FINAL FANTASY VIII POWER UP GUIDE Version: 4.4 Written by: Aya Brea i_love_aya@hotmail.com Gosh, there're way too many FAQs on this game already why am I writing this one you ask? Well, mine's totally different. I will show you how to SERIOUSLY power up your characters and believe me, it works! If you're the type who's obsessed with insanely high stats so you can laugh at the boss' Ultima spell as it's only doing ~200 to every member in your party, then this guide is for you! BTW, this is written based on the US version of the game. Some features may differ from the Japanese version (such as button configuration for example) or the European (PAL) version of the game. My ICQ is working fine now, thanks to whoever fixed it up for me. :) Before you decide to post me an e-mail, do not bring up these: * Please don't send in that trick where you refine Mesmerize Blades into Mega Potions, I've heard them a million times (without exaggeration.) It's not even all that effective compared to the infinite credit trick, but if you wanna try it out, give it a go. * I'm sick of the Island Closest to Hell Draw Points thing. You know, this may indeed sound a bit rude to tell you what stuff not to send in, but you'll understand if you've written a guide for a major game like FFVIII. I can be completely overwhelmed by the shear amount of mail I get everyday and it's surprising how many of those are about the same thing. * Anything in ALL CAPS will be ignored. * Anything about Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Lunar and Grandia will also be ignored. * Please don't send into any more clarifications on the X-ATM092 trick. I've devoted enough time on that section already and I guess most gamers will get the idea. Sorry, didn't want to be rude. * And please before you send me a question, read through the "Frequently Asked Questions" section. I've put up that section for a REASON you know! This is my third overall FAQ. I'm feeling really bad since I still haven't finished my Star Ocean 2 FAQ, I must sincerely apologize for SO2 fans but I'll try to finish it some day. :-) CONTENTS - Revision - Credits - Black list! - About me - Introduction - Final Fantasy VIII - Frequently Asked Questions - Objective - Why bother? - Where do I start? - Critical Guardian Forces - Preparing for the big thing - Some notes - Bonus Rosetta Stone - Training - Squall - Quistis - Other characters - Two characters at once! - Want even higher stats? - Steal/Find Sources - Make Sources - Eating enemies - My stats - Some tips and tricks - Character overviews - Squall Leonhart - Quistis Trepe - Zell Dincht - Rinoa Heartilly - Selphie Tilmitt - Irvine Kinneas - Seifer Almasy - Edea Kramer - Step-by-step power-up walkthrough - DISC 1 - It begins - Lava bath anyone? - Dollet me - Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? - Whoohoo, our first mission! - I know where it's at - Owls + Trains = Timber resistance group - Things to do #1 - I know where it's at part 2 - Gardening Galbadian style - I choo choo choose Deling City - The known Tomb of the Unknown King - Things to do #2 - Sorceresscide - DISC 2 - Win a hill - Is cheapness contagious? - Haha, missed me by a mile... NOT! - We're the train-stealers - Is that a rocket in your pants or are you just happy to see me? - The hanging garden of Balamb - Do you like fish? - Top of the Pops - Things to do #3 - New GFs - Chicobo Card - Shumi Tribe - CC Quest - Lotsa AP - Other - Silence of the (Ba)lamb - My heart will go on - Boom boom boom boom, the Garden goes boom - DISC 3 - Taxicab Confessions V: A witch's secret - To be scorched, or not to be scorched - Seedy... I mean SeeD ship - Salt Lake City? Yup, I've been there - And then a hero comes along.. - Scarred for life - Things to do #4 - Gateway to the moon - The box in the sky - Vixen or tramp? - Eyes on me - 2gether - POWER UP EXTRA - Acquiring Cactuar - Acquiring Bahamut - Complete your collection... nearly! - Mmmmmm, Rosetta Stones.... *Drool* - Whoa! Careful with that... what do you call that thing anyway? - Abra Kadabra - Basic Junctions - Elemental Junctions - Status Junctions - The limiting factor. - DISC 3 (continued) - Say you'll be there - Mission impossible - Sacrifice - DISC 4 - Which is the witchiest? - Other optional stuff - GF customization - Cheap Omega tricks - Miscellaneous REVISION ======== V1.0 11/Oct/1999 - Started this project V1.5 15/Oct/1999 - Completed the main section - Completed all character overviews except Irvine's - Miscellaneous section now up V2.0 24/Oct/1999 - Found a new Dollet mission strategy since I had to re-restart the game - Worked on the walkthrough - Added lotsa minor stuff V2.1 26/Oct/1999 - Celebrate since I've just accomplished my mission of NOT gaining a single level all the way through the game! So Selphie and Quistis' sections has updates on stats and some strange findings! - Found a free Rosetta Stone (YAY!) so updated my powering up strategies. Check out some new sections under "Preparing for the big thing" and "Training"! - Corrected some of the "Oops", "Why did I do that?" and "What was I thinking?!" type errors. - Added the GF Profile sections (What do you think?) - Continued with the walkthrough - Filled in the missing Angelo Search data thanks to some nice readers. - Got the Devour list!!! - Invisible Moon is actually Invincible Moon! - Some more information on the X-ATM092 in the walkthrough section - Added an interesting note on Irvine's Limit Break - Changed format (~~~~~~~~~~~'s) - More tips - More miscellaneous stuff and fixed the Julia one. - Oh yeah, don't forget Selphie's song under Miscellaneous! - Other minor stuff V2.2 30/Oct/1999 - Added a trick on how to dispose of unwanted spells! Under the "Some tips and tricks" section - Added an unlimited money trick, whoohoo! Look for it in the "Make Sources" section under "Want even higher stats?" plus more explanations. - Put some comments on Devour - Two more notes on the mysterious X-ATM092 in the walkthrough. One at how to get pass the previously unpassable path in the chase while the other is a look how the 50AP can be gained. - Added lots of notes to Quistis' Blue Magic, also Ray-Bomb's description is filled! - Added a note to Squall's Renzokuken finishers and modified some of his finisher's descriptions - Got Squall and Zell's MAX stats gained through "training" - Got the FULL list of items that can be turned into Sources, as well as another list. - Added the requirements for requiring GF Tonberry and believe me, the other FAQs have gotten it wrong! - Fixed some errors here and there - Continued with the walkthrough, although it's still a long way to completion V2.3 03/Nov/1999 - Added a lot of new explanations to the Devour command - Added some notes to Rinoa's Angel Wing Limit Break - Found another way to NOT gain any EXP from a fight thanks to a reader, and it has something to do with "stones" - Done the walkthrough 'til right after Laguna's second scenario - More stuff here and there V2.4 05/Nov/1999 - Wrote about another 5 pages worth of walkthrough - Wrote a bit more on Wishing Star since I saw it again - Fixed errors V2.5 06/Nov/1999 - How dumb can I get? I used the WRONG line breakers! Fixed it now. - Finished the walkthrough for disc 1 - A bit more on Rinoa's Angel Wing and Wishing Star - Couple of more notes - Added the reference for Biggs and Wedge. (Sometimes the most obvious things in life are the hardest to remember.) V2.6 10/Nov/1999 - Gave the shops a run for their money with the Black List section (the only thing sweeter than revenge is a sweet revenge, even though it's not mine. Oh well...) - A lot more new stuff in the walkthrough ('til just after the Missile Base mission.) - Found out what could be stolen from Seifer at the end of disc 1 - A note about gravity - I have a terrible memory so I forgot the rest (if any) V2.7 14/Nov/1999 - Continued the walkthrough and listed all the relevant mini-quests - Added alternate Diablos strategy - More stuff about Biggs and Wedge, as well as lotsa weird stuff found by FeralNoa - Added a note to Squall's Lion Heart finisher - Added the AP trick with X-ATM092 - Rinoa and Irvine's max stats - Some other stuff and I cannot remember V2.8 26/Nov/1999 - Filled in the Frequently Asked Questions section and moved it up to the top... - Added more references - Added more miscellaneous stuff - Added more ways of getting spells early in the walkthrough, under "Things to do #2" and "The known Tomb of the Unknown King" - A note about Squall's Renzokuken finisher on how to get Lion Heart more often - Fixed up some mistakes and my French - A note on Vitality Zero under tips - Completed disc 2's walkthrough - A note to Zell's Duel finishers (no, you can do more than just the pre-requisite moves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) V2.9 30/Nov/1999 - 5 more chapters in the walkthrough with somewhat cheesy titles - More tips and stuff - More questions are in - Added Another Gamer's Angel Wing strategy V3.0 07/Dec/1999 - Ho ho ho, so many people sent in their great stuff so it's time for a major(ish) update - Added Seifer and Edea to the character list, along with Seifer's level 100 stats! - Added an alternate alternate strategy in the Ruby Dragon fight in Laguna's fourth scenario - Added an extra subsection in "Things to do #3" in disc 2, involving Cactuars and AP - Added Irvine's/Seifer's/Edea's Limit Break descriptions - More questions - More tips - Added Selphie's easy Slot Limit Break trick under her character section - Added the trick to get some Pulse Ammo in disc 2! Chech out the section "Top of the Pops" - Added the trick to get Pandemona's card early, in the section "Silence of the (Ba)lamb" - Added the "My stats" section - Corrected lotsa typos, especially the terrible mistake on the path to acquire Odin - Completed the walkthrough all the way to the power up point! V4.0 22/Dec/1999 - Added more questions - Added another chain combo to Zell's section - Added Edea's level 100 stats - Added "Zantetsuken Reverse" to Seifer's section - Added an explanation of how to get Ward in the fourth Laguna scenario - Finally completed the whole thing, I'm so proud of myself! Lots of tips and optional stuff are in under the massive Power Up Extra section. - Added some stuff to the tips - Added numerous Rosetta Stone tricks, god I love them! :) - Fixed various typos and mistakes - Even more on Rinoa's Angel Wing! - Obtained vague descrptions of Selphie's Catastrophe and Percent V4.1 03/Jan/2000 - Corrected the whole Squall Limit ender thing!!! - Added more tips - Added a trick on getting Lion Heart in disc 1 (or 2) and it's in the walkthrough, under "Things to do #1" - Another question - Added a miscellaneous thing - A LOT of stuff here and there, some corrections but it's hard for me to remember every single thing - More about the GF combinations and Queen of Cards in disc 4 - ANOTHER Rosetta Stone trick... will these never end?! V4.2 20/Jan/2000 - Fixed up a lot of errors - Added an extra power up mission involving Seifer in Dollet - Added a few tips, mainly on cards - Question - Miscellaneous stuff - Lil' adjustments here and there and there and ooh, missed a spot - Still working on a super-cheap "Defeat Omega in under 5 rounds trick" but it's not in yet. V4.3 30/Jan/2000 - Those "cheap" Omega tricks are now in, read it at your own risk - A new trick on stealing and not mugging - More info on Angelo Search, how you can see it more often - More spell stuff about Angel Wing - Full description about Selphie's secret Slot spells are in - A tidbit on Quistis' Bad Breath - A tidbit on FFVI - A "fun" tidbit on Odin... - Fixed up some requirements for acquiring GF Tonberry - Here and there, the usual V4.4 16/Feb/2000 - A card trick during the Desert Prison part of the game is in. Chance to collect Rosetta Stones early! - More notes on GF Phoenix - A note on Odin and the (dis)advantages of getting him later - A note on Devouring and possible side effects - A miscellaneous thing added - Some corrections CREDITS ======= * Happy Matt because he was the first person who told me about this idea of powering up your characters. (Yup, he has to come before Squaresoft and that..) If I had to write down every single thing that he helped me on, it would take up this whole page! So let's just say thanks for all the tips, strategies and for being my friend. And enjoy your games! :-) * Squaresoft/Square EA for developing this well polished phenomenon and porting it over to the US shores so promptly. (Using the term loosely.) * Cephiroth for the X-ATM092 strategy on his guide and some other stuff. * Scott Ong for his long and detailed walkthroughs that I had to refer to during the boring bits of the game (like Ultimecia's Castle.) * GameFaqs for giving me a place to put this FAQ and being such an exciting site. * FeralNoa for the Devour list as well as many other stuff. And thanks for writing to me via e-mail everyday. :-) * Allan Mills for the corrections and info on Angelo * Ed Asano (aka Qualera) for the info on Angelo, corrections on Julia and the encouragement. Oh and a whole lot of other stuff... :) * Adrian Dutkiewicz for the Gil trick and some other notes * Tam Tran for the Gil trick * Linda Villanueva for the way to get pass the bit in the X-ATM092 chase where the ground shakes * John Calvin for discarding unwanted magic trick * Joe Pirozzo for data on Devour * Eekeric@aol.com for the Demi/Devour strategy * Weilun for corrections and the detailed explanation of devour * jay sar for the information on Break * EdwChang@aol.com for more information on Zell and Rinoa's Limit Breaks * Duncan Day-Myron for the Rosetta Stone trick #2 * DarkHoly17@aol.com for the info on mugging Seifer. * Ken Ho for the alternate Diablos strategy. * Mokona (Souma) for the ways of getting good spells early * Vincent Merken for correcting my French :) * Flanker358@aol.com for pointing out the reference of the Brothers GF and telling me a decent way of using the Excalipur in FFV. * EDIelectric@aol.com for the locations of 2 Sources. * Another Gamer for the alternate Angel Wing strategy * Christian Groff (aka COSMIC KNIGHT) for the advice on using items to learn GF abilities * Voltroneo@Hotmail.com for fighting Cactuars in disc 2 and getting Meltdown early * Colin Pentney (aka Salivator) for Seifer's level 100 stats and "Taming the Ruby Dragon" trick * Matt for Selphie's Slots trick * David Seo for the trick on getting Pandemona's card early * Ronny Boen for the trick on getting Pulse Ammo in disc 2 * Jonathan Ng for corrections on the Revive command and Full-Life. * Zachary Lim for the trick on getting the last Rosetta Stone. * -Skrybe- for the Angel Wing and Slot lists, as well as Seifer's Limit Breaks. * Iaian Ross for the use of Zombie, clarifications on Squall's Limit enders and more. Thanks "Citan" :) * TunzVic@aol.com for the query on Odin. * XP39C@aol.com for getting the Lion Heart in disc 1 trick. * nofear33" for some tips * Treylane47@aol.com for corrections and the "Steal" tip * Kaze Yagami who was the one who started the whole Legend of Armageddon Fist! *Bow* * Stephanus Rudiyanto Natari for info on GF Phoenix * Macaw for the Devour side effect and Malboro reference. And thanks for comforting me during the times when I was heartbroken. * Everyone else for their support! BLACK LIST! =========== Why did I start this new section? The answer is simple, I simply saw that another popular FAQ from GameFaqs was printed out and actually made for sale in my local game store! Even though that FAQ wasn't mine, I still felt that was a low and sinful act, ripping off the original author and potential customers alike. - The Gamesman (Wellington central, New Zealand) These guys have actually printed out Cephiroth's FFVIII walkthrough and put them on the counter for sale! To all people who are reading this and lives in Wellington, AVOID THAT SHOP!!! (There are plenty game stores in that area.) As for the Gamesman workers, you've already lost a customer PERMANENTLY and will loose many more as long as people are reading this, so stop selling them! Why am I doing this even though it's not mine you ask? Well, I think FAQ authors should be respected a bit more because I'm sure everyone of us who submitted stuff to GameFaqs has worked hard on their FAQ or review or whatever, and it's just not damn fair that someone can just walk along and take advantage of it. For your readers out there, DO NOT buy a ripped off FAQ because one of these days you might feel like a master of a certain game and then it's your turn to write an FAQ to share your wisdom, and do you want someone to take advantage of that? That's it for now, but if your shop sells game guide made for non- commercial purposes, your names can magically appear on this list so watch out! ABOUT ME ======== Now comes my favourite section of this FAQ. I live in New Zealand and I'm doing a Commerce degree at the university. And for the millionth time, I am a guy so don't come to me calling me a "girlfriend" or something, ok? (You may call me "Trepe Groupie #4") University work had been really stressful for me so I like a good RPG to fall back on in the weekends. FFVIII gets the job done nicely but can get a bit repetitive at times, especially later in the game. The end of year exams are coming up soon so hopefully I'll get this FAQ finished just in time so it can see the light of the day. Huh? RPGs I'm planning to play during the holidays? It's probably Xenogears, FFA (for collection purposed only though) and maybe Suikoden 2 if they hurry it along a little. And finally (if you've been reading my other FAQs you'll know this) my ICQ # is 15185682 and you can come along and chat to me sometime. Please come and chat with me because I'm usually as bored as hell when I'm online, I'm keen to make new friends (that's what the ICQ is for r..right?) Or you may want to e-mail me with the address listed up the top or way down the bottom. INTRODUCTION ============ Hello all and welcome to my latest project, Final Fantasy FFVIII Power-up FAQ. I must admit, the name's kinda dumb but it's always the contents that are important so hopefully you won't be disappointed. In this guide, I will give a (hopefully) detailed description of the procedure used to power up every single (permanent of course) member of your team with surprising results (ie, 255 Strength with ONLY 100 Meteors junctioned to Strength.) Also, I will throw in an "special walkthrough" that will detail a step-by-step procedure of how to successfully get through the first 2 and half discs while coping with one of the many temptations the game has on you to do one of the no- nos. And finally, everybody who has read my previous FAQs knows that I love evaluating characters and their skills so I might as well throw that in as well. Happy fantasies! It is assumed that you (the reader) know all the basic control of the game. It is also an advantage to have played through the game once before reading (and following) my guide, especially the walkthrough, as certain places may require perfect precision to succeed without major mistakes. I recommend that you play through the game "normally" first, then try out my instructions after you've completed the game and want some more. If you're struggling, read another walkthrough at GameFaqs, ones like Cephiroth's and Scott Ong's are all excellent ones that can get you from the beginning to the end with all the secrets (and what BORING secrets they are!!) WARNING WARNING! These procedures can be very time consuming and sometimes boring and tedious. It's not too difficult though, as long as you know what you're doing. This is for all those players who got all the characters in FFVII really high stats by morphing enemies into Sources, or the obsessed players who used the "level up then down" trick in FFT to get god-like stats. Be forewarned of what you're looking at. Like I've said, I recommend that you complete the game normally first before attempting this procedure. FANAL FANTASY VIII ================== Final Fantasy VIII is the latest instalment to the legendary RPG series that dominated the RPG market and fashion trends. Unlike your everyday RPG series, every single member of the FF series has a unique battle/skill system, and unique characters. FFVIII is no different, upgrading the innovative but ain't-as-good-as-it-sounds Materia system in FFVII with the classic Esper system in FFVI and the interesting but out of date job system in FFV/FFT to form the new GF and Junction system that promises fully customizable characters. Although the menu/item/skill/spell names needs a lot more work (it reminds me of the item names in BOF1!!) the translation as a whole is extremely well done. Exceptionally humorous too! Square has obviously been outdone themselves in the sound and graphics department, I'm not exceptionally impressed with the story, as it still can't beat Parasite Eve and Xenogears. It's still much better than the classic fantasies though. The new Draw/GF/Junction system makes the game a lot more fun and you'll always be on your toes to looks for more and newer spells and GFs. Enjoy! FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ========================== Alright, new section. The purpose of this section is to answer your common FFVIII questions, and I'm sick of getting lots of letters everyday by people who keeps askin' the same stuff. So if you want to find a hard to get item, rare ingredients or just some other common stuff, look no further. Mind you, most of these has nothing to do with powering up. Q1: Where can I get Dragon Fangs? A1: The MOST asked question. Dragon Fangs are dropped or can be stolen from Blue Dragons, they appear in the Island Closest to Hell. Q2: Where can I get Adamantines? A2: Defeat Adamantoise on the shores of Long Island to the west to Dollet, or any shores in the Dollet region. They must be at a high level. Q3: Where can I get Pulse Ammo? A3: Refine Energy Crystals with Ifrit's Ammo-RF Menu Ability. Energy Crystals can be obtained by defeating Elnoyles or Ruby Dragons (rare.) You can also refine Laser Cannons or Power Generators, but they're equally as rare. Q4: Where's the Island Closest to Hell/Heaven? A4: It's surprising how many people don't know where these are. Hell is the western most island on the map while Heaven is the eastern most. Follow Long Island west of Dollet and the island on the end should be the Island Closest to Hell. Heaven can be found by taking the Ragnarock north-east from Esthar. When in doubt, land on the island and check your menu. Q5: How do I abolish the Random rule in Dollet? A5: Play in another region (like Timber) and head to Dollet, make sure they use different rules. Save at the hotel and challenge the guy standing on the right. When he asks you if you wanna combine rules say yes. Now when the screen with the list of rule shows up, you can either choose to play the game or decline, either way you're qualified for rule adjustments afterwards. After the game, there's a chance that an unknown rule is introduced to Dollet or one of Dollet's original rules gets abolished. If an undesirable event happen, reset and repeat the procedure until Random is abolished. Q6: Where can I find a Power Generator/learn Quistis' Ray Bomb? A6: If you set up all the traps in Laguna's second scenario, you can find one in Lunatic Pandora in disc 3. Otherwise mug LV30 or above Blitz enemies in the forest outside Edea's house and make sure you don NOT equip Rare Item. It takes a very long time because it's very rare. Q7: Where can I find a Dark Matter/learn Quistis' Shockwave Pulsar? A7: Build Siren to LV100 and earn Tool-RF. Now accumulate 100 Cursed Spikes (stolen from Tri-Face) and refine them into one Dark Matter with Tool-RF. Q8: Where can I get Aura magic? Q8: Refine them from Leviathan's Supt Mag-RF with a Fury Fragment, they can be stolen from Blue Dragons or dropped by Ruby Dragons on rare occasions. Also Aura can be drawn from Seifer at the end of disc 3... and finally, purchase Power Wrists can refine them into Aura Stones with Siren's Tool-RF. Q9: Where can I encounter Elnoyles? (For Energy Crystals.) A9: They're found outside Esthar but are very rare. There's a sure way to find them however. After the space event and getting Ragnarock, enter Esthar and you'll find a lone soldier in one of the highway streets. Talk to him and if he says something like "hehehehe" you'll know it's the right one. He's actually an Elnoyle in disguise and attacks. If you defeat him, exit the screen and come back, he'll be there again so you can keep on challenging unlimited Elnoyles. This is a good way of collecting Energy Crystals/Moon Stones. Q10: If you don't level up, how are you going to get abilities for your GFs? A10: Geez where did that come from? This should have been obvious if you read the sections below but you need to distinguish the difference between EXP and AP. EXP raises your GF's level while AP lets them learn new abilities. You can gain AP but not EXP by carding most enemies you come across. Q11: How can I get Malboro Tenticles easily? A11: You need as many ST-Defx2s and (preferably) ST-Defx4 as possible, then junction 100 Confuse, Berserk, (if you have x4) Sleep and Break. Bad Breath should be pretty mild. Then give someone Siren's Treatment command and go from there. An easier way is to equip Initiative on Quistis and get her to critical. Execute Degenerator the first thing. If you're staying with the theme of powering up, it's a lot harder to do as you'll need to level it up (if its level is too low, it'll drop crap like Poison Powders) and card it. See below for how I did this. Early in the game, you can try collecting Malboro cards. Q12: I got Squall's Lion Heart gunblade but he won't execute his Lion Heart finisher. How can I get him to use it more often? A12: Technically, there are no sure of way letting him execute Lion Heart more often since everything in the game is determined by random chances. However, lowering Squall's HP will likely to increase the success rate of executing a more powerful finisher (works for other members too.) Oops, it turned out that you cannot learn Lion Heart without getting Blasting Zone and Fated Circle at the same time, so that theory goes down the trash can. However, try to lower Squall's HP to critical and cast Aura on him, that way, he'll almost always use the best Limit Break. Q13: Wouldn't it be better for you if you didn't have a "female" nick? A13: I guess so, and I have had some pretty damn embarrassing times with this alias, but then again, what other names could I use? My real one? Give me a break! I want an alias that's cool, heroic (haha), symbolic and at the same time, simple and can be pronouced easily. (Don't you hate one of those names that no one can pronouce it right?) "Aya Brea" is all of the above plus more. Ok, think this: "Aya" is a unisex name right? So if the identity "Aya Brea" didn't exist, you'd have a pretty hard time determining the gender right? Well there you have it, "Aya" is just another one of those "Lindsay" or "Sam" type names. As for "Brea", it's just another surname. (Do you know how many "Anderson"s there are?) So there, a whole new identity called Aya Brea! Happy? Q14: I have read your guide and I think you've written a pointless guide. Carding enemies for half of the game just to get powerful to fight against the weapons? I know of many people including myself who have beaten Omega while playing the game normally. I just wanna ask why the hell did you bother to write this guide? A14: Well, I must admit, this guide is not for everyone, and I've listed the aim and possible consequences in the intro below. Everyone is different so everyone of us is a different gamer, but you can sorta divide them into 2 categories: The one who plays the game because it's "cool" for the sake of having completed the game, and those perfectionists who wants to wants to squeeze every tiny drops of pleasure this game has to offer. Of course, my guide is targeted for the latter, and I know that there are very many perfectionist gamers around. I have also received feedback from readers who claims that playing the game this way is much more fun that playing it normally, and I've also had much encouragement (thank you all) so I know that this guide is heading towards a good direction. Q15: Why is my timer red? A15: It means you've spent too much time on the game. Once you max out the timer (99:59:59), it'll reset and turn red, so the real time is "red time" plus 100 hours. Q16: Will you detail *enter mini-quest name here* quest in your guide? A16: Like I said, if it's relevant to powering up then yes, if it's not, look up Scott Ong's or Cephiroth's walkthrough. I have hand picked the coverage on the mini-quests so the ones that are left out will probably never see the light more than 1 sentence devoted to them in my guide. Q17: Where can I find a Ribbon? A17: Either through a PocketStation or GameShark. It can only be gotten by playing the Chocobo World PocketStation game but it's not available for sale outside of Japan. The same goes to Mog's Armlet and Friendship Item. Q18: Are you going to write anymore guides in the future? A18: Yes, I'm sure that I will. SaGa Fronteir 2 will be my next target since I'm such a big fan of the SaGa series and it's nice to be able to find an underdog RPG at this day of age. Q19: I have over 20 Chef's Knives in my inventory and I still can't get GF Tonberry... A19: Well I dunno, I've never had this problem but for some reason, a lot of people keep sending me this problem. From what I know, sometimes having 20 Chef's Knives is not enough, just keep fighting Tonberries until it shows up. Q20: Why can't I get into the Deep Sea Research Centre? Is this a bug? A20: Aha! Thank you Colin Pentney for the solution to this problem. All you gotta do is to climb aboard the deck of Ragnarock and talk to everybody. Stupid isn't it? Especially since none of them has anything special to say. :( Oh yeah, Qualera has gotten back two replies from Squaresoft when he e-mailed them and guess what they said? Something along the lines of this being a game-related problem and told him to dial a 1-900 number. How nice... But then again, it's likely nobody that works there has even played one of these games since a management or accounting degree is what you need to get a job like that, not years of gaming experience so we won't blame them. Q21: Any others?? OBJECTIVE ========= This is against everything you've been taught in RPG college or years of your personal experience but.. In FFVIII, you want to fight as LITTLE as possible, which translates into NOT gaining levels. Before you send me hate mails please listen to my explanation. You might (or might not) have noticed that the enemies in FFVIII takes the SaGa turn so that they level up as you do. You'll almost never run into exceptionally weak enemies. As enemies level up, they gain new attacks, new spells (and increase their Draw list too) and gains higher stats. However, the enemies gains stats a LOT faster than you do (ie, a level or two doesn't make too much difference in terms of power) so you'll find yourself weaker and weaker and the enemies stronger and stronger as you progress through the game. And by the time you get to the bonus bosses like Ultima and Omega Weapons, your stats might be way too low to even think of challenging them, or they'll mop the floor with you! You may object and say that there are always Junctions to rely on. Yes you're right, Junctions are very important in this game BUT Junctions can only do so much. For example, Ultima is the best spell to junction to most of your stats. Even with 100 Ultimas, you'll only be able to raise your Strength by 100 points while the maximum is 255. There are Character Abilities though, like Str +60% that can bring your Strength up to 255 without too much problem, but you can only equip up to 4 Character Abilities max (and it's extremely rare too.) You'll have a few problems with this. One is that Str +60% is extremely rare, so you'll have to stick to Str +40% most of the time (which may or may not bring your Str up to 255) but the other problem is more serious. There are about 6 very important stats that you need (HP, Str, Vit, Mag, Spr and Spd) but you can only equip 3 or 4 stat boosts, and since your other stats are so low, you'll have a hard time getting high values in every category. Not to mention the times when you need to equip another more important Character/Party Ability like Mug, Move-Find or Rare Item. I hope everyone understands this idea. Sure, how do you get high stats without fighting enemies? Well, I don't know if you had noticed but you can teach certain GFs "Bonus" abilities. These include HP, Str, Vit, Mag and Spr. How does these skills work? When you equip one of these and you gain a level, the respective stat will be boosted by 1 point, on top of any regular stats boosts you might get at level up (except for HP Bonus, which gives you an extra 30HP.) Like I've said, a couple of levels don't differ too much since the game is way to stingy at regular stats boosts at level up. You'll gain about 60 or so HP and 1 point of Str/Vit/Mag etc.. once every 2-5 levels! (Some other stats are even rarer, such as Speed or Luck.) What difference does one point make? Not much, but if you start equipping the Bonus abilities at LV20 and power yourself up to LV100, that's gonna make an 80 point difference! Wow! That's almost another 100 Ultimas! However, you'll only have access to these abilities quite a bit into the game, and have to get to Disc 3 to utilize these abilities to the max. So you'll want to keep your levels as low as possible, then power up to maximum level for maximum stats bonus! WHY BOTHER? =========== Well, to tell you the truth, this is not something I'd recommend that you'd do everyday since it can get quite tedious, especially if this is your first game. However, getting all the boosts in your stats makes the optional bosses a whole lot easier. Getting high stats might be a joy in it itself, to laugh at the boss' spells as if they're insect bites or killing them in 2 rounds. WHERE DO I START? ================= There are a few ways of getting rid of encounters or not gaining experience. Every point of EXP counts, remember that! 1) Running away Possibly the easiest option, running away is easy to do and you won't get any experience. However, if you plan to run away, make sure that you DON'T do any sort of damage to the enemies, since the run system in FFVIII has been improved so that you'll gain partial experience if you've done some damage to the enemies. Earlier in the game in your test missions (Fire Cavern and Dollet), running away is hazardous since it will cause a deduction in your points every time you run away, meaning you'll likely to get a low SeeD rank. However, this is a loose-loose situation where you have to choose either stats or SeeD rank (which translates into money.) I'd choose stats and run away since money isn't all that important, as you don't have to buy very many stuff. To make up for it, you can do a few things that gives you more points. - Choose the 10 minute interval in Fire Cavern. The Fire cavern is pretty straight forward and you only need about 2-3 minutes to fight Ifrit. I did it with just less than 6 minutes left on the clock! (This is why I recommend that you play through the game normally first.) - Do NOT talk to anyone except your own team. Otherwise you'll get points deducted. - KILL the X-ATM092 boss (the giant robotic spider.) Remember, you cannot kill it the first time around. (Its HP will be refilled when you deplete it to zero.) So weaken it first, run, then fight it again. Refer to the walkthrough if you want more information. Defeating it will result in 100 bonus points (I think.) NEW!! Actually, I've found a way better Dollet strategy not only lets you gain ZERO EXP, but also allow you to power up your GF and gain tons of AP. Anyway, kill off Squall and Zell (so they won't gain any EXP) and fight all the battles with Seifer. Your GFs will level up faster than he does and you'll gain lotsa AP!! Fight here as much as you wish. What's even better is that fighting heaps of enemies here will actually boost your points in the "Attack" category. (I gained no points in the game where I ran away from everything but I gained the full 100 when I fought them with Seifer.) These steps are described in detail in the walkthrough. The disadvantage of running away is that you won't be able to gain any AP that are vital to the GFs. And you won't be able to get any items dropped by the enemies either. 2) Card them You can learn the unique Card command from your first GF, Quezacotl. This is an extremely useful command to use when you have to fight. The advantage of this is that you WILL get the AP AND can pick up dropped items from enemies, and you will NOT gain any EXP! What's even better is that you'll get an extra card which can be changed into items via Quezacotl's Card Mod ability. The disadvantage is, of course, it's sometimes more fuss than it's worth. Because of this, choose to learn the Card command first, it's worth 40AP and isn't very hard to learn. (Simply defeating Ifrit will give you 20AP!) Anyway, you don't really need the Boost skill at that point in the game so choose Card first, then Boost. It's not hard carding an enemy though, but like Pokθmon, you have to weaken them first. You should Scan the enemy first to see its current HP, then predict how many attacks by certain members is enough to weaken it. It's ideal if an enemy is down to a quarter or less of its total HP, but you can start successfully carding them at about half health. (I carded a full-health Adamantoise once though...) The lower the enemy's HP, the more likely you're to succeed. Do NOT forget to equip the Card command like I do occasionally though, as you'll leave yourself in a sticky situation. Note it IS possible to card an enemy when its HP is about or below a half. If the game gives you a "miss" message and you know it's weakened enough, use the command again, you'll usually get it the next turn. (The game likes to trick you at times, to think you have to weaken it some more while you end up killing it.) To weaken them you can try a few different ways. I like to use normal attacks. Squall's attack is the best since as it has the "trigger" feature, and you can do a weak or a strong attack as you desire. His attack is also very reliable since it will NEVER do a critical hit (as you can use the trigger to do 150% of damage with every attack anyway, so he doesn't need one.) so you won't end up killing it with a critical. Gunblades also never miss (even under "Blind" status) which is a definite plus. Also, other member's regular attacks works too. You generally should not junction spells to your Elemental-Attack since the creature may be weak against it and you'll do too much damage. I always keep one member's Strength junction-free to do really weak attacks if I need it (like against Geezards.) Spells ain't a bad idea either. GFs are the same. Try to keep a collection of different spells in stock. Weaker GFs like Siren are also quite good at this if you need a weak attack. Also, you may or may not want to use Boost, depending on the situation. The BEST method I've seen is to use Quistis' Limit Break Micro Missile. The beauty of Micro Missile is that it's a gravity elemental attack so it can NEVER kill an enemy. Also, unlike other attacks, gravity attacks removes a portion of a target's current HP. The effect of Micro Missile varies though, but it's for the better. It depends on how serious Quistis or your party's condition is (ie, party member down, suffering from negative status, low HP) and it can remove from 50% to 93.75% of its current HP, which makes it absolutely perfect for carding enemies. Just keep Quistis in critical (ie, HP is in yellow and she's kneeling down) and use Micro Missile on the enemies in the beginning of the battle while another character use the Card command. Keep some Phoenix Downs/Life spells in stock just in case she dies. Note: Micro Missile will only work on enemies with 9999HP or less. The maximum damage it can do is 9999, so against enemies with higher HP, Quistis has to use it multiple times before the enemy's HP is low enough. A handful of enemies are resistant towards Gravity attacks, mainly bosses. Keep in mind. Some enemies cannot be carded. These includes bosses and human troops. 3) Diablos Sometimes not encountering any enemies is the best option, since the random encounter can be annoying at times. Diablos offers 2 crucial abilities and they are Enc-Half and Enc-None. You must learn the former before the latter becomes available. Enc-Half costs only 30AP (easy peasy) but Enc-None costs a whopping 100AP! (And it's nothing compared to the 200AP needed for Mug!) Because of this, it's best to challenge Diablos as soon as possible (ie, right after receiving the Magic Lamp from Cid.) He's well worth the effort you put into fighting him and gets some of the most useful abilities in the game! And believe me, he's powerless if you know how to fight him! You'll be able to get Enc-Half easily but Enc-None takes longer. Use the Card trick above or save the boss' AP for them. Then equip Enc- None and you'll never have to be bothered with random encounters again! (Although since you don't fight, you'll earn no AP for all your GFs, and you'll miss out certain useful abilities such as Mug. So de-equip the skill occasionally and Card some enemies.) 4) Tonberry Ok, you will gain some EXP with this method but it's VERY little! You can use Tonberry's LV Down command to weaken enemies and defeat them that way. Each LV Down halves their level, keep doing it until their levels drops to 1, then kill them. You'll gain 1-3 EXP for your team. This is great for the encounters that you cannot run away from and cannot be carded. (Such as enemy soldiers in Laguna's scenario.) Opposed to common believes, Tonberry can be acquired as early as when you have control of the mobile Balamb Garden in Disc 2!!! You can get Tonberry right after acquiring Odin. The Tonberry is so cute! IMPORTANT! Also contradicting to common believes, the requirement for the Master Tonberry to appear is NOT to kill 20 Tonberries! You need to have 20 Chef's Knives in your inventory, then the Master Tonberry will appear! This was confirmed by Happy Matt, however, I think the 20 Chef's Knives must come from defeated Tonberries. (If it doesn't work just keeping fighting the Tonberries.) 5) Other vehicles Another way of travelling without encountering anything is to travel in vehicles (for some reason, all of them are painfully slow!) You can get access to cars fairly early in the game, but they cost a bit of money and you have to refuel them at regular intervals. You can catch trains too, to travel to another city quickly but you don't seem to be able to catch any trains in the first half of the game except for story purposes. Balamb Garden is also quite a convenient vehicle since it can cross the ocean. And last (and the least!) are Chocobos. You'll only gain access to riding the chocs after Balamb Garden takes off, so you won't have that much use for it. (The way you catch a chocobo is also really boring.) You won't encounter any enemies while travelling in vehicles, but they're only available on the world map. 6) Terminate your own team members I don't think the EXP in this game is shared between the characters so you may want to kill/petrify 2 other members to keep them weak and fight the battle with only one member. I don't think it's that risky if you play your cards right. Remove the GF from the other members if you want. 7) The soul of stone Thanks to jay sar for this trick So, "jay sar" told me that if you junction Break in your ST-Atk and petrify an enemy unit with it, you'd get no EXP. Although it doesn't work as good as it sounds, because when you petrify an enemy, the game thinks that you've ran away from it and gives you the partial experience since your attacks will do some damage to them before petrifying them. Also, it's kinda risky since you may kill the enemy unit if you didn't petrify them. However, the problem is solved if you cast Break straight out of the bottle since it deals no damage. The problem with this method is that it won't give you any AP either! You can get Breaks easily by refining Cockatrice Pinions and Softs with Diablos' ST Mag-RF. Other notes and tips - Well, I guess you all know that the character who strikes the killing blow will get more EXP than the others. This is true however, nobody seems to get any extra EXP if the enemy is killed by a summoned GF! So use this to your advantage when you're fighting enemies when you don't have any other options. It doesn't stop you from gaining EXP but at least you won't gain any extras. - Appropriately enough, if you used a GF to do the killing blow, that GF will gain the extra EXP bonus after the bettle. - You should know by now that the bosses in FFVIII won't give you any EXP, which is a pleasant sign, and they (usually) give you a ton of AP that your GFs sorely needs! Try selecting an expensive ability before fighting the boss so you won't waste some of its AP. - Not fighting enemies will lower your SeeD rank and likewise, fighting lotsa enemies will raise your SeeD rank. It's likely that your SeeD ranks will be lowered in the course of the game if you follow my guide. However, it's again not like if it cannot be remedied: * Take sometime out of the game to card some enemies. This will help you avoid lowered ranks and can beef up your GFs who needs APs. I actually GAINED a SeeD level when I went on a carding rampage. * Taking the test! Always take as many tests as you can, to give your salaries a head start! * If you choose the shortest time in a timed quest, it's likely that your SeeD rank will be raised, if you succeed of course! Such as the Missile Base escape time. * Doing certain things right will also raise your SeeD rank. I do not have a list of those events though, but I know Rinoa's train quest is one of them. Make no mistakes and your rank will be raised! * One guy on the second floor of Balamb Garden will ask you to show him how to cast spells. DON'T DO IT!!! Casting spells in the hallways are forbidden and your rank will be instantly lowered! (I learnt it the hard way. :-( ) - GFs WILL gain AP and EXP when junctioned to a dead member, even though it makes no sense. - Spread out your GFs among your characters as equally as possible. The most important Junction ability early in the game is Mag-J, since you need it to draw decent spells from bosses. (Quezacotl, Siren and Diablos will provide you with those.) Critical Guardian Forces ======================== Now, you will need to keep this up until the point after the space mission and acquired Ragnarock. Now you need to get your hands on 2 vital GFs, Cactuar (Sabotender) and Bahamut. Cactuar On Cactuar's Island of course, with a tiny green thing that pops out of the sand occasionally. Land Ragnarok there and challenge it, but don't forget to junction your characters properly first. Beat it anyway you like (but I'd prefer drawing spells from it first.) And you'll be able to acquire it as your GF. The best thing about the Cactuar is that it comes with all 5 of the bonus abilities LEARNED!! Which saves you time having to learning it from other GFs (they costs 100AP each and all of them requires 2 prerequisite skills.) You may start training your characters now, but you need more slots to equip all the bonus skills, and since you're going to acquire Bahamut sooner or later (you are, ain't you?) why not do it now? Bahamut Head to Deep Sea Research Centre aka Battleship Island, which is not on the map but you can get there by heading Ragnarock towards the south-wester corner of the map. Look around and you should find some structure that looks kinda like an oil refinery. Land the ship on it (kinda tricky, look for the shadow.) Head towards the doorway and you'll be in a large room with a glowing cylinder. Choose to stay and move ONLY when the lights goes out, or you'll be attacked by some enemies (usually Anacondours, just run.) Look for the ring objects surrounding the cylinder though, and make sure they disappear completely before moving. You should be able to take about 3 steps each time the light goes out. Move to touch the cylinder and you'll be asked 2 questions. Choose the first option (can't remember what.) and you'll fight a Ruby Dragon. They shouldn't be much of a problem anyway since because you're weak, they'll be weak too. You can't fight this normally though, since you'll receive about 1200EXP for each member if you did, bringing you up a level instantly! Just level it down with Tonberry or card it (I chose the first option.) Beware, because Odin came and killed it and ruined it for me once so save your game before attempting this. You'll be prompted with another set of choices after you win, choose the second option. (Can't remember what it was.) And you'll be up against another Ruby Dragon. Just use the same strategy as the first one. Then you'll be asked ANOTHER question. Move the curser down and you'll be able to choose a third option, even though it's nothing! Choose it and you'll face Bahamut!! Defeat it (not that hard, but you should spend sometime drawing Full-Life from it) and you'll be able to get the king of all dragons as your very own pet! It comes with the as-good-as-it-gets Abilityx4 skill, which allows your character to equip up to 4 Character/Party Abilities! We're ready for action! PREPARING FOR THE BIG THING =========================== You've got a choice to make now. You've got 5 different bonus abilities for 5 important stats but you can only equip 4 of them at once. Anyhow, here's 2 of the best ways I've found. All round character This is intended for a balanced character who's good in every category. Equip: * Str Bonus * Vit Bonus * Mag Bonus * Spr Bonus And ditch HP, since HP is an easy one to Junction it to max. I prefer this method over the other one though. Customized character This works with a character's natural abilities (ie, Limit Breaks) to determine a character's fighting style, either a fighter or a magic user. Irvine, Squall and Zell are definite fighters so they should equip: * Str Bonus * Vit Bonus * Spr Bonus * HP Bonus Ditch magic since they don't really need it for their Limit Breaks. Selphie however, is the exact opposite, she uses magical Limit Breaks so substitute Str Bonus for Mag Bonus. Rinoa is an odd one since she has both physical (Angelo) and magical (Angel Wing) Limits and if you're going to use Rinoa at all, train her with the "All round" method. Quistis, too, is strange since her Blue Magic works in various ways so it's better to build her as an all round character. Anyhow, lets say you start the training at LV20. You'll be able to gain 2400HP and 80 points of the other stats. However, 2400HP is way more than you need. From my experience, a LV100 character without HP Bonus has around 4000HP, while the best spell for junctioning to HP is Full-Life (Ultima is better, but it's a waste to junction it to HP since Full-Life does the job nicely.) which gives 4800 boost, which makes about 8800HP, so you can just gain about 40 levels with HP Bonus on and swap it for the other attribute that you didn't equip. As a matter of fact, most characters can get maximum HP without HP Bonus just by junctioning 100 Ultimas to HP alone. (So they can save a slot to equip another ability.) Whatever you do, don't EVER ignore Vitality and Spirit!!! They're probably the most important attributes to the character (Spirit more so than Vitality, especially later in the game.) Remember, there are no armors in this game so these stats are the only defence your characters have. (And Evade too, which works amazingly well.) Some notes There are times where you just HAVE to go up a level no matter what (such as Laguna's second scenario.) it doesn't really matter too much but you can gain some partial stats boosts from these. Remember, Cactuar is not the only GF that offers these bonus abilities, earlier GFs have them too but they're usually way too expensive or inconvenient to acquire. However, when you do learn one of the abilities, equip the GF to the character who's just about to go up a level and they can gain one bonus point for the respective category. It's not the best but it's better than nothing. Here's what the other GFs offer: (All "Bonus" abilities costs 100AP.) HP Bonus – Brothers Prerequisites: HP +40% [120AP], HP +80% [240AP] (!!) Strength Bonus – Ifrit Prerequisites: Str +20% [60AP], Str +40% [120AP] Vitality Bonus – Carbuncle Prerequisites: Vit +20% [60AP], Vit +40% [120AP] Magic Bonus – Siren Prerequisites: Mag +20% [60AP], Mag +40% [120AP] Spirit Bonus – Leviathan Prerequisites: Spr +20% [60AP], Spr +40% [120AP] The other inconvenience is that you can only equip up to 3 Character Abilities without Bahamut so you need to power up in Disc 3 to get maximum effects. !!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! ============================================== |It *IS* damn right possible to get through the first 2 and half | |discs WITHOUT going up a SINGLE level, I have done it!!! Anyway, | |it's not as hard as you think so you really don't need these | |abilities. HOWEVER, I was able to find a Rosetta Stone (learns | |Abilityx4) in Esthar so you'd want those abilities since you can | |actually train TWO characters at once!!! Details below. | =================================================================== Bonus Rosetta Stone Ok, I don't know if this is random or what but I've been able to get a FREE Rosetta Stone from Esthar. You know how sometimes you'll get a free gift when you visit one of the online shops in Esthar (like how Johnny's Shop sometimes gives you Mega-G-Potions.) Well, repeatedly visit Cheryl's Shop (the one that's always closed) and you'll eventually get a free Rosetta Stone! It took me about 20-30 tries. According to Adrian Dutkiewicz, you can only get one Rosetta Stone here. TRAINING ======== Hopefully, by the time you get Bahamut and Cactuar, your levels are still relatively low. Here're my character's levels in my first game: Squall LV19 Zell LV11 Quistis LV11 Irvine LV15 Selphie LV13 Rinoa LV16 It is indeed possible to get through the game without gaining a level, so character's level will remain as they were at the start: Squall LV7 Zell LV8 Quistis LV8 Irvine LV13 Selphie LV8 Rinoa LV11 Anyway, make up your mind on who you want to train first, I personally recommend either Quistis or Squall. (I prefer Quistis.) Remove all the GFs from your team members and junction it to the character you wish to train first, then go to an easy battle and kill off the remaining party members (they should be a piece of cake, since they have next to no HP and Vitality.) Now, you need to junction yourself properly. Make sure you've stocked up on good spells, and if you don't have enough, just "borrow" your team member's for a while. You can train your characters at a number of places. Happy Matt recommends the area outside Edea's house. You can only train one character at a time, so remove the GFs from the characters you don't want to train yet, and killed them off (so they won't gain any EXP.) Junction Death to your ST-Atk and equip the LV Up command. Get into a battle and use LV Up to raise the enemy's level to 100, then kill them off. You should get lotsa EXP and can gain a level per fight. However, the EXP gained this way is way too little for my taste. I like to play risky so my choice of training ground is... the Island Closest to Hell! (ooohh..) Junctioning your character is very important here, one wrong spell in the wrong place could mean instant death. Status Junction Elemental Junction A: Sleep (or Death) A: Blizzarga D: Confuse D: Flare D: Berserk D: Firega D: Death D: Shell D: Break D: Protect Status is crucial but elemental ain't as important. You can get ST- Def x4 from Cerberus (if you need AP, fight the Cactuars in the desert. They give you 20AP each and 1 digit EXP!) or Doomtrain. It's a must that you have ST-Def x4 as you'll come across Malboros and Blue Dragons. Malboro's Bad Breath can give you really nasty status like Confuse, Poison, Berserk, Petrifying, Blind, Silence etc. Junctioning the above spells will make Bad Breath mildly harmful, the only negative status that's a pain is Sleep. Just wait 'til it hits you with its acid attack and use Siren's Treatment command if you need it. The Blue Dragon however, likes to cast Death and Break occasionally, killing anyone without protection in one hit. Sleep won't work against all the enemies though, just the T-Rexaurs, Grendels and Ruby Dragons, but you may wanna try Death in ST-Atk to kill Grendels, Blue Dragons and T-Rexaurs in one hit. Elemental isn't that important, but since a number of enemies like Ruby Dragons, T-Rexaurs and Malboros are weak against ice, Blizzaga is good for doing extra damage. (No enemies are strong against it though, which makes it perfect.) You should be protected against Fire but all the other ones ain't all that important. None thing of note: Ruby Dragon's Breath is NOT Fire elemental! I know it because it used Firega on Selphie prior to that and she absorbed it, then it unleashed Breath and killed my whole team! Be careful of the Ruby Dragons ok? (Breath does 3000-5000 to the whole team!) It is also a "physical" attack, meaning it is your Vit that resists it, not Spr. As for stats junction, just use best fit. Squall should favour Attack while it doesn't really matter for Quistis, although a high Speed helps a lot. Make sure you've got good Vitality and Spirits! Junction Tornado to your Evade, I don't know why but it's really effective! (It seems to have a higher Evade chance than just 20%.) As for command, I'd choose Attack, Magic, Draw and Treatment. Oh yeah, save after every fight! These enemies are really tough and you're cheating death fighting right in front of them! Squall Just use attack on all the enemies, when your HP gets low, finish them with Renzokuken! Make full use of his trigger, and with a high speed, you should be able to attack 3 times before they even get a go. If you need healing FAST, use Curaga, but if it's not really urgent, don't worry too much about it because you can finish the enemies easily with Renzokuken. Or you might want to cast Regen. If you're against enemies that have very high HP (Ruby Dragons in particular) you may want to cast some Demi first, since it'll do 9999 damage for the first few castings! Don't use it against the T-Rexaur though, as they're really weak against cold and Sleep, so you'll be able to finished them easily with just regular attacks, for a lot of EXP! If you feel that the enemy's Vitality is too high, you may want to cast Meltdown (Merton in the Japanese version, which is a MUCH better name) or summon Doomtrain. Quistis This is easier done than said. Keep her in critical status (you can do it easily by exchanging Junctions between another character, then change back. Make sure she has acquired Degenerator. Now when you get into battle, immediately use her Blue Magic Degenerator to knock out the enemy in one hit!! If the triangle doesn't come out, use the famous "tap tap" easy Limits trick. You should be able to gain 1-3 levels per fight. I hate those Grendels since they have very high defence and don't give up enough EXP for my troubles. The other advantage fighting here is that the enemies occasionally drops really nifty stuff, such as Energy Crystals that can be refined into Ultimas or Irvine's Pulse Bullets and used to upgrade Rinoa and Quistis' best weapons. (I had soooo many of them in my last game, about 50+!!) If you haven't done so already, you can gather the 6 Malboro Tentacles required to summon Doomtrain here really easily, defeating them will net you 8 of them. Other characters Once Squall/Quistis gets to level 100, and bring another (live) member into the team and junction Bahamut and Cactuar (and some other ones) to them and equip the 4 "Bonus" abilities and start the process again. You're allowed level 100 characters in the team though, as they won't gain any EXP any more and the game isn't as risky any more since the level 100 character can revive the weak character if they die. Repeat until all 6 characters are level 100. Two characters at once! You can bring 2 weak members into the fight if you manage to get your hands on a Rosetta Stone, which can be found in Esthar. Use the Rosetta Stone on a GF (you may have to use an Amnesia Greens on a GF to make it forget an ability) and junction Carbuncle, Siren, Leviathan, Ifrit or Brothers on the same character so you can train 2 characters at once. (I used my Rosetta Stone on Shiva, if you really want to know, since use's full of crap abilities!) It basically uses the same strategy as above except it's much safer since if one character gets KO'd, the other can revive them, lowering the chance of you getting a Game Over. Anyway, I'd recommend that you train one "training friendly" characters (Quistis/Squall) and another not so "training friendly" characters (Selphie/Rinoa.) That way, the "training friendly" character can do most/all the work while the not so "training friendly" characters (with bad Limit Breaks) can tag along and gain levels at the same time. Quistis is exceptionally good at this! Oh yeah, junction the GFs that your characters don't need to the dead member so they can gain EXP faster. WANT EVEN HIGHER STATS? ======================= You should have really high stats after the intensive training. (If you want to see what I got, they're in the character's section.) If you want even higher stats, it's going to be difficult from now on. There are a few choices for these too, but none of them are really efficient/convenient. 