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D I S C T W O W A L K T H R O U G H
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t h e c a v e
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ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Viper Halberd, Bolt Armlet, HypnoCrown,
Mega Elixir, Magic Plus materia, Power Source.
You'll start off outside of one of the shell-shaped buildings on the east
side of the Ancient City. If you walk to the left, Cloud will have
another attack and you'll see the ghostly form of Sephiroth leaving the
Ancient City. Once Cloud has recovered, follow Sephiroth by heading
north, then east along the path you couldn't take before. Note that
you're free to go back through the Forest and return to the World Map,
but there's no point in doing so unless you wanted to buy some items or
find Vincent or Yuffie (unless you already have them). Although you're
now on Disc 2, none of the other events that occur in this disc will
actually happen until you get the Highwind in section 4e (meaning that if
you were to return to the World Map, you couldn't go on the Huge materia
quests yet, dig up the Gate 5 Key, or bring Buugen Haagen back to the
Ancient City).
In the next area, ignore the white, spiked object for a moment. Instead,
walk behind it (look for a path to your left). This will allow you to
reach a chest containing a Viper Halberd (a weapon for Cid). Once
you've gotten it, climb up the spiky object. It's a little tricky to
navigate due to it's spiraling shape, but you'll eventually reach a
cave entrace after making your way to the top.
Inside, walk to the left and press against the second cleft in the wall.
You'll climb to the top and be given two options (Right or Left). Pick
the bottom option (Left). Walk over to the next cleft and climb up it,
then choose the bottom option when you reach the top to land on a litte
ledge with a chest above it. You can open the chest from where you are;
there's a Bolt Armlet inside. Face the cleft and choose the bottom
choice, then the top one to jump to the other side. Now, go to the right
and when two options appear, pick the bottom one. This lets you climb
down to where the first chest is; there's a HypnoCrown inside of it.
Climb back up to the top of the cleft, pick the bottom option, then press
against it to try and get back on. When two optoins appear, choose the
top one. Then, make your way up to the ledge with the chest, and pick
the top option. You can now take the Mega Elixir from inside the chest.
Get back into the cleft and choose the bottom option to jump to the west
side of the path. Work your way to the left, climb up the cleft, and
head left a second time to reach a long ladder. Selecting the bottom
option will left you climb down to the bottom of the ladder.
If you search using the O button, you'll find a purple materia (Magic Plus)
near the lower-left corner of the screen. When you approach the ladder,
you'll automatically climb up to the ledge you were at. Now pick the top
option after nearing the ladder and climb all the way to the top. Once
you're off the ladder, run to the right and go through the opening on the
north wall. In the next room, take the contents of the treasure chest
(Power Source) before exiting through the far opening to the northwest.
Once outside, keep to the east. After heading along the coastline
for a while, you'll come across a sharp curve that turns to the west.
Just beyond it is a village and a deep valley, which you can't enter
without exploring the village (Icicle Lodge) first.
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i c i c l e l o d g e
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ITEMS IN THIS AREA: X Potion, Hero Drink, Vaccine, Turbo Ether.
Go to the far end of town and talk to the man in purple standing near
the trees. Pick the top option. Two Shinra members will show up, along
with Elena (a Turk). After confronting Cloud, she will try to knock him
out. To avoid her strike, press left just after you see the transparent
message box. If she does hit you, you'll wake up in one of the houses,
but if she doesn't, then she'll roll right out of the town. It doesn't
make a difference whether you get hit or not.
After that's done with, go to town entrance and check out the house
that's just to your right. In the back room, there's a boy, a cat,
and a snowboard. Talk to the boy and the cat will leave the room,
enabling you to take the snowboard by examining it. You'll need it for
the upcoming event. Now, go to the inn, head to the upper floor, and
examine the window in the lower left-hand corner to get an X Potion.
Leave and enter the house on the far right (near the snowman). Take
the items in the back room (an Hero Drink and a Vaccine), then
examine the map on the wall in the main room. You can examine it by
choosing the top option, but before you leave, you'll want to choose
the bottom option to take it.
Finally, go into the house on the left side of town, just to the right
of the weapons shop. If Elena KO'd you, this is where you'll wake
up :) If you go down the stairs and look by the windowsill, you can
get another item (Turbo Ether). You can also take a look at the
machinery on the ground floor to see a series of pre-recorded videos
dating back many years ago; they show Aeris's mother (Ifaruna, a Setora
just like Aeris) and her father, a 'renegade' Shinra scientist named
Gasuto (Gast). There are several videos, but watching them has no
effect on the game itself, aside from cluing you in to Aeris's past
(providing you can read it :)) There's a device to the left that will
allow more light into the room, but it doesn't seem to have any purpose
(NSS).
