Author: Trafficblast

The developers of the Halo franchise are raising money to help with COVID-19 relief, and their efforts have brought in a lot of money so far.

Community director Brian Jarrard said on Twitter that Halo 5’s in-game charity campaign has raised more than $200,000 USD as of April 10. The game is currently selling a “Relief and Recovery” Req Pack for the game’s multiplayer mode, which includes various cosmetics and XP boosts. All proceeds are going to directly to the Global Giving’s Coronavirus Relief Fund.

The DLC costs $10 USD, so it has moved a lot of units to reach $200,000 in donations. You can buy the Relief and Recovery REQ pack through Halo 5 or right here on the Xbox Store.

The Relief and Recovery Req pack was just the start of the Halo franchise’s charitable giving for COVID-19 relief. The company is also selling a “Hope and Love” Halo t-shirt for $25 USD, with profits going to the same charity mentioned above.

Halo 5 is not the first game to launch an in-game campaign to raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts. Modern Warfare‘s “Defender” microtransaction has returned to help military veterans during this stressful time.

Gears Tactics, the next game in the Gears of War series, releases on April 28 for PC (and later on Xbox One). The tactical spin-off is set before the first Gears game, but will link up with the narrative in Gears 5, as the main character, Gabe Diaz, is the father of Kait Diaz. Now, in an interview with IGN, Gears Tactics’ narrative director Jean Mah has talked about expanding the world of Gears, and hinted at plans that will take the series beyond its current cast and family bloodlines.

Mah tells IGN that the team at The Coalition (which took over the Gears franchise after Gears of War: Judgment) is aware of the difficulties of continually upping the stakes, and believes that compelling protagonists are the answer. “For our stories to resonate with our players, we need them to be able to not identify, but feel like they can care about and get involved with the main character,” she says. “I think for a lot of stories, the trouble with having giant stakes of saving the world is that: how do you top that every single time? It’s about putting a spin on that giant pile of stakes that you’re trying to deal with, by making it personal to the protagonist.”

At the same time, she says, “sometimes we worry everyone in our universe is related to each other.” But Mah believes that it’s important to keep coming back to touchpoints that connect stories, such as “sharing a history in a certain battle.” Mah says that Del, another character from Gears 4 and 5, still has a story that needs to be told too, and that we could see another huge time jump (as with the 25 year gap between Gears of War 3 and 4) in the future.

“We’re figuring that out next, but Tactics is a great opportunity to tell a brand new story that’s going to fulfill that Gears of War itch, while we figure out and plan what’s going to happen next in the main series,” she told IGN. “So I just feel like we have so many opportunities for our fans and our players to still get engaged in our universe. And we’re not going to stop.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Mah explains that there’s no definitive map of Sera, the planet the games are set on, because the team wants to make sure that it is not bound to one creatively–allowing for “white space” gives them more room for creativity. “It’s fine to have local area maps, but as far as I’m concerned, we will not ever have a globe with continents on it,” Mah said.

Gears 5, the most recent shooter in the Gears series, received a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review. “Gears 5 might suffer from some of the same storytelling missteps as its predecessors, and it might not venture far out of the past, but the new ideas it brings to the series are all good reasons for fans to return,” wrote reviewer Phil Hornshaw.

Like in the original Final Fantasy 7, Materia is an integral part of FF7 Remake‘s combat system. Serving as the game’s spells, abilities, and summons, you can equip these colored orbs to your characters to increase the power of their attack skills, while also giving them a bunch of other benefits.

As a rule of thumb, you should equip as many Materia orbs as you can early on, especially the spell and attack ability ones. For general guidance on how to best build the proper Materia loadout for your party, be sure to check out our in-depth guide covering the subject. Otherwise, read below for a general explainer of Materia and other things you should know about them.

For more guides, check out our FF7 Remake walkthrough and guides roundup. Though, be sure to read our FF7 Remake review.

Materia Types

There are five types of Materia you can equip to your party, which each improve your characters’ abilities in unique ways. You’ll want to use your Materia as much as possible, as doing so levels up each particular orb, thus enhancing its effectiveness or potency–more on that later.

