FFVII Speedrun Guide

DISCLAIMER : I do not take any credit for most of the tactics that will be used in this guide. 99% of what you are about to read has been taken solely from GarlandtheGreat's guide. I highly suggest that you check out his youtube channel if you want to see some informative FF7 material!
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So you want to try a speedrun of Final Fantasy 7, huh? Well good luck, because you're about to embark on the hardest challenge you have ever faced in Final Fantasy 7. But before we get to that, there's a few things that we need to get straight. Let's begin!

Note: Keep in mind, the times that are mentioned in the guide are based off of PS1 times, which is a slower machine than the computer. Times mentioned in the guide will often be much higher than your time, but you will still finish in under 8 hours.

• 1. First, and most important, NEVER fight any battles that this guide doesn't tell you to fight. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. Have I made myself clear on this? Good, next rule!

• 2. Do NOT save unless my guide tells you to do so, and whenever you do save, make sure to do a soft reset. This will reset all random encounters for roughly 11-12 seconds. You waste roughly 10 seconds saving your game uselessly, and that is not worth it at all. Remember, this is a speedrun, your goal is to achieve the fastest possible time. Saving at every save point will only slow you down.

• 3. NEVER do anything in the character menu without the guide telling you when, how, and where to do it. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about any items, limit breaks, or equipment. They will all be mentioned at one point or another.

• 4. This guide will be using the "Wait Trick" at various points. The wait trick is simple, it does exactly what it says. Let's say that there are 3 enemies that you're fighting. You will have two characters perform two actions, and then on the third character, you will select an action, but wait to perform it until the other two characters' actions have completed. This freezes every ATB gauge, however, the actions that have been queued will still be performed. The point of doing this, is so that the enemy can get off fewer attacks before they get killed. Smart, right?

• 5. Never, under any circumstances, use a limit break unless the guide tells you to use it. Always perform attacks exactly the way the guide tells you to perform them. If you think you're good enough to judge the fastest way to kill an enemy, then why are you reading my guide?

• 6. Never sell items that the guide did not tell you to sell. All items need to be sold at certain points to make money for specific items. Don't buy anything unless the guide tells you to buy it. Got it? Good.

• 7. Finally, remember that what we're doing here is a "speedrun", not a casual playthrough of Final Fanasy 7. I will post this guide in segments. The segments will represent the gameplay from one savepoint to the next. If you know you can't make it through one segment without stopping, then don't even attempt it. Speedruns tend to make people go a little crazy, since they have to get things just right. The biggest part of a speedrun is patience, if you don't have patience, you're doomed. So now that we have all of the rules straight, how about we get down to the fun stuff and begin this speedrun? Let's go!

Throughout the guide, I will be referring to certain keys the way I have them assigned in my game settings. Here is a layout of how my keys are assigned. To ensure that you aren't confused when I refer to a key, I highly suggest that you change your key settings to the following.

OK (Confirm) - X
Cancel - C
Menu - V
Up - Up
Left - Left
Right - Right
Down - Down
Start - Enter
Switch - B
Page Up - Page Up
Page Down - Page Down
Target - End
Assist - Delete
Camera - Home

If you choose not to set your controls to the way I have them here, you're gonna be referring to this section of the guide frequently, so keep it handy.

As soon as you gain control of Cloud after the opening sequence, you need to do some menu tweaks. First off, go to the config menu, and change cursor to memory, ATB to active, and set all speeds to max. After configuring, run ahead, and begin your first battle with the 2 soldiers.

The only thing you need to do for this battle is hold X down until the battle finishes.

After this, start running towards where the AVALANCHE crew is. Once you get to the point of naming Barret and Cloud, shorten both of their names to just one letter, B and C respectively.
After the scene finishes, continue running on to where Barret is, and run from all random encounters. After talking to Barret, talk to Biggs, then Jessie, in that order. Once you get to the elevator, push the button as soon as possible. After the scene is over, continue running towards the center of the reactor. Once you get to the next area, talk to Jessie, then go down the ladder. Ignore the potion for now. Continue running to the center of the reactor. Now, it's time to save your game.
If you've done everything good so far, your time should be under 7 minutes. Onto the next segment!

(This next segment takes an incredibly long time, because we don't save for a while. Keep that in mind.)
After saving, do a soft reset to avoid the next random encounter. Continue on towards the center of the reactor. In the next area, pick up the restore materia, and walk towards the control panel.
After the cutscenes, the first boss of the game will appear -- Guard Scorpion.

GUARD SCORPION - (HP - 800)
The most important thing about this, is to make sure that Cloud and Barret both have their limit breaks at the end. The reason for this is so that the battle with Air Buster is as short as possible, once you get to the next reactor. Here is the strategy for taking down Guard Scorpion on a speed run. Also, if Cloud's magic damage with bolt isn't 92-96, I highly suggest restarting, since Cloud's magic stats will be too low. You will have a very hard time later in the game if you don't have a high magic stat at the beginning. You have been warned.

• 1. Cloud cast Bolt (limit if useable) -- Barret attack
  
• 2. Cloud cast Bolt (limit if useable) -- Barret attack
  
• 3. Cloud cast Bolt (limit if useable) -- Barret attack
  
• 4. Cloud cast Bolt (limit if useable) -- Barret attack

• 1. Cloud cast Bolt -- Barret defend
  
• 2. Cloud cast Bolt -- Barret select the attack command, but don't attack.
  
• 3. Once guard scorpion lowers his tail, Barret attack -- Cloud cast bolt

ESCAPING THE REACTOR
Now, you need to get out of the reactor. If you're fast enough, you'll be able to make it with more than 8 minutes remaining. Saving at the save point is optional. I wouldn't recommend doing it, but you're free to do so. (If you do choose to save, make sure to do a soft reset. You may as well take advantage of being able to skip one random encounter!) On the way back up, pick up the potion, and pull Jessie's leg out. After this, escape the reactor. You will have 3 random encounters between the point of pulling Jessie's leg out, and finally escaping the reactor. Run from all of them. If Cloud or Barret die, restart from the last checkpoint.
After you have successfully escaped the reactor, continue running towards the train station. When you run into the flower girl, you must not buy a flower. This will ultimately save you 4 or 5 precious seconds, and your gil. Don't pick up the potion on the way to the next area.
Once you reach the bridge over the train tracks, make sure to select "later" when you encounter the MP's. Once inside the train, immediately talk to Jessie after reaching the next car. This can be quite tricky, because if you go just one step too far, you'll lose roughly 3 seconds from being pushed back by a guard. But if you don't step far enough... you'll lose another few seconds talking to the end post. Make sure to be careful here and nail it just right!
After chatting with Jessie, walk up to Barret, and the next chat sequence will commence.

SECTOR 7
Upon reaching sector 7, run down to where the members of AVALANCHE are having a talk. Now, run straight to Tifa's 7th Heaven, bypassing the save point for now. Talk to barret, and then enter the bar. Once you get inside, you will begin talking to Tifa. Shorten her name to T once you get the option to name her. Head back to the door after talking to her, and you will hear the thundering sound of footsteps approaching the door.
After talking, take the pinball elevator down, and talk to Barret. Upon completion of this chatting scene, go back up, and approach the door. Tifa will come running and beg you to stay.
After the cutscene finishes, you will awaken in the hideout. Take the elevator back up, and walk towards Barret. He will ask you about materia. It is VITALLY important that you select the second option here, so be very careful. Otherwise, you will have wasted a solid minute or so on this tutorial. Skip the rest of the text, and leave town towards the train, and, once again, skip the save point.

THE NEXT MISSION
Once you get on the train again, Tifa will tell you to come over and look at the monitor. Run up to her, and the talking will begin. After talking, the alarm will go off. Go to the next car, talk to the man standing at the opposite end of it, and choose the first text option to recieve a Hi-Potion. Now, equip Barret with his Assault Gun. Once you've done both of these, just wait for the timer to reach 0:00.
Once it reaches 0:00, attempt to leave the car, and you'll be forced to jump. Now, 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. Approach the air duct on your left side, and select the second option to enter.
Once 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.
Plant the bomb and now, you can finally save. Your time should be under 30 minutes at this save.

After saving, head back up. You should know where to go by now. Pick up the ether after riding the elevator, and enter the room to the left for the panel challenge.

This challenge is very irritating, and you can lose alot of time here if you screw it up frequently. Really, the only way to complete this is to get a feel for how Barret and Tifa strike the panels. They strike them 1.5 seconds after you skip the text. I strongly recommend that you re-try this if you mess it up, because you lose almost 7 seconds per attempt.

Once you've finished this, continue on to the next area. And guess who shows up? President Shinra, accompanied by none other than Air Buster!

AIR BUSTER - (HP - 1500)
If you've followed the guide to the letter, Cloud and Barret should both have their limit breaks. Just hold down X and the battle will finish. It will most likely end after Tifa's attack, but, if not, Cloud's attack will end it. This is quite probably the easiest battle you'll fight in this speed run.

SECTOR 6 SLUMS
After the bridge blows up, Cloud will fall down to the Sector 6 slums, and the screen will go black. Once you can control Cloud again, talk to Aerith. Skip the text, then talk to her again. This time, name her. Once again, shorten her name to A.

After a while, Reno and his men will show up. Start walking towards them, and Aerith will tell you not to fight here, because it will "ruin the flowers". Now, go back and talk to her, and you'll end up in the back room of the church.

After the next scene, Aerith will fall, and she'll be surrounded by 3 soldiers. Tell her to "RUN" the first time. Now, head up to the top floor, and go near the barrel on the top of the screen. When she gets attacked a second time, tell her to hold on, and then push that barrel. On the third attack, tell her to "RUN" again. Now, just wait until she reaches the top, and you'll automatically appear in the next area. Leave the church.

After the scene on the Church roof, just hold the left arrow key, and get through to the other side. 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 the text, and run upstairs. After waking up in your bed, it's time to leave. Cloud will walk automatically out of the room, and if you push the action button while passing the bag, you'll be able to pick up the potion and phoenix down while he's walking. This way, you won't lose time picking them up. However, if you do miss it, you need to still go back for it. Walk downstairs, but don't run. If you run, she'll hear you. Once you get downstairs, run outside and save.
Your save time should be below 45 minutes.

(From this point forward, I will no longer be telling you to skip text. I believe it's understood at this point that you should be skipping everything.)

SHOPPING LIST
Before you go to Wall Market, you need to buy some things. Enter the caravan and talk to the woman on the right. Sell everything in your item inventory. Yes, everything. Buy 68 grenades. However, don't spend all your money on grenades, because you'll need the 280 gil to buy various things at the Wall Market.

ONTO WALL MARKET
Leave town when you're done shopping and Aerith will be waiting for you outside the gate to Sector 6. I'm sure you're probably wondering at this point... "How the heck did she get here before I did?". Just walk up to her to trigger the cut scene.
Get through the next area as quickly as possible.
Follow Aerith, then talk to her when she stops moving.
Proceed to Wall Market.

Alright, now, I'm sure you're wondering what we could possibly be buying from Wall Market with 280 gil. I'm glad you asked! According to various tests, it has been proven that it is actually quicker for the player to go through the trouble of getting Cloud to be picked, as opposed to fighting Corneo's lackeys. Here is a list of what to do, in what order. Do it exactly in this order for maximum efficency.

