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Platinum Time: 60 - 70 Hours
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Difficulty: 6/10
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Trophies: 54 (1 Platinum, 2 Gold, 7 Silver, 44 Bronze)
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Missable Trophies: None
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Online Trophies: None
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Number of Playthroughs: 2
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Format: PS4
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Glitches Encountered: 0
Trophy
Guide
Trophy Guide Overview
Going for the platinum for Final Fantasy VII Remake is quite the undertaking. Is going to require two play-throughs (one easy/normal, one hard), plus a bit of chapter select to clean a few trophies up. The main one being 'Dressed to the Nines' for obtaining all nine bridal dresses. You can only get three per play-through.
Nothing in this game is missable, thankfully. Like I mentioned there is a chapter select, but only once you have finished the game for the first time. The way the game handles replaying chapters and the hard difficulty play-through is different to most games. You can jump to any chapter while playing any chapter and hard mode does not need to be done in order. The trophy just requires you to just finish each chapter on hard difficulty, the order you do them is up to you. All items, materia, weapons and XP follow you as you go.
Speaking of materia, they are the core part of the combat in this game. They are essentially little coloured balls that you can equip in your weapons and armour that give you a boost. Get used to them, and experiment with different combinations. You won't have items during your hard play-through, so you will have to solely rely on your materia for healing and revives. Equipping the right materia for any given fight is a must for some of the later fights, especially on hard difficulty. You will want to equip and start levelling certain materia, this isn't essential, but it will mean you won't have to do any grinding later on.
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6x MP Up
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6x HP Up
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2x Magic Up
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2x Elemental
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4x Healing
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4x Revival
There are collectibles in this game, but surprisingly not too many of them. The main ones you'll be looking for are music discs and most of those are in pretty obvious places. You will also have to find all of the weapons, but finding all of the materia, armour, and accessories is not needed for any trophies.
Play-through #1
For this play-through you're going to want to set the difficulty to either easy or normal, hard isn't available until you finish the game once. You can change the difficulty at any time and that won't affect any trophies.
During this play-through your going to want to focus on getting most trophies out of the way. This will mean that you won't have to do a much chapter select clean-up after this play-through.
Trophies are broken down into 3 types essentially, collectible, mission-specific and side missions. In the section below this one you will be able to see when I unlocked each trophy, I would advise following that so you know when to go for certain trophies. Thankfully, the trophy list is pretty much in chapter order anyway.
Now for side missions, you're going to want to do all but two of them during this play-through, so that's 24. The reason that you can't do all 26 is because there are two sets on conflicting side missions during chapter 9. Meaning you will have to use chapter select to complete the other two, you will have to do this for the bridal dresses anyway. Side missions only appear in chapters 3, 8, 9 & 14. Please see my full side missions guide HERE for more information on each mission.
You'll also want to be aware of character called Johnny during this play-through, there is a trophy for witnessing all Johnny related incidents. He only appears in chapters 3, 9 and 14. His appearance in chapter 9 is part of the branching set of side missions that I mentioned above. You're going to want to choose 'The Party Never Stops' branch for this play-through so that you witness all of his incidents. Don't worry, there are only 5 during the whole play-through. They are just a very specific points. I go into more detail about him in 'The Johnny Incident' trophy below and the side mission guide HERE.
Finally, you'll want to make yourself familiar with the bridal dresses in the game. They don't show up until chapter 9, but your choices that determine which ones are worn by the characters start in chapter 3. The dress choices are all tied to side missions. Tifa's choice is during chapter 3, make sure to complete all six side missions, then go and do the 'discovery event' that appears on your map, it will be a purple circle. When there Tifa will ask you about dresses, choose either 'Sporty' or 'Exotic', DON'T choose mature. You can get that one for doing no side missions during your hard-play-through. Next in chapter 8, make sure to do all of the side missions and Aerith will wear the red flowing dress. Finally during chapter 9 make sure you choose 'The Party Never Stops' line of side mission, this will mean Cloud will be wearing the black/blue dress. All of these three dress choices require you to do the most to get them, meaning during clean-up and your hard play-through, you can ignore Johnny and most side missions.
Things to remember during this play-through:
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Chapter specific trophies.
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Find all weapons and learn their abilities.
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Find all music discs.
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Do all but two side missions.
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Witness all Johnny incidents.
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Dress choices mentioned above.
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Work on battle intel as you get them from Chadley.
Chapter Select Clean-Up
Once you've finished the game you'll go back to the 'pause' screen. At this point make sure to make a save. You will need a post-game save so that all of your data gets saved before your start jumping around chapters, if you don't your last quick save will have been before the final boss.
The main point of the clean-up section is to get three more of the bridal dresses, but you also go ahead and get most of the Colosseum and VR challenges done as well. They are great for levelling up your characters and materia. Now that you've finished the game once, you'll earn triple AP for all kills, which means you'll level your materia up more quickly. This is going to help for your hard play-through.
To access the Colosseum, you will need to be either in chapter 9 or 14, be aware that Aerith's challenges are only available during chapter 9. As for the the VR challenges, head to chapter 17. Chadley will now be in the first control room you get to after the first fight of the chapter. He will have some exclusive challenges during this chapter including all of the hard difficulty challenges. You will need to complete all challenges both in the Colosseum and in VR to unlock the final VR challenge, 'Three-Person Team vs. Top Secrets'. You need to complete this challenge for the 'Ultimate Weapon' trophy. This challenge is the hardest collection of fights in the game. It's up to you whether you try and complete this challenge now, there is a good reason to do so and reason why you may want to leave it until the end of your hard play-through. While do all of these challenges make sure to have the 'Enemy Skill' materia equipped. There are four enemy skills you need to learn from enemies for the 'Master of Mimicry' trophy and all four of the enemies you need to learn them from are found in either the Colosseum or VR challenges.
The reason to do it is that you will get the accessory 'Götterdämmerung'. Whoever has this accessory equipped will have a full limit break at the start of every fight, very helpful on your hard play-through. Now the reason not to do this now is that your materia will be under-levelled and you could do with them being close to, if not maxed out. Now you can grind low level fights in the VR simulator to level up your materia, but I personally don't think it's necessary. While the 'Götterdämmerung' sounds great, it's not essential for hard difficulty. For the sake of time and effort the better choice is to just play through hard up until chapter 17 and level up your materia naturally, then while you're already playing chapter 17 on hard, do the final VR challenge then.
Now the main reason for this clean up section is to get three more bridal dresses. Load up chapter 3 to begin your choices, don't worry, you'll only be playing chapter 3, 8 & 9. You will have to play all the way through chapters 3, 8 & 9 to make sure your choices save. As soon as you start chapter 4, you can chapter select straight to chapter 8 and continue from there until the start of chapter 10. Here are the choices you'll be making:
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Tifa's Sporty Dress - Do all side missions in chapter 3 and choose 'sporty' or 'exotic', basically the opposite of what you chose during your first play-through, again don't choose 'mature', save that for your hard play-through.
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Aerith's Pretty Pink Dress - Do any three side missions during chapter 8.
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Cloud's Silver/Blue Dress - Do 'The Price of Thievery', Shears' Counterattack', and 'Burning Thighs' side missions during chapter 9.
So for that last choice, during chapter 9, you're doing the last two side missions as well. So you will also be unlocking the 'Best in the Business' trophy for completing all side missions. Remember while you're in chapter 9 to do Aerith's challenges in the Colosseum.
Play-through #2 (Hard)
Now that all of the side content is complete you will be ready to blast through the game on hard. You can skip all cut-scenes and dialogue. You can also skip the motorcycle mini-games during chapters 4 and 18 as well. Depending on whether you did it during your clean-up or not, you may still have the final VR challenge to do as well. This is the choice I made and I found the challenge more manageable once I got to it in chapter 17 of this play-through. I was used to hard difficulty (no items) by this point. For more information about hard difficulty, please see the 'Hardened Veteran' trophy, it's the very last trophy of the guide.
During this play-through you will also get the last three bridal dresses, all you need to do for these ones is to completely ignore side missions. Don't do a single one, apart from the mandatory Chadley one at the start of chapter 3.
The Order Which I Unlocked the Trophies
Play-Through #1 (Normal)
01 - Warming Up - Unlock this after your first fight.
02 - Staggering Start - Unlock this after staggering an enemy for the first time.
03 - Weakened Resolve - Unlock this after exploiting an enemies weakness for the first time.
04 - Bonds of Friendship - Unlock this after freeing a bound ally for the first time.
05 - Onetime Gig - Unlocks after completing chapter 1.
06 - Escape Artist - Unlocks after completing chapter 2.
07 - Music Collector - Unlocks after finding 3 music discs.
08 - Gotta Start Somewhere - Unlocks after completing a side mission for the first time.
09 - Materia for Beginners - Unlocks the first time one of your materias levels up.
10 - My First Ability - Unlocks the first time one of your weapons reaches 100% proficiency.
11 - Heavenly Dart Player - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 3. Get top score at darts.
12 - Mercenary Endeavours - Unlocks after completing chapter 3.
