon in the menu, it
says that it deals more damage when near-death, but she also deals more
damage if she's under Death Sentence. It works like this:
Critical (yellow) HP: 2x damage
Death Sentence: 4x damage
Deathblow: 2x damage
Together, that's 16 times normal damage. Deathblow also ignores back row, so
it's 32 times back row damage. Awesome, huh? And in addition, we equip her
with armor and accessories to boost her strength. This is what makes Tifa
the ultimate killing machine.
Q: What's the "Wait Trick"?
A: First of all, ATB must be at Wait for this to work.
The Wait Trick abuses the fact that all ATB bars will freeze (both yours
and the enemies) when you are navigating in any battle sub-menu (e.g. magic,
item, limit, “select target”). Normally, commands will queue up and be
executed in the order they were entered. Only after the command has been
executed that character's (or enemy's) ATB gauge can begin to refill.
Now, let’s say we’ve got these two commands queued (in this order):
1. Enemy – Attack
2. Tifa – Deathblow
While the enemy is executing his Attack have Cloud force a WAIT by entering
the Item menu, this will freeze all ATB gauges but queued commands will
still be executed. Normally the enemy's ATB gauge would start to refill once
he is done with his Attack, but since we are forcing a WAIT it will remain
empty even during Tifa's Deathblow. When Tifa's Deathblow is over both the
enemy's and Tifa's ATB gauge will be empty. Now we “remove” the forced WAIT
by simply exiting the Item menu, and as long as Tifa's bar fills quicker
than enemy's, she’ll get to execute another, second, command before the
enemy gets to act again.
The Wait Trick is first used in the Mighty Grunt battle on the 59th floor of
the Shinra HQ and then in some late disc 2 battles, like The Turks and Proud
Clod. Check the videos for these battles if you want to see how it works.
Q: What's the deal with the music in the videos? That melody is not from FFVII!
A: Most of the videos are done by lolo26 and he usually adds something else
than the regular boss or battle music to them. Some melodies are from other
FF games, some are from animes and he occasionally uses something by The
Black Mages. Just ask on Youtube if you want to know what melody he uses in
a certain video.
In case you don't know, The Black Mages is a band featuring Nobuo Uematsu
himself on keyboard, that plays heavy metal versions of FF melodies. They
are really awesome, so I recommend you to check them out.
Q: Why do you call her Aerith? Her name is Aeris!
A: Don't even start. You can call her whatever the hell you want, but I will
always call her Aerith in my FAQs. Why? Because I'm used to it. I was once
told that Aeris was a mistranslation and that Aerith was correct, so I
started calling her that and now I'm used to it. However, I was later told
that it's not a mistranslation after all and both names apparently are
correct. But then again, they changed it back to Aerith in Kingdom Hearts
and that's my argument for still calling her that today, except for being
used to it. They didn't change it back without a reason. In a Speed Run,
however, you have to shorten her name to "A" to save a few seconds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5 <> PAL And NTSC Differences
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The differences between PAL and NTSC cause so much trouble for this challenge
that I decided to give them an own section. I'm not planning to go into details
explaining what PAL and NTSC is, but I can tell you that PAL is the system used
in Europe and NTSC is used in North America and Japan. I believe Australia,
Africa and parts of South America use PAL as well, but I'm not sure. Let me
know if you can confirm this. Anyway, you can just look at your game to find
out what version you have. It says either PAL or NTSC in the upper left corner.
Now let me tell you exactly what causes the trouble. PAL runs on 50 Hz and NTSC
on 60 Hz. I'm not going into details here either, but at least I'll tell you
what causes the trouble. Because of the frequency differences, the PAL version
is 1,2 times slower than the NTSC version. At first we didn't think this was
such a big deal. Alright, so the PAL version is 1,2 times slower. It only means
that PAL gamers spend more time playing than NTSC gamers, but there is no way
you can tell from looking at the clock in the game, as the clock is 1,2 times
slower as well. God, how I wish it was that easy.
Then Bergqvist mentioned something about the FMVs. He found out that the FMVs
are run at the same speed in both PAL and NTSC versions. Now that's a problem.
In the PAL version, FMVs are run at NTSC speed, but the clock is still 1,2
times slower. This is an advantage for PAL gamers, as they will gain the length
of the FMV divided by 1,2. PAL gamers already have a 20 seconds advantage after
the opening FMV because of this. Of course, this isn't fair for NTSC gamers, so
I had to invent the PAL Gamers Penalty, so that PAL and NTSC gamers could be
able to compare their times with each others.
To find out how much the PAL Gamers Penalty was, I had to calculate how much
time the PAL gamers gained from all the FMVs throughout the game. Lolo gave me
a complete list of FMVs and their lenghts so that I could do the calculations
and it turned out to be 5 minutes and 37 seconds. So, when PAL gamers have
beaten the game, they have to add 5 minutes and 37 seconds to their time to be
able to compare their result with NTSC gamers.
That's not all, though. After beating Jenova-SYNTHESIS, you get to open the
menu a last time to check your time, but after that you no longer have a game
clock to tell you the time. You have to use a stopwatch to find out how much
time you spend beating Bizarro, Safer and Sephiroth himself. As I said, the
game isn't considered beaten until Sephiroth himself is defeated. Anyway, NTSC
gamers can simply add the time shown on the stopwatch to their final save time,
but it's not that simple for PAL gamers. Since the game is 1,2 times slower,
they have to divide the time from the stopwatch with 1,2 before they can add it
to the time shown by the game clock after Bizarro.
God, why do different parts of the world have to have different systems? It
makes things so damn complicated. I say the whole world should have used the
NTSC system. It's not fair that the parts of the world that uses PAL must play
games at a 1,2 times slower speed than the rest of the world. Damnit.
It must also be mentioned that people using the Japanese version of the game
have an advantage. As you most likely know, they use these symbols instead of
regular letters and since the amount of symbols is much smaller than the amount
of letters, you will gain time every time there's text to skip. I have no idea
how much, though, but it can't be 'that' much.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6 <> Perfect Run Info
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You think a regular run is too easy? You want to compete with the best and
achieve a best possible time? Or maybe you just want to test your patience? In
any case, a Perfect Run is what you seek.
A Perfect Run is a Speed Run for experts, but it doesn't really require much
more skills than a regular Speed Run. The biggest difference is the amount of
luck and patience needed. In most cases, you can do a few changes in a boss
strategy and save a varied amount of time, but in most cases, these changes
also increase the amount of luck needed drastically.
Since a perfect run has different strategies, you also have to buy different
things and use different setups for battles. This FAQ is written for both
regular and perfect runners, so you will find all the info you need here in
order to complete a Perfect Run. The stuff only perfect runners have to read is
separated with lines of stars.
*******************************************************************************
Like this.
*******************************************************************************
So if you're doing a regular run, you don't have to read this stuff. In boss
strategies, perfect strategies are found at the bottom, below a line of stars.
Just let me warn you before you start a Perfect Run. It requires A LOT of
patience and a lot of time. Although the timer will say 8 hours or less at the
final save, that's only a tiny bit of the time you've spent playing. It takes
at least 100 hours and probably over 200. . If you had patience issues in a
regular run, a Perfect Run is not for you. I won't take any responsibility for
people going insane. You have been warned.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================================
2 - Walkthrough: Midgar
===============================================================================
Some important notes before you start:
Read and understand the walkthrough up to the next save point before you start
playing, so that you know what to do WHEN playing. You can't just leave the
game and check the guide in case you're not sure what to do. Of course, you can
pause the game in battle, so it's not that important in areas with random
encounters or if a boss battle is coming up.
Also, you always have to make sure everyone is alive at the end of battles. If
someone gets killed and doesn't receive EXP, you have no choice but to restart.
And finally, if you use a PS2, make sure Disc Speed is set to Fast and Texture
Mapping is set to Smooth before you start playing. As I said in section 1.3,
these settings reset every time you reset the console.
When you're ready, just select "NEW GAME" and watch the intro FMV.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1 <> The First Mission
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before we start playing, we have to do some configurations in the menu. Start
tapping the menu button after Barret tells you to follow him and the menu will
open at the earliest point possible. Depending on what version you have, the
timer will now show you one of the following times:
PC - 2:17
PAL - 2:03
NTSC - 2:23
As you can see, you already have a 20 seconds advantage before you even start
playing if you use the PAL version. Since I used the NTSC version for this
run, you'll have no trouble beating my time at the first save point if you use
the PAL version, but logically enough, you have to beat it by more than 20
seconds to actually 'beat' it.
