Near the end of Chapter 8 of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, you’ll get the chance to explore the city and pick up some side jobs. At this point, you finally get to discover what to do with all these moogle medals you’ve been picking up.
Here’s how to find and complete “The Mysterious Moogle Merchant” side quest in FF7R.
Meeting the Mysterious Moogle Merchant in the Final Fantasy VII Remake
“The Mysterious Moogle Merchant” is the easiest of the six available side quests in Chapter 8. By itself, it’s not difficult, but it’s a necessary step in several later goals throughout the game. You also have to buy a key item off the Moogle Merchant in order to advance in a side quest found a little later on.
After you get word from Oates that people have work for you in Sector 5, you’re free to explore town. If you return to the kids’ hideout, you can meet Moggie there. He’s not hard to spot. As my colleague pointed out, none of the other kids are in costumes. This is because Moggie understands the power of branding.
To complete the side quest, buy the Moogle Membership Card off of Moggie for 1 moogle medal, which unlocks the Moogle Emporium shop for your patronage. This also comes with a free HP/MP restoration as a side bonus, which may come in really handy if you’re playing through the chapter on Hard Mode.
Depending on your luck with drops, you may want to stick around for a second and do some more shopping with Moggie. Up to this point, moogle medals have primarily been a relatively common, random drop from Shinra crates, which you should be smashing on general principle. There are also a few in random treasure chests throughout the world. Either way, you should have at least a handful of medals on hand to spend on Moggie’s wares.
You’ll want at least 24 to clean Moggie out of his unique wares. This includes the Gold Saucer disc for 1 medal, which is necessary to complete your music collection; Aerith’s Silver Staff, her second available weapon, for 2 medals; the Graveyard Key, which you’ll need for the “Paying Respects” side quest; and Vol. I of all four characters’ Manuscripts for 5 medals each.
Moggie also has a single Whistlewind Scarf accessory for sale for 3 medals, which gives a character wearing it a slight boost to their ATB at the start of a fight, and a Salvation Badge for 1 medal, which makes healing magic more effective on a character when they’re below 25% health. Neither are particularly crucial.
If you don’t have enough moogle medals on hand to clean Moggie out of useful goods, you can go pick up the “Kids on Patrol” and “A Verified Hero” side quests to unlock the Whack-A-Box game at the kids’ hideout. While it’s worth practicing Whack-A-Box for a while for the sake of its rewards, including the Crate Annihilator Trophy at 30,000 points, you’ll receive a moogle medal as a participation prize every time you play. If you just need two or three more medals to afford something, Whack-A-Box is the easiest way to do it.
It’s also worth noting here that Chapter 8 isn’t the last time you see Moggie, so anything you end up leaving in his shop isn’t permanently missable. You can come back here a bit later in the game, in Chapter 14, and spend any extra medals you’ve found along the way. Moggie will also have a couple of new items for sale on your second visit, including the Steel Pincers, a weapon for Barret. You can burn any extra medals on useful consumables like Ethers.
We’re still digging into the side quests and harder battles in the FF7 remake. Stop by our hub for FF7R for more articles and guides, including:
- Take your first steps into Hard Mode by defeating the Scorpion Sentinel
- How to complete the “Secret Medicine” side quest in Chapter 14
- How to increase your characters’ Luck stat
It’s weird that one of the key merchants in the Final Fantasy VII Remake is a kid that you’re basically bribing with toy coins. I suppose it’s not the worst thing in the world, although you do have to ask where Moggie got not one, but two high-powered weapons. Speculate on Moggie’s supply chains with us via our official Twitter, @PrimaGames.