13 - Biker Boy - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 4. Get through the motorcycle mini-game with minimal damage.
14 - My First Summon - Unlocks once you use a summon for the first time during battle.
15 - Night on the Town - Unlocks after completing chapter 4.
16 - Plan E - Unlocks after completing chapter 5.
17 - Cleanup Crew - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 5. Find the Chocobo & Moogle materia.
18 - Lights Out - Unlocks after completing chapter 6.
19 - In Lockstep - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 7. Complete the security lock mini-game.
20 - Trapped Like Sewer Rats - Unlocks after completing chapter 7.
21 - Summon Slayer - Unlocks after defeating a summon during a VR battle for the first time.
22 - Say It with Flowers - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 8. Can't be missed.
23 - Crate Annihilator - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 8. Complete all challenges in Whack-a-Box.
24 - Reunited - Unlocks after completing chapter 8.
25 - Returning Champion - Complete a Colosseum challenge (After defeating Hell House)
26 - Sultan of Squats - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 9. Complete all squat challenges.
27 - Dancing Queen - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 9. Get a top score during the dance competition.
28 - Snappy Dresser - Unlocks once you have your first three bridal dresses. Can't be missed.
29 - Never the Bride - Unlocks after completing chapter 9.
30 - Sewer Survivor - Unlocks after completing chapter 10.
31 - Paranormal Investigator - Unlocks after completing chapter 11
32 - The Collapse - Unlocks after completing chapter 12.
33 - Broken Dreams - Unlocks after completing chapter 13.
34 - The Johnny Experience - Unlocks once you have witnessed all Johnny incidents.
35 - Whack-a-Box Wunderkind - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 14. Complete all hard Whack-a-Box challenges.
36 - Peeress of Pull-Ups - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 14. Complete all pull-up challenges.
37 - Divine Gratitude - Chapter specific trophy for chapter 14. Finish all side missions for one play-through (24) and find the letter from the Angel of the Slums.
38 - Picking Up the Pieces - Unlocks after completing chapter 14.
39 - The Pizza in the Sky - Unlocks after completing chapter 15.
40 - Disc Jockey - Unlocks once you have found all of the music discs in the game.
41 - No Appointment Needed - Unlocks after completing chapter 16.
42 - Emerging from Chaos - Unlocks after completing chapter 17.
43 - Destiny's Crossroads - Unlocks after completing chapter 18.
Chapter Select (Clean-Up)
44 - Best in the Business - Unlocks once you complete all 26 side missions.
45 - Staggering Feat - Unlocks once you get an enemies stagger damage to 300%.
46 - Intelligence Agent - Unlocks once you complete all battle intel for Chadley.
47 - That's the Smell - Unlocks once you defeat Malboro in the penultimate VR challenge.
48 - Building Character - Unlocks once one of your party reaches level 50.
Play-through #2 (Hard)
49 - Dressed to the Nines - Unlocks once you have obtained all nine bridal dresses.
50 - Weapons Expert - Unlocks once you reach 100% proficiency with every weapon in the game.
51 - Master of Mimicry - Unlocks once you learn all four enemy skills.
52 - Ultimate Weapon - Unlocks once you defeat Pride and Joy prototype (Complete the final VR challenge).
53 - Hardened Veteran - Unlocks once you complete every chapter on hard difficulty.
54 - Master of Fate - Platinum
Master of Fate
Earn all FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE trophies.
As with all platinum trophies this will unlock once you have collected the rest.
Onetime Gig
Complete Chapter 1.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the first chapter of the game 'The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1'.
Escape Artist
Complete Chapter 2.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the second chapter of the game 'Fateful Encounters'.
Mercenary Endeavors
Complete Chapter 3.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the third chapter of the game 'Home, Sweet, Slum'.
Night on the Town
Complete Chapter 4.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the fourth chapter of the game 'Mad Dash'.
Plan E
Complete Chapter 5.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the fifth chapter of the game 'Dogged Pursuit'.
Lights Out
Complete Chapter 6.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the sixth chapter of the game 'Light the Way'.
Trapped Like Sewer Rats
Complete Chapter 7.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the seventh chapter of the game 'A Trap is Sprung'.
Reunited
Complete Chapter 8.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the eighth chapter of the game 'Budding Bodyguard'.
Never the Bride
Complete Chapter 9.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the ninth chapter of the game 'The Town That Never Sleeps'.
Sewer Survivor
Complete Chapter 10.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the tenth chapter of the game 'Rough Waters'.
Paranormal Investigator
Complete Chapter 11.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the eleventh chapter of the game 'Haunted'.
The Collapse
Complete Chapter 12.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the twelfth chapter of the game 'Fight for Survival'.
Broken Dreams
Complete Chapter 13.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the thirteenth chapter of the game 'A Broken World'.
Picking Up the Pieces
Complete Chapter 14.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the fourteenth chapter of the game 'In Search of Hope'.
The Pizza in the Sky
Complete Chapter 15.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the fifteenth chapter of the game 'The Day Midgar Stood Still'.
No Appointment Needed
Complete Chapter 16.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the sixteenth chapter of the game 'The Belly of the Beast'.
Emerging from Chaos
Complete Chapter 17.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the seventeenth chapter of the game 'Deliverance from Chaos'.
Destiny's Crossroads
Complete Chapter 18.
Secret Trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
You will unlock this trophy after completing the eighteenth chapter of the game 'Destiny's Crossroads'.
Warming Up
Win a battle.
This will be the first trophy that you unlock in the game. There's no way to miss it.
Once you take control of Strife after he jumps off the train at the start of Chapter 1, 'The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1', you'll have to fight two guards. Win the fight and this trophy will unlock.
Weakened Resolve
Exploit an enemy's weakness..
To learn an enemies weakness you will need to use the Assess ability that you gain during chapter 3, 'Home, Sweet, Slum'. Use it on an enemy during battle and a stats screen will appear for that particular enemy. On that screen it will tell you what the enemy weak to, fire, thunder, ice etc. Use the correct form of magic against that enemy and you will unlock this trophy. Exploiting enemy weaknesses is a big part of battle, so you will almost certainly unlock this trophy naturally.
In fact, during the fist boss fight against the Scorpion Sentinel in chapter 1, 'The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1', you are told that the enemy is weak to lightning and coincidently Barret's magic 'Thunder' is lightning based, so you will more than likely unlock this trophy during that fight.
Bonds of Friendship
Free a bound ally.
This is another trophy that you will get very early on without trying. You'll more than likely unlock it during the first boss fight against the Scorpion Sentinel near the end of chapter 1, 'The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1'.
To unlock this trophy you'll need to have a partner (ally) with you during a battle. Quite often when you're in the middle of a battle, one of the enemies will grab you, or your ally. If it's the character you're playing as, you won't be able to do anything and you'll have to switch to a free character. Once you've done this, attack the enemy that has hold of your ally until they let go of them and you'll unlock this trophy.
Staggering Start
Stagger an enemy.
Once again, this is a trophy that you will unlock with out trying. It's impossible to miss.
All enemies have an orange 'stamina' bar under their health bar, once this bar fills up the enemy becomes staggered and open to a lot more damage. To fill this bar up you simply need to attack the enemy. For a lot of enemies, especially human enemies, there health will run out before you get a chance to fill this bar up. The first enemy a stagger is possible on is the guard dog you meet near the start of chapter 1, 'The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1'. I got the trophy after staggering this enemy and it's more than likely you will too.
Music Collector
Collect 3 music discs.
For more information on this trophy, please see the 'Disc Jockey' trophy below.
Gotta Start Somewhere
Complete a quest.
This trophy will unlock once you complete you first side mission. Side mission become available during chapter 3.
For more information on this trophy, please see the 'Best in the Business' trophy below.
My First Ability
Max out a weapon's proficiency.
Each weapon of the game has its own ability, for example Cloud's Buster Sword has 'Focused Thrust' and Tifa's Leather Gloves have 'Divekick' (weirdly). Every time you use this ability for a weapon it will increase the weapon's proficiency. During a battle, build up your ATB gauge, so you are able to use an ability, then select the weapon's signature ability to increase the proficiency, keep doing this until you hit 100% for any weapon.
To check what a weapon's signature ability is, and where you're up to proficiency-wise, press options, upgrade weapons, choose a character, then choose a weapon. The info you're after is on the right-side, pictured below.
* You cannot get this trophy with the Buster Sword, it will have to be another of Strife's weapons or one for a different character. I got it using Tifa's Leather Gloves.
Materia for Beginners
Level up an orb of materia.
To level up Materia Orbs you need AP, you get AP for just killing enemies, but not much of it though. You will see how much you get after you kill every enemy. It will appear on the right-hand side of the screen, along with the EXP and Gil you received from that enemy.
Luckily, to level up a Materia Orb, you just need to have it equipped, you don't actually have to use it. Having said that, if you do use the Materia, it's going to level up more quickly. You can check on any given Materia' level and its current AP, by going to options, Materia & equipment, set materia. Different Materias have a different amount of levels available and a different AP requirement for levelling.
