Midgar
After the opening with the flower girl, you’ll gain control of the blonde guy as the black guy talks to him. Run with the Ex Soldier towards the black dude. You’ll get in a few battles. (Oh, you can search that first red-clad guy for a few Potions).
Eventually you’ll get the opportunity to name Cloud and Barret but of course we’ll keep the originals. In the next area, take a right and follow the path through a door. Then take another right and follow the group (not Wedge).
Barret will join you here. Make sure you put him in the back row, he has a gun (long range) for a weapon. Go through the first two code doors and then take a right to get a Phoenix Down. Go through the northeast door now. Run down the stairs and enter the door in the southwest.
Jump across, and then jump onto the ladder and climb down. Grab the Potion you see going south, then take the other path that Jessie didn’t take and go down that long ladder. You may encounter some more difficult enemies like Sweeper’s around here. You’ll have another ladder to climb down to the southwest again, and a save point at the bottom.
Up ahead is a Restore Materia and the reactor. Cloud has some issues then sets the reactor. A boss comes, Guard Scorpion. The Guard Scorpion will generally scope you then shoot you at first. Use Bolt with Cloud and attack with Barret, healing when necessary. When Guard Scorpion has it’s tail up you probably won’t want to attack unless you want a Tail Laser. Use Big Shot and Braver if you get the chance. Getting hit by the Tail Laser will bring your limits up. Or just wait until the tail goes down and start spamming Bolt again. An Assault Gun is your reward.
You now have to leave within 10 minutes. Not very hard actually although battles can shave off a lot of your time. Just run back from the same route that you came. As you get to where you split from Wedge, you’ll get a cutscene.
Sector 8
Head along the path, when you get to a building go south and get the potion along the way. Some Shinra will soon catch you. You can run or fight the. Eventually Cloud will be surrounded and will jump onto a train.
Train
As Barret and Avalanche are talking, Cloud drops in. Shortly thereafter the party begins to escape to the south.
Talk to everyone in the next section and look at Midgar with Jessie. A security check will occur then Barret and Cloud talk, and then some more scenes. Just head west when you gain control until you reach the headquarters.
Inside, Barret will clean everyone out for Avalanche to go in. Talk to Tifa, you can give the flower to her or Marlene. Try to leave and Barret busts in and they all go downstairs. Sit down and talk to Tifa.
Afterwards, right the elevator downstairs and talk to Barret about money. Back upstairs and Tifa stops Cloud from leaving. They then have a flashback about several years ago when Cloud went to Soldier. After the flashback, Barret gives Cloud 1500 Gil and then the next mission will be 2000 gil. Once Cloud wakes up, go upstairs and Tifa and Barret join. Leave the bar and go into the southern building. Buy some Iron Bangles and go to the second floor. Save, and then get the All Materia in the south and then the Ether chest. Head northeast to leave the Sector 7 Slums. Your party will enter the train.
Train
The alarm goes off quickly. You’re going to have to run south to go car to car as the alarms sound (right after you talk to Tifa). As the first alarm sounds, return to the guy in the back of the first car to get a Phoenix Down from him. Run to the next car now and then talk to the guy in the very front for a Hi Potion. In the next area, some dude will steal something from you (chase him to get it back, but be fast). A few rooms from here and you should be at the exit. Talk to Tifa a few times to jump out of the train.
When you get in the sewers, run north. If you run south you’ll get to some Shinra guards, and it’s a long ways away although it’s good for fighting up if you want. You’ll come to a Shinra security check that you’ll have to evade by going down the duct.
Grab the Ether and go down the stairs. Head to the far southwest and up the stairs by Wedge. Talk to Jessie and then get the Potion west of her. To the southwest and down the stairs, grab the Tent and Save. Talk to Biggs and then leave in the northwest. Go down the chute to your right and then head to the southwest to exit. This should be very familiar now, so just follow the same path you did to get to the reactor before. Save before detonating the reactor. Cloud reacts strangely again, but just backtrack out, take the stairs up in the room where you chuted down.
After taking the elevator at the top, grab the Ether and go left for a quick switch that all three need to activate at once. It’s not hard although it may take a few tries. Go past that door that is now open and just past this is a three way split.
