FF7 Remake: Chapter 8 Side-Quests Walkthrough

After a riveting series of events, you'll find comfort knowing that Final Fantasy 7 Remake's eighth chapter is much more easygoing with a new set of side-quests to get lost within. Below you can find a detailed walkthrough of each Chapter 8 side-quest and the rewards you get for completing them.

Chapter 8 Side-Quests Walkthrough

Kids On Patrol

Go to the Leaf House and speak with Ms. Folia out front of the building. She'll dispatch you to find a bunch of kids who should really be in school. Talk to her again for some tips as to where the kids hang out.

Make your first stop near the Item Shop in the Central District to find a patroller hanging out in the middle of the street. From there, turn north and head up the street toward the train station to find your second kid. Another is standing right in front of the Weapon Shop. The "concrete pipes" Ms. Folia mentions are in the southwestern corner of the map, just south of the community center, where you'll find another patroller. From there, continue to the community center to find the last patrol kid standing out front.

Return to the Leaf House and the kids will send you to their hideout to deal with a monster they call "the Toad King." This is actually a tough, special version of the Hedgehog Pie enemies you've been facing all through this section, and fighting it is kind of a pain. Battle your way through the area behind the kids' hideout to reach the Hedgehog Pie King, which will be backed up by two regular Hedgehog Pies.

The struggle with the Hedgehog Pie King is that it's constantly buffing the other two Hedgehog Pies, which makes it tough to kill them in order to focus on your real target. With the King's buffs, they'll fling tough magic attacks at you like Fira, while also executing an annoying attack called Bounce that can keep one of your characters from moving. Your plan here should be to run from the regular Pies to avoid their bounce attacks, while charging up ATB to hit the King with Ice spells, which it's weak against. Ice and physical attacks will pressure the King, which will knock him off his buff game, giving you time to then refocus and kill one or both of the Hedgehog Pies with Ice spells and melee attacks. The King has a lot of health, so you'll want to get rid of his minions, which are the real threats in the fight; don't overcommit to trying to bring down the king while getting blasted by his buddies.

Don't be afraid to switch to Aerith and let Cloud take care of himself. Her healing capabilities are very helpful here in keeping the team in fighting shape, and your primary focus here will be magic to keep the King off-balance. Once the two Pies are dead, mopping up the King won't be a problem.

When you're done, you'll unlock a new quest in the hideout, called "A Verified Hero." You'll also receive a new weapon for Cloud, the Nail Bat.

Weapons On A Rampage

Head north of the hideout to find a man talking about some Shinra "floating eyeballs" that are rampaging around town. You'll need to hunt down five of them in the Nuts 'n Bolts HIlls area that you came through after saving Aerith at the church. Equip some Wind materia and head out.

The first group of three enemies--Monodrive Mark IIs, they're called--are in the north end of the area, in the Scrapyard Back Alley section. Head toward the train station and take the path north just before you hit it to find a dead end area with the first group.

Monodrive Mark IIs are weak against Wind magic, but there's a caveat to dealing with them: they use barriers that make them immune to specific kinds of attacks, which can make them pretty formidable. If their barrier is a white shell, switch to Aerith and lay into them with her regular magic attacks, or hit them with Wind spells. If they fire up a green barrier that looks more like electrons flying around an atom, switch over to Cloud and hit them with physical melee strikes.

Watch out for the attacks that send the Moondrives burrowing under the ground or shooting through the air like flying drills; keep your guard up and focus on one enemy first to knock it out. With a few rounds of magic spells and some of Cloud's melee attacks, you should be able to stagger and kill it, then repeat the process for the other two. The best thing you can do is try not to over-commit on melee attacks, though, as the Monodrives will hit you pretty hard and can interrupt your spells if you're not paying close attention. When you're done, sneak out into the train station and use the blue bench there to heal yourself up.