Anyway, enter the "Config" menu and set Cursor to Memory, ATB to Active and all
the speed bars at the fastest. After doing the configurations, just run
straight ahead and the first battle will soon be a fact.
###############################################################################
B01: MP x2
###############################################################################
Just hold the attack button down until the battle is over.
*******************************************************************************
The MPs can attack you either once, twice or three times, depending on how much
your ATB bar is filled when the battle starts. Perfect runners can only accept
one attack, and for that to happen, your ATB bar must be filled more than the
soldiers'. Of course, there's no way you can tell how much the soldiers' bars
are filled, so just hold the attack button down and hope for the best.
###############################################################################
Leave the Platform through the open door and head over to the members of
Avalanche. Talking will start automatically.
[skip text]
This includes naming Cloud and Barret. As I said in the intro, you have to
shorten the names to one digit in order to save time. Just tap X until there's
one letter left and then push start and the action button. Holding X is faster,
but make sure not to hold it too long, to avoid erasing all the letters. Cloud
will automatically move on to the next area when the talking is over.
Make your way to the reactor. You'll get your first random encounter on the
bridges, most likely by the junction, but of course, it all depends on how fast
you are. In the next area, just head over to the crew and talking will start.
[skip text]
Talk to Biggs to open the first door and Jessie to open the second door and the
elevator. Quickly push the button inside the elevator to move down. If you're
fast enough, you can push the button and get the message "switch on" before
Jessie tells you to push it.
[skip text]
Run out of the elevator and follow Jessie down the stairs. You can pass her if
you're fast enough, but she'll be in front of you again in the next area either
way. Here, follow her and talk to her before jumping on the ladder. Then move
on until you reach the bottom, but don't pick up the Potion now, as you have to
pick it up on the way back up anyway.
*******************************************************************************
If you're too fast, saving before Guard Scorpion won't make the next battle
disappear. This happened to lolo in his test run, but we couldn't understand
why. Then it happened to me as well, and I knew there could only be one reason.
We were being too fast. Your third random encounter will come on the pipe over
the save point, and if you've paid attention, you'll know that it says "M-3"
where it curves. If you get the battle after the "3", the saving trick won't
work, so if that happens, you have to make sure to "waste" some time before
saving. Don't run straight to the save point after descending the ladder, but
run along the fence instead. That did the trick for me. Even though we only
lose two seconds at most, I find this damn annoying. It's just ridiculous.
*******************************************************************************
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 7:02
Rec. time (10h): 7:50
Rec. time (12h): 9:25
This is the first time we save to avoid a random encounter, so don't forget to
soft-reset and load up before you continue on.
*******************************************************************************
The perfect strategy against Guard Scorpion won't work if your magic stat is
too low. I'm not sure how high it should be, but you must be able to deal at
least 90 damage on average.
*******************************************************************************
Pick up the Restore Materia in the next area and move on a little bit further
to trigger the cutscenes.
[skip text]
It's time to fight the first boss, the almighty Guard Scorpion. Big surprise.
###############################################################################
B02: Guard Scorpion
###############################################################################
You need both Cloud and Barret to have a limit break after this battle, to make
sure the battle with Air Buster gets as short as possible. Don't worry, I've
made a strategy for you, but for this strategy to work, Cloud must get a limit
break before GS raises the tail. If you're lucky, one Scorpion Tail is enough,
but you'll most likely have to take two attacks. In case you don't know, GS
will use Search Scope on a character and then attack the target with either
Rifle or Scorpion Tail, and he will do this twice before he raises the tail.
You will most likely have to restart a couple of times, but it doesn't matter,
as you just saved anyway.
Cloud and Barret will have four turns each before GS raises his tail. Have
Cloud cast Bolt and Barret attack regularly, in that order, and make sure to
use Cloud's limit break at once when he gets it. Yes, by taking advantage of
the limit break system so that he uses it before it's GS's turn again.
When GS raises his tail, have Barret defend and Cloud cast Bolt. Guess what GS
does. Now comes the most important part. Have Cloud cast Bolt again and have
Barret select the attack command, but don't attack just yet. Just make sure
he's aiming at GS until he lowers the tail again. Barret will get a limit break
now, but since you selected the attack command before he got it, he will only
attack regulary when you push the action button. Well, when GS lowers his tail,
have Barret attack and Cloud cast Bolt again and Guard Scorpion's days will be
over for this time.
A few notes:
* If Barret's ATB bar is almost full when the battle start, have him attack.
If he gets a shot at GS before he uses Search Scope, you will get an easier
battle, as Barret won't have to attack after GS lowers the tail again.
* You may not be able to defeat him after Cloud's last Bolt if your stats are
too low. Yes, your stats will vary from time to time when you start a new
game, and it also varies how much they increase at level up. Example: Cloud
once did 84-88 damage with Bolt, but another time he did 92-96. I suggest
restarting from the beginning if your stats are too low.
* If GS attacks both Cloud and Barret with Scorpion tail, they might both get
limit breaks before he raises the tail. Sure, you can use both, but then you
have to let Barret attack twice when the tail is raised as you'll kill him
too early if you use Bolt. If Barret got to attack before GS's first turn,
and both Cloud and Barret get to use their limit breaks before the tail is
raised, you will kill him too early either way.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners only need Cloud to have a limit break after the battle. Make
sure Barret gets to use a limit break before the tail is raised and then have
him defend. Now have Cloud cast Bolt once and GS will do what he usually does
when the tail is raised. Then have Cloud cast Bolt and Barret attack again. If
your stats are high enough, he will be dead now. Cloud's magic stat must be at
least 25 for this strategy to work.
If it's lower, you can need either Cloud or Barret to get an attack in before
GS uses his first Search Scope. Logically enough, you'll lose a couple of
seconds because you need an extra attack.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5RjhvRZPco
A quicker, but more luck requiring strategy is to make sure Barret gets to use
two limit breaks. For this strategy to work, GS must use Scorpion Tail on him
twice. On the fourth turn, wait until you know what attack he will use until
you select Cloud's action. If he uses Scorpion Tail, you can have him attack
regularly instead of casting Bolt for the next two turns. Since the animation
for the Bolt spell is much longer than that of a regular attack, you'll save a
few seconds. However, the damage dealt by the second Scorpion Tail and Tail
Laser might not be enough to fill up Barret's limit bar. If it doesn't, you can
just hit the reset button. Since you already had Cloud attack regularly twice,
there's no way you can beat GS in time without another limit break by Barret.
If Cloud's magic is 25 or 26, Barret must attack regularly four times during
the battle. If it's lower, he must attack five times.
If Cloud's magic is 26 and Barret's strength 21, which both are the highest
possible, you can defeat him after Cloud's last Bolt. But if you already have
these stats, there's a strategy that's around 30 seconds faster! Of course,
this strategy requires too much luck. It goes like this: First of all, you need
one or both of the characters to get in an attack before the first Search
Scope. If you only get in one, you need one of Barret's attacks to go critical.
Then, you need GS to attack both Cloud and Barret and Barret must get a limit
break. And here comes the best part: This limit break must go critical! Yeah,
that's very likely to happen. Here's a video of a successful attempt, recorded
by BrutalAl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrLulxPm4Tg
Cloud's magic stat must be 26 for this battle to work, but you don't need
perfect strength stats. I'm not sure what the minimum required amount is. If
you manage to pull this off, you should save after the battle. You still save
around 20 seconds, something you easily can lose on the long way to the next
save point.
*******************************************************************************
Wow, I wrote that much about Guard Scorpion? Damn...
###############################################################################
[skip text]
It's time to head back and make sure you hurry cause you only have ten minutes!
Well, if you're fast enough, you can make it with more than eight minutes left
on the timer. Make sure to pick up the Potion and talk to Jessie on your way
up, or else you won't get anywhere. After riding the elevator, talk to Jessie
to open the first door and Biggs to open the second. When you leave this area,
the game will run automatically until you get to control Cloud in Sector 8.
[skip text]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 <> Aftermath
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Climb the stairs to enter the next area. Cloud will go talk to a certain girl
here, but unfortunately, we have to disappoint her by not buying a flower this
time. You can't be nice all the time, eh? Of course, the main reason is that
you save time.
