Chapter 9: The Town That Never Sleeps

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 is the biggest chapter in the game for things to do that are not the story. It starts as a walk down a wrecked road and ends in a town that wants something from everyone who walks into it. Give yourself time here.

The broken expressway

Cloud and Aerith work this stretch as a pair. Aerith is the caster; Cloud does the close-up work. Slot fire, ice and lightning before you set off, and wind if you have it: the horse-like things on this road hate ice, the flying ones hate wind, the cleaning robots hate lightning, and the people who jump you hate fire.

The road is a string of small puzzles with robotic arms, where you lift one person to a ledge so they can drop a ladder for the other. Every arm has something on the side. At the second and third puzzles, look for a glowing orb within reach of where the arm can put Aerith — both are materia, and the second one, Magnify, is rare. Hang on to it.

There are chests off the path too: a tunnel right beside the first ladder that you have to double back for, a pipe at the bottom of a slope, and a dead end under the first console (two gas clouds drop in on the way back out). At the dead end with a bench, the vending machine sells a music disc for 50 gil.

When the road ends in a small park, check the back-left corner before you walk on.

Wall Market

You will know when you get there.

Talk to everyone. Several people ask you small questions on the way in, and your answers quietly decide which odd jobs you are offered later in the chapter. Neither set is better than the other, nothing is lost for good, and you can replay the chapter after the credits to see the other one. If you would rather choose than drift, answer every question in the same spirit — the complete tab has the full list.

There is a free music disc from the jukebox by the inn, and chests at the end of the alley past it, in a dead end on the left side of town you have to duck into, and by the chocobo stable before you even come through the gate. Have 3,000 gil on you when you go to the parlor at the back of town. You do not have to spend it.

The colosseum

Under Wall Market there is a colosseum, and the chapter will send you down there for a run of fights in a row. You can rest and buy between rounds. Thieves show up in more than one of them — kill those first, because they take your gil.

The last opponent is the hard one. It shrugs off sword hits and spends the fight switching which element protects it. Whatever it is guarding, hit it with the opposite: fire against ice, ice against fire, wind against lightning, lightning against wind. Poison works the whole way through. Do not use Ifrit; feeding it the element it is guarding only heals it.

The free time

After the colosseum the game gives you a stretch of free time and a list of errands. This is the window. Every odd job, the gym, the colosseum’s challenge board and Wall Market’s free roam all close when you go back to the marked objective, and the game warns you before it happens.

What to do with it:

• The gym. A squat contest. It is a rhythm game in disguise — follow the button prompts as they fade out. Three tiers, three prizes.
• The odd jobs your earlier answers opened. Do all of them: the last one pays a new staff for Aerith.
• The weapons store sells Hardedge, a new sword for Cloud. Buy it.
• Two free music discs — from the cowgirl on the top floor of the bar on the north side, and from the singer in the karaoke bar across from the gym. The item shop sells a third.
• Chests in the gym’s bathroom, the inn’s first room on the left, up two flights of stairs behind Chadley, and in an abandoned building down the left fork past the north exit. That last one is a Star Pendant; wear it.
• The colosseum’s challenge board opens too. Short solo runs that pay out limit-break manuals.

Before you go back, shop. The next chapter opens with a hard fight and no store before it. Buy Phoenix Downs and antidotes, keep fire materia levelled, and keep that Star Pendant on someone.

Later in the chapter

At one point the game hands you a rhythm sequence with a practice round first. Get every prompt right in practice and you get a music disc — you can redo practice as many times as you like. Then save before the real thing: the real run is one-shot, and a good score earns a gift and a trophy.

Inside the big house at the end, check every room. One rug hides a door.

Game Notes

Wall Market is the Remake at its most confident. The original gave this town a handful of screens and a run of jokes; the Remake builds it out into a whole neon district with its own economy, its own pecking order and its own rules, and then lets you play inside it for a couple of hours.