• 1. Go ask the fat man in front of the Honeybee Inn about Tifa. That's the first option, so just skip text until he's done talking.
  
• 2. Go talk to the guard outside Corneo's mansion.
  
• 3. Enter the Clothes store, and talk to the girl behind the desk.
  
• 4. Enter the Materia Shop and talk to the man. Agree to do the favour.
  
• 5. Eat at the restaurant and tell them the food was all right. It's the second option. 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. That's the second option.
  
• 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 give you the Sexy Cologne.
  
• 10. Talk to the owner of the clothes shop and select the second option both times.
  
• 11. Head back to the clothes store and talk to the owner behind the desk.
  
• 12. Enter the gym and beat Big Bro in the squatting contest. Select the second option twice when talking. You get the blonde wig for winning.
  
• 13. Go back to the clothes shop again, and enter the changing room.

After saving, talk to the man outside the mansion to enter. Go upstairs, all the way around to the left, then downstairs. Walk up to her to start the cutscene.
Talk to Tifa.
Pick up the Ether, head back up, and enter Corneo's office. Run ahead and to the right just by his desk to trigger the cutscenes.
Once he chooses Cloud, you'll be taken directly to Corneo's back room for some... "private" time.
Pick up the hyper behind the bed before talking to him. Select the second option twice to get things over as soon as possible.
Walk over to the girls once they re-appear.
Talk to Aerith and Tifa in that order. Aps will then appear.

APS - (HP - 1800)
Have the girls throw grenades and Cloud cast bolt in that order. Then have everyone throw Grenades until the battle is over, and don't use any limit breaks. 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.

TRAIN GRAVEYARD
Once he goes down, get through the sewers and make sure to pick up the Steal materia. Climbing the ladder will take you to the Train Graveyard.
If you don't know exactly how to get through this next area, I highly suggest saving. Once you do finally attempt this, make sure to collect the Hi-Potion on the first train. Don't pick up anything else.
Save at the next save point. Your time should be below 1:10:00.

After saving, climb all the way up and talk to Barrett. Don't worry about changing gear. The battle with Reno will then begin.

RENO - (HP - 1000)
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 in 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. Don't use his limit break under any conditions yet. If both Cloud and Barret have limit breaks, you must have Tifa attack. And you must use exactly 7 grenades.

Talk to Tifa after the battle, then push X by the panel. Tseng will show up in his Helicopter, with Aerith as a prisoner.
During the cutscene when the pillar is exploding, place Cloud just in front of Barret. Talk to him once the cutscene is over, and he'll find the wire. You'll have one line to skip before they jump off.
Cloud will go on alone to the next area. Just move on and the others will soon come running.
Once you get back to Aerith's house, listen to Elmyra's story.
Approach the door, and Barret will come running down.

THE ROAD TO SHINRA HQ
Now, it's time to go back to Wall Market. If you're not comfortable with climbing the wire, you should save first and get some practice. Once you are comfortable, go get the batteries from the man at the weapon shop, the one on the left.
Now, go to the area with the wire. Get through this area as quickly as possible, and don't waste time picking up items. When you get to the swinging wire, just push X as soon as you hear the creaking noise. Now, it's time to save again. But before saving, make sure to change your ATB to wait, because we'll be using the Wait Trick in this next segment. Your time should be below 1:20:00 at this point.

(This next segment is long, since we won't be saving for almost 20 minutes.)
Take the stairs all the way up. Make sure to pick up the elixir on the way up. At the top, Cloud will automatically move onto the next area after talking.
Run straight ahead and and you'll get into a battle with the three Mighty Grunts.

MIGHTY GRUNTS
Now, we're gonna use the wait trick in this battle. If you don't know what that is, it is explained in the Prologue for this guide. Have the first two characters who get a turn throw grenades at different targets, and then have the last character select a grenade and move the cursor to the enemy the others did not attack. But do not confirm the attack. Wait until you see the damage from the second grenade before you confirm. Now just hold down X until the battle is over.

Make sure to set ATB back to active.
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.

PATROLLING GUARDS
After the cutscene with the sleeping guard, go into the next area. This area is extremely frustrating for me, because if you get caught by the guards, you have to restart from the base of shinra tower. Yes, that's right... all the way at the bottom. Alright, let's get this over with, shall we?
The left side is pretty easy, since the guards are only walking. However, the right side can be tricky, since the guards are running and you have to act quickly when they start moving. To make it easier, you should just wait until there is no guard in front of the first open area. Then you can start running when the guards start coming towards the other side. By doing this, there will be no guard in front of the last open area when you get there.

Once you get to the next floor, the man that will give you the keycard for floor 62 is walking around to the left of the elevator when you enter the floor. Talk to him and select the second option to receive the keycard to floor 62. Use the stairs.

LIBRARY
Alright, so, for this next room, there's a very easy exploit to this. Go to the Space Dev. Research Library. It's the room with green shelves and blue floors. 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
Of course, you lose time from doing this, as opposed to just guessing the password. But it's important to get the elemental materia.

• 1. The first chest is the bottom chest in the left middle room.
  
• 2. The second chest is the top chest in the left bottom room.
  
• 3. The third chest is the top chest in the left bottom room.
  
• 4. The fourth chest is the top chest in the left middle room.
  
• 5. The fifth chest is in the room in the top right corner of ths floor.

HO512 - (HP - 1000)
First, Cloud's limit bar must be atleast half-full after this battle. Ideally, it should be full, but that's close to impossible to achieve. You also don't want HO512 to be using Shady Breath more than once, as it will decrease your time too much. Just throw 8 grenades at him to win. Keep repeating until you get a satisfying result. If Cloud doesn't have a limit break right now, you need to make sure to get it before the fight with Rufus. And if his HP is very low, there's a high chance you'll die before you make it to floor 66.

Pick up the Enemy Skill Materia, and leave this screen to the right. Then take the elevator bacj down to floor 67 and then continue down to floor 66. And here comes Rude to wreck the whole operation!
Once you wake up in the cell, walk towards the door, and choose the third option to wonder what Aerith is doing. Before the talking starts, position Cloud right by Tifa's head.
Walk to the door again, and choose to get some sleep.
Walk towards the door, go examine the guard, and run back to tell Tifa. After she runs out to check the guard, follow her out and talk to her. Go talk to Barret and Red XIII. Now, they will go examine the guard. Follow them and talk to Barret. Go talk to the girls.
Follow Red XIII to the Jenova room. It's pretty obvious that she's been stolen...
Now, you can save. Your time should be under 1:45:00.

After saving, keep going until you get to the President on floor 70.
After the cutscene, Rufus will arrive via helicopter. Go outside to the balcony to take care of him.
Cloud will stay with Rufus and the others will head back down.
When you're given a choice of what to do with Cloud's materia, make sure to leave it as it is, then enter the elvator for the battles with Hundred Gunner, and Heli Gunner.

HUNDRED GUNNER - (HP - 1600)
Just throw grenades until the battle is over. All limit breaks must be saved for Heli Gunner. 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. To prevent this, just 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. Keep in mind, if both Aux/Hidden Arterilleries hit the same character, you'll need to restart, since you shouldn't heal in these battles.

HELI GUNNER - (HP - 1000)
This battle is somewhat harder than Hundred Gunner, since Heli's attacks can inflict status ailments. AB Cannon can put a character to sleep, C cannon can poison, and Firing Line, can inflict both. Throw two grenades, use Barret and Red XIII's limit breaks, and throw three more grenades. If that doesn't finish him off, have Barret attack regularly. Red XIII is allowed to get killed in this battle.

When you get the choice to remove materia from the other party members after the screen switches back to Cloud, ignore that, and just continue to the battle with Rufus.

RUFUS (HP - 500)
Start the battle by using Braver on Dark Nation. If Rufus opens the battle with shotgun, you need to use limit break quickly, or Dark Nation might get a turn and you will lose five seconds. Killing dark Nation is faster because you don't need to watch his attack every turn. If you don't kill Dark Nation with Braver, you need to normally attack him the next turn. Throw four grenades at Rufus to end the battle. Save your limit break for Motor Ball.

Head back downstairs and talk to Tifa. You should probably save here if you aren't comfortable with the motorcycle game. After talking to Tifa, head for the exit to trigger the cutscene.

MOTORCYCLE GAME
Before the motorcylce game starts, you get the chance to form a party and open the menu, but just push the start button again. It doesn't really matter how you do this, just as long as Cloud, Barret, and Tifa don't take that much damage.

MOTOR BALL - (HP - 2600)
When the battle begins, push Page up + Page Down to turn your characters around. Have Cloud cast bolt, and have the others use grenades. Make sure Bolt always is the first move every turn. Use Cloud and Barret's limit breaks as soon as they become available. 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, have Barret attack normally.

After getting on the ground, run to the bottom of the screen and choose the second option.
Form a party of Cloud, Tifa, and Red XIII, and leave through the bottom of the screen.
After re-gaining control of Cloud, run for about 5 seconds, then save. Congratulations! You've made it out of Midgar! (As if that wasn't obvious already). Your time should be under 2:00:00.

Alright, now that Midgar's out of the way, there's only one more boring part of the story to finish, and that's Cloud's flashback. Since this is a speedrun, you need to get to Kalm with no encounters, but if you run for about five seconds before saving, that shouldn't be a problem. After entering town, run ahead to trigger the cutscene.
Run up to the second floor, and approach the crew to start the flashback.

FLASHBACK - PART 1
After a while, the Dragon will attack and Sephiroth will take care of it, with absolutely no help from you. 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.

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.

Next, you get to control Cloud, so talk to Tifa, then follow her onto the bridge. You know what happens here.

Take the path to the right, enter the cave, and run ahead.

Keep running to the exit.

Once you get to control Cloud again in front of the reactor, run a short distance ahead.
Once you finally do get to the reactor, you should know where to go. (Why are you doing this speedrun if you don't?)

After entering the room with all the capsules, close the valve and talk to Sephiroth twice.
After the cutscene, Barret will interrupt and ask you to save. Make sure you select the second option to avoid wasting time.

FLASHBACK - PART 2
Cloud will run out from the Inn and enter the mansion. Just head down to the
basement and find Sephiroth.

Head back out the door when you get to control Cloud again, and text will appear on the screen. Don't worry about skipping it, it runs automatically. Cloud will wake up on the second floor in the morning, then head back down and find Sephiroth.

After the dialogue, follow Sephiroth back up, and you'll discover the burning remains of Nibelheim.

After talking, enter Cloud's house. Once this short animation finishes, Cloud will be in the reactor. Climb down the chains and run ahead to find Tifa over her father. After the cutscene, run into the capsule room again.

Go help Tifa, then follow Sephiroth into Jenova's room.

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.

Then you can finally leave town!

Alright, now it's finally time to use the save trick on the world map. Head for the marshes and run for about 10 seconds before you stop to save. Your time should be under 2:25:00.

Do a soft reset before you move on, otherwise you'll get an encounter. Then run for another 10 seconds before you repeat the process.

AVOIDING THE MIDGAR ZOLOM

This next step requires some pretty fast reflexes, so prepare yourself. 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.

MEETING SOME OLD FRIENDS
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 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
the turks.

