Northern Cave is a field map in Final Fantasy VII. It is the final dungeon of the game, visited in the final story quest, "The Planet's Judgment". It is home to the most challenging enemies and some of the strongest bosses, including the final boss at its final area, the Planet's Core. Aside from this, the field can be visited for grinding strategies to prepare for facing the superbosses, Ruby Weapon and Emerald Weapon.
Most areas in the Northern Cave are named Inside Northern Cave on the menu.
Layout[]
Reunion Area[]
Northern Cave, first visit.
Visited only during "That Which Waits in the Northernmost Reaches"; all other areas are seen in "The Planet's Judgment".
This area has walls composed of Materia, and is the resting place for Sephiroth, and where Jenova, being controlled by Sephiroth, leads the Sephiroth Clones for the Reunion. The Weapons also rest here.
This part of the cave is only visited once in Part 2. Beneath this area of the cave continues a path down towards the center of the Planet. These parts of the cave are visited as the final dungeon in Part 3.
This area has set enemy formations including the Tonberry. Random encounters here are disabled, and the player never has control of the character in the area, so they are never fought. Thus, Tonberries can only be encountered on the Gold Saucer Battle Square. Another battle exclusive to this area is a battle against a Killbin and two Gremlins, two enemies never otherwise fought together.
Cave Opening[]
A circular path from the mouth of the crater leads into the North Cave beneath the crater where Sephiroth awaits. The long and winding path leaves the party open to many random encounters.
Enemy formations encountered here are of the weaker variety available in this dungeon although the Master Tonberry and Scissors are able to kill party members in a single blow. Gargoyles encountered here can also inflict slow numb on party members and are immune to all attacks until they wake up in the battle and begin to move.
Some of the rock formations will fall as the player steps on them but this will never result in anything negative or damaging and only happens the first time the player visits the area. The player may turn around and leave the dungeon at any time. Should they choose to, they will appear in a small cave near the mouth of the crater opening and can climb out a rigid rock formation appearing on the players right hand side facing the screen, which means this is not a point of no return.
First Descent[]
Spiral descent[]
First descent.
A spiraling path lead down to the Winding Descent area. This is where the Save Crystal is found. You can leave the Northern Cave & return to the Highwind by entering the cave opening at the top of the spiral & climbing the right side of the cave exit up to the Highwind.
Winding descent[]
First descent.
A series of walls that the player must climb down split into two paths. The right path is the shorter one, but provides fewer chests.
Platform descent[]
First descent.
A series of platforms the player must jump down. Cave openings lead into a cavern that loops around to lower parts of the section.
Red passage[]
First descent.
The caves of the Platform Descent.
Horizontal fork[]
First descent fork.
The place where the party splits up. Sending Tifa to the right & Cloud to the left will have her give you the Mystile armor & can be duplicated for a 3rd copy.
Vertical fork[]
Left descent fork.
From the left fork, the place where the party splits up once more. The upper path leads to the Lake Crossing & Path sections, while the lower path leads to the Rocky Descent path.
Up descent[]
Lake crossing[]
Up descent.
The player must enter the water to get through the area. Magic Pots and Movers are only found here and provide great EXP and AP rewards. Master Tonberries, Christophers, and Allemagnes can be found in this section as well. The Shield materia & final Imperial Guard armor is found here as well.
Lake path[]
Up descent.
A continuation of the previous room. Leads to the Light Cavity room.
Light cavity[]
Up descent.
A crater shaped room leading into the Bottom of the Northern Cave. This is where you find the W-Magic & (Command) Counter materia.
Down descent[]
Rocky descent[]
Down descent.
Above mako stream[]
Down descent.
King Behemoths are only found here.
Mako stream[]
Down descent.
The Mega All materia can be found here, floating in the mako waterfall. Since your character automatically jumps from the rock in front of it to either adjacent platform, you must push the OK/Confirm button (Circle) as you land on the platform before you automatically jump again.
Right descent[]
Spiral upper[]
Right descent.
A large spiraling rocky tower that must be descended and leads into the Hatchery area.
Spiral Lower[]
Right descent.
The lower part of the spiral, enemies here are of the weaker variety, but provide several enemy skills.
Hatchery[]
Right descent.
The ruins of several giant hatched eggs can be seen, Malboros, Death Dealers, and Dragon Zombies are found here, the latter being the only enemy to give the powerful Pandora's Box enemy skill.