1) Steal/Find Sources Those items that raise certain character's stats are back! (Although they've been renamed into [something]-Ups.) Some bosses carry them and can be won/stolen from them. - Raijin is the best example of this. You can win/steal Str-Ups from him during all 3 fights with him in the game. Remember if you steal, you cannot win anything, if you wanna to win from him you cannot steal. Sometimes the quantity varies depending on it you mugged them or won them. - There's also a Str-Up in the prison. - You can mug 2 Magic-Ups from the left orbs where you fight NORG. A Spr-Up is available for steal for the right orb. - According to EDIelectric@aol.com, you can steal 2 Str-Ups from the left portion of Mobile Type 8 and 2 Vit-Ups from the right. Anybody know any other bosses that drop or carry these wonderful Sources? Please e-mail me if you do. 2) Make Source This is easier said than done. Doomtrain's Forbid Med-RF ability can turn some items into stats boosting Sources. Here's all of them: 1x Gaea's Ring => HP-Up 10x Hyper Wrist => Str-Up 5x Adamantine => Vit-Up 10x Royal Crown => Mag-Up 50x Jet Engine => Spd-Up 1x Luck-J Scroll => Luck-Up 2x Aegis Amulet => Spd-Up 10x Magic Armlet => Spr-Up 50x Accelerator => Spd-Up 5x Rocket Engine => Spd-Up 1x Monk's Code => Str-Up 1x Knight's Code => Vit-Up 1x Hundred Needles => Spd-Up There are many more. As you can see, all of them require really rare items. I think you can win a Gaea's Ring from Jumbo Cactuar that can be made into an HP-Up. Most of them can be made from Eden's GFAbl Med-RF, like this: 10x Giant's Ring => Gaea's Ring 10x Power Wrist => Hyper Wrist 10x Orihalcon => Adamantine 10x Force Armlet => Magic Armlet 10x Hypno Crown => Royal Crown 10x Accelerator => Rocket Engine 100x Lightweights => Rocket Engine 100x Cactuar Thorn => Hundred Needle Most of these ingredients can be bought from Esthar Pet Shop although it's 15000 Gil a pop, and you'll need 100 of them to make ONE Source!!! Very expensive! I've saved up all my money for 80 hours and all I could afford was ONE Source!!! You can win some of these items from enemies occasionally (I think the Behemoths may drop Power Wrists on rare occasions.) Anyhow, thanks to the readers, you can use an easy trick to get all the money you want! EASY GIL TRICK!!! =================================================== |Thanks to Adrian Dutkiewicz and Tam Tran | | for this awesome trick! | | | |You must have gotten Carbuncle's Recover Med-RF for this to work. | |Tonberry's Haggle, Sell High and Call Shop are exceptionally useful| |here too! | | | |What you need to do is to purchase 100 Tents. With Recover Med-RF, | |you can refine 4 of them into 1 Mega-Potion. Cottages works exactly| |the same way except the ratio is 2:1. Get 100 of both for faster | |returns! Now sell all your Mega-Potions for truck loads of profits!| | | |Now let's do the calculations (assumed that you have both Sell High| |and Haggle skills.) 100 Tents costs 75,000 Gil, 100 Cottages are | |costs twice as much. So total cost is 225,000 Gil. They can be | |refined into a total of 75 Mega-Potions, each fetches 7500 Gil each| |at a shop which makes 562,500 Gil! Profit = 337,500 Gil! Repeat as | |often as desired! Oh yeah, use Tonberry's Call Shop makes this | |trick extremely convenient. | ===================================================================== With the easy cash trick above, you can make as many Sources as you want, however, there are still 2 problems. The first one is that it's still quite a slow process since they cost way too much already in the first place! You need 1,500,000 Gil to make a single Str-Up, so you need to do the trick about 5 times for each Source, and it can get really confusing after a while. (I remember how I bought 100 Giant's Rings then didn't know what I did but I lost them all!) The other problem is that you can only refine HP, Str, Mag and Spr- Ups from this method. Vit-Ups CAN be made by turning Vit-J Scrolls (bought in Timber Pet Shop) into Orihalcons, then into Adamantines and then finally into Vit-Ups. The rarer Spd and Luck-Ups requires extremely rare NON-store bought items (ie, Accelerators) so they cannot be refined no matter how much money you have. (At least none that I know of. Although there is a possibility that some of the ingredients needed might able to be refined from another Menu Ability with store bought items.) You can steal a Luck-J Scroll from Odin and find another from doing the Lake Obel quest, but I'd rather let one of my GF learn Luck-J. Anyway, I can see one item that's (in theory) reasonably easy to earn, that is the Adamantines. Get into a fight with the Adamantoises (they come in 2s I think) and defeating (not mugging) them will net you 2 of them! (You may need high level Adamantoises or I was just very lucky.) 3) Eating enemies Thanks to Happy Matt for this one. It was quite a long time ago when he told me that Eden's Devour command can be used to raise your stats. Ok, finally got the list, thanks to Happy Matt and FeralNoa. Ruby Dragon -> Max HP+10 T-Rexaur -> Strength+1 Adamantoise -> Vitality+1 Behemoth -> Magic+1 Malboro -> Spirit+1 NEW! Thanks to all who sent me a feedback on Devour, now it is possible to Devour an enemy easily. Like the Card command, the lower the enemy's HP, the higher the success rate. (Thanks to Joe Pirozzo, Eekeric@aol.com and about a million other people, actually, more like a multiple of a million.) However, that's still only half of the story, as the HP of the character who's trying Devour the enemy will also come in play. Basically, it works like the instant death spells from the older FFs, but instead of comparing levels, Devour compares you and the enemy's current HP. So, the enemy has more HP than you, you'll be put to a disadvantage, but if your HP is higher, it becomes reasonably easy to succeed with Devour. (~5 tries if you do it right.) Thanks to Weilun for the explanations. Eekeric@aol.com sent in this strategy: Keep casting Demi with all 3 characters until it starts doing less than 9999 damage, then revert to Diablos summon and let one character try out the Devour command. I must admit, Demi is an extremely useful spell here since all enemies on the good Devour list has an insane amount of HP. Careful with Diablos though, as even though the damage is gravity elemental, it can still kill an enemy since it works based on an enemy's maximum HP. One thing I'd like to point out is that the Ruby Dragons are not worth the effort to eat, since they have some of the highest HP and defence in the game and attacks like Meteor and Breath can drive you nuts. Do the infinite credit trick and refine HP-Ups there is MUCH easier! NOTE! Macaw just told me that he got penalized for Devouring a Malboro. It did 1000 damage to Squall and inflicted him with all the status ailments. Hmm, I really don't know why this is happening because I always successfully gain a point of Spirit when I eat Malboros. Could this be a rare even when the Devour back fires? 4) Any others? MY STATS ======== No, don't get so excited yet, it's not what you think. Anyway, it was a while ago that "Souma" wrote in suggesting that I should put up a section on how many battles I fought, ran away, game time and other stats. I thought it was a great idea but never got around to do it, so here it is, a brand new section. I've gathered 2 sets of data, the first one is right before starting to power up my characters. It's right after the event in disc 3 in Sorceress Memorial after getting Rinoa back. Just take note that I have a habit of leaving the game on when I need to fix dinner and stuff like that, and I also spent a lot of time playing cards. Time: 55:06 SeeD rank: 15 ---Battle report--- Walked: 2,156,631 Battles: 392 Won: 313 Escaped: 79 ---Character report--- Character Enemies killed KO'd EXP 'til next level Squall 56 18 382 Zell 20 7 322 Quistis 46 5 500* Seifer 87 0 - Selphie 127 1 239 Rinoa 29 2 600 Irvine 8 0 621 Edea 91 0 - * Quistis didn't gain a single point of EXP! Now here are my stats after powering up (note I did spend some time on Devour.) I ditched Character report for this though. Time: 73:08 ---Battle report--- Walked: 2,439,831 Battles: 694 Won: 614 Escaped: 80 OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS ===================== -> Magic I think most spells are best Stocked and Junctioned, not cast since all spells are limited. Certain spells are really common though, like the basic elementary spells and healing ones so you can use these without having to hold back. If you're really hungry on spells, try refining them from the menu. The best spells like Ultima, Meteor, Triple etc. shouldn't be cast at all, since they're much better when junctioned and your Limit Breaks are more powerful. I know many of you likes to cast Double/Triple on yourselves but keep in mind that this is only one way of beating bosses, and not a very efficient way at that. Most magic are considerably weaker than all character's Limit Breaks and are barely stronger than a regular attack (if you junction yourselves properly that it.) If you're one of these types, I recommend that you try another approach since this strategy will not work at all against later bosses, since they have insanely high Spirit and even your best damage-dealing spell (Ultima/Meteor) can only do so much, not to mention that they're extremely rare and you're getting weaker with each casting. -> Draw This is VERY important! You should always have the Draw command available on all characters and check every enemy you come across for new spells. You should spend some time drawing from the bosses too, since they tend to have really good spells. Try to get 100 of them on at least one character if you can. Don't be afraid to draw from most bosses since they're really not that dangerous (gosh, I was drawing Ultimas from Ultima Weapon! 290 of them!) and you can draw Cure spells or Life spells from most of them so you won't have much trouble healing your characters. Against bosses with status changing attacks, they usually have Esuna. I don't know about you guys but I'm the greedy type who always tries to get as much as I can carry. The better spells works nicely in your junctions and puts you ahead of your enemies. So if you're having problems, maybe it's because you're not drawing enough spells. -> More on spells Since you cannot level up, the enemy's draw collection will not expand, which makes drawing from bosses essential to getting good spells early. Another really good (and convenient) way of getting spells is to refine them from the menu (thank god these never fail, unlike SO2.) You can win items from enemies (by carding them) and changing cards into items and get even more spell "ingredients". Menu abilities like I Mag-RF or L Mag-RF (or in short, all of them) are essential but thankfully, they're quite cheap to learn. Try to spend some time trying out some all of these, as you can find some real bargain deals! Try to look out for the items that can be bought in stores or won easily, or can be changed into with cards. Some items like Softs or Tents can be refined into Break and Curaga spells, respectively, which are decent junction spells early in the game and are quite affordable. Also, learning Quezacotl's Mid Mag-RF can turn crap spells like Fire and Cure into fairly decent -ra spells, and it's a great way of disposing weak spells to free up slots later in the game. -> Cards I don't know about you guys but I like the card game a lot and it's also rather important aspect of the game since many of them can be refined into really great items! Make sure you have a look at what cards can be turned into what items. So when you win a card game, you'll know which cards to pick. You should pick one that you don't have (if there's a rare card, then definitely pick that one!) or a one that can be made into a decent item. Cards like Bite Bugs and Funguars are essentially useless, as they can only be refined into more crap items that plagues your inventory. Also, I do not recommend that you refine a rare card, as it'll be lost forever. (You could if you don't care about the cards though.) Play cards often to improve your skill, and always look for cards that you don't have, especially rare ones. If you don't like the card game, you can also get a lot of decent cards to refine into items by carding the enemies. -> More on cards If you're the type who plays the card games in every town, you'd noticed that there are some rules that are just a plain pain in the butt!!! (Random, Sudden Death etc.) Try not to keep the card rules from spreading except for the friendly Open rule. Try abolishing rules that you don't like. Actually, I'd rather get rid of every rule there is except for Open. Yes, some of the rules can be a lot of fun and strategic (ie, Random, Open, Same and Plus is a good combination.) But you'd want to win most of the time right? All the extra rules are interesting but all of them put you a step away from a sure victory. Since you'll be winning most of the time, try challenging the Queen of Cards often, so to modify the trade rule. Diff and All are both excellent for players who are on the winning streak or simply mastered the game (like me) so you can gather cards more quickly. Direct is crap though, it often makes you LOOSE rare cards so try not let it spread. Also, certain cards will be completely impossible to turn over if their weak sides are concealed (ie, Seifer's card placed to the top-left slot) and therefore, impossible to win it under the Direct rule. If you must play a Direct game, don't use rare cards (but it's a decent rule if you want to loose a specific card.) -> Rarer cards Very occasionally when you card an enemy, you'd get a completely different card! This is normal so don't freak out when your Funguar turns into a Biggs, Wedge Card. Remember that bosses cannot be carded? This is one way of getting your hands on the rarer boss cards. Now if you look in the card menu, every boss card should have 2 monster names to the bottom right of the screen. This indicates which monsters can turn into that particular boss card on rare occasions. -> Menu Abilities I think Menu Abilities are some of the best skills a GF can learn, since it opens up a huge window of possibility where you can make almost every item and magic with them, and most of these abilities can complement each other to turn some crap items into useful items/spells. However it becomes a pain in the butt when you want to get a _specific_ item/spell and don't know where to start. Well, as I've recently discovered, you can get a *full* list of the ingredients needed and its products from the tutorial menu, but only when you've learnt that specific skill. Neat feature huh? -> GF Like magic, summoning GFs ain't crucial in the success of this game, although they can be useful in certain situations. The GF command is useful, however, when you want to protect a character from attacks. Let them summon a GF and it can absorb the damage for that character if they get hit. In the mean time, have the other character cast Cure on them. Remember that even though the GF's HP is put over the character's, healing spells will heal the team member rather than the GF. Also, always make use of the Boost ability if you can. Try not to summon GFs that often later in the game, not even Eden. Most bosses have really powerful attacks later in the game and are really fast. GF's HP maxes out at 9999 and cannot be healed in battle via any convenient way. Most of them can only deal up to 9999 damage, not to mention you had to wait a while for them to get there. The GFs are however, useful when you just KNOW that your character is going to get KO'd (like via Omega's 9999 damage attack) so let your character summon the GF and it'll take the pain for you. The most useful GF is Doomtrain (IMO) and is worth the effort to summon it in almost all battles. Cerberus is nice if you like spells, Cactuar is nice since his attack is independent of the target's defence while Eden is a big damage maker! Of course, try getting their Compatibility with their master to 1000. -> GF Management Ah, here's an important task. You should choose an ability for the GF to learn rather than letting them do whatever they want to. They'll always learn the GF Abilities if you don't choose one for them, which are among the least useful of the bunch. If a GF has the Boost ability, then it's _usually_ a good idea to have them learn it first since it's cheap and it's quite useful. However, you should switch to Junction Abilities afterwards, then Character/Party. It really depends on the GF. For example, Shiva has a bunch of useless skills, nothing too great so let her learn Boost first, then Str or Vit-J, since you should really boost your characters' stats with them. (And because her other skills are not very useful.) Siren however, has a really good Party Ability – Move-Find so you should start with that one. As for Diablos, it's all about Character/Party Abilities, and his Menu ones don't suck either. However, when you get to Tonberry, you'll want his menu abilities such as Familiar and Call Shop first. Use your own judgement. You should get all the useful abilities before getting all the GF abilities like GFHP +10%. Check up on them regularly to see how they're doing too. -> Limit Break (I prefer to call them desperation attacks or specials.) You should try these often. They're only usable when your HP are low (or with Aura) but keeping them alive isn't really a problem, if junctioned spells into your Vit/Spr, you'll take very little damage from attacks so you'll be able to stay in critical status longer. If they're in danger then heal them, but you don't have to do it immediately when their HP becomes critical. During bosses, you should spend all your time Drawing spells from it then when your HP gets low, dispatch them with your Limit Breaks. (That's why you don't really need attack spells or GF summons all that much.) To use Limit Breaks easily, repeatedly tap the O button to switch between characters when your HP is low (or with Aura) and you'll eventually get the triangle that signifies a Limit is available. -> Quistis' Blue Magic Anyway, you'll be evading encounters if you follow my guide, so how are you supposed to get the items for her to her new Blue Magic? Well, if you card an enemy, they can still drop an item. Also, if you're keen card player like I am, you can also get those items by using the card Mod Menu Ability. Some of them are really easy to get your hands on, such as trading Gesper's card for a Black Hole. Some of the better ones may require up to 10 cards! Such as 10 Behemoth's into one Barrier or 10 Ruby Dragon's into one Inferno Fang. -> Weapon upgrade One thing I wanna get it straight is that you do NOT need to have read a specific magazine that the weapon you wish to upgrade is detailed in. Those magazines' purposes are to only indicate what materials are needed for what weapon models. If you have all the material a certain weapon requires, that weapon model will become available when you enter a Junk Shop. For example, if you have 1 Adamantine, 12 Pulse Ammo and 4 Dragon Fang, you can instantly opt to upgrade Squall's Revolver into a Lion Heart without ever touching the first edition of Weapon Monthly. However, if you only have 11 Pulse Ammo in your inventory instead of 12, you will not even see the Lion Heart in the menu. I don't recommend that you upgrade your weapon every time a better one becomes available, since most of them differ very slightly in power and hit rate. The only character who should modify his weapon regularly is Squall since he gets a new move when he changes his weapon. For all other characters it's a waste of ingredients. You should however, upgrade their weapons when their most powerful model is available. -> Reviving I always use Life instead of Full-Life since Full-Life is a rare spell, and also, if you bring back a party member with Life or a Phoenix Down, their status instantly becomes critical which means they can use Limit Breaks easily. According to Jonathan Ng, Alexander's Revive actually brings them to full HP, but since it's free, use that one if you have it. (Actually, I prefer the Magic command since it's much more versatile.) -> Speed over defence For some of the bosses, it's actually better to have a higher Speed than Vitality/Spirit (ie, save the slot for Spd +20% instead of Vit +40% or something.) The reason behind this is that certain bosses like Ultima Weapon can kill you in one hit regardless of your HP/defence anyway, so it's pointless having a huge defence with no speed. Most bosses of this type has powerful attacks too so if your defence is too low, it can also be hazardous. However, if you follow my guide, you should get decent defence levels even without Character Ability boosts (like 190+ etc.) Also, you may want to use Quistis' Mighty Guard that gives you every positive status imaginable. Her White Wind and Selphie's Full Cure are also extremely useful, especially to deal with Square's trademark, the "down to 1HP attack". When all fails, use a Holy War (Drink). -> Stock or Cast? Normally, it's a good idea to Cast a drawn spell so you don't have to use up your stock, however, keep in mind that casting a drawn spell directly works differently than if you casted it from your stock. There seems to be a lot of randomness involved with casting a drawn spell, as the damage can spread over a wide range! Casting a drawn Cure for example, with a character with Mag of 8 can heal from 30 to 500+ points of damage! So if you need stable damage/healing, stick to the magic command with stocked spells. Two spells have a very strange effect when cast a drawn spell, and they are Demi and Full-Life. Demi will sometimes do less (MUCH less) than 1/4 of the target's current HP, sometimes as low as 10%. Full- Life will not always bring the target back to full HP, so it has the effect of the scrub version: Life. -> Some words on ST-Atk ST-Atk is a great asset given by a chosen few GFs, they let you add a deadly status ailment to your attacks. Though not all status are effective against certain enemies, choosing the right one can mean turning a hideously powerful monster into a harmless machine that you can draw spells from. Remember however, a status will NOT be inflicted if the weapon was used for a Limit Break attack (Squall's Renzokuken for example.) Here's a recommendation of what's they best spells to junction: - Sleep: My personal favourite! Works on more enemies than any of the below and make them helpless for fairly long time, perfect for drawing spells! Even better is that you can cast spells on them or summon GFs without having to wake them up! - Drain: This acts almost like Regen, as every time you attack, you get some HP back! You'll be immortal as long as you keep attacking! Oh yeah, beware of undeads to, as you'll actually loose HP! This works exceptionally well though, as the more damage you can inflict, the more you can absorb! - Death: Instant death, we all like that don't we? Anyway, it's not as good as it is in theory since many of the more powerful enemies are immune to Instant Deaths and is useless on bosses. Works well on weaker enemies. - Break: If this was FFVII, Break'd be 100 times more useful since most of the powerful enemies can be turned to stone. However in FFVIII, Break is even lousier than Death, works on weaker enemies only! - Silence: Not too shabby but many of the enemies don't cast spells very often and many of the powerful ones are immune. Works nicely on soldiers though. But then again, you can just summon Siren. All other status are not as helpful. Ones like Stop or Slow may seem extremely powerful as but keep in mind that those spells works on almost NONE of the enemies! (Stop in particular!) -> Arms for the poor If you don't want to spend 100 Gil to rest at the inn, no sweat, here's an easier (and actually more convenient) way of healing yourselves. Put Selphie in the team and lower her HP to critical. Get into a fight and cast Full Cure from her Slots. It will heal all your HP and status, and since MP is absent from this FF, it means you're as good as new! -> Spell disposal!! Thanks to John Calvin for this trick It's a wonder that so many FFVIII players (including myself) didn't discover that there was a way of discarding unwanted spells! Anyway, what you do is go to the Magic menu and select Exchange. Highlight the spell you wanna dispose of and press the Square button. A message will pop up asking if you want to discard the spell. Select Yes and voila! Gone! Neat trick huh? (Actually, selecting "Use" does the same. Thanks to Weilun for the correction.) -> Draw Points get paid As you've already know, Draw Points will recover after a "while". How long is a while? It seems that (certain?) Draw Points recovers every time you receive your SeeD salary. I may be wrong though, but sometimes when I drew from a Draw Point and gets paid when I walk away, it magically recovers! Of course, certain Draw Points will not recover at all. If it turns blue instead of white then it cannot be recovered. If it's a spell that seems to be way too advanced for that period in the game then it's probably non-recoverable. -> Draw Points: Overworld or underworld? The Draw Points on the field map are completely different. First off, the field map Draw Points are spherical shaped, while the over world Draw Points "exists" over a part of the land. (Meaning that they have no material form.) Also, overworld Draw Points are completely invisible, even equipping Siren's Move-Find ability won't show their whereabouts. They usually occupy coastal areas, edges of mountains and various other "corners" of the world, so search those places if you're keen. Finally, the over world Draw Points are extremely inefficient because the most number of spells you can draw from it at one time is 5 charges! (I usually get 1!!) Compare that with 15 for field map Draw Points and 9 per round in combat (unlimited.) -> Gravity is NOT GF-friendly Gravity type attacks can never kill you right? Yes, but only if you're a human. What do you mean you ask? Well, the problem lies when a character is summoning a GF. Apparently, the game uses the summoner's current HP and NOT the GF's, so if your character has a very high current HP and your GF has relatively low current HP, it can actually kill them! However, if your character has low HP while the GF has high HP, the damage are comparable to bug bites. -> Vitality Zero or Spirit Zero? I guess you all have heard of the Vitality Zero status (shown in battle by a purple tint.) Anyway, that's misleading as magic defence (ie, Spirit) is also lowered! Try summoning Doomtrain twice in a row, you'll notice that the damage dealt by the second summon has been raised significantly. -> A good combo Try junctioning 100 Drains to your ST-Atk and equip the Darkside command. Use it and not only will you deal 3 times the usual damage, you'll also gain drain a huge amount of HP. I've forgotten who told me about this though, sorry... The only flaw to this trick is that you'll never recover to your full HP. Remember that the penalties for using Darkside (loose 10% HP) takes place AFTER the attack, so you'll always end up with only 90% of your total HP. -> You have been deceived! Well I'm not sure if you guys ever heard about this thing saying that all monster's levels are determined by Squall's level. That's WRONG!! *Gasp* Yup that right, the enemy's levels are determined by the _average_ of your (active?) party member's levels, or so it seems, because when I levelled up Quistis and not Squall, the enemy's levels are a LOT higher than Squall's. This is just an estimated prediction though so don't quote me on this, but it's a pretty good estimate I'd have to say. (The regular deviations in enemy levels are still there though.) -> To draw, or not to draw The field map Draw Points seems to have 3 states. The "empty" state where the ball is colorless. There seems to be 2 drawable states though, "full" and "semi-full". In its "full" state, the orb is filled completely with vibrant purple colored stripes. The "semi- full" state seems to have a very faint tint of purple color and less number of stripes. Sometimes it's very hard to tell whether a Draw Point is "empty" or "semi-full", since the purple present in "semi- full" Draw Points is very vague. The difference between "full" and "semi-full" Draw Point is the number of spells you can draw. You always seem to get 2 or 3 charges if you draw from a "semi-full" draw point, but the "full" states gives you a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 15. The fast recovering Draw Points (like the ones in the Shumi Village) seems to yield "semi- full" Draw Points more often than not. -> Gain skills even quicker Christian Groff suggested to learn certain skills with items and not AP, which is a really good idea. Here's a list he sent me: Steel Pipe: SumMag +10% Star Fragment: SumMag +20% Energy Crystal: SumMag +30% Samantha Soul: SumMag +40% (for Bahamut, Doomtrain and Eden) Healing Mail: GFHP +10% Silver Mail: GFHP +20% Gold Mail: GFHP +30% Diamond Armor: GFHP +40% (for Bahamut, Doomtrain and Eden) Healing Ring: Recover (Leviathan) Phoenix Spirit: Revive (Alexander) Gambler Spirit: Card (Quezacotl) Bomb Spirit: Kamikaze (Cactuar) Knight's Code: Cover (Brothers) Monk's Code: Counter (Carbuncle) There are many more items out there that lets you learn new skills, so search for them. Note however, there are no items to aid learning Menu Abilities. -> What to unlearn Later in the game, it is wise to buy Amnesia Greens from the pet shop and use them to help a GF forget an ability. All GFs can learn 22 skills at once, but you need to free up slots in order to learn new ones with items. This is important because you need to split your GFs six ways right before fighting Ultimecia, and you'll need enough –J abilities for all your major attributes for all characters. So here's my recommendation on what to forget: * If a GF has Elem-Defx2 or ST-Defx2, forget Elem-Def or ST-Def won't hurt, since having multiple ones won't grant any special effects. -Defx4 abilities acts in a similar way. * If you always pair together certain GFs, you get forget the Item, GF, Magic and Draw commands on one GF, since every GF has those 4 abilities. * When a GF's max HP is already 9999, forget a GFHP+??% probably won't lower it by much. (Especially for the GFs near the end.) * If you never summon a GF, you might want to forget their GFHP+??% or SumMag+??% skills. * You might want to delete the "Bonus" skills after you're done with them. * You may want to forget any HP, Str, Vit, Mag or Spr+20% if you have 40%, since a 40% is enough to raise the stats to max after powering up. (You can even delete Bahamut's Str and Mag+60% since it has +60% available.) * I personally don't like Elem-Atk very much so... (More than 6 GFs have that next to trash ability anyway.) However, do NOT delete any Menu Abilities or other unique and otherwise irreplacable skills, such as the Devour command or Auto- Haste etc. Don't forget any "rare" skills either, like anything that boosts Hit, Evade, Luck or Speed. -> Another good combo Thanks to Iaian Ross for this trick. This is a good use for the "useless" Zombie spells. Junction 100 Zombies to your ST-Atk and it will turn enemies into undeads. Afterwards, any reviving method will kill them in one hit, like Life spells, Phoenix Downs and the best of all, the Revive command ('cuz it's free.) This is a good way of dealing really high HP/powerful enemies like the ones on the Island Closest to Hell. -> Perhaps the best combo of all... It's (of course) critical status + Aura status!!! That way, your character will have a 90% chance of executing their best Limit Breaks (if they're random.) I've tried this on Zell when facing Omega Weapon and all four Duels came in 12 seconds!!! (No need to say, I trashed Omega and flushed him down the loo.) Anyway, try this out on the other characters, you'll almost be guarenteed to execute Lion Heart, Wishing Star, The End, Mighty Guard that grants everyone Aura and a slow Shot bar for Irvine. -> Rules are made to be broken Thanks to FenalNoa for the info on this. You should all know about he "5th trade rule" by now, it's the "Null" rule. (This tip used to be in the "Misc." section.) However, there was more to that rule than a pointless no trading game. Well, playing a Null game has the effect of completely deleting ALL rules in that region!!!!! The guy by the sea in Balamb used this rule before the Fire Cavern event, and playing a game with him has made the Open rule dissappear (and I had to pay the Queen 30000 Smackers to re-establish it in Balamb.) The Null trade rule, is however, potentially really useful since it has the power of nullify all those horrible rules in Space, Centra, Trabia, Dollet etc... But I myself have only seen that rule once. Does anyone know how to make the Null rule appear in other regions? -> Rule transfer tips I'm not sure if anyone knows this already but I've just found this out last night. Spreading a rule in another region also has the effect of spreading the trade rule from the original region, if it has been established. For example, play the Queen in Balamb to change the trade rule to "All" then play many many games to make the rule stay. (Ask the Queen about the trade rule in the region and she should say "Blah blah will spread throughout the region." If she says something else, then it means it still hasn't gained a solid ground, and will dissappear with time.) Now when you get to Timber (Galbadia region) and play a card game, ending up spreading the Open rule, and the "All" trade rull will also be spread!!! So before you leave Balamb, make sure the "All" rule (or "Diff") stays for good, as you will want to spread the Open rule from Balamb to all major regions, and therefore, making the world much more tradable for us! -> Steal and not Mug Thanks to Treylane47@aol.com for this trick Well, this sure helps if you wanna steal something but don't want the EXP. Simply give the Mug command to someone wil relatively low Hit% (Zell with his worst weapon) and cast Blind on him. His Hit% will be massively reduced that he almost never hits, but using the Mug command still allows a chance to steal. Of yeah, never try this with someone who's weapon has a 255% Hit. -> Something you may find useful I don't know if you know this but the Invincible status (effects of Hero, Holy War or Invincible Moon) will instantly negate all negative statuses your character had been inflicted. It does not seem to negate positive statuses though (whoohoo!!), at least not Haste, Aura and Float. (Protect and Shell won't make any difference anyway.) This might be useful when fighting against Malboros, execute Rinoa's Invincible Moon will cure all your party's ailments. More tips comin' up. CHARACTER EVALUATION ==================== Like my previous FAQs, I'll detail each character in this section, with their strengths, weaknesses, Limit Breaks and some other stuff. BTW, if you were wondering about the stats my characters had, they're in this section. I've found out something quite interesting from this second time through the game. The character's stats at level 100 will always be the same! So it seems that this game uses fixed level up stats boosts instead of random ones like in most other RPGs. The one on the left is my "test run" score and the one on the right is my best score, also the maximum you can get from equipping the Bonus abilities. Note only HP, Str, Vit, Mag and Spr have the MAX values, since all the other ones don't change. MAX HP is calculated since I never equip HP Bonus. (Note all stats are of the character at level 100 with their BEST weapon, meaning higher Str and Hit. Also, none of them are junctioned in any way.) ---Squall Leonhart--- MAX HP 4187 6977 Str 162 170 Spd 37 Vit 124 134 Luck 22 Mag 130 138 Eva 3% Spr 117 129 Hit 255% Comments on stats: Squall usually has the crappiest stats since you'll be forced to use him the most in the whole game, while his Limits are one of the best. He gets fairly good stats if you manage to not gain a level at all. His Str is decent. All his gunblades has 255 Hit rate though, meaning his normal attacks will never miss. Limit Break: Renzokuken When this is used, Squall will rush to his target and slash them anywhere from 4 to 8 times. A bar pops up at the bottom of the screen and green "waves" will start to flow from the right to the left, each of them represents a gunblade attack. You're supposed to pull the trigger (ie, the R1 button) at the exact time as the wave reaches the box near the left, and a "hit" will register, meaning that single attack will do 1.5 times of normal damage. (Very much like his normal attack.) Otherwise you'll miss and get no damage bonus for that single hit (and likely to screw up the timing of your next attack. I can never get the remaining hits right when I miss the timing.) You'll get the "Perfect" message if you timed every hit right, but it doesn't mean anything in terms of combat. I think each hit does about as much damage as his normal attack, or perhaps slightly more. His Limits are dependent on Squall's Strength. Note this is non-elemental even if you've junctioned spells into his Elemental-Atk. Randomly after executing the 4-8 hits, Squall may execute a finishing blow. Note the chance of Squall executing his finishing blow will NOT increase if you get a "Perfect" for the initial Renzokuken hits, it's just random. Squall will start the game with his most basic finishing blow, Rough Divide and the rest can be gained from upgrading his gunblades. Note however, not all models of the gunblade come with a finishing blow, just some of them. The initial Renzokuken hits are single targeted but a couple of his finishing blows can hit all enemies on screen. Gunblade model Finishing blow Revolver => Rough Divide Shear Trigger => Fated Circle [Other models] => Blasting Zone Lion Heart => Lion Heart (aka End of Heart) Ok, execuse me everyone, but the gunblade theory I had last time was TOTALLY wrong! Thanks to Iaian Ross who informed me about this. Anyway, it seems that whenever you upgrade Squall's gunblade, he'll gain the finishers that model grants AND all the finishers below it. In other words, Squall does not learn the finishers but the gunblades comes with certain finishers learned. For example, Squall upgrade his Revolver to a Cutting Trigger (skipping the Shear Trigger), he'll be able to use not only Rough Divide and Blasting Zone, but Fated Circle as well, since the Cutting Trigger is more advanced than the Shear Trigger. Because of this, the theory of increasing the chances of executing Lion Heart by upgrading the Revolver to a Lion Heart and thus trying not to learn Fated Circle or Blasting Zone would not work. Sorry if the previous theory gave anyone any trouble. Note: Fated Circle and Blasting Zone hits all enemies, however, if enemies are affected by Sleep prior to Renzokuken, the enemies which Renzokuken was not targeted on but was hurt by either of the above finishers will NOT wake up! -Rough Divide- This is what Squall used on Seifer in the intro FMV. Squall runs towards his target while while sliding the blade across the ground, then he leaps into the air bringing up rocks and a huge vertical shock wave damaging the enemy. This looks pretty cool but does more damage of that of a regular Renzokuken hit. Critical happen often with this! -Fated Circle- Squall will leap into the air and spins around with his blade on his way down, forming a ring shaped sonic boom-like force that cuts all enemies, then explodes into flames. Not a very powerful move, but stronger than a Renzokuken hit. -Blasting Zone- Gosh this takes ages! Squall gets surrounded by a whirlwind-like force field as he extends his gunblade up into the air. A vertical beam force lengthens from the blade and extends out all the way into space, then Squall brings his blade down as strong gale hurts all enemies. I don't like this very much as it only does slightly more damage than Fated Circle but lower than Rough Divide, and takes ages to animate. Extremely pointless but seems to be the finisher that gets triggered the most in the long run. -Lion Heart- This was originally named "End of Heart" in the Japanese version which was a much better name. Squall rushes to the enemy and uppercuts them into the air, then leaps into the air and beats them up with 16 hits of his gunblade, ending with a flashy diagonal strike. Then the enemy drops back to the ground. This is the most powerful attack in the whole game. Squall executes exactly 16 hits (thanks to Qualera) and each hit usually does 9999 damage. (Less against enemies with REALLY high defence, but the damage never really goes below 9000 per hit.) Can kill most bosses in one hit except Omega Weapon and the last form of the last boss. Note there's an extra hit when the enemy drops back onto the ground afterwards, making it a total of 17 hits!!! ---Quistis Trepe--- MAX HP 3883 6643 Str 161 163 Spd 34 Vit 118 122 Luck 21 Mag 132 134 Eva 3% Spr 121 126 Hit 107% Comments on stats: Quistis has the worst overall stats of the group it seems but since her Limit Breaks are some of the best, Quistis stands out in the game as the best character, IMO. Very pretty too, and looks a LOT like Aya! :-) Limit Break: Blue Magic I've always loved Blue Magic in the series. Blue Magic started all the way back in FFV where it's the specialty of Blue Mages, since they can only learn new spells through being hit by it, the game balances them out by giving them the ability to use better equipment. In FFVI, only Strago the Blue Mage can use Blue spells (Lores) and he has a few decent ones like Grand Train, but it still made him a less useful character. In FFVII, Blue spells were named Enemy Skills and can be learnt by the corresponding materia. They were really useful though, especially in the Battle Arena since they count as YELLOW materia, not Green, so you'll still be able to use spells when your Green materia breaks. Anyway, Quistis's Blue Magic are a bit different since she does not learn them by being hit as the enemy casts them like in the previous fantasies, instead, you have to use certain items that can be won or stolen from enemies on her. Some of her better ones are really hard to get though (Ray Bomb, Shockwave Pulsar, Mighty Guard, Homing Laser etc.) Blue spells have always worked in strange ways so even though a certain attack is generally more powerful, another attack may do more damage than it under certain circumstances. There are a few great things about Quistis' Blue magic too, because she has a great variety of them and she has one for every situation (ie, multi-target attack, instant death, elemental, status, gravity elemental, healing and defence!) Her spells are also extremely dependable, and she's the ONLY character who has non-random Limit Breaks. The disadvantage of it is that she has the least damage potential. Note: None of Quistis' damage dealing Blue Magic (except Gatling Gun) can be blocked, meaning the damage cannot be halved by both Protect and Shell. Likewise, no Blue Magic can be reflected. Also, despite that they're enemy skills, they work NOTHING like the enemy's version. I'll describe the differences (if any) below. -Laser Eye- Used by: Belhelmel has it as a counter attack Learnt from: None, initial spell Quistis starts the game with this. She turns away from the enemy then release a green beam of laser from her eyes and hurts the enemy. It's fairly weak (~200 damage at the start of the game but can get a bit stronger.) It's cool to watch though and actually does fairly decent damage if you power Quistis up. I think the Belhelmels only use this as a counter attack. -Ultra Wave- Used by: Caterchipiller Learnt from: Spider Web Defeat Catachipillers nets you this, they're really common. You can also get it from changing Catachipiller's card into it. Quistis damages all enemies with pink spiral waves that pop out from her body. This damages all enemies and does 300+ damage near the start but I think Laser Eye is generally more powerful. -Electrocute- Used by: Cockatrice Learnt from: Coral Fragment I think steal/defeating Cockatrices can get you this. I got it by trading Creeps' card for it. Quistis released countless golden lighting bolts from her body and fries all enemies, looks a lot like Vincent's Limit Break in FFVII. Kinda weak if you ask me though. This is like Trine from FFVII, which is weaker than Beta (Fire Breath) and Aqualung (Aqua Breath). I usually don't bother with this as even against robots, her other attacks does more damage. -Level ? Death- Used by: Torama, Omega Weapon (LV5 Death) Learnt from: Cursed Spike Steal/win from Tri-Face, or occasionally dropped by Molboros. It's easier to trade Tri-Face's card for it since those enemies appear later in the game. Not a good one at all! A reaper appears and smacks the enemies with its scythe and either kills it in one hit or has no effect. Thank god this is the only level-something Blue spell as I hated them. This is strange since the level multiplier can vary, from 5 to 1, depending on Quistis and your party's condition. I used it when I was powering up on the weaker enemies, and sometimes it works quite well. (Oh yeah, try this on those Fastitocalons.) The enemy's version has a fixed multiplier, ie, LV5 Death. -Degenerator- Used by: Gesper Learnt from: Black Hole Win from Gespars or trade its card for it. A large bubble surrounds the enemy and pulls it into a dimensional portal and is never seen again. This is the second best instant death spell in the game (next to Selphie's The End of course) as it works on ALL normal enemies, even really powerful ones like Iron Giants, Ruby Dragons and Behemoths. I've never seen it miss except for the Tonberries and I don't think it works on bosses though. Iaian Ross said that the Gespars does indeed use this attack, but only when you drag the battle on for over 5 minutes. Also, it doesn't really kill the affected character, but it removes them from battle (like the Midgar Zolom's attack in FF7.) -Aqua Breath- Used by: Grand Mantis, Chimera Learnt from: Water Crystal Win from Chimeras or trade 1 Fastitocalon or 5 Fastitocalon-F's card for it. Quistis sends streams of water bubbles at all enemies. This is a classic Blue spell and works fairly well too. It does really good damage, even Leviathan's Tsunami with Boost seems to be weaker! Get this early in the game by trading cards for it and it'll be Quistis' strongest attack for a while. (Water elemental.) Grand Mantis' version will cause Silence as well. Chimera has the normal version alright. -Micro Missile- Used by: GIM52A Learnt from: Missile Defeat or steal from GIM52A Quistis extends her arms forward and sends out many missiles that comes in on the enemy. This works very different to most spells as it's a gravity type spell, in that it will take out a portion of the target's current HP. The effect may vary though, from 50%, 75%, 87.5% and eventually 93.75%!!! However, the maximum damage this attack does is 9999 versus enemies with very high HP. Note some enemies are not a target of gravity type spells so this will score a miss on them instead. This is certainly one of her better spells. -Acid- Used by: Gayla (??), Tri-Face Learnt from: Mystery Fluid Defeat Gaylas or trade its card for it. Quistis turns away and a patch of sizzling liquid comes out of no where and burns the enemy. I don't use this too often but this will do light damage to an enemy but can also give them negative status. However, you won't deal a status ailment to the enemy every time you use this. I've only gotten the Poison status from this, but I assume there are more when Quistis/party's condition worsens. I've also seen Vitality Zero. I don't think the enemy's version causes a status, but it's much more damaging (about 4000+ at times!) -Gatling Gun- Used by: SAM08G (Actually, Quistis used this in an FMV in Disc 1) Learnt from: Running Fire Defeat/steal from SAM08G or Iron Giants, or trade SAM08G's card for it. This is like the gun Quistis used to shoot down X-ATM092 in the FMV after the Dollet mission. The damage it does it very good and it's non-elemental, but only targets one enemy. Sometimes it does really crappy damage and I've just found out why. It appears that Gatling Gun's damage is based on Quistis' Str and not Mag, I didn't junction spells to her Str so this attack was really weak when I used it. However, if you do junction good spells this is VERY powerful! This is strange since it's the only Blue spell that is subject to a barrier, Protect can halve Gatling Gun's damage. -Fire Breath- Used by: Ruby Dragon Learnt from: Inferno Fang Defeat Ruby Dragons or trade 10 of its card for it. I've only used this once. It looks just like the Breath attack the Ruby Dragon uses and is just as powerful. I think this is fire elemental but the dragon's version isn't for some reason. Burns all enemies. This is Fire elemental while the Ruby Dragon's version is both non elemental and physical (ie, is affected by Protect, not Shell.) -Bad Breath- Used by: Malboro, (Geezard) Learnt from: Malboro's Tentacle Defeat/steal from Malboros or trade 4 of its card for it. Quistis sends a breath of foul looking dark gas that sweeps all enemies. The effect is multiple status ailments on enemies but can vary depending on her condition. It can inflict Poison, Silence, Stop, Blind, Sleep, Slow, Doom (Death Sentence), Petrifying, Confuse and Berserk. Maybe Curse as well. I'm not too sure about Vitality Zero though. I use this on annoying enemies and paralyze them so I can draw from them. NOTE! If Quistis' condition is really bad (ie, below 1% health, status etc) Bad Breath will kill all the enemies (vulnerable to death attacks) in one hit!!!!! Which does the same thing as LV1 Death (LV? Death at its best!) Geezard has a Bad Breath attack as well, but it's completely different, as it deals damage rarely a status, it also looks very different. -White Wind- Used by: Adamantoise Learnt from: Whisper Steal from high level Adamantoise Soothing wind blows out of nowhere and surrounds the team. This is the second best healing spell in the game (and again, next to Selphie's Full-Cure, which is the best) and comes really useful in later fights, makes Quistis a very useful character. This works differently than all its previous incarnations in that is cures the difference between Quistis' current HP and her maximum HP. For example, Quistis has only 1 HP left and her maximum HP is 9999, White Wind heals 9998 to all members in your party. It does NOT cure status ailments though, like it did in FFVI and FFVII. This is different from Adamantoise's version because they can heal about 5000+ damage when they're at FULL HEALTH!! -Homing Laser- Used by: Mobile Type 8, Elastoids Learnt from: Laser Cannon Steal from the Mobile Type 8 boss. I think you may also steal from Elastoids for it too. Quistis releases 3 beams of laser that homes in on the enemy. I got this really late but I wasn't disappointed, as the Mobile Type 8 boss has this attack but it's really weak. It can do about 7000-9999 damage (later in the game) but only works on one enemy. I like to use this on Adel at the start of Disc 4 when you HAVE to use a single target attack on her. -Mighty Guard- Used by: Iron Giant Learnt from: Barrier Steal/kill Behemoths or trade 10 of its card for it. A translucent blue globe envelops each character in the team. This is the best Final Fantasy Blue spell at it's best! The effects of this spell will also vary. It will only put Protect and Shell on all members at its early stages, but Regen is present when Quistis is hurt bad, then Float and Haste are a bit rarer. The most useful status (and rarest) is Aura, effectively giving your team defensive, offensive and speed advantage over the enemies. You'll be using this spell a lot later in the game, especially against bosses like Omega and Ultima Weapon. The Iron Giant's version will only give them Protect and Shell. -Ray-Bomb- Used by: X-ATM092 Learnt from: Power Generator Steal from high level Blitz WITHOUT the Rare Item ability. REALLY rare! (I was extremely lucky and got this on my first try, YAY!) I heard you can pick on up in Lunatic Pandora if you did something in Laguna's second scenario. Steam pops up from the back of Quistis' head as she emits a laser from her eye and sweeps it across all enemies. The ground below the enemies turns gold and calls forth a massive explosion that sends all foes into the air and back again. Uhh.. This spell is really disappointing as after all the hard work getting a Power Generator, you come to find out that it's not all that good! The damage is only medium, about 4000-8000 on all enemies later in the game, and is sometimes not as strong as Aqua/Fire Breath! -Shockwave Pulsar- Used by: Griever Learnt from: Dark Matter Collect 100 Cursed Spikes and use Siren's Tool-RF Menu Ability to make it into a Dark Matter. Siren MUST be at LV100. All enemies gets trapped inside a white sphere where is gets lifted into another dimension and gets hurt by a dark energy blast. This is Quistis' best spell and one of the few attacks in the game capable to doing 5 digit damage. Usually around 12000 but if she has really good stats this can do well over 23,000! Ok ok, this is way less than the 200,000 or so that Squall or Zell can do at times, but it's really dependable. ---Zell Dincht--- MAX HP 4018 6778 Str 163 164 Spd 35 Vit 122 125 Luck 20 Mag 132 134 Eva 3% Spr 116 119 Hit 103% Comments on stats: Zell's one of the better ones. He's very strong and gets good HP, Vitality and Strength. His Magic is also pretty good but has low Spirit. Limit Break: Duel Zell uses a mixture of that of Sabin's (FFVI) Blitz and Tifa's (FFVII) Limit Breaks. Like that of Sabin, you must press certain buttons in a certain order to execute the move, each move