It is also the chapter where the game stops pretending your choices are cosmetic. They mostly are — but the town keeps a quiet tally of how you talk to people, and it changes what you are offered. That is a small thing, done well.

Do not rush it. There is nothing urgent about this chapter until the very end, and the end is better for having spent the time.

How this page was made

Researched across 5 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. 9 entries below are marked where our sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

Spoilers from here.

Chapter 9 is the completionist chapter. It has more optional content than any other, a hidden route split that most first-time players never notice, and the payoff of choices you made in Chapters 3 and 8. Nothing in it is lost forever — Chapter Select replays the whole thing — but a first run sees roughly half of it, by design.

The deadlines

Returning to Madam M’s parlor for Aerith is the big one. It ends the free roam that follows the Corneo Cup. Every side quest, the squats, the colosseum challenge board and Wall Market’s free roam close behind it, and Cloud’s dress is fixed at that moment. The game puts up a warning first.

Three smaller ones:

• Dance practice. All ten prompts “Great” in practice earns Let the Battles Begin! -REMAKE-. You can repeat practice on the spot, but once the real performance starts the chance is gone.
• The real performance with Andrea is one attempt. A good score earns Andrea’s Earrings and the Dancing Queen trophy. Save before it.
• Following Johnny when he sprints past you early on is the only way to see the Vagabond Johnny discovery.

Farm Boy, The Midgar Blues and the -REMAKE- disc exist only in this chapter. Aerith’s two colosseum challenges exist only in this chapter, because she is not in the party the next time Wall Market opens.

The route split

Chapter 9 has five side quests and one run gets three. Burning Thighs is on both routes. The other four come as two exclusive pairs:

Route	Quests	Cloud’s dress	Hard-only Manuscripts
Chocobo Sam	The Party Never Stops, A Dynamite Body	blue	Swordplay Vol. X
Madam M	The Price of Thievery, Shears’ Counterattack	white	Swordplay Vols. VIII and IX
Neither finished	—	black (default)	—

Which route you get is decided by a hidden tally of answers you give between the Wall Market gate and the end of the Corneo Cup. The majority wins. The consensus list:

Moment	Leans Sam	Leans Madam M
Describing Tifa to Sam at the stable	“She’s in great shape.”	“She’s great at handling the books.”
The hotel tout at the inn	“…No, thanks.”	“…How much?”
Vagabond Johnny	follow him, answer “Yeah”	ignore him, or answer “No”
Sam’s coin toss	call Heads or Tails	“No deal”
Madam M’s hand massage	Poor Man’s Course (100 gil)	Luxury Course (3,000 gil)
Aerith asks about her outfit	“It’s alright.”	“Does it matter what I think?”
Johnny’s bottle in the colosseum waiting room	“I’ll taste it”	leave it

The third description of Tifa (“great fighter”) is neutral in one guide’s reading. The Standard Course (1,000 gil) is neutral in one guide and counts for Madam M in another. One widely used guide prints a Sam recipe that includes “…How much?” and “No deal” — the opposite of four other guides — and a fifth that tested the logic could not fully pin it down. The practical answer is to pick a side and give every answer for it. Seven out of seven is not ambiguous.

Two of those answers also nudge affection for a later scene: the hotel tout toward Aerith, the description of Tifa toward Tifa. “It’s alright” raises Aerith; “Does it matter what I think?” lowers her.

Both routes’ final quests pay the same weapon, the Arcane Scepter, so Aerith gets it either way. Best in the Business (all 26 side quests) needs a second pass through this chapter on the other route.

