FF7 CHEATS AND HINTS

When you first get the blue sub, and you have to use it in battle, lose the battle intentionally, and go back into junon where you got the blue sub, but on the way, the room that was being guarded by the dog, go in there, the dog wont be there. the red submarine is in there.

Getting Yuffie:

You can get Yuffie in your party during any disc. If you're in Disc 1 and are riding around in the Buggy, that will work, too. The two places that she appears most often are the forests beyond the Gold Saucer (in the Gongaga Area), and most forests in the Junon Area. After a few battles, you'll fight Yuffie (seems to be a 1 in 15 chance, if you ask me).

BOSS TIPS: MEI NO NINJA LV: 37 HP: 1950 MP: 280

Just attack, really. The Summon Materia 'Titan' works well. Yuffie can do all kinds of cool attacks during this time, but not once she joins you! Yuffie's level, HP and MP vary depending on what level your characters are at.

When the battle ends, you'll be in a plain with Yuffie lying nearby. There's also a Save Point here. However, if you touch the Save Point, then go to your menu screen to save, Yuffie escapes and steals 200 gil! Don't worry, you can meet her again. You'll have to talk to her several times to get her to join. As she and you converse, she'll ask you several questions, and you can reply in two ways. To get her to join, respond like this:

Bottom answer, Top answer, Bottom answer, Top answer, Bottom answer

Put another way, respond using the second reply, then the first reply, then the second reply... and so on. After that, you can name her, and she'll hook up with Cloud and the rest of the gang. Note that if you choose the top answer for the last question she asks, you can name her, but she'll steal 700 gil from you and run away. You'll have to repeat the whole process if you want to get her in your party.

Getting Vincent:

The second 'optional' (or hidden) character in the game, Vincent can also join your party during any disc. You'll need the gold key from the safe in Nibelheim's Shinra Mansion (see below if you don't know how to open it). Go down to the pink cavern leading to Sephiroth's library (it's in the Shinra Mansion, the entrance is in the stone wall in the eastern wing).

Remember the door to the crypt you couldn't get through? You can now enter it. Stand at the foot of the purple coffin and hit O. The lid will fly off and Vincent will talk to you. Choose the bottom reply when he asks you a question. When the coffin closes, press O again. Choose the second (bottom) reply when Vincent poses another question, and you can name him. Then, try to leave the cavern and he'll join you. Vincent can join you from the first time you reach Nibelheim onwards (but not during Cloud's flashback).

t h e- s a f e- i n- n i b e l h e i m

What most people forget when trying to open the safe is that it's just like a real combination lock...so you have to go in more than one direction when inputting the numbers. Furthermore, unless you're fast enough, you'll run out of time if you try any other combination. The code is:

RIGHT TO 36, LEFT TO 10, RIGHT TO 59, RIGHT TO 97

This means that you hold right and scroll through the numbers, then hold left until you reach 10, then hold right for the last two numbers. Don't forget to press O to verify each entry. When the safe opens, a Summon Materia (Odin) pops out, and you are assaulted by a big goon (how'd he fit into that little safe?)

BOSS TIPS: ROSUTONANBAA LV: 35 HP: 7000 MP: 300

This boss can be taken out just by attacking and using Limit Breaks. Magic spells (Fire, Cold, Lighting) that are at level 2 are also okay to use. Heal yourself and use Summon Materia (like 'Sumon Chocobo and Moogle', and you'll win in no time. Aside from physical attacks, all this guy can really do is use a Lightning 2 spell on you, but it only does 400-500 points of damage to one character, so it's nothing to worry about. Rarely, he does a double-fisted hammer punch to one character that averages 2200 points of damage, though, so pack in some Phoenix Downs before trying to tackle him. If you blow off his red half (the one that uses magic) his physical attacks become more aggressive, so keep your HP Plus. Likewise, if his purple half is destroyed first, the Lost Number will use more mid-level spells, like Quake 2, against your party. It is possible to kill this boss without either part of it dying (by stunning it using the 'Summon Chocobo and Moogle' spell).

Not only do you get an item from the boss once you beat it (it's the manual for Red 13's Level 4 Limit Break, the Cosmo Memory), but there's also a gold key lying in the safe that you can grab (Chi x x no Key). Don't forget to take the Red Materia! Apparently, there's a paper in the lower room in the right wing of the mansion that hints at the correct combination for the safe, but someone like me can't read it :( Once you've read the paper, you can find hints throughout the house (by the piano, next to the chair in the bedroom, etc.) Refer to the Disc One Walkthrough for more information.

Did the code still not work? Remember, the safe's lock is LIKE A REAL COMBINATION LOCK. So, when you're turning to 36, you can either land on it or creep up to it, but you can't hit 37 and go back. This applies to the rest of the digits, too; you can't go farther than the number you want. If you do (i.e. you go to 09 when trying to get to 10), you'll have to start all over again.

