Final Fantasy 7 Remake Chapter 12 Walkthrough: Fight For Survival (Spoiler-Free)

Our Final Fantasy 7 Remake walkthrough continues, taking you through the streets of Midgar to win every boss battle, find every collectible, and unlock every secret. Chapter 12 is mostly a battle chapter, serving as the culmination of everything that's happened since the end of Chapter 9. Check out the guide below for all the details.

Check out the rest of our Final Fantasy 7 Remake guides so you don't miss a single secret or collectible. You can also read our FF7 Remake review.

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18

Chapter 12 Walkthrough: Fight For Survival

As you approach the pillar, you'll again be accosted by those gray specters, led by an Enigmatic Specter. You mostly just have to kill as many of the specters as possible. Do your best to avoid their attacks and take them out quickly with melee strikes--magic will work as well, but it's not as effective. Triple Slash are handy here for taking down multiple enemies quickly, and attacks like Focused Thrust and Focused Strike will push up the Engimatic Specter's stagger meter. You don't need to really win this fight, though--just kill enemies until a cutscene kicks in.

As you climb the pillar, go around the back of the first round catwalk you find to locate a chest with two orbs of gravity inside.

Keep climbing until you run into a new Shinra unit, the Helitrooper. Hit them with Wind magic and dodge their big aerial swoop attacks to stagger them. Head to the east side of the round catwalk when you're done, where you'll find an ether in a chest.

As you keep fighting, watch for crates you can break open. At the Pillar's 12th floor, run around the back on the round catwalk to find a chest with an elixir inside. Keep ascending, fighting through enemies and avoiding gunfire, until you hit the top.

When you reach the top of the pillar and Barret, watch for a prompt during the cutscene that allows you to access the menu by holding the Square button. You'll want to do that ahead of the next fight, which will allow you to outfit Barret.

Reno And Rude Boss Fight

The two Turks are cooperating to take you down for good this time. With Reno and Rude working together, you'll need to be on your toes because they've got some new attacks up their sleeves.

You'll start the fight against Reno, who moves around the arena more quickly this time, so don't count on slower hitting attacks like Braver or Divekick to hit him unless he's stalled or pressured. Your strategy is similar to what you used against Reno before, using Punisher mode counterattacks to knock Reno back and open him up to strikes. Guarding is key to this fight because Reno is a lot faster and likes to lock you up with a bunch of attacks.

Try to get a feel for how fast Reno moves, as one of his new attacks leaves behind a trail of lightning that can be painful if you foolishly run into it. Reno also has lots of combos, so be sure to keep your party's health at least three-quarters full, so you're not caught off guard by a sudden attack chain.

Block Reno's attacks and you'll have a few seconds to wail away on him. Use Focused Thrust and Focused Strike with Cloud and Tifa to keep pushing up Reno's stagger meter as quickly as you can, but be sure to only attack him when he's been thrown off his game. Barret can also chime in with Focused Shot and other big attacks, but you'll primarily want him on healing and spell duty.

While you're busy fighting Reno, Rude will be supporting his buddy from above while piloting a helicopter. He periodically dives in for a bombing run, but if you stay out of the middle of the arena, you should be fine. After a while, Reno uses an attack called Pyramid, which freezes a party member in place while damaging them. If it lands, have another party member attack the Pyramid with some big strikes to free them before Rude can attack them from his helicopter. Once you damage Reno enough, focus your attacks on Rude's helicopter until it crashes and he joins the fight on the ground.

As with most group battles in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, try to focus on taking out one enemy at a time. Your style should dictate which target you go for: Cloud is best equipped to knock out Reno with Punisher counterattacks, but his attacks are quicker and can cut your spellcasting and ability wind-ups short. Cloud has a tougher time against Rude, but he's slower and better for Tifa and Barret to take on.

Remember from your last fight with Rude that he's weak against Wind attacks, so hit him with Aero spells to raise his stagger meter and open him up to more attacks from Cloud and Tifa. He has more aggressive versions of his attacks from the Chapter 8 fight, including seismic attacks that track through the ground and can hit multiple characters at once. With Wind spells, you should be able to shut him down pretty easily, though. Once one Turk is down, finishing off the other one won't be an issue.

Continue with our Final Fantasy 7 Remake Chapter 13 Walkthrough: A Broken World.