Final Fantasy VII

Disc 2: Great Glacier and Gaea’s Cliff

When the mini-game is over, you’ll wake up in one of four spots. Hopefully you took the right-hand turns, or the instructions below will be confusing. Check your map by pressing square, or if you’re not using a PlayStation controller, use whatever your companions tell you as soon as you wake up.

Note: If you take too long to complete this area, you’ll collapse and end up in the mountain house. You can head south from there to return to this area, and you’ll appear at the top of the map where the check mark is.

If you come to a hot spring, touch it. Not to reset your warmth gauge, but to make you “dirty,” which is important later on.

Great Glacier

From the assumed right/right landing:

Exit the first screen at the top-left, then continue left one full screen.
At the lake, grab the on the ice near the right edge, return to shore, go up, and leave through the upper-right corner.
On the next screen, go all the way right. You should reach a tree with three exits.
Take the left exit, then continue left two more screens to a small log bridge.
Cross the bridge left, head down, then go left for two more screens.
At the caves, enter the nearest cave and go to the upper-left corner for an .
Leave either exit and head to the bottom of the screen.
Head right until you get back to the tree, then go down and take the lower-left exit.
Head right until you reach the Ice Gate.
Go up.
Go right.
On the next screen, leave through the far-right exit.
Go right.

Run onto the lake and take the upper-left exit. On the next screen, hop across the ice chunks in this pattern:

Up.
Up.
Left.
Down.
Left.
Up.
Up.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Up.
Left.
Down.
Left.
Up.
Up.
Right.
Up.

Inside the cave is a . Go back the opposite of the way you came:

Down.
Left.
Down.
Right.
Right.
Down.
Left.
Down.
Right.
Down.
Left.
Down.

When you are back on the lake screen, return to shore and take the right exit. Continue right until you reach the tree again.

Now head up and right three screens until you reach a place with two left exits (you’re on the lower one), one right, and one down.

Go up and right.
On the next screen, go up and left.
Then go up and left again. Be careful on this second screen: Added Cut Materia is here, and it pairs nicely with Enemy Skill Materia.
Touch the hot spring here. You’ll need to go up and left a bit to reach it; it’s not obvious how big this screen is.
Go right, then right and up for a few screens.
At the two-left screen, head down and follow the path.

We’re stalling. At the end of this path, you should pass out.

Holzoff’s Cabin

After talking with Holzoff for a while, save and head outside.

Go south to the ice field, then head straight south to find a cave. Place markers frequently so you are actually traveling in a straight line. When you get there, go inside for All Materia. When you leave the cave, head due right.

Go right another three screens and you’ll come to another cave. Head up into the cave and talk to the woman in blue. You touched the hot spring, right?

If not, exit the cave and go down-right two screens, then use the topmost left exit to reach the hot spring. You can try to backtrack to the cave, but you’ll likely pass out. That’s fine; just repeat the previous few steps.

For this fight, I used Beta twice and she was totally gone. Which is a shame, because if you’re good enough to steal from her, you can get , which is pretty amazing for your mage.

You get Alexander Materia, possibly along with an . Return to the mountain cabin, save, and get ready to climb.

Gaea’s Cliff

Head north from the mountain cabin and follow the flags:

Press up until you get to the next ledge, then mash square to warm up.
Go to the upper-right of that ledge and press circle to get to the next area.
Warm up again.
Repeat a few times. Essentially, you’re going wherever the flags are.
When you get to the top, warming up at each ledge, go into the cave.

If you want to learn Bad Breath, I recommend putting all three Enemy Skill Materia on Cloud along with . Have another character wear HypnoCrown and equip Manipulate Materia. Since Cloud should be fine because of , immediately have him use White Wind after you learn Bad Breath to clear your team’s heads.

Anyway, now that you’ve made it to the cave, follow these directions to get through and maximize your spoils:

Proceed to the far back of the cave.
On the next screen, double back left and reenter the cave you just left, but through the left entrance.
Go straight across the bridge and continue through the hard-to-see tunnel for the second .
Exit the hidden room, head up along the near wall, then back across the entrance. The chest up there has .
Go through the doorway to your immediate left, cross the bridge, and go all the way to the upper-left of the screen. Head up, right, then down a bit to pop out of a cave.
Push the boulder near the cave exit. See the crystals it broke?
Go back the way you came, all the way to step 2, until you reach the area opened by the boulder.
Continue along that path through the caves and out the far-right exit.
Cross the bridge and take the far-right exit to the next phase of cliff climbing.

Use square to warm up. Don’t forget to do this any time you’re on a ledge, OK?

Climb left a bit. When asked which way to go, go up. Right is a dead end.
Warm up, then start climbing up.
Go right at the next part, warm up on the ledge, then climb again.
Warm up on the next platform and head up-left. Right is a dead end.
Warm up, then head up-right until you reach the cave.
Inside the cave, follow the right wall and open the chest for an .
Save in the upper-left corner. Really, do you WANT to do all this again?
Leave through the upper-right exit.

Outside, head forward, then double back around to the right and into another set of caves.

As soon as you enter, go right and open the chest for .
Run left and fight the icicles and bats. Use Beta on them.
Say you don’t want to jump down, and continue on. Fight again, and then a third or fourth time.
After the final battle, go to the far left and open the chest for “LastElixir.” A quick check of my current items and last save point makes me think this is likely .
Walk along the ledge to the right and jump down to the next level.
Go to the far left and use the icicle to access the corner chest for .
Save and head through the center exit.
Grab on your way out, then continue around the bend and back to the near-left corner of the screen.
When you come back into the cave, run forward to the near edge of the screen to begin the final summit.

Final climb:

Warm up, then begin climbing on the right edge of the ledge.
When asked, head right. You may have to hold right even though you’re going up and, inexplicably, left.
On the next ledge with two flags, head left, warm up, and climb.
When asked, head up.
Warm up on the next ledge, then climb to the next ledge.
Warm up. It’s hard to see, but the next climb point is left of the flag.

That route should take you to the final cave. There’s a pool to the right of the save point that restores HP/MP. Yes, I recommend using both the pool and the save. Choose your materia wisely. I recommend Enemy Skill Materia on pretty much everyone. Also, equip both Ribbons.

When you’re ready, head right. When you come to the tunnel, you’ll be heading toward the near end.

Boss: Schizo

When Schizo attacks, use Magic Hammer on both sides until you’ve taken all his MP. I was able to steal from Schizo Right. The left side had nothing, even before I stole from the right.

Then heal up and wail on him. Keep everyone above half HP if you can, because his death retaliation can do serious damage. Each side has 18,000 HP and 350 MP. You can use Aqualung if you learned it, but he doesn’t do much once you use up all his MP.

After the fight, go back to the pool and save. Back down the corridor and outside, notice your body temperature thing is gone? COOL! Heh heh.

Head to the right of the tunnel entrance and examine the cliff. Climb up and watch the cutscene at the top.