My First Summon
Invoke a summon.
Summons are powerful allies that you can... summon during certain battles. You will automatically get your first Summon, Ifrit, at the end of chapter 3, 'Home, Sweet, Slum'. You won't have the opportunity to use it until chapter 4, 'Mad Dash' though.
Your weapons will gain a summon slot, you equip a Summon the same way you would a Materia. You can't just use them in any fight though, they are scripted. The first fight you can use 'Ifrit' in, is the one when you have to make a distraction for Jessie. Two sweepers will show up and the game will actually show you a quick tutorial screen explaining about how to use a Summon, you need to wait for the pink bar on the right of the screen to fill up, then you can use it from the ATB menu. At that point, once you use the Summon, you will unlock this trophy.
Biker Boy
Get praised by Jessie at the end of the motorcycle mini-game.
Chapter 4 specific trophy
You can only get this trophy during chapter 4, 'Mad Dash'. Right at he start of chapter 4, you'll be thrust straight into a motorcycle chase sequence. It's not really a mini-game at all. Essentially what you have to do for this trophy is reach the end of the sequence while only taking a certain amount of damage and without being slowed down by enemy attacks more than twice. There are certain AOE attacks that you need to watch out for that enemies use that will slow you down. Molotov cocktails, electric shock fields and lightning strikes. Hit two or more of these or take too much damage and Jessie will say 'You should try the brakes...' at that point you will know that you have failed this trophy.
For that reason, make a save at the end of chapter 3 before you leave with Jessie or be prepared to replay the chapter once chapter select is available at the end of the game. Also, this trophy is obviously going to be easier on easy difficulty, you can always change the difficulty for this sequence if you need to, (don't do this on your hard play-through though).
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Heavenly Dart Player
Rise to the top of the Seventh Heaven darts leaderboard.
Chapter 3 specific trophy
You can only get this trophy during chapter 3, 'Home, Sweet, Slum'. Near the end of the chapter, after you have spent a day in Section 7 Slums, you'll return to the bar, Seventh Heaven with Tifa and she'll offer you a drink then disappear downstairs. At this point, you are free to walk around the bar. Go to the corner left of the main doors and you'll see a dart board with a leader board next to it. Wedge has the top score of 8, so that means you're going to need 7 or better, a tie is not good enough.
Head to the dartboard to start playing. Essentially you need to get from 301 to exactly 0 in as few darts as possible. 6 being the least possible. When throwing the darts you will need to steady the cursor and wait until the reticle shrinks to the centre for a perfect shot. This means the dart will go exactly where you're aiming, anything less than perfect will mean the dart will go further and further from your target depending on how big the inner circle is.
With regards to getting down to zero, it's up to you. I personally went for treble 20, the small red band in the middle of the 20 section. That will get you a score of 60 for each dart. So T20, T20, T20, T20, D20, T7 is exactly 301. Doing this is going to allow for one mistake, as you'll have an extra dart, meaning you can still finish in 7. Alternatively, if you're struggling with T20, go for the bullseye, weirdly the outer bullseye (green part) scores 50 as well as the centre.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Cleanup Crew
Obtain the Chocobo & Moogle materia.
Chapter 6 specific trophy
You can only get this trophy during chapter 6, 'Light the Way'. Towards the end of the chapter, after extinguishing three large lamps so the power returns to the lift. Do not use the large lift, this will move you towards the end of the chapter, instead use the lift to the right. This one will lead you to a 'secret' area that will ultimately lead you to the Chocobo & Moogle materia.
There will be a green console once you climb the ladder, use this and it will stop the ventilation fans and a 60 second timer will start. You have 60 seconds to clear the next room and use the console in that room before the fans startup again. The enemies in the next room are 2 Sentry Turrets and a Queen Grashtrike. There is a strong chance you won't defeat these in 60 seconds and the timer will run out. Don't worry though, you can go back to the green console in the first room and start the timer again. This time the enemies will be a much more manageable 3 regular Grashtrikes. You should be able to defeat those in about 30 seconds. Once you do, use the console near the other door and it will allow you to head behind the fans and pick up the Chocobo & Moogle materia and you'll unlock this trophy once you do.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
In Lockstep
Bypass the delta-level security lock in Mako Reactor 5.
Chapter 6 specific trophy
You can only get this trophy during chapter 6, 'A Trap is Spring'. Right near the end of the chapter you will be tasked with opening a door by having all three characters Cloud, Tifa, and Barret, move some levers at the same time. You have to do one to continue on, so you're not going to miss this, it's to open the front gate.
To unlock this trophy you need to open a secret door to the right of the levers. There will be a purple discovery marker on the console next to the door, interact with that and you will be told that you have to do the lever mini-game again, but this time you will need to do it four times. The LS controls Barret and the RS controls Cloud. Move the levers in the same directions as shown on the green screens, the 'time to react' gets shorter as you go, there will be an orange flash on the monitors, that's when you want to move the sticks. Luckily, you can mess up and you don't have to start again or anything, you will just attempt the same step again. Once you complete all four steps, this trophy will unlock.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Crate Annihilator
Complete all Normal difficulty Whack-a-Box challenges.
Chapter 8 specific trophy
To unlock this trophy you will need to complete the 'A Verified Hero' side mission during chapter 8 'Budding Bodyguard', with a score of 30,000 or more. Once you complete the side mission, the Whack-a-Box challenge can be replayed as many times as you like until you get to 30,000.
The 'A Verified Hero' side mission is second in a line of side mission, you will need to complete 'Kids on Patrol' before it. After that return to the 'Children's Secret Hideout' and you'll be able to take part in the Whack-a-Box challenge.
The challenge consists of destroying as many crates as you can in 90 seconds. Each crate has a number on it, this is the score you'll get for destroying it, the higher the number the tougher the crate. There are also red crates that extend you time by 10 seconds too, so watch out for those. The 1500 crates are pretty tough, I found the best way to destroy them was with the Iron Blade's Triple Slash ability. Two of those will destroy a 1500 crate, it also has a wide reach, so you can use the move to destroy more than one at a time.
Finish the challenge with 30,000 or more points and you'll unlock this trophy. You can try the challenge as many times as you need.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Say It with Flowers
Decorate the Leaf House with a floral arrangement.
Secret Trophy
Chapter 8 specific trophy
Story related and can't be missed.
About halfway through chapter 8 'Budding Bodyguard', Aerith will take you to the leaf house, which is an orphanage, she will stay there to drop some flowers off, leaving you to wander around and explore. When you return, Aerith will join your party again for a few missions, then when you have to return to the leaf house again, Aerith will be thanked for the flowers from earlier and this trophy will unlock.
Summon Slayer
Defeat a summon in battle.
The earliest you can do this is during chapter 8 'Budding Bodyguard'. Once Aerith goes into the Leaf House to deliver some flowers, you are free to walk around district 5. Near the entrance you will find Chadley. Speak to him and turn in Battle Reports 1-4 (The ones he gave you during chapter 3), if you haven't completed them yet, you can visit the nearby junkyard to find some enemies.
Once you have turned them in, he will tell you about VR missions. These are VR boss fights against summons. The only one available right away is Shiva. Defeat her and you will unlock this trophy. You will meet Chadley in later chapters too, so don't worry if you don't get this trophy during chapter 3.
She is pretty tough, but she is ice based so fire materia and the summon Ifrit are really going to help you take her down.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Sultan of Squat
Complete all squat challenges.
Chapter 9 specific trophy
During chapter 9 'The Town That Never Sleeps', you'll visit a place called wall market. You will do a few main missions there and eventually Aerith will go with Madam M to get changed into her dress. At this point side missions become available. Look for the side mission 'Burning Thighs' on your map.
The squat challenge is part of the side mission 'Burning Thighs' in Chapter 9. You only need to complete the first challenge (Trainee), to complete the mission. To unlock this trophy, you will also need to complete the Amateur and Pro challenges as well. You can keep trying them, so don't worry if you don't get it on your first try.
Essentially the challenges are a rhythm mini-game, you need to press the buttons on your controller (starting with triangle) in a clockwise motion while maintaining a rhythm. In the Amateur and Pro challenges you will sometimes have to stop when you get to X and tap it, this is to try and throw you off your rhythm, but after a few tries it will just become natural to do that on every few rotations. Don't go as fast as you can, it's more beneficial to just keep a steady rhythm.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Dancing Queen
Received a gift from Andrea for being a dance superstar.
Secret Trophy
Chapter 9 specific trophy
During chapter 9 'The Town That Never Sleeps', you'll visit a place called wall market. As part of the main missions there you will be required to take part in a dancing mini-game. This happens shortly after Aerith returns wearing her dress. You will go to the Honey Bee club. Make sure to make a save before entering so that you can reload if you don't get this trophy. You only get once chance at it a it's part of the story. Andrea's earrings.
The dancing mini-game is very simple, there's even a tutorial beforehand. You need to press buttons that correspond to what's happening on-screen. A hexagon will appear with a button prompt in the middle, either X, O, Triangle or Square. A ball of light will move towards the hexagon while another hexagon shape closes in on the prompt. As both the ball of light and the shape meet, that's the optimum time to press the button. You will get graded on your timing, Great, Good, or Bad.
