Chapter 11: The Long Shadow of Shinra is the 11th story mission in Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Rebirth. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the The Long Shadow of Shinra Main Mission.
Area: Nibel
Objectives:
- Destination: Nibelheim
- The Terminal
- A Village Changed
- Memories Revived
- Prep for Departure
- To the Reactor
- The Rebuilt Bridge
- Riverside Trail
- Mako Spring
- Coming Down the Pipeline
- Locked Out
- The Deputy Commissioner
- Stealthing into Shinra Manor
- Search for the Terminal
- Breaking Out
- Need to Vent
- Buds Behind Bars
- Too Short to Reach
- Escape Plan
- Debris Disturbance
- Stubborn Gate
- Generator Valve
- Accelerant Distribution
- Insufficient Power
- Weight-Sensitive Elevator
- Board the Elevator
- Input Password
- Through the Door
- Search Resumed
- Case the Joint
- Overstayed Welcomes
- Smoke Sent Up
- Return to the Golden Saucer
Destination: Nibelheim
From the start of the chapter, you’ll be at the Nibel Airstrip. Most of the open world in this area is available to you immediately, but like prior regions, it is recommended to leave the exploration until after the story section as you will also gain access to a number more side quests and activities. If you want to get around quicker though you can complete the Chocobo Intel which is right beside the airstrip.
When you’re ready make the trek over to Nibelheim, a familiar location from the first chapter.
The Terminal
Follow the others into the center of the village for an automatic scene.
A Village Changed
Everyone now splits up, and you have a bit of time to explore the village and interact with your companions. Before going anywhere specific, you can go to the stores in town. If you missed any weapons you can buy them from the store, but if you followed the walkthrough thus far you’ll have everything already.
Back in the center of town near the water tower, you can speak to Aerith for a relationship interaction. Follow her up the water tower to complete it.
You can then head into “Tifa’s house”, where you can find her upstairs in what was her room.
Head to the north of town where the steps leading to the mountain are, and you can find Yuffie at the bottom, and Red standing at the top.
Head inside the inn, where you can find Barret sitting at a table.
Memories Revived
While in the inn, there will be a new objective upstairs. Head up and interact with the door for a scene. After this is complete you return to Cait in the mayor’s office when you are ready to progress.
Prep for Departure
Head back out of the office and go to the north toward the town exit. You’ll be prompted to prepare before continuing, then when you are ready agree to head to the reactor.
To the Reactor
In this section, you’ll be heading back up to the reactor like you did in the first chapter, this time accompanied by only Tifa and Yuffie.
The Rebuilt Bridge
There is a different initial path up the mountain this time, so follow the objective north to the new bridge that leads towards some Shinra structures.
Just past the locked door you can’t enter you can find a purple chest that contains the Crystal Gloves weapon for Tifa.
Riverside Trail
Continue along the path to reach a familiar spot from Chapter 1. You can use the nearby rest spot, then defeat the enemies and head into the cave on the right.
Mako Spring
Inside the cave deal with the Twin Brains, then go down toward the mako spring on the left. After the scene, you can pick up an HP<>MP Materia and then continue on the path out of the cave.
Once you reach the point where you cross the narrow boards in Chapter 1, you’ll instead need to climb a rope that Yuffie sets to reach the higher area.
Follow the new path, dealing with the Zu and other enemies in your way. After dealing with a pair of Screamers you’ll be in a large section of multiple climbing walls. There are a few different spots with items you can grab here on the way up, the first being the purple chest on the platform in the middle of the two walls that contains the Igneous Saber weapon for Cloud.
Drop back down and climb the left wall, then climb to the fencer area where you can find a chest that contains 1 x Mythril Ore.
Now drop back to ground level again and start climbing the wall to the far right up to the next platform. Go to the right where there is a fencer area with breakable boxes. There is a ledge you can jump up leading farther right with a chest containing a Sapphire.
Climb the wall beside this chest, then move to the left where there are boards along the cliff. To the right of the boards is another chest that contains a Fortification Materia accessory.
Now climb up to the top of the climbing walls, then hug the right path instead of going toward the objective. At the dead end here you can find a Warding Materia.
