Chapter 2: Covert Ops is the second story mission in Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Remake INTERmissions DLC. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the Covert Ops Main Mission.
Area: Sector 9 – Shinra Electric Power Company
Requirement: Complete Chapter 1: Wutai’s Finest
Objectives:
- Scarlet’s Trap
- A Way Out
- Find That Materia
- The Scent of Materia
- Discovery – Secret Vault
- The Hunt Continues
- The Invitation
- A Fateful Confrontation
- A New Threat
- Escape
- Dread
Scarlet’s Trap
After the initial cutscenes, this chapter starts with Yuffie and Sonon inside Shinra HQ in the Advanced Weaponry area. Follow the corridor past a bench and a vending machine until you reach a large open room. In here Scarlet summons a number of enemies to test you, starting with some Slug-Rays and a Cutter. You can make quick work of all the robots by using electrical attacks, then two Monodrive enemies will be summoned, which are taken down very quickly with Yuffie’s ranged throw. Finally, there will be a handful of Slug-Rays and Shock-Rays summoned, which you can quickly deal with using normal melee.
A Way Out
After all the waves are finished you can aim at the hanging container in the front right of the area to progress.
Climb up with Sonon’s help, then interact with the button on the ladder to allow him to climb up.
Find That Materia
Follow the hallway into the next room, where you will need to deal with a pair of Shock Troopers. You can take these out faster using Fire magic or abilities. After they’ve been dealt with, follow the room around to the opposite side and interact with the terminal in the middle of the walkway to turn the power on this level back on.
With the power turned on for this level there are now 3 Materia that you can pick up before continuing. In the tube directly opposite the terminal, you can pick up the Ninja Cannonball Materia.
Follow the walkway to the east where you can pick up the Skill Master Materia.
Finally back to the west where you can then pick up the Steadfast Block Materia.
The Scent of Materia
When you are ready to progress you can drop onto the pipes leading into the center of the room, where you can climb up the wall of the generator to get to the next floor. Go across the path to the dead end on the east side of the room to find a chest that will contain the Ribbon Accessory.
Follow the path going west into the next hallway. Take an immediate left up the short flight of stairs to find a chest that contains the Volant Armlet Armor.
Continue into the next room where you will need to fight a couple of 3-C Soldier Operators. These like main game are weak to Fire attacks, so use those to take them out quickly. When they are defeated follow the linear path along the walkway and across the two grab points.
An Armored Magitrooper will drop down on an elevator. These don’t have a specific weakness, but when they do certain attacks you can target the armor core to deal increased damage if needed. After enough damage is health the pilot may eject and you are fighting an Enhanced Magitrooper, but they can be made quick work of solo between Yuffie and Sonon. Continue through the doorway into another hallway where you can find a purple chest containing the Djinn Staff Weapon for Sonon.
When back in the large main room there is another terminal to interact with to turn the power on for this floor.
Discovery – Secret Vault
Entering the newly opened door opposite the terminal leads you to the Shinra Box Buster Challenge course where you can obtain a set of Materia as rewards from two different Box Buster courses similar to those in the main game story.
» Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Remake Shinra Box Buster Challenge Guide
When you are ready to continue you can go up the pipes again leading towards the generator. Here you want to take the left pipe (when looking at the terminal) first to obtain an item. Follow the path across the two swing spots to a platform where you can find a Time Materia, then take the pole back down to the lower floor.
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The Hunt Continues
Now take the right pipe to progress. At the top you will have a short cutscene with dialogue between Yuffie and Sonon, then you can throw your weapon at the hanging girders above to make a bridge to progress further.
Instead of going directly across the second girder go up the pipe to the left first where you can find a chest containing a Healing Carcanet Accessory.
Go back and across the second girder, then swing across to the next platform. In the next room, you will need to deal with a number of Security Officers (all weak to fire) then follow the hallways into the next area. Follow the hallways back to the main room for one final terminal to turn the power on for this level.