Now while I'm unsure how badly you can do and still be awarded Andrea's Earrings and this trophy, I do know there is a fail state, where Aerith will say 'You tried your best'.
My score was actually pretty bad when I got the trophy as I was just messing around on a practice run, I wasn't expecting to get it. I got 23x Great, 1x Good, and 4x Bad.
Returning Champion
Emerge victorious from a colosseum sparring session.
Chapter 9 specific trophy
During chapter 9 'The Town That Never Sleeps', you'll visit a place called wall market. As part of one of the main missions you will have to take part in a series of battles in an colosseum tournament, culminating in a boss battle against the 'Hell House'.
Once you have defeated it, you will end up back upstairs again, near the entrance to the colosseum. Turn around and go back down in the lift, you can now take part in as many sparring battles as you like. Simply win one of those to unlock this trophy. The first one 'Cloud vs. Wild Animals' is very easy, so just choose that one.
Snappy Dresser
Obtain three bridal candidate outfits.
Story related and can't be missed.
Please the 'Dressed to the Nines' trophy below for more information on bridal outfits.
Dressed to the Nines
Obtain all nine bridal candidate outfits.
Getting all nine bridal outfits cannot be done in a single play-through, you will need to redo a few chapters after finishing the story to get them all.
Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith each have three bridal outfits and you're going to have to jump through some hoops to get them all. Making certain choices during certain chapters will determine which dress each character will be wearing during chapter 9. These choices start back in chapter 3, this is when you determine Tifa's dress, then Aerith's in chapter 8 and finally Cloud's during chapter 9 itself. The choices themselves mainly come down to which/how many side missions you do in each of the three aforementioned chapters.
Tifa's Dress - Chapter 3: Home Sweet Slum
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Exotic - You'll need to complete all side missions during chapter 3, then a discovery event (purple marker) will appear on your map. It'll be back at the motel. Speak to Tifa there and choose 'Exotic' dress when given the option.
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Sporty - Same as above, but his time choose 'Sporty' when given the option.
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Mature - The simplest way to get this one is to just not do any of the side missions at all, you won't get the discovery event and Tifa will wear this dress as standard. You can also get it the same way as the other two and choose 'Mature' when given the choice.
Aerith's Dress - Chapter 8: Budding Bodyguard
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Flowing Red Dress - Do all 6 side mission during chapter 8.
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Pretty Pink Dress - Do any 3 side missions during chapter 8.
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Boring Pink Dress - Don't do any side missions during chapter 8.
Cloud's Dress - Chapter 9: The Town That Never Sleeps
Cloud's dresses work a little differently. You will need to complete a certain 'branch' of side missions, to determine which branch you take, you will need to make some specific choices early on in chapter 9. For more info on these (and all) side mission, please see my side missions guide, HERE.
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Blue/Black Dress - Complete 'The Party Never Stops', 'A Dynamite Body', and 'Burning Thighs'.
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Silver/Blue Dress - Complete 'The Price of Thievery', 'Shears' Counterattack', and 'Burning Thighs'.
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Black Dress - Don't do any side missions.
With regards for when you should try and go for which dress, I've outlined that below along with an image for each of the three sets of dresses.
Play-through One
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Tifa's Exotic dress - Do all side mission in chapter 3 and choose 'Exotic'.
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Aerith's Flowing Red Dress - Do all side missions during chapter 8.
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Cloud's Blue/Black Dress - Do 'The Party Never Stops', 'A Dynamite Body', and 'Burning Thighs' during chapter 9.
Chapter Select (Clean-up)
For these choices you will need to replay chapters 3, 8, and 9 using chapter select after you've finished the story. There's no need to play chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7, but do make sure to play 3 and 8 all the way to the end so that your choices save.
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Tifa's Sporty Dress - Do all side missions in chapter 3 and choose 'sporty'.
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Aerith's Pretty Pink Dress - Do any three side missions during chapter 8.
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Cloud's Silver/Blue Dress - Do 'The Price of Thievery', Shears' Counterattack', and 'Burning Thighs' during chapter 9.
Hard Play-through
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Tifa's Mature Dress - Don't do any side missions during chapter 3.
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Aerith's Boring Pink Dress - Don't do any side missions during chapter 8.
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Cloud's Black Dress - Don't do any side missions during chapter 9.
Whack-a-Box Wunderkind
Complete all Hard difficulty Whack-a-Box challenges.
Chapter 14 specific trophy
This trophy is very similar to Crate Annihilator, except you need to put more of an emphasis on breaking the red time crates first this time. You will need to have completed the side mission 'A Verified Hero' during chapter 8 for this challenge to be available. Once again, you need to score 30,000 points to complete of the 'Hard' difficulty challenges. Finish with 30,000 or higher and you'll unlock this trophy. You can keep trying the challenge as many times as you need.
I didn't have the triple slash move this time, it's all about Infinity's End move for this one. This move will break the 1500 crates in one hit, but you will need 2 ATB bars to use it.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Peeress of Pull-Ups
Complete all pull-up challenges.
Chapter 14 specific trophy
This trophy is very similar to Sultan of Squat. During chapter 14 you can visit Jules' gym again. In fact you will need to for the 'Wavering Heart' side mission. Like 'Sultan of Squat' you will need to complete all of the challenges for the trophy so that means you'll have to win the pro challenge against Jules.
Instead of the pattern going around in a circle, this time it goes around in a figure of eight shape. Also, to make things even more complicated, there are two rounds per opponent now. For each round the direction of the figure will change, if you are lucky, you can get the same direction twice in a row.
This one is going to take a bit of practice. Again, it's most important to memorise pattern over trying to go as fast as possible.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Divine Gratitude
Receive a letter from an angel.
Secret Trophy
Chapter 14 specific trophy
The exact reason why this letter shows up is currently unknown. It does have something to do with completing side missions. I believe it appears once all side missions for any given play-through have been completed, so 24/26. I kept checking to see when it would appear in between completing side missions and it only appeared once I had done them all and was ready to move on to Chapter 15. In fact, the letter can be found on the way out of town, so if you have done everything, you can't miss it. You'll see it on the floor behind the green bulldozer that's just after the chocobo fast travel point in the 'Urban Advancement District'.
The Johnny Experience
Witness all Johnny-related incidents.
Secret Trophy
Johnny is the comedy relief of Final Fantasy VII and meet him several times during your travels. All but the first incident are some what missable, in that you will have to replay the specific mission again if you missed it.
Incident #1 - Chapter 3 - You can't miss this incident. It's part of one of the main missions.
Incident #2 - Chapter 9 - When you reach Wall Market, you'll head to Corneo's place and on the steps on the way up, Johnny will run past you (the camera will track him), run after him and say 'Yeah' when you are given a dialog option. This needs to be done as part of the process to get the side mission 'The Party Never Stops' to appear. This is needed for incident #3.
Incident #3 - Chapter 9 - While Aerith is getting changed into her dress as part of a main mission, you'll be free to explore Wall Market again, but this time side mission will be available. Start 'The Party Never Stops' and Johnny will come and find you. Completing this mission is incident #3. To get the side mission 'The Party Never Stops' you need to have done incident #2, along with saying either 'Heads' or 'Tails' during the coin toss with Chocobo Sam, and when Madam M asks you which massage course you want, you need to say either 'standard' or 'luxury'.
Incident #4 - Chapter 14 - At the start of chapter 14 you are free to explore everywhere and side missions will be available right away. Find Johnny at the Sector 5 Undercity Station and speak to him, this will start the 'Tomboy Bandit' side mission. Completing this will lead you to incident #5.
Incident #5 - Chapter 14 - After you have completed the 'Tomboy Bandit' side mission return to Johnny at the Sector 5 Undercity Station and give him wallet back (you get it as a reward for completing 'Tomboy Bandit'). Johnny will leave and you should get the trophy. If you missed any of these incidents you can just use chapter select to go back and do them after the story.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Best in the Business
Complete all quests.
This trophy refers to the side missions in the game. You have to complete all 26 of them. Most of them are very straight forward and should give you no problem at all. Side missions are only found in certain chapters, 3, 8 9 & 14. Unfortunately not all side missions can be done in a single play-through, you will only be able to so 24 out of the possible 26. This is because there is a branching quest line in chapter 9 that will lock you out of two side missions not matter which path you take. This isn't a major problem through as the game has a chapter select option once you finish the story. You can just go back and do the ones you missed then. If you press the touchpad and then R2, you can see a list of all of the side missions you have completed.
Below is a list of the chapters and their respective side missions. For all full walkthrough of each side mission, please visit my side mission guide HERE.
