                        FINAL FANTASY VIII
                          POWER UP GUIDE
                           Version: 4.9
                       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.
You can be sure to find the latest version of this guide free of
charge to download at these GREAT sites:

         http://www.gamefaqs.com/
         http://www.absolute-playstation.com/
         http://www.thegamer.com/
         http://www.vgstrategies.about.com/

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.
* 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!
          - Yikes! I have a Chocobo in my pocket!!! <<<NEW!!!>>>
          - 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

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

V4.9 31/Nov/2000
  - Removed revision updates between V1 and V4 as no one really wants
to know
  - Added a "massive" Pocketstation section. It's somewhere near the
bottom, check the contents.
  - Removed GF Chicobo's profile and stuck it under the Pocketstation
section, as well has new GF profiles for Mog and Moomba. :)
  - Added a card/item glitch from Catherine Fletcher. Check it out,
gamers. It's in the tips section as usual.
  - Added a trick on making sources the easy way with a programmable
pad, in the tips section.
  - Added info on Shiva's alternate animation
  - Added new notes that maybe of interest to you during Esthar's
meeting with Lunatic Pandora, as well as found the uses for the old
keys in Laguna's second scenario.
  - Added an alternate way of getting the QoC cards (Irvine etc..)
and it's in the tips section. (Sorry, I can't think of another place
to put it.)
  - A little grim reaper told me that someone's been naughty. Yup,
another black lister. *Evil grin*
  - Updated the "Getting Lionheart in Disc 1" trick to make it easier
  - Added a bit more info on Diablos' attack
  - A side note on challenging the Queen in Balamb and avoiding the
Direct rule
  - Added another note to Zell's Duel moves and the magazines. You do
NOT have to read them!!!
  - Added an automatic training method under the "Training" section
for lazy people like me


CREDITS
=======
* Happy Matt <Happy_Matt@msn.com> 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 <cephiroth@yahoo.com> for the X-ATM092 strategy on his
  guide and some other stuff.
* Scott Ong <kangning@mbox5.singnet.com.sg> 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 <FeralNoa@aol.com> for the Devour list as well as many other
  stuff. And thanks for writing to me via e-mail everyday. :-)
* Allan Mills <holywhippet@hotmail.com> for the corrections and info
  on Angelo
* Ed Asano (aka Qualera) <qualera@early.com> 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 <soundshock834@yahoo.com> for the Gil trick and
  some other notes
* Tam Tran <xuanha99@hotmail.com> for the Gil trick
* Linda Villanueva <linda.villanueva@tcgs.co.travis.tx.us> for the
  way to get pass the bit in the X-ATM092 chase where the ground
  shakes
* John Calvin <jexer@hotmail.com> for discarding unwanted magic trick
* Joe Pirozzo <jpirozzo@usa.net> for data on Devour
* Eekeric@aol.com for the Demi/Devour strategy
* Weilun <tionghui@singnet.com.sg> for corrections and the detailed
  explanation of devour
* jay sar <vodka_81@yahoo.com> for the information on Break
* EdwChang@aol.com for more information on Zell and Rinoa's Limit
  Breaks
* Duncan Day-Myron <wombat_84@hotmail.com> for the Rosetta Stone
  trick #2
* DarkHoly17@aol.com for the info on mugging Seifer.
* Ken Ho <warlock@asia.com> for the alternate Diablos strategy.
* Mokona (Souma) <souma@primus.com.au> for the ways of getting good
  spells early
* Vincent Merken <vincent.merken@luc.ac.be> 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 <gamer777@hotmail.com> for the alternate Angel Wing
  strategy
* Christian Groff (aka COSMIC KNIGHT) <epoch@texas.net> 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) <salivator@hotmail.com> for Seifer's
  level 100 stats and "Taming the Ruby Dragon" trick
* Matt <The200sx@aol.com> for Selphie's Slots trick
* David Seo <deranged85@hotmail.com> for the trick on getting
  Pandemona's card early
* Ronny Boen <boenb@rocketmail.com> for the trick on getting Pulse
  Ammo in disc 2
* Jonathan Ng <j6ng@engmail.uwaterloo.ca> for corrections on the
  Revive command and Full-Life.
* Zachary Lim <bio_freak90@hotmail.com> for the trick on getting the
  last Rosetta Stone.
* -Skrybe- <skrybe@hotmail.com> for the Angel Wing and Slot lists, as
  well as Seifer's Limit Breaks.
* Iaian Ross <hyuga_ricdeau@hotmail.com> 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" <nofear33@clara.co.uk> for some tips
* Treylane47@aol.com for corrections and the "Steal" tip
* Kaze Yagami<yagami@pacific.net.sg> who was the one who started the
  whole Legend of Armageddon Fist! *Bow*
* Stephanus Rudiyanto Natari <s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com> for info on
  GF Phoenix
* Macaw <tomt@f1.net.au> for the Devour side effect and Malboro
  reference.
* Asekeria (ICQ # 20922748) for a bit about Behemoth
* Niek <niek_maasdijk@hotmail.com> for the extra Rosetta Stone in
  Balamb Garden, disc 2
* Mega Moth <timomoth@yahoo.com> for the ways of getting Rinoa's
  Angelo skills quickly
* Brad White <bm-white@telus.net> for getting Flares in disc 2
* <BJinNCwAW@aol.com> for corrections.
* Franz G. Pascobillo <clashing_harmonica@hotmail.com> for the info
  on HP dropping in between battles.
* Katman <cgalli@teleline.es> for the fun Scan info and a few other
  strategies. :)
* <yang1@altavista.net> 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 <brenanne@cyberway.com.sg> for clearing up the Irvine's
  ammo quest for us all... and about Zell's Duel magazines
* James Wennberg <tanar_ri_zande@yahoo.com> for telling me about
  Grand-Calamity Symphony and the strategy on fighting Edea in disc 2
* J.T.Kauffman <stormwalker@hotmail.com> for his Chocobo World
  Pocketstation FAQ. It's really good as it provides basic
  PocketStation care tips as well as specific game related info.
* Charles Leung for sending me a Pocketstation
* Catherine Fletcher <digimitch@prodigy.net> for the item glitch
* <DAX552@aol.com> for the idea of automatically powering up with a
  Turbo Pad
* Aaditya V. Rangan <rangan@math.berkeley.edu> for the macro-
  refinement trick
* EXCALIBUR <tomo_ciel@hotmail.com> for the info on Shiva's alternate
  summon animation
* Efrem Orizzonte <efroriz@hotmail.com> for the info on Laguna's quest
  and Lunatic Pandora
* Brian Lennon (Edge) <bowie_knife@hotmail.com> for the alternate way of
  getting the QoC cards and about Diablos
* Ali Sufian Mughal <venom20001@excite.com> for the info on getting
  Dragon Fangs
* <jjtoth@vcu.edu> for info on getting the Spd-Ups with turbo
* Gregory Colombo <gcolombo@uni.uiuc.edu> for info on the Direct rule
* Marl Lieberman <lman@flashmail.com> for another bug
* 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?

- Game Informer Magazine
What did they do? They stole my friend Happy Matt's Legend of Dragoon
guide including all of the item names that he translated for the
later part of the game without giving anything that barely resembles
credits. Bad! No biscuit!

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/

(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 controls 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 Pokmon, 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. Basically any normal enemy that does not have a
card, excelt for Elnoyles. Card doesn't work on it for some reason.

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 <vodka_81@yahoo.com> 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 by 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.

Turbo Trick  Automatic Powering Up and Item Gain!!! ----------------
|             AKA "Do it all night long!"                           |
|                                                                   |
| Thanks to quite a few people for this trick. Also, this trick is  |
| for people with a Turbo Controller only (PC or PSX).              |
|                                                                   |
| This is the standard "wrap a rubber band on the stick and watch   |
| them go" trick that works for many games. You need a pad with the |
| Rapid Fire function. But before doing that, you need to prepare.  |
|                                                                   |
| Junction yourselves properly, including all the Bonus skills when |
| you are powering up. Junction 100x Drains in your ST-Atk just to  |
| be safe. Now find somewhere with some weaker enemies (such as the |
| areas in Centra region) and wrap a rubber band around the left    |
| stick so Squall runs in circles. Set the turbo on the action      |
| button and you are done! Go to sleep or school or whatever, when  |
| you come back, you'll be a LOT more stronger and you'll have      |
| plenty of items in your inventory.                                |
|                                                                   |
| You can also use this trick to get specific items, such as        |
| Cactuar Thorns required to refine into Spd-Ups. Junction Speed    |
| attributes and Initiative. Check back every hour or so to do the  |
| conversion, and you're done! This can also be used to get other   |
| items you want with minimum effort. Pretty neat if you ask me.    |
---------------------------------------------------------------------


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 on 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 <soundshock834@yahoo.com> and Tam Tran |
|<xuanha99@hotmail.com> 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   |
|twice as expensive. 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 big 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!

NOTE3!!! To fix this random Malboro misfire, try junctioning various
status magic to ST-Def.

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 LOSE 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 you 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 lose 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 <jexer@hotmail.com> 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 <tionghui@singnet.com.sg> 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 (lose 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 <epoch@texas.net> 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+40% 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 <hyuga_ricdeau@hotmail.com> 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 over
time.) Now when you get to Timber (Galbadia region) and play a card
game, end 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.

-> Fun Scan trick. :)
Thanks to Katman <cgalli@teleline.es>

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. :)

-> Card and item glitch? Very likely. ;)
Thanks to Catherine Fletcher <digimitch@prodigy.net> for this

   "I would also like to submit a question/cheat that needs no Game
    Shark or something like that. I own both PC and Playstation
    version of FF8. When i'm playing a previously saved game, and end
    it by getting a Game Over, not by turning off the system, i
    create a new game. When i do this it randomly selects many useful
    items and cards. For instance, it gave me "Gambler", "Vit-J",
    etc. to teach my GFs abilities with out getting AP. The cards it
    would like give me 44 Fuijin and Raijin cards and 50 Behemoths.
    These are just a few cards. whe i win cards like MiniMog, it will
    give me like 5 MiniMogs intead of 1. This glitch/cheat works for
    both systems(PC/PS). My question was, do you think this is just a
    glitch or could it be a real cheat?"

I think it's a glitch. I haven't tried it out though.

Marl Lieberman <lman@flashmail.com> also reported starting a new game
with maximum time and Gil. It's likely to be another bug.

-> Gain stats-boosts... the easy way.
Thanks to Aaditya V. Rangan <rangan@math.berkeley.edu>

Basically, to avoid the tedious process of making money and refining
sources manually, just use a programmable pad. I don't expect many of
us gamers to have one though.

Anyway, you'll probably have to do this in 2 steps. First step is to
program the pad with a macro that will refine the potions and sell
them for a high profit. Do this for an hour or two and then carry on
with the second step, which will be purchasing ingredients and
refining them into the stats-boost of your choice. All very technical
stuff, I guess people like me, who's still trying to work the stone
wheel, should not tempt with the advanced technology such as this.

-> Queen-of-Cards Cards... the easy way? Perhaps....
Thanks to Brian Lennon <bowie_knife@hotmail.com>

   "I discovered a new trick that I actually think you haven't heard of
    before. This makes the Queen of Cards Quest MUCH easier. Ok, when
    she's in Balamb, you gotta lose 4 of your rare cards to her in one
    game. Then, wait until she goes to Dollet. Talk to her and she'll
    ask you for a certain card. Keep offering to play until she makes
    the DIRECT rule. Lose the card she wants, but gain one of your rare
    cards back. Now, instead of moving to another region, she'll ask you
    for another card!!! Repeat this until you lose Alexander. Then,
    fetch Doomtrain, give that to her, get the other cards, and it'll be
    done WITHOUT having to chase her all over the world!!!

This sounds really weird, but according to Brian, it works... Of
course, I know what you are thinking of right now and YES THE DIRECT
RULE STICKS after you are done. Quite a messy situation to put
yourself in if you ask me. The choice is yours. Whether you want to
chase the Queen around the world and resetting lots to get what you
want (which I actually prefer) or do it the easy way with a serious
drawback, it's your call. You can probably get all the card you want
from the Dollet region before starting this trick though.

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 <hyuga_ricdeau@hotmail.com> who
informed me about this.

Anyway, it seems that whenever you upgrade Squall's gunblade, he'll
gain the finishers that model grants AND all the finishers below it.
In other words, Squall does not learn the finishers but the gunblades
comes with certain finishers learned. For example, Squall upgrade his
Revolver to a Cutting Trigger (skipping the Shear Trigger), he'll be
able to use not only Rough Divide and Blasting Zone, but Fated Circle
as well, since the Cutting Trigger is more advanced than the Shear
Trigger.

Because of this, the theory of increasing the chances of executing
Lion Heart by upgrading the Revolver to a Lion Heart and thus trying
not to learn Fated Circle or Blasting Zone would not work. Sorry if
the previous theory gave anyone any trouble.

Note: Fated Circle and Blasting Zone hits all enemies, however, if
enemies are affected by Sleep prior to Renzokuken, the enemies which
Renzokuken was not targeted on but was hurt by either of the above
finishers will NOT wake up!

-Rough Divide-
This is what Squall used on Seifer in the intro FMV. Squall runs
towards his target while while sliding the blade across the ground,
then he leaps into the air bringing up rocks and a huge vertical
shock wave damaging the enemy. This looks pretty cool but does more
damage of that of a regular Renzokuken hit. Critical happen often
with this!

-Fated Circle-
Squall will leap into the air and spins around with his blade on his
way down, forming a ring shaped sonic boom-like force that cuts all
enemies, then explodes into flames. Not a very powerful move, but
stronger than a Renzokuken hit.

-Blasting Zone-
Gosh this takes ages! Squall gets surrounded by a whirlwind-like
force field as he extends his gunblade up into the air. A vertical
beam force lengthens from the blade and extends out all the way into
space, then Squall brings his blade down as strong gale hurts all
enemies. I don't like this very much as it only does slightly more
damage than Fated Circle but lower than Rough Divide, and takes ages
to animate. Extremely pointless but seems to be the finisher that
gets triggered the most in the long run.

-Lion Heart-
This was originally named "End of Heart" in the Japanese version
which was a much better name. Squall rushes to the enemy and
uppercuts them into the air, then leaps into the air and beats them
up with 16 hits of his gunblade, ending with a flashy diagonal
strike. Then the enemy drops back to the ground.

This is the most powerful attack in the whole game. Squall executes
exactly 16 hits (thanks to Qualera) and each hit usually does 9999
damage. (Less against enemies with REALLY high defence, but the
damage never really goes below 9000 per hit.) Can kill most bosses in
one hit except Omega Weapon and the last form of the last boss. Note
there's an extra hit when the enemy drops back onto the ground
afterwards, making it a total of 17 hits!!!


---Quistis Trepe---
                      MAX
HP        3883       6643
Str        161        163         Spd       34
Vit        118        122         Luck      21
Mag        132        134         Eva        3%
Spr        121        126         Hit      107%

Comments on stats: Quistis has the worst overall stats of the group
it seems but since her Limit Breaks are some of the best, Quistis
stands out in the game as the best character, IMO. Very pretty too,
and looks a LOT like Aya! :-)

Limit Break: Blue Magic
I've always loved Blue Magic in the series. Blue Magic started all
the way back in FFV where it's the specialty of Blue Mages, since
they can only learn new spells through being hit by it, the game
balances them out by giving them the ability to use better equipment.
In FFVI, only Strago the Blue Mage can use Blue spells (Lores) and he
has a few decent ones like Grand Train, but it still made him a less
useful character. In FFVII, Blue spells were named Enemy Skills and
can be learnt by the corresponding materia. They were really useful
though, especially in the Battle Arena since they count as YELLOW
materia, not Green, so you'll still be able to use spells when your
Green materia breaks.

Anyway, Quistis's Blue Magic are a bit different since she does not
learn them by being hit as the enemy casts them like in the previous
fantasies, instead, you have to use certain items that can be won or
stolen from enemies on her. Some of her better ones are really hard
to get though (Ray Bomb, Shockwave Pulsar, Mighty Guard, Homing Laser
etc.) Blue spells have always worked in strange ways so even though a
certain attack is generally more powerful, another attack may do more
damage than it under certain circumstances.

There are a few great things about Quistis' Blue magic too, because
she has a great variety of them and she has one for every situation
(ie, multi-target attack, instant death, elemental, status, gravity
elemental, healing and defence!) Her spells are also extremely
dependable, and she's the ONLY character who has non-random Limit
Breaks. The disadvantage of it is that she has the least damage
potential.

Note: None of Quistis' damage dealing Blue Magic (except Gatling Gun)
can be blocked, meaning the damage cannot be halved by both Protect
and Shell. Likewise, no Blue Magic can be reflected. Also, despite
that they're enemy skills, they work NOTHING like the enemy's
version. I'll describe the differences (if any) below.

-Laser Eye-
Used by: Belhelmel has it as a counter attack
Learnt from: None, initial spell

Quistis starts the game with this. She turns away from the enemy then
release a green beam of laser from her eyes and hurts the enemy. It's
fairly weak (~200 damage at the start of the game but can get a bit
stronger.) It's cool to watch though and actually does fairly decent
damage if you power Quistis up.

I think the Belhelmels only use this as a counter attack.

-Ultra Wave-
Used by: Caterchipiller
Learnt from: Spider Web

Defeat Catachipillers nets you this, they're really common. You can
also get it from changing Catachipiller's card into it.

Quistis damages all enemies with pink spiral waves that pop out from
her body. This damages all enemies and does 300+ damage near the
start but I think Laser Eye is generally more powerful.

-Electrocute-
Used by: Cockatrice
Learnt from: Coral Fragment

I think steal/defeating Cockatrices can get you this. I got it by
trading Creeps' card for it.

Quistis released countless golden lighting bolts from her body and
fries all enemies, looks a lot like Vincent's Limit Break in FFVII.
Kinda weak if you ask me though. This is like Trine from FFVII, which
is weaker than Beta (Fire Breath) and Aqualung (Aqua Breath). I
usually don't bother with this as even against robots, her other
attacks does more damage.

-Level ? Death-
Used by: Torama, Omega Weapon (LV5 Death)
Learnt from: Cursed Spike

Steal/win from Tri-Face, or occasionally dropped by Malboros. It's
easier to trade Tri-Face's card for it since those enemies appear
later in the game.

Not a good one at all! A reaper appears and smacks the enemies with
its scythe and either kills it in one hit or has no effect. Thank god
this is the only level-something Blue spell as I hated them. This is
strange since the level multiplier can vary, from 5 to 1, depending
on Quistis and your party's condition. I used it when I was powering
up on the weaker enemies, and sometimes it works quite well. (Oh
yeah, try this on those Fastitocalons.)

The enemy's version has a fixed multiplier, ie, LV5 Death.

-Degenerator-
Used by: Gesper
Learnt from: Black Hole
Win from Gespars or trade its card for it.

A large bubble surrounds the enemy and pulls it into a dimensional
portal and is never seen again. This is the second best instant death
spell in the game (next to Selphie's The End of course) as it works
on ALL normal enemies, even really powerful ones like Iron Giants,
Ruby Dragons and Behemoths. I've never seen it miss except for the
Tonberries and I don't think it works on bosses though.

Iaian Ross said that the Gespars does indeed use this attack, but
only when you drag the battle on for over 5 minutes. Also, it not
only kills a character, but it removes them from battle, unable to be
revived (like Kamazaki.)

-Aqua Breath-
Used by: Grand Mantis, Chimera
Learnt from: Water Crystal
Win from Chimeras or trade 1 Fastitocalon or 5 Fastitocalon-F's card
for it.

Quistis sends streams of water bubbles at all enemies. This is a
classic Blue spell and works fairly well too. It does really good
damage, even Leviathan's Tsunami with Boost seems to be weaker! Get
this early in the game by trading cards for it and it'll be Quistis'
strongest attack for a while. (Water elemental.)

Grand Mantis' version will cause Silence as well. Chimera has the
normal version alright.

-Micro Missile-
Used by: GIM52A
Learnt from: Missile
Defeat or steal from GIM52A

Quistis extends her arms forward and sends out many missiles that
comes in on the enemy. This works very different to most spells as
it's a gravity type spell, in that it will take out a portion of the
target's current HP. The effect may vary though, from 50%, 75%, 87.5%
and eventually 93.75%!!! However, the maximum damage this attack does
is 9999 versus enemies with very high HP. Note some enemies are not a
target of gravity type spells so this will score a miss on them
instead. This is certainly one of her better spells.

-Acid-
Used by: Gayla (??), Tri-Face
Learnt from: Mystery Fluid
Defeat Gaylas or trade its card for it.

Quistis turns away and a patch of sizzling liquid comes out of no
where and burns the enemy. I don't use this too often but this will
do light damage to an enemy but can also give them negative status.
However, you won't deal a status ailment to the enemy every time you
use this. I've only gotten the Poison status from this, but I assume
there are more when Quistis/party's condition worsens. I've also seen
Vitality Zero.

I don't think the enemy's version causes a status, but it's much more
damaging (about 4000+ at times!)

-Gatling Gun-
Used by: SAM08G (Actually, Quistis used this in an FMV in Disc 1)
Learnt from: Running Fire
Defeat/steal from SAM08G or Iron Giants, or trade SAM08G's card for
it.

This is like the gun Quistis used to shoot down X-ATM092 in the FMV
after the Dollet mission. The damage it does it very good and it's
non-elemental, but only targets one enemy. Sometimes it does really
crappy damage and I've just found out why. It appears that Gatling
Gun's damage is based on Quistis' Str and not Mag, I didn't junction
spells to her Str so this attack was really weak when I used it.
However, if you do junction good spells this is VERY powerful!

This is strange since it's the only Blue spell that is subject to a
barrier, Protect can halve Gatling Gun's damage.

-Fire Breath-
Used by: Ruby Dragon
Learnt from: Inferno Fang
Defeat Ruby Dragons or trade 10 of its card for it.

I've only used this once. It looks just like the Breath attack the
Ruby Dragon uses and is just as powerful. I think this is fire
elemental but the dragon's version isn't for some reason. Burns all
enemies.

This is Fire elemental while the Ruby Dragon's version is both non
elemental and physical (ie, is affected by Protect, not Shell.)

-Bad Breath-
Used by: Malboro, (Geezard)
Learnt from: Malboro's Tentacle
Defeat/steal from Malboros or trade 4 of its card for it.

Quistis sends a breath of foul looking dark gas that sweeps all
enemies. The effect is multiple status ailments on enemies but can
vary depending on her condition. It can inflict Poison, Silence,
Stop, Blind, Sleep, Slow, Doom (Death Sentence), Petrifying, Confuse
and Berserk. Maybe Curse as well. I'm not too sure about Vitality
Zero though. I use this on annoying enemies and paralyze them so I
can draw from them.

NOTE! If Quistis' condition is really bad (ie, below 1% health,
status etc) Bad Breath will kill all the enemies (vulnerable to death
attacks) in one hit!!!!! Which does the same thing as LV1 Death (LV?
Death at its best!)

Geezard has a Bad Breath attack as well, but it's completely
different, as it deals damage rarely a status, it also looks very
different.

-White Wind-
Used by: Adamantoise
Learnt from: Whisper
Steal from high level Adamantoise

Soothing wind blows out of nowhere and surrounds the team. This is
the second best healing spell in the game (and again, next to
Selphie's Full-Cure, which is the best) and comes really useful in
later fights, makes Quistis a very useful character. This works
differently than all its previous incarnations in that is cures the
difference between Quistis' current HP and her maximum HP. For
example, Quistis has only 1 HP left and her maximum HP is 9999, White
Wind heals 9998 to all members in your party. It does NOT cure status
ailments though, like it did in FFVI and FFVII.

This is different from Adamantoise's version because they can heal
about 5000+ damage when they're at FULL HEALTH!!

-Homing Laser-
Used by: Mobile Type 8, Elastoids
Learnt from: Laser Cannon
Steal from the Mobile Type 8 boss. I think you may also steal from
Elastoids for it too.

Quistis releases 3 beams of laser that homes in on the enemy. I got
this really late but I wasn't disappointed, as the Mobile Type 8 boss
has this attack but it's really weak. It can do about 7000-9999
damage (later in the game) but only works on one enemy. I like to use
this on Adel at the start of Disc 4 when you HAVE to use a single
target attack on her.

-Mighty Guard-
Used by: Iron Giant, Behemoth
Learnt from: Barrier
Steal/kill Behemoths or trade 10 of its card for it.

A translucent blue globe envelops each character in the team. This is
the best Final Fantasy Blue spell at it's best! The effects of this
spell will also vary. It will only put Protect and Shell on all
members at its early stages, but Regen is present when Quistis is
hurt bad, then Float and Haste are a bit rarer. The most useful
status (and rarest) is Aura, effectively giving your team defensive,
offensive and speed advantage over the enemies. You'll be using this
spell a lot later in the game, especially against bosses like Omega
and Ultima Weapon.

The Iron Giant's version will only give them Protect and Shell.

-Ray-Bomb-
Used by: X-ATM092
Learnt from: Power Generator
Steal from high level Blitz WITHOUT the Rare Item ability. REALLY
rare! (I was extremely lucky and got this on my first try, YAY!) I
heard you can pick on up in Lunatic Pandora if you did something in
Laguna's second scenario.

Steam pops up from the back of Quistis' head as she emits a laser
from her eye and sweeps it across all enemies. The ground below the
enemies turns gold and calls forth a massive explosion that sends all
foes into the air and back again.

Uhh.. This spell is really disappointing as after all the hard work
getting a Power Generator, you come to find out that it's not all
that good! The damage is only medium, about 4000-8000 on all enemies
later in the game, and is sometimes not as strong as Aqua/Fire
Breath!

-Shockwave Pulsar-
Used by: Griever
Learnt from: Dark Matter
Collect 100 Cursed Spikes and use Siren's Tool-RF Menu Ability to
make it into a Dark Matter. Siren MUST be at LV100.

All enemies gets trapped inside a white sphere where is gets lifted
into another dimension and gets hurt by a dark energy blast. This is
Quistis' best spell and one of the few attacks in the game capable to
doing 5 digit damage. Usually around 12000 but if she has really good
stats this can do well over 23,000! Ok ok, this is way less than the
200,000 or so that Squall or Zell can do at times, but it's really
dependable.


---Zell Dincht---
                      MAX
HP         4018      6778
Str         163       164         Spd       35
Vit         122       125         Luck      20
Mag         132       134         Eva        3%
Spr         116       119         Hit      103%

Comments on stats: Zell's one of the better ones. He's very strong
and gets good HP, Vitality and Strength. His Magic is also pretty
good but has low Spirit.

Limit Break: Duel
Zell uses a mixture of that of Sabin's (FFVI) Blitz and Tifa's
(FFVII) Limit Breaks. Like that of Sabin, you must press certain
buttons in a certain order to execute the move, each move has a
different combination. However, like that of Tifa, Zell can chain
together multiple martial arts attacks together, forming a long chain
of deadly combos. You're given a time limit to munch in the
combinations required for Duel and the chain combo ends either when
the timer reaches zero, or when a finishing blow is executed.

Zell's Duel has 4 different time intervals, and as his condition
worsens, his chance of getting a longer interval increases. Duel can
last around 4, 6, 9 or 12 seconds. He'll start with Punch Rush for
the 4 and 6 second version but will use Booya first if he gets the 9
or 12 second version, so don't expect the same moves to can be linked
after them.

Note however, only certain moves can link after another and certain
moves only links after a certain combination of moves (finishing
blows are one of them.) For example, Mach Kick can always link after
Dolphin Blow but Heel Drop cannot. Meteor Strike can link after
Dolphin Blow only if Mach Kick was done before Dolphin Blow. These
combinations of moves are sometimes quite confusing and I don't
recommend you memorize every single link. To help you, the game gives
you a list of the moves that can be linked after the move you're
currently executing and their combinations, but you'll take less time
if you knew which attack to do without having to look at it. Try
practice this until you have come up with a certain pattern of the
moves that you like, or try to recognize any "loops" (ie, 2 or 3
attacks that links into each other and can be repeated."

Zell's Limit Break has the highest damage potential (yes even higher
than Squall's Lion Heart finishing blow) but it all comes down to
skill - memorizing few of the critical links and a quick tapper.)
Practice makes perfect!

Zell starts the game with 4 basic attacks and 1 finishing blow. He
can learn the rest from reading Combat King magazines found
throughout the world or bought in Esthar.

-Punch Rush-
Combination: O, X

Just 3 repeated punches, nothing too special. This is also his
weakest attack but it's kinda easy to tap and links before and after
most moves.

-Booya-
Combination: Right, Left

This looks like a headbutt but it's actually a knee! (Is it?) I found
this is the easiest move to tap and does about the same damage as
Punch Rush (ie, lower than the rest of his attacks.) Links too and
from Punch Rush, thus making an easy loop that's preferred over his
more spectacular moves by experts.

-Heel Drop-
Combination: Up, Down

This looks weird as Zell lifts one of his leg up as if he's doing a
vertical split then bring it down at the enemy. I guess you can sorta
call it an Axe Kick. Slightly more damaging than the previous and the
motion is just as simple to do. The disadvantage is that few moves
links to this.

-Mach Kick-
Combination: Left, Left, O

Zell kicks the enemy with a high roundhouse. I like this move. It
does about 1.5 times as much damage than Punch Rush/Booya and isn't
all that hard to tap. It links to and from Dolphin Blow, which is the
loop that I use often.

-Dolphie Blow-
Combination: L1, R1, L1, R1
Combat King issue: 001

Like Tifa's attack from FFVII except there are 2 dolphins instead of
one, and you can see the ocean behind the enemy. Does the most damage
out of all the normal moves but requires 4 buttons to activate, but
isn't all that hard to do if you practice. (I can sometimes do this
in less time than Punch Rush, since I don't like the latter very
much.)

-Meteor Strike-
Combination: Up, O, Down, O
Combat King issue: 002

This looks just like Tifa's from FFVII, but it works differently.
Zell lifts the enemy up with one arm (gosh he's strong, but what's
even more impressive is that Tifa is as strong as Zell is!), leaps
into the air and yank them back to the ground. As hinted from the
magazine article ("...the bigger they are, the harder they fall.."),
this move is of gravity elemental. (Ok, gravity attacks ain't defined
as an element like in FFVII, but since they're used so much and are
so wonderfully useful, I might as well give them credit and their own
respective element that they deserve.) I think this does damage equal
to 75% of the target's maximum HP, but it cannot do more than 9999
damage per hit. Also, it does not work on most bosses (but I think
Mobile Type 8 is one which this attack DID work.) Against enemies
with HUGE defence and HP (Ruby Dragons, Iron Giants etc.) you'd want
to use this as often as possible, since it will do 9999 damage per
hit, very worthwhile against those enemies.

NOTE! The only enemy where this did not work on was a Behemoth

The motion is quite easy to do (despite how the magazine says this is
tricky) but won't link after many moves. Note if this attack does 0
damage, it means that the enemy is dead.

The below moves are finishers, meaning that no matter how much time
is left on the timer, Duel will end upon executing these moves. They
will show up on the screen with their names flashing and they're all
very tricky moves to do. Also, you can't just pull them right off the
air, as they require a certain combination of moves to be done in a
series before the option for a finishing blow becomes available.
Remember, the pre-requisite moves are only the simplest chains that a
finisher can be invoked! Meaning you can chain anything before the
pre-requisite moves and still trigger the finishing blow.

Note I don't know who started this whole thing about Zell must be at
a certain level to use a certain finishing blow. I was able to use
ALL of them at LEVEL 12!!! Go figure.

-Burning Rave-
Combination: Down, Down, Down, Down, O
Prerequisite moves: Booya, Heel Drop, Meteor Strike, Booya
                or: Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Punch Rush, Heel Drop

Zell steps back and punches the ground with his fist as it cracks and
the chasm travels to the enemy then explodes, sending the enemy high
up into the air. This is really disappointing for a finishing blow.
Does about 2 times the damage of his weak attacks and that's it! It's
not worth the effort!

-Meteor Barret-
Combination: Up, X, Down, Triangle, O
Combat King issue: 003
Prerequisite moves: Punch Rush, Dolphin Blow
                or: Booya, Meteor Strike, Dolphin Blow, Mack Kick
                or: Booya, Heel Drop, Mach Kick, Heel Drop, Booya,
                    Punch Rush, Mach Kick

Zell leaps into the air and gathers a green energy bolt in his hands.
Then he glides down followed by a trial of energy like a comet and
punches the enemy as they collide, and (supposedly) passes through
the enemy as it explodes. This looks cheap when Zell is supposed to
pierce right through the enemy, but I suppose the PlayStation's
polygon power ain't as advanced to handle such animations. (Or maybe
it's too violent but I'm hoping for the former.)

The damage isn't all that great either but I sometimes use this as a
"stylie" finisher after my combos, and I time them just right to fit
in this! (See below.)

-Different Beat-
Combination: Triangle, Square, X, O, Up
Combat King issue: 004
Prerequisite moves: Booya, Meteor Strike, Booya
                or: Booya, Heel Drop, Mach Kick, Heel Drop, Booya

Zell kicks the enemy into the air, jumps up and air-combo them with
kicks then stomps them as his legs get surrounded by pink energy.
This is probably my favourite finishing blow as it looks cool and is
very damaging.

-My Final Heaven-
Combination: Up, Right, Down, Back, Triangle
Combat King issue: 005
Prerequisite moves: Booya, Heel Drop, Meteor Strike
                or: Booya, Heel Drop, Mach Kick, Punch Rush

Zell holds his fist and sprints forward past the enemy and runs
around the globe like Superman (as if his Meteor Barret ain't
enough!) He gets back to the battle field and comes to a stop just
behind the enemy, and his momentum are released as a fiery explosion
that sends the enemy head over toes up into the air.

Looks kinda cool but does abut the same damage as Different Beat.
Alright, EdwChang@aol.com  has convinced me that this is better than
Different Beat since it targets _ALL_ enemies while Different Beat
hits just one. Uh.. not much else to say about this but you might
wanna see this at least once but I don't find this move exceptionally
useful.

Tips
  - Learn a few links to some of your favourite moves. There's
nothing wrong with referring to the screen listing all the attacks
that can be executed after the current attack, especially when you're
trying it out the first few times. You should be used to a few links
and should be able to remember the button combinations to all the
normal moves if you practice a few times. Here are some combinations
that I found useful, feel free to submit more if you like:

* - Armageddon Fist - (started by Kaze Yagami<yagami@pacific.net.sg>)
  Booya, Punch Rush, Booya, Punch Rush, repeat.