Now follow the main path, where you will encounter a Dragon. These are fairly strong enemies, but not hard to fight similarly to the Zu. They are weak to Ice, which is good to use against them to get them to use Roar. After the Dragon uses Roar they become pressured, where you can push them to stagger and take them out.
When the Dragon is dealt with you can crawl through the hole nearby to continue.
Coming Down the Pipeline
In the next room, there are a series of pipes that you need to slide down to progress. The choice here doesn’t really matter, as all paths will lead you to the objective. Some paths will lead to a handful of consumables or materials, but nothing is worth worrying about. If you do wish to try and get multiple items from the pipe slides you can use the elevator at the bottom after you open the gate below.
Locked Out
To open the gate, pull the nearby generator cart over to the fence where the boards are. This will allow you to jump over, and then pull the switch on the other side to open the gate for Tifa and Yuffie. This also activates the elevator that you can take back up to ride the pipes again.
Keep following the path ahead, then after dealing with the Twin Brains you can go through the door in the wall to continue.
Through the door you can turn left first where you can find a chest that contains a Giga-potion, then follow the path on the right and take the elevator up to progress.
The Deputy Commissioner
Follow the path up to the reactor, where there will be a rest point just outside. Rest up and get prepared, then head into the reactor and follow the path you did in Chapter 1.
Boss Fight: Diabolic Variant
- Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Ice
- Lesser Resistances:
- Greater Resistances:
- Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify, Stone, Morphable Items
- Absorbed Elements: —
- Items Dropped: —
- Rare Items Dropped: —
- Stealable Items: —
- Assess Info: Destroying the tentacles on its right arm will pressure it. It will summon a clone once it has taken enough damage.
The Diabolic Variant spawns with a Right Arm, which should always be your priority. It has surprisingly low health and when destroyed, the Variant will be pressured for a long time to accumulate stagger. Its attacks are also very weak, so the only complication in this fight is when it clones itself after taking damage. However, the good news is that the clone spawns with the same health as the original rather than full health. This means that this fight is just an exercise in persistence, as destroying one Variant means you can go back to the original one, whittle its health down more, and when it clones again, this will be with lower health and thus repeat.
Always focus on destroying the Right Arm when you can before hitting the main body, and use your Synergy Abilities to Refocus your ATB and upgrade your limits so you can take the Arms out quickly and then hit the pressured main body with powerful attacks. You have little to worry about defensively, this just might take a little while.
Hard Tips: Equip Ice-Elemental on everyone’s weapons and focus on the right arm to pressure the Variant. When it staggers, use True Strike and Unbridled Strength with Tifa to increase stagger damage. Avoid using MP with Cloud as he will have two more boss fights this chapter.
After the boss is defeated, head through the south door toward the objective.
Stealthing into Shinra Manor
Now back in town, you will be playing as Cait Sith with Aerith and Barret in your party. Make your way out of town to Shinra Manor and enter through the front.
Search for the Terminal
Follow the same path you took in Chapter 1, down the elevator into the basement.
Breaking Out
After dropping through the floor, you need to escape the cell.
Need to Vent
Cait is small enough to roll through vents in the walls to reach new areas, do this by holding and rolling into the nearby vent.
Buds Behind Bars
Out in the main area, you’ll need to get Aerith and Barret out of the cell. If this is your first time fighting as Cait he can take a bit to get his combat system. You need to use ATB charges to summon his Moogle mount which has its own small health bar, and then a number of the attacks he has require the Moogle to be active as it does the attacks for him. Try to play with this on the smaller early enemies, as you will have to fight some annoying enemies later.
Too Short to Reach
After the enemy is dealt with you can now get your partners out of the cell. Hit to summon Cait’s Moogle, which you can then walk onto the nearby button to drop boxes to throw.
Pick up the box with , then walk over and aim at the switch on the wall and throw the box to let Aerith and Barret out of the room.
You can also do the same on the other cell door here, which will allow you to reach a purple chest that contains the Golden Megaphone weapon for Cait Sith.