Go back to the room with the chair where you will need to fight a pair of Magitek enemies. The Magitrooper is the same as before and isn’t weak to anything specific, but the Shock Trooper is weak to Lightning so you can use that to take that one out quickly.
The Invitation
Before leaving this room, turn around and interact with the tube machine that Yuffie had her face slammed against prior to obtain an Ap Up Materia.
Go out the doorway leading north and you can find a bench and vending machine to prepare yourself for what’s ahead. The next area is a series of small enemy waves where you get to choose what you’re fighting against before reaching a boss fight.
The first wave you are selecting between Mark II Monodrives (left, block physical, weak to wind) or a pair of Sweepers (weak to lighting).
The second wave you are selecting between a Cutter (left, weak to lighting) or a pair of Blast-Rays (right, also weak to lighting, but there’s two of them).
The third wave you are selecting between a large group of Monodrives (left, weak to wind) or a group of 4 Slug-Rays (right, weak to lighting).
The fourth wave you are selecting between a M.O.T.H. Unit (left, weak to lighting and wind) or a 2 Armored Magitroopers (right, no specific weakness, destroy the cores).
The fifth and final wave is the same no matter what, a Deathwheel enemy which is new in the DLC. This enemy is weak to Fire, Ice, and Wind but resistant to Lightning, and will block attacks dealt to its front. Try to get behind it or hit it with the magic it’s weak to stagger it.
A Fateful Confrontation
Once you’ve defeated the Deathwheel you will need to head up the elevator. Rest at the nearby bench if needed, then continue through the hallway to a boss fight.
Boss Fight: The Crimson Mare
Scarlet will be inside a mech suit dealing with you herself. You can target both her or the mech suit itself, with Scarlet being weak to fire, and the mech suit being weak to electricity. You need to actually deplete the entire health bar for The Crimson mare to end the fight, if you deplete Scarlet’s health bar you temporarily stun her (and the suit) placing it in Pressured state and allowing you to deal damage uninterrupted.
Right at the start of the fight, there will be a number of Sentry Rays summoned around the floor of the arena you are on, it would be recommended you focus those as quickly as you can so that there aren’t extra enemies shooting at you during the fight.
In this first phase, the boss will typically either shoot at you with guns, doing melee combos with the blades it has or do charging attacks towards you can which be avoided by dodging to the side. Use Elemental Ninjutsu to put Fire on Yuffie’s weapon and hit Scarlet inside the mech to stun her, allowing you and Sonon to do Sync attacks on the mech to deal damage while it is in Pressured state.
The mech can sometimes perform an ability where it summons more turrets around the area, such as rocket turrets around the upper edge. Quickly focus on these if they appear so you only need to worry about the boss again.
When the mech health is depleted around a quarter it will jump away and switch out the weapons it has on its arms. It will now have Makocannons that it shoots volleys of shots or beams at you with. These cannons can be targeted directly with attacks and when destroyed will also temporarily stun the mech.
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At around half to quarter health remaining the mech will jump away one more time and switch weapons again, this time gaining a large sword and shield. It will do large sweeps with the sword or shoot rockets out of the shield. These can also be individually targeted like the Makocannons, allowing you to stun it if you still need.
Once The Crimson Mare health bar is depleted you will win the fight and obtain the Firebird Amulet Armor.
A New Threat
After a somewhat lengthy set of cutscenes, you can exit the boss area down a set of hallways to reach a room with Sonon fighting a number of soldier enemies. These are Deepground Soldiers and are a little more involved mechanically than most Security Officers. They are still weak to fire, but they will turn invisible at times making it so you can’t attack, then reappearing after a short period. If you can attack them right after they stop being invisibly you are more likely to stagger them, allowing more damage.
