Chapter 12: Fight for Survival

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 is short on exploring and long on fighting. There is very little to find and nothing to buy that you cannot buy later. Your job is to arrive at each fight ready for it.

Before the climb

Early on there is a fight you are not expected to win outright. Thin out the small enemies and the large one becomes vulnerable; when it shields itself, go back to the small ones. The game moves on by itself.

At the foot of the climb there is a bench and a vending machine. This is the save-and-heal point that matters. For a good stretch after it, Cloud fights without anyone beside him, so set him up to stand on his own:

• Healing or Chakra — he is his own medic now.
• Wind, if you have it. It is the most useful element in the chapter.
• Lightning for machines and turrets.
• Fire, linked to Elemental or Magnify if you have spares.

Save on the bench before you start up.

The climb

The climb goes floor by floor, with fights on most of them. Shinra boxes along the way restore MP, so break them. The soldiers who fly are weak to wind and drop quickly once you hit them while they are in the air.

There are only three chests, and all three sit on the round walkways that wrap the central column. On the first ring with enemies, walk round behind the column; opening that chest starts a fight with two machines, so be ready. On the floor where the flying soldiers first show up, circle to the far side for the second. The third is on the floor with two turrets: take the turrets down and follow the walkway round past them before going up.

Partway through, the game takes you somewhere quieter for a while. There is no fighting there and nothing to pick up. Just follow the marker.

The top

Two floors above the third chest there is a second bench and vending machine. Heal, restock and save here. What follows is the hardest fight in the chapter.

The game hands you a menu just before it begins. Use it to set up whoever is with you. Wind is the best thing you can bring. Lightning is the worst; one of your opponents barely notices it, and magic in general does little to stagger him. Guard, counter, and save your spells for the one wind hurts. Watch for anything that traps one of your party and break it.

Game Notes

This is the most purely mechanical chapter in the game. The level is a single column you climb from bottom to top, and almost nothing on it is optional: three chests, two benches, and a lot of fights stacked on top of each other.

Treat the solo stretch as a skills test. If Cloud has been coasting on his friends doing the healing, this is where you find out, and the fix is simple: give him a way to heal himself before you go up.

Nothing you can buy, find or steal here is exclusive to this chapter, so spend freely at both vending machines. Gil is for using.

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. 1 entries below are marked where our sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

Spoilers from here.

This is the chapter the original game is remembered for. Shinra drops the Sector 7 plate, Avalanche fails to stop it, and Jessie, Biggs and Wedge are all hurt or lost on the way up. As a checklist, it is almost empty.

What closes

Nothing in this chapter is exclusive. The three chests replay on Chapter Select, and both boss steals are sold by the Sector 5 weapon store from Chapter 13. What goes is the old Sector 7 slums themselves: after this chapter they no longer exist on this playthrough. Their side quests and shops closed back in Chapters 3 and 4, but if you were telling yourself you would return for something, the only way back now is Chapter Select.

In order

Head for the Pillar — Cloud, Tifa and Aerith leave the station and follow the shadowy figures. The fight with the Enigmatic Spectre and its swarm is a set piece: killing the lesser spectres puts the big one into Pressured, it shields itself partway through, and the battle ends on a cutscene whether or not you finish it. Wedge is down; Aerith and Tifa stay with him and Cloud goes up alone.

Link Up with Avalanche — at the base of the pillar, a bench and a vending machine with the full accessory line plus Subversion and Deadly Dodge Materia. Set Cloud up to solo: healing, Fire with Elemental or Magnify, Lightning for machines, Wind for the Helitroopers.

The lower floors throw Elite Security Officers, a Sentry Gun, Elite Riot Troopers and an Elite Grenadier at you. Shinra boxes restore MP. On the first catwalk ring with enemies, go behind the central column for Orb of Gravity x2 — the chest sets off two Slug-Rays. A floor up, Biggs is slumped and badly hurt; he sends Cloud on. Helitroopers arrive after the ladder (wind, and they stagger fast while airborne). The Ether is on the opposite side of the column on that floor. Climb the back ladders until the Turks’ chopper spots Cloud.

Evacuation Orders / The Rescue / Saving Marlene — control switches to Aerith on the ground. Follow Wedge, tell residents to get out, take Betty to Marle, carry a child into the tunnel, detour round the crashed chopper by the alley on the right, and find Marlene hiding behind the bar in Seventh Heaven. Tseng lands outside, and Aerith trades her own freedom for Marlene’s. There are no pickups in this section.

To the Top — Cloud and Tifa. Duck under wreckage to dodge chopper fire. Two Elite Riot Troopers, then Riot Troopers with a Helitrooper and a Grenadier, then an Elite Shock Trooper with two turrets and two Helitroopers. Lightning for the turrets. On that turret floor, follow the round walkway past the turrets for the Elixir. Ramp and stairs up two floors to the second bench and vending machine (same stock plus Mega-Potion). Just short of the top, Cloud and Tifa lose Jessie in front of them.

Showdown — Cloud reaches Barret, and a menu prompt mid-cutscene lets you set him up. Then Reno and Rude. Afterwards the plate is released anyway, and Find a way to escape is a short timed run around the outer edge of the pillar to Tifa. One guide gives the limit as 30 seconds. Reaching her ends the chapter and earns The Collapse.

The boss: Reno and Rude

Reno fights on the platform while Rude strafes it from the chopper; stay off the middle. Partway through Reno’s health — guides say anywhere from two-thirds to a half — the game wants Barret shooting the chopper. Once it crashes, Rude joins on foot.

• Reno — heavy lightning resistance, and magic barely builds his stagger. Guard, Punisher counters, focused abilities. His Pyramid traps an ally; switch to someone else and break it. Steal: Magician’s Bracelet.
• Rude — weak to wind, resists fire, so Ifrit is wasted. Aero staggers him quickly. His ground slams hit several people at once. Steal: Heavy-Duty Bracer. One guide calls this a “Blade Bracelet”, which is not an item in the game.

Neither is immune to Poison. Both are immune to Silence, Slow and Berserk.

The three chests

Chest	Where
Orb of Gravity x2	First catwalk ring with enemies, behind the central column (Slug-Ray ambush)
Ether	Helitrooper floor, far side of the column
Elixir	Turret floor, round walkway past the turrets

Guides disagree on floor numbers by one for the first two. Go by the landmarks.

There are no music discs, no Moogle Medal chests and no side quests in this chapter. Shinra boxes can drop medals at random.

Hard mode

• Sharpshooter’s Companion Vol. VII — Reno and Rude. Counterstance on Cloud earns its slot; one guide runs Barret as the healer for the whole fight.

Game Notes

The original Chapter 12 was a few screens of stairs and a boss. The Remake turns it into a full chapter with three perspectives, and the one that works best is Aerith’s: no combat, just a woman walking through a district in panic, and the chapter’s biggest decision made off a battle screen.

Mechanically, the pillar is fine and not more than that. The floors blur into one another, and the solo stretch is the only part that asks anything of you. Reno and Rude are a good fight, though, because they are a pair that wants two answers at once: patience against Reno, wind against Rude.

As a completionist, there is nothing to worry about here. As a player, this is the chapter to let wash over you the first time and come back to later.

How this page was made

Researched across 7 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here. 1 is marked where sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

How we decide what to print