Fort Condor

Fort Condor is a fort near Junon in Final Fantasy VII. A condor, incubating its egg, sits atop the fort covering up the Mako Reactor. The player can play a strategic minigame here. Fort Condor can be visited any time from after the party travels through the Mythril Mine until the end of the game, but only needs to be visited once.

The minigame was designed by Kazuhiko Yoshioka, the event planner for Fort Condor.

Story


The Shinra Electric Power Company constantly tries to storm the fort to get to the Mako Reactor. When they are on their mission to obtain the Huge Materia, the party must protect the egg on top of the fort. If they succeed in defeating Shinra's final assault, the egg hatches and the people protecting Fort Condor give the Huge Materia to the party.

If the player loses the strategy game and lets the invaders reach the top, and then loses the consecutive boss battle, they do not get a Game Over but are ejected out of the fort. All the fort inhabitants are implied to have died and the player won't get the Huge Materia and can never come back to the fort, as the rope to climb up will be missing.

Locations
Fort Condor is located to the South on Gaia's Eastern continent, in the middle of a patch of badlands. It is just southwest of the Mythril Mine. As it is located on the eastern side of the continent, Fort Condor may not be accessed until after the player has ventured through the Mythril Mines for the first time.

Strategy Minigame
Fort Condor's minigame is a basic real-time strategy game similar to the game Crystal Defenders, as the battlefield, combat, and other features are alike. After giving the man at the top of the Fort some gil to pay the fighting mercenaries, he will allow the player to fight a battle against a wave of attacking forces from Shinra. To fight the enemies, the player must hire units to fight the invaders. Every unit has HP, which must be depleted to destroy it.

Once every enemy unit has been defeated, the battle is won and a prize is awarded. If the enemy reaches the top of the battlefield, the party has to fight a weak enemy called CMD.Grand Horn. If the player loses this battle, there is no Game Over but no prize is awarded. Even if the player defeats the Grand Horn, they will get a different prize than which they would have won if they had beaten the strategy game properly. There are twelve battles in all, but only one is mandatory.

There are twenty units that can be commanded at a time. To build a unit, the player must pay for them out of their own personal funds. Money donated to Fort Condor can not be used to purchase these units, so if players donate to Fort Condor, they should be sure to keep enough money to buy units during the game. Because playing the game costs gil, the player will not be allowed to play unless they have at least 4,000 gil in personal funds (again, this is separate from Fort Condor's fund). 4,000 gil is only enough to buy 10 of the cheapest units, so it is recommended to have more than this. When the battle is won, the surviving units will be refunded at 200 gil per unit.

Most units can perform only two actions: move and attack. Workers can place a bomb to explode when the enemy touches it. Friendly troops cannot be damaged by the bomb traps. Repairers can heal ally units for 10 HP per action. Stationary units can be dismantled to allow new units to replace them. Certain units hit enemies well for double damage, while hitting others for half.

Units are selected by moving the cursor with the D-Pad and pressing. The game speed can be adjusted by pressing and.

The final enemy unit to attack is the "Commander". Its strength and HP are high, and it takes half damage from all attacks. However, it is slow and can easily be defeated by ranged units.

Enemies appear at the bottom of the map at two separate entrances (one to the left and one to the right). The enemies appear gradually over time. If, at any time, the player has defeated all enemies on the screen, the remaining enemy troops never arrive and the player wins immediately. If the Commander unit appears, the battle is won by defeating the Commander.

Tips
To easily win a battle, the player can place one Fighter (or Shooter, since it moves faster) as low as possible, start the fight, and set the speed to its slowest setting. After the battle has started the player can place another Fighter slightly lower than the first, and repeating to place troops lower and lower.

There will eventually be a red line indicating the lowest level the player can place troops. Once this lowest level is reached, the player can buy more units and place them immediately at this level close to the entrances where the enemy forces arrive.

By quickly overwhelming the enemies currently on the battlefield, the battle can be ended before the majority of enemy troops even appear. This strategy can be expensive however.

Another option is to place a single Attacker (the fastest moving unit) as low as possible before the battle, set the speed to slow, then order the Attacker to move to the bottom of the screen. As the Attacker moves downfield, enemies will begin to enter. As soon as the red line reaches the enemy which has advanced the furthest, the player can hire and place the mercenary unit that counters it directly in front of it.