[skip text]
Follow her to the next area and continue on until you encounter the MPs. Don't
bother picking up the Potion, as you really don't need it. Needless to say, you
don't have time to fight the MPs, so make sure to choose "later", which is the
second option. You have to do this three times before Cloud jumps on the train.
[skip text]
Inside the train, you get to control Cloud again after Jessie cleans his face.
Just follow the others to the next car.
[skip text]
Go talk to Jessie when you get to control Cloud again.
*******************************************************************************
This can be a little tricky. Jessie is standing between Wedge and the entrance
to the next car. If you run too far, Cloud will attempt to enter the next car,
and then the conductor will come running, telling you that you're bothering the
other passengers. However, if you don't run far enough, you might talk to Wedge
instead of Jessie. I really hate this part, and I don't know how many times
I've screwed up here, but I guess all I can say for advise is to pratice it.
*******************************************************************************
[skip text]
Approach Barret and talking will start automatically.
[skip text]
The train will arrive at the station in Sector 7 after the FMV and you get to
control Cloud after he jumps out of the train. Just run down to the others.
[skip text]
I recommend you to save here if this is your first Speed Run, since it's a long
time until the next "mandatory" save. Then enter town and talk to Barret when
all the others have entered the 7th Heaven. Tifa is the last one to enter, and
there's no point talking to him before she's inside.
[skip text]
You have to name Tifa during this one. Don't forget to shorten her name. This
is the last time I say this, so you're on your own from now on. Head back to
the door after talking and Barret will come running.
[skip text]
Take the elevator down to the hideout and approach Barret.
[skip text]
Start moving back and Tifa will come.
[skip text]
Then take the elevator upstairs and move just ahead towards the exit. Tifa will
soon come up for some talking. This includes the flashback and Barret giving
you the money.
[skip text]
After sleeping, Cloud will wake up in the basement. Head back up and talk to
Barret. You have to be careful now, because Barret will ask you to give him a
materia tutorial, and you have to select the bottom alternative to prevent
that. This is what Barret says:
"Our next target's the Sector 5 Reactor. Head for the station first. I'll
fill you in on the train. Yo! Cloud! Before the next mission, I got somethin' I
wanna ask you! I, uh, ......I don't really know how to use Materia! I'll give
you that Materia you found. Just teach me how to use it!"
Then you get to select options and make sure you select the bottom one. Leave
town and enter the train when you get to control Cloud again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3 <> The Second Mission
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[skip text]
You get to control Cloud again after Tifa tells you to come over and look at
the monitor. Just run over to her and talking will start automatically.
[skip text]
The alarm goes off, and it's time to escape. If you're fast enough, you can
leave this car before the timer shows up at all.
[skip text]
We're leaving the train now, but since we have 15 seconds to spend, we might as
well take the opportunity to equip Barret with his Assault Gun. We don't lose
any time doing this, as the timer still runs when using the menu, and we have
to wait for it to reach 0 anyway. Talk to the man standing on the left side
afterwards and choose the first option to receive a Hi-Potion. Then wait until
the timer reaches zero.
[ship text]
Now, attempt to enter the next car and you'll be forced to jump off the train.
[ship text]
Start heading north, and make sure to run close to the wall on the right side
to save time. After four screens, you'll reach the security sensors and you'll
have one line of text to skip. Then find the entrance to the duct on the left
side and select the second option to enter.
Inside, pick up the Ether and keep moving on until you reach the plate area.
Here, climb up the first ladder, crawl through the shaft and climb down the
ladder on the left side in the area with Jessie. Then continue on until you
reach the bottom of the reactor.
[skip text]
Plant the bomb and head back to the save point. This save will also make the
next random encounter go away, so don't forget to load up after saving.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 31:16
Rec. time (10h): 34:52
Rec. time (12h): 41:50
Head back up after saving. You know where to go. Pick up the Ether after riding
the elevator and enter the room to the left for the lovely panel challenge.
You will lose plenty of time here if you keep screwing up, so you should do
some practice first. My trick is to count quickly to five, but this is
something you have to figure out on your own. I can tell you that Barret and
Tifa push the panels 1,5 seconds after you skip the line of text. It's actually
very easy when you get a hang of it, but it's up to you to decide how many
attempts to accept. You lose around 6-7 seconds for each attempt. BTW, how come
Barret and Tifa always push the panels at the same time? Are they able to read
each others minds or something?
Saving here won't make the next encounter go away, but if you had a really hard
time with the panels, then you're free to save. Then just continue on until the
soldiers show up on the bridges.
[skip text]
The President will, as usual, send Air Buster on you.
###############################################################################
B03: Air Buster
###############################################################################
Just hold the attack button down and Barret, Cloud and Tifa will attack in that
order. Unless you have bad luck with the damage dealt by the limit breaks, the
battle will be over after Tifa's attack. Just have Cloud attack one more time
if that happens. Easiest battle so far.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners need Cloud's limit break to go critical, so that the battle
gets as short as possible. I have no idea what the chance for that to happen
is, but I have gotten critical limit breaks more often in this battle than any
other battles. Once, both Cloud and Barret's limit break went critical in the
same battle. Just hold the action button and Barret will open with a regular
attack. Air Buster will counter and then Cloud will kill him with his limit
break if it goes critical. That is, if his strength is high enough. If it's too
low, you must have Tifa attack as well. If the limit break doesn't go critical,
you know what to do.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKWCjr1iO0
###############################################################################
[skip text]
That's it for the reactor missions. We're going back to the slums again.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 <> Back To The Slums
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the explosion, Cloud falls down to the slums and the screen goes black.
[skip text]
You get to control Cloud after a while. Just talk to Aerith. She's standing to
the right of Cloud now.
[skip text]
Talk to her again. Now, she's standing in front of Cloud. This time, you also
have to name her.
[skip text]
After a while, Reno and his men will show up. Approach them and Aerith will say
one line. Then go back and talk to her.
[skip text]
You get to control Cloud again in the back room, and it's time to escape the
church. Just move on. Talking will start automatically when you reach the gap.
[skip text]
Aerith will fall and the soldiers will attack. Tell her "RUN" the first time,
which is the third and bottom option. Then head up to the barrel on the top of
the screen, or at twelve o'clock if you want, and wait there until the second
soldier attacks. Tell her "hold on" this time and then push the barrel. Tell
her "RUN" again when the last soldier attacks and just wait until she reaches
the top and the screen changes to another view. You'll have one line to skip
here before the screen changes again. Then you get to control Cloud again, and
you're free to leave the church.
[skip text]
Control Cloud through the scrap area by tapping the left direction button.
Aerith will fall behind and you have to wait for her.
[skip text]
Continue running to the left and you'll end up on the streets.
[skip text]
Just head for town and Aerith's house and pick up the items in Aerith's garden.
It's an Ether and a Cover Materia, to be more precise. Talking will start
automatically when you enter the house.
[skip text]
Run upstairs.
[skip text]
Time to leave. Cloud will walk automatically out of the bedroom, and if you
push the action buttom when passing by the bag, you will be able to pick up the
Potion and Phoenix Down when he's walking, thus not losing time picking them
up. Then walk slowly downstairs and make sure to stay away from Aerith's door,
or she'll bust you. When you get out, it's time to save. Don't forget to load
the file before you move on.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 44:50
Rec. time (10h): 50:00
Rec. time (12h): 1:00:00
Before we leave for the Wall Market, it's time to do some shopping. Enter the
caravan and talk to the woman to the right.
Sell: Everything in your inventory!
Buy: 68 Grenades.
You can't spend all the money on Grenades because you need 280 Gil to buy
various stuff at the Wall Market. Leave town when you're done shopping and
Aerith will be waiting for you outside the gate to Sector 6. Just approach her
to trigger the cutscenes.
[skip text]
Just get through this area as fast as possible.
[skip text]
Follow Aerith and talk to her when she stops moving.
[skip text]
Proceed to the Wall Market.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5 <> Wall Market
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, we're gonna have Corneo choose Cloud as his date for tonight. To make
that happen, we have to get a few more items than usual and many things have to
be done in order to get them. But why are we having Corneo choose Cloud, you
may ask. Don't we lose a lot of time getting all the extra items? The answer is
no. If Cloud is chosen, you're taken directly to Corneo's room, but if one of
the girls are chosen, you have to fight Corneo's Lackeys and that takes a
while. Lolo tested both options and found out that it's 30 seconds faster when
Cloud gets chosen.