After the dialogue, climb up the tree and leave the mines. Back on the world map, run for about ten seconds before you stop again. For the first time since the train lockdown, you have to do some changes in the menu. Here's what to do. Give Cloud the poison and steal materia. Give Tifa the Mythril Armlet and Restore - All, and Enemy Skill.

Now, save your game. Your time should be under 2:30:00.

After this, continue running for another ten seconds before you save again.

When you enter the town, you'll have one line of text to skip. Once the text is skipped, enter the shop to the right and buy enough grenades to get 36. If you don't have enough money, sell the Talisman first. Then you'll definitely have enough. Head down to the beach after buying the grenades, and you'll encounter Bottomswell.

BOTTOMSWELL - (HP - 2500)

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.

REVIVING PRISCILLA

After your battle with Bottomswell, you need to revive Priscilla. It takes 41 breaths to revive her, so you have many options. You can fill the gauge completely 4 times, then take a final breath, or you can go with the 9-9-9-9-5 strategy. As long as you only breath into her 5 times, it doesn't matter.

Skip the text, then talk to the old woman in front of the house near the entrance to Junon, where you can sleep for free.

Make sure to select the second option here, or you'll waste some more time.

Leave the house and go climb the stairs to Priscilla's house. Cloud will stop at the beginning of the second staircase and Priscilla will come down.

After this scene, run to the beach and talk to Priscilla.

When Priscilla asks if you want to jump with Mr. Dolphin, make sure to choose the second option. Don't move at all in the water, just push the B button twice.

Run up-left to the ladder and you'll get the cutscene with the Highwind.

JUNON BASE

Once you regain control of Cloud, run down to the next area and use the elevator to get down to the lower level. You can control Cloud when the elevator gets down, so make sure to place him as close to the exit as possible.

Now enter the room immediately to the up-left of Cloud. Find the uniform in the second locker and use the second option to change.

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.

Time to save your game again. Your time should be under 2:40:00.

SHINRA MARCH

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. Do some practice and you will find out that it's easier
than you ever imagined.

Enter the door to the left to get out on the street.

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.

Next comes the marching. Get 50% or more. Anything below 50% is unacceptable.

Head back to the dressing room for you next instructions.

FORMATION EXERCISES

First, the soldiers will show you what to do, and then you get to do some
practice yourself. You have to skip one box of text after they finish showing
you. That's after "right turn". Then it's your turn, but you can just watch.
Make sure to choose the second option when they ask if you've got it.

Head for the docks, things will happen automatically when you get there.

When posing for the president, make sure to score between 60 and 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 goes away. You'll get a HP Plus Materia.

THE SHINRA BOAT

Now, enter the 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.

After talking, you get to form a party. The party will consist of Cloud, Tifa, and Red. You also have to do some changes in the menu. Equip the power wrist on Cloud and give him the Hyper, then place everyone in the back row.

Now it's time to save again. Your time should be under 2:50:00.

Head back down, enter the cargo room and run towards the shinra soldier. And now, it's time to fight the first of four Jenovas.

Jenova-BIRTH - (HP - 4000)

First of all, she must open the battle with stop, and it must miss. There's a 50% chance she'll open it with stop, and it tends to miss quite often, so that shouldn't require too many restarts. Now, throw seven grenades, and use Braver. That means you need to have Cloud throw the second and fifth grenade. If Cloud doesn't have a limit break now, that means you 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 atleast once more. The best is if you get to use it three times in total. There's 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.

After the battle, skip the text, then select the second option to keep Cloud from explaining what Sephiroth meant. Then leave the boat, and no, you don't need Ifrit, so don't waste three seconds by taking it. Cloud will say a few lines before he goes off the boat.

COSTA DEL SOL

After exiting the boat, skip the text, then leave the docks. Rufus and Heidegger will then make their appearances right on queue.

Enter the villa straight ahead, go downstairs, and open the box. Ignore the other items, you don't need them.

Now it's time to leave Costa del Sol. Back on the world map, run for about ten seconds before you save. If you want a picture of where to be saving, you should be saving right about when the rocky area starts.

It's very hard to reach North Corel without healing, so you have to heal atleast once. Go ahead and heal now, then save. Your time should be under 3 hours.

Once you reach 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 you can steal both of them from one battle. Restart if you get any other battle than that, and if you don't get a battle in this area, you need to run back and forth until you do.

STEALING RIGHT ARMS

When you finally do 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 is extremely low, so you most likely won't get them in one attempt. Ideally, you'd want to get 2 Right Arms in under 10 attempts, but if you're about 10-15 minutes ahead of the previously mentioned save time, go ahead and try some more. But be careful, you don't want to spend your entire 10-15 minute lead on this one area. You will most likely have to restart several times here, but as I mentioned before, this is a speedrun, and it requires patience.

Once you get the two arms, go ahead and save. Your time should still be under 3 hours.

Before you proceed, I would recommend playing 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 alot of time if you don't know what you're doing. So practicing is not a bad idea. If you decide not to practice, then please proceed with the guide.

TRAVERSING THE TRACKS

Continue moving on from the save point, when the floor breaks, tap the X like crazy and Cloud will jump over. Restart if you fall. Now, proceed to the shack to lower the bridge, but make sure to stop and pick up the Turbo Ether. It's the purple item.

Now move on until you reach the final bridge before North Corel. It's the really long bridge that makes Cloud look like an insect. Here, you have to steal three more Right Arms, and I know, the very thought of spending more time on getting Right Arms would set anyone off. However, if you're doing good on time, go ahead and save outside Corel, then come back to do this.

STEALING MORE ARMS

Ideally, you want to accept no more than 20 attempts to get your 3 right arms. Bombs only come in groups of one here, so you need atleast three battles. Just take note that you might also get attacked from both sides, which means you'll have to restart.

When you finally reach North Corel, just run ahead and the talking will commense.

Go talk to Barret, then, 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.

THE SHOPPING LIST

• 2x Ether
  
• White Cape
  
• Guard Source
  
• Protect Vest
  
• Star Pendant
  
• Talsiman *

• 21x Molotov
  
• Force Stealer
  
• 11x Tranquilizer

ONTO THE GOLD SAUCER

After the tram arrives in the Gold Saucer, go talk to the woman in front of the entrance. Buy a regular ticket, then enter.

Talk to Tifa and choose to go with her, the first option. Then jump down to wonder square and talk to Cait Sith. You know how to name him.

Jump down to Battle Square, then after the cutscene, you'll find yourself in Corel Prison.

Time to save your game. Your time should be under 3:15:00.

Enter the appropriate house, and after talking to Barret, you'll have to form a party. Cloud, Barret, and Red should be the ones in your party. Now, you need to go find Dyne, and if you don't know how to get there, make sure to save at the save point and practice until you can get there with no issues. It doesn't matter if Barret gets attacked on the way, he gets fully healed before the battle begins.

DYNE - (HP - 1200)
This battle is very simple, throw a right arm and it will be over.

CHOCOBO RACING MADNESS

Skip all the text, then make sure to select the second option when inside the elevator. If Ester explains anything, it will waste a large amount of time, and you don't want that to happen. If you're unfamiliar with how to ride a chocobo, just read this. Directional buttons control the chocobo, use X to increase speed and B to sprint. Hold down home, end, page up, and page down to keep the stamina from depleting too much.

Once you reach the room, pick up Ramah, and go to the exit. Wait for the chocobo race to start.

Once Ester comes back, talk to her and make sure to select the second option again to avoid getting the controls explained to you. Switch to manual steering, then start regenerating your stamina while sprinting to the top of the spiral. Use X from now on, and you're pretty much guaranteed victory. However, it doesn't matter if you win by a second or by a year, as you'll still need to wait for second place to get filled before you can exit. Just push enter once the second chocobo reaches the finish line.

Once you're out of the Gold Saucer, form a party of Cloud, Tifa, and Cait, and head for Cosmo Canyon. You can save after crossing the first river and again after crossing the second river. Make sure to park the buggy right outside town, to prevent it from breaking down, which will ultimately save you a few seconds.

Now, it's time to save again. Your time should be under 3:30:00.

Enter Cosmo Canyon, and climb the steps. Red XIII, otherwise known as Nanaki now, will come running. Talk to the man, and select the second option. Skip the text.

If you entered the Shinra HQ through the front door, you must now enter the Inn and pick up the Elixir. IT's not visible, but it shouldn't be too hard to find. Just check the couch and you'll find it. Head back out and talk to Red after you find it.

THE CRIES OF THE PLANET

Climb all the way up to Bugenhagen and talk to Red when you get there. Then, climb back down and enter the the far right door. Talk to Cait and form any party, then climb back up, enter the door, and talk to Bugenhagen. You have to skip one box before you can enter.

Skip the text, then go all the way back down to the bonfire and talk to Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and Red in that precise order.

After the dialogue, Bugenhagen will come, and it's time to visit the Cave of the Gi, which is arguably one of the hardest dungeons in the game, especially for a speedrun. Form a party of Cloud, Red, and Tifa, and head for the save point. Equip Cloud with the Force Stealer before saving. Your time should be under 3:40:00.

After saving, go talk to Bugenhagen in front of the entrance to the cave. Cloud will automatically enter the cave after talking.

It's worth noting that you will most likely encounter more enemies in here than I have mentioned, and if that's the case, then you can just escape the battles. There is no need to restart

TRAVERSING THE CAVE P1

Climb all the way down to the bottom and enter the next area. Here, enter the cave to the left of where the entrance to the next area is, and skip one box of text to open the entrance. If you don't know which cave, find out, then restart. The party will stop for some talking before you enter the next area.

Skip the text, then in this area, you have to get into battle with three Sneaky Steps. The main reason is to learn Death Sentence, but you also have to win at least one M-Tentacle, for use in Stinger battles. Hopefully you get a battle on the run, so you don't have to waste time running around.

SNEAKY STEP X3

You can't waste time waiting for the Sneaky Steps to use Death Sentence on Tifa, so select to throw a Right Arm, and just hope that one of them casts Death Sentence on her before it gets thrown. If not, you know what you've gotta do. After she does learn Death Sentence, you just need to hope that you get at least one M-Tentacle.

TRAVERSING THE CAVE P2

Now, proceed to the next area. The party will talk some more once you exit this cave. After talking, keep moving, and enter the second of five openings. Next comes two battles with Stingers.

STINGER 1 - (HP - 2200)

Throw an M-Tentacle and use Braver to take care of him.

Proceed to the next battle.

STINGER 2 - (HP - 2200)

Have everyone throw Molotovs and make sure Cloud throws either the fourth or fifth one, so that he gets sting bombed and gets his limit bar filled. Then use Braver when the sixth Molotov is thrown.

After the battle, heal the party back to full health and proceed. Bugenhagen will interrupt one last time before you enter the next area. And now, it's time to fight Gi Nattak.

GI NATTAK - (HP - 5500)

Throw an Elixir at him and the battle will be over. Phoenix Downs also work, but there's a large chance they'll miss, so it isn't worth it. Elixirs never miss.

CONQUERING THE CAVE

Pick up the Gravity Materia and enter the final area. After Red reflects on his father's greatness, you'll re-appear at the bonfire in Cosmo Canyon again. Form a party of Cloud, Tifa, and Cait, then proceed to the exit.

Skip the text, then leave for Nibelheim. Save before the river. Your time should be under 3:50:00.