This can be repeated as enemies appear, using only the units needed to counter exactly what appears on the field, and only if the player doesn't have the same unit nearby. With this strategy the player can defeat the invasion force using no more than 5-6 mercenaries none of whom should die allowing for a refund of 1000-1200 gil of the money spent in addition to the prize for the battle itself. For additional coverage, a Tri-stoner can be placed near the left-side entrance once the playet's troops have advanced positioned so that it targets the entire corridor.

Dummied units
In the data there are 24 entries for units. With the selectable player and enemy units, only fourteen are used. The rest of the slots are units named Dummy. Seven of these unused slots are models of a sloped orange rectangles and were likely never going to be filled. The three other slots appear to be of a tower, a ground trap, and a mine.

Battles
There are fifteen battles that can be fought in Fort Condor. The actual number of battles is seventeen, but battles 14-18 and 20 cannot be accessed because they occur during times when the party cannot travel to Fort Condor. These battles are considered won if the player has given the Fort Condor forces at least 15,000 gil, that is 3,000 gil per battle. There are no prizes for these battles, however. The player is rewarded with an item upon winning each of the fifteen playable battles, and a prize is received after the final battle regardless of whether the enemy reaches the top. There is a slight glitch in a few of the missions regarding the dialogue box that notifies the player of the prize they have received, in which it will say the player won a different prize than the one they are actually given, or it will simply appear as a blank dialogue box.

There is an option to let the Fort Condor forces handle the battle themselves, but they need to have at least 3,000 gil to do that, which the player must donate. If the player has less than 4,000 gil the man at the top will not allow the party to participate in the battle either. The maximum amount of gil the player can give the Fort Condor troops is 32,767 gil by giving out 500 gil until at 29,500, then giving them a large amount of money. This is because after the funds reach 30,000 gil further deposits will be denied. If the player donates more money than 32,767 gil, the rest will be lost. If the player has given gil to the fort they will receive the deposited gil before the final battle, the strategist saying: "Let's give them all the gil we have!"

Each battle can only be fought during specific times during the game. If the player moves forward in the story and does not fight the battle, it is lost forever. Skipping a battle means the player does not win the prize for the battle they are currently fighting and instead get the prize for the battle they skipped. Prizes can be permanently lost this way. The final battle is the exception: its prizes will always be the same.


 * Battle 1: Arrive at Fort Condor after the Mythril Mine. The prize is a Magic Comb. This battle has 11 enemies.
 * Battle 2: Before getting in the water in Junon with Mr. Dolphin. The prize is a Peace Ring. This battle has 20 enemies. This is potentially dangerous as the player must travel from Junon to Fort Condor with Cloud alone.
 * Battle 3 After getting in the water in Junon, but before Cloud jumps. The prize is 3 Ethers, although the game says "Tincture" (this has been corrected in the PC re-release). This battle has 20 enemies. The player again has to travel from Junon to Fort Condor with Cloud alone.
 * Battle 4: After getting the buggy, but before going to Cosmo Canyon. The prize is a Megalixir. This battle has 30 enemies.
 * Battle 5: After Bugenhagen opens the door leading to the Cave of the Gi. The prize is 5 Hi-Potions, although the game says 5 Potions. The only way to access this battle is to park the buggy a distance away from Cosmo Canyon on the first visit so it does not break down, then walk the rest of the way to Cosmo Canyon to progress the story until the Cave of Gi. If the buggy does break down it will not be possible to cross the river to the north, and the player has no way of getting to Fort Condor before the window for this battle expires. This battle has 25 enemies.
 * Battle 6: After completing Cave of the Gi, before talking to Shera in Rocket Town. The prize is 5 Hi-Potions, although the game says 5 Potions. This battle has 30 enemies.
 * Battle 7: After talking to Shera the first time, but before talking to Shera a second time when Rufus arrives in Rocket Town. The prize is a Superball. This battle has 30 enemies.
 * Battle 8: After getting the Tiny Bronco, before getting the Keystone. The prize is 3 Turbo Ethers. This battle has 30 enemies.
 * Battle 9: After the dating sequence in the Gold Saucer, before going to the Temple of the Ancients. The prize is 3 Turbo Ethers. This battle has 30 enemies.
 * Battle 10: After finishing the Temple of the Ancients, before awakening the Sleeping Forest with the Lunar Harp. The prize is 5 X-Potions, although the game only shows a blank text box. This battle has 35 enemies.
 * Battle 11: After awakening the Sleeping Forest with the Lunar Harp, before sleeping in the Forgotten Capital. The prize is 5 X-Potions, although the game only a shows a blank text box. This battle has 35 enemies.
 * Battle 12: After sleeping in the Forgotten Capital (still on Disc 1), before the events that lead to the fight with Jenova∙LIFE and the end of Disc 1. The prize is 5 X-Potions, although the game only a shows a blank text box. This battle has 35 enemies.
 * Battle 13: After the fight with Jenova∙LIFE, at the beginning of Disc 2, before obtaining the Highwind. The prize is 3 Elixirs. This battle has 40 enemies.
 * Battles 14-18: Cannot be fought. Occurs while Cloud is missing while Tifa and Barrett are held captive in Junon for seven days.
 * Battle 19: After obtaining the Highwind, before going to Mideel. The prize is 3 Elixirs. This battle has 40 enemies.
 * Battle 20: Cannot be fought. Takes place during the events in Mideel.
 * Final Battle: A mandatory battle that must be fought to progress the story. This battle can still be won even if all of the player's units are destroyed by fighting a CMD.Grand Horn. The prizes are Imperial Guard (only by fighting CMD.Grand Horn), Phoenix Materia, and Huge Materia.

