Episode 8: Turk Domain

[Sunflora Azumarill]

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[------------------------------MIDGAR CITY----------------------------]
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Welcome to the next episode, which happens to be quite the surprise! We start in a teleporter area on Midgar. Watching over the area happens to be Cloud and Barret. You’ll then materialize on the teleporter. Once you have materialized, Cloud will welcome you to Midgar, as well as reveal that he's the mysterious voice that guided you through Cipher territory. Barret will then ask if you still have the Chaos Drives that you recovered back in Episode 4, and you'll reveal all four kinds. Once Barret sees the Chaos Drives, he’ll tell you to head to the Wall Market, where you’ll be able to exchange your Chaos Drives for Materia. Now that you can start the stage, check the right side of where you start for an X Attack and head down the path going north. Now move west from here and suddenly, what look like three Snapsparkers (2) will jump down and attack. Cloud will tell you that they’re assassins sent to dispatch you and that who’s using them is unknown at this time. Defeat all three of them like you’ve done before and keep heading west until you see a wreckage in the north, but it’s closed off for the time being and so you should keep heading down the path until you reach s circular structure. Southwest from it is a Potion you could collect in case you took on damage while fighting the Snapsparkers. Head south from here and you’ll run into three Manectric Chargers (2) you can either defeat or dodge. After 2 more pairs of Manectric Chargers, you’ll reach a Jump Ramp that will boost you onto a passing train.

Here, Cloud will tell you about the ID Scan that’s taking place on the train and if it catches you, it’ll disconnect the train car from the rest of the train, preventing you from reaching your destination, and you’ll lose a life. Keep ahead of the scanner wall, but you can collect an X Defense in the first train car. When you reach the next one, jump into it and three Magneton Shields (2) will try to block you. Get past them and reach the next train car. Here, you’ll have to defeat three Snapsparkers (1) to open a cage (which looks like a GUN Cage, except no symbol). Blocking access to the next train car. In this car, there are three Manectric Chargers (2) to watch out for and also a Potion you can collect. In the last train car, you’ll reach Cloud and Barret, who will they’ll shut off the ID Scan. Here, a picture of the AVALANCHE base will appear on the train’s screen, telling you they’ll take you there for now. When you disband from the train, there are some people you can talk to, but none have anything useful to say. Head west and them north to reach a checkpoint. After crossing it, look around the place for a Potion, an X Speed, and an X Attack. You’ll notice a bar here, the 7th Heaven Bar, but who tends to it is not here right now. Just head back to where you were and when Barret says to, jump, and you’ll jump to the start of another train.

You’ll have to elude the ID Scan once more. This time, you’ll have to contend with two Manectric Chargers (2) to open the doors to the next train car. In the next one, get past two Snapsparker pairs (2) and enter the next car. Here, three Electrode Bombs (2) will attempt to blow you up, so dash past them and reach the next car. Here, you can collect an X Speed and get past two Magneton Shields (2) to reach the final car. Here, you’ll have to defeat a Metang Carrier (2), which if it catches you, sends in several Snapsparkers (2) to harass you, and open a cage blocking the door out of the train. Jump out of time to drop into an underground passage. Here, head south down the long path and five pairs of Manectric Chargers (2) will attack along the way. Once you’ve reached the end of the path, you’ll find a small flatcar you can use to cruise down the tunnel until you reach a ladder. Climb up this ladder to reach a playground. There are some kids here you can talk to, but head east, and the north to finally arrive at the Wall Market. There’s another checkpoint here, but you’ll find out that the Wall Market isn’t open yet. Wait for Cloud to come up to you, and Cloud will mention something about destroyed reactors, namely, reactors 1 and 5. Looks like you’ll have to go back the way you came. Along the way back, you’ll now have to get past five pairs of Snapsparkers (2) in the tunnel until you reach where you disbanded the train from. Here, you’ll now find a spring you can bounce off of.

You’ll bounce right back into another train. This time, simply dash through the four train cars to escape the ID Scan and pass by three Magneton Shields (2) (first car), two Metang Carriers (2) (second car), three Electrode Bombs (2) (third car), and three Manectric Chargers (2) (fourth car). If the fifth car, head to the door leading out and jump out to land back at where you jumped into the first train. Make your way back down the path to Reactor #1, now having to pass by a total of eight Mecha Torkoals (2) along the way. Once you reach the ruins of the reactor, you’ll have to look around, defeating a total 6 Mechcargoes (2) among the ruins. Once you’ve done so, Barret will confirm your analysis on the first reactor. Once you exit, however, there is a lone Claydol Drone (3) that will catch you, and there will be ten Hover Houndooms (2) on the way back to where you got onto the first train. Use the Jump Ramp to enter another train. This time, you must defeat the enemies in the train before the ID Scan catches you. Take out two Mecha Torkoals (2) in the first car, three Mechcargoes (2) in the second, three Lairon Rovers (2) in the third, two Hover Houndooms (2) in the fourth, and the same Claydol Drone from earlier, but without a scanner. Defeat it and jump out of the train.