The last two Monodrive Mark IIs are back on the path you took to bypass the locked gate when you first came through here. Head north on the path from the locked gate into the Twilight Valley area; you'll find the last two enemies pretty quickly along the path.

Upon returning from the battle, you'll be rewarded with a pair of Protective Boots.

Verified Hero

Drop back by the hideout after the "Kids on Patrol" quest to try the kids' game, Whack-a-Box. Play one round of Whack-a-Box to finish the quest.

Whack-a-Box is pretty easy--you just melee through a bunch of boxes with different scores marked on each. The catch is that the boxes' durability is equivalent to the score you get for destroying them, so you'll need to think carefully about what moves you use to take the big boxes out and maximize your efficiency. You'll have access to Braver, which is okay for hitting the big 1,500-point boxes, plus the move associated with whatever weapon you're using. We found a lot of success with Triple Slash, and so recommend the Iron Blade. Use Triple Slash on the 1,500 boxes to clear them in two attacks; this move is especially good when you've got two 1,500s together, as you can destroy both at the same time.

Playing Whack-A-Box gets you some decent prizes, including a Spectral Cogwheel accessory. You also get a Moogle Medal every time you play a round, which you can easily farm to buy out everything Moggie has on offer.

The Angel of the Slums

Speak to Damon, the reporter, near the community center to kick things off, then meet Mireille inside the community center for more info.

Return to Nuts 'n' Bolts Hill and head way up to the northeast corner to find Lookout Point. Bring Lightning materia; when you get there, you'll fight a giant version of the Smogger enemy called the Chromogger. This thing is dangerous if it gets in close, as it'll hit you for big damage with its giant wrecking ball arm, while also spraying you down with gasses that damage and cause status effects such as Silence. But it's easily avoided, too, especially if you keep your characters on opposite sides of the arena from one another.

Switch to Aerith and go nuts with spells; Lightning does increased damage and will drive up the pressure meter, especially when you unleash some on its wrecking ball arm, while Cloud can use his physical attacks. The AI will do a pretty good job of keeping Cloud out of too much trouble, leaving you free to run up Aerith's ATB bars for additional spells and healing abilities. It'll take a bit, but just keep playing keep-away with the Chromogger while hitting it with spells until it ultimately goes down.

Return to Damon for your reward of 2,000 gil.

Paying Respects

After completing the "Weapons on a Rampage" quest, stop by the Weapons Shop and talk to the old man out front. He'll send you to the graveyard to kill some monsters, but you'll need to purchase the Graveyard Key from the Moogle Emporium in the Kids' Hideout to get through the gate.

Head north out of town toward the Nuts 'n' Bolts Hills. When the path forks, head to the right to find the cemetery on a small path off to the east. Here, you'll fight three Venomantises, which might give you a run for your money if you're not diligent. Make sure you have strong Ice materia equipped for this one.

Venomantises like to use ranged strikes to put you to sleep, then big melee strikes for devastating damage. Watch out for their Torpid Strike attacks, which shoot a gas bomb at your characters that immediately put them to sleep, leaving them open to attack for a long time. You'll want to use Cloud's Punisher mode and guards for quick counter-attacks, but watch out for Leaping Strike--you really want to dodge clear of that one.

Pick a Venomantis and have Aerith use Blizzard or Blizzara as much as she can, while also healing herself and Cloud. Ice magic kicks up the Venomantises' pressure meter quickly, which can help slow them up and keep them from attacking you. While Aerith concentrates on Ice, use Cloud to get in close with Punisher attacks and counter-attacks, but be sure to keep on the move so you don't get overwhelmed. If you can stagger a Venomantis, you'll likely be able to take it out, or at least damage it significantly and finish it in a second round.

Repeat this process for the other two, but again, try to keep your situational awareness up to avoid getting put to sleep, and dodge clear when you see Torpid Strikes coming your way. If you can keep from getting overwhelmed, the Ice magic should do the trick until you can kill all three enemies.

You'll get a Studded Bracer armor for your efforts when you finish the mission.