Purposely failing the missions by placing no unit and waiting lets the party face off against CMD.Grand Horn, an easy repeatable boss that provides both quick money and a reliable source of Vagyrisk Claw, a rare item in the game.

Date mechanics
The game has a hidden affection value that determines whom Cloud will go on a date with in Gold Saucer later. The value is determined by the dialogue and party member choices made prior to the date.

When Cloud first talks to the old guy:
 * "I guess so" (+5 Barret, +3 Aeris, +3 Tifa, +2 Yuffie)
 * "Not interested" (-5 Barret, -3 Aeris, -3 Tifa, -1 Yuffie)

When the old guy tells Cloud about his problem:
 * "All right" (+5 Barret, +3 Aeris, +3 Tifa, +2 Yuffie)
 * "Not interested" (-5 Barret, -3 Aeris, -3 Tifa, -1 Yuffie)

Items

 * Phoenix Materia
 * Huge Materia

Disc 1
{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left" width="440px"
 * valign="top" width="50%"|

Item Shop

 * valign="top" width="50%"|

Materia Shop

 * }

Discs 2 and 3
{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left" width="440px"
 * valign="top" width="50%"|

Item Shop

 * valign="top" width="50%"|

Materia Shop

 * }

Enemies

 * CMD.Grand Horn (Boss)

Development
If the player hacks the game to include Cloud, Tifa or Aeris in the Huge Materia quest battles, they will have spoken lines, but in the game these three can never be in the party for the Huge Materia scenario. These unused lines may exist because the original planned mechanic for the Fort Condor battles was for the player to be allowed a limited number of losses before the fort would fall, also suggesting the player would have been able to trigger the Huge Materia event in a different time than it does in the final game. In the final game it doesn't matter how many of the optional battles are lost; the fort will not be defeated, and the Huge Materia quest is triggered by the storyline.

Remnant to the abandoned mechanic may be present in the tutorial for the minigame, where the man says: "Let's get back to basics. If the enemy reaches this shed, you'll have to fight them off immediately. It's not the end of the world, but if you lose repeatedly, it could be dangerous." Furthermore, the man also keeps count on the player's losses, saying: "Up to now, you've lost {!}{Var:1} times. If you lose too many times, you won’t be able to come back." Most players never see this message as losing the game completely requires for the player to lose both the minigame, and the boss battle, and if that were to happen the player would be more likely to reset and try again than keep playing.

Musical themes
The background music of Fort Condor is "Open Your Heart". During the minigame battles the music is the eponymous track "Fort Condor".

Trivia

 * Losing the Huge Materia is likely one of the scenes most players never witness, as it is rather impossible to lose the quest unless on purpose.
 * When winning battles #10, #11 and #12 in the English version of Final Fantasy VII the receipt line for the reward is only a blank text box, because the box is too small to display text. The actual text for this tiny box is: Received three "Elixir"! This is actually the text entry for the subsequent battle wins, as the prize for #10, #11 and #12 is five X-Potions.