FF7 Remake Guide: The 7 Best Materia You Can Easily Miss

Elemental

Elemental is one of the most useful support materia in the entire game. Linking it to a magic materia will cause your attacks to deal damage of that type, as well as protect you from that element. For example, if you’re battling enemies weak to fire, then slotting Elemental with Fire materia will make each of your regular attacks deal extra fire damage, and you’ll take less fire damage yourself. Leveling up the materia buffs the amount of damage you deal, and even prevents or absorbs that element when it’s used against you. If you need to know what an enemy is weak to, be sure to use Assess materia to scan them and discover what you should slot with Elemental.

There are two Elemental materia orbs in the entire game, and you’ll definitely want both. The first can be found in Chapter 6 when the party is turning off the Sun Lamps above the slums. If you’re not sure how to get there, be sure to check out our Final Fantasy 7 Remake walkthrough. In Section H of the Plate Interior you’ll find a ladder near some containers. Climb down it to reach an area with two Queen Grashstrikes. Defeat them and then use the control panel to lower a walkway which allows you to cross the gap to the next area. This is where you’ll find your first piece of Elemental materia, indicated by a purple Discovery marker.

The second piece of Elemental can be found at the end of Chapter 14, just before you go over the wall and ascend to the Shinra HQ. It’s attached to a letter from the Guardian Angel, found in the Urban Advancement District of Wall Market, but you need to have completed every single side quest in the game for the letter to appear.

Magnify

Magnify turns a linked magic materia into an area-of-effect spell, and may be better known to Final Fantasy 7 veterans as All materia. Linking it to cure, for example, allows a single cast of the spell to affect all party members in range, allowing for a mass heal. Magnify inflicts a penalty on the effectiveness of the linked materia, but leveling it up reduces the restriction. If you’re struggling with a boss and need regular mass cures, then linking Magnify with Healing materia on a character that also has ATB Boost materia can ensure heals come much faster.

There is just one piece of Magnify materia in the whole game, and it can be found in the Collapsed Expressway. It’s located in the area of the third mechanical arms puzzle, just in the rim of a large pipe. It’s actually easy to spot, but unless you take the time to rearrange the crates to allow Aerith to cross to it, it’s easy to speed on past it. Yes, the arms are a rubbish puzzle, but it’s worth doing a little extra work to get this materia.

EXP Up

Levelling up is the foundation of making your characters stronger, and you need to earn experience points to do it. As such, you’ll definitely want to get hold of EXP Up, a materia orb that increases a character’s earned experience by 100%. That’s double XP!

This materia can be earned as a reward for completing the Three-Person Team vs Team Ragbar fight in the Shinra HQ Combat Simulator. This can be accessed during Chapter 16, or if you miss it, you can use the Simulator in Chapter 17 after you get the Chapter Select option.

Pedometer / AP Up

At the start of Chapter 14 you will basically trip over a piece of purple materia by the steps as you leave Aerith’s house. This is Pedometer materia, which at first glance seems entirely useless. However, you should slot it to a character immediately, as after you have taken 5,000 steps it will transform into the incredibly useful AP Up materia.

Linking AP Up to any other materia will double the rate at which it gains Ability Points, which are used to level materia up. This is incredibly useful for fast tracking Chadley’s 18th Battle Intel Report, which requires you to max out every piece of magic materia in the game. We also recommend using it to boost your Auto-Cure materia, as when levelled up this will allow ten healing spells to be automatically cast per battle, something that’s super useful in long boss fights.

Warding

Status effects can be a big problem in battles; getting poisoned, slowed, or silenced can entirely ruin your strategy. Warding materia helps reduce or even nullify these debuffs. Just slot it with poison, time, binding, or subversion materia for extra protection from that magic.

There are two orbs of Warding to be found in Midgar. The first is in the Aquaduct area of the Sector 7 sewers, which you explore during Chapter 10. Just before you exit the stone tunnels of Aqueduct 1 to get to the Inter-Aqueduct Passage, if you head south you’ll find an area with some metal bars and assorted junk. On top of a crate you’ll see an orb of blue Warding materia.

The second piece can be found in Chapter 13, while exploring the Underground Test Site. After reuniting with Tifa you’ll soon find a room full of cages. Head up some stairs and use Barret’s gun to blow the door off the cage on your right. Inside you’ll find a Warding materia orb.

Chocobo & Moogle

Chocobo & Moogle is a summon materia, which calls in powerful creatures to help you turn the tide of boss battles. In this case, that creature is literally a Chocobo with a Moogle on its back. If you’re a veteran of the original game, you’ll know this better as Chocomog.

You almost certainly won’t miss seeing this materia, as Tifa literally points it out to you in Chapter 6. Getting to it, however, is trickier, as it is stuck behind a fan vent in the mid-level of the Underplate. Remember this location, as you’ll need to come back when you’ve reactivated the power by turning off the Sun Lamps.

With the power on, you can activate a platform to travel west towards a ladder, which will take you up to a room containing a rest bench and vending machine. A panel here will activate a one-minute timer. In just 60 seconds you’ll need to go into the next room, kill the Grashstrike enemies, and then activate the next terminal. This unlocks a door to the maintenance tunnel, where you can pick up the red summoning Materia.

Bahamut

The strongest summon in the game is Bahamut; a huge dragon that casts the powerful Megaflare ability to decimate your enemies. As you’d imagine for something so powerful, you’ll need to put in a lot of work to get it. Unlocking Bahamut requires you to complete 19 of Chadley’s Battle Intel Reports, which unlocks the final, 20th challenge: a fight against the dragon itself. Defeat Bahamut, and the summon materia is yours.

Bahamut is a tough fight, so you’ll want to make sure you use your strongest characters. If your characters are too weak, the Megaflare attack will KO your entire team. You can get around this by equipping Revival Earrings, which will automatically resurrect your characters. They break after one use, so you’ll need to defeat him before he casts Megaflare a second time. Bahamut prepares a countdown before it casts Megaflare, which gives you time to use every ability and Limit Break you have. Stagger it, and you’ll stop it from casting its most devastating attack.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.