You’ll land back in the underground passage, but a green barrier to the north that blocked your path there before is now gone, so head down the path past four Mechcargoes (2) until you reach another green barrier. From here, head west to the hatch, grab a Super Potion in the adjoining passage, climb down two ladders and defeat four Lairon Rovers (2) here to open a tall cage blocking access to the next ladder. Climb up to enter a room with two Hover Houndooms (2) to watch out for and an X Speed. Climb down the ladder in the far left to reach a chamber with a checkpoint, an X Defense, and a ladder leading to Reactor #5. Head into the ruins and suddenly underlings belonging to Reno will appear all over the reactor area. There are twelve of them, 3 with Burn Rifles, 3 with Freeze Rifles, 3 with Shock Rifles, and 3 with Confuse Rifles. Take down all twelve of them and then you’ll find out their putting the entire city under siege. It’s time to head back the way you came. Head back down the ladder, taking out two more (FR) in the chamber here, two more (CR) in the next, four in the next (2 SR, 2 BR), and three more (SR) in the passage leading back into the main one. Once you’re there, you’ll have to take out twelve more (3 BR, 3 SR, 3 PR, 3 CR) along the way back to the flatcar you used to reach the playground.

At the playground, there is a Hyper Potion somewhere and six more Turk Amateurs (3 CR, 3 FR) to take out before heading back to the Wall Market. Throughout the entire area, there are twelve more Amateurs to defeat (4 BR, 4 FR, 4 SR). Once you’ve defeated them all, a cage covering a sewer opening will open, and you’ll not have to enter the sewers. Once you land, climb up the stairs to the south for an X Speed and head along the walkway, defeating four more Turk Amateurs (CR) until you reach a checkpoint and a ladder. Head up the ladder and head right. Go into the water and defeat three more Amateurs (BR) then up the stairs and down the hatch. Here, five Snapsparkers (3) will arrive to fight you. At this point, Cloud tells you that the reason for such robots being used here is because like Cipher, the Turks must use robot contracts from other organizations. He’ll now tell you to head back the way you came as the rest of the Turks have barricaded themselves in the church. Head back the way you came, now having to get past three Magneton Shields (2) along the stairs and three Electrode Bombs (2) in the water. Watch out; if they explode, they’ll also electrocute the water, causing you to get zapped and lose 30 health. You’ll have to contend with three Manectric Chargers (2) along the walkway and three Snapsparkers (2), two of them forming a pair down the stairs.

Once you’ve climbed the ladder back up to the Wall Market, look around the area for a Super Potion, an X Attack, an X Defense, and an X Speed, then head back to the playground. At the edge of the playground, head left and three Electrode Bombs (2) will roll down the stairs, so dodge them and reach the top of the stairs, then head down the pipe and then through the passage, where three Magneton Shields (2) will try to block you. Get past them and head up the iron beams and then across the metal length. Back in this area of town, ten more Turk Amateurs (3 BR, 3 FR, 2 SR, 2 CR) have decided to stay behind and attack. Get rid of them and reach a checkpoint. Here you’ll be at the side of the church. You’ll now have to take down fourteen Turk Amateurs (3 BR, 3 FR, 4 SR, 4 CR) as they come out of the church two at a time. Once the siege is done, Cloud will tell you that you can finally go to the Wall Market. Head to there, passing by several people in the town that have come back out (who now talk about the Turks) and back at the Wall Market, you’ll find a shop that will be able to exchange your Red Chaos Drives for some Independent Materia. However, as soon as you do so, you’ll hear a cry for help. Barret will bring up that something’s happening back at the AVALANCHE base. Looks like it’s time to backtrack once more.

Head back to the playground and enter the underground passage once more. This time, there is a total of ten Lairon Rovers (2) along the path back to the spring. Jump onto the spring and you’ll jump back into a passing train. In the train, get ready to elude the ID Scan again! Pass through the first car, collecting a Super Potion and dodging two Snapsparker pairs (2), reach the second car, defeating three Manectric Chargers (2) to open a cage blocking the door, reach the third car, collecting two X Speeds and dodging three Magneton Shields, reach the fourth car, defeat two Metang Carriers (2), and in the final car, watch out for a single Electrode Bomb (3) when it explodes, then jump out of the train to land back at the AVALANCHE base. Head for the 7th Heaven Bar, and you’ll notice the checkpoint you activated before is no longer activated. Just pass through it again and head to the bar, where you’ll see Reno attacking Tifa. However, before you just go straight there, you can try sneaking behind him and attacking him early, scoring a few cheap hits beforehand. This method works especially well if you're playing as Duplica and she's disguised as one of Reno's underlings. Anyway, once Reno sees you, he’ll explain to you about expanding the Turk empire and that you’ve meddled in his affairs long enough. You’ll tell Tifa to get out of here, but Reno will prevent you from doing the same. With this settled, a boss battle will now begin.