The 2 basic attacks are simple to tap and does decent damage. The
damage is around 4000 per attack later in the game, and try junction
spells to Zell's Luck attribute as a critical can do 9999 damage! You
should be able to execute ~20 moves for the 4 seconds interval!!!
What's even better about this is that it can be accommodated easily
if Zell's starting attack changes.

* - Grand-Calamity Symphony - (by James Wennberg)
  Booya, Heel Drop, Booya, Heel Drop, repeat.

The Armageddon Fist killer. Heel Drop does more damage than Punch
Rush and is just as easy to do, can significantly increase damage
when does with a 12 second Duel. Give it a try.

Another cool thing about GCS is that you can easily refine it into a
stylish My Final Heaven easily, just add Mach Kick and Punch Rush
after Heel Drop when your clock is running low.

* Booya, Punch Rush, Mach Kick, repeat.
or: Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Booya, repeat.

These 2 are identical the only difference is the starting move
(remember how the starting move differs depending on the time
interval you get.) This is also identical to Armageddon Fist except
Mach Kick is added. I used this to take out the X-ATM092 boss in
Dollet and it's really a killer. I like Mach Kick since it does more
damage than the basic attacks and isn't really all that hard to use.

* Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Dolphin Blow, Meteor Strike, Dolphin Blow,
           Mach Kick, Meteor Barret

I hope I got this in the correct order. Anyway, practice this and
it's PERFECT for the 4 second interval. Of course, this don't work
very well on bosses because of Meteor Strike, but this is what I used
on the enemies on the Island Closest to Hell when training Zell, and
it's a killer to the enemies there because of Meteor Strike. Also,
the Meteor Barret makes a stylie finish.

* [Starter moves], Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, Meteor Strike, Dolphin
           Blow, Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, repeat
(Thanks to Qualera for this chain combo)

This is another great combo for high HP enemies since you can use
Meteor Strike _every other turn_! Geez, imagine how long you can
toast a Ruby Dragon with this. Anyway, the [starter moves] will be
different depending whether you've gotten Booya or Punch Rush as your
first attack.
For Booya: Booya itself will lead to Meteor Strike
For Punch Rush: Try Punch Rush, Mach Kick, Dolphin Blow

  - Later in the game, you'll wanna avoid using finishing blow as
much as possible, since they take ages to do and their maximum damage
limit is still only 9999. Each normal blow can do 4000-5000 if you
have 255 Strength and a critical hit nets you an instant easy 9999.

  - Against normal enemies with high defence and HP, release Meteor
Strike as often as possible. Meteor Strike is essentially one of
Zell's best attacks as it's independent of his Strength and target's
Vitality. So even if you have very low Strength and fighting a level
100 Ruby Dragon, you can do 9999 with every blow of Meteor Strike
while your other moves takes out less than 1000.

  - There are some people who think that if you want to use a Duel
finisher, you can only execute the pre-requisite move and nothing
else. Well you are WRONG!!!!! You can execute any move as long as the
pre-requisites are done in order after those moves. There are people
who thinks that to use My Final Heaven and Different Beat, Zell must
start with Booya (and therefore, only useable in the 8 or 12 second
intervals.) That is NOT correct. You can chain a Punch Rush in front
of it or even a Booya, Punch Rush, Mach Kick in front of the pre-
requisite Booya if you want to (and if you're quick enough!)

  - Thanks to Ian Wee <brenanne@cyberway.com.sg> who said that Zell's
Combat King are exactly like the weapon magazines. You CAN use his
Duel moves WITHOUT actually reading the magazines. The magazines will
make the move available in the menu though, and that scroll that
tells you what moves can link after your move in battle. Of course,
you HAVE to use a move that can link into the move you want to do
though, just like a normal Duel.


---Rinoa Heartilly---
                      MAX
HP         4181      6851
Str         180       186         Spd       36
Vit         115       120         Luck      22
Mag         148       162         Eva        3%
Spr         123       126         Hit      107%

Comments on stats: Whoa! Gosh, she's the girl with god-like stats!
Too bad that her Limits are trashy. I think she is supposed to have
good stats to offset her attacks. (If you can remember, she also has
really good starting stats when she first joins!) Her Str and Mag are
among some of the highest I've seen. She needs only 100 Meteors to
bring up Strength up to 255.

Limit Break: Combine
Rinoa is the only character in the game who has 2 completely
different sets of attacks, Angelo skills and her unique Angel Wing
status.

Angelo
Angelo is Rinoa's dog who is actually really smart and can learn
various tricks to aid Rinoa in battle. I think Angelo skills were
originated from Red XIII's Limit Breaks in FFVII and a bit from
Shadow's dog, Interceptor in FFVI. Angelo skill comes in 2 types,
automatic and manual. The automatical skills can take place randomly
in battle, given that certain conditions are met, while a random
manual skill will be executed when Rinoa uses her Limit Break from
the command window in battle.

Unfortunately, most of her Angelo skills are mostly crap, and since
it's random, it can also be very weak compared to the others later in
the game. She has a couple fairly decent ones though, so you might as
well make the use of them. The damage dealing Angelo attacks are
dependent on Rinoa's Strength.

To learn new Angelo skills, you must buy or find Pet Pals magazines
from around the world. You must read them too (use it in the item
menu) then the skill's name will appear in Rinoa's status menu along
with Angelo's other skills. A full bar represents that skill has been
mastered. Select a skill that you wish to learn and walk with Rinoa
in your team and you'll eventually learn the skill. (Note some skills
like Wishing Star can take a very long time to learn.)

The below 4 skills are manual skills:

-Angelo Cannon-
Pet Pals issue: None, initial attack.

Rinoa whistles for Angelo who runs onto the screen and jumps onto
Rinoa's extended arm, then Rinoa launches him like a rocket that
hurts all enemies with a fiery explosion. Then Angelo gets a bone for
his hard work.

An ok attack I guess, since it targets all enemies but gets less
useful as the game progresses. It can do 9999 damage to all enemies
later in the game though, but that's nothing compared to what the
boys can do.

-Angelo Strike-
Pet Pals issue: 1

Angelo runs onto the screen to the enemy, grabs them somehow and
takes them into the air with him. Angelo rotates about 1080 degrees
and slams the enemy back onto the ground for big damage.

This is a lot stronger than Angelo Cannon but targets only one enemy.
The damage is quite strong though, about maybe 2000+ earlier in the
game. However, since the damage maxes out at 9999, this will actually
be WEAKER than Angelo Cannon later in the game, which can also do
9999 damage but targets all the enemies. You may want to abandon this
move so the chance that Rinoa executes one of her better ones
increases.

-Invincible Moon-
Pet Pals issue: 3

Looks a lot like Red XIII's Howling Moon if you ask me. Angelo runs
into battle, gets surrounded by silver energy waves (like a certain
Red XIII Limit Break) and jumps into the air with a silvery moon in
the sky. A curtain of translucent lights envelops all allies and they
turn transparent.

This well may possibly be Rinoa's best Angelo skill, as an invincible
character is immune to all damage and status (even positive ones) and
the effect is identical/better than a Holy War (Drink) since it's
free. This skill has a fair chance of being executed and I think the
effect lasts longer as Rinoa's level increases.

-Wishing Star-
Pet Pals issue: 6

Rinoa and Angelo runs towards the enemy and disappears while the
background turns into a colored star field. Multiple shooting stars
zooms across the screen and hurts all enemies for quite a number of
hits. If you look closer, the stars are actually Rinoa and Angelo!

I was really disappointed at this move when I first saw it. First,
the rate which this attack appears is EXTREMELY low (about 5% max)
and second, it wasn't as strong as I heard it was. Each hit did
around 2000 points of damage for about 10+ hits. I've heard this
attack can do 9000+ damage per hit though, but I'm not in the mood to
spend about half an hour trying to see this move again!

I saw this again and it's actually really impressive since she
actually did 8000+ damage her hit!!! Although the chance that Rinoa
will use this is really low making it rather unreliable when you
REALLY want high damaging attacks. I know that not learning Angelo
Strike and/or Invincible Moon is one way to raise the chances of
Wishing Stars appearing but that Angelo Cannon can really get on my
nerve!

One thing that I forgot is that the weaker Rinoa is, the more likely
that she uses Wishing Star. Lower her HP a lot (2 digits) and even
give her bad status (not Poison though, as it's deadly when her HP is
so low) like Silence and Darkness. If you cast Aura when Rinoa's in
critical, she'll almost always execute this move.

The 4 skills below are automatically but randomly executed when the
conditions are met. Rinoa's Luck parameter plays a major role here,
higher it is, the more likely you'll see Angelo execute one of these
moves.

-Angelo Rush-
Pet Pals issue: None, initial attack
Condition: Rinoa gets damaged (both physical and magical, either
singular or multiple targeted)

Angelo rushes across the screen at high velocity and charges into the
enemy.

This works on the same basis as Shadow's dog Interceptor's Take Down,
which is basically a counter attack. This attack sucks in many ways.
One is that it's terrible when you want to keep the enemy alive to
draw spells from or card them. This usually ruins it for you. The
damage Angelo does is no where near as much as Interceptor. So this
means one thing: Rinoa is a terrible character if you want to card
enemies.

-Angelo Recover-
Pet Pals issue: 2
Condition: Any ally in critical condition

Angelo comes onto the screen and uses an item on the ally in critical
condition and restores their HP.

I don't like this skill either. Sometimes I purposely lower an ally's
HP so they can use Limit Breaks easily but no.. Angelo comes along
and heals them. The amount healed varies, but usually a lot, I've
seen as low as 1500+ to about 6000+! Not bad if you really need
healing in a boss fight or something. Note a character who is not
Rinoa CAN receive the benefit of his skill too.

-Angelo Reverse-
Pet Pals: 4
Condition: Ally KO'd

Angelo comes into battle and uses a Phoenix Down on a fallen ally

Now this is a useful one, but it would help if it happens a little
more often. I've seen this only ONCE during my 80 hour game. What's
neat about this is when an ally is revived, their HP would be
critical and you can execute Limit Breaks easily.

-Angelo Search-
Pet Pals: 5
Condition: Don't know (Having the Item command? Or Random?)

Angelo runs into the battle field, sniff the ground and begins to
dig. He then finds an item and gives it to Rinoa, then he receives a
treat for his hard work.

I have seen this a few times, most of the time you'll get really
crappy stuff like Potions mainly, Phoenix Downs etc. But it can also
net you some really good stuff at times though, I've heard of Force
Armlets and Elixirs.

Thanks to Viki, Qualera and Allan Mills for all the info on this
move.

NOTE! Qualera has e-mailed me saying that it's possible that the
chance of seeing Angelo perform this move will increase if you use
the Item command more often. You know what? I think he's right! I was
trying to lower my team's HP to do the Omega trick (see below) but
the enemies kept killing Selphie and Irvine that I had to use items
all the time to revive them. As a result, Angelo appeared TWICE and
picked up 2 awesome items.

Oh yeah, you'll probably get better items if Rinoa's condition is not
very good when Angelo appears. In the above example, Rinoa had 198HP
and blinded, and Angelo found a Curse Spike and a Mega Phoenix!!!

Angel Wing
After the scene in space (and a terrible micro-game!), Rinoa gains a
new Limit Break. You can use this while inside Ragnarock the first
time. With this, a pair of wings appears on Rinoa's back and she gets
lifted into the air, then she comes back onto the ground like if
nothing had happened. You'll notice the effect soon though, as you'll
realise that you cannot control her any more, as she's gone berserk
in a way.

Whenever Rinoa's turn comes up, she will cast a _random_ spell on a
random enemy. The quality of the spell is really quite a mixed bag.
Rinoa will either cast a really powerful spell like Ultima or a
really sloppy status spell like Sleep, and Scan/Dispel occasionally.
What's sorta worthwhile about this is that the power of a damage-
dealing spell is increased by 5 times, WOW! (Watch out for Meteor,
it's a real killer on a single enemy. Can do upwards of 40000
damage!) However, she rarely uses one of them (about 5 crap spells
per 1 good spell) which makes Angel Wing no better than her terrible
Angelo skills.

Note that this is actually a status, which means that it will have no
effect while Rinoa is in the Invincible status (Invincible Moon.)
Rinoa is immune to Berserk, Silence and Confuse status while in Angel
Wing. Also, her spells ain't THAT random as there are certain spells
that she will never use, such as any aiding/healing/reviving spells.
The power of her spells is also dependent on Rinoa's Magic attribute.

Note! EdwChang@aol.com told me that what spell Rinoa casts is based
on the spells in her stock even though it doesn't use up a charge but
he doesn't know if having a high number of a certain spell being
stocked is going to raise the chance of that spell being cast.

Happy Matt was able to confirm this query. He told me that he used
Varly (aka Angel Wing) with Rinoa when she had absolutely no spells
stocked. The result: Rinoa can only execute regular _physical_
attacks like Berserk without the damage bonus!

There's still much to discuss about Rinoa's Angel Wing, -Skrybe-
<skrybe@hotmail.com> have sent me the complete list on what Rinoa
will and will not cast through Angel Wing.

These spells CAN be used in Angel Wing: Aero, Berserk, Bio, Blind,
Blizzaga, Blizzara, Blizzard, Break, Confuse, Death, Demi, Dispel,
Drain, Fira, Firaga, Fire, Flare, Holy, Meltdown, Meteor, Pain,
Quake, Scan, Sleep, Slow, Stop, Thundaga, Thundara, Thunder, Tornado,
Ultima, Water, and Zombie.

These spells CANNOT be used in Angel Wing: Aura, Cura, Curaga, Cure,
Double, Esuna, Float, Full-Life, Haste, Life, Protect, Reflect,
Regen, Shell, and Triple.

I'm sure you guys have also heard of the secret spell Apocalypse, a
spell that can only be drawn from Ultimecia. Anyway, you _can_ get
them via a GameShark, so it is possible that Rinoa will cast
Apocalypse through Angel Wing, since it's just another version of
Ultima. Selphie's Slot spells can also be cast through Angel Wing (if
you got them stocked via a GameShark) these includes: The End,
Rapture and the dummied out Catastrophe and Percent. Full Cure and
Wall cannot be cast, obviously.

*NEW* I have played around with Angel Wing and it seemed that getting
rid of SOME of the status spells don't help very much, it seems what
spells she'll cast in a given round is affected by spell types:
status or damage dealing. If you have at least ONE status spell,
she'll use that spell whenever the "Angel Wing spell indicator" says
Status.

For example, if you have Thundaga, Ultima, Meteor, Demi, Holy, Flare,
Water and Confuse stocked, the chance of casting Confuse will not be
1/8, but more like 1/2 (I'm not too sure about the Status/damage
spell ratio though.) So having more status spells stocked will not
mean casting status spells more frequently but more like casting a
larger variety of them. It's kinda confusing to explain, did someone
cast Confuse on me or something?

So the moral of the story is, get rid of ALL your status spells if
possible, because if you have at least one useless status magic, she
will still cast it frequently. However, 2 spells counts as both
status and damage dealing, they're Meltdown and Drain, but I'd say
you keep those 2. Scan and Dispel fits into neither category, but
they're still useless. So if you wanna use Angel Wing effectively,
stick to the below strategies.

Here's a tip from EdwChang@aol.com:
Simply get rid of all of Rinoa's lesser use spells that ain't being
junctioned such as all status spells and Dispel. Keep as many Holies,
Flares, Ultimas, Meteors or just whatever you feel is powerful to
raise her chance of casting a better spell in Angel Wing. Oh yeah,
don't forget to boost her Magic and Speed attributes, as it can get
pretty powerful when you get a good spell, especially Meteor, and
with a high Speed, Rinoa can cast more spells before the enemy's turn
comes up, which kinda makes up for the fact that she cannot be
controlled.

Here's what Another Gamer's "Meteor of Doom" strategy:
Get rid of all offensive spells except for Meteor, it'll do more
damage than Ultima. This is like a refined version of the above
strategy except the ONLY spell Rinoa will ever use is Meteor. With a
good Magic attribute and the Angel Wing status, I've seen a comet
doing up to 4000+ damage each! (And there's 10 of them!) It's much
more reliable than hoping for Wishing Star with her Angelo skills.
The bad point of this is that you'll miss out a lot of junction
potentials of Ultima. Try this out and see what you think.


---Selphie Tilmitt---
                      MAX
HP         3680      6440
Str         157       162         Spd       37
Vit         115       120         Luck      26
Mag         136       141         Eva        3%
Spr         123       130         Hit      255%

Comments on stats: No too bad. She's kinda weaker physically but has
very good Magic stats. Her Speed is decent though and she's the
luckiest character in the game. Her best improvement is probably how
her best weapon has a 255% hit rate, meaning she can no longer miss
the target with her regular attacks.

Limit Break: Slots
Selphie's Slots is completely different to Setzer and Cait Sith's.
Selphie can cast any spell up to 3 times in a row. Her Slots window
will show a random spell with a random number of times that spell
will be cast. If that's not the spell you want, you may select "Do
over" which will bring up another spell. When the desired spell comes
up, you may select "cast" to cast it. These spells will not consume
Selphie's stocked spells so use them as often as you wish.

Note time does not stop as you select your spells, even with the
"Wait" option. (The Wait option sucks in this game anyway.) So
spending too long on her Slots trying to get better spells can be
dangerous.

Selphie has 4 unique spells on her Slots too, and they're all good
ones. At the beginning of the game, you may only get crap magic like
Fire but she'll likely to get better spells as her level does up.
(ie, Ultima may have about a 1% chance or less of showing up while
she's at level 10, but at level 100, Ultima comes up quite often.)

Note if a certain spell is cast multiple times, the targeting is
random and it's not very effective if you ask me! When you come up
with say a positive status spell (like Haste) cast 3 times, it never
works so that each member on your team gets a dose, which wastes the
spell. (The spell will always be cast on the same member twice.)

Below are the 4 unique spells Selphie that can be cast only with her
Slots. Note none of these can be cast multiple times, since they
don't need to be. When you cast one of these spells once, it will
show up in her status screen and the chance of getting that spell on
her Slots in the future will increase.

-Full Cure-
This heals all allies to full HP AND it will cure negative status
too, effectively the best healing spell in the game. Also, I'm sure
this spell will work on Invincible allies! The chance of getting this
on her Slots is very high, so you don't need to struggle when you
want healing, although Full Cure shows up less times when she's at
higher levels.

-Wall-
A stone barrier raises through the ground to guard all allies. Not a
bad defence spell but if Quistis is in your party, have her use
Mighty Guard instead. Wall will only give you Shell and Protect, but
it's pretty decent if you don't have access to Mighty Guard yet.

-Rapture-
A useful spell with a terrible translated name, which puts a pair of
wings on each enemy's back and they get lifted into the air and is
never seen again. Works well on normal enemies but certain enemies
are resistant to it (like Tonberries.)

-The End-
EVERYBODY fears this spell! Flowers will blossom before the enemies
and the background turns into a flower filled meadow and the words
"The End" pops up like if the game has ended. Then the enemies die
for no reason. What's so powerful about this is that it will even
work on really tough bosses like Omega! Very rare on her Slots, but
has a decent chance of showing up at high levels. Undead enemies are
resistant to it though.

Yes, thanks to -Skrybe- for the descriptions of Selphie's secret Slot
spells. Ever wonder why there are 2 empty spaces in Selphie's Limit
Break window? Well, Square planned to implement 6 unique spells for
Selphie only but only got around to make 4 of them playable. So
unless you have a GameShark or its equivalent, you'll never be able
to use these 2 powerful spells.

-Percent-
It really shows that Square don't really care about their gamers
since they haven't even got around to make the animation for Percent
and Catastrophe. This looks like the basic "Fire" spell that Seifer
uses at the beginning of his Limit Breaks, or so I've been told.
*Yawn*

However, the descriptions of this spell says "Put enemies near death"
which probably does damage based on the target's HP (gravity
elemental) which would have been really useful in Carding and
Devouring enemies.

-Catastrophe-
Again, the animation is the same as that of the Fire spell.

Catastrophe follows the trend of Ultima and Apocalypse that does
heavy non-elemental damage to all enemies, its description says
"Major damage to all enemies". Unfortunately Catastrophe is not quite
Shockwave Pulsar standards and damage STILL caps at 9999. Still, I
asked -Skrybe- to test Catastrophe against both Apocalypse and Ultima
to compare its power, here are his results: Ultima 1300, Apocalypse
2600 and Catastrophe 4000. So Apocalypse is twice and Catastrophe is
thrice as strong as Ultima.

Note that all 6 Slot spells can be gotten as stocked regular spells
for all characters using a GameShark, except that none of them can be
junctioned. -Skrybe- also went further saying that certain GF summons
can be gotten as regular spells, although they tend to lock the game
up when cast, and gave some strange junction stats.


Since time is not paused when Selphie uses her Slots, try to use it
when another character/enemy is executing a lengthy action (casting a
spell etc.) The best way to select your spell is to do it during a GF
summoning animation, if you wanna give up Boost for it that is.
Diablos is the best since his attack is lengthy and don't use Boost.

The spell to look for depends on your situation. Early on in the
game, basic elementary spells can satisfy most purposes and may
actually top Squall or Zell's Limit Breaks! Later in the game
however, her usefulness pans out since everyone else has at least one
really powerful attack or defensive skills. So Selphie is best used
as a healer with her Full Cure. Her Wall is also good if you don't
have Quistis. If you manage to get Aura then you might as well use
it. Haste is also fairly decent.

As for offence, the best Selphie can do is probably multiple Meteors
for single targets or multiple Ultimas for multiple targets. (Meteor
will actually do respectable damage when her Magic attribute is 255.)
If you manage to get The End, you can end the fight in one shot! (You
might not want to do it though, as it kinda spoils the fun in a boss
fight.)

EASY SLOT JACKPOT! ==================================================
|Thanks to Matt <The200sx@aol.com> for this trick.                  |
|                                                                   |
|Have you tried to strike it lucky with Selphie's Slots but don't   |
|get any good magic? Try this trick.                                |
|                                                                   |
|Make sure that Selphie is in critical condition, or under Aura. Now|
|have another team member cast a spell (any will do, preferably a   |
|cheap one) but before the spell is executed, press the "Open"      |
|button on your PlayStation to open the lid. The game will try to   |
|load the spell off the CD but it cannot, so the game will kinda    |
|"soft" freeze. Take advantage of this time to cycle through        |
|Selphie's Slots for desirable spells, then close the lid and       |
|resume play.                                                       |
|                                                                   |
|Since the time is paused, you virtually have an eternity to cycle  |
|for your favourite spells, but this trick is not without flaws. One|
|big drawback is that the spells offered with this is quite limited.|
|If you keep cycling for ages and ages, it'll eventually "recycle"  |
|the old spells, meaning if you do not get say The End for the first|
|50 times, you will never get it. (To get around this problem, exit |
|the Slot sub-screen and tap the O button until the triangle appears|
|again, and this time you'll get a completely different list of     |
|spells.) This is still a really neat trick IMO, enough to keep     |
|Selphie fans happy. :)                                             |
=====================================================================


---Irvine Kinneas---
                      MAX
HP         4120      6730
Str         156       157        Spd       39
Vit         108       118        Luck      21
Mag         128       129        Eva        3%
Spr         105       115        Hit      115%

Comments on stats: For some reason, Irvine seems to have really low
stats. His Str is the lowest... and all his other stats are the
lowest out of all characters. You think it's because he starts off at
the highest level? He's the fastest permanent member though.

Limit Break: Shot
Hehe, his Limit is fun. I think Irvine's Limit is based loosely on
some of Aya Brea's (Parasite Eve) and Billy's (Xenogears) attacks.
Choose a type of ammo that you've stocked in your inventory and tap
the trigger button (R1) rapidly to shoot as many bullets as you can
under a time limit. The time limit is a depleting bar to the lower
right of the screen and the amount of time he has available can vary.
Unlike Zell though, Irvine's bar does not lengthen as his timer is
expanded, instead it moves slower, so it's not easy to identify the
amount of time he has available or the amount of it's left. It's also
hard to tell how many different time intervals Irvine has. When a
shot deals zero damage, it means that the target is dead so don't
waste any more bullets. (But it sucks since you'll always waste at
least one bullet for this purpose.)

By obtaining new bullets, Irvine can expand his variety of shots.
Most of them can be bought in stores, some of them can be won or
refined from cards, and all of them can be refined from Ifrit's Ammo-
RF Menu Ability (some of the rarer bullets can only be gotten this
way.) Make sure that you browse through that ability menu often as
you can find some really good deals that you just CANNOT resist!
(Like 1 Chef's Knife into 10 AP Ammo or 1 Poison Powder into 10 Dark
Ammo!) The power of Irvine's Shot is dependent on his Str.

Since his Limit Break is not free like all the others, I don't use
his as much.

Note: One very interesting thing I've noted is that Irvine's Shot is
sorta like magic is that, it will NOT wake a target suffering from
the Sleep status. Strange indeed!

The list of different types of gun shots are listed below, sorry for
the delay, as I finally got to play with them thoroughly last night.
Also, I give the various ammunition ranks in various categories,
Power, Speed, Acquirability and the Overall Usefulness. An S is the
best while an F is the worst.

Note: A C (average) in Power is comaparable to normal attacks, while
a C in Speed indicates it can be fired about 4 times for the shortest
Shot Limit Break interval.

-Normal Shot- (Normal Ammo)
Power: C     Speed: B      Acquirability: A   Overall Usefulness: B

This resembles Irvine's normal attack, only shot multiple times in
succession.

The cheapest ammo is actually quite efficient, it can be bought in
most stores. The speed is good and the damage is equivalent to his
normal attacks. Needless to say, if Irvine has very high Str, this
attack can be quite strong and is cheap. I use this attack the most.

-Scatter Shot- (Shotgun Ammo)
Power: D     Speed: B      Acquirability: A   Overall Usefulness: D

Looks similar to Normal Shot but hits all enemies.

This has the same speed as Normal Shot, but it's only about half as
strong. There are not very many situations in the game where you need
to target multiple enemies at the same time so this shot is a waste.

-Dark Shot- (Dark Ammo)
Power: D-    Speed: B      Acquirability: B   Overall Usefulness: C+

Irvine shoots a grenade that explodes into a green cloud.

I like this. It's the weakest ammunition there is but it has decent
speed and has a chance of giving the enemy a random negative status
per shot. I've seen Poison, Darkness, Silence and Sleep. Can also be
gotten fairly easily.

-Flame Shot- (Fire Ammo)
Power: B     Speed: C      Acquirability: B-  Overall Usefulness: C

Not quite a flamethrower but Irvine launches a burst of flame similar
to that of Opera's long ranged version of Flame Launcher in SO2.

The only elemental shot there is, so it can either be extremely
useful or completely useless. The fire elemental nature of this
attack is good against certain enemies like Malboro, as it will do
double damage. The damage done with Flame Shot unde neutral elemental
resistance is about twice that of Normal Shot.

-Canister Shot- (Demolition Ammo)
Power: B+    Speed: F      Acquirability: C   Overall Usefulness: E

Irvine blasts many rockets from his gun which homes in on the enemy.

I hate this attack. It's very strong but it's so slow that I can
bearly manage to shoot 3 times during the shortest time interval, so
Normal Ammo can hit for more damage than this most of the time (via
critical hits.) It's quite expensive but you can still find a few
bargins for Demolition Ammo if you look for Running Fires.

-Quick Shot- (Fast Ammo)
Power: E     Speed: S      Acquirability: B   Overall Usefulness: A-

Irvine fires rapid shots at an enemy, but not quite machinegun
standards.

Does about the same damage as Dark Shot but it can shoot 2-3 bullets
per 1 Normal Ammo! Since it is fired so many times, the rate of a
critical attack pops up is also the highest among all shots. The only
drawback is that the ammunition runs out faster than the rate at
which Lara Croft's boobs grows, so keep plenty of them in stock.

-Armor Shot- (AP Ammo)
Power: A+    Speed: E      Acquirability: C-  Overall Usefulness: B+

Irvine blasts a thin beam of laser which penetrates the enemy's
defence.

Probably the one of the best ammunition in the game. It's did 9999
damage when I didn't junction anything in Irvine's Str (his normal
attack was doing only 1100+ damage!) It's not too hard to get, Chef's
Knives can nets you loads of this, and they're reasonably easy to
acquire. It's slow though, and you won't even notice a critical hit,
so IMO, Fast Ammo is more useful.

-Hyper Shot- (Pulse Ammo)
Power: S+    Speed: E      Acquirability: E   Overall Usefulness: D

Irvine fires a huge beam of intense light at the enemy.

It's exceptionally hard to get your hands on (but it wont be much of
a problem if you use the infinite Elnoyle encounter to your
advantage.) Slow like Armor Shot, but it almost always do 9999
damage, meaning all critical hits will be wasted. You can shoot 3
times during the shortest time interval, meaning doing 29997 points
of damage, but with 255 Str, Quick Shot can hit 10+ times, for ~2500
each hit, plus critical hits, meaning there's a much greater chance
of doing more damage if you just stick to Quick Shot.


---Seifer Almasy---
Thanks to Colin Pentney <salivator@hotmail.com> who took the time to
level Seifer to level 100 and sent in the stats. The value to the
left is Seifer's at level 100 WITHOUT any bonuses, the one on the
right is the estimated maximum acquirable with the bonuses. It is
served mainly to compare with the max stats of the other characters.

                    Est. MAX
HP         5823       8553
Str          60        151       Spd       45
Vit          39        130       Luck      19
Mag          45        136       Eva        4%
Spr          38        129       Hit      255%

Comments on stats: Geez, Seifer's stats rivals even that of Rinoa's!
His Str is the lowest though, but that's because he cannot upgrade
his weapon and is stuck with a crap gunblade. (If he did, add 13
points to his Str, and he'll have standard Str.) He has the highest
Vit and Spr. Don't go away yet, look at this HP and Spd. WOW! His max
HP is about 2000 higher than most and he's even faster than Irvine!
(Not sure about Kiros though, as he does seem to be the fastest
character in the whole game.) All that plus the ability to hit with
perfect precision and easy-as-hell Limit Breaks, making him the most
powerful character in the game. Oh dear, if only you can get him in
your team permanently.

Limit Break: Fire Cross
I'm a little puzzled by the name of his Limit Breaks, I know it's
supposed to be confusing since you only get to use him for a little
while. Fire Cross seems to be the "style" of his Limits (like Rinoa's
Combine) while each attack (like No Mercy) is a separate skill in the
order of Fire Cross.

Seifer, like Squall, also uses a gunblade, but his style of attack is
completely different. Seifer seems to be able to "fuse" magic with
his "sword" attacks, forming a style of his own.

Seifer is also the strangest since he seems to have the ability to
use his Limit Breaks at will, meaning he has no problem to get the
triangle to show up indicating a Limit Break is available.

-No Mercy-
Seifer blast all enemies with a Fire spell then he spins his gunblade
and starts charging for an energy sphere. He then swings the blade,
sending a high speed spinning projectile at each enemy.

Well, at least it hits all enemies. It's only a single hit so it's
not very powerful. IMO, this acts in a very similar way to Rinoa's
Angelo Cannon, or perhaps slightly weaker. And no, this is not fire
elemental.

-Demon Slice-
Seifer again torces one opponent with a Fire spell then he spins,
forming a tornado, sucks one target into the air and slices them
repeatedly in mid air.

Well, not a playable Limit Break, but it's his special attack when
you fight him at the end of disc 2. His gunblade has the same
greenish glow as his No Mercy skill so I guess it's his new Limit
Break at that time.

-Zantetsuken Reverse-
It's sorta like Odin's attack except that there are 2 more characters
after the 3 Kanji, spelling "Reverse".

Not a playable Limit Break either, but it looks pretty cool.

-Bloodfest-
Seifer burns all targets with a Fire spell then leaps into the air
and slashes with his gunblade in the shape of a cross. A flaming
cross appears on the ground below his targets and it begins to sink,
until it finally colapses. Something like that.

Another non-playable Limit Break, Seifer uses this during the third
time you encounter him inside the Lunatic Pandora. According to
-Skrybe-, Gilgamesh will take down Seifer before he can take enough
damage to use Bloodfest, so that's why Seifer could only use regular
attacks during that fight. To see this attack, you've really have to
beat up on Seifer and make it fast, which isn't a good idea since
you'll be missing the opportunity on drawing Aura.

(Thanks to -Skrybe- for the information.)


---Edea Kramer---
Thanks to Qualera for Edea's level 100 stats.

                    Est. MAX
HP         3777       5997
Str          61        135       Spd       31
Vit          20         94       Luck      15
Mag          55        129       Eva        2%
Spr          45        121       Hit       97%

Comments on stats: Nothin' to see here. Edea is no where near as good
as Seifer and is even weaker than all normal party members, but who
can blame her? She starts at such a high level of 26. Low HP, very
low Vit and Spd but has ok Mag and Spr. The only interesting thing
about Edea is her Str. It is the highest even though she's a magic
user and uses no weapons.

Limit Break: Sorcery
Well, sorcery is everything to a sorceress, but Edea seems to be
quite limited in her sorcery skills, at least in battle. I've only
seen one sorcery skill.

-Ice Strike-
Edea gets angry and icicles start to materialize in thin air, then
she directs them at the enemy. She used this on Squall in the final
FMV of disc 1.

No this does not do ice elemental damage. It's not a bad attack
though, but don't expect too much since it still does 1 hit and only
targets one enemy.

> Any others??


---Laguna Loire---
Thanks to Ed Asano for the info.

                    Est. MAX
HP         4148       6938
Str          62        154       Spd       37
Vit          41        133       Luck      21
Mag          46        138       Eva        3%
Spr          36        128       Hit      103%

Comments on stats: Um... Laguna does have fairly good stats in all
areas, he's no Rinoa though. Very good HP and defensive attributes.
His Str is excuseable, if it weren't handicapped like all the
temporary members it'll be one of the highest. Nearly there.

Limit Break: Limit
"Limit" is probably what all the Galbadian soldiers uses back in
those days, 'cuz it's of the same discipline as Ward and Kiros'
attacks.

-Desperado-
Throws a geneade at the enemy. He then leaps into the air, swinging
from an industrial strength cable. After hitting his foe(s) with a
hail of gunfire, leaps down just as the geneade explodes.

