Disk 3 Guide

5. WALKTHROUGH - DISC THREE

a. MAKOU PIT

(Yes, this is the ONLY new level in the third disc--it's also the last. Also, there are lots of treasure chests in here, but _no_ Save Points; you'll have to go all the way back out to the Highwind if you want to save your game.)

If you want to pilot the airship around, simply go back into the cockpit and talk to the engineer next to Cid and choose the top option. From now on, though, you can go into the great pit simply by attempting to land while you're over it. You'll notice two things while flying around in the World Map; the Highwind is now rocket-powered (but the speed doesn't change), and there's a great big dragon hanging in the air above a newly-made lake near Cannon Town.

It's the same creature you fought before, and by flying into it while aboard the Highwind, you can fight it again. However, it will fly away after fighting with you for awhile. From this point on, it will fly around the sky and make its way to various random locations. It might seem as if you could just wait around for the dragon to show up, but the beast will fly in circles unless you find it and ram into it repeatedly. After 4 or 5 tries, it will then head towards a new location and sit there until you attack again. After escaping a few times, it will finally stop moving and simply hang in the air. In my game, it stopped near Cosmo Town. When you kill it (it's a lot easier than it looks), it crashes to the ground and creates a huge crater. In my case, it obliterated the mountains near Cosmo Town, allowing me to go to the Frog Forest without having to breed and ride a Chocobo! Whether it always stops near Cosmo Town for the final battle or not, I don't know. You get a _lot_ of EXP for killing the dragon, so chasing it around the sky for a couple of minutes is worth the effort.

In any case, once you've landed in the pit, go to the deck of the airship. Climb down the ladder to leave, and head south. In the next area, choose the top option to go down into the caves, or the bottom option to return to the airship in case you wanted to change your members, etc. You'll arrive at a huge basin. If you go through the nearby door, you can climb up the stone column in the next scene to go back to the airship. Otherwise, just follow the winding path. Don't worry when parts of the path fall away; you can still jump back across the gaps. There are two treasure chests that you can pick up along the way.

In the next part, you can climb the silver parts of the ledges by pressing O when you get near them (a message will appear). Go to the right and make your way down the 'steps', collecting chests as you near the bottom. Now go left until you're able to climb up twice, then head right to spot a chest. Walk back to the left, and climb up four times. Get the chest then walk up to where there are two ledges. Climb up the one on the left and take the contents of the chest, then walk to the right to find a Purple Materia. Now, you can simply go to the right a second time after climbing to the first ledge and make your way to the bottom again to continue.

In the next area, leap down and head right until you fall, then walk to the left to get a treasure chest. Then stand at the edge of the ledge and press the O button to leap up to the above ledge. Run to the left, fall down, and enter the opening. Take the chest in the adjoining room and leave. Climb back up the ledge, go to the right, and drop down until you see another opening. Follow it back out to the main chamber, then climb up the ledges and run to the right. You'll drop down to the ground floor. Go to the far right for a chest, then go into the opening. Climb up the path, take the chest to your left, then enter the hole; it winds around to the topmost chest. Exit through the top opening. From this point, just go right, head down, go through the side passage, then drop down and run to the left. When you go down the opening on the bottom of the screen, you'll reach a new area.

Climb down the two stalactites. Your friends are here, and they want to know where they should be heading. If you choose the top option each time they talk to you, you can only take the left path. If you choose the bottom option, you can only take the right path. Make a new party when you've finished and take the path that's available to you (just NSS this whole paragraph ;)).

If you took the right path, descend the twisted column of stone. When you reach the break in the path, choose the bottom option to stay or the top option to jump down. Grab the treasure chest and the green item, and keep working your way down to the ground. There's two chests here, one to the north and one to the south. Make your way northeast to find another chest, and keep going that way until you arrive at a new area. Make your way along the bridge of bones and you'll end up at point A (see below).

If you took the left path, you'll find your allies waiting for you again. Go through the same process as above; choosing the top option for all of them, lets you go east. Choosing the bottom option lets you go south, and the top option lets you go east. If you take the south route, refer to 'point A' (see below; you'll have to do the process in reverse since you're starting at the top).

Assuming you take the east route, hop on the twisted vine-like thing and walk to the east. Jump onto the boulder and get the chest, then hop back on the vine and walk north. Jump onto the rock face and keep heading north; you'll submerge into the water and pop back up. Walk left and get the chest, then head to the right. In this cavern, head up to get the far chest. Run to the right and go up the boulder; there's a Green Materia here (Super Cure). Go to the far end of the boulder and try to walk south; you'll leap into the water and end up by the chest you saw when you entered the room. Try to walk south again, and you'll surface on the far end of the screen. Make your way west, then south, then east to where the chest is.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are two types of enemies that can appear here. One is a hopping orange ball with a little face on it, which usually appears in trios. Killing all three will net you 0 EXP, 2400 AP, and a whopping 90000 Gil! They're easy to kill and have weak attacks. The second type of enemy is a little monster in a pot (which appears in duos). They can't hurt you, but they can steal from you (NSS). Destroy both and you'll get 16000 EXP, 2000 AP, and 17000 Gil. They are also easy to beat up on. As you can guess, this is _the_ place to master your Materia, raise levels, and get some cash. (Those of you who played FF5j or FF3 will probably recognize the pot monsters. I recall there being some kind of trick to get items or more EXP from them if you gave them an item or healed them -NSS-. Anyone know how the trick is done and if it works in this game, too?)