I'm gonna warn you now, this is one part of the game where most people tend to get extremely angry with their speedruns. This is why it was very important that early on in the game, you were able to kill Guard Scorpion just the right way. Before you move on, there's something you have to find out. Cloud must be able to deal exactly 99 damage with Bio against Materia Keeper, and depending on your magic stat, he might not be able to with the usual setup. Equip him with the Silver Armlet and give him Fire, Shiva, Ramuh, Ice, and Gravity, in addition to Steal and Bio. Then go fight Materia Keeper five times to see if you're able to deal 99 damage. And make sure to save on a different file when you get there. If you deal too little, you'll replace Steal with Lightning. If you still deal too little, you have to give poison to Cait and then find a combination that works, but you also have to do some other materia changes. If you can't possibly deal 99 damage with any combination, restarting the game may be necessary. And if you do restart, MAKE SURE CLOUD HAS A HIGH MAGIC STAT WHEN YOU START, because you definitely don't want to go through all this again for nothing!

CLIMBING MT. NIBEL

After entering town, just run ahead to trigger the cutscenes. Skip the text, then leave Nibelheim and head for the save point at Mt. Nibel. Enter Pipe #2 inside the cave and you'll land just by the save point, and yes, you have to pick up the powersoul before you can jump down, but that's a really good thing, since the power soul is the most important weapon in this speedrun.

Note : You need Cait to have a limit break after Materia Keeper and Trine isn't enough to fill his bar completely, therefore, you have to make sure he takes some damage on the way there. Go fight Materia Keeper and make sure he opens with Trine first, so that you know exactly how much damage he needs to take.

Before saving, you need to do the following equipment / materia changes:

• Equip the Silver Armlet on Cloud, and give him the amount of red and green materia needed for him to be able to deal 99 damage with Bio.
  
• Give Cait the Cover materia, and place him in the back row.
  
• Give everyone tranquilizers, and heal the party to full health.

• Remove cure-all from Tifa, and give it to Cloud in the Silver Armlet.
  
• Give Cait the required combination of red and green materias, and if Tifa has a limit break, you must reset it.

Now, it's time to go fight Materia Keeper, who in my personal opinion, is one of the two hardest bosses in the game.

MATERIA KEEPER - (HP - 8400)

This strategy requires an immense amount of luck, but since this battle is as close as you can possible get after a save point, it doesn't really matter.

First of all, he must open the battle with Trine. When he does, have Cloud cast Bio (it must poison him), Tifa cast cure-all, and Cait defend. Re-arrange this as necessary if Cloud isn't the one casting Bio. Now, pray Cloud deals 99 damage with poison, and if he does, you've got this battle in the hole. Wait for Materia Keeper to attack someone, then have the healer cure that person. Then watch what happens, I'll leave it a surprise for those of you who don't know.
If you end up using the Cait strategy, you must have Cait cast Bio, Tifa attack, and Cloud cure-all in that order. Then have Cloud heal whoever got attacked.

ROCKET TOWN

Leave Mt. Nibel and run for about five seconds before you stop and save. You don't need the counter attack materia, so don't pick it up. Now save your game. Your time should still be under 3:55:00.

Now it's time to enter Rocket Town. Once you get there, skip two boxes of text, then enter Cid's house. Go out the back door to find the Tiny Bronco, which will result in Shera coming out for some talking. After the talking, proceed to the shop in the middle of town.

SHOPPING LIST

• Wizer Staff
  
• Jem Ring

• 21x Potion
  
• 15x Tranquilizer
  
• 6x Phoenix Down
  
• 17x Hi Potion
  
• 1x Tent

HOWTO : STEAL A PLANE

Now Go find Cid in the rocket. You have to talk to him twice, and the first time includes naming him. You know what to do here. After naming him, skip the text. Climb back down and enter Cid's house. Move just ahead and the long cutscene will start. This one lasts for about 5 minutes.

Skip the text, then you get to control Cloud again after Cid goes out to talk to Rufus. Follow him outside.

Skip the text, then Shera will take you back inside and tell you to go talk to Palmer, who is currently preparing the Tiny Bronco for Rufus. How convenient!

PALMER - (HP - 6000)

• Turn 1. Have Cloud cast Bio, Tifa throw a Molotov, Cait throw a Molotov, then Cloud use Cross-Slash, in that order.
  Note: If Cloud's ATB bar isn't full enough and you have to wait too long for it to fill up, Palmer might attack before Cait throws his Molotov. You can't allow that to happen.
  
• Turn 2. Have Tifa, Cait, Cloud, and Tifa throw Molotovs in that order, followed by Cait using Dice. With a 2400 Dice, the battle will most likely be over after the next poison damage. Ideally you want atleast 1600. If you don't get 1200+, a restart is necessary.
  
• Turn 3. 1-2 additional Molotovs in case Dice dealt low damage. With some luck, Palmer will still not attack. He will only use Mako Gun once in this entire fight.

YOUR NEW "WINGS"
Now that you've got the Tiny Bronco and Cid, head northeast towards Nibelheim. Follow the river through the continent and leave the Tiny Bronco just after the mountain ends and the river turns south. Then run for about ten seconds before you save. Your time should be under 4:10:00.

Get to North Corel without being attacked and head directly to the railway station and board the tram. In order to get there without being attacked, just use the saving trick.

INSIDE THE GOLD SAUCER... AGAIN
Once you get to the Gold Saucer, buy a regular ticket, and enter to go find the keystone. Head to Battle Arena, go up the stairs, and take your first right. Dio will appear when you find it.
Skip the text, then go into the Battle Arena for Dio's "show". However, we're not gonna be providing him with any entertainment today. Just escape the battle as soon as it starts, like you would any other battle. If you get a Flapbeat battle, you can attempt to steal a T/S Bomb from one of them before you escape. Only attempt this once. The chance to steal it is about 39%.

Now leave and go talk to man in front of the tram.

Next up is the date scene.

THE DATE

During the part of the date where you're in a play, make sure to ask the knight for help, and then select the second option twice. Yes, it's going to end badly, but we don't have time for this, we're on a speedrun!

Once you get inside the tram, don't touch anything until you've seen the FMV. If you do push something, you'll see more than one, and thus lose valuable time.

After the tram scene, you'll control Cloud again when Cait runs off with the keystone. Go to Chocobo Square, the first hole from the right. Here, follow Cait Sith inside, run around the circle and leave.

Skip the text, then leave the room.

Form a party of Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa, then leave the Gold Saucer. Before leaving North Corel, you have to stop and buy enough Molotovs to have 15 total. Then leave town, and run for about 10 seconds before saving. Your time should be under 4:20:00.

Before heading to the temple, you have to acquire a couple of T/S bombs. These are stolen/won from Flapbeats, a regular enemy in this area. Make sure you get into a battle with three of them, and if you don't... well, you should know what to do.

FLAPBEAT X3

Have Cloud steal and Tifa cast Trine. This will end the battle, but you cannot proceed unless you receive at least two T/S Bombs. The chance you'll win two isn't very high, so make sure Cloud has a chance to steal one.

ONTO GONGAGA

The next destination, as the title says, is Gongaga. We have to go there to pick up Deathblow, which is one of the most important materia in this challenge. Save just before reaching town. After entering town, go left and you'll find Deathblow on the second screen. Then leave town and head to the Tiny Bronco.

If Cloud doesn't have a limit break, you should get into a battle with Grand Horn and make sure he gets Grand Punch'd while you're in the Gongaga area.

Once Cloud gets his limit, if he didn't have it already, it's time to make some equipment changes before we make the trip to the temple.

On Cloud, remove the Power Wrist and give him HP Plus instead of Steal.
On Tifa, equip the Powersoul and the Power Wrist, replace All with Deathblow, give her Steal in the weapon, and remove Enemy skill.
On Aeris, give her enemy skill.

On a side note, if you don't want to restart tons of times to get the bosses right, you should do these additional changes.

On Cloud, give him Cover and Restore-All in addition to what he already got.
On Aeris, equip the Fire Ring.

Now, save your game again.

Once back to the Tiny Bronco, you can head for the temple. If you don't know how to get there, you must find out and practice the route. Needless to say, you cannot accept any battles on the way there.

INSIDE THE TEMPLE

Move ahead, and Aeris will interrupt.

Climb the stais and enter. Now place the keystone on the altar after skipping the text.

First run downstairs and climb down the wall to get to the next level. Here,
run down the stairs and climb up to the wall. Follow the ancient and go
through the opening with an item in front. Pick it up and follow this path
until you've climbed up another wall. Now go left and enter the next area. This
is where you have to dodge those rolling boulders. Make sure not to screw up.
Things will happen automatically when you reach the other side.

Move onto the clock room. Push V to move it yourself, then hold X until the minute hand is at six. No, you don't need the Ribbon. Enter the room and talking will start.

Skip the text, then jump down to the second level. Enter the third door from the left, second door from the right.

Now, give tranquilizers to everyone and save your game. Your time should be under 4:30:00.

Note: All the battles from this point forward depend on Tifa's strength and Cloud's magic. Since it can be different from file to file, you should always go ahead and test it first and see if you deal enough damage. If you don't deal enough, you're gonna have to adapt the strategies. Most battles should work, so don't worry too much about it. The only battle where you need a specific stat is Schizo.

Jump down to the lowest level and enter the fourth door to get back up. Then enter the room with the murals. Here, you have to go through alot of talking before the battle with Red Dragon, but it's not as bad as Palmer.

RED DRAGON - (HP - 6800)

First of all, Red Dragon must open the battle with Red Dragon Breath on Tifa. There's a 25% chance he'll do that, and if does, have Aeris cast Death Sentence on Tifa. Have Tifa use deathblow, and Cloud use Cross-Slash in that order. Then have Tifa Deathblow, Aeris throw a Right Arm, Cloud defend, and Tifa use deathblow again. If none of the Deathblows miss, the battle will be over.

If she does miss, you can try again, but Red Dragon will start attacking again. Have Aeris defend after throwing the Right Arm. Have Cloud cure himself and Aeris if they lose HP, but never Tifa, as her HP needs to stay yellow for Deathblow to deal max damage. You can also revive Cloud and Aeris if necessary, but if Tifa gets killed, you're gonna have to reset, there's no way around it. Logically enough, you lose time each time Deathblow misses, so it's up to you how many misses you'll accept.

Pick up Bahamut and move onto the next area.

Now, leave the room, but before saving, you must have Cloud cure himself and Aeris to full health if they lost HP against Red Dragon. You can't rest, as Tifa's HP needs to stay low. If you don't want to restart until you get the perfect Demon's Gate strategy right, you have to set ATB to Recommended and you must heal Cloud and Aeris to full health. Now save. Your time should be under 4:40:00.

Now there's only one thing left to do. Go get Demon's Gate.

DEMON'S GATE - (HP - 10,000)

First of all, he must open the battle with waving his arms. That means Demon Rush will be his next attack. If he does, have Cloud throw a Right Arm, Aeris cast Death Sentence on Tifa and Tifa use Deathblow, in that order. Demon's Gate will now start waving his arms again. Have Aeris throw a Molotov, Tifa use Deathblow and Cloud give a Hi-Potion to Tifa, in that order. Demon's Gate will
then use Demon Rush. If it misses Tifa or criticals and kills someone, you must restart. Then have Tifa use Deathblow again and the others throw Molotovs and Demon's Gate will start waving his arms again. Repeat the last turn and the battle should be over after the last Molotov if none of the Deathblows missed.