Air Buster is summoned by the Shinra President. As you can imagine your best bet is to attack it from behind, so if you get an opportunity to wait a bit and then attack from the behind you should be okay. Limit breaks are especially power if it isn’t facing that character. Other than regular attacks, Bolt is probably worth using with whoever has it. After the battle, Cloud falls off in dramatic fashion. And you get a Titan Bangle for the battle.
Flower Girl Aeris Sector 5 Slums
Cloud falls into the house of Aeris, right on her flower bed. Reno and some shinra soldiers come by as Aeris and Cloud flee to the back.
If you can’t manage to push a barrel on the shinra enemies, Aeris will have to fight alone. Tell her to hold on a minute and at this point you have a little bit of time to push the correct barrel.
The first barrel to push is the one in the far west part of the screen (near you as you go up the stairs right away). You’ll have to wait a bit next, then go to the one just north of you (or northeast) and push that one. Finally, push the far east one and then Aeris will be saved.
Aeris and Cloud then run through some scenes and you’ll be in the Sector 5 Slums soon enough. If you go east, you’ll reach the flower girl’s house and an exit to the world map (which of course is locked).
Head west and Save, and then further west. The west exit is blocked off but you can go north to the Sector 5 Slums. You can mess around town, buy some materia and weapons / armor. There is a boy in the 2nd floor in the southeast house. Don’t take his 5 gil if you find it. When you are ready, go northeast.
The northeast exit leads to the house of Aeris. Go east into her garden for an Ether and Cover Materia. Head inside to meet Aeris’ mother, and then Aeris will be denied going to Sector 7 with Cloud. At night when you are in separate rooms, make sure to walk (not run) out of the house. Leave the slums and then go west, but Aeris has beat you to it.
Sector 6
This area is finally open as those two fools aren’t blocking the way. It’s not too hard here, just sift through the wreckage as you head northeast. Make sure to take the ladder down to the lower path in the center of this area, so that you can reach the tan bar allowing you to get to the northeast exit. In this area you’ll have a scene in the playground with Aeris, and you’ll see Tifa riding away. Continue to the northeast when you have the chance.
Wall Market
This is a pretty sick area. To the east is the Honey Bee Inn and you can learn a bit more about Tifa there. To the north is Don Corneo’s Mansion. It’ll soon be decided that Cloud needs to dress up as a girl to get in.
Go back to the first screen and enter the northwest building. The dress shop owner is getting drunk at the tavern, so go back north like you’re going to Corneo’s but instead take the west building and talk to the first guy. This is the Clothes Shop Owner and he’ll make a dress for Cloud. Choose the Soft and Shimmering option. You now have the Silk Dress. Try it on at the clothes shop and continue on.
Go to the gym now. Talk to the little guy right by you to learn about squats, you’ll have to beat Big Brother. Practice them if you like. Big Brother can keep up with you pretty well but towards the end he’ll screw up and scratch his head, giving you ample opportunity to get ahead of him. You now have a Blonde Wig.
You can go to Corneo’s now, so skip ahead if you want to do that. However if you want to make sure Cloud is looking the best that he (or she) can you’ll want to collect some more things. Go to the restaurant and order something – afterwards you’ll get a Pharmacy Coupon. Bring that coupon a little south to the pharmacy and get a Digestive medication. Bring it to the lady puking in the bathroom of the bar to get some Sexy Cologne. Go to the Materia Shop now, and the guy wants you to stay at the Inn and spending 200 Gil at the vending machine. He’s pleased and you get the Diamond Tiara. Go towards the Honey Bee Inn and talk to the guy near the exit for the Member’s Card. Go to the Honey Bee Inn and choose whichever room you want – I chose the %^&**&% room. You get some Lingerie for completing it. Go to the far north of the building to get makeup put on.
Don Corneo’s Mansion
Go to the clothes place to have Cloud put everything on. Now go north to Corneo’s. You are both allowed in. You need at least a dress / wig.
