Final Fantasy VII - Materia

What are Materia?
Materia is an item used in Final Fantasy VII that allows the user to cast spells, summon powerful entities and even add special conditions to attacks. They take the form of small orbs of various colours (Each colour represents a different type) and can be made more powerful the more they are used.

How are they made?
Materia occur naturally and are made of concentrated, crystallised Mako energy. Materia contains the "wisdom of the Lifestream" to manipulate nature, offering the user abilities, "Magical" powers and even physical enhancements.

The Cetra (or Ancients) can commune with the Planet and have abilities that do not require Materia; but for all other humans, Materia is the only way they can use these abilities. When Sephiroth is explaining Materia on Mt. Nibel, he mentions his debates with Professor Hojo regarding Materia. Hojo would object to the term "Magic" being used but could not offer a better explaination for the phenomena.

What types of Materia are there?
There are 5 types of Materia: Command, Independent, Magic, Summon & Support; these are coloured Yellow, Purple, Green, Red & Blue respectively.

Command Materia is used to add extra commands to the battle menu, these include: Steal (Steal items from enemies), Sense (Reveal enemy stats and HP) & W-Summon (Allows the casting of 2 Summon Materia in one turn)

Independent Materia is used to add auto-casting support abilities, stat boosters and out-of-battle abilities such as: Cover (Take physical damage in place of an ally), HP Plus (Add extra HP to the equipped character) & Underwater (Removes the timer when fighting Emerald Weapon).

Magic Materia is used to give characters magic spells. These spells can be both offensive and defensive in nature, some notable magic spells are: Fire (Launches a Fire based elemental attack), Restore (Allows the use of Cure magic to restore HP to allies) & Time (Allows the casting of Haste to allies and slow to enemies).

Summon Materia is the most powerful in the game; they contain a powerful entity which can deal massive damage; both elemental & non-elemental. The names of the summons have roots in mythological creatures and warriors, some of these are: Shiva (Powerful Ice based magic attack called "Diamond Dust"), Odin (Powerful physical attacks with the added effect called Instant Death.) and Knights of the Round (This is the most powerful Summon; the attack, Ultimate End, attacks thirteen times with varying attack types from physical to fire elemental. The animation is the longest in the game)

Support Materia is used to augment additional abilities to other Materia, some of these are: All (When added to Magic Materia the Magic will target all enemies/allies simultaneously), HP Absorb (Gain HP based on the damage inflicted) & Steal As Well (Attempt to Steal from the enemy when the magic/summon is cast.)

In the sections for each type, we will list the various Materia and what they do, how they level up & where to find them. We will also show the Enemy Skill list, these are skills you can learn from enemies and use in battle.

There are also other, non-usable Materia that appear in Final Fantasy VII that play an important role in the story, they are:

• The Black Materia is used to call the Ultimate Destructive Magic, Meteor, which can destroy the Planet.
• The White Materia is used to call Holy, the ultimate protective magic which cleanses the Planet.
• The Keystone , a Materia used to access the Temple of the Ancients.
• Huge Materia are special Materia formed from compressing Mako in a Mako Reactor. Four of them are found in Final Fantasy VII.

From the main in-game menu you can find the Materia menu; in here you can find all of the Materia you have found / bought and it shows the available slots on your currently equipped weapon and armour.

The slots come in two varieties: Linked and Single.

Linked slots (Picture 2) allow you to combine Materia. It is these slots you will need to have in order to use Support Materia. In Picture 1 you will see a magic Materia in the left slot and a support Materia in the right (They can be either way round to work).

Single slots (Picture 3) can be used for any Materia (Except Support; Well, you can place them here but they won't do anything so it's a waste).

Certain Materia also give additional benefits such as increased strength and magic stats when they are equipped.