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BOSS: RENO
Health: 320
Attack 1: Pyramid – You should remember this from Final Fantasy VII. Reno will trap you in a glowing pyramid. You cannot escape from this, and Reno will attack you to break it open.
Attack 2: Electromagnetic Rod – Reno will swing his staff at you. The staff sends out an electromagnetic shockwave that in addition to damage, also disables any Electric, Psychic, and Steel attacks for two minutes.
Attack 3: Sever – Cuts you with his staff, which does damage equal to the highest stat of the character you’re using. (Ex: If your chosen character’s Power (after bonuses) is 18, the attack will do 90 damage.)
Attack 4: Bolt3 – Charges up electrical energy, then sends several lightning bolts down towards the foe equal to the amount of energy that was charged.
Strategy: Now this is an interesting battle! If you remember fighting Reno for the first time in Final Fantasy VII, the Pyramid was usually your bane. If Reno uses this on you, you won’t be able to escape until he attacks you. He’ll use it in tandem with his Electromagnetic Rod, damaging you while you’re helpless. Also, as an added element, Reno is completely immune to Electric and Psychic attacks, meaning they won’t work on him. When you see a triangle on the ground, immediately jump to avoid the Pyramid and attack Reno. There’s also the case of his Sever attack, which does 5 damage for each 1 in your character’s highest stat (after applying bonuses, but not powerups). It’s best not to get caught in the Pyramids too much, or Reno will cut you down quickly. When half of his health is gone, Reno will unleash his strongest attack, Bolt3! This attack is similar to Dynamo Man’s Lightning Bolt in Mega Man & Bass, meaning that when he charges up, you’ll have to hit him enough to reduce the number of bolts he sends down at you. If he traps you in the Pyramid before doing this (which he can and will try), you’ll take on severe damage. If necessary, there are four Super Potions lying around the area you can use to heal, but Reno could trap you in a Pyramid if you simply try to run for one. If you keep up your tactics and evading, Reno will eventually fall.
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Once Reno’s been defeated, he’ll tell you that the Turks will claim all the Materia in the world to make them stronger and crush their enemies. With that, he’ll escape. Tifa will come up to you and thank you for saving her and, unless you're playing as Trixie, point you directly to a train headed for Wutai. However, if you're playing as Trixie, Tifa will instead point you toward the train graveyard, where she points out that a ribbon dancer is waiting for her. With that in mind, you’ll have to board a train that will lead to the train to Wutai. Such a train will stop by the base, so head back to there and board it. This time, there’s no enemies or ID Scan to worry about, and there are people you can talk to while on the train. None have anything useful to say, and you just have to head to the front of the train where you can disband. You’ll disband at the junction where the Train Graveyeard is in front and the path to the train to Wutai is to the left. If you’re playing as any character other than Trixie, there is a large wall called a Trixie Gate blocking access to the Train Graveyard. Not even explosion can let any other character through. If you’re playing as Trixie, you’ll have to head into the area and follow a path leading to the center, where you'll find Samantha, who will start to exchange a few cross words with Trixie. Eventually, a fight will begin between Trixie and Samantha.

The area for this battle is actually quite similar to where Shadow and Silver fight in Sonic ’06, with two endless trains forming barriers near the back and front sides of the area and several piles of crates around the area and an upper section. Samantha will constantly run and jump around the area (more relentless than other rivals), occasionally bringing out either Mawile to use Bite or using a technique called Raibbon Cyclone, which pulls you in and travels around the entire area, making it very difficult to dodge. Samantha will sometimes even pull a Scorpion, wrapping her ribbon around you and pulling you towards her, then damaging you some more. Avoid or endure her attacks and after 30 seconds, Cloud will intervene by hand radio and tell you that the train to Wutai is about to leave, and that if you're not aboard in 90 seconds, the train will leave without you! Barret will add that you should bring Samantha. By the time you can move again, you have only 75 seconds left to catch the train. If Trixie fails to catch the train, the train will leave and you fail the mission. Samantha will follow you from here on in. From the graveyard, head back down the path and take the path to the train to Wutai. The path is simple, but long, so you’ll need to constantly run down it. When you finally reach the train, board it and it will take off, finally clearing this stage!