As you enter, the butler will leave to inform someone of you arriving. Take this opportunity to run up the stairs and then take the west exit to see Tifa. Grab the Ether and then talk to Tifa some more. Eventually the Butler will find you three and you’ll go to Corneo.
The Don is a wonderful man. If you got the best of everything (ie followed the FAQ above) Corneo will choose Cloud. If you get in Corneo’s room, go north of his bed to get a Hyper (!). Eventually Cloud reveals his identity and Tifa and Aeris come in. Corneo babbles on about Shinra and Heidegger but eventually gets you to fall into a trap door.
Meanwhile, a scene with Shinra.
Sewers
Now you are in the Sewers. Talk to the ladies and a boss fight ensues with Aps. Watch out for it’s Sewer Tsunami which does damage to everyone in the battle. It takes off more depending on where it’s coming from; 45 standard and 90+ occasionally, although it damages itself too. Just attack it and cast Fire which is the only spell that does 100+ damage. Tifa and Cloud should do some damage with their limits too.
Get the Potion to the southwest after the battle. Take the northeast to exit now, getting the Steal Materia along the way. In the next room, just take the southeast exit.
Train Graveyard
Like the Ship Graveyard of FF5. Save point is available when you get here. Make your way north through the train and west when you can, to search that tan bucket for a Hi Potion. Now climb up the ladder by the save point to get on top of the train for another Hi Potion. Keep running north until you can cross east and get another Potion. Make your way to the northwest part of the screen by running down that horizontal bridge that leads to the ground on the west part of it. Anyway the northwest bucket has an Echo Screen nearby it. Now to exit to the northeast, you’re going to have to be on the ground level and go inside the train on the east. Work your way south until you can climb up a ladder on the eastmost train and then work further north for a Potion and the exit.
West right away for a Potion. West of this for another barrel this time with an Ether nearby. Now look at this area more closely, it’s different than the last one. Instead of going in and climbing up the trains, Cloud will be driving them. Hop into the eastern one to push the train along, and then climb up the ladder it opened up and get the Hi Potion. Climb down and hop in that north train so that it’s close enough to ride west and then you can travel further west and down the westmost train. You can leave the Train Graveyard now.
Sector 7 Pillar
The Pillar is being attacked. Barret and friends are up there fighting Shinra. Tifa and Cloud run up there as Aeris tends to Marlene.
Save and head up the tower. You’ll fight some battles along the way and see a wounded Biggs and then Jessie. At the top is Barret and you get a chance to equip him with new weapons / armor / materia so be sure to do so. When you’re ready, a battle against Reno begins. He uses Pyramid and Electro-Mag Rod on you to neutralize a member. If he uses Pyramid just attack that character to release the Reno’s pyramid. His physical attacks are pretty weak but heal up if it’s an issue. Casting spells like Fire and Ice is probably going to get this done faster. You get an Ether for the victory.
Unfortunately you can’t disarm the bomb, and Shinra has Aeris, the last Ancient. Grab the wire to the east and escape, although the pillar is destroyed.
Some scenes at the playground. You of course saw the yellow materia shining, but you can’t collect it until you regain control and get Barret / Tifa back in your party. It is a Sense Materia. You know the way back at this point. Back at the Sector 5 Slum go to the east house, and presuming you didn’t steal the 5 gil from the little kid in the 2nd floor, he’ll give you a Turbo Ether. You can check town out and see the new materia for sale.
At Aeris’ house you’ll talk to her mother about Aeris true past. When you get control, go upstairs and into the spare room to rest for free :). Talk to Barret and leave, and then talk to the others on the first floor. When you try to leave the party will join back up and Marlene will stay here.
Save and take the party to Wall Market, back through the Sector 6 area.
Wall Market
I suggest buying lots of Hypers here. They are the trick to getting your Limit up faster and thus gain Limit Levels much faster in Fury status. Lots of good stuff at the weapon shop, like Mythril Armlet and Metal Knuckle for Tifa. Buy some Batteries (make sure you do this) from the other guy in the weapon shop.
Go near Corneo’s Mansion and some kids will run east, so follow them. Climb up the wire and you’re on your way to the upperworld.