Just another version of No Mercy and Angelo Cannon I suppose, not
great, not too crappy.


---Kiros Seagul---
Thanks again to Ed Asano.

                    Est. MAX
HP         3728       6458
Str          56        147       Spd       48
Vit          31        122       Luck      23
Mag          50        141       Eva        4%
Spr          41        132       Hit      102%

Comments on stats: Kiros obviously ain't the fighting-heavy type
character, as a matter of fact, his stats resemble Selphie's a LOT!
Very good Mag and Spr, except that Kiros is the FASTEST in the game!
His Spd is even higher than Seifer's, and he can practically act
twice per every action another member excutes! An exellent character
indeed!

Limit Break: Limit

-Blood Pain-
Rushing his enemy, Kiros attacks with a red blur of fury. He strikes
his enemy with 6 hits (this number is exact, and doesn't vary). The
last hit being a forward flip with a slash from both his knives.

Probably the best Limit out of all the temporary members, as it hits
multiple times. So the maximum damage this can do would be 9999 x 6,
although it might be hard to get that far since each hit tend to be
rather weak. A scrubbier version of Renzokuken with less damage per
hit, constant number of strikes and no random finisher.


---Ward Zaback---
Thanks to Ed Asano (aka Qualera) yet again!

                    Est. MAX
HP         4768       7498
Str          72        163       Spd       27
Vit          44        135       Luck      14
Mag          36        127       Eva        2%
Spr          30        121       Hit       98%

Comments on stats: Exactly opposite of what Kiros was. Ward is the
physical character, with EXTREMELY high HP, Str and Vit. If not
because of his Str handicap, Ward may come out stronger than Rinoa!
On the other hand, Ward's Spd, Luck, Eva and Hit sucks!

Limit Break: Limit

-Massive Anchor-
Launches his anchor high into the air. Ward soon leaps up after it.
He then rides the anchor by standing on it, landing on top of his
foe(s).

A traditional FF Dragoon's jump attack, similar to one of Cid's from
FFVII. It's ok, but since Ward's Str tend to be high, it'll often
deal the most damage out of Laguna's team.


STEP-BY-STEP POWER-UP WALKTHROUGH
=================================
Final Fantasy VIII is the first game I've ever written a walkthrough
for, and I have learned a lot from the experience. Please keep in
mind that this isn't your ordinary walkthrough, it's a very specific
walkthrough designed for those perfectionists who wants to get the
best out of their characters. In other words, if you found my above
instructions a bit vague or you couldn't possibly imagine how on
earth I can get through a length of the game gaining minimum levels.
So here's how I did it.

I strongly advice that players who wish to use this walkthrough to
play through the game "normally" first beofre attempting these
procedures. Not only will you be able to achieve better results
because you know what to do and what's going to happen next, you also
won't have to bear with the pressure of the powering-up on your
shoulders, thus preventing you from enjoying the game fully. Also
remember that certain quests/mini-quests were left out on purpose as
they have little to do with powering up (and because I'm too lazy to
cover those boring quests.) So if you don't see a certain mini-quest
in the guide, don't assume that I didn't know about it and try to
impress me with your findings, way too many readers have done that
already. (I'm starting to get shitty.)

The walkthrough contains some spoilers. Discretion is adviced. :D

Some of the terms:
> Junction Check! - All about what GFs, spells and commands to
junction.
> GF Check! - New GFs, or GF ability acquisition recommendations or
just anything to do with GFs. Remember: Love your GFs!
> Magic Check! - Any info on spells, whether it'd be drawn, refined,
upgraded or whatever.
> Card Check! - Anything that's got to do with cards, such as rare
cards or refining cards.
> NOTE! - Just some interesting or important stuff.
DP - Draw Point
SP - Save Point
BOSS - A boss fight
GF PROFILE - A summary of the GF and its abilities, an * next to a
GF's name indicates that GF cannot be junctioned.

============================ Disc 1 =================================
Like all multiple disc RPGs, the first disc is always the longest and
the most exciting, IMO. FFVIII's first disc will introduce all major
characters and set the atmosphere for the rest of the game. It's also
loaded with GFs, about half of all GFs can be goten in disc 1. In
terms of cards, it has it's own share but it's only taste of what you
can get later. Enjoy.


---It begins---
Watch the opening movie and if it's the second time you're playing
through the game, you should be able to understand it.

When you wake up, you can enter a new name for Squall (although I see
nothing wrong with "Squall") and Dr. Kadowaki will call your teacher
Miss Trepe. After a short scene you'll be in the hallway with
Instructor Trepe. You know what to do so just walk and see how the
pre-rendered background turns into an FMV!

> GF Check! Quezacotl and Shiva are obtainable from your study panel.

> NOTE! Viki told me that if you didn't get the GFs yourself, Quistis
will give them to you later during the tutorials. It's probably an
addition to the US version of the game.

GF PROFILE - QUEZACOTL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apparently Quezacotl has replaced Ramuh as the Thunder specialist in
FFVIII, nevertheless he is still an excellent GF, especially for the
fact that he is your first one! His attack Thunder Storm is one of
the more useful ones since many enemies during the course of this
game is weak against Thunder. Abilities like Card, Card Mod and Mid
Mag-RF makes Quezacotl an ideal GF for the first half of the game and
his rich Junction, Character Abilities and the summon itself makes
him a perfect all-round GF.
>> Best abilities: Card, Card Mod, Mid Mag-RF, T Mag-RF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - SHIVA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone's favourite FF chick is back but ain't better than ever. :-(
Apparently the director wanted her to show a bit more flesh and
stripped away her bikini in FFVII. Anyhow, her attack, Diamond Dust
is stronger than ever and for once, she is not the second weakest
summons in the game! Though not as many enemies are weak against Ice
as against Quezacotl's Thunder, her summon attack is still her best
asset. Ability-wise, Shiva is probably one of the boring ones as even
her unique skill - Doom ain't all that great. This ice maiden's
saving grace comes from those useful and plentiful Junction and
Character Abilities which are valued greatly.
Best abilities: None really, but Vit+40% and Spr+40% are quite good.

> NOTE! - ALTERNATE SHIVA SUMMON ANIMATION!
Every other GF has the same summoning animation but like in FFVII,
Shiva has 2! It's not that big deal really, it's just whether she
faces one way or the other. She usually faces left but occasionally,
she will face the other direction. I've seen this twice and it's nice
since you can get a closer look at her. :)

Thanks to EXCALIBUR <tomo_ciel@hotmail.com> who informed me that you
can only see Shiva's alternate summon animation when you're back
attacked!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before you meet Quistis you'll want to wonder around Balamb Garden a
bit. You'll bump into a girl (who is later known as Selphie) in the
hallway. If this is your first time through it then definitely show
her around but otherwise do what you wish.

> Card Check! Remember to speak to the guy in the 2F hallway, he'll
give you 7 el cheapo cards. (Don't challenge anyone yet though, you
won't stand a chance with those.. "cards".)

> Magic Check! Draw Esuna from the DP in the library and the entrance
for Cure. Now go to the Training Area (don't forget to Junction both
GFs first) and draw (preferably) 100 Sleeps from a Grat, perhaps some
Silence as well. (I'd get 100 of each.) Run away when you're done.
(Don't worry, this part does not count in the test so you won't get
points deducted.)

If you're hurt you may want to rest in the dorms. Meet Quistis at the
entrance and she'll teach you something about GFs. Pay attention if
this is your first time.


---Lava bath anyone?---
> Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl to Squall (Magic-J, junction
your 100 Sleep to it) and Shiva on Quistis (Spr-J, junction Cure to
it.)

> GF Check! As for what abilities they should learn, Quezacotl should
definitely choose "Card" while it doesn't matter all that much for
Shiva, but "Boost" may come in handy sometime. If you wanna be more
AP-efficient, have Shiva learn a more expensive ability first, such
as Str-J.

> Magic Check! You need spells before challenging the Fire Cave.
Encounter some Fastitocalons at the beach and draw lots of Blizzards
and more Sleep if you want, also get some Scans as they're really
useful when carding enemies. Run for it when you're done (you'll
probably get points deducted but..)
> Caterchipillers holds Cures (draw lots of them) and Thunders.
> Draw some Fires as well if you want. Bite Bugs have them. Run from
all of the above encounters since you don't want to gain any EXP.

> Junction Check! Give Squall lots of Blizzards and junction 100
Cures into Quistis' Spirit. Put Magic, Draw and GF commands on Squall
and Item, Draw and GF on Quistis. Save your game outside the Fire
Cavern.

When you're ready, and have stocked up on enough spells, approach the
Fire Cavern. Choose the 10 minutes option to give your points some
boost. Ready? Run all the way to the centre of the cave, it should be
really straightforward. Run away from the encounters as well. When
you get to a lava pit, you'll encounter the boss. There should be
plenty of time left on your clock so no worries.

NEW!!! The test score is not determined by how much time you have
left on your clock or the time interval you chose, it's dependant on
how much time is left when you defeat Ifrit! (You score points in the
category of "Judgement", the skill to Judge the correct time limit.)
So yes, you can get full marks if you choose 40 minutes, but who'd
want to?

BOSS - Ifrit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       Level 6
       HP 1068
       Draw: Fire, Cure, Scan
       Weak against Ice, Absorbs Fire

He's really not that hard. Have Quistis summon Shiva repeatedly while
Squall (with Sleep junctioned to his Magic) should cast Blizzard on
Ifrit. You shouldn't have any problems. If either one of you guys
needs curing have Squall draw Cure from the boss and cast on the
character. If Squall's HP becomes low, let him execute Renzokuken.

If Squall is unluckily enough to get killed, let Quistis revive him
with a Phoenix Down, but you probably won't need to use it.

If you want the highest exam score possible, you need to finish Ifrit
with minimum time left on your clock, meaning you've gotta execute
the killing blow pretty late into the fight. Since Ifrit will talk
after you beat him, you do need to time the last blow carefully, else
it'll be Game Over. Use Blizzard and Shiva to lower Ifrit's HP to
about 80 or less. (Use Scan often.) Then let Squall cast Blizzard
when the timer reaches exactly 30 seconds. Congrats, you've just
scored full marks!!!

Win: 4x G-Returner, Ifrit's Card
AP: 20
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This will be a quick fight. When you win, you'll gained Ifrit as your
GF and you'll also get his card (your first rare card and a VERY good
one, one of my personal favourites!) The timer has stopped so
junction Ifrit to Squall and get the hell out of the place, and don't
forget to run away from all encounters.

GF PROFILE - IFRIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite the absence of Ramuh, the third member of the FF-Summon-Gang-
Trio is here! Half man, half beast and ready to barbecue the enemies.
Ifrit's summon attack, Hell Fire, packs a mean punch but just doesn't
appeal to me as much as Shiva's, Quezacotl's or Doomtrain's since
enemies weak against fire are rare. (I wonder why.) Ifrit's other
abilities however, are a different story. Favouring strength, Ifrit
can turn a character into a physical powerhouse with those Str and HP
abilities and when combined with the right character (Zell is a good
one) can absolutely ruin a boss' day! He's also the first GF that
nets you the Elem-Atk ability which can mean extra damage against
many enemies if you're careful. Also comes with him but somewhat
hidden is the Ammo-RF ability crucial to Irvine's Limit Break.
Without it, he'll be powerless!
>> Best abilities: Ammo-RF, Str+40%, F mag-RF and Str Bonus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in Balamb Garden, Quistis will leave you. However, you might
want to head to Balamb town to purchase some spare Phoenix Downs.


---Dollet Me--- (As in "Doh ray me".. nevermind..)
After a few scenes with Zell, Quistis and Seifer, drive the car to
Balamb. Pay attention to Xu's briefing and view another pretty damn
good FMV.

> Junction Check! Put a GF on each guy. I junctioned Ifrit to Zell,
Shiva to Squall and Quezacotl to Seifer.

> GF Check!
  - Shiva: She should have learnt Boost if you assigned it earlier so
the next most important skill of hers is Str-J. Otherwise let her
learn Boost now.
  - Quezacotl: You should be halfway of acquiring the Card command.
  - Ifrit: Boost is perhaps the best option now.

> Magic Check! Exchange Quistis' magic to Seifer. You may want to
give him 100 Sleep to junction to his Magic.

Save at the SP. There are about 5 fixed encounters here that you
cannot run from, but you've got an Ace up your sleeve. Seifer! When
you encounter the first bunch of soldiers, let Squall and Zell kill
themselves off by drawing and casting spells on themselves. (You
might want to draw some spells before you do so.) Let Seifer finish
off the enemies (they're easy) when you're satisfied.

> NOTE! Seifer is certainly a strange kid for 2 reasons. 1) He has
really good starting stats and gains stats very fast as he levels up
and 2) His Limit Break "No Mercy" can be executed EXTREMELY easily!!
He has no trouble getting the triangle to show up even at FULL
HEALTH! Too bad you can't get him as a permanent member.

Anyway, what you wanna do here is to leave Squall and Zell alone and
fight the battles with just Seifer. Since Seifer is the only active
member in the team, you'd want to keep a close eye on his HP and
since he can use his Limit so damn easily, you don't really have an
excuse not to try to keep his HP as high as possible.

After the 4 fixed battles with soldiers, random battles will start to
show up. Fight these as OFTEN as you wish and as many as you want! As
a matter of fact, it's a really good idea to fight many random
battles here with Seifer since your GFs will grow with the AP/EXP
(and more abilities will show up when their level rises.) Fighting
here will also earn you points in the "Attack" category in your SeeD
test scores, which translates into a high SeeD rank and more money.

You might be tempted to remove all the GFs from Zell and Squall and
junction them all to Seifer. I recommend you keep them where they are
since they gain EXP quicker this way.

> GF Check! Your GFs will gain tons of AP here if you continue to
fight, which means that they can master many abilities here. Here's
some abilities that I think are quite important and should be learnt
before everything else.
  - Quezacotl: His Card command should be ready, so let him learn the
Card Mod ability, which complements the former nicely. T Mag-RF is
not bad either (and cheap) and will unlock the useful Mid Mag-RF.
  - Shiva: Pick up her Str-J and Vit-J first from her list of trashy
abilities. Then either I Mag-RF or Vit+20%.
  - Ifrit: Um.. if you're after his Str Bonus ability just in case
you levelled up then start from his Str+20% and +40% first (but
they're good skills nevertheless.) Otherwise his HP-J and F Mag-RF
are the way to go.
> You may want to adjust these to be more AP-efficient. There's a
boss worth 18AP coming up and an optional boss with a whopping 50AP!

At the top of the stairs you'll have to fight an Anacondour. It has
about 1400HP but isn't really all that hard. It has a strong attack
though, can cause ~70 points of damage per hit. Keep Seifer's HP high
and summon Shiva if you junctioned her to Seifer, or just use
Blizzard. His Limit Break is easily usable but it still won't cause
as much damage as Blizzard. You may want to turn it into a card
(since Quezacotl's Card ability should be completed right about now)
but it will give your GFs quite a bit of EXP when you kill it.

If you want to build up your GFs, wonder around this area. You can
encounter a double Anacondour here. They're tough but the 8AP and
~600EXP you gain for winning is worth it. Keep Seifer's HP high is
mandatory since they are both quite fast and powerful. (I remember
getting the Game Over screen fighting them when I was careless.)

Pro tip - Go go Seifer! =============================================
|Seifer fans would probably know this already, but powering him up  |
|will also make you much more powerful at the beginning, and gives  |
|you a solid footing for a later quest.                             |
|                                                                   |
|Since the enemies level up as you do, and their draw collection    |
|will improve, you can get a lot of good spells by powering Seifer  |
|up alone. Enemies gain their second level magic at level 20, while |
|their final upgrade at level 30. However, things seems to work     |
|differently here, as the enemy's level is always lower than        |
|Seifer's. The enemies reaches level 20 when Seifer is at level 36, |
|and reaches level 30 when Seifer is at level 60, so you are looking|
|at a lengthy procedure if you're willing to try.                   |
|                                                                   |
|However, by doing this, you can obtain Firagas, Blizzagas, Curagas |
|Thundagas, Bios and Dispels from various enemies, hunt around for  |
|them. Definitely get 400 Curagas spread among 4 characters since   |
|they are the best junctions for quite a while. 200 of each of the  |
|rest is enough IMO, they are good in most junctions. You may also  |
|want to get some -ra level spells too.                             |
|                                                                   |
|One thing to keep in mind is to spread out your GFs so they gain   |
|EXP quicker. By my calculations, your GFs will reach EXACTLY level |
|100 when Seifer reaches level 60, and they will be your strongest  |
|set of GFs for the rest of the game! They will also be able to     |
|learn ALL their most important skills here, but you are looking at |
|about 7-8 hours powering up in Dollet. For extra fun, equip Seifer |
|with Str Bonus when Ifrit learns it, then laugh as his No Mercy    |
|does 9000+ damage to all the enemies. :) All those -ga spells will |
|make drawing Demis from Diablos later a LOT easier!                |
|                                                                   |
|Also, high level Anacondours will drop Star Fragments, good for    |
|weapon modding and teachs a GF SumMag+20%. I cannot remember who   |
|told me about this, I'm sooooooo sorry..... E-mail me again again  |
|and I'll give you credit.                                          |
|                                                                   |
|High level (30+) Anacondours will also drop Dragon Fangs and Dragon|
|Skins. The former is used for Squall's Lionheart upgrade (see the  |
|trick below for getting Lionheart in disc 1, and the latter can be |
|used for Zell's best weapon as well. Thanks to Ali Sufian Mughal   |
|<venom20001@excite.com> for this tip.                              |
=====================================================================

> GF Check! Before you go on to the next area, your GFs should be at
least level 10 as they won't be able to gain any more EXP for quite a
while. Shiva's Doom commands becomes available at level 10, and the
same goes to Ifrit's Ammo-RF (crucial ability!) and Mad Rush (not
so).

Follow along the path to the Communication Tower. After the scene
where Seifer runs away, you'll be introduced to Selphie by a cute
FMV. Note that Squall and Zell are both revived with 1HP if you
killed them earlier. Use a Cure on both of them.

Don't take the shortcut (like Selphie did) or you'll get points
deducted. Instead, walk along the paved road. Talk to Selphie and
she'll join you.

> Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl on Selphie, Shiva on Squall and
Ifrit on Zell. Shiva should have gotten Str-J if you trained her.
Junction whatever magic is best fit for the team. If you've done
Seifer's quest, you'll have PLENTIFUL skills and spells to use. Since
the enemies are of a low level, you can REALLY cursh them like peas.
As for commands, here's what I had:
   Squall:  Attack, Draw, Magic, Item
   Zell:    Attack, Draw, Magic, GF
   Selphie: Attack, Draw, GF, Item
> The Item command is crucial at this point of the game since Phoenix
Downs are the only way to revive a KO'd member right now.

> GF Check! The up coming boss holds 18AP, so adjust your abilities
for it.

> Magic Check! Selphie inherits all the spells Seifer had stocked so
you don't have to worry about her being magic-less. There's also a DP
for Blind inside the tower, it's not that important spell right now.

Save at the SP and take the elevator up and meet Biggs. After an FMV
that I'm sure you're all familiar with since it's detailed in the
demo, you'll have to fight some bosses.

BOSS - Biggs, Wedge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll be facing Biggs first. He's not very powerful. Take some time
to draw his Esuna. Since only one character in your party has Mag-J,
the other 2 will fail quite often. But since this boss is quite
harmless, I usually try to stock up on as much Esunas as I can hold.

After a bit, Wedge comes to help Biggs. He's even less of a threat as
most of the time he will just stand there. You can call a GF to wipe
out both of them in one shot when you've drawn enough spells since
your GFs are of a high level.

After you beat on them for a bit, they'll get swept away by a
whirlwind and you'll be up against...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOSS - Elvoret ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a continuation from the last battle. Elvoret is no joke.
Every 3 rounds he'll use his Storm Breath attack, a wind elemental
attack that does about 150 to all 3 members of your team, so keep
your HP above 200.

> GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Siren from this boss!

Elvoret has a nice spell to draw - Double! Again, I'd have all my
characters draw Double from it and 200 of them would be my goal.
Double is _slightly_ easier to draw compared to Esuna, or so it
seemed. Your characters without Mag-J will still have some problems
coping with it but Doubles are really useful in junctions so I think
it's worth it.

When one of your characters need healing, have a character without
Mag-J draw Cure from Elvoret and cast. If all your characters need
healing (ie, after Storm Breath) then let Selphie use her Full-Cure.
If you're unfortunate enough to get KO'd, use a Phoenix Down.

After a while, Selphie should have 100 Doubles stocked, so let her
summon Quezacotl to raise their Compatibility. Keep an eye out on
Quezacotl's HP though. If it gets too low, only summon it after
Elvoret does his Storm Breath. The other 2 should keep on drawing
Doubles from the boss.

You may also wanna play around with Selphie's Slots and try to learn
her unique magic. Try casting Aura from her Slots on herself then use
it again, you'll notice that the selection of spells has been
significantly improved. Combining that and the Slot trick, I learnt
all her Slot magic in this fight. :)

You'll be able to beat it after summoning Quezacotl about 5 times.
For all your trouble, you'll get to pick up a bootie full of free
goodies like Elixirs. As if it weren't enough, you've gotten a full
supply of good spells and a new GF.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Junction Check! Junction Siren to Squall and junction 100 Doubles
(or better) into his Magic (steal Doubles from Zell if you haven't
got enough) Junction 100 Doubles to Selphie's Magic as well. Don't
change your commands. Junction 100 Thunders to Zell's Elem-Atk if you
wish.

> GF Check!
Quezacotl: He should've gotten Card Mod already. Any Menu Abilities
should do now. If you've been training hard and have gotten all his
Menu Abilities, get his Junction Abilities.
Shiva: Get Vit+20% then Spr+20%.
Ifrit: Get his Str+??% abilities.
Siren: Definitely Move-Find first.

GF PROFILE - SIREN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drooling all over Shiva yet? Well, that girl's got some tough
competition comin' up 'cuz here comes Siren! Although looking
somewhat indecent (have you seen those Siren action figures?) but
she's kinda unique in that she has these cute wings on her head.
(Hey, looks like Morrigan!) Playing the part of a maiden by the sea
who takes the lives of unsuspecting sailors (sounds like Baywatch),
Siren's attack Silent Voice can instantly mute all enemies while
inflicting a fair amount of damage at the same time. Although the
damage done is nothing to praise about, it is non-elemental meaning
it's a safe one to use against enemies who are strong against
everything. The Silence effect is also neat against enemies who likes
to cast spells, mainly human troops, although many of the more
powerful enemies are immune to it. Ability-wise, Siren is a rich
goldmine. The Treatment command may seem a bit dull at first but it
can save your butt many times when fighting against Malboros, since
it's not hindered by the Silence status. (It's also the only way I
know of curing Doom.) Siren's the first GF who gives you the
advantage of blocking a status too, as well as returning one with ST-
Atk and ST-Def. Those Magic abilities are perfect for magic users
like Selphie and she has THREE distinct Menu Abilities, making her a
versatile one. Finally, her Move-Find skill will review all those
hidden Draw Points and Save Points! (In the field maps only though.)
Phew, what a mouth full!
>>Best abilities: Treatment, Mag Bonus, L Mag-RF, ST Med-RF, Tool-RF
and Move-Find
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You now have 30 minutes to get to the shore so run like hell!!!

OPTIONAL BOSS - X-ATM092 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is an optional boss where you can choose whether to fight it or
not. Killing it will result in 100 bonus points and loads of AP but I
think you're NOT supposed to kill it. It's your choice whether you
wanna take it down. Yes you are under a time limit of 30 minutes but
it should be enough to take it down without much problems. If it's
your first time through the game then I don't recommend it, but if
you've played through the game and wants revenge, this is the way to
go (may be..)

FIRST ENCOUNTER
You'll first encounter the X-ATM092 at the entrance of the tower, and
it's a mandatory battle. You cannot however, defeat it in this fight.
Even if you deplete its HP to zero, it will be refilled and believe
me I learnt it the hard way! So all you can do is to do about 1500
damage and it'll collapse. Just cast Thunders and summon Quezacotl
with Selphie. Run when it gets down.

SECOND ENCOUNTER
This is the time to defeat it if you wish. Since you will not run
into any random encounters during the chase, it's better to fight it
as late as possible.

> Note! To get through the part where the ground shakes and you can't
move, simple WALK instead of RUN, as the robot will shock you with
electricity if you run. Thanks to Linda Villanueva for the much
needed info!

Selphie should summon Quezacotl non-stop and since she's summon it
many times during the fight with Elvoret, they should have good
Compatibility. Use Boost to get the fullest effect, especially if you
have a turbo controller. It can do 1300+ if you manage to get 130 or
so with Boost.

Zell and Squall should have fairly low HP (don't heal them during the
fight) and execute their Limit Breaks every round. They should both
have spells junctioned to their Str too. For some strange reason,
Squall's Renzukoken will always be 4 hits versus the X-ATM092. Zell
should use mainly his Punch Rush and Booya, and maybe Mach Kick. (It
should do more damage than Squall's even for the 4 second time
interval!)

If Squall/Zell gets KO'd, revive them with a Phoenix Down and keep
going. It'll eventually explode. This fight can take about 10-15
minutes but there's plenty of time left. You'll get the whoppin' 50AP
that I just couldn't shut up about. I heard that the X-ATM092 will
leave a good random item when it destructs but I've beaten it twice
and all I got was a cheap Orichalcon both times. I've heard that
Force Armlets are also available for grabs.

> NOTE! Happy Matt informed me that you may not necessarily need to
KILL the X-ATM092 to earn the 50AP. He said that he gave up have way
through the fight and got the 50AP so it maybe possible to earn the
AP simply by causing enough damage to it.

BTW, you WILL run into random fights with the X-ATM092 out of the
way. Just run from them all (points deducted.) A strange thing
happened when I was against a soldier, the game wouldn't let me run
so I had to take him down.

If you decided not to beat it, then just run away from it and use the
same strategy as the first fight to take it down temporarily and run
for it. Of course, there's a huge advantage in NOT killing off the
boss, and that is you'll be treated to a nifty FMV (my personal
favourite) where the team runs from the "Black Widow" and the foxy
Quistis shoots down the robot with big guns. (Gosh, she can take on
Lara Croft AND Jill Valentine both at the same time with THAT!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

X-AMT092 AP TRICK! ==================================================
|Thanks to Eekeric@aol.com for this trick.                          |
|                                                                   |
|It is true that you only need to do a certain amount of damage to  |
|earn the 50AP. Here's what Eekeric@aol.com sent in:                |
|                                                                   |
|"Well, to make it blow up, you have to take away it's full HP 4    |
|times in one battle, right? And once you take away its full HP, it |
|just says "it's repairing itself" and it's automatically repaired  |
|to full health. When you damage its full HP, then the game thinks  |
|you beat it, so you will be awarded 50 AP after the battle. After  |
|that, you just have to knock it down (above something like above   |
|1200, below max AP) and run, and you get the AP then you can       |
|repeat it..... probably 15 times if Quezacotl is at a really high  |
|level."                                                            |
|                                                                   |
|Whatever that's supposed to mean. I haven't tried this out yet but |
|it sounds quite promising. Anyone wanna give it a try? (I edited it|
|a little, hope you don't mind.)                                    |
|                                                                   |
|Note that the rest of the guide had been written as if the Seifer  |
|quest and X-ATM092 tricks has been omitted, so the GF abilities,   |
|magic or strategy may seem a bit premitive. Just use your own      |
|judgement. As a side note on how much the GFs have advanced, Shiva,|
|Ifrit and Quezacotl are all at level 100 with all skills mastered. |
|Siren is still at level 9 with Move-Find, all Mag abilities and a  |
|few Menu Abilities learned. If there's enough requests, I'd update |
|my guide, ability lists and strategies to suit all these optional  |
|power optional quests.                                             |
=====================================================================

Once you arrive back in Balamb, just head back to the Garden if you
don't have anything to do. Stay at the hotel if you wish.

After a few story scenes, you should get your SeeD report. You should
get something like a 7 if you followed my steps. Don't forget to talk
to Cid again for the Battle Report.


---Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?--- (I hope that's correct..)
Congrats congrats, now you're a SeeD members. Get changed (noticed
how he got changed with the doors OPEN while Selphie is just standing
outside?!) and talk to Selphie when you're done.

You'll be treated to a couple of bootieful dance FMVs with an unknown
girl. Quistis then comes along and wants you meet her in the secret
area in the Training Area. Get changed again (I don't see the point)
before you go you should junction both Squall and Quistis properly.

> Junction Check! Junction 2 GFs on each character, I had Squall with
Ifrit and Siren while Quistis got Quezacotl and Shiva. Junction the
200 Doubles that you've worked so hard for in each character's Magic.
Junction Blizzard to Ele-Atk if you wish and Junction Sleep to
Squall's ST-Atk. Finally, the commands should look something like:
   Squall:  Attack, Draw, GF, Magic
   Quistis: Attack, Draw, GF, Card
> Substitute in Item instead of GF for Squall if you wanna play safe
just in case Quistis dies.

> Magic Check! Trade someone's magic to Quistis and trade the Blind
spells to Squall.

> GF Check! Your GFs should have learnt some decent expensive
abilities if you took down the X-ATM092.
  - Quezacotl: Card Mod should be complete now. Learn T Mag-RF then
Mid Mag-RF if you haven't done so.
  - Shiva: Vit+20% and Spr+20% followed by the +40%s.
  - Ifrit: Str+20% and +40%.
  - Siren: She should have gotten Move-Find already. Learn Boost then
either all her Menu Abilities (L Mag-RF is great!) or her Mag+20%.

> Card Check! So you have gotten Card Mod, it's time to get some new
Blue Magic for Quistis. You can get 3 decent skills just by modding
some of the crap cards you were given at the start of the game.
    Caterchipiller -> Spider Web    -> Ultra Wave
    Gesper         -> Black Hole    -> Degenerator
    Gayla          -> Mystery Fluid -> Acid
If you've played some card games already and manage to win, you might
have more cards that can be turned into Quistis' new skills.

Save your game in Squall's room. Head to the Training Area and
Quistis will be waiting for you. She'll teach you something about
Status Attack.

Enter the Training Area and prepare for a fight. If you encounter
Grats, have Squall weaken them and have Quistis turn them into a
card. If you encounter a T-Rexaur, try putting it to sleep by
attacking it with Sleep Junctioned to ST-Atk. If it doesn't work,
have Squall cast Blind on it. You can Scan it if you want, it should
have about 13000HP. Summon Shiva with Quistis and another GF or cast
Blizzard using Squall. When you've done about 8000+ damage, you can
card it with Quistis. You'll get a nice 10AP for your effort, which
is worth it IMO. You may want to stay here for a bit to build up your
GFs.

BOSS - Granaldo and Raldo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll have to fight 3 Raldos and a Granaldo to save a girl. This is
an easy battle since they can't really do much damage, maybe about 30
points max.

Draw Protects from the Raldos as they act as decent spells for
Vitality, and cast them on your team if you want. When your Limit
Break comes up (will be quite a while since their attacks are weak!)
eliminate them in one hit with Squall's Renzokuken and Quistis' Laser
Eye or Ultra Vibration. I usually get 100 Protects for either member.

When you finished with Protects, Granaldo holds Shells which is nice
for your Spirit. I usually get another 100 each, but if you don't
want to then don't worry too much as it's not the best spell in the
game and it can be refine really easily later. Draw some Blinds too,
they're not good for junctions at all but are useful against many
enemies who uses physical attacks, like T-Rexaurs.

Finish them off with your Limits once you're satisfied, or if you're
no where near critical HP, summon your high level GFs to kill them in
one hit (Ifrit works well.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now return to the dorms or fight here some more if you like.


---Whoohoo, our first mission!---
The next day you'll be awaken by Selphie. Head to the entrance and
receive the instructions for you first mission from Cid: aid the
Forest Owls in Timber.

> NOTE! Before you go, talk to Cid and he'll give you a Magic Lamp.
Do not forget this as it's vital for another GF.

> GF Check! Cid's Magic Lamp can summon the demon Diablos. You can
acquire this GF from now on by using the Lamp. I'd recommend you do
it straight away but do junction yourselves properly first.

> Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl to Selphie, Ifrit to Zell and
the ladies (Shiva and Siren) to Squall. Junction 100 Doubles to
Squall and Selphie's Magic, and elementary spells to Strength. If you
have acquired Vit/Spr-J, junction Protect and Shell, respectively, to
those attributes. As for commands, put Draw on all members and Item
on at least two members as it's still the only way of reviving an
ally. You'll want the Magic command too.

> GF Check! You should continue with my recommendations given above,
since they're quite expensive (ie, Str+40% takes 120AP!)

> Magic Check! Give Blind to the character who has the Magic command
and has Mag-J.

BOSS - Diablos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone fears this boss, I wonder why. He loves to cast Demi which
takes off a quarter of one member's HP, but he also has Gravija, the
upgraded version where it takes off 75% of all member's current HP!
Then he has a rush attack which is deadly after Gravija.

Since gravity elemental spells can never kill you, try casting Blind
on Diablos so his rush attack will miss most of the time. You should
do it until it works, which can take a few tried at times (junction
spells to your Mag will increase the likelihood of the success
rates.) Now he's almost harmless. His gravity spells can reduce your
HP to 1 but afterwards, all attempts will do 0 damage!

Draw Demi from him. It's a very advanced spell at this point of the
game so you'll expect to fail most of the time. However, it's worth
the effort to stock up on 200 of them as they're the best spells you
can junction to Magic for quite a while. Squall and Selphie can
expect to draw about 1-5 Demi with Double junctioned while Zell will
be next to useless. It doesn't take THAT long to stock 200 Demi BTW.

You'll be able to use your Limits often but don't do it or you'll
kill him easily. (You'd want to draw spells right?) Tune up the
battle speed in the Config menu to make the fight go faster, and if
you can, try your hands on Selphie's Slots. If you can get Haste
that'd be great!

When you're satisfied with your stock load, unleash your Limit Breaks
and Diablos will go down in no time.

If you've done the Seifer quest earlier and/or the X-ATM092 AP snatch
quest, you should be able to get a very good Mag level right about
now, and equip Mag+??% from Quezacotl and Siren. You should now be
able to draw 9 Demis every round! Then just play around with
Selphie's Slots as Diablos can't hurt you. Try to learn her unique
Slot magic in this fight if you haven't yet.

