Chapter 11: Haunted

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.

A train graveyard at night, three of you, and a lot of things that go bump. None of it punishes you for poking around, and poking around is where the loot is. The chapter only goes forward, so take the side turns as you meet them.

The yard

There is a bench and a vending machine right where you start. Use them, then climb after the others.

Through the first train car, the marker points north. Go east first, to the end of that stretch, for a purple chest. It holds Aerith’s new staff, the Mythril Rod, and its skill is a charged spell that hits hard and builds stagger fast. Equip it.

After the first proper fight, the game wants you up a ladder. Walk east through the train car instead and open the chest there. You will be disappointed by its contents and then mildly unsettled. Back up the ladder, clear the next group and turn left for an HP Up Materia.

The lanky things in the yard are weak to ice.

The maintenance facility

Inside, you start meeting the graveyard’s ghosts. They are weak to fire, and they take turns blocking one kind of damage: when your sword hits stop landing, cast; when your spells bounce back at you, hit them. That habit carries you through the whole chapter.

A friendly light guides you toward the control room. Ignore it for a while. East along the walkway and down the stairs is a chest guarded by a small flying drake (wind). The locker room you skipped on the south side has a side exit with a chest. The left-hand stairs have another one tucked round the side — don’t take the ladder straight away. There is a chest of gil on the walkway before the second staircase, and a Moogle Medal behind the south door near the control room.

Upstairs there is a bench and a vending machine. Buy the music disc from this one. It costs 50 gil and nowhere else in the game sells it.

Then put Fire on Cloud and Tifa — linked to Elemental if you have it — carry a few Echo Mists, and touch the console. The fight that follows is hard to hit with swords half the time; magic carries you through those stretches. If it grabs one of your party, look for the one floating on the opposite side of the room. That is the one to hit.

The way out

With the power back, the rest is a puzzle of moving train cars. Each switch opens a little more of the yard, and the side turns keep paying: left after the crane drops its car, right after the turntable, right again after you climb down from the first car you move. While the turntable turns, waves of everything you have met so far come at you; just hold the middle.

Before the last fight

At the far end of the train cars there is one more bench and vending machine. This is your last stop. Set up:

• Ice on everyone who casts, and Wind if Chadley has sold it to you.
• Headbands on as many people as you can. Sleep is coming.
• Steal Materia on someone. The big fight at the end is carrying a weapon for Aerith, and taking it is the only way to get it.

Attack it from the front. When it takes to the air, hide behind the container in the middle and wait for its reflective shield to drop before casting. When it starts circling and then stops, hit one of its wheels.

Save on the bench before you walk out. The chapter ends shortly after the fight.

Game Notes

Chapter 11 is a corridor that pretends to be a haunted house, and it is better than that sounds. The scares are cheap and the music is great, but the real lesson is mechanical: enemies here switch what they will take from you, and the chapter keeps asking you to notice and switch with them. If your habit so far has been to mash attack and heal, this is where that stops working.

It is also the first place the game leans hard on Aerith as a damage dealer. Give her the new staff, give her the magic, and keep her at the back.

The single gil in a chest is a joke at your expense. Take it anyway. Then go and get the thousand that is waiting in the facility.

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.

Spoilers from here.

Chapter 11 is the Train Graveyard, played as Cloud, Tifa and Aerith, and it is strictly one-way. There are no side quests and no Chadley. Everything worth having is either a chest a few steps off the marker or something you take off the final boss.

What closes

Nothing here is lost for good — Chapter Select replays the chapter after the credits — but three things are easy to lose on this playthrough:

• Music Disc: 6. Let the Battles Begin! Sold for 50 gil by the vending machine next to the bench just before the control room. No other shop in the game stocks it. The machines at the start and at the far end do not.
• Bladed Staff. Aerith’s weapon, and stealing it from Eligor is the only way to get it. Bring Steal Materia to the last bench. One guide puts the rate at about one in four per attempt.
• The facility chests. The Gothic Bangle, the 1,000 gil and the Moogle Medal are all on the facility side, before the Ghoul. Collect them before you touch the control-room console.

Everything, in order

The yard. Bench and vending machine at the start. Through the first train car, go east to the end for the purple chest: Mythril Rod, Aerith’s staff with Ray of Judgment. On a replay where you already own one it gives a Potion. After the first Wererat and Cripshay fight, walk east through the car instead of following Tifa and Aerith up the ladder: 1 gil, followed by some messages from someone who thinks they are funny. Back up the ladder, clear the Cripshays, turn left: HP Up Materia.