has a different combination. However, like that of Tifa, Zell can chain together multiple martial arts attacks together, forming a long chain of deadly combos. You're given a time limit to munch in the combinations required for Duel and the chain combo ends either when the timer reaches zero, or when a finishing blow is executed. Zell's Duel has 4 different time intervals, and as his condition worsens, his chance of getting a longer interval increases. Duel can last around 4, 6, 9 or 12 seconds. He'll start with Punch Rush for the 4 and 6 second version but will use Booya first if he gets the 9 or 12 second version, so don't expect the same moves to can be linked after them. Note however, only certain moves can link after another and certain moves only links after a certain combination of moves (finishing blows are one of them.) For example, Mach Kick can always link after Dolphin Blow but Heel Drop cannot. Meteor Strike can link after Dolphin Blow only if Mach Kick was done before Dolphin Blow. These combinations of moves are sometimes quite confusing and I don't recommend you memorize every single link. To help you, the game gives you a list of the moves that can be linked after the move you're currently executing and their combinations, but you'll take less time if you knew which attack to do without having to look at it. Try practice this until you have come up with a certain pattern of the moves that you like, or try to recognize any "loops" (ie, 2 or 3 attacks that links into each other and can be repeated." Zell's Limit Break has the highest damage potential (yes even higher than Squall's Lion Heart finishing blow) but it all comes down to skill – memorizing few of the critical links and a quick tapper.) Practice makes perfect! Zell starts the game with 4 basic attacks and 1 finishing blow. He can learn the rest from reading Combat King magazines found throughout the world or bought in Esthar. -Punch Rush- Combination: O, X Just 3 repeated punches, nothing too special. This is also his weakest attack but it's kinda easy to tap and links before and after most moves. -Booya- Combination: Right, Left This looks like a headbutt but it's actually a knee! (Is it?) I found this is the easiest move to tap and does about the same damage as Punch Rush (ie, lower than the rest of his attacks.) Links too and from Punch Rush, thus making an easy loop that's preferred over his more spectacular moves by experts. -Heel Drop- Combination: Up, Down This looks weird as Zell lifts one of his leg up as if he's doing a vertical split then bring it down at the enemy. I guess you can sorta call it an Axe Kick. Slightly more damaging than the previous and the motion is just as simple to do. The disadvantage is that few moves links to this. -Mach Kick- Combination: Left, Left, O Zell kicks the enemy with a high roundhouse. I like this move. It does about 1.5 times as much damage than Punch Rush/Booya and isn't all that hard to tap. It links to and from Dolphin Blow, which is the loop that I use often. -Dolphie Blow- Combination: L1, R1, L1, R1 Combat King issue: 001 Like Tifa's attack from FFVII except there are 2 dolphins instead of one, and you can see the ocean behind the enemy. Does the most damage out of all the normal moves but requires 4 buttons to activate, but isn't all that hard to do if you practice. (I can sometimes do this in less time than Punch Rush, since I don't like the latter very much.) -Meteor Strike- Combination: Up, O, Down, O Combat King issue: 002 This looks just like Tifa's from FFVII, but it works differently. Zell lifts the enemy up with one arm (gosh he's strong, but what's even more impressive is that Tifa is as strong as Zell is!), leaps into the air and yank them back to the ground. As hinted from the magazine article ("...the bigger they are, the harder they fall.."), this move is of gravity elemental. (Ok, gravity attacks ain't defined as an element like in FFVII, but since they're used so much and are so wonderfully useful, I might as well give them credit and their own respective element that they deserve.) I think this does damage equal to 75% of the target's maximum HP, but it cannot do more than 9999 damage per hit. Also, it does not work on most bosses (but I think Mobile Type 8 is one which this attack DID work.) Against enemies with HUGE defence and HP (Ruby Dragons, Iron Giants etc.) you'd want to use this as often as possible, since it will do 9999 damage per hit, very worthwhile against those enemies. NOTE! The only enemy where this did not work on was a Behemoth The motion is quite easy to do (despite how the magazine says this is tricky) but won't link after many moves. Note if this attack does 0 damage, it means that the enemy is dead. The below moves are finishers, meaning that no matter how much time is left on the timer, Duel will end upon executing these moves. They will show up on the screen with their names flashing and they're all very tricky moves to do. Also, you can't just pull them right off the air, as they require a certain combination of moves to be done in a series before the option for a finishing blow becomes available. Remember, the pre-requisite moves are only the simplest chains that a finisher can be invoked! Meaning you can chain anything before the pre-requisite moves and still trigger the finishing blow. Note I don't know who started this whole thing about Zell must be at a certain level to use a certain finishing blow. I was able to use ALL of them at LEVEL 12!!! Go figure. -Burning Rave- Combination: Down, Down, Down, Down, Circle Prerequisite moves: Booya, Heel Drop, Meteor Strike, Booya or: Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Punch Rush, Heel Drop Zell steps back and punches the ground with his fist as it cracks and the chasm travels to the enemy then explodes, sending the enemy high up into the air. This is really disappointing for a finishing blow. Does about 2 times the damage of his weak attacks and that's it! It's not worth the effort! -Meteor Barret- Combination: Up, X, Down, Triangle, O Combat King issue: 003 Prerequisite moves: Punch Rush, Dolphin Blow or: Booya, Meteor Strike, Dolphin Blow, Mack Kick or: Booya, Heel Drop, Mach Kick, Heel Drop, Booya, Punch Rush, Mach Kick Zell leaps into the air and gathers a green energy bolt in his hands. Then he glides down followed by a trial of energy like a comet and punches the enemy as they collide, and (supposedly) passes through the enemy as it explodes. This looks cheap when Zell is supposed to pierce right through the enemy, but I suppose the PlayStation's polygon power ain't as advanced to handle such animations. (Or maybe it's too violent but I'm hoping for the former.) The damage isn't all that great either but I sometimes use this as a "stylie" finisher after my combos, and I time them just right to fit in this! (See below.) -Different Beat- Combination: Triangle, Square, X, O, Up Combat King issue: 004 Prerequisite moves: Booya, Meteor Strike, Booya or: Booya, Heel Drop, Mach Kick, Heel Drop, Booya Zell kicks the enemy into the air, jumps up and air-combo them with kicks then stomps them as his legs get surrounded by pink energy. This is probably my favourite finishing blow as it looks cool and is very damaging. -My Final Heaven- Combination: Up, Right, Down, Back, Triangle Combat King issue: 005 Prerequisite moves: Booya, Heel Drop, Meteor Strike or: Booya, Heel Drop, Mach Kick, Punch Rush Zell holds his fist and sprints forward past the enemy and runs around the globe like Superman (as if his Meteor Barret ain't enough!) He gets back to the battle field and comes to a stop just behind the enemy, and his momentum are released as a fiery explosion that sends the enemy head over toes up into the air. Looks kinda cool but does abut the same damage as Different Beat. Alright, EdwChang@aol.com has convinced me that this is better than Different Beat since it targets _ALL_ enemies while Different Beat hits just one. Uh.. not much else to say about this but you might wanna see this at least once but I don't find this move exceptionally useful. Tips - Learn a few links to some of your favourite moves. There's nothing wrong with referring to the screen listing all the attacks that can be executed after the current attack, especially when you're trying it out the first few times. You should be used to a few links and should be able to remember the button combinations to all the normal moves if you practice a few times. Here are some combinations that I found useful, feel free to submit more if you like: * Booya, Punch Rush, Booya, Punch Rush, repeat. This is also called Armageddon Fist by most veteran FFVIII players (started by Kaze Yagami) and it's also fairly useful. The 2 basic attacks are simple to tap and does decent damage. The damage is around 4000 per attack later in the game, and try junction spells to Zell's Luck attribute as a critical can do 9999 damage! You should be able to execute ~20 moves for the 4 seconds interval!!! What's even better about this is that it can be accommodated easily if Zell's starting attack changes. * Booya, Punch Rush, Mach Kick, repeat. or: Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Booya, repeat. These 2 are identical the only difference is the starting move (remember how the starting move differs depending on the time interval you get.) This is also identical to Armageddon Fist except Mach Kick is added. I used this to take out the X-ATM092 boss in Dollet and it's really a killer. I like Mach Kick since it does more damage than the basic attacks and isn't really all that hard to use. * Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Dolphin Blow, Meteor Strike, Dolphin Blow, Mach Kick, Meteor Barret I hope I got this in the correct order. Anyway, practice this and it's PERFECT for the 4 second interval. Of course, this don't work very well on bosses because of Meteor Strike, but this is what I used on the enemies on the Island Closest to Hell when training Zell, and it's a killer to the enemies there because of Meteor Strike. Also, the Meteor Barret makes a stylie finish. * [Starter moves], Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, Meteor Strike, Dolphin Blow, Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, repeat (Thanks to Qualera for this chain combo) This is another great combo for high HP enemies since you can use Meteor Strike _every other turn_! Geez, imagine how long you can toast a Ruby Dragon with this. Anyway, the [starter moves] will be different depending whether you've gotten Booya or Punch Rush as your first attack. For Booya: Booya itself will lead to Meteor Strike For Punch Rush: Try Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Dolphin Blow - Later in the game, you'll wanna avoid using finishing blow as much as possible, since they take ages to do and their maximum damage limit is still only 9999. Each normal blow can do 4000-5000 if you have 255 Strength and a critical hit nets you an instant easy 9999. - Against normal enemies with high defence and HP, release Meteor Strike as often as possible. Meteor Strike is essentially one of Zell's best attacks as it's independent of his Strength and target's Vitality. So even if you have very low Strength and fighting a level 100 Ruby Dragon, you can do 9999 with every blow of Meteor Strike while your other moves takes out less than 1000. - There are some people who think that if you want to use a Duel finisher, you can only execute the pre-requisite move and nothing else. Well you are WRONG!!!!! You can execute any move as long as the pre-requisites are done in order after those moves. There are people who thinks that to use My Final Heaven and Different Beat, Zell must start with Booya (and therefore, only useable in the 8 or 12 second intervals.) That is NOT correct. You can chain a Punch Rush in front of it or even a Booya, Punch Rush, Mach Kick in front of the pre- requisite Booya if you want to (and if you're quick enough!) ---Rinoa Heartilly--- MAX HP 4181 6851 Str 180 186 Spd 36 Vit 115 120 Luck 22 Mag 148 162 Eva 3% Spr 123 126 Hit 107% Comments on stats: Whoa! Gosh, she's the girl with god-like stats! Too bad that her Limits are trashy. I think she is supposed to have good stats to offset her attacks. (If you can remember, she also has really good starting stats when she first joins!) Her Str and Mag are among some of the highest I've seen. She needs only 100 Meteors to bring up Strength up to 255. Limit Break: Combine Rinoa is the only character in the game who has 2 completely different sets of attacks, Angelo skills and her unique Angel Wing status. Angelo Angelo is Rinoa's dog who is actually really smart and can learn various tricks to aid Rinoa in battle. I think Angelo skills were originated from Red XIII's Limit Breaks in FFVII and a bit from Shadow's dog, Interceptor in FFVI. Angelo skill comes in 2 types, automatic and manual. The automatical skills can take place randomly in battle, given that certain conditions are met, while a random manual skills will be executed when Rinoa uses his Limit Break from the command window in battle. Unfortunately, most of her Angelo skills are mostly crap, and since it's random, it can also be very weak compared to the others later in the game. She has a couple fairly decent ones though, so you might as well make the use of them. The damage dealing Angelo attacks are dependent on Rinoa's Strength. To learn new Angelo skills, you must buy or find Pet Pals magazines from around the world. You must read them too (use it in the item menu) then the skill's name will appear in Rinoa's status menu along with Angelo's other skills. A full bar represents that skill has been mastered. Select a skill that you wish to learn and walk with Rinoa in your team and you'll eventually learn the skill. (Note some skills like Wishing Star can take a very long time to learn.) The below 4 skills are manual skills: -Angelo Cannon- Pet Pals issue: None, initial attack. Rinoa whistles for Angelo who runs onto the screen and jumps onto Rinoa's extended arm, then Rinoa launches him like a rocket that hurts all enemies with a fiery explosion. Then Angelo gets a bone for his hard work. An ok attack I guess, since it targets all enemies but gets less useful as the game progresses. It can do 9999 damage to all enemies later in the game though, but that's nothing compared to what the boys can do. -Angelo Strike- Pet Pals issue: 1 Angelo runs onto the screen to the enemy, grabs them somehow and takes them into the air with him. Angelo rotates about 1080 degrees and slams the enemy back onto the ground for big damage. This is a lot stronger than Angelo Cannon but targets only one enemy. The damage is quite strong though, about maybe 2000+ earlier in the game. However, since the damage maxes out at 9999, this will actually be WEAKER than Angelo Cannon later in the game, which can also do 9999 damage but targets all the enemies. You may want to abandon this move so the chance that Rinoa executes one of her better ones increases. -Invincible Moon- Pet Pals issue: 3 Looks a lot like Red XIII's Howling Moon if you ask me. Angelo runs into battle, gets surrounded by silver energy waves (like a certain Red XIII Limit Break) and jumps into the air with a silvery moon in the sky. A curtain of translucent lights envelops all allies and they turn transparent. This well may possibly be Rinoa's best Angelo skill, as an invincible character is immune to all damage and status (even positive ones) and the effect is identical/better than a Holy War (Drink) since it's free. This skill has a fair chance of being executed and I think the effect lasts longer as Rinoa's level increases. -Wishing Star- Pet Pals issue: 6 Rinoa and Angelo runs towards the enemy and disappears while the background turns into a colored star field. Multiple shooting stars zooms across the screen and hurts all enemies for quite a number of hits. If you look closer, the stars are actually Rinoa and Angelo! I was really disappointed at this move when I first saw it. First, the rate which this attack appears is EXTREMELY low (about 5% max) and second, it wasn't as strong as I heard it was. Each hit did around 2000 points of damage for about 10+ hits. I've heard this attack can do 9000+ damage per hit though, but I'm not in the mood to spend about half an hour trying to see this move again! I saw this again and it's actually really impressive since she actually did 8000+ damage her hit!!! Although the chance that Rinoa will use this is really low making it rather unreliable when you REALLY want high damaging attacks. I know that not learning Angelo Strike and/or Invincible Moon is one way to raise the chances of Wishing Stars appearing but that Angelo Cannon can really get on my nerve! One thing that I forgot is that the weaker Rinoa is, the more likely that she uses Wishing Star. Lower her HP a lot (2 digits) and even give her bad status (not Poison though, as it's deadly when her HP is so low) like Silence and Darkness. If you cast Aura when Rinoa's in critical, she'll almost always execute this move. The 4 skills below are automatically but randomly executed when the conditions are met. Rinoa's Luck parameter plays a major role here, higher it is, the more likely you'll see Angelo execute one of these moves. -Angelo Rush- Pet Pals issue: None, initial attack Condition: Rinoa gets damaged (both physical and magical, either singular and multiple targeted) Angelo rushes across the screen at high velocity and charges into the enemy. This works on the same basis as Shadow's dog Interceptor's Take Down, which is basically a counter attack. This attack sucks in many ways. One is that it's terrible when you want to keep the enemy alive to draw spells from or card them. This usually ruins it for you. The damage Angelo does is no where near as much as Interceptor. So this means one thing: Rinoa is a terrible character if you want to card enemies. -Angelo Recover- Pet Pals issue: 2 Condition: Any ally in critical condition Angelo comes onto the screen and uses an item on the ally in critical condition and restores their HP. I don't like this skill either. Sometimes I purposely lower an ally's HP so they can use Limit Breaks easily but no.. Angelo comes along and heals them. The amount healed varies, but usually a lot, I've seen as low as 1500+ to about 6000+! Not bad if you really need healing in a boss fight or something. Note a character who is not Rinoa CAN receive the benefit of his skill too. -Angelo Reverse- Pet Pals: 4 Condition: Ally KO'd Angelo comes into battle and uses a Phoenix Down on a fallen ally Now this is a useful one, but it would help if it happens a little more often. I've seen this only ONCE during my 80 hour game. What's neat about this is when an ally is revived, their HP would be critical and you can execute Limit Breaks easily. -Angelo Search- Pet Pals: 5 Condition: Don't know (Having the Item command? Or Random?) Angelo runs into the battle field, sniff the ground and begins to dig. He then finds an item and gives it to Rinoa, then he receives a treat for his hard work. I have seen this a few times, most of the time you'll get really crappy stuff like Potions mainly, Phoenix Downs etc. But it can also net you some really good stuff at times though, I've heard of Force Armlets and Elixirs. Thanks to FeralNoa, Qualera and Allan Mills for all the info on this move. NOTE! Qualera has e-mailed me saying that it's possible that the chance of seeing Angelo perform this move will increase if you use the Item command more often. You know what? I think he's right! I was trying to lower my team's HP to do the Omega trick (see below) but the enemies kept killing Selphie and Irvine that I had to use items all the time to revive them. As a result, Angelo appeared TWICE and picked up 2 awesome items. Oh yeah, you'll probably get better items if Rinoa's condition is not very good when Angelo appears. In the above example, Rinoa had 198HP and blinded, and Angelo found a Curse Spike and a Mega Phoenix!!! Angel Wing After the scene in space (and a terrible micro-game!), Rinoa gains a new Limit Break. You can use this while inside Ragnarock the first time. With this, a pair of wings appears on Rinoa's back and she gets lifted into the air, then she comes back onto the ground like if nothing had happened. You'll notice the effect soon though, as you'll realise that you cannot control her any more, as she's gone berserk in a way. Whenever Rinoa's turn comes up, she will cast a _random_ spell on a random enemy. The quality of the spell is really quite a mixed bag. Rinoa will either cast a really powerful spell like Ultima or a really sloppy status spell like Sleep, and Scan/Dispel occasionally. What's sorta worthwhile about this is that the power of a damage- dealing spell is increased by 5 times, WOW! (Watch out for Meteor, it's a real killer on a single enemy. Can do upwards of 40000 damage!) However, she rarely uses one of them (about 5 crap spells per 1 good spell) which makes Angel Wing no better than her terrible Angelo skills. Note that this is actually a status, which means that it will have no effect while Rinoa is in the Invincible status (Invincible Moon.) Rinoa is immune to Berserk, Silence and Confuse status while in Angel Wing. Also, her spells ain't THAT random as there are certain spells that she will never use, such as any aiding/healing/reviving spells. The power of her spells is also dependent on Rinoa's Magic attribute. Note! EdwChang@aol.com told me that what spell Rinoa casts is based on the spells in her stock even though it doesn't use up a charge but he doesn't know if having a high number of a certain spell being stocked is going to raise the chance of that spell being cast. Happy Matt was able to confirm this query. He told me that he used Varly (aka Angel Wing) with Rinoa when she had absolutely no spells stocked. The result: Rinoa can only execute regular _physical_ attacks like Berserk without the damage bonus! There's still much to discuss about Rinoa's Angel Wing, -Skrybe- have sent me the complete list on what Rinoa will and will not cast through Angel Wing. These spells CAN be used in Angel Wing: Aero, Berserk, Bio, Blind, Blizzaga, Blizzara, Blizzard, Break, Confuse, Death, Demi, Dispel, Drain, Fira, Firaga, Fire, Flare, Holy, Meltdown, Meteor, Pain, Quake, Scan, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Thundaga, Thundara, Thunder, Tornado, Ultima, Water, and Zombie. These spells CANNOT be used in Angel Wing: Aura, Cura, Curaga, Cure, Double, Esuna, Float, Full-Life, Haste, Life, Protect, Reflect, Regen, Shell, and Triple. I'm sure you guys have also heard of the secret spell Apocalypse, a spell that can only be drawn from Ultimecia. Anyway, you _can_ get them via a GameShark, so it is possible that Rinoa will cast Apocalypse through Angel Wing, since it's just another version of Ultima. Selphie's Slot spells can also be cast through Angel Wing (if you got them stocked via a GameShark) these includes: The End, Rapture and the dummied out Catastrophe and Percent. Full Cure and Wall cannot be cast, obviously. *NEW* I have played around with Angel Wing and it seemed that getting rid of SOME of the status spells don't help very much, it seems what spells she'll cast in a given round is affected by spell types: status or damage dealing. If you have at least ONE status spell, she'll use that spell whenever the "Angel Wing spell indicator" says Status. For example, if you have Thundaga, Ultima, Meteor, Demi, Holy, Flare, Water and Confuse stocked, the chance of casting Confuse will not be 1/8, but more like 1/2 (I'm not too sure about the Status/damage spell ratio though.) So having more status spells stocked will not mean casting status spells more frequently but more like casting a larger variety of them. It's kinda confusing to explain, did someone cast Confuse on me or something? So the moral of the story is, get rid of ALL your status spells if possible, because if you have at least one useless status magic, she will still cast it frequently. However, 2 spells counts as both status and damage dealing, they're Meltdown and Drain, but I'd say you keep those 2. Scan and Dispel fits into neither category, but they're still useless. So if you wanna use Angel Wing effectively, stick to the below strategies. Here's a tip from EdwChang@aol.com: Simply get rid of all of Rinoa's lesser use spells that ain't being junctioned such as all status spells and Dispel. Keep as many Holies, Flares, Ultimas, Meteors or just whatever you feel is powerful to raise her chance of casting a better spell in Angel Wing. Oh yeah, don't forget to boost her Magic and Speed attributes, as it can get pretty powerful when you get a good spell, especially Meteor, and with a high Speed, Rinoa can cast more spells before the enemy's turn comes up, which kinda makes up for the fact that she cannot be controlled. Here's what Another Gamer's strategy: Get rid of all offensive spells except for Meteor, it'll do more damage than Ultima. This is like a refined version of the above strategy except the ONLY spell Rinoa will ever use is Meteor. With a good Magic attribute and the Angel Wing status, I've seen a comet doing up to 4000+ damage each! (And there's 10 of them!) It's much more reliable than hoping for Wishing Star with her Angelo skills. The bad point of this is that you'll miss out a lot of junction potentials of Ultima. Try this out and see what you think. ---Selphie Tilmitt--- MAX HP 3680 6440 Str 157 162 Spd 37 Vit 115 120 Luck 26 Mag 136 141 Eva 3% Spr 123 130 Hit 255% Comments on stats: No too bad. She's kinda weaker physically but has very good Magic stats. Her Speed is decent though and she's the luckiest character in the game. Her best improvement is probably how her best weapon has a 255% hit rate, meaning she can no longer miss the target with her regular attacks. Limit Break: Slots Selphie's Slots is completely different to Setzer and Cait Sith's. Selphie can cast any spell up to 3 times in a row. Her Slots window will show a random spell with a random number of times that spell will be cast. If that's not the spell you want, you may select "Do over" which will bring up another spell. When the desired spell comes up, you may select "cast" to cast it. These spells will not consume Selphie's stocked spells so use them as often as you wish. Note time does not stop as you select your spells, even with the "Wait" option. (The Wait option sucks in this game anyway.) So spending too long on her Slots trying to get better spells can be dangerous. Selphie has 4 unique spells on her Slots too, and they're all good ones. At the beginning of the game, you may only get crap magic like Fire but she'll likely to get better spells as her level does up. (ie, Ultima may have about a 1% chance or less of showing up while she's at level 10, but at level 100, Ultima comes up quite often.) Note if a certain spell is cast multiple times, the targeting is random and it's not very effective if you ask me! When you come up with say a positive status spell (like Haste) cast 3 times, it never works so that each member on your team gets a dose, which wastes the spell. (The spell will always cast on a same member twice.) Below are the 4 unique spells Selphie that can be cast only with her Slots. Note none of these can be cast multiple times, since they don't need to. When you cast one of these spells once, it will show up in her status screen and the chance of getting that spell on her Slots in the future will increase. -Full Cure- This heals all allies to full HP AND it will cure negative status too, effectively the best healing spell in the game. Also, I'm sure this spell will work on Invincible allies! The chance of getting this on her Slots is very high, so you don't need to struggle when you want healing, although Full Cure shows up less times when she's at higher levels. -Wall- A stone barrier raises through the ground to guard all allies. Not a bad defence spell but if Quistis is in your party, have her use Mighty Guard instead. Wall will only give you Shell and Protect, but it's pretty decent if you don't have access to Mighty Guard yet. -Rapture- A useful spell with a terrible translated name, which puts a pair of wings on each enemy's back and they get lifted into the air and is never seen again. Works well on normal enemies but certain enemies are resistant to it (like Tonberries.) -The End- EVERYBODY fears this spell! Flowers will blossom before the enemies and the background turns into a flower filled meadow and the words "The End" pops up like if the game has ended. Then the enemies die for no reason. What's so powerful about this is that it will even work on really tough bosses like Omega! Very rare on her Slots, but has a decent chance of showing up at high levels. Yes, thanks to –Skrybe- for the descriptions of Selphie's secret Slot spells. Ever wonder why there are 2 empty spaces in Selphie's Limit Break window? Well, Square planned to implement 6 unique spells for Selphie only but only got around to make 4 of them playable. So unless you have a GameShark or its equivalent, you'll never be able to use these 2 powerful spells. -Percent- It really shows that Square don't really care about their gamers since they haven't even got around to make the animation for Percent and Catastrophe. This looks like the basic "Fire" spell that Seifer uses at the beginning of his Limit Breaks, or so I've been told. *Yawn* However, the descriptions are of this spell says "Put enemies near death" which probably does damage based on the target's HP (gravity elemental) which would have been really useful in Carding and Devouring enemies. -Catastrophe- Again, the animation is the same as that of the Fire spell. Catastrophe follows the trend of Ultima and Apocalypse that does heavy non-elemental damage to all enemies, its description says "Major damage to all enemies". Unfortunately Catastrophe is not quite Shockwave Pulsar standards and damage STILL caps at 9999. Still I asked –Skrybe- to test Catastrophe against both Apocalypse and Ultima to compare its power, here are his results: Ultima 1300, Apocalypse 2600 and Catastrophe 4000. So Apocalypse is twice and Catastrophe is 3 thrice as strong as Ultima. Note that all 6 Slot spells can be gotten as stocked regular spells for all characters using a GameShark, except that none of them can be junctioned. –Skrybe- also went further saying that certain GF summons can be gotten as regular spells, although they tend to lock the game up when cast, and gave some strange junction stats. Since time is not paused when Selphie uses her Slots, try to use it when another character/enemy is executing a lengthy action (casting a spell etc.) The best way to select your spell is to do it during a GF summoning animation, if you wanna give up Boost for it that is. Diablos is the best since his attack is lengthy and don't use Boost. The spell to look for depends on your situation. Early on in the game, basic elementary spells can satisfy most purposes and may actually top Squall or Zell's Limit Breaks! Later in the game however, her usefulness pans out since everyone else has at least one really powerful attack or defensive skills. So Selphie is best used as a healer with her Full Cure. Her Wall is also good if you don't have Quistis. If you manage to get Aura then you might as well use it. Haste is also fairly decent. As for offence, the best Selphie can do is probably multiple Meteors for single targets or multiple Ultimas for multiple targets. (Meteor will actually do respectable damage when her Magic attribute is 255.) If you manage to get The End, you can end the fight in one shot! (You might not want to do it though, as it kinda spoils the fun in a boss fight.) EASY SLOT JACKPOT! ================================================== |Thanks to Matt for this trick. | | | |Have you tried to strike it lucky with Selphie's Slots but don't | |get any good magic? Try this trick. | | | |Make sure that Selphie is in critical condition, or under Aura. Now| |have another team member cast a spell (any will do, preferably a | |cheap one) but before the spell is executed, press the "Open" | |button on your PlayStation to open the lid. The game will try to | |load the spell off the CD but it cannot, so the game will kinda | |"soft" freeze. Take advantage of this time to cycle through | |Selphie's Slots for desirable spells, then close the lid and | |resume play. | | | |Since the time is paused, you virtually have an eternity to cycle | |for your favourite spells, but this trick is not without flaws. One| |big drawback is that the spells offered with this is quite limited.| |If you keep cycling for ages and ages, it'll eventually "recycle" | |the old spells, meaning if you do not get say The End for the first| |50 times, you will never get it. (To get around this problem, exit | |the Slot sub-screen and tap the O button until the triangle appears| |again, and this time you'll get a completely different list of | |spells.) This is still a really neat trick IMO, enough to keep | |Selphie fans happy. :) | ===================================================================== ---Irvine Kinneas--- MAX HP 4120 6730 Str 156 157 Spd 39 Vit 108 118 Luck 21 Mag 128 129 Eva 3% Spr 105 115 Hit 115% Comments on stats: For some reason, Irvine seems to have really low stats. His Str is the lowest... and all his other stats are the lowest out of all characters. You think it's because he starts off at the highest level? He's the fastest though (but perhaps not as much as Kiros.) Limit Break: Shot Hehe, his Limit is fun. Choose a type of ammo that you've stocked in your inventory and tap the trigger button (R1) rapidly to shoot as many bullets as you can under a time limit. The time limit is a depleting bar to the lower right of the screen and the amount of time he has available can vary. Unlike Zell though, Irvine's bar does not lengthen as his timer is expanded, instead it moves slower, so it's not easy to identify the amount of time he has available or the amount of it's left. It's also hard to tell how many different time intervals Irvine has. When a shot deals zero damage, it means that the target is dead so don't waste any more bullets. (But it sucks since you'll always waste at least one bullet for this purpose.) By obtaining new bullets, Irvine can expand his variety of shots. Most of them can be bought in stores, some of them can be won or refined from cards, and all of them can be refined from Ifrit's Ammo- RF Menu Ability (some of the rarer bullets can only be gotten this way.) Make sure that you browse through that ability menu often as you can find some really good deals that you just CANNOT resist! (Like 1 Chef's Knife into 10 AP Ammo or 1 Poison Powder into 10 Dark Ammo!) The power of Irvine's Shot is dependent on his Str. Since his Limit Break is not free like all the others, I don't use his as much. Note: One very interesting thing I've noted is that Irvine's Shot is sorta like magic is that, it will NOT wake a target suffering from the Sleep status. Strange indeed! The list of different types of gun shots are listed below, sorry for the delay, as I finally got to play with them thoroughly last night. Also, I give the various ammunition ranks in various categories, Power, Speed, Acquirability and the Overall Usefulness. An S is the best while an F is the worst. Note: A C (average) in Power is comaparable to normal attacks, while a C in Speed indicates it can be fired about 4 times for the shortest Shot Limit Break interval. -Normal Shot- (Normal Ammo) Power: C Speed: B Acquirability: A Overall Usefulness: B This resembles Irvine's normal attack, only shot multiple times in succession. The cheapest ammo is actually quite efficient, it can be bought in most stores. The speed is good and the damage is equivalent to his normal attacks. Needless to say, if Irvine has very high Str, this attack can be quite strong and for a low price. I use this attack the most. -Scatter Shot- (Shotgun Ammo) Power: D Speed: B Acquirability: A Overall Usefulness: D Looks similar to Normal Shot but hits all enemies. This has the same speed as Normal Shot, but it's only about half as strong. There are not very many situations in the game where you need to target multiple enemies at the same time so this shot is a waste. -Dark Shot- (Dark Ammo) Power: D- Speed: B Acquirability: B Overall Usefulness: C+ Irvine shoots a granade that explodes into a green cloud. I like this. It's the weakest ammunition there is but it has decent speed and has a chance of giving the enemy a random negative status per shot. I've seen Poison, Darkness, Silence and Sleep. Can also be gotten fairly easily. -Flame Shot- (Fire Ammo) Power: B Speed: C Acquirability: B- Overall Usefulness: C Not quite a flamethrower but Irvine launches a burst of flame similar to that of Opera's long ranged version of Flame Launcher in SO2. The only elemental shot there is, so it can either be extremely useful or completely useless. The fire elemental nature of this attack is good against certain enemies like Malboro, as it will do double damage. The damage done with Flame Shot unde neutral elemental resistance is about twice that of Normal Shot. -Canister Shot- (Demolition Ammo) Power: B+ Speed: F Acquirability: C Overall Usefulness: E Irvine blasts many rockets from his gun which homes in on the enemy. I hate this attack. It's very strong but it's so slow that I can bearly manage to shoot 3 times during the shortest time interval, so Normal Ammo can hit for more damage than this most of the time (via critical hits.) It's quite expensive but you can still find a few bargins for Demolition Ammo if you look for Running Fires. -Quick Shot- (Fast Ammo) Power: E Speed: S Acquirability: B Overall Usefulness: A- Irvine fires rapid shots at an enemy, but not quite machinegun standards. Does about the same damage as Dark Shot but it can shoot 2-3 bullets per 1 Normal Ammo! Since it is fired so many times, the rate of a critical attack pops up is also the highest among all shots. The only drawback is that the ammunition runs out faster than the rate at which Lara Croft's boobs grows, so keep plenty of them in stock. -Armor Shot- (AP Ammo) Power: A+ Speed: E Acquirability: C- Overall Usefulness: B+ Irvine blasts a thin beam of laser which penetrates the enemy's defence. Probably the one of the best ammunition in the game. It's did 9999 damage when I didn't junction anything in Irvine's Str (his normal attack was doing only 1100+ damage!) It's not too hard to get, Chef's Knives can nets you loads of this, and they're reasonably easy to acquire. It's slow though, and you won't even notice a critical hit, so IMO, Fast Ammo is more useful. -Hyper Shot- (Pulse Ammo) Power: S+ Speed: E Acquirability: E Overall Usefulness: D Irvine fires a huge beam of intense light at the enemy. It's exceptionally hard to get your hands on (but it wont be much of a problem if you use the infinite Elnoyle encounter to your advantage.) Slow like Armor Shot, but it almost always do 9999 damage, meaning all critical hits will be wasted. You can shoot 3 times during the shortest time interval, meaning doing 29997 points of damage, but with 255 Str, Quick Shot can hit 10+ times, for ~2500 each hit, plus critical hits, meaning there's a much greater chance of doing more damage if you just stick to Quick Shot. ---Seifer Almasy--- Thanks to Colin Pentney who took the time to level Seifer to level 100 and sent in the stats. The value to the left is Seifer's at level 100 WITHOUT any bonuses, the one on the right is the estimated maximum acquirable with the bonuses. It is served mainly to compare with the max stats of the other characters. Est. MAX HP 5823 8553 Str 60 151 Spd 45 Vit 39 130 Luck 19 Mag 45 136 Eva 4% Spr 38 129 Hit 255% Comments on stats: Geez, Seifer's stats rivals even that of Rinoa's! His Str is the lowest though, but that's because he cannot upgrade his weapon and is stuck with a crap gunblade. (If he did, add 13 points to his Str, and he'll have standard Str.) He has the highest Vit and Spr. Don't go away yet, look at this HP and Spd. WOW! His max HP is about 2000 higher than most and he's even faster than Irvine! (Not sure about Kiros though, as he does seem to be the fastest character in the whole game.) All that plus the ability to hit with perfect precision, making him the most powerful character in the game. Oh dear, if only you can get him in your team permanently. Limit Break: Fire Cross I'm a little puzzled by the name of his Limit Breaks, I know it's supposed to be confusing since you only get to use him for a little while. Fire Cross seems to be the "style" of his Limits (like Rinoa's Combine) while each attack (like No Mercy) is a separate skill in the order of Fire Cross. Seifer, like Squall, also uses a gunblade, but his style of attack is completely different. Seifer seems to be able to "fuse" magic with his "sword" attacks, forming a style of his own. Seifer is also the strangest since he seems to have the ability to use his Limit Breaks at will, meaning he has no problem to get the triangle to show up indicating a Limit Break is available. -No Mercy- Seifer blast all enemies with a Fire spell then he spins his gunblade and starts charging for an energy sphere. He then swings the blade, sending a high speed spinning projectile at each enemy. Well, at least it hits all enemies. It's only a single hit so it's not very powerful. IMO, this acts in a very similar way to Rinoa's Angelo Cannon, or perhaps slightly weaker. And no, this is not fire elemental. -Demon Slice- Seifer again torces one opponent with a Fire spell then he spins, forming a tornado, sucks one target into the air and slices them repeatedly in mid air. Well, not a playable Limit Break, but it's his special attack when you fight him at the end of disc 2. His gunblade has the same greenish glow as his No Mercy skill so I guess it's his new Limit Break at that time. -Zantetsuken Reverse- It's sorta like Odin's attack except that there are 2 more characters after the 3 Kanji, spelling "Reverse". Not a playable Limit Break either, but it looks pretty cool. -Bloodfest- Seifer burns all targets with a Fire spell then leaps into the air and slashes with his gunblade in the shape of a cross. A flaming cross appears on the ground below his targets and it begins to sink, until it finally colapses. Something like that. Another non-playable Limit Break, Seifer uses this during the third time you encounter him inside the Lunatic Pandora. According to -Skrybe-, Gilgamesh will take down Seifer before he can take enough damage to use Bloodfest, so that's why Seifer could only use regular attacks during that fight. To see this attack, you've really have to beat up on Seifer and make it fast, which isn't a good idea since you'll be missing the opportunity on drawing Aura. (Thanks to –Skrybe- for the information.) ---Edea Kramer--- Thanks to Qualera for Edea's level 100 stats. Est. MAX HP 3777 5997 Str 61 135 Spd 31 Vit 20 94 Luck 15 Mag 55 129 Eva 2% Spr 45 121 Hit 97% Comments on stats: Nothin' to see here. Edea is no where near as good as Seifer and is even weaker than all normal party members, but who can blame her? She starts at such a high level of 26. Low HP, very low Vit and Spd but has ok Mag and Spr. The only interesting thing about Edea is her Str. It is the highest even though she's a magic user and uses no weapons. Limit Break: Sorcery Well, sorcery is everything to a sorceress, but Edea seems to be quite limited in her sorcery skills, at least in battle. I've only seen one sorcery skill. -Ice Strike- Edea gets angry and icicles start to materialize in thin air, then she directs them at the enemy. No this does not do ice elemental damage. It's not a bad attack though, but don't expect too much since it still does 1 hit and only targets one enemy. > Any others?? STEP-BY-STEP POWER-UP WALKTHROUGH ================================= This is my first time at writing a walkthrough so I may not be an expert in this department. Keep in mind that this is not an ordinary walkthrough that lets you play through the game "normally", but it's a special walkthrough containing all of the above contents and only relevant information for powering up (ie, you won't find any mini quests in here unless they're vital to your success.) In other words, if you found my above instructions a bit vague or you couldn't possibly imagine how on earth I can get through a length of the game gaining minimum levels. So here's how I did it. I am going to be a bit vague and won't tell you exactly what to do in certain sections since I'm assuming that you've played through the game once and is familiar with the puzzles and settings, although I am thinking of upgrading it to a more detailed walkthrough if it's requested. The walkthrough may also contain some spoilers. Some of the terms: > Junction Check! – All about what GFs, spells and commands to junction. > GF Check! – New GFs, or GF ability acquisition recommendations or just anything to do with GFs. Remember: Love your GFs! > Magic Check! – Any info on spells, whether it'd be drawn, refined, upgraded or whatever. > Card Check! – Anything that's got to do with cards, such as rare cards or refining cards. > NOTE! – Just some interesting or important stuff. DP – Draw Point SP – Save Point BOSS – A boss fight GF PROFILE – A summary of the GF and its abilities, an * next to a GF's name indicates that GF cannot be junctioned. ============================ Disc 1 ================================= Like all multiple disc RPGs, the first disc is always the longest and the most exciting, IMO. FFVIII's first disc will introduce all major characters and set the atmosphere for the rest of the game. It's also loaded with GFs, about half of all GFs can be goten in disc 1. In terms of cards, it has it's own share but it's only taste of what you can get later. Enjoy. ---It begins--- Watch the opening movie and if it's the second time you're playing through the game, you should be able to understand it. When you wake up, you can enter a new name for Squall (although I see nothing wrong with "Squall") and Dr. Kadowaki will call your teacher Miss Trepe. After a short scene you'll be in the hallway with Instructor Trepe. You know what to do so just walk and see how the pre-rendered background turns into an FMV! > GF Check! Quezacotl and Shiva are obtainable from your study panel. > NOTE! FeralNoa told me that if you didn't get the GFs yourself, Quistis will give them to you later during the tutorials. It's probably an addition to the US version of the game. GF PROFILE – QUEZACOTL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apparently Quezacotl has replaced Ramuh as the Thunder specialist in FFVIII, nevertheless he is still an excellent GF, especially for the fact that he is your first one! His attack Thunder Storm is one of the more useful ones since many enemies during the course of this game is weak against Thunder. Abilities like Card, Card Mod and Mid Mag-RF makes Quezacotl an ideal GF for the first half of the game and his rich Junction, Character Abilities and the summon itself makes him a perfect all-round GF. >> Best abilities: Card, Card Mod, Mid Mag-RF, T Mag-RF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – SHIVA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everyone's favourite FF chick is back but ain't better than ever. :-( Apparently the director wanted her to show a bit more flesh and stripped away her biniki in FFVII. Anyhow, her attack, Diamond Dust is stronger than ever and for once, she is not the second weakest summons in the game! Though not as many enemies are weak against Ice as against Quezacotl's Thunder, her summon attack is still her best asset. Ability-wise, Shiva is probably one of the boring ones as even her unique skill – Doom ain't all that great. This ice maiden's saving grace comes from those useful and plentiful Junction and Character Abilities which are valued greatly. Best abilities: None really, but Vit+40% and Spr+40% are quite good. > NOTE! – ALTERNATE SHIVA SUMMON ANIMATION! Every other GF has the same summoning animation but like in FFVII, Shiva has 2! It's not that big deal really, it's just whether she faces one way or the other. She usually faces left but occasionally, she will face the other direction. I've seen this twice and it's nice since you can get a closer look at her. :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before you meet Quistis you'll want to wonder around Balamb Garden a bit. You'll bump into a girl (who is later known as Selphie) in the hallway. If this is your first time through it then definitely show her around but otherwise do what you wish. > Card Check! Remember to speak to the guy in the 2F hallway, he'll give you 7 el cheapo cards. (Don't challenge anyone yet though, you won't stand a chance with those.. "cards".) > Magic Check! Draw Esuna from the DP in the library and the entrance for Cure. Now go to the Training Area (don't forget to Junction both GFs first) and draw (preferably) 100 Sleeps from a Grat, perhaps some Silence as well. (I'd get 100 of each.) Run away when you're done. (Don't worry, this part does not count in the test so you won't get points deducted.) If you're hurt you may want to rest in the dorms. Meet Quistis at the entrance and she'll teach you something about GFs. Pay attention if it's you're first time. ---Lava bath anyone?--- > Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl to Squall (Magic-J, put your 100 Sleep in it) and Shiva on Quistis (Spr-J, put Cure in it.) > GF Check! As for what abilities they should learn, Quezacotl should definitely choose "Card" while it doesn't matter all that much for Shiva, but "Boost" may come in handy sometime. If you wanna be more AP-efficient, have Shiva learn a more expensive ability first. > Magic Check! You need spells before challenging the Fire Cave. Encounter some Fastitocalons at the beach and draw lots of Blizzards and more Sleep if you want, also get some Scans as they're really useful when carding enemies. Run for it when you're done (you'll probably get points deducted but..) > Caterchipillers holds Cures (draw lots of them) and Thunders. > Draw some Fires as well if you want. Bite Bugs have them. Run from all of the above encounters since you don't want to gain any EXP. > Junction Check! Give Squall lots of Blizzards and junction 100 Cures into Quistis' Spirit. Put Magic, Draw and GF commands on Squall and Item, Draw and GF on Quistis. Save your game outside the Fire Cavern. Choose the 10 minutes option to give your points some boost. Ready? Run all the way to the centre of the cave, it should be really straightforward. Run away from the encounters as well. When you get to a lava pit, you'll encounter the boss. There should be about 8-9 minutes left on your clock so no worries. BOSS – Ifrit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He's really not that hard. Have Quistis summon Shiva repeatedly while Squall (with Sleep junctioned to his Magic) should cast Blizzard on Ifrit. You shouldn't have any problems. If either one of you guys needs curing have Squall draw Cure from the boss and cast on the character. If Squall's HP becomes low, let him execute Renzokuken. If Squall is unluckily enough to get killed, let Quistis revive him with a Phoenix Down, but you probably won't need to use it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This will be a quick fight. When you win, you'll gained Ifrit as your GF and you'll also get his card (your first rare card and a VERY good one, one of my personal favourites!) The timer has stopped so junction Ifrit to Squall and get the hell out of the place, and don't forget to run away from all encounters. GF PROFILE – IFRIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Despite the absence of Ramuh, the third member of the FF-Summon-Gang- Trio is here! Half man, half beast and ready to barbecue the enemies. Ifrit's summon attack, Hell Fire, packs a mean punch but just doesn't appeal to me as much as Shiva's, Quezacotl's or Doomtrain's since enemies weak against fire are rare. (I wonder why.) Ifrit's other abilities however, are a different story. Favouring strength, Ifrit can turn a character into a physical powerhouse with those Str and HP abilities and when combined with the right character (Zell is a good one) can absolutely ruin a boss' day! He's also the first GF that nets you the Elem-Atk ability which can mean extra damage against many enemies if you're careful. Also comes with him but somewhat hidden is the Ammo-RF ability crucial to Irvine's Limit Break, without it he'll be powerless! >> Best abilities: Ammo-RF, Str+40%, F mag-RF and Str Bonus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back in Balamb Garden, Quistis will leave you. However, you might want to head to Balamb town to purchase some spare Phoenix Downs. ---Dollet Me--- (As in "Doh ray me".. nevermind..) After a few scenes with Zell, Quistis and Seifer, drive the car to Balamb. Pay attention to Xu's briefing and view another pretty damn good FMV. > Junction Check! Put a GF on each guy. I junctioned Ifrit to Zell, Shiva to Squall and Quezacotl to Seifer. > GF Check! - Shiva: She should have learnt Boost if you assigned it earlier so the next most important skill of hers is Str-J. Otherwise let her learn Boost now. - Quezacotl: You should be halfway of acquiring the Card command. - Ifrit: Boost is perhaps the best option now. > Magic Check! Exchange Quistis' magic to Seifer. You may want to give him 100 Sleep to junction to his Magic. Save at the SP. There are about 5 fixed encounters here that you cannot run from, but you've got an Ace up your sleeve. Seifer! When you encounter the first bunch of soldiers, let Squall and Zell kill themselves off by drawing and casting spells on themselves. (You might want to draw some spells before you do so.) Let Seifer finish off the enemies (they're easy) when you're satisfied. > NOTE! Seifer is certainly a strange kid for 2 reasons. 1) He has really good starting stats and gains stats very fast as he levels up and 2) His Limit Break "No Mercy" can be executed EXTREMELY easily!! He has no trouble getting the triangle to show up even at FULL HEALTH! Too bad you can't get him as a permanent member. Anyway, what you wanna do here is to leave Squall and Zell alone and fight the battles with just Seifer. Since Seifer is the only active member in the team, you'd want to keep a close eye on his HP and since he can use his Limit so damn easily, you don't really have an excuse not to try to keep his HP as high as possible. After the 4 fixed battles with soldiers, random battles will start to show up. Fight these as OFTEN as you wish and as many as you want! As a matter of fact, it's a really good idea to fight many random battles here with Seifer since your GFs will grow with the AP/EXP (and more abilities will show up when their level rises.) Fighting here will also earn you points in the "Attack" category in your SeeD test scores, which translates into a high SeeD rank and more money. You might be tempted to remove all the GFs from Zell and Squall and junction them all to Seifer. I recommend you keep them where they are since they gain EXP quicker this way. > GF Check! You GFs will gain tons of AP here if you continue to fight, which means that they can master many abilities here. Here's some abilities that I think are quite important and should be learnt before everything else. - Quezacotl: His Card command should be ready, so let him learn the Card Mod ability which complements the former nicely. T Mag-RF is not bad either (and cheap) and will unlock the useful Mid Mag-RF. - Shiva: Pick up her Str-J and Vit-J first from her list of trashy abilities. Then either I Mag-RF or Vit+20%. - Ifrit: Um.. if you're after his Str Bonus ability just in case you levelled up then start from his Str+20% and +40% first (but they're good skills never the less.) Otherwise his HP-J and F Mag-RF are the way to go. > You may want to adjust these to be more AP-efficient. There's a boss worth 18AP coming up and an optional boss with a whopping 50AP! At the top of the stairs you'll have to fight an Anacondour. It has about 1400HP but isn't really all that hard. It has a strong attack though, can cause ~70 points of damage per hit. Keep Seifer's HP high and summon Shiva if you junctioned her to Seifer, or just use Blizzard. His Limit Break is easily usable but it still won't cause as much damage as Blizzard. You may want to turn it into a card (since Quezacotl's Card ability should be completed right about now) but it will give your GFs quite a bit of EXP when you kill it. If you want to build up your GFs, wonder around this area. You can encounter a double Anacondour here. They're tough but the 8AP and ~600EXP you gain for winning is worth it. Keep Seifer's HP high is mandatory since they are both quite fast and powerful. (I remember getting the Game Over screen fighting them when I was careless.) Pro tip – Go go Seifer! ============================================= |Seifer fans would probably know this already, but powering him up | |will also make you much more powerful at the beginning, and gives | |you a solid footing for a later quest. | | | |Since the enemies level up as you do, and their draw collection | |will improve, you can get a lot of good spells by powering Seifer | |up alone. Enemies gain their second level magic at level 20, while | |their final upgrade at level 30. However, things seems to work | |differently here, as the enemy's level is always lower than | |Seifer's. The enemies reaches level 20 when Seifer is at level 36, | |and reaches level 30 when Seifer is at level 60, so you are looking| |at a lengthy procedure if you're willing to try. | | | |However, by doing this, you can obtain Firagas, Blizzagas, Curagas | |Thundagas, Bios and Dispels from various enemies, hunt around for | |them. Definitely get 400 Curagas spread among 4 characters since | |they are the best junctions for quite a while. 