Corel Prison
Walkthrough

The Bandits that you will fight against in the Corel Prison area can steal your items so be sure to kill them quickly before they start taking things out of pockets. If they steal something from you and you manage to kill them before they flee the battle you will receive your stolen items back before the battle concludes.

Corel Prison

Follow Barret to the south and use the Save Point to save your game. There is a prisoner who will follow you around if you get too close to him. He just says “Ha ha ha” when you confront him but nothing else - so don’t worry about him.

Center of Corel Prison

Travel south towards the large cargo truck. You can actually hop in the cab and use it to get some sleep. Choose to “Sleep” if you need to refill your party’s HP and MP.

Sleeping in the truck

You can find a man named Mr. Coates inside the container of the truck who will tell you that the only way you can escape the prison is to win a Chocobo race.

Mr. Coates in the Corel Prison

There is a small shack in the southeast corner of the prison called the Prison Pub. Speak to the man in beige behind the counter to buy items. He will sell you:

Potions
Phoenix Downs
Tents

You should also take the opportunity to remove all of Cait Sith’s Materia and armor if you do not plan on using him in your party. He comes equipped with a Silver Armlet, which is a very strong piece of Armor, as well as Transform Materia and Manipulate Materia.

Cait Sith’s original equipment and Materia

Mayor’s Old House

Enter the house just north of this one (called the Mayor’s Old House in the menu screen) to continue the story with a scene involving all of your party members.

Barret will provide you with some background information on Dyne and what happened to North Corel. At the end of all of the dialogue you will have to choose a party that includes Cloud, Barret and one other party member (either Aeris, Red XIII, Cait Sith or Yuffie).

Best Bromance

Actions in this section of the game will influence the Gold Saucer Date side quest and obtaining the Best Bromance Trophy.

You will have the option of selecting the party members that will join you and Barret to go find Dyne:

Aeris + 10 to Aeris
Tifa + 3 to Tifa
Yuffie + 2 to Yuffie
Red XIII No change
Cait Sith No change

Your best bet, if you intend to obtain the Best Bromance trophy, is to have Red XIII or Cait Sith join Cloud and Barret.

Cait Sith’s original equipment and Materia
Best Bromance Trophy Icon

If you had been using two other team members prior to now then one of your other team members is likely hoarding a bunch of your Materia, armor and accessories. You can speak to the different team members in your party to swap them for one another allowing you to pull the Materia off any of them as required.

The Barrett and Dyne flashback to North Corel

Travel north back towards the first screen where Cloud and his teammates were when they arrived in Corel Prison.

Corel Prison

Continue north through the fence on the left side of the screen and then take a right through the gap in the fence on the next screen.

Corel Prison

Keep walking east until you reach the junk yard area pictured below.

The Junk Yard in Corel Prison

It is now time to prepare Barret for an upcoming fight that he will be involved in by himself. Equip him with his strongest weapon (which should be the W Machine Gun), the strongest armor (which should be the Silver Armlet taken from Cait Sith) and Restore Materia so that he can easily heal himself as required.

You can also equip him with Materia that provides benefits to his stats even if he won’t be using it, such as Steal Materia (for Dexterity), Throw Materia (for Vitality) and Cover Materia (also for Vitality).

Barret and Dyne in the Corel Prison

Continue north when you are ready for the fight.

Boss Battle: Dyne
Boss Battle against Dyne

HP: 1,200
Reward: Silver Armlet

The key to defeating Dyne is preparation before the fight. Aside from that, just hammer away at him with regular attacks and use Cure magic from your Restore Materia as required. Follow the strategies mentioned above if you are having trouble with this boss battle.

Dyne in a battle against Barret

A video demonstration of this battle is included below for reference:

The story will continue in the container of the truck back in Corel Prison. Mr Coates will give you more of an explanation about how to get out of the prison which involves winning a Chocobo race up in Gold Saucer. Ester will teach you how to ride a Chocobo if you have never done it before.

Ester in the Corel Prison with Mr. Coates

Make sure that you pick up the Ramuh Materia sitting in the corner of the Chocobo jockey’s waiting room. Ester will come and grab you after all of the other riders have left.

Ramuh Materia in the Chocobo jockey waiting room

Just to reiterate Ester’s instructions:

  • Press the SelectButton to switch to manual controls
  • Press SquareButton to speed up
  • Press XButton to slow down
  • Press CircleButton to initiate a speed boost

You can also cheat in Chocobo races by holding down the R1Button and R2Button on the PlayStation controller which will slowly refill your Chocobo’s stamina meter. This will allow you to use the speed boost function more often during the race.

Start of the Chocobo race with automatic control enabled

If you lose the race you will be given a stronger and faster Chocobo for the next race so take as many tries as you need to win until you’re successful. Press the StartButton once you reach the finish line to conclude the race (you will have to wait for all of the other Chocobos to finish first).

First place in the Chocobo race
Chocochampion

This is your first opportunity to obtain the Chocochampion Trophy. You will obtain it only if you manage to come in first place during this race to escape Corel Prison.

You will have more opportunities to obtain this trophy later while completing the Chocobo Racing and Breeding side quest.

Chocochampion Trophy Icon
Instructions to head to Gongaga

Buggy

You now have access to a motorized Buggy which you can use to travel around the continents. For starters though you may want to go into your PHS and remove anything that you may have provided to Barret to assist him in his battle against Dyne (Materia, armor or accessories).

The buggy outside Gold Saucer

There are a number of key Enemy Skills that you should pick up and add to the two Enemy Skill Materia at this point in the game made possible by the fact that you now have Manipulate Materia. These are detailed on the next page just before actually traveling to Gongaga.