As you get up there, jump off the wire and travel south and east and eventually southeast to where a machine is. You can place a Battery in here to make a propeller go. Now you can travel higher. Stick to the west path and when you get a chance to jump onto that swinging handle, don’t do it yet. Instead take the northwest exit and put a battery in to get an Ether. Go back down that southwest path and then get ready to jump on the swinging bar. It’s not too hard, and then jump off and exit to the northeast. Just keep climbing up and you’ll be at Shinra Headquarters.
Shinra Headquarters
As you enter, you have the choice of taking the easy or hard route. You can either take the stairs and run up and up and fight no enemies and get nothing but one Elixir, or you can take the route through the building that is much harder.
Since the long way is so easy, we’ll just take the hard route. Save, and as the party enters you’ll fight some guards. Run to the elevators and head up. As you are going up, you’ll have to stop the elevator and fight some guards. You’ll have to keep doing this as you are going up, and fight battles every 8 floors or so by hitting the stop button. You can steal a Carbon Bangle from the Moth Slasher on the Floor 33 fight, a nice defensive upgrade. The Sword Dance enemies on Floor 40 and 55 use Slap which puts you in Hyper mode, which is good for your Limit Breaks. Can also steal Hypers from them.
Floor 59 is where you can actually get out. Go south to fight some Mighty Grunts. They can take a while to defeat, but you get the Floor 60 keycard. Head to the glass elevator in the southeast now and take it to floor 60. Talk to Aeris and Barret and then you’ll get off.
Go around to the left and into the building to the north. You’ll have to run across with Cloud, then signal the other two over. The signalling can be difficult but they run pretty fast and precise if you can just get it down. You’ll have to fight Mighty Grunts and start over if you get caught.
Climb up the stairs and you’ll be on floor 61. Talk to the guy walking around to the south and say … instead of “Where’s Aeris”. He’ll just then give you the keycard for floor 62 and then you can take the south elevator to go up.
On floor 62 you can talk to the mayor to guess his password. If correctly guessed you can get the Elemental Materia from him. You have to go around and check the four library’s and see which books don’t match with their respective sections. It can be tricky and I still have trouble with it. Anyway, with the 65 keycard you can now go all the way up to floor 65. For now, go to Floor 64 and Save.
Take the elevator to floor 63. There are some items here that may be worth your while to get although it’s all completely optional. Anyway, go to the east room for a computer that you can search. It will verify your keycard and allow you to go through three doors. So, head east and then follow it until you reach the northwest door. Take this and run west and choose the southwest door (so that you can go in the west room). Grab the A Coupon in the west room and then enter the nearby duct. Crawl to the south, east and then north when you can. You drop in right by the B Coupon. Go south and west, use your final security door, and grab the C Coupon. Return all the way back to that computer in the southeast and change in your coupons. For the A Coupon you get Star Pendant, for the B Coupon you get Four Slots and for the C Coupon you get All Materia.
Floor 64 has the rest area and the gym. In the north are some lockers where you can find an Ether and Phoenix Down. Oh, and a Megaphone that you can’t use yet.
Floor 65 has a bunch of Midgar parts and the center of the room has a bunch of open slots to enter the midgar parts. However you can only collect one part at a time since only one chest is unlocked. So, grab one of the northwest treasures for some midgar parts, and then head into the center room. Place this midgar part right at the very bottom of the midgar diagram. Go back west to get another midgar part and then return back to the center area to place it just right of the first midgar part. Continue collecting these parts and placing them counterclockwise until it’s complete. Well, there will be one spot that is open at the end. You can now go in the east door and get the Floor 66 Keycard and then return to the elevator to go to floor 66.
Talk to everyone here and go to the northwest. In the bathroom, if you have select on, you can see there is an exit in the stall. You’ll climb through and then watch the meeting, and crawl back afterwards. Go to the east to see Hojo go up the east stairs, so follow him.
You’ll fight battles around here. If you see a Moth Slasher, steal a Carbon Bangle from them. Go to the west for a scene with a dog and Hojo. After Cloud sees Jenova and Hojo walks off, run past to the save point. Get the Poison Materia, Bio is good.
