FINAL FANTASY VIII
POWER UP GUIDE
Version: 4.8
Written by: Aya Brea
i_love_aya@hotmail.com
http://www6.50megs.com/vanceayahan
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
- Preparation
- 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
- Laguna Loire
- Kiros Seagul
- Ward Zaback
- 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
- Collecting Flare
- 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*
- Acquiring Eden - Alternative!
- 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 Viki
- 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
V4.5 08/Mar/2000
- Added Laguna, Kiros and Ward's stats. Whoohoo, now the character
section is complete!
- Changed the "About me" section a bit to include my homepage! Yes, I
actually got one!
V4.6 07/March/2000
- I have begun a quest translating this guide into an HTML version
WITH SCREENSHOT!!!!! Come visit http://www6.50megs.com/vanceayahan, Eve
of Melancholy is the name. :) I am also trying to promote it, please
come visit.
- Added, dum dum dum dum dum, you guessed it, ANOTHER Rosetta Stone
trick! Geez, there must be like a prize in getting all of these hidden
goodies!
- Fixed up some info on Degenerator
- Added a FAST way of learning Rinoa's Angelo skills
- Fixed some minor problems
V4.7 06/May/2000
- Added a trick to collect Flares in disc 2
- Modified some parts to suit the HTML version (such as adding stats
of the bosses.) This will be done to the entire walkthrough when I have
time
- Added Pupu and Rinoa to Devour list
- Added a warning on HP maximum keep dropping, possibly a bug, in the
tips section.
- Added the fun Scan tip. :)
- Another note on Phoenix
- A trick on how to get Eden and not loose the ability to refine
Darkmatters easily! Look for a brand new section after the Darkmatter
section
- Cleared up the Irvine's ammo quest in FH in disc 2
- Added an insight on Eden's identity
- More on the Chicobo
- Another strategy for Fujin/Raijin fight in disc 3
- Refined the strategy for Fire Cavern/Ifrit
- Some parts of the walkthrough may sound REALLY hypocritical but I'll
get around to fix it when I progress with my HTML version. :)
V4.8 12/May/2000
- Move over yeah don't do it over, 'cuz it's over yeah yeah yeah. Move
over Armageddon Fist, Grand-Calamity Symphony is here to take your
place! See Zell's section.
- A minor fun strategy for Edea in disc 2
- Fixed some format problems
- Added how to get QoC cards back after modding them in disc 4
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.
* Viki 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 liek Laguna's team LV100 stats etc... :)
* 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.
* Asekeria (ICQ # 20922748) for a bit about Behemoth
* Niek for the extra Rosetta Stone in Balamb
Garden, disc 2
* Mega Moth for the ways of getting Rinoa's Angelo
skills quickly
* Brad White for getting Flares in disc 2
* for corrections.
* Franz G. Pascobillo for the info on
HP dropping in between battles.
* Katman for the fun Scan info and a few other
strategies. :)
* for a lot of useful infomation, such as an
insight on Eden's identity and the Eden/Tiamat trick.
* Ankhorial, an admin at FFOnline, who is the one who discovered the
Eden/Tiamat trick.
* Ian Wee for clearing up the Irvine's ammo
quest for us all...
* James Wennberg for telling me about Grand-
Calamity Symphony and the strategy on fighting Edea in disc 2
* Anyone I missed
* 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")
Oh yeah, I've just signed up for my own homepage, whoohoo, finally! Yes,
you can visit "Eve of Melancholy" with the URL:
http://www6.50megs.com/vanceayahan/
You can also use the subdomain http://aya_brea.50megs.com/ but I found
it that it screws up the performance of a few things, the Refresh button
in particular. So stick to the other one.
I am in the middle of my new project, to create an HTML version of this
FAQ. And yes, I've gotten that video card thing that enables me to take
screenshots from the PS, so expect the walkthrough with many (almost too
many) screenshots. (Can somebody comment on those pages? It seems that
I've taken too many shots, and I remember one of the no-nos of designing
a webpage is to avoid heavy graphics.) The advantage of the HTML version
is that I'd probably cover more aspects of the game. Also a few pages on
SaGa Frontier is up too. Come on over, I'll be waiting.. :)
(As for the SaGa Frontier 2 FAQ that I've promised. Well, I've started
it, but it's kinda getting nowhere 'cuz the game is crap.)
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 the enemies
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 Pokèmon, 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! Ok ok, so I was WRONG about the theory on acquiring GF
Tonberry, excuse me for any troubles it might have caused. However, that
theory is not completely untrue, since NOBODY knows the EXACT
requirements for getting Tonberry. The best guess would be the 20 Chef's
Knives ARE needed, but you'll have to obtain them or mug them from the
Tonberries themselves, not through cards.
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.
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.
Anyway, when you read the tube, you'll be asked a series of questions,
so answer them correctly. ("Easy as 1-2-3" - Bad joke by Qualera.)
You'll fight against Bahamut after 2 Ruby Dragons!! (For more strategy,
look in the walkthrough.) 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!
PREPARATION
===========
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.
* Str Bonus [OR] Mag Bonus
* Vit Bonus
* Spr Bonus
* HP Bonus
Irvine, Squall and Zell are definite fighters so they should equip Str
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
You can 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, but
it's just random. Keep visiting and you'll eventually get it. 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 your own Sources
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
1x Monk's Code => Str-Up
5x Adamantine => Vit-Up
1x Knight's Code => Vit-Up
10x Royal Crown => Mag-Up
10x Magic Armlet => Spr-Up
1x Hundred Needles => Spd-Up
2x Aegis Amulet => Spd-Up
5x Rocket Engine => Spd-Up
50x Jet Engine => Spd-Up
50x Accelerator => Spd-Up
1x Luck-J Scroll => Luck-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 Viki.
Ruby Dragon -> Max HP+10
T-Rexaur -> Strength+1
Adamantoise -> Vitality+1
Behemoth -> Magic+1
Malboro -> Spirit+1
*Pupu -> Speed+1
**Rinoa -> HP+10
* Devouring Pupu's rather pointless, as you'll never be able to get its
card. A pretty bit sacrifice.
** That's during the Adel battle, where she's on the enemy side of the
battlefield. However, your game will end when Rinoa dies anyway, making
this another useless Devour. (I can't remember who told me about these 2
first, sorry.....)
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?
NOTE2!!! No it's not 'cuz the Malboro is of a low level. That was on the
Island Closest to Hell, all enemies are level 100!
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 Viki 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.
-> Warning! Beware of dropping HP!
Thanks to Franz G. Pascobillo
Franz G. Pascobillo has recently informed me about this issue, where he
found that his characters' MAXIMUM HP was dropping after each battle. He
also found out that it was caused by using Curaga in the menu!!!
I have not tried this out myself though, so I cannot confirm it. I
cannot remember whether he said it was the PC or PS version, so it might
be a bug in the PC version perhaps? I also do not know if Cure or Cura
does the same thing. The only safe bet is to switch to potions while in
menu or cast Curaga during battle.
-> Fun Scan trick. :)
Thanks to Katman
If you thought Scanning Rinoa in Adel's fight was fun, get a hold of
this. Most players don't realise that you can cast Scan on your own
party members. As a result, you can read some interesting info on the
playable characters. For example:
Quistis
Uses enemy magic she has learned. Attacks with a whip when in danger.
Cool huh? I'm gonna list all 9 playable character's info here later.
Thanks for this fun trick. :)
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 starte
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