You'll have one line to skip before you get to control Cloud. To make this
easier, I'll make a list with all the things to do, point for point with
numbers. There will be one or more lines of text to skip at the end of each
step. Don't screw this up now.
1. Go ask the fat man in front of the Honeybee Inn about Tifa. That's the first
option, so just skip the text until he's done talking.
2. Go talk to the guy outside Corneo's mansion.
3. Enter the Boutique (clothing store) and talk to the girl behind the desk.
4. Enter the Materia Shop and talk to the man. Just skip the text and you'll
agree to do the favour.
5. Eat at the restaurant and tell them the food was all right. It's the second
option. You'll receive a Pharmacy Coupon. It doesn't matter what you eat.
6. Enter the Pharmacy and exchange the coupon for the Digestive, which is the
third and bottom option.
7. Sleep at the Inn and buy the drink for 200 Gil.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners should save now, as this is the last time you pass by the save
point. Saving after dressing up as Miss Cloud will cost you 6-7 seconds.
*******************************************************************************
8. Enter the Materia Shop again and talk to the man. He'll give you the Diamond
Tiara for doing the favour.
9. Enter the Bar and give the Digestive to the girl at the toilet. She'll grant
you the Sexy Cologne.
10. Talk to the owner of the Boutique and select the second option both times
when he asks what kind of dress you want.
11. Head back to the Boutique and talk to the owner behind the desk.
12. Enter the Gym and beat Big Bro in the squat contest. Select the second
option twice when talking. The price you get for winning the contest is the
Blonde Wig.
13. Head back to the Boutique again and enter the changing room. Cloud will now
change into Miss Cloud.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 55:09
Rec. time (10h): 1:01:32
Rec. time (12h): 1:13:51
Time to go pay a visit to Don Corneo. Talk to the man outside to enter.
[skip text]
Go upstairs and then downstairs to the basement to find Tifa. Approaching her
will trigger the cutscenes.
[skip text]
Pick up the ether and talk to Tifa.
[skip text]
Head back up and enter Corneo's office. Run ahead and to the right to trigger
the cutscenes.
[skip text]
Cloud will be chosen and you'll be taken directly to Corneo's back room for
some quality time. You'll have one line to skip before you can go talk to him,
but make sure to pick up the Hyper behind his bed first. Select the second
option twice to get things over with as soon as possible.
[skip text]
Head over to the girls when you get to control Cloud again.
[skip text]
Talk to Aerith and Tifa in that order. Aps will soon appear.
###############################################################################
B04: Aps
###############################################################################
Have the girls throw Grenades and Cloud cast Bolt in that order. Then have
everyone throw Grenades until the battle is over. Don't use any limit breaks.
Using the girls' limit breaks is a waste of time, and you have to save Cloud's
for later. Aps will use Sewer Tsunami three times with this strategy, but if
you're lucky and manage to throw a Grenade before he uses the first Tsunami, he
will only use the attack twice.
If you open the battle with three Grenades and then use Bolt on the next turn,
he will only use Sewer Tsunami twice. You can also have Cloud attack instead of
using Bolt, but then the attack must go critical. This strategy is faster than
the regular three Tsunami battle as long as he uses Tail Attack and not Lick
on the turn between the two Tsunamis. However, if you manage to throw a Grenade
before his first Tsunami, the original strategy is faster again, so needless to
say, perfect runners have to get a Grenade in before the first Tsunami.
Video (perfect battle): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvue8_8aYlY
###############################################################################
[skip text]
Get through the sewers and make sure to pick up the Steal Materia. Climbing
the ladder will take you to the Train Graveyard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6 <> Slums Revisited
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[skip text]
I would recommend saving here if you don't know exactly how to get through this
area. Then you can do some practice runs until you know exactly where to go and
what to do. Don't forget that you have to jump into the locomotives to move
them before you can leave. Also, make sure to pick up the Hi-Potion on the
first train. Things will happen automatically when you reach town.
[skip text]
We're saving here, no matter what. Make sure to load up before you move on.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 1:06:44
Rec. time (10h): 1:14:27
Rec. time (12h): 1:29:20
Then climb all the way up and talk to Barret.
[skip text]
Reno will be your next opponent.
###############################################################################
B05: Reno
###############################################################################
First have Cloud attack regularly and then throw Grenades until the battle is
over. Yes, Reno will open the battle by trapping one of the characters inside a
Pyramid, but just let the remaining characters take care of him. You will
actually lose time if you take out the Pyramid to free the trapped character.
If Cloud gets trapped and didn't get to attack first, just have Barret attack
instead on the next turn. The same goes if Cloud already has a limit break when
the battle begins. If both Cloud and Barret have limit breaks, you must have
Tifa attack. As long as you only use 7 Grenades, it doesn't matter.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners must have Tifa get trapped inside the Pyramid and you should
also make sure Cloud gets attacked all the time. That way, your party will have
as much HP as possible before the Shinra HQ. Cloud automatically gets healed
after the battle, so it doesn't matter if he loses HP. Needless to say, this
requires some luck, but hey, you just saved at the bottom of the pillar. Also,
take note that Electro-mag Rod might paralyze you and make you lose time.
Restart if that happens.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NnUlhKtc1w
###############################################################################
Talk to Tifa after the battle and then push the action button by the panel
after skipping one line of text. Tseng will show up.
[skip text]
You can control Cloud during this cutscene. Place him just in front of Barret.
Talk to him once the cutscene is over (or at least try to) and he'll find the
wire. You'll have one line to skip before they jump off.
[skip text]
Cloud will go on alone to the next area. Just move on and the others will soon
come running.
[skip text]
Head back to Aerith's house and listen to Elmyra's story. Just enter the house
and things will happen automatically.
[skip text]
Approach the door and Barret will come running down.
[skip text]
We're going back to the Wall Market again. You know how to get there. If you
aren't comfortable with the climbing, you should save when you get there and
then do some practice. Especially practice jumping on that swinging pole, as
you lose more than 10 seconds if you miss it. It makes a noise just before you
have to jump. Knowing that should make it easier. If you don't save, and keep
missing it, you'll end up losing a lot more time than the ~13 seconds you would
have lost if you saved. Also, remember that you only have to use two batteries.
Anyway, enter the Weapon Shop and talk to the man to the left. Just skip the
text and you'll buy the Batteries. Then follow the kids to the next area and
approach the wire.
[skip text]
What can I say? Just get through here as fast as possible. When you reach the
top, the party will automatically move on to the next area.
[skip text]
Whether you saved or not at the Wall Market, we're saving here. Make sure to
set ATB to Wait first.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 1:23:09
Rec. time (10h): 1:32:44
Rec. time (12h): 1:51:17
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.7 <> Shinra Headquarters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regular players can take the stairs, but perfect runners have to go in through
the main entrance and take the elevator. If you take the stairs, you should
pick up the Elixir in the fifth area. Also, the party will stop for some
talking in the sixth area and when you reach the top. At the top, Cloud will
automatically move on to the next area after talking.
*******************************************************************************
Depending on how many times you have to stop the elevator and how many times
you run into the Shinra guy, it can be up to 145 seconds faster than the
stairs. Unfortunately, the chance of getting the best outcome is only 1/1845. A
perfect runner should restart until he gets that outcome, but even if you are
lucky and get it, you still have a long way to go before you reach the next
save point and there are many things that can go wrong on the way there. First,
we have the Mighty Grunt battle, where the outcome varies from time to time,
depending on how many times the enemies get to attack. You also have to go
through several random battles on floor 65, and you already know that the
number of times you get attacked before you're able to escape varies. And on
top of everything, you might get nervous and do mistakes. The guards on floor
60 can be mentioned here. Sure, you can practice that part until you can do it
with your eyes closed, but if you just got a 1/1845 outcome in the elevator,
there's a chance you'll be a little nervous. I know I would be. In other words,
you might end up losing all the time you gained from the best outcome, and if
you already got the best outcome, there's no chance in hell you'll get it
again. No one is that lucky.
Thankfully, there are many other outcomes that are faster than the stairs, and
the chance you'll get one of these is around 1/5. That's not bad at all. You'll
face much worse odds later. These outcomes are faster than the stairs:
- 1 battle and 3/4 shinra employees
- 2 battles and 1/2/3/4 shinra employees
- 3 battles and 0/1 shinra employee
The best outcome is one battle and three shinra employees.