Chapter 3 - Home Sweet Slum
01. Chadley's Report
02. Rat Problem
03. Nuisance in the Factory
04. Lost Friends
05. On the Prowl
06. Just Flew in from the Graveyard
Chapter 8 - Budding Bodyguard
07. The Mysterious Moogle Merchant
08. Kids on Patrol
09. Weapons on a Rampage
10. A Verified Hero
11. The Angel of the Slums
12. Paying Respects
Chapter 9 - The Town That Never Sleeps
13. Burning Thighs
14(a). The Party Never Stops
14(b). The Price of Thievery
15(a). A Dynamite Body
15(b). Shears' Counterattack
Chapter 14 - In Search of Hope
16. Missing Children
17. Chocobo Search
18. Malicious Goons
19. Wavering Heart
20.The Power of Music
21. Secret Medicine
22. Tomboy Bandit
23. Corneo's Secret Stash
24. Subterranean Menace
Disc Jockey
Collect all music discs.
Music discs in Final Fantasy VII are a form of collectible. There are only 31 of them and a lot of them are in pretty obvious places. The game even helps you find them too, when you are near one you haven't collected yet, you'll see a music disc along with '???'. This tells you that you don't have that disc yet. Also, you can actually hear the music being played.
They are spread out throughout the game world, they can be found starting in chapter 3, all the way up to chapter 16. They can be obtained in three ways, some you will just have to interact with a jukebox, some are bough from stores or vending machines, and some are just given to you by NPCs when you talk to them. None of them are missable, as there is a chapter select once you complete the game, so you can just go and collect anything you have missed later on. Plus, you will have to do two play-throughs for the platinum, so you could always pick them up then,
For a visual location for each disc, please see the video below:
00:30 - Chapter 3 - 3. Tifa's Theme (#1) - Found in the jukebox that's inside the Seventh Heaven bar.
00:58 - Chapter 3 - 27. Hip Hop de Chocobo (#2) - Facing the front of Seventh Heaven, run down the path to the right side of the bar and you'll get it by speaking to a DJ NPC.
01:27 - Chapter 3 - 1. The Prelude (#3) - Bought from the item shop that Tifa takes you to.
01:58 - Chapter 3 - 4. Barret's Theme (#4) - Once you are able to fully explore Sector 7, head back to the Undercity Station and buy it from the merchant there.
02:27 - Chapter 5 - 28. Stamp (#5) - After the fight with the two turrets and flametroopers, head up the stairs and follow the pat all the way to the end to find a safe room, you can buy it from the vending machine in there.
03:23 - Chapter 6 - 18. Electric de Chocobo (#6) - Late in the chapter, after turning the lamps off to power the main large elevator, stand in front of said elevator and look to the right to find a smaller one, use that and climb the ladder. The disc is in a vending machine at the top of the ladder.
04:25 - Chapter 7 - 2. Bombing Mission (#7) - During chapter 7 there is a level mini-game where Cloud, Tifa, and Barret need to use levers in unison, go through the door that opens after doing this to find the disc in a vending machine.
04:58 - Chapter 8 - 21. Cait Sith's Theme (#8) - Once you've escaped from the church with Aerith, you'll come to a train station, the disc is in a vending machine at the end of the platform.
05:23 - Chapter 8 - 25. Tango of Tears (#9) - When Aerith goes into Leaf House to deliver some flowers, you'll be able to wander around on your own. Go into the building to the left of Leaf House and you'll find it in a jukebox.
05:52 - Chapter 8 - 19. Costa del Sol (#10) - From Leaf House, go down the alley to the right to find a materia merchant. He has the disc for sale. It's just behind where Chadley is stood.
06:34 - Chapter 8 - 20. Gold Saucer (#11) - Once Aerith is back with you, you'll go to a place called 'Children's Secret Hideout' and side mission will open up. Speak to Moogie the merchant there and they will sell you the disc for one Moogle Medal.
07:02 - Chapter 9 - 22. Cosmo Canyon (#12) - There will be a couple of crane arm puzzles when you're in the collapsed tunnel with Aerith, after the second one you will see a vending machine ahead of you. Can't miss it.
07:37 - Chapter 9 - 10. Honeybee Inn (#13) - When you enter Wall Market, look to the right for a green sign, this is the pharmacist, he has the disc for sale.
08:12 - Chapter 9 - 8. Under the Rotting Pizza (#14) - From the Wall Market entrance, look left to see the hotel, go down the alley behind it to find a jukebox.
08:40 - Chapter 9. 17. Farm Boy (#15) - In Wall Market, face Chadley and you'll see some stairs behind him. Go up them and speak to the lady there and she'll give you the disc.
09:17 - Chapter 9 - 29. The Midgar Blues (#16) - In Wall Market, where you first see Johnny, he'll run down some stairs. To the left of those stairs is a karaoke bar, speak to the guy singing in there and he'll give you the disc.
10:04 - Chapter 9 - 26. Let the Battle Begin! -REMAKE- (#17) - As part of the story, you'll go into the Honeybee Inn (once Aerith has her dress on) and you'll have to take part in a dance competition. Before the main event there is a practice dance. Get a score of 10x Great and you get the disc.
11:10 - Chapter 9 - 11. Don of the Slums (#18) - Once Cloud has his dress too, you'll go to Don Corneo's place. After being gassed, you'll wake up in a holding room. The disc is in the Corneo-shaped vending machine ahead of you.
11:47 - Chapter 10 - 9. The Oppressed (#19) - In the sewers you'll drain an aqueduct, once on the other side, you'll spot a vending machine. You can't miss this one.
12:17 - Chapter 11 - 6. Let the Battle Begins (#20) - When you reach and cross the maintenance building, you'll go up some stairs, at the top of the stairs is the vending machine. You have to pass this one, so you can't miss it.
12:49 - Chapter 13 - 15. On Our Way (#21) - You'll get to a playground in sector 6, there will be a merchant dead ahead that sells this disc. Once again, you can't miss this one.
13:16 - Chapter 13 - 14. Main Theme of FFVII (#22) - In the underground test facility when playing as Barret, you'll be join by Tifa again. After a series of fights you'll have to walk past this vending machine.
13:42 - Chapter 14 - 23. Descendants of Shinobi (#23) - Speak to an NPC near the Sector 5 Undercity Station and he'll give you the disc. He's stood next to Johnny.
14:15 - Chapter 14 - 7. Turks' Theme (#24) - On the path connecting sectors 5 and 6, there will be a woman stood next to a lake, speak to her and she'll give you the disc.
14:38 - Chapter 14 - 16. Good Night, Until Tomorrow (#25) - Go in the hotel left of the Wall Market entrance and speak to the man next to reception.
15:09 - Chapter 14 - 30. Stand Up (#26) - Stand in front of the Honey Bee Inn in Wall Market and you'll see a fence to the left, go through the hole in the fence and there will be a woman, speak to her for the disc.
15:39 - Chapter 14 - 12. Fight On! (#27) - In Wall Market, go into Corneo's Colosseum. The disc can be purchased from a merchant in there.
16:14 - Chapter 14 - 24. Wutai (#28) - Behind the colosseum in Wall Market, there is a path that leads off to the right, about halfway down there path there will be a man you can speak to, he will give you the disc.
16:39 - Chapter 14 - 13. The Chase (#29) - During a main mission, you'll go with Leslie into the sewers, near the end of the sewers you'll go through a door and there will be a vending machine in front of you. You can't miss this one.
17:06 - Chapter 15 - 5. Lurking in the Darkness (#30) - During this chapter you'll do lots of climbing and lots of fighting, eventually you'll go through a large circular tunnel and climb a ladder, the vending machine will be dead ahead. You have to walk past it to contine.
17:36 - Chapter 16 - 31. Scarlet's Theme (#31) - In the employee break room inside the Shinra building (the room with a tree in a jar), there will be a combat simulator you'll have to use as part of the story, to the right of the simulator is this final music disc.
Building Character
Attain level 50 with a character.
This is a very self-explanatory trophy and not one you'll need to worry about if you're going for the platinum. I earned mine will cleaning up the arena and VR mission battles after my first play-through. You'll either get it then or at some point in your hard difficulty play-through.
Staggering Feat
Deal 300% damage to a staggered enemy.
First, I'll quickly explain what stagger damage is. Enemies have an orange bar underneath their health. Fill this bar up and they'll become staggered which means they won't move and they will take more damage from your attacks. This last for a short while then they'll be back to their feet again. While they are down you will see a percentage number on the enemy, this is how much more damage your attacks are doing. It will start at 100%, so double damage.
Now, certain moves in the game for example Tifa's True Strike ability can increase this percentage, meaning that the enemy will take more damage from each attack. The idea of this trophy is to get that number up to 300% damage. The problem with this is that most enemies will not last long enough for you to be able to increase their stagger damage to 300%.
This is where Fat Chocobo comes in, he has a massive health pool, staggers for a very long time and is pretty easy to stagger in the first place. The only place you can find a Fat Chocobo is the VR missions from Chadley. It's the second summon you'll have to fight in VR, it will be available once you have completed the first nine intel reports for Chadley. You will be able to fight Fat Chocobo as many times as you want then.
I would personally wait until after finishing the story, you could probably do it earlier, but there's not much point making things difficult for yourself. It can be done with very little effort once you have all of the right weapons/abilities.