[Sunflora Azumarill]

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[---------------------------------WUTAI-------------------------------]
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Welcome to Wutai, where your next stage takes place. You’ll start in the town from the southern entrance and right from the start, you’ll be greeted by Yuffie, who will tell you about her love for Materia (more like an obsession). The she’ll tell you that 16 Summon Materia have been found all over the town. Your job is to find all 16 of them. Several of them are easy to find, but some of them are in hard to reach locations. Their locations are random, and must be found much like the Mater Emerald shards Knuckles and Rouge had to find in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. There are several people throughout the town you can talk to for hints on some of the Materia (similar to the hint boxes in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle), making this the first (and only) stage with people that are useful to talk to. For starters on some of the harder ones, they happen to be on places such as rooftops, and the best way to reach them is to follow the path leading to a large courtyard and a pagoda. On the side of the pagoda is a spring that will bounce you right to the nearest rooftop, and from there, you can explore several of them for some of the Materia. You can also enter the building to the right of the pagoda to find it empty, except for an X Attack. Go into the room next to it and examine the right wall to find a hidden panel that will open to reveal a passage. At the end of the passage lies an X Speed and is also a possible Summon Materia location.

Before leaving the building, check the room to the left of the main room to find a scroll of the left wall hiding another passage. At the end on this passage in an X Defense and also may be a Summon Materia. There’s an eatery in the southwestern corner of town, where you can gather an unlimited number of vague hints on Summon Materia from the caretaker. If she tells you to go to the pagoda, for example, a Summon Materia is somewhere near the pagoda (like one of the passages). Speaking of the eatery, there’s a spring behind it you can use to bounce you onto the top of it to explore rooftops to find some of the Materia. Another place to find Summon Materia is at the Item Shop, where the woman there will give you a random item, an X Attack, X Defense, or X Speed. There’s also a building in the southeast edge of town where a building resides. Head inside and examine the folding panel to the left to find another Summon Materia hiding spot. Outside the building is a spring that will bounce you to the top of the building, where you’ll be able to explore more rooftops for Materia. Another place to check for a Materia is Yuffie’s House. Look for a pair of switches in the back room. One of them may drop a Summon Materia or drop a cage on you, which you will have to use an attack on to break. These are just good examples of where you can find some of the Materia, but for the rest, you’ll have to look yourself.

Once you’ce collected all sixteen Summon Materia, you’ll have to go to the Turtle’s Paradise Bar, where you'll find two junk dealers, a man wearing a purple shirt and a woman wearing a green shirt. The one in purple will offer Support Materia in exchange for purple Chaos Drives. Take the offer. The one in green will offer Magic Materia in exchange for green Chaos Drives. Take this offer as well. Once you’ve made both exchanges, Red XIII will come into the bar to tell you that the Turks have come to Wutai and are looking for you. They happen to be turning the town upside down to find you. Looks like we got some exterminating to do! Head outside, and you’ll find Rude’s underling’s everywhere! You’ll have to defeat them like you did Reno’s back in Midgar! To make matters worse, they’ve sent out many Team Flora robots to make things even worse! There are a total of 40 Turk Amateurs throughout the town (10 BR, 10 FR, 10 SR, 10 CR)! As you look around the town, you’ll also face a total of 8 Cacturne Sentries (4 Tier 2, 4 Tier 3), 8 Sunflora Sawblades (4 Tier 2, 4 Tier 3), 6 Exeggutor Totems (3 Tier, 3 Tier 3), 6 Tropius Tanks (3 Tier 2, 3 Tier 3), 6 Gloom Mechs (3 Tier 2, 3 Tier 3, 3 use red Stun Spore, 3 use blue Sleep Powder), and 6 Venomoth Drones (3 Tier 2, 3 Tier 3). The townsfolk will run around the streets in panic, and you’ll have to look around everywhere for the Turks.

Half of the Turks move around randomly, while the other half are on some of the rooftops. All three springs have now been locked in cages that require a certain number of Amateurs to be defeated to unlock. To start things off, there is now a checkpoint outside the Turtle’s Paradise Bar for you to use. To unlock the cage in the southeastern corner of the town, defeat a total of 6 ground-patrolling Turks and the spring will bounce you to the rooftops there, where you’ll have to seek out 6 more Turks along here. Two of the Venomoth Drones and three of the Sunflora Sawblades also attack here, so be careful. One of the Venomoth Drones also has a holo-scanner that will bring in many Stun Spore-firing Gloom Mechs (3) along the rooftops. To open the cage behind the eatery, defeat a total of 12 Turk Amateurs on the ground and use the spring to bounce up to the rooftops here. There are 6 more Amateurs to fight here, plus three of the Cacturne Sentries and two of the Gloom Mechs. In order to open the cage near the pagoda, 18 of the Turks along the ground must be defeated, then you can use the spring to reach the rooftops, where 6 more Turks attack. Also here are two of the Cacturne Sentries, one of the Sunflora Sawblades, and two more of the Venomoth Drones. One of the Venomoth Drones has a scanner that sends in several more Sunflora Sawblades (3) along the rooftops.