200 of each of the | |rest is enough IMO, they are good in most junctions. You may also | |want to get some –ra level spells too. | | | |One thing to keep in mind is to spread out your GFs so they gain | |EXP quicker. By my calculations, your GFs will reach EXACTLY level | |100 when Seifer reaches level 60, and they will be your strongest | |set of GFs for the rest of the game! They will also be able to | |learn ALL their most important skills here, but you are looking at | |about 7-8 hours powering up in Dollet. For extra fun, equip Seifer | |with Str Bonus when Ifrit learns it, then laugh as his No Mercy | |does 9000+ damage to all the enemies. :) All those –ga spells will | |make drawing Demis from Diablos later a LOT easier! | ===================================================================== > GF Check! Before you go on to the next area, your GFs should be at least level 10 as they won't be able to gain any more EXP for quite a while. Shiva's Doom commands becomes available at level 10, and the same goes to Ifrit's Ammo-RF (crucial ability!) and Mad Rush (not so). Follow along the path to the Communication Tower. After the scene where Seifer runs away, you'll be introduced to Selphie by a cute FMV. Note that Squall and Zell are both revived with 1HP if you killed them earlier. Use a Cure on both of them. Don't take the shortcut (like Selphie did) or you'll get points deducted. Instead, walk along the paved road. Talk to Selphie and she'll join you. > Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl on Selphie, Shiva on Squall and Ifrit on Zell. Shiva should have gotten Str-J if you trained her. Junction whatever magic is best fit for the team. As for commands, here's what I had: Squall: Attack, Draw, Magic, Item Zell: Attack, Draw, Magic, GF Selphie: Attack, Draw, GF, Item > The Item command is crucial at this point of the game since Phoenix Downs are the only way to revive a KO'd member right now. > GF Check! The up coming boss holds 18AP, so adjust your abilities for it. > Magic Check! Selphie inherits all the spells Seifer had stocked so you don't have to worry about her being magic-less. There's also a DP for Blind inside the tower, it's not that important spell right now. Save at the SP and take the elevator up and meet Biggs. After an FMV that I'm sure you're all familiar with since it's detailed in the demo, you'll have to fight some bosses. BOSS – Biggs, Wedge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll be facing Biggs first. He's not very powerful. Take some time to draw his Esuna. Since only one character in your party has Mag-J, the other 2 will fail quite often. But since this boss is quite harmless, I usually try to stock up on as much Esunas as I can hold. After a bit, Wedge comes to help Biggs. He's even less of a threat as most of the time he will just stand there. You can call a GF to wipe out both of them in one shot when you've drawn enough spells since your GFs are of a high level. After you beat on them for a bit, they'll get swept away by a whirlwind and you'll be up against... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BOSS – Elvoret ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a continuation from the last battle. Elvoret is no joke. Every 3 rounds he'll use his Storm Breath attack, a wind elemental attack that does about 150 to all 3 members of your team, so keep your HP above 200. > GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw Siren from this boss. Elvoret has a nice spell to draw – Double! Again, I'd have all my characters draw Double from it and 200 of them would be my goal. Double is _slightly_ easier to draw compared to Esuna, or so it seemed. Your characters without Mag-J will still have some problems coping with it but Doubles are really useful in junctions so I think it's worth it. When one of your characters need healing, have a character without Mag-J draw Cure from Elvoret and cast. If all your characters need healing (ie, after Storm Breath) then let Selphie use her Full-Cure. If you're unfortunate enough to get KO'd, use a Phoenix Down. After a while, Selphie should have 100 Doubles stocked, so let her summon Quezacotl to raise their Compatibility. Keep an eye out on Quezacotl's HP though. If it gets too low, only summon it after Elvoret does his Storm Breath. The other 2 should keep on drawing Doubles from the boss. You may also wanna play around with Selphie's Slots and try to learn her unique magic. Try casting Aura from her Slots on herself then use it again, you'll notice that the selection of spells has been significantly improved. Combining that and the Slot trick, I learnt all her Slot magic in this fight. :) You'll be able to beat it after summoning Quezacotl about 5 times. For all your trouble, you'll get to pick up a bootie full of free goodies like Elixirs. As if it weren't enough, you've gotten a full supply of good spells and a new GF. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Junction Check! Junction Siren to Squall and junction 100 Doubles into his Magic (steal Doubles from Zell if you haven't got enough) Junction 100 Doubles to Selphie's Magic as well. Don't change your commands. Junction 100 Thunders to Zell's Elem-Atk if you wish. > GF Check! Quezacotl: He should've gotten Card Mod already. Any Menu Abilities should do now. If you've been training hard and have gotten all his Menu Abilities, get his Junction Abilities. Shiva: Get Vit+20% then Spr+20%. Ifrit: Get his Str+??% abilities. Siren: Definitely Move-Find first. GF PROFILE – SIREN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Drooling all over Shiva yet? Well, that girl's got some tough competition comin' up 'cuz here comes Siren! Although looking somewhat indecent (have you seen those Siren action figures?) but she's kinda unique in that she has these cute wings on her head. (Hey, looks like Morrigan!) Playing the part of a maiden by the sea who takes the lives of unsuspecting sailors (sounds like Baywatch), Siren's attack Silent Voice can instantly mute all enemies while inflicting a fair amount of damage at the same time. Although the damage done is nothing to praise about, it is non-elemental meaning it's a safe one to use against enemies who are strong against everything. The Silence effect is also neat against enemies who likes to cast spells, mainly human troops, although many of the more powerful enemies are immune to it. Ability-wise, Siren is a rich goldmine. The Treatment command may seem a bit dull at first but it can save your butt many times when fighting against Malboros, since it's not hindered by the Silence status. (It's also the only way I know of curing Doom.) Siren's the first GF who gives you the advantage of blocking a status too, as well as returning one with ST- Atk and ST-Def. Those Magic abilities are perfect for magic users like Selphie and she has THREE distinct Menu Abilities, making her a versatile one. Finally, her Move-Find skill will review all those hidden Draw Points and Save Points! (In the field maps only though.) Phew, what a mouth full! >>Best abilities: Treatment, Mag Bonus, L Mag-RF, ST Med-RF, Tool-RF and Move-Find ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You now have 30 minutes to get to the shore so run like hell!!! OPTIONAL BOSS – X-ATM092 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an optional boss where you can choose whether to fight it or not. Killing it will result in 100 bonus points and loads of AP but I think you're NOT supposed to kill it. It's your choice whether you wanna take it down. Yes you are under a time limit of 30 minutes but it should be enough to take it down without much problems. If it's your first time through the game then I don't recommend it, but if you've played through the game and wants revenge, this is the way to go (may be..) FIRST ENCOUNTER You'll first encounter the X-ATM092 at the entrance of the tower, and it's a mandatory battle. You cannot however, defeat it in this fight. Even if you deplete its HP to zero, it will be refilled and believe me I learnt it the hard way! So all you can do is to do about 1500 damage and it'll collapse. Just cast Thunders and summon Quezacotl with Selphie. Run when it gets down. SECOND ENCOUNTER This is the time to defeat it if you wish. Since you will not run into any random encounters during the chase, it's better to fight it as late as possible. > Note! To get through the part where the ground shakes and you can't move, simple WALK instead of RUN, as the robot will shock you with electricity if you run. Thanks to Linda Villanueva for the much needed info! Selphie should summon Quezacotl non-stop and since she's summon it many times during the fight with Elvoret, they should have good Compatibility. Use Boost to get the fullest effect, especially if you have a turbo controller. It can do 1300+ if you manage to get 130 or so with Boost. Zell and Squall should have fairly low HP (don't heal them during the fight) and execute their Limit Breaks every round. They should both have spells junctioned to their Str too. For some strange reason, Squall's Renzukoken will always be 4 hits versus the X-ATM092. Zell should use mainly his Punch Rush and Booya, and maybe Mach Kick. (It should do more damage than Squall's even for the 4 second time interval!) If Squall/Zell gets KO'd, revive them with a Phoenix Down and keep going. It'll eventually explode. This fight can take about 10-15 minutes but there's plenty of time left. You'll get the whoppin' 50AP that I just couldn't shut up about. I heard that the X-ATM092 will leave a good random item when it destructs but I've beaten it twice and all I got was a cheap Orichalcon both times. (Why couldn't it have been the upgraded version like an Adamantine? Oh well, at least I got my 50AP!) > NOTE! Happy Matt informed me that you may not necessarily need to KILL the X-ATM092 to earn the 50AP. He said that he gave up have way through the fight and got the 50AP so it maybe possible to earn the AP simply by causing enough damage to it. BTW, you WILL run into random fights with the X-ATM092 out of the way. Just run from them all (points deducted.) A strange thing happened when I was against a soldier, the game wouldn't let me run so I had to take him down. If you decided not to beat it, then just run away from it and use the same strategy as the first fight to take it down temporarily and run for it. Of course, there's a huge advantage in NOT killing off the boss, and that is you'll be treated to a nifty FMV (my personal favourite) where the team runs from the "Black Widow" and the foxy Quistis shoots down the robot with big guns. (Gosh, she can take on Lara Croft AND Jill Valentine both at the same time with THAT!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ X-AMT092 AP TRICK! ================================================== |Thanks to Eekeric@aol.com for this trick. | | | |It is true that you only need to do a certain amount of damage to | |earn the 50AP. Here's what Eekeric@aol.com sent in: | | | |"Well, to make it blow up, you have to take away it's full HP 4 | |times in one battle, right? And once you take away its full HP, it | |just says "it's repairing itself" and it's automatically repaired | |to full health. When you damage its full HP, then the game thinks | |you beat it, so you will be awarded 50 AP after the battle. After | |that, you just have to knock it down (above something like above | |1200, below max AP) and run, and you get the AP then you can | |repeat it..... probably 15 times if Quezacotl is at a really high | |level." | | | |Whatever that's supposed to mean. I haven't tried this out yet but | |it sounds quite promising. Anyone wanna give it a try? (I edited it| |a little, hope you don't mind.) | | | |Note that the rest of the guide had been written as if the Seifer | |quest and X-ATM092 tricks has been omitted, so the GF abilities, | |magic or strategy may seem a bit premitive. Just use your own | |judgement. As a side note on how much the GFs have advanced, Shiva,| |Ifrit and Quezacotl are all at level 100 with all skills mastered. | |Siren is still at level 9 with Move-Find, all Mag abilities and a | |few Menu Abilities learned. If there's enough requests, I'd update | |my guide, ability lists and strategies to suit all these optional | |power optional quests. | ===================================================================== Once you arrive back in Balamb, just head back to the Garden if you don't have anything to do. Stay at the hotel if you wish. After a few story scenes, you should get your SeeD report. You should get something like a 7 if you followed my steps. Don't forget to talk to Cid again for the Battle Report. ---Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?--- (I hope that's correct..) Congrats congrats, now you're a SeeD members. Get changed (noticed how he got changed with the doors OPEN while Selphie is just standing outside?!) and talk to Selphie when you're done. You'll be treated to a couple of bootieful dance FMVs with an unknown girl. Quistis then comes along and wants you meet her in the secret area in the Training Area. Get changed again (I don't see the point) before you go you should junction both Squall and Quistis properly. > Junction Check! Junction 2 GFs on each character, I had Squall with Ifrit and Siren while Quistis got Quezacotl and Shiva. Junction the 200 Doubles that you've worked so hard for in each character's Magic. Junction Blizzard to Ele-Atk if you wish and Junction Sleep to Squall's ST-Atk. Finally, the commands should look something like: Squall: Attack, Draw, GF, Magic Quistis: Attack, Draw, GF, Card > Substitute in Item instead of GF for Squall if you wanna play safe just in case Quistis dies. > Magic Check! Trade someone's magic to Quistis and trade the Blind spells to Squall. > GF Check! Your GFs should have learnt some decent expensive abilities if you took down the X-ATM092. - Quezacotl: Card Mod should be complete now. Learn T Mag-RF then Mid Mag-RF if you haven't done so. - Shiva: Vit+20% and Spr+20% followed by the +40%s. - Ifrit: Str+20% and +40%. - Siren: She should have gotten Move-Find already. Learn Boost then either all her Menu Abilities (L Mag-RF is great!) or her Mag+20%. > Card Check! So you have gotten Card Mod, it's time to get some new Blue Magic for Quistis. You can get 3 decent skills just by modding some of the crap cards you were given at the start of the game. Caterchipiller -> Spider Web -> Ultra Wave Gesper -> Black Hole -> Degenerator Gayla -> Mystery Fluid -> Acid If you've played some card games already and manage to win, you might have more cards that can be turned into Quistis' new skills. Save your game in Squall's room. Head to the Training Area and Quistis will be waiting for you. She'll teach you something about Status Attack. Enter the Training Area and prepare for a fight. If you encounter Grats, have Squall weaken them and have Quistis turn them into a card. If you encounter a T-Rexaur, try putting it to sleep by attacking it with Sleep Junctioned to ST-Atk. If it doesn't work, have Squall cast Blind on it. You can Scan it if you want, it should have about 13000HP. Summon Shiva with Quistis and another GF or cast Blizzard using Squall. When you've done about 8000+ damage, you can card it with Quistis. You'll get a nice 10AP for your effort, which is worth it IMO. You may want to stay here for a bit to build up your GFs. BOSS – Granaldo and Raldo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll have to fight 3 Raldos and a Granaldo to save a girl. This is an easy battle since they can't really do much damage, maybe about 30 points max. Draw Protects from the Raldos as they act as decent spells for Vitality, and cast them on your team if you want. When your Limit Break comes up (will be quite a while since their attacks are weak!) eliminate them in one hit with Squall's Renzokuken and Quistis' Laser Eye or Ultra Vibration. I usually get 100 Protects for either member. When you finished with Protects, Granaldo holds Shells which is nice for your Spirit. I usually get another 100 each, but if you don't want to then don't worry too much as it's not the best spell in the game and it can be refine really easily later. Draw some Blinds too, they're not good for junctions at all but are useful against many enemies who uses physical attacks, like T-Rexaurs. Finish them off with your Limits once you're satisfied, or if you're no where near critical HP, summon your high level GFs to kill them in one hit (Ifrit works well.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now return to the dorms or fight here some more if you like. ---Whoohoo, our first mission!--- The next day you'll be awaken by Selphie. Head to the entrance and receive the instructions for you first mission from Cid: aid the Forest Owls in Timber. > NOTE! Before you go, talk to Cid and he'll give you a Magic Lamp. Do not forget this as it's vital for another GF. > GF Check! Cid's Magic Lamp can summon the demon Diablos. You can acquire this GF from now on by using the Lamp. I'd recommend you do it straight away but do junction yourselves properly first. > Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl to Selphie, Ifrit to Zell and the ladies (Shiva and Siren) to Squall. Junction 100 Doubles to Squall and Selphie's Magic, and elementary spells to Strength. If you have acquired Vit/Spr-J, junction Protect and Shell, respectively, to those attributes. As for commands, put Draw on all members and Item on at least two members as it's still the only way of reviving an ally. You'll want the Magic command too. > GF Check! You should continue with my recommendations given above, since they're quite expensive (ie, Str+40% takes 120AP!) > Magic Check! Give Blind to the character who has the Magic command and has Mag-J. BOSS – Diablos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everyone fears this boss, I wonder why. He loves to cast Demi which takes off a quarter of one member's HP, but he also has Gravija, the upgraded version where it takes off 75% of all member's current HP! Then he has a rush attack which is deadly after Gravija. Since gravity elemental spells can never kill you, try casting Blind on Diablos so his rush attack will miss most of the time. You should do it until it works, which can take a few tried at times (junction spells to your Mag will increase the likelihood of the success rates.) Now he's almost harmless. His gravity spells can reduce your HP to 1 but afterwards, all attempts will do 0 damage! Draw Demi from him. It's a very advanced spell at this point of the game so you'll expect to fail most of the time. However, it's worth the effort to stock up on 200 of them as they're the best spells you can junction to Magic for quite a while. Squall and Selphie can expect to draw about 1-5 Demi with Double junctioned while Zell will be next to useless. It doesn't take THAT long to stock 200 Demi BTW. You'll be able to use your Limits often but don't do it or you'll kill him easily. (You'd want to draw spells right?) Tune up the battle speed in the Config menu to make the fight go faster, and if you can, try your hands on Selphie's Slots. If you can get Haste that'd be great! When you're satisfied with your stock load, unleash your Limit Breaks and Diablos will go down in no time. If you've done the Seifer quest earlier and/or the X-ATM092 AP snatch quest, you should be able to get a very good Mag level right about now, and equip Mag+??% from Quezacotl and Siren. You should now be able to draw 9 Demis every round! Then just play around with Selphie's Slots as Diablos can't hurt you. Try to learn her unique Slot magic in this fight if you haven't yet. ALTERNATE STRATEGY Ken Ho wrote in requested that I should list an alternate Diablos strategy since he said mine didn't work. Anyway, he said you should draw Demi from him and cast it back to him, then he will counter with Curaga. Oh well, this strategy is here to anyone who wants an alternate strategy. (Just don't forget to draw Demi from him!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll get another rare card afterwards and Diablos as your very own GF! GF PROFILE – DIABLOS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A demon living in another dimension, Diablos is full of mysterious powers. Controlling the powerful elements of time and space, Diablos uses the forgotten potential of gravity as its weapon, and the tool that aids his attacks is no other than the enemies' natural bodies. Diablos' summoning attack, Dark Messenger is of a gravity type attack BUT, like FFT, it does damage according to the target's MAXIMUM HP (not current) so it's possible to kill an enemy with it. Also, the proportion of HP Diablos can remove is also dependant on his level, so when you first get him, he'd be very weak but he can later remove a much higher portion of an enemy's HP. I think this summon is not that worth it though, as it takes ages to animate (strange huh?) but has no Boost function. Use Demi or Quistis' Micro Missile instead. It's still one of the best looking summons in the game though. He also some of the most useful (although extremely expensive) skills so gaining him as early as possible is recommended. Diablos is the first GF to give you the advantage of equipping up to 3 Character/Party Abilities with Abilityx3. His Mug skill, although extremely expensive, will allow you to steal a foe's private possessions for rare items that aids weapon customizing or spell refinery. Enc-Half and Enc-None eliminates the annoyance of random encounters which is very important to this guide and of course, who can forget his Menu Abilities that lets you refine really good spells like Demi, Meltdown and Triple. >>Best abilities: Abilityx3, HP+80%, Mug, Enc-Half/Enc-None, ST Mag- RF and Time Mag-RF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now return to Garden and heal up, or use Selphie's Full Cure. > Junction Check! Junction Diablos to Zell. Junction your Demis that you just drew from Diablos to Magic, it should increase it by about 40! Otherwise, use 100 Doubles. > GF Check! - Quezacotl: His Mid Mag-RF should be (or close to) completed. Learn HP-J if so. - Shiva: Vit+40% and Spr+40% - Ifrit: Either Str Bonus or F Mag-RF (Str Bonus is not so crucial right now but make sure you learn it as it's useful later) - Siren: Mag+40% - Diablos: Mug or Enc-Half. If you're confident with carding enemies then choose Mug, if not get Enc-Half and Enc-None. Just note that Mug is extremely expensive. (I'd get Mug.) > Card Check! At this point in the game, you should have gotten a few good cards (Ifrit and Diablos) so I'd recommend you take some time off for some major card battles if you like Triple Triad at this time since it's goin' to be a long time before you see Balamb again. You may have gotten a T-Rexaur card from the Training Centre and you should return to the Fire Cave and get a Bomb card, since they're quite powerful. (They helped me win countless early card battles.) > Challenge the Queen of Cards first. She should be a joke since she uses level 1-3 cards. This is to modify the trade rule from One to Diff. If you can get it to All that's be great but it's risky since you can end up with the terrible Direct rule. (It completely screwed up my Galbadia card games when I did it by accident!) If you do get it to "All" though, then contrats and play a LOT of card games and it'll eventually become a PERMANENT trade rule! (Could help when you're playing against the CC members in dsc 2.) > Zell's mom is cool since she has Zell's card. Win it off her and it'll be one of your best cards that you can use all the way until the end of the game. (It's one of the "Top 3 cards" on my list.) > The lil' kid in blue running around the lobby of Balamb Garden has the MiniMog's card, which is crucial for the Queen of Cards quest. > You can win Quistis' card from any one of the Trepe Groupies (except me of course) however, keep in mind that it's a RARE card and it's SHARED between those 3 members so don't think you can get 3 of them! Trepe Groupie #1 (guy in the Cafθ) seems to use it the most. > Challenge Headmaster Cid NOW for Seifer's card. You can do it later in disc 3 but you'll be stuck with the horrible Centra rule so win it off him now. It's THE best card in the whole game. > Try to fill up most of the slots if you can. I was able to fill up all of my level 1-5 cards except for Pupu's. If you want a lot of really powerful LV5 cards, and very useful ones (Malboro, Chimera, Ruby Dragon, Behemoth, Elnoyle) then turn to Trepe Groupie #2. Combine it with the All rule, it'll shoot your card collection up fast so you can mod them into awesome stuff. > You can convert most of them into nifty items, and of course, ones that allow Quistis to learn new moves. Here is all the possible ways to get new Blue Magic from cards. You maybe not be able to do some of them now but keep these in mind in future card battles: Fastitocalon -> Water Crystal -> Aqua Breath Creeps -> Corel Fragment -> Electrocute Tri-Face -> Curse Spike -> LV? Death SAM08G -> Running Fire -> Gatling Gun 4 Malboro -> Malboro Tentacle -> Bad Breath 5 Fastitocalon-F -> Water Crystal -> Aqua Breath 10 Behemoth -> Barrier -> Mighty Guard 10 Ruby Dragon -> Inferno Fang -> Fire Breath > Try to win an Elastoid card and change it into a Steel Pipe. Get some Screws with Geezard's card and modify Squall's Revolver to a Shear Trigger so you can learn his Fated Circle finisher. > Those who are keen on the Queen of Cards quest can (and should) start now. Deliberately loose the MiniMog card to her and try to get her to go to Dollet. If she chooses Galbadia, reset and try again. > You CAN'T start the CC quest now so don't bother. When you're read to move on, take a train from Balamb Station, it'll cost 3000 Gil. (Don't you think the Garden should have provided you with the ticket instead letting you buy your own? If so, I want a pay rise!) Inside the train, you'll see some sequence with Selphie and Zell. Then all of your guys falls over and enters the dream world. Spooky! ---I know where it's at--- You'll take the role of Laguna's team in this sequence. Squall is Laguna, Zell is Kiros and Selphie is Ward. The team gets lost in the woods so follow the path. You can encounter Funguars and Geezards here but it's not worth the effort to card them, as the former keeps putting you to sleep while the latter gets killed in one hit. They don't give you enough AP either. So just run from them if you want. If you do want to card them, leave the Geezards alone, they're just way too weak. Attack the Funguars with Ward (Selphie, who has no Str-J.) > Magic Check! There are 2 DPs here, Cure and Water. The latter is a pretty decent spell that you can cast all you want without having to worry about stock, since they can be refined easily. (But don't waste them though.) As you approach a car, the gang hops in and drives to Deling City in Galbadia. Enter the hotel and watch some lengthy story and somewhat cheesy sequence. ---Owls + Trains = Timber Resistance Group--- Once in Timber, choose the right password (something about the Owls.) I've heard that if you choose a wrong one you get to see a funny sequence and it doesn't lower your rank! When you're inside the train, go get Rinoa at the end of the hall. > Card Check! Challenge Watts here if you want Angelo's card. You can get it later though, but much later so I'd recommend you do it now. Pay attention to the mission outline. It sounds really complicated if it's the first time you're playing, I remember I was completely stunned the first time, but it's actually rather simple. Remember to save your game before starting the mission. The first test is the sounds/temperature censor guards, you're suppose to remain still for the former and keep moving for the latter. However, I was the other side of the screen in my first game before I even noticed that those guards (and the same in my third game) so just run and you won't have any problems. Then you have to enter 3 pass codes, get back up after 2 of them. Then you have to enter 5 codes without the help of Selphie and Zell. This is still easy as you can still enter 2 codes at a time without having to worry too much about the guards. Do keep an eye on them though (R2.) If you complete the mission without making mistakes, your SeeD level will be raised by 1. I think it will also drop if you get discovered. You'll have to confront the President now, so junction properly. > Junction Check! Junction Diablos and Ifrit to Zell, Shiva and Siren to Squall and Quezacotl to Selphie. Basically, just Junction whatever you had previously. For some reason, the GFs from both Zell and Selphie are removed. As for ST-Def, Silence would be idea. You should have gotten some Character Abilities like Mag+20% or Str+20% so equip those. As for commands, here's what I had: Squall: Attack, Draw, Magic, GF Zell: Attack, Draw, GF, Item Selphie: Attack, Draw, Magic, Item > GF Check! You should have the same thing as above. Talk to Rinoa when you're ready. BOSS – Fake President ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Not much of a boss here and not much to draw from. If you don't have enough Cure spells draw some from him. It only takes a few hits to take him down.. then he melts (ala Parasite Eve) an turns into... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BOSS – Gerogero ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Again, he's no joke and can seriously ruin your day if you're careless. He has a powerful claw swipe that does about 200 damage to a member, and breath attack that does 150 damage plus status and the rest of the time, he casts annoying status spells like Berserk, Silence etc.. He does have some decent spells to draw from, but nothing to die for. Pick up on some Esunas if you don't feel that you have enough (although they're really common later on) and more Doubles if you wish. He also holds 2 new spells – Berserk and Zombie. I'd say you get some Berserks even though they're useless on their own and crappy for junctions, but they can be very useful VERY late in the game (although you might as well refine them later if you're lazy.) Zombie on the other hand, is completely useless. It's a fair junction for HP and Str at this point of the game but wears off very soon. I've never had to use Zombie EVER! Anyway, Zombies don't hurt if you have a way to make them useful. Anyway, if your HP gets too low, cast Cure. If you get inflicted by Slow, Silence or Berserk, have another member draw Esuna from the boss and cast it. Darkness don't matter and Curse is harmless when you're only drawing your spells. Use Selphie's Full Cure occasionally too, as it cures all status and restores HP. If you manage to find her Wall spell, give it a try. When you're satisfied with your spells, unleash your Limit Breaks (you have to get rid of Curse in order to do so) and nail him flat on the ground. You can also use recovery spells/items on him to damage him, as he's an undead. (I'm not sure if a Phoenix Down works, but I'd rather not waste a perfectly good Phoenix Down on an easy boss like him.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the fight, Rinoa and her team will have a strategy meeting and after some discussion, they decide to take over the TV station in Timber. Watts will lead you out of the train if you talk to him. When you have the freedom to explore the town, keep in mind that there are random encounters around town at this point of the game, so run if you encounter them. > Junction Check! If you've gotten some Zombies, accumulate them together and junction it to someone's Str or HP. If not just keep whatever you had before, or just use Auto Junction. > GF Check! - Quezacotl: HP-J and Vit-J. - Shiva: Vit+40%, Spr+40% and the rest don't really matter - Ifrit: Str Bonus - Siren: Mag+40% - Diablos: What you chose earlier > Magic Check! Since you've probably have gotten Mid Mag-RF, turn all your low level Fires, Blizzards, Thunders and Cures into –ra level spells. It will take some time to accumulate 100 of each though, since they're upgraded with the ratio 5:1. If you want, you can refine more spells of those types with I Mag-RF or the other Menu Abilities, or draw some more from the enemy soldiers around here. If you do get 100 of the –ra spells, junction them to Str. > There are a few DPs around here too. The room to the left in the Timber Maniacs building hides a Blizzaga DP, the DP in front of the pub is Cure and the one in the back ally is Scan. > NOTE! Ed Asano came up with this really nice idea, modifying M Stone-Pieces into simple spells and upgrading them to –ra levels. This helps a lot as it solves the problem of having to draw from the soldiers and free up your inventory. (2 birds with 1 M Stone-Piece he said, :) I'm sure you all have many M Stone-Pieces tucked away in your item list and you can get more by refining useless cards like Bite Bug and Funguar. > Card Check! If you're lookin' for someone to rip off, try the little kid on the bridge. He has some of the crappiest cards so you'll be at an easy win! Be aware of the Same rule though! > This may not be a card now but be sure NOT to missed the kinky Girl Next Door porno mag, it's behind the pile of magazines in the hallway of the Timber maniacs building. It can be traded for a rare card (Shiva) way into the game! Have a look around town if you like. You cannot stay at the inn yet, since it's cramped by Galbadia soldiers and you cannot leave town. If you need healing, go to the old man's house by the bridge and drink some water from the faucet. To carry on with the story, simple go down the steps that leads to the pub. You'll meet up with 2 Galbadian soldiers and they attack. You cannot run from this battle and they cannot be turned into a card. The best way I found is to let Squall and Selphie/Zell kill themselves and let Rinoa take the EXP alone. You'll get a Buel card for winning. Enter the pub and talk to the drunk. Show him the card and he lets you keep it as well as giving you another (Tonberry I think.) Then he lets you out of the back door. Run up the stairs to the giant TV and another interesting story scene will take place. Rinoa runs away after the response (or the lack of it) from Squall and who ever you left in the train will join you. Don't bother exchanging junctions here since you don't have to fight for a while. Run across the bridge to the TV Station after Quistis appears on screen. After a bit of story sequence, Rinoa comes back but goes off again, followed by Quistis and your team. Just run down the stairs where you came from. Squall decides to take Rinoa with him as their base got destroyed. When you get to the bar, the pub owner's wife tells you to hide at her house. Talk around a bit and when you can finally leave, Quistis says to go to the nearest garden for help – Galbadia Garden! When you leave, the woman that invited you to her house will give you some free items like Potions and Remedies! Talk to both Watts and Zone, and Zone will get you free tickets for the last train to East Academy. Get on the train. ---Things to do #1--- I usually take a break away from the story at this point of the game and go to Dollet. > Card Check! You can win Siren's card here with the guy on the second floor in the pub. If you win, he'll show you to his private room and also gives you a bunch of cards. Also, be sure to examine the pile of magazines near the entrance. Most of the time you'll find nothing of interest or expired coupons, but occasionally you can find free items here! You can get Potions, Phoenix Down, Softs, Antidotes, Geezard Cards and a copy of Occult Fan II here! However, when you get about 3 times, you need to get out of the room and come back in to reset it to get more items. > If you lost the MiniMog card to the Queen of Cards in Balamb, she should be here. Talk to her about her father and she'll tell you that Kiros' card has been made. You can win the MiniMog card back from her son in the old painter's home. > If you're having trouble with card games here, try introducing the Open rule (easy) and abolishing the Random rule (not so easy) by making trips between Dollet and Timber. It is extremely important that you do not screw up the rules in Dollet as it's an extremely important city when cards are concerned. I was able to modify Dollet's rule to my favourite "just Open" games. :) Also, I always take a lot of time out here to build up my GFs by carding the enemies. In the forest west of Dollet, you can find encounters with an Anacondour, a Funguar and a Wendigo with a total of 7AP. In the forests near lake Obel you can fight double Anacondours (8AP) and Ochus (7AP). If you meet up with 3 Funguars then it's not really worth fighting them. Thrustaevis are okay as they give you 3AP each. If you meet Geezards then do what you wish. They drop Screws and their cards can be refined into Screws so you may want to fight some of them. Don't junction magic to Selphie's Str and hit them once should be enough to card them. > NOTE! Ed Asano said you can steal Whispers from Adamantoise from the coast near Dollet but I've never tried it. You should try it as Whispers are great as they let Quistis learn her useful White Wind. Also, if you can get some spare Whispers, turn them into Curagas with Siren's L Mag-RF, which is a great junction for HP or Vitality right now. In the mean time, carding the Fastitolacons near the beach will give you good AP as they comes in 3s and gives up 3AP each. Learning Mug and other expensive Diablos abilities is a piece of cake right now. Thanks to "nofear33" for this. > Magic Check! The Thrustaevis holds Floats. Get a bit of them (not necessarily 100) as they're useful later. I can't remember whether they're good for junctions at this point. > Also, you can refine lots of Aeros from the Shear Feathers you won with the T Mag-RF from the Thrustaevis, they're good for Str for a while, but they're also fairly decent spells to cast and for Elem-Atk junction. > Make sure that you've stocked up on some (refined) Breaks if you want to make the next section a bit easier. > GF Check! This is what I had after some hardcore training. Maybe it's a bit too high though. - Quezacotl: Complete the –J abilities and onto Mag+20% and +40% - Shiva: Complete both Vit+40% and Spr+40%, the rest of her abilities don't matter too much in which way you learn them, since they're not too good. I usually get Elem-Def and Elem-Defx2 first - Ifrit: Complete Str Bonus and HP-J. Then Ammo-RF would be good. - Siren: Complete Mag Bonus and then get all her Menu Abilities, if you haven't gotten them get - Diablos: I always try to complete the ability I chose earlier. If you chose Mug then it's quite a long way you need to go, but it doesn't matter too much if you haven't gotten it yet. (I wanted to steal Laser Cannons from the Elastoids in Laguna's second scenario, but it didn't work!) When you're ready to move on, go to the forest near Galbadia Garden. BTW, don't forget to trade the junctions of whoever you were using to Selphie and Quistis. > More Magic Check! Souma told me about ways to get some cool new spells at this point of the game since I was a bit too lazy to explore the world at this point. Anyway, here it goes. "Firstly, when you first leave Timber, there is a good place to go for some spells. If you head over to the mountains between Timber and Winhill, there is an alcove or a canyon of sorts (Shenand Hill). In there you can fight Vysage and win something like Shell, Protect, Haste, Esuna and a couple of others. Might be worth your time to check that out." A note on that is that Vysages cannot be carded, so make sure you don't harm it and run away after drawing your load of magic. EX TIP – Getting Lion Heart in Disc 1! ============================== |Thanks to XP39C@aol.com for this trick. | | | |Ok, this is no joke, as it acquires serious patience and it's very | |time consuming. Anyway, you can get Adamantines from refining the | |Minotaur card, and the 12 Pulse Ammos by refining 20 Elnoyle cards | |into 2 Energy Crystals, then use Ammo-RF. As for the Dragon Fangs, | |you can get them from low level Grendels (don't mug) in the forest | |near Timber or Galbadia Garden. | | | |The "sacrificed" Minotaur card can be gotten back in disc 4, but | |the 20 Elnoyle cards can drive a gamer insane. If you wanna try, | |make sure you get them back in Balamb, since the people in Timber | |tend to have really low powered cards. | | | |The alternate strategy would be "Getting Lion Heart in Disc 2" | |which is much easier. In FH, you can steal the Adamantine from the | |robot while you'll only need 10 Elnoyle cards since you can get 5 | |free Pulse Ammo by doing Irvine's quest. The choice is yours. :) | ===================================================================== ---I know where it's at part 2--- Deja vu! You guys stumbled while inside the forest and woke up in their alternate lives, well, kind of. After Laguna gets lost again, follow the path down to some metal walkways. Before you progress any further, check your junctions as SPs are kinda hard to find in here. Meet your identity crisis. Squall is Laguna and will always be in these "dream scenarios", Quistis is Ward and Selphie is Kiros in this scene. > Junction Check! Uh.. Junction whatever GFs to whoever you like but I recommend giving Selphie/Kiros all the important ones with good junction abilities, Quezacotl, Shiva and Diablos is a good combination. Remove any spells from Laguna's and Ward's HP-J so they can be killed easier. As for commands, give Kiros Attack, Card, Magic and either Draw or GF. > Magic Check! Not much here really but give Kiros all your important ones. You should have at least 100 of each of the –ra spells by now, they're pretty good for Strength. Note there's a DP here with Sleep but even Funguars have that spell at your pleasure so it's not as crucial. > GF Check! You should have gotten some awesome expensive abilities after those intensive training right? If you haven't then now is NOT the place and time to do it. Anyway, your first 3 GFs should have learnt most if not all their crucial abilities, if you haven't, here's the list of their good skills: - Quezacotl: Boost, Card, Card Mod, T Mag-RF, Mid Mag-RF, HP-J, Vit-J, Mag+20%/40% - Shiva: Boost, I Mag-RF, Str-J, Vit-J, Vit+20%/40%, Spr+20%/40% - Ifrit: Boost, F Mag-RF, Ammo-RF, HP-J, Str+20%/40%, HP Bonus The rest of their skills don't matter, IMO. Your other GFs will be a bit behind at the moment: - Siren: All her Menu Abilities, then ST-Defx2 - Diablos: Have you gotten what you wanted yet? Then either what you didn't choose or some of his really cool Menu Abilities like ST Mag-RF where you can get spells like Break and Meltdown easily, or Time Mag-RF where you can get lotsa Demis. Try to cross the metal walkway bridge and you'll be attacked by 2 groups of soldiers. They're easy, but don't get dozy or you'll kill them off by accident. Have Laguna and Ward kill themselves and just summon or use regular attacks by Kiros to get rid of the enemies. > NOTE!!! If you've refined Break spells, cast them on the soldiers (don't junction it to ST-Atk) and it'll get rid of them in one hit and you won't gain ant EXP. The best point is that you won't have to kill your own guys. After 2 battles you'll once again take control of Laguna's team. There should be 2 paths forming a Y-shaped junction in the walkway. I suggest that you take the left one as it's more convenient in doing the mini-quests here. And yes they are optional, however, Zell and team will come back here later in disc 3 (this place is actually the Lunatic Pandora before it was excavated!) and will be able to access certain parts of the structure if you've triggered certain "traps" while playing as Laguna. It is rather important that you do not miss this opportunity the areas it later unlocks contains some of the coolest goodies in the game, such as a rare Ultima DP and Quistis' Ray-Bomb. There is also another reason to trigger the traps, as the more traps you set, the lesser streams of enemies you'll have to face at the end of the scenario, which is important here and you don't want to gain any experience. > Magic Check! Don't miss the Confuse DP to the right side Climb the ladder down and press the X button when you walked over to the space on the ground where you hear a "clink" noise, it's an old key. You'll see some funny scenes but I'm not sure if it's gonna affect future events. You can run into random encounters in the following locations. If you have acquired Enc-None, equip it for a better time navigating the area, if not, you'll just have to run most of the time as most enemies you encounter here are soldiers that cannot be turned into a card. In the next section, walk across the middle metal plank thing and you should hear another "clink". Examine it and choose to "tamper with it" and exit the screen to the right. But before you do anything, re- enter that screen and try to tamper with the right hatch, it doesn't do anything now though. The next screen has another key that Laguna can pick up (and loose it again) but I'm not sure if it affects anything. Take the exit to the right though, you'll end up at a walkway that looks kinda like a sewer system. Climb the ladder and you'll end up at the right path in the Y-junction (the one you didn't take.) Go all the way back to the 3 hatches and examine the left one, then retrace your steps to the other end where you found the second key. Take the upper path this time and you can see a large boulder to the left. There are another 2 paths in this screen but the one to the right don't seem to be very useful so you don't have to be bothered with it. Head left to the next screen where you see another boulder and a detonator. Activate the detonator but you MUST clear the boulder in the previous screen first (I forgot what color the fuses were, sorry) then the one nearest to the detonator, because if you do it the other way, the boulder in the previous screen will block the path of the nearest boulder and it will not only seal off that exit, you'll also unable to clear the path to the "hidden" areas later in disc 3. So activate both switches in the correct order, and enjoy some of the most POINTLESS conversations between the trio (especially Laguna.) When you're done, head up and enter a new screen, it should be the one with steps in a pink background. As a side note, you can encounter Elastoids here very easily. They're not that hard to beat (use about 2~3 Thunders should do the job for carding purposes) but you can draw Dispels from them (good spells for HP and Vit) and their cards can also be refined into Steel Pipes. (So if you cannot seem to get Steel Pipes from Wendigos, get lotsa of Elastoid cards here.) They also give you 3AP. You can steal Dynamo Stones from them (can be refined into Thundagas) if you have acquired Mug, but it's a shame really since Laser Cannons can be stolen from them but only when they're at a high level. (And they only appear in this and a future Laguna scenario.) If you managed to get one somehow, it's really good as it will let Quistis learn her potent Homing Laser skill. You can also encounter Gespers throughout the cave and they drop Black Holes that can be refined into Demis. They're really annoying though as they love to cast status changing spells like Silence and Blind. Try about 3 Fires on them, it should weaken them enough to turn them into cards. As for the dead Laguna and Ward, you don't really have to revive them if you don't want to, as this part of the game is not too difficult, and Kiros is really strong! (He's probably the fastest character in the game!!!) If you wanna be safe, just use a Phoenix Down on Laguna and/or Ward. Anyway, continue heading right will bring you into another one of those greenish cavern paths. There's also another boulder in this area to the left, examine it and Laguna will push it, crushing more soldiers in its path. > Magic Check! There's a Cure DP behind the boulder. Also, Gespers have Protects and Shells, if you feel like stocking them up. Continue heading north will bring you to a SP (FINALLY!) Save of course. The path to the right will lead to the right side of the screen with the "far boulder", the one that I said it doesn't matter. Finally, when you're ready, head north again for the final battle(s) of this scenario. You might want to collect more Elastoid cards here though. Also, you'll have to face 5 battles at the end of this scenario, but 4 of the traps that Laguna can trigger will eliminate one fight each, those 4 traps are: * The middle hatch where the soldier steps on and falls * The 2 boulders that you needed to use the detonator for, remember to use them in the right order * The boulder that hides the Cure DP So if you did everything right, you'll only have to fight one easy battle, and what's even better as it won't give you any EXP! Anyway, it's very easy as one summon will get rid of both soldiers. But right before the last soldier dies, he uses an attack that lowers both Ward and Kiros' HP to 1. If you only have Kiros alive (like I did) then don't fear since it's not Game Over yet as Kiros still has 1HP. After the fight, both Ward and Kiros will receive some near fatal injuries. Then Laguna throws both of them off the cliff (not before saying some pointless things of course) and tries to lower himself down but tripped and smacked his head in the rocks instead, OUCH! ---Gardening Galbadian style--- After you team wakes up in the forest, you'll notice that both Squall and Quistis have been revived with 1HP. Use a Cure on them if you wish and continue on with the journey to Galbadia Garden. If you want to build up some more, do it now as power up opportunities are pretty slim over here in the Galbadia side of the continent. You can find Belhelmels and Blood Souls in the area surrounding Galbadia Garden, but they're pretty bad for carding, as they put you to sleep or berserk/blind you all the time. I've heard that the Belhelmels may drop Laser Cannons occasionally but I've never gotten one. You can get Saw Blades from them though, and can be refined into Death via Siren's L Mag-RF. I recommend the forest is you do want to gain some AP since you can find enemies that gives you more AP and are easier. When you're happy, enter Galbadia garden, don't worry, you don't have to fights here.. yet. Quistis leaves to have a word with the head- master and you can freely explore the garden, however, the second you enter the lobby, you are called to the second Reception Room. I suggest you go to the Reception Room and progress through some story scenes first then do what you want. There are 2 cut scenes here, one with your team in the Reception Room about Seifer. Then Squall foolishly runs out of the room because of some stupid thoughts of his and you'll get another scene with Fujin and Raijin. Then you can explore all you want. > Magic Check! This area is rich in DPs. The centre of the lobby hides a DP for Haste. The 2F Auditorium has a non-recoverable DP for Double (hidden). There's one for Shell in the tennis court. There's a DP you can't reach yet in the ice hockey field but don't worry about it, you can get that later (it's Protect, if I remember correctly.) Search for a locker room leading from the left door in the ice hockey field, there's a DP for Life. > Card Check! Although no rare cards are in this area, you might want to challenge the girl in a classroom to the right of the lobby (the one who says she's too old for cards) as you can win every LV6 Boss Card from her. Then go back to the entrance to meet Martine, the headmaster of Galbadia Garden. He issues you a mission and introduces a bad flirt sharpshooter Irvine as your newest team member. You'll leave the Garden now. Divides the team up however you like but you might want to leave it as Irvine wishes to see a hilarious scene with Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis. Or, put Irvine and Zell in your second squad to see another funny scene with Irvine and Zell. ---I choo choo choose Deling City--- Move to the train station. You HAVE to catch a train here for 3000 Gil, since the road to Deling City is blocked and you can't get there any other way. Deling City is probably the most atmospheric city in FFVIII but it's so big that its geography is still puzzling me. The easiest way is to catch busses, but remember, there are 2 bus routes so catching one bus won't take you to every location in town. Try hanging around the place and get used to it before heading to Caraway's Mansion. > Card Check! If you started the Queen of Cards quest like I recommended and lost the MiniMog card to her, you can win Kiros' card from the guy dressed in black outside the shopping arcades. > Magic Check! There's a Thundara DP on the bridge if you exit the screen with Caraway's Mansion from the left side. Talk to the guy outside Caraway's Mansion and he won't let you in unless you prove yourselves in the Tomb of the Unknown King to the north and get the password. He hands you a map as well. Buy a location displayer from him if you want and have him escort you out of town. ---The known Tomb of the Unknown King--- The Tomb of the Unknown King is not shown on the map but you can find it to the north-east I think. Look for a long and slim peninsula on the map, and finally, the grounds around it should be grasslands, not rough land like the rest of Galbadia. > Magic Check! Before you enter the Tomb of Unknown King, make sure you have an adequate supply of Float spells. Draw from Thrustaevis if you haven't. Enter the tomb and save at the SP, check you junctions. BTW, you should choose your characters carefully too. I ALWAYS have Selphie in my party in the first half of the game because you can get some really cool spells that you can't get at that point of the game with her Slots. > Junction Check! All your characters should have Mag-J and 2 have Vit-J. Junction to HP too, if you have it. Here's what spells are best for each attribute that this point. HP: Zombie/Dispel/Aero Str: Zombie/Aero/Demi Vit: Protect/Dispel Mag: Demi/Break Spr: Shell Junction Aero to Elem-Atk if you want. As for commands, everyone should have Draw and Magic, the Card command if not very useful here though. > Magic Check! Draw from the DP here, it's Protect. You can refine items into spells of higher use than the above listed. Below are some of the spells that you should be able to have access to since the ingredients are pretty easy to get. The () indicates that attributes they're good for and the [] is which menu command it can be refined from: Dynamo Stone -> 20x Thunderga (Str/Mag) [T Mag-RF] Tent -> 10x Curaga (HP/Vit/Spr) [L Mag-RF] Saw Blade -> 10x Death (HP/Spr) [L Mag-RF] Steel Orb -> 15x Demi (Str/Mag) [Time Mag-RF] Black Hole -> 30x Demi (Str/Mag) [Time Mag-RF] Dino Bone -> 20x Quake (HP/Str/Mag) [Time Mag-RF] Soft -> 3x Break (Mag/Spr) [ST Mag-RF] Cockatrice Pinion -> 20x Break (Mag/Spr) [ST Mag-RF] Tents and Softs can be bought in shops, Saw Blades are dropped by Belhelmels, Steel Orbs dropped by Wendigos. If you trained your characters in the Training Centre in Balamb Garden, you'd have plenty of Dino Bones and Quake is a great spell. Black Holes dropped by Gespers and Dynamo Stones can be mugged from Elastoids in Laguna's second scenario. > Card Check! As with the above, you should have some cards that can be refined into items that turns into excellent spells! Such as Gayla's card that can be refined into a Mystery Fluid then into Meltdowns, which is the best all-purpose junction spell for Vitality. Try toying around with some of the cards. I suppose I was a bit vague here. Souma written to me a kinda laughed (in a good way right?) at my magic list up there with Aero and that. Anyway, here's the list of spells and believe me, they're VERY good. Wanna see? "I think my junction list looked a little more like: HP: Quake (Dino Bone from Armadodo/T-Rexaur card+Time Mag-RF=20 each) Str: Tornado (Windmill from Abyss Worm card+T Mag-RF=20 each) Vit: Meltdown (Mystery Fluid from Gayla card+ST Mag-RF=10 each) Mag: Pain (Cursed Spikes from Tri-Face card+ST Mag-RF=10 each) Spr: Regen (Mesmerize Blade from Mezmerize cards+L Mag-RF=20 each) The cool thing is, you can win all these cards in games at Balamb (especially with Diff or All rules in effect) so as soon as you get the appropriate Mag-RFs you could be really mowing the opposition down :)" Hey thanks. So if you're a keen card player and wants to put all the time you've played the card game into good use, why not give this a try? It'll save you time having to drawn them later. > GF Check! Uh.. is this section getting boring or what? That's 'cuz you haven't gotten any new GFs in a while, but that's about to change. Anyway: - Siren: ST-Defx2 is very useful - Diablos: Mug/Enc-None (whatever you didn't choose) or any Menu Abilities Enter the tomb and you should find something to the right side on the ground in the second screen also, examine it and you'll get the pass code. It is random in every game and it's a 3 digit number, HOWEVER, if you only get a 1 or 2 digit, it means that the digit for hundreds and/or tens are zero. (The code was "1" in my last game y' see!) You can get out now and carry on with the story, but who'd want to since there's a pair of GF in here. You can get lots here easily so the best solution is to turn either left or right at EVERY junction, that way, you can cycle around the tomb and never get lost. There are random encounters here BUT, they will never appear at the junctions. Enemies here includes mostly Blobra and Buel, but they're just not worth the effort to card since the former is exceptionally resistant towards regular attacks, while the latter is especially weak against it. I don't know about the other enemies here though, I usually just stick Enc-None on someone and run away. Take a right turn 3 times and you'll arrive in a chamber to the east. Sacred is in this room, and you'll have to fight it. BOSS – Sacred ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sacred is an earth based creature, and he is so powerful in that, simply being in contact with the ground will give him regenerative properties every round. (Heals about 100HP each time!) Its attacks are not very strong though. Hopefully, you've given the Draw command to everyone since Sacred holds Life spells, and they're exceptionally useful. Get as many of them as you want and you shouldn't have much problem drawing with the spells I listed above junctioned to your Magic, equip abilities like Mag+40% too. One "fun" thing to do here is to cast Shell on Sacred and it reduces the healing by a half, of course, I was just toying around with him. To get rid of his regeneration, simple cast Float on him. I have heard of how you can summon Siren to silence him and does the same thing but it didn't work for me at all! You don't have to worry about casting Float on yourselves here though, since Sacred has no earth based attacks yet. It is weak against wind so you can do extra damage if you junctioned Aero to your Elem-Atk. Otherwise, he's pretty easy. Simply summon a high level GF like Shiva will get rid of him easily. Else you can try your hands at Selphie's Slots and see if you can get some nifty spells (not necessarily offensive spells, ones like Aura and Haste are great!) This fight is exceptionally easy and Sacred usually dies before you can even say "what?