HIDDEN (UNIQUE) MATERIA
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 A quick note:Whenever you see a chocobo, talk to it.  The fluffy birds seem to love materia, and will often give you one; however, you rarely get uniqe materia from them.  Also, there are several materia available through the Chocobo races, Battle Square, and the other Gold Saucer games.
     PRE-EMPTIVE: The Pre-Emptive is a prize on S-Rank in the Chocobo Square races.  You may remember it as the only Materia Cloud has during the Kalm flashback.  It increases your chances of surprising enemies.
     ULTIMA: This ultra-powerful attack spell is also only available through the Huge Materia quests.  To get it, finish the North Corel quest.  If you stop the train in time, the grateful townsfolk will automatically give you the materia.  If you don't, you'll need to pick through the rubble and dig it out.  (I'm not sure this is possible; I understand that finding the materia in the rubble may have been cut from the computer version, to give "incentive" to save North Corel.  This is one I need to try out, but I've heard it enough times from enough reliable sources that it should work.)
     CONTAIN: Another powerful spell.  When you're in Mideel for the first time, bring Mimette greens.  When you see the kid running around the stores with the chocobo, talk to the chocobo.  Give it the greens, scratch behind its ear, and it'll give you the Contain materia.
      FINAL ATTACK: An infamous "Holy Grail" of materia, the Final Attack is a blue materia that casts whichever spell it's linked to on the caster's death.  A no-brainer is to link this to Life; however, it's even better linked to Phoenix.  I've seen this in action on other people's saved games, but have only sketchy directions on how to get it.  It seems that if you get the W-Summon and Championship Belt prizes in Battle Square in Disc 2 or 3, Dio will give you a special set of boss battles to get through.  Defeat that string of eight battles, and he gives you the Final Attack.
     SLASH ALL:  This useful materia is in the Ancient Forest-that hidden area on the jungle cliff south of Cosmo Canyon.  The full description of how to get through the Ancient Forest is under Really Hidden Stuff.
     DOUBLE-CUT: This materia divides up your normal damage between two slashes on the same target.  It's hidden in the downed Gelnica, in the room right by the save point.
    ADDED CUT: The Added Cut materia is hidden on one of the rocky paths in the Great Glacier.  It does a sword slash in addition to casting the spell linked to it.

    SUMMON MATERIA
     These are some of the most powerful attack spells in the game.  They can only be used once for each level of the Materia; they summon a monster of some kind to attack for you.  They have the most spectacular animations, but while the summon's going on, you can't target anything.  Only one of them is handed to you; the rest, you have to find.  Some of them are easier to find than others.  Most of them are elemental attacks.  There is one funny thing about summons-occasionally, I have gotten a special attack on a Summon.  This only seems to work on certain monsters, and even then isn't reliable.
     CHOCO/MOG: One of the few wind-based attacks in the game, this goofy summon calls up a kamikazi moogle riding a Chocobo, who runs into the enemy.  It has the most humorous animations of any attack in the game, and has the lowest MP cost of any summon in the game-14 MP.You get it from the chocobos at Billy's Chocobo Ranch; talk to the one standing by the fence, and choose the top option.  Its standard attack is called Deathblow!!!.  It often stuns enemies.  It occasionally uses the Fat Chocobo special attack, which drops an immensely overweight bird on the enemy, stunning them.  I've gotten this result on the Lost Number boss in the safe in the Shinra Mansion at Nibelheim, and the Red Dragon boss in the Temple of the Ancients..
     SHIVA: The only Summon that's given to you automatically, you'll get this in Junon Town; Priscilla will give it to you after you save her.  It's a nifty little ice attack, which does pretty good damage.  It summons a faerie/goddess who freezes the enemy with an icy wind.  Her standard attack is Diamond Dust.
     IFRIT: After you defeat Jenova*BIRTH in the Shinra Cargo Ship, this will be left behind on the floor.  It summons a nasty looking demon-creature who charges the enemy in a fireball.  This one's a fire-based attack.  Its standard attack is called Hellfire.
     RAMUH: This one is in the Chocobo Jockey's lounge in Gold Saucer.  You'll only get one or two cracks at grabbing it.  It summons a god/mage who calls down lightning on your enemies.  It's an electricity attack.  The standard attack is called Judgement Bolt.
     TITAN:  An Earth-based attack, this materia is hidden in the ruined reactor in Gongaga town.  If you search the reactor, you'll see a glimmer; choose to reach for it, and you'll get the Titan.  It summons an earth giant who flips the ground over on your enemy.  It won't work on flying monsters.  Its standard attack is called Anger of the Land.