Escape Plan
You can then continue down the hallway, destroying the boxes along the way if you like. Defeat the next two enemies, then instead of progressing toward the objective roll through the nearby vent into another cell where you can find a chest containing Revival Earrings.
Debris Disturbance
Roll back out and continue along the main path to the next room and interact with the elevator terminal, which will drop the elevator, but not fully as you need to destroy a pipe that is blocking it. Use the button nearby to drop a box, then go up onto the slightly raised platform to the right and throw at the broken pipe to drop the elevator. You can also throw boxes at the boxes in the room to obtain a Gravity Materia.
You can then hop on the elevator and activate the console to take it up and continue through the next room. Deal with the enemies in the larger room, then look where Aerith and Barret are waiting as there is a vent beside a closed door. Roll through into the next room.
Stubborn Gate
Defeat the enemies in this room, then interact with the panel near the door.
Generator Valve
First before trying to get boxes, go into the side room left of the valves to find a chest containing a Giga-potion.
You can then grab the cart in this room and push it so that it is sitting in the middle of the metal plate where the boxes will drop.
You can then drop a box, which will bounce off the cart without breaking. Pick up the box and throw it at the valve, which will open the door for the others.
Head through the next room, where there will be a large number of boxes you can roll through to obtain a bunch of consumables. In the next room take an immediate right where you can pick up a Barrier Materia beside some mako crates which you will need shortly.
Accelerant Distribution
To open the next door, you need to get two of the mako crates into the large lit-up funnel in the middle of the room. To do this, aim at the rotating platform so that you will hit the cylinders, then wait for the spot before the red funnel to pass and throw just as it is going past your aim. If done correctly the box will land in the red funnel, which will deposit it in the required spot. Repeat once more to open the door to continue.
Defeat the group of Black Bats, then take the next elevator up to the next floor.
Insufficient Power
Deal with the enemies in this large room, then you will be able to make use of a rest spot, along with grabbing a chest that contains 1,700 Gil.
To continue, go over and interact with the console by the door where the objective is pointing. This activates the switch which will allow you to start progressing through the area. You first need to throw a box at the currently red switch, which will turn it blue, allowing you to roll through the blue vent to reach the next floor.
On the next floor up deal with the Black Bat, then go to the north corner near the railing where you can find a chest that contains a Dry Ether.
Roll through the next blue vent to reach the next floor, where you will encounter a new enemy called an Adjudicator. These enemies can be annoying, especially with just Cait, as they will become immune to whichever damage type (physical or magic) you continually attack them with when they become pressured, meaning you need to hit them with the other damage type to push them to stagger. Try to get Cait’s Moogle out quickly against them, as the Moogle will deal physical damage with its basic attacks, which Cait’s basic attacks are magic. If you pressure it with Cait’s magic try to use a physical ATB attack to attack it further. If you’re struggling to attack it Cait’s attack is physical, though quite slow.
Now to progress, you arm meant to throw a box back down to the switch in the middle of the room. First, you can go through the third blue vent which leads to a dead-end platform where you can pick up an ATK <> MATK Materia. You can then roll back and throw a box to turn the switch back to red, which makes the red vent on this floor accessible.
After going through the red vent go immediately to the left where you can find a chest containing a Hades Armlet.
Deal with the Adjudicators on this floor, then head up the ramp and interact with the elevator panel.
Weight-Sensitive Elevator
This elevator you are required to throw boxes on it first to lower it. You can drop more metal boxes using the button on the lower level, then carry them up the ramp and throw them on. After throwing on 3 boxes the elevator will open, then you can walk on and break the boxes to have it move to the floor above.
Go across to the marked console and interact with it to trigger a solo fight.
Boss Fight: Yin & Yang
- Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire
- Lesser Resistances: Magic
- Greater Resistances:
- Immunities: Proportional Damage, Stone, Morphable Items
- Absorbed Elements: —
- Items Dropped: —
- Rare Items Dropped: —
- Stealable Items: —
- Assess Info: Becomes pressured when either head is incapacitated, but the remaining head will go berserk.
