Hints
Recruit Vincent
In the Shinra mansion at Nibbhiem, there is a safe on the top floor. The combination is: Right to 36, Left to 10, Right to 59 then Right to 97. Make sure you don't go to far left or to far right when turning. When it opens kill the monster, then get the stuff in the safe. Descent the spiral staircase and into the coffin room. Vincent is in one of the coffins. Talk to him and leave then come back and talk to him and he will join you.
Item Duplication
If you have the W-Item Materia, equip it and enter battle. Use the W-Item command and select your first item you want to use with the Circle button. Then choose your second item but do not use it. Select it so that cursors appear on the screen (either on you allies or your enemies) then cancel with the X button. Select again and make the cursor appear then cancel. Repeat the selecting and canceling of the second item over and over. Each time you do this the quantity of the first item will increase by 1.
Fast Materia Level-Ups
This cheat can only be done in the third disc. First, go to the Northern cave and look for mole like creatures with a star above thier heads, also holding a knife and a lantern. Steal an elixir from them and then run away. After that, look for these small creatures in a floating pot. They will say "Gimme' an elixer". Give them one. Then kill it. Each one killed will give you 1,000 AP. You can not kill them unless you give them an elixer.
Unlockable: Curse Ring
While in Mideel (before it has been destroyed), go to the weapons shop and check the door in the back (the one that does not open.) Next, go to the shop on the hill with the man on the balcony. Walk behind him along the part of the balcony on the side of the shop until you here a rattling sound. Check the spot and you will get a key. Use the key on the door, and it will break off. The owner will ask what happened. Tell the truth and he will give you the curse ring. If you lie, he will not give it to you. It raises all of your stats, but puts the character on death sentance, but this can be countered with a Phoenix Down.
Unlockable: Time Attack Contest
At the golden saucers wonder square there is a snowboard game. If you get a good rating on the beginner, expert and crazy course the next time you play there you will see a yellow balloon. Grab it and you will enter time attack mode. In this mode there are no balloons or obstacles and you go extremely fast.
Unlockable: Special Battle
To get to the URA battle (special battle) in the Battle Arena, first gain 64000 battle points and buy the W-Summon materia. Next get 32,000 battle points and buy Cloud's level 4 limit, Omnislash. Equip Omnislash and talk to the lady at the counter in the battle arena, and she will ask you if you want to participate in a special battle. Beat all 8 enemies and get the Final attack materia.
Note: You must have your Ultimate Weapon equiped to fight in the special battle.
Unlockable: Racing Trophy
When racing S-class in the Gold Saucer, You will notice many keen items you can't ever seem to get. Well you can get them all at once! Just win 15-20 races in a row! Ester will say "I've never seen anyone win so much in S-class before!" She will then give you one of each item, including the coveted Cat's Bell! this trick only works once, though.
Knights of the Round Table
Ride the Golden Chocobo to the North-Eastern part of the map. There you'll find a hidden island with a cave. Enter the cave and talk to the red light to receive the "Nights of the Round Table" spell.
Recover Missing Items
Did you miss something important? Fear not. Once you get to disc 3 you can recover anything by excavating for it in the Bone Village.
Easy AP
Go to the forest outside of Meedeel. Walk around until you fight Head Hunters or Caterpillers. Equip Cloud with an Apocalipse sword and everyone with a Rune Armlet. If you fight a group of 4 Head Hunters you get 340 AP. Caterpillers and a group of 3 Head Hunters give you 240 AP. Equip as many 'ALL' and 'MAGIC PLUS' materia a possible in the sword and Rune Armlet. When mastered they are worth 1.4 million gil each.
Re-Enter Midgar
It is possible to get back into Midgar after you have left (not including by parachute.) On disc 3, go back to Midgar and talk to the man standing outside the fence. He says he has misplaced his key and that it is probably back at the dig site he just left.
To find the key, go to Bone Village and tell the foreman you want to look for Normal Treasure. Place some of the workers up top in front of the tent and set off the blast. They will point to a spot on the ground, so have them dig there overnight.
In the morning open the treasure chest and you should have the Key to the Sector 5 Slums. Now go back to Midgar and go through the gate. Go back to Wall Market and go to the shop where the item machine was broken before (the one that shot at you), and try to use it now. You will recieve Tifa's ultimate weapon.
Easy Accessories
Here's a way to get two very helpful accessories.
Ribbon: To get a ribbon you must go into the crater and walk around until you fight a Master Tonberry (a mole creature with a rotating yellow star above its head.) Attack him a few times and then morph him. He will turn into a Ribbon.