Escape
After defeating the ground of Deepground you will be locked inside the training simulator. Rest at the nearby bench and use the vending machine if needed, then interact with the terminal by the door to progress. You will be forced into a training simulation where you need to fight through waves of enemies to escape. Note that between each wave in the simulator you have about 20 seconds where you are no longer counted as “in combat” and can freely cast healing spells or use items if needed.
The first wave will be against a couple of Unkown Entity enemies that you should remember from the main story. They are weak to Ice attacks and shouldn’t pose a major threat with only two of them.
The second wave is a pair of Zenene that have no specific weakness. Like the main game, they can be a minor annoyance to deal with, but just mainly watch out for the lunge attack to avoid damage and focus them one at a time.
The third wave is against two Riot Troopers and an Elite Grenadier. All are weak to Fire attacks and Yuffie’s ranged throw will hit the Riot Troopers even through their shields, so this wave should be fairly easy to deal with.
The final wave is against a Diabolic Creation enemy actively being projected by a now visible Projector enemy controlling the simulation. Defeating the Diabolic Creation is required for you to be able to damage the projector, and destroying the projector is required to leave the simulation. When the Diabolic Creation is destroyed the Projector will lose its shield and drop into Staggered state for a short period, allowing you to damage it before it summons another Diabolic Creation.
The Diabolic Creation is weak to Ice, with its right arm also able to be targetted and will stun the enemy if you end up destroying it before the Creation itself. Its attacks are fairly standard and easy to predict. It will shoot Firaga spells at you at range and swipe when you are close. If it disappears it will reappear near you after a short period and try to grab you so watch for it and dodge to the side to avoid it. Each time you destroy the Diabolic Creation then have it revived by the Projector it will have less health, so fighting it gets quicker as you progress.
When you are out of the simulator projection rest at the bench again, as it is your last opportunity to do so before the end of the chapter, then exit the simulator room.
Dread
Follow the path to the next objective where you will face the final boss of the chapter.
Boss Fight: Nero
Nero is a member of the Tsviets, originally introduced in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. He controls the power of darkness, using it to consume enemies or allies (as you saw on your way into this room). This fight has multiple phases with Nero gaining more abilities each time, but with similar strategies throughout. He has no specific weakness or resistance to magic other than the typical major boss immunity to status effects.
For the first phase, Nero has relatively basic attacks to watch for. He will shoot bullets towards you if you are at range or do a melee combo if you are close. Watch for the ability named Binding Talons as he will lunge a short distance towards you and try to grab you with the wings on his back. If he flies up into the air he will normally just shoot down towards you with his guns, which you can avoid by dodging to the side. If you stun him and he enters Pressured state Synergy with Sonon using 
and just constantly attack with 
until he either leaves pressured or enters Staggered state. The normal Synergy attack Yuffie and Sonan do where they jump up and down on the enemy and increases the stagger bar extremely fast while the enemy is in the Pressured state.
After a third of Nero’s health is repeated the fight will enter the second phase where you will be in a different room. The fight is still largely the same overall, but Nero will now do attacks called Dark Torrent and Chthonic Surge which are both effectively ranged darkness attacks shot in a line towards you that can be avoided by dodging directly left or right. Otherwise, this phase functions relatively similar to phase 1 aside from Nero being slightly more aggressive.
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At around half of his health remaining the fight will go into the third l phase where Nero kicks you back out to the prior room. He will now potentially cast Haste on himself, allowing him to attack faster than before for a short period, along with doing new attacks primarily based around diving from the air like Dark Ferocity.
At around 10% health remaining the fight will go into the final phase. Nero envelopes the entire area in darkness for a short period, which causes you to slowly lose health at all times until the darkness disappears. You can now also target the Abyssal Wings on his back, allowing you to stun him in a similar manner to the Crimson Mare if you destroy them before you actually deplete his health.
Once defeated you will see the final cutscenes for the chapter and the post-completion cutscenes for the INTERmission DLC.
For all other Mission Walkthroughs, check out our complete Final Fantasy 7 (VII) Remake Walkthrough.
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