After entering the building, you'll have some text to skip and then a forced
battle with some Grenade Combatants. Here's how to take care of the enemies:
Moth Slasher: Grenade + Bolt or Bolt + Beat Rush
Hammer Blaster: Grenade + Bolt, Tifa attack + Bolt or Beat Rush + Bolt
Everything else: Grenades
You can also use Cloud's limit breaks instead of Grenades. Make sure to use it
as soon as possible. You can also use the Wait Trick (described in the FAQ
section (1.4) and in the Mighty Grunt battle below) to "remove" an enemy attack
and thus save time.
Note: You can't use more than 9 Grenades in total before you reach floor 59.
Note 2: Before doing anything, you should play ahead and see if you get a
random encounter after the Mighty Grunts battle on floor 59. If you do, you
won't be able to escape it and that's bad for several reasons. You can only
encounter Mighty Grunts on floor 59, and since they're harder to deal with than
the other enemies, you should run around on floor 1 and make sure you get the
battle there instead. You can't escape that one either, but at least you'll
have easier enemies to deal with.
*******************************************************************************
Floor 59
##########
Run straight ahead and the three Mighty Grunts will attack. There's one line to
skip before the battle starts.
###############################################################################
B06: Mighty Grunt x3
###############################################################################
We're going to use the Wait Trick in this battle. Have the first two characters
who get a turn throw Grenades at different targets and have the last character
select a Grenade and move the cursor to the enemy the others didn't attack.
Wait until you see the damage from the second Grenade before you confirm. Then
simply hold the action button until the battle is over.
Note: You should practice the Wait Trick before you attempt this battle for
real. You don't want to screw up here if you just had a great outcome in the
elevator. Once you get the hang of it, it's really simple.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30lDKZMvKqE
###############################################################################
Note: Make sure to set ATB back to Active before floor 65.
[skip text]
Enter the elevator to the right after picking up the keycard and push the
action button by the panel inside. Select floor 60, which is the third option.
Then talk to Barret and Tifa to proceed.
Floor 60
##########
After a short cutscene, you get to control Cloud from a kinda strange view.
Hold the direction up and right buttons down to exit this screen. Doing that
will bring you closer to the room on the left side when you get the regular
view of this floor. You save an entire second by doing this. Anyway, just enter
the room and there will be some talking. Cloud will automatically move outside
afterwards.
[skip text]
You know how this works. If you're spotted by the guards, you have to fight two
Mighty Grunts, attacking from both sides. You don't want that to happen. The
left side is easy, as the guards are only walking. You really suck if you get
spotted here. The right side, however, can be tricky even for experts, as the
guards are running and you have to act quickly when they start moving. To make
it easier, you should wait until there is no guard in front of the first open
area. Then you can simply start running when the guards start heading for the
other side. And by doing that, there will be no guard in front of the last open
area when you get there, but there will always be a guard in the middle. You
should really practice this if you aren't comfortable with it.
*******************************************************************************
If you're fast enough, you can cross the first area without stopping at all
with Cloud and only take one break with Barret and Tifa. Then you only have to
stop once with Cloud and Barret on the other side, but Tifa must stop twice.
This is something you really have to practice for the major run.
*******************************************************************************
[skip text]
Floor 61
##########
Proceed to the next floor. The man that will give you the keycard to floor 62
is walking around in the room, and you'll find him to the left of the elevator
when you enter the floor. Talk to him and select the second option to receive
the keycard. Then proceed to the next floor. Use the stairs.
Floor 62
##########
Great news! BrutalAl discovered a quick way to find out what the password is!
These are his words:
So, after having mapped every shelf for every password, luck would have it that
one out of all those 24 shelfs actually did have a unique title for each
password, and the lost time for reading it is only 4.5sec! The Magic Shelf is
in the 'Space Dev. Research Library' (Green Shelfs, Blue floor). It's on the
left side of the middle bookshelf and the magic titles are as follows:
BEST - 2 Economic report: Space Dev Program
KING - 1 Results of failed space mission "YA-79"
BOMB - 1 Breakdown of SOLDIER members by class
MAKO - 10 New plans for urban planning
If the password is MAKO you'll probably lose another second just because you
have to move the marker all that way to the bottom in Dominos guess-list, but
that's it =)
Of course, we lose 4,5 seconds compared to just guessing the password, but we
need the Elemental materia, and this section is hard enough as it is. Take the
elevator up to floor 65 when you're done.
Floor 65
##########
Yes, that's the floor with the Midgar Parts. The first chest will always be the
same, but after that, the next chest that will open depends on where you place
the parts. Place the first part just to the right of the entrance, or at five
o'clock if you want and then continue counter-clockwise around. By doing that,
the chests will open in the order shown by this excellent ASCII art:
--------------------------------------
| | |
| | [5] |
| | |
|-------- ---------
| [3] |
| |
| [1] |
|-------|
| [2] |
| |
| [4] |
|-------|-----------------------------
Make sure to go left to reach the fifth chest. It's a little bit faster than
going right. After placing the fifth and last part, the chest containing the
keycard to floor 66 will open up and you can proceed to the next floor.
Floor 66
##########
Run down the hall and enter the toilet. Choose to climb up, which is the second
option and crawl down the shaft to do a little spying on the Shinra.
[skip text]
Head back down and move on to floor 67. Cloud will stop at the corner, and you
have to wait until Hojo leaves the floor before you can move on.
Floor 67
##########
The party will stop for some talking before you get to do anything here.
[skip text]
Run down the hall to the room with Red XIII and Jenova. You know where. When
you get there, the view will change. Run just ahead to trigger the cutscenes.
[skip text]
Move on, pick up the Poison Materia from the chest and save. If Cloud or Tifa's
HP is low, you have to heal with the Hi-Potion from the Train Graveyard before
you save. There's no need to heal Barret.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 1:38:26
Rec. time (10h): 1:49:48
Rec. time (12h): 2:11:46
Then take the elevator up to the next floor.
Floor 68
##########
Just run out of the elevator to trigger the cutscenes.
[skip text]
We're using Tifa against HO512 and you have to select the second option for
that. Also, make sure to rename Red XIII to R afterwards.
###############################################################################
B07: Sample:HO512
###############################################################################
You could just throw eight Grenades at him and the battle would be over, but
I'm afraid it's not that simple. First of all, you need Cloud's limit bar to be
at least half full after the battle. Ideally, it should be full, but that's
very hard to accomplish. But that's not all. The number of times the small guys
attack varies from time to time and logically enough, the more they attack, the
more time you lose. You also want to avoid him using Shady Breath twice. Well,
it's all up to you, so keep restarting until you get a satisfying result.
Needless to say, perfect runners have no choice.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bci0s4q4Snk
###############################################################################
[skip text]
Note: If Cloud doesn't have a limit break now, you have to make sure he gets it
before Rufus. Also, if Cloud's HP is very low and you get into a battle before
you reach the elevator on floor 66, he might die. I recommend doing a test run
first, to find out if you get a battle on the way to the elevator. If you do,
and Cloud's HP is low, you should save on floor 67 just after the battle.
Pick up the Enemy Skill Materia and leave this screen to the right, the way you
came from. Then take the elevator back down to floor 67 and then continue down
to floor 66 and enter the elevator there. As usual, Rude will come an bust you.
[skip text]
Captured
##########
You'll wake up in a cell on floor 67. Approach the door and select the third
option to wonder what Aerith is doing.
[skip text]
Approach the door again and choose to get some sleep now. It's the third
option, but the cursor will be at this option either way, so you just have to
tap the action button.
Okay, I think I'll explain this step-by-step this time, to make it easier. As
usual, there will be one or more lines of text to skip at the end of each step.
1. When you wake up, the door will be open. Approach the door and Cloud will
wonder what's happened.
2. Go examine the guard.
3. Head back to tell Tifa.
4. Tifa will run out to the guard. Follow her and talk to her.
5. Go talk to Barret and Red.
6. Now, they will go examine the guard. Follow them and talk to Barret.
7. Go talk to the girls. A party of Cloud and the girls will be formed.
To The Top!
#############
Follow Red to the Jenova room. You'll have one line to skip when you get there.
Then, the save point will be your next stop.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 1:46:50
Rec. time (10h): 1:59:10
Rec. time (12h): 2:23:00
Keep going up until you find the President on floor 70.
[skip text]
Rufus arrives after a while. Go out the door to find him and listen to his
little speech.