Once you’ve defeated 36 of the Turk Amateurs that you could find, you’ll notice that there are still four more you have to defeat, but none of them seem to appear anywhere. Cloud will tell you that something’s going on near the pagoda. Head back to the courtyard and you’ll now be able to enter the building to your left. Climb the stairs and examine the bell to ring it, revealing a hidden door. In the room here, the last four Turks have barricaded themselves, so defeat all of them and before leaving, pick up an X Attack, an X Defense, an X Speed, and a Hyper Potion. Head up the stairs here to enter the main room of the building with the two passageways. Cloud will now tell you that Rude himself is roaming the town. You’ll have to wander the town until you find him, and once you do, he’ll tell you to hand over the Materia you collected, but you’ll refuse. He’ll sucker punch you and take off with all the Materia you collected (your stats remain upgraded). Head to the northeastern corner of Wutai to find a path that leads into the mountains, where the huge Da-Chao Statues are carved in the rock.

You weren’t able to follow this path before due to a barrier blocking your way, but Rude has taken that barrier down and you can follow him. A checkpoint lies at the start of the path, but several robots have been dispatched to attack you. Things start with 4 Sunflora Sawblades (2) along the path. Defeat or get past them and you’ll have to run by three Exeggutor Totems (2) next. You’ll also get the chance at an X Attack and an X Defense on your way up. After the Exeggutor Totems, you’ll come a split. If you head south here, there are three Tropius Tanks (2) along the way to a Super Potion and a 1UP at a dead-end. If you head north here, you’ll have to fend off five Cacturne Sentries (3) along the path near a huge head and you’ll reach a crossroads. There’s a cave here with fire pits inside, but you won’t be able to get past them unless you use a strong Water attack. If you manage to get to the end of the cave, you’ll find the stage’s Full Restore and a 1UP. From the cave, head south to find Rude next to a Da-Chao statue. He’ll once again refuse to give you back the Materia and will then decide to teach you a lesson, thus enacting another boss battle.

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BOSS: RUDE
Health: 320
Attack 1: Drive Impact – Jumps into the air and attempts to slam you. After the attack, Rude is unable to move for several seconds. This may also disorient.
Attack 2: Defense Break – Rude rushes you and body slams you. If you are using a defensive attack, that attack fails and this attack does twice as much damage.
Attack 3: Render – Rude slams you hard, and the end result is that all of your character’s stats are lowered by 2 and remain that way for the rest of the stage.
Attack 4: Fire3 - Charges up fire energy, then unleashes it on you. Fire will shoot down to the ground in a star shape around you a number of times and may burn.
Strategy: Rude is just as tough as Reno was, but he’s trickier! To make matters worse, he’s wearing Ziedrich Armor, which reduces the damage he takes, and he’s completely immune to Fire-type and Dark-type attacks that you may use against him! His Drive Impact is powerful and a little hard to dodge, but Rude won’t be able to move afterwards, allowing you to get some cheap hits in. Don’t use a move used for defense again him, as he’ll break that with his Defense Break, causing even more damage. Now for the interesting attack, Render! Getting hit by this attack will reduce every one of your stats by 2, making you slower, your attacks doing less damage, and increasing the damage you take. If you get hit too much by Render, you might not survive the next attack. It’s best not to get hit by any of his attacks due to their aftereffects. After half of Rude’s health is gone, he’ll begin the use of Fire3, which works similar to Bolt3 when you fought Reno, except this time, a number of fire pillars will shoot down, not only damaging you, but also with the chance of burning you! When Rude starts charging it up, hit him to reduce the number of flames he sends at you, but when dodging, only move a little, since the way the flames come at you are meant to trick you into running into one of them. Keep in mind of two Super Potions and a Hyper Potion on the edges of the arena you can use to heal yourself during the battle. Once Rude has taken enough damage, he’ll finally concede defeat.
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Once Rude is defeated, he’ll drop the Materia he stole from you, and you’ll pick it up. Rude will tell you that Once they have all the Materia, they’ll answer to no one! He’ll then leave, and after he does, you’ll see Cait Sith come up to the statues, explaining that he's hidden a map that will lead you onto the last legs of your journey to peace. Your last task here is to find that map. Cait Sith will guide you back into town, and from there, you’ll have to find that map. The map is in a random location, and is very rarely somewhere obvious. You can use the X button to get a hint from Cait Sith, but there's only three hints available. Once you’ve finally found the map, the stage will automatically be cleared, and you’ll get on a train on the edge of Wutai to head to the destination!

