Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Every Weapon Upgrade Manuscript

Updated 2026-10-09

Full spoilers.

A Weapon Upgrade Manuscript is a key item that adds SP to one character’s weapon grid. That is all it does, and it is the only way past the SP ceiling the story gives you — which is why the Weapon Level 6 cores, and most of the comfort in Hard mode, sit behind them.

There are 84: fourteen each for Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Aerith, and fourteen each for Yuffie and Sonon in INTERmission. Every character has their own series:

The in-game counter for the main cast tops out at 56. Four more books share the menu — the Legacy Limit Break manuscripts — but they grant no SP and the counter ignores them. They are listed at the bottom.

The rules

Each manuscript is yours once per save. Beat a manuscript fight a second time and the game hands you a substitute item instead of a second copy. There is no farming SP this way, and nothing to gain from repeating a fight you have already cleared.

A pickup sticks the moment you collect it. You do not need to finish the chapter for it to count.

Chapter Select tells you what is left. After the credits, each chapter on the select screen shows how many manuscripts remain in it. That count is the fastest way to find a gap.

Only twelve of the 56 ignore difficulty. For the main cast, Vol. I (bought), Vol. II (Corneo Colosseum) and Vol. III (a Chapter 14 side quest) can be had on any difficulty. Everything else is a Hard-mode reward: a boss, a side-quest fight, one chest, or a Chapter 17 simulator course. All 28 INTERmission books are Hard only.

No trophy asks for manuscripts.

The any-difficulty twelve

The four Vol. I books cost 5 Moogle Medals each at the Moogle Emporium in the children’s hideout in the Sector 5 Slums. The shop is open in Chapter 8 and again in Chapter 14.

Aerith’s Colosseum book is the only one of the twelve with a short window: she is only in the Colosseum party in Chapter 9.

Cloud — The Art of Swordplay

Cloud VIII–X: the one chapter you play twice

Chapter 9 splits its side quests between two employers. Your answers and choices through the chapter route you either to Madam M or to Chocobo Sam, and each branch opens two quests the other one never sees.

• Madam M: The Price of Thievery (Vol. VIII) and Shears’ Counterattack (Vol. IX).
• Chocobo Sam: The Party Never Stops and A Dynamite Body (Vol. X).

One Hard pass of Chapter 9 gets you either VIII and IX, or X. Never all three. The fix is a second Hard pass of Chapter 9 through Chapter Select on the other branch. It is the only manuscript in the game that forces a repeat chapter, and since the same split also decides Cloud’s Wall Market outfit and the Best in the Business trophy, it is worth planning the two passes together.

Barret — Sharpshooter’s Companion

The Power of Music wants three music discs — Fight On!, Good Night, Until Tomorrow and Stand Up. All three are Chapter 14 pickups.

Tifa — Way of the Fist

Vol. VI is the only manuscript in the game that is not a fight or a purchase. It is its own chest, near where the Chocobo & Moogle materia sits, and it only appears on Hard. The materia is still there; you are not trading one for the other.

Note that Chocobo Search pays out twice on Hard — Barret XI from the Rust Drake and Tifa XI from the Trypapolis — and Corneo’s Secret Stash pays out twice across difficulties: Cloud III on clearing it, Tifa XII from the sewer fight inside it on Hard.

Aerith — Telluric Scriptures

Her numbering runs differently from the other three. Her simulator book is Vol. XI, not XIII, and her Hard bosses fill XII to XIV after it. Nothing is missing; the order is just hers.

Weapons on a Rampage is two fights for one book. Vol. V comes when the quest’s Monodrives are done, not after the first group.

Chapter 8 on Hard is Aerith’s chapter: five of her fourteen books are there, four of them in side quests.

Yuffie and Sonon — Secrets of the Ninja, Secrets of the Staff

Every INTERmission manuscript fight awards both books of the same volume — Ninja Vol. N and Staff Vol. N together. Fourteen fights, 28 books. All of them are Hard only.

Half of the set is board games. Fort Condor on Hard only lets you win by destroying the enemy HQ and caps sudden death at one minute — see the mini-games guide for the board.

The four Legacy manuscripts

These teach a second Limit Break rather than adding SP. They are first-clear rewards for the one-star Colosseum courses, on any difficulty.

Where the books cluster

Chapter 14 alone holds a quarter of the main cast’s set. If you are going to replay one chapter after your Hard run, it is that one.

Game Notes

The manuscript system is the clearest statement of what Hard mode is for. The story run gives you enough SP to build a weapon and pick a lane. Hard gives you the other forty-four books, one per real fight, and the grids open up as the fights get worse. It is a well-paced reward curve, and it is entirely invisible on a first run — nothing in the opening twenty hours suggests that most of the books exist.

The once-per-save rule is the right call, and it is worth knowing up front because it changes how you play the Hard run. There is no reason to re-beat a boss for its book, so there is no reason to grind any fight you already cleared. Do each fight once, properly, and move on.

The Chapter 9 split is the only real trap. It is not a missable — Chapter Select fixes it — but it is the one place where finishing the chapter on Hard does not mean you are done with the chapter on Hard. Pick the Madam M branch first, since it is worth two books, then come back for the Bombs.

And use the per-chapter counter on the select screen. It is the most honest checklist the game has, and it settles in five seconds what this page takes a thousand words to explain.