ALTERNATE STRATEGY
Ken Ho <warlock@asia.com> wrote in requested that I should list an
alternate Diablos strategy since he said mine didn't work. Anyway, he
said you should draw Demi from him and cast it back to him, then he
will counter with Curaga. Oh well, this strategy is here to anyone
who wants an alternate strategy. (Just don't forget to draw Demi from
him!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You'll get another rare card afterwards and Diablos as your very own
GF!

GF PROFILE - DIABLOS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A demon living in another dimension, Diablos is full of mysterious
powers. Controlling the powerful elements of time and space, Diablos
uses the forgotten potential of gravity as its weapon, and the tool
that aids his attacks is no other than the enemies' natural bodies.
Diablos' summoning attack, Dark Messenger is of a gravity type attack
BUT, like FFT, it does damage according to the target's MAXIMUM HP
(not current) so it's possible to kill an enemy with it. Also, the
proportion of HP Diablos can remove is also dependant on his level,
so when you first get him, he'd be very weak but he can later remove
a much higher portion of an enemy's HP. I think this summon is not
that worth it though, as it takes ages to animate (strange huh?) but
has no Boost function. Use Demi or Quistis' Micro Missile instead.
It's still one of the best looking summons in the game though. He
also some of the most useful (although extremely expensive) skills so
gaining him as early as possible is recommended. Diablos is the first
GF to give you the advantage of equipping up to 3 Character/Party
Abilities with Abilityx3. His Mug skill, although extremely
expensive, will allow you to steal a foe's private possessions for
rare items that aids weapon customizing or spell refinery. Enc-Half
and Enc-None eliminates the annoyance of random encounters which is
very important to this guide and of course, who can forget his Menu
Abilities that lets you refine really good spells like Demi, Meltdown
and Triple.

> NOTE!!! Brian Lennon <bowie_knife@hotmail.com> said that Diablos'
attack is exactly proportional to his level, he will remove the exact
percentage of the enemy's max HP as his level, so at LV12, Diablos
will remove 12%. Fairly weak at low levels, and his attack still caps
at 9999. However, at LV100, Diablos will instantly KILL all enemies
with less than 9999HP.

>>Best abilities: Abilityx3, HP+80%, Mug, Enc-Half/Enc-None, ST Mag-
RF and Time Mag-RF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now return to Garden and heal up, or use Selphie's Full Cure.

> Junction Check! Junction Diablos to Zell. Junction your Demis that
you just drew from Diablos to Magic, it should increase it by about
40! Otherwise, use 100 Doubles.

> GF Check!
  - Quezacotl: His Mid Mag-RF should be (or close to) completed.
Learn HP-J if so.
  - Shiva: Vit+40% and Spr+40%
  - Ifrit: Either Str Bonus or F Mag-RF (Str Bonus is not so crucial
right now but make sure you learn it as it's useful later)
  - Siren: Mag+40%
  - Diablos: Mug or Enc-Half. If you're confident with carding
enemies then choose Mug, if not get Enc-Half and Enc-None. Just note
that Mug is extremely expensive. (I'd get Mug.)

> Card Check! At this point in the game, you should have gotten a few
good cards (Ifrit and Diablos) so I'd recommend you take some time
off for some major card battles if you like Triple Triad at this time
since it's goin' to be a long time before you see Balamb again. You
may have gotten a T-Rexaur card from the Training Centre and you
should return to the Fire Cave and get a Bomb card, since they're
quite powerful. (They helped me win countless early card battles.)

> Challenge the Queen of Cards first. She should be a joke since she
uses level 1-3 cards. This is to modify the trade rule from One to
Diff. If you can get it to All that's be great but it's risky since
you can end up with the terrible Direct rule. (It completely screwed
up my Galbadia card games when I did it by accident!) If you do get
it to "All" though, then congrats and play a LOT of card games and
it'll eventually become a PERMANENT trade rule! (Could help when
you're playing against the CC members in disc 2.)
    > NOTE! Gregory Colombo <gcolombo@uni.uiuc.edu> told me that if you
      really want to avoid Direct, keep declining when the queen
      challenges you to a game. That way, you'll avoid the Direct rule
      completely and eventually, she'll ask if you wanna play an All
      game. That's when you should accept and reap all the cards from
      her!

> Zell's mom is cool since she has Zell's card. Win it off her and
it'll be one of your best cards that you can use all the way until
the end of the game. (It's one of the "Top 3 cards" on my list.)

> The lil' kid in blue running around the lobby of Balamb Garden has
the MiniMog's card, which is crucial for the Queen of Cards quest.

> You can win Quistis' card from any one of the Trepe Groupies
(except me of course) however, keep in mind that it's a RARE card and
it's SHARED between those 3 members so don't think you can get 3 of
them! Trepe Groupie #1 (guy in the Caf) seems to use it the most.

> Challenge Headmaster Cid NOW for Seifer's card. You can do it later
in disc 3 but you'll be stuck with the horrible Centra rule so win it
off him now. It's THE best card in the whole game.

> Try to fill up most of the slots if you can. I was able to fill up
all of my level 1-5 cards except for Pupu's. If you want a lot of
really powerful LV5 cards, and very useful ones (Malboro, Chimera,
Ruby Dragon, Behemoth, Elnoyle) then turn to Trepe Groupie #2.
Combine it with the All rule, it'll shoot your card collection up
fast so you can mod them into awesome stuff.

> You can convert most of them into nifty items, and of course, ones
that allow Quistis to learn new moves. Here is all the possible ways
to get new Blue Magic from cards. You maybe not be able to do some of
them now but keep these in mind in future card battles:
      Fastitocalon   -> Water Crystal    -> Aqua Breath
      Creeps         -> Corel Fragment   -> Electrocute
      Tri-Face       -> Curse Spike      -> LV? Death
      SAM08G         -> Running Fire     -> Gatling Gun
    4 Malboro        -> Malboro Tentacle -> Bad Breath
    5 Fastitocalon-F -> Water Crystal    -> Aqua Breath
   10 Behemoth       -> Barrier          -> Mighty Guard
   10 Ruby Dragon    -> Inferno Fang     -> Fire Breath

> Try to win an Elastoid card and change it into a Steel Pipe. Get
some Screws with Geezard's card and modify Squall's Revolver to a
Shear Trigger so you can learn his Fated Circle finisher.

> Those who are keen on the Queen of Cards quest can (and should)
start now. Deliberately loose the MiniMog card to her and try to get
her to go to Dollet. If she chooses Galbadia, reset and try again.
   > NOTE!!! Before you start doing this, you might want to know of
             an alternate way of acquiring the QoC quest cards. You
             can find it in the tips & tricks section above.

> You CAN'T start the CC quest now so don't bother.

When you're read to move on, take a train from Balamb Station, it'll
cost 3000 Gil. (Don't you think the Garden should have provided you
with the ticket instead letting you buy your own? If so, I want a pay
rise!)

Inside the train, you'll see some sequence with Selphie and Zell.
Then all of your guys falls over and enters the dream world. Spooky!


---I know where it's at---
You'll take the role of Laguna's team in this sequence. Squall is
Laguna, Zell is Kiros and Selphie is Ward. The team gets lost in the
woods so follow the path.

You can encounter Funguars and Geezards here but it's not worth the
effort to card them, as the former keeps putting you to sleep while
the latter gets killed in one hit. They don't give you enough AP
either. So just run from them if you want. If you do want to card
them, leave the Geezards alone, they're just way too weak. Attack the
Funguars with Ward (Selphie, who has no Str-J.)

> Magic Check! There are 2 DPs here, Cure and Water. The latter is a
pretty decent spell that you can cast all you want without having to
worry about stock, since they can be refined easily. (But don't waste
them though.)

As you approach a car, the gang hops in and drives to Deling City in
Galbadia. Enter the hotel and watch some lengthy story and somewhat
cheesy sequence.


---Owls + Trains = Timber Resistance Group---
Once in Timber, choose the right password (something about the Owls.)
I've heard that if you choose a wrong one you get to see a funny
sequence and it doesn't lower your rank!

When you're inside the train, go get Rinoa at the end of the hall.

> Card Check! Challenge Watts here if you want Angelo's card. You can
get it later though, but much later so I'd recommend you do it now.

Pay attention to the mission outline. It sounds really complicated if
it's the first time you're playing, I remember I was completely
stunned the first time, but it's actually rather simple. Remember to
save your game before starting the mission.

The first test is the sounds/temperature censor guards, you're
suppose to remain still for the former and keep moving for the
latter. However, I was the other side of the screen in my first game
before I even noticed that those guards (and the same in my third
game) so just run and you won't have any problems. Then you have to
enter 3 pass codes, get back up after 2 of them. Then you have to
enter 5 codes without the help of Selphie and Zell. This is still
easy as you can still enter 2 codes at a time without having to worry
too much about the guards. Do keep an eye on them though (R2.)

If you complete the mission without making mistakes, your SeeD level
will be raised by 1. I think it will also drop if you get discovered.
You'll have to confront the President now, so junction properly.

> Junction Check! Junction Diablos and Ifrit to Zell, Shiva and Siren
to Squall and Quezacotl to Selphie. Basically, just Junction whatever
you had previously. For some reason, the GFs from both Zell and
Selphie are removed. As for ST-Def, Silence would be idea. You should
have gotten some Character Abilities like Mag+20% or Str+20% so equip
those. As for commands, here's what I had:
         Squall:  Attack, Draw, Magic, GF
         Zell:    Attack, Draw, GF, Item
         Selphie: Attack, Draw, Magic, Item

> GF Check! You should have the same thing as above.

Talk to Rinoa when you're ready.

BOSS - Fake President ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not much of a boss here and not much to draw from. If you don't have
enough Cure spells draw some from him. It only takes a few hits to
take him down.. then he melts (ala Parasite Eve) an turns into...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOSS - Gerogero ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Again, he's no joke and can seriously ruin your day if you're
careless. He has a powerful claw swipe that does about 200 damage to
a member, and breath attack that does 150 damage plus status and the
rest of the time, he casts annoying status spells like Berserk,
Silence etc..

He does have some decent spells to draw from, but nothing to die for.
Pick up on some Esunas if you don't feel that you have enough
(although they're really common later on) and more Doubles if you
wish. He also holds 2 new spells - Berserk and Zombie. I'd say you
get some Berserks even though they're useless on their own and crappy
for junctions, but they can be very useful VERY late in the game
(although you might as well refine them later if you're lazy.) Zombie
on the other hand, is completely useless. It's a fair junction for HP
and Str at this point of the game but wears off very soon. I've never
had to use Zombie EVER! Anyway, Zombies don't hurt if you have a way
to make them useful.

Anyway, if your HP gets too low, cast Cure. If you get inflicted by
Slow, Silence or Berserk, have another member draw Esuna from the
boss and cast it. Darkness don't matter and Curse is harmless when
you're only drawing your spells.

Use Selphie's Full Cure occasionally too, as it cures all status and
restores HP. If you manage to find her Wall spell, give it a try.
When you're satisfied with your spells, unleash your Limit Breaks
(you have to get rid of Curse in order to do so) and nail him flat on
the ground. You can also use recovery spells/items on him to damage
him, as he's an undead. (I'm not sure if a Phoenix Down works, but
I'd rather not waste a perfectly good Phoenix Down on an easy boss
like him.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the fight, Rinoa and her team will have a strategy meeting and
after some discussion, they decide to take over the TV station in
Timber. Watts will lead you out of the train if you talk to him.

When you have the freedom to explore the town, keep in mind that
there are random encounters around town at this point of the game, so
run if you encounter them.

> Junction Check! If you've gotten some Zombies, accumulate them
together and junction it to someone's Str or HP. If not just keep
whatever you had before, or just use Auto Junction.

> GF Check!
  - Quezacotl: HP-J and Vit-J.
  - Shiva: Vit+40%, Spr+40% and the rest don't really matter
  - Ifrit: Str Bonus
  - Siren: Mag+40%
  - Diablos: What you chose earlier

> Magic Check! Since you've probably have gotten Mid Mag-RF, turn all
your low level Fires, Blizzards, Thunders and Cures into -ra level
spells. It will take some time to accumulate 100 of each though,
since they're upgraded with the ratio 5:1. If you want, you can
refine more spells of those types with I Mag-RF or the other Menu
Abilities, or draw some more from the enemy soldiers around here. If
you do get 100 of the -ra spells, junction them to Str.
> There are a few DPs around here too. The room to the left in the
Timber Maniacs building hides a Blizzaga DP, the DP in front of the
pub is Cure and the one in the back ally is Scan.

> NOTE! Ed Asano came up with this really nice idea, modifying M
Stone-Pieces into simple spells and upgrading them to -ra levels.
This helps a lot as it solves the problem of having to draw from the
soldiers and free up your inventory. (2 birds with 1 M Stone-Piece he
said, :) I'm sure you all have many M Stone-Pieces tucked away in
your item list and you can get more by refining useless cards like
Bite Bug and Funguar.

> Card Check! If you're lookin' for someone to rip off, try the
little kid on the bridge. He has some of the crappiest cards so
you'll be at an easy win! Be aware of the Same rule though!
> This may not be a card now but be sure NOT to missed the kinky Girl
Next Door porno mag, it's behind the pile of magazines in the hallway
of the Timber maniacs building. It can be traded for a rare card
(Shiva) way into the game!

Have a look around town if you like. You cannot stay at the inn yet,
since it's cramped by Galbadia soldiers and you cannot leave town. If
you need healing, go to the old man's house by the bridge and drink
some water from the faucet.

To carry on with the story, simple go down the steps that leads to
the pub. You'll meet up with 2 Galbadian soldiers and they attack.
You cannot run from this battle and they cannot be turned into a
card. The best way I found is to let Squall and Selphie/Zell kill
themselves and let Rinoa take the EXP alone. You'll get a Buel card
for winning.

Enter the pub and talk to the drunk. Show him the card and he lets
you keep it as well as giving you another (Tonberry I think.) Then he
lets you out of the back door.

Run up the stairs to the giant TV and another interesting story scene
will take place. Rinoa runs away after the response (or the lack of
it) from Squall and who ever you left in the train will join you.
Don't bother exchanging junctions here since you don't have to fight
for a while.

Run across the bridge to the TV Station after Quistis appears on
screen. After a bit of story sequence, Rinoa comes back but goes off
again, followed by Quistis and your team. Just run down the stairs
where you came from. Squall decides to take Rinoa with him as their
base got destroyed.

When you get to the bar, the pub owner's wife tells you to hide at
her house. Talk around a bit and when you can finally leave, Quistis
says to go to the nearest garden for help - Galbadia Garden! When you
leave, the woman that invited you to her house will give you some
free items like Potions and Remedies!

Talk to both Watts and Zone, and Zone will get you free tickets for
the last train to East Academy. Get on the train.


---Things to do #1---
I usually take a break away from the story at this point of the game
and go to Dollet.

> Card Check! You can win Siren's card here with the guy on the
second floor in the pub. If you win, he'll show you to his private
room and also gives you a bunch of cards. Also, be sure to examine
the pile of magazines near the entrance. Most of the time you'll find
nothing of interest or expired coupons, but occasionally you can find
free items here! You can get Potions, Phoenix Down, Softs, Antidotes,
Geezard Cards and a copy of Occult Fan II here! However, when you get
about 3 times, you need to get out of the room and come back in to
reset it to get more items.

> If you lost the MiniMog card to the Queen of Cards in Balamb, she
should be here. Talk to her about her father and she'll tell you that
Kiros' card has been made. You can win the MiniMog card back from her
son in the old painter's home.

> If you're having trouble with card games here, try introducing the
Open rule (easy) and abolishing the Random rule (not so easy) by
making trips between Dollet and Timber. It is extremely important
that you do not screw up the rules in Dollet as it's an extremely
important city when cards are concerned. I was able to modify
Dollet's rule to my favourite "just Open" games. :)

Also, I always take a lot of time out here to build up my GFs by
carding the enemies. In the forest west of Dollet, you can find
encounters with an Anacondour, a Funguar and a Wendigo with a total
of 7AP. In the forests near lake Obel you can fight double
Anacondours (8AP) and Ochus (7AP). If you meet up with 3 Funguars
then it's not really worth fighting them. Thrustaevis are okay as
they give you 3AP each. If you meet Geezards then do what you wish.
They drop Screws and their cards can be refined into Screws so you
may want to fight some of them. Don't junction magic to Selphie's Str
and hit them once should be enough to card them.

> NOTE! Ed Asano said you can steal Whispers from Adamantoise from
the coast near Dollet but I've never tried it. You should try it as
Whispers are great as they let Quistis learn her useful White Wind.

Also, if you can get some spare Whispers, turn them into Curagas with
Siren's L Mag-RF, which is a great junction for HP or Vitality right
now. In the mean time, carding the Fastitolacons near the beach will
give you good AP as they comes in 3s and gives up 3AP each. Learning
Mug and other expensive Diablos abilities is a piece of cake right
now. Thanks to "nofear33" for this.

> Magic Check! The Thrustaevis holds Floats. Get a bit of them (not
necessarily 100) as they're useful later. I can't remember whether
they're good for junctions at this point.
> Also, you can refine lots of Aeros from the Shear Feathers you won
with the T Mag-RF from the Thrustaevis, they're good for Str for a
while, but they're also fairly decent spells to cast and for Elem-Atk
junction.
> Make sure that you've stocked up on some (refined) Breaks if you
want to make the next section a bit easier.

> GF Check! This is what I had after some hardcore training. Maybe
it's a bit too high though.
  - Quezacotl: Complete the -J abilities and onto Mag+20% and +40%
  - Shiva: Complete both Vit+40% and Spr+40%, the rest of her
abilities don't matter too much in which way you learn them, since
they're not too good. I usually get Elem-Def and Elem-Defx2 first
  - Ifrit: Complete Str Bonus and HP-J. Then Ammo-RF would be good.
  - Siren: Complete Mag Bonus and then get all her Menu Abilities, if
you haven't gotten them get
  - Diablos: I always try to complete the ability I chose earlier. If
you chose Mug then it's quite a long way you need to go, but it
doesn't matter too much if you haven't gotten it yet. (I wanted to
steal Laser Cannons from the Elastoids in Laguna's second scenario,
but it didn't work!)

When you're ready to move on, go to the forest near Galbadia Garden.
BTW, don't forget to trade the junctions of whoever you were using to
Selphie and Quistis.

> More Magic Check! Souma told me about ways to get some cool new
spells at this point of the game since I was a bit too lazy to
explore the world at this point. Anyway, here it goes.

"Firstly, when you first leave Timber, there is a good place to go
for some spells. If you head over to the mountains between Timber and
Winhill, there is an alcove or a canyon of sorts (Shenand Hill). In
there you can fight Vysage and win something like Shell, Protect,
Haste, Esuna and a couple of others. Might be worth your time to
check that out."

A note on that is that Vysages cannot be carded, so make sure you
don't harm it and run away after drawing your load of magic.

EX TIP - Getting Lion Heart in Disc 1! ==============================
|Thanks to XP39C@aol.com for this trick.                            |
|                                                                   |
|Ok, this is no joke, as it acquires serious patience and it's very |
|time consuming. Anyway, you can get Adamantines from refining the  |
|Minotaur card, and the 12 Pulse Ammos by refining 20 Elnoyle cards |
|into 2 Energy Crystals, then use Ammo-RF. As for the Dragon Fangs, |
|you can get them from low level Grendels (don't mug) in the forest |
|near Timber or Galbadia Garden.                                    |
|                                                                   |
|For a MUCH easier time getting the Dragon Fangs, and if you've been|
|following and doing all the power up tricks until now, is to get   |
|them from the Anacondours in Dollet when you were powering up      |
|Seifer. If so, you should have more than enough in your inventory  |
|already! Yay!                                                      |
|                                                                   |
|The "sacrificed" Minotaur card can be gotten back in disc 4, but   |
|the 20 Elnoyle cards can drive a gamer insane. If you wanna try,   |
|make sure you get them back in Balamb, since the people in Timber  |
|tend to have really low powered cards.                             |
|                                                                   |
|The alternate strategy would be "Getting Lion Heart in Disc 2"     |
|which is much easier. In FH, you can steal the Adamantine from the |
|robot while you'll only need 10 Elnoyle cards since you can get 5  |
|free Pulse Ammo by doing Irvine's quest. The choice is yours. :)   |
=====================================================================


---I know where it's at part 2---
Deja vu! You guys stumbled while inside the forest and woke up in
their alternate lives, well, kind of. After Laguna gets lost again,
follow the path down to some metal walkways. Before you progress any
further, check your junctions as SPs are kinda hard to find in here.

Meet your identity crisis. Squall is Laguna and will always be in
these "dream scenarios", Quistis is Ward and Selphie is Kiros in this
scene.

> Junction Check! Uh.. Junction whatever GFs to whoever you like but
I recommend giving Selphie/Kiros all the important ones with good
junction abilities, Quezacotl, Shiva and Diablos is a good
combination. Remove any spells from Laguna's and Ward's HP-J so they
can be killed easier. As for commands, give Kiros Attack, Card, Magic
and either Draw or GF.

> Magic Check! Not much here really but give Kiros all your important
ones. You should have at least 100 of each of the -ra spells by now,
they're pretty good for Strength. Note there's a DP here with Sleep
but even Funguars have that spell at your pleasure so it's not as
crucial.

> GF Check! You should have gotten some awesome expensive abilities
after those intensive training right? If you haven't then now is NOT
the place and time to do it. Anyway, your first 3 GFs should have
learnt most if not all their crucial abilities, if you haven't,
here's the list of their good skills:
  - Quezacotl: Boost, Card, Card Mod, T Mag-RF, Mid Mag-RF, HP-J,
Vit-J, Mag+20%/40%
  - Shiva: Boost, I Mag-RF, Str-J, Vit-J, Vit+20%/40%, Spr+20%/40%
  - Ifrit: Boost, F Mag-RF, Ammo-RF, HP-J, Str+20%/40%, HP Bonus
The rest of their skills don't matter, IMO. Your other GFs will be a
bit behind at the moment:
  - Siren: All her Menu Abilities, then ST-Defx2
  - Diablos: Have you gotten what you wanted yet? Then either what
you didn't choose or some of his really cool Menu Abilities like ST
Mag-RF where you can get spells like Break and Meltdown easily, or
Time Mag-RF where you can get lotsa Demis.

Try to cross the metal walkway bridge and you'll be attacked by 2
groups of soldiers. They're easy, but don't get dozy or you'll kill
them off by accident. Have Laguna and Ward kill themselves and just
summon or use regular attacks by Kiros to get rid of the enemies.

> NOTE!!! If you've refined Break spells, cast them on the soldiers
(don't junction it to ST-Atk) and it'll get rid of them in one hit
and you won't gain ant EXP. The best point is that you won't have to
kill your own guys.

After 2 battles you'll once again take control of Laguna's team.
There should be 2 paths forming a Y-shaped junction in the walkway. I
suggest that you take the left one as it's more convenient in doing
the mini-quests here. And yes they are optional, however, Zell and
team will come back here later in disc 3 (this place is actually the
Lunatic Pandora before it was excavated!) and will be able to access
certain parts of the structure if you've triggered certain "traps"
while playing as Laguna. It is rather important that you do not miss
this opportunity the areas it later unlocks contains some of the
coolest goodies in the game, such as a rare Ultima DP and Quistis'
Ray-Bomb.

There is also another reason to trigger the traps, as the more traps
you set, the lesser streams of enemies you'll have to face at the end
of the scenario, which is important here and you don't want to gain
any experience.

> Magic Check! Don't miss the Confuse DP to the right side

Climb the ladder down and press the X button when you walked over to
the space on the ground where you hear a "clink" noise, it's an old
key. You'll see some funny scenes but I'm not sure if it's gonna
affect future events.

You can run into random encounters in the following locations. If you
have acquired Enc-None, equip it for a better time navigating the
area, if not, you'll just have to run most of the time as most
enemies you encounter here are soldiers that cannot be turned into a
card.

In the next section, walk across the middle metal plank thing and you
should hear another "clink". Examine it and choose to "tamper with
it" and exit the screen to the right. But before you do anything, re-
enter that screen and try to tamper with the right hatch, it doesn't
do anything now though.

The next screen has another key that Laguna can pick up (and loose it
again) but I'm not sure if it affects anything. (See the note below.)
Take the exit to the right though, you'll end up at a walkway that
looks kinda like a sewer system. Climb the ladder and you'll end up
at the right path in the Y-junction (the one you didn't take.) Go all
the way back to the 3 hatches and examine the left one, then retrace
your steps to the other end where you found the second key.

> NOTE!!! Efrem Orizzonte <efroriz@hotmail.com> said those 2 old
farty keys DOES affect something. Nothing to do with the plot but
it's pretty serious that you'll be spanking yourselves silly if
you've missed them. You will not have access to the ultra-rare
LuvLuvG and an Ultima DP later in disc 3 if you've missed them here.
So make sure you get them!

Take the upper path this time and you can see a large boulder to the
left. There are another 2 paths in this screen but the one to the
right don't seem to be very useful so you don't have to be bothered
with it. Head left to the next screen where you see another boulder
and a detonator.

Activate the detonator but you MUST clear the boulder in the previous
screen first (I forgot what color the fuses were, sorry) then the one
nearest to the detonator, because if you do it the other way, the
boulder in the previous screen will block the path of the nearest
boulder and it will not only seal off that exit, you'll also unable
to clear the path to the "hidden" areas later in disc 3. So activate
both switches in the correct order, and enjoy some of the most
POINTLESS conversations between the trio (especially Laguna.)

When you're done, head up and enter a new screen, it should be the
one with steps in a pink background. As a side note, you can
encounter Elastoids here very easily. They're not that hard to beat
(use about 2~3 Thunders should do the job for carding purposes) but
you can draw Dispels from them (good spells for HP and Vit) and their
cards can also be refined into Steel Pipes. (So if you cannot seem to
get Steel Pipes from Wendigos, get lotsa of Elastoid cards here.)
They also give you 3AP. You can steal Dynamo Stones from them (can be
refined into Thundagas) if you have acquired Mug, but it's a shame
really since Laser Cannons can be stolen from them but only when
they're at a high level. (And they only appear in this and a future
Laguna scenario.) If you managed to get one somehow, it's really good
as it will let Quistis learn her potent Homing Laser skill.

You can also encounter Gespers throughout the cave and they drop
Black Holes that can be refined into Demis. They're really annoying
though as they love to cast status changing spells like Silence and
Blind. Try about 3 Fires on them, it should weaken them enough to
turn them into cards. As for the dead Laguna and Ward, you don't
really have to revive them if you don't want to, as this part of the
game is not too difficult, and Kiros is really strong! (He's probably
the fastest character in the game!!!) If you wanna be safe, just use
a Phoenix Down on Laguna and/or Ward.

Anyway, continue heading right will bring you into another one of
those greenish cavern paths. There's also another boulder in this
area to the left, examine it and Laguna will push it, crushing more
soldiers in its path.

> Magic Check! There's a Cure DP behind the boulder. Also, Gespers
have Protects and Shells, if you feel like stocking them up.

Continue heading north will bring you to a SP (FINALLY!) Save of
course. The path to the right will lead to the right side of the
screen with the "far boulder", the one that I said it doesn't matter.

Finally, when you're ready, head north again for the final battle(s)
of this scenario. You might want to collect more Elastoid cards here
though. Also, you'll have to face 5 battles at the end of this
scenario, but 4 of the traps that Laguna can trigger will eliminate
one fight each, those 4 traps are:
* The middle hatch where the soldier steps on and falls
* The 2 boulders that you needed to use the detonator for, remember
to use them in the right order
* The boulder that hides the Cure DP
So if you did everything right, you'll only have to fight one easy
battle, and what's even better as it won't give you any EXP! Anyway,
it's very easy as one summon will get rid of both soldiers. But right
before the last soldier dies, he uses an attack that lowers both Ward
and Kiros' HP to 1. If you only have Kiros alive (like I did) then
don't fear since it's not Game Over yet as Kiros still has 1HP.

After the fight, both Ward and Kiros will receive some near fatal
injuries. Then Laguna throws both of them off the cliff (not before
saying some pointless things of course) and tries to lower himself
down but tripped and smacked his head in the rocks instead, OUCH!


---Gardening Galbadian style---
After you team wakes up in the forest, you'll notice that both Squall
and Quistis have been revived with 1HP. Use a Cure on them if you
wish and continue on with the journey to Galbadia Garden. If you want
to build up some more, do it now as power up opportunities are pretty
slim over here in the Galbadia side of the continent.

You can find Belhelmels and Blood Souls in the area surrounding
Galbadia Garden, but they're pretty bad for carding, as they put you
to sleep or berserk/blind you all the time. I've heard that the
Belhelmels may drop Laser Cannons occasionally but I've never gotten
one. You can get Saw Blades from them though, and can be refined into
Death via Siren's L Mag-RF. I recommend the forest is you do want to
gain some AP since you can find enemies that gives you more AP and
are easier.

When you're happy, enter Galbadia garden, don't worry, you don't have
to fights here.. yet. Quistis leaves to have a word with the head-
master and you can freely explore the garden, however, the second you
enter the lobby, you are called to the second Reception Room. I
suggest you go to the Reception Room and progress through some story
scenes first then do what you want.

There are 2 cut scenes here, one with your team in the Reception Room
about Seifer. Then Squall foolishly runs out of the room because of
some stupid thoughts of his and you'll get another scene with Fujin
and Raijin. Then you can explore all you want.

> Magic Check! This area is rich in DPs. The centre of the lobby
hides a DP for Haste. The 2F Auditorium has a non-recoverable DP for
Double (hidden). There's one for Shell in the tennis court. There's a
DP you can't reach yet in the ice hockey field but don't worry about
it, you can get that later (it's Protect, if I remember correctly.)
Search for a locker room leading from the left door in the ice hockey
field, there's a DP for Life.

> Card Check! Although no rare cards are in this area, you might want
to challenge the girl in a classroom to the right of the lobby (the
one who says she's too old for cards) as you can win every LV6 Boss
Card from her.

Then go back to the entrance to meet Martine, the headmaster of
Galbadia Garden. He issues you a mission and introduces a bad flirt
sharpshooter Irvine as your newest team member.

You'll leave the Garden now. Divides the team up however you like but
you might want to leave it as Irvine wishes to see a hilarious scene
with Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis. Or, put Irvine and Zell in your
second squad to see another funny scene with Irvine and Zell.


---I choo choo choose Deling City---
Move to the train station. You HAVE to catch a train here for 3000
Gil, since the road to Deling City is blocked and you can't get there
any other way.

Deling City is probably the most atmospheric city in FFVIII but it's
so big that its geography is still puzzling me. The easiest way is to
catch busses, but remember, there are 2 bus routes so catching one
bus won't take you to every location in town. Try hanging around the
place and get used to it before heading to Caraway's Mansion.

> Card Check! If you started the Queen of Cards quest like I
recommended and lost the MiniMog card to her, you can win Kiros' card
from the guy dressed in black outside the shopping arcades.

> Magic Check! There's a Thundara DP on the bridge if you exit the
screen with Caraway's Mansion from the left side.

Talk to the guy outside Caraway's Mansion and he won't let you in
unless you prove yourselves in the Tomb of the Unknown King to the
north and get the password. He hands you a map as well. Buy a
location displayer from him if you want and have him escort you out
of town.


---The known Tomb of the Unknown King---
The Tomb of the Unknown King is not shown on the map but you can find
it to the north-east I think. Look for a long and slim peninsula on
the map, and finally, the grounds around it should be grasslands, not
rough land like the rest of Galbadia.

> Magic Check! Before you enter the Tomb of Unknown King, make sure
you have an adequate supply of Float spells. Draw from Thrustaevis if
you haven't.

Enter the tomb and save at the SP, check you junctions. BTW, you
should choose your characters carefully too. I ALWAYS have Selphie in
my party in the first half of the game because you can get some
really cool spells that you can't get at that point of the game with
her Slots.

> Junction Check! All your characters should have Mag-J and 2 have
Vit-J. Junction to HP too, if you have it. Here's what spells are
best for each attribute that this point.
         HP:  Zombie/Dispel/Aero
         Str: Zombie/Aero/Demi
         Vit: Protect/Dispel
         Mag: Demi/Break
         Spr: Shell
Junction Aero to Elem-Atk if you want. As for commands, everyone
should have Draw and Magic, the Card command if not very useful here
though.

> Magic Check! Draw from the DP here, it's Protect. You can refine
items into spells of higher use than the above listed. Below are some
of the spells that you should be able to have access to since the
ingredients are pretty easy to get. The () indicates that attributes
they're good for and the [] is which menu command it can be refined
from:
      Dynamo Stone      -> 20x Thunderga (Str/Mag)    [T Mag-RF]
      Tent              -> 10x Curaga    (HP/Vit/Spr) [L Mag-RF]
      Saw Blade         -> 10x Death     (HP/Spr)     [L Mag-RF]
      Steel Orb         -> 15x Demi      (Str/Mag)    [Time Mag-RF]
      Black Hole        -> 30x Demi      (Str/Mag)    [Time Mag-RF]
      Dino Bone         -> 20x Quake     (HP/Str/Mag) [Time Mag-RF]
      Soft              -> 3x  Break     (Mag/Spr)    [ST Mag-RF]
      Cockatrice Pinion -> 20x Break     (Mag/Spr)    [ST Mag-RF]

Tents and Softs can be bought in shops, Saw Blades are dropped by
Belhelmels, Steel Orbs dropped by Wendigos. If you trained your
characters in the Training Centre in Balamb Garden, you'd have plenty
of Dino Bones and Quake is a great spell. Black Holes dropped by
Gespers and Dynamo Stones can be mugged from Elastoids in Laguna's
second scenario.

> Card Check! As with the above, you should have some cards that can
be refined into items that turns into excellent spells! Such as
Gayla's card that can be refined into a Mystery Fluid then into
Meltdowns, which is the best all-purpose junction spell for Vitality.
Try toying around with some of the cards.

I suppose I was a bit vague here. Souma written to me a kinda laughed
(in a good way right?) at my magic list up there with Aero and that.
Anyway, here's the list of spells and believe me, they're VERY good.
Wanna see?