[Sunflora Azumarill]

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[--------------------------THE FORGOTTEN CITY-------------------------]
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Here we are, the Forgotten City, the place where Aeris was killed by Sephiroth. The ancient capital looks a lot like the ocean bottom, with shells and coral everywhere. Anyway, after Cloud tells you something else that’s currently going on in the world, it’s time to begin the stage. Start by heading down the path, where there are five Corsola Cannons (2) (they really fit the motif of this place) are scattered about. Defeat or get past them and you’ll reach a crossroads. Take the left path first and get ready to dash past seven more Corsola Cannons (1) along the way to a stone building. Inside of the building are an ancient switch that you’ll need to press and an X Attack on the upper ledge here. There’s also a glowing green light that says to “come find me where I was slain”. Cloud will tell you that he think he knows who that is and where to go. Head past the stone building and past where coral barriers stood in your way before. Follow the path east past two Crawdaunt Troopers (3) that drop down along the way and you’ll reach a rock face. Head inside, where three Corsola Cannons (3) are found and reach an X Speed and a blue crystal. Go up to the crystal, and you’ll get another message, this time, saying “beneath the surface”. Not it’s time to head all the way back to the crossroads and take the middle path. Six more Corsola Cannons (1) litter this path leading to a shell building. Head inside and climb up the spiraling walkway to reach an X Defense and an ancient switch. Press it and you’ll find another green light that explains “the one that ended me”. Since there’s nothing else here, head back to the crossroads and take the right path.

Past five more Corsola Cannons (2) and two Crawdaunt Troopers (2), you’ll reach an area of several shell buildings. Four Masquerain Drones (2) fly all around the area. Enter one building all the way to the right and pick up another X Attack and climb all the way to the top floor to find another ancient switch to press. Once you’ve done that, the coral barrier blocking access down the main path will open, but it leads to the blue crystal from earlier and contains two Crawdaunt Troopers (3). Also, once the switch has been pressed, the Masquerain Drones outside will now have holo-scanners, and if you get caught by them, they’ll send in either several Corsola Cannons (3), several Crawdaunt Troopers (2), or several Sealeo Mechs (2). There’s nothing else to do but check the last shell house here. There’s an X Defense on the ground floor and on the upper floor is another green light that explains “the message of the ancients”. With all four clues collected and all three switches pressed, Cloud will tell you to start back to the shell house on the middle path. Do so, but the Corsola Cannons on each path have regenerated. Get past them and reach the house. You may have noticed a large, strange fish floating in the middle of the spiraling passageway. When you come in this time, it will suddenly vanish, revealing blue steps in its place. It’s now time to head down those steps and finally find what you’re looking for.

You’ll find yourself in an underwater palace, with Relicanth swimming the waters beyond the walls all around you. Once you reach the bottom of the stairs, leave the building and collect an X Defense and cross a checkpoint before heading down the next two sets of stairs below. You’ll now have to jump pillars over a large gap to reach the other side. You’ll come to a large body of water on the other side, and the faint voice from earlier will tell you “to look deep under”. Swim out into the body of water and dive under. From there, swim as deep as you can down the bottomless expanse and once you reach the bottom, wait around for a bit and Aeris's ghost will suddenly appear. During this entire conversation, you are somehow able to breathe underwater, so don’t worry. You'll first ask about the Hex Maniac that Aeris had been communicating through, and Aeris will tell a disturbing story. The Hex Maniac in question, Rebecca, had suddenly come under a demon possession sometime after Team Draco left Hoenn after their plans there failed. It was slight at first, but the demon started to grip firmer to Rebecca and planned to consume her soul, and Aeris's as well! Six days after the demon started its possession, Aeris cut off contact with Rebecca, saying that contact would resume once that demon was exorcised. Sadly, the exorcism never occurred. The day after Aeris left, Rebecca died when her own soul was consumed by the demon. Because Aeris managed to escape with her soul intact, she can once again wait for another Hex Maniac to contact her and hope to settle the score with Sephiroth once and for all. After you've heard the disturbing tale, she'll see the yellow Chaos Drives and offer to swap them for Command Materia. After switching, and Aeris will then tell you some more stuff. Rayquaza's has been captured, and its captors took it further up from where it normally lives. Aeris suspects "a team in teal garb" as Rayquaza's captors. Once that conversation’s done, she will suddenly vanish into the water and your air supply will begin all over.

While underwater, you can search the area for two 1UP’s, but make sure you have enough air to swim back up to the surface before you drown. Along the way back up to the surface, there are four Laser Lanturns (3) that have suddenly appeared that you must dodge and near the surface are four Sharpedo Subs (3). Get out of the water quickly and for the pillars, there are now four Masquerain Drones (3) to get past. Looks like someone followed you here. Past the pillars, you must defeat or pass a total of twelve Corsola Cannons (2) of the sets of stairs going back to the underwater palace. Back in the palace, there are four Sealeo Mechs (3) to pass and head back up the blue stairs while taking out six Crawdaunt Troopers (2) along the way. Once you come back into the shell building, the stairs will disappear and the fish will appear once again, sealing away the passage to Aeris. There is now a reusable checkpoint in this building, but only at certain times.

