Chapter 6: Light the Way

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 one is a puzzle box. You are inside the plate, the machinery is short of power, and the only way to get more is to switch off the giant sun lamps that light the slums below. Every lamp you kill wakes up something else: a gate, a console, a platform. If you are ever stuck, look for the nearest lamp switch or the nearest console, and one of them will be the answer.

It is a shorter chapter than the last two. Take your time with it anyway.

Getting in

There is a vending machine near the start. Stock up, and if you have gil spare, think about armour with more materia slots — this chapter hands you two materia worth slotting.

The first lamp is straightforward. Before you switch it off, look left of the console: there is a chest. There is another one right at the bottom of the first ladder, behind you, and it is easy to walk straight past.

Section G

The catwalks here collapse if you walk straight onto them. Go around. You will see a materia orb on the far side of one of them and no obvious way to it. Leave it. You will reach it from the other side later in the chapter.

Section G is a little maze of stairs and walkways round a central pillar. Two side passages and the top of the ladder round the pillar each have a chest, and the flying bugs that guard them are not worth fearing. Bring ice: the large queen bugs and the spinning dancer machines you meet in this chapter are weak to it. The round floating creatures are weak to lightning and wind, and they can put people to sleep.

Section H

Tifa will point out a red materia behind a huge ventilation fan. You cannot reach it yet. Remember where it is.

Three more lamps in Section H, each powering something new. Read the corners as you go: one chest sits right of the first switch, another is behind the containers after you slide the catwalk all the way across, and a moving walkway has to be lowered fully before you cross it if you want what is on the other end. The orb you saw back in Section G is out here too, at the far end of a platform.

That orb is Elemental Materia, and it is one of the best things in the game. Link it to Ice in a weapon and your attacks hit with ice; link it to Ice in armour and ice stops hurting you. You will move it around for the rest of the game.

Before you ride the platform up

Once two lamps are out, find the small lift west of the big cargo platform. It takes you to a service room with a vending machine selling a music disc — 50 gil, buy it — and a terminal that stops the fans for about a minute.

What follows is a timed run: get through the door, beat the bugs that pour out, and reach a second terminal before the fans start again. If you miss the time, you can try again. Behind the stopped fan is that red materia — a summon — and there is a chest in the fan room too.

Do this before you ride the main platform. Once you take the cargo platform up, the chapter’s exploring is over. Anything you left behind stays behind.

The last lamp has a chest on its catwalk, and on the way back there is one more up a ladder: go right past the vent first.

The ride up

A short defensive fight on the way up against gun turrets. Barret is the one to control here; he can hit them from anywhere.

Game Notes

Light the Way is a good chapter that most people remember as a corridor, which is a little unfair. It is the first time the game asks you to think about a space instead of running through it, and the puzzle is mildly clever: the lights you switch off are the slums’ daylight.

It is also where the materia system stops being a list of spells. Elemental and a summon in one short chapter is a big step up in options, and the fan detour is the game’s way of checking whether you are the sort of player who looks behind things. Be that player. It pays here, and it pays more as the game goes on.

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.

Chapter 6 is linear in shape but not in practice: the sun-lamp puzzle sends you back and forth across Sections G and H, and the most valuable things in it are off the route. No side quests, no Chadley, no boss. Just a chapter’s worth of chests and the second summon in the game.

The one deadline

Riding the powered cargo platform up to meet Biggs ends the chapter’s exploring. Everything below is gone for this run once that lift moves: the fan-room detour with Chocobo & Moogle Materia, Electric de Chocobo and a Hi-Potion, the second Moogle Medal, and any chest you skipped. Chapter Select brings it all back — except that a replay where you already own the Elemental Materia gives Healing Materia from that spot instead.

Everything, in order

Getting in. A vending machine near the start sells the basics. A Hi-Potion sits at the bottom of the first ladder, behind you as you climb down. Potion x3 is left of the console at the first sun lamp; switching that lamp off powers the Section G gate.

Section G. Hazardous Material behind the staircase in G-04, past the Grashtrikes. The catwalks collapse if you walk straight onto them; the orb you can see across one is the Elemental Materia, reached later from Section H. Remedy at the north-west corner of the central pillar in G-08, down the optional left passage. Antidote x2 in G-05, top of the ladder round the pillar.

The ventilation fan. Tifa points out a red materia behind the fan; the way on is the pipe up the wall into Section H.

Section H. Phoenix Down right of the first lamp’s switch in H-02; that lamp brings the security system online. At the console, slide the catwalk fully right, then find the Turbo Ether behind the cargo containers past the gates. The second lamp powers the small platform. Near the collapsed passage and the eastern lift is the first Moogle Medal. Lower the moving walkway all the way before crossing for MP Up Materia — the vending machines sell MP Up as well, so it is a saving rather than a must. Cross the catwalk at the far end of the next platform and go around for the Elemental Materia.

The fan room (after two lamps). The small lift west of the cargo platform goes to a service room. Its vending machine sells 18. Electric de Chocobo for 50 gil — the only place the disc is sold. The terminal there stops the fans for about a minute. Clear the Queen Grashtrike wave, hit the second terminal inside the limit, and walk through the stopped fan to the Chocobo & Moogle Materia (Cleanup Crew trophy). The fan room also holds a Hi-Potion that only one of the main walkthroughs lists. Failing the timer just resets the attempt.

The third lamp. Mesmeric Armlet on the right of the catwalk before you switch it off. With three lamps out, the cargo platform has power.

The plate interior. Up the second ladder, go right past the vent first for the second Moogle Medal.

The cargo platform. Six turrets on the way up; Barret clears them quickest. Biggs hands over the Grappling Gun and Barret’s Light Machine Gun.

Shops

Three vending machines. All of them stock the basic consumables, the common magic materia, Barrier and Deadly Dodge Materia and the usual armour; two of them add HP Up and MP Up Materia, and the service-room one adds the disc.

Fights worth knowing

There is no boss. The fights that matter:

• Queen Grashtrike — weak to ice. Comes with Grashtrikes or Sentry Rays, and leads the fan-room wave. Steal: Spiderweb.
• Terpsicolt — weak to ice. Its spin blocks melee; interrupt it with a spell or Barret’s Overcharge.
• Blugu — weak to lightning and wind. Casts Sleep.
• Cargo-platform turrets — six of them; switch to Barret.

Hard mode

Way of the Fist Vol. VI is the only Manuscript in this chapter, and it is not a fight reward: it sits in a chest in the ventilation area by the Chocobo & Moogle Materia that only holds the book on Hard. Guides disagree on how it works — one says it replaces the summon materia if you never took that, another that it has its own chest nearby. It has its own chest. A repeat visit gives a Potion.

Game Notes

Chapter 6 is quietly one of the Remake’s best bits of world-building. The idea that the slums’ daylight is a row of lamps Shinra switches on and off from inside the plate says more about Midgar than any cutscene, and killing those lamps to steal their power is a small, pointed joke. The game lets you work it out rather than explaining it.

It is also the most efficient chapter in the game for materia. Elemental and Chocobo & Moogle are both permanent members of most builds, and you get them in the same hour. If you are on a Chapter Select hunt, remember the Elemental swap: the second visit pays a Healing Materia, so do not go back for it thinking you missed it.

How this page was made

Researched across 7 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