     ODIN:  You'll get this from the safe in Shinra Mansion, after you fight the Lost Number.  It summons Odin, who throws Gungnir up into the air and skewers your enemy.  This is one of the few non-elemental summons.  A few little nitpicks on the animation: Sleipnir is supposed to have eight legs, not six; and where's Huginn, Muninn, Freke, and Gere?  His normal attack is Gunge Lance.  His special attack, Steel-Bladed Sword, instantly kills whatever he's attacking and locks up RIVA-based 3d cards like mine.  I've only gotten this special on the normal enemies inside the Temple of the Ancients.
     BAHAMUT: Your first dragon summon.  Bahamut is left behind after you defeat the dragon in the Temple of the Ancients.  He's a non-elemental summon, and will affect everything.  He drops out of the sky and hovers down by your enemy, blasting the beastie with a beam of light.  His standard attack is Giga Flare.
     KUJATA: You'll find this in the Sleeping Forest, in the second screen, where it dances around the sides of the screen now and then.  It's very elemental; I'm still debating whether it "summons" the natural disasters or the bull that makes the last attack.  Its standard attack is called Tetra Disaster.  It uses Lightning, Fire, and Ice.
     NEO BAHAMUT:  This comes out of the Whirlwind Maze.  It's setting off to one side of the path.  This dragon brings your enemy to him, then blasts the ground out from under their feet, leaving them to deal with gravity.  He's non-elemental and unblockable.  This dragon's standard attack is Mega Flare.
     TYPHON: This calls up a wierd amphisbaena-type dragon with a head on either end, who comes out of a cloud and causes a tornado to hit your opponent.  It's one of the few wind-based attack spells.  You'll find it in the canopy of the Ancient Forest near Cosmo Canyon.
     LEVIATHAN: Lord Godo gives this to Yuffie after she climbs the pagoda.  It summons a sea serpent who calls up a tidal wave to blast the monster.  It's a water-based attack; the standard attack is Tidal Wave.
     ALEXANDER:  I still can't figure out what this one's summoning.  It does Holy damage, which hurts everything, especially (un)dead things.  You'll get this from the snow-woman in Great Glacier, if you touch the hot springs before you talk to her.  Touch the hot springs, and when you get to lost in the snow-where you have to mark your trail-head north a little, then east.  You'll come to the snow-woman's cave.  Talk to her, and she'll freak out and attack you; the Alexander materia will be left behind.  (hmmm....afraid of hot water... "I'm melting, I'm mellltinnnnnngggg!")
     PHOENIX:  This comes from Fort Condor after the Huge Materia quest.  When you've beaten the Shinra army, go outside; the condor chick will fly off, and there will be the Pheonix materia left by the nest.  It summons the Pheonix, who blasts the enemy with fire and resurrects any dead members of your party.  You'll want to save this one for when there's  some characters dead.  A real cute trick is to link this to Final Attack, making you unkillable until you run out of castings.  It's one of the more spectacular animations.
     HADES:  Hades is in the downed Gelnica, off in the water.  He doesn't do any damage, but does inflict lots and lots of status ailments.  Added Effect=Hades is even more fun than Added Effect=Transform; you can turn your enemies into poisoned, petrified, silenced frogs with a single blow.
     BAHAMUT ZERO: The most powerful dragon summon.  It's also the most powerful non-Natural summon.  Bahamut came down to your enemy; Neo Bahamut brings your enemy to him; Bahamut ZERO doesn't care about where the enemy is, he just blasts them from orbit.  You need to have both Bahamut and Neo Bahamut to get ZERO; if you have them-not necessarily on Cloud-then examine the blue huge materia in Bugenhagen's observatory.  It will flare, and you'll hear Bahamut roar; it'll give you Bahamut ZERO.  His standard is Tera Flare.
     KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND:  What can I say?  This is the most powerful attack spell in the game, the most powerful summon in the game, and in terms of attacks, it's second only to Cloud's L4 Limit Break with his Ultimate Weapon equipped.  This is a natural materia, and it's the one you need the gold chocobo for.  It summons the knights of the round table, and its animation lasts over a minute, making it the longest-running attack in the game.

   NATURAL MATERIA
     Natural Materia are ultra powerful materia.  Any one of them can swing the balance of the game (although one of them may swing it the wrong way…).  They are found in out of the way caves on the world map, and you MUST have a special chocobo to get to them.  There is one for each non-spell type-purple, blue, red, and yellow.  There's some conjecture that the Ultima may also be a "natural" materia-the green natural materia-save that it can be found easily during the main storyline of the game.