Yin & Yang is more of a powerful regular enemy than a boss, and doesn’t have high health, but can still cause quite some damage if you’re not careful. Firstly, the hardest part about this is you only have Cait Sith, who is your newest party member and quite different from the rest, so if you haven’t been using him you might be a bit stuck.
Firstly, make sure you have a Lv. 2 or 3 Barrier Materia equipped so you have Manaward or Manawall, as the boss will use powerful Lv. 3 Magic such as Thundaga and that is the only way to minimis the damage. Of course, have a Healing Materia too or at least some powerful potions.
Dealing enough damage to the boss will cause one of its heads to stop working (the heads aren’t separate parts you can target, but just a natural result of dealing enough damage), but this makes the other head enter berserk mode and attack more often and more powerfully. Dodging and Guarding (or using Barrier also from the Barrier Materia) helps, so you can focus on attacking rather than healing.
When you can, hop on your Moogle with Let’s Ride then work on building its stagger with Moogle Mine to quickly build the stagger bar. When it gets close, hit it with some physical attacks to build your ATB more ready to unleash Moogle Knuckle (obtained from the Golden Megaphone found earlier in this chapter) as soon as it hits Stagger. This will boost the damage % to 200% and even higher if you have two uses stored. You should also have a Limit Break by this point, so try and use it while Yin & Yang has a high stagger % for maximum results. By the time Yin & Yang hits its second stagger, or even before, he should be dead.
Hard Tips: This is a solo fight with Cait Sith, so it can be a bit difficult. Equip Cait with Elemental-Fire in the weapon and Elemental-Lightning in the armour (if you have a maxed Elemental, put it in the armour for some healing).
Yin & Yang will have two styles, one that is melee and one that is magic. The magic one isn’t threatening with this setup as it will basically just use variants of ice and lightning magic, with the ice magic being easy to avoid and the lightning magic being either nulled or even healing you, depending on your Elemental level.
The melee variant is far more deadly however due to its Despondent Strikes ability. You will want to try to stagger it while it is in this form to deal enough damage to destroy the head, as having the melee variant for the final phase of the fight makes him spam Despondent Strikes constantly. If you get your limit or summon during this fight, make sure to use them during the final phase to end it quickly. For healing it is recommended that you use Chakra or Prayer, as Cait Sith has two more boss fights in this chapter so you will want to try and conserve MP. If you do use any MP here, it’s best used on a Barrier if you get stuck with the melee variant to lessen the damage from the constant spam.
Board the Elevator
Make a manual save here before advancing. There’s a minigame ahead, you must hit at least 10 boxes for one of Johnny’s Treasure Trove Items.
After the boss is defeated Aerith and Barret will automatically enter. You can go back out the door they just came from and interact with the elevator password to progress.
Minigame: Box Throwing
The best method is to aim two lights ahead of the moving boxes (the little lights below the moving boxes). Throw exactly two lights to the right of a moving box and it will get hit. You must hit 10 within the time limit, it’s okay if you miss several throws in between, the time limit is generous here.
Be sure that you hit 10 boxes to get Collector’s Item: Stuffed Fat Moogle for Johnny’s Treasure Trove (if you miss it, reload the manual save before elevator and retry).
Input Password
After the elevator reaches the top floor, head over and interact with the large door. You need to find the password to progress, but first, you can pull the cart on the left out of the way of the ladder where you can open a chest containing a Giga-potion.
Now for the password to the door, you are meant to pull the other carts away from the wall, which reveals the code 36-10-59-97. Input this on the door to open it.
Before heading in, make sure you’ve healed up at the rest point, then get ready for another boss fight.
Boss Fight: Forgotten Specimen
- Weaknesses / Status Ailments: —
- Lesser Resistances: Stop, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Petrify
- Greater Resistances:
- Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stone, Morphable Items
- Absorbed Elements: —
- Items Dropped: —
- Rare Items Dropped: —
- Stealable Items: —
- Assess Info: Inflicting enough physical damage will make it resistant to physical attacks, while magic damage will make it resistant to magic attacks. Force it to switch resistances multiple times will pressure it. Physical damage will dispel Reflect, while magic damage will dispel Shield.