Once you exit the building, Cid will drop down from his airship, the Highwind, and tell you that the Forgotten City has been breached by more Turks, this time by underlings of Elena! After Cid gets back onto the Highwind and flies off, you’ll have to take down some more Turk Amateurs, and they’re all over the city! Start by taking out six of them (2 BR, 2 FR, 2 SR) along the path back to the crossroads and then take the left path. You’ll have to take down eight more Turks (3 CR, 3 FR, 2 SR) along the way to the stone building, four in the building (2 FR, 2 SR), and four more (3 BR, 1 SR) after the building. In the cavern with the blue crystal, take out two more Turks (FR) and follow the path to the group of shell buildings, defeating four more Turks (2 BR, 2 CR) along the way. You’ll now have to defeat eight Turks (2 BR, 2 FR, 2 SR, 2 CR) in the area of shells and four more (2 FR, 2 BR) in the buildings you can enter. Dispatch six more Turks (2 FR, 2 SR, 2 CR) along the path back to the crossroads and now head down the starting path and you can take a path that goes around the perimeter of the city to take out a whopping 22 Turks (5 FR, 5 BR, 5 CR, 7 SR) along the way. Once you’ve done that, head back to the crossroads and you’ll run into Vincent.

As soon as you reach Vincent, you’ll notice four large buildings with massive helicopter blades churning above them lower from the sky onto the ground at the city entrance, the path to the stone building to the left, the middle path to the main building, and the path to the right to the shell building area. The helicopter blades will then stop churning, fold up, and slide down into the buildings. Vincent will tell you that there are a certain number of imposters in these buildings, which happen to be restrooms. That number depends on your character. For male characters, it's one. For Duplica, it's five. For female characters other than Duplica, it's four. For starters, head down the middle path and reach the restroom complex there. Head through the doors to enter a metal silver-tinted restroom hall and just pass all the restrooms and head through the other set of doors to head back to the main building and cross the checkpoint again. This way, you can start back from this point of the stage if you happen to fall. Head back to the restroom complex and go to the middle doors, which are the only ones you can enter. The men’s restroom is to the right of where you first entered the complex and the women’s restroom is to the left. Head into whatever’s your designated character’s.

If you’re using a male character, head into the men’s restroom where you’ll see stalls to your right, sinks to your left, and an Elena Imposter in the middle. He will attack you with both a Burn Rifle and a Freeze Rifle. As you fight him, in this order, 2 Crawdaunt Troopers (2), 2 Sealeo Mechs (2), 3 three Masquerain Drones (3) will teleport into the room. Once they and the imposter are subdued, head back out. If you’re using a female character, head into the female’s restroom where you’ll see stalls to your left, sinks to your right, and another Elena Imposter in the middle. She will attack you with both a Shock Rifle and a Confuse Rifle. As you fight her, in this order, 2 Crawdaunt Troopers (2), 2 Masquerain Drones (2), and 3 Corsola Cannons (3) will teleport into the room. Once they and the imposter are subdued, head back out. If you’re using Duplica, you’ll have to enter both restrooms. Disguise yourself as a male after dealing with the female imposter to enter the men’s restroom. You’ll only have to head to the other restroom complexes if you’re using a female character. For the restroom complex on the left path, the open one is to the left in the middle. Head into the female’s restroom where you’ll see stalls to your right, sinks to your left, and an Elena Imposter in the middle. She will attack you with both a Shock Rifle and a Burn Rifle. As you fight her, in this order, 2 Sealeo Mechs (2), 2 Corsola Cannons (2), and 3 Crawdaunt Troopers (3) will teleport into the room. Once they and the imposter are subdued, head back out.

For the restroom complex on the right path, the open one is to the right in the middle. Head into the female’s restroom where you’ll see stalls to your left, sinks to your right, and an Elena Imposter in the middle. She will attack you with both a Confuse Rifle and a Freeze Rifle. As you fight her, in this order, 2 Masquerain Drones (2), 2 Crawdaunt Troopers (2), and 3 Sealeo Mechs (3) will teleport into the room. Once they and the imposter are subdued, head back out. For the restroom complex on the starting path, the open one is to the right in the middle. Head into the female’s restroom where you’ll see stalls to your right, sinks to your left, and an Elena Imposter in the middle. She will attack you with both a Freeze Rifle and a Confuse Rifle. As you fight her, in this order, 2 Masquerain Drones (2), 2 Sealeo Mechs (2), and 3 Corsola Cannons (3) will teleport into the room. Once they and the imposter are subdued, head back out. Especially by now, all the Elena Imposters should be gone. The moment you head out, the real Elena will come by and issue a challenge, a duel deep in the heart of the Forgotten City. She will then run off. Cloud will tell you that she has gone to the cavern where you found the blue crystal.