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Junction Check! If you have gotten 100+ Life spells, trade them in HP-J or Vit-J, they're really good spells for now. Also, make sure that (since you only have access to 2 HP-J abilities) the character who hasn't got HP-J gets the Vit-J ability, or else they just won't survive the next fight! Take 3 more right turns and you'll end up in the northern chamber. Examine the right side of the wall where there should be a chain, Squall will release the floor gate, bring water into the man made canal. > Magic Check! There's another DP here and I think it's hidden, it holds Float if I remember correctly. Take another 3 right turns and you'll end up in the room to the west. Examine the wheel thingy on the left side of the wall to turn it, I think it lowers the drawbridge leading to the centre of the tomb. > Magic Check! A DP is here (Cura I think) and a hidden SP is a little further away into the screen. Make your way to the centre of the structure. If you're don't have a very good sense of direction, try take 3 right turns to go back to the entrance and take 3 straight paths to the centre. A bridge leads to the coffin and you'll see Sacred again but this time, he's angry and calls his big brother Minotaur, who is actually a miniture version of Sacred. They'll both attack you! BOSS – Sacred and Minotaur ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Minotaur is a good prove that size does not matter since he's actually stronger than Sacred. His attacks HURTS! He also has an attack that deals damage to all your members and both brothers have a combination attack (Mad Cow Special) where they strike the ground, sending shockwaves that can do a lot of damage! Oh yeah, don't forget that they can both regenerate every round. The first thing I do is to draw Double from Minotaur and cast it on Selphie, then let her cast Float on everyone (which eliminates the threat of Mad Cow Special.) Also, Minoaur's attack does so much damage it's also a very good idea to draw and cast Protect on everyone. I recommend that you take down Minotaur first since his attacks do so much damage so cast Float on Minotaur first. You can damage him with either high level GF summons or your Limit Breaks (Zell's Duel is excellent at that.) If anyone gets KO'd, Sacred offers Life spells that you can use at your pleasure. When Minotaur's gone, it's basically a sure victory. Draw some more Life from him if you want some more and beat him again like how you beat them before. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Card Check! You'll win Sacred's card after beating them and then the ghost of the unknown king shows up (spooky!) and gives you Minotaur's card also. They're both excellent corner cards y' know. Get outta the tomb when you're done and get back to Deling City. GF PROFILE – BROTHERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Strong like stones, the brothers Sacred and Minotaur have replaced Titan in the series. Their summon attack, Brotherly Love, really puts on a good show and crushes enemies in their paths with falling rocks and stones. Although it's strong in their own element, Brothers' summon is probably the least useful out of all GFs in the game since earth elemental attacks are not all that useful in the first place. It can get most jobs done if you're good at Boost though. Ability wise, Brothers resembles mostly Shiva in that not very many of their skills stand out, but it's still a useful GF that offers a good deal of Junction Abilities. The part that makes Brothers really shine is its ability to raise one's HP to the extreme, easily turning a weakling into a giant pincushion. Best abilities: HP+40%/80%, HP Bonus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! Set a new ability for your new GF Brothers. Boost should come first especially if you decide to do a tiny bit of powering up for the 10AP needed. Then Spr-J would be as good as anything (since you'll only have 1GF that offers the same ability that this point.) HP+40% is also very good but remember, it's also very expensive. ---Things to do #2--- Ok this is quite a minor thing but if you're the kind of person like me who got really excited after getting a previously unobtainable Kiros' card and wants more, you can continue with the Queen of Cards quest now. > Card Check! Return to Dollet to visit your old friend the Queen of Cards. Save at the hidden DP located above the stairs in the pub and challenge her to a card game. Deliberately try to loose her the Sacred card and try to get her back to Balamb. > To loose a specific card, choose to use that card plus 4 really cheap cards like Funguar that I bet you guys all have many. Just loose the game and they're sure to choose the card you want to loose. If you're playing Direct (arrgghh!!), you can probably trade your cheap cards for something better by leaning the strong(er) side of your weak cards against a weak(er) side of your opponent's card but make sure that she cannot take it back afterwards. > You don't have to get her to go back to Balamb really, but the problem is that the probability for her to return to Dollet is exceptionally low in ALL cities in the world, and you can ONLY get access to the information about the new cards in Dollet, meaning you'll have to do lots of resetting. Anyhow, it seems that the probability for her to return to Dollet is at its highest in Balamb, making it the best choice when you don't have many choices. > You can't really get the new card until FH in disc 2 though. :( But you can win back the Sacred card from her son. Also, you might want to obtain Squall's Blasting Zone finisher by modifying his Shear Trigger to either a Cutting Trigger, Twin Lance, Flame Saber or Punishment (if you haven't already done so.) Blasting Zone is not a very good move if you ask me, although it seems to be the one that's triggered the most out of all his finishers. A Cutting Trigger is easy, modding Mesmerize's card for the blade. You can get Betrayal Blades and Turtle Shells needed for the Flame Saber from modding Forbidden's and Adamantoise's cards respectively. (I think you can also win them with enemies inside the Tomb of Unknown King.) The ingredients needed for the other 2 models are rarer since you won't have fought the enemies that drop them and they require many higher level cards. I got a Flame Saber at this point. ---Sorceresscide--- Make your way back to Deling City and talk to the guy in front of Caraway's Mansion, but before you do that, don't forget to buy some Normal and/or Shotgun Ammo for Irvine, without them he'll be shooting blanks. Alternately, you can refine them from Ifrit's Ammo-RF and you may even be able to afford more advanced deals like Dark Ammo etc. Give your code to the guy in front of the mansion, remember, you have to input the ones, then tens and then the hundreds digits in that order. I'm not sure if you can raise/lower your ranks with this. Get inside the mansion and after Rinoa runs away, Caraway will appear and give out detailed explanations about this mission. You'll have to follow him around town for it but do pay attention to his briefings. When you're ready, talk to him again in his mansion of begin the mission. You'll divide into 2 teams: Gateway team: Quistis, Zell, Selphie Sniper team: Squall, Irvine Notice that Rinoa is in neither team, but it doesn't mean that she does not come into play here. When General Caraway and the Sniper team leaves, you'll control Quistis. Try to leave and she'll bump into Rinoa who said that she has a plan. Quistis then does her Judge Judy impersonation and leaves. You'll then take control of Squall and Irvine, just follow the rest of the gang as the general takes you guys to your stands. The scene then switches back to Quistis who wants to apologize to Rinoa, so move back to the mansion. You don't need to alter your junctions just yet. Inside the mansion, Rinoa escapes but Quistis arrived at the wrong time and got locked in! Rinoa You'll now play as Rinoa alone. Save at the SP and descend into the manhole if you wish. You can remove the GFs from the other characters and junction then on her if you want, but it's just way too much of a fuss since this scene is short. Inside the sewers, just keep heading left to get a weapon magazine at the dead end. If you encounter any fights just run. If you want to card, ignore the Red Bats since they're so weak! The Creeps are okay but Angelo Rush can come at the unexpected moment so I suggest you just run. Climb the crates once outside to get to the sorceress' chamber. Watch the awesome FMV and Edea's speech. Gateway team Quistis' team is being locked inside the mansion. Selphie and Zell will search for clues. The lady in the painting and the maiden statute will hint a way outta here, cups! Grab a glass off the shelve and examine the status to open a doorway to the sewers. There's another SP down the stairs. You don't really have to re- junction your character for this scene as it's exceptionally short and not worth the effort. Just climb the ladder and you can climb the first water wheel to get to an upper path. The scene will end after a little walk, then the parade starts. Sniper team Watch another exceptionally cool FMV and sneak into the palace after Irvine. Climb the crates like Rinoa did but do junction yourselves properly this time, as a fight is coming up. > Junction Check! Junction all your GFs on Squall and Irvine, try to spread them out a little so each character gets the Junction Ability for all 5 main attributes. As for commands, Attack, GF, Magic and Draw would be ideal. > Magic Check! Not much here yet but if you want a lot of Break spells, give any Breaks your guys already have to a non-active member. > GF Check! - Siren: You should have gotten ST-Defx2 already, so the rest don't matter so much. Treatment is good but it's likely that Siren's level is a bit too low to acquire that skill. Remember to get it once she's level 12 later ok? - Diablos: The important ability that you didn't choose earlier should be complete now, then move on to the Menu Abilities if you haven't yet. If you really have been training hard, his HP-J, Hit-J and maybe even Darkside ain't bad either. - Brothers: Spr-J is quite important in the up and coming battles. I don't think Str-J is that crucial since a couple of other GFs should have it too, so move on to their HP+40%. Move all the way to the sorceress' chamber and you'll see Rinoa, being attacked by 2 Iguions. BOSS – Iguions x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Irvine will explain his Limit Break in this fight. Isn't it kinda cheap how they made a tutorial for the other character's Limits except for Irvine and Selphie's? Not much of a threat really. Their Magma Breath will set a Petrifying countdown on a character but it's easily remedied by drawing Esunas from them. They have a combination attack called Resonance, a pretty strong attack to both characters, just draw Cure from them. If you don't have HP-J, Resonance is gonna hit you pretty hard. > GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw the GF Carbuncle! They have Break, a fairly good spell to draw. If you're planning to draw from them, get rid of one of them first so to stop Resonance. Simply use either guys' Limit Break when you're in critical condition to dispose of one. (Use Normal Ammo for Irvine.) If you just wanna move on, summon Brothers coupled with Boost to get rid of both of them in one hit! (I sure did!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rinoa will join you here, but you don't have to alter your junctions just yet. Return to the previous screen and examine the little hatch to the right side of the hall. In the next room, just examine the rifle and Squall'll pass it to Irvine, who's suddenly turned frail. After a bit of dialogue, Irvine will freak out and refuse to shoot. GF PROFILE – CARBUNCLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wonder how the mother of all useless summoned beasts made it into FFVIII while some of the more useful ones in the series like Golem didn't. Carbuncle is a cute cuddly toy, and it's unique for its large ruby embedded on its forehead capable of emitting a ray of light that envelops its masters in an anti-magic barrier. Its trademark skill Ruby Light does exactly that, but it's probably the least useful action in the whole game as the Reflect status is really a double edged sword, both positive and negative magic will be reflected. On topa that, Reflect has no effect towards some of the more damaging spells like Meteor, Tornado and Quake, making it as pointless as it gets. Carbuncle is a defensive GF, giving many abilities involving the user's Vit and HP. Its Abilityx3 skill will give a second character the chance to try out 3 Character/Party Abilities at once. Its only Menu Ability, Recover Med-RF may not be very useful in itself but it's also a big potential moneymaker. Best abilities: Abilityx3, ST-Atk, ST-Defx2, Vit Bonus, Recover Med- RF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gateway team This scene picks up at where it was left off last time. > Junction Check! Remove the GFs from Squall and Irvine and share it around between 3 people. Put the Card command on someone as some enemies here are kinda worth carding. Don't forget to junction your newly acquired GF Carbuncle to someone. > Magic Check! You can draw Waters from the Grand Mantis and Life from Creeps. There are also 3 DPs in the sewers: Esuna, Zombie and Bio (in that order.) I won't detail how you make it through the sewers exactly since I can't remember it myself, but it's quite simple. There are quite a few features here in the sewer: 1) Some gates leading left or right can be opened, just try examining them 2) Certain ladders will fall flat across the sewer, allowing you to cross to the other side 3) When you're stuck, try examining water wheels, as some of them can be "ridden" and takes you to the platform above/below. > GF Check! Brothers should move onto HP+40% and Carbuncle should start by learning either Recover Med-RF or HP-J. If you encounter Red Bats, ignore or run from them since they're quite impossible to weaken as they're too weak in the first place already. Against Creeps, use a basic elemental spell or two like Fire. I usually just stick Enc-None on someone and run through it. At one point in the sewer, you'll come across a falling ladder that lets you cross to the side where you first started, where you can take the ladder and return to the stairs leading to Caraway's Mansion. You can encounter Grand Mantis here (but you might be able to encounter them inside the sewer as well, don't know) and you can draw Water from them. They also drop Sharp Spikes but are very strong. I think they're weak against Ice so summon Shiva a few times to weaken them. Cross a few more passages and climb a couple more of water wheels and you'll be at the exit, a ladder near a hidden SP that leads Quistis' team back inside the Arch of Triumph. Climb the ladder again and watch another set of awesome FMVs, throw the switch when Zell says so and watch how the sorceress gets trapped inside the Arch! Gateway team Seeing how the Gateway team fulfilled their task on time, it is now up to Irvine to shoot down their target. Watch how Squall talks Irvine into it, did that look like a "Lone wolf" to you? (Official character overviews can be so deceiving at times.) Anyway, Irvine finally picks up the rifle and blasts at the sorceress, but it got bounced right off a "Protect-like" barrier thing. It's now time for plan B, frontal assault. > Junction Check! Remove the GF from the other members and junction them to Squall, Irvine and Rinoa. Don't just use the Switch Junction but you should re-junction everyone from scratch. Give Spr-J to whoever didn't receive HP-J (you should have 2 of each) and junction good spells to them. Each character should have the commands: Attack, Magic, GF, Draw/Item. Equip any Spr+??% skills if you have them. Oh yeah, put Mug on someone too. > GF Check! - Diablos: Any of his Junction Abilities would be fine - Carbuncle: Recover Med-RF or HP-J, remember you'll gain 20AP in the next fight, so if you wanna be AP efficient, adjust accordingly BOSS – Seifer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Squall will have to fight Seifer alone, but he's a piece of cake. You shouldn't have any problems here. Even Squall's regular attacks can take him down easily if you junctioned good spells to his Str. Has anyone mugged him? (DarkHoly17@aol.com told me that a Hero is available for grabs but careful, it's exceptionally hard to mug him. Cure him if you can't get it after a couple of times, or you'll kill him by mistake.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BOSS – Edea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rinoa and Irvine will rush up to join Squall in this fight. I can see why so many people whine that this fight is too hard. Edea casts mainly –ga spells like Firaga. If you don't have HP-J, it's gonna hit you really hard, 2 consecutive hits can knockout a character. But I've taught you how to junction your guys properly right? If the character who don't have HP-J gets hit by a spell, draw Cura from Edea to heal them instantly, or just let them summon a GF to take the hits for them just in case. Anyway, this can be an easy fight if you summon Carbuncle with someone to put up Reflect on all your guys (this is also the only fight Carbuncle comes in useful.) Edea's AI will then be screwed up as she'll continuously cast Dispel on all your characters until all Reflects are destroyed. She'll sometimes use her "physical" attack Astral Punch though, but that's extremely weak. For offence, just use your regular attacks (my Squall was doing ~1000 damage to her at this point) or summon high level GFs like Ifrit. Don't bother with Siren, as Edea is powerful enough that she cannot be Silenced at all. If you like spells, Water is a good and cheap spell to cast, just draw Double from her and use it on yourself. Her draw list is pretty disappointing for the "most powerful sorceress in the world". If I remember correctly, she has Cura so get a few of them if you want. And mug her for a goodie. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The fight ends with a pissed off Edea, as she unleashes her Limit Break and nails Squall. Is this the end? ========================= End of Disc 1 ============================= ============================ Disc 2 ================================= Disc 2's in most long RPGs are mostly drag-ons, making a game longer with boring events, it's more so in FFVIII. The first half of this disc is exceptionally linear, but you can have a good long break from the story halfway through it, with a good number of side quests and secrets. ---Win a hill--- My first reaction was "What the? Did I put in the wrong game?" at the start of this disc, since you're given a scene that has absolutely no relation to the one you've just seen. Anyway, you're Laguna and a little girl runs up to your room and tell you someone's here to see you. > Magic Check! A hidden DP to the left of the door has Curaga. Go down the stairs and make your way to the bar. Yay, Kiros is here! You'll then get to have a conversation to see what Laguna had been up to for all this time. After some more of Laguna's trademark pointless conversations with Ellone, Kiros joins you to go monster hunting outdoors. > NOTE! Kiros is Irvine this time, so you won't have to worry about him being magic-less after the fight with Edea on the previous disc, although it makes absolutely no sense if you think about an event later in the disc. > Junction Check! Junction all your GF to both guys. Don't junction any spells to Kiros' Strength though, and put the Card command on Laguna. > GF Check! - Diablos: He should have gotten all of his major abilities so just go with his –J abilities for the moment if you haven't done so. - Carbuncle: Recover Med-RF should be ready to put to the test as a big-bucks maker, but don't try it here since Laguna and Squall has separate accounts. Get its HP-J then Vit+20%. -Brothers: HP+40% Outside you'll encounter Caterchipillars and Bite Bugs. They're really weak so that's why you need to have no Str-J to deal with them. Attack them with Kiros twice and card them with Laguna. They're quite hard to card for some reason. Actually, it's not worth it really so if you have Enc-None, equip it. The objective here is to make it to the town's entrance, so do it anyway you like, just don't miss the DPs on the way. > Magic Check! The town square has a DP for Dispel, there's one near the flower shop for Drain and if you take the right path, you'll end up near a cliff with a non-recoverable and hidden DP for Reflect. After you reach the town entrance, Laguna will have a chat with Kiros and they decide to head back. Before you do so, you might wanna try the trick below. > NOTE! Ripping off Laguna Have you noticed that Squall and Laguna will share the same inventory BUT not the same cash account? So, Laguna has 3000 Gil to spend, if you purchase something in his scenario, Squall'll receive them as if they were free! This is the only Laguna scenario where you have the access to a shop so buy anything you like until Laguna's broke. Return the way you came and Laguna will chat some more with Kiros. Go back to Raine's bar and head up stairs. After another cut scene, Laguna will report how many monsters they've killed (carded monsters counts as well.) I'm not too sure if this has any significance and I don't know what happens if you stuck on the Enc-None skill and killed no enemies. Now return to Laguna's room in the house next door and choose to rest. His scenario will end. ---Is cheapness contagious?--- Zell wakes up inside a cell with Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis, he had been in the dream world too as Ward. After a fairly long sequence, Rinoa will get taken away. I suggest that you save the Moomba as it's cute having it following you for a long time. You'll also see scenes with Seifer torturing Squall. The team plans for a jailbreak but their weapons have been snatched away. Zell came up with a good idea to go reclaim all of the weapons since he fights with his fists. You'll be on the 7th floor of the prison. You don't have to go far, just take the stairs up one level and you'll see 2 guards toying around with the team's weapons. Approach them and you'll have to fight. You have no choice but to kill them and gain the EXP here, as they cannot be carded and you cannot run away. Hopefully, your Zell's "EXP needed for level up" is still low. You can also cast Break to kill the guards without gaining any EXP. Now that you've claimed your weapons, it's time to give the guards a run for their money. Watch the awesome sequence where your team shows off their skills! (Especially how Selphie handles her nunchakus.) > Junction Check! Remove the GFs from Squall and Irvine and replace them on the trio, make sure your Magic attributes are good. Everything else ain't as important but give the GF command to whoever that gets Siren. Give Mug to someone too. You'll then get a visit from your old friends, Bigg and Wedge, who are not very happy after the Dollet incident. They attack your team. BOSS – Biggs and Wedge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This battle is again pretty easy, and again, they have good spells worthy to spend time to draw. The most valuable spell is probably Wedge's Reflect, as they're excellent for Spr-J even though they're lousy by themselves. Biggs' Regen is also fairly decent for junctions at this point of the game (HP/Vit) but ain't as good later except for casting. Biggs also holds Haste and Slow. You can get some of them if you want but keep in mind that both of them (especially the latter) can be refined extremely conveniently from Diablos' Time Mag-RF. So just get 300 Reflects and maybe some Regens. Their attacks are fairly weak, but they do occasionally cast spells. The first thing to do in this fight is to summon Siren to Silence both of them, or they'll cast annoying spells all the time. Oh yeah, mug them if you have the command. You can get a rare Regen Ring from one of them, compared to the crappy Potion or something you get for defeating them. When you're satisfied with your stock load of drawn spells, just summon a high level GF to kill them off. Or use your Limit Breaks or whatever. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now you'll have the freedom of exploring the complex, however, when you step out of your cell the alarm sounds as monsters are released. I don't know but I didn't really fight here. Carding enemies here is NOT a good idea because sometimes you'll encounter GIM54A CANNOT be carded (I'm not sure if you can run away from them.) I usually just stick Enc-None on someone to get through this part. You should check the bottom floors before you ascend the complex since there are plenty of goodies in those floors ready for grabs. (I actually missed all of them in my first game!) The really good things to look out for are a Str-Up and a Combat King 001! Then climb all the way to the top floors to continue with the story, they'll be more rooms with treasure. > Card Check! There are prisoners on certain floors that will play cards with you FOR MONEY! If you win however, they will give you some goodies. Most of the time you'll just get crap like Potions but occasionally they'll give you really good ones like Mega-Phoenixes and I've even heard of a Rosetta Stone!!!!! One of them will also upgrade your Battle Report to a Character Report if you win. Finally, all of them uses Galbadia rules so if you somehow screwed up the rules in that area, just avoid them. Card trick – "My first Rosetta Stone" ;) ============================ |In curtesy of Jonathan Ng | | | |Well, most of the time you'll get crap like Potions and Phoneix | |Down right? That's right, but Jonathan said that if you have a lot | |of those items in your inventory already then the chance of | |winning a rare item like Rosetta Stone will be raised. So what you | |gotta do is to purchase 100 Potions, Phoenix Downs and Eye Drops | |(there's even an "item shop" inside the prison for goodness sake!) | | | |Now challenge the card players, you'll still get the common items | |though, but I guess not as often as if you didn't have any common | |items in stock. | | | |Also challenge both card players in the prison, as they give you | |different items. The one on a higher floor will give you HP-Ups, | |Holy Stones and (drum roll please!) Rosetta Stones!!! The other | |one has Luck-Ups and another source, great for earning (Luck-J | |Scrolls!) Because of this, make sure you DO NOT mess up the rules | |(and trade rules) in the Galbadia region! Oh yeah, you CAN actally | |get more than one of them, so what are you waiting for? | | | |You can actually start powering up right now when you get your | |Rosetta Stones (gotta wait a bit for Leviathan's Spr Bonus though.)| |I'd rather wait 'til disc 3 as most enemies don't give you much EXP| |right now.) | ===================================================================== > Magic Check! Certain rooms may look empty but if you equip the Move-Find ability, hidden DPs can be reviewed. There's a Berserk DP on Floor 9 and Thundaga on Floor 11. > NOTE! There's also a guy who claims that he is from Balamb Garden here, he'll sell you items. (To you card players out there, he is the CC Joker so you know who to look for later.) When you get to the top, free Squall in the room and you'll get Squall back. The team decides to get to the bottom via the crane while Zell operated the machinery in the control room. When you get to the bottom you find that it's all covered in sand and have to get back up again. (You'll have to do a LOT of climbing here, that's what I mean by the game keeps DRAGGING ON!!) Blah blah blah, then Zell's in trouble. When you control Zell, hold the left stick down to make him run clockwise to the next screen, if you do it correctly, the guard will barely miss Zell, else you'll have to fight the guard. After some more cut scenes, Irvine shows up with Rinoa and the team gets reunited yay! You'll now have to divide into 2 teams again, Squall's team will look for an exit to the top level while the Irvine's team will hold the enemies back. Choose whoever you wish but remember, Rinoa is a mandatory member in Squall's team and Irvine's team don't have to fight the boss, so choose someone with good abilities as the third team member in Squall's team (either Quistis or Selphie, I recommend.) Squall's team > Junction Check! Hopefully, you've exchanged the junctions from the other characters, and keep that Enc-None equipped at all times. Keep the Mug command though. Keep headin' up. Irvine's team Not much here really. You don't have to exchange all the junctions since they're not going to fight anyway. Just exchange whoever has Diablos with the Enc-None ability to one of the guys in Irvine's team and climb the stairs down. Squall's team Take back Diablos and keep movin' until you reach a round platform with a computer terminal. The computer is there just for decoration but what you really wanna do is to equip Siren's Move-Find to review the hidden SP to the right. Save there and move up a bit more to trigger a boss fight. BOSS – Elite Soldier, GIM52A x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ouch, these guys can really hurt! The Elite Soldier is most annoying as he keep casting support spells like Aura and Shell on the robots and negative ailment spells like Meltdown on you! The robots are big damage makers with their Micro Missile. The gang has no to die for spells for draw so don't bother. The obvious thing to do here is to summon Siren to Silence the soldier, however, unless your Compatibility with Siren is 800+ (which I doubt), it's an extremely dangerous act. The problem lies with the Micro Missile attack. Siren is likely to be your weakest GF at the moment with the least HP, so the Micro Missile attack can really kill her in one hit if your character has a high HP level. Instead, just attack and kill the soldier with Squall, it should do the job in one hit if you junctioned his Str properly. With him out of the way it should be easy. Cast Wall with Selphie's Slots after Micro Missile if you can. If you need healing, use Selphie's Full Cure or Quistis' White Wind. Remember that I told you to keep Mug? Well, if you steal from the robots you can get a Missile which lets Quistis learn their special attack Micro Missile for your own use. Of course, you can just win them and you'll get more Missile if you do it that way, but the game will sometimes give you a different item instead. For the 'bots, use anyone's Limit Breaks to kill them. Someone dies, use Life/Phoenix Down. You can also draw and cast Haste to your advantage if you wish. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After the battle, have Quistis learn Micro Missile. Irvine's team sends a message and Squall will aid them with the computer terminal. Now just head out to the bridge. After an awesome and death threatening FMV, the bridge give away and Squall is stuck hanging onto the platform. Careful here, you can get a Game Over if you don't do it right. Just keep moving to the right until you can't move any more, then the scene will end. Oh yeah, one last thing is DON'T listen to the annoying girl Rinoa, I actually got a Game Over in my first game. Why? She yelled "Squall, over *there*!" instead of "Squall, over *here*!" so I went for the wrong direction!! Hopefully you didn't see the Game Over screen earlier. The team will drive away in 2 cars, but Irvine didn't get to sit with the ladies. ---Haha, missed me by a mile... NOT!--- The team arrives in the desert, Irvine tells you that Edea's planning to bomb both Trabia and Balamb Garden with missiles. > Magic Check! A DP for Aero is here. Keep talking to Selphie to get on with this scene. Then you see missiles being launched at Trabia. The group suggest that you divide into two teams again, Squall'll lead the team back to Balamb Garden to warn people of the missiles while Selphie will lead a lead to infiltrate the Missile Base and try to stop/delay the launch. I think if you put Rinoa with Squall, you'll be treated to an extra FMV back in Balamb. So here's my recommendation: Missile Base team Balamb Garden team Selphie Squall Irvine Rinoa Zell Quistis The lovebirds (Selphie and Irvine) will be happy, but Irvine is a great member to support Selphie's team. Also, her team needs heavy offence so Zell makes another excellent member. As for Squall's team, Rinoa is basically there for the FMV (yup, that's all she's good for) but Quistis is absolutely marvellously useful with her newly acquired Micro Missile at carding the enemies. ---We're the train-stealers--- The group separates again and you'll control Squall's team. This is an extremely short scene so just head to the engine of the train and the scene will automatically take place. It's funny how the soldier runs after the train and Rinoa (or was it Quistis) says some funny stuff. ---Is that a rocket in your pants or are you just happy to see me?--- The scene switches to Selphie's team and you get to control her even on the world map, yay! Oh yeah, you have a car too, but it can still run out of fuel, so don't get "carried away" by it. (Ok, bad joke, but I ran out of fuel in my first game when I took to car for a cruise.) > Card Check! The card maniacs will be happy to know that another rare card is available for grabs after a long, card-less journey. Head back to Deling City with Selphie and enter Caraway's Mansion. General Caraway has Rinoa's card but he refuses to use it if you don't loose your Ifrit's card to him first. So do it and after a couple of rounds, he'll use Rinoa's card (crap card BTW!) Don't worry, Ifrit's card can be won back just a teeny weeny bit later in the game in FH. Get back to the Missile Base by heading west. You're suppose to drive into the place but if you walk instead, you'll see a scene where Selphie says quite possibly the funniest sentence in the game! The gang parks the car in the parking lot and comes out dressed in Galbadia uniforms. It's funny here if you took Irvine along. Just enter the room and save at the SP. > Junction Check! Not much to say here but just the usual, I usually use the auto-junction command to set my characters automatically (favouring magic) but do check your Elem and ST Def and Atks, since the game usually junction attributes you don't want. (Actually, it's a good idea to keep your Elem-Atks free of spells.) You don't have to fight for a while so you can readjust later if you want. > GF Check! - Diablos: Hit-J - Brothers: HP+40% - Carbuncle: Vit+20% and Vit+40% Examine the left ID card slot and Irvine'll give you a card he found in the car, which is accepted. Ok, you're basically crawling inside the enemy's base so it's not a very good idea to muck around too much. You'll meet many soldiers within the complex and they'll ask you questions. The answers you give back are usually divided into 3 types: Talk your way out of it, run away and fight. Choose to talk your way out of as many situations as you can because not only you get to hear some of the craziest excuses Selphie makes up (and how the idiots actually believes her!), you'll also avoid fights. If you choose to run away, the soldiers will realize that you're fakes and sends some monsters at you. To get pass the first guard, just act casual or whatever, although you do get to see a funny scene if you choose the second option. Two more screens after that you'll reach an intersection-like platform with a computer to the right. > Magic Check! If you take the exit to the left, you'll reach a hidden DP with Blind on the same platform as 2 guards who looks like they're urinating at the edge of the platform. The central room has a DP for Full-Life!! (And it's recoverable too!) What to do here is to talk to the soldiers near the Blind DP then go into the central room and talk to one of the guards, then go back again. They'll want you to do a favour of checking the control room or something like that. So head back to the place where you saw the first guard and tell him you're there to take over. > Magic Check! Another DP in here has Blizzara, if you even bother that is. Have Selphie screw around with the key panels, do what you like here. All of a sudden the lights went out as the power had been cut off. Exit the room and you'll bump into 2 guards. Choose to talk your way out of it (funny) and you'll dispose of them anyway. Head back into the intersection platform and try to get pass through the central door, a commander steps out but just play along and help him. You know what they say - "No pain, no gain" so you won't get anywhere without putting in some labour, so help the guard to push the large don't-know-what to the right. You'll then get the card to operate the computer. > Magic Check! The Full-Life DP should be active again so get yourselves another pump before sayin' goodbye to it. :( Operate the computer and all your gotta do here is just to set the Error Ratio to the maximum and hope that the missiles will miss Balamb Garden. Then upload the data and you're all set. Save your game again. Try get up the stairs to the right. You'll meet up with another commander but talking your way out of it doesn't work this time, since he's the only smart one around here and knows that your salute is wrong. So you do have to fight. They're waaaaay too easy, one hit and they're gone. But you might want to draw some Confuses. Like Berserk, they're useless by themselves but are excellent in ST-Def later. The soldiers also have Reflect if you want some. You WILL gain EXP for this fight so don't get too cocky yet. But killing your guys off is sometimes a bit more hassle than its worth so if your "EXP 'til level up" is high, just summon a GF to wipe them out and hopefully the EXP you gain for this fight won't do much harm. Otherwise you'll have to kill your guys off and let the one with the highest "EXP 'til level up" guy handle it. I've been told that Break doesn't work in this battle. After the fight, just examine the computer terminal to the left. Enter the next room and set the self-destruct sequence. If you're feeling confident with the game and wants a pay raise, choose 10 minutes to rise your SeeD level by 2. I think 20 minutes raises it by 1 but I'm not too sure about it. Before you choose a time interval, check your junctions. > Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl to Selphie because she should still have a high Compatibility with it after the Dollet event. Junction good spells to both Zell and Irvine's Str (ie, Quake if you have it, or Demi or something like that.) Equip Enc-None now, but you don't have to bother with Mug. > NOTE! For the up coming battle, you might want to put Zell and Irvine at critical by swapping junctions with another member and change back. Choose your time and if it's 20 minutes or below, you can use the shortcut to the right, which leads to the first room with the card- locked doors. If I remember correctly, all the SPs disappears for no reason, which is a pain. Exit the door and you'll see a long sequence with the timer ON (which is frustrating but shouldn't be a problem.) A large robot comes in and you'll have to fight another boss. BOSS – BGHZ51F2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A large robot but its attacks are quite weak, it has a high defence though, which can be a problem. It has Stop in its draw list, but the last thing you want to think about is drawing with a timer on right? What you do here is to let Selphie repeatedly summon Quezacotl like in the X-ATM092 fight and aid it with Boost. If you've acquired the SumMag+??% then it'll be great too. If not, just repeatedly cast Waters, a cheap and fairly decent spell or Thundagas. Irvine and Zell should be in critical if you did the swap junction trick so just unleash their Limit Breaks to make this fight a breeze. It should only take like 2 minutes. With the robot out of the way, you'll have to fight the soldiers. One cool thing is to let Selphie charge up for Quezacotl when the robot is almost dead, then have Zell unleash a long and powerful chain combo with his Duel and kill it. When the guards arrive, Quezacotl should kill them before they can even act! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The gate shuts locking Selphie's team in.. Oh no! Oh well, I'm sure they'll survive since even Squall survived after Edea's chilling spikes! ---Hanging Garden of Balamb--- The scene will switch back to Squall's team, who has just made it back to Balamb Garden. It's total chaos back here, SeeDs and cadets running around like headless chickens. > Junction Check! Swap all the junctions from Selphie's team but do equip the Card command on either Squall or Rinoa. Swapping the junctions will make your characters critical. You'll be mistaken for Cid's followers and those guys dressed in cult-ish clothing will send monsters at you. They're easy so simply use Quistis' Micro Missile (since she's in critical status) and card them. You have to search every area in the garden, and each time you'll have to fight. Note however, the enemy in the Infirmary is a Granaldo, an ex-boss. It's counted as a boss so you cannot card it but you will gain EXP for defeating it. So the best thing to do here is to be ignorant and let the SeeD members take care of their own business. > NOTE! In every area, talk to the people when you clear the monsters and some of them will give you free items like Remedies. When you clear all the enemies, head back to the lobby and you'll see Xu sneaking up the elevator. Follow her to the second floor and after a bit of conversation she'll take you to see Cid. After a long scene in Cid's room, he gives Squall a key that takes them to the MD level in search of a way to save the Garden. (Cid says that the Garden used to be some sorta shelter so a secret is hidden.) Take the elevator do and suddenly the power goes off, you'll have to climb down from the evacuation hatch. All of a sudden the elevator's power comes back and it descents after you at full speed. Watch as your team make the grand escape. :) Descend into the sewer like piping and Quistis will tell you some tips on Elem-Atk. > Junction Check! This place is full of sissy enemies like Blood Souls and Blobras that give you crap and are very resistant to attacks, so I'd avoid carding here and stick on Enc-None. Although you do occasionally encounter Tri-Faces that give you good stuff. Pack Mug with you too. > GF Check! - Diablos: Should have gotten his –J abilities by now, or about to. Get his Darkside next but it doesn't matter too much. - Brothers: HP+40% should be done, so I'd suggest moving on to the horribly expensive HP+80%. - Carbuncle: Vit+40% Follow the path and enter a room with a large wheel handle thingy. Open it (only seems to open when all 3 characters are turning it) and make your way down the ladder into a large circular room with a pillar in the middle. > Magic Check! There's a DP (hidden) here with Full-Life Have Squall climb the ladder and he'll fall into a room, activate the switch and take the ladder back. Climb down another kinda hard to see ladder in the foreground down to a platform with a SP. Examine the terminal near the SP to open up the gate, then save because when you try to approach the gate, 2 monsters jump out of the water and attacks. BOSS – Oilboyle x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These 2 white squid-like thingies likes to spit oil on you, which does quite a bit of damage for oil. They have Confuse so draw some if you like, and if you haven't had the chance in Missile Base. If one of your character gets inflicted by a status change, draw Esuna. You can steal 4 Fuels for your car by stealing from each Oilboyle, which ain't the best items around but it sure beats the Magic Stones or whatever you get for beating them. Defeating them is easy, simply summon Ifrit will cause major damage. Try out some of Quistis' Blue Magic for this fight, although Aqua Breath won't do much good since they're immune to water. If you have gotten Fire Breath by exchanging cards, use it to maximum effect, otherwise use her Gatling Gun (if you junctioned spells to her Str) or Electrocute. This is an easy boss. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When it's over, make your way deeper into the structure and you'll eventually get to some kinda power generator. Fiddle around with it and you'll eventually see an awesome FMV where the Garden takes flight, barely escaping the missiles. After some event, you're called to the boucany. Go there (on second floor) and you'll get more FMVs and a special one if you bought Rinoa along (but I'd rather if Selphie, Zell or Quistis were in this sequence instead.) You are then called back to Cid's office again, and you'll see how Squall pilots the Garden to avoid the Balamb town. The next day, Squall'll be lying on his bed as Rinoa comes in and wants him to show him around. Take her around the place if you wish. When you get to the lobby, a Garden worker guy comes and tells you that Master NORG wants to see you and tells to you go to the basement. When you get down there, you'll see a very angry Cid loosing his temper, he leaves and Quistis comes in. > Junction Check! Make sure you have a good Spirit level, and Str for both Rinoa an Squall. Take Mug for this fight. Junction Silence to ST-Def and give Item command to someone. Try to exchange junctions to lower someone's HP to critical (preferably Squall.) Then you'll be called to see NORG. YIKES! What is that THING? Squall reports to NORG and it eventually gets angry and angrier and attacks. BOSS – NORG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NORG fights in a tank thingy. The Left and Right Orbs have an insane Spr/Vit level, high HP, immune to all elements and regenerates every round so it's impossible to beat them. All you gotta do here is to beat NORG's Port. Steal from the Left and Right Orbs will get you Mag-Up and Spr-Ups respectively, don't miss them! NORG loves to cast spells on you, including various elemental type spells. Summon Carbuncle to bounce spells like Fira back to him but he can still cast Tornado to hit you. If you need healing use items or Quistis' White Wind. As long as you have HP-J, the spells won't hurt you bad. If Squall is in critical, have him execute Renzokuken on NORG Port, otherwise just summon some GFs like Shiva and Quezacotl, or just use a well junctioned regular attack. It may take a while. When you defeat NORG Port, NORG himself becomes available for targeting. > GF Check! Don't for get to draw GF Leviathan from him. NORG is weak against wind but casting Aero on him will still do less damage than a well junctioned regular attack + trigger. Just use your regular attacks, summon GF or Limit Break to take it down. Also, try to use Rinoa's Limit Break to get Invincible Moon. Quistis' Gatling Gun and Aqua Breath also works well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – LEVIATHAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The giant serpent of the deep sea that swallows sailors is probably the least exciting GF to many people since I'm sure you all have seen movies/screenshots of this many many times since the FFVIII demo. Anyway, we all know what the summon looks like but it's actually not too bad, even though Quistis' Aqua Breath will often do more damage in less time. Tsunami works well against a wide bunch of enemies simply because they're rarely resistant towards it. One cool thing about Tsunami is that if it kills an enemy, they'll get swept away along with the water. Some of Leviathan's abilities are really cool although it doesn't have that many of them, so Leviathan will get boring quickly. Its Recover command is quite unique as it will heal a single character to their full HP for free, but I'd say the Magic command is more versatile. Leviathan also comes with 2 separate Menu Abilities so it's still quite a handy GF to have around when you want spells like Aura. The rest of its skills are a bit unbalanced, but Leviathan's Spirit skills are nice to have around when fighting the bosses. Best abilities: Recover, Spr Bonus, Supt Mag-RF, GF Med-RF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What to do now is to ask Cid in the Infirmary some questions and return to the lobby where Xu catches up with you. Follow this event to find Ellone and more plot information will be reviewed, wouldn't want to spoil it. ---Do you like fish?--- <'>>>>< The next day Rinoa goes to bother Squall again and when you're just about to leave, the Garden goes boom and crashes into Fisherman's Horizon. Go to see Cid and he wants you to go apologize to the people in FH. (Oh, letting other people do his dirty work.) Head to the boucany in 2F and you can explore FH after a bit of talk, god how I looooooove the music in this town! > NOTE! On the platform where the elevator leads down, there's a VERY hard to see ladder leading down. It's quite hard to find and I missed it in my first game. When you get to the bottom platform, head all the way to the left, climb a few ladders in the process and you should reach an old fisherman (Master Fisherman, the guy you saw in the FMV.) Talk to him and apologize, he will give you Occult Fan III magazine. Remember this place though, he hides a very good DP that you cannot get yet. > Magic Check! There are a few DPs scattered around this place, so try to get them before talking to the mayor. One for Shell is next to the junk shop, a Regen DP is near a SP on the train tracks and you can find a DP for Haste at the abandoned train station. Go to the mayor's house and they'll order you to leave as soon as possible in a sissy kinda way because they say that they hate violence. After the scene is over, there are still MORE goodies to be found. > Magic Check! In the mayor's house is a hidden DP for Ultima! Of course, something this good must be non-recoverable. > Card Check! Mayor Dobe has Quezacotl's card. Try not to loose any rare cards to him as it's very hard to get them back again. > The mayor's wife has Irvine's card if you lost the Sacred's card to the Queen of Cards like I've told you to above. > Martine who sits outside the mayor's house uses many LV7 bosses cards that he confiscated from students in Galbadia Garden so you might want to play a few hands with him. (He's slow though.) Also, if you lost Ifrit's card to General Caraway, you can win it back now. When you're on your way out, calls for help indicates that Galbadia soldiers are invading. The stupid mayor tries to talk his way out of it and his wife blames it all on you! Gosh what a bunch of sissies! > Junction Check! Give your characters appropriate junctions and spread your GFs around, Vitality is very important here. Also, make sure that 2 of the members have low HP (makes them easier to kill.) Give someone Mug and Enc-None. > GF Check! - Diablos: Think you've gotten all his important abilities already? Not yet, he's such an exceptional GF as if you learn HP+20%, you'll unlock his +40% and +80%!!! Wow, you'll almost never get bored with him. - Brothers: HP+80% takes ages! - Carbuncle: Vit+40% - Leviathan: Don't get Boost first a lot of AP is gonna be a wasted, instead get its Supt Mag-RF first. Now head towards the way to the train station, save at the SP. If you didn't pack Enc-None you can fight SAM08Gs here. They drop Running Fires which are good to turn into Demolition Ammos. When you do reach the mayor, you'll have to help. The first fight is against some soldiers. They'll net you EXP so it's a no-no to fight this properly. Kill off (preferably) Quistis and Squall and let Rinoa handle them. Next up, it's boss times. BOSS – BGH251F2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yup, that one again, except it's already been trashed. It can only do some gun shot attacks but they can be quite damaging if you didn't junction spells to your defensive attributes. Hurry up and revive both Squall and Quistis. Draw Protect from the boss and cast them on the weak members. Did you bring Mug? Good, now steal an Adamantine from it. This fight is as easy as back when Selphie's team had fought it. Have Quistis use her Aqua Breath (which can do 3000+ damage!) and let Squall have his Renzokuken. Rinoa do whatever, preferably summoning Leviathan or casting spells like Water or any Thunder spells. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you kill it for good, it'll fall into the sea and.. Selphie's team climbs out! They're safe, YAY!!! After the grand reunion and a talk with Rinoa, you can explore the town again. You can take a mini-quest involving the Master Fisherman to get some items, but what you really wanna do is... > Magic Check! ...Get Master Fisherman out of the way so you can have access to the Full-Life DP, it's non-recoverable though. > NOTE! Before you carry on, read the "NOTE!" in the next section for a trick to get some Pulse Ammo. Go back to the Quad and cheer Selphie up, then go back to Cid. He kinda chickens out at the critical moment and offers Squall the leadership of the Garden. Oooooh. ---Top of the Pops--- Now you'll see an interesting scene where Selphie and Irvine got everyone together to perform a number. To the musically inclined it should be a piece of cake in determining which tunes goes with which. Choose which ever instruments you want but I'm telling ya, if you piece together the Electric Guitar, Bass, Piano, and Saxophone, you get to hear a nice instrumental version of Eyes On Me. > NOTE! Ronny Boen told me that when you get control of Irvine here, you can head west to some soldiers, talk to them and you'll receive some Pulse Ammo! However, his writing is quite hard to read so this is what I think he's saying: 1) Meet Irvine after the BGH251F2 fight near the Garden 2) Go talk to a repairman near where you fought the BGH251F2 3) Meet Selphie and cheer her up 4) Squall goes to sleep and you get to control Irvine 5) Go west and talk to the repairman to see a scene 6) Exit the screen and re-enter it 7) Talk to the soldier and you'll get some free ammunition It's probably something like that, so give it a try. I've heard that it nets you 5 shots of every ammo. Now when Squall wakes up, Rinoa takes him out to the concert. Hey, this is like the Golden Saucer date scene in FFVII!!! Just follow this scene and hear some seedy stuff Irvine has to say. When the concert begins, exit that screen to the place with a porno mag and another loooooooong story scene will take place, and it's different depending on what instruments you chose. After this scene Squall will be back in his bed. Make your way back up to the bridge and you'll see that Quistis, Nida and Xu have taken over the controls of the Graden. And you can also control the Garden as a vehicle, just talk to Nida when you want to go. ---Things to do #3--- Having the ability to control Garden will open up a HUGE number of new places to explore, tons of mini-quests, new GFs and cards! You'll spend at least 2 hours with these mini-quests, so I'll divide this into more sections but you can do these in any order. -> New GFs <- Take the Garden south (you need to bypass the bridge first, or head north all the way) to the southern continent. It's the Centra continent (apparently no connection to the Centra as in Ancients of FFVII) and hover all the way to a place like an oil rig. I recommend that you take Squall, Quistis and perhaps Zell for this quest. Note Selphie would be useful here, but you cannot make her a party member yet since she needs some beauty sleep after the Missile Base mission. > Junction Check: Very important here, you all should have HP-J and most, if not all, of the important Junction Abilities. Also, make sure that all your members are in critical before entering. Pack your best spell in MAGIC attribute as it'll be very important, and for Squall and Zell, junction your second best spells in their Strength. Equip Mug, Enc-None, any Mag+??% or Str+??