The nine dresses

Character	Decided in	What decides it	Outcomes
Tifa	Chapter 3	her question in Alone at Last	“mature” or no scene → default (blue); “sporty” → cheongsam-style; “exotic” → short black kimono-style
Aerith	Chapter 8	Chapter 8 side quests completed	0–2 → simple pink; 3–5 → longer pink; all 6 → red
Cloud	Chapter 9	which route’s jobs you finish before the parlor	Sam’s set → blue; Madam M’s set → white; neither → black (default)

Guides describe the dresses by look rather than name, and they do not agree on all of them: one calls Tifa’s default purple, and one swaps her sporty and exotic looks. Most count Burning Thighs as part of both of Cloud’s sets; one says only the route pair decides. Finish all three of your route’s jobs and the question never comes up.

Snappy Dresser comes with any first clear of the chapter. Dressed to the Nines wants all nine, and only counts a dress once Chapter 9 is finished with it. A replayed Chapter 3 or Chapter 8 only changes what you see if you play that chapter through to its end, then replay Chapter 9. The efficient plan is three passes:

1. Tifa sporty, Aerith all six quests, Cloud on Sam’s route.
2. Tifa mature (skip Alone at Last), Aerith no quests, Cloud with no Chapter 9 jobs.
3. Tifa exotic, Aerith three to five quests, Cloud on Madam M’s route.

Fold one of those into your Hard run and you only need two extra.

Everything else, in order

The collapsed expressway. Cloud and Aerith alone. Terpsicolts are weak to ice, Lesser Drakes to wind, the Sweeper Prototypes to lightning. In order: Moogle Medal in the tunnel beside the first ladder (double back for it); Hi-Potion x2 at the bottom of the ladder past the first Sweeper Prototype; 1,000 gil in the pipe after the two Terpsicolts, down the slope to the left; Mega-Potion at the dead end under the first arm console, with two Smoggers waiting on the way back. At the second arm puzzle, set a crate beside the wooden walkway and Aerith collects Binding Materia. At the dead end with the bench, the vending machine sells Cosmo Canyon for 50 gil.

Beck’s Badasses — Beck, Butch and Burke — are the expressway’s forced fight. Fire. They lay shock mines and steal gil from anyone they stun. After them come Bandits that steal items, and the two-arm puzzle where Aerith picks up Magnify Materia. A save that already owns it gets Healing Materia here instead. It is the first Magnify the game gives you, and Magnify + Healing is the link Hard mode is built around.

Evergreen Park. Ether down the narrow path in the back-left corner. Tifa’s carriage passes here, wearing the dress Chapter 3 gave her.

Wall Market, arriving. Phoenix Down at the end of the alley by Sam’s stable. Under the Rotting Pizza free from the jukebox beside the inn, and Celeris up the short steps at the end of that alley. Barrier Materia in the left-side dead end you duck into, by the stairs Johnny runs past. At the mansion door, 1,200 gil at the top of the steps on the right — one guide places it in an alley near the item shop instead — and an Ether round the left corner.

Leslie will not let you in without a letter from one of the Trio. Sam’s coin toss is rigged — “No deal” exposes it and gets you Sam’s Coin. Andrea will not see you without an appointment. Madam M’s hand massage costs 100, 1,000 or 3,000 gil, and afterwards she hands over Madam M’s Requests and the Tournament Entry Form.

The Corneo Cup. See the bosses below. Afterwards Madam M writes Aerith’s letter and keeps her behind to be dressed, and the free time starts.

Free time. This is the side-quest window. Also in it:

• Weapons store: Hardedge for Cloud, plus Mythril Armlet, Headband, Star Pendant and Revival Earrings. The materia shop adds Binding.
• Item shop: Honeybee Inn disc, 50 gil.
• Farm Boy from the cowgirl by the gramophone on the bar’s top floor, north side. The Midgar Blues from the karaoke singer across from the gym. Both free, both only in this chapter.
• Headband in the gym’s bathroom. Elixir up two flights of stairs behind Chadley. Adrenaline in the inn, first room on the left. Star Pendant in the abandoned building down the left fork past the north exit.
• Chadley is in Wall Market for Battle Intel hand-ins.

