Chapter 13: A Broken World

Story mode. Written for a first playthrough and kept free of spoilers — it will not tell you what happens here, only what the game is asking of you.

This chapter comes in two halves. The first is a walk through places you have been before, with every shop open and a few chests on the way. The second is underground, one-way, and ends in a hard fight. Do your shopping in the first half.

Wall Market and the Sector 5 slums

The marker takes you north through Wall Market and on into the Sector 5 slums. Every shop is open. If you left any chests behind in Wall Market in Chapter 9, they are still there.

Sector 5 is the place to catch up. The weapon store has new accessories, the materia shop and the vending machines have the discs you may have walked past in Chapter 8, and the moogle shop is open again if you have medals to spend.

When the objective sends you upstairs at the house you rested in during Chapter 8, open the chest in the bedroom. It is a Mythical Amulet, an accessory that strengthens summons, and it is the easiest chest in the chapter to walk straight past.

The road out

The way on is through a tunnel you have to squeeze through and along an old expressway, with bandits and a few new monsters. The new ones that look like the gorgers you know heal themselves and get stronger the longer the fight goes; ice puts them down. Four chests sit just off the path here: one in a side tunnel right after the squeeze, one down a side hallway after the first ladder, one at the end of a side path after the second group of bandits, and one on the left before the next ladder.

In Evergreen Park there is a vendor by the playground. Buy the music disc there — 50 gil, and you will not pass that way again this chapter.

Underground

Before you take the passage under the playground, stop. Everything after it is one-way until the chapter ends. Make sure that:

• at least two of your party can cast Ice, ideally linked to Elemental in their weapons;
• you have Ethers and a Phoenix Down or two;
• someone has a Star Pendant, if you own one.

For a while after this you control Barret on his own. His gun is the key: shoot walls that look cracked, cranes, fans and cages. Nearly every one of them hides something. A wall at the end of the first hallway hides a pile of gil; a crane drops a walkway to a chest; the next hallway has another wall to break if you go north first.

Once you have company again, there are three fans by a staircase. The middle one is the way on. The left one has a chest. Then, before and at the top of the stairs, three cages — shoot all three. One of them holds Warding Materia, which is worth having.

Before the last fight

On the main path you reach a bench and a vending machine. The machine sells a music disc for 50 gil; buy it. Then heal, set your ice, and save.

There is a room fight with waves of fast enemies first; block and dodge more than you think you need to, and use Barret on anything up high. The big fight after it is weak to ice and not much else. Break the parts it attacks with to open it up, then hit it hard with ice and limit breaks. When it charges something big, get behind cover.

Game Notes

The first half of this chapter is the game giving you a breather and a shopping trip at the same time. Use it. Sector 5 has more for sale than anywhere you have been, and each of the two discs in this chapter is sold by one vendor only, on the path.

The second half is a Barret chapter in all but name. He has had support roles so far; here he carries the whole level for a while, and the level is built around his gun. If he has not had good materia until now, give him some.

Ice is the answer to almost everything you meet here. Two casters is the minimum.

How this page was made

Researched across 4 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here.

How we decide what to print

Completionist mode. Full spoilers, in play order, with every permanent loss called out before you reach it. 2 entries below are marked where our sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

Spoilers from here.

The plate is down. Cloud and Tifa dig Barret out of the rubble, learn at Aerith’s house that she went with Shinra’s agents to keep Marlene safe, and go back to what is left of Sector 7 to look for their friends. Under the ruins of Seventh Heaven, Wedge’s cat leads them to a Shinra test site, where they find Wedge alive and evidence of experiments on people.

There are no side quests. The chapter is a resupply run followed by a sealed dungeon.

What closes

• Going down into the test site. Following the cat into the underground facility is one-way until the chapter ends. Wall Market, the Sector 5 shops and the Evergreen Park vendor are all behind you from that point.
• Music Disc: 15. On Our Way — 50 gil from the item vendor in Evergreen Park. Buy it on the way through.
• Music Disc: 14. Main Theme of FFVII — 50 gil from the vending machine by the bench before the boss. No other shop sells it.
• The test-site chests and cages. Everything underground is gone once you carry Wedge out. Chapter Select gets it back.
• Mythical Amulet — in the upstairs bedroom at Aerith’s house. Take it when the objective sends you up to see Marlene.

Everything, in order

Through the Rubble. Crawl under the debris, help Tifa shift the rubble, and find Barret. The route north runs through Wall Market, shops open. Any Wall Market chest you left in Chapter 9 is still there to take, the Star Pendant in the building at the back of the loop north of town among them. They stay on Chapter 9’s list.

