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Chapter Seven of Final Fantasy VII Remake finally sees us head into Mako Reactor 5. Let's hope this one goes more smoothly than our first mission...
After Biggs secured us a route into Mako Reactor 5, Cloud, Tifa and Barret are currently in Mako Reactor B1.
Head all the way around the platform and Tifa will find some pipes to slide down, leading you to B4.
B4:
- 1 [Treasure Chest] - Hi Potion x3
If you go behind the pipe you just slid down, you can open Treasure Chest (1) to find 3 Hi Potions.
Barret points out a large mech- we might be seeing him a little later on.
Follow the path down towards Mako Reactor 5 and you'll be greeted by several Monodrive mobs.
B5
- 2 [Treasure Chest] - Bottle Of Mist x2
- 3 [Treasure Chest] - Ether
Take the ladder down to B5. Open Treasure Chest (2) and (3) whilst taking care of a bunch of Slug-Rays. Then take the ladder further down to B6.
Here you'll be greeted by two Sweepers; it's weak to Lightning Materia so send some Thunder spells its way. From B6 climb down to B7.
B7
- 4 [Treasure Chest] - Bulletproof Vest.
Pick up Treasure Chest (4) and then head down to the Reactor Core.
Upon reaching the Core, Cloud will have a flashback of Tifa crouching over a body. If you've ever played the original, you'll know what this scene is all about.
Once you've placed the bomb, head back to the ladder you came down from. Unfortunately, you are then interrupted by Heidegger.
He mentions he has a new weapon to hunt you down with, but it still needs some time to be prepared. I think we know what is coming!
The door in the Reactor Core will open and you'll have to deal with some Elite Shock Troopers; they're weak to Fire so once you get your hits in, use that. At this point, you should have learned the Fira Materia spell too.
Shinra Assembly Plant
The next part of the chapter requires you to make a few choices.
You'll come to a room with several Shinra guards- dispose of them and you'll find a terminal in the room that allows you to use a Keycard to remove "M-Units".
You can find the Keycard sitting on a unit in the middle of the room.
Each Keycard that you find will allow you to weaken part of the Airbuster Boss you're going to face. There are three possibilities:
- M-Units - Gives you various rewards in the form of items from the Disposal Room
- Big Bomber Shells - Removes the Airbuster's ability to use Big Bomber moves.
- AI Programming Cores - Slows down the Airbuster and reduces it's tactical skills.
You won't be able to find enough Keycards to reduce all of these to 0. So pick whichever you find will be the most useful. We removed all the M-Units and one of Big Bomber and two of AI Programming Cores.
You use the Keycards at the terminal in the middle of the room to dispose of the cores.
Once you've used your Keycard, head to the console to open the door and carry on going up.
Mako Reactor 5 - B7
Before you reach the next room, you'll have to take out some Sentry Ray Guns and Monodrive monsters. Head into the B7 room and you can find another Keycard (6) to remove either Big Bombers or AI Programming Cores. You can also find some Lightning Materia (5) in the corner of the room.
Head out of the room as Barret does a speech to those watching; take out the Shock Troopers and you can find another Keycard (7) in the corner of this room.
Head now up to B6, dispatch the Shinra Guards and pick up the keycard on the unit. Choose from the three cores to dispose of and head up to B5.
At B5, you can find a purple glowing Treasure Chest (8) containing a pair of Sonic Strikes for Tifa to equip. Enter the control room of B5 and take out the guards. There are two keycards in this room; one on a box/unit (10) and another in the corner of the room (9).
Head now up to B4.
You'll come to the area you were at the start of the level, but you can no longer go down to the reactor. Instead, use the console to open the door and head up to find the Airbuster still being prepared by Shinra Guards. You'll be greeted by Riot Troopers, who are weak to Fire Materia.
Unfortunately, you'll be too late to stop the Airbuster from deploying. You'll then be interrupted by a Cutter mech; use Thunder magic to take out it's arms and disable it.
Then head up the stairs to B3, where you can find a Treasure Chest containing an Ether. Head further up to B2 and take out some Monodrives. Then up the stairs to B1 and use the Elevator to go up to the Front Gate.
Front Gate
You'll arrive in a room that is locked down. You will need to activate it using a simple mini-game that requires timing the switches. Tifa leads the count and you'll need to move the switches in the direction it says on the computer screens.
You can complete the Discovery Quest "Waste Recovery" at the same time to get your rewards from disposing any M-Units.
Head through the security door you just unlocked and you'll find a Vending Machine and a Rest point to recover your health. Here you can purchase Music Disc #2 - Bombing Mission for 50 Gil.
Head out the Front Gate to be rudely interrupted by President Shinra.
Boss Fight - Airbuster
Phase one of the Airbuster is pretty easy. Cloud is in the front and Tifa and Barret are behind. Just pummel away at the boss until you take off about 20% of it's HP.
In the second phase, the Airbuster goes to the middle of the map and will launch a powerful Tankbuster attack. You can dodge this by running to the sides of the map. If you get hit, you'll take over a 1,000 HP in damage.
Once the tankbuster move finishes, pile in on the boss and start damaging. It will use it's Divide and Conquer move, where two arms will appear at either end of the map.
Focus on one of these arms. At this point you should have Summoning Magic ready to be used to help you out also. Once one of the arms is destroyed, the other returns to the boss in the middle.
Keep damaging the Airbuster until you get to <50% health. This will switch the fight so that it cannot be attacked by Tifa or Cloud, so switch to Barret and start unleashing Charge attacks as often as possible. Have Cloud and Tifa use Cure spells if they have any ATB charged.
Airbuster will launch several electric shock attacks towards you, which if hit, will keep you stunned. It can also use its Big Bomber move, which might be less effective if you removed the Big Bomber cores.
The Airbuster will occasionally drift to the bridge, allowing Tifa and Cloud to get some hits in. Switch to either and start pummeling away at the boss.
When it gets to it's last 20% of health, it'll fly away and unleash Tankbuster again. Try and move to one side of the map so the other players in your party are out of the way and then heal up once you've tanked the damage. You can also cast Barrier Magic to help tank this move.
Make the most of using your Limit Break attacks in this phase of the fight to take the Airbuster down once and for all.
Check out the video below for more help on taking out Airbuster:
Rewards: Titanium Bangle
The Airbuster will explode and leave Cloud hanging on for life.
This wraps up Chapter Seven of Final Fantasy VII Remake Walkthrough. Let us know how you faired against the Airbuster boss. I like to think this boss marks one third of the way through the game.
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