SPOILERS What to bring "over the wall"?

[ObenitE]

Hey there!

First post in this forum.

I'm right at the end of Chapter 14 and preparing to grapple over the wall.
I have cleared all side quests up to this point so now I just wonder what I need to collect equipment-wise (weapons, materia etc).
Any advice? I don't have any ambitions to "catch them all", I'm not a completionist - I just want to avoid that I end up in a state where battles get too difficult or borderline impossible due to my characters being ill-equipped.

 

[Dionysos]

Welcome to the forum!

I haven't played since 2020 now so I honestly can't remember in full what I carried with me. If you have the various summons and materia from Chadley you should be fine. I don't think anything is game-breaking if missed.

To make things easier, though, be sure to complete every colosseum fight available to you so that you can unlock the limit breaks for various characters.
Also make sure you have the Pedometer materia (which morphs into an AP Up after you take several thousand steps with it equipped). The AP Up helps with levelling up your materia.

You find more materia and items once you climb the wall, so don't worry about it really being your endgame setup at this point. You still have stuff to do and things to find. All this means is that you cannot return to the open areas and do the optional quests after this point (which you have already done).


Just so you know, one of our global moderators shared this thread with our Discord chat to aid this thread's visibility. Hopefully you get a proper answer soon but I just wanted you to know that you've been heard and offer what little advice I could.

 

[ObenitE]

Thank you very much!
I’ve got the pedometer materia and got it converted to AP up as well.

Seems like I should be doing some coliseum grinding then. I only took the battles that were part of the story line.

Speaking of materia, the only summoning materia I’ve managed to find is Ifrit. I’m suspecting that I’ve missed some. How do I get them? Chadley doesn’t offer much more than what I already have.

 

[Miko]

The majority of the summons are unlocked via Chadley's Battle Intel Reports, so you'll have to do a few tasks to unlock them. There's a few others that are also pre-order bonuses from DLC, such as Chocobo Chick, Carbuncle & Cactuar. Then there's also the Chocobo & Moogle Materia that should have been found somewhere in Chapter 6:

The Chocobo & Moogle Materia can be found in Chapter 6 by turning off two additional sun lamps in the second section. Once the lamps are turned off, return to the cargo elevator and take the lift to the right of it.

Deactivate the fans and clear out the monsters and activate the second terminal within the time limit to open the door to the Materia.

Hope that helps!

 

[Dionysos]

Thank you very much!
I’ve got the pedometer materia and got it converted to AP up as well.

Seems like I should be doing some coliseum grinding then. I only took the battles that were part of the story line.

Speaking of materia, the only summoning materia I’ve managed to find is Ifrit. I’m suspecting that I’ve missed some. How do I get them? Chadley doesn’t offer much more than what I already have.

No problem!

As far as I am aware you might have missed out on the choco-mog materia. It was a very specific moment during chapter 6 (when you are underneath the plate near all the fans and lamps). It required the party to follow Barret's little treasure hunt diversion (where he sings a little song). You find the materia behind a fan and there is also a jukebox track playing here.

It is possible to miss out on it as I don't believe it is possible to return here. It is useful to have it, sure, but I wouldn't say that you've ruined your chances at completing the game. After all, you can only equip one summon materia per character anyway.

You say you don't intend to collect every item, but if you wished to get that anyway, you could return after you have completed the game since you can replay chapters then.


As Miko says, Chadley will be your guy for most summons. He rewards you for doing things like scanning/assessing a certain number of enemies, exploiting their weaknesses, staggering a number of enemies, and so on. I believe Chadley should tell you what you need to do to when you speak with him.
If you haven't been using it already, I suggest equipping the materia that lets you scan enemies and scan as many as you can in the areas you have access to. Hopefully it will be enough to trigger Chadley into inviting you to earn your summon materia. The colosseum would be very useful for this task, actually, since you might be able to scan a wider variety of enemies than you would otherwise find in the 'wild' in the areas you can reach at this time.

You might already have completed various intel reports without ever claiming it with Chadley. In which case, you might find that you already have access to a few chances to earn your summon materia.

 

[ObenitE]

Alright so equip the Assess materia and take some fights at the colosseum in order to extend Charley’s selection seem like the thing I should focus on before I move in. Thanks a lot for the advice!