[skip text]
Cloud will stay with Rufus and the others head back down.
[skip text]
You'll be given a choice of what to do with Cloud's materia. Make sure to leave
it as it is, which is the second option. Then enter the elevator for another
two battles.
###############################################################################
B08: Hundred Gunner
###############################################################################
Just throw Grenades until the battle is over. All limit breaks must be saved
for Heli. It's important that Aerith isn't the one dealing the final blow to
Hundred, or else Heli will most likely be able to attack between the two
Grenades and the limit breaks, so that you won't be able to take advantage of
the limit break system. To prevent that from happening, you simply have to make
sure she throws the first or second Grenade, as the character that throws the
third one will be the one that deals the final blow.
HG will attack twice with Aux/Hidden Artillery and once with Main Artillery,
but he won't live long enough to use Wave Artillery. If both of the Aux/Hidden
Artilleries hit the same character (with the exception of Aerith), you should
restart. We're not supposed to heal in these battles, and the target will most
likely die against Heli if that happens. Aerith's in back row, so hope he
attacks her at least once.
###############################################################################
B09: Heli Gunner
###############################################################################
This battle is harder because Heli's attacks can inflict statuses. AB Cannon
can put a character to sleep, C Cannon can poison you and Firing Line, which
hits the whole party, can inflict both. Thankfully, you don't get the statuses
very often. If you get poisoned, there's really nothing you can do about it, so
just keep fighting and hope it doesn't kill you. It's much worse if a character
is put to sleep, as you may not be able to kill him before he kills one of your
characters. Still, you can just keep fighting and see what happens. If you're
lucky, he attacks the same character again so that he wakes up. You lose time
either way, though, so perfect runners cannot accept being put to sleep.
Strategy: Throw two Grenades, use Barret and Red's limit breaks and throw three
more Grenades. That should take care of him, but there's a chance he still has
a few more HP left. If that's the case, then have Barret attack regularly. Red
is allowed to get killed in this battle.
Video (both battles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF3M3JqjVzA
###############################################################################
After the battle, the scene will change to Cloud and you're given the choice to
remove materia from the others and open the menu. Now why would we want to do
that? Just push the start button.
[skip text]
###############################################################################
B10: Rufus
###############################################################################
Start the battle by using the limit break on Dark Nation and make sure to be
quick. You have to activate the limit break before Rufus' turn is over, so that
Dark Nation never gets a chance to cast Barrier. Then throw four Grenades at
Rufus. You will get a limit break again, but that one must be saved for Motor
Ball. Killing Dark Nation is faster because you don't have to watch his attacks
every turn, but it also reduces the chance of dying to zero. Two Bolts and the
battle would have been over.
*******************************************************************************
You should have at least 12 Grenades at the start of the battle, but if you
only have 11, you have to kill him with three Grenades and Bolt.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEiSs7nROHg
###############################################################################
The Escape
############
Head back down to floor 69 and talk to Tifa. I would recommend saving here if
you're not comfortable with the motorcycle game. After talking to Tifa, the
scene will then change to Aerith on the first floor. Head for the exit to
trigger the cutscenes.
[skip text]
Before the motorcycle game starts, you get the chance to form a party and open
the menu, but just push the start button again. During the minigame, just make
sure Cloud, Barret and Tifa don't take too much damage. Aerith and Red don't
matter. I'm not an expert at this game, and you might do a lot better than me.
If you truly suck at it and lose too much HP, you can use BrutalAl's strategy,
as explained below.
I often go with a lame but effective tactic in this mini-game:
1) Swing your sword at all time
2) Never kill a red bike
3) Stay close to the car
Since the red bikes "dodge" your sword they will stay away from you at all
time, and if you are close to the car then they will stay away from the car as
well. Once there are 3 red bikes on screen you're home safe.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPx9sXeD8VU
###############################################################################
B11: Motor Ball
###############################################################################
Thanks to the back attack, you'll be in back row for this battle. Open the
battle by having Cloud cast Bolt and let the others follow up with Grenades.
Make sure Bolt always is the first move every turn. Use Cloud and Barret's
limit breaks as soon as they get them and make sure to take advantage of the
limit break system. Don't use Tifa's limit break. Keep casting Bolt and
throwing Grenades, and it could be over after Cloud's fifth Bolt. If it isn't,
throw another grenade, or, if you have none left, use a regular attack from
Barret, and hope it kills him.
It mostly depends on Cloud's magic stat whether you'll be able to kill him or
not. You don't have time to check his stats, so you have to pay attention to
the damage. If he deals less than 220, you're in trouble. That is, unless you
have an extra Grenade.
*******************************************************************************
In the beginning of the battle, he will use Arm Attack twice and he's able to
use this attack twice in one turn. Perfect runners should restart if he uses it
more than twice in total.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtdsD3yxLfs
###############################################################################
[skip text]
Run to the bottom of the screen when you get to control Cloud on the ground
and choose the second option.
[skip text]
Form a party of Cloud, Tifa and Red and save at once on the world map.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:02:47
Rec. time (10h): 2:16:48
Rec. time (12h): 2:44:10
My goal is to make it out of Midgar in less than two hours. Will I make it?
Time will show, but I have a feeling it's going to be very tough.
===============================================================================
3 - Walkthrough: The Rest Of Disc One
===============================================================================
Congratulations! You've made it to the world map and put Midgar, the most
boring part of any challenge behind. It gets a lot more interesting from here,
but before we can start having fun, we have to stop by at Kalm, and you know
what's waiting there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1 <> The First Continent
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, get your lazy ass over to Kalm and get that damn flashback over with. No,
wait a minute. This is a Speed Run, right? Well, then I'm afraid it's not that
easy. First of all, you have to reach Kalm without getting any encounters. Just
soft-reset if you do and you most likely won't get one the next time. After
entering town, run just ahead to trigger a cutscene.
[skip text]
Follow the others up to the second floor of the Inn and simply approach the
crew to start the flashback.
The Flashback - Part I
########################
[skip text]
After a while, the Dragon will attack and Sephiroth will take care of it.
*******************************************************************************
If the Dragon kills Cloud, Sephiroth might revive him and you know what that
means. You can only accept one attack by the Dragon and two by Sephiroth.
*******************************************************************************
[skip text]
When you arrive at Nibelheim, Sephiroth will tell you about his parents and you
get to control Cloud after a while. Run straight forward into town and Barret
will interrupt.
[skip text]
In Nibelheim, you get to control Cloud after Sephiroth tells you that you may
visit your family and friends. You've got no time to do that, so enter the Inn,
run upstairs and talk to Sephiroth twice. The second time, you have to select
the second option when he asks if you're ready to sleep. Cloud will wake up in
the morning and automatically move outside. Go talk to Sephiroth.
[skip text]
Next, you get to control Cloud on the bridge. Talk to Tifa and then follow her.
The bridge collapses and you fall down to another area.
[skip text]
Take the path to the right, enter the cave and run ahead.
[skip text]
Keep running ahead to the exit.
*******************************************************************************
If you get a battle here, you must be able to escape it. You lose too much time
if Sephiroth casts a magic spell to kill the enemies.
*******************************************************************************
[skip text]
You get to control Cloud again in front of the reactor. Run a few inches ahead.
[skip text]
You know where to go inside the reactor, right? Just follow Sephiroth and talk
to him in front of the Jenova room.
*******************************************************************************
It's a bit tricky to run in the right direction after climbing down the ladder.
You have to let go of the direction down button immediately when you reach the
bottom and then push the direction up button to run in the right direction. It
doesn't matter if you run a few inches in the wrong direction now, though.
Sephiroth walks slowly in front of you and you can't pass him until after the
bridge, but you have to be really careful the next time. This is something you
should practice if you don't want to lose a couple of seconds.
*******************************************************************************
[skip text]
Go close to the valve and talk to Sephiroth twice.
[skip text]
The monster will break loose and the scene will change back to Kalm. After four
boxes of text, Barret asks if you want to take a break and save. Make sure to
select the second option to avoid that.
The Flashback - Part II
#########################
Cloud will run out from the Inn and enter the mansion. Just head down to the
basement and find Sephiroth.
[skip text]
Head back out the door when you get to control him again. Text will appear on
the screen, but it runs automatically, so you don't have to skip it. Cloud will
wake up on the second floor in the morning. Head back down and find Sephiroth.