"I think my junction list looked a little more like:
HP: Quake (Dino Bone from Armadodo/T-Rexaur card+Time Mag-RF=20 each)
Str: Tornado (Windmill from Abyss Worm card+T Mag-RF=20 each)
Vit: Meltdown (Mystery Fluid from Gayla card+ST Mag-RF=10 each)
Mag: Pain (Cursed Spikes from Tri-Face card+ST Mag-RF=10 each)
Spr: Regen (Mesmerize Blade from Mezmerize cards+L Mag-RF=20 each)

The cool thing is, you can win all these cards in games at Balamb
(especially with Diff or All rules in effect) so as soon as you get
the appropriate Mag-RFs you could be really mowing the opposition
down :)"

Hey thanks. So if you're a keen card player and wants to put all the
time you've played the card game into good use, why not give this a
try? It'll save you time having to drawn them later.

> GF Check! Uh.. is this section getting boring or what? That's 'cuz
you haven't gotten any new GFs in a while, but that's about to
change. Anyway:
  - Siren: ST-Defx2 is very useful
  - Diablos: Mug/Enc-None (whatever you didn't choose) or any Menu
Abilities

Enter the tomb and you should find something to the right side on the
ground in the second screen also, examine it and you'll get the pass
code. It is random in every game and it's a 3 digit number, HOWEVER,
if you only get a 1 or 2 digit, it means that the digit for hundreds
and/or tens are zero. (The code was "1" in my last game y' see!)

You can get out now and carry on with the story, but who'd want to
since there's a pair of GF in here. You can get lots here easily so
the best solution is to turn either left or right at EVERY junction,
that way, you can cycle around the tomb and never get lost.

There are random encounters here BUT, they will never appear at the
junctions. Enemies here includes mostly Blobra and Buel, but they're
just not worth the effort to card since the former is exceptionally
resistant towards regular attacks, while the latter is especially
weak against it. I don't know about the other enemies here though, I
usually just stick Enc-None on someone and run away.

Take a right turn 3 times and you'll arrive in a chamber to the east.
Sacred is in this room, and you'll have to fight it.

BOSS - Sacred ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sacred is an earth based creature, and he is so powerful in that,
simply being in contact with the ground will give him regenerative
properties every round. (Heals about 100HP each time!) Its attacks
are not very strong though.

Hopefully, you've given the Draw command to everyone since Sacred
holds Life spells, and they're exceptionally useful. Get as many of
them as you want and you shouldn't have much problem drawing with the
spells I listed above junctioned to your Magic, equip abilities like
Mag+40% too.

One "fun" thing to do here is to cast Shell on Sacred and it reduces
the healing by a half, of course, I was just toying around with him.
To get rid of his regeneration, simple cast Float on him. I have
heard of how you can summon Siren to silence him and does the same
thing but it didn't work for me at all! You don't have to worry about
casting Float on yourselves here though, since Sacred has no earth
based attacks yet.

It is weak against wind so you can do extra damage if you junctioned
Aero to your Elem-Atk. Otherwise, he's pretty easy. Simply summon a
high level GF like Shiva will get rid of him easily. Else you can try
your hands at Selphie's Slots and see if you can get some nifty
spells (not necessarily offensive spells, ones like Aura and Haste
are great!)

This fight is exceptionally easy and Sacred usually dies before you
can even say "what?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Junction Check! If you have gotten 100+ Life spells, trade them in
HP-J or Vit-J, they're really good spells for now. Also, make sure
that (since you only have access to 2 HP-J abilities) the character
who hasn't got HP-J gets the Vit-J ability, or else they just won't
survive the next fight!

Take 3 more right turns and you'll end up in the northern chamber.
Examine the right side of the wall where there should be a chain,
Squall will release the floor gate, bring water into the man made
canal.

> Magic Check! There's another DP here and I think it's hidden, it
holds Float if I remember correctly.

Take another 3 right turns and you'll end up in the room to the west.
Examine the wheel thingy on the left side of the wall to turn it, I
think it lowers the drawbridge leading to the centre of the tomb.

> Magic Check! A DP is here (Cura I think) and a hidden SP is a
little further away into the screen.

Make your way to the centre of the structure. If you're don't have a
very good sense of direction, try take 3 right turns to go back to
the entrance and take 3 straight paths to the centre. A bridge leads
to the coffin and you'll see Sacred again but this time, he's angry
and calls his big brother Minotaur, who is actually a miniture
version of Sacred. They'll both attack you!

BOSS - Sacred and Minotaur ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Minotaur is a good prove that size does not matter since he's
actually stronger than Sacred. His attacks HURTS! He also has an
attack that deals damage to all your members and both brothers have a
combination attack (Mad Cow Special) where they strike the ground,
sending shockwaves that can do a lot of damage! Oh yeah, don't forget
that they can both regenerate every round.

The first thing I do is to draw Double from Minotaur and cast it on
Selphie, then let her cast Float on everyone (which eliminates the
threat of Mad Cow Special.) Also, Minoaur's attack does so much
damage it's also a very good idea to draw and cast Protect on
everyone.

I recommend that you take down Minotaur first since his attacks do so
much damage so cast Float on Minotaur first. You can damage him with
either high level GF summons or your Limit Breaks (Zell's Duel is
excellent at that.) If anyone gets KO'd, Sacred offers Life spells
that you can use at your pleasure.

When Minotaur's gone, it's basically a sure victory. Draw some more
Life from him if you want some more and beat him again like how you
beat them before.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Card Check! You'll win Sacred's card after beating them and then
the ghost of the unknown king shows up (spooky!) and gives you
Minotaur's card also. They're both excellent corner cards y' know.

Get outta the tomb when you're done and get back to Deling City.

GF PROFILE - BROTHERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strong like stones, the brothers Sacred and Minotaur have replaced
Titan in the series. Their summon attack, Brotherly Love, really puts
on a good show and crushes enemies in their paths with falling rocks
and stones. Although it's strong in their own element, Brothers'
summon is probably the least useful out of all GFs in the game since
earth elemental attacks are not all that useful in the first place.
It can get most jobs done if you're good at Boost though. Ability
wise, Brothers resembles mostly Shiva in that not very many of their
skills stand out, but it's still a useful GF that offers a good deal
of Junction Abilities. The part that makes Brothers really shine is
its ability to raise one's HP to the extreme, easily turning a
weakling into a giant pincushion.
Best abilities: HP+40%/80%, HP Bonus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! Set a new ability for your new GF Brothers. Boost should
come first especially if you decide to do a tiny bit of powering up
for the 10AP needed. Then Spr-J would be as good as anything (since
you'll only have 1GF that offers the same ability that this point.)
HP+40% is also very good but remember, it's also very expensive.


---Things to do #2---
Ok this is quite a minor thing but if you're the kind of person like
me who got really excited after getting a previously unobtainable
Kiros' card and wants more, you can continue with the Queen of Cards
quest now.

> Card Check! Return to Dollet to visit your old friend the Queen of
Cards. Save at the hidden DP located above the stairs in the pub and
challenge her to a card game. Deliberately try to loose her the
Sacred card and try to get her back to Balamb.

> To loose a specific card, choose to use that card plus 4 really
cheap cards like Funguar that I bet you guys all have many. Just
loose the game and they're sure to choose the card you want to loose.
If you're playing Direct (arrgghh!!), you can probably trade your
cheap cards for something better by leaning the strong(er) side of
your weak cards against a weak(er) side of your opponent's card but
make sure that she cannot take it back afterwards.

> You don't have to get her to go back to Balamb really, but the
problem is that the probability for her to return to Dollet is
exceptionally low in ALL cities in the world, and you can ONLY get
access to the information about the new cards in Dollet, meaning
you'll have to do lots of resetting. Anyhow, it seems that the
probability for her to return to Dollet is at its highest in Balamb,
making it the best choice when you don't have many choices.

> You can't really get the new card until FH in disc 2 though. :( But
you can win back the Sacred card from her son.

Also, you might want to obtain Squall's Blasting Zone finisher by
modifying his Shear Trigger to either a Cutting Trigger, Twin Lance,
Flame Saber or Punishment (if you haven't already done so.) Blasting
Zone is not a very good move if you ask me, although it seems to be
the one that's triggered the most out of all his finishers.

A Cutting Trigger is easy, modding Mesmerize's card for the blade.
You can get Betrayal Blades and Turtle Shells needed for the Flame
Saber from modding Forbidden's and Adamantoise's cards respectively.
(I think you can also win them with enemies inside the Tomb of
Unknown King.) The ingredients needed for the other 2 models are
rarer since you won't have fought the enemies that drop them and they
require many higher level cards. I got a Flame Saber at this point.


---Sorceresscide---
Make your way back to Deling City and talk to the guy in front of
Caraway's Mansion, but before you do that, don't forget to buy some
Normal and/or Shotgun Ammo for Irvine, without them he'll be shooting
blanks. Alternately, you can refine them from Ifrit's Ammo-RF and you
may even be able to afford more advanced deals like Dark Ammo etc.

Give your code to the guy in front of the mansion, remember, you have
to input the ones, then tens and then the hundreds digits in that
order. I'm not sure if you can raise/lower your ranks with this.

Get inside the mansion and after Rinoa runs away, Caraway will appear
and give out detailed explanations about this mission. You'll have to
follow him around town for it but do pay attention to his briefings.
When you're ready, talk to him again in his mansion of begin the
mission. You'll divide into 2 teams:
         Gateway team: Quistis, Zell, Selphie
         Sniper team:  Squall, Irvine
Notice that Rinoa is in neither team, but it doesn't mean that she
does not come into play here.

When General Caraway and the Sniper team leaves, you'll control
Quistis. Try to leave and she'll bump into Rinoa who said that she
has a plan. Quistis then does her Judge Judy impersonation and
leaves.

You'll then take control of Squall and Irvine, just follow the rest
of the gang as the general takes you guys to your stands. The scene
then switches back to Quistis who wants to apologize to Rinoa, so
move back to the mansion. You don't need to alter your junctions just
yet.

Inside the mansion, Rinoa escapes but Quistis arrived at the wrong
time and got locked in!

Rinoa
You'll now play as Rinoa alone. Save at the SP and descend into the
manhole if you wish. You can remove the GFs from the other characters
and junction then on her if you want, but it's just way too much of a
fuss since this scene is short.

Inside the sewers, just keep heading left to get a weapon magazine at
the dead end. If you encounter any fights just run. If you want to
card, ignore the Red Bats since they're so weak! The Creeps are okay
but Angelo Rush can come at the unexpected moment so I suggest you
just run.

Climb the crates once outside to get to the sorceress' chamber. Watch
the awesome FMV and Edea's speech.

Gateway team
Quistis' team is being locked inside the mansion. Selphie and Zell
will search for clues. The lady in the painting and the maiden
statute will hint a way outta here, cups! Grab a glass off the shelve
and examine the status to open a doorway to the sewers.

There's another SP down the stairs. You don't really have to re-
junction your character for this scene as it's exceptionally short
and not worth the effort. Just climb the ladder and you can climb the
first water wheel to get to an upper path. The scene will end after a
little walk, then the parade starts.

Sniper team
Watch another exceptionally cool FMV and sneak into the palace after
Irvine. Climb the crates like Rinoa did but do junction yourselves
properly this time, as a fight is coming up.

> Junction Check! Junction all your GFs on Squall and Irvine, try to
spread them out a little so each character gets the Junction Ability
for all 5 main attributes. As for commands, Attack, GF, Magic and
Draw would be ideal.

> Magic Check! Not much here yet but if you want a lot of Break
spells, give any Breaks your guys already have to a non-active
member.

> GF Check!
  - Siren: You should have gotten ST-Defx2 already, so the rest don't
matter so much. Treatment is good but it's likely that Siren's level
is a bit too low to acquire that skill. Remember to get it once she's
level 12 later ok?
  - Diablos: The important ability that you didn't choose earlier
should be complete now, then move on to the Menu Abilities if you
haven't yet. If you really have been training hard, his HP-J, Hit-J
and maybe even Darkside ain't bad either.
  - Brothers: Spr-J is quite important in the up and coming battles.
I don't think Str-J is that crucial since a couple of other GFs
should have it too, so move on to their HP+40%.

Move all the way to the sorceress' chamber and you'll see Rinoa,
being attacked by 2 Iguions.

BOSS - Iguions x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Irvine will explain his Limit Break in this fight. Isn't it kinda
cheap how they made a tutorial for the other character's Limits
except for Irvine and Selphie's?

Not much of a threat really. Their Magma Breath will set a Petrifying
countdown on a character but it's easily remedied by drawing Esunas
from them. They have a combination attack called Resonance, a pretty
strong attack to both characters, just draw Cure from them. If you
don't have HP-J, Resonance is gonna hit you pretty hard.

> GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw the GF Carbuncle!

They have Break, a fairly good spell to draw. If you're planning to
draw from them, get rid of one of them first so to stop Resonance.
Simply use either guy's Limit Break when you're in critical condition
to dispose of one. (Use Normal Ammo for Irvine.)

If you just wanna move on, summon Brothers coupled with Boost to get
rid of both of them in one hit! (I sure did!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rinoa will join you here, but you don't have to alter your junctions
just yet. Return to the previous screen and examine the little hatch
to the right side of the hall. In the next room, just examine the
rifle and Squall'll pass it to Irvine, who's suddenly turned frail.
After a bit of dialogue, Irvine will freak out and refuse to shoot.

GF PROFILE - CARBUNCLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder how the mother of all useless summoned beasts made it into
FFVIII while some of the more useful ones in the series like Golem
didn't. Carbuncle is a cute cuddly toy, and it's unique for its large
ruby embedded on its forehead, capable of emitting a ray of light
that envelops its masters in an anti-magic barrier. Its trademark
skill Ruby Light does exactly that, but it's probably the least
useful action in the whole game as the Reflect status is really a
double edged sword, both positive and negative magic will be
reflected. On toppa that, Reflect has no effect towards some of the
more damaging spells like Meteor, Tornado and Quake, making it as
pointless as it gets. Carbuncle is a defensive GF, giving many
abilities involving the user's Vit and HP. Its Abilityx3 skill will
give a second character the chance to try out 3 Character/Party
Abilities at once. Its only Menu Ability, Recover Med-RF may not be
very useful in itself but it proves to be a big potential moneymaker.
Best abilities: Abilityx3, ST-Atk, ST-Defx2, Vit Bonus, Recover Med-
RF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gateway team
This scene picks up at where it was left off last time.

> Junction Check! Remove the GFs from Squall and Irvine and share it
around between 3 people. Put the Card command on someone as some
enemies here are kinda worth carding. Don't forget to junction your
newly acquired GF Carbuncle to someone.

> Magic Check! You can draw Waters from the Grand Mantis and Life
from Creeps. There are also 3 DPs in the sewers: Esuna, Zombie and
Bio (in that order.)

I won't detail how you make it through the sewers exactly since I
can't remember it myself, but it's quite simple. There are quite a
few features here in the sewer:
1) Some gates leading left or right can be opened, just try examining
them
2) Certain ladders will fall flat across the sewer, allowing you to
cross to the other side
3) When you're stuck, try examining water wheels, as some of them can
be "ridden" and takes you to the platform above/below.

> GF Check! Brothers should move onto HP+40% and Carbuncle should
start by learning either Recover Med-RF or HP-J.

If you encounter Red Bats, ignore or run from them since they're
quite impossible to weaken as they're too weak in the first place
already. Against Creeps, use a basic elemental spell or two like
Fire. I usually just stick Enc-None on someone and run through it.

At one point in the sewer, you'll come across a falling ladder that
lets you cross to the side where you first started, where you can
take the ladder and return to the stairs leading to Caraway's
Mansion. You can encounter Grand Mantis here (but you might be able
to encounter them inside the sewer as well, don't know) and you can
draw Water from them. They also drop Sharp Spikes but are very
strong. I think they're weak against Ice so summon Shiva a few times
to weaken them.

Cross a few more passages and climb a couple more of water wheels and
you'll be at the exit, a ladder near a hidden SP that leads Quistis'
team back inside the Arch of Triumph. Climb the ladder again and
watch another set of awesome FMVs, throw the switch when Zell says so
and watch how the sorceress gets trapped inside the Arch!

Gateway team
Seeing how the Gateway team fulfilled their task on time, it is now
up to Irvine to shoot down their target. Watch how Squall talks
Irvine into it, did that look like a "Lone wolf" to you? (Official
character overviews can be so deceiving at times.) Anyway, Irvine
finally picks up the rifle and blasts at the sorceress, but it got
bounced right off a "Protect-like" barrier thing. It's now time for
plan B, frontal assault.

> Junction Check! Remove the GF from the other members and junction
them to Squall, Irvine and Rinoa. Don't just use the Switch Junction
but you should re-junction everyone from scratch. Give Spr-J to
whoever didn't receive HP-J (you should have 2 of each) and junction
good spells to them. Each character should have the commands: Attack,
Magic, GF, Draw/Item. Equip any Spr+??% skills if you have them. Oh
yeah, put Mug on someone too.

> GF Check!
  - Diablos: Any of his Junction Abilities would be fine
  - Carbuncle: Recover Med-RF or HP-J, remember you'll gain 20AP in
the next fight, so if you wanna be AP efficient, adjust accordingly

BOSS - Seifer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Squall will have to fight Seifer alone, but he's a piece of cake. You
shouldn't have any problems here. Even Squall's regular attacks can
take him down easily if you junctioned good spells to his Str. Has
anyone mugged him?

(DarkHoly17@aol.com told me that a Hero is available for grabs but
careful, it's exceptionally hard to mug him. Cure him if you can't
get it after a couple of times, or you'll kill him by mistake.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOSS - Edea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rinoa and Irvine will rush up to join Squall in this fight.

I can see why so many people whine that this fight is too hard. Edea
casts mainly -ga spells like Firaga. If you don't have HP-J, it's
gonna hit you really hard, 2 consecutive hits can knockout a
character. But I've taught you how to junction your guys properly
right? If the character who don't have HP-J gets hit by a spell, draw
Cura from Edea to heal them instantly, or just let them summon a GF
to take the hits for them just in case.

Anyway, this can be an easy fight if you summon Carbuncle with
someone to put up Reflect on all your guys (this is also the only
fight Carbuncle comes in useful.) Edea's AI will then be screwed up
as she'll continuously cast Dispel on all your characters until all
Reflects are destroyed. She'll sometimes use her "physical" attack
Astral Punch though, but that's extremely weak.

For offence, just use your regular attacks (my Squall was doing ~1000
damage to her at this point) or summon high level GFs like Ifrit.
Don't bother with Siren, as Edea is powerful enough that she cannot
be Silenced at all. If you like spells, Water is a good and cheap
spell to cast, just draw Double from her and use it on yourself.

Her draw list is pretty disappointing for the "most powerful
sorceress in the world". If I remember correctly, she has Cura so get
a few of them if you want. And mug her for a goodie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fight ends with a pissed off Edea, as she unleashes her Limit
Break and nails Squall. Is this the end?

========================= End of Disc 1 =============================


============================ Disc 2 =================================
Disc 2's in most long RPGs are mostly drag-ons, making a game longer
with boring events, it's more so in FFVIII. The first half of this
disc is exceptionally linear, but you can have a good long break from
the story halfway through it, with a good number of side quests and
secrets.


---Win a hill---
My first reaction was "What the? Did I put in the wrong game?" at the
start of this disc, since you're given a scene that has absolutely no
relation to the one you've just seen.

Anyway, you're Laguna and a little girl runs up to your room and tell
you someone's here to see you.

> Magic Check! A hidden DP to the left of the door has Curaga.

Go down the stairs and make your way to the bar. Yay, Kiros is here!
You'll then get to have a conversation to see what Laguna had been up
to for all this time. After some more of Laguna's trademark pointless
conversations with Ellone, Kiros joins you to go monster hunting
outdoors.

> NOTE! Kiros is Irvine this time, so you won't have to worry about
him being magic-less after the fight with Edea on the previous disc,
although it makes absolutely no sense if you think about an event
later in the disc.

> Junction Check! Junction all your GF to both guys. Don't junction
any spells to Kiros' Strength though, and put the Card command on
Laguna.

> GF Check!
  - Diablos: He should have gotten all of his major abilities so just
go with his -J abilities for the moment if you haven't done so.
  - Carbuncle: Recover Med-RF should be ready to put to the test as a
big-bucks maker, but don't try it here since Laguna and Squall has
separate accounts. Get its HP-J then Vit+20%.
  -Brothers: HP+40%

Outside you'll encounter Caterchipillars and Bite Bugs. They're
really weak so that's why you need to have no Str-J to deal with
them. Attack them with Kiros twice and card them with Laguna. They're
quite hard to card for some reason. Actually, it's not worth it
really so if you have Enc-None, equip it.

The objective here is to make it to the town's entrance, so do it
anyway you like, just don't miss the DPs on the way.

> Magic Check! The town square has a DP for Dispel, there's one near
the flower shop for Drain and if you take the right path, you'll end
up near a cliff with a non-recoverable and hidden DP for Reflect.

After you reach the town entrance, Laguna will have a chat with Kiros
and they decide to head back. Before you do so, you might wanna try
the trick below.

> NOTE! Ripping off Laguna
Have you noticed that Squall and Laguna will share the same inventory
BUT not the same cash account? So, Laguna has 3000 Gil to spend, if
you purchase something in his scenario, Squall'll receive them as if
they were free! This is the only Laguna scenario where you have the
access to a shop so buy anything you like until Laguna's broke.

Return the way you came and Laguna will chat some more with Kiros. Go
back to Raine's bar and head up stairs. After another cut scene,
Laguna will report how many monsters they've killed (carded monsters
counts as well.) I'm not too sure if this has any significance and I
don't know what happens if you stuck on the Enc-None skill and killed
no enemies.

Now return to Laguna's room in the house next door and choose to
rest. His scenario will end.


---Is cheapness contagious?---
Zell wakes up inside a cell with Rinoa, Selphie and Quistis, he had
been in the dream world too as Ward. After a fairly long sequence,
Rinoa will get taken away. I suggest that you save the Moomba as it's
cute having it following you for a long time. You'll also see scenes
with Seifer torturing Squall.

The team plans for a jailbreak but their weapons have been snatched
away. Zell came up with a good idea to go reclaim all of the weapons
since he fights with his fists.

You'll be on the 7th floor of the prison. You don't have to go far,
just take the stairs up one level and you'll see 2 guards toying
around with the team's weapons. Approach them and you'll have to
fight. You have no choice but to kill them and gain the EXP here, as
they cannot be carded and you cannot run away. Hopefully, your Zell's
"EXP needed for level up" is still low. You can also cast Break to
kill the guards without gaining any EXP.

Now that you've claimed your weapons, it's time to give the guards a
run for their money. Watch the awesome sequence where your team shows
off their skills! (Especially how Selphie handles her nunchakus.)

> Junction Check! Remove the GFs from Squall and Irvine and replace
them on the trio, make sure your Magic attributes are good.
Everything else ain't as important but give the GF command to whoever
that gets Siren. Give Mug to someone too.

You'll then get a visit from your old friends, Bigg and Wedge, who
are not very happy after the Dollet incident. They attack your team.

BOSS - Biggs and Wedge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This battle is again pretty easy, and again, they have good spells
worthy to spend time to draw. The most valuable spell is probably
Wedge's Reflect, as they're excellent for Spr-J even though they're
lousy by themselves. Biggs' Regen is also fairly decent for junctions
at this point of the game (HP/Vit) but ain't as good later except for
casting. Biggs also holds Haste and Slow. You can get some of them if
you want but keep in mind that both of them (especially the latter)
can be refined extremely conveniently from Diablos' Time Mag-RF. So
just get 300 Reflects and maybe some Regens.

Their attacks are fairly weak, but they do occasionally cast spells.
The first thing to do in this fight is to summon Siren to Silence
both of them, or they'll cast annoying spells all the time.

Oh yeah, mug them if you have the command. You can get a rare Regen
Ring from one of them, compared to the crappy Potion or something you
get for defeating them.

When you're satisfied with your stock load of drawn spells, just
summon a high level GF to kill them off. Or use your Limit Breaks or
whatever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now you'll have the freedom of exploring the complex, however, when
you step out of your cell the alarm sounds as monsters are released.
I don't know but I didn't really fight here. Carding enemies here is
NOT a good idea because sometimes you'll encounter GIM54A CANNOT be
carded (I'm not sure if you can run away from them.) I usually just
stick Enc-None on someone to get through this part.

You should check the bottom floors before you ascend the complex
since there are plenty of goodies in those floors ready for grabs. (I
actually missed all of them in my first game!) The really good things
to look out for are a Str-Up and a Combat King 001!

Then climb all the way to the top floors to continue with the story,
they'll be more rooms with treasure.

> Card Check! There are prisoners on certain floors that will play
cards with you FOR MONEY! If you win however, they will give you some
goodies. Most of the time you'll just get crap like Potions but
occasionally they'll give you really good ones like Mega-Phoenixes
and I've even heard of a Rosetta Stone!!!!! One of them will also
upgrade your Battle Report to a Character Report if you win. Finally,
all of them uses Galbadia rules so if you somehow screwed up the
rules in that area, just avoid them.

Card trick - "My first Rosetta Stone" ;) ============================
|In curtesy of Jonathan Ng <j6ng@engmail.uwaterloo.ca>              |
|                                                                   |
|Well, most of the time you'll get crap like Potions and Phoneix    |
|Down right? That's right, but Jonathan said that if you have a lot |
|of those items in your inventory already, then the chance of       |
|winning a rare item like Rosetta Stone will be raised. So what you |
|gotta do is to purchase 100 Potions, Phoenix Downs and Eye Drops   |
|(there's even an "item shop" inside the prison for goodness sake!) |
|                                                                   |
|Now challenge the card players, you'll still get the common items  |
|though, but I guess not as often as if you didn't have any common  |
|items in stock.                                                    |
|                                                                   |
|Also challenge both card players in the prison, as they give you   |
|different items. The one on a higher floor will give you HP-Ups,   |
|Holy Stones and (drum roll please!) Rosetta Stones!!! The other    |
|one has Luck-Ups and another source, great for earning Luck-J      |
|Scrolls! Because of this, make sure you DO NOT mess up the rules   |
|(and trade rules) in the Galbadia region! Oh yeah, you CAN actally |
|get more than one of them, so what are you waiting for?            |
|                                                                   |
|You can actually start powering up right now when you get your     |
|Rosetta Stones (gotta wait a bit for Leviathan's Spr Bonus though.)|
|I'd rather wait 'til disc 3 as most enemies don't give you much EXP|
|right now.)                                                        |
=====================================================================

> Magic Check! Certain rooms may look empty but if you equip the
Move-Find ability, hidden DPs can be reviewed. There's a Berserk DP
on Floor 9 and Thundaga on Floor 11.

> NOTE! There's also a guy who claims that he is from Balamb Garden
here, he'll sell you items. (To you card players out there, he is the
CC Joker so you know who to look for later.)

When you get to the top, free Squall in the room and you'll get
Squall back. The team decides to get to the bottom via the crane
while Zell operated the machinery in the control room. When you get
to the bottom you find that it's all covered in sand and have to get
back up again. (You'll have to do a LOT of climbing here, that's what
I mean by the game keeps DRAGGING ON!!)

Blah blah blah, then Zell's in trouble. When you control Zell, hold
the left stick down to make him run clockwise to the next screen, if
you do it correctly, the guard will barely miss Zell, else you'll
have to fight the guard.

After some more cut scenes, Irvine shows up with Rinoa and the team
gets reunited yay! You'll now have to divide into 2 teams again,
Squall's team will look for an exit to the top level while the
Irvine's team will hold the enemies back.

Choose whoever you wish but remember, Rinoa is a mandatory member in
Squall's team and Irvine's team don't have to fight the boss, so
choose someone with good abilities as the third team member in
Squall's team (either Quistis or Selphie, I recommend.)

Squall's team
> Junction Check! Hopefully, you've exchanged the junctions from the
other characters, and keep that Enc-None equipped at all times. Keep
the Mug command though.

Keep headin' up.

Irvine's team
Not much here really. You don't have to exchange all the junctions
since they're not going to fight anyway. Just exchange whoever has
Diablos with the Enc-None ability to one of the guys in Irvine's team
and climb the stairs down.

Squall's team
Take back Diablos and keep movin' until you reach a round platform
with a computer terminal. The computer is there just for decoration
but what you really wanna do is to equip Siren's Move-Find to review
the hidden SP to the right. Save there and move up a bit more to
trigger a boss fight.

BOSS - Elite Soldier, GIM52A x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ouch, these guys can really hurt! The Elite Soldier is most annoying
as he keep casting support spells like Aura and Shell on the robots
and negative ailment spells like Meltdown on you! The robots are big
damage makers with their Micro Missile.

The gang has no to die for spells for draw so don't bother.

The obvious thing to do here is to summon Siren to Silence the
soldier, however, unless your Compatibility with Siren is 800+ (which
I doubt), it's an extremely dangerous act. The problem lies with the
Micro Missile attack. Siren is likely to be your weakest GF at the
moment with the least HP, so the Micro Missile attack can really kill
her in one hit if your character has a high HP level.

Instead, just attack and kill the soldier with Squall, it should do
the job in one hit if you junctioned his Str properly.

With him out of the way it should be easy. Cast Wall with Selphie's
Slots after Micro Missile if you can. If you need healing, use
Selphie's Full Cure or Quistis' White Wind.

Remember that I told you to keep Mug? Well, if you steal from the
robots you can get a Missile which lets Quistis learn their special
attack Micro Missile for your own use. Of course, you can just win
them and you'll get more Missile if you do it that way, but the game
will sometimes give you a different item instead.

For the 'bots, use anyone's Limit Breaks to kill them. Someone dies,
use Life/Phoenix Down. You can also draw and cast Haste to your
advantage if you wish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the battle, have Quistis learn Micro Missile. Irvine's team
sends a message and Squall will aid them with the computer terminal.
Now just head out to the bridge.

After an awesome and death threatening FMV, the bridge give away and
Squall is stuck hanging onto the platform. Careful here, you can get
a Game Over if you don't do it right. Just keep moving to the right
until you can't move any more, then the scene will end. Oh yeah, one
last thing is DON'T listen to the annoying girl Rinoa, I actually got
a Game Over in my first game. Why? She yelled "Squall, over *there*!"
instead of "Squall, over *here*!" so I went for the wrong direction!!

Hopefully you didn't see the Game Over screen earlier. The team will
drive away in 2 cars, but Irvine didn't get to sit with the ladies.


---Haha, missed me by a mile... NOT!---
The team arrives in the desert, Irvine tells you that Edea's planning
to bomb both Trabia and Balamb Garden with missiles.

> Magic Check! A DP for Aero is here.

Keep talking to Selphie to get on with this scene. Then you see
missiles being launched at Trabia. The group suggest that you divide
into two teams again, Squall'll lead the team back to Balamb Garden
to warn people of the missiles while Selphie will lead a lead to
infiltrate the Missile Base and try to stop/delay the launch.

I think if you put Rinoa with Squall, you'll be treated to an extra
FMV back in Balamb. So here's my recommendation:
         Missile Base team           Balamb Garden team
             Selphie                       Squall
             Irvine                        Rinoa
             Zell                          Quistis

The lovebirds (Selphie and Irvine) will be happy, but Irvine is a
great member to support Selphie's team. Also, her team needs heavy
offence so Zell makes another excellent member. As for Squall's team,
Rinoa is basically there for the FMV (yup, that's all she's good for)
but Quistis is absolutely marvellously useful with her newly acquired
Micro Missile at carding the enemies.


---We're the train-stealers---
The group separates again and you'll control Squall's team. This is
an extremely short scene so just head to the engine of the train and
the scene will automatically take place. It's funny how the soldier
runs after the train and Rinoa (or was it Quistis) says some funny
stuff.


---Is that a rocket in your pants or are you just happy to see me?---
The scene switches to Selphie's team and you get to control her even
on the world map, yay! Oh yeah, you have a car too, but it can still
run out of fuel, so don't get "carried away" by it. (Ok, bad joke,
but I ran out of fuel in my first game when I took to car for a
cruise.)

> Card Check! The card maniacs will be happy to know that another
rare card is available for grabs after a long, card-less journey.
Head back to Deling City with Selphie and enter Caraway's Mansion.
General Caraway has Rinoa's card but he refuses to use it if you
don't loose your Ifrit's card to him first. So do it and after a
couple of rounds, he'll use Rinoa's card (crap card BTW!) Don't
worry, Ifrit's card can be won back just a teeny weeny bit later in
the game in FH.

Get back to the Missile Base by heading west. You're suppose to drive
into the place but if you walk instead, you'll see a scene where
Selphie says quite possibly the funniest sentence in the game!

The gang parks the car in the parking lot and comes out dressed in
Galbadia uniforms. It's funny here if you took Irvine along. Just
enter the room and save at the SP.

> Junction Check! Not much to say here but just the usual, I usually
use the auto-junction command to set my characters automatically
(favouring magic) but do check your Elem and ST Def and Atks, since
the game usually junction attributes you don't want. (Actually, it's
a good idea to keep your Elem-Atks free of spells.) You don't have to
fight for a while so you can readjust later if you want.

> GF Check!
  - Diablos: Hit-J
  - Brothers: HP+40%
  - Carbuncle: Vit+20% and Vit+40%

Examine the left ID card slot and Irvine'll give you a card he found
in the car, which is accepted. Ok, you're basically crawling inside
the enemy's base so it's not a very good idea to muck around too
much. You'll meet many soldiers within the complex and they'll ask
you questions. The answers you give back are usually divided into 3
types: Talk your way out of it, run away and fight.

Choose to talk your way out of as many situations as you can because
not only you get to hear some of the craziest excuses Selphie makes
up (and how the idiots actually believes her!), you'll also avoid
fights. If you choose to run away, the soldiers will realize that
you're fakes and sends some monsters at you.

To get pass the first guard, just act casual or whatever, although
you do get to see a funny scene if you choose the second option. Two
more screens after that you'll reach an intersection-like platform
with a computer to the right.

> Magic Check! If you take the exit to the left, you'll reach a
hidden DP with Blind on the same platform as 2 guards who looks like
they're urinating at the edge of the platform. The central room has a
DP for Full-Life!! (And it's recoverable too!)

What to do here is to talk to the soldiers near the Blind DP then go
into the central room and talk to one of the guards, then go back
again. They'll want you to do a favour of checking the control room
or something like that.

So head back to the place where you saw the first guard and tell him
you're there to take over.