Before you leave the town, you may want to buy weapons, Hi-Potions
and Tents at the shop. When you're ready to go, simply walk past the
man in the back of town (the one near the trees), and the snowboard
sequence will start up:
Your controls while using the snowboard are:
S Brake
X Jump
Pad Move left or right, down to brake
Start Pause/unpause
L1/R1 Quick turn to the left or right when used
with control pad
Basically, you want to make your way through the mountains. You can
collect balloons along the way, but I don't know what they do for you.
There are also obstacles to crash into, like dead wood, pine trees,
igloos, moogles, snowmen, rocks, ice boulders, and chocobos. I believe
there are four different 'exit' paths; I'll take the left path twice
and go from there in this FAQ.
My characters came to in a white forest. Did yours? From this point
onward, you can press S to look at the map you took (but not in some
screens), which shows where you need to go but not where you are. I
spent hours trying to map this place out, only to discover that there's
almost nothing of interest in this area. So, I've simply described each
location and where it is on the map; getting there isn't much of a
problem. Your ultimate goal, BTW, is to make it to the red check mark
shown on the map.
The locations are:
ENTRANCE (looks like a square at the bottom-center of the screen)
Heading south from this area takes you back out to the World Map. If
you return to Icicle Lodge to heal yourself, you'll have to snowboard
in here again.
MOUNTAIN CAVE (small opening just to the right of the ENTRANCE)
You can hop across the ledges to the top of the screen, but in the next
room, there's nothing to do but choose to fall/not fall down an icy
chute that has no effect aside from ejecting you back into the world
map. The entrance to this cave is hard to see; it's in the lower-right
area of the T-junction screen. You can also get here by going right
from the LAKE CAVE area.
FOREST (forest divided by Y-shaped paths)
In the main forest screen, there's an item (Mind Source) at the foot of a
tree near the upper left part of the screen. If this is where you
landed after the snowboarding event, then it's just up and to the right
of where you crashed.
BURIED AIRPLANE (tail of plane sticking out to left of forest)
Nothing here.
LAKE CAVE (cave in the middle of the central lake)
On the surface of the frozen lake, near the shore, there is a green
item (a Potion). Be sure to get it. Then head to the left to reach
a screen full of ice floes. Here, you'll have to jump on the floating
ice chunks to get across, but the chunks surrounding the one you're
currently standing on will submerge or raise depending on how they
looked when you arrived there. If you mess up and they are all
submerged, you'll have to start all over. The key is to make sure that
you're not jumping onto a floe when the ones surrounding it are all
raised, or else they'll all submerge and you'll fall into the water.
To get on the ice floats, choose the top option, then use the O button
and the controller to jump around. Enter the cave in the next area,
grab the item bag (it contains a Safety Bit accessory), and leave.
LONE TREE (pine tree up and right from the LAKE CAVE)
Nothing here, either.
ICE BOULDERS (northwest corner, left and below the STONE FACE)
Go into the small cave entrance and grab the item in the northwest
corner of the cavern (an Elixir), then go out the other entrance.
RIVER LOG (above central lake, at mouth of river)
There's nothing here.
STONE FACE (left of the red check mark)
Nothing here. Seem familiar? The stone face has also appeared in
Secret of Mana and FF5j.
STEAMING LAKES (south and east of the check mark)
You can touch the water on the lefthand bank if you want. In fact,
you should, since you can't get the Alexander Materia any other way.
(Keep reading for details.) Just maneuver yourself as close to the
shore of the left lake as you can, and when an option appears, pick
the top one.
MOUNTAIN CROSSROADS (top of mountain east of the STEAMING LAKES)
Once you reach the crossroads (da dum da da :)) head to the upper
right corner of the screen to go off the map. In the next area,
work your way up and to the left. When this screen repeats a second
time, look for a Blue Materia (Added Cut) near the beginning
of the screen, in the upper-right part of the path. This road takes
you to the Steaming Lakes area, but if you try to back the way you
came, you'll see that the screen has changed. Put another way, you
couldn't have gotten the Materia unless you took this path since the
'switching' road isn't marked on the map.
If you're fast, you can reach the 'lost in the snowfield' section (the
red checkmark) before anything bad happens. But if you waste your time
in this area, you'll pass out. (This will still happen to you even if
you reached the snowfield, but then returned to any part of the 'first
area'. If that happens, go to the next section. If you made it to the
snowfield area, then skip the first paragraph to find out where you are.