[skip text]
Follow him back up, leave the mansion and head over to the burning village.
[skip text]
Enter Cloud's house.
[skip text]
The next time you get to control Cloud now is inside the reactor. Climb down
and run ahead to find Tifa.
[skip text]
Follow her to the next area.
[skip text]
Go help Tifa and follow Sephiroth to the Jenova room.
[skip text]
This will end the flashback and the scene will change back to Kalm again. Make
sure to select the second option when Barret is leaving. You get to control
Cloud again on the first floor, at the bottom of the staircase. Approach Barret
and he will give you the PHS.
[skip text]
Then you're free to leave town. Hurray!
Crossing the Marches
######################
It's time to start using the save trick on the world map. Head for the marches
and run for about 10 seconds before you stop to save.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:24:49
Rec. time (10h): 2:42:00
Rec. time (12h): 3:14:24
Load up before you move on, or else it won't work. Then run for another ten
seconds before you save again. If you want to save 13 seconds, you can restart
until you reach the marches without getting an encounter.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners can only save once between Kalm and the Mythril Mines. It's
possible to get only one encounter between Kalm and the marches and it's
possible to cross the marches without running into the Midgar Zolom, so you
cannot accept more than one save.
Since the pattern of enemies can vary from time to time, you'll never know when
you get the first battle after Kalm. If you're lucky and get the best pattern,
you can almost reach the marches, but you can of course get the worst pattern
too. Gambling is not a good idea since you just did the flashback in Kalm, so I
recommend saving after ten seconds.
You need some luck to both reach the marches without being attacked and cross
the marches without running into the Midgar Zolom, so you will most likely have
to restart many times before you succeed. You just saved, though, so it's not
that bad. Just imagine if you had to do the flashback every time...
*******************************************************************************
Okay, we're gonna use the save trick to cross the marches as well. Here's how
it works: Start running into the marches and make sure to pay attention. You
have to push the menu button as soon as the Midgar Zolom appears on the screen.
If he gets too close, he will get you, even if you already pushed the button.
Just give it a try and see for yourself what happens. Anyway, save your game if
you successfully managed to open the menu and then exit the menu again. Now,
the battle will start immediately, but you can just escape and then soft-reset.
When you load the file now, the Midgar Zolom will be at a different location
and you can safely continue over to the other side.
Just be aware that you may have to save again if he appears too close to you.
It depends on how far you got into the marches before you saved. Some times, he
appears only a couple of seconds after you set your foot in the swamp, but you
can also be lucky and reach the other side. It depends on his location when you
start crossing. If he appears too early, you will encounter him again, so that
you have to save twice. If you get about halfway through, it'll work, so make
sure you get that far if you don't want to save twice.
When you safely reach the other side, the screen will automatically change to
the screen with the killed serpent. Cloud will run ahead, and you'll have one
line of text to skip before you get to control him. Just run left to exit this
screen and hold the direction down and right buttons when the screen turns
black. By doing that, you will hardly see the world map again before you're
inside the mine. Here, just run left and enter the next area where you meet
some old friends.
[skip text]
Climb up and leave the mines. Back on the world map, run for about ten seconds
again before you stop. For the first time since the train lockdown, you have to
do some changes in the menu.
Cloud: Give him Poison and Steal
Tifa: Equip the Mythril Armlet and give her Restore=All and Enemy Skill
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:27:30
Rec. time (10h): 2:44:24
Rec. time (12h): 3:17:17
Then continue running for another ten seconds before you save again. Perfect
runners can only accept one save, but I guess you figured that out on your own.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2 Junon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you enter town, there will be a short cutscene and you'll have one box of
text to skip. Another boss battle awaits on the beach, but first you need more
Grenades. Enter the shop to the right and buy so that you have 36 Grenades. If
you don't have enough money, you must sell the Talisman first. Then you'll have
more than enough. Head down to the beach after shopping. Things will happen
automatically when you get there.
[skip text]
Your next opponent is...
###############################################################################
B12: Bottomswell
###############################################################################
Open the battle by having Cloud cast Bio and the others throw Grenades, in that
order. Restart if you fail to poison him. If you manage to poison him, you can
have everyone throw Grenades, but make sure Tifa acts first. That's very
important, as you have to activate her limit break when the third Grenade is
thrown. Make sure you get a "yeah". Now, Bottomswell will use Waterpolo, but
that's nothing to worry about. All you have to do now is to throw four more
Grenades and the battle will be over. That is, after Big Wave.
Note: If Bottomswell uses Waterpolo on a character that has been attacked twice
by Tail Attack or taken a critical hit, there's a chance this character won't
survive Big Wave. Bottomswell will only use Tail Attack twice, so the chance
for that to happen isn't very high.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs4gTzEc3k
###############################################################################
[skip text]
It's time to revive Priscilla. 41 breaths are needed to revive her, so you have
many options. You can fill the gauge completely four times and then take a
final breath, or you can go with the 9-9-9-9-5 strategy. As long as you only
breathe into her five times, it doesn't matter.
[skip text]
Go talk to the old woman in front of the house where you can sleep for free.
[skip text]
Select the second option to sleep. This is the first out of five times in a row
where you have to select the second option.
[skip text]
Leave the house and go climb the stairs to Priscilla's house. Cloud will stop
at the beginning of the second staircase and Priscilla comes down.
[skip text]
It's time to enter the actual city of Junon. After all, this place is called
"Under Junon". Just head down to the beach and talk to Priscilla.
[skip text]
When Priscilla asks if you want to jump with Mr. Dolphin, choose the second
option, "sure". Don't move at all in the water. Just push the square button
twice to get up. Run up-left to the ladder and you'll get to see the cutscene
with the Highwind.
Junon City
############
You get to control Cloud again at the airport. Run down to the next area and
use the elevator to get down to the lower level. You can control Cloud when the
elevator goes down, so make sure to place him as close to the exit as possible.
[skip text]
Now enter the room to the left. It's actualy up-left, but Cloud will go in that
direction if you push the left button.
[skip text]
Find the uniform in the second locker and choose the second option to change.
[skip text]
After getting a demonstration on what to do, you have to select the second
option to proceed. Head down and find the save point when you get to control
Cloud again. Perfect runners can't save here.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:38:20
Rec. time (10h): 2:56:24
Rec. time (12h): 3:31:40
It's time for marching and you have to get a higher score than 50%. Your reward
for that will be 5000 Gil and trust me, you really need the money. I know there
are many people out there who can't handle the marching, but I have come up
with a strategy that can't fail, unless you screw up somehow.
Many people screw this up because they do like the other soldiers and run to
the back to reach the open spot. Well, you can't do that. Instead you must run
straight ahead, "through" the other soldiers. Simply put, just hold X and the
direction down button when you get to control Cloud and he will run straight
into the open spot. Now let go of the X button and hold the direction left
button and Cloud will start marching in the same tempo as the others. Now, the
number "1" will pop up on the screen and you can start tapping the action
button to increase the percentage. If you do this right, you should have no
trouble getting 50% or more. My personal record is 65%! Do some practice and
you will find out that it's easier than you ever imagined.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hlxc2lwWoc
Enter the door to the left to get out on the street.
[skip text]
Now, run down the street and go between the two soldiers to enter the alley.
This can be a little tricky, so I suggest practicing it.
[skip text]
Then we have the marching. Get 50% or more. Period.
[skip text]
Back to the dressing room for some more lectures.
[skip text]
First, the soldiers will show you what to do, and then you get to do some
practice yourself. You can just watch, but make sure to choose the second
option when they ask if you've got it. That's the fifth and last time we have
to select the second option for now. Thank God.
[skip text]
Head for the docks. Things will happen automatically when you get there.
[skip text]
When posing for the president, make sure to score 60-90 points. You get ten
points for pushing the right button when you're standing in the right position.
The final pose is worth 30, but don't perform it. Just get 60 points and wait
until the score counter goes away. Your reward is a HP Plus Materia.
[skip text]
Just enter the boat.
[skip text]
Shinra Boat
#############
Go upstairs and talk to Tifa and Red. Then head back down and talk to Aerith
until she mentions Barret. Now head back up and talk to Barret twice. The alarm
will go off. Head back to the deck and the crew will gather for some talking.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners must save after talking to Red, as that's the only time you're
close to the save point.
*******************************************************************************
[skip text]
You get to form a party after a while and we'll go with Cloud, Tifa and Red
again. You also have to do some changes in the menu.