Tetra-Elemental: There is a small desert island in the south under the Western Continent. Land there with the Highwind or with a gold chocobo. Walk on the sand until you fight a small cactus man. Morph him a eh becomes a Tetra-Elemental.
Note: I have had the best luck morphing with Yuffie simply because see deals 9999 HP damage each time. It may be a different case for you but Yuffie is usually the best morpher.
Easy Money
If you want virtually unlimited money, here is a wonderful trick. As soon as you have mastered an "All" mateira, remove it and replace it with the new born one and sell the old one. This may seem like kind of a harsh comprimise, but each mastered "All" is 1.4 million gils! and scince they are so easy to master you will keep geting more and will never miss them. Sell one or two and you will never run out of money ever again!
Effortless GP Gain
To do this trick, you need a joystick controller with rapid-fire settings and access to the Gold Saucer.
Go to Wonder Square, and up to the arm-wrestling game. Wrap a rubberband around your joystick so that it's pulled to the upper left diagonal, so that Cloud continuously walks into the arm-wrestling machine but not into the GP-trading girl. Now, turn on the rapid-fire for the 'O' button. Cloud will now repeatedly challenge and beat the wrestling game. Slowly but surely, your GP will increase. It takes a while, so it's probably best to set this up just before you go to bed at night, and leave it on while you sleep. By morning, you should have plenty of GP to buy your Gold Pass and the two secret Materia: XP-Plus and Gil-Plus. Cheater!
Limit Break Manuals
To learn Level 4 limit breaks you'll need to find the manuals. Here's how to find them.
Cloud: Trade 32,000 battle points at the Golden Saucer.
Tifa: Go to Nibel area (Tifa's house) and play these piano notes: X, Square, Triangle, L1/R1 + Triangle, L1/R1 + Square, X, Square, Triangle, L1/R1 + X, O, X, Square, X. Then press START and search the music sheet to find Tifa's Limit break.
Barret: A lady will give it to you in North Coral.
Aeris: Southeast of Midgar there is a small cave with a man living there. Talk to him when you have battled a certain number of battles that end in the same number, such as 122, 133, 144. He will then give you a Mithril orb. Take the Mithril to the Blacksmith's house on the south peninsula near Cosmo Canyon. He will trade you for the limit break manual for the Mithril, or you can choose to have a gold bracelet.
Red XIII: In the Nibel area there is a mansion and on the second floor of this mansion there is a safe. To crack this code turn right 36, left 10, right 59, and right 97. Then the safe will open to reveal a miniboss.Kill the miniboss and you will recieve Red VIII's Manual.
Vincent: Land near the waterfall and use the green, black, gold chocobo or the submarine to pass the mountain. Then enter the waterfall. (You must have Vincent in your group and must be done first in disc 2) go forward and it will show Vincent's past. Then leave. Return if you are already in disc three and you'll get not only the manual but a weapon of Vincent.
Cid: Cid's manual is in one of the chests in the sunken plane.
Yuffie: Go to Wutai and enter the tower with yuffie and let yuffie beat all the bosses including her father and you'll get a manual and Leviathan materia.
Unlockable: Special Cinema
After Cloud rejoins your party in the second disk, visit the Shinra Mansions Basement again in Nimbelheim entering the library. Cloud will suddenly flash back to a special cinematic scene of how you will find out how cloud ended up with his friend Zack's sword.
Unlimited Sources
To get unlimited Sources (luck source, magic source, etc.) perform the following actions. Get in the submarine and go to the downed plane. Wander around until you get into a battle and use the morph command on the enemies. The best way to do this is attack the enemies until they are almost dead and then use morph. In this area there are six different enemies and each one morphs into one of the six sources.
Recruit Yufie
Near the exploded Mako site there is a small forest. Wonder around in it until you fight a ninja woman. After you defeat her there will be a save point. DO NOT USE THIS or she will run away. Talk to her and tell her you don't want to fight her again. Then tell her your terrified of her. When she asks if you need her help, say "Yes" then tell her that you're leaving and don't ask for her name.
Alternatively, try this. Equip the Enemy Away Materia which can be won in the Gold Saucer Chocobo Racing and a Luck Plus Materia. Go into any forests and wait for a while. Note that the Enemy Away Materia must be at Master Level for a higher percentage of chances to encounter Yuffie.
Prevent Back Attacks
If your battle starts with a "Back Attack" hold L1 and R1 for a moment then release them. This will turn you around before your opponents get a shot.
