Temple of the Ancients
Walkthrough
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Before heading to the Temple, there is one key item you may need to complete as you approach the end of Disc 1. Read the information boxes below for more information.
See the Light
See the Light This is your last opportunity to obtain the See the Light Trophy which involves teaching Aeris her final Limit Break, Great Gospel. Click on the trophy link for more information on how to obtain “See the Light”.
Trophies are optional achievements that you can unlock by completing certain tasks in the PS4 version of the game. A full list of the trophies that you can obtain can be found in the Trophies Section.
Warning: Missable Trophy
It is noted above, but as another reminder, this is the last point in the game where you can have Aeris learn her final Limit Break, the Great Gospel. Do not proceed past this section without visiting the See the Light Trophy section if you plan to obtain this trophy or if you plan to obtain all of the Limit Breaks in the game.
Onward to the Temple
The Temple of the Ancients is located on a another continent. You will need to jump back into the Tiny Bronco in order to get there. If you are having any trouble locating the Tiny Bronco just pull up the world map by using the 
Button and look for the flashing blue dot.
The island that the Temple of the Ancients is located on is just to the southeast of Gold Saucer. You do not have to travel too far to reach it. Use the map and the screenshots below to help you find the correct spot on the map.
A short scene will occur when Cloud crosses the bridge into the temple and it involves Aeris. Next, the team will find Tseng injured in front of the pedestal at the top of the stairs.
Tseng will provide you with the Keystone that was stolen which will allow you to gain access to the temple. Examine the pedestal to activate the passageway which drops the team off in the middle of a huge labyrinth.
Use the map which is included above and shows up again later on down this page to help guide you through each area.
You start off to the left side of the screen where the pink line begins. Follow it down the vines and grab the treasure chest just to the right of those vines which contains a Trident (a weapon for Cid).
Continue to the right and climb the vines on the wall leading one level up. The doorway at the top of the vines is blocked via some type of magic barrier.
Continue to the left instead of up the stairs and the small creature will bound away up the vines at the top to the screen. Climb up the vines and grab the Mind Source sitting on the ground.
Go down the ramp and through the doorway to find the strange creature sitting at the back of a small room. The treasure chest in this room contains a Silver Rifle weapon for Vincent.
Speak to the purple creature (the spirit body of the ancients) and then speak to it again after Aeris finishes giving you an explanation of what it is. You can buy the following items from it:
Potions
Hi-Potions
Phoenix Downs
Ethers
Hypers
Tranquilizers
Maiden’s Kiss
Tents
You can also rest your characters for an HP and MP refill and save your game.
The next section of the temple involves following the yellow line. Look for it on the map to help guide you.
Go back up the stairs and take the vines back down to the lower level. Travel through the doorway and pick up the Turbo Ether lying on the ground.
Go down the long flight of stairs in the center of the labyrinth and then head left. Go down the vines when you get to the left-most section of the screen and grab the treasure chest on the lower level which contains a Rocket Punch weapon for Barret.
Continue to the right and you will see another purple creature run away from you. Following this creature leads to the end of labyrinth portion of the Temple of the Ancients (the arrow at the end of the yellow line), but there is still one more item which you should try to obtain.
Follow the blue line (shown on the map above) up the stairs, around the ramp and up the vines. At the end of this pathway at the top level is a purple Materia.
The game refers to it as a “Lucky Plus Materia” which is actually a misspelling of a Luck Plus Materia. They fixed this in subsequent version of the game (PlayStation 4, etc.)
The treasure chest in the center of the Temple of the Ancients maze cannot be obtained until later on in the game (shown at the bottom of the screenshot above). Ignore it for now.
Travel back down to where the second purple creature went through the doorway to continue the game.
The next area of the Temple is a pathway that has a number of large boulders rolling from the right side of the screen to the left. In order to successfully make it down this pathway you have to time it so that Cloud fits into the small hole in the rock.
The holes land in different areas each time so you cannot plan to stay in the same area as where the previous rock landed. It may take some practice to nail down the timing. A video is included below to help demonstrate how you should time your run:
Don’t forget to grab the Morph Materia sitting at the halfway point.
Aeris will take you back to the glowing pool after you make it to the end of the passageway for some more dialogue. The purple creature will reappear at the end of the passageway after the short cutscene is over allowing you to refill your HP and MP and save your game.
Go down the stairs when you are ready to move on.
The Giant Clock Room
You will be given control of a very large clock in this room. You can use the 
Button to push time backward, use the 
Button to speed time up and press the 
Button when you are ready to move towards the next room.
Each of the hours (1 through 12) is a separate doorway that you can travel through that either leads to a treasure or a battle. You can walk along the hour and the minute hand but be careful because the second hand can knock you off the pathway if it crosses your path.
Most of the pathways lead to battles or empty rooms. The ones that lead to some kind of treasure are listed below, Rotate the clock so that you can travel to each of the rooms and grab the treasure:
- 4 (IIII instead of IV) contains a treasure chest with a Princess Guard weapon for Aeris
- 5 (V) contains a treasure chest with a Ribbon
- 6 (VI) leads to the next room of the Temple of the Ancients
- 7 (VII) contains a treasure chest with a Trumpet Shell weapon for Cait Sith
- 8 (VIII) contains a treasure chest with a Megalixir
If you get knocked off the clock by the second hand, which circles the clock and can hit you, you will be thrown into battle against two Ancient Dragons that are not too difficult to defeat.
