Corel Prison, Dyne & Chocobo Race - FF7 Walkthrough
The first thing you will want to do in Corel Prison is the opposite of what Barret tells you - follow him! You'll find yourself in the same area that is shown in my screen shot above when you do. Go into the northern most house for a long scene explaining most of what is going on.
When the scene is done you'll be asked to make a party - make sure Barret is a part of that party as we'll want to get him the most EXP possible since he has a solo fight coming up. If your Barret is below level 18 I would strongly recommend you grind around the Inn in Corel Prison until he is.
Speak with Mr. Coates in the Shin-Ra truck being guarded by two bodyguards before you leave this area as well. Our next stop is north, around the same place we first entered Corel Prison. The guy that was previously blocking the gate here is dead and you can now go through.
You're going to want to go up north one screen then through the hole in the fence to the east. This route is also shown in my screen shots below.
To reach Dyne go north out of Corel Prison (shown above).
In the area before the Dyne boss fight with all of the trashed cars you'll find a Death Machine enemy which has a chance of teaching anyone equipped with the Enemy Skill Materia Matra Magic. For more information about the Death Machine enemies and a screen shot of what they look like, follow the link provided.
Dyne is at the northern most end of the junk yard - before you go up there you will want to make sure Barret is well equipped and prepared for his one on one. I'd recommend putting a Restore Materia as well as one Summon on Barret so that he can keep himself alive and deal a decent hit to Dyne early on. If you took my advice earlier and your Barret is at least level 18 this fight will be a cake walk for you.
When you regain control of your characters you will find yourself back in the Gold Saucer but in a room you'll be unfamiliar with - a room you can't access any other time but right now in the game. Inside this same room you'll find the Ramuh Materia. Get this Materia now otherwise you'll miss it permanently.
If you don't get this Materia now you will permanently miss it.
The next thing you have to do is participate in a Chocobo Race - you have to win this race in order to proceed but you don't have to win it the first time you do it... Each time you fail Ester will provide you with an even better Chocobo until losing is pretty much impossible. If you suck at Chocobo Racing just let the computer race for you - it'll win a race for you.
Here is a quick run down again for anyone who wants to do the race on the Chocobo themselves:
Chocobo Controls:
Select: Switch between Manual/Automatic
Square: Speed Up
X: Slow Down
Circle: Speed Boost
R1 + R2: Hold to regenerate Stamina
Once you're successful in winning the Chocobo Race you'll be given the Buggy, a vehicle that lets you travel across shallow rivers. You will also find yourself out on the World Map and riding the Buggy after the race. While you're still in this area it's recommended you grab Enemy Skill Aqualung.
In addition to Aqualung you can also pick up a few other Enemy Skills now that we have a Manipulate Materia (it came with Cait Sith). It's up to you if you'd like to collect the other Enemy Skills now or not, I am going to include a list of them below if you do choose to do them now. Otherwise skip ahead to Gongaga or Cosmo Canyon if you're not going to Gongaga either.
To collect Enemy Skills: Ride your Buggy back to Costa del Sol and around the beach in this area. The enemy we're looking for is called a Beachplug and they're easily recognizable by the three long tentacles they have. These guys will teach you the Big Guard Enemy Skill. You will need to Manipulate the enemy and cast Big Guard on yourself to learn it.
Go into Costa del Sol and take the boat back to Junon. In the Junon area you will find another enemy called a Zemzelett which can teach you the Enemy Skill White Wind. Both of these are supportive/defensive abilities and both of them are quite useful and will make a difference in the near future.
If you're strong enough while you're in this area you can also go back through Mythril Mine and challenge the Midgar Zolom. He can teach you Enemy Skill Beta which is extremely powerful for this level range. You can definitely defeat this guy now by equipping one character with a Fire Ring and another with a Elemental + Fire Materia combination. Put one Enemy Skill Materia on each of these characters too - they'll both be able to take the Midgar Zolom's Beta ability. Using the Enemy Skill Big Guard will help a lot for this too.
Additionally, if you haven't gotten Yuffie yet you may encounter her in the forests of this area. Yuffie is an optional character but plays such an important role in the game you'll question why she was optional, without her you will miss a lot of different Materia as well as side quests. For more information about Yuffie head over to my Yuffie Character Unlock Guide.
Fort Condor Battle #4: After getting the buggy the 4th Fort Condor Battle becomes available. Since we need to go back to the Junon area for Enemy Skills, now is a great time to complete it!
Continue to Gongaga (Optional Content)
Continue to Cosmo Canyon (Disc 1)
Return to Gold Saucer (Part 1)