Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has no shortage of side-quests to complete. Finishing these will both raise your relationship level with certain party members and get you some Party EXP to unlock more parts of your Folios and other handy resources. “Stuck in a Rut” is one of those very quests, though it can be a little tricky.
An Aerith-centric quest, you’ll want to finish this one if you’re looking to raise your relationship level with our flower gal. You’ll also need to complete this quest if you want to get back to the Grasslands via fast travel.
You can grab the quest from the Job Board in Under Junon. After that you’ll need to visit Gabe at the nearby chocobo ranch. He’ll inform you that the chocobo carriage needs repairs, but he’s in no position to do it. You’ll have to go find a guy named Wainwright. But first, you’ll need to get a feathered friend to help.
How to sneak past those pesky chocobos to get to Belle
To complete “Stuck in a Rut,” you’ll need to wrangle Belle, a gray chocobo who can scale walls. Seems straightforward, right? Well, the problem is that the nearby chocobos you need to sneak past ignore attempts to distract them, like throwing rocks. Why does the game give you rocks to throw if the chocobos are going to ignore them?
The solution, though it’s not immediately obvious, is to hit the second mini-train switch after the first, thereby calling another mini-train car up to you that you can use for cover. You might assume that the second switch sends the first car back in reverse (as I did the first time), but that’s not the case.
Once the second mini-train car reaches its destination, that’s where the rocks come in. You’ll need to throw one at the switch you just hit to send the mini-train car forward, which you’ll use as cover while you sneak past our bird pal.
You’ll need to keep throwing rocks at the train switches to keep moving forward, each time using the mini-trains as cover to stay hidden from those uber perceptive birdies.
Time to hunt for supplies
Once you get a hold of Belle, you’ll be able to climb up the walls to meet up with Wainwright. Follow the quest objective, and you’ll find him taking a nap in his cabin. Here you’ll be prompted with a few options for how to wake him up. Any of the options (including leaving) will wake him. He’ll then give you a map to find three different sources of materials. (You can pull up the map at any time with left on the D-pad.)
You’ll need to use Belle to sniff out the locations of these items whenever you see a red question mark appear over her head. You’ll need to hold up on the D-pad, pressing it once won’t work (this is the case with any chocobo sniffing activity). After you find the location of each piece of driftwood, stand over the area while riding on Belle and hit down on the D-pad. You’ll find driftwood in the following locations:
Once you have all the pieces you need, go back to Wainwright (there’s a fast-travel point northeast of the quest objective for him) and he’ll fashion you a carriage wheel, bed, and brace (which Aerith seems to store in her pockets?).
Head back to Gabe to return the parts and you’ll be able to fast-travel back to the Grasslands via Chocobo Carriage in no time!
Stuck in a Rut is one of the many quests that highlights the deeply strange residents of FF7 Rebirth. Between a ranch owner who seems like he just can’t be bothered to do anything and a guy who sleeps all the time in a shed on a cliff, Rebirth ain’t short on strange folks. But hey, at least you can go back to the Grasslands now.
