Final Fantasy VII FF7 Rebirth Windmill Gear
Screenshot by Destructoid

How to craft the Windmill Gear in FF7 Rebirth

Round and round.

The Windmill Gear in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is an important item needed to, uh, fix a windmill as part of Brodenā€™s quest in Kalm. Finding and crafting it can take time, but hereā€™s what you need to know.

Recommended Videos
Final Fantasy VII FF7 Lifespring location
Screenshot by Destructoid

Finding the Windmill Gear recipe

The transmutation recipe for the Windmill Gear has to be dug up from an excavation site. This isnā€™t available immediately. You first have to locate it. Instead of working backwards from it, these are all the steps to locate it.

First, youā€™re going to need to activate the Wastelands Tower found in the, er, wastelands East of Midgar and West of Kalm. This will reveal points of interest on your map.

The one you are looking for is the Cavern Lifespring, located southeast of the tower. Go to it and scan it. This will reveal Excavation Intel 1: Bygone Settlement. This takes you out of the wastelands and further east. The excavation site is north of the swamp and east of the Lifespring you just scanned.

Final Fantasy VII FF7 Rebirth Windmill Gear Recipe Location
Screenshot by Destructoid

Go to the site on Chocobo. Itā€™s pretty easy to spot as a cluster of long-ruined, red brick buildings. There are three things buried here that your Chocobo needs to sniff out. Just hold up, and a circle with an arrow will appear. Pivot your Chocobo in the direction of that arrow, and a trail will appear, leading you to the spot where something is buried. If the trail hits a wall, youā€™ll need to bypass the wall and sniff again to find the spot. Walk up to where the trail ends and press down to get your Chocobo to dig it up.

The Windmill Gear is one of the three items buried at the excavation site. Iā€™m not sure if the items you dig up are randomized in their spots, but to complete the excavation sites, you need to dig up all three objects, so you might as well get them all before moving on. However, for posterity. In my playthrough, the Windmill Gear was located near the Northwest corner of the site next to a building.

Final Fantasy VII FF7 Rebirth Quetzalcoatl
Screenshot by Destructoid

Crafting the Windmill Gear

Unfortunately, finding the recipe is the first part of crafting the Windmill Gear. You need the ingredients for the recipe. For most of these, you just pick them up off of monsters and the ground throughout the normal course of gameplay. One of them isnā€™t. Hereā€™s what you need.

  • 2 Iron Ore
  • 1 Lea Titanium
  • 5 Beast Bone
  • 1 Quetzalcoatl Talon

Itā€™s the last one that requires some work to get. Iā€™ve got a guide that is going up that goes into depth on how to find the Quetzalcoatl and how to defeat it. However, the short version is that you need to scan the Wetlands Lifespring that is found east of the swamp. This will reveal the Quetzalcoatlā€™s location (you canā€™t fight it until you scan the Lifespring). Go there, beat it, and youā€™ll earn the Quetzalcoatl Talon.

As long as youā€™ve been picking up rocks off the ground, youā€™ll likely have the items you need. If not, theyā€™re sometimes purchasable at the Chocobo vender at the ranch.

To reiterate, the Windmill Gear is used in the Broden quest. If youā€™ve started this already, then you can now complete it. If you havenā€™t, then you can find him in Kalmā€™s inn after youā€™ve completed enough quests to re-enter the town.


Destructoid is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.Ā Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Zoey Handley
Zoey Handley
Staff Writer - Zoey is a gaming gadabout. She got her start blogging with the community in 2018 and hit the front page soon after. Normally found exploring indie experiments and retro libraries, she does her best to remain chronically uncool.