Replay either chapter 14 or 17, Chadley can found near the start of these chapters, and go and speak to him. The abilities we'll be using to raise Fat Chocobo's percentage are Tifa's True Strike, so you'll need the Purple Pain weapon for Tifa, that can be found in chapter 16. Tifa's standard ability, Unbridled Strength and Aerith's Ray of Judgment ability, so you'll need the Mythril Rod for her from chapter 11. So obviously the team you'll be using are Tifa, Aerith and I would take Cloud too, I find his Focused Thrust ability good for building enemies stagger bars. Also, you will need to do this on Normal difficulty otherwise Fat Chocobo will die before it reaches 300%.
At the start of the fight switch to Tifa and build her two ATB bars up, then switch to Aerith and do the same for her. Now switch to Cloud and work on the Chocobo's stagger bar, when it's about 3/4 full, switch back to Tifa and use Unbridled Strength twice, this will upgrade her 'triangle' move twice to 'Rise and Fall'. Now fill her ATB bars back up with some more attacks, at this point the Chocobo should stagger. Now make Aerith use her 'Ray of Judgment' ability, use both of Tifa's triangle moves, so 'Rise and Fall' and 'Omnistrike', then use Tifa's True Strike twice, that should be more than enough to bring the percentage way over 300% and you'll unlock the trophy.
Intelligence Agent
Complete all battle intel reports.
Battle intel reports are little side tasks that you get from a guy called Chadley, starting in Chapter 3. You will speak to him during one of the main missions early on in the chapter and at that point you will be introduced to battle intel.
Now there are 20 battle intel that you will need to complete for this trophy, but to start with you'll only be given the first four. The great thing is, you will still be working on the rest in the background without knowing about it, so when you do get the others later on they may already be partially complete, or maybe even fully complete. This means if you know what they are ahead of time, you can be working on them.
Chadley appears during chapters 3, 8, 9, 14, 16 & 17(post story). As you progress through the chapters turn in the battle intel you have completed and he will give you more to do. After every four regular intel, there's a combat simulation boss fight that will reward you with a new summon if you defeat them. If Chadley doesn't give you any more battle intel to do, it's because you need to meet him again in a later chapter.
You can keep an eye on your battle intel progress in the options menu.
1. Monster Bio Pt. 1 - Assess 2 enemy types
To assess an enemy you will need to equip the assess materia, you get it from Chadley the first time you speak with him in chapter 3. Once equipped simply find two different enemy types and scan them. To do this wait for your characters ATB bar to fill up, then use Assess from the abilities section of commands menu in the middle of a fight.
2. Magic Elements Pt. 1 - Hit enemies vulnerable to fire, ice, or lightning using the appropriate magic.
To complete this intel you will need the fire, ice, and lightning materia. All of these can be purchased from the item shop during chapter three. To learn an enemies weakness you can use the assess ability from the above intel. Generally, humans are weak to fire, monsters are weak to ice, and machines are weak to lightning. You will need to exploit one of each of these weaknesses to complete the intel.
3. The Stagger Effect Pt. 1 - Use unique abilities on staggered enemies and charge the ATB gauge 10 times.
This is a very simple one. Once an enemy is staggered simply use your characters 'Triangle' ability to fill there ATB gauge. For Cloud this would be, Operator Mode. For Tifa, Whirling Uppercut. For Barret, Overcharge. You need to fully charge up an ATB bar using these abilities for it to count.
4. The Stagger Effect Pt. 2 - Stagger 15 enemy types.
This one will happen as you naturally play-through the game. You will more than likely have nearly completed it by the type Chadley assigns it to you. The description says '15 enemy types', so that means it needs to be 15 different enemy variations.
5. Combat Simulation: Shiva - Defeat Shiva.
This is one of the 'boss' fights. You can do this as early as chapter three, but you will need to have finished and handed in all four previous battle intel before you can fight her. You can try this fight as many times as you like and even leave it until later chapters if you want. Obviously playing on easy is going to make this fight a lot simpler. Shiva is an ice-based enemy, so bringing along a fire materia or two is going to make very short work of her. Once you do defeat her, you will get her summon materia and will be able to use her in fights yourself.
6. Monster Bio Pt. 2 - Assess 10 enemy types.
I think this one is pretty self explanatory, just assess every enemy type that you come across. You should be doing this anyway, as studying enemy weaknesses are really going to help you in combat.
7. Magic Elements Pt. 2 - Exploit weaknesses of 15 enemy types.
This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous intel. Once you know and enemies weakness, be it fire, ice, lightning, or wind then use the appropriate magic against them. Again this is 'enemy types' so you will need to do this to 15 different types of enemies, you can't farm it on one enemy.
8. The Manipulation Technique - Defeat 2 or more enemies with a single attack.
This will definitely come naturally. I didn't even realise this was a battle intel, because it was already ticked off when I got it. There are lots of moves that will allow for double-kills, most of clouds sweeping attacks or slam moves will do the trick.
9. Monster Variants Pt. 1 - Defeat monsters of 3 unique varieties.
This is another one that will come naturally, especially if you're doing the side missions. The unique variations are tougher versions of regular enemies, like the Wrath Hound from the 'On the Prowl' side mission.
10. Combat Simulation: Fat Chocobo - Defeat a fat chocobo.
This is the second 'boss' fight. Again, this takes place in a VR simulator and will be available once you turn in all of the previous four battle intel. Fat chocobo is a very simple fight, it's basically this game's equivalent of a bullet-sponge, he doesn't really attack much, but has a large health pool. It has no weaknesses, but once you stagger it, it will last a long time allowing you to get a lot of damage in. Once you beat it, you'll get the fat chocobo summon materia, to be honest, it's not very useful.
11. Monster Bio Pt. 3 - Assess 20 enemy types.
This is the same as battle intel one and six, just keep assessing every new enemy you meet and this will come in now time.
12. The Stagger Effect Pt. 3 - Increase stagger damage bonus to 200%.
When you stagger an enemy a stagger percentage bonus will appear, starting at 100%. There are certain attacks and abilities that can increase this damage bonus. One you'll have from the start is Tifa's 'Triangle' attack (or chi ability), you can increase the power of this attack by using Tifa's Unbridled Strength ability, this will in turn increase the rate an enemies damage bonus goes up. Other good abilities to use are Tifa's True Strength and Aerith's Ray of Judgment, these won't be available until you find their corresponding weapons. Purple Pain for True Strength and Mythril Rod for Ray of Judgment. For More info and a good place to get this battle intel done, please see the 'Staggering Feat' trophy above.
13. Refocus Analysis - Trigger Refocus 2 times.
Refocus is a materia that Aerith starts with. You will need to have it equipped to be able to use it. It's actually a materia that's connected to Limit Breaks. All you have to do is fill Aerith's (or whoever has the materia equipped) Limit Break bar then choose Refocus. Simply do this twice to complete the battle intel.
14. The Stagger Effect Pt. 4 - Stagger 40 enemy types.
This is the same as battle intel 4. This will happen naturally as you play, no need to worry about this one.
15. Combat Simulator: Leviathan - Defeat Leviathan.
This is yet another VR 'boss' fight. Hand in the previous four battle intel to Chadley and you'll be able to take on the Leviathan. This fight is definitely a bit tougher than the previous two and the Leviathan moves around a lot and has a pretty strong potential one-hit kill move called Tidal Wave. This can be done on easy to make it pretty trivial, also you can always do it later in the game when you fell more confident.
16. Monster Bio Pt. 4 - Assess 30 enemy types.
Exactly the same as parts 1 - 3, assess all new enemy types you come across, there are way more than 30 in the game.
17. Weapon Abilities - Acquire all 16 weapon abilities.
Weirdly there are more than 16 weapon abilities in the game, but to complete this battle intel, you just need to learn 16. To learn a weapon's ability you need to get 100% proficiency with it. You do this by using the weapon's signature move, for example Cloud's Iron Blade has Triple Slash. Every time you use the weapon's signature ability the proficiency will go up. Once you are at 100% you will learn the ability and be able to use it with any weapon. For a full list of weapons and their abilities, please see the 'Weapons Expert' trophy.
18. MP Consumption - Master all 12 types of magic materia.
The magic materia are the green ones. These are the most common type of materia and all of them can be bought from shops by the end of the game. To master a materia it needs to be equipped by a member of your party, they don't need to use it, just have it in one of their slots. Every time you battle an enemy you'll get AP, get enough of this and the materia will level-up, it will continue to do this until it's maxed, at that point you have 'mastered' that materia. Just make sure to have the following materia equipped until you max them, even if you aren't using them. Once they are maxed you can swap them out for something else.
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Healing
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Cleansing
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Revival
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Fire
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Ice
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Lightning
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Wind
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Poison
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Barrier
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Binding
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Subversion
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Time
19. Monster Variants Pt. 2 - Defeat monsters of 10 unique varieties.
Like battle intel 9, you will get this one naturally, especially if you're doing all of the side missions as well.