Personally, my suggestion is that you follow the example in the FAQ
and take the left path twice so that you land in the Forest. From
there, you can go right to the Lake Cave area, then continue right
past the Mountain Cave area (the T-junction), and up into the Mountain
Crossroads, where you can take the switching path to the Steaming
Lakes, and then head left into the snowfield. Not only is this a
fast way to get through this area, but it also lets you pick up all
the items along the way and get the Alexander Materia later on (since
you touched the lake on your way out).
Also, you'll start off at the bottom end of the snowfield when you first
get there, so you can just head up to the cave to get the Blue Materia,
then keep heading north to reach the old man's shack (if you're in need
of healing and a Save Point). After talking with him, you can go to the
Stone Face Area, head south to the Ice Boulders area where an Elixir is,
then backtrack to the snowfield and go to the right in order to get the
Alexander Materia before returning to the shack. Voila! You've just
cleared out this _entire_ area in only a few minutes!
Remember, you _will_ pass out eventually if you return to the first
area--there's nothing you can do about it, even if you've already
gone to Horuzofu's shack. If you don't want to waste too much time
backtracking just run around in the same few areas until it happens,
then leave the old man's shack and continue exploring. Why this still
happens to you after clearing out this area doesn't seem to make much
sense, as it's more of a nuisance than anything else, but there's not
much you can do about it. If you return to the first area after
falling unconsious and wait around there again, you'll pass out a
second time. In fact, this will always happen to you, so get moving!
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ITEMS IN THIS AREA: All Materia, Circlet, Alexander Materia.
You'll awake in the house of an old man (Horuzofu). Go up the stairs
and let the old man talk to you; choose the bottom option twice when he
asks you two questions. When you wake up the next morning, check out
the Save Point (since you probably haven't saved prior to entering the
Icicle Lodge). If you want to spend the night again, talk to the old
man in the first room and choose the top choice. When you leave the
shack, your friends will be waiting outside. Make a new party if you
wish, (see below for directions) then head south. You may have noticed
that you can talk to the man from the ground floor even though he is
above you :)
If you _didn't_ pass out, then go directly to the shack so that you
won't pass out. There, you'll meet an old hermit named Horuzofu.
Talk to him, and when he asks you a question, answer any way you like.
The second time he asks you a question, choose the bottom reply.
You'll spend the night at his shack, and when you leave the next
morning, your allies will be standing around outside. Choose either
choice when an option appears. Then talk to any member and pick the
top option to accept a party change or the bottom option to decline,
if you want to change your members.
If you don't want to explore the snowfield any more, skip to section d.
After all, you can return here at any future point in the game,
providing you have the Highwind.
Outside, you'll be in a large snowfield. Use the O button to set down
spikes that you can use to track your location (since your direction
changes when the wind picks up). If you want to explore the rest of
that first area that you left/passed out in, head south. When you leave
the first area from the Steaming Lakes exit, you'll see a rock formation
with a cave entrance if you keep walking north. Inside, a Blue Materia
(All) is lying near the tent. What's odd is that you seem to
always run into this on your way back from the first area instead of on
the way to it (i.e. from the old man's shack).
If you head east, you'll go through some snowy areas, then arrive at a
cave entrance. Talk to the purple fellow inside to enter a battle, but
only if you touched the water back at the Steaming Lakes.
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BOSS TIPS: SUNOU LV: 32 HP: 4000 MP: 160
(weak against Fire)
You can't Control or Morph her, but you can steal a Saakuretto
(Circlet) during the battle. Her cold-based attacks (Cold Breath and
Blizzard 2) are nothing to worry about, but be careful if she Amulets
one of your own members.
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If you are victorious, she'll disappear and a Summon Materia (Alexander)
will drop to the floor, so don't miss it. While you can use the map here,
you can't reach this place normally from the first area. If you go right,
then down the snowy path, you'll end up at the 'switching' crossroads in
the first area, though (sort of like a one-way path).
Going west from the snowfield takes you to an alternate entrance to the
first area. There's not that much to do there, anyway, unless you want
a shortcut to the ICE BOULDERS area where an item is lying in a cave
(refer to the previous section for more information).
If you're really having trouble navigating around, think of the
snowfield like this:
Old Man's Shack
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S | | A
1 t | | l M
s o | | e a N
t n | | x t |
e | | a e W-- + --E
A | | n r |
r F | Cave | d i S
e a | | e a
a c | | r
e | |
+-----------------------------+
First Area (Steaming Lakes)
So no matter how far you are along a boundary, you'll still enter that
area when you hit it. The same applies to the corners -- you'll hit
one boundary or the other, so going in a diagonal direction won't get
you to a new place. Don't worry about finding an 'exact' spot to enter
an area, just head in that direction. The only real landmark is the
cave with the All materia, but if you head north from the
Steaming Lakes exit, you're bound to spot it.