The Sleeping Man

Get over 100 wins by fighting battles. To see how many wins you have, get in the Highwind or ride a Green, Blue, Black, or Gold Chocobo ever so slightly south and a little ways to the east of Midgar City, where you'll find a cave surrounded by mountains with a river nearby. Inside the cave is a sleeping fellow who (usually) tells you how many wins you've gotten so far. Not only do you need to have over 100 wins, but the last two digits have to be the same (100, 111, 255, 733, etc.)

When you have the correct number of victories, talk to the sleeping man. He'll toss and turn, then give you an item (Mythril). Next, go to the house on the penninsula near the Gold Saucer (you should recognize it since it's full of weapons inside). Talk to the man in the house, and when he gives you a choice, pick the top option. You'll lose the Mythril, but you now have the choice of opening the long wooden chest by the bed to get a Gold Armlet, or examining the metal lid on the upper floor at the end of the walkway to get the manual for Aeris's Level 4 Limit Break.

The Piona Trick

Go to Nivelheim (the town by the pointed mountains on the Western Continent). Enter Tifa's house (the second building on the right side) and head upstairs to where her piano is. Choose the bottom option, then the bottom option again to play it (you can't use the top option if you want the manual). Then, press:

X, S, T, L1+T, L1+S, X, S, T, L1+X, O, X, S, X or*

D, L, U, L1+T, L1+S, D, L, U, L1+X, R, D, L, D

* You can also use a combination of buttons and direction presses.

I'd like to stress that as far as I can determine, the result of playing the piano is random. Sometimes, nothing happens, other times, you'll find 1 gil, and other times, you'll find Tifa's Level 4 Limit Break Manual (keep reading). I'd also like to state that I've gotten her manual _without_ having Tifa in my party. I'm not sure how I did it, but I have a save file that proves it (see? see!) I thought I did it by playing the melody once, exiting out, playing it again, exiting out again, and then getting back on the piano and pressing L1+T.

But, the way that you're _supposed_ to do it is to stick Tifa in your party, go to the piano, play it once using the 'button only' method, and she'll eventually find a letter from her master, Zangan (the caped guy you saw during the first Nivelheim flashback). Tifa will get the Final Heaven Limit Break Manual after reading his letter.

Key To Midgar

First talk to the man standing by the doors back at Midgar City. He won't appear until after you've gotten the Highwind and rescued Cloud from Mideel Village. Talk to him, then return to the excavator's village on the Northern Continent. Chat with the man by the door and pick the first option, then the second or third option. While you could place diggers and hunt for the Key yourself, if you want to cheat, go over to the destroyed plane atop the dinosaur's skull. See the one excavtor near the bottom of the screen? Near him is a tiny piece of metal sticking outwards; position yourself underneath it and press up so that your character is looking forward, then dig.

You can use the Key to enter the locked gates near Area 7 and look around Midgar City. If you go into the church where you met Aeris, you can see her bending over the flowers; she'll flicker and disappear after a second. There's not a lot to do here, but if you go back to the Wall Market and go to the 'ITEM' building with the machine gun inside it, you can get Tifa's Ultimate Weapon by examining the computer before the gun fires upon you (you don't need Tifa to get the item). Also, remember the man in the gun shop that you bought the Battery from to reach the Shinra Building back in Disc 1? The man in the left side of the shop will sell you an accessory (Sneak Glove) for 129,000 gil this time around.

Turlte Paradise Flyers

There are six of these flyers scattered throughout the world. You can find them in the following locations:

Flyer No. 1: Midgar City...the town next to Aeris' house. Go to the second floor of the southeastern building and look at the papers taped to the wall by the stairwell.

Flyer No. 2: Shinra HQ...on the first floor, check out the board with the papers on it near the elevators. The only time you can read this flyer is at the beginning of the game or when you raid Midgar in Disc 2.

Flyer No. 3: Gold Saucer...go to the Ghost Square and enter the hotel. Read the sign that says 'SHOP' next to the shop entrance.

Flyer No. 4: Cosmo Canyon...check the left wood post of the Tigerlily Arms Shop.

Flyer No. 5: Cosmo Canyon...the gold paper by the door on the second floor of the inn (the entrance is behind some hanging cloth near the bonfire).

Flyer No. 6: Wutai...the bottom floor of Yuffie's house; it's the wall scroll to the right of the doorway. You can't get there unless you've done the sub-quest.

You don't have to find the flyers (they look like pieces of paper) in order. Whenever you have read all six of them, go to the restaurant in Wutai (the large building in the southwestern corner of town). Talk to the barkeep and you'll get a Power Source, Guard Source, Magic Source, Mind Source, Speed Source, Luck Source, and a Mega Elixir.