After the parlor. Johnny panics, Leslie still says no, and Madam M’s Endorsement is not enough on its own. Aerith’s plan takes you to the Honeybee Inn: Johnny’s father is in the room on the left, with a Sedative behind him. Then the dance — practice for the disc, the real thing for Andrea’s Earrings — and Andrea’s Endorsement, which, with Madam M’s, finally gets you through Leslie.

Corneo’s mansion. The upstairs waiting room has Don’s Vending Machine (Don of the Slums, 50 gil) and a Turbo Ether in the back corner. After the audition you play as Aerith, with Tifa: Molotov Cocktail on the left of the first room, and an Otherworldly Crystal behind a hidden door you open by interacting with the carpet on the right. The lackeys in the main hall can pickpocket up to 500 gil; once they are down, squeeze under the stairs for the Fury Ring. Corneo’s bedroom and the trapdoor end the chapter, and Never the Bride pops.

The Otherworldly Crystal’s chest can also be reached through the mansion later in the game. The Turbo Ether, Molotov and Fury Ring cannot.

The side quests

Quest	Route	Giver	What you do	Reward
Burning Thighs	both	Jules, the gym	beat Ronnie at squats	Mega-Potion x3; more for the higher tiers
The Party Never Stops	Sam	clothing-store owner’s son	fetch chain across town to sober up his father	Turbo Ether
A Dynamite Body	Sam	Chocobo Sam	Cloud solo vs. two Bombs	Arcane Scepter
The Price of Thievery	Madam M	Mireille	hunt Beck’s gang in the expressway	Turbo Ether + Real Calling Card
Shears’ Counterattack	Madam M	colosseum gatekeeper	Cloud solo vs. the Jury-Rigged Cutter	Arcane Scepter

Burning Thighs. Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square in time with Cloud’s squats; the prompts fade as the pace rises and the higher tiers add Cross-mash stops. Trainee vs. Ronnie pays Mega-Potion x3, Amateur vs. Jay pays Luck Up Materia, Pro vs. Jules pays the Champion Belt; all three is Sultan of Squat. One guide says each tier opens when you beat the one below, another that the harder tiers come on replays. One names the Pro opponent Andrea.

The Party Never Stops. Drag the father out of the Drunkard’s Den. The materia merchant wants The Sauce from the inn’s vending machine; how many enemy types you have assessed decides how much of its special stock (Vitalabrew, Crimson Spike, The Sauce) it offers, and one guide puts the full set at about thirty, with a Moogle Medal for buying all three. The restaurant owner’s advice question has no wrong answer; your best fire, ice or lightning materia sets the tip — a Remedy at level 2, a Moogle Medal at level 3 — and he gives you the Medicine Voucher. At the pharmacy your Cleansing Materia level decides how many of three deliveries you get: the Bottle of Antiemetic to the Drunkard’s Den bathroom (Sedative), the Deodorizing Tablets to the alley behind the clothing shop (Celeris), the Packets of Antacid to the alley behind the parlor (Big Bomber x3). Then the VIP Card to the father. Johnny tags along for all of it, and it counts for The Johnny Experience.

A Dynamite Body. Unlocks after The Party Never Stops. The Bombs resist fire; use ice, and stop hitting them while they Inflame — they grow and hit harder.

The Price of Thievery. Out through Evergreen Park into the expressway again. Beck’s Badasses plus a Grungy Bandit: slow, weak to fire, grabs party members, and can be robbed of a Champion Belt — the only other one this early. It pays a Turbo Ether along with the card, which half the guides forget.

Shears’ Counterattack. Opens once The Price of Thievery and Burning Thighs are done. The Cutter is slow and hits hard; lightning, and Punisher mode to counter. Madam M is in the stands afterwards and tells you Aerith is ready.

The colosseum challenge board

Open after the Corneo Cup. Five waves each, no items, a partial top-up between waves. A repeat clear pays a Grab Bag.