Spine[]
Right descent.
The spine of an enlarged beast, an orange mako glow is seen beneath the skeleton. This path leads to the Bottom of the Northern Cave.
Bottom of the Northern Cave[]
Bottom.
As named in the menu.
Cloud and his allies gather here before the final battle against Sephiroth. Here, items are obtained. Moving beyond this point is the point of no return. , This room leads into the floating platforms.
Junction[]
Floating Platforms[]
A series of floating platforms the player must hop down that lead into the Planet's Core, every step has a chance of triggering an encounter.
Inside the Planet[]
The player fights Jenova∙SYNTHESIS here.
Planet's Core[]
This is where Sephiroth has reconstructed his new body and where the final battle takes place.
Quests[]
Main scenario[]
The cave is visited very briefly in "That Which Waits in the Northernmost Reaches".
In "The Planet's Judgment", the cave is visited properly for the final dungeon.
Enemy Skills[]
The following E.Skills can be learned from the enemies in the Northern Cave:
- Frog Song from Christopher
- Laser and Dragon Force from Dark Dragon
- Roulette from Death Dealer
- Pandora's Box and Shadow Flare from Dragon Zombie
- Bad Breath from Malboro
- L5 Death and Magic Breath from Parasite
- Angel Whisper from Pollensalta
Laser, Dragon Force, L5 Death and Angel Whisper are only learned by manipulating the enemies that hold them into casting the spells onto the party member(s) with the Enemy Skill Materia equipped. Pandora's Box is used as a final attack and only once per save file, and so it is easy to permanently miss learning it.
Level grinding[]
Movers give 800 AP each, for a total of 2400 AP per battle, but are very rare. Players can also steal Elixirs from Gighee or exploit the W-Item duplication bug to give themselves 99 Elixirs to feed the Magic Pots to amass EXP and AP fast. Equipping the EXP Plus Materia expedites the process, and using any Double or Triple AP equipment helps level up Materia rapidly here.
Items[]
The Northern Cave has significantly more items than any other location in the game.
List[]
| Location | Items |
|---|---|
| Spiral descent | Save Crystal (see Save Crystal glitch), Guard Source |
| Winding descent | Power Source, HP Absorb Materia, Elixir, Guard Source, Magic Source, Mind Source |
| Platform descent | Mind Source, Hero Drink |
| Red passage | Power Source, Guard Source, Megalixir |
| Rocky descent | Remedy, Elixir, X-Potion |
| Above mako stream | Turbo Ether, Vaccine, Magic Counter Materia |
| Mako stream | X-Potion, Turbo Ether, Mega All Materia, Speed Source |
| Lake crossing | Magic Source, Remedy |
| Lake path | Shield Materia (see Infinite Shield glitch), Imperial Guard, Vaccine, Hero Drink |
| Light cavity | W-Magic Materia, Counter Materia (Command) |
| Spiral lower | Mystile, Elixir |
| Hatchery | Tetra Elemental, Speed Source, Megalixir, Megalixir |
| Final descent (before reunion) | Luck Source |
Item duplication trick[]
Receiving 'Mythril', actually a Mystile.
The items received from party members at the bottom depend on which way the player sends the characters when splitting up. This can be used to get a third Mystile armor from Tifa.
The player has two paths to choose from: the right path, and the left path. If taking the left path, the player will have another two paths to choose from (upper-left and lower-left). It is possible to duplicate all of the items found on the paths the player sends the party members to that Cloud won't go himself.
List of all the items that can be duplicated:
- Send an ally right:
- Barret: Guard Source
- Tifa: Mystile
- Red XIII: Mind Source
- Yuffie: Megalixir
- Cait Sith: Elixir
- Vincent: Megalixir
- Cid: Speed Source
- Send an ally left at first, then up:
- Barret: Vaccine
- Tifa: Hero Drink
- Red XIII: Shield Materia
- Yuffie: Counter Materia (Command)
- Cait Sith: Remedy
- Vincent: Magic Source
- Cid: Imperial Guard
- Send an ally left at first, then down:
- Barret: Remedy
- Tifa: Turbo Ether
- Red XIII: Speed Source
- Yuffie: Vaccine
- Cait Sith: X-Potion
- Vincent: Mega All Materia
- Cid: Elixir
If in any junction where the party splits the player sends Yuffie alone in any way, once the party gathers up at the bottom, she will not give the items she found to the player, and will lie and claim she found nothing. At this point, any characters sent alongside Yuffie remind her, and she grudgingly gives up the items, but if Yuffie was sent alone she will keep the items.