Go back to the rock where you surfaced and run to the right to reach a new area with a shiny spot in the center and lots of shrubbery. As you pass through the shiny area, search the middle of it for a Blue Materia. Continue to the left to reach point A.

POINT 'A' In this area, go north to get the green chest. Then go through the opening to the upper right. You'll reach an area with rocky cliffs. Go to the bottom right of the first cliff to leap to the next one. Head north to where a chest is. Walk to the left and you'll jump to a lower area. When you try to go up, you'll automatically jump to the upper cliff to left; pound on the O button to nab the floating Purple Materia. You can keep jumping between ledges if you miss the first time. Once on the upper cliff, take the contents of the green chest. Go back to the far right and jump up the 'steps' the rocky ledge. Run to the left, jump to the high ledge, and run to the right to reach another green chest. Then try to go north and you'll leap up to another area. Simply hop from ledge to ledge and you'll find two chests along the way. Go back a ways from the second chest and walk north to jump up to a ledge; climb up and keep going.

At this point, you can go back to the paths you couldn't take before (depending on your decisions), if you wanted to get extra chests or simply look around. In the next cavern, walk to the northwest to get a chest. Head to the east and go north to get a second chest, then go back to the first chest and jump up the ledges and go through the opening. Finally, go down and around to the steps; you'll meet your allies a third time. If you talk to them, they'll each give you an item, but this seems to be random (NSS). Go to the stairs, and choose bottom option to not go down them or the top option to descend. You'll get to make a new group. In the following area, head across the floating platforms. When you reach the center, you have to fight a boss. (BTW, the names of its' arms are SYNTHESIS B and C.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS TIPS - body (can't see its' stats.) - left arm (hp: 10000 mp: 600) - right arm (hp: 8000 mp: 600) Start the round by using Haste and Barrier on yourselves, then use Enemy Skills and Summon Materia to dish out damage. The tentacle-like arms will droop and become useless after you've attacked them long enough, but they regenerate with some HP if you don't kill the boss quickly, so use high-level spells (Ultima or Meteor) to take them out and injure the boss at the same time. When the boss is about to die, it begins counting down the rounds from 5; if you don't kill it by the time it counts down, the boss casts Ultima. For the second-to-last boss, this one is a pushover. It has very weak physical attacks (500-800 damage), and not much else. If you want to conserve MP, you can take out the boss using physical attacks with little injury to yourself.

(If it does cast Ultima, the battle ends, but you get no EXP, GP, or AP.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------

After killing the boss, you will find yourself and your friends floating in space. Sephiroth makes his final appearance here. You'll get to make a party, then automatically go to the Main Menu to use items, equip weapons or Materia, etc. You then get to make another group and do it again (I guess the last two characters are unused). If you mess up, pick the bottom option to remake your teams, if not, pick the top option to begin the final battle.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS TIPS - Part A (can't see its' stats.) - Part B (hp: 2000 mp: 400) - Part C (hp: 14000 mp: 400) - Part D (hp: 12000 mp: 400) - Part E For a quick win, use Zeninage; you'll hit all the parts of Sephiroth's body for 9999 damage. You'll find that only one of your two teams can hurt the yellow orb (part C) of the boss' body, so fight until a message pops up (left option to switch to a new party, right one to keep using the current party) and choose the left one. Then protect that party using Barrier, Haste, and Wall. Once part C is destroyed, you get a message that Cloud can now attack part C, so do so. When C has been destroyed from both sides, destroy all the body parts using your second team, then switch to the first and destroy part B; the boss will fall and die. Sephiroth's attacks include a Demi spell that hits for about 2200 damage, an explosion attack that causes 1500 to 1700 damage, a fire ray emitted from it's chest for 1700-1900 damage, and a 'Fallen Angel' attack similar to Kefka's in FF3 that reduces all players' HP to 1. Just remember, if one team dies, the battle is over. Interestingly enough, the number of times you've used a Summon materia resets when you switch teams, allowing you to summon a monster for as many times as you have MP (providing you switch teams first). -------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the monster is killed, Sephiroth shows up in another form.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS TIPS (can't see his stats.)

The boss can attack with Flare, he can Slow one ally at a time, he can dispel all three members' protections, and he has a 'big bang' attack that hits for 1100-2200 damage and will confuse and mute allies. Other attacks include a blue laser ray (3700-3800), a ring flare (1200-1300), a huge boulder smash attack (instant petrification), and the ability to cast Doom on one person. Use Mabarrier on yourself, and then heal, revive, and fix status ailments with the Angel Cure Enemy Skill. Haste yourselves and use physical attacks, Summon materia, attacking spells, and thrown items or coins (Zeninage) to inflict damage. He doesn't have as much HP as you might think--he's not easy to kill, but he's certainly not hard to defeat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a brief automated sequence you fight Sephiroth one last time. I'll leave this up to you...don't get killed! After winning, sit back and watch the end--you did it!