Limited Immortality
Connect the Phoenix Summon and Final Attack materia in any linked slot. When your party dies, their Hitpoints will be completely restored. This makes killing Ruby, Emerald, and Sephiroth simple, just make sure you have enough Mindpoints to use the Phoenix Summon.
For more punch, add a Final Attack/Knight of the Round Table to the same weapon. Then when you die you'll resurrect and hit back HARD.
NOTE: This method is limited because you can only use Phoenix materia 5 times.
Huge Materia
To obtain the Huge Materia in Rocket Town, press Circle, Square, X, X as the passcode.
There are four huge Materia that can reproduce other materias if you can pass the requirements.
Blue - You must have Bahamut and Bahamut Neo. Take these to Cosmo Canyon and talk to the Blue Huge Materia and you will recieve Bahamut Eishiki (Zero).
Yellow - Master the Steal, Throw, Mime, Manipulate, Morph, Deathblow and Sense Materias, then talk to the yellow huge Materia to recieve the Master Command materia.
Red - Must have all 16 summoning materia at master level then talk to the red huge materia to recieve the Master Summoning materia.
Green - Have all 21 magic materia at master level then talk to the green huge huge materia and you will recieve the Master Magic materia.
Gain Limit Breaks Easily
When in normal status use a "Hyper." This will let your limit meter go up faster, so you can use your old techniques more. The reason for this is that one way to get your limit breaks gained is to use your old techniques.
WARNING: When you use the "Hyper," your status changes to "Fury," which will lessen your hit rate.
Another way to gain your limit breaks is to defeat large groups of enemies. Try this: When leaving the Nibel Mountains and heading for Rocket Town, you should see a group of forests when you leave the mountains. Try engaging combat there, because sometimes you fight large groups of enemies there. Such as a group of six "Battery Caps," or sometimes five "Battery Caps" and one "Valron." This might help in getting your limit techniques also.
Easy Money, AP and Experience
Go to the desert outside of the golden saucer and walk around for a while. Sooner or later a little cactus man will appear. You can't beat him with magic or weapons, but he can be defeated by summoning Chocobos or Mogs. If you manage to kill him he's worth 10,000 gil!
For better results, head for the Mideel Area (an island in the south) and look for Sea Worms. Each one you defeat is worth 1300 EXP, 200 AP and 5000 gil!
Easy Life
With this code, you can easily restore life while in battle without having to worry about anything happening. Enter a battle, and when your characters' health gets low, cast regenerate on him/her/them. Once the spell has been cast, open the Playstation lid and have someone cast a spell.
FOR THIS TRICK TO WORK THE LID ON THE PLAYSTATION MUST BE OPEN BEFORE YOU CAST THE SECOND SPELL!
With the lid open, the game won't be able to cast the spell, so the game will stop until you close the Playstation lid. Once the lid is closed, the game will function corectly and you can resume play. The trick to this code is that while the game is looking for the CD, the regenerate spell will still be working, so your life will fill up while nothing else happens! This code works great for some of the ultra tough bosses (Emerald and Diamond Weapon) because nothing else will happen while the lid is up.
Defeating Savior Sephiroth
For this fight you will need: Knights of the Round, Zero Bahumut, and any other summons. Cure 3, Wall, "Mime", DeBarrier, Remedies and at least three Megaexlir's.
Start out by casting Wall on your party, then cast DeBarrier to take away Sephiroth's wall. After this has been done throw everything you've got at him, use Mime to cause major damage. During the fight Sephiroth will levitate higher, signaling he's preparing to cast Super Nova.
If you are above 1500 energy you should be alright, watch out for his Heartless Angel that will not kill you, but bring your health down to 1. Then use Megaexlirs. Keep up the endurance and Sephiroth shouldn't be to hard to beat.
Chocobo Tricks
While racing the chocobos, hold L1 + L2 + R1 + R2 to increase your speed. To increase their stamina, hold R1 + R2.
While choosing a chocobo to race, press L1, L2, R1, R2 or any direction to pan, zoom and rotate the chocobo you're viewing.
Soft Reset
Hold L1 + L2 + R1 + R2 + Select + Start to reset the game.