At the Northern Cave at the point where the party is split down the two paths, the player should send Tifa down the right path, and tell Cloud to go left. When Cloud's path divides, the player should choose the lower path for Cloud and everyone else should go the upper path (except Barret and Cait Sith). When going down at the bottom where all the paths converge, the player must not approach the stairway that leads further down as this cause the other party members to appear, which causes all specific chests to be registered as "open" when talking to them and the third Mystile will be missed. Instead of going down, the player should go back up the cave by taking the entrance to the lower path up to where the left and right paths split, then go down the right path and grab the second Mystile. Also, the player should collect all items on both previously unexplored paths before entering the meeting field in the Final Descent (see Infinite Shield glitch).
The player can now go all the way down to the end again and approach the path leading down, causing the other party members to appear. When talking to Tifa she should give a third Mystile (though in the PlayStation version the player will appear to have received 'Mythril', which is a key item; a Mystile will still be added to the player's inventory).
The player should not go to the Mako Stream screen without first receiving the items from every party member, otherwise the items will be missed.
Alternatively, if the player is feeling brave, they can send Barret the upper-left path, and Cait Sith with Tifa along the right path, and then travel alone for an extra Vaccine and Elixir.
Suggested combination to get valuable items guaranteed:
On the other hand, if the player plans to focus on getting only Shield, Counter (Command), and Mega All from Red XIII, Yuffie, and Vincent respectively, then Cloud should go down the right path while all party members who are sent down the left path have a 50/50 chance to give one of the two possible items they can give.
Since the game doesn't decide paths for the party members whom the player sent until they enter the meeting field for the first time, the player can use the save crystal to save the game in this place (or save the game inside the Highwind) and try get the desired items by saving after a random battle.
Infinite Shield glitch[]
Infinite Crater Dupes
The Shield Materia can be picked up on the same frame as Cloud initiates the underwater ride, and when Cloud re-surfaces both menu and movement will be enabled. Shield is received when the text box opens and isn't removed from the field until the text boxes is closed, so all the player has to do from here is keep the text box open while the player exit the field, and the Shield will still be on the field when it return.
Encounters[]
| Encounters | Areas |
|---|---|
|
Spiral descent |
| Winding descent | |
| Platform descent | |
|
Red passage and horizontal fork |
|
Vertical fork, rocky descent, above mako stream, mako stream, light cavity |
|
Lake crossing and lake path |
|
Spiral upper, spiral lower, hatchery, spine |
|
Final descent |
|
Core (upper) |
|
Core (lower) |
|
Lifestream |
The final descent comprises of two screens. Battles occur when jumping to a new platform. There are five jumps on the first screen, and eight jumps on the second screen. On each platform the player has a 29.7% chance of entering a battle against three possible enemies each with a different chance of being fought.
Behind the scenes[]
In the 2012 PC re-release of Final Fantasy VII, in one area in Northern Cave, las2_1, (referred to as "Inside Northern Cave" in the menu) there is an Easter egg. If the player uses the Save Crystal in this area the area's name in the menu changes to "Secret Cow Level". This is a reference to Diablo. Outside of the area's name change, there is no functional gameplay difference.
An area of the Northern Cave 
exists that is another version of the area where the party gathers with Shinra and where the Weapon's eye is seen through the crystal. It cannot be accessed during gameplay and the area itself can be accessed only via the Debug Room, via the Field Room and selecting Yuffie's option "TRNAD53". As the scene is still used during an FMV, the screen was probably intended only as an anchor for the character models; because the area hasn't been coded with paths for the player character to walk on, it was probably never intended to be accessed during normal gameplay. Curiously, the background music for the area when accessed from the Debug Room is "Aerith's Theme" which would have been intended to play in the background of the original Japanese exiting of the crater FMV. Because of this, and the numerous oddities in the finalized scene of Aerith's death, it could be suggested that Aeris was originally meant to die in the Northern Cave rather than the City of the Ancients.
In the PC version of Final Fantasy VII, a bug exists in this area when playing on Windows XP. When the FMV showing the Weapons' rising takes place, the game will crash when the Weapons climb out of the crater. The crash could be avoided by playing this section of the game in quarter screen mode, but this will not always work.