% for Squall/Zell. > Magic Check! If you've somehow gotten some Triples, exchange them to a non-active members. > GF Check! Leviathan should start on Spr+20% Now save your time and enter the Centra Ruins, you'll immediately notice a timer which will start the countdown as soon as you enter. You have 20 minutes, but it'll be more than enough if you followed my advice of equipping Enc-None and made your characters critical. What you do here is to climb the stairs. There are many DPs in this area but I'd advice you to ignore them for now, as the timer is rather merciless if you decide to make those side trips. Climb the stairs again in the place with a round statute in the centre keep heading forward and into a room with some steps. Walk up the steps and an elevator will take you up into a round shaped platform with 2 ladders. Take the left one, which will lead to a room with some devices. Press the button on the wall and get back down to the ground, press the blue thing between the ladders and steps will magically appear to the right side of the screen, wow! The stairs spiral around the central pillar thing. When you get to the top, you should see a gateway thing and a demon statute atop it. Climb the ladders to reach the statute and take out the eye. Now make your way down and climb more steps to the right. Clime another ladder leading to the top of the dome and you'll see the identical statute. Place the eye you found into the statute and it'll give you a 5 digit pass code, jot it down if you can. Then remove both eyes from the statute. Return back to the first statute and place both eyes into the socket. The flame to the right will start to emit rings, it's actually the place you enter the pass code, so do it and press the cancel button. If the pass code is correct, the gate should open, leading you to a big guy sitting in his throne – Odin! Check your timer, you should have about 10 minutes left. BOSS – Odin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Odin does not attack at all, but if you check his draw list, he has Triple! That's why I wanted you to have a good Magic attribute. Anyway, draw 300 Triples, and no, it's NOT optional this time! You must draw them... actually I couldn't care less if you don't but this is THE best opportunity to stock up on one of the top 3 spells in the game, if you don't, you're gonna be REAL sorry later. It shouldn't take long, maybe 3 minutes or so. When you're done you should still have plenty of time, and the critical status helps you to do Limit Breaks easily. So let Squall and Zell unleash their Renzokuken and Duel respectively, while Quistis uses her best Blue Magic, Aqua Breath should do it. You should also Mug him, which in term gives you a Luck-J Scroll, much better than the G-Potions or whatever you get normally. This fight is fun, but not long. Odin's really weak for some reason and goes down in 30 seconds flat! Congrats, now you have a new GF (well kinda), 300 of one of the best spells and a new rare card! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Magic Check! Now that the timers has stopped, you can feel free to wonder around for the DPs, some of them are hidden. There's one for Pain near the dome with the top statute, the right ladder at the double ladder tower thing has Aero and the DP in the round shaped room with a statute in the centre has Drain. GF PROFILE – ODIN* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Odin is unlike all other GFs, you cannot junction him and you cannot summon him either, instead, he will come randomly at the beginning of a battle. This fact makes Odin potentially the most annoying thing in this game, especially when you're trying to not gain a level, as he will slay everything in his path and let you handle the EXP. (So for the rest of the game, it's a very good idea to just stick on Enc-none and sprint through it.) He has only one attack, Zantetsuken, a blade skill that EVERYONE fears and it will tear everything into shreds! (I wonder why they didn't even translate it.) Yeah yeah, Odin is a dumb GF but getting him will clear the way to 2 other cooler GFs a bit later. > NOTE! TunzVic@aol.com informed me that if you hold L2 and R2 when the battle is loading (ie, trying to run away), the chance that Odin appears will be increased. Now I am really not sure about this because Odin appears way too often in the first place anyway. "Call upon me in times of need" was what Odin said when you defeat him, could this have been a clue? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With Odin out of the way, you'd want to get another GF – Tonberry! To prepare for it, just Card Mod any Tonberry/Tonberry King cards you have into Chef's Knives. Go back to the room with the round statute and de-equip Enc-None (you might want to save your game before doing this though) and keep fighting the Tonberries until you have about 20 Chef's Knives. (Note, ok having 20 Chef's Knives isn't exactly the correct solution, but I think you gotta collect 20 of them by defeating Tonberries. Otherwise I have no clue how to trigger the appearance of Tonberry King, just keep fighting Tonberries.) They have a very high HP level and is immune to all instant death attack except for Selphie's The End, which makes them very hard to kill. They don't give you any EXP so it's ok just to kill them, but they don't give you much AP either, so it's not the best place to build up. > NOTE!!! I was wrong, you CAN get Tonberry before acquiring Odin, just exit and re-enter if the timer's about to run out. This is quite a good idea if you don't want Odin to screw up your Carding attempts in the future. However, you won't be able to get his card and the 100 Triples until very late. > NOTE2!!! Well, since Odin is such a pain in the *** you might want to ignore him until the disc 3 after you've done with powering up. If you don't get Odin I don't think you'll ever acquire the power of lord Gilgamesh, so by all means pick up Odin before heading back into the Lunatic Pandora the second time in disc 3. The disadvantage to this is that you won't get his card for a long time (no big deal) and missing out the 300 Triples for a very long time (Arrrggghhhhh!!!) Try to use your character's Limit Breaks repeatedly and let Quistis have them with Micro Missiles, which should do like 9999 damage! When you do have 20 Chef's Knives in stock, the next Tonberry you fight will give you a surprise because... BOSS – Tonberry King ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...A giant king of the Tonberries will appear to avenge for all the Tonberries. It does have some killer attacks and likes to cast death sometimes, but it'll just sit there most of the time. Release your well-trained Limit Breaks and it should be gone easily. I'm not sure if Micro Missiles works here, but Quistis' other Limits works well too. If anyone dies, cast Life. You should know what to do.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – Tonberry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Perhaps the most annoying enemies in the series is now one of the good guys. Tonberries are creatures that resembles the Shumi Tribe who wears coarse tunics, the knife and lantern they hold on their hands are their trade marks. This GF's attack, Chef's Knife will stab a random enemy in battle. It's non elemental, but it's still not very strong and only targets one enemy, making the summon attack rather useless, although it's cute. (Doink!) The Tonberry has a hand full of good merchant-like abilities. The part where this GF really shines comes from Tonberry's Menu Abilities, being able to alter the price and stock of every shop you've visited and make them come to you! It also has 2 unique commands, LV Up and LV Down which are helpful for countless future battles. A few other skills are also pretty cool, but the disappointing fact comes from the lack of Junction Abilities. Best abilities: LV Up, LV Down, Initiative, Call Shop, Sell High, Haggle, Familiar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! Tonberry should start with Boost then his shop abilities, such as Haggle. -> Chicobo's Card <- This is an important card as it can lead to another new rare card from the Queen of cards. All you've gotta do here is to catch a Chocobo at each of the Chocobo Forests around the world, but before you leave, sound the Sonar until you find a place where it reacts, and activate the Ziner. No there's no Chicobo, but the mother Chocobo will find gifts like Aura Stones or Ultima Stones and give them to Squall. (They consider that Squall as one of "them".) I won't detail how you catch a Chocobo at each forest though, as it's really boring. Now all you need to do is to catch a Chocobo near Trabia and ride it all the way to the Chocobo Holy Ground to the north of Esthar. (Just remember you can cross shallow water with the Chocobo.) When you get there you should see 7 Chocobos, if less, it means that you haven't completed some Chocobo Forests. You'll witness the Chocobos dance to the sweet tunes of Eyes On Me (but I think the Chocobo dance in FFVII is cuter) then examine the Chicobo and you'll get the card. Talk to the Chocoboy to get a ride out of this place. BTW, you can purchase Gysahl Greens from the Chocoboy. Using it in battle will summon the Chicobo. GF PROFILE – CHICOBO* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A fun loving baby Chocobo, nothing too spectacular... unless you have a Pocket Station that is. Without it, the Chicobo will only be able to do 3 digit damage with its weak ChocoFire. However, if you powered up your Chicobo up via a Pocket Station, its attacks will upgrade into more and more powerful versions. The Pocket Station is not available on sale outside Japan and it's not likely that 99.9% of us will ever get our hands on one. I personally don't have it, and not planning to import one just for the sake of this game. It's a cute summon so you will wanna see this at least once. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -> Shumi Tribe <- This is located to the northern most island in the world. > Magic Check! I think the biggest charm of this village is the fact that it has the only recoverable Ultima DP in the world, and it's unusually drawer-friendly too, meaning that you'll always get a decent number of spells. However, you'll need to pay 5000 Gil for a pump, but I'd say it's worth it. Remember to return regularly to stock up on the best spell in the game. You can take a quest here to find some stones to help build the statute of Laguna. Again, I won't detail the procedures here but it's very simple. If you need help, talk to the guy sitting outside at a table and he'll give you some tips on how to find the stone. When you're done, check back on the elder and after some pointless conversations (they've obviously picked it up from Laguna) you'll be rewarded with a Phoenix Pinion which summons the Phoenix GF during battle, and no, this item is not unique. You can get them via several other ways. GF PROFILE – PHOENIX* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Bird of Immortality has been a favourite among the series. By using a Phoenix Pinion during battle, the Phoenix will appear (in a VERY cool graphical sequence) to aid your characters. Its flame will burn the enemies for a good deal of damage and will revive all fallen allies as if Life has been cast on them. The fire elemental damage is pretty good IMO, I've seen this doing 8000+ damage. The item is rare and expensive so it's not like you'll see Phoenix very often, but you should see it at least once as it looks really awesome. NOTE!!! Stephanus Rudiyanto Natari said that if you have summoned Phoenix at least once in the whole game, there'll be a chance that Phoenix will appear when ALL of your party members are defeated in battle, therefore savin' your butt. It's random whether or not that Phoenix will appear though, and it'll still use up a Phoenix Pinion, so keep some of them in stock. (I don't know if the number of Phoenix Pinions in your inventory will affect the chance of the GF sppearing though.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Magic Check! There are 2 more DPs around this area, the one in near the statute is Firaga and the one outside the elder's house has Blizzaga. > NOTE! Free Status Guard Yes, you can get a free Status Guard in the Shumi Village at some point later in the game, but I'm not sure how much later. It's probably obtainable right after the above mini-quest by exitting and re-entering the village, but I cannot confirm this. Basically what you do is head back to the village and you'll see that 2 Shumis are working on the statute, but they need more labour, and Attendant isn't too keen to do it. So talk to the Elder and convince Attendant. After that, it's still not enough and the gang wants Antisan's help, but Artisan is stubborn and is worried about turning into a Moomba. So you need to talk to Artisan's friend in FH, who tells you to take the toy Moomba back to Artisan in Shumi Village. So go back there and show Artisan the toy Moomba. Then he'll agree to do it. Then talk to the Elder for the Status Guard, which is very useful later. -> CC Quest <- If you've been a keen card player, I'm sure you've all heard about the CC gang. A group of card players who just loves cards and are in search of worthy players day and night. So why not start challenging them now? Jack Actually, it's not as easy as it sounds. First you need to build yourself a reputation by winning the card game about 20 times inside Balamb Garden. Then the guy who walks in the lobby will start to review himself as the CC Jack. Winning the battle and you're ready to move on, there are 6 more members of the CC gang left. If you're really havin' trouble with this guy then you need to practice your card skills. I do have many card strategies but I don't know if I should detail them here, as most of the strategies can change easily and you need to think fast for it. Club He's a guy walking around in the northern passageway. Just talk to some guy around that area and you'll probably hit the jackpot. After him, it's time for Diamond. Diamond The 2 girls standing nears the map of Garden in the lobby will play against you next. (Hey not fair, 2 against 1!) Afterwards it's Spade's turn, although I will make a side trip and challenge the Joker first. Joker The Joker is the guy who was selling you items inside the prison. He appears randomly inside the Training Centre. All the FAQs says the same thing but they never detail where exactly he appears in (there are about 4 separate screens inside the Training Centre) so it took me a long time to find him. Joker appears on a tiny island connected by planks to the screen to the _right_. He has Leviathan's card so you'll want to play him and win that card from him. Ironically, it's the only other Water elemental card in the game! (And if it's not enough, wait 'til you get Alexander.) Spade He appears on the platform outside the elevator on the second floor and apparently he is the same person who handed you those 7 cheap cards at the start. Heart Head for the bridge because... Heart is actually Xu!! Play her (she seems to be quite slow) and win from her. She also carries Carbuncle's card so it's another nifty win. After the battle Nida will comment how he didn't know that Xu was actually Heart. Xu said it was a secret and Quistis said she already knew. One more member to go, the King! What you need to do now is talk to Dr. Kadowaki in the Infirmary. She will say that she was the former King of the CC group, but she handed the title down to another girl sometime ago. King What you need to do now is get back to your room and choose to be alone, then rest. It's a random event so if you don't get to meet the King, try again. During the middle of the night, Squall will be wakened by the King who is actually... Quistis!! *Gasp* Actually it was rather obvious if you piece together the clues. Anyway, she challenges you. The King carries Gilgamesh's card so it'll be another great find. If you didn't get it this time, go back to the bridge the next day and challenge her there. She usually uses very good cards but she's also the slowest card player that I've played, very frustrating. > NOTE! All of the CC members carriy LV7 boss cards so you know where to go if you wanna complete your collection. IMO, the LV7 boss cards are the WORST! They are quite hard to get (as it's not a sure thing that they'll use them, unlike the rare cards), harder to beat (since they're powerful and hey, even rare cards have weaker sides!) and gives you really crap items with Card Mod. The higher the CC rank, the more likely that they'll use a LV7 card, so if you want LV7 cards, I found Xu is the best person to go to. > NOTE2! Do you guys want me to list some card strategies? I personally have had no problem with a majority of the card games but I've heard that many people are having troubles. I can list them here but it's a "Power-up guide".. who knows, just e-mail me with your suggestions if you think I should have more coverage on cards. -> Lotsa AP <- Ok, everybody knows that Cactuars are good for AP right? Well, you don't necessarily have to step onto Cactuar Island (which is only approachable with the Ragnarock) to meet them. Voltroneo@Hotmail.com says that you can encounter them on Kashkabald Desert in the Centra region. Fight there for lotsa AP and not a lot of EXP, whoohoo! You might wanna come back here every so often when you get a new GF to learn its skills. -> Others <- There are a few more mini-quests right now, but I won't detail them here as they're not that exciting. Basically, just check up on all major cities and see what's new, and explore the new lands. > NOTE! Don't do the Bone searching quest in Dollet yet, as the items will be upgraded once you're in disc 3 ---Silence of the (Ba)lamb--- Ho ho ho, when got the weight of the tons of mini-quests off your shoulders, it's time to follow on with the story. Head over to Balamb and you'll see that Galbadia Garden (also taken flight) has occupied the town of Balamb for some reason. Zell rushes in and demands that you take him with you, as for the other character, notice that Selphie is healed after the Missile Base mission? Take her along if you want (gosh I just LOVE that girl!) Quistis ain't too bad either. Talk to the guard next to the car and Squall'll make an excuse to get in. Try going to the hotel to talk to the commander but it's blocked off by guards. They want you to find the captain. Go back to Zell's house and since the hotel is occupied, Zell has no choice but to let you use his room. If you brought Selphie, you'll see a scene where she jumps onto Zell's bed, if you chose Quistis she'll tell you something about Zell's adventure on a T-Board and if you brought Irvine, he'll fiddle around with Zell's gun collection. All of them are hurlarious, but if you brought Rinoa instead, you'll see a lamn scene with her talking about Zell's grandfather (she's rarely funny.) If you wanna get outta town, talk to Big Bad Rascal and follow him around, distract the guard when he goes to find the girl's parents and then he can help you escape. > Card Check! According to David Seo, if you did helped Big Bad Rascal, talk to the hotel owner's daughter in the house next to Zell's. The girl will tell you that she has her father's card (Pandemona) and you can get it now instead of later. Whoohoo! Whacha have to do here is to find the captain. He likes to play hard to get and you have to keep asking people around town for details. If you can't be bothered, just talk to a guy near the docks and he'll tell you that the captain caught some fish. Return to Zell's house and you'll see smoke coming out of it. Then go to the train station and the guards should be down on the floor after eating the fish. To make them move outta the way, keep talking to the one blocking the stairs and everytime you do so, he'll move a little bit. Enter the train and you'll find that the captain is no other than Raijin! He runs away. Go back to Zell's house to save first though, and check your junctions. > Junction Check! Junction good spells to Vit. GF and Magic commands are useful for this fight. Pack Mug if you wanna goodie. > GF Check! Your GFs should have learnt a few new skills after the mini-quest events right? - Diablos: HP+??%s - Brothers: HP+80% - Carbuncle: Vit Bonus - Leviathan: Should have gotten Spr+20% and Boost, move onto Spr+40% and Spr Bonus when you're done - Tonberry: Should have gotten Boost and maybe even Haggle, if so move onto Sell High. Head to the hotel when you're done, and you'll have to fight Raijin. BOSS – Raijin, G-Soldiers x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nothing much of a threat. The soliders will go down in one hit. Raijin is stronger and his attacks can hit for decent damage, about 200 each hit. He has Thunder-type spells too, and can hit pretty hard but he's likely to go down sooner than expected. Mug 2 Str-Ups from him too. You can get them if you win the fight instead, but you'll only get 1, so my advice is that you steal them. Use regular attacks to take out the soldiers. Don't cast Thunder on him as he'll absorb it. (It's actually pretty obvious when you look at his name. I think Raijin means "Thunder" in Japanese.) Leviathan works amazingly well on Raijin, about 1000 damage. Otherwise, use your regular attacks or spells like Water (economical and decent power.) Tonberry might work too (since he starts off at about level 40.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After he's been beaten, you'll enter the hotel and yes, the commander is actually Fujin! You'll now have to fight against 2 of them. Boss – Fujin, Raijin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yeap, Raijin still absorbs Thunder and Fujin will absorb Wind attacks, so don't use them. Raijin still uses same old same old stuff but do look out for his Raijin Special attack, as it can hurt you pretty bad. Fujin's Zan don't pose much of a threat but her Aero can hurt. > GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Pandemona from Fujin! Mug Raijin again for more Str-Ups, Fujin has a Megalixir but winning gives you the same thing so it doesn't matter. For offence, Leviathan again works well, but it won't do as much damage to Fujin as Raijin. Tonberry + Boost too. Regular attacks works exceptionally well if you have good spells. Try getting your character to critical to unleash their Limit Breaks if you want, but it won't matter too much. Magic isn't bad either, but Fujin seems to be quite magically resistant so it's better to deal with her with physical attacks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – PANDEMONA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Originally named Pandemonium in the Japanese version, this GF had its dignity taken away by the translation team by changing its name to suit the 9 letter limits. Pandemona resembles a squid-mage creature from FFT only purple colored with a large squirrel-like tail. Fortunately, its summon attack is of straight wind-elemental, not completely screwed up like FFVII (Typhoon was actually earth!) or non-existent like the previous Fantasies. Tornado Zone sucks all enemies into Pandemona's guts and then thrown out in a gust of wind, hurting all enemies badly amidst the fiery tempest. It's great for just about any enemy, especially ones taking flight. Not only that, Pandemona is also the first GF that grants you Spd-J and Spd+20%/40% which are essential to winning most fights later on. The only bad part is that you need to learn Spd-J yourself by accumulation a large bundle of AP. Pandemona also has decent Strength abilities and the Initiative ability that allows you to act first. Best skills: Spd-J, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, Initiative ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---My heart will go on--- You're in the bridge of Balamb Garden and the blissful Selphie comes along and wants your team to take a look at the remains of Trabia Garden. > Card Check! Before you go anywhere, go back to Balamb and challenge the guy standing outside the hotel. He has Pandemona's card and it's a really good card with THREE strong sides!!! If you've won the card off her daughter earlier, just ignore this bit. > Uh uh, don't leave yet. Remember how I told you to try to get the Queen of Cards to Balamb after loosing Sacred's card? Well she should be here right now and that Chicobo card can open up another opportunity to get a new rare card. Save at the hotel and challenge the queen and deliberately try to loose the Chicobo card, try to get her back to Dollet. > If you've done so, head back to Dollet and she tells you her father has painted another card and it's somewhere in Balamb Garden. Before you leave, win back Chicobo's card from her little brat. > As for the new card, you might want to try the guy who's sitting next to a fountain and he can be found by taking right once in Balamb Garden's lobby. You can win the Chubby Chocobo card off him. Once you're ready to move on, move the Garden north-eastwards to get to Trabia Garden, or at least what's left of it. You must have Selphie on your team for this, as for the other member, it doesn't matter yet since you won't have to fight here. Climb the fence and your other team members arrive. Just follow the path and explore for some goodies. > Magic Check! There's a DP for Thundaga next to the fountain, the screen with the gravestones hides a DP for Zombie and a non- recoverable DP for Aura can be found on the ruins of a stage. > Card Check! Play a game with Selphie's best friend when Selphie leaves (or else you won't be able to challenge her) and she uses Selphie's card. The Random/Same/Plus rules makes this really tricky but (at least IMO) it helps to introduce the Open rule from Balamb. The Card game will become extremely strategic. Move to the basketball court for a long story scene, I won't spoil it here but there's actually not much to spoil, considering the simplicity of the story. Oops, I should shut up now. > Magic Check! Well, before you leave, you might want to try to encounter some Gaylas around the Trabia region, they're quite common. Then level them up and draw Meltdowns from them, then card them or level them down when you're done. Meltdown is a very good spell both for casting and junctioning, so it's worth it. Thanks to Voltroneo for this. ---Boom boom boom boom, the Garden goes boom--- Somebody suggests a visit to Matron's orphanage, but make sure you complete all the mini-quests do anything you need to do first, because you won't see the world map until disc 3. Take the Garden south to the Centra region and you'll see Galbadia Garden hangin' near Matron's orphanage. It's kinda hard to see since it's most likely to be in the screen's blind spot and takes most people by surprise. Upon getting reasonably close to the enemy Garden, a cut scene will follow where the Garden prepares for combat. You'll be given a list of options but I have absolutely no idea what they're good for, and neither do I have any idea how it works. So just choose whatever (or bang on the buttons like Selphie does) since I don't think it matters too much in the game. Squall'll give a speech and commands to all pupils within the Garden, then Irvine, Quistis and Selphie arrives. Make a new team but it doesn't matter since it's going to be a short scene. Make your ways to the Quad and you'll see Zell and Rinoa. Then Nida calls you back to the bridge (drag ons.) The scene switches to Zell's team, but you need to junction yourselves this time, since you will encounter enemies (I think) but it doesn't matter too much what you junction. I usually just stick Diablos and Enc-None on Zell since this scene is extremely short and don't deserve a careful junction. Continue as Zell and after the scene where the ground gives away and Rinoa falls, you need to make a retreat back to the lobby to meet with Squall's team. You will now have to choose 2 members between Quistis, Selphie and Irvine to stop the enemies in the classroom. Zell will help Rinoa and the member who is not chosen by Squall will help Xu defend the front Gates. It doesn't matter what you choose here, as both Quistis and Selphie are good characters, but take Quistis if you want an easy fight and have gotten Bad Breath. Save the game though. > Junction Check! Whatever here, but pack LV Down on whoever gets Tonberry. > GF Check! - Diablos: HP+??% - Brothers: HP+80% then HP Bonus if you wish - Carbuncle: Vit Bonus then ST Def - Leviathan: Spr+40% then Spr Bonus - Pandemona: Boost if you haven't gotten it yet, then definitely start on Spd-J - Tonberry: Any "shop" abilities will do Make your way to 2F Classroom and the enemies will come through the window. You'll be against 4 Paratroopers who are a real pain to beat since they love to cast annoying spells like Silence. I'd recommend using Quistis to cripple them with Bad Breath, else summon Siren first thing. Then take your time lowering their levels with LV Down since 4 of them will surely give you more EXP than you can handle by defeating them stright away. Draw some spells if you wish, then kill them off one by one. You'll be called back to the bridge afterwards where your characters will argue about what you should be doing. Squall finally decided that it's about time that they take an offensive turn and tries to crash into Galbadia Garden to get on board. Now you take control of Squall alone. On the second floor you have to help the girl to look for the little boy down the end of the hallway. When you do however, a Galbadia soldier with a jetpack comes through the entrance and pins Squall against the emergency door. It's time for a terrible micro-minigame but you are treated to an unfair advantage since the enemy will be able to hit you twice before you can even retiliate! What you need to do is to munch on the controller and you'll get an option of what you want to do. Escape is NOT an option since you cannot, you'll simply give the enemy the opportunity for a free hit. Try looking for another option, you'll get hit once more but it'll give you the choice of releasing the emergency lock the next turn. (I have no idea what happens if you try other options though.) The enemy tackles Squall just as he releases the lock and they both falls outside, hanging onto a rope and the only thing that keeps them from falling is the opponent's jetpack. You'll have to fight your way out though. Remember to block often as you don't start off with as much health as the enemy and you can easily get knocked out if you're not careful. Block when you don't have enough time to attack and when the opponent is about to hit you. Otherwise, punch them right after his attacks you, you should get a free hit. Then wait a split second to see if the enemy is about to attack, if so block. If not try attacking. Alternate between punches and kicks too and you'll eventually knock him out. Squall saves Rinoa by offering her the rope and they'll end up on Galbadia Garden. The couple will have more conversation before entering the Garden. Your other members already made it there, you'll now have to seek out Seifer and the sorceress. I think Irvine is a mandatory member here if I'm not wrong. (Is Rinoa also a mandoatory character here? I forgot but I always seems to choose her as the extra member.) Anyway, Selphie makes a great support member here. Rinoa's Invincible Moon is also very useful. > Junction Check! Make sure you pack Enc-None here for 2 reasons, Odin can ruin your carding attempts and some enemies here cannot be carded. If you do feel like carding, save often. > Magic Check! Yup, the same old DPs are still here if you feel like it but the one in the ice hockey field is now reachable (Protect.) Run around the rooms and you need to find 3 students within the complex who gives you a different key card each, which unlocks certain doors. It's pretty straight forward. > GF Check! When you get to the main lobby of Galbadia Garden, you'll see a giant monster with a tail occupying the stage in the centre of it. It is the GF Cerberus and I'd advice you challenge it but do save at the SP first. > Junction Re-Check! Alright, finally some serious preperations. Junction Quake (use Float if you don't have it) to Elem-Def and if you have a spare slot, junction Thungaga to it as well. As for ST- Def, try Berserk. Pack the Mug command along with the usual (Magic, GF, Draw etc..) Spr is very important here, and give a good Str boosts to both Squall and Irvine. If you brought Rinoa, make sure her condition is critical. > Magic Check! Make sure you have an adaquate supply of Dispel spells stored on all members. It's about the only time that spell is useful. BOSS – Cerberus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This boss can really hurt you bad, I mean, REALLY bad if you didn't take the precautions. It has 3 heads and each one like to cast different spells. Quake is the most common but sometimes Thunder-type or Tornado too. It also likes using Berserk on your members. Finally and the biggest threat of all, it LOVES casting Triple on itself! Obviously, Siren and Silence will not work so that's why you need to protect yourselves from the elements. Cast Dispel on it IMMEDIATELY after its Triple and use Esuna on whoever got affected by Berserk. Mug a Spd-J scroll from it too. You can draw Quake from Cerberus, as well as Double. I've heard of Triple but I guess you have to be at a high level to have that spell available. If Rinoa is in your team, let her use her Limit Breaks continuously and you'll eventually get Invincible Moon. For offence, Limit Breaks are the best options. Otherwise, Squall's regular attack works fine. Tonberry+Boost works too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll get Cerberus' card for winning, as well as a new GF. GF PROFILE – CERBERUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The 3 headed dog who guards the gate to Hades' realm is probably the most valuable GF in the whole game. Despite being cute, the summon Counter Rockets is also most useful. Even though the name makes no sense whatsoever, it gives all members in your party the Double AND Triple status in battle. A definate "must-have" for all the people who likes using magic as their main source of offence or defence. Just make sure you have a good compatibility. :) Cerberus also has the largest collection of the MOST useful abilities and MANY Junction Abilities for a variety of stats. Abilityx3 is great like you've all seen before but Cerberus' Spd+??% and ST-Defx4/ST-Atk has the guts to take on BOTH Siren and Pandemona! It's unique skill, Auto-Haste is also one of the most useful abilities in the whole game and is especially important for maxing out the Spd attribute. Make sure you so not miss this GF! Best skills: Spd-J, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, ST-Atk, ST-Defx4, Auto Haste, Expendx2-1, Abilityx3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! Cerberus should start with Spd-J like Pandemona. When you acquire keycard #3 you can take the lift up to what seems to be the ex-headmaster's office, but now taken over by Edea and Seifer. There's another SP here so save. Don't really have to redo your junctions yet. BOSS – Seifer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Yawn* Same old same old Seifer but this time her has a new Limit Break, Demon Slice. Not all that damaging, just laugh at how weak he is compared to your guys. :) Not much strategy here, normal attacks can take him out in a few hits but do try to mug a Hero from him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Edea calls Seifer useless and disappears. Take the elevator down to 2F and head for the Auditorium. There's a hidden SP outside so save there and check your junctions. > Junction Check! Make sure you have a good spirit. Junction Death to Squall's ST-Def and also Aura if you have an adaquate amount of it, if not, use Esuna/Life. BOSS – Seifer and Edea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seifer rushes into battle again saying that he's not weak and he's going to protect Edea. He's just the same as last time, a couple of regular attacks and he'll go down in no time. If you brought Rinoa, try again for Invincible Moon, which will lasts through the encounter with Edea. When he's defeated, Edea gets angry and will start the battle with Maelstorm, a gravity attack that takes out a lot of HP and gives you the Curse status. If you have Selphie, have someone draw Esuna and use it on her and cast Full Cure from her Slots. Otherwise, cure the status with Esuna and cast Cura/ga on yourselves. > GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Alexander from Edea! Carbuncle still sorta works here, try it if you want. I've heard that if you do so, Edea will cast Reflect on herself and bounce spells off it to hurt you. She DOES cast Reflect on herself BUT she doesn't cast spells on herself to bounce it off both times when I fought her. I guess it's probably because her levels are low and therefore, she has low AI. Anyway, if you do summon Carbuncle, she'll again try Dispel on you. However, at times she will ignore 2 members and goes out on Squall at full force and occasionally she will cast Death on Squall, that's why you need to junction Death to his ST-Def. Try out your Limit Breaks on her, which IMO is the best form of offense as Edea has very high Spirit and resists most summons. Rinoa's Invincible Moon is great in this battle. Also if you can, try out the various bullets for Irvine. It was fun as I put Edea to sleep with his Dark Ammo! :) Edea isn't all that hard if you've taken precautions and heal yourselves regularly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – ALEXANDER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This powerful GF have always raised a common question throughout the series: Why is Alexander a robot? Strange huh? Hmm, well Alexander had always been a popular summon since it's one of the very few ways of causing Holy-elemental damage. Holy Judgement is more spectacular than ever in FFVIII, and is strengthened even more by offering a long graphical sequence aided by Boost. Its skills however, will only hold your attention for a very short time. Like Leviathan, Alexander has only a few very good skills. High Mag-RF will refine medium –ra spells into better –ga spells, and frees up more slots! Med Data isn't very useful in battles but it'll uncover the Med LV-Up skill, a MUST acquiring another GF later on in disc 3. The Revive command will bring back a fallen ally for free. Elem-Defx4 is one of the best defensive skills and Abilityx3 is the last worthy member in Alexander's skill list that you can call good skills. Best skills: High Mag-RF, Abilityx3, Elem-efx4, Revive, Med LV-Up ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just when you thought that Edea gets pissed off with you again and about to throw another buncha icicles at you, Matron regains her consciousness and sanity. Rinoa walks her way to Seifer, kissed him (at least it looks like it, gee she must be desperate) and feints. Oh no... ========================= End of Disc 2 ============================= ============================= Disc 3 ================================ Disc 3 will probably be the climax of the story and plot development, most questions will be answered and yup, it's a now or never situation with most of the subquests. You can get the remaining GFs and cards about mid way through where the game gives you a good long break away from the game. Just hold on for a bit more, because your training is about to start. ---Taxicab Confessions V: A witch's secret--- (Ah, not really...) After a scene with Squall and the unconscious Rinoa, Quistis calls saying the sorceress Edea is back in her orphange and wants to see Squall and gang. The Garden should be relatively close to the lighthouse and Edea's house. Go there and check out Edea and Cid. Listen to her when she explains the situation and a new threat. Squall drifts off to his own little world again, this time without Rinoa. What Squall really want is just to see Rinoa back on her feet so he left. > Magic Check! A DP in the basement has Curaga > Card Check! Edea's card is now obtainable from the sorceress herself. Make sure you save first because the pain in the a$$ Centra rules are used in this region, along with Random. Do what you did in Trabia and see what happens. You can make trips to abolish these rules but considering the only good card in the Centra region is Edea's, it's not worth the effort. Hopefully luck will be on your side. > If you didn't get to challenge Cid for Seifer's card in the previous discs, he's here. ---To be scorched, or not to be scorched--- > Magic Check! If you want good spells early, give all Meteors and Flares that Squall and the member whom's about to enter Laguna's scenario to someone else. Squall will return to the Infirmary to see Rinoa, and boom, there he goes. It's the dream world again and this time, you get to choose who you want to tag along with. I personally chose Irvine since he started off at a higher level than my other characters so he'll have a _few_ more HP. The other thing to note is, Kiros will inherit all the spells from the character whom will enter the dream scenario. > NOTE!!! This is a very strange scenario because sometimes Ward does appear and sometimes he does not! I do not know what is the exact requirement to get Ward to appear in this scenario but if you do, be sure to down me a line and I'll fill your name in this guide. (I didn't have Ward in both of my games.) > NOTE2!!! Thanks to Colin Pentney, who told me that to get Ward, simply skip the issue of Timber Maniacs in Shumi Village (the one where it features Laguna and Kiros in the film and Selphie commented that "I wonder why Ward is not in the picture.") Zap zap, Laguna ran out of money and is posing as an actor like it detailed in a copy of Timber Maniacs. When the camera starts rolling, you'll see Laguna taking the role of a sorceress slayer. Then came the dragon that was supposed to be played by Kiros except it smells like barbecue. Uh oh, another horrible micro-minigame's comin' your way. This time it's a fair fight, except Laguna's gunblade does way too little damage compared to the dragon. Remember to block when the dragon's about to attack, or else you won't last long. When you see an opening, jam on the attack button and continous slices will sorta work. It's not fool proof though, as sometimes his claws will break through your attack, but it works most of the time. When you "kill" it, Kiros joins you. Don't fight it yet since you'll be junction-less. Choose to get ready and head back to the save point in the previous screen. > Junction Check! Spread out your GFs between 2 characters. Junction Aero/Tornado and any Fire spells (preferably Firaga) to your Elem-Def to block its magic attacks. Junction good spells to Vitality and Strength. ST-Atk don't matter too much since it rarely works against powerful enemies that a Ruby Dragon when your levels are so low. As for commands, pack Card if you wanna card it, else pack LV Down. Also equip Mug if Quistis hasn't learnt her Fire Breath yet. > ALTERNATE! If you wanna try out my alternate strategy for getting good spells, it's much more important. The Elem-Def junctions won't protect you enough, so you need a good Sprit too. These are some examples: HP: Tornado =+3000 Str: Quake =+40 Vit: Meltdown =+80 Mag: Pain =+60 Spr: Reflect =+72 Spd: Triple =+70 You should have at least 100 Ultimas if you've returned to the Shumi Village regularly, so put it in place of HP/Spr if you like. Str isn't all that important here. Equip Character skills like Vit+40%, Spr+40% and something else (Mug/HP+80%) and you should be powerful enough. You also need both LV Up and LV Down, because of this, one character will have to sacrifice the Magic command for the Draw command. An Item command can be useful here too. Finally, switch the battle speed to the slowest. > Magic Check! For the alternate method, you need an adaquate supply of Shell, Haste, Protect, Life, Regen and Curaga. > GF Check! - Brothers: HP Bonus then their other –J abilities. - Carbuncle: ST-Def and x2 - Leviathan: Recover/Mag-J - Pandemona: Having already learnt Spd-J will be a great asset, start on Spd+20% if so - Cerberus: Ditto, but he maybe a bit slow at that - Alexander: You should get his Boost first if you haven't, then the useful High Mag-RF is worth looking at You might wanna take your GFs to the desert regions and fight some Cactuars to learn some abilities, especially for Alexander. Try to complete High Mag-RF, Med Data and Med LV-Up if you can. > NOTE! On the screen with the Ruby Dragon, you can encounter Ochus. They're pretty decent to fight against since they give you 7AP each! Fight here for a while to learn some expensive abilities if you wish. When you're done, heal, save and go for the dragon. BOSS – Ruby Dragon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ok, this isn't REALLY a boss since you will receive EXP for it but making this section for this fight is gonna make my guide look tidy right? Don't shake your head like that... Anyway, if you've juctioned yourselfves properly, it shouldn't be able to hurt you with its spells. Just use LV Down on it a few times and kill it off. Mug it for a Inferno Fang (but sometimes you'll get a crap fang if its levels are too low.) ALTERNATE STRATEGY! – The quest for the better spells early. Alright. We all know that Ruby Dragons has some great spells available for drawing right? The problem is this one is too weak. So you need to level it up to steal its spells and level it down again to kill it. This is VERY dangerous though, since the most powerful monster in the whole game can crush you like peas when there's a big level difference. Before you level it up, cast your support spells while the dragon is still weak. The first priority is to summon Cerberus or cast Double. This makes casting spells quicker, so add Haste, Protect, Shell and Regen. Now you should determine what level you should raise for the dragon. Your aim should be above 30, but if you raise it too much, it'll be way too powerful. Level 30-50 would be my recommendation. (If you cannot get it right, rise it to level 100 and use LV Down to make it go back to 50.) The character WITH the magic command is VERY crucial here, so do anything to keep him alive. The dragon's spells are going to hurt you bad, but the Spirit and Shell will deduce the damage by quite a lot. Its most damaging attack is Breath, which by my calculations with the HP/Vit boosts and Protect, you'll probably survive. Now draw both Flare and Meteor at your leasure, but if a status wears off, renew it quickly. Don't hesitate if you need healing, it's better off safe than sorry. Finally, when you've done all the hard work accumulating 200 Flares and Meteors, use LV Down and crush it. Oh and don't forget to steal Inferno Fangs if you want to. THE ALTERNATE ALTERNATE STRATEGY! – Taming the Ruby Dragon Thanks to Colin Pentney for this trick. "Well, I have a strategy that could theoretically let you LV Up the Ruby Dragon as high as you want, without (much) fear of it turning your party into crispy, bite-size snacks. I say "theoretically" because although I've seen it work many times before, I'm still not EXACTLY sure how or why it works. But here's what I know: "Ok, this happened to me in my first game of FF8, while I was (foolishly) wandering around in the forest near Edea's house, completely unaware that Ruby Dragons sometimes make their residence there... I was also lv. 100 at the time. So I ran into a lv. 100 R. Dragon, and began what would turn out to be an hour and a half long battle. It wasn't going so well for the first hour or so... he would basically do either Meteor or Breath every single turn, so I was forced to sit back and do nothing but heal, rarely getting the chance to attack. "After a while, it eventually killed of Zell, and I had no real way of reviving him, because I couldn't afford to take that extra turn to use a Phoenix Down or cast Life. That's when a funny thing happened... the dragon completely stopped doing Breath and Meteor! In fact, the only things it was attacking me with were Aero and Fira (not even Firaga!). So I was able to draw all the spells to my heart's content, only taking several hundred damage on one person per turn, instead of several thousand per turn on everyone! Actually, it would still rarely do it's claw attack, but that only did about ~1000 to one person, anyway. So after drawing 100 Meteors and Flares for Squall and Rinoa, I went and resurrected Zell... big mistake. Instantly, the dragon started it's old attack pattern of using Meteor or Breath every turn! So I cleverly deduced that it was Zell's death that caused it to cease attacking so fiercely. So I put my theory to test... I let Zell die again. And sure enough... it would throw nothing but Aero, Fira, and the occasional claw attack at me. So if you haven't caught on by now, my strategy is to kill one person in your party while facing Ruby Dragons, and it'll apparently become "tame", leaving you free to draw all those juicy spells at your leisure. I've tested this again and again, and it seems to work every time on the Ruby Dragons in the forest! "Now... there SHOULD be no difference between those dragons and the one you fight in Laguna's scenario. So just kill off Kiros or Ward (preferably Ward) at the start of the battle, then Lv Up the dragon as high as you want. It should then be tame, and only hit you with weak spells. Draw all you want, then kill off Kiros and revive Ward, letting him get a turn at drawing. Lv Down the dragon when you're done, and then kill it off or Card it! It's that simple!" Gee, it just keeps on going. Oh, this strategy has been tested by Qualera and a few other readers, so it does work. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you're done, the scenario ends after a little walking. ---Seedy... I mean SeeD Ship--- Squall will share some conversation with Ellone via telepathy and that's when he get the idea of trying to get Ellone to bring back Rinoa... doesn't make too much sense to me I know. Go back to Edea's place ("Look who came crawlin' back!"... is what I'd say.) She tells you that the white SeeD ship is of nomad blood and never stays at the same place for long, but seems to be adapt to the Centra region. Take the Garden for a spin around that region. The ship is located in one of the "ditches" around the land that looks a bit like a hand. It's quite hard to find even in your second game, but following the above guidelines will narrow down the possibilities. Once you're on board, you need to convince the white SeeDs that you've been sent by Edea, and you'll also find 2 familiar faces: Watts and Zone. > Card Check! If you held onto the kinky wet T-shirt edition of Girl Next Door all the way back in Timber, you can exchange it for Shiva's card if you give it to him for free. (Gee, it almost makes you wonder what he's been doing with a card of a naked lady...) > Magic Check! There's a Holy DP in one of the rooms. It's quite a rare spell in this game for some reason. Talk to the guy who appears to be the "captain" and he'll tell you some stuff about Ellone. She decided to play hard to get and was taken by Esthar soldiers. Well, no luck here so head back to the Garden and Squall'll foolishly try to carry Rinoa to Esthar and you'll see a long scene with the 2 of them. When you get to a train station, Zell and Quistis will be waiting and guess who's tagging along? Edea of course, she'll be a great asset, even though she may not be as powerful as Seifer. ---Salt Lake City? Yup, I've been there--- With the mighty Edea in your team (BTW, her status picture looks really cool!) will allow your second power up session, and some of your GFs, like the poor Siren, REALLY needs some EXP. So do what you did with Seifer earlier, kill of 2 members and let Edea take all the EXP. > Junction Check! Well, if you want to quickly level up a few GFs, junction only 1 or 2 GFs you want to level up (Siren) to a dead member so the EXP gained isn't spread over a large majority. Junction all the important ones to Edea though, and make sure she has all the –J abilities. Equip LV Up on Edea if you want. Also, don't junction any GFs that who has mastered both their level and skills (ie, your first 3 GFs if you did the Seifer power-up trick in Dollet.) > Magic Check! Make sure that Edea has a large supply of good spells for junctions. Now you can fight either on the world map or in the Great Salt Lake area. You can only encounter Vysages in the latter, they're pretty good for AP though, and if you level them up, you can get some pretty decent spells for drawing, but watch out for Meteor, it can be lethal when you have only a single member. > Note! Junction good spells to Edea's HP and equip HP+80% for a huge HP boost. Edea can execute her Limit Break, Ice Strike, more easily than the other members but not as much as Seifer. (I'd say about 50% health remaining or less.) So use it to your advantage. Try out Edea's Ice Strike on the Vysages, or you may wana try to Silence them with Siren. If you decide to power up on the over world, expect to see a lot of Mesmerizes but you can encounter a Hexadragon or something occassionally that's great for EXP. > GF Check! I think I'm gonna stop listing this section since it's towards the end of th game where things can get a bit loose, so I'll just list what skills you should learn in what order. - Brothers: All of their HP skills first, then the –J skills. - Carbuncle: All Vit skills, then ST-Def and ST-Atk skills and finally complete the –J skills. - Leviathan: All Spr skills then Recover and –J skills - Pandemona: All Spd skills then Initiative and –J skills - Cerberus: VERY tricky here, since many of its great skills has prerequisites. I'd get its Spd skills first, then Spr-J will unlock ST-Def and learn everything until ST-Defx4 is complete. Then Mag-J will unlock ST-Atk and finally all his other Character Skills. - Alexander: You'll want to complete High Mag-RF ASAP, then immediately move onto Med Data, which unlocks Med LV-Up. (These skills are required to acquire the GF Doomtrain but are as expensive as hell!) Afterwards, complete Elem-Defx2 and x4, then Revive. - Tonberry: All of his shop skills are exceptionally useful, not crucial but convinient, especially if you wanna use the money trick. Completing all 3 of its shop skills will trigger Call Shop. It also has 3 interesting Character Skills. I stayed in this area until Alexander learns High Mag-RF, which comes just in time since I was running out of magic slots and it helped to turn –ras into –gas. > Magic Check! There are 2 DPs here. There's a hidden DP for Meteor before a bone bridge hanging over a cliff, it's also non-recoverable. The other DP is Thundaga and it's over the other side of the bridge. When you're satisfied, find the SP and revive your members with a Tent. > Junction Check! Spread out your GFs again and pack Leviathan's Recover if you want an easy fight, also Enc-None too. Junction Confuse and other status spells to your ST-Def. Whenever you're ready, save and head all the way to the left, you should be on top of a cliff over looking a large canyon, where you'll find your next boss. BOSS – Abadon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This boss is an undead, but it has very powerful claw swipes and it can cause the Curse status. After a while, it'll take a defensive stance by standing up, where it'll start to cast negative status spells on you. Its defence is also rised during that period. Since it's undead, cure-type spells can deal damage to it. If you've equipped Leviathan's Recover command, use it on the boss and it will deal 9999 damage, killing it in one hit. Else, draw Cura and cast it on the boss. If you've became critical, use your Limit Break, also take advantage of Edea's Limit Break. If you brought Mug, you can steal a Power Wrist, else you'll win 10 Flare Stones. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you're done, exit the screen and you'll have a sequence with a hidden portal. Work your way into it and after taking the elevator a couple of times, your team will arrive in a giant modern looking city complex... Esthar?! > Magic Check! Oh yeah, before proceeding with the story, trade Edea's spells to another member... you'll see why in a sec. ---And then a hero comes along..