Cripshays are weak to ice. Smash the Shinra boxes by the main door.

The maintenance facility. Ghosts from here on: weak to fire, and they alternate between Shield (stops weapon hits; cast) and Reflect (bounces spells; hit them). Possess borrows materia from one of your party for the duration. A friendly ghost opens a train door and leads you toward the control room.

Go east along the walkway and down the stairs instead. A Lesser Drake (wind) guards the Gothic Bangle. The locker rooms spring ghost ambushes, two in the north room and one in the next. The south room you skipped has a side exit with Mega-Potion x2. Take the left stairs and walk round beside them rather than up the ladder: Echo Mist x3. Ladder, walkway, drop, stairs: 1,000 gil on the walkway before the second staircase. Through the south door: Moogle Medal, the only medal chest in the chapter.

Upstairs: bench and vending machine, with Let the Battles Begin! for 50 gil. Slot Fire with Elemental and use the console.

The way out. With the power restored, the console near the first stairs swings the crane and drops a train car. Go back down and through it, left first: two Lesser Drakes and Echo Mist x3. Bench before you go outside.

Throw the switch for the turntable and hold out against waves of Wererats, ghosts and Cripshays while it turns. Across it, go right before the ladder: Hi-Potion. Climb into the car and pull its switch, climb the next and pull that one, climb down and turn right: Mega-Potion x2. A Lesser Drake and a Cerulean Drake follow. Left round the corner moves one last car; climb its side ladder and cross the walkways.

On the far side: the last bench and vending machine. Ice, Wind, Steal, Headbands. Then the open yard, a cutscene, and Eligor. After the fight, follow the marker; arriving in the Sector 7 slums ends the chapter and pops Paranormal Investigator.

Bosses

Ghoul — weak to fire. It shifts between a solid form that takes weapon damage and a ghostly one that physical attacks barely touch, so build stagger with magic in the ghostly phase; it is always solid while staggered. It opens by throwing chairs (block them) and casts Silence, so carry Echo Mist. Its Bound grab holds a party member with a decoy — hit the real Ghoul floating on the opposite side to free them. Near the end it adds purple fire pillars and teleports. Aerith’s Ray of Judgment builds stagger quickly if you can find time to charge it. Steal: Turbo Ether.

Eligor — weak to ice and wind, resistant to weapon damage, and immune to Silence, Sleep and Slow. It does not shrug off Poison or Stop.

• On the ground (Sweeping Gaze, Trample, Reaper): hit the front. The rear takes nothing.
• In the air: it casts Reflect straight away, then Piercing Gaze and Javelin Bolts. Hide behind the container in the middle. Aerith plays ranged; switch to wind once Reflect drops.
• Winds of Gehenna clears the container away, and it begins circling the arena. When it stops, hit a wheel to cripple it for a long stagger, then the other wheel.

It inflicts Sleep and Silence; Headbands are the answer to the first. On Normal it pays 1,200 gil and drops an Echo Mist. Steal: Bladed Staff.

Hard mode

• Telluric Scriptures Vol. X — the Ghoul. Benches restore HP only on Hard, and Eligor is still ahead, so watch your MP and break crates for Mako Shards. Fire with Elemental on Cloud and Tifa.
• Way of the Fist Vol. VIII — Eligor. It puts Reflect on your party, so Cure bounces off you and heals it. Heal with Chakra or Pray instead. Keep Poison on it and cast Stop while it is airborne. A Lustrous Shield keeps sleeping allies from being picked off.

Each Manuscript is given once per save; a repeat win pays a substitute.

Game Notes

Haunted is the Remake’s palate cleanser after the sewers, and it does a lot with very little. The Train Graveyard is one level, eleven chests, two bosses and a gimmick, and the gimmick is good: the ghosts’ Shield/Reflect swap is the first time the game makes you actively read an enemy rather than just its weakness.

The Ghoul is a better fight than its reputation. The chair throwing is silly, but the form-switching asks the same question as the trash ghosts at boss speed, and the decoy grab punishes anyone who tunnels on the nearest target. Eligor is a stagger-puzzle in three acts, and the wheel trick turns a long, annoying fight into a short one.

The thing to remember from this chapter is the shop, not the fights. One vending machine in one room is the only seller of one disc in the whole game. Walk past it on a first run and the only fix is replaying the chapter.

How this page was made

Researched across 7 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here.

How we decide what to print