• Magic Materia (Green): Setting Magic Materia allows your characters to cast spells, which is an essential tool for weakening enemies, especially some of the game’s most difficult bosses. Magic Materia includes the spells Fire, Ice, Thunder, Healing, Poison, and more.
• Command Materia (Yellow): Setting Command Materia allows you to use abilities that further assist you in battle, such as Assess, Steal, and Chakra, just to name a few. Command Materia generally serve a physical function and help boost your capabilities, either directly or indirectly.
• Support Materia (Blue): Setting Support Materia is a unique process compared to the other types. Support Materia do nothing on their own; they only serve the purpose of enhancing the power of other Materia. They’re also unique in that you can only activate their functionality by attaching them to linked Materia slots in your weapons and armor–again, more on that later. Support Materia are incredibly useful and add additional effects to your attacks or spellcasting.
• Complete Materia (Purple): Setting Complete Materia improves a character’s base attributes, like HP, MP, or Luck. It even gives them unique combat abilities, such as the Deadly Dodge, which allows whoever has it equipped to perform an area-of-effect attack from a forward dodge.
• Summoning Matera (Red): Setting a Summoning Materia invokes a summon creature into battle. They’re exclusively set to a character’s weapon, and upon being equipped, also boost that character’s base attributes. Summons have special Materia slot, so equipping them won’t block you from using another Materia as well. When a summon creature is called into battle, they act as an AI-controlled party member and can be issued attack commands.

How To Equip Materia

At the start of Chapter 2, FF7 Remake explains in detail how to equip Materia, which you’re told is set via the Materia & Equipment screen in the Main Menu. As stated, Materia is fitted onto your weapons and armor, which you’ll notice each have their own set of slots–though, the Bronze Bangles you start with don’t have any. There’s nothing to consider early on about the organization of your Materia across both your weapons or armor. However, this does change a bit later when you’re equipping Support Materia, which requires it to be inserted into linked slots.

There are two variants of Materia sockets on weapons and armor: single, and linked. If you put a Support Materia into one of those link slots and attach a Magic Materia alongside it, then you will activate the effects of the Support Materia with the particular Magic Materia’s element.

Some Materia have different effects when attached to the linked slots of either a weapon or armor. For example, if you have one slot with an Elemental Materia and it’s connected to another slot with Fire on a piece of armor, any time an enemy tries to set you ablaze, the damage taken from the fire attack will be halved. On the other hand, if you equip those Materia into a linked slot on a weapon, your attacks will be imbued with that fire instead.

A final note about equipping Materia: make sure you’re setting up your most frequently used Magic Materia spells to your Battle Commands. It helps ensure you’re able to use your favorite Magic Materia spells during a fight quickly.

How To Unlock More Materia Slots

To get more Materia slots, you can either purchase new armor with additional slots or upgrade your currently equipped weapons via the Weapon Upgrade system, which is a series of skill trees that include nodes that add more Materia slots. For more about how the Weapon Upgrade system works, be sure to check out our Weapon Upgrade guide detailing everything you need to know.

How To Get More Materia

If you’re looking for new Materia, you can always purchase some at items shops or vending machines. You can even get more powerful ones from Chadley, a Shinra intern you’ll meet on the streets of the Sector 7 Slums during Chapter 3. After you complete his side mission, he provides you with a series of challenges you can complete to earn the ability to buy new Materia from him at a discounted price. You can even get Summoning Materia from his special VR missions, which you can complete to add to your growing stockpile as powerful Materia.

A lot of valuable Materia can also be found in the environment–some of which are easy to overlook. Be sure to check our feature detailing most essential Materia you might’ve missed, so you’re always working with the best Materia throughout your journey.

How To Level Your Materia

It’s especially important to know which Materia you want to invest in early because of how battles impact a Materia’s strength. The more you use a Materia during battle, the more experience (AP) it gains, until it eventually levels up–increasing that individual Materia’s damage potency or overall effectiveness. For example, for spells: Blizzard becomes Blizzara, Fire becomes Fira, and Cure becomes Cura–all more powerful versions of their original spells. Leveling a Materia will sometimes unlock new spells or abilities with different effects, as well.

You should take a vested interest in leveling up spell Materia in particular, as they’re some of the most potent attacks in the game, and if you send a single spell into a cluster of enemies, you can sometimes kill two birds with one stone.

Even if you don’t end up using some of your Materia in the end, leveled-up versions are some of the most valuable items in the game, so you’re welcome to sell the ones you’ve stopped using to various shopkeepers to earn a little extra money.

Cloud and the gang are in for a surprise in Final Fantasy 7 Remake‘s seventh chapter. Fortunately, what you’ll find in this section of the game is much more straightforward than the previous chapter, but don’t let your gaurd down. There’s quite a tough challenge ahead and it’s name is the Air Buster.

We’re here to help guide you through properly sabotaging the Air Buster in our Chapter 7 guide, taking you through every boss fight and helping you find every item, weapon, Materia, and collectible. And if you need more help, check out our FF7 Remake guide roundup for every guide we’ve got. You can also read our FF7 Remake review.