--- Just when things are heating up, someone has to ruin it by sending your team back in time to Laguna's world. Ward is back in this final Laguna scenario after a long absence as a janitor and you can assign who is going to play the parts of Kiros and Ward yourself. I don't think sorceress Edea is selectable so that's why you need to trade her magic to someone else. Basically, just choose whoever has the majority of the spells stocked. You'll see Laguna's team being held as prisoners and are used as slaves for manual labour. Ward and Kiros gets taken away, but before you do anything, check your junctions. > Junction Check! Juction all GFs on Laguna first, and give him the command LV Down. Talk to everyone on the screen and eventually it'll yield a fight with a guard, one on one. You need to use LV Down on him, it should be an easy fight. Actually, I've forgot what really happens here, but eventually Ward and Kiros will be back in your team and you'll get surrounded by soldiers. Don't fight yet as you need to prepare. > Junction Check! Spread out your GFs and keep the LV Down command, maybe the Card command too if you want. I think you'll have to fight 2 streams of soldiers, with a Gespar in the second fight. Just the usual LV Down strategy, but you may want to card the Gespar, doesn't matter anyway. Head all the way up to the surface where you'll meet up with the lab assistant guy. They'll mention something about Ellone being held captive. > Magic Check! A DP for Death is near the entrace. > NOTE! If you haven't gotten a Laser Cannon to learn Quistis' powerful Homing Laser already, you can get one now, but it also requires a bit of work. Make sure you equip both LV Up and LV Down commands and the Mug skill. Save at the SP and return to where you started. You'll encounter another fight when you approach Dr. Odine. It's 2 soldiers and an Elastoid. You can normally steal Laser Cannons from the Elastoid easily, but not when your level is so low. (This is also the last time you will ever fight an Elastoid so don't miss this chance.) Alright, now use LV Down on the soldiers and eliminate them. Use LV Up on the Elastoid until its level is above 30, then use Mug. You should get a Laser Cannon. > Magic Check! The high level Elastoid has Meltdown, a great spell, for drawing. So stock up on it if you want. (It's also a good idea to trade all your Meltdowns to a member who's not going to participate in this scenario earlier. Oops, I should've mentioned this earlier shouldn't I?) Anyway, get as many Meltdowns as you want. It also has Stop, but you don't need to stock it. Just draw it and cast it on the Elastoid, it should freeze it for 2-3 rounds. Use LV Down on it and either card it or squash it, done. After you beat the enemies, you'll see a scene where you take the car to the research centre to rescue Ellone. You'll fight another battle when you get inside the structure, just use the usual LV Down strategy. > Magic Check! 2 more DPs are in this section, equip Move-Find to see them all. The first one to the top right corner has Double and the one upstairs has Flare. You can take the yellow disc thing in the centre of the room (it looks like a throne) up. Enter the door and you'll fight another boring encounter, just use the usual. Examine the computer terminal and take the elevator thing back down to find Ellone. This scenario will end with a happy ending. (And they lived happily forever after... or did they?) ---Scarred for life--- Squall and team will wake up where they fell unconscious. A car arrives to pick them up. You'll get a quick tour (well, not really a tour) of Esthar and you'll arrive at the Presidential Palace. Edea will explain her situation and Dr. Odine wants to examine the unconscious Rinoa. Nope, Ellone is not here either, but they arranged to have Squall and Rinoa launched into space. Lunar Gates is your next destination, but you'll want to check out Esthar before you do so. > Card Check! Before you go, challenge Dr. Odine to a card game since he has Ward's card, my personal favourite card, as it's basically a more powerful version of Ifrit's. > Magic Check! Esthar is HUGE, so you'll have to run around to find all the DPs, but some of them are not worth the effort. The one outside the Presidential Palace has Blizzard (?!) A DP for Tornado is outside Dr. Odine's lab and one for Quake is in the shopping mall. (Or was it the other way around?) The other DP (Curaga) is on one of the highways somewhere to the east. Before you go though, check out the shopping malls, you can buy a lot of cool stuff here, especially if you have gotten Tonberry's Familiar ability. Don't forget to repeatedly visit Cheryl's shop for a free Rosetta Stone. Johnny's shop may appear to be closed, but just repeatedly visit his shop and it'll eventually be open for business. It's worth it though, as he sells some great and rare stuff like Elixirs, saving you time of having to make them. Once you visited his shop, you'll be able to shop "online" at anything through Tonberry's Call Shop ability. Leave the city when you're satisfied, but Lunar Gates is pretty far away so you might wanna hire a car. But then again, there's a few things you can do right about now so maybe not. ---Things to do #4--- You'll want to check your map for the location of Tears Point, which is to the south east of Esthar. Head over there since you can pick up a vital item. > Magic Check! There are 2 DPs in this area, one for Reflect next for the statutes and one for Life (hidden) on the path leading to the statutes. Walk towards the statutes in the centre of the area and you can vaguely see a shiny thing on the ground. Examine it to receive the Soloman's Ring. This ring is indeed the one detailed in the third issue of Occult Fan magazine (no, not Squall's ring!) The other issues of Occult Fan hints the key 666 items to unleash the cursed GF. So these items are: * 6x Malboro Tentacle * 6x Steel Pipe * 6x Remedy+ Once you have the required key items in your inventory, you can use the Soloman's Ring to summon the GF Doomtrain to be your ally. You should have accumulated quite a number of Steel Pipes from fighting with Wendigos, or you can mod Elastoid's card. Six of them is not hard to get. As for Remedy+, it can only be obtained from refining 10 Remedies into 1 Remedy+ through Alexander's Med LV-Up skill, which is quite a pain since it's so expensive and requires the prerequisite of Med Data. As for Malboro Tentacles, you can obtain them now or later, by defeating or stealing from Malboros. Malboros can be found in the Esthar region but only before the Lunar Gate event, they also seem to favour the western border. Also, it's also going to be quite a mission to get its tentacles since you don't want to level up, but here's how I did it. Quest for Malboros Tentacles early ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ok, junction Tonberry, Siren, Shiva, Quezacotl and Cerberus to Edea, and make sure she has good spells in every category to junction. (Put 100 Triples in her Speed.) Kill off the other 2 members like always so they won't gain any EXP. ST-Def is vital for this mission. ST-Defx4 can be learned from Cerberus, but it's very long way and requires MANY prerequisite skills. If you've gotten the Status Guard from Shumi Village, use it on one of your GFs. Else, just stick to Siren's ST-Defx2. (I only had an ST-Defx2 when I did this.) Junction 100 Berserk and Confuse in it. And if you have ST-Defx4, junction 100 Sleep and Silence as well. Make sure Edea has an adequate supply of Regen, Shell, Protect, Haste, Demi, Curaga and at least one Double/Triple. Give her the commands, Attack, Magic, LV Up and Treatment. As for character abilities, I'd choose any Spd+??% and HP+80%. Run around the western border until you encounter a Malboro. You're gonna need some luck on your side. The first thing it will do is Bad Breath, which is gonna put Edea to Sleep if you only have ST-Defx2, but it's quite mild if you have x4. If you have only x2, just wait until it hits you with its Dissolving Acid attack, which will wake you up. In either case, use Treatment on yourself, since the Malboro won't use Bad Breath for a while. Now cast all the positive status spells on Edea, in this order: Haste, Regen, Protect (wards off Dissolving Acid), Shell (wards off Eerie Sound Wave) then Double or Triple. Now use LV Up on the Malboro ONCE, it should bring its level over the 30 barrier. This is needed because low level Malboros gives you Poison Powder instead. Now keep casting Double/Triple Demis when your turn comes up. If you get affected by Bad Breath again, use Treatment like before. If you really need healing fast, just use Curaga on yourself (one should be enough.) If one or more positive status wears off, renew them. Soon, the Demi you cast will start taking off less than 9999 damage, it's an indication that you're getting close. You may switch to other spells if you want, but just take note that they won't do all that much damage for some reason. Firaga is decent since the Malboro is weak against fire. Else just execute Ice Strike for a lot of damage (about 8000.) You should be able to nail the Malboro without much problems with this strategy. The only threat is not having ST-Defx4 and the Malboro keeps using Eerie Sound Wave, I remember getting KO'd once because of it. You should win 8 Malboro's Tentacles (or rarely 10 Cursed Spikes) and tons of EXP! (My Edea went up TWELVE levels!!!!!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you do not wish to obtain the tentacles now, you'll have to wait until after acquiring Ragnarock. As for the Remedies+, buy 60 Remedies and refine them from Alexander's Med LV-Up into 6 Remedies+. Now you should have the basic requirements to summon GF Doomtrain, a VERY cool GF! GF PROFILE – DOOMTRAIN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When I first downloaded the Grasharaboras (Doomtrain) video off the net, I immediately knew that Doomtrain would become my favourite GF in the game. I wasn't disappointed. Never in videogame history had you given the choice of summoning a _train_ to your aid, which makes Doomtrain extremely unique and, well, hip. In someway related to the Phantom Train boss in FF6, a vehicle that carries all "past aways" to the "other side", Doomtrain's graphical sequence is no less than breathtaking (IMO.) Its attack Runaway Train is of Poison elemental, and can get very strong because Doomtrain is capable of learning SumMag+40%. As an added bonus, Doomtrain's attack will also cause every single negative status on the targets that you can think of, except the ones where the target is immune against. Doomtrain is a good choice against bosses because of Vitality Zero. It doesn't have that many to die for skills, but enough to keep you going. ST-Defx4 and Elem-Defx4 are both invaluable defensive skills. Forbid Med-RF is essential to get your characters stronger if you have the cash and Junk Shop is the only "shop" skill that Tonberry does not have, whoohoo! Best skills: ST-Atk, ST-Defx4, Elem-Defx4, Auto-Shell, Forbid Med-RF, Junk Shop ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! Start with Doomtrain's Boost, then Forbid Med-RF for its ability of creating goodies. Then Elem-Defx4 and ST-Defx4 will be great assets to your party. Auto-Shell is nice if you put it to use. IMO, Doomtrain benefits greatly from the SumMag+??%s, since it's rather weak at first when you get it (and since it's the GF that you want to use a lot.) ---Gateway to the moon--- When you're ready to move on, head to Lunar Gates where you'll see a scene. They're preparing to launch Rinoa, Squall and another team member into space. Choose whoever here since they don't have to fight, but if one member is really in trouble of almost gaining a level, take them. Zell will accompany Edea for her stuff and you're prompt to take someone else. You'll hear a loud thump and it's time to head back to Esthar to check out what happened. ---The box in the sky--- You need to go to Dr. Odine's lab (the one where you can't get into earlier) and he'll explain the situation. The Lunatic Pandora will cross Esthar and you have 20 minutes. There are 3 points where the Lunatic Pandora will pass over a certain point in the city, and you're given the approximate time which the Lunatic Pandora passes by. What you need to do it to be at a certain point in the city during a certain time frame. Just pay attention to Dr. Odine and you shouldn't have much of a problem finding your destination. > Junction Check! Give the LV Down command to the person who has the best speed, and pack Enc-None as well. Exit the lab and head for the destination. You can press the Square button to bring up a very helpful time bar showing the time left, the time and where the Lunatic Pandora passes through the city. I'm not too sure if you will meet random encounters here though, can't remember. The first destination is the "city centre"... You can play "spot the difference" with the picture you're shown and they real destination, it's somewhere to the central western part of the city. It's kinda hard to find but you have 5 minutes so no worries. If you get there in time, just wait a little while. When the time comes, some soldiers will jump out and attack. Just lower their level and kill them, they're easy. Note that the timer is still on during the fight but there should be enough time for it. After the fight, Zell's team will enter the Lunatic Pandora. There are a LOT of goodies in here, and even MORE if you've triggered all the traps in Laguna's second scenario. Make sure you catch 'em all. Anyway, I've gonna be detailed here to get you all the cool stuff in there. From the entrance, there's a Meteor DP and a Curaga DP is in the room with 3 elevators. They recover very fast so stay here for a while to pick some of them up. The right #3 elevator up to the basement and climb the ladder in that area down. There is a DP for Confuse here, and the circular red gate would be open if you triggered a certain trap, leading to a LuvLuvG (kinda hidden.) Now take the path south and you'll regconize this area. It's the infamous three hatches! So if you fiddled around with all 3 of them, they should all be open. The left one has a Phoenix Pinion, the middle one has a Silence DP and the right one (and the best one of all!) has a Power Generator! Now Quistis can finally learn Ray-Bomb! Further along with path, you can pick up a copy of Combat King 005 (very obvious) and to the end of the passage has an Ultima DP. (Maybe something else in there too, forgot.) Make your way back to the elevator hall. You don't have to worry about #2 as it will lead you to some empty hallways with NOTHING in them. Don't even try to find stuff in there. I remember spending like half in hour jamming on the X button trying to find items in there... Ugh... Bad memories, don't wanna talk about it. Take elevator #1 down and there's a Holy DP ready to be drawn. There's also a Spd-J Scroll near by. That's about all folks, not too bad huh? If you didn't get everything now, you'll still have a chance later with Squall. So just follow the path past a SP and take the top exit. Your team will be kicked out of the Lunatic Pandora. ---Vixen or tramp?--- You'll get to see a pretty cool scene on how they catch those capsules in space. Afterwards, Squall and gang are quick thawed. You'll be asked to carry Rinoa to the medical room. > Card Check! Save at the SP and challenge Piet to a card game, as you wanna rob his Alexander card. The space region is the most annoying as it uses ALL rules, so you really need a lot of strategy and luck. (But a lot of strong cards isn't the answer, since he can combo you badly.) It might take a few tries, but eventually you'll get it. It's the _only_ holy elemental card in the whole game, making it absolutely perfect for elemental battles, since Holy elemental spots appear more often than others. Note you _can_ delete rules even if this region has every single one, but it's rarely of much help. Leave Rinoa and follow them to the control room. After a bit of speech, you'll be told that Ellone is in the room upstairs. Save your game again though, because... > Card Check! Ellone has Laguna's card. It's not as easy as it sounds though, as Ellone is a real b**ch when it comes to card games, even more so than Edea/Quistis/Xu/Selphie's friend/Queen of Cards and her little brat put together. First, she rarely uses Laguna, then she'll usually combo you _really_ badly. (Talk about a 5 hit combo outside of a fighting game. :) Curse that girl! It'll take some reloading for this game. (Prepare some Asprin too.) Make sure you play the card game with Ellone _before_ you speak with her normally. Squall will take Ellone with him to see Rinoa, then the alarm sounds as Rinoa wakens and is possessed. Follow her around and she'll eventually switch off Adel's seal, and flies out of space to free her. The Lunar Cry has started, what shall I do? Anyway, go upstairs to the locker room and put on one of those astronaut suits and try to get outta there. You'll see another pointless scene where you try to race them outta the air lock but it shuts and you'll have to go back again. Geez, if that's how they're planning to lengthen FFIX by 2 minutes I'm gonna go complain. You'll have to get onto an escape pod right now. You'll have to talk to Ellone and then descend an elevator. Don't go into the pod yet because... > Magic Check! If you examine a hatch to the left-hand side, it'll open reviewing a DP for Meltdown. Then hop onto the escape pod and ready for lift off. The space station is completely destroyed after that. Ellone will try to send Squall into Rinoa's past, just watch some nitfy cut scenes to see what Rinoa had gotten up to during her absense. You'll see quite a long scene with Rinoa in space and her past, I won't spoil it here (and there is something to spoil this time :) Anyway, the scene ends with Squall's voice reaching Rinoa's heart, this part's kinda touching. He just rushed out of the escape pod to chase after her in space. You'll be forced to play the _worst_ micro-minigame in all videogame history. Not only is it boring and pointless, you're not even imformed about the controls until you fail! Geez, what you do here it to keep your finger on the accelerate button (it's the Triangle button) for 30 seconds and aim for Rinoa's figure with the stick. Playing this game almost makes me vomit... Squall rushes up to Rinoa and embraces her in his arms, holding onto dear life. The end is nigh... ---Eyes on me--- (No, not her, ME!!!) An airship just happens to be near by, watch the awesome FMV sequence. The couple will climb in. Go release the air lock and save at the SP. In the next room, Squall and Rinoa will take off their bulky astronaut suits. Rinoa wants a hug but Squall isn't very keen. Keep going, but check your junctions first. > Junction Check! Junction all GFs on these 2 characters, and just use whatever you see fit. If you don't have enough spells, steal them off another team member. Not all that much here really but be sure to give Rinoa a good magic level. Junction any Thunder-type spells to Elem-Def (or use Flare) and junction any Silence to ST-Def. > NOTE! Rinoa will loose the ability of her Angelo skills inside the Ragnarock, since Angelo did not accompany her into space. To make up for it, Rinoa will gain the access to her Angel Wing Limit skills. > Magic Check! Make sure Rinoa has a variety of good offensive spells and trade any status spells not being junctioned or Scan/Dispel to another member to make her Angel Wing more effective. Y..yikes! A..aliens! You've gotta fight them because the air ship will refuse the access to the pilot's chamber when it detects a biological contamination. They are counted as bosses too... BOSS – Propagator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They are not all that hard. They love casting Thundaga but you should be protected. Use Squall's Renzokuken for a quick fight, and you might want to try out Rinoa's Angel Wing too. There are 8 of them on the ship, but if you kill them in an incorrect order, they will keep regenerating. The trick it to kill them off in pairs. If you kill 2 Propagators of the same color one after the other, they both will remain dead forever. It's kinda cruel to the color blinded people though. You might need to do a bit of sneaking as once one of them sees you, they'll chase after you. They give you 5AP each and isn't all that hard so if you want some AP, here is not a bad place. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Magic Check! I'm not sure when these DPs will become available but it's probably after you've eliminated all the aliens. There's one for Life (hidden) near the door on a bridge-like platform above another platform. The other is a non-recoverable DP for Full-Life in the room with a SP. When you've killed them all, the elevator will be active and you can use it to get to the bridge. A loooooong cut scene will follow, followed by a musical sensation sung by the brilliant Faye Wong – Eyes On Me!!! Enjoy. (Although it does kinda distract you from reading the text conversations between Squall and Rinoa.) I won't spoil anything here. After you land, Rinoa gets taken away. Then whoever you took with you to space will come back safe and sound. (Watch what Quistis says here, if you took her.) Then Zell's team will also arrive, saying that Matron is not a sorceress anymore. You will now loose Edea as a playable character :-( but she's still an ally. After hearing how Rinoa got taken away, everyone got angry at Squall, and Quistis calls him a coward. (Or was it idiot, or looser, can't remember.) Then a hilarious scene involving Selphie piloting the Ragnarock will follow. The Sorceress Memorial is your next destination. You might be tempted to start powering up now, but it doesn't hurt to start it after taking back Rinoa. ---2gether--- Land the Ragnarock near the Sroceress Memorial and head inside. There's no fights here so don't worry about junctions. > Magic Check! There's a DP for Stop right outside the structure. Squall will take Rinoa by force (don't you think sound effects or music would help during that FMV?) while your other members will hold the protesters back (watch out for Selphie's nunchacku!) Then your team returns safely back to the Ragnarock. Rinoa suggests to go to Edea's orpahnage but tell her "shove it" because it's powering up time! => To my knowledge, my work of guiding you through the first 2 and half discs is done. Hope you did well on not gaining levels. Happy power ups. :) ===================================================================== Power Up Extra Hehe, this is a new section with any comments that I have to help you power up. I will re-type the above Cactuar/Bahamut sections plus the strategies. Also, I will also detail any fun mini-quests you can do while powering up, you can do them in any order though, so you might want to read through all of them to see which ones you want to do. Basically, this section is here to help you get powerful and prepare for the last showdown in disc 4. ===================================================================== ---Acquiring Cactuar--- Take the Ragnarock south past the desert and land of the tiny island, the Cactuar Island. Check your junctions. As for party members, I'd take Quistis, Squall and Rinoa (for her Invincible Moon.) > Junction Check! Speed is very important here, junction 100 Triples to all character's Spd, equip Spd+40% and Auto-Haste if you have it. Junction Water to your Elem-Atk. Try lower your HP to critical if you can (or just for Rinoa.) As for commands, try: Squall: Attack, Magic, GF, Item Rinoa: Attack, Magic, Revive, GF Quistis: Attack, Draw, Magic, GF If you wanna draw spells from Jumbo Cactuar, pack Draw instead of GF. BOSS – Jumbo Cactuar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey, the Jumbo Cactuar is Italian!!! Jumbo Cactuar is pretty bad, since it has the 10,000 Needles attack that does 10000 damage to one target regardless of your Vit/Spr, which is instant death. Try letting Rinoa use her Angelo Limit Break and hope for Invincible Moon. That way, it'll render the boss' 10000 Needle attack useless. If you wanna draw spells, Meltdown and Tornado are never a bad choice, although you can get them from other enemies. Draw your spells during the time where your characters are invincible. If you don't want to draw spells, Invincible Moon is still great, especially if all your characters are in critical condition. If someone gets knocked out by 10000 Needles, use Life or the Revive command on them. For offence, nothing can beat your Limit Breaks. Use Quistis' Aqua Breath for big damage since the Jumbo Cactuar is weak against water. A regular attack with Water junctioned to Elem-Atk is also very strong. You should have no problem beating it. Oh yeah, don't steal, because you'll get some crap Cactuar Thorns instead of a Gaea's Ring (a free HP-Up!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – CACTUAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Like the Tonberry, Cactuars are another enemy in the series. These cactus-like creatures have been through numerous identity-crisises, from "Cactrots" in the old days, "Cactuar" nowadays and "Sabotender" in the Japanese versions. This Italian needle thrower may look stupid, but that fact hides the potential of a deadly attack. 10,000 Needles is different to any other GF attack in that it does damage purely based on GF Cactuar's level. The amount of damage dealt is equal to the "tens" digit of Cactuar's level x 1000. For example, if GF Cactuar's level is 30-39, the damage dealt is 3000, simple and effective. This also means that at maximum level of 100, Cactuar will do 10000 damage to all targets everytime, just like its name. Not that there's much difference from the 9999 from other GFs, but the extra digit sure does appeal to the eye. :) Cactuar is also the master of Character Abilities, since it comes with all Bonuses learnt and many other potentially useful ones to be learnt. It is also few GFs that offer the Luck-J and Eva-J ability that's more useful than it sounds. Best skills: HP Bonus, Str Bonus, Vit Bonus, Mag Bonus, Spr Bonus, Eva-J, Luck-J, Expendx2-1, Initiative ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! GF Cactuar should start by learning Luck-J and Eva-J abilities, then any Character Abilities will do. Its extra Command Abilities ain't all that great. ---Acquiring Bahamut--- Save the game somewhere. Take the Ragnarock to the south-eastern corner of the map and try to find a place that resembles an oil rig (Deep Sea Research Centre.) Land there and select your team. It doesn't matter who you take for this mission though, but I'd suggest you bring along Mr. Know-it-all Zell. > Junction Check! Make sure your party members has good HP and Spr levels. LV Down is required, and the Recover command is nice. Also, remove any spells you have junctioned to Luck since if it's too high, Odin may appear and ruin it for you. > Magic Check! Try giving away any Full-Life your active team members have, since it's about time to get them by the truck loads. Enter the structure and you'll see a glowing tube. Don't retreat when it asks you to and inch your way towards the tube but only when the lights spinning around the tube goes away, else you'll be attacked by some monster. Examine the glowing tube and it'll ask you a question. You don't have any choice on what to answer so just select "It's not our will to fight." You'll have to fight a Ruby Dragon. It's not that hard, given that your levels are so low. So just use LV Down on it until it drops to level 1 and kill it off. Then the tube asks "Begging me for mercy?" Just choose the Bottom option, "Never!" You'll fight another Ruby Dragon, same old same old. Then it asks you a third question, a trick question in fact. Choose neither answer but instead, move the curser down to the bottom where it lies a third hidden option. Choose that, and you'll fight the mystery existance behind the light – Bahamut! BOSS – Bahamut ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll now enter the light tube to fight Bahamut. It'll spend most of its time hangin' around in the air doin' nothing. It occasionally swoops down and slashes one member with a claw swipe, that's kinda powerful but you should have a decent Vit so it won't matter too much. If needed to, use Leviathan's Recover command. Another great spell is finally available for mass-drawing: Full-Life! Try getting 300 of them. If you don't damage Bahamut, it won't attack very frequently, just an occasional claw swipe or so. Your Mag attribute should be good enough to get 9 charges every turn. Bahamut also has Flare, so get some if you want it, although it's quite common a bit later and ain't as powerful as it should have been. When you feel it's done, finish off Bahamut in anyway you want. Doomtrain won't work very well since Bahamut is strong against Poison, but the Vit Zero status is useful (or you can try Meltdown.) Another strategy is to draw Flare and cast it back at Bahamut. It's not that powerful, but since Bahamut is at quite a low level, it may surprise you at the number of Flares needed to take the legendary GF down. Regular attacks will work well too and if you're feelin' generous, try out Aura and unleash someone's Limit Break. Bahamut has an ultimate attack – Mega Flare! It'll only use it when its HP gets low though, or after a loong loooooong time. If you get hit by it, immediately use the Recover command, draw Curaga from Bahamut or use Selphie's Full Cure/Quistis' White Wind. Mega Flare is no joke, as it can do 3000 damage to all your guys, that's why you need high HP, because it would be a "Super Douper Mega Bummer" if you've spent the time to draw Full-Life and gets wiped out by it. If you're fast enough in finishing Bahamut, you may not even see Mega Flare! (I didn't!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – BAHAMUT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As any FF fanatics will know, it's just not a FF without Bahamut. (Yup, FF2 was more of a SaGa than a FF.) Of course, Bahamut is not as good as he was in the _really_ old days, since he hasn't been the most powerful summon for a very long time. His trademark Mega Flare is powerful and non-elemental, but still caps at 9999, making it an iffy summon if you ask me. It cannot, however, be blocked by Shell like the other summons though, so it still has some value. Bahamut has more value in its skills than the summon, since it's the only GF that gives Abilityx4, Mag+60% and Str+60% naturally. Rare Item comes in handy when you want the good items from enemies, as the chances for the enemies to drop a better item is increased. Forbid Mag-RF is also the most handy way of get your hands on Ultima spells, although the ingredients may be hard to find. Best skills: Abilityx4, Mag+60%, Str+60%, Mug, Auto Protect, Forbid Mag-RF, Rare Item, Expendx2-1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! Get Boost first for Bahamut, then just get all his best skills that I've listed above first. Now it's your time to power up, but there are a few things you might be interested. ---Complete your collection... nearly!--- Did you mug Alexander's card off Piet? Good. (If not, I think you can find him somewhere in the over world, although I've never found him.) Take it to the Queen of cards, who should be back at Dollet after the Chicobo card event above. Anyway, loose the Alexander card to her and try to get her back to Balamb. I know it's a pain having to rest but if you let her go anywhere else, it'll take even more time to get her back to Dollet. Before you leave Dollet, win back Alexander from her son. The newly created card is Doomtrain, which can be gotten from the guy who's sitting in a booth in the "Aphrora pub" in Timber. If he challenges you to a card game when you talk to him regularly (ie, with the X button instead of Square) then you know it's him, can't miss it. It might take some time to get him to use the card though, I think it was after about 30 matches before I saw him use it and won it from him. Have some patience. Guess which card is acquired for the last "special" rare card? Why it's no other than Doomtrain's card that you just won. So take it back to the Queen of Cards (in Balamb) and loose it to her, and you must try to get her back to Dollet one last time. Afterwards, chase her back to Dollet and she'll tell you another card has been created. Whew, what a woman, but the good news is that you don't even have to be bothered by her again... for this disc anyway. :( Before you go, pick up Doomtrain from her son. Oh yeah, if you haven't done the bone searching quest, do it now while you're in Dollet. The new Phoenix card is in possession of Presidential Aide in Esthar city. So take the Ragnarock back Esthar and find him in the Presidential Palace. It might also take some time until he uses Phoenix, but not as long as the guy in the pub. When you've finally won Phoenix, you should only have 3 more empty slots in your card menu, Pupu, Squall and Eden. Don't worry, they're all easy. If you're missing any LV7 boss cards, go to either Xu, Quistis or Martine for them. It's pretty hard to complete a full set of LV7 cards IMO. Pupu For Pupu's card, a rare LV5 card that's even rarer than the LV10 card (!!) you'll need to prepare 5 Elixirs. They can be refined or bought in Johnny's shop in Esthar, and you should have a few in your inventory. Now you need to see 4 UFO encounters, they're in these locations: - Mandy Beach near Timber - Near Winhill - Kashkabald Desert - Health Peninsular east from Trabia Garden (island) The first 3 encounters can be seen during earlier stages of the game, while you'll need the Ragnarock for the last I think. Anyhow, these encounters will occur even if you have equipped the Enc-None skill, so equip it and walk around that region and you'll encounter the UFO easily. When you've seen all 4, take the Ragnarock toward the direction of the Chocobo Holy Ground and land on the rocks. Walk around and you'll encounter a flying saucer. Kill it (!!) and it'll explode and you'll earn a VERY useful Aegis Armlet, which teaches a GF the useful Eva-J. Now take the Ragnarock back to where Balamb Garden used to be, and walk around the giant crevice and you'll eventually encounter an alien, a cute green thing. It'll say "Elixir please" (what? This is the replacement for the Magic Pots?) so use all your Elixirs on him. Don't forget to equip the Item command. :) After 5 of them, the fight will stop and you'll earn Pupu's card, which is the rarest card in the game and can be refined into a Hungery Cookpot, which teached the Devour command to a GF. ---Mmmmmmm, Rosetta Stones... *Drool*--- You may be tempted to go fight Ultima Weapon and acquire Eden right away, but I'd advice you wait a little, and there's a very good reason for it: To gather Dark Matters/Rosetta Stones. I usually do this after powering up 2 members, Quistis and Selphie. Now replace Selphie with Zell and revive Squall and maybe do just a little more powering up. Now take the Ragnarock back to the oilrig thing, the same place where you got Bahamut. Climb down the hole where you fought Bahamut. (Note: I've received some mail from a few people who claimed that they CANNOT reach beneath it. All you gotta do is climb aboard the Ragnarock and talk to everyone on deck.) > Junction Check! Make sure that Squall and Zell are junctioned with the right GFs for power-level-upping and all the bonuses you want. Give Diablos and Tonberry to Quistis and give her the commands: Mug, Magic, LV Up and something else. She should be really powerful now, doing godful amounts of damage with each blow. The other characters are weak though, so you might want to junction 100 Deaths into their ST-Atk to beef them up. Junction 100 Confuse to ST-Def, Bio helps too if you have it. Doesn't matter if you don't. > Magic Check! There's a DP for Dispel at the bottom of the pillar thing you just climbed down, but who cares? Approach the generator and use 4 blocks of energy to operate it. Now there are multiple ways of getting down that thing. I used 4, 2, 1, 1 and 1 so that works. Note that you can encounter Grendels and Bombs on those levels. They're crap so just do whatever. At the bottom is the main generator. Let Zell handle it and he punches the piece of junk, and guess what? The gate opens! The next screen is your target, it should be look like an ancient ruin underwater. Strange indeed. Anyway, you must make sure you have more than 10 blocks of steam pressure left since it's required to acquire Eden a bit later, but lets not worry about it now. Save at the SP. The deal with the encounters in this floor and every floor below it is that they're NOT random. Everytime you step across a certain point on the ground, you'll be attacked. The type of enemy varies from floor to floor. This floor is full of Tri-Faces, who you can steal Curse Spikes from. Why they're the ingredients for Dark Matters you say? That's right, you sure do catch on quickly. So repeatedly fighting them on this floor will result in building up your collecting rapidly. However, Siren MUST be at level 100 to do the conversion, which is a hard job since it's not a good idea to junction her alone to a dead member when doing level uppping so she don't have to share the other GF would not work. Siren hold the Mag Bonus skill required for the second member. However, if you're following my "Customized character" method above, then you might want to junction Siren to a dead Squall when you're levelling up Quistis earlier. (In that case, trade Selphie's place for Irvine.) Otherwise, you'll have to do a lot of EXP gathering to get Siren to level 100. The 3 encounter points on this floor are located: - Right before the SP - The steps to the centre of the screen - In front of the steps leading down > NOTE! I don't know if random encounters occur on this floor in addition to the fixed encounters, but I know that the floors below has random encounters, so it might be a good idea to give Quistis Enc-None. Now keep fighting the Tri-Faces. Let Quistis use LV Up on it to get it to level 100, while the other 2 characters can draw some good spells like Pain and Flare. When it gets level 100, have Quistis steal from it, you should get 6 Curse Spikes (or rarely 8) which is good. Then have the low level characters kill it in one blow with Death in their ST-Atk. In addition to the Cursed Spike, it gives you decent EXP so that's 2 birds with one stone, whoohoo! Tri-Faces do occasionally drop 8 Curse Spikes upon its defeat, but it's rare and most of the time you'll get crap like Poison Powder. Odin will occasionally come and ruin it for you though, but there's not much you can do about that, maybe remove any spells in Luck-J. When you fought all 3 of them, just exit the screen and come back, they'll be back, so carry on. Once you've accumulated 100 of them, use Siren's Tool-RF to turn it into a Dark Matter. Then carry on until you're worn out. ***************** The wonders of a Dark Matter ********************** * First and foremost, you should always give your first one to * * Quistis to let her learn her best Blue Magic, Shockwave Pulsar. * * You have a choice with the rest of them, there're waaaaaaayyy too * * many options and believe me, they're all so awesome! * * * * 1x Dark Matter -> 100 Ultima (Bahamut: Forbid mag-RF) * * I believe that this is the one of the best way of gathering * * Ultimas. However, you can draw up to 300 Ultimas from Ultima * * Weapon later, plus any Ultimas you've drawn from the DP and count * * the 100 Ultima Stones (and the ones you have already) you get for * * beating Ultima Weapon, you should have 600 Ultimas easily without * * having to spend a Dark Matter, but it's good idea if you don't * * feel like drawing from Ultima Weapon. * * * * 1x Dark Matter -> Shaman Stone (Siren: Tool-RF) * * Shaman Stones improves the Compatibility with Bahamut slightly, * * but it's just a waste. However, you can refine Shaman Stones into * * a lot of things. Also note that you can refine 10 Shaman Stone * * into a Hero-trail. If you wanna make Heroes manually, then this * * is probably the best place for it, but it's much easier to do the * * card trick in disc 4. * * * * 1x Shaman Stone -> LuvLuvG (Siren: Tool-RF) * * This is much better if you want Compatibility, but it's still a * * waste IMO. * * * * 1x Shaman Stone -> Rosetta Stone (Eden: GFAbl Med-RF) * * Now this is what you really wanna do. You should have 2 GFs with * * the Abilityx4 skill (Bahamut and the Rosetta Stone you found in * * Esthar) and you can get another later in Ultimecia's Castle. So * * you need 3 of these if you want everyone to have the Abilityx4 * * skill later. The reverse also holds with Siren's Tool-RF. Note * * you have not gotten GF Eden yet, so this is not possible yet. * * However, don't rush to get Eden yet, since all fixed encounters * * will be gone after beating Ultima Weapon. So store everything as * * Dark Matters for now since it's the most versatile form. * * * * 1x Dark Matter -> Luck-J Scroll (Eden: GF Abl Med-RF) * * Another great deal, since only ONE GF in the entire game starts * * with Luck-J normally (Cactuar.) You can find 2 scrolls in the * * game though, but that's barely enough. Luck is good for Selphie's * * Slots, and determines the frequency of Rinoa's Angelo Search * * (I've seen it twice now, yay!) It also determines how often * * Odin/Gilgamesh appears. Also, it affects critical hits, so that * * makes Zell and Irvine's Limit Breaks extra effective with the * * extra damage. Finally, Luck might have something to do with the * * effects of Quistis' Blue Magic (such as the effects of Mighty * * Guard.) So you'll need 2 of these for you perfectionists, but * * it's still good to get everyone Luck-J. Also, note that you can * * refine 2 Luck-J Scrolls into a Luck Source if you have any * * spares, but it's again, quite a waste, but it's decent if you've * * gotten everything above and have spent a VERY long time gathering * * Dark Matters. * ********************************************************************* When you are satisfied with your load of Dark Matters (I usually get about 6 or so of them) and is hungry for the last GF, head down. The second floor has 3 more encounters with a Grendel and an Imp, 2 crap enemies. On the third floor however, has Behemoths. You can mug/win Barriers from them. Use one on Quistis immediately to get her to learn Mighty Guard, possibly her most useful Blue Magic. If you collect lots of them, you can turn 50 of them into an Aegis Armlet with Eden's GFAbl Med-RF, which is another cool item, but since you don't have Eden yet, you can only store them in their "raw" form. Be careful though, Behemoths uses some very nasty spells like Flare and Meteor, so make sure you beef up your Spr levels. They also tend to cast Flare before they die, but they _can_ be killed with Death in ST-Atk. Ruby Dragons craws on the fourth floor. They're good for that it's a nice place to collect 600 Meteor, Flares and Reflects for all your characters. With Behemoths and Ruby Dragons, it strikes me instantly as a good Devour place. However, you don't have Eden yet, and all enemies will disappear once you do. The only option is to mod Pupu's card into a Hunger Cookpot and teach a GF the Devour command. However, consider that Pupu's card is the rarest and cannot be won back with the card trick in disc 4, it's going to be a painful thing to us perfectionists. It's still an idea though, if you wanna try it, this place makes it an EXCELLENT place to beef up your HP and especially Magic. Beware of their Breath attacks though, I remember getting a Game Over here. If needed, use Colin Pentney's trick by killing one of your characters. On the fifth floor lies the Iron Giants. They have insane Vit so it's a good idea to summon Doomtrain. They don't serve much of a special purpose except for being there. They do have Reflects though. Oh yeah, they give you Star Fragments and Running Fires, the latter is good for refining into Demolition Ammo. > Magic Check! There are various DPs spread among this place. On the third floor there's a DP for Triple, and just before exiting the fifth floor, there's a hidden DP for Ultima. They're both non- recoverable. :( At the bottom, there's a large electronic terminal thing. There's a hidden SP to the left, save there, and prepare to fight Ultima Weapon. As for party members, try out Quistis/Squall/Zell if they're all at level 100. However, if Squall and Zell are of lower level, trade Zell's place for Selphie. Now yes, Selphie is much less powerful than Zell, _but_ Ultima Weapon seems to have an aversion to attack her, very strange indeed. So having her in the party as the main healer is a great idea. (However, that's what happened in my game, but things could be different in yours.) > Junction Check! I'm gonna go into a lot of details here. Junction your GFs to your characters carefully, make sure they're spread out and everyone has Spd-J and –J abilities to all their major stats. Don't worry about the Bonus abilities, since you won't get any EXP. Here's the commands I used: Quistis: Attack, Draw, Magic, GF Squall: Attack, Draw, Magic, Item Selphie: Attack, Draw, Magic, Revive The Draw command is there to take advantage of the unlimited supply of Ultimas. Everyone needs Magic or Items to Revive each other. Selphie will be the main healer, so give her Revive since she gets KO'd the least. Junction 100 Triples to everyone's Speed, this is one fight where Speed is the most important attribute, then equip Spd+40% and Auto-Haste/Spd+20%. If you already have Auto-Haste, 100 Triples and Spd+40% are enough to raise the stats so high that doubling it with Auto-Haste will automatically hit 255 (the max) so equipping Spd+20% won't make any difference. As for other skills, equip any HP skills to get it to 9999 if you want, or Auto-Protect if you have it. Then _either_ Mug or Rare Item (but not both.) You'll get different stuff: Mug will get you a Three Stars (Expendx3-1 skill or refined into 100 Triples) but defeating it will get you 100 Ultima Stones, so it's up to you. I'd take the Ultima Stones, since you can get a Three Stars by doing the Obel Lake quest. Rare Item is there because sometimes Ultima Weapon won't drop anything! (It didn't in my first game.) Because of this, turn any Ultima Stones you already have into spells. The one who has the GF command should have Doomtrain junctioned, or even Cerberus. Junction Quake to your Elem-Def. Oh yeah, make sure that you adjust the battle speed to the slowest possible. Now examine the terminal. It'll take 10 blocks of steam pressures. BOSS – Ultima Weapon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Erh... I guess everyone's familiar with this boss. It does look a bit like the AtmaWeapon in FF6 and it has Cloud's Ultima Weapon from FF7. It has some deadly attacks. Light Pillar is the worst, as it'll do 9999 damage to one character no matter what, killing them in one hit, and he repeatedly used them quite often, that's why you need to keep up with high Speed. Make sure you immediately revive anyone who gets KO'd with Light Pillar. It also uses Ultima and Quake occasionally, but that won't hurt you much. Then it has a regular sword attack, it'll do about 1000 damage to one character, so that's pretty mild. > GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Eden! You might want to cast Haste on you characters, but seeing how often you get killed, it might not be a good idea. Summon GF Cerberus as the first thing is a good idea, since at times Ultima Weapon can knock 2 characters out before you can act, so having Double is quite useful. (It saved my butt in my game.) Then draw GF Eden. If you're lucky, Ultima Weapon will waste many of its turns doing regular attacks. I found that if you don't attack him, he won't use Light Pillar as much and takes longer to act, which is good. So if you want to draw Ultima from it, do it now, until you get enough of them. Revive anyone who's been KO'd. You might be tempted to use Quistis' Mighty Guard, but I found that it will provoke Ultima Weapon to use Light Pillar if you do. Whenever you're ready, summon GF Doomtrain to give Ultima Weapon the Vit Zero status. If Doomtrain gets KO'd, switch to a Meltdown spell. Then if Squall's in critical, have him use his Renzokuken. If he has acquired Lion Heart, it can kill Ultima Weapon in one hit. If not, cast Aura on him, and Quistis too, if she's not in critical either, then just use her newly acquired Shockwave Pulsar for 20000+ damage! As for Selphie, I do not recommend that you spin away on her Slots, instead have her do all the reviving and casting Auras. If she's free, draw Ultima from the Weapon and cast it back on it for decent damage. If you bought along anyone else, have them do their best Limit Breaks too. With your speed, Ultima Weapon shouldn't be a problem. Mug him if you want the Three Stars. You'll win Eden's card after this fight. Yay, one more card to go!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GF PROFILE – EDEN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eden is the final GF in the game, as well as having the most powerful single hit attack in the whole game. "What is that thing?" is the words in everyone's lips when we see it for the first time. Someone mentioned that it's the "Garden of Eden", a futuristic Garden like Balamb Garden. I guess it does make some sense. Other guesses includes Zodiac of FFT and another one of Bahamut's friends (like Neo Bahamut etc.) as its portrait does look kinda like a dragon. Anyway, its summon sequence takes over a minute, which would be a killer in the old days but in FFVIII, enjoy an easy 250 tapping with Boost. :) It has really low Compatibility with all characters though, and summoning it doesn't increase it by very much. So the best way to increase Compatibility with it is through lotsa LuvLuvGs. Its attack Eternal Breath is very powerful though, as it can easily do over 35000 damage! Of course, it also has great value in its skills, such as the Devour command, another decent way of gaining stats. GFAbl Med-RF is about the only way to get some of the best skills for your GFs, don't overlook it. Expendx3-1 is great support skill for magic and Triple, and Eden is the only GF that uses the true potential of all the SumMag+??% skill. Best skills: Devour, GFAbl Med-RF, Expendx3-1, Spd-J, Eva-J ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > GF Check! Eden should start with Boost, then GFAbl Med-RF and Expendx3-1. After that, not many of its skills has great appeal so start with Eden's SumMag+??% skills for a real killer, getting all 4 of them means an extra 100% of damage, wow! The good news is that you've gotten the last GF, gotten lotsa Dark Matters and lotsa other bonuses. But the bad news is that all the fixed encounter have disappeared, meaning no more goodies. :( Bonus tip – You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone =========== |This is the trick on getting Dark Matters/Rosetta Stones after the | |Eden event. Thanks to Duncan Day-Myron for | |this trick. | | | |1) Acquire GF Siren. (easiest step) | |2) Learn Tool-RF (Ok, this is pretty easy too) | |3) Acquire GF Eden (not hard, not easy) | |4) Learn GFAbl Med-RF (kinda easy) | |5) Let Rinoa get the Esthar region possesed by devils (from the | | landing of Adel) | |6) Run around until you fight the enemy "Imp" | |7) DO NOT MUG THEM but kill them brutally or card them or whatever | | so that they are no longer there but you receive items after the| | battle | |8) You will usually receive "Curse Spikes" (about 6) | |9) Collect 100xCursed Spikes (*gasp*) | |10) Get GF Siren up to Level 100!! | |11) Use GF Siren's ability Tool-RF to turn 100xCursed Spikes into | | 1xDark Matter (only works if GF Siren is at Lvl 100) | | | |Not bad huh? Of course, it's not as good as the one in Deep Sea | |Research Centre but hey, we've got no choice. | | | |This method works, but not that well. However, another sorta okay | |way of collecting Curse Spikes is to equip Rare Item and Mug, then | |go to the Island Closest to HEAVEN (not Hell)! You can encounter | |Tri-Faces there, but the encounter rate is so low that it alone | |will make this trick collapse under its own weight. However, | |Malboros are quite common on that island, they will also give you | |Curse Spikes. Do NOT mug it when you encounter one, instead defeat | |it (use Quistis' Degenerator for the best effect) and you'll | |occasionally receiver 10 Curse Spikes, with about a 10% chance. | |Most of then time you'll just get crap like Malboro Tenticles but | |with Rare Item equipped, the chance of receiving Curse Spikes jumps| |to about 50% or 60%, so you can try gathering Curse Spikes there. | |If you do encounter Tri-Faces, mug it then card it for an extra | |one. (We're Curse Spike-pinching here!) | ===================================================================== ---Whoa, careful with that... what do you call that thing anyway?