Alternate Save Pictures
The saved-game picture changes depending on what slot your game is saved in. Here's the complete list:
FILE 1 : CLOUD
FILE 2 : BARRET
FILE 3 : AERIS
FILE 4 : CAIT SITH
FILE 5 : RED XIII
FILE 6 : CID
FILE 7 : TIFA
FILE 8 : VINCENT
FILE 9 : YUFFIE
FILE 10 : RUFUS
FILE 11 : TSENG
FILE 12 : PRISICILLA
FILE 13 : RUDE
FILE 14 : DAIN
FILE 15 : SEPHIROTH
Cast Any Spell Three Times
To cast three magic spells in one round, first equip someone with a Magic Materia + "All" Support Materia. You'll also need Barrier Materia with the Reflect spell learned. When you enter battle, cast Reflect on the entire party, (your party). Then cast the magic spell that was connected to the "All" Materia on YOUR party. Even though you casted the spell once, it will be reflected and returned to the enemy hitting for three times! And for the same price of the usual MP's. What's even better is that if you have W-Magic, you can cast that spell twice, or two different spells (both need to be connected to "All" Materia) hitting for six times!!!
Beta Materia
When you first go to the Chocobo ranch you have to catch a chocobo to avoid the Midgarsorm. Well, I figured out a way to get the powerful Beta spell before the second disc. You need the Enemy skill materia, a Fire materia, and any elemental materia equipped on one person. MAKE SURE THE LAST TWO ARE ON YOUR ARMOR!
If you keep this character healed until Midgarsorm casts Beta you SHOULD be able to survive the spell. Then just finish him off. This is tricky to pull off but if done correctly you will be set for a LONG time.
Ancient Forest
To get to the Ancient Forest before disc 3, simply ride up the hill with a black, gold or green chocobo.
Casa del Cloud
In Costa Del Sol (during Disc 2 or 3), go into the building at the other side of the bridge and talk to the man lying on the bed and he will ask if you want to buy it. Make sure you have enough money before you talk to the man, because you can only talk about buying the place just once. It will cost 300,000 Gil.
Cover Me!
You can do a lot by linking Cover materia with Counter materia. You'll need a Mastered Cover materia and as many Mastered Counter materia as possible. Now your charater can cover and take out a group of monsters in one counter.
Hard Hit Materia Combos
The following are lists of materia combinations that will give you an advantage over tough enemies such as Emerald Weapon and Ruby Weapon. ("-" means the two materia must be connected; all others can be put anywhere.)
1) Materia: Mega-all, Deathblow-HP Absorb/MP Absorb
Description: Restores lots of HP/MP while dealing major damage.
2) Materia: Cover, Counter Attack, Counter Attack, Counter-Deathblow
Description: Covers for characters and counters three times, the last being deathblow.
3) Materia: "Knights of the Round" Summon-W-Summon, Mime
Description: Casts Knights of the Round twice and Mime casts it twice again for no MP charge (can Mime unlimited times if "chain" is not broken).
4) Materia: Pre-Emptive, Sneak Attack-Kights of the Round, HP<->MP, Mime, W-Summon
Description: A player begins by casting Knights of the Round twice without need of rest (HP<->MP materia). Also, all attack gauges for other characters are full at the begining of the battle which allows for an easy Mime to cast Knights of the Round twice again free of charge (as long as chain is not broken).
Also, I find that FINAL ATTACK-REVIVE can be helpful by reviving you if you die unexpectedly (great combination against Emerald Weapon and Ruby Weapon).
Adjust Your Lucky 7s
There is a neat little trick, and probably the coolest one in the game, that allows you to attack an enemy 64 times taking 7777 points of damage at the beggining of the battle. Here's how it works. First, find an easy battle like near Midgar or Kalm. Destroy all but one enemy then cast stop on the remaining oppenent. Cast mini on two allies and have the other ally keeping close watch on the stopped enemy. Then using the allies that you cast mini on, attack the ally that doesn't have mini until their health is below 7777 and ends in 77 like 7677 or 7577 or so on and so forth. When complete, finish the battle and don't get hit. Right before the battle you want to use Lucky 7's for, use potions or hi-potions until they have 7777 health. Now enter battle (Note: After the battle is done, Lucky 7's will disappear and your health will drop to one even if you didn't get hit, but if you did get hit, you health will be unaffected).
Six In A Row
Use the following materia (must be mastered) to pull off a six in a row summon combo.
Enhance Sword and Wizard Armor with Cloud. Place the materia in this exact order:
Materia on weapon: Sneak Attack = ChocoMog, Sneak Attaack = Mime, Sneak Attack = Ifirt, Sneak Attack = Mime
Materia on armor: Sneak Attack = Shiva, Sneak Attack = Mime, Sneak Attack = Mime, nothing = Pre-emptive