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Final Fantasy VII Armor

N.B. This is a guide to the original FFVII.

Beginner's Armor

You can equip different armor to your party members by opening up the menu screen and selecting "Equip". As you play through the game, you will obtain new armor.

New armor can be more powerful, and there are many different aspects to a piece of armor's power. The armor's "Defence" stat indicates how useful the armor is at reducing damage from enemies' physical attacks - higher numbers are better. "Magic Defence" is an indicator for how well the armor reduces damage from magical attacks; again, higher numbers are better. "Defence %" gives you an idea of how likely physical attacks are to miss altogether; likewise "Magic Defence %" indicates how likely opponents' magic attacks are to miss.

Almost every armor in the game has Materia slots; it is more useful to have more Materia slots, as this allows you to equip more Materia. Linked Materia slots are also more useful than unlinked slots. Furthermore, different armor can have different growth rates for Materia. A growth rate of "Nothing" means Materia will not level up if equipped to that armor. "Normal" growth rate means that the Materia will gain as much AP as you win after a battle. "Double" growth means that Materia will receive twice the AP you win after battle, causing the Materia to level up faster.

Certain armor also have special effects, such as being resistant to certain magical elements.

Guide to the Best Armor

I consider the Mystile to be the best armor in FFVII. It is possible to obtain 3 Mystiles, allowing you to equip one to each of your party members in the standard team of 3. Here I will explain how to obtain all 3 Mystiles.

N.B. I cannot get this glitch to work on the more recent PS4 version of the original game. Assumedly, this means it also won't work in the more recent PC Download, or the Xbox One or Nintendo Switch versions. It seems in these versions of the game you are stuck with a maximum of 2 Mystiles...

You obtain the 1st Mystile in the game from a treasure chest after fighting Proud Clod in the return to Midgar; that's quite straightforward.

In order to ensure you get both the 2nd and 3rd ones, you have to juggle around a bit Inside Northern Cave on your descent.

N.B. This only works the very first time you descend to the bottom of the Northern Cave.

When your party first splits, send Tifa down the right path and take Cloud down the left path. When you reach the bottom of the Crater, rather than talking to any of your party members, head straight back up the Crater again. When you reach the cut-off point where your party had first split, this time take the right path with Cloud.

You will find the 2nd Mystile in a chest along the way on the right path. Proceed to the bottom of the Crater again. This time talk to Tifa. She will give you the 3rd Mystile. It's a bit of a cheat/glitch, but it's very good to have 3 of the best armor in the game: it means you can equip a Mystile to everyone in a 3 character party.

You can use a similar glitch to get teammates to give you other Items; again this only works when you first descend the Northern Cave, and NOT in more recent versions of the original Final Fantasy VII. It can be handy obtaining 2 Mega All Materia for example, but as with most any Materia you could always just get more through mastering the Materia. It is also possible to obtain 3 of the Imperial Guard armor by picking up 2 Inside Northern Cave and winning one from the boss in the final Fort Condor battle (you must fight him with your level high enough, or you will only receive a Shinra Alpha armor), but the Imperial Guard armor isn't really great.

Let's take a more detailed look at the best armor to equip in the game. In my opinion, it doesn't really get any better than equipping each of your 3 party members with a Mystile; you get 6 linked Materia slots for each party member, as well as very high Defence % and Magic Defence %. The Wizard Bracelet armor has 8 linked Materia slots; but in my humble opinion the high Defence % and Magic Defence % of the Mystile compensate for the loss of 2 Materia slots when compared to the Wizard Bracelet armor. The Wizard Bracelet is nonetheless an excellent option if you do come up with a Materia setup that requires that many Materia - here you can find out a lot more about Materia.

The Ziedrich armors that you can steal from Rude are also of interest as they have very high Defence and Magic Defence as well as decent Defence % and Magic Defence %, with ½ Elemental Defence being the icing on the cake – the only problem is the Ziedrich requires a more spartan setup as it has 0 Materia slots. Aside from these, the Aegis Armlet (Aegis Amulet) is interesting as it also has very decent Defence % and Magic Defence %. Finally, the Escort Guard and Minerva Band can be great options as you get 6 linked Materia slots and superb elemental defence. I don’t recommend the Imperial Guard mentioned earlier – the high Defence and high Magic Defence simply aren’t as useful as the high Defence % and high Magic Defence % of the Mystile.

Armor List

This table lists all of the armor in FFVII. I have tried to go from least to most useful.