This, however, is the optimal outcome. Here's the regular battle:

Demon's Gate must open the battle with waving his arms. On your first turn, have Aeris throw a Right ARm, Tifa throw a Molotov, and Cloud throw a Right Arm in that order. Demon's Gate will now wave his arms again. Then have Aeris Cast Death Sentence on Tifa, Tifa use Deathblow (it must hit) and Cloud give a Hi-potion to Tifa. Demon's Gate will now use Demon Rush. Now have Aeris throw a Molotov, Tifa use Deathblow (this one can miss), and Cloud throw a Molotov. Even if Deathblow misses, Demon's Gate will start waving his arms again.

You now have two options. Option 1 is optimal.

• Gamble and not heal Aeris more than with Cure-all. She can survive Demon Rush, but it can very well happen that she dies.

  --Deathblow (can miss, but if both the second one and this one miss, you need to make sure the 4th one hits before Demon Rush), potion on Tifa, Cure-all
  --possibly another Deathblow from Tifa.
  --Demon Rush, Aeris could be dead

  If Aeris does die:

  If 2 Deathblows hit for full damage:
  --Deathblow (has to hit), Molotov
  --Deathblow (has to hit); Molotov + Cross-Slash can be enough, depending on previous damage, but it's a gamble.

  If 1 Deathblow hits for full damage, one for half:
  --Deathblow (has to hit), Molotov
  --Deathblow (has to hit)

  If 2 Deathblows hit for full damage, one for half:
  --Deathblow (has to hit and it could be over), Molotov if needed.

  If 3 Deathblows hit for full damage:
  --Deathblow (over if it hits). Cure-all / Hi-Potion
  If Deathblow misses, he must use Rock Drop only once and on Cloud (you could also get lucky and he uses it twice but misses) but then the next one should really hit.

  If Aeris isn't dead:

  If 2 Deathblows hit for full damage:
  --Deathblow (can miss), 2x Molotov
  --Deathblow (can't miss if the previous one missed and vice versa). Over it they both hit, otherwise 2 more Molotov will finish him (Actually to make sure, you should use 3 Molotovs if the first Deathblow hit).

  If 1 Deathblow Hits for full damage, one for half:
  --Deathblow (has to hit), 2x Molotov
  --Deathblow (over if it hits), Potion on Tifa (not needed if you know she has enough HP to survive Demon Rush, in which case, a Molotov should be used), Cure-all. If it misses, the next one (After Demon Rush) should hit and finish him.

  If 2 Deathblows hit for full damage, and one for half:
  --Deathblow + Molotov to end it
  Or to play it safe: Deathblow (can miss), cure-all, Hi-Potion on Tifa. If both Cloud and Tifa survive the Rock drops, Deathblow again and hope it sticks thsi time.

  If 3 Deathblows hit for full damage:
  --basically the same as above. 2x Molotov+Cross-Slash could be enough, but it's unlikely, so it's quite a gamble.

  I didn't even bother mentioning it, but if you get 4 Deathblows before the second Demon Rush, and all 4 hit, and he's not dead, 1-2 Molotovs will finish him.

  Most of the time it's possible to get more than 2 Death Blows in before Demon Rush, but sometimes it will just not happen.

  Here's the other method

• Heal everyone back to full

  So Healing Wind instead of Potion to Tifa

  Same as above, you have to adapt the rest of the battle depending on how many of the Deathblows hit (pausing the game and thinking ahead, as well as using a calculator to keep track of his HP really helps here). The problem here is that Tifa will not be in critical condition, so Deathblow will only deal half damage. But with the help of Hi-Potions, one should be able to survive. No realy need to heal Aeris once he waves his arms around again, since she will die from the third Demon Rush that way, but by then, it should be close to over.

  Whew! Finally done with that! You know what to do from here.

  INSIDE GONGAGA

  When you finally get to control Cloud, go pick up the X-Potion, then head outside. Skip the text, then leave Gongaga. Cloud will stop and look at the ruined reactor on the way and you have to skip one line of text. On the world map, head south to find the Tiny Bronco. Then make the journey to Bone Village. You have to travel back through the continent and then follow the shoreline to get there. Before entering town, you must replace Barret with Cait. If you set ATB to recommended before Demon's Gate, you have to set it back to Active now. Now it's time to save. Your time should be under 5 hours. Hard to believe we've come so far in 5 hours, huh?

If you don't know the way to Bone Village, make sure to save and practice it a few times until you know exactly how to get there. Once you do, enter Bone Village, and talk to the man outside the first ten. Just skip text and you'll choose to dig for the Lunar Harp. If you don't know exactly where it is, you must find out before you do the major run. It's hard to explain exactly where it is, but most of the time, it's in a little dark circle on the top cliff to the left of the tent. It's easy to spot once you know where it is. And yes, it's always at the same spot.

Once you get the Lunar Harp, you can enter the forest. Get through it as quickly as possible, then proceed to the Forgotten City.

THE FORGOTTEN CITY

Here, go right and enter the second house. Inside, pick up the Elixir in the chest, climb the ladder, and move ahead to trigger a cutscene. Approach the bed and have some sleep, which is the first option. Cloud will wake up in the middle of the night, and dialogue will follow.

Pick up the Enemy Skill Materia behind the bed and leave the house. It's time to go find Aeris. You know where she is. Cloud will stop and say something when you get back to the first screen. Once you get to the area before Jenova, some equipment changes must be done before we approach Aeris.

• Give Cloud the Enemy Skill Materia with Death Sentence on it
  
• Give Tifa the Gigas Armlet, and give her a Tranquilizer
  
• Give Cait the other Enemy Skill Materia

After jumping over to the altar, the screen will change and you can control Cloud. Run towards Aeris and he will stop a few seconds to do some strange things. Go talk to Aeris, and press the X button 3 times. Then brace yourself for one of the saddest and most famous scenes in early gaming history.

After the scene, Sephiroth will flee and drop Jenova-LIFE. Time to fight it.

JENOVA-LIFE - (HP - 10,000)

Start the battle by having Cloud cast Death Sentence on Tifa, Cait throw a molotov at Tifa, and Tifa use Deathblow. In that exact order. Unfortunately, a Molotov isn't enough to bring her HP down to the yellow level, so she has to eat an attack from Jenova as well. That's ONE attack. Two will kill her. Have Cloud use Cross-Slash when Tifa attacks and then have Tifa use Deathblow twice to end the battle. As always, Deathblow can't miss for this strategy to work.

Jenova likes to attack often, so this battle can be very fatal if Deathblow should miss. As long as Tifa stays alive, you can keep trying, but she's not likely to stay alive for a very long time. Also, you need Cloud and Cait to be standing when you kill her, so make sure they don't die. You can have Cloud heal if you gave him Cure-All before the Temple of the Ancients. Oh, and Aqualung = instant game over, so you don't want to see that attack.

Skip the text, and disc one is officially done.

You should be below 5 hours when you save.

After the disc change is completed, you'll start up outside a house in the Forgotten City. Follow Sephiroth to the next area. You have to climb some specific walls in this area, which might require practice to get just right. First, climb the second wall and jump off to the left. Then climb the next wall and jump off to the left. You can actually open the chest with the Bolt Armlet from the ledge below it, so you don't have to climb up to it. After picking it up, jump to the opposite side of the wall, run across the screen to the next wall, then jump off to the left, climb the next wall, and choose to climb down the ladder. You'll find the Magic Plus Materia on the bottom, a materia that is very important for some strategies to work. After picking it up, you can climb all the way up and exit the cave. Run for about ten seconds then save. I know, that's alot to digest at once. That's why practice may be necessary for you.

TOWARDS THE ICICLE INN

Get just outside the Icicle in, without getting any encounters mind you, heal everyone, give them all tranquilizers, then save your game. Your time should be under 5:10:00.

Once you enter Icicle Inn, enter the first house to the right and find the map. Choose the second option to take it. You can't go snowboarding without it, so it's necessary. Also, pick up the item to your right in the room behind it. You don't need the one on the left. Then go talk to the guy at the edge of town, which will trigger the cutscene with Elena.

Skip the text, then just tap the left arrow to dodge her punch. After talking, enter the house in the middle of town and get the snowboard from the kid. And now, it's time to do the snowboading mini game. Just run past the man and exit the screen to start the minigame.

SNOWBOARDING

Tap the direction up button and Cloud will take off. Go right at the first intersection and left at the second. If you want to lose as little time as possible, you should practice this mini game until you get good at it. The most fatal parts are the forest and the crystal caves. If you crash, it will most likely happen there. In the forest, you should go next to the right wall. If you find the right spot, you don't have to dodge any trees at all, but you have to take a sharp left to avoid a tree at the end. That's something you must practice. The area with snow boulders coming from the sides can also be tricky, but if you go a little to the left from the center, you should be ableto avoid most of them without making any sharp turns. It's all about finding the right spot. The slowest you wanna get here is 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Anything slower than that will require a restart.

GREAT GLACIER

Skip the text, then leave the screen through the exit to the right. Follow this path until you reach the screen with 4 exits. Here, head for the exit in the upper right corner. However, before you leave this screen, you have to get into a battle with an enemy called Snow and steal a Circlet. First of all, you should get the battle on the run, meaning that you don't spend extra time running around to get the battle. Of course, you have no choice if you don't get a battle on that screen, but let's hope that doesn't happen. The chance to get a single Snow battle here is 12/64. She can also be accompanied by two Bandersnatches in a side attack, but you don't want that battle. If you get any other battle, you should restart. Yes, you have to replay the snow boarding. Keep in mind, if you're ahead of the clock, you can give this a few attempts before restarting.

Stealing the Circlet isn't easy either, you have a ~7,8% chance of stealing it in one attempt. Again, it's up to you how many attempts to accept, but don't forget that Snow isn't just standing there. Her Fascination confuses you and that doesn't really make it any easier.

Note:You can also encounter Snow on the screen where you land, so you can steal the Circlet here if you get a battle without running around.

When you finally manage to steal it, you can leave this screen and follow this path until you reach the wide open area, but don't forget to pick up the Added Cut Materia on the second screen. If you don't know exactly where it is, you should find out before you do the major run. In the wide open area, just head north and palce markers all the time. A blizzard will mess up the camera angle, but thanks to the markers, you'll always know where to run. Eventually, you'll reach Mr. Holzoff's hut. Enter and find the save point. The following equipment and materia changes must be done before saving.

• On Cloud, give him the Dragon Armlet and Circlet. Give him Magic Plus instead of Fire, and Restore-All instead of Ramuh and Shiva.
  
• On Tifa, give her the Fire Ring. Also give her Added Cut instead of Restore.
  
• On Cait, give him the Bolt Armlet. Also give him Elemental-Lightning in the armor, Gravity instead of Manipulate, and Fire instead of Transform.

After saving, leave and head to the cliffs. You can get through the first climbing without recovering your temperature, so make sure to practice it if you don't want to lose time here. Then get through the first cave area as quickly as possible and make sure to pick up the Ribbon. If you don't know where it is, you'll need to find it before doing the major run. Once you get it, you're also gonna need to learn Magic Breath. This particular skill is learned from a Stilva, which is basically just a miniature version of our good friend, Materia Keeper. You must learn this skill on the run, to lose as little time as possible, but that shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure to keep Cloud at full health or at least close to full until the Stilva battle, because he won't survive otherwise.

