Bone Village
WARNING: This page contains SPOILERS for Final Fantasy VII.
What can be dug up in Bone Village?
The Key to Sector Five, Bahamut Zero, Phoenix, W-Item, Buntline, Mop, Megalixir, Potion, Lunar Harp, Elixir, Turbo Ether, and Ether. Note that many of these items have certain restrictions for when you are able to find them, and also note that some of them are much more common than others. (More information about those restrictions below.)
Where should I dig?
Chances are, you're looking for one of these items:
- Lunar Harp
You'll want to dig in the yellow area on the picture above. You will need this item to continue the story, so it will be available on the first disc only.
- Bahamut Zero
You'll want to dig in the red area on the picture above. There's a post sticking out of the wall there, so concentrate your digging on the left side of that post. Note that you must be on the third disc, and that you must have actually missed one of the huge materia (not just forgot to go get the one in the sub). Also note that the chances of finding this are very low (10/256), so it will most likely take you quite a while to dig it up.
- W-Item
You'll want to dig in the pink area on the picture above. There's an X on the ground there in light colored dirt, and you'll want to stand on it. Note that you must be on the third disc, and you must have missed the W-Item materia when you were underneath Midgar.
- Key to Sector Five
You'll want to dig in the blue area on the picture above. (There are other places you can get this item, but that is the place where I find it every time.) Note that you must be on at least the second disc, you must have the Highwind, and you must have Cloud in your party.
Normal or Good Treasure?
The short answer is that it doesn't make much of a difference. The following is Terence's exact excerpt about the issue:
What you
search for helps determine which spot is chosen:
Lunar Harp: Spot 1
Good Treasure: 80/256 chance each of Spots 2 and 3; 96/256 chance of Spot 4
Normal Treasure: 60/256 chance each of Spots 5, 6 and 7; 76/256 chance of Spot 8
This is the spot that the diggers will face when the bomb explodes. However, you
don't have to dig there. Providing you're close enough to any of the listed
spots, you'll be able to get the results of that spot. For instance, you can
search for Lunar Harp but still go and dig up Spot 4 instead quite easily.
What are the mechanics behind this stuff?
Terence was nice enough to provide me with the breakdown for it all:
First off, there
are 8 spots that are pre-determined and located around the village. These spots
are numbered, and here are their exact locations:
1: Top floor, right-side of smoke plume, Cloud's body half covered by the smoke,
Cloud's head touching the tent. You can find: Lunar Harp (if you
haven't dug it up yet) or Nothing.
2: Top floor, between the two black marks on the right-hand area. This is
a Good Treasure spot, and you can find: Buntline (if you haven't dug it up
yet), Phoenix Materia (if you're on Disc 3, you've already found the Buntline,
and have never collected the Phoenix Materia) or Nothing.
3: Bottom floor, *JUST* east of the tent door, right next to the piece of wood
sticking out next to the door. This is a Good Treasure spot, and you can
find: Megalixir (if you haven't dug it up yet), Bahamut ZERO Materia (if
you're on Disc 3, you've already found the Megalixir, and have never collected
the Bahamut ZERO Materia... but you only have a 10/256 chance of getting it each
time you try) or Nothing.
4: Bottom floor, center of the dirt X to the east of the tent door. This
is a Good Treasure spot, and you can find: Mop (if you haven't dug it up
yet), W-Item Materia (if you're on Disc 3, you've already found the Mop, and
have never collected the W-Item Materia) or Nothing.
5: Bottom floor, between the airplane and the skeleton, with Cloud's head
touching the tip of the airplane's nose. This is a Normal Treasure spot,
and you can find: Key to Sector 5 (if you haven't found it yet and Cloud's
recovered from his Mako Poisoning), Elixir (36/256 chance if you didn't find the
Key or already have it) or Nothing.
6: Top floor, Cloud's foot barely touching the top-right corner of the burnt out
campfire. This is a Normal Treasure spot, and you can find: Key to
Sector 5 (if you haven't found it yet and Cloud's recovered from his Mako
Poisoning), Turbo Ether (20/256 chance if you didn't find the Key or already
have it) or Ether.
7: Top floor, halfway between the smoke plume and the campfire, near the
southern edge of the area. This is a Normal Treasure spot, and you can
find: Key to Sector 5 (if you haven't found it yet and Cloud's recovered
from his Mako Poisoning), Ether (76/256 chance if you didn't find the Key or
already have it) or Nothing.
8: Bottom floor, due south of where you start, a little NE of the edge of the
leaves. This is a Normal Treasure spot, and you can find: Potion
(128/256 chance) or Nothing.
If you fail to search near enough to a Spot, you will get the results of Spot 8
(Potion or Nothing).
NOTE: I've found a Steal
materia here on a few occasions (using the Playstation version), but Terence
says that the PC version of the game will never give you the Steal materia.
(Something about it being in the text dump, but the game will never actually
give it to you.)
Thanks to shadow666 for providing me with a screenshot for this. Big thanks to Terence for providing the majority of the data.