Final Fantasy VII Materia

Aside from the basic actions of attacking, and using items and limit breaks, materia is responsible for pretty much all of your fantastic abilities in Final Fantasy VII. (And did anyone else think it was really stupid that you needed to equip a Guardian Force to even use items in VIII? I know we did.)

As such, they naturally provide multiple different kinds of functionality, denoted by their colour: magic (green), support (blue), independent (purple), command (yellow) and summon (red). Magic and summon materia are self-explanatory, adding spells and summonable creatures to the relevant submenus in combat. Command materia adds top-level menu commands, such as Steal, while independent materia generally boosts your stats or provide some other automatic functionality that requires no other input.

That just leaves support materia. These work a little differently. If you've seen the weapons and armor pages, you'll have noticed that along with the single materia slots, some equipment contains connected pairs of slots. While these pairs can be used in the same way as two single slots, they also allow you to use support materia in one slot and a supported materia in the other; that is, support materia provides functionalty that enhances the functionality of other materia you pair them with. The earliest example of this you'll see is the All materia, which allows supported spells on paired magic materia to affect all enemies or allies rather than just one.

Materia grow by gaining AP, which is received by all of your equipped materia at the end of a battle. (Try the enemies section if you'd like to know how much AP you'll walk away with after fighting certain monsters.) The exceptions to this are the Underwater, Master Command, Master Magic and Master Summon materia, which contain all their abilities from the first time you pick them up, and Enemy Skill, which is explained more fully in its own entry. After receiving a certain amount of AP, materia levels up and gains new functionality. Once any AP-gaining reaches its master level, it ceases to gain AP and creates a new copy of itself with zero AP.

It's also worth keeping track of the stat changes given by each materia, listed on the top right of the entries in this guide. Alone, they make little difference, but overloading yourself with powerful summons (for instance) could well lead to your physical statistics dropping low enough to make a battle more difficult overall.

There's one last thing to watch out for: the game limits your materia inventory to 200 items. While we've never found this to be at all limiting, it's worth keeping in mind if you were planning on spawning one of every materia for every character, say, or attempting some other feat that would require a large collection.

That should all seem fairly natural to you once you're on your way in the game, but it's worth reiterating just in case; we suspect that plenty of people skipped the long-winded and irritating in-game advice on the matter. Enjoy the guide.

All Materia

Added Cut				MaxHP	Str	Vit	Dex
				+0%	+0	+0	+0
Type		Cost		MaxMP	Mag	MDef	Luck
Support		Not sold		+0%	+0	+0	+0
Level	Ability	AP	Description
	Added Cut	0	Physically attacks enemy simultaneously when the Materia it is paired with is used.
	(Master Level)	200000	Master level. Ceases to gain AP and spawns a new copy of itself with 0 AP.
Location
Great Glacier
Added Effect				MaxHP	Str	Vit	Dex
				+0%	+0	+0	+0
Type		Cost		MaxMP	Mag	MDef	Luck
Support		Not sold		+0%	+0	+0	+0
Level	Ability	AP	Description
	Added Effect	0	Adds Materia's effects to the weapon or armor it is paired with on.
	(Master Level)	1000000	Master level. Ceases to gain AP and spawns a new copy of itself with 0 AP.
Notes
The following materia may be used to either inflict or protect against one or multiple status ailments: Contain (Confusion, Petrify and Stop), Bio (Poison), Time (Slow and Stop), Transform (Small and Frog), Destruct (Death), Mystify (Confusion and Berserk), Seal (Sleep and Silence), Odin (Death) and Hades (Sleep, Poison, Confusion, Silence, Frog and Small). Added Effect works even if you didn't have enough AP on the materia to cast the highest level spells of said materia (i.e., if used with the Contain materia, even with 0 AP on it, it will inflict/protect from Confusion, Petrify and Stop).
Location
Cave of the Gi
Alexander				MaxHP	Str	Vit	Dex
				−5%	+0	+0	+0
Type		Cost		MaxMP	Mag	MDef	Luck
Summon		Not sold		+5%	+1	+1	+0
Level	Ability	AP	Description				MP
	Judgement	0	Causes Holy damage. Targets: all enemies.				120
	Judgement × 2	25000	Alexander can be summoned twice per battle. Targets: all enemies.				120
	Judgement × 3	65000	Alexander can be summoned three times per battle. Targets: all enemies.				120
	Judgement × 4	100000	Alexander can be summoned four times per battle. Targets: all enemies.				120
	Judgement × 5	150000	Master level. Ceases to gain AP and spawns a new copy of itself with 0 AP. Alexander can be summoned five times per battle. Targets: all enemies.				120
Location
Great Glacier
All				MaxHP	Str	Vit	Dex
				+0%	+0	+0	+0
Type		Cost		MaxMP	Mag	MDef	Luck
Support		20000		+0%	+0	+0	+0
Level	Ability	AP	Description
	All	0	Allows user to cast spells from paired magic materia on all enemies or allies once per battle.
	All × 2	1500	Allows user to cast spells from paired magic materia on all enemies or allies twice per battle.
	All × 3	6000	Allows user to cast spells from paired magic materia on all enemies or allies three times per battle.
	All × 4	18000	Allows user to cast spells from paired magic materia on all enemies or allies up to four times per battle.
	All × 5	35000	Master level. Ceases to gain AP and spawns a new copy of itself with 0 AP. In addition, it allows user to cast spells from paired magic materia on all enemies or allies up to five times per battle.
Location
Initially equipped by Red XIII, Beginner's Area in Midgar, Shinra Building, Mt. Nibel Buy From: Fort Condor (Materia Shop, discs 2-3)
Bahamut				MaxHP	Str	Vit	Dex
				−5%	+0	+0	+0
Type		Cost		MaxMP	Mag	MDef	Luck
Summon		Not sold		+5%	+1	+1	+0
Level	Ability	AP	Description				MP
	Mega Flare	0	Bahamut is summoned to unleash an unblockable, non-elemental attack. . Targets: all enemies.				100
	Mega Flare × 2	20000	Bahamut can be summoned twice per battle. Targets: all enemies.				100
	Mega Flare × 3	50000	Bahamut can be summoned three times per battle. Targets: all enemies.				100
	Mega Flare × 4	80000	Bahamut can be summoned four times per battle. Targets: all enemies.				100
	Mega Flare × 5	120000	Master level. Ceases to gain AP and spawns a new copy of itself with 0 AP. Bahamut can be summoned five times per battle. Targets: all enemies.				100
Location
Temple of Ancients, Cave at Gaea's Cliff base