> Magic Check! Another DP in here has Blizzara, if you even bother
that is.

Have Selphie screw around with the key panels, do what you like here.
All of a sudden the lights went out as the power had been cut off.
Exit the room and you'll bump into 2 guards. Choose to talk your way
out of it (funny) and you'll dispose of them anyway.

Head back into the intersection platform and try to get pass through
the central door, a commander steps out but just play along and help
him. You know what they say - "No pain, no gain" so you won't get
anywhere without putting in some labour, so help the guard to push
the large don't-know-what to the right. You'll then get the card to
operate the computer.

> Magic Check! The Full-Life DP should be active again so get
yourselves another pump before sayin' goodbye to it. :(

Operate the computer and all your gotta do here is just to set the
Error Ratio to the maximum and hope that the missiles will miss
Balamb Garden. Then upload the data and you're all set. Save your
game again.

Try get up the stairs to the right. You'll meet up with another
commander but talking your way out of it doesn't work this time,
since he's the only smart one around here and knows that your salute
is wrong. So you do have to fight.

They're waaaaay too easy, one hit and they're gone. But you might
want to draw some Confuses. Like Berserk, they're useless by
themselves but are excellent in ST-Def later. The soldiers also have
Reflect if you want some. You WILL gain EXP for this fight so don't
get too cocky yet. But killing your guys off is sometimes a bit more
hassle than its worth so if your "EXP 'til level up" is high, just
summon a GF to wipe them out and hopefully the EXP you gain for this
fight won't do much harm. Otherwise you'll have to kill your guys off
and let the one with the highest "EXP 'til level up" guy handle it.
I've been told that Break doesn't work in this battle.

After the fight, just examine the computer terminal to the left.
Enter the next room and set the self-destruct sequence. If you're
feeling confident with the game and wants a pay raise, choose 10
minutes to rise your SeeD level by 2. I think 20 minutes raises it by
1 but I'm not too sure about it. Before you choose a time interval,
check your junctions.

> Junction Check! Junction Quezacotl to Selphie because she should
still have a high Compatibility with it after the Dollet event.
Junction good spells to both Zell and Irvine's Str (ie, Quake if you
have it, or Demi or something like that.) Equip Enc-None now, but you
don't have to bother with Mug.

> NOTE! For the up coming battle, you might want to put Zell and
Irvine at critical by swapping junctions with another member and
change back.

Choose your time and if it's 20 minutes or below, you can use the
shortcut to the right, which leads to the first room with the card-
locked doors. If I remember correctly, all the SPs disappears for no
reason, which is a pain. Exit the door and you'll see a long sequence
with the timer ON (which is frustrating but shouldn't be a problem.)
A large robot comes in and you'll have to fight another boss.

BOSS - BGHZ51F2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A large robot but its attacks are quite weak, it has a high defence
though, which can be a problem. It has Stop in its draw list, but the
last thing you want to think about is drawing with a timer on right?

What you do here is to let Selphie repeatedly summon Quezacotl like
in the X-ATM092 fight and aid it with Boost. If you've acquired the
SumMag+??% then it'll be great too. If not, just repeatedly cast
Waters, a cheap and fairly decent spell or Thundagas.

Irvine and Zell should be in critical if you did the swap junction
trick so just unleash their Limit Breaks to make this fight a breeze.
It should only take like 2 minutes.

With the robot out of the way, you'll have to fight the soldiers. One
cool thing is to let Selphie charge up for Quezacotl when the robot
is almost dead, then have Zell unleash a long and powerful chain
combo with his Duel and kill it. When the guards arrive, Quezacotl
should kill them before they can even act!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gate shuts locking Selphie's team in.. Oh no! Oh well, I'm sure
they'll survive since even Squall survived after Edea's chilling
spikes!


---Hanging Garden of Balamb---
The scene will switch back to Squall's team, who has just made it
back to Balamb Garden. It's total chaos back here, SeeDs and cadets
running around like headless chickens.

> Junction Check! Swap all the junctions from Selphie's team but do
equip the Card command on either Squall or Rinoa. Swapping the
junctions will make your characters critical.

You'll be mistaken for Cid's followers and those guys dressed in
cult-ish clothing will send monsters at you. They're easy so simply
use Quistis' Micro Missile (since she's in critical status) and card
them.

You have to search every area in the garden, and each time you'll
have to fight. Note however, the enemy in the Infirmary is a
Granaldo, an ex-boss. It's counted as a boss so you cannot card it
but you will gain EXP for defeating it. So the best thing to do here
is to be ignorant and let the SeeD members take care of their own
business.

> NOTE! In every area, talk to the people when you clear the monsters
and some of them will give you free items like Remedies.

Trick Plus - A Rosetta Stone worth shaking your bootie for! =========
| Thanks to Niek <niek_maasdijk@hotmail.com> for this trick!        |
|                                                                   |
| All you've gotta do is, simply, fight the enemy at the library    |
| LAST. One of the SeeD members there will give you a Rosetta Stone |
| instead of a minor item. Cool beans!                              |
=====================================================================

When you clear all the enemies, head back to the lobby and you'll see
Xu sneaking up the elevator. Follow her to the second floor and after
a bit of conversation she'll take you to see Cid.

After a long scene in Cid's room, he gives Squall a key that takes
them to the MD level in search of a way to save the Garden. (Cid says
that the Garden used to be some sorta shelter so a secret is hidden.)

Take the elevator do and suddenly the power goes off, you'll have to
climb down from the evacuation hatch. All of a sudden the elevator's
power comes back and it descents after you at full speed. Watch as
your team make the grand escape. :)

Descend into the sewer like piping and Quistis will tell you some
tips on Elem-Atk.

> Junction Check! This place is full of sissy enemies like Blood
Souls and Blobras that give you crap and are very resistant to
attacks, so I'd avoid carding here and stick on Enc-None. Although
you do occasionally encounter Tri-Faces that give you good stuff.
Pack Mug with you too.

> GF Check!
  - Diablos: Should have gotten his -J abilities by now, or about to.
Get his Darkside next but it doesn't matter too much.
  - Brothers: HP+40% should be done, so I'd suggest moving on to the
horribly expensive HP+80%.
  - Carbuncle: Vit+40%

Follow the path and enter a room with a large wheel handle thingy.
Open it (only seems to open when all 3 characters are turning it) and
make your way down the ladder into a large circular room with a
pillar in the middle.

> Magic Check! There's a DP (hidden) here with Full-Life

Have Squall climb the ladder and he'll fall into a room, activate the
switch and take the ladder back. Climb down another kinda hard to see
ladder in the foreground down to a platform with a SP. Examine the
terminal near the SP to open up the gate, then save because when you
try to approach the gate, 2 monsters jump out of the water and
attacks.

BOSS - Oilboyle x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These 2 white squid-like thingies likes to spit oil on you, which
does quite a bit of damage for oil.

They have Confuse so draw some if you like, and if you haven't had
the chance in Missile Base. If one of your character gets inflicted
by a status change, draw Esuna.

You can steal 4 Fuels for your car by stealing from each Oilboyle,
which ain't the best items around but it sure beats the Magic Stones
or whatever you get for beating them.

Defeating them is easy, simply summon Ifrit will cause major damage.
Try out some of Quistis' Blue Magic for this fight, although Aqua
Breath won't do much good since they're immune to water. If you have
gotten Fire Breath by exchanging cards, use it to maximum effect,
otherwise use her Gatling Gun (if you junctioned spells to her Str)
or Electrocute. This is an easy boss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When it's over, make your way deeper into the structure and you'll
eventually get to some kinda power generator. Fiddle around with it
and you'll eventually see an awesome FMV where the Garden takes
flight, barely escaping the missiles.

After some event, you're called to the boucany. Go there (on second
floor) and you'll get more FMVs and a special one if you bought Rinoa
along (but I'd rather if Selphie, Zell or Quistis were in this
sequence instead.) You are then called back to Cid's office again,
and you'll see how Squall pilots the Garden to avoid the Balamb town.

The next day, Squall'll be lying on his bed as Rinoa comes in and
wants him to show him around. Take her around the place if you wish.
When you get to the lobby, a Garden worker guy comes and tells you
that Master NORG wants to see you and tells to you go to the
basement.

When you get down there, you'll see a very angry Cid loosing his
temper, he leaves and Quistis comes in.

> Junction Check! Make sure you have a good Spirit level, and Str for
both Rinoa an Squall. Take Mug for this fight. Junction Silence to
ST-Def and give Item command to someone. Try to exchange junctions to
lower someone's HP to critical (preferably Squall.)

Then you'll be called to see NORG. YIKES! What is that THING? Squall
reports to NORG and it eventually gets angry and angrier and attacks.

BOSS - NORG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NORG fights in a tank thingy. The Left and Right Orbs have an insane
Spr/Vit level, high HP, immune to all elements and regenerates every
round so it's impossible to beat them. All you gotta do here is to
beat NORG's Port.

Steal from the Left and Right Orbs will get you Mag-Up and Spr-Ups
respectively, don't miss them!

NORG loves to cast spells on you, including various elemental type
spells. Summon Carbuncle to bounce spells like Fira back to him but
he can still cast Tornado to hit you. If you need healing use items
or Quistis' White Wind. As long as you have HP-J, the spells won't
hurt you bad.

If Squall is in critical, have him execute Renzokuken on NORG Port,
otherwise just summon some GFs like Shiva and Quezacotl, or just use
a well junctioned regular attack. It may take a while. When you
defeat NORG Port, NORG himself becomes available for targeting.

> GF Check! Don't for get to draw GF Leviathan from him.

NORG is weak against wind but casting Aero on him will still do less
damage than a well junctioned regular attack + trigger. Just use your
regular attacks, summon GF or Limit Break to take it down. Also, try
to use Rinoa's Limit Break to get Invincible Moon. Quistis' Gatling
Gun and Aqua Breath also works well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - LEVIATHAN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The giant serpent of the deep sea that swallows sailors is probably
the least exciting GF to many people since I'm sure you all have seen
movies/screenshots of this many many times since the FFVIII demo.
Anyway, we all know what the summon looks like but it's actually not
too bad, even though Quistis' Aqua Breath will often do more damage
in less time. Tsunami works well against a wide bunch of enemies
simply because they're rarely resistant towards it. One cool thing
about Tsunami is that if it kills an enemy, they'll get swept away
along with the water. Some of Leviathan's abilities are really cool
although it doesn't have that many of them, so Leviathan will get
boring quickly. Its Recover command is quite unique as it will heal a
single character to their full HP for free, but I'd say the Magic
command is more versatile. Leviathan also comes with 2 separate Menu
Abilities so it's still quite a handy GF to have around when you want
spells like Aura. The rest of its skills are a bit unbalanced, but
Leviathan's Spirit skills are nice to have around when fighting the
bosses.
Best abilities: Recover, Spr Bonus, Supt Mag-RF, GF Med-RF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What to do now is to ask Cid in the Infirmary some questions and
return to the lobby where Xu catches up with you. Follow this event
to find Ellone and more plot information will be reviewed, wouldn't
want to spoil it.


---Do you like fish?---     <'>>>><
The next day Rinoa goes to bother Squall again and when you're just
about to leave, the Garden goes boom and crashes into Fisherman's
Horizon. Go to see Cid and he wants you to go apologize to the people
in FH. (Oh, letting other people do his dirty work.)

Head to the boucany in 2F and you can explore FH after a bit of talk,
god how I looooooove the music in this town!

> NOTE! On the platform where the elevator leads down, there's a VERY
hard to see ladder leading down. It's quite hard to find and I missed
it in my first game. When you get to the bottom platform, head all
the way to the left, climb a few ladders in the process and you
should reach an old fisherman (Master Fisherman, the guy you saw in
the FMV.) Talk to him and apologize, he will give you Occult Fan III
magazine. Remember this place though, he hides a very good DP that
you cannot get yet.

> Magic Check! There are a few DPs scattered around this place, so
try to get them before talking to the mayor. One for Shell is next to
the junk shop, a Regen DP is near a SP on the train tracks and you
can find a DP for Haste at the abandoned train station.

Go to the mayor's house and they'll order you to leave as soon as
possible in a sissy kinda way because they say that they hate
violence. After the scene is over, there are still MORE goodies to be
found.

> Magic Check! In the mayor's house is a hidden DP for Ultima! Of
course, something this good must be non-recoverable.

> Card Check! Mayor Dobe has Quezacotl's card. Try not to loose any
rare cards to him as it's very hard to get them back again.
> The mayor's wife has Irvine's card if you lost the Sacred's card to
the Queen of Cards like I've told you to above.
> Martine who sits outside the mayor's house uses many LV7 bosses
cards that he confiscated from students in Galbadia Garden so you
might want to play a few hands with him. (He's slow though.) Also, if
you lost Ifrit's card to General Caraway, you can win it back now.

When you're on your way out, calls for help indicates that Galbadia
soldiers are invading. The stupid mayor tries to talk his way out of
it and his wife blames it all on you! Gosh what a bunch of sissies!

> Junction Check! Give your characters appropriate junctions and
spread your GFs around, Vitality is very important here. Also, make
sure that 2 of the members have low HP (makes them easier to kill.)
Give someone Mug and Enc-None.

> GF Check!
  - Diablos: Think you've gotten all his important abilities already?
Not yet, he's such an exceptional GF as if you learn HP+20%, you'll
unlock his +40% and +80%!!! Wow, you'll almost never get bored with
him.
  - Brothers: HP+80% takes ages!
  - Carbuncle: Vit+40%
  - Leviathan: Don't get Boost first a lot of AP is gonna be a
wasted, instead get its Supt Mag-RF first.

Now head towards the way to the train station, save at the SP. If you
didn't pack Enc-None you can fight SAM08Gs here. They drop Running
Fires which are good to turn into Demolition Ammos. When you do reach
the mayor, you'll have to help.

The first fight is against some soldiers. They'll net you EXP so it's
a no-no to fight this properly. Kill off (preferably) Quistis and
Squall and let Rinoa handle them. Next up, it's boss times.

BOSS - BGH251F2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yup, that one again, except it's already been trashed. It can only do
some gun shot attacks but they can be quite damaging if you didn't
junction spells to your defensive attributes.

Hurry up and revive both Squall and Quistis. Draw Protect from the
boss and cast them on the weak members.

Did you bring Mug? Good, now steal an Adamantine from it.

This fight is as easy as back when Selphie's team had fought it. Have
Quistis use her Aqua Breath (which can do 3000+ damage!) and let
Squall have his Renzokuken. Rinoa do whatever, preferably summoning
Leviathan or casting spells like Water or any Thunder spells.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you kill it for good, it'll fall into the sea and.. Selphie's
team climbs out! They're safe, YAY!!!

After the grand reunion and a talk with Rinoa, you can explore the
town again. You can take a mini-quest involving the Master Fisherman
to get some items, but what you really wanna do is...

> Magic Check! ...Get Master Fisherman out of the way so you can have
access to the Full-Life DP, it's non-recoverable though.

> NOTE! Before you carry on, read the "NOTE!" in the next section for
a trick to get some Pulse Ammo.

Go back to the Quad and cheer Selphie up, then go back to Cid. He
kinda chickens out at the critical moment and offers Squall the
leadership of the Garden. Oooooh.


---Top of the Pops---
Now you'll see an interesting scene where Selphie and Irvine got
everyone together to perform a number. To the musically inclined it
should be a piece of cake in determining which tunes goes with which.
Choose which ever instruments you want but I'm telling ya, if you
piece together the Electric Guitar, Bass, Piano, and Saxophone, you
get to hear a nice instrumental version of Eyes On Me.

> NOTE! Ronny Boen told me that when you get control of Irvine here,
you can head west to some soldiers, talk to them and you'll receive
some Pulse Ammo! I understand that Ronny's procedure was very
confusing, since his english wasn't very good. Thanks to Wee
<brenanne@cyberway.com.sg> who cleared out the procedures (and found
an extra bonus :) Here's what he has to say.

"Meet up with Grease Monkey after the fight with the machine (when
you pick Irvine near Balamb), you see the sergeant. Talk to him, go
out of the hut and go back in. Now talk to Grease Monkey, you will
recieve a Mega Phoenix.
"In Irvine's sound bit. (Ie, after returning to Garden.) Go back to
GM, you see the sergeant again.... Do the same but when you go back
into the hut. You see him sprawling on the floor, evidently GM have
kicked him silly. You recieve a phoenix (only phoenix no Mega :*) and
you get the ammos from the unconcious sergeant."

This now work now.. :) Thanks all...

Now when Squall wakes up, Rinoa takes him out to the concert. Hey,
this is like the Golden Saucer date scene in FFVII!!! Just follow
this scene and hear some seedy stuff Irvine has to say. When the
concert begins, exit that screen to the place with a porno mag and
another loooooooong story scene will take place, and it's different
depending on what instruments you chose.

After this scene Squall will be back in his bed. Make your way back
up to the bridge and you'll see that Quistis, Nida and Xu have taken
over the controls of the Graden. And you can also control the Garden
as a vehicle, just talk to Nida when you want to go.


---Things to do #3---
Having the ability to control Garden will open up a HUGE number of
new places to explore, tons of mini-quests, new GFs and cards! You'll
spend at least 2 hours with these mini-quests, so I'll divide this
into more sections but you can do these in any order.

-> New GFs <-
Take the Garden south (you need to bypass the bridge first, or head
north all the way) to the southern continent. It's the Centra
continent (apparently no connection to the Centra as in Ancients of
FFVII) and hover all the way to a place like an oil rig.

I recommend that you take Squall, Quistis and perhaps Zell for this
quest. Note Selphie would be useful here, but you cannot make her a
party member yet since she needs some beauty sleep after the Missile
Base mission.

> Junction Check: Very important here, you all should have HP-J and
most, if not all, of the important Junction Abilities. Also, make
sure that all your members are in critical before entering. Pack your
best spell in MAGIC attribute as it'll be very important, and for
Squall and Zell, junction your second best spells in their Strength.
Equip Mug, Enc-None, any Mag+??% or Str+??% for Squall/Zell.

> Magic Check! If you've somehow gotten some Triples, exchange them
to a non-active members.

> GF Check! Leviathan should start on Spr+20%

Now save your time and enter the Centra Ruins, you'll immediately
notice a timer which will start the countdown as soon as you enter.
You have 20 minutes, but it'll be more than enough if you followed my
advice of equipping Enc-None and made your characters critical.

What you do here is to climb the stairs. There are many DPs in this
area but I'd advice you to ignore them for now, as the timer is
rather merciless if you decide to make those side trips.

Climb the stairs again in the place with a round statute in the
centre keep heading forward and into a room with some steps. Walk up
the steps and an elevator will take you up into a round shaped
platform with 2 ladders. Take the left one, which will lead to a room
with some devices. Press the button on the wall and get back down to
the ground, press the blue thing between the ladders and steps will
magically appear to the right side of the screen, wow!

The stairs spiral around the central pillar thing. When you get to
the top, you should see a gateway thing and a demon statute atop it.
Climb the ladders to reach the statute and take out the eye. Now make
your way down and climb more steps to the right. Clime another ladder
leading to the top of the dome and you'll see the identical statute.
Place the eye you found into the statute and it'll give you a 5 digit
pass code, jot it down if you can. Then remove both eyes from the
statute.

Return back to the first statute and place both eyes into the socket.
The flame to the right will start to emit rings, it's actually the
place you enter the pass code, so do it and press the cancel button.
If the pass code is correct, the gate should open, leading you to a
big guy sitting in his throne - Odin! Check your timer, you should
have about 10 minutes left.

BOSS - Odin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Odin does not attack at all, but if you check his draw list, he has
Triple! That's why I wanted you to have a good Magic attribute.
Anyway, draw 300 Triples, and no, it's NOT optional this time! You
must draw them... actually I couldn't care less if you don't but this
is THE best opportunity to stock up on one of the top 3 spells in the
game, if you don't, you're gonna be REAL sorry later.

It shouldn't take long, maybe 3 minutes or so. When you're done you
should still have plenty of time, and the critical status helps you
to do Limit Breaks easily. So let Squall and Zell unleash their
Renzokuken and Duel respectively, while Quistis uses her best Blue
Magic, Aqua Breath should do it.

You should also Mug him, which in term gives you a Luck-J Scroll,
much better than the G-Potions or whatever you get normally.

This fight is fun, but not long. Odin's really weak for some reason
and goes down in 30 seconds flat! Congrats, now you have a new GF
(well kinda), 300 of one of the best spells and a new rare card!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Magic Check! Now that the timers has stopped, you can feel free to
wonder around for the DPs, some of them are hidden. There's one for
Pain near the dome with the top statute, the right ladder at the
double ladder tower thing has Aero and the DP in the round shaped
room with a statute in the centre has Drain.

GF PROFILE - ODIN* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Odin is unlike all other GFs, you cannot junction him and you cannot
summon him either, instead, he will come randomly at the beginning of
a battle. This fact makes Odin potentially the most annoying thing in
this game, especially when you're trying to not gain a level, as he
will slay everything in his path and let you handle the EXP. (So for
the rest of the game, it's a very good idea to just stick on Enc-none
and sprint through it.) He has only one attack, Zantetsuken, a blade
skill that EVERYONE fears and it will tear everything into shreds! (I
wonder why they didn't even translate it.) Yeah yeah, Odin is a dumb
GF but getting him will clear the way to 2 other cooler GFs a bit
later.

> NOTE! TunzVic@aol.com informed me that if you hold L2 and R2 when
the battle is loading (ie, trying to run away), the chance that Odin
appears will be increased. Now I am really not sure about this
because Odin appears way too often in the first place anyway. "Call
upon me in times of need" was what Odin said when you defeat him,
could this have been a clue?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With Odin out of the way, you'd want to get another GF - Tonberry! To
prepare for it, just Card Mod any Tonberry/Tonberry King cards you
have into Chef's Knives. Go back to the room with the round statute
and de-equip Enc-None (you might want to save your game before doing
this though) and keep fighting the Tonberries until you have about 20
Chef's Knives. (Note, ok having 20 Chef's Knives isn't exactly the
correct solution, but I think you gotta collect 20 of them by
defeating Tonberries. Otherwise I have no clue how to trigger the
appearance of Tonberry King, just keep fighting Tonberries.) They
have a very high HP level and is immune to all instant death attack
except for Selphie's The End, which makes them very hard to kill.
They don't give you any EXP so it's ok just to kill them, but they
don't give you much AP either, so it's not the best place to build
up.

> NOTE!!! I was wrong, you CAN get Tonberry before acquiring Odin,
just exit and re-enter if the timer's about to run out. This is quite
a good idea if you don't want Odin to screw up your Carding attempts
in the future. However, you won't be able to get his card and the 100
Triples until very late.

> NOTE2!!! Well, since Odin is such a pain in the *** you might want
to ignore him until the disc 3 after you've done with powering up. If
you don't get Odin I don't think you'll ever acquire the power of
lord Gilgamesh, so by all means pick up Odin before heading back into
the Lunatic Pandora the second time in disc 3. The disadvantage to
this is that you won't get his card for a long time (no big deal) and
missing out the 300 Triples for a very long time (Arrrggghhhhh!!!)

Try to use your character's Limit Breaks repeatedly and let Quistis
have them with Micro Missiles, which should do like 9999 damage! When
you do have 20 Chef's Knives in stock, the next Tonberry you fight
will give you a surprise because...

BOSS - Tonberry King ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...A giant king of the Tonberries will appear to avenge for all the
Tonberries. It does have some killer attacks and likes to cast death
sometimes, but it'll just sit there most of the time.

Release your well-trained Limit Breaks and it should be gone easily.
I'm not sure if Micro Missiles works here, but Quistis' other Limits
works well too. If anyone dies, cast Life. You should know what to
do..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - Tonberry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps the most annoying enemies in the series is now one of the
good guys. Tonberries are creatures that resembles the Shumi Tribe
who wears coarse tunics, the knife and lantern they hold on their
hands are their trade marks. This GF's attack, Chef's Knife will stab
a random enemy in battle. It's non elemental, but it's still not very
strong and only targets one enemy, making the summon attack rather
useless, although it's cute. (Doink!) The Tonberry has a hand full of
good merchant-like abilities. The part where this GF really shines
comes from Tonberry's Menu Abilities, being able to alter the price
and stock of every shop you've visited and make them come to you! It
also has 2 unique commands, LV Up and LV Down which are helpful for
countless future battles. A few other skills are also pretty cool,
but the disappointing fact comes from the lack of Junction Abilities.
Best abilities: LV Up, LV Down, Initiative, Call Shop, Sell High,
Haggle, Familiar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! Tonberry should start with Boost then his shop abilities,
such as Haggle.

-> Chicobo's Card <-
This is an important card as it can lead to another new rare card
from the Queen of cards. All you've gotta do here is to catch a
Chocobo at each of the Chocobo Forests around the world, but before
you leave, sound the Sonar until you find a place where it reacts,
and activate the Ziner. No there's no Chicobo, but the mother Chocobo
will find gifts like Aura Stones or Ultima Stones and give them to
Squall. (They consider that Squall as one of "them".) I won't detail
how you catch a Chocobo at each forest though, as it's really boring.

> NOTE!!! After reaching the first Chocobo Forest, Chocoboy will give
you the port to the PocketStation, which allows you to play the
Chocobo World mini-game. Those lucky enough to have a Pocketstation
(or playing the PC version), there's a special Pocketstation section
added somewhere near them bottom. Check there for more details on
powering up.

Now all you need to do is to catch a Chocobo near Trabia and ride it
all the way to the Chocobo Holy Ground to the north of Esthar. (Just
remember you can cross shallow water with the Chocobo.) When you get
there you should see 7 Chocobos, if less, it means that you haven't
completed some Chocobo Forests. You'll witness the Chocobos dance to
the sweet tunes of Eyes On Me (but I think the Chocobo dance in FFVII
is cuter) then examine the Chicobo and you'll get the card. Talk to
the Chocoboy to get a ride out of this place.

BTW, you can purchase Gysahl Greens from the Chocoboy. Using it in
battle will summon the Chicobo.

See the GF Profile for Chicobo under the Pocketstation section below.
(Check the contents.)

-> Shumi Tribe <-
This is located to the northern most island in the world.

> Magic Check! I think the biggest charm of this village is the fact
that it has the only recoverable Ultima DP in the world, and it's
unusually drawer-friendly too, meaning that you'll always get a
decent number of spells. However, you'll need to pay 5000 Gil for a
pump, but I'd say it's worth it. Remember to return regularly to
stock up on the best spell in the game.

You can take a quest here to find some stones to help build the
statute of Laguna. Again, I won't detail the procedures here but it's
very simple. If you need help, talk to the guy sitting outside at a
table and he'll give you some tips on how to find the stone.

When you're done, check back on the elder and after some pointless
conversations (they've obviously picked it up from Laguna) you'll be
rewarded with a Phoenix Pinion which summons the Phoenix GF during
battle, and no, this item is not unique. You can get them via several
other ways.

GF PROFILE - PHOENIX* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Bird of Immortality has been a favourite among the series, and
no, I don't think this is the Cosmic Entity that saved Jean Grey. :P
By using a Phoenix Pinion during battle, the Phoenix will appear (in
a VERY cool graphical sequence) to aid your characters. Its flame
will burn the enemies for a good deal of damage and will revive all
fallen allies as if Life has been cast on them. The fire elemental
damage is pretty good IMO, I've seen this doing 8000+ damage. The
item is rare and expensive so it's not like you'll see Phoenix very
often, but you should see it at least once as it looks really
awesome.

NOTE!!! Stephanus Rudiyanto Natari <s_rudiyanton@mailcity.com> said
that if you have summoned Phoenix at least once in the whole game,
there'll be a chance that Phoenix will appear when ALL of your party
members are defeated in battle, therefore savin' your butt. It's
random whether or not that Phoenix will appear though, and it'll
still use up a Phoenix Pinion, so keep some of them in stock. (I
don't know if the number of Phoenix Pinions in your inventory will
affect the chance of the GF sppearing though.)

NOTE2!!! Katman told me that you do NOT use up a Phoenix Pinion when
it appears when you die. I don't know about this because I've never
seen it appear randomly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Magic Check! There are 2 more DPs around this area, the one in near
the statute is Firaga and the one outside the elder's house has
Blizzaga.

> NOTE! Free Status Guard
Yes, you can get a free Status Guard in the Shumi Village at some
point later in the game, but I'm not sure how much later. It's
probably obtainable right after the above mini-quest by exitting and
re-entering the village, but I cannot confirm this. Basically what
you do is head back to the village and you'll see that 2 Shumis are
working on the statute, but they need more labour, and Attendant
isn't too keen to do it. So talk to the Elder and convince Attendant.
After that, it's still not enough and the gang wants Antisan's help,
but Artisan is stubborn and is worried about turning into a Moomba.
So you need to talk to Artisan's friend in FH, who tells you to take
the toy Moomba back to Artisan in Shumi Village. So go back there and
show Artisan the toy Moomba. Then he'll agree to do it. Then talk to
the Elder for the Status Guard, which is very useful later.

-> CC Quest <-
If you've been a keen card player, I'm sure you've all heard about
the CC gang. A group of card players who just loves cards and are in
search of worthy players day and night. So why not start challenging
them now?

Jack
Actually, it's not as easy as it sounds. First you need to build
yourself a reputation by winning the card game about 20 times inside
Balamb Garden. Then the guy who walks in the lobby will start to
review himself as the CC Jack. Winning the battle and you're ready to
move on, there are 6 more members of the CC gang left. If you're
really havin' trouble with this guy then you need to practice your
card skills. I do have many card strategies but I don't know if I
should detail them here, as most of the strategies can change easily
and you need to think fast for it.

Club
He's a guy walking around in the northern passageway. Just talk to
some guy around that area and you'll probably hit the jackpot. After
him, it's time for Diamond.

Diamond
The 2 girls standing nears the map of Garden in the lobby will play
against you next. (Hey not fair, 2 against 1!) Afterwards it's
Spade's turn, although I will make a side trip and challenge the
Joker first.

Joker
The Joker is the guy who was selling you items inside the prison. He
appears randomly inside the Training Centre. All the FAQs says the
same thing but they never detail where exactly he appears in (there
are about 4 separate screens inside the Training Centre) so it took
me a long time to find him. Joker appears on a tiny island connected
by planks to the screen to the _right_. He has Leviathan's card so
you'll want to play him and win that card from him. Ironically, it's
the only other Water elemental card in the game! (And if it's not
enough, wait 'til you get Alexander.)

Spade
He appears on the platform outside the elevator on the second floor
and apparently he is the same person who handed you those 7 cheap
cards at the start.

Heart
Head for the bridge because... Heart is actually Xu!! Play her (she
seems to be quite slow) and win from her. She also carries
Carbuncle's card so it's another nifty win. After the battle Nida
will comment how he didn't know that Xu was actually Heart. Xu said
it was a secret and Quistis said she already knew. One more member to
go, the King!

What you need to do now is talk to Dr. Kadowaki in the Infirmary. She
will say that she was the former King of the CC group, but she handed
the title down to another girl sometime ago.

King
What you need to do now is get back to your room and choose to be
alone, then rest. It's a random event so if you don't get to meet the
King, try again. During the middle of the night, Squall will be
wakened by the King who is actually... Quistis!! *Gasp* Actually it
was rather obvious if you piece together the clues. Anyway, she
challenges you. The King carries Gilgamesh's card so it'll be another
great find. If you didn't get it this time, go back to the bridge the
next day and challenge her there. She usually uses very good cards
but she's also the slowest card player that I've played, very
frustrating.

> NOTE! All of the CC members carriy LV7 boss cards so you know where
to go if you wanna complete your collection. IMO, the LV7 boss cards
are the WORST! They are quite hard to get (as it's not a sure thing
that they'll use them, unlike the rare cards), harder to beat (since
they're powerful and hey, even rare cards have weaker sides!) and
gives you really crap items with Card Mod. The higher the CC rank,
the more likely that they'll use a LV7 card, so if you want LV7
cards, I found Xu is the best person to go to.

> NOTE2! Do you guys want me to list some card strategies? I
personally have had no problem with a majority of the card games but
I've heard that many people are having troubles. I can list them here
but it's a "Power-up guide".. who knows, just e-mail me with your
suggestions if you think I should have more coverage on cards.

-> Lotsa AP <-
Ok, everybody knows that Cactuars are good for AP right? Well, you
don't necessarily have to step onto Cactuar Island (which is only
approachable with the Ragnarock) to meet them. Voltroneo@Hotmail.com
says that you can encounter them on Kashkabald Desert in the Centra
region. Fight there for lotsa AP and not a lot of EXP, whoohoo! You
might wanna come back here every so often when you get a new GF to
learn its skills.

-> Collect Flares <-
Thanks to Brad White <bm-white@telus.net> for this trick.

You can encounter Ruby Dragons in the forests near Edea's house in
the Centra region, although they're really rare. If you've gotten
Tonberry, you can start collecting Flares/Meteors right now, although
you have to make sure that you have good junctions. Else you might
wait 'til later when you have better spells.

What you can do however, is to mug Inferno Fangs from them, and they
can be modded with Ifrit's F Mag-RF into 20 Flares each. It might
take quite a while though. since they're so rare. (It might not even
be worth the effort.) If you've already gotten Odin, make sure you
save a lot.

The other way to collect Flare is to collect Ruby Dragon cards,
especially if you play a lot of Triple Triad and you've modded the
trade rule to All. You can get a few Inferno Fangs from those.

-> Others <-
There are a few more mini-quests right now, but I won't detail them
here as they're not that exciting. Basically, just check up on all
major cities and see what's new, and explore the new lands.

> NOTE! Don't do the Bone searching quest in Dollet yet, as the items
will be upgraded once you're in disc 3


---Silence of the (Ba)lamb---
Ho ho ho, when got the weight of the tons of mini-quests off your
shoulders, it's time to follow on with the story. Head over to Balamb
and you'll see that Galbadia Garden (also taken flight) has occupied
the town of Balamb for some reason.

Zell rushes in and demands that you take him with you, as for the
other character, notice that Selphie is healed after the Missile Base
mission? Take her along if you want (gosh I just LOVE that girl!)
Quistis ain't too bad either.

Talk to the guard next to the car and Squall'll make an excuse to get
in. Try going to the hotel to talk to the commander but it's blocked
off by guards. They want you to find the captain.