Chapter 7: A Trap Is Sprung Walkthrough

After sliding down the pipe, check the east side of the area to find a chest with three hi-potions inside. Down the ladders to the B5 level (check your map), you’ll find another chest with two more echo mists inside. And down when you fight a group of Monodrives and Slug-Rays, check for another chest that includes an ether.

At the bottom of the ladders, you’ll fight two Sweepers. Remember to hit them with magic to stagger them, then lay into them with melee attacks. Take the next ladder leading you down to B7, and keep going on the walkway past the next ladder down to find a chest with a Bulletproof Vest inside. You’ll set the bomb on the reactor next, then face an Elite Shock Trooper and two regular Shock Troopers. You’re then informed of your new objective: sabotage and eliminate the Air Buster, a powerful experimental Shinra robot.

Sabotaging Air Buster

Ahead, enter the B8 Air Buster lab. Kill all the Security Officers, then grab the Reactor 5 Keycard from the west wall. You can use it at a nearby module to reduce the Airbuster’s capabilities by sending some of its components to a disposal room up ahead. As you find more keycards, you’ll run into new modules that allow you to sabotage different Air Buster parts.

You’ll have three choices for sabotaging the Air Buster: removing AI Cores, Big Bomber bombshells, or M Units. Removing AI Cores cuts down on the Air Buster’s movement speed and ability to use stun attacks; removing Big Bomber shells takes away the boss’s ability to use big, massively damaging explosives; and removing M units gives you random items you can retrieve ahead of the fight–although it doesn’t hamper the Air Buster’s effectiveness. You can make decisions about what to take from the Airbuster based on your playstyle, but we found removing all its Big Bomber shells is generally pretty helpful.

You’ll find a total of six Keycards in total during this section, so check the Air Buster status control consoles in each of the labs to make decisions about how you want to sabotage the boss. Along the way, you can also check the large monitors you encounter to see how much of an effect you’ve already had on it.

You’ll hit another lab on B7. Repeat the process and find another Reactor 5 Keycard on the west wall. Like the previous lab, this one contains two consoles. Before you leave, check the northwest corner of the room, behind some smashable crates, to find a Lightning Materia.

When you enter the next hallway, you’ll run into a battle with an Elite Shock Trooper and some Sentry Rays. Clear them out, then check the southwest corner of the area, before continuing to the next hallway. You’ll find another Reactor 5 Keycard here.

Clear out the B6 lab the same way as the others and find one more Reactor 5 Keycard to use on another pair of consoles. In the next hallway, head to its far end to find some crates you can destroy and a chest with a new weapon for Tifa: Sonic Strikers.

In the B5 lab, you’ll find a Reactor 5 Keycard in the northwest corner of the room, and another one against the east wall. There are four consoles in this room you can use to make the finishing touches on sabotaging Air Buster.

Keep moving up to B4, where you’ll fight some Elite Grenadiers, Riot Troopers, and Elite Riot Troopers. As you keep pushing into the room, you’ll fight a Cutter mech. You can disable it’s two cutting arms to weaken it for extra damage, but generally, you want to hit it with as much magic as you can to stagger it. Stay clear of its sawblades, whatever you do, because they’ll do a ton of damage that’s hard to avoid.

At the top of the newly opened ramp, check the west wall for some crates, and then open the chest southeast for an ether. Keep climbing up to B1, fighting Monodrives along the way until you reach the security room.

Disposal Room

You’ll enter the security room to open the way forward, but when you’re prompted to take Cloud’s position at the right control, head to the door to the Disposal Room instead. That’ll let you activate the security locks to open the door to get inside. You’ll need to follow Tifa’s instructions to move the levers in the correct directions, all at the same time. Look at the control panel screens to see which way you need to move the right and left thumbsticks on her count.

Inside the Disposal Room, activate the switch to get all the stuff you sent to the room and grab all of Shinra’s gear. Before you leave, make sure to grab a Magic Up Materia off the ground.

After opening the security door, you’ll reach the last pit-stop before fighting the Air Buster. You’ll find a bench to heal up, plus a vending machine with the Bombing Mission Music Disc for sale. Once you’re ready, head through the doors leading outside.

Boss Fight: Air Buster

Since Air Buster is a machine, Lightning is its weakness, so you’ll want to outfit everyone with Lightning Materia. If you’ve got the Elemental Materia, this is an excellent time to use it–set it with a Lightning Materia for Barret so that he fires Lightning-infused bullets, allowing him to do more damage while quickly increasing the Air Buster’s Stagger meter.