Name	D.	D. %	M. D.	M. D. %	Slots	Growth	Location	Buy Price (Gil)	Sell Price (Gil)	Special
Bronze Bangle	8	0	0	0	0	Nothing	Cloud's, Barret's, Tifa's and Aeris' initial equipment.	-	50	-
Iron Bangle	10	0	2	0	1	Normal	Buy in Sector 7.	160	80	-
Titan Bangle	14	2	4	0	2 0 linked	Normal	Buy in Sector 5, Wall Market. Find outside Sector 5 Reactor (defeat Air Buster).	280	140	-
Mythril Armlet	18	3	6	0	2 2 linked	Normal	Red XIII's initial equipment. Buy in Wall Market, Kalm, Under Junon, Junon. Find in Shinra Building (defeat Heli Gunner).	350	175	-
Carbon Bangle	27	3	8	0	3 2 linked	Normal	Yuffie's initial equipment. Buy in Costa del Sol, North Corel. Steal from Moth Slasher (Shinra Building).	800	400	-
Four Slots	12	0	10	0	4 0 linked	Normal	Buy in Costa del Sol (Part 1/Disc 1). Find in Shinra Building (Floor 63).	1300	650	-
Platinum Bangle	27	3	8	0	3 2 linked	Double	Buy in Junon, Costa del Sol. Steal from Death Claw (Corel Prison).	1800	900	-
Rune Armlet	43	5	24	0	4 0 linked	Double	Buy in Bone Village.	3700	1850	-
Shinra Beta	30	0	0	0	4 2 linked	Normal	Steal from Marine (Cargo Ship). Find in Junon Underwater Reactor (defeat Submarine Crew).	-	1	-
Silver Armlet	34	4	14	0	4 2 linked	Normal	Cait Sith's and Vincent's initial equipment. Buy in Cosmo Canyon. Find in Corel Prison (defeat Dyne).	1300	650	-
Gold Armlet	46	4	22	0	4 4 linked	Normal	Cid's initial equipment. Buy in Rocket Town. Steal from Dragon (Mt. Nibel). Find in Weapon Seller's House (near Gongaga).	2000	1000	-
Gigas Armlet	59	0	0	0	5 4 linked	Nothing	Steal from Gigas (Whirlwind Maze). Find in Temple of the Ancients (defeat Demons Gate).	-	1	-
Diamond Bangle	57	6	37	0	5 4 linked	Normal	Buy in Bone Village.	3200	1600	-
Adaman Bangle	93	0	23	0	2 2 linked	Normal	Steal from Adamantaimai (Wutai Area, World Map).	-	1	-
Warrior Bangle	96	0	21	0	4 4 linked	Normal	Steal from Eagle Gun (Corel Train, Car #4).	-	500	-
Fourth Bracelet	74	3	100	3	5 4 linked	Normal	Find in Rocket Town.	-	1	-
Crystal Bangle	70	8	45	1	6 6 linked	Normal	Buy in Mideel.	4800	2400	-
Shinra Alpha	77	0	34	0	6 6 linked	Normal	Steal from Captain (Junon Underwater Reactor), Underwater MP (Junon Underwater Reactor), SOLDIER:1st (Mako Cannon, Midgar). Find in Fort Condor (defeat CMD.Grand Horn, your level must be low enough or you will instead get an Imperial Guard armor. N.B. Imperial Guard is a better armor.).	-	1	-
Imperial Guard	82	0	74	0	6 6 linked	Normal	Find in Fort Condor (defeat CMD.Grand Horn, your level must be high enough or you will get a Shinra Alpha armor instead), Inside Northern Cave.	-	1	-
Dragon Armlet	58	3	0	7	6 6 linked	Normal	Steal from Dark Dragon (Inside Northern Cave). Find in Temple of the Ancients (defeat Red Dragon), Gaea's Cliff (defeat Blue Dragon).	-	1	1/2 Fire, Cold & Lightning
Fire Armlet	72	8	52	3	4 4 linked	Normal	Steal from Unknown (Sunken Gelnika). Find in Gaea's Cliff.	-	1	Absorbs Fire
Aurora Armlet	76	8	54	3	4 4 linked	Normal	Steal from Unknown 2 (Sunken Gelnika). Find in Forgotten Capital.	-	2400	Absorbs Cold
Bolt Armlet	74	8	55	3	4 4 linked	Normal	Steal from Unknown 3 (Sunken Gelnika). Find in Forgotten Capital.	-	1	Absorbs Lightning
Precious Watch	0	0	0	0	8 0 linked	Normal	Find in Chocobo Square (Gold Saucer, prize).	-	1	-
Chocobracelet	35	10	38	10	4 0 linked	Normal	Find in Chocobo Square (Gold Saucer, prize).	-	1	-
Edincoat	50	0	33	0	7 0 linked	Normal	Buy in Rocket Town. Find in Rocket Town (defeat Palmer).	8000	4000	-
Wizard Bracelet	6	3	85	3	8 8 linked	Normal	Buy in Mideel. Steal from Epiolnis (Ancient Forest). Find in Forgotten City (defeat Jenova LIFE).	12000	6000	-
Escort Guard	62	5	55	0	6 6 linked	Normal	Morph Iron Man (Inside The Planet). Find in Sunken Gelnika.	-	1	Man's Armlet, Nullifies Lightning, Earth, Water & Poison
Minerva Band	60	8	57	0	6 6 linked	Normal	Steal from Turks:Elena (Midgar Underground, Part 2/Disc 2). Find in Ancient Forest.	-	1	Woman's Armlet, Nullifies Fire, Cold, Gravity & Holy
Aegis Armlet	55	15	86	50	4 4 linked	Normal	Find in Midgar Underground (Part 2/Disc 2).	-	1	-
Ziedrich	100	15	98	18	0	Nothing	Steal from Turks:Rude (Rocket Town, Part 2/Disc 2), (Sunken Gelnika, Part 2/Disc 2), (Midgar Underground, Part 2/Disc 2).	-	1	1/2 all Elements
Mystile	65	50	72	60	6 6 linked	Normal	Find in Midgar (Part 2/Disc 2), Inside Northern Cave.	-	1	-
Name	D.	D. %	M. D.	M. D. %	Slots	Growth	Location	Buy Price (Gil)	Sell Price (Gil)	Special