Go back to Zell's house and since the hotel is occupied, Zell has no
choice but to let you use his room. If you brought Selphie, you'll
see a scene where she jumps onto Zell's bed, if you chose Quistis
she'll tell you something about Zell's adventure on a T-Board and if
you brought Irvine, he'll fiddle around with Zell's gun collection.
All of them are hurlarious, but if you brought Rinoa instead, you'll
see a lamn scene with her talking about Zell's grandfather (she's
rarely funny.)

If you wanna get outta town, talk to Big Bad Rascal and follow him
around, distract the guard when he goes to find the girl's parents
and then he can help you escape.

> Card Check! According to David Seo, if you did helped Big Bad
Rascal, talk to the hotel owner's daughter in the house next to
Zell's. The girl will tell you that she has her father's card
(Pandemona) and you can get it now instead of later. Whoohoo!

Whacha have to do here is to find the captain. He likes to play hard
to get and you have to keep asking people around town for details. If
you can't be bothered, just talk to a guy near the docks and he'll
tell you that the captain caught some fish. Return to Zell's house
and you'll see smoke coming out of it. Then go to the train station
and the guards should be down on the floor after eating the fish. To
make them move outta the way, keep talking to the one blocking the
stairs and everytime you do so, he'll move a little bit.

Enter the train and you'll find that the captain is no other than
Raijin! He runs away. Go back to Zell's house to save first though,
and check your junctions.

> Junction Check! Junction good spells to Vit. GF and Magic commands
are useful for this fight. Pack Mug if you wanna goodie.

> GF Check! Your GFs should have learnt a few new skills after the
mini-quest events right?
  - Diablos: HP+??%s
  - Brothers: HP+80%
  - Carbuncle: Vit Bonus
  - Leviathan: Should have gotten Spr+20% and Boost, move onto
Spr+40% and Spr Bonus when you're done
  - Tonberry: Should have gotten Boost and maybe even Haggle, if so
move onto Sell High.

Head to the hotel when you're done, and you'll have to fight Raijin.

BOSS - Raijin, G-Soldiers x2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nothing much of a threat. The soliders will go down in one hit.
Raijin is stronger and his attacks can hit for decent damage, about
200 each hit. He has Thunder-type spells too, and can hit pretty hard
but he's likely to go down sooner than expected.

Mug 2 Str-Ups from him too. You can get them if you win the fight
instead, but you'll only get 1, so my advice is that you steal them.

Use regular attacks to take out the soldiers. Don't cast Thunder on
him as he'll absorb it. (It's actually pretty obvious when you look
at his name. I think Raijin means "Thunder" in Japanese.)

Leviathan works amazingly well on Raijin, about 1000 damage.
Otherwise, use your regular attacks or spells like Water (economical
and decent power.) Tonberry might work too (since he starts off at
about level 40.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After he's been beaten, you'll enter the hotel and yes, the commander
is actually Fujin! You'll now have to fight against 2 of them.

Boss - Fujin, Raijin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeap, Raijin still absorbs Thunder and Fujin will absorb Wind
attacks, so don't use them. Raijin still uses same old same old stuff
but do look out for his Raijin Special attack, as it can hurt you
pretty bad. Fujin's Zan don't pose much of a threat but her Aero can
hurt.

> GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Pandemona from Fujin!

Mug Raijin again for more Str-Ups, Fujin has a Megalixir but winning
gives you the same thing so it doesn't matter.

For offence, Leviathan again works well, but it won't do as much
damage to Fujin as Raijin. Tonberry + Boost too. Regular attacks
works exceptionally well if you have good spells. Try getting your
character to critical to unleash their Limit Breaks if you want, but
it won't matter too much. Magic isn't bad either, but Fujin seems to
be quite magically resistant so it's better to deal with her with
physical attacks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - PANDEMONA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Originally named Pandemonium in the Japanese version, this GF had its
dignity taken away by the translation team by changing its name to
suit the 9 letter limits. Pandemona resembles a squid-mage creature
from FFT only purple colored with a large squirrel-like tail.
Fortunately, its summon attack is of straight wind-elemental, not
completely screwed up like FFVII (Typhoon was actually earth!) or
non-existent like the previous Fantasies. Tornado Zone sucks all
enemies into Pandemona's guts and then thrown out in a gust of wind,
hurting all enemies badly amidst the fiery tempest. It's great for
just about any enemy, especially ones taking flight. Not only that,
Pandemona is also the first GF that grants you Spd-J and Spd+20%/40%
which are essential to winning most fights later on. The only bad
part is that you need to learn Spd-J yourself by accumulation a large
bundle of AP. Pandemona also has decent Strength abilities and the
Initiative ability that allows you to act first.
Best skills: Spd-J, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, Initiative
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


---My heart will go on---
You're in the bridge of Balamb Garden and the blissful Selphie comes
along and wants your team to take a look at the remains of Trabia
Garden.

> Card Check! Before you go anywhere, go back to Balamb and challenge
the guy standing outside the hotel. He has Pandemona's card and it's
a really good card with THREE strong sides!!! If you've won the card
off her daughter earlier, just ignore this bit.
> Uh uh, don't leave yet. Remember how I told you to try to get the
Queen of Cards to Balamb after loosing Sacred's card? Well she should
be here right now and that Chicobo card can open up another
opportunity to get a new rare card. Save at the hotel and challenge
the queen and deliberately try to loose the Chicobo card, try to get
her back to Dollet.
> If you've done so, head back to Dollet and she tells you her father
has painted another card and it's somewhere in Balamb Garden. Before
you leave, win back Chicobo's card from her little brat.
> As for the new card, you might want to try the guy who's sitting
next to a fountain and he can be found by taking right once in Balamb
Garden's lobby. You can win the Chubby Chocobo card off him.

Once you're ready to move on, move the Garden north-eastwards to get
to Trabia Garden, or at least what's left of it. You must have
Selphie on your team for this, as for the other member, it doesn't
matter yet since you won't have to fight here.

Climb the fence and your other team members arrive. Just follow the
path and explore for some goodies.

> Magic Check! There's a DP for Thundaga next to the fountain, the
screen with the gravestones hides a DP for Zombie and a non-
recoverable DP for Aura can be found on the ruins of a stage.

> Card Check! Play a game with Selphie's best friend when Selphie
leaves (or else you won't be able to challenge her) and she uses
Selphie's card. The Random/Same/Plus rules makes this really tricky
but (at least IMO) it helps to introduce the Open rule from Balamb.
The Card game will become extremely strategic.

Move to the basketball court for a long story scene, I won't spoil it
here but there's actually not much to spoil, considering the
simplicity of the story. Oops, I should shut up now.

> Magic Check! Well, before you leave, you might want to try to
encounter some Gaylas around the Trabia region, they're quite common.
Then level them up and draw Meltdowns from them, then card them or
level them down when you're done. Meltdown is a very good spell both
for casting and junctioning, so it's worth it. Thanks to Voltroneo
for this.


---Boom boom boom boom, the Garden goes boom---
Somebody suggests a visit to Matron's orphanage, but make sure you
complete all the mini-quests do anything you need to do first,
because you won't see the world map until disc 3.

Take the Garden south to the Centra region and you'll see Galbadia
Garden hangin' near Matron's orphanage. It's kinda hard to see since
it's most likely to be in the screen's blind spot and takes most
people by surprise. Upon getting reasonably close to the enemy
Garden, a cut scene will follow where the Garden prepares for combat.

You'll be given a list of options but I have absolutely no idea what
they're good for, and neither do I have any idea how it works. So
just choose whatever (or bang on the buttons like Selphie does) since
I don't think it matters too much in the game.

Squall'll give a speech and commands to all pupils within the Garden,
then Irvine, Quistis and Selphie arrives. Make a new team but it
doesn't matter since it's going to be a short scene.

Make your ways to the Quad and you'll see Zell and Rinoa. Then Nida
calls you back to the bridge (drag ons.) The scene switches to Zell's
team, but you need to junction yourselves this time, since you will
encounter enemies (I think) but it doesn't matter too much what you
junction. I usually just stick Diablos and Enc-None on Zell since
this scene is extremely short and don't deserve a careful junction.

Continue as Zell and after the scene where the ground gives away and
Rinoa falls, you need to make a retreat back to the lobby to meet
with Squall's team.

You will now have to choose 2 members between Quistis, Selphie and
Irvine to stop the enemies in the classroom. Zell will help Rinoa and
the member who is not chosen by Squall will help Xu defend the front
Gates. It doesn't matter what you choose here, as both Quistis and
Selphie are good characters, but take Quistis if you want an easy
fight and have gotten Bad Breath. Save the game though.

> Junction Check! Whatever here, but pack LV Down on whoever gets
Tonberry.

> GF Check!
  - Diablos: HP+??%
  - Brothers: HP+80% then HP Bonus if you wish
  - Carbuncle: Vit Bonus then ST Def
  - Leviathan: Spr+40% then Spr Bonus
  - Pandemona: Boost if you haven't gotten it yet, then definitely
start on Spd-J
  - Tonberry: Any "shop" abilities will do

Make your way to 2F Classroom and the enemies will come through the
window. You'll be against 4 Paratroopers who are a real pain to beat
since they love to cast annoying spells like Silence. I'd recommend
using Quistis to cripple them with Bad Breath, else summon Siren
first thing. Then take your time lowering their levels with LV Down
since 4 of them will surely give you more EXP than you can handle by
defeating them stright away. Draw some spells if you wish, then kill
them off one by one.

You'll be called back to the bridge afterwards where your characters
will argue about what you should be doing. Squall finally decided
that it's about time that they take an offensive turn and tries to
crash into Galbadia Garden to get on board.

Now you take control of Squall alone. On the second floor you have to
help the girl to look for the little boy down the end of the hallway.
When you do however, a Galbadia soldier with a jetpack comes through
the entrance and pins Squall against the emergency door. It's time
for a terrible micro-minigame but you are treated to an unfair
advantage since the enemy will be able to hit you twice before you
can even retiliate!

What you need to do is to munch on the controller and you'll get an
option of what you want to do. Escape is NOT an option since you
cannot, you'll simply give the enemy the opportunity for a free hit.
Try looking for another option, you'll get hit once more but it'll
give you the choice of releasing the emergency lock the next turn. (I
have no idea what happens if you try other options though.)

The enemy tackles Squall just as he releases the lock and they both
falls outside, hanging onto a rope and the only thing that keeps them
from falling is the opponent's jetpack. You'll have to fight your way
out though. Remember to block often as you don't start off with as
much health as the enemy and you can easily get knocked out if you're
not careful. Block when you don't have enough time to attack and when
the opponent is about to hit you. Otherwise, punch them right after
his attacks you, you should get a free hit. Then wait a split second
to see if the enemy is about to attack, if so block. If not try
attacking. Alternate between punches and kicks too and you'll
eventually knock him out.

Squall saves Rinoa by offering her the rope and they'll end up on
Galbadia Garden. The couple will have more conversation before
entering the Garden.

Your other members already made it there, you'll now have to seek out
Seifer and the sorceress. I think Irvine is a mandatory member here
if I'm not wrong. (Is Rinoa also a mandoatory character here? I
forgot but I always seems to choose her as the extra member.) Anyway,
Selphie makes a great support member here. Rinoa's Invincible Moon is
also very useful.

> Junction Check! Make sure you pack Enc-None here for 2 reasons,
Odin can ruin your carding attempts and some enemies here cannot be
carded. If you do feel like carding, save often.

> Magic Check! Yup, the same old DPs are still here if you feel like
it but the one in the ice hockey field is now reachable (Protect.)

Run around the rooms and you need to find 3 students within the
complex who gives you a different key card each, which unlocks
certain doors. It's pretty straight forward.

> GF Check! When you get to the main lobby of Galbadia Garden, you'll
see a giant monster with a tail occupying the stage in the centre of
it. It is the GF Cerberus and I'd advice you challenge it but do save
at the SP first.

> Junction Re-Check! Alright, finally some serious preperations.
Junction Quake (use Float if you don't have it) to Elem-Def and if
you have a spare slot, junction Thungaga to it as well. As for ST-
Def, try Berserk. Pack the Mug command along with the usual (Magic,
GF, Draw etc..) Spr is very important here, and give a good Str
boosts to both Squall and Irvine. If you brought Rinoa, make sure her
condition is critical.

> Magic Check! Make sure you have an adaquate supply of Dispel spells
stored on all members. It's about the only time that spell is useful.

BOSS - Cerberus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This boss can really hurt you bad, I mean, REALLY bad if you didn't
take the precautions. It has 3 heads and each one like to cast
different spells. Quake is the most common but sometimes Thunder-type
or Tornado too. It also likes using Berserk on your members. Finally
and the biggest threat of all, it LOVES casting Triple on itself!

Obviously, Siren and Silence will not work so that's why you need to
protect yourselves from the elements. Cast Dispel on it IMMEDIATELY
after its Triple and use Esuna on whoever got affected by Berserk.

Mug a Spd-J scroll from it too.

You can draw Quake from Cerberus, as well as Double. I've heard of
Triple but I guess you have to be at a high level to have that spell
available.

If Rinoa is in your team, let her use her Limit Breaks continuously
and you'll eventually get Invincible Moon. For offence, Limit Breaks
are the best options. Otherwise, Squall's regular attack works fine.
Tonberry+Boost works too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You'll get Cerberus' card for winning, as well as a new GF.

GF PROFILE - CERBERUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 3 headed dog who guards the gate to Hades' realm is probably the
most valuable GF in the whole game. Despite being cute, the summon
Counter Rockets is also most useful. Even though the name makes no
sense whatsoever, it gives all members in your party the Double AND
Triple status in battle. A definate "must-have" for all the people
who likes using magic as their main source of offence or defence.
Just make sure you have a good compatibility. :) Cerberus also has
the largest collection of the MOST useful abilities and MANY Junction
Abilities for a variety of stats. Abilityx3 is great like you've all
seen before but Cerberus' Spd+??% and ST-Defx4/ST-Atk has the guts to
take on BOTH Siren and Pandemona! It's unique skill, Auto-Haste is
also one of the most useful abilities in the whole game and is
especially important for maxing out the Spd attribute. Make sure you
so not miss this GF!
Best skills: Spd-J, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, ST-Atk, ST-Defx4, Auto Haste,
Expendx2-1, Abilityx3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! Cerberus should start with Spd-J like Pandemona.

When you acquire keycard #3 you can take the lift up to what seems to
be the ex-headmaster's office, but now taken over by Edea and Seifer.
There's another SP here so save. Don't really have to redo your
junctions yet.

BOSS - Seifer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Yawn* Same old same old Seifer but this time her has a new Limit
Break, Demon Slice. Not all that damaging, just laugh at how weak he
is compared to your guys. :)

Not much strategy here, normal attacks can take him out in a few hits
but do try to mug a Hero from him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edea calls Seifer useless and disappears. Take the elevator down to
2F and head for the Auditorium. There's a hidden SP outside so save
there and check your junctions.

> Junction Check! Make sure you have a good spirit. Junction Death to
Squall's ST-Def and also Aura if you have an adaquate amount of it,
if not, use Esuna/Life.

BOSS - Seifer and Edea ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seifer rushes into battle again saying that he's not weak and he's
going to protect Edea. He's just the same as last time, a couple of
regular attacks and he'll go down in no time. If you brought Rinoa,
try again for Invincible Moon, which will lasts through the encounter
with Edea.

When he's defeated, Edea gets angry and will start the battle with
Maelstorm, a gravity attack that takes out a lot of HP and gives you
the Curse status. If you have Selphie, have someone draw Esuna and
use it on her and cast Full Cure from her Slots. Otherwise, cure the
status with Esuna and cast Cura/ga on yourselves.

> GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Alexander from Edea!

Carbuncle still sorta works here, try it if you want. I've heard that
if you do so, Edea will cast Reflect on herself and bounce spells off
it to hurt you. She DOES cast Reflect on herself BUT she doesn't cast
spells on herself to bounce it off both times when I fought her. I
guess it's probably because her levels are low and therefore, she has
low AI.

Anyway, if you do summon Carbuncle, she'll again try Dispel on you.
However, at times she will ignore 2 members and goes out on Squall at
full force and occasionally she will cast Death on Squall, that's why
you need to junction Death to his ST-Def.

Try out your Limit Breaks on her, which IMO is the best form of
offense as Edea has very high Spirit and resists most summons.
Rinoa's Invincible Moon is great in this battle. Also if you can, try
out the various bullets for Irvine. It was fun as I put Edea to sleep
with his Dark Ammo! :) Edea isn't all that hard if you've taken
precautions and heal yourselves regularly.

ALTERNATE EDEA STRATEGY  by James Wennberg
<tanar_ri_zande@yahoo.com>
This is pretty cool. You need to junction 100 Sleep into someone's
ST-Atk and fight Seifer normally. When he gets crippled, you need to
command the character with Sleep ST-Atk to attack before Edea arrives
on the scene (ie, when Seifer starts talking.) This way, that
character will get to hit Edea before she can act, and thus you can
avoid her Maelstorm attack. Fill her up with magic to beat her easily
(as it won't wake her up.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - ALEXANDER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This powerful GF have always raised a common question throughout the
series: Why is Alexander a robot? Strange huh? Hmm, well Alexander
had always been a popular summon since it's one of the very few ways
of causing Holy-elemental damage. Holy Judgement is more spectacular
than ever in FFVIII, and is strengthened even more by offering a long
graphical sequence aided by Boost. Its skills however, will only hold
your attention for a very short time. Like Leviathan, Alexander has
only a few very good skills. High Mag-RF will refine medium -ra
spells into better -ga spells, and frees up more slots! Med Data
isn't very useful in battles but it'll uncover the Med LV-Up skill, a
MUST acquiring another GF later on in disc 3. The Revive command will
bring back a fallen ally for free. Elem-Defx4 is one of the best
defensive skills and Abilityx3 is the last worthy member in
Alexander's skill list that you can call good skills.
Best skills: High Mag-RF, Abilityx3, Elem-efx4, Revive, Med LV-Up
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just when you thought that Edea gets pissed off with you again and
about to throw another buncha icicles at you, Matron regains her
consciousness and sanity. Rinoa walks her way to Seifer, kissed him
(at least it looks like it, gee she must be desperate) and feints. Oh
no...
========================= End of Disc 2 =============================

============================= Disc 3 ================================
Disc 3 will probably be the climax of the story and plot development,
most questions will be answered and yup, it's a now or never
situation with most of the subquests. You can get the remaining GFs
and cards about mid way through where the game gives you a good long
break away from the game. Just hold on for a bit more, because your
training is about to start.


---Taxicab Confessions V: A witch's secret--- (Ah, not really...)
After a scene with Squall and the unconscious Rinoa, Quistis calls
saying the sorceress Edea is back in her orphange and wants to see
Squall and gang.

The Garden should be relatively close to the lighthouse and Edea's
house. Go there and check out Edea and Cid. Listen to her when she
explains the situation and a new threat. Squall drifts off to his own
little world again, this time without Rinoa. What Squall really want
is just to see Rinoa back on her feet so he left.

> Magic Check! A DP in the basement has Curaga

> Card Check! Edea's card is now obtainable from the sorceress
herself. Make sure you save first because the pain in the a$$ Centra
rules are used in this region, along with Random. Do what you did in
Trabia and see what happens. You can make trips to abolish these
rules but considering the only good card in the Centra region is
Edea's, it's not worth the effort. Hopefully luck will be on your
side.
> If you didn't get to challenge Cid for Seifer's card in the
previous discs, he's here.


---To be scorched, or not to be scorched---
> Magic Check! If you want good spells early, give all Meteors and
Flares that Squall and the member whom's about to enter Laguna's
scenario to someone else.

Squall will return to the Infirmary to see Rinoa, and boom, there he
goes. It's the dream world again and this time, you get to choose who
you want to tag along with. I personally chose Irvine since he
started off at a higher level than my other characters so he'll have
a _few_ more HP. The other thing to note is, Kiros will inherit all
the spells from the character whom will enter the dream scenario.

> NOTE!!! This is a very strange scenario because sometimes Ward does
appear and sometimes he does not! I do not know what is the exact
requirement to get Ward to appear in this scenario but if you do, be
sure to down me a line and I'll fill your name in this guide. (I
didn't have Ward in both of my games.)

> NOTE2!!! Thanks to Colin Pentney, who told me that, to get Ward,
simply skip the issue of Timber Maniacs in Shumi Village (the one
where it features Laguna and Kiros in the film and Selphie commented
that "I wonder why Ward is not in the picture.")

Zap zap, Laguna ran out of money and is posing as an actor like it
detailed in a copy of Timber Maniacs. When the camera starts rolling,
you'll see Laguna taking the role of a sorceress slayer. Then came
the dragon that was supposed to be played by Kiros except it smells
like barbecue. Uh oh, another horrible micro-minigame's comin' your
way.

This time it's a fair fight, except Laguna's gunblade does way too
little damage compared to the dragon. Remember to block when the
dragon's about to attack, or else you won't last long. When you see
an opening, jam on the attack button and continous slices will sorta
work. It's not fool proof though, as sometimes his claws will break
through your attack, but it works most of the time.

When you "kill" it, Kiros joins you. Don't fight it yet since you'll
be junction-less. Choose to get ready and head back to the save point
in the previous screen.

> Junction Check! Spread out your GFs between 2 characters. Junction
Aero/Tornado and any Fire spells (preferably Firaga) to your Elem-Def
to block its magic attacks. Junction good spells to Vitality and
Strength. ST-Atk don't matter too much since it rarely works against
powerful enemies that a Ruby Dragon when your levels are so low. As
for commands, pack Card if you wanna card it, else pack LV Down. Also
equip Mug if Quistis hasn't learnt her Fire Breath yet.
> ALTERNATE! If you wanna try out my alternate strategy for getting
good spells, it's much more important. The Elem-Def junctions won't
protect you enough, so you need a good Sprit too. These are some
examples:
         HP:  Tornado     =+3000
         Str: Quake       =+40
         Vit: Meltdown    =+80
         Mag: Pain        =+60
         Spr: Reflect     =+72
         Spd: Triple      =+70
You should have at least 100 Ultimas if you've returned to the Shumi
Village regularly, so put it in place of HP/Spr if you like. Str
isn't all that important here. Equip Character skills like Vit+40%,
Spr+40% and something else (Mug/HP+80%) and you should be powerful
enough.
You also need both LV Up and LV Down, because of this, one character
will have to sacrifice the Magic command for the Draw command. An
Item command can be useful here too. Finally, switch the battle speed
to the slowest.

> Magic Check! For the alternate method, you need an adaquate supply
of Shell, Haste, Protect, Life, Regen and Curaga.

> GF Check!
  - Brothers: HP Bonus then their other -J abilities.
  - Carbuncle: ST-Def and x2
  - Leviathan: Recover/Mag-J
  - Pandemona: Having already learnt Spd-J will be a great asset,
start on Spd+20% if so
  - Cerberus: Ditto, but he maybe a bit slow at that
  - Alexander: You should get his Boost first if you haven't, then
the useful High Mag-RF is worth looking at

You might wanna take your GFs to the desert regions and fight some
Cactuars to learn some abilities, especially for Alexander. Try to
complete High Mag-RF, Med Data and Med LV-Up if you can.

> NOTE! On the screen with the Ruby Dragon, you can encounter Ochus.
They're pretty decent to fight against since they give you 7AP each!
Fight here for a while to learn some expensive abilities if you wish.

When you're done, heal, save and go for the dragon.

BOSS - Ruby Dragon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, this isn't REALLY a boss since you will receive EXP for it but
making this section for this fight is gonna make my guide look tidy
right? Don't shake your head like that...

Anyway, if you've juctioned yourselfves properly, it shouldn't be
able to hurt you with its spells. Just use LV Down on it a few times
and kill it off. Mug it for a Inferno Fang (but sometimes you'll get
a crap fang if its levels are too low.)

ALTERNATE STRATEGY! - The quest for the better spells early.
Alright. We all know that Ruby Dragons has some great spells
available for drawing right? The problem is this one is too weak. So
you need to level it up to steal its spells and level it down again
to kill it. This is VERY dangerous though, since the most powerful
monster in the whole game can crush you like peas when there's a big
level difference.

Before you level it up, cast your support spells while the dragon is
still weak. The first priority is to summon Cerberus or cast Double.
This makes casting spells quicker, so add Haste, Protect, Shell and
Regen.

Now you should determine what level you should raise for the dragon.
Your aim should be above 30, but if you raise it too much, it'll be
way too powerful. Level 30-50 would be my recommendation. (If you
cannot get it right, rise it to level 100 and use LV Down to make it
go back to 50.)

The character WITH the magic command is VERY crucial here, so do
anything to keep him alive.

The dragon's spells are going to hurt you bad, but the Spirit and
Shell will deduce the damage by quite a lot. Its most damaging attack
is Breath, which by my calculations with the HP/Vit boosts and
Protect, you'll probably survive.

Now draw both Flare and Meteor at your leasure, but if a status wears
off, renew it quickly. Don't hesitate if you need healing, it's
better off safe than sorry.

Finally, when you've done all the hard work accumulating 200 Flares
and Meteors, use LV Down and crush it. Oh and don't forget to steal
Inferno Fangs if you want to.

THE ALTERNATE ALTERNATE STRATEGY! - Taming the Ruby Dragon
Thanks to Colin Pentney <salivator@hotmail.com> for this trick.

"Well, I have a strategy that could theoretically let you LV Up the
Ruby Dragon as high as you want, without (much) fear of it turning
your party into crispy, bite-size snacks. I say "theoretically"
because although I've seen it work many times before, I'm still not
EXACTLY sure how or why it works. But here's what I know:

"Ok, this happened to me in my first game of FF8, while I was
(foolishly) wandering around in the forest near Edea's house,
completely unaware that Ruby Dragons sometimes make their residence
there... I was also lv. 100 at the time. So I ran into a lv. 100 R.
Dragon, and began what would turn out to be an hour and a half long
battle. It wasn't going so well for the first hour or so... he would
basically do either Meteor or Breath every single turn, so I was
forced to sit back and do nothing but heal, rarely getting the chance
to attack.

"After a while, it eventually killed of Zell, and I had no real way
of reviving him, because I couldn't afford to take that extra turn to
use a Phoenix Down or cast Life. That's when a funny thing
happened... the dragon completely stopped doing Breath and Meteor! In
fact, the only things it was attacking me with were Aero and Fira
(not even Firaga!). So I was able to draw all the spells to my
heart's content, only taking several hundred damage on one person per
turn, instead of several thousand per turn on everyone! Actually, it
would still rarely do it's claw attack, but that only did about ~1000
to one person, anyway. So after drawing 100 Meteors and Flares for
Squall and Rinoa, I went and resurrected Zell... big mistake.
Instantly, the dragon started it's old attack pattern of using Meteor
or Breath every turn! So I cleverly deduced that it was Zell's death
that caused it to cease attacking so fiercely. So I put my theory to
test... I let Zell die again. And sure enough... it would throw
nothing but Aero, Fira, and the occasional claw attack at me.
So if you haven't caught on by now, my strategy is to kill one person
in your party while facing Ruby Dragons, and it'll apparently become
'tame', leaving you free to draw all those juicy spells at your
leisure. I've tested this again and again, and it seems to work every
time on the Ruby Dragons in the forest!

"Now... there SHOULD be no difference between those dragons and the
one you fight in Laguna's scenario. So just kill off Kiros or Ward
(preferably Ward) at the start of the battle, then Lv Up the dragon
as high as you want. It should then be tame, and only hit you with
weak spells. Draw all you want, then kill off Kiros and revive Ward,
letting him get a turn at drawing. Lv Down the dragon when you're
done, and then kill it off or Card it! It's that simple!"

Gee, it just keeps on going. Oh, this strategy has been tested by
Qualera and a few other readers, so it does work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you're done, the scenario ends after a little walking.


---Seedy... I mean SeeD Ship---
Squall will share some conversation with Ellone via telepathy and
that's when he get the idea of trying to get Ellone to bring back
Rinoa... doesn't make too much sense to me I know.

Go back to Edea's place ("Look who came crawlin' back!"... is what
I'd say.) She tells you that the white SeeD ship is of nomad blood
and never stays at the same place for long, but seems to be adapt to
the Centra region.

Take the Garden for a spin around that region. The ship is located in
one of the "ditches" around the land that looks a bit like a hand.
It's quite hard to find even in your second game, but following the
above guidelines will narrow down the possibilities.

Once you're on board, you need to convince the white SeeDs that
you've been sent by Edea, and you'll also find 2 familiar faces:
Watts and Zone.

> Card Check! If you held onto the kinky wet T-shirt edition of Girl
Next Door all the way back in Timber, you can exchange it for Shiva's
card if you give it to him for free. (Gee, it almost makes you wonder
what he's been doing with a card of a naked lady...)

> Magic Check! There's a Holy DP in one of the rooms. It's quite a
rare spell in this game for some reason.

Talk to the guy who appears to be the "captain" and he'll tell you
some stuff about Ellone. She decided to play hard to get and was
taken by Esthar soldiers.

Well, no luck here so head back to the Garden and Squall'll foolishly
try to carry Rinoa to Esthar and you'll see a long scene with the 2
of them. When you get to a train station, Zell and Quistis will be
waiting and guess who's tagging along? Edea of course, she'll be a
great asset, even though she may not be as powerful as Seifer.


---Salt Lake City? Yup, I've been there---
With the mighty Edea in your team (BTW, her status picture looks
really cool!) will allow your second power up session, and some of
your GFs, like the poor Siren, REALLY needs some EXP. So do what you
did with Seifer earlier, kill of 2 members and let Edea take all the
EXP.

> Junction Check! Well, if you want to quickly level up a few GFs,
junction only 1 or 2 GFs you want to level up (Siren) to a dead
member so the EXP gained isn't spread over a large majority. Junction
all the important ones to Edea though, and make sure she has all the
-J abilities. Equip LV Up on Edea if you want. Also, don't junction
any GFs who has mastered both their level and skills (ie, your first
3 GFs if you did the Seifer power-up trick in Dollet.)

> Magic Check! Make sure that Edea has a large supply of good spells
for junctions.

Now you can fight either on the world map or in the Great Salt Lake
area. You can only encounter Vysages in the latter, they're pretty
good for AP though, and if you level them up, you can get some pretty
decent spells for drawing, but watch out for Meteor, it can be lethal
when you have only a single member.

> Note! Junction good spells to Edea's HP and equip HP+80% for a huge
HP boost. Edea can execute her Limit Break, Ice Strike, more easily
than the other members but not as much as Seifer. (I'd say about 50%
health remaining or less.) So use it to your advantage.

Try out Edea's Ice Strike on the Vysages, or you may wana try to
Silence them with Siren. If you decide to power up on the over world,
expect to see a lot of Mesmerizes but you can encounter a Hexadragon
or something occassionally that're great for EXP.

> GF Check! I think I'm gonna stop listing this section since it's
towards the end of th game where things can get a bit loose, so I'll
just list what skills you should learn in what order.
  - Brothers: All of their HP skills first, then the -J skills.
  - Carbuncle: All Vit skills, then ST-Def and ST-Atk skills and
finally complete the -J skills.
  - Leviathan: All Spr skills then Recover and -J skills
  - Pandemona: All Spd skills then Initiative and -J skills
  - Cerberus: VERY tricky here, since many of its great skills has
prerequisites. I'd get its Spd skills first, then Spr-J will unlock
ST-Def and learn everything until ST-Defx4 is complete. Then Mag-J
will unlock ST-Atk and finally all his other Character Skills.
  - Alexander: You'll want to complete High Mag-RF ASAP, then
immediately move onto Med Data, which unlocks Med LV-Up. (These
skills are required to acquire the GF Doomtrain but are as expensive
as hell!) Afterwards, complete Elem-Defx2 and x4, then Revive.
  - Tonberry: All of his shop skills are exceptionally useful, not
crucial but convinient, especially if you wanna use the money trick.
Completing all 3 of its shop skills will trigger Call Shop. It also
has 3 interesting Character Skills.

I stayed in this area until Alexander learns High Mag-RF, which comes
just in time since I was running out of magic slots and it helped to
turn -ras into -gas. If you've done Seifer's power-up trick in
Dollet, you shouldn't need the ra spells.

> Magic Check! There are 2 DPs here. There's a hidden DP for Meteor
before a bone bridge hanging over a cliff, it's also non-recoverable.
The other DP is Thundaga and it's over the other side of the bridge.
When you're satisfied, find the SP and revive your members with a
Tent.

> Junction Check! Spread out your GFs again and pack Leviathan's
Recover if you want an easy fight, also Enc-None too. Junction
Confuse and other status spells to your ST-Def.

Whenever you're ready, save and head all the way to the left, you
should be on top of a cliff over looking a large canyon, where you'll
find your next boss.

BOSS - Abadon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This boss is an undead, but it has very powerful claw swipes and it
can cause the Curse status. After a while, it'll take a defensive
stance by standing up, where it'll start to cast negative status
spells on you. Its defence is also rised during that period.

Since it's undead, cure-type spells can deal damage to it. If you've
equipped Leviathan's Recover command, use it on the boss and it will
deal 9999 damage, killing it in one hit. Else, draw Cura and cast it
on the boss. If you've became critical, use your Limit Break, also
take advantage of Edea's Limit Break.

If you brought Mug, you can steal a Power Wrist, else you'll win 10
Flare Stones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you're done, exit the screen and you'll have a sequence with a
hidden portal. Work your way into it and after taking the elevator a
couple of times, your team will arrive in a giant modern looking city
complex... Esthar?!

> Magic Check! Oh yeah, before proceeding with the story, trade
Edea's spells to another member... you'll see why in a sec.


---And then a hero comes along..---
Just when things are heating up, someone has to ruin it by sending
your team back in time to Laguna's world. Ward is back in this final
Laguna scenario after a long absence as a janitor and you can assign
who is going to play the parts of Kiros and Ward yourself. I don't
think sorceress Edea is selectable so that's why you need to trade
her magic to someone else. Basically, just choose whoever has the
majority of the spells stocked.

You'll see Laguna's team being held as prisoners and are used as
slaves for manual labour. Ward and Kiros gets taken away, but before
you do anything, check your junctions.

> Junction Check! Juction all GFs on Laguna first, and give him the
command LV Down.

Talk to everyone on the screen and eventually it'll yield a fight
with a guard, one on one. You need to use LV Down on him, it should
be an easy fight.