Forgotten Beast can be a little annoying as it swaps its resistance from physical to magic. Your party is locked with Barret and Aerith, and Cait Sith’s regular attacks count as magical so at the start, you’re stuck with Barret to deal any meaningful damage. The other two can use support magic to buff your party if they like, taking the time to boost their ATB charges for Synergy Abilities.
When you’ve done some damage, the Specimen’s resistance will change to physical so it’s time to use Cait Sith and Aerith. The best thing to do for the latter is use an Arcane Ward then build up two ATB charges to use your third-tier magic such as Firaga, Thundaga etc. and get two casts for the price of one, dealing significant damage. In fact, the resistance will soon chage back to physical so you’ll return to using Barret. After the resistances have changed a few times, the boss will pressure and this is when you should used you stagger-building abilities like Focused Shot and Moogle Mine to stagger it. Use Moogle Knuckle to raise the stagger % and also the Synergy Ablities which give you unlimited MP so Aerith in particular can spam high-level magic.
When the boss hits about half health, it will Metamorph into a mixture of both resistances and cast Reflect. Use physical damage to break this, at which point it will cast Shield and you need to use Magic attacks to break that. After this, it will pressure again and you should easily be able to kill it during the second stagger phase, particularly if you time Moogle Knuckle right to raise the percentage above 200% and use Limit Breaks.
Hard Tips: Equip everyone with Elemental-Lightning in their armour to nullify his Thundagas, then equip them all with either Star Pendants or Headbands to nullify the poison or sleep, whichever you prefer. Nothing much special here, just make sure to use Barret when it’s weak to physical attacks and Aerith when it’s weak to magical attacks. Feel free to use MP with Aerith and Barret as you won’t need them again, unless you choose to make one of them your third member for the next boss.
Through the Door
After the boss is defeated, head over to the open door and into the elevator, which will take you back to the basement level of the manor to meet up with Cloud and the others.
Search Resumed
Back playing as Cloud, interact with the two wooden doors on the west side of the room.
During the scene that occurs, you can respond how you want though “Sephiroth” is the “correct” answer. After this make sure to use the rest point in this room and get your party set up, as you will have another boss fight shortly. You can also open a chest to the left of the door (on your way out) that contains a Turbo Ether.
Head out and go through the other door which is now open.
Case the Joint
You can walk around the room a bit while Cait uses the terminal, but to continue start walking into the room with the glowing cable running into it.
Boss Fight: Galian Beast
- Weaknesses / Status Ailments: Fire, Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave, Defaith
- Lesser Resistances: Poison
- Greater Resistances: Fixed Damage
- Immunities: Proportional Damage, Berserk, Slow, Stop, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
- Absorbed Elements: —
- Items Dropped: —
- Rare Items Dropped: —
- Stealable Items: —
- Assess Info: Inflicting enough physical damage will pressure him. Making him flinch during Inner Turmoil or Chotic Consumption will make him easier to pressure until he recovers.
Galian Beast is perhaps the toughest boss you’ve faced so far, at least in terms of how aggressive he is. He attacks quickly and often, so you need to make liberal use of the Guard button and if you are comfortable or skilled with the parry mechanic, you’ll find this fight much easier as it’s the best way to stun him and get some hits in. You can also make this much easier if you have maxed-out Enervation and Disempowerment Materias as Galian Beast is one of the very few bosses weak to Deprotect, Deshell, Debrave and Defaith. Inflicting him with some or all of these will make both his ability to deal and prevent damage much weaker.
Therefore, for this fight it might be best to have at least one dedicated healer (Aerith works well especially with Arcane Ward giving her two casts per spell) and another who can also heal the entire party in one, such as Cloud with a Magnify-Cure or a Pray. Then have the other building pressure, with the others chipping in if your health is at a good level. Try to save your Limit Break for the Stagger phase and your stronger 2 ATB abilities since you want to be doing as much damage in this phase as you can and killing him before his relentless attacks take their toll.