20. Combat Simulation: Bahamut - Defeat Bahamut
This is the final battle intel and is, of course, a 'boss' fight in VR. Bahamut can be pretty tough, unless you're playing on easy and that's what I would advise. There is no need to make him more difficult, trust me, you'll have to fight him again later on hard difficulty for a separate VR mission. Put it on easy and learn his moves and attack patterns.
Weapons Expert
Learn all weapon abilities.
To learn a weapon's ability you need to become 100% proficient with it. To do that you just need to use the weapon's special ability several times. Each weapon in the game has its own special ability and once you learn it you can use the special ability while wielding any weapon. For example, Cloud's Iron Blade's special ability is Triple Slash, use Triple Slash several times during combat and eventually you'll get a notification saying that you have learned the Triple Slash ability.
You will need to do this for every weapon in the game, each character has 6, so there are 24 weapons to find and become 100% proficient in.
Cloud
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Buster Sword (Focused Thrust) - Starting weapon.
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Iron Blade (Triple Slash) - During a main mission near the start of chapter 3.
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Nail Bat (Disorder) - Complete the side mission 'Kids on Patrol' during chapter 8.
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Hardedge (Infinity's End) - Purchased from the weapon shop in Wall Market during chapter 9.
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Mythril Saber (Blade Burst) - Purchased from the weapon shop in Wall Market during chapter 14.
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Twin Stinger (Counterstance) - Purple chest during chapter 17. After fighting a M.O.T.H. unit leave the room and it'll be next to the stairs you have to go up, can't miss it.
Tifa
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Leather Gloves (Divekick) - Starting weapon.
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Metal Knuckles (Overpower) - Defeat the Crab Warden during the story in chapter 5. Can't miss them.
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Sonic Strikers (Focused Strike) - During chapter 7 in a purple chest in a connecting corridor, very hard to miss
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Feathered Gloves (Starshower) - During chapter 10. You'll drain an aqueduct early on. They are in a purple chest underneath the sluice gate what opens up.
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Mythril Claws (Chi Trap) - Defeat the Failed Experiment at the end of chapter 13. Can't miss them.
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Purple Pain (True Strike) - During chapter 16, Tifa will fall from a chandelier to the lobby floor. Jump up the car as you need to do to escape, but instead of climbing the ladder. Use the light fitting to climb across to the purple chest.
Barret
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Gatling Gun (Focused Shot) - Starting Weapon
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Light Machine Gun (Lifesaver) - Automatically get this right at the end of chapter 6.
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Big Bertha (Maximum Fury) - Purchased from a vendor in Evergreen Park near the start of chapter 13.
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Steel Pincers (Charging Uppercut) - Purchased from the Moogle merchant during chapter 14.
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Wrecking Ball (Smackdown) - Complete the side mission 'Subterranean Menace' during chapter 14.
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EKG Cannon (Point Black) - During chapter 16 you'll talk to the mayor. Once you're outside of his office again, there will be a guy standing there, Hart, give him 10,000 Gil and he'll give it to you.
Aerith
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Guard Stick (Arcane Ward) - Starting Weapon
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Silver Staff (Sorcerous Storm) - Purchased from the Moogle Merchant during chapter 8.
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Arcane Scepter (Fleeting Familiar) - During chapter 9, complete either the 'A Dynamite Body' or 'Shears' Counterattack' side mission. There are two branching paths of side missions during this chapter and one of the two missions I've just mentioned will be the final mission.
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Mythril Rod (Ray of Judgement) - During chapter 11. When jumping through the train cars outside, you'll come to a ladder, don't go up it. Instead go all the way to the right and it'll be in a purple chest behind another train car.
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Bladed Staff (Lustrous Shield) - You steal this one from the final boss of chapter 11, Eligor. Make sure to have the steal materia equipped, then keep using it during the fight until you steal the weapon.
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Reinforced Staff (ATB Ward) - In a purple chest right at the start of chapter 17. As you gain control of Cloud, look left.
For a visual location for each disc, please see the video below:
Master of Mimicry
Learn all enemy skills.
First of all, before you can learn enemy skills you will need to own and equip the 'Enemy Skill' materia. You will get this after completing battle intel #16 for Chadley. The earliest you can do this is during chapter 13. Once you have it, equip it and leave it equipped until you get this trophy.
To learn an enemy skill you just need to have the 'Enemy Skill' materia equipped to one of your party while the enemy performs the move during a fight. Thankfully, there are only four skills that you need to learn and even better, if you miss any of the enemy encounters they can all be found in either the VR missions during chapters 16 & 17 or in the Colosseum during chapters 9 & 14.
1. Spirit Siphon - Learnt from a phantom as it uses Essence Drain.
I learnt this from a phantom during the side mission 'Missing Children' during chapter 14. A better place to find one is during the 'solo vs. SOLDIER Trainees' VR simulation found in either chapters 16 or 17.
2. Self-Destruct - Learnt from a Varghidpolis or Trypapolis as they use Apoptosis or a Smogger as it uses Self-Destruct.
I learnt this one from a Trypapolis during the side mission 'Chocobo Search' during chapter 14. A better place to find them is during the 'Three-Person Team vs. Team Rag Bag' VR simulation during chapter 16 or 17.
Alternatively you can learn it from a smogger, one of these can also be found in 'Three-Person Team vs. Team Rag Bag' VR simulation during chapter 16 or 17.
3. Algid Aura - Learnt from a Cerulean Drake as it uses Icy Aura
I learnt this one from the cerulean drake that is found in the 'Two-Person Team vs. Team Payback' colosseum challenge during chapter 14. This is the best place to get it.
4. Bad Breath - Learnt from Malboro as it uses Bad Breath
There is only one place you can learn this one, during the 'Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend' VR simulation. This can only be accessed via chapter 17 after you have finished the game. It also has to be played on Hard difficulty. Please see the trophy below for more information on the battle.
That's the Smell
Defeat a malboro.
Secret Trophy
Malboro is a one-off enemy that can only be found in the 'Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend' VR simulation. This simulation is only available after you have completed the game. Once you have, jump to chapter 17 and play through until you bump into Chadley. He'll be in the control room after the first fight, just before the elevator. He won't have been here when you first played through the game, but he will be when you use chapter select. Enter the room behind him to find a VR battle simulator. There you'll find the 'Three-Person Team vs. Monsters of Legend' simulation. This simulation can only be played on hard difficulty. Don't worry though, it's not too difficult. There are five rounds to the simulation and you will have fought everything, apart from Malboro, before.
Round 1 - Bomb
You fought two of these guys before during the 'A Dynamite Body' side mission in chapter 9, there's only one this time. Wait till it goes dim, then hit for high stagger damage. You should have no problem at all.
Round 2 - Tonberry
Again, you fought this guy during a side mission, 'Malicious Goons' in chapter 14. Exactly the same rules apply, dodge his one-hit kill 'Chef's Knife' attack to pressure him and you'll have no problems. Also, don't use Aerith's Ray of Judgment attack, he really doesn't like that.
Round 3 - Type-0 Behemoth
Once again, you will have fought this enemy during the side mission 'Subterranean Menace' in chapter 14. This fight is exactly the same as that one. Cripple the behemoth's lower and upper body to stagger it, then hit its horn with everything you've got. Once you have removed its horn you will be free to use magic on it for massive damage. Don't use magic on it until its horn has been removed, it will just deflect it back at you. Also, if it goes into 'Rampage' at any point, don't bother attacking it, just keep your distance and use this time to heal.
Round 4 - Bomb & Tonberry
The same enemies from rounds one and two, except this time they're together. The same rules apply here as they did before. Try to take out the Bomb first, just watch out for Tonberry sneaking up on you though.
Round 5 - Malboro
Quick note: If you want to get the 'Master of Mimicry' trophy, you'll want to have the 'Enemy Skills' materia equipped to one of your partyf or this fight. Malboro is the only enemy in the game that use the 'Bad Breath' attack, and you'll need to learn it for that trophy.
This fight is not difficult at all. Just keep switching between your characters to try and get behind it. The enemies in this game will fixate on the character you're currently in control of. This means you can just switch to a different character to get a better attack angle. Malboro turns quite slowly too, so this tactic gives you plenty of time to get some good attacks in. Use Tifa's Chi Trap and Cloud's Focused Thrust to build its stagger meter up. Once it does stagger, give it everything you've got.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Ultimate Weapon
Defeat the Pride and Joy prototype.
Secret Trophy
Before you can attempt this challenge, you will need to have completed all other VR combat simulation challenges, along with all Colosseum challenges from chapters 9 & 14. Also, you will need to have completed the game, this unlocks hard difficulty, which is the only option when you want to attempt this challenge. This challenge has to be done on Hard.
The challenge you are looking for is 'Three-Person Team vs. Top Secrets'. Again, this will only be available once you have completed all other combat challenges in the game. This challenge is only available from the VR combat simulator behind Chadley during chapter 17.
You've got two choices when it comes to completing this challenge. Do it after your first play-through and before your hard play-through. This would mean you would have the Götterdämmerung accessory, which grants the wearer a full limit break at the start of every battle, this would help for your hard play-through. The problem with this is that you and your materia will be under-levelled and you will more than likely have to grind some low-level VR fights to level up.