STILVA - (HP - 2,000)

You need to pray that Magic Breath is used as soon as possible. Cloud needs to be full HP to be able to survive, so make sure to Cure him if he gets attacked physically. Tifa will take no damage from Magic Breath and Cait will be healed, so you don't have to worry about them. Just make sure they don't get killed. Of course, you lose time each time the Stilva uses another attack, so restart if you feel you've lost too much time. When Magic Breath is used, you must quickly have Cloud cast it back, to kill the enemy.

Note: You have to hope for two things: First, that Cloud has enough HP to survive Magic Breath. Thanks to the Circlet it should only deal around 800 damage. Second, that he kills the Stilva with one MAgic Breath. Both should go well, but I'm just pointing out that both are close. If needed, you can remove green materia from Cloud.

After the battle, heal the party and proceed. It's impossible to get through the second climbing without recovering your temperature, but if you're fast, you only have to recover a couple of degrees. Recover five, just in case. When you reach the next cave, go right to pick up the Elixir and then head for the save point. Before saving, you must give the Ribbon to Cait and an Elixir to Cloud.
Your time should be under 5:25:00.

Now it's time to go fight some Icicles. When you reach the area where the Icicles are, make sure to pick up the Fire Armlet before you start fighting the Icicles.

ICICLE + EVILHEADS (ICICLE HP - 3,000)

The battles should go like this

• 1. Cait: Demi on the Icicle
  
• 2. Cloud: Trine (kills the bats)
  
• 3. Tifa : Molotov

If you managed to steal a T/S Bomb from a Flapbeat in the battle arena earlier, you can use it in one of the battles instead of Demi. The Icicles are weak against Gravity, so it will kill them instantly. However, you need the EXP from the Evilheads, so you have to cast Trine first. If Trine deals even damage, you can use the T/S Bomb. If the Icicle has odd HP (eg. 1965) the T/S Bomb will only deal 1964 damage. The reason for that is because the original 982.5 damage is rounded down first.

After each battle, you get to choose if you want to jump down. Select the first option after the first two battles and proceed to the next Icicle. You only have to fight three of them, so select the second option after the third battle to jump down. Make sure to heal the party to full health between the battles unless you lost very little HP.

CONTINUING THE CLIMB

When you finally get through the battles, you can jump down and proceed. Don't bother healing Tifa; it's actually a good thing if she dies in battle on the way to Schizo. Also, make sure to pick up the Enhance Sword. It's in the only chest you pass by on the way up. The next climbing session is the easiest, so recovering your temperature shouldn't be necessary, but you should just in case. Just get up to the top, and proceed to the save point. DO NOT TOUCH THE HEALING SPRING.

Before you save, some inventory changes are necessary. Give the fire armlet to Cait, then heal Cloud and Cait to full health. If Tifa died in a battle on the way here, you can simply give her a phoenix own, a Hi-Potion, and a Tranquilizer. Otherwise, just heal her to 700-800 HP. You can't heal her to full health, as she needs to be in a certain HP range in order for Shio to reduce her HP to the critical ranger with his regular attack. And finally, set ATB to recommended.

You also have to reset Tifa's limit bar if it's too full. You should test run and see if she gets a limit break after getting attacked by the ice head. If she does, you have to reset it. This won't be a problem if Tifa died on the way here, so you should really aim for that to happen.

Now, save your game. You should be under 5:30:00.

• 1. No one is allowed to die during the battle.
  
• 2. Heal Cloud and Cait whenever they get attacked, and make sure to do this before you have Tifa attack.
  
• 3. Make sure to keep track of each head's HP and how many times you've attacked the fire head. It counters every fifth attack with Quake 3.

SCHIZO - (HP - 18,000 EACH HEAD)

The strategy here is pretty simple, but it requires a bit of luck. First, the ice head must attack Tifa on its first turn. That'll bring her HP Down to the critical level so that she can deal twice as much damage with her attacks. On your first turn, have Cait give a Hero Drink to Tifa, Cloud cast Death Sentence on Tifa, and Tifa Deathblow the ice head (left), in that order.

• 1. Heal Tifa to full health and continue to use deathblow (and heal) every turn until the ice head dies. Deathblow can't miss four times in a row, or else he'll use the Quake 3 counter attack. There's a very small chance that will happen though.
  
• 2. Don't heal Tifa and attack the ice head with a regular attack. For this tactic to work, the ice head must attack Cloud/Cait on turn two and three. After the second regular attack, the ice head will be almost dead. On the turn where Tifa attacks for the second time (third turn), have Cloud cast Cure-all. Then quickly have Cait use a Hi-Potion on Tifa and have Tifa use Deathblow to finish him. If Deathblow misses, the ice head will still die. If it sticks, you'll get a full damage Added Cut attack on the fire head.

When you kill the ice head, Schizo will use his final attack and bring Tifa's HP back to the critical level. Now, give a Hi-Potion to Cloud and make sure to keep track of how much damage you've dealt to the fire head. Tifa deals about 7000 damage with Deathblow and 3500 with Added Cut on critical HP. The table below tells you what to do when you've dealt this and that much damage. In addition, you must heal Cloud when/if needed.

0: Deathblow. Miss will bring you to 3500 and hit will bring you to 10500.

3500: Deathblow. Miss will bring you to 7000 and hit will bring you to 14000.

7000: Deathblow. This one must hit and it will bring you to 17500.

10500: Heal the party to full health and use Deathblow twice to kill him. Both
must hit, or else he'll Quake3 you. You can also not heal the party and
use Deathblow and hope it misses, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you
do, it will bring you to 14000 HP.

14000: Heal the party to full health and use Deathblow to kill him. Must hit.

17500: Heal the party to full health and use Deathblow or Dice. You will kill
him either way.

WHIRLWIND MAZE

When you eventually do kill him, you can just exit the cave and climb up to the top. On the top, the camera will start moving, but you can control Cloud. Make sure to run as far as you can. By doing that, you will start in the next area after the scene with the crater. Skip the text.

Note:If Tifa dies in battle on the way to Jenova, you can revive her with a Phoenix Down, but don't do it before you reach the area where the Jenova battle takes place. Else she might die again and the time you spent reviving her goes down the drain together with the Pheonix Down you used.

Just move on when the talking is over. You will run into a caped man on the way down here, but just "talk to him" to make him disappear. The party will stop for some talking again in the next area. Skip the text as usual.

Now proceed to the save point, but make sure to pick up Neo Bahamut on the way. Thankfully, there are no random battles in these two areas. We'll use the same setup for Jenova. Save your game. Your time should be below 5:40:00.

Move on and the camera view will switch to the Highwind, with Rufus and his band of hoodlums. Skip the text.

In the next area, you will run into some caped men again and you have to skip one box of text. It's safe to cross now, so just move onto the next area. Here, you won't see Cloud at first, but you can control him all the time. Move left and a little up now and then and you be able to get as far as possible. This is something you should practice if you want to save as much time as possible. If you don't know what you're doing, you will most likely run into something and get stuck. Anyway, make sure to pick up the Kaiser Knuckles on your way through this area.

Next comes the second whirlwind crossing, but here you can't just run over. In addition to the wind, there are green whirlwinds here. It's safe to cross after the fourth one. You only have to wait a few seconds though. Then we have the area where the Jenova battle takes place. If Tifa has been killed in battle, you must revive her now and heal Cloud to full health. Just don't heal Tifa.

JENOVA-DEATH - (HP - 25,000)

Have Tifa use Deathblow until Jenova dies and heal Cloud when necessary so that he doesn't die. That's it. Of course, don't let Deathblow miss too many times.

Give the Black Materia to Red and then talk to Tifa. You have to skip two boxes of text before you get to control Cloud. Pick up the MP Turbo Materia and move on to the save point. Set ATB back to active before you save. Your time should be under 5:50:00.

• Skip the text
  
• Talk to Tifa
  
• Skip the text
  
• Talk to Sephiroth
  
• Skip the text
  
• Talk to Tifa
  
• Skip the text

Skip the text, then this next FMV lasts until you get to control Tifa in Junon.

BACK IN JUNON

You can control Tifa while the camera moves now. Go over to Barret. Talk to him after the scene with Meteor and Rufus will appear, followed by his lapdog, Heidegger.

Now you get to control Barret. Just follow the others to the next area, save here if you want.

Once you get to the execution room, just skip all the text, then head over to the gas chamber and push X on it until Barret says it won't move.

Skip the text, then control Barret again after the cutscenes with Weapon. Go talk to Cait and go out the door. Here, just run ahead to trigger another short scene.

Skip the text, then exit the building to the right and head for the airport. In the next area, you will see a short cutscene with Weapon and you have to skip a box of text afterwards. On the airport, make sure to run while the elevator ascends. Then head right and you'll find the Highwind.

Now it's time to get Tifa loose, push the buttons in this order.
C,C,V,C & V, V & X, X

Of course, you can't just push the buttons like crazy. Anyone who's played this game atleast once would know what to do. When she's free, push the button on the left side of the chair and try to open the door.

Skip the text, then climb down, run left, and climb further down. After falling down, head for the end of the cannon. Scarlet will catch up with you.

When you have to start slapping Scarlet, just let her win. It will save time.

THE HIGHWIND

Skip the text, then head down to the bridge. Enter the cockpit, talk to red, and then the pilot.

When you get to control Tifa again, head down to the operation room and form any party. Then talk to the pilot and you'll get control of the Highwind. Your destination is Mideel. Before entering town, you must remove the Fire Ring from Tifa. Save here. Your time should be under 6:20:00.

Enter town, but don't go find the dog yet. First, it's shopping time. Enter the Materia Shop, which is located on the ground level, on the right side of town, near the clinic.

SHOPPING LIST

Here's what to sell

• Transform Materia
  
• Fire Ring
  
• Power Wrist
  
• Edincoat
  
• Enhance Sword
  
• Reflect Ring
  
• Poison Ring
  
• Kaiser Knuckle

• 3x HP Plus
  
• 5x MP Plus
  
• Destruct

When you're done shopping, go find the dog to trigger a very long cut-scene.

Skip the text, and eventually you'll find yourself as Cid in the Highwind. Get down to the operation room and form a party of Cid, Red, and Cait. Then head back up and talk to the Pilot. The next stop is North Corel.

NORTH COREL

Well, just head to the save point. Some preparations must be done before the train battles.

• On Cid, give him Gravity and Steal in the weapon, and Elemental-HP Plus (the one with the most AP) in the armor. Also, place him in back row.
  
• On Red, give him the Seraph Comb and give him Enemy skill and Restore-All
  
• On Cait, give him the Wizard Armlet and the Circlet. Give him the following materia in this exact order:
  Weapon : Magic Plus, MP Plus, Ramuh, and Lightning
  Armor : 4x MP Plus, Enemy Skill (the one with Trine), Neo Bahamut, Fire, and Bahamut

Now, save your game. It should be under 6:30:00.

(Keep in mind, this part is exceptionally long, with almost 15 minutes in between stops. So plan appropriately.)

Now, go fight the guys in front of the reactor. You have to skip one box of text before the battle.

ATTACK SQUAD X2

Have Red cast Magic Breath to kill them.