Challenge	Stars	First clear	Later?
Cloud vs. Wild Animals	1	Legacy: Ascension	yes
Aerith vs. Wild Animals	1	Legacy: Planet’s Protection	Chapter 9 only
Two-Person Team vs. Slum Outlaws	2	Clarity Pendant	yes
Cloud vs. Shinra Thugs	3	The Art of Swordplay Vol. II	yes
Aerith vs. Shinra Thugs	3	Telluric Scriptures Vol. II	Chapter 9 only

Two guides open both Shinra Thugs courses in this chapter; one puts every Shinra Thugs course in Chapter 14, and another says Aerith’s needs a Chapter Select replay. Winning any of them is Returning Champion.

Bosses

Corneo Cup, round one: Beastmaster and two Bloodhounds. Fire on him, ice on the dogs. Late on he drinks something that stops his stagger bar filling — burn your big abilities before that or after it wears off.

Round two: Beck’s Badasses with Corneo’s bandits. Fire again. Kill the thieves before they take anything.

Final: Cutty & Sweepy. A Cutter and a Sweeper, both weak to lightning. Sweeper first, then break the Cutter’s arms.

Bonus match: Hell House. Barely hurt by physical attacks. Barrier Shift changes its element: it absorbs that element and is weak to the opposite one — fire stance, use ice; ice stance, use fire; wind stance, use lightning; lightning stance, use wind. Guides disagree on which window colour means which stance, so read the element, not the colour. It swallows a party member with Hospitality. Partway down — around three-quarters in one guide, half in another — it sprouts limbs and flies in God House Mode; hit the arms, which take double physical damage, and keep Aerith at range. Near the end, Heavensward is always followed by Hellbound; hit the matching weakness right after its next Barrier Shift to cancel it. Do not summon Ifrit or Shiva. Chocobo & Moogle is fine, and Poison works throughout. Steal: Mr. Cuddlesworth. Drop: Fuzzy Wuzzy, about half the time. 650 gil, 650 EXP and 10 AP on Normal.

Side-quest fights. Two Bombs (ice, never during Inflame); Beck’s Badasses with a Grungy Bandit (fire); the Jury-Rigged Cutter (lightning).

Hard mode

Four Manuscripts in this chapter are Hard-only:

• Telluric Scriptures Vol. IX — Hell House. On Hard it opens with three Tonberries whose Chef’s Knife kills outright, and a Cutter and Sweeper join late. Stop works. Put Revival on both characters.
• The Art of Swordplay Vol. VIII — The Price of Thievery.
• The Art of Swordplay Vol. IX — Shears’ Counterattack.
• The Art of Swordplay Vol. X — A Dynamite Body.

VIII and IX are on Madam M’s route and X on Sam’s, so one Hard run of Chapter 9 cannot get all three. Plan a second Hard pass on the other route. On Hard, Hell House pays 2,250 gil, 4,500 EXP and 30 AP.

Game Notes

Most of what this chapter hides, it hides in plain sight. The route split is never announced. The dress you see Tifa wearing was chosen two chapters ago in a conversation that seemed like flavour. Aerith’s was chosen by how many odd jobs you did in Sector 5. There are first-time players who finish the game without realising any of that happened, and that is fine — it is meant to feel like the town reacting, not like a menu.

For a completionist, it means Chapter 9 is the one you will replay most. Three dresses for each of three characters, two route pairs, a Hard Manuscript set that cannot be finished in one pass, and two Aerith colosseum manuals that only exist here. Plan the replays together and it is three trips, not nine.

The audition itself is the best-staged scene in the game’s first half, and it works because the chapter spent two hours making Wall Market feel like a real place with real opinions about Cloud. The dresses are a joke. The town is not.

How this page was made

Researched across 8 community walkthroughs and written from scratch — no source’s wording appears here. 9 are marked where sources disagree with each other — we have not picked a winner for you.

How we decide what to print