--- A few people have requested that I should cover sections on every character's best weapons and the locations of their ingredients. I personally have thought about covering these in some detail since some of the are pretty hard to find. Anyway, the best time to gather these items is IMO, while you're powering up! Many of these ingredients are carried by the enemies on the Island Closest to Hell, so here we go! BTW, remember how I've said that you DON'T need to have read the magazine to remodel your weapons, all you need is all the ingredients then then option to remodel you weapon into that will become available. Squall – Lion Heart Requirements: 1x Adamantine 4x Dragon Fang 12x Pulse Ammo The Adamantine is easy. You can steal one from fighting BGH251F2 boss the second time. The you can win them from Adamantoise near Dollet. Dragon Fangs are also pretty easy. Just beat the Blue Dragons or steal from them. Pulse Ammo is probably the hardest to get. If you did that quest with Irvine in disc 2, you'll have 5 of them. You can refine them from an Energy Crystal dropped rarely by Ruby Dragons, they refine into 10 each. Elnoyles drops them at a steady rate, but they're hard to find until after the Lunar Gate event. You can get as many as you want from the Elnoyle trick in Esthar, but they MUST be at a nigh level (else you'll get Wizard Stones) which makes it a pain when you're at a low level, since LV Up doesn't work on it. So power up a bit before going to Esthar. Zell – Ehrgeiz Requirements: 1x Adamantine 4x Dragon Skins 1x Fury Fragment The Dragon Skins caused me the most problems. They're occasionally dropped/can be stolen from Blue Dragons, or Anacondours. You should get some of them if you fight on Island Closets to Hell for a while, if not, you'll have to max out someone's level and equip Rare Item, and mug an Anacondour in the forests near Timber. Fury Fragments are not all that hard to get, Blue Dragons and Ruby Dragons will drop them occasionally. If not, refine Blue Dragon's cards. Quistis – Save The Queen Requirements: 2x Malboro Tenticles 4x Sharp Spikes 4x Energy Crystals Malboro Tenticles are pretty easy, you should have some left-overs after acquiring GF Doomtrain, if not, just defeat Malboros. Sharp Spikes can be refined with Grand Mantis cards, or can be stolen from them. Energy Crystals however, are the hardest, especially when she need FOUR of them! Sorta not worth it since this weapon don't increase Str/Hit by a lot like Squall/Selphie's, but considering how useful Quistis is... Rinoa – Shooting Star Requirements: 2x Windmill 1x Regen Ring 1x Force Armlet 2x Energy Crystal Windmills can be stolen from Abyss Worms in the desert, or refined from its card. Regen Rings can be stolen from Toramas around Esthar, and you should have one by mugging Biggs in disc 2. Force Armlets can be bought in Esthar, and some monsters drop them but I forgot which one, you probably have one already. Selphie – Strange Vision Requirements: 1x Adamantine 2x Curse Spikes 3x Star Fragments Curse Spikes are easy, you should know where to get them by now right? ;) Tri-Face cards can also be refined. Star Fragments ain't all that hard either, you can mug Iron Giants for them. Few other enemies also drop them, like Ruby Dragons and Blue Dragons. It's the easiest out of all these weapons. Irvine - Exeter Requirements: 2x Dino Bone 1x Moon Stone 2x Star Fragment 18x Screw Dino Bones are easy, defeating T-Rexaurs. Moon Stones can be gotten by stealing from Elnoyles, and maybe defeating Imps occasionally too. Screw are by far the most common weapon upgrade ingredients. Geezards drop them, and you can refine their cards too. ---Abra Kadabra--- This is the section on magic and what you should keep and what goes in the trash. Each characters has 8x4=32 slots to keep up to 100 of each spell. Better keep an eye on what goes in and what goes out the window, because the last thing you want is to try to draw truck loads of a good spell from the boss but realizing that the slot is occupied with Fira or some junk like that. So, these spells are what you should keep for everyone in your team. Make sure everyone in your team has 100 of them, as they're mostly for junctioning to your vital stats. Of course, getting 300 of each of the best spells ain't that hard, but try to get 600 as you'll need everyone in your party active at the end of the game. Of course, it can be a pain gathering them all but there shouldn't be much of a problem for us experts right? Spells that definitely should be kept. Note I've sort them in a certain order but it's not necessarily the "official" order. -------------------------------------------------------------- | Ultima | Quake | Life | Reflect | | Meteor | Tornado | Full-Life | Double | | Flare | Curaga | Protect | Triple | | Holy | Esuna | Shell | Aura | -------------------------------------------------------------- | Sleep | Death | | Silence | Pain | | Confuse | Drain | | Berserk | Meltdown | ------------------------------- * Note: If you like Rinoa's Angel Wing, then you might consider taking away the status spells (except for Meltdown.) Then the only spells she'll use are the powerful ones. Give her some elemental magic in place of the status spells if so. That leaves each characters with 8 slots for other spells. Anyway, Ultima and Meteor are both great junction spells, Flare is good for Elem-Def, Holy is just another one of those fixer-upper spells in the series that no one has the guts to dump. :) Quake is there as a back- up junction spell but Tornado is great in Eva-J. Curaga is simply there for your use and the same goes with Esuna, although it has some ok effects with ST-Def. Life are there for your own use too but Full- Life is a good junctioner. Protect and Shell are both just "there" but you never know when you'll need it (and has some decent effects with Elem-Def.) Reflect is super lousy regularly but it's excellent for Spr. Double is just "there" but Triple is great for Speed. Aura is good for your own use as well as Hit-J. Panel #5 are mainly for ST-Def (or Atk), can't live without them. Death too, but it's also good with ST-Atk. Pain is good for a lot of juctions and the same goes to Meltdown while Drain is an okay spell in ST-Atk. Here's the list of spells that at least one or two team member should have, but keep everyone's collection varied to some degree. --------------------------------------------------- | Blind | Demi | Haste | | Break | Dispel | | | Stop | Scan | Float | | Slow | Regen | | --------------------------------------------------- The first panel are status spells that are not all that great for junctions, but keep some of them around. Demi is very good though, so keep more of those. Dispel is basically uselss, but do keep just a bit of them just in case, and make sure you keep them away from Rinoa! Scan is also a good spell, so having some of them around is handy, the "Rinoa exception" still applies. Regen is good for casting occasionally, the same goes to Haste, but they're not worth giving everyone. As for a , I give everyone a different one, like Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, Bio and Water. They're quite weak so that's why I'm only keeping 100 of them. Float can be useful, but rarely. The weaker spells like Fira or Aero ain't worth keepin', and the useless ones like Zombie ain't either. If you have spare slots, play around with them and see what's useful. Now lets find a way to get all the best spells, I'll include them in this section. Note only the rare and best spells are listed here, as some spells like Sleep are simple to get. These should be enough to get you 600 of them. - Ultima: Draw from Ultima Weapon to get 300 Draw from the DP in Shumi Village for about 100+ Win 100 Ultima Stones by defeating Ultima Weapon Draw from various other DPs for about 50 Refine Dark Matters/Energy Crystals to fill the rest - Meteor: Draw from Ruby Dragons for an easy 300 each time Draw from various DPs - Flare: Draw from Ruby Dragons/Tri-Faces/Bahamut etc. - Holy: Draw from high level Elnoyles, easy. Refine Krysla cards into Holy Stones with Tool-RF - Quake: Draw from high level T-Rexaurs/Cerberus etc. Refine from Dino Bones - Tornado: Draw from Abyss Worms/Jumbo Cactuar Refine from Windmills Upgrade Aeros with HighLV Mag-RF - Full-Life: Drawn from Bahamut for 300 Drawn from Fujin later (save room if you want.) Refine from Regen Rings, stolen from Toramas Drawn from various DPs for about 50 - Triple: Drawn from Odin to get 300 Refine from Three Stars (bad choice!) Drawn/refine Double and refine from HighLV Mag-RF - Aura: Draw 300 from Seifer at end of this disc (save some room!) Drawn from overworld DPs (not very effective) Refine Force Armlets (bought) into Aura Stones with Tool-RF - Pain: Drawn from high level Tri-Faces Refined from Curse Spikes - Meltdown: Drawn from high level Gaylas/Bombs/Jumbo Cactuar Refined from Mystery Fluids Basic Junctions This section below is all about what and how spells should be junctioned to maximize their effects. This one below is the basic structure on how your junctions should look like. HP Full-Life Str Ultima/Meteor/Holy Spd Triple/Haste Vit Meltdown Eva Tornado Mag Ultima/Meteor/Holy Hit Aura Spr Reflect Luck Pain/Death Anyway, let me explain. Ultima should go in the slot that's best suited for the character, whether they're fighing or magic based. For example, Zell should have Ultima in his Str and Selphie should have it in Mag. Meteor is a good alternate spell. Ultima, however, is great for EVERYTHING, so if you do want to remove it somehow, Holy and Meteor makes a fine replacement. Also, there are times when your stats are so high that a lesser spell will be enough to make it hit the maximum point, so don't waste a good spell when your stats are high enough. (For example, simply by power-levelling-up Rinoa, her Str will hit 255 with only 100 Meteors, so if you junction 100 Ultimas instead, it'll still be at 255 so they're wasted.) Some people likes to place Triple in Mag though, but I think it's MUCH more useful is it's in Spd. If you do take Triple off Spd some how, Haste is a decent replacement. Pain is a very good spell for Luck, but it also has nifty effects in Mag and works wonders in ST-Def/Atk (since it's basically a 3 in 1 spell) which makes Death a good replacement. If you need to remove either, Float may become an option. Elemental Junctions Of course, there are no fixed best spells in this category as it's based a lot on the situation, so expect to alter these junctions when the situation changes. However, this is the all-round Elem-J I use. Elem-Atk Elem-Def Flare Elem-Def Shell Elem-Def Life Elem-Def Protect Elem-Atk is basically useless and making it non-elemental is actually the best option, however, you can toy around with it if you want to do extra damage but be careful, the wrong spell can mean disaster. You might also want to try Holy in Elem-Atk, since there are no normal enemies who are strong against Holy attacks and it's usually a good element to deal extra damage. However, remove it when you're fighting Omega Weapon or you'll regret it. The 4 Elem-Def spells listed above will provide 100% absorption for Fire/Ice/Thunder based attacks and half damage for all other elements. The best thing about this is that those 4 spells don't really collide with your regular and status junctions. Happy Matt recommends junctioning Ultima (!!) to Elem-Def, which coupled with Flare/Life/Shell will absorb everything. This is not a bad junction but I think Ultima is much better when used in other attributes. However, when your stats are so high that Ultima is no longer needed, you might feel free to do so. :) Whenever you're facing a boss that uses a particular elemental attack, remove Protect and junction any elemental spells you wish to me protected against. The best are the –ga spells, Bio if you want protection against Poison, Tornado for Wind, Quake for Earth, Holy for Holy etc. The fancy ones like Meteor ain't worth the trouble. Status Junctions Like elemental junctions, this will also depend on the situation, at least in the beginning of the game where only 1 member is protected against 1 or 2 status. However, later in the game it becomes more or less irrelavent if all 3 members has ST-Defx4 and junction all the worst status spells there, so the only status you'll be affected are the mild one. This is what I use for all-round ST-J though. ST-Atk Sleep/Death ST-Def Confuse ST-Def Berserk ST-Def Silence/Pain ST-Def Anyway, junction your favourite form of status in ST-Atk, I've listed the decent ones in the tips section. Sleep, Death and Drain are all good ones. Confuse and Berserk should ALWAYS stay in your ST-Def slots IMO, since they are among the worst status there are. For the other 2 slots, junction any statuses that you don't like. I usually use Silence since many bosses use that spell on you and it's usually a very restrictive status. However, if you're not using Pain in any other junctions, choose that one instead since it protects against 3 statuses (Poison, Silence and Blind.) Oh yeah, ALWAYS have at least one member with 100 Death junctioned to their ST-Def. Death is a VERY nasty spell, and unlike in the previous FFs, it will ALWAYS work on a character without protection. This is especially important when fighting Omega because of its LV5 Death attack, and the maximum level is 100, making impossible for your characters to escape without it. (I remember getting Game Overs when the Toramas decided to use LV5 Death...) ---The limiting factor--- With weapons and spells outta the way, it's time to obtain all the Limit Breaks for your characters. You might have already gotten them, if so just ignore this. Squall Did you get a Lion Heart? That weapon says it all as it contains his best finisher and his other not-as-good finishers. There's not much your can do when the lesser finishers appears since you cannot unlearn it without sacrifising Lion Heart. So if you wanna see Lion Heart more times, make Squall critical and cast Aura on him. (I wish there was an "Auto-Aura" skill in the game... *sign*) Zell All 6 magazines should be available in Esthar bookshop right now if you haven't gotten them yet. Remember, you must "read" them (ie, use them in the Item menu.) Since you don't necessarily have to use a certain learnt Duel move, it doesn't matter if you learn them all. (Unlike Squall and Rinoa, who have no control on what attacks they'll execute.) Quistis Gathering all 16 Blue Magic isn't an easy job, but a page with all the blank spaces being filled looks a lot nicer. Remember, MANY of the items used for the earlier Blue Magic can be refined from Cards. The hardest one to learn is Ray-Bomb so make sure you get the free Power Generator. (If you missed it as Zell, you still have another chance as Squall, but only if you triggered the traps in Laguna's sceanrio.) Shockwave Pulsar shouldn't be a problem with the Dark Matter trick. The only thing I might have left out is White Wind, which is learnt with a Whisper, stolen from Adamantoise. If Quistis hasn't got Homing Laser yet, you can get another one soon. Make sure you've gotten White Wind, Mighty Guard and Shockwave Pulsar, her top 3 Blue spells. Rinoa Like Zell, if you've missed the first 2 edition of the magazines, you can buy them from Esthar bookshop. Issues 3-6 can be bought too. However, like Squall's finishers, you might want to skip a couple of the moves. One definate crap is Angelo Strike, which is when weaker than Angelo Cannon right now. Not learning it would increase the chances for both Wishing Star and Invincible Moon appearing. Note Wishing Star takes a VERY long time to learn, and I ran out of patience so if you can't seem to make her learn it, try this trick. Equip the Enc-None skill and put Rinoa in your team (select Wishing Star in her status) then take the Ragnarock to the deserts in the Galbadia region. Make sure you're away from Deling City (somewhere around the Missile Base should be fine.) Now grab a rubber band and wrap it around the left stick and the left edge of the controller, this will make Squall run in anti-clockwise circles. Leave it on for 10-20 minutes and go make yourself some coffee or bacon and eggs. When you get back, voila! She should have learnt it. Note however, this will lower your SeeD rank by 1 or 2, but it didn't matter too much to me since you can get as much gil as you want with the infinite credit trick. As for her non-command Angelo moves, Angelo Recover was the one I didn't wish to learn because it kept ruining my attempt of easy Limit Break trick with critical characters, however now Aura has become available, you might want to learn that move. If you're keen with her Angel Wing, make sure she has 255 Mag and (preferably) a high Spd with Auto-Haste. Then trade as many status spells to someone else so she won't use them as much, and if you want, remove any damage dealing spells that you don't want her to cast. Definitely get rid of all her Dispel and Scan magic. This will make her spells extremely powerful, and she won't have to wasting her time on status spells. The reason with the high Speed is to make up her damage dealing potentials. Since Rinoa is "Berserk", her command will be set the instant her ATB is full. Since it's set by the computer, you won't waste any time having to tap for your Limit Breaks and even if you don't tap, inputting command manually will waste minute amounts of time. At this rate, she may even be able to take on Squall! Selphie Well, not much to say as her Slots ain't as pratical as all other member's Limits in the heat of battle, however, it does not mean it's useless. You must _cast_ her unique Slots spells to make them appear in her status screen, simply getting them to appear but not casting them won't do a thing. To make them useful, get all of them to appear in her status screen, that way, the chance of her unique spells appearing will be increased by a LOT! Oh yeah, make sure Selphie gets a high Luck rating, this way, getting the best spells will ba a LOT easier!!! The saddest thing about Selphie's Slots is that 2 of the spells didn't make it into the final game. Those 2 empty slots at the bottom of her list are really annoying. If you have problem of getting The End, try this. Properly junction everyone and make sure you give the best spell (preferably Ultima) to Selphie's Luck attribute and equip the Luck+50% skill. Lower her HP by a LOT (to 3 digits or less), use Demi if you can't seem to hit her. Go to the Trabia region and encounter a Gayla. Try your hands at her Slots. The Gayla can't even hurt you!!! Be careful though, as I missed The End THREE times when it came on her Slots, so the less responsive players are at a disadvantage. Slow down if you're having trouble, since you have all the time in the world. You can try make her Blind, maybe even Zombie, Vit Zero and Silence. Casting Aura should make it easier, but it just don't last as long to be useful. Irvine Most of his ammunition can be gotten easily. Refining ammo from items or cards will give you the best deals, but if you want, you can also buy all the ammo except for Pulse and AP from Esthar's shop (with the Familiar skill.) As for the last 2, you should have some ingredients for AP. I'm sure you still have a lot of Chef's Knives after acquiring Tonberry, so turn them into AP Ammo. As for Pulse Ammo, the items needed are very rare, that's why you should take advantage of the fixed Elnoyle encounter in Esthar, getting 100 Pulse Ammo is pretty easy that way. Talking about Energy Crystals, you may want to keep a lot of them in your inventory as spares, since you will not be able to enter Esthar (or any towns for that matter) in disc 4. ===================================================================== The end of Power Up Extra Well, that's probably all of them. At the end of your powering up, you should have all cards (except for Squall's, since it's not available yet) and GFs, the best stats, magic and weapons and all your character's Limit Breaks. If I missed anything or anyone wants to cover more about a certain aspects of the game, just drop me a line. Enjoy the final bits of the game! ===================================================================== ---Say you'll be there--- Make it back to Edea's orphanage and go out to the garden. A scene will occur where the third member will say something and leaves the love birds alone. (It's completely different depending on whoever is your third character, I like Selphie's.) Then another scene will take place between the 2, kinda uninspiring for a moment of intimacy. Then Zell comes along saying that Kiros (!!) from Esthar has a mission for Squall and team. Leave the place and Edea will make her speech. ---Mission impossible--- Take the Ragnarock back to Esthar and make your way back to the Presidentical Palace. Now the guards to the left screen will let you in. Inside you'll see even MORE familiar faces, Kiros, Ward and Laguna. Gee, since when did he become the president. You might want to catch on with what he's been doin' over the past 17 years. And when you choose to hear you mission, Dr. Odine will come over and explain the current situation and the mission briefing. To rescue Ellone, let Ultimecia possess Rinoa and let Ellone send Rinoa back in time to complete her Time Compression. > Card Check! Before you go anyway, play a game with Laguna and scab Squall's card off him. Ironically, it's exactly the same as Seifer's except the placement of the values are all inverted. It's also the last card you need to complete your collection, Check your menu now, you should see a * next to the Card option. When you decide to take accept the mission, Laguna and team will "move in" with you to the Ragnarock. ---Sacrifice--- Whenever you're ready (remember, do ALL the mini-quests before this, as you won't get a chance to complete most of them later), take the Ragnarock and fly it towards the Lunatic Pandora, Selphie will make the ship crash into the box to get inside it. It's a very cool FMV, enjoy the Dual Shocks! :) > Jucntion Check! Junction whatever. Everyone of you should be a walking demi-god right now so it doesn't matter what you do. Equip Enc-None though, as you don't wanna be bothered with the lousy random encounters. Don't equip Mug. > Magic Check! Well, I did say you can draw Full-Life from Fujin didn't I? So if you don't have 600 Full-Lifes yet, don't panic. (You should already have 300+ after Bahamut right?) Just trade as much Full-Lifes as you can to the non-active member. Whoever you choose doesn't really matter right now. If you want to leave, just talk to whoever is at the pilot seat and choose to take off. Walk forward and you'll meet up with your friends, Fujin and Raijin! BOSS – Fujin, Raijin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Damn, don't you love these guys? They look so damn awesome and gives you free goodies each time. I wished they're playable characters. Anyway, Fujin is MUCH stronger this time, but Raijin is still so so. Fujin can cast some very nasty spells, including Pain on you and Regen on themselves. She don't act all that often though. If you drag this battle on for a while, she will say something then release Meteor. Fujin also has a VERY dangerous attack, Sai, that will lower one member's HP to 1!!! Raijin on the other hand will just stand around most of the time, occassionally striking you with a physical attack. Sometimes he casts Aura on himself and attacks with his "Limit Break" Raijin Special. Strangly enough, neither of them will cast their native elemental spells. Remember how you can steal Str-Ups from Raijin? Don't do it this time, as you'll get a Hyper Wrist instead. :( Instead, winning will score you 3 of them. Fujin will give you a Megalixir as usual. If you were prepared to draw Full-Life, get them off Fujin. Fujin has Curaga if you want healing. They won't do much damage unless you piss off Fujin and gets hit by her Sai. When you're satisfied with your load of Full-Life, also any attacks will do. The easiest way is probably summoning Doomtrain which will deal 9999 damage to them both, summon it twice should knock them out. If not, just use normal attacks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Walk along and you'll meet up with another pair of your old friends, Biigs and Wedge! No fight this time though. You know this place right? Just make it all the way to the place where Zell's team got kicked out, but do save at the SP before it. All the old DPs are still here if you wanna be bothered with it. > Junction Check! Pack Mug this time, and remove any spells junctioned to Str for the character who has Mug. In the next screen, you'll see Fujin and Raijin who sends a robot to get you. BOSS – Mobile Type 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm still a bit puzzled with the this boss' attacks. Anyway, it attacks in whole when you first meet it. Just hit it a few times and it will split into the body and 2 probes. During the period where it's a whole, it'll counter attack with Twin Homing Laser, which is REALLY weak compared to Quistis' version, about 300 damage. When it splits, mug 2 Str-Ups from the Left Probe and 2 Vit-Ups from the right one. They have low HP so that's why you need to remove your Str, as you might accidentally end up killing it. You can mug a Laser Cannon from the main body though, useful if you haven't gotten Quistis' Homing Laser yet. It'll still counter with laser though, but it doesn't matter. At sometime during the fight, the boss will unleash Corona, making your HP down to 1. I think it only uses it upon its defeat. It's an easy boss anyway, normal attacks will do. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now your characters will have their HP dropped to 1, so get back to the SP and use a Tent. Save. > Magic Check! Remember how I told you to save some room for Aura? If you have, trade all your member's Aura to the non-active members. Make sure your character has an empty slot in their magic list. Now enter the room beyond the place where you fought Mobile Type 8. You'll see Seifer, he orders Fujin and Raijin to take care of you. They refused and... well, I guess they're just not happy with the way that Seifer had become. (Note not Fujin is actually speaking normally in this scene? So she's been fakin' it all along. I wonder if that eye patch is fake.) They released Ellone and walked away. It's time to fight Seifer yet once more. BOSS – Seifer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first thing that will happen is Odin will enter the screen, trying to Zantetsuken Seifer. But no, Seifer learnt to not only avoid Odin's sword, but countering him and slicing him in half. (*Gasp* Dιjΰ vu!!!) A strange scene then takes place where Odin's sword flies into the air and gets caught by someone. Seifer is REALLY weak. All he does is normal attacks. Just draw 300 Auras from him and then switch to normal attacks. Summon Doomtrain if you want, it should do 9999 damage to Seifer. You can Mug a Hero from Seifer, but you can also get it by defeating him. This is a really easy fight. When you've done enough damage, the one who caught Odin's sword will descend from the heavens and uses the sword to "kill" Seifer. He is indeed Gilgamesh! (DarkHoly17@aol.com commented that Gilgamesh looked a LOT like Gogo from FF6, and you know what? He has a point there. :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the fight ends. Another scene will take place where Seifer rushes to Rinoa and kidnapped her. (Hope he didn't molest her in the precess. :) All of a sudden, the screen goes blank and... Yup, end of disc 3. GF PROFILE – GILGAMESH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gilgamesh returns from FFV to take Odin's place, except he's MUCH more versatile than Odin. Like Odin, he cannot be junctioned nor summoned, but comes randomly. However unlike Odin, he may appear _anytime_ in combat, like Angelo Search. His "summoning" sequence is really cool. Four swords will drop from the sky and Gilgamesh will rise from the ground, chooses a sword and swings it at the enemy. The 4 attack includes Excalibur, Excalipoor (Excalipur), Masamune and Zantetsuken. This also means that he will attempt to instantly kill boss characters will Zantetsuken, which will have no effect at all. (Don't expect it to be like Selphie's The End. :) The other attacks will be damage based, Excalipoor (worst translation since "Blow Fish" in FF3US) will do 1 point of damage to all enemies though, just an inside joke and reference from FFV; Excalibur will deal decent damage to all foes (around about 5000) and Masamune will deal heavier damage (maybe 7000 or 8000). One thing distinguishes between Gilgamesh and Odin is that Gilgamesh appear a LOT less often than Odin. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ========================== End of Disc 3 ============================ ============================= Disc 4 ================================ The final disc of this game concludes the plot, not a very good one if you ask me, but that's another matter. It's short, it's not all that exciting and it's restrictive since you cannot enter any towns. Hopefully, you won't be disappointed with the ending. ---Which is the witchiest?--- You'll have to select another member to accomedate the loss of Rinoa, I'd choose Squall, Zell and Quistis has my team. > Junction Check! While Rinoa is taken hostage, exchange her junctions with another member. Just junction whatever, but equip Mug. Head back to the screen where you fought Mobile Type 8, you'll see that there's a ledge leading to the "thing" to the right (what is it anyway?) Climb that and climb the first set of stairs. > Magic Check! If you climb another set of stairs you can reach a Slow DP. Claimb back down afterwards. Follow another platform to the left, you can reach the outer ledge, then just make it all the way to the right. It'll lead to a shrine- like structure. Inside, you'll see Seifer holding Rinoa in front of Adel, as if she was to be sacrificed. He releases Adel who somehow grabs a hold onto Rinoa. (Gee, look at the details in the FMV, you can see the texture of Rinoa's clothing! And they call that seamless? Ok bad joke...) BOSS – Adel, Rinoa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is strange. Rinoa is hanging from Adel's chest (who is twice as tall and... hey, you sure she's a woman?) Rinoa is actually being junctioned by Adel! (Try Scanning her.) You don't want to hurt Rinoa in this fight, because if her HP goes to zero, the game is over. Whenever Adel's turn comes up, she'll cast a powerful spell (Meteor, Flare) and uses Drain on Rinoa for about 700HP. You can actually draw from Rinoa (!!) so drawn Regen and cast it on her to counter Adel's Drain. This fight is pretty easy if you get it under control. Because of Rinoa being on the other side of the battlefield, you shouldn't use any all target attacks. Try out a Meltdown on Adel to lower her defense. Then you may want to cast Aura on your characters and use their Limit Breaks. Zell's Duel works the best, but stay away from the multi-target finishers. If you have Quistis, try out her Homing Laser. Squall shouldn't use his Renzokuken because of Fated Circle and Blasting Zone. However, I found that regular attack works just as well. Mug from Adel for a Samantha Soul, a pretty classy item. Try out Rinoa will net you 8 Megalixirs, no kidding! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you defeat Adel, Rinoa will inherit her powers and Ultimecia will possess Rinoa. Ellone steps in and shows that she's on top of the "food chain" and sends them all back in time. Time Compression has begun. You'll see a very cool sequence where your members fall through everything. Wow. After that, you'll end up in Edea's room in Deling City (you know, in disc 1.) Save at the SP. When you approach "Edea", she turns into a witch and attacks. BOSS – Sorceress x5, x6, x1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll have to fight a buncha witches. The first type of sorceress are "thin" and they're really weak. Try mugging them though, they'll die in one hit but you may end up nabbing yourself an Ultima Stone or something. There are 5 of them, and the background will morph with each Sorceress killed. The second type are "fat" and comes in 2's (I think.) They're equaly as easy but you can still steal goodies from them. When you've beaten all 6 of the second kind, the boss witch will appear to avenge the death of the other sorceressed, and she is the "fatest". Anyway, there's not much to it. Just use your regular attacks, don't even have to waste your time summoning Doomtrain for this. Eventually, it'll start a countdown from 5, then it'll cast Ultima, which should only hit for about 400 or so to each member. Just kick her butt. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eventually, you'll reach Edea's orphanage... in the past! Enter the door to the right and get outside to the beach. It'll shift to the present but keep moving and it'll morph into the future! You'll see corpse of white SeeDs lying on the ground. Get behind the the rock and you'll enter the next screen with even more dead bodies! > Magic Check! There's a DP for Triple near the entrance. Keep going and you'll walk along huge chains conneting Edea's house to Ultimecia's Castle. > Magic Check! There's a DP for Flare to the right of the castle's entrance, it's hidden. Your other members will come to aid you when you decide to enter the castle. Save at the SP though. I will give you some tips though. I recommend that you find and fight all 8 of the optional bosses. Not only will they unseal your powers, they'll also give you really awesome GF ability items like Status Guard and Rocket Engine. Final trick – Mad about the Rosetta Stones ========================== |This is what? The fifth tip on Rosetta Stones? Anyway, thanks to | |Zachary Lim for this awesome trick. | | | |"In disc 4 at ultimecia castle, get the flood gate key in the | |library room. After that, go to the flood gate room and examine the| |red lever... use the Floodgate Key on it and pull the lever, all | |the water should stop flowing. Now go to the chapel and play the | |piano by holding all the buttons. After that, go to the passageway | |to the right of the fountain. The fence should be gone now, if not | |then play the piano again. Go inside and you should find the | |Rosetta Stone. Go through the other way to find your way back to | |the prison room." | | | |Mmmmmmm, Rosetta Stones, can't get enough of them. If you have | |enough of them already, you can always change it into a Shaman | |Stone and a whole lotta other stuff. Have fun! :) | ===================================================================== ---Other optional stuff--- First you'll need to get outta Ultimecia's Castle. It took me a long time to figure out how to get out. You need to walk along the chains and you'll see 3 portals to the left. Approach it and your characters will hop over and you can enter it. All 3 portals will lead to a different place on the world map. Take the middle portal, which will lead you somewhere in the Centra region. Find a Chocobo forest in that region and try to find your way to the Ragnarock, which ended up in the desert somehow. Sorry, I can't offer you much of a guidiance on which direction to go since I'm pretty much confused about the topography in the Centra region myself, so just wander around with a Chocobo and listen to the WORST remix of the Chocobo theme ever! When you do finally get back to the Ragnarock, hop onboard and you'll see Xu! (BTW, this will only happen if you've completed the CC quest in disc 2 or 3.) She said that the CC members are all here (!!) and they want to play cards with Squall! Excellentθ! The CC members will use any rare cards that you don't have, meaning it's sorta a "last resort" on getting the cards since you cannot enter the towns anymore. However, this will also lead to a nifty card trick. You can mod most rare cards into nifty items then play a hand with any CC member, they'll use it and you can mod them again and again!!! This is the best when done with the CC Spade, since he uses friendly rules (Esthar rules) and there's a SP in the same room! However, this does not work with some cards, and those are the Queen of Cards quest cards (wow, what a tongue twister!) Irvine, Kiros, Chubby Chocobo, Doomtrain and Phoenix simply didn't even exist originally, and was painted by the father of the Queen of Cards, which is why you cannot win them back. Which is sad, since those cards are the ones that gives you the best items. :( The other card you cannot win back is Pupu, because Pupu does not technically count as a rare card, since it's only a LV5 card. The Queen of Cards will still available to challenge though. She's somewhere on the world map, south of the Esthar region and Tear's Point. (It's _near_ the southern coast and to the east.) She seems to ONLY use the Queen of Cards quest cards though, so you can get them back from her if not the CC members. However, she only seems to use them once, and just play with crap cards afterwards. Also, make sure you're prepared for Same/Same Wall/Plus/Random and Sudden Death WITHOUT Open!!! You know, sometimes I doubt the fairness of a card game without the Open rule, as it seems the CPU gets to peek at your cards even though they're denying it. Can't trust computers! >:( Oh yeah, if you wanna play cards, DON'T screw around with all the members since each one of them uses the rules of a specific region. So to keep the rules from spreading, keep answering "No" when they offer to combine rules. It is because of this that makes certain CC members extremely annoying to play with, namely Joker and Diamond. You can also abolish the rules just like the normal game. BTW, I've seen Diamond use Chubby Chocobo (!!) even though it's a QoC quest card. What's even stranger is that the Queen of Cards don't seem to use that card at all!!! ---GF customization--- Whoohoo, I bet you have a LOT of GF ability items in your inventory after the trip through Ultimecia's Castle and card mod trick. Now it's time to customise the GFs for your characters. Also, I recommend that you split your 16 GFs 6 ways, so each character will get 3 or 2 GFs. You should keep them in their possession for the rest of the game (not that there's much left anyway) but it's nice to let your characters get used to them. Also, tailor the GFs to suit your character's style. For example, don't give any GF that has the Hit-J ability to Squall or Selphie since they can hit with 255% accuracy already. Also, try to minimize and maximize the GF's abilities, forget the extra and repeated abilities to create room to learn new ones. For example, don't give a character 2 GFs that both has the Spr-J ability, try to mending the weaknesses of one GF with another. For example, GFs Shiva and Diablos is a good combination to give to your characters, since Shiva offers Str-J, Vit-J and Spr-J while Diablos has HP-J, Mag-J and Hit-J, voila! All your basic attributes are covered! No repeats meaning no skills getting wasted. Spend sometime trying to find the perfect GF combination for all your characters, and take into account what stats benefit which character the most. It is because of this, it is a very good idea to save all your –J Scroll items in your inventory to allow maximum "min-maxing". (The scrolls for rarer stats like Speed are VERY hard to find.) Then buy truckloads of Amnesia Greens from the shop and start brainwashing your GFs. Forget the basic commands on the 1 or 2 GFs since only 1 GF is needed to use those skills. You may also want to upgrade certain abilities, just as fogetting Siren's ST-Def and ST-Defx2 but use a Status Guard on her to learn ST-Defx4. Also, try to get Abilityx4 on everyone, then forget the Abilityx3 skills. That way, you should have more than enough slots for all your favourite skills. Elem-Atks are aplenty, so delete any repeats. You may also want to teach some of your GFs certain commands, like if you found Leviathan's Recover command useful, get a Doc's Code (easily gotten) and teach it to another GF. It may take hours, but you'll eventually come out with a _perfect_ set of GF and skill combinations that'll make you a winner. Also, decide who you want to use against Omega Weapon and try to give those characters the best GFs (ie, Doomtrain) and skills (ie, Auto Haste.) I have spent hours and hours devising the perfect combination of GFs for the characters and came up with this: Squall: Quezacotl, Pandemona, Bahamut Quistis: Shiva, Diablos, Doomtrain Zell: Ifrit, Leviathan, Eden Rinoa: Cactuar, Cerberus Irvine: Carbuncle, Tonberry, Alexander Selphie: Siren, Brothers Note that my best team was Squall, Zell and Quistis, so all the best GFs goes with them (ie, Eden, Doomtrain, Bahamut etc.) Rinoa however, has 2 really useful GFs too, so she's another really good character to put in your team. If you like other members, you can exchange Zell's/Quistis' with Irvine or Rinoa. Selphie is more of a pain, since she has that 255% hit thing, so the best thing is probably exchange her junctions with Irvine. Of course, I was at a disadvantage since I've used many of the rare GF items (like Aegis Amulet etc) on the GFs at an early stage, which made it hard to find the perfect combination. However, if you didn't use a Rosetta Stone on Shiva, here's a waaaaaaay better solution: Squall: Quezacotl, Pandemona, Doomtrain Quistis: Shiva, Diablos, Bahamut This is because Quezacotl already has Mag+40% and Pandemona already has Str+40%, so junctioning Bahamut to Squall (with Str/Mag+60%) would simply put them to waste, so the latter combination is better, although my first strategy still works, as there weren't any repeated key abilities and no pointless abilities given to the wrong character (such as Hit-J with Squall.) Selphie needs to really beef up both Brothers and Siren though, as they don't come with all that many abilities. You should have 6 characters with –J abilities to all their basic attributes. Spd-J Scrolls are hard to come by, the same goes to Eva-J Scrolls, so use them wisely. Luck-J Scrolls shouldn't be a problem if you've gotten lotsa Drak Matters. If certain characters don't have the necessary xxx+??% skills, buy the items required to learn them from the pet shops. Hope all goes well, and good luck with Omega. And I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I've had typing it, and yes, my guide is "officially" complete. There will be updates if the situation calls for it and if more readers send in helpful tips. Have a fresh start with the new millennium, I've personally made my resolution. :) ****** Combo cheap trick – Beat Omega Weapon in under 5 rounds ****** * This is a cheap trick that combines most of the tips I've taught * * you in my guide and take on Omega to show him who's boss. I have * * tested this trick and it really works, although it does backfire * * occasionally due to the random nature of many of the gameplay * * aspects. So whatta you waiting for? Lets get ready to kick some * * butts, and for the players who have failed to beat Omega in FFV, * * it's time to get our sweet revenge. :) * * * * First of all, you need to choose the team members to use for this * * mission, and it's quite flexible on who you can use this time * * around. Quistis is a mandatory member for this trick and she will * * act as the support member who's going to be the backbone of this * * trick. Other than that, you can choose 2 characters out of Zell, * * Squall, Rinoa or Irvine who will be the main offensive units. (We * * can leave Selphie outta this but look below for a mission built * * especially for her.) Anyway, it is indeed possible to dump Squall * * in favour of another character, thanks to the Dual Team Division * * system used in Ultimecia's Castle (although you might not want * * to, since Lion Heart is especially powerful.) * * * * Of course, how well this trick works will be dependant on who you * * chose as the offensive units. This is the basic requirement for * * each character, ranked in order of decreasing strength: * * * * Zell – None, but mastering Armageddon Fist will be helpful * * Yes Zell is actually more powerful than Squall because he will * * be able to execute more hits than Squall's Lion Heart with a 12 * * second Duel and that he can make full use of critical hits. * * * * Squall – Lion Heart learned, need Lion Heart gunblade model * * Another very powerful character, the only weakness is that the * * Aura + critical status trick don't work as well for Squall as * * it does for other characters. * * * * Irvine – 100 Fast Ammo stocked * * 100 Normal Ammo OR ~50 AP/Pulse Ammo * * Irvine is actually not a bad character in terms of power, and * * like Zell, he can make full use of critical hits. The only * * really disappointing thing about Irvine is that he can only * * hold up to 100 of each type of ammunition in your inventory, * * seriously hindering Irvine's usefulness, since many of his * * bullets are next to worthless. * * * * Rinoa – Wishing Stars learned * * Do NOT learn Angelo Strike (recommended) * * Do NOT learn Angelo Recover (recommneded) * * Rinoa's Wishing Stars really packs a punch, although it doesn't * * inflicts nearly as much damage as the other boys. It does hit * * all enemies on screen though, but she cannot take the advantage * * of that in this fight. * * * * Quistis – Mighty Guard learned * * Shockwave Pulsar learned * * Not much to say about her damage potential, as it stinks. On * * the other hand, Mighty Guard will come in really handy. Like * * Squall, the Aura + critical trick don't work as well either. * * See below for precautions. * * * * After you choose your team, you need to prepare. Take your team * * to fight some weak enemies (the random ones inside Ultimecia's * * Castle are ok.) And you need to low all of your HP to at least * * the 3 digit mark, although it will be ideal if you can lower them * * to somewhere around 100HP. I know it's hard work, you can try * * Demi if their HP is high, or poison them with Bio. The latter is * * easier, as it removes abour 800HP everytime they take an action. * * Then use your regular attacks to do small amounts of damage, * * remove the Poison if needed. Then finally cast Blind on all 3 * * characters and Silence on Quistis. * * * * The you need to junction your characters, here's the requirements * * for the 2 attackers: * * - 9999 HP maximum * * - 255 Strength, 200+ Vitality and Spirit * * - 100x Triple junctioned to Speed * * - 100x Tornado (or better) junctioned to Evade * * - 100x Pain (or better) to Luck (for Zell and Irvine) * * - 100x Death junctioned to ST-Def * * - Abilityx4 * * - Commands Attack, Magic, Item and something else would be ideal * * - Equip Spd+40% Character Ability * * - Abilities to fulfill above requirements if needed (eg, Vit+40%) * * - Luck+50% for Zell and Irvine * * - Evade+30% recommended * * - One character has Initiative * * * * For Quistis, her requirements are slightly different: * * - 9999 HP maximum * * - 255 Strength and 255 Magic recommended * * - 200+ Vitality and Spirit * * - 100x Triples junctioned to Speed * * - 100x Tornado (or better) junctioned to Evade * * - 100x Death junctioned to ST-Def * * - Commands Attack, Item and 2 other (note that she's Silenced) * * - Equip Spd+40% Character Ability * * - Abilities to fulfill above requirements if needed (eg, Vit+40%) * * - Evade+30% recommended * * * * When you're ready, save outside Ultimecia's Castle. Switch the * * batle speed to its slowest and use Wait. You'll have to divide * * into 2 teams, the one who fights Omega will be Team A while the * * other one will be Team B. Junction Diablos to Team A and place * * one of your abilities with Enc-None temporarily. You need to get * * to the screen with a fountain (outside the Chapel) and remove * * Diablos and replace Enc-None. Switch to Team B with the Switch * * Point. * * * * As Team B, junction Diablos and the Enc-None ability. Take the * * door to the right and you'll see a large bell hanging from the * * ceiling. Now you need to pull the rope (to take the steps down * * and it's located to the left corner. When you do a message will * * pop up saying you can hear a monster roaring from afar. You have * * a minute to get to Omega. Now switch back to Team A with the * * Switch Point in the room. You don't really have to re-junction * * Team A if the absence of Diablos don't make much difference. (It * * shouldn't.) * * * * As Team A, head for the Chapel gates and Omega will be there. * * Note it is possible that you may run into a random encounter on * * the way to Omega, although it might not be probable since random * * encounter rates in Ultimecia's Castle are quite low. * * * * BOSS – Omega Weapon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * Omega Weapon will always use a certain attack pattern, it's * * important to learn the first few: * * (0) – Physical attack * * 1 - LV5 Death * * 2 - Meteor * * 3 - Megido Flame (the rest don't matter) * * There are 2 things to note here, Omega only seems to use action * * zero (physical attack) sometimes. Megido Flame will inflict 9998 * * points of damage to all 3 members, so if you haven't beaten Omega * * by then, you'll probably gonna be all wiped out, so be speedy. * * * * If it execute its physical attack, chances are, he'll miss due to * * your Eva-J. This is the most obvious hole in my strategy as Omega * * will hit once in a while, but I've never seen how much damage it * * does, but since your HP are so low, you'll probably get KO'd. If * * you've powered up your character a lot and that Ultima is no * * longer needed in other stats, junction it to Eva and equip * * Eva+30% to prevent this. Otherwise, let's pretend that he misses. * * :) I'll divide the rest into simple steps. * * * * 1 – Character 1 (with Initiative) cast Aura on Quistis * * 2 – Quistis use Mighty Guard * * Note: Tricky here. If the > has already appeared before * * Quistis was affected by Aura, it don't seem to register. So * * if that happens, you need to re-tap the O button to get the > * * to show up again. With low HP + Darkness + Silence, it * * _should_ give all your characters Aura on topa all the other * * positive statuses. You may also want to execute action #3 * * first instead. * * 3 – Character 2 cast Meltdown on Omega (Doomtrain takes too long) * * 4 – OPTIONAL Someone use a Holy War * * Note: It's tricky to say if you should or shouldn't execute * * this action. This is recommended if Omega did not try to hit * * you with a physical attack (action zero) or if you're using * * Rinoa and/or Irvine. Basically, use this if you don't think * * you can kill Omega before he uses Megido Flame. (It takes * * longer than 5 rounds if you're using Rinoa/Irvine.) Also note * * that the Holy War will negate all the negative statuses * * aiding the better Limit Breaks. * * 5 – Beat on him with your best Limit Breaks. It should achieve * * the best effects (except for Squall, but his 7 or 8 initial * * Renzokuken hits should make up for it.) * * * * Notes: * * - Omega's action #1 (LV5 Death) will not harm your characters, * * therefore, it buys you sometime for the preparations. * * - The reason why you need to lower your HP so much is because * * Mighty Guard also gives you Regen. With Zell and Squall, you * * can finish Omega in just under 5 rounds, HP at about 2000. With * * Irvine and Rinoa however, it takes about 7 rounds, HP at about * * 3100. Note your condition is still considered to be critical if * * your HP is less than 32% of maximum, so the Aura trick still * * works. * * - Omega's action #2 will not harm you because of your high Spr, * * Shell (Mighty Guard) and Regen. Buying your even more time. * * - Omega's behavior pattern changes from game to game. Sometimes * * it's really slow, just sit there and let your whip his a$$, but * * sometimes it goes all berserk. If it does the latter, it maybe * * wise to use a Holy War. * * - Oh, don't save your game after beating it, because if you do, * * you have to complete another game just to fight it again. You * * might want to use a different team or whatever. I always keep * * an "Omega file" on my memory card just for this purpose. With * * all the preparations (low HP) and junctions done so I can have * * some fun with Omega once in a while. * * - The reason not to learn Angelo Recover is that dog may come and * * heals you, ruins the Aura + critical combo. * * - Here's a Jap/NA difference for ya. Happy Matt told me that Hero * * and Holy War will NEVER work on Rinoa. (Best guess is that * * they're SeeD items.) However, it works fine in the NA version. * * - He also said that Aura + critical doesn't work as well in the * * Japanese version of the game, meaning our version has been * * toned down AGAIN!! * * * * Now comes the fun part, calculations! * * Zell – 12 second Duel + Armageddon Fist * * An expert will probably be able to execute about 4 (or more) * * moves per second, both Punch Rush and Booya will do about 4500 * * damage, and with high Luck, half of them will be criticals! * * => (4 x 12)/2 x 4500 + (4 x 12)/2 x 9000 = ~324,000 (or more!!) * * * * Squall – 7 or 8 hit Renzokuken + finisher * * I don't know why, Squall executes mostly 7 hit combos. Also, * * Aura + critical will not always work (mumble mumble Blasting * * Zone mumble.) I only got to see Lion Heart just over 50% of the * * time. * * => (7 x 9000) + (9999 x 17) = ~233,000 * * * * Irvine – Shot with Fast Ammo and others * * Fast Ammo works really well, but only lasts 2 rounds. :( Try to * * shoot 50 of them per round (a turbo controller might work.) * * They'll do 2000 damage per hit and half of them are criticals. * * Afterwards, you may think of resort to Pulse or AP Ammo, but * * Normal Ammo actually works a bit better, since it has decent * * speed and can take advantage of critical hits. The damage of * * Normal Ammo is identical to Zell's Duel moves, and can be shot * * 17 times. You can only shoot 8 AP or Pulse bullets. Ironic huh? * * => Fast Ammo: (50/2 x 2000) + (50/2 x 4000) = ~150,000 * * Normal Ammo: (8 x 4500) + (9 x 9000) = ~117,000 * * AP/Pulse: 8 x 9999 = 79,992 :( * * * * Rinoa – Wishing Stars * * Not all that powerful, as it only does 8 hits, but it sometimes * * deals more damage than Squall should his Lion Heart fail. * * => 8 x 9999 = 79,992 * * * * Quistis – Shockwave Pulsar * * Better than nothing I guess... * * => 31,000~35,000 * * * * Other notes and extras: * * If you really want Squall to do Lion Heart, try Silencing him as * * well, it doesn't guarantee a Lion Heart but it may help. (Note * * the Holy War will cancel it, but you probably won't need it if * * you see Lion Heart.) You also need to adjust his strategies a * * bit since he's Silenced. Instead of casting Aura on Quistis, use * * an Aura Stone with the Item command instead. Note Darkness and * * Silence are the only ones that you can use, since you don't want * * to spend time Petrifying and Doom your characters while in battle * * (actually, you can't.) * * * ******* Super Douper Mega Cheap Trick – As Cheap As It Gets ********* * "Selphie is the most powerful after all!" * * * * Simple, just do the same to Selphie as for the other characters * * above (low HP + status) and junction 100x Ultima to her Luck. * * * * Get into battle, cast Aura on Selphie and open the lid of the * * PlayStation. The game will "freeze" when Omega tries to cast LV5 * * Death. Do the tap tap easy Slot trick until The End comes up * * (should be quite common, I once got 3 The Ends in 10 "Do overs"!) * * Boom, bang, whoohoo, over! Easy but cheap as hell... * ********************************************************************* MISCELLANEOUS ============= This section just includes all the weird and interesting stuff on this game. * Is Doomtrain REALLY the train boss from FF6? Well, I asked Happy Matt and he checked the monster compendium in the Japanese version of FF6 and he said that the boss' name could be directly translated into "Magic Train" or "Phantom Train" or something along the lines of it. The Japanese name of Doomtrain is "Grasharaboras" so there is NO evidence that Doomtrain is exactly the Phantom Train in FF6. However, it's possible that they're related. * Like FFT, FFVIII contains lotsa references from the previous fantasies (and I don't just mean the FF motifs like Chocobos, Moogles, Shiva, Behemoth etc), these are the ones I've found: -FFIV- None yet. -FFV- -> Gilgamesh, who was Ex-Death's servant in FFV, a comical villain. Likewise, 2 of his sword attacks are also from FFV. => Excalibur: The sword he wanted so much but.. => Excalipur (Excalipoor is just a poor translation) was the one he got. A joke item in FFV as it can only ever do 1 point of damage. -> Boco (again, Boko is another bad translation): Butz's Chocobo is now the default Chicobo name. -> Omega: I hated this bonus boss as it's next to impossible to beat! -> Brothers: Flanker358@aol.com said that Sacred and Minotaur were bosses in FFV. I think I remember seeing something like it so I assume that he's right. -> Siren: Siren was a boss in FFV too, although she didn't act anything like her 8th self. She's the boss in the Ships Graveyard but I'm not sure what she's called in the official translation. Actually I'm not even sure that she's Siren, oh well... -FFVI- -> Doomtrain (see above) -> Odin's fate: Remember what happened to Odin in FFVI? That's right, he got slaughtered by an inverted version of his sword attack, which is used by Seifer in FFVIII. -> AtmaWeapon (Ultima Weapon): see below -> Vicks and Wedge: Vicks is originally named Biggs in the Japanese version. These 2 are the imperial soldiers that accompanied Terra at the beginning of the game. (Note that they fixed Vicks back to Biggs in the Playstation Anthology version of FF6.) -> Merton: Merton was renamed Meltdown in the NA version of FFVIII. However, the original Merton in FFVI has been changed to Melton in the FFA (FFV and FFVI) rerelease. Why? Probably trying to accomedate the changes in FFVIII and "Meltdown" won't fit. -FFVII- -> Cloud: He owns a shop in Esthar where he sells some useless stuff. -> Ultima Weapon: Another bonus boss that appeared in FFVI, VII and VII. -> Ultima Weapon: And the Ultima Weapon is holding Cloud's Ultima Weapon. It's not as strong as it was in FFVII though. -> Biggs and Wedge: Two Avalanche members make a triumphant return in FFVIII with another identity. (Thanks to Ed Asano for reminding me.) Oh yeah, he also mentioned that Biggs and Wedge are from the original Star Wars, so is it possible that the crew at Square are huge Star Wars fans? -FFT- -> Olan/Orlan (I'm not sure which is the bad translation) is the person who invented Triple Triad. And he IS Olan from FFT since there's a picture of him in the card tutorial. You can also see a Black Mage in the background drawn in FFT style. -> Diablos: Have you ever wondered how much Diablos resembles that of the Lich (the summon) in FFT? They look identical and works the same way, so I guess they're the same thing. -> Eden: Is Eden Zodiac? They look kinda similar and share few features, that they're both the most powerful summons and that it's next to impossible to tell what they're supposed to be. (IMO, Zodiac looks like a fairy and Eden looks like a giant mushroom.) -> Save the Queen: Quistis' best weapon is of the same name is Meliadoul's (and other Divine Knight's) sword. -> Blind: Ok, this is a bit off the topic but the Blind spell in FFVIII looks suspiciously similar to the one in FFT. -Other- -> Ehrgeiz: The fighting game, but the timer runs out way too fast for my liking! -> Vicks and Wedge: Can't believe I forgot this. FeralNoa reminded me that Vicks (Biggs) and Wedge also appeared as puppets in Chrono Trigger. Also, she said that the other puppet Piette (or something) bears a resemblance towards Piet, the guy in the space station. -> Malboro: Hey Macaw told me this really cool thing. Malboros are named after cigarettes 'cuz they give you bad breath, yellow teeths and sickness. I thought that's a pretty cool point. * In Laguna's scenario where he asked the receptionist about Julia's room, the receptionist called her "Ms Julia". Actually, it does not mean that she's married like in my last version. Qualera e-mailed me saying that "Ms" is like "Mr" in that it does not contain any information on a person's martial status. But then again, why could they have just used "Miss Julia". (The difference is 10 years..) * Did you notice who was playing the role of the sorceress in Laguna's fourth scenario? That's right, the Queen of Cards! * What's the third FFVIII theme song? Selphie's one of course! Here are the lyrics.. Anyone wanna write the music to it? Train, Train, Take Us Away Take Us Away, Far Away To The Future, We Will Go Where It Leads No One Knows :) * Is it just me or does anyone else think that Irvine looks like Michael Jackson? (I mean, he even has THE hat!!) * Does anyone thinks that Zell's opening stance when he bends over and stretches looks a lot like Fei's in Xenogears? Likewise, Zell's in battle standby animation is also very similar to Fei's. * Sorry to have to say this but being a male myself, I can't help but noticing that none of the females in the game has exceptionally large chests. Anyway, my point was not to be rude but FFVIII is a good proof that silicone polygons are not the only thing that sells games these days. * Have you noticed that ALL GFs always starts off with the highest compatibility with Rinoa and Selphie? Likewise, Leviathan's compatibility with Rinoa is the highest. Hmm, I wonder if this has any connection with the demo. * Who thinks Quistis looks like Aya Brea? Actually, it's almost impossible to have not noticed that. :) * Ok so this is not FFVIII related but I discovered this last week and I just want everybody to know. It's about Xenogears and FF6, but since I won't write an FAQ for either game, this guide is the closest thing that I can put this tidbit on. Anyway, do you recall the middle names of the Figaro brothers? (It was never mentioned in the game but it's in the manual, I think.) Edgar's middle name was "Roni" while Sabin's "Rene". Now head all the way back in time to the first generation of the Fatima family in Xenogears, Bart's great ancestor was named "Roni Fatima" and in one of the cut scenes, a guy called Rene was present (along with Roni, Lacan and Krelian.) Who was "Rene" anyway? Could he have been Roni's brother? In that case, would the Fatima and Figaro family be somehow related? Oooh, the plot thinkens. * Something bothers me about the way that Laguna speaks. Is it because he's a big Seinfeld fan? :) * I don't know if this will happen to you but when I fought the enemies in Dollet with Seifer to max out my GF's level, the first time I got paid, I went up *FIVE* SeeD ranks!!!!! How is this possible?! * Ok, it's about time everyone should know about this. I have the exact birthday as Squall Leonhart (no kidding!) I'm 17, and the jerk is 17... Talk about getting your identity stolen by a looser. * Ok this tidbit is not about FFVIII but you can get Zantetsuken in Kartia! Go to create a weapon and choose Swords, then choose the Kanji "Cut", "Steel" and "Sword" which are the exact Kanji for Odin's sword attack, but it's been translated into something very different. (And a lot weaker. :) Good only for Odin fanatics. There's more but my head's only so big so I cannot remember it now. This FAQ is intended to be used for non commercial purposes and there shouldn't be any money involved. It is free to everyone who is interested and you can print it if you like (although with my type of format, it's not very print friendly.) Please do not rip me off by claiming that it's your own work or rip any others off by selling them a free FAQ. As I've learnt from my "debut" walkthrough, that writing a walkthrough is really not an easy task at all but I've really worked hard on it. So enjoy this "free" guide! Copyright 1999 by me. E-mail me at i_love_aya@hotmail.com Final Fantasy VIII (c) 1999 Squaresoft