Note: These guys can put you to sleep with a smoke shot attack. You obviously don't want Red to be put to sleep.

Then you have to catch up with the train, something I really hate. All I can say is, push the buttons as fast as you can, and aim for at the slowest, 9:45. After jumping over to the other train, you have to move a bit ahead to trigger the first battle. You can heal between battles if necessary, but it is possible to get through all the battles without having to heal.

ALL TRAIN BATTLES

Gas Ductor
Have Cait cast Magic Breath and Red throw a Molotov

These guys can inflict both Poison and Silence with their Smog Alert attack. No need to explain what happens if Cait gets silenced.

Gas Ductor x2
Have Cait cast Magic Breath and the others throw Molotovs.

Wolfmeister
Have Red and Cid throw T/S Bombs, Cait use magic Breath, and Red use Sled Fang, in that order. Also have Cid attack or use his limit break just in case.

Give Cait a Turbo Ether after the battle.

Eagle Gun
Have Cid cast Demi, followed by Cait casting Magic Breath twice. IF Demi should miss, you can have Cait cast Magic Breath again.

Note: It's not very likely, but if Cait has less than 150 MP after casting Magic Breath twice, and you didn't get an S-mine from the Attack Squad battle, Demi must hit.

Move on, some talking will take place before the last battle.

ATTACK SQUAD

If you got an S-mine from the first attack squad battle, you can use it here. If you didn't, just have Cait cast Magic Breath.

Now, to stop the train, push both C and up the first time, then V and down the second time. When you get back to North Corel, just move on to trigger the cutscene. Next, you'll wake up at the Inn. Leave North Corel and head for Fort Condor. Save before you enter.

FORT CONDOR

No need to talk to the man here, just run past him on the right side and climb up to the main area. Here, talk to the old man by the table. Then climb up to the top and talk to the man here. Select the 6th and 2nd option to start the minigame.

Since it's faster, you have to win the minigame. Here's how it's done.

MINIGAME WALKTHROUGH

- Before the battle starts, place one Fighter at the lowest possible point.
- Then start the battle.
- Quickly place other Fighters, always as low as possible. Each time you place
a Fighter, you will be able to place the next one lower. After five more
Fighters, you should be close to where the enemies appear (on the right side
of the screen).
- Now place three Attackers as close as possible to the first enemy, that by
now will have appeared on the screen, and order them to attack it.
- Turn up the battle speed.
- Look at them quickly destroying the enemy. If you were fast enough they will
kill the enemy before other enemies appear and you will win the minigame. If
other enemies appear, then you're too slow.

This may sound complicated, but it's really not. Just practice it a few times, and you should easily get the hang of it.

Skip the text, then head back down and talk to the man by the table to receive the huge materia. Ignore the Phoenix Materia. You have to get the huge materia to be able to advance with the story. Now climb back down and head for Mideel, PHS Cait for Barret, then save before you enter town. Your time should be below 6:40:00.

Enter the clinic and go talk to Tifa. An earthquake will start. Get out as soon as Cid says "what the hell's goin' on?".

ULTIMATE WEAPON

You have two objectives in this battle: Survive, and steal a cursed ring. Ultimate Weapon will flee after three attacks, so there's no need to deal any damage.

Ultimate Weapon will open the battle with Quake 2, and Barret will die. Now have Red give an X-Potion to Cid and have Cid steal. Next, Ultimate Weapon attacks with his claw, and this attack must be used on Red. If you failed to steal the first time, have Cid steal again. Finally, Ultimate Weapon will use Ultima Beam and you get one last chance to steal before he runs off. If you failed to steal the Cursed Ring... you know.

Note: There's a chance Quake 2 will kill Red. You can't have that happen. If it happens too often, you should give him a tranquilizer before the battle.

Now comes the next part, piecing together Cloud's memory.

CLOUD'S MEMORY

You get to control Tifa after a while, first go talk to Cloud in front of Nibelheim. Then move into town to make things happen.

Talk to Cloud when he appears by the truck.

Go talk to Cloud in front of the well.

Talk to the last Cloud, head over to Tifa's window and talk to the small Cloud.

Now head back to Nibelheim and move into town.

Talk to Cloud when he falls, after all his forms have gathered.

This cutscene is gonna last until you get to control Cloud again in the Highwind. Try leaving the room and the guy will talk to you. You have to skip a few boxes of text before you get to form a party. The part is Cloud, Tifa, and Cait.

Some equipment and materia changes must be done before you enter town.

• On Cait, equip the Dragon Armlet and the Ribbon
  
• On Tifa, equip the Cursed Ring. Give her 3x HP Plus, MP Turbo in the weapon and Added Cut - Deathblow in the armor
  
• On Cloud, equip the Wizard Bracelet and the Circlet.

Save your game, your time should be under 7 hours.

Important: Make sure Tifa's health is critical / yellow before you reach the save point at the bottom, or close to it.

Note: If you don't know exactly how to get to the bottom, you should do some practice first.

Talk to the man in front of the elevator at Junon and pay him the 10 Gil. Then take the elevator up to Junon and head for the reactor. Cloud will stop half way through the first area and you have to skip one box of text. Then, he'll stop when you run into the soldiers in the hallway.

Enter the elevator, and the battle will begin.

SUBMARINE CREW X2

Have Cloud cast Magic Breath to kill them. You can also have Tife Deathblow, but that requires luck as Deathblow can't miss. It's about two seconds faster.

Note: Make sure you get at least two S-mine from these battles. It would be best if you got three, but you don't have to.

Exit the elevator and you'll run into two more guards. Skip the text, then after the battle, you can just proceed to the bottom. When you reach the save point, give the last Turbo Ether to Cloud, give tranquilizers to everyone, and heal Cloud and/or Cait if needed.

Save your game, your time should be below 7:15:00.

Move on. In the next area, you have to make sure to run past the first guy, so that you get into a battle with all three of the guards here. You have to skip one box of text before the battle.

SUBMARINE CREW X3

Have Cait cast Magic Breath on the group of two and have Tifa Deathblow the single one. If she doesn't have a limit break, you can simply attack, but she most likely does. Tifa won't do the added cut attack if Deathblow sticks. Of course, you lose a few seconds if it misses.

Proceed to the next battle. Again, you have to skip one box of text.

UNDERWATER MP X2

This battle is really annoying. Both of the enemies will attack three times each unless you're really quick or lucky. Sure sucks, but that's how it is. Have Cloud cast Trine to kill them.

Move on. Halfway through the next area, the party will stop and watch as the Huge Materia is slowly transported to the next area. Before entering the next area, you should heal Tifa to 300-500 HP with Potions. Just make sure her HP stays in critical condition.

When you enter the next area, you have to watch the Huge Materia being placed inside the submarine. Afterwards, you have to move just ahead to trigger the cutscene with Reno.

Skip the text, and the battle will begin.

CARRY ARMOR - (HP - 24,000 FOR BODY, 10,000 EACH ARM)

This battle is really simple, but there are many things that can go wrong. First of all, Lapis Laser and Arm Grab can never be used. There's a 33.3% chance that he'll use Lapis Laser as a sneak attack, and there's a 25% chance he'll use it as his first attack. So he will open with this attack atleast half the time. On top of this, Tifa must get two successful Deathblows. And yes, you need to replay the last two battles and go through the boring cutscenes each time something goes wrong.

Strategy: Have Tifa Deathblow, Cloud cast Magic Breath, and Tifa Deathblow again. That's it. The battle will be over after Tifa's last attack if none of the Deathblow's missed. You can always try again if one should miss, but you will most likely get destroyed by Lapis Laser.

Skip the text, then move on. Three more battles await before you can save inside the sub, but first, you have to do some healing. Heal the guys to full health first. As for Tifa, she needs to get back to critical HP before Rude and that can be a little tricky with all the force battles in between.

If you have two Molotovs or more and you don't mind wasting a few seconds, you can use Cure on her twice, which should bring her to full health. If you only have one Molotov or you don't want to waste any time, you can only use Cure once. That will bring her to about 950 HP, but that can be a little risky. If you don't want to take the risk, give her a couple Potions too.

SUBMARINE CREW X2
Have Cait cast Magic Breath, and the battle will end.

Talk to the next guards.

SUBMARINE CREW X2
Have Cloud cast Trine.

Cloud will automatically enter the submarine after the second battle, then skip the text.

SUBMARINE CREW X3
Have Cloud cast Trine on the group of two and Tifa deathblow the single one.

Now, it's finally time to save. Your time should be under 7:20:00.

Enter the control room and skip the text.

During these dialogues, you have to select the second option three times. After the third time, the submarine game will start.

This can be done really quickly if you know what you're doing. Start climbing as soon as the minigame starts, but wait for about one second before you start moving forwards. By doing this, you will find yourself just behind the red sub within a few seconds. Now hit B rapidly until you take it out. Do some practice, and you should easily be able to make it 9:50. I wouldn't accept anything below 9:45.

After talking, Cloud will take the submarine back to the surface and exit. Rocket Town is next, but first we have to go pick up the ancient key from the underwater cave near the northernmost continent. Get back in the submarine and take it as far to the north as you can get. Travel on the surface. When you get there, descend, enter the cave, and find the key.

Head back, enter the Highwind, and fly over to Rocket Town. When you get there, PHS Cait for Cid and remove all his materia. Heal Cloud back to full health and give a Hi-Potion to Cid. Save your game. Your time should be below 7:30:00.

Enter town and head directly to the rocket. Approach the guards in front of the stairs to trigger the battles. There are three battles. You have to skip one box of text before each battle and Cloud will automatically move onto the second and third battles.

Note: If you don't already have three S-mines, you have to make sure you do after the third battle. Tifa's HP must be critical before Rude and that can be a problem if you enter Rocket town with a lot of HP. Hopefully, a Molotov will be enough, but if not, you have to make sure she gets attacked in the first three battles.

ATTACK SQUAD X2

Have Cloud cast Trine.

SENIOR GRUNT + ATTACK SQUAD X2

Have Cloud cast Magic Breath

Climb the ladder and approach Rude.

RUDE + ATTACK SQUAD X2 - (HP - 9,000 FOR RUDE)

Have Tifa Deathblow Rude. Since Rude is in love with Tifa, he won't attack her.

Skip the text, then enter the rocket.

SENIOR GRUNT

Have Tifa Deathblow him. If it misses, the added cut attack will kill him.

Enter the control room.

You get to control Cloud when it's time to escape. Head towards the exit and Cid will interrupt. Skip it, then exit down to the engine room. Keep moving, and tank #8 will explode as you walk past it.

Skip the text, then proceed to the escape pod.

After a long time, you get to control the Highwind. Head for Cosmo Canyon and land on the green area as close to town as possible. Pray you won't get into battle on the way to town. Thankfully, it's not very likely to happen.

COSMO CANYON

Climb all the way up to Bugenhagen's observatory and talk to him.

Skip the text, then approach the huge materia and select the third option to go back down.

You get to control Cloud again inside the Highwind, head upstairs, talk to the pilot, and head Forgotten City.

THE FORGOTTEN CITY

Head to the area with the music box, it's to the left. When you get there, enter the center area where Bugenhagen is. You have to skip two boxes of text before entering. Inside, go talk to Bugenhagen.

Go back inside after Bugenhagen places the key in the music box.

After the FMV, it's time to leave.

