Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: 5 Best Early-Game Side Quests You Should Not Skip

Highlights

• Completing side quests in
  FF7 Rebirth
  offers various rewards and enhances Cloud’s relationship with party members.
• Early essential side quests prepare players for the game ahead, offering substantial rewards and valuable practice.
• Side quests like card collecting, repairing a windmill, and helping a lazy chocobo rancher unlock new content and provide meaningful rewards.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has plenty of activities filling its open-world zones. Among these are side quests. Each area has odd jobs for Cloud and company. Ideally, players should do all of them. Not only do they have various prizes, but Cloud’s friendship with his party members. That said, players may want to save some time.

To that end, the early chapters have a handful of essential side quests. They may be more engaging than others, but the rewards are often substantial. Best of all, they prepare players for the larger game ahead. Thus, any FF7 faithful ought to seek them out.

5 A Rare Card Lost

One of the first quests lies on a noticeboard in Kalm. This is part of players’ introduction to side jobs, which makes it especially helpful. The local bartender lost his favorite Queen’s Blood card in a game, so he tasks Cloud with reclaiming it. This starts a scavenger hunt. The heroes go to several different people, each of whom lost or gave the card to someone else. The episode seems like a wild goose chase for little reward, but it benefits players in the long run.

Namely, it strengthens their Queen’s Blood skills. The quest provides valuable practice against easy opponents. Some might argue that fans can do that with the regular Queen’s Blood players in Kalm, but these matches grant a unique reward.

At the end, Cloud gets to keep the bartender’s card: the “Chocobo & Moogle.” Not only does it secure several squares with little cost, but it increases in power whenever players enhance their other cards. Boosting card strength soon becomes a prominent mechanic in Queen’s Blood, so the Chocobo & Moogle only gets more useful as the game progresses.

4 Stuck In A Rut

Helping a lazy chocobo rancher makes for easier travel all around.

Players unlock this quest after arriving in Junon, the second major region. They encounter a downbeat guy who runs a transport business. Unfortunately, his carriage broke, and he can’t work up the motivation to fix it. Cloud and the others must gather some driftwood to rebuild the cart. This task can be a royal pain, especially since players have to discern the driftwood locations from a scribbled map. However, it’s worth the hassle.

Fans see some notable benefits, both during and after the quest. First, the process requires a mountain chocobo to scale the rock walls. Considering the cliffs in Junon, this mount is useful to have anyway. The quest simply gives Cloud an excuse to wrangle it. In addition, completing the cart’s construction unlocks the fast travel function between Junon and the Grasslands. Thus, players can return to the earlier area and finish anything they missed. Convenient navigation is its own reward.

3 When Words Won’t Do

Escorting a dog fleshes out the Junon region even more.

The main town isn’t the only settlement in Junon. There’s also the Crow’s Nest. The easiest way to get here is via a side quest. Rhonda wants to send money to her stubborn son, who left and founded his own community. She gives the cash to her dog, so players must follow the mutt and defend him from enemies. Yes, it’s an escort mission.

Luckily, the result isn’t as bad as it sounds. The dog is a fast runner and easily outpaces the party, so they don’t have to wait for him. Plus, enemies are scarce and normally ignore the pint-sized pooch. Finally, the pursuit paves the way for further fun.

This side job provides easy access to the Crow’s Nest, which unlocks more content. The settlement houses other quests and additional Queen’s Blood players. With results like these, perhaps the plucky pal should stick with the heroes.

2 Where The Wind Blows

Fixing a windmill is a profound comfort to a former SOLDIER (and a depressing Crisis Core Easter Egg).

After the other side quests in the Grasslands, the heroes get a chance to repay Broden for helping them evade Shinra. The innkeeper is suffering from headaches and dizzy spells. If players wish to help him out, then they must fix the local windmill for his friend, Mildred. This repair job requires a bit of exploration. The heroes must activate towers, scan lifesprings, transmute materials, and hunt a rare fiend. That prospect sounds like a royal pain, but players should complete these activities anyway. Doing so nets them items, EXP, and fast travel points. Those perks might explain the meager yet meaningful rewards.

The quest yields only a few items, but they’re fairly significant finds early in the tale. One is a cleansing materia, which lets characters cast spells to cure poison. Another is a whistlewind scarf. This grants a bit of ATB at the start of every battle, making it ideal for speed-based fighters. Finally, the ending contains a bittersweet callback to Crisis Core.

Once a SOLDIER, Broden now suffers from degradation. Genesis and other characters contract this condition due to Jenova cells not mixing properly with their bodies. The plot point is particularly relevant with the release of Crisis Core Reunion, tying the FF7 universe together. More importantly, it gives a random fetch quest some unexpected pathos.

1 Lifeline In Peril

Cloud encounters some friendly competition, both as a merc and a hero.

Here, a simple patch job becomes so much more. Kalm suffers from power failure, and it traces back to the mako pipeline. The mayor previously hired another merc and got no results. That merc turns out to be Kyrie: a thief and con artist seen in FF7 Remake. She can fix the pipeline with the right materials, but players must use a chocobo to sniff those materials out. The process isn’t challenging, but that doesn’t mean it has no value.

On the contrary, the quest has great gameplay and narrative significance. Kyrie is actually the heroine of The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story, a novel set in the FF7 universe. Once again, this small appearance connects the world. Not to mention, it offers satisfying fan service for those who’ve followed this material. Even without that context, the material reward is sizable. Completion means 3000 gil. That amount is practically a fortune in the game’s early stages. It’s no wonder why Kyrie turns to merc work.