Chapter 4: Mad Dash

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.

Jessie has a side job and Cloud is the hired help. It is a shorter chapter than the last one, almost entirely on rails, and most of what matters is a handful of fights and two materia.

On the bike

The chapter opens on a motorbike. There is no healing while you ride, so treat your HP as the thing you are protecting: hold guard when anything swings at you, steer out of the way of what is thrown, and use the long-range slash on drones and anything that is keeping its distance.

Finish with Cloud’s bike close to full health and Jessie compliments your riding. That is a trophy. Biggs’s and Wedge’s health do not count, and restarting the battle from the retry menu does not either. If you miss it, Chapter Select gives you another go after the credits, and Easy difficulty is allowed.

The chase ends with a rider who wants a proper fight. Guard his sword waves, weave side to side, and close in when he stops.

Jessie’s errand

Jessie takes you home and asks you to fetch something from inside. Go round the back, find the room, and take the card off the uniform. The letter on the floor is worth a read and nothing more.

Before the plaza gets loud

Biggs and Wedge stop by a wall with a vending machine and a bench. This is the only shop up here and one of the better-stocked ones you have seen. Buy Lightning if you do not already carry it, rest, and then:

• Look in the corner by the table behind the forklift for a chest.
• Go down the nearby stairs to the training area and destroy the turrets for a little gil.

Both close the moment the operation starts.

The plaza and the duel

A long wave fight follows. Kill the grenade-throwers first; they make everything else harder. Two big robots arrive at the end — they are tough against swords and weak to lightning, and this is where the game lets you call a summon for the first time. Do it.

Then a one-on-one duel. Put Fire on Cloud. Stay in Punisher mode and let your guard counter his sword attacks. When he glows, he is about to cast; guard. Later in the fight he starts leaping at you up to three times in a row — roll sideways rather than back.

The way down

On the way out of the residential area, after a door and a flight of stairs, there is a materia orb on the left side of a narrow passage. It is easy to walk past and you do not come back. It is Revival Materia. Equip it.

Back in the slums

Walk Wedge home, then go and collect your fee. You will be given Barrier Materia at the end of that visit.

If you beat the dartboard record in the bar last chapter, Wedge pays up before you leave for the station.

The chapter ends with a hard fight back in town. Physical attacks barely scratch what you are fighting until it is exposed, so bring magic, use it on the small ones first, and lean on Tifa — she breaks things open faster than Cloud.

Before you head to the station, finish your shopping in the slums. The station’s food stand still sells Barret’s Theme, and it is the last chance on this run.

Game Notes

Almost none of Chapter 4 is in the original game. The Remake built it to make you spend an evening with three people the original barely introduced, and it is the strongest argument the Remake has for expanding a story that was already complete.

The bike section is the weakest part and also the shortest. The duel is the first fight in the game that feels like a proper boss — a character with a moveset, a second phase and an opinion of himself — and it is worth learning properly, because the rhythm it teaches (guard, punish, roll sideways from the big one) is the rhythm of most of the game’s bosses.

Do the trophy on the bike if you can. Everything else here, you will get without trying.

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 4 is the Remake’s own invention: the bike chase out of the Corkscrew Tunnel, Jessie’s home in the upper Sector 7 employee housing, the ID-card job, the 7-6 Annex diversion that collides with an Avalanche HQ raid, the parachute jump back down to the slums, and the evening that ends with Jessie hurt in the first Whisper attack and Cloud signed on for the Mako Reactor 5 job.

It shares the Sector 7 slums with Chapter 3. The slum chests, discs and side quests are listed there and are not repeated here; this page covers what is new.

The deadlines

• The bike chase — Biker Boy is earned or not by the time you dismount.
• Starting the annex diversion closes the plaza chest and the turret training.
• Jumping from the plate edge closes the Revival Materia orb.
• Boarding the train at the end closes the Sector 7 slums for this run — the last chance to buy 4. Barret’s Theme at the station food stand, which no later shop stocks.

All of it comes back through Chapter Select.

Biker Boy

Finish the opening chase with Cloud’s bike HP high enough that Jessie praises you. The guides disagree on the line: one says above roughly half, two put it at no more than about a quarter lost, and one wants 80% with no more than two hits that slow you down. Aim for nearly full. Biggs’s and Wedge’s HP do not count. Retry from Last Battle voids it. Easy difficulty is allowed, and Chapter Select brings it back.

Everything, in order

Motor Chase. Shinra bikers, Mobile Unit Officers throwing firebombs, drones, then Roche on his bike. No pickups.

