Materia is an important item that you as a Turk must master. The Materia system in Before Crisis differs from the original Final Fantasy VII in several key points:

• At present, Materia within each grade becomes mastered at Level 9. Once the maximum level up point is reached, it cannot get any stronger.
• Summon Materia can be used by combining several Materia of a certain type (i.e. ‘X’ number of a Fire type Materia will yield the Ifrit summon.
• There are grades to the Materia. In Final Fantasy VII, once the Materia had leveled to a certain point, the player could use a Bio 2 spell. Under the new Materia system in Before Crisis, the player creates Materia of varying grades (more information below). Thus it is possible to create a Bio, Biora and Biogra Materia separately.

How is Materia Created?

Before Crisis utilizes the mobile phone as its platform. Using the phone’s camera, it is possible to create Materia. Under the Materia menu, click on the ‘Create Materia’ submenu. This will activate your phone’s camera. Once you have taken a picture, the pixels will meld together. The predominant colours in the photograph influence what the Materia will be. For example, if you photograph something with predominantly yellow hues, the likelihood is high that you will end up with a Thunder Materia. On principle, the deeper the shade of any given colour, the more higher the grade of Materia that is produced.


How Does Materia Level Up?

Materia levels up according to the degree of usage. If you keep a Materia slotted in your armour or weapon, it will level up. Defeating enemies and achieving certain objectives yields a set amount of AP, which is conducive to Materia growth.

Another way to speed up growth is to place Materia in a weapon slot. The more a Materia is used, the faster the Materia will level up. Slotting Materia into a weapon is an easy way to gain Materia AP as it has the effect of giving the weapon the element the Materia is associated with and levels it up more quickly.


How Does Materia Affect Weapon/Armour Elements?

As has been stated above, the kind of Materia slotted into the weapon and armour influence the kind of effect it will have. As most of the weapons the player character has are standard (non-elemental) weapons, it is necessary to tack on a Materia to give the weapon an element. There is, however, a caveat. Materia levels up on a gradual scale. A Materia at Level 1 has a small percentage of giving the weapon that element. A Materia at Level 8, on the other hand, will attack or defend in that element nearly 100% of the time.


Materia Chart

This is a list of the Materia that can be created. Note that certain kinds of Materia will not be available to a player until they have reached a certain level or rank.
 

Materia Class	Materia			Colors Needed
ELEMENTAL	Fire	Fira	Firaga	Red
	Blizzard	Blizarra	Blizagga	Blue
	Water	Watera	Waterga	Light blue
	Quake	Quera	Quega	Brownish shades
	Thunder	Thundara	Thundaga	Yellow
	Bio	Biora	Biogra	Yellow-green shades
	Gravity	Gravira	Graviga	Blue-purple shades
	Aero	Aerora	Aeroga	Bright green
	Comet			Black
CURATIVE	Cure	Cura	Curaga*	White
SPECIAL	Death			Crimson-black mix
	Ultima
	Chocobo**
SUPPORT	HP Up
	MP Up
	HP Absorb
	MP Absorb
	EXP Up
	Barrier
	Speed
SUMMON	Ifrit
	Shiva
	Leviathan
	Titan
	Ramuh
	Kjata
	Hades
	Typhoon
	Odin
	Bahamut

*These Materia cannot be produced through the Materia production system on your mobile phone. Neither can the Chocobo Materia be produced in this way.
**The original name for this Materia is “Chocobo”. It is unclear whether this is the Chocobo Lure Materia or a different Materia altogether.

Information on supplementary and Summon Materia gathered from FF7AC Reunion.