In the fight itself, you’ll start with Cloud separated from Barret and Tifa, and the Air Buster facing him. Take a defensive posture; block with your guard stance all incoming gunfire and laser beams from the Air Buster, and dodge the EM Mines it kicks out periodically. Close the gap and perform melee attacks if you can manage them, but note that the Air Buster will use a blast of static electricity to knock you back if you linger too close. Fire off magic spells instead when you’re not defending. Hit the Air Buster with enough Lightning, and it’ll be stunned for a few seconds, allowing you to get in close and hit it with ATB abilities.

If Cloud is taking too much damage, Barret’s “Lifesaver” ability from his Light Machine Gun can help, allowing him to tank damage from the other characters. Use it to spread around the hurt.

After a time, the Air Buster will turn and face Barret and Tifa. As Cloud, you now have a chance to get close for some damage, but watch out for the Air Buster’s jets, which will fire periodically and knock you to the ground.

When the Air Buster’s second phase hits, you’ll need to worry about its massive Tankbuster laser. It’ll shoot it down the center catwalk, making it pretty easy to dodge, but make sure you avoid it, or your characters will take a ton of damage. From here on out, the Air Buster will periodically fire the laser; when it does, drop everything and get clear.

You can now close the cap on the Air Buster and hit it at close range while continuing to smash it with as much Lightning as possible. After a short time, the Air Buster’s arms will split off, firing arcs of electricity between them. When that happens, focus your fire on one of them to stagger and destroy it quickly, using Barret’s ranged abilities and magic. The arms will move to the other catwalk and try to punch you before long, so try to stay clear of them.

You should also get the opportunity to use a summon during this phase of the battle, which will help take the pressure off fighting the arms. After you hit them hard enough, the Air Buster will pull the arms back to its main body. Keep hitting it as hard as you can with Lightning to Stagger the Air Buster, and then lay into it for some considerable damage.

When the Air Buster gets down to about half-health, it’ll hover off the side of the catwalk, beyond the range of your melee team’s attacks. Switch to Barret and open up with his guns, while continuing to support him with as many Lightning spells as you can manage. When Air Buster floats back to the catwalk, send the melee fighters in to wail on it as much as they can.

Watch out for when the Air Buster rises to either crush you with a big punch from one of its fists, lay into you with its machine guns, or fire flamethrowers from its palms. When you see it preparing any of those attacks, dodge clear. It’ll also fire its Tankbuster laser while rotating, covering more ground, so when you see it readying that attack, run for it.

As the Air Buster’s health drops, just keep pounding away with Lightning spells to pressure it. Getting it close to death will trigger some significant, last-ditch attacks, like the Big Bomber, which will shoot a giant grenade at one of your teammates. But at this point, you should be able to overpower the Tankbuster and finish it off by unloading damage on it relentlessly.

Cyberpunk 2077 remains on schedule for release in September on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and developer CD Projekt Red is not expecting the ongoing COVID-19 crisis to pose a significant risk. Speaking on the company’s latest earnings call, management said the game’s physical edition should be available as scheduled, but there are concerns around one element in particular.

The company said there are “some difficulties” related to the localization process. With recording studios closed, the team is unable get this work done.

“There are some difficulties with the localization process, specifically with recording some of the actors,” the company said. “Most of the studios are closed down right now at least for the time being.”

The “vast majority” of the localization voiceover work is already finished, but, as with most projects of this size and scale, there are additional “pick-ups” that need to be recorded.

CD Projekt Red said it’s not worried because these lines can be recorded later on, when recording studios eventually re-open, and these lines can be delivered with a day-one patch for Cyberpunk 2077.

Overall, CD Projekt Red does not see the COVID-19 crisis as a major risk for Cyberpunk 2077. Every other element of the game is progressing smoothly, the company said, and factories that make CD Projekt Red’s physical discs are open and operating normally. The game recently crossed another milestone, as the main ratings groups from around the world have given the game a rating.

Cyberpunk 2077 is nearing the finish line as it relates to its completion state, with developers now focusing on bug-fixing and adding polish, the studio said.

The major assumption CD Projekt Red is making with Cyberpunk 2077 is that retail stores will re-open in time for the game’s release in September. The company said that it “assume[s] that things will change significantly; we hope for the better.”

Before the COVID-19 crisis began, CD Projekt Red said it was anticipating a 50/50 split between physical and digital sales of Cyberpunk 2077 at launch. The company said it expects this still to be the case, but acknowledged that it is a fluid situation, so it might end up that sales trend more toward digital. In fact, CD Projekt Red recently said the current global lockdowns might lead to a change in buying behavior where people prefer digital more than physical. This would be good for CD Projekt Red, as the developer makes more money from a digital sale.

In other news, Avengers: Endgame artist Boss Logic has created a wonderful-looking Cyberpunk 2077-themed PlayStation 5 DualSense mock-up image.