Is there an easier way to find the Ultimate Weapon in FFVII?

Question

I'm on the 3rd disc in FFVII, and I'm at the point where I'd like to kill the Ultimate Weapon to unlock the Ruby Weapon.

I already fought the Ultimate Weapon at the crater near Junon, and fought it a second time at the North Crater. But since then, I haven't been able to find it--recently, at least. (I flew around in the Highwind for about 5 minutes, found it, fought it at Gongaga Village, decided to go into Sunken Gelnika, died there and forgot to save...moral of the story is to save often.)

So is there a pattern that the Ultimate Weapon flies in? Or can it be found easily flying around certain continents/areas? Or am I just screwed and have to search for it over the entire world map?

Answer 1

After each fight with the weapon he flies away and can be encountered around one of these locations:

• Gongaga Village
• Fort Condor
• Midgar
• North Crater
• Junon Area
• Mideel
• Mt. Nibel
• North Corel
• Cosmo Canyon

He can only be defeated at cosmos canyon. He will flee if encountered anywhere else

Answer 2

the last place Ultimate WEAPON will go to for your final battle with it is Cosmo Canyon, after you defeat it it'll fall down and destroy part of the mountain allowing you access to the Ancient Forest

Places he tends to stop are Shinra Locations, remember, the WEAPONS are the planet's defense system which is why they attacked Junon and Midgar, i do now he stops at Midgar and North Crater

he may show up in a place twice (i remember fighting him over North Crater twice, once where he at there and once where he was charging up his attack) however i think it's random he will always end at Cosmo Canyon for the last fight after so many encounters

if you can't find him you can do the same trick used in Final Fantasy VI to locate Death Guise by aiming your airship at a slight angle and flying strait so that you will slowly fly over everything, difference being is that Death Guise was a random encounter, you have to look for Ultimate Weapon

Answer 3

So I managed to defeat the Ultimate Weapon last night. While Colin D's answer with the list of locations of where it stops after ramming the Highwind into it multiple times, it didn't really answer my question of where it's found flying around exactly (or if there's a pattern to it).

I found the Ultimate Weapon flying generally around the eastern continent and western continent. I didn't really see it near the northern continent, but the way it turned directions was incredibly sporadic and sudden.

I can't really confirm this though--I'm just going to leave it as an answer for now.

Answer 4

Ultimate Weapon's flight patterns are random.

It stops at the locations mentioned in Colin D's answer, but you might be interested in knowing that you can force it to go straight to and stop at a location if you manage to ram into it about four times, as it is flying randomly.

Another thing to note is that when you fight Ultimate Weapon, it will go directly to its final location if you bring its HP down below 20 000.