On the next floor you’ll have some more scenes after you confront Hojo. He has the dog specimen in a cage with Aeris, but Barret shoots the cage. The dog gets out and starts chomping on Hojo’s neck and then you can instruct either Barret or Tifa to bring Aeris out of here. Now you get a chance to meet Red XIII and he joins the party. One of my favorite members in the game. The battle ahead is useful to have a long-range member so it might have been wise to keep Barret around.
A battle with Sample : H0512 and some other Opts ensues. Since it is long range and revives it’s mates in front, you might as well cast spells on it the entire time. If you can get your limits up, Cross Slash can paralyze the enemy. You get a Talisman for finishing this battle. Also you can change your party members and their equipment and then you can begin your escape.
Grab the two Potions to the southeast. Where Aeris and Red were, the cage, there is an Enemy Skill Materia. Think Lore Magic (Strago) or Blue Mage (FF5). Hojo’s Assistant is in the southeast part of this area and he’ll give up the valuable Floor 68 Keycard. Walk down the stairs to floor 66 and hit the elevator. You can finally reach floor 68.
Well, Tseng and Rude have something to say about it. They’ll sneak up on you, and just take your party to the top floor to President Shinra. You’ll learn even more about his plans with the Cetra Aeris and the Ancients.
Shinra Jail
As you are in the Shinra Jail, just talk to your members. When you get the chance to sleep, do so. You’ll wake up to your door being opened and the guarded is dead on the ground. Wake Tifa up, then grab the keycard and release your party. Tifa and Aeris join you, so go west to find Red XIII by the Jenova Specimen.
Follow him up to floor 67, and then go to the southeast. You can go through the door on the base level, grabbing the Potions along the way. As you get to the top, you’ll see something bad happened to the president. Go out the north door to see Rufus on the roof.
Shortly thereafter you gain control of Aeris, Red XIII and Barret. Go to the south elevator and get in, and Hundred Gunner will be there waiting for you. You can only attack with Barret so cast some spells. Bolt is the best while Poison doesn’t work at all. You can’t steal from it, but you can use Limits like Sled Fang. Anyway, you probably won’t even see it’s main attack if you keep spamming spells with all three members.
After this battle a Heli Gunner shows up. Nothing special here besides a few 100 damage attacks. Towards it’s death it begins to spin and take off about 150-200 with a Flying Drill attack. Bolt works best again and the battle is pretty similar to the previous one save for this little thing doesn’t have as much HP. You get a Mythril Armlet for this.
Back to Cloud with Rufus. You get a chance to equip materia so do so. All-Bolt and All-Poison would be a great idea. Have Restore equipped but since Cloud is the only one in the battle you don’t need all. No sense equipping Steal either since neither enemy has anything. Anyway, it’s against Rufus and his dog Dark Nation. Cast Bio right away to get rid of Dark Nation. Then you can get to work on Rufus, and of course using Bio works best. When your Limits get up, use them. He’ll just use a Shotgun on you. You get a Guard Source and Protect Vest for this.
Fleeing Shinra on Bike
Run out to the east with Cloud. Go to the lower floor and save, then talk to Tifa. Cloud has a bike and the rest of the party gets in some ugly truck. The controls are basic and the game gives them to you. Form your party however you like just make sure to equip materia accordingly.
This can be a tricky experience actually. Despite the simple controls the enemy bikers have a way of evading Cloud’s sword that can be very annoying. Always try to cut the bikers off from the truck with Cloud and his bike. The real issue is when it’s surrounded with one enemy in front and one in the back. Just make quick work of the enemies that actually do get close to attack the truck.
At the end the Motor Ball catches up to you and a boss battle ensues. Nothing to steal here, but the boss is very weak against Bolt. Motor Ball back attacks you also. Watch out for Twin Burner and Rolling Fire. He doesn’t use the latter until towards the end though. You get a Star Pendant for this battle.
The party will climb a hook to get out of Midgar. The door is still locked, so there is no going back. Cloud is determined to be the party leader (surprise) and then Barret tells everyone it’s time to go Northeast to Kalm Village. Of course like Barret says it’s too dangerous to travel with 5 members.