     QUADRA MAGIC:  This blue materia is one of my favorites.  Any spell it is linked to is cast four times on one turn with one point expenditure-you get four castings for the price and time of one.  The best use of it is to link it to some powerful, non-elemental summon like Bahamut ZERO and watch the fun.  You can get this materia before the Huge Materia quests if you're careful.  You can get Bahamut ZERO just after the Rocket Town Huge Materia quest.  If you link the two, it will actually knock out some of the bosses with one casting; if they don't fall, it will at least weaken them to where a couple good attacks will take them out.  For some reason, the Quadra refuses to work with Knights of the Round.  (Game balance, probably.  Didn't want the final three battles getting too ridiculously easy…heh heh heh….)  You need a blue, gold, or black chocobo to get to it.  It's on the furthest east island in the Mideel chain.
     MIMIC:  This yellow materia is surprisingly useful, if a bit unreliable.  It gives you the Mime command; when that command is activated, the character will mimic the last spell or attack of the last character to move.  In the case of one-on-one battles, like Battle Square, it mimics your own last action.  It includes added effects, like Quadra; but it does use the same MP.  (There's a trick to using it in Battle Square or the Pagoda-you cast some powerful summon, like Bahamut ZERO, then use mimic to keep casting it until you run out of magic points.  You can get a good eight or nine uses if the Materia is only second level; with Quadra, that's multiplied times four….)  You need a green, gold, or black chocobo to reach it; it's on a small eastern peninsula on the island with Wutai.  Be forewarned, going towards Wutai on chocobo back will trigger Yuffie's sub-quest if you haven't done it yet.  There's an awe-inspiring trick with using this materia and Quadra; I once took out Diamond Weapon with two moves.  First, one character cast Quadra=Bahamut ZERO; then, the next character Mimicked it.  That's eight castings of Bahamut ZERO before Weapon could blink.  This set up is awesome when you can get it, but without deferring a character's turn, you can never be sure when the Mimic will go right behind the summoner.
     HP-->MP: The purple materia, and the questionable one.  This one switches your HP and MP totals.  This means that your character becomes an incredibly powerful spellcaster who can sling powerful summons and Ultimas like level 1 Fires.  Unfortunately, it also means your aspiring sorcerer will probably be killed with one attack from an enemy, as they will only have between four and eight hundred HP; 999 HP, max.   You can't even sell it for more than one Gil.  If you really want it, you can take a black or gold chocobo to the badlands north of North Corel.
     KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND: The most powerful summon spell in the game, and the most powerful attack spell in the game.  It summons (ta daa!) the Knights of the Round Table.  Each one gets one, heavy damage strike on the opponent.  This means thirteen strikes with an average of five to six thousand damage each strike.  That's…65,000 damage, if all the strikes do only 5000 damage.  Most will do much more.  You can see how this can be abused, even with the high MP cost.  It also has one of the longest animations of any spell in the game, running over a full minute.  To get this- and believe me, you want this-take a gold chocobo.  I advise flying the chocobo up to the goblin's island in the Highwind to cut down on travel time.  From there, travel North and East.  There is a bowl-shaped island that does not appear on the map in the extreme Northeast corner.  It's filled with forest, so you can't land the Highwind there.  Take the gold chocobo up into it, and the KotR is in a cave in the bowl.  *WARNING*  In the last battle in the game where you have three characters-Sephiroth's second avatar-KotR will only do an average of 2500 damage per strike.  I'm not saying that should discourage you-that's still 32,500 damage-just don't get upset when it doesn't do 65,000 like it normally does.  Nuther Note:Cloud's Omnislash Limit Break, with the Ultima Weapon equipped, actually does 10,000 MORE damage than KotR.  If you want to go through the opposition quick, set that little bit of nastiness up, then use the Fury trick outlined above so that Cloud hits Limit Break often...

HIDDEN ITEMS
     There are plenty of hidden items to find.  These range from Water Rings to Ribbons to the Ultimate Weapons.  If you've seen the Tough Ring Sephiroth has equipped during the Nibelheim flashback, and were wondering how to get one-by that point it's a little late.  You can steal up to three of them from Reno in the pillar battle.  The Ribbons, items that protect you from all abnormal states besides Regen and Haste, are hidden in various places.  There's one in the Time Guardian, and you can Morph the big plants on Gaea's Cliff into them.  The Water Ring, which causes water damage to heal you, is hidden just under the hollow log in the Sleeping Forest.