Before you head there, head back to the main shell building to cross the checkpoint (this will be the last time you can cross it), and head out and go to the blue crystal. Behind the crystal, a secret passage will have opened up. Head down the passage, dodging or defeating the four Corsola Cannons (3) along the way and collecting a Hyper Potion and an X Speed. You’ll come to a pool of water. Dive into it and swim down to find an underwater tunnel. Swim through here quickly, as there are two Laser Lanturns (3) along the way and an X Defense. You’ll come to the bottom of another pool and when you surface, you’ll be in a passage with a strip of land in the middle and waterfalls coming from both walls. Head down the pathway, watching out for six Sharpedo Subs (3) in the water nearby and collecting an X Attack. At the end of the path, you’ll have to dive into the water again and this time swim down a shaft past two more Laser Lanturns (3) to reach another tunnel to swim through. Two more Laser Lanturns (3) attack in this tunnel, which then slopes upward and empties into another waterfall passage. Along the path here, there are four Sealeo Mechs (3) to get past and then a tunnel with four Crawdaunt Troopers (3) to dodge until you reach a checkpoint in front of a waterfall. Head through the waterfall to enter a magnificent cove where there are waterfalls all over pouring into a bottomless pool in the center. There is a large arena in the center of the pool and Elena there waiting for you. She’ll tell you your time has come to join the ancients and that your Materia is hers. With her done, another boss battle will commence.

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BOSS: ELENA
Health: 320
Attack 1: Minerva Slam – Elena will slam her left hand down on you. The damage this attack does is more if you’re playing as a male character and less if you’re playing as a female character.
Attack 2: Mimic – Elena will mimic the last attack you performed, whether it was a punch, homing attack, or a Pokémon attack.
Attack 3: Punish – Elena will swipe you hard, landing a heavy blow which does damage equal to ten times the total number of X Attacks, X Defenses, and X Speeds you have collected during the entire course of the stage.
Attack 4: Ice3 – Elena will charge up ice energy, then send down several ice beams that create ice spikes and also freeze.
Strategy: Get ready, because Elena is very tough! She happens to be very agile and also completely immune to Ice-type and Grass-type attacks. If you played as a male character and got the glory of having to only deal with one imposter, get ready, as her Minerva Slam does three times the damage it would do if you were a female! Watch out for her Mimic, as she’ll also use it to counter the attacks you use again her. One of the biggest threats is her Punish attack, which does damage equal to the number of X Attacks, X Defenses, and X Speeds that you collected in this stage, doing 10 damage per item! Just hitting her with her using Mimic is tough enough! You’ll have to be quick on your toes to dodge her attacks and attack her yourself. Just be grateful that the Materia you collected during this episode have increased your stats, allowing you to last longer. When half of Elena’s health is gone, she’ll start using the deadliest of her attacks, Ice3! When she starts charging up energy, hit her as much as possible to reduce the number of ice beams she sends your way. After she’s done, run around the arena to dodge the beams, which also freeze part of the ground. You will have to be very quick to dodge this attack. If you end up frozen, Elena will immediately slam you with Minerva Slam or Punish. You’ll have the chance at two Hyper Potion during this battle in the corners of the arena, but remember to use them wisely. Keep up the fighting and Elena will eventually fall like her partners.
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Once Elena has been defeated, she’ll tell you that she, Reno, and Rude will leave for this time being, but that they will be back someday. Once she leaves, you’ll receive a telepathic message from an anonymous source. It’s telling you to head back to where Aeris died, so now head back through the waterfall and go all the way back to the blue crystal. At this point, all enemies have left and the restroom complexes are gone. Now head back to the main shell building, where the blue stairs are already there. Head down them and into the underwater palace, go out of the building, head down the next two sets of stairs and reach the pillars. This time, there’s wind drafts that allow you to float over the expanse and reach the body of water. Here, you’ll come face to face with Mewtwo, who sent you the message. It’s now up to you to make sure Mewtwo escapes the city alive. Mewtwo will follow you from here on in, so head back the way you came over the pillars and expanse and back up the stairs to the underwater palace. Head back up the blue stairs and back into the main shell building, where the stairs disappear and the fish reappears, sealing the way down once again. Head back to the start of the stage, where Mewtwo will be able to leave the city. Before leaving, Mewtwo will ask you to spot the pyramid that Aeris told you about. Keep on the perimeter path of the city until you see a pyramid on the horizon. Once you spot it, look in that direction, and you will have finally completed this stage once and for all! If possible, you’ll now be able to move onto the next episode!