Jessie’s house. Wait round the corner, go in the back, and take the Shinra ID Card from the uniform hanging to the left of Jessie’s father. The letter on the floor gives nothing.

The 7-6 Annex plaza. A vending machine and bench where Biggs and Wedge stop — Hi-Potion, Ether, Healing/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Deadly Dodge Materia and the slum armor range including Revival Earrings. Hi-Potion x2 in the corner by the table behind the forklift (one guide’s table says a single Hi-Potion; it is two). Down the nearby stairs, the turret training pays 100 gil.

A Little Diversion. Waves: Security Officers; Grenadiers, a Riot Trooper and an Elite Security Officer; two missile launchers, a Shock Trooper and an Elite Grenadier; Guard Dogs; then two Sweepers. Kill the Elite Grenadier first. The Sweepers are weak to lightning, and this is the summon tutorial — Ifrit, which Jessie gave you at the end of Chapter 3, can be called here (My First Summon). Then Roche on foot.

The plate edge. After a door and a flight of stairs in the passage out of the residential area: Revival Materia on the left. One guide’s map list puts Barrier Materia here; it is Revival. Shinra crates in the passage give Potions. Then the parachutes.

To Wedge’s place. Walk Wedge home through the slums. One guide places Katie on this route; if her Chapter 3 kill-count rewards are still unclaimed, try her.

Remaining Payment. Jessie gives Cloud Barrier Materia at her place. Her invitation afterwards has no lasting effect whatever you say. Vending machines in Chapter 5 sell Barrier too.

Slum Wisdom. Back to Stargazer Heights and the scene with Tifa.

Sudden Attack. The road to Seventh Heaven is blocked; detour round. Cloud and Tifa fight the Enigmatic Spectre and its Mysterious Spectres. Jessie is injured, and Barret asks Cloud to take her place.

A New Operation. Barret pays 500 gil for taking the job. If you beat Wedge’s darts record in Chapter 3, Wedge hands over Luck Up Materia now — there is no dartboard in this chapter, so a missed record is only fixed by replaying Chapter 3. Last shopping in the slums, then the station.

Bosses

Roche (motorbike). Sword waves, a nose-dip area attack, wall rides, lightning. No healing in the minigame. Guard, weave left and right, close in when he stops, and use the ranged Sharp Gust when he is far. Hard replays can skip the bike sections from the options, which skips this fight too.

Roche (on foot). Weak to fire. Steal: Elixir, which he also drops — Steal Materia only arrives in Chapter 8, so this is a replay steal. He opens by restoring your HP and MP with an Elixir.

• First phase: Relentless Assault, Plunge, Mow Down; magic — Wind Slash, Vacuum Wave, ice mines, Thunder and Thundara. He glows before he casts; guard. He sometimes tires and stands open.
• At about two thirds HP his stagger gauge resets. He dodges and dash-slashes, drops the ordinary spells, and adds Combustion Sword (up to three leaping strikes — roll sideways) and Ignition Flame (a straight fire beam).
• Punisher guard counters his physical attacks. Fire to build stagger, Focused Thrust when he is pressured, Triple Slash or a Limit Break in the stagger.

Enigmatic Spectre + Mysterious Spectres. No weakness. Heavy resistance to physical, magic, fixed and proportional damage; immune to Poison, Silence, Sleep, Slow, Stop and Berserk. It can only really be hurt while exposed. Clear the Mysterious Spectres with magic first, then pile on the Enigmatic Spectre when it is pressured. Tifa builds stagger fastest — Unbridled Strength twice, Rise and Fall, Omnistrike. Two staggers end it. Avoid the black hole on the floor; switch characters to free one caught in the whirlwind.

Hard mode

Two Manuscripts, Hard only:

• The Art of Swordplay Vol. VI — Roche, the on-foot fight.
• Way of the Fist Vol. V — the Enigmatic Spectre at Seventh Heaven.

Each is given once per save; a repeat win pays a substitute. Skipping the bike section on Hard skips only the bike Roche, which carries no Manuscript.

Game Notes

The original game took the party from the slums to the Mako Reactor 5 job in a single train ride. The Remake spends a whole chapter here instead, and nearly all of it is about Jessie, Biggs and Wedge: Jessie’s home and parents, the walk to Wedge’s door, the three of them talking a stranger through a job that is not his. It is the chapter that turns three names into people, which is exactly what the rest of Part 1 needs from it.

The Whisper fight at the end is the first time the game shows its hand about what kind of remake this is. It is also an awkward fight — enemies you cannot properly hurt rarely make good ones — and the advice is the same as for every later Whisper encounter: stop swinging, find what makes it vulnerable, and then commit.

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