How to get to Junon (and Yuffie) in Disc 1

[Tilarta]

I've just gotten out of Midgar and am looking for a new friend (Yuffie) to add to the party.

According to the notes, she can be found in the Junon area, but I'm having trouble finding the way.

I went to Grasslands, but keep running into this really big cobra whenever I step on the desert sand.
I'm thinking this is NOT the way to go there!

So what is the actual way to Junon.

[Scorp721]

If your talking about the swamp looking place you have to buy a chocobo lure materia from the chocobo farm and some greens and run around in the chocbo tracks until you get a battle with a chocbo in it feed it the greens and kill the enemys while it eats then ride the chocobo across and outrun the snake. as for yuffie there are some woods between ft. condor and junon if you fight enough in the forest she'll eventually show. defeat her then pick the right dialogue choices and she'll join you

[Koolkit]

Actually, you are going the right way Tilarta. Did you already do the flashback at Kalm? If so, you need to get a chocobo lure materia from Billy at the Chocobo Ranch, and some greens. Equip the chocobo lure materia, and run around on the chocobo tracks until you encounter a chocobo. Feed the chocobo the greens, and then kill the other enemies. Once you've killed the other enemies, the chocobo will be your's. Now, all you need to do is save your game, and then attempt to make it across the marshes without the shadow catching you. Junon will be on the other side of the cave! Good luck!

[FleshnBlood]

And use a walkthrough when you meet yuffie (for the right answers) so you dont have to search for her over and over again :P

[joshuacolyn]

It is possible to kill the Midgar Golem this early in the game, and he teaches you "Beta" one of the best "enemy skills" in the game; especially for most of disc 1. Until you learn "Magic Bubbles" Or you can do the chocobo thing

You have to be at least level 20. Have somebody with limit level 3. Have all members limit breaks ready before battle starts. Put everyone in the back row so they take half damage. Have everyone in "sadness". Sadness will redeuce damage from spells. One character should have the "enemy skills", elemental (hopefully at the half stage) fire in their armor and the poison ring. The Midgar Golem can be poisoned but it takes a bit for it to hit him sometimes. Graviballs (which could have been stolen in Midgar, during the trainyard sequence after being dropped in the sewers and/or the Shinra building) are "demi" which is gravity it takes half their hit points. When the Golem rises up near death (and I say "near" loosely) he is going to kick the last person to hit him out of the battle (maybe even two)SO make sure whoever has the enemy skills is not the one to be kicked out. His last move is to cast Beta which is a fire based spell. BEWARE. if you win the golem NEVER goes away. as soon as battle is over SAVE and then RUN to the cave because he will be right back.

**SPOILER** If you cant defeat him now resort to the chocobo trick. BUt as soon as you are done with Gold Saucer and have your buggy and "manipulate" Try and defeat the Chimera in the desert and he will teach you "Aqualung". Go to any shoreline and learn "Big Gaurd" from some snail looking things. then go back to Junon area and fight the big owl to learn "White WIng".Once you have all those three go back to the Midgar Golem and he will be a lot easier to deal with.

[Tilarta]

I eventually found the Chocobo Farm, I'd been circling around the map trying to find the path that I somehow missed seeing it.

Got rather cranky with catching the wild one, I learned very early to avoid limit breaks, as they'd accidentally target the Chocobo.
Tifa was especially guilty of this.

I found Yuffie and recruited her.
I was disappointed I couldn't have all 3 girls in the party, it would be easier to level them all up together.

Vincent is next on my list, but I think I'm too far from Nifflehiem at the moment.

And yes, when I am an appropriate level, I am going back to kick that cobra into the sand.
How much overpowered do you think I would need to be to curbstop it?
10 levels above it?

[Xedhadeaus]

You need at least 13-1400 hp. With materia equipped. (M-def)
I think if you have elemental materia you can bond it to fire on armor and get fire def.

Beta is a great enemy skill to have early, very potent and doesn't require all materia to get the most out of it.

[joshuacolyn]

Like I said once you leave Gold SAucer and learn Aqualung, big guard and white wing you should have no problems.
or at any time your each level twenty and have a decent elemental materia growth to take half damge for what ever element you junction with. Having everyone in back row is very helpful with him as well. Once you have decent summons like Shiva or Ramuh cast along with Aqualung
and a couple graviballs he is pretty easy.

[Koolkit]

While I agree with most of what you guys are saying, having that much HP isn't necessary at all. You can very easily defeat the Midgar Zolom with only 655 HP.

All you need to do is have someone equipped with nothing but elemental, enemy skill, and fire in the armor slot to absorb fire damage, have sadness status on all characters, and have everyone in the back row. Next, have someone successfully poison the Zolom (i.e. poison damage is occurring every turn without you doing anything), and finally, keep the character healed who is going to be learning the skill.

Now, just keep physically attacking the Zolom with one of your other characters after he "stands up", in order to get the Zolom to knock him out. Continue to do this with the remaining character until that character gets knocked out, and then it's a waiting game. Eventually, the Zolom will use Beta, which will almost kill you, but not quite. As soon as he uses Beta, just quickly re-use it on him, and that's all there is to it. The Zolom will die.