You will then get access to a treasure chest that contains a Nail Bat weapon for Cloud which has no Materia slots but has very high attack power and is worth picking up (especially for the Wutai side quest if you have not done it already).
You will reappear in the labyrinth section of the game through the doorway that previously had a magical barrier blocking it and will have to run all the way back. It is recommended that you fall off the clock just for the purposes of picking up the Nail Bat.
Make sure that you grab the Princess Guard for Aeris. It has extremely high attack power compared to some of her other weapons.
It is actually her Ultimate Weapon and is the first Ultimate Weapon that you are likely to receive in the game. Check out the Ultimate Weapons section for more information, however, be aware that you cannot obtain any other Ultimate Weapons until much later in the game.
Warning: Ribbon Accessory
Make sure that you do not leave without picking up the Ribbon as this is one of the most important and useful Accessories in the game.
Proceed through the door to the south (number 6 / VI) when you are ready to move into the next area.
This nextroom has you chasing around the ‘guard’ creature in order to get the keys to proceed through the next doorway. You need to go through or be waiting at the door that the creature is going to come through.
Start off by traveling to the bottom floor to pick up the Work Glove. You can do this by finding an area on the left side that allows you to jump down to the the ledge below by pressing the Button. The Work Glove is another weapon with no Materia slots but high attack power stats.
Use the map below to help you find out which door the creature is about to come out of after he goes through one. The number in the middle of the doorway indicates which doorway the creature is about to come out of.
For example, if the creature goes into the doorway on the top-left side of the screen it will come out through doorway number 5.
Make sure that your team is fully rested and healed and that your Materia is properly equipped as you have two boss battles coming up.
HP: 6,800
Reward: Dragon Armlet
The first boss fight against the Red Dragon is not too difficult. The Red Dragon is susceptible to Poison Materia so cast Bio or Bio2 on it early in the fight.
Use Big Guard from your Enemy Skill Materia and keep your characters healed throughout the fight.
You can equip one of your characters with the Fire Ring to reduce some of the fire damage being done and you can pair a Fire Materia with an Elemental Attack Materia on your armor to absorb fire-based attacks. Do not pair these two Materia on your weapon though or your regular attacks will heal Red Dragon.
A video demonstration of this battle is included below for reference:
Pick up the Bahamut Materia that lands on the ground and make sure to equip the Dragon Armlet that dropped on one of your characters (not Aeris). Make sure that Aeris is not equipped with any of your important armor or accessories for the upcoming fight.
Warning: De-equipping Aeris
Remove any high quality armor and unique weapons from Aeris before you continue. All characters have to have some type of armor equipped, so make sure that Aeris is equipped with armor that you can easily replace (stuff that you’ve purchased). You can leave her Materia and accessories equipped.
Put as many characters as you can in the back row for the upcoming boss battle as it is one of the most difficult fights in the game that you have faces so far. Use your Long Range Materia to allow one of your characters to do regular attack damage even in the back row (Cloud would be a good choice).
Consider building up your Limit Breaks before the fight if you are having difficulty.
Waiting in the Wings
Waiting in the Wings You can obtain the Waiting in the Wings Trophy as long as you don’t forget to grab the Bahamut Materia that drops on the ground.
Trophies are optional achievements that you can unlock by completing certain tasks in the PS4 version of the game. A full list of the trophies that you can obtain can be found in the Trophies Section.
Bahamutype-0
In order to obtain the Bahamut ZERO Materia later on in the game, which will reward you with the Bahamutype-0 Trophy as well, you need to obtain a number of items including the Bahamut Materia that appears when Sephiroth leaves this area.
Make sure that you do not move past this area until you pick up the Bahamut Materia on the ground as there is no way to return once you do.
Trophies are optional achievements that you can unlock by completing certain tasks in the PS4 version of the game. A full list of the trophies that you can obtain can be found in the Trophies Section.
Walk to the right side of the room to find the Black Materia. A few scenes of dialogue will occur before you can leave the area. Cross the clock again and then get ready to begin the next boss battle.
HP: 10,000
Reward: Gigas Armlet
Your characters should be in the back row (check out the front and back row mechanics section for more information) and you should use Big Guard from your Enemy Skill Materia at the beginning of the battle.
The Bahamut Summon Materia that you picked up after the boss battle against Red Dragon is also incredibly effective against Demon Gate as it ignores the boss’s high defense stats.
Use Slow from your Time Materia if you have one. Demons Gate is susceptible to Slow and this will greatly reduce the amount of damage that it does.
This is one of the most difficult boss battles in the game, at least up to this point. If you are having trouble completing it you may have to level up your characters outside in the Temple of the Ancients or in the walkway after the battle against the Red Dragon.
A video demonstration of this battle is included below for reference:
Cait Sith will shrink the Temple of the Ancients down into the Black Materia and then Cloud will hand over the Black Materia to Sephiroth who appears after the Temple is shrunk down. There are a few more cutscenes before the game continues in Gongaga Village.
Exit Gongaga and you will find the Tiny Bronco parked a short ways away.
It’s time to make your way to Bone Village.
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