Gift of Hope. The Sector 5 slums with everything open: the weapon store (which now sells the Magician’s Bracelet and Heavy-Duty Bracer you could have stolen in Chapter 12), the item and materia shops, and the Moogle Emporium. Discs you passed in Chapter 8 are still on sale: 19. Costa del Sol at the materia shop, 21. Cait Sith’s Theme at the station vending machine, 20. Gold Saucer from the moogle. Go to Aerith’s house and upstairs. The chest in the bedroom is the Mythical Amulet, an accessory that boosts summons.

Checking on Friends. Squeeze through the collapsed tunnel. In the side tunnel straight after: Mega-Potion. Smoggers, Sweeper Prototypes and bandits on the expressway. After the Smogger fight and the ladder, a side hallway: Heavy-Duty Bracer. End of a side path after the second bandit group: Ether. After the named bandit trio and their large companion, on the left before the ladder: Orb of Gravity.

The new monsters here are Ringmaw (a gorger that heals itself and buffs as the fight goes on) and Varghidpolis. Both are weak to ice.

Evergreen Park. The Sector 7 survivors have made a camp around the playground. The item vendor sells On Our Way. Take the underground passage beneath the playground.

Crawling to the Surface / Home Is Where the Heart Is. Up into the ruins, to what is left of Seventh Heaven, where Wedge’s cat leads the party into a facility below. The floor gives way.

In Solitude. Barret alone, shooting his way through. Bugaboo swarms, and Shinra boxes in the hallway that can drop Moogle Medals.

• Past the Bugaboos, shoot out the wall at the end of the hallway: 2,000 gil. One guide says 1,000; it is 2,000.
• Up the ladder, left, shoot the crane to drop a walkway: Mega-Potion x2.
• Next hallway, north first, break the wall: Healing Carcanet. One guide calls it a “Choker”.
• South round, shoot the fan, continue.

Reunite with Tifa. Shoot the crane to burn the bugaboo nest, then join Tifa. At the three fans by the stairs, right leads to Shinra boxes, left to an Ether, and the middle is the way on (two Bloodhounds). Shoot the cages before the stairs: Ice Materia on the right, Turbo Ether on the left. The cage up the stairs holds Warding Materia — on a replay where you already own it, a Healing Materia instead.

Ladder, two Monodrives and a Cutter, then a bench and a vending machine with Main Theme of FFVII.

Finding Wedge. Three waves of Unknown Entities in one room, then the Failed Experiment.

Beyond the Fracture / Return. Cloud rejoins. As Barret, shoot the wall and go into the hole for a look at Shinra’s experiments before something chases you out. Carry Wedge to the surface; the chapter ends there with Broken Dreams.

Bosses

Unknown Entities — three waves in a single room. They swarm; block and dodge a lot. Ice is the safe pick; lightning when they bunch up. Use Barret on the ones perched high.

Failed Experiment — weak to ice. Melee barely moves its stagger. Barret starts below while Tifa clears small fry on a platform; then she drops down and the boss starts grabbing Unknown Entities and throwing them. Break its appendages with Barret’s focused shots and Overcharge to expose the weak point, then unload Blizzara or Blizzaga, Shiva and limit breaks. Get behind a container for Plasma Discharge. It poisons — a Star Pendant makes you immune. Set Ice with Elemental in Tifa’s and Barret’s weapons. Steal: Poison Materia.

The chests

Chest	Where
Mythical Amulet	Aerith’s house, upstairs bedroom
Mega-Potion	Side tunnel after the squeeze
Heavy-Duty Bracer	Side hallway after the Smogger fight and ladder
Ether	End of a side path after the second bandit group
Orb of Gravity	Left, after the bandit trio, before the ladder
2,000 gil	Breakable wall, end of Barret’s first hallway
Mega-Potion x2	Walkway dropped by shooting the crane
Healing Carcanet	North branch, behind a breakable wall
Ether	Left fan passage at the stairs
Ice Materia	Right cage before the stairs
Turbo Ether	Left cage before the stairs
Warding Materia	Cage at the top of the stairs

Chapter 14 sends you back along the expressway, so the four chests there are not flagged as missable.

Hard mode

• Sharpshooter’s Companion Vol. VIII — the Failed Experiment. It runs longer and hits harder; Barrier for Manawall and Revival on standby are not optional.

Game Notes

Chapter 13 is the Remake’s best piece of pacing. After the pillar it gives you a long, quiet walk through places you know, with the shops open and nothing pushing you, and it is right to. You need the walk as much as the party does.

Then it turns into a Barret level. The test site is built around his gun — cranes, fans, cages and cracked walls — and it is the first time the game lets him carry an area on his own. The Failed Experiment is a good test of whether you have been using his Overcharge or just holding the trigger.

Wedge walking out of this chapter is a departure from the 1997 original, and the Remake hands it to you as a dungeon objective rather than a cutscene. You earn it with Barret’s gun, which is the right way round.

How this page was made

Researched across 8 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here. 2 are marked where sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

How we decide what to print