Head back to the world map and enter the Highwind. Diamond Weapon will appear.

It takes a while for Diamond Weapon to reach Midgar, something like ~90 seconds. Well, just wait until he gets close so that you can tell exactly where he's going to reach land. Then park the Highwind as close as possible and go wait for Diamond Weapon at the beach. Some preparations need to be done first.

PHS Cid for Cait and give him the 4th HP Plus Materia. Then remove Cover and give it to Cloud instead of Ultima. Place Ultima in the armor instead of Ice. Give Tifa Elemental-Fire and Steal in the armor. If her HP is under 300, you must heal her with Potions, but like before, it must stay yellow. Give an Elixir to Cloud, heal Cait to full health, and set ATB to Wait. Now, save your game. Your time should be under 8 hours.

DIAMOND WEAPON - (HP - 30,000)

Open the battle with Beat Rush (yeah) and Dice and have Cloud cast Magic Breath. Then have Tifa use Deathblow and Cloud cast Magic Breath until the battle is over. One Deathblow is allowed to miss, but not more. Also, you have to restart if he gets to use Diamond Flash.

You can use the wait trick to make this battle easier.

After the battle, fly back to the crater. You will trigger a cutscene when you try to fly over.

Fly back to Midgar and attempt to fly over the city.

Before jumping, you're given the choice to form a party. We're not gonna do any more party changes, so select the second option. On the way down, make sure to press C right after the parachute opens. By doing that, Cloud will do aerial tricks and you will land in the area with the save point.

When you land, just head to the save point. Before climbing down, you have to do a couple things in the menu.

• On Tifa, remove the three HP Pluses, and MP turbo.
  
• On Cloud, Give him MP Turbo instead of Shiva and HP Plus instead of Cover.
  
• On Cait, give him the other two HP Pluses

Note: Make sure Tifa gets killed or at least badly injured on the way to the next save point. The easiest way is to just have her attack herself.

Now, you can climb down the ladder to the plate area. If you don't know exactly how to get through this area, you need to do some practice runs. It's not that hard though. Just run downstairs and climb down the lader to reach the next area. Here, go right and jump over to the plate that breaks. When you land on the lower level, you only have one way to go. After jumping through the shaft, you only have to go upstairs to find the save point.

Before savng, you must give Cover to Cait, revive and give Tifa Potion (or heal her to about 500 HP) and give Tranquilizers to everyone.

Now save again, your time should be under 8:10:00 still.

Go into the next area, and trigger the battle with the Turks, do not avoid them.

THE TURKS - (RENO HP - 25,000. RUDE HP - 28,000. ELENA HP - 30,000)

Deathblow Reno twice by using the Wait Trick: Have Tifa Deathblow, Cait defend, and Cloud enter a sub-menu. Exit the sub-menu when you see the damage dealt by Added Cut, and have Cloud defend as well. Then, quickly Deathblow Reno again and Tifa should be able to attack before they do.

If one Deathblow should miss, you can always try again, but don't forget that Tifa is far from immortal. She can survive an attack from Elena or Reno, but that's it. This battle is just after a save point anyway, so reloading until you get two Deathblows shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Before moving on, you must do a couple things in the menu.

• On Cait, Remove two HP Pluses. Leave the one with one star.
  
• On Cloud, give him a red or green materia instead of HP Plus. It doesn't matter what you use.
  
• On Tifa, give her the three HP pluses

Then you can proceed. Go left in the first intersection to get to Sector 8. Here, just run ahead and Cloud will automatically climb up. Then keep moving and Heidegger and Scarlet will show up with the Proud Clod.

PROUD CLOD - (PROUD CLOD HP - 60,000. JAMMER ARMOR HP - 20,000.)

We're using the Wait Trick again in this battle. On each turn, have Cloud or Cait (whoever gets a turn first) attack, Tifa use Deathblow, and the other guy select attack and place the cursor at Proud Clod, but DON'T ATTACK. Confirm the attack when you see the damage dealt by Tifa's added Cut attack and have Tifa Deathblow again and the other guy select attack again. Repeat this until you kill him. Of course, you have to restart if Deathblow keeps missing, but it's always up to you how many misses to accept. You can also use Cloud and Cait's limit breaks when / if they get them, and throw S-mines if you have any.

Once the battle finishes, move on. Open the two chests in the next area and head to the save point. You have to do a couple things before saving.

• On Cloud, equip Ragnarok and give him two green/red materia to boost his magic.
  
• On Tifa, equip the mystile.

Note: If you get a battle in the area with the save point, it will be with a Grosspanzer either way, and these guys are known for dealing heavy damage. If you get one before the save point and a character gets killed, simply use a phoenix down, but I recommend restarting if someone gets killed on the way to Hojo.

Save your game, your time should be below 8:20:00.

Time to go pay a visit to Hojo. Near the top of the first staircase, Cait will come out of Cloud and move on a little bit. Then Cloud will automatically follow him. After that, you can just climb to the top and find Hojo.

HOJO - (HP - 13,000)

Have Tifa Deathblow and Cait cast Magic Breath. Then quickly select Deathblow and Ultima, in that order, before he dies. Deathblow can't miss now that Tifa is equipped with the Mystile, so that's one less thing to worry about.

HELLECTIC HOJO - (HP - 26,000)

Tifa and Cloud will now open the battle with Deathblow and Ultima. Afterwards, have Tifa Deathblow again. With a little luck, she will perform this Deathblow before Hojo gets a turn and you will kill him without him ever getting a turn.

LIFEFORM HOJO NA - (HP - 30,000)

Have Tifa Deathblow, Cloud attack, and Cait attack, in that order. If they have limit breaks, you must use them instead. Then have Tifa Deathblow again and Cloud cast Ultima and the battle will be over.

The only thing that could go wrong in this battle is that he might put Cloud to sleep or attack Tifa. Restart if that happens. Also, there's a chance Tifa might be able to attack before Hojo gets a turn, but that's not good, as he will then counter Tifa with Combo. Therefore, you must wait until he attacks before you command Tifa to Deathblow.

Skip the text, then that concludes part 2. The end is near!

Your time should be under 8:30:00.

Climb down the ladder and run to the bottom of the screen. There's no turning back now, so choose the first option to go down. Before doing anything now, you must open the menu and set ATB back to Active. It's harder to escape battles on Wait, so you will lose more time than it takes to set ATB to Active if you don't do it. On the way down to the bottom, there are three items you need to pick up, and the first is the Save Crystal. As you most likely know, it's located in the very first treasure box you find. Open it and get through this area as quickly as possible. In the second area, just take the right path and you'll be at the bottom in no time.

The third area can be a little tricky and I suggest that you practice it if you don't know exactly how to get through here. First, jump off and head right until you land next to a cave opening. Enter and run through here. Then jump off, go right, left, (while jumping down twice) and right again. In the fourth area, you meet up with the crew.

Send Cloud, Tifa, and Cait to the left and the others to the right. Left is the first option and Right is the second. Then proceed to the next area.

Send everyone up, which is the first option. The second item you need to pick up is the Hero Drink located in a treasure box on the bottom right side of the second swamp area. The third and final item you have to pick up is the W-Magic Materia, which is located in the next area. It's partly hidden in the green stuff on the top of the screen. You should be able to see it. If not, you'll have to do a practice run and find out exactly where it is. After picking it up, just proceed to the next area, which also happens to be the bottom.

Think of this area as a clock and place the Save Crystal at 8:00. Give W-Magic to Cloud and Tranquilizers to Cloud and Cait before you save.

And now... it's time to make the final save. Can you believe it? Your time should be below 8:40:00.

If you're really serious about this speedrun (I hope you are), you'll need a stopwatch for this next part, so keep it handy.

Move on. You'll have one box of text to skip when you enter the next area, then approach the exit to trigger the cutscene.

You'll be given the chance to form a party, but you know very well what I said before entering Midgar, so just hit the cancel button.

And now, it's time to make the final plunge.

On the way down, there's a 25% chance you'll get a battle each time you land on a rock. Yup, it's possible to reach the bottom without getting into a single battle, but the chance is just too small. Garland's record is one battle, and he's done it at least 100 times. How many battles to accept is up to you. Before entering the final area, you must heal the guys to full health and revive Tifa (since she's most likely dead) and give her a tranquilizer. Otherwise, just give her a Tranquilizer. Also, make sure to set ATB to recommended. Things will happen automatically when you enter the final area.

JENOVA-SYNTHESIS - (HP - 65,535)

On your first turn, have Cloud cast W-Magic Ultima, Cait give the Hero Drink to Tifa, and Tifa Deathblow in that order. Then have Tifa Deathblow again on the next two turns while the others do nothing.

You get the chance to form a party again, but just hit the cancel button. However, you have to give an Elixir to Cloud and heal Tifa to 1100-1200 HP before the battle. When it's done, you can note down the time shown by the timer and start the stopwatch at the exact moment you close the menu.

For the final timer check, your time should be below 8:45:00.

BIZARRO-SEPHIROTH - (HP - 82,500)

On your first turn, have Cloud W-Magic-Ultima and Tifa Deathblow the Core in that order. Then have Cloud W-Magic Ultima, Cait give an Elixir to Cloud, and Tifa Deathblow, and the battle will be over.

Beaten in under 4 minutes.

And now, the last challenge of this speedrun. Are you ready?!

SAFER-SEPHIROTH - (HP - 80,000)
Note: When the battle begins, the ATB bars will fill a little bit and then stop for about 10 seconds. It's possible that one or more characters get a turn now, but in that case, just wait.

On your first turn, have Cait cast DeBarrier on Sephiroth, Tifa Deathblow, and Cloud W-Magic Ultima. Sephiroth will now cast Shadow Flare and all you can do is pray it misses. It most likely won't on Cloud and Cait, so you must also pray he uses it on Tifa. If someone gets killed, you won't be able to defeat him. Sure sucks, but that's how it is. Either way, have Cait throw an S-mine, Tifa Deathblow, and Cloud W-Magic Ultima, as you must select the commands before Shadow Flare. Finally, have Tifa Deathblow again and the battle will be over.

Note: If the damage doesn't add up, you can have Cait cast Magic Breath instead of throwing the S-mine. If it still doesn't add up, (very unlikely) you can use Dice and pray for good damage, or make sure Cait learns Shadow Flare (very very unlikely) and cast it. However, depending on your stats, you might not need to throw the S-Mine at all, so you should do some test runs and see how much damage you deal with 3x Deathblow, and 4x Ultima. Just take note that the leveling up after Jenova affects the stats.

Beaten in under 12 minutes.

SEPHIROTH HIMSELF - (HP - ...why do you even care at this point?)

It's not over yet. Finally, the battle with Sephiroth himself. To Omnislash, or not to Omnislash? Sure, it's a cool move, but this time, it'll only make your result worse. Just wait until Sephiroth attacks and Cloud will counterattack. Stop the stopwatch EXACTLY when you see the damage dealt by the counterattack.

Beaten in under 15 minutes.

Now, all you need to do is add your final time to the time before Bizarro Sephiroth and you'll have your time!

• The material for the guide was written, developed, and formulated by GarlandtheGreat.
  
• This particular guide was written, organized, and posted by Koolkit™.

• The guide was proofread and corrected by Saverem, and Kadukeco

• Guide was written between October 2013-June 2014