Cloud: Equip the Power Wrist and give him the Hyper.
Place everyone in back row.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:49:34
Rec. time (10h): 3:09:00
Rec. time (12h): 3:46:48
Head back down, enter the cargo room and run ahead.
[skip text]
As usual, he's arranged some company for us. Time to fight the first Jenova...
###############################################################################
B13: Jenova-BIRTH
###############################################################################
First of all, she must open the battle with Stop and it must miss. There's a
50% chance she opens the battle with Stop and it tends to miss very often, so
that shouldn't require too many restarts. Now, throw seven Grenades and use
Braver by taking advantage of the limit break system. That means you should
have Cloud throw the second and fifth Grenades. If Cloud doesn't have a limit
break now, you must have used it without permission and that's your problem.
Also, make sure to use Red's limit break as soon as possible. Then keep
throwing Grenades and make sure you get to use Braver at least once more. The
best is if you get to use it three times in total. There's also a chance you'll
have to heal, depending on how many times Jenova attacks. Ideally, she should
only use one attack per turn. You obviously lose time each time she uses a
combo, but it's up to you how many attacks you'll accept. The battle should end
after the second Stop.
*******************************************************************************
The perfect battle should go like this:
1. Grenade before Stop
2. Stop (miss), 7 Grenades + Braver
3. Laser on Cloud, 3 Grenades
4. Tail Laser, 3 Grenades + Braver
5. W-Laser, 3 Grenades
6. 2-3 grenades
7. Stop (miss), grenades until she dies
If you fail to throw a Grenade before Stop, you can use an additional Sled Fang
as long as you take advantage of the limit break system.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWkrYx5ghuk
###############################################################################
[skip text]
Select the second option to prevent Cloud from explaining what Sephiroth meant
with "The time is now". Then leave the boat. No, you don't need Ifrit, so
there's no need to waste three seconds picking it up. Cloud will say a few
lines before he goes off the boat.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3 <> The Second Continent
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[skip text]
Leave the docks. Rufus and Heidegger will appear.
[skip text]
Enter the villa straight ahead, go downstairs and open the box.
[skip text]
Then leave Costa del Sol. I know, there are two more items here, but you don't
need them. Back on the world map, run for about ten seconds before you save, as
usual. I saved where the brown area starts.
It's very hard to reach North Corel without healing, so you have to heal at
least once. Regular runners should heal now, but perfect runners should wait
until the next save.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:57:40
Rec. time (10h): 3:18:00
Rec. time (12h): 3:57:36
Restart if you get an encounter on your way to the entrance to Mt. Corel.
Mt. Corel
###########
Head for the save point, but before you get there, you have to steal two Right
Arms from bombs on the bridge. Bombs come in groups of two here, so that you
can steal both of them in one battle. Restart if you get any other battle than
that. If you don't get a battle in this area, you have to run back and forth
until you get one.
When you get a battle with two Bombs, you have to steal a Right Arm from each
of them, but that's easier said than done. The chance of getting a Right Arm
isn't very high, so you most likely won't steal them in one attempt. That's not
a big deal unless you're doing a perfect run, though. However, you can't spend
too many attempts, or else it won't be worth it. I'd say restart if you spend
more than ten attempts in total. You will most likely have to restart quite a
few times here, but as I said in the intro, this is a challenge that requires
patience. Just be greatful if you're not doing a perfect run, because...
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners need even more patience, as you need to be able to steal them
in one attempt if you want the best possible result. But that's not all. First
of all, you have to make sure you get a battle on the bridge. Whether that
happens or not depends on how good you've done in areas with random encounters
from the very beginning of the game. If you haven't done good enough, you will
get that battle before you reach the bridge. As I said in the perfect run
section, you must make sure to get through the areas with random encounters as
quickly as possible, or else you'll get that battle too early and that ruins
everything. If you don't get a battle on the bridge, you have failed.
If you do get a battle on the bridge, you must of course make sure it's the
battle with two Bombs. Anything else is restart-material. There's a 17/64
chance you'll get that battle. Then comes the toughest part. If you truly want
a perfect run, you have to able to steal a Right Arm from each Bomb in only one
attempt each time. The chance for that to happen is about 1%. That's right, one
damn percent. How many attempts to allow is up to you.
*******************************************************************************
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 2:59:33 (I didn't steal any Right Arms)
No recommended times here until I complete the perfect run.
Tip: Before you proceed, you should play up to North Corel and save outside
town on a different file. You have to do some shopping here and that's
something that can cost you a lot of time if you screw up, so practicing it is
not a bad idea.
Move on. When the floor breaks, tap the action button like crazy and Cloud will
jump over. Restart if you fail. Then proceed to the shack to lower the bridge,
but make sure to stop by and pick up the Turbo Ether first. It's the purple
item. Aerith says "Go Cloud" or something like that when you're running over
the upper bridge, but that's nothing to worry about. When you get inside the
shack, however, you have to...
[skip text]
Then move on until you reach the final bridge before North Corel. Here, you
have to steal three more Right Arms. Don't accept more than 20 attempts in
total. Bombs only come in groups of one here, so you need at least three
battles. Just take note that you might also get attacked from both sides by
three Cokatolises. Sure sucks for perfect runners if you already managed to
steal a Right Arm in one attempt. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do
about it. When you eventually have three Right Arms, you can proceed to North
Corel. Perfect runners only need two.
*******************************************************************************
Perfect runners have two choices here:
1. If you just move on, you will get a battle before the save point in Corel
Prison and if you run into a Bandit or two, they might steal an important item
from you. They always steal the best items, so you can't just hope they steal a
Phoenix Down or something. Getting a Right Arm stolen from you sure sucks after
restarting hundred times before you could steal them in one attempt, so you
really don't want that to happen.
2. To avoid getting a battle inside the prison, you can spend a couple of
seconds running back and forth on the bridge to make sure you get that battle
before North Corel. It's only a matter of two to three seconds, but as I said,
you might get attacked from both sides by three Cokatolises.
It's up to you. Either way, there's a chance you will have to start over and
restart another hundred or more times. I know, it sucks, but that's how a
perfect run is. I would go for option #2.
*******************************************************************************
North Corel
#############
When you reach North Corel, just run ahead and talking will start.
[skip text]
Go talk to Barret. Afterwards, it's shopping time. If you haven't already been
here and practiced, you should go out on the world map and save first.
Sell: 2x Ether, White Cape, Guard Source, Protect Vest, Star Pendant, Talisman*
Buy (regular runners): 21x Molotov, Force Stealer (2200), 11x Tranquilizer.
Buy (perfect runners): 27x Molotov, Force Stealer (2200), 3x Tranquilizer.
* If you didn't sell it in Junon.
Tranquilizers are bought at the shop to the right and Molotovs and the Force
Stealer are bought at the shop to the left. No need to stop at the shop in the
middle. Proceed to the Gold Saucer when you're done.
[skip text]
Gold Saucer
#############
You get to control Cloud again after the tram arrives at the Gold Saucer. Go
talk to the woman in front of the entrance. Just skip the text and you'll buy a
regular ticket. Then enter.
[skip text]
Talk to Tifa and choose to go with her, which is the first option. Then jump
down to Wonder Square. It's the second hole from the right.
[skip text] (includes naming Cait Sith)
Jump down to Battle Square. You're standing on the E, so you can almost run
directly down.
[skip text]
Corel Prison
##############
You get to control Cloud again after talking to Barret in Corel Prison. Go find
the save point. If you run into a bandit and get something stolen from you, you
know where the restart button is.
[SAVE YOUR GAME]
My time: 3:14:57
Rec. time (10h): 3:37:12
Rec. time (12h): 4:20:38
Enter the house.
[skip text]
Form a party of Cloud, Barret and Red and go find Dyne. You know where he is.
It doesn't matter if Barret gets attacked on the way, as he gets fully healed
before the battle begins.
[skip text]
###############################################################################
B14: Dyne
###############################################################################
Throw a Right Arm and the battle will be over. Perfect runners must restart if
he uses his final attack. There's a 50% chance he'll do that.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQvHrqcqPPw
###############################################################################
[skip text]
Make sure to select the second option inside the elevator, to avoid Ester
explaining how to ride a chocobo. You get to control Cloud again after talking
to Joe. Pick up Ramuh and go to the exit and wait there until the chocobo race
is about to start.
[skip