The option I chose and the one I would suggest you do is forget about this challenge until you get to chapter 17 of your hard play-through. This way you will level up naturally without any grinding and you will be accustomed to how Hard difficulty works and be prepared for the fight mentally. This means you won't have the Götterdämmerung, but to be honest, it's not essential. The fights against summons of the 'Three-Person Team vs. Top Secrets' challenge are more difficult than most fights from the story anyway, so you will need to be prepared.
The most important thing is having the right set-up and right strategy. Most of your materia will need to be maxed out or as close as possible.
Cloud
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Weapon - Hardedge
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Armour - Chain Bangle
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Accessory - Transference Module
Materia
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Healing - Level Max
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Revival - Level Max
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HP Up - Level Max
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MP Up - Level 4
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HP Up - Level 4
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First Strike - Level Max
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Time - Level Max
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Steadfast Block - Level Max
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Ice - Level Max
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Elemental - Level 2
Cloud is built for strength and a fast start. His main role is to get things moving at the start of each fight with haste from the Time materia, then support Tifa when it comes to the beat down. The ice and elemental materia must be linked together in two armour slots. This is going to provide complete protection against the Shiva.
Tifa
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Weapon - Metal Knuckles
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Armour - Cog Bangle
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Accessory - Fury Ring
Materia
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MP Up - Level 4
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ATB Assist - Level 2
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Barrier - Level Max
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Auto-Cure - Level Max
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HP Up - Level 4
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HP Up - Level Max
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Revival - Level Max
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Elemental - Level 2
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Ice - Level Max
Tifa is also built for strength and is the main character we'll be using when it comes to the beat down. Her Chi Trap ability will be essential when it comes to staggering the enemies as quickly as possible. She can also provide some protection in emergencies. Like Cloud, the ice and elemental materia must be linked together in two armour slots. This is going to provide complete protection against the Shiva.
Aerith
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Weapon - Mythril Rod
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Armour - Rune Armlet
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Accessory - Healing Carcanet
Materia
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Magic Up - Level 4
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Magic Up - Level 4
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HP Up - Level 4
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HP Up - Level 4
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MP Up - Level 4
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MP Up - Level 4
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Revival - Level Max
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Healing - Level Max
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Magnify - Level Max
Aerith is all about providing support from a distance, you will hardly take control of her, but you will be issuing commands like heal and Ray of Judgment. It is important to link both the healing and magnify materia in two connecting slots, this will cause any healing magic to affect the whole team.
Round 1 - Shiva
This is the easiest fight of the lot. With both Cloud and Tifa being immune to ice, which are the only attacks Shiva does, you are free to just beat her down. This is because we linked the ice and elemental materia in two armour slots. Shiva is a good fight to practice the strategy we are going to use for all of the fights.
As soon as the fight starts, use Cloud's haste ability on himself, then on Tifa, then on Aerith. Once that's done, switch to Tifa and commence beat down, every time her ATB bar fills up, use a Chi Trap, this is going to dramatically increase the speed the enemies stagger bar fills up. Leave Aerith's bars full ready for healing and when the Shiva gets staggered. When she does, make Aerith use Ray of Judgment, this is going to increase the stagger damage percentage. All the while keep using Tifa and instead of using Chi Trap with every full ATB, use True Strike, this will also increase the stagger damage percentage. While this is going on, you'll want to order Cloud to use Infinity's End when the stagger bar reaches about half. If you're lucky, you'll KO her, if not rinse and repeat, she will be almost done at this point anyway.
Round 2 - Fat Chocobo
Use exactly the same strategy as Shiva, it staggers even easier than she did. It may hit you with a few attacks, but the damage will be minimal.
Round 3 - Leviathan
Again, use exactly the same strategy as Shiva and Fat Chocobo. You will be racing one of its moves this time though, Tidal Wave. This is a powerful move, but with this strategy you should be able to stagger it before it gets to use it. If you don't think you are going to make it, you can always use Tifa's Manaward magic, this will reduce the damage by half. The most annoying thing with Leviathan is that it does move a lot. So the best time to attack is when its charging its own attacks. If you don't defeat it in time and it takes to the skies, switch to Aerith and aim for the tail end. Aiming at the head does no damage. Eventually after a Spinning Dive it will come down and you'll be able to hit it with Cloud or Tifa again.
Round 4 - Bahamut (Ft. Ifrit)
Bahamut on his own is fairly simple. You get massive windows to attack when he's counting down to Manaflare. The problem this time is that he will summon Ifrit once he gets to half health.
Now once again exactly the same strategy applies as the previous fights, but reserve this for when he is counting down to Manaflare or when he has grabbed one of your party. The rest of the time you will want to be switching between Tifa and Cloud and getting some attacks in. Enemies in this game will automatically attack the character that you are controlling, this means as soon as he attacks, switch to a free party member and attack him from behind. Keep doing this and use Chi Traps when he's counting down and you should have him past half health after count number 3.
At this point he will summon Ifrit. The mistake I kept making was to go straight for Ifrit and ignore Bahamut. This always got me killed, instead ignore Ifrit and finish off Bahamut. He should nearly be staggered by this point and you should have a limit break or two ready to go. Once he is staggered finish him off quickly and then turn your attention to Ifrit. Even if you don't kill off Bahamut during the stagger, he will start his Manaflare countdown again, giving you plenty of time to finish them both off. Ifrit himself is a bit of a glass cannon, he hits hard and fast, but doesn't have much HP and can be pressured easily.
Round 5 - Pride and Joy Prototype
If you've gotten this far you're on the home-stretch. P&J is a lot simpler than Bahamut. He will open with a strong Beam Cannon attack, so move cloud to one side and block. Once this is done, commence beat down however you like. The strategy used for all of the other fights still works here, but you will want to be constantly switching characters and keeping them apart, he can do the Beam Cannon attack again, and it can wipe your team. Another reason for constantly switching is to get behind him, if you keep hitting its legs, it will fall over. This allows for a lot of damage.
Sometimes it can grab one of your party, if it does, go for the right arm, preferably with Aerith's Ray of Judgment attack. This will cause him to drop them. If you aren't quick enough, he will instantly KO them, which isn't too much of a problem, there's always revive. Once its staggered use a limit break or two and you'll be done.
For a full demonstration of how to get the trophy, please see the video below:
Hardened Veteran
Complete all chapters on Hard difficulty.
Hard difficulty is not available until you have completed the game. At that point you are able to jump to any chapter you like and play it on hard. It is a bit of a weird setup, there's no traditional 'second play-through', so you are free to complete the chapters in any order. You can do a traditional play-though if you like though just start at chapter one and keep going.
When you do your hard play-through is obviously up to you, but I would do it before going for the above trophy 'Ultimate Weapon', while you will get the Götterdämmerung for defeating Pride and Joy Prototype, which will make hard difficulty a lot easier with a full limit break at the start of every fight, it's not necessary. The Pride and Joy gauntlet is the hardest set of fights in the game, so you want to make those easier and you can do that by playing though the game on hard difficulty first. A great reason to do this is the manuscripts. After defeating every boss on hard one of your party will receive a manuscript. Manuscripts give the character 10SP to use on each of their weapons, meaning you will be able to purchase nearly all of the upgrades for each weapon, this is going to help immensely with the late game content.
The main difference with hard compared to the other difficulties is that you won't be able to use items at all. You will only be able to rely on your materia for healing and revives. The problem with that is that MP only fills up at the start of each chapter, resting on benches only fills up HP. There are only two ways to fill up your MP mid-chapter during hard difficulty, waiting it out during a fight, it will fill up, but very slowly, or smash Shinra crates. There are quite a few of these in each chapter, so you should never run out of MP. I didn't at all.
As for what kind of build you should use for each character, I used similar ones to the ones mentioned in the 'Ultimate Weapon' trophy above. This way mainly because I was trying to level up 6x MP Up, 6x HP Up, 2x Magic Up, Elemental, 4x Healing, 4x Revival. I knew I would need plenty of these for the late game bosses. I would also have First Strike on Cloud all the time too. It really helps.
The only materias I would swap consistently were the Elemental and the actual elements, fire, ice, lightning, wind etc. If I knew I was going to be fighting a lot of machines I would link the Elemental materia with a lightning materia in my party's weapons. Conversely, if I knew I was going to be fighting an enemy that uses a lot of lightning attacks, I would link the Elemental and Lightning materia in two armour slots instead, this would help protect each character. Just as a reminder here are the enemy weaknesses again:
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Human - Fire
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Machine - Lightning
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Creature - Ice
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Flying - Wind
There are some exceptions to these rules, and also some enemies have double weakness, like a flying human will be weak to fire and wind. Knowing and understanding every enemy weakness is key to breezing through hard difficulty. If you don't know an enemies weakness, don't forget you can always use the Assess materia to find them out.
Quick note: The motorcycle mini-games in chapters 4 & 18 can be skipped. No need to put yourself through those again.