Hard Tips: Before you start this fight, you can edit your party to use whoever you like, the only character you’re forced to use is Cait Sith. It may be best to use two characters who have full MP other than Cloud (as he has another boss fight still), to allow you to take full advantage of the MP available to you, but this is entirely up to you. Whoever you choose, equip them with Elemental-Fire on their weapon (or armour if you’re using Yuffie), as well as Enervation and Disempowerment materias on someone. Galian Beast is weak to fire as well as the spells on these materia, so use them to your advantage to weaken him, especially during his second phase when he’s more dangerous.
Try and build up your limit level for the second phase so that you can use a level 3 limit on him to heavily increase stagger and deal heavy damage, as well as save your summon for this phase. Make sure to use Cait’s Moogle Knuckle whenever he staggers to increase stagger damage. This boss is very aggressive but you can dodge most of his attacks so you will need to stay on your toes and try not be overly aggressive.
Overstayed Welcomes
After defeating Vincent, you can follow the path back out of the manor toward Nibelheim. Make sure to heal at the rest spot on the outside of the manor, then move toward the Nibelheim gate.
Boss Fight: Roche
- Weaknesses / Status Ailments: —
- Lesser Resistances: Stop
- Greater Resistances:
- Immunities: Proportional Damage, Slow, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Stone, Morphable Items
- Absorbed Elements: —
- Items Dropped: Elixir
- Rare Items Dropped: —
- Stealable Items: Elixir
- Assess Info: Inflicting damage after he performs special attacks will presure him.
Roche is the last boss in this gauntlet of bosses you’ve just faced, and perhaps the easiest if you can time your parries pretty well. He’s similar to the earlier fight in that it’s 1v1 with Cloud and he mainly deals in physical attacks with his sword. He varies between faster combos and slower, heavier hits, but they can all be parried. The special attacks can’t, but they are easy to dodge with the button and that’s when you should strike with a Triple Slash or Braver. When pressured, used Focused Strike to Stagger him then unleash your Limit Breaks or Infinity Edge to do huge damage. As this is a 1v1 fight, his health is pretty low so you will probably kill him even before his second stagger.
Hard Tips: Like with the previous fight against Roche, Counterstance will be your best friend here. Use it (or regular Punisher Mode parrying) whenever he uses regular attacks. All his named attacks are unblockable so don’t even attempt it on those, just dodge away whenever you see an attack name appear. Roche has no weaknesses and doesn’t use any elemental attacks, nor does he inflict any status effects, so you’re free to leave the Elemental behind and use whatever accessory you want to buff your stats.
Smoke Sent Up
After some scenes, you will be back in Nibelheim. You will now gain access to the remaining side content for the region, so now is the best time to work on it if you want.
Side Content: Nibel
2 Side Quests:
- Side Quest: Esoteric Secrets of the Elders (unlocks Chocobo) – accept from quest board in Nibel village.
- Side Quest: My White-Haired Angel – accept from quest board in Nibel village – unlocks 6th Piano Song (last one needed to A-Rank for trophy Piano Virtuoso)
23 World Intel:
- All Nibel Region World Intel Locations – grab all World Intel after unlocking the Chocobo
Queen’s Blood:
- Queen’s Blood Booster Pack: Prehistoric Beasts (069 Disgorgon, 070 Dragon, 073 Bahba Velamyu) – Objective: A Village Changed – Location: Water Tower Square – purchasable at General Store in Nibelheim for 500 gil (contains 3 cards).
- Queen’s Blood Card: 068 Valron – Objective: A Village Changed – Location: Water Tower Square – Won from Turner in the Town Hall in Nibelheim.
- Queen’s Blood Card: 071 Twin Brain – Objective: A Village Changed – Location: Water Tower Square – Won from Dale in Tifa’s House (Treatment Center) in Nibelheim. It’s the house in the north-east of Nibelheim, he’s upstairs.
When you’re ready to continue the story, head back to the Nibel Airstrip where Cid will already be waiting for you.
Return to the Golden Saucer
When you’re ready to continue to the Saucer, speak with Cid and confirm you’re ready to leave, which completes the chapter.
This finishes Chapter 11: The Long Shadow of Shinra in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Next Up: Chapter 12: A Golden Key
For all other Mission Walkthroughs, check out our complete Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Rebirth Walkthrough.
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