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! __________________________________________________________________________________ BOSS TIPS: MYSTERY NINJA (her stats. vary)
Just attack, really. Yuffie can use 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:
Reply: Not interested
(talk to her again)
Reply: ......petrified Reply: Wait a second! Reply: ......That's right. Reply: ......Let's hurry on.
Or in other words, choose the bottom reply, then the top one, then the bottom one, 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. ________________________________________________________________________________
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. To get him to join you, respond to his questions like so:
Reply: Talk about Sephiroth.
(When the coffin closes, press O again.)
Reply: Who are you?
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). ________________________________________________________________________________
*** The Safe in NibelHiem ***
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: LOST NUMBER LV: 35 HP: 7000 MP: 300
This boss can be taken out just by attacking and using Limit Breaks. Magic spells (Fire, Ice, Lighting) that are at level 2 are also okay to use. Heal yourself and use Summon Materia (like Choco/Mog) and you'll win in no time. Aside from physical attacks, all this guy can really do is use a Bolt 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 up. 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 'Choco/Mog' 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 in the safe that you can grab (Key to the Basement). Don't forget to take the Red Materia! 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.
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Get so many 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. 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.
Note that he may give you an item (Ice Ring or Bolt Ring) instead of giving you a Mythril. Don't worry--just get another set of wins with the last two numbers matching and try again. You can keep earning more Mythril from him as long as you give the piece you have to the weaponsmith near the Gold Saucer. __________________________________________________________________________________
Go to Nibelheim during Disc 2 or 3, with Tifa in your party. Nibelheim is the 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*
You should find 1 gil betweent the piano keys. Play the piano again, and you'll find an Elemental materia. On your third play, Tifa will reach for the music sheets and find a letter addressed to her from her mentor, Zangan. She'll also find the Limit Break manual that he left for her.
* Note that you can also play the 'Highwind' them by pressing:
D, L, U, L1+T, L1+S, D, L, U, L1+X, R, D, L, D
or you can use a combination of buttons and directions. Playing the music this way doesn't seem to get you anything, though. Also, for the record, I _have_ gotten Tifa's manual without her in my party, and without find 1 gil _or_ the materia, but I don't know what it is that I did aside from play the Highwind theme over and over. Please note that the piano-playing results are usually very random (you may get 1 gil twice, or get nothing at all), so don't expect great results on the first play. ________________________________________________________________________________
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 (in the Japanese version; in the US version she appears
for a brief second and vanishes). 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
Batteries from to reach the Shinra Building back in Disc 1? The man in
the left side of the 'Machine & Gun' shop will sell you an accessory
(Sneak Glove) for 129,000 gil this time around.
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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 (refer to the 'Bonus
Areas' section).
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 Megalixir.
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As easy as this trick sounds, it's harder to perform than you might
think. One of your characters has to have a current HP of 7777. This
can be done by getting injured, equipping materia, or raising levels.
When that particular character enters a battle, the message
All 7 Fever will appear. It will show up every time the 'fevered'
character attacks, too.
During this time, the person affected by the 'All 7 Fever' will make one
_normal_ attack against each enemy when their Time Bar is filled, even if
you have materia such as Slash-All or Mega All equipped. However,
assuming they don't miss, that person will always strike for 7777 damage,
even if an enemy has special defenses. Furthermore, that person behaves
as if he/she was berserked (i.e. you can't select commands for them since
they will do nothing but attack), and can take no other action (even if
you're wearing a Counter Attack materia). They can still lose HP or be
affected by enemy abilities/magic/etc.
There are two major drawbacks to this trick; your current HP drops to 1
point after the battle (it can be healed by normal means), and you can't
repeat the trick unless you have 7777 HP exactly.
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***THERE IS ALSO MANY SECRET CAVES YOU CAN GO TO WITH THE GOLD, GREEN, BLUE
OR BLACK CHOCOBO***