Actually, I've forgot what really happens here, but eventually Ward
and Kiros will be back in your team and you'll get surrounded by
soldiers. Don't fight yet as you need to prepare.

> Junction Check! Spread out your GFs and keep the LV Down command,
maybe the Card command too if you want.

I think you'll have to fight 2 streams of soldiers, with a Gespar in
the second fight. Just the usual LV Down strategy, but you may want
to card the Gespar, doesn't matter anyway.

Head all the way up to the surface where you'll meet up with the lab
assistant guy. They'll mention something about Ellone being held
captive.

> Magic Check! A DP for Death is near the entrace.

> NOTE! If you haven't gotten a Laser Cannon to learn Quistis'
powerful Homing Laser already, you can get one now, but it also
requires a bit of work. Make sure you equip both LV Up and LV Down
commands and the Mug skill.

Save at the SP and return to where you started. You'll encounter
another fight when you approach Dr. Odine. It's 2 soldiers and an
Elastoid. You can normally steal Laser Cannons from the Elastoid
easily, but not when your level is so low. (This is also the last
time you will ever fight an Elastoid so don't miss this chance.)

Alright, now use LV Down on the soldiers and eliminate them. Use LV
Up on the Elastoid until its level is above 30, then use Mug. You
should get a Laser Cannon.

> Magic Check! The high level Elastoid has Meltdown, a great spell,
for drawing. So stock up on it if you want. (It's also a good idea to
trade all your Meltdowns to a member who's not going to participate
in this scenario earlier. Oops, I should've mentioned this earlier
shouldn't I?) Anyway, get as many Meltdowns as you want. It also has
Stop, but you don't need to stock it. Just draw it and cast it on the
Elastoid, it should freeze it for 2-3 rounds.

Use LV Down on it and either card it or squash it. Done.

After you beat the enemies, you'll see a scene where you take the car
to the research centre to rescue Ellone. You'll fight another battle
when you get inside the structure, just use the usual LV Down
strategy.

> Magic Check! 2 more DPs are in this section, equip Move-Find to see
them all. The first one to the top right corner has Double and the
one upstairs has Flare.

You can take the yellow disc thing in the centre of the room (it
looks like a throne) up. Enter the door and you'll fight another
boring encounter, just use the usual. Examine the computer terminal
and take the elevator thing back down to find Ellone. This scenario
will end with a happy ending. (And they lived happily forever
after... or did they?)


---Scarred for life---
Squall and team will wake up where they fell unconscious. A car
arrives to pick them up. You'll get a quick tour (well, not really a
tour) of Esthar and you'll arrive at the Presidential Palace. Edea
will explain her situation and Dr. Odine wants to examine the
unconscious Rinoa. Nope, Ellone is not here either, but they arranged
to have Squall and Rinoa launched into space. Lunar Gates is your
next destination, but you'll want to check out Esthar before you do
so.

> Card Check! Before you go, challenge Dr. Odine to a card game since
he has Ward's card, my personal favourite card, as it's basically a
more powerful version of Ifrit's.

> Magic Check! Esthar is HUGE, so you'll have to run around to find
all the DPs, but some of them are not worth the effort. The one
outside the Presidential Palace has Blizzard (?!) A DP for Tornado is
outside Dr. Odine's lab and one for Quake is in the shopping mall.
(Or was it the other way around?) The other DP (Curaga) is on one of
the highways somewhere to the east.

Before you go though, check out the shopping malls, you can buy a lot
of cool stuff here, especially if you have gotten Tonberry's Familiar
ability. Don't forget to repeatedly visit Cheryl's shop for a free
Rosetta Stone. Johnny's shop may appear to be closed, but just
repeatedly visit his shop and it'll eventually be open for business.
It's worth it though, as he sells some great and rare stuff like
Elixirs, saving you time of having to make them. Once you visited his
shop, you'll be able to shop "online" at anything through Tonberry's
Call Shop ability.

Leave the city when you're satisfied, but Lunar Gates is pretty far
away so you might wanna hire a car. But then again, there's a few
things you can do right about now so maybe not.


---Things to do #4---
You'll want to check your map for the location of Tears Point, which
is to the south east of Esthar. Head over there since you can pick up
a vital item.

> Magic Check! There are 2 DPs in this area, one for Reflect next for
the statutes and one for Life (hidden) on the path leading to the
statutes.

Walk towards the statutes in the centre of the area and you can
vaguely see a shiny thing on the ground. Examine it to receive the
Soloman's Ring.

This ring is indeed the one detailed in the third issue of Occult Fan
magazine (no, not Squall's ring!) The other issues of Occult Fan
hints the key 666 items to unleash the cursed GF. So these items are:
* 6x Malboro Tentacle
* 6x Steel Pipe
* 6x Remedy+

Once you have the required key items in your inventory, you can use
the Soloman's Ring to summon the GF Doomtrain to be your ally.

You should have accumulated quite a number of Steel Pipes from
fighting with Wendigos, or you can mod Elastoid's card. Six of them
is not hard to get. As for Remedy+, it can only be obtained from
refining 10 Remedies into 1 Remedy+ through Alexander's Med LV-Up
skill, which is quite a pain since it's so expensive and requires the
prerequisite of Med Data. As for Malboro Tentacles, you can obtain
them now or later, by defeating or stealing from Malboros.

Malboros can be found in the Esthar region but only before the Lunar
Gate event, they also seem to favour the western border. Also, it's
also going to be quite a mission to get its tentacles since you don't
want to level up, but here's how I did it.

Quest for Malboros Tentacles early ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, junction Tonberry, Siren, Shiva, Quezacotl and Cerberus to Edea,
and make sure she has good spells in every category to junction. (Put
100 Triples in her Speed.) Kill off the other 2 members like always
so they won't gain any EXP.

ST-Def is vital for this mission. ST-Defx4 can be learned from
Cerberus, but it's very long way and requires MANY prerequisite
skills. If you've gotten the Status Guard from Shumi Village, use it
on one of your GFs. Else, just stick to Siren's ST-Defx2. (I only had
an ST-Defx2 when I did this.) Junction 100 Berserk and Confuse to it.
And if you have ST-Defx4, junction 100 Sleep and Silence as well.

Make sure Edea has an adequate supply of Regen, Shell, Protect,
Haste, Demi, Curaga and at least one Double/Triple. Give her the
commands, Attack, Magic, LV Up and Treatment. As for character
abilities, I'd choose any Spd+??% and HP+80%.

Run around the western border until you encounter a Malboro. You're
gonna need some luck on your side. The first thing it will do is Bad
Breath, which is gonna put Edea to Sleep if you only have ST-Defx2,
but it's quite mild if you have x4. If you have only x2, just wait
until it hits you with its Dissolving Acid attack, which will wake
you up.

In either case, use Treatment on yourself, since the Malboro won't
use Bad Breath for a while. Now cast all the positive status spells
on Edea, in this order: Haste, Regen, Protect (wards off Dissolving
Acid), Shell (wards off Eerie Sound Wave) then Double or Triple.

Now use LV Up on the Malboro ONCE, it should bring its level over the
30 barrier. This is needed because low level Malboros gives you
Poison Powder instead.

Now keep casting Double/Triple Demis when your turn comes up. If you
get affected by Bad Breath again, use Treatment like before. If you
really need healing fast, just use Curaga on yourself (one should be
enough.) If one or more positive status wears off, renew them.

Soon, the Demi you cast will start taking off less than 9999 damage,
it's an indication that you're getting close. You may switch to other
spells if you want, but just take note that they won't do all that
much damage for some reason. Firaga is decent since the Malboro is
weak against fire. Else just execute Ice Strike for a lot of damage
(about 8000.) You should be able to nail the Malboro without much
problems with this strategy. The only threat is not having ST-Defx4
and the Malboro keeps using Eerie Sound Wave, I remember getting KO'd
once because of it.

You should win 8 Malboro's Tentacles (or rarely 10 Cursed Spikes) and
tons of EXP! (My Edea went up TWELVE levels!!!!!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you do not wish to obtain the tentacles now, you'll have to wait
until after acquiring Ragnarock. As for the Remedies+, buy 60
Remedies and refine them from Alexander's Med LV-Up into 6 Remedies+.
Now you should have the basic requirements to summon GF Doomtrain, a
VERY cool GF!

GF PROFILE - DOOMTRAIN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I first downloaded the Grasharaboras (Doomtrain) video off the
net, I immediately knew that Doomtrain would become my favourite GF
in the game. I wasn't disappointed. Never in videogame history had
you given the choice of summoning a _train_ to your aid, which makes
Doomtrain extremely unique and, well, hip. In someway related to the
Phantom Train boss in FF6, a vehicle that carries all "past aways" to
the "other side", Doomtrain's graphical sequence is no less than
breathtaking (IMO.) Its attack Runaway Train is of Poison elemental,
and can get very strong because Doomtrain is capable of learning
SumMag+40%. As an added bonus, Doomtrain's attack will also cause
every single negative status on the targets that you can think of,
except the ones where the target is immune against. Doomtrain is a
good choice against bosses because of Vitality Zero. It doesn't have
that many to-die-for skills, but enough to keep you going. ST-Defx4
and Elem-Defx4 are both invaluable defensive skills. Forbid Med-RF is
essential to get your characters stronger if you have the cash and
Junk Shop is the only "shop" skill that Tonberry does not have,
whoohoo!
Best skills: ST-Atk, ST-Defx4, Elem-Defx4, Auto-Shell, Forbid Med-RF,
Junk Shop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! Start with Doomtrain's Boost, then Forbid Med-RF for its
ability of creating goodies. Then Elem-Defx4 and ST-Defx4 will be
great assets to your party. Auto-Shell is nice if you put it to use.
IMO, Doomtrain benefits greatly from the SumMag+??%s, since it's
rather weak at first when you get it (and since it's a GF that you
will want to use a lot.)


---Gateway to the moon---
When you're ready to move on, head to Lunar Gates where you'll see a
scene. They're preparing to launch Rinoa, Squall and another team
member into space. Choose whoever here since they don't have to
fight, but if one member is really in trouble of almost gaining a
level, take them.

Zell will accompany Edea for her stuff and you're prompt to take
someone else. You'll hear a loud thump and it's time to head back to
Esthar to check out what happened.


---The box in the sky---
You need to go to Dr. Odine's lab (the one where you can't get into
earlier) and he'll explain the situation. The Lunatic Pandora will
cross Esthar and you have 20 minutes. There are 3 points where the
Lunatic Pandora will pass over a certain point in the city, and
you're given the approximate time which the Lunatic Pandora passes
by. What you need to do it to be at a certain point in the city
during a certain time frame. Just pay attention to Dr. Odine and you
shouldn't have much of a problem finding your destination.

> Junction Check! Give the LV Down command to the person who has the
best speed, and pack Enc-None as well.

Exit the lab and head for the destination. You can press the Square
button to bring up a very helpful time bar showing the time left, the
time and where the Lunatic Pandora passes through the city. I'm not
too sure if you will meet random encounters here though, can't
remember.

The first destination is the "city centre"... You can play "spot the
difference" with the picture you're shown and they real destination,
it's somewhere to the central western part of the city. It's kinda
hard to find but you have 5 minutes so no worries. If you get there
in time, just wait a little while.

>NOTE!!! The below walkthrough of the Lunatic Pandora is intended if
you succeeded in getting into the ship at the first time interval
(15:00). If you've failed the first time and got in either the second
or third time, you'll end up at a different place within the
structure. Thanks to Efrem Orizzonte <efroriz@hotmail.com> for this,
and here's the directions he gave to ensure you readers can find the
first meeting point without problems.

   "From the road outside Odine's lab, you must go right twice, then
    climb down the stairs behind the lift plate, then go up the steps
    and left. The Pandora will show up there."

> He also said that according to the official guides, the shops that are
usually closes in Esthar will be open during this time, although no one
has yet been able to varify that.

When the time comes, some soldiers will jump out and attack. Just
lower their level and kill them, they're easy. Note that the timer is
still on during the fight but there should be enough time for it.

After the fight, Zell's team will enter the Lunatic Pandora. There
are a LOT of goodies in here, and even MORE if you've triggered all
the traps in Laguna's second scenario. Make sure you catch 'em all.

Anyway, I've gonna be detailed here to get you all the cool stuff in
there. From the entrance, there's a Meteor DP and a Curaga DP is in
the room with 3 elevators. They recover very fast so stay here for a
while to pick some of them up.

The right #3 elevator up to the basement (??) and climb the ladder in
that area down. There is a DP for Confuse here, and the circular red
gate would be open if you triggered a certain trap, leading to a
LuvLuvG (kinda hidden.) Now take the path south and you'll regconize
this area. It's the infamous three hatches! So if you fiddled around
with all 3 of them, they should all be open. The left one has a
Phoenix Pinion, the middle one has a Silence DP and the right one
(and the best one of all!) has a Power Generator! Now Quistis can
finally learn Ray-Bomb!

Further along with path, you can pick up a copy of Combat King 005
(very obvious) and to the end of the passage has an Ultima DP. (Maybe
something else in there too, forgot.)

Make your way back to the elevator hall. You don't have to worry
about #2 as it will lead you to some empty hallways with NOTHING in
them. Don't even try to find stuff in there. I remember spending like
half in hour jamming on the X button trying to find items in there...
Ugh... Bad memories, don't wanna talk about it.

Take elevator #1 down and there's a Holy DP ready to be drawn.
There's also a Spd-J Scroll near by. That's about all folks, not too
bad huh? If you didn't get everything now, you'll still have a chance
later with Squall. So just follow the path past a SP and take the top
exit. Your team will be kicked out of the Lunatic Pandora.


---Vixen or tramp?---
You'll get to see a pretty cool scene on how they catch those
capsules in space. Afterwards, Squall and gang are quickly thawed.
You'll be asked to carry Rinoa to the medical room.

> Card Check! Save at the SP and challenge Piet to a card game, as
you wanna rob his Alexander card. The space region is the most
annoying as it uses ALL rules, so you really need a lot of strategy
and luck. (But a lot of strong cards isn't the answer, since he can
combo you badly.) It might take a few tries, but eventually you'll
get it. It's the _only_ holy elemental card in the whole game, making
it absolutely perfect for elemental battles, since Holy elemental
spots appear more often than others. Note you _can_ delete rules even
if this region has every single one, but it's rarely of much help.

Leave Rinoa and follow them to the control room. After a bit of
speech, you'll be told that Ellone is in the room upstairs. Save your
game again though, because...

> Card Check! Ellone has Laguna's card. It's not as easy as it sounds
though, as Ellone is a real b**ch when it comes to card games, even
more so than Edea/Quistis/Xu/Selphie's friend/Queen of Cards and her
little brat put together. First, she rarely uses Laguna, then she'll
usually combo you _really_ badly. (Talk about a 5 hit combo outside
of a fighting game. :) Curse that girl! It'll take some reloading for
this game. (Prepare some Asprin too.)

Make sure you play the card game with Ellone _before_ you speak with
her normally. Squall will take Ellone with him to see Rinoa, then the
alarm sounds as Rinoa wakens and is possessed. Follow her around and
she'll eventually switch off Adel's seal, and flies out of space to
free her.

The Lunar Cry has started, what shall I do? Anyway, go upstairs to
the locker room and put on one of those astronaut suits and try to
get outta there. You'll see another pointless scene where you try to
race them outta the air lock but it shuts and you'll have to go back
again. Geez, if that's how they're planning to lengthen FFIX by 2
minutes then I'm gonna go complain.

You'll have to get onto an escape pod right now. You'll have to talk
to Ellone and then descend an elevator. Don't go into the pod yet
because...

> Magic Check! If you examine a hatch to the left-hand side, it'll
open reviewing a DP for Meltdown.

Then hop onto the escape pod and ready for lift off. The space
station is completely destroyed after that. Ellone will try to send
Squall into Rinoa's past, just watch some nifty cut scenes to see
what Rinoa had gotten up to during her absense. You'll see quite a
long scene with Rinoa in space and her past, I won't spoil it here
(and there is something to spoil this time :)

Anyway, the scene ends with Squall's voice reaching Rinoa's heart,
this part's kinda touching. He just rushed out of the escape pod to
chase after her in space.

You'll be forced to play the _worst_ micro-minigame in all videogame
history. Not only is it boring and pointless, you're not even
informed about the controls until you fail! Geez, what you do here it
to keep your finger on the accelerate button (it's the Triangle
button) for 30 seconds and aim for Rinoa's figure with the stick.
Playing this game almost makes me vomit...

Squall rushes up to Rinoa and embrace her in his arms, holding onto
dear life. The end is nigh...


---Eyes on me--- (No, not her, ME!!!)
An airship just happens to be near by, watch the awesome FMV
sequence. The couple will climb in. Go release the air lock and save
at the SP.

In the next room, Squall and Rinoa will take off their bulky
astronaut suits. Rinoa wants a hug but Squall isn't very keen. Keep
going, but check your junctions first.

> Junction Check! Junction all GFs on these 2 characters, and just
use whatever you see fit. If you don't have enough spells, steal them
off another team member. Not all that much here really but be sure to
give Rinoa a good magic level. Junction any Thunder-type spells to
Elem-Def (or use Flare) and junction any Silence to ST-Def.

> NOTE! Rinoa will loose the ability of her Angelo skills inside the
Ragnarock, since Angelo did not accompany her into space. To make up
for it, Rinoa will gain the access to her Angel Wing Limit skills.

> Magic Check! Make sure Rinoa has a variety of good offensive spells
and trade any status spells not being junctioned or Scan/Dispel to
another member to make her Angel Wing more effective.

Y..yikes! A..aliens! You've gotta fight them because the air ship
will refuse the access to the pilot's chamber when it detects a
biological contamination. They are counted as bosses too...

BOSS - Propagator ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They are not all that hard. They love casting Thundaga but you should
be protected. Use Squall's Renzokuken for a quick fight, and you
might want to try out Rinoa's Angel Wing too.

There are 8 of them on the ship, but if you kill them in an incorrect
order, they will keep regenerating. The trick it to kill them off in
pairs. If you kill 2 Propagators of the same color one after the
other, they both will remain dead forever. It's kinda cruel to the
color blinded people though.

You might need to do a bit of sneaking as once one of them sees you,
they'll chase after you. They give you 5AP each and isn't all that
hard so if you want some AP, here is not a bad place.

Qualera told me a long time ago (I think) that you can also get pass
this point by defeating the Propagator enough times, 36 I think.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Magic Check! I'm not sure when these DPs will become available but
it's probably after you've eliminated all the aliens. There's one for
Life (hidden) near the door on a bridge-like platform above another
platform. The other is a non-recoverable DP for Full-Life in the room
with a SP.

When you've killed them all, the elevator will be active and you can
use it to get to the bridge. A loooooong cut scene will follow,
followed by a musical sensation sung by the brilliant Faye Wong -
Eyes On Me!!! Enjoy. (Although it does kinda distract you from
reading the text conversations between Squall and Rinoa.) I won't
spoil anything here.

After you land, Rinoa gets taken away. Then whoever you took with you
to space will come back safe and sound. (Watch what Quistis says
here, if you took her. Don't worry Quisty, I'll always love you.
Hehe...) Then Zell's team will also arrive, saying that Matron is not
a sorceress anymore. You will now loose Edea as a playable character
:( but she's still an ally. After hearing how Rinoa got taken away,
everyone got angry at Squall, and Quistis calls him a coward. (Or was
it idiot, or looser, can't remember.)

Then a hilarious scene involving Selphie piloting the Ragnarock will
follow. The Sorceress Memorial is your next destination. You might be
tempted to start powering up now, but it doesn't hurt to start it
after taking back Rinoa.


---2gether---
Land the Ragnarock near the Sorceress Memorial and head inside.
There's no fights here so don't worry about junctions.

> Magic Check! There's a DP for Stop right outside the structure.

Squall will take Rinoa by force (don't you think sound effects or
music would help during that FMV?) while your other members will hold
the protesters back (watch out for Selphie's nunchacku!) Then your
team returns safely back to the Ragnarock.

Rinoa suggests to go to Edea's orpahnage but tell her "shove it"
because it's powering up time!

=====================================================================
                          Power Up Extra
Hehe, this is a new section with any comments that I have to help you
power up. I will re-type the above Cactuar/Bahamut sections plus the
strategies. Also, I will also detail any fun mini-quests you can do
while powering up, you can do them in any order though, so you might
want to read through all of them to see which ones you want to do.
Basically, this section is here to help you get powerful and prepare
for the last showdown in disc 4.
=====================================================================

---Acquiring Cactuar---
Take the Ragnarock south past the desert and land of the tiny island,
the Cactuar Island. Check your junctions. As for party members, I'd
take Quistis, Squall and Rinoa (for her Invincible Moon.)

> Junction Check! Speed is very important here, junction 100 Triples
to all character's Spd, equip Spd+40% and Auto-Haste if you have it.
Junction Water to your Elem-Atk. Try lower your HP to critical if you
can (or just for Rinoa.) As for commands, try:
     Squall:  Attack, Magic, GF, Item
     Rinoa:   Attack, Magic, Revive, GF
     Quistis: Attack, Draw, Magic, GF
If you wanna draw spells from Jumbo Cactuar, pack Draw instead of GF.

BOSS - Jumbo Cactuar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, the Jumbo Cactuar is Italian!!! Jumbo Cactuar is pretty bad,
since it has the 10,000 Needles attack that does 10000 damage to one
target regardless of your Vit/Spr, which is instant death.

Try letting Rinoa use her Angelo Limit Break and hope for Invincible
Moon. That way, it'll render the boss' 10000 Needle attack useless.
If you wanna draw spells, Meltdown and Tornado are never a bad
choice, although you can get them from other enemies. Draw your
spells during the time where your characters are invincible.

If you don't want to draw spells, Invincible Moon is still great,
especially if all your characters are in critical condition. If
someone gets knocked out by 10000 Needles, use Life or the Revive
command on them.

For offence, nothing can beat your Limit Breaks. Use Quistis' Aqua
Breath for big damage since the Jumbo Cactuar is weak against water.
A regular attack with Water junctioned to Elem-Atk is also very
strong. You should have no problem beating it.

Oh yeah, don't steal, because you'll get some crap Cactuar Thorns
instead of a Gaea's Ring (a free HP-Up!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - CACTUAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like the Tonberry, Cactuars are another enemy in the series. These
cactus-like creatures have been through numerous identity-crisises,
from "Cactrots" in the old days, "Cactuar" nowadays and "Sabotender"
in the Japanese versions. This Italian needle thrower may look
stupid, but that fact hides the potential of a deadly attack. 10,000
Needles is different to any other GF attack in that it does damage
purely based on GF Cactuar's level. The amount of damage dealt is
equal to the "tens" digit of Cactuar's level x 1000. For example, if
GF Cactuar's level is 30-39, the damage dealt is 3000, simple and
effective. This also means that at maximum level of 100, Cactuar will
do 10000 damage to all targets everytime, just like its name. Not
that there's much difference from the 9999 from other GFs, but the
extra digit sure does appeal to the eye. :) Cactuar is also the
master of Character Abilities, since it comes with all Bonuses learnt
and many other potentially useful ones to be learnt. It is also few
GFs that offer the Luck-J and Eva-J ability that's more useful than
it sounds.
Best skills: HP Bonus, Str Bonus, Vit Bonus, Mag Bonus, Spr Bonus,
Eva-J, Luck-J, Expendx2-1, Initiative
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! GF Cactuar should start by learning Luck-J and Eva-J
abilities, then any Character Abilities will do. Its extra Command
Abilities ain't all that great.


---Acquiring Bahamut---
Save the game somewhere. Take the Ragnarock to the south-eastern
corner of the map and try to find a place that resembles an oil rig
(Deep Sea Research Centre.) Land there and select your team. It
doesn't matter who you take for this mission though, but I'd suggest
you bring along Mr. Know-it-all Zell.

> Junction Check! Make sure your party members has good HP and Spr
levels. LV Down is required, and the Recover command is nice. Also,
remove any spells you have junctioned to Luck since if it's too high,
Odin may appear and ruin it for you.

> Magic Check! Try giving away any Full-Life your active team members
have, since it's about time to get them by the truck loads.

Enter the structure and you'll see a glowing tube. Don't retreat when
it asks you to and inch your way towards the tube but only when the
lights spinning around the tube goes away, else you'll be attacked by
some monster.

Examine the glowing tube and it'll ask you a question. You don't have
any choice on what to answer so just select "It's not our will to
fight." You'll have to fight a Ruby Dragon. It's not that hard, given
that your levels are so low. So just use LV Down on it until it drops
to level 1 and kill it off.

Then the tube asks "Begging me for mercy?" Just choose the Bottom
option, "Never!" You'll fight another Ruby Dragon, same old same old.

Then it asks you a third question, a trick question in fact. Choose
neither answer but instead, move the curser down to the bottom where
it lies a third hidden option. Choose that, and you'll fight the
mystery existance behind the light - Bahamut!

BOSS - Bahamut ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll now enter the light tube to fight Bahamut. It'll spend most of
its time hangin' around in the air doin' nothing. It occasionally
swoops down and slashes one member with a claw swipe, that's kinda
powerful but you should have a decent Vit so it won't matter too
much. If needed to, use Leviathan's Recover command.

Another great spell is finally available for mass-drawing: Full-Life!
Try getting 300 of them. If you don't damage Bahamut, it won't attack
very frequently, just an occasional claw swipe or so. Your Mag
attribute should be good enough to get 9 charges every turn. Bahamut
also has Flare, so get some if you want it, although it's quite
common a bit later and ain't as powerful as it should have been.

When you feel it's done, finish off Bahamut in anyway you want.
Doomtrain won't work very well since Bahamut is strong against
Poison, but the Vit Zero status is useful (or you can try Meltdown.)
Another strategy is to draw Flare and cast it back at Bahamut. It's
not that powerful, but since Bahamut is at quite a low level, it may
surprise you at the number of Flares needed to take the legendary GF
down. Regular attacks will work well too and if you're feelin'
generous, try out Aura and unleash someone's Limit Break.

Bahamut has an ultimate attack - Mega Flare! It'll only use it when
its HP gets low though, or after a loong loooooong time. If you get
hit by it, immediately use the Recover command, draw Curaga from
Bahamut or use Selphie's Full Cure/Quistis' White Wind. Mega Flare is
no joke, as it can do 3000 damage to all your guys, that's why you
need high HP, because it would be a "Super Douper Mega Bummer" if
you've spent the time to draw Full-Life and gets wiped out by it. If
you're fast enough in finishing Bahamut, you may not even see Mega
Flare! (I didn't!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - BAHAMUT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As any FF fanatics will know, it's just not a FF without Bahamut.
(Yup, FF2 was more of a SaGa than a FF.) Of course, Bahamut is not as
good as he was in the _really_ old days, since he hasn't been the
most powerful summon for a very long time. His trademark Mega Flare
is powerful and non-elemental, but still caps at 9999, making it an
iffy summon if you ask me. It cannot, however, be blocked by Shell
like the other summons though, so it still has some value. Bahamut
has more value in its skills than the summon, since it's the only GF
that gives Abilityx4, Mag+60% and Str+60% naturally. Rare Item comes
in handy when you want the good items from enemies, as the chances
for the enemies to drop a better item is increased. Forbid Mag-RF is
also the most handy way of get your hands on Ultima spells, although
the ingredients may be hard to find.
Best skills: Abilityx4, Mag+60%, Str+60%, Mug, Auto Protect, Forbid
Mag-RF, Rare Item, Expendx2-1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! Get Boost first for Bahamut, then just get all his best
skills that I've listed above first.

Now it's your time to power up, but there are a few things you might
be interested.


---Complete your collection... nearly!---
Did you mug Alexander's card off Piet? Good. (If not, I think you can
find him somewhere in the over world, the crash landing zone of the
escape pod somewhere south of Esthar.) Take it to the Queen of cards,
who should be back at Dollet after the Chicobo card event above.

Anyway, loose the Alexander card to her and try to get her back to
Balamb. I know it's a pain having to rest but if you let her go
anywhere else, it'll take even more time to get her back to Dollet.
Before you leave Dollet, win back Alexander from her son.

The newly created card is Doomtrain, which can be gotten from the guy
who's sitting in a booth in the "Aphrora pub" in Timber. If he
challenges you to a card game when you talk to him regularly (ie,
with the X button instead of Square) then you know it's him, can't
miss it. It might take some time to get him to use the card though, I
think it was after about 30 matches before I saw him use it and won
it from him. Have some patience.

Guess which card is acquired for the last "special" rare card? Why
it's no other than Doomtrain's card that you just won. So take it
back to the Queen of Cards (in Balamb) and loose it to her, and you
must try to get her back to Dollet one last time.

Afterwards, chase her back to Dollet and she'll tell you another card
has been created. Whew, what a woman, but the good news is that you
don't even have to be bothered by her again... for this disc anyway.
:( Before you go, pick up Doomtrain from her son. Oh yeah, if you
haven't done the bone searching quest, do it now while you're in
Dollet.

The new Phoenix card is in possession of Presidential Aide in Esthar
city. So take the Ragnarock back Esthar and find him in the
Presidential Palace. It might also take some time until he uses
Phoenix, but not as long as the guy in the pub. When you've finally
won Phoenix, you should only have 3 more empty slots in your card
menu, Pupu, Squall and Eden. Don't worry, they're all easy.

If you're missing any LV7 boss cards, go to either Xu, Quistis or
Martine for them. It's pretty hard to complete a full set of LV7
cards IMO.

Pupu
For Pupu's card, a rare LV5 card that's even rarer than the LV10 card
(!!) you'll need to prepare 5 Elixirs. They can be refined or bought
in Johnny's shop in Esthar, and you should have a few in your
inventory.

Now you need to see 4 UFO encounters, they're in these locations:
  - Mandy Beach near Timber
  - Near Winhill
  - Kashkabald Desert
  - Health Peninsular east from Trabia Garden (island)

The first 3 encounters can be seen during earlier stages of the game,
while you'll need the Ragnarock for the last I think. Anyhow, these
encounters will occur even if you have equipped the Enc-None skill,
so equip it and walk around that region and you'll encounter the UFO
easily.

When you've seen all 4, take the Ragnarock toward the direction of
the Chocobo Holy Ground and land on the rocks. Walk around and you'll
encounter a flying saucer. Kill it (!!) and it'll explode and you'll
earn a VERY useful Aegis Armlet, which teaches a GF the useful Eva-J.

Now take the Ragnarock back to where Balamb Garden used to be, and
walk around the giant crevice and you'll eventually encounter an
alien, a cute green thing. It'll say "Elixir please" (what? This is
the replacement for the Magic Pots?) so use all your Elixirs on him.
Don't forget to equip the Item command. :) After 5 of them, the fight
will stop and you'll earn Pupu's card, which is the rarest card in
the game and can be refined into a Hungery Cookpot, which teached the
Devour command to a GF.


---Mmmmmmm, Rosetta Stones... *Drool*---
You may be tempted to go fight Ultima Weapon and acquire Eden right
away, but I'd advice you wait a little, and there's a very good
reason for it: To gather Dark Matters/Rosetta Stones.

I usually do this after powering up 2 members, Quistis and Selphie.
Now replace Selphie with Zell and revive Squall and maybe do just a
little more powering up. Now take the Ragnarock back to the oilrig
thing, the same place where you got Bahamut. Climb down the hole
where you fought Bahamut. (Note: I've received some mail from a few
people who claimed that they CANNOT reach beneath it. All you gotta
do is climb aboard the Ragnarock and talk to everyone on deck.)

> Junction Check! Make sure that Squall and Zell are junctioned with
the right GFs for power-level-upping and all the bonuses you want.
Give Diablos and Tonberry to Quistis and give her the commands: Mug,
Magic, LV Up and something else. She should be really powerful now,
doing godful amounts of damage with each blow. The other characters
are weak though, so you might want to junction 100 Deaths into their
ST-Atk to beef them up. Junction 100 Confuse to ST-Def, Bio helps too
if you have it. Doesn't matter if you don't.

> Magic Check! There's a DP for Dispel at the bottom of the pillar
thing you just climbed down, but who cares?

Approach the generator and use 4 blocks of energy to operate it. Now
there are multiple ways of getting down that thing. I used 4, 2, 1, 1
and 1, so that works. Note that you can encounter Grendels and Bombs
on those levels. They're crap so just do whatever. At the bottom is
the main generator. Let Zell handle it and he punches the piece of
junk, and guess what? The gate opens!

The next screen is your target, it should be look like an ancient
ruin underwater. Strange indeed. Anyway, you must make sure you have
more than 10 blocks of steam pressure left since it's required to
acquire Eden a bit later, but lets not worry about it now.

Save at the SP. The deal with the encounters in this floor and every
floor below it is that they're NOT random. Everytime you step across
a certain point on the ground, you'll be attacked. The type of enemy
varies from floor to floor. This floor is full of Tri-Faces, who you
can steal Curse Spikes from. Why, they're the ingredients for Dark
Matters you say? That's right, you sure do catch on quickly. So
repeatedly fighting them on this floor will result in building up
your collecting rapidly.

However, Siren MUST be at level 100 to do the conversion, which is a
hard job since it's not a good idea to junction her alone to a dead
member when doing level upping so she don't have to share the other
GF would not work. Siren hold the Mag Bonus skill required for the
second member. However, if you're following my "Customized character"
method above, then you might want to junction Siren to a dead Squall
when you're levelling up Quistis earlier. (In that case, trade
Selphie's place for Irvine.) Otherwise, you'll have to do a lot of
EXP gathering to get Siren to level 100.

The 3 encounter points on this floor are located:
  - Right before the SP
  - The steps to the centre of the screen
  - In front of the steps leading down

> NOTE! I don't know if random encounters occur on this floor in
addition to the fixed encounters, but I know that the floors below
has random encounters, so it might be a good idea to give Quistis
Enc-None.

Now keep fighting the Tri-Faces. Let Quistis use LV Up on it to get
it to level 100, while the other 2 characters can draw some good
spells like Pain and Flare. When it gets level 100, have Quistis
steal from it, you should get 6 Curse Spikes (or rarely 8) which is
good. Then have the low level characters kill it in one blow with
Death in their ST-Atk. In addition to the Cursed Spike, it gives you
decent EXP so that's 2 birds with one stone, whoohoo! Tri-Faces do
occasionally drop 8 Curse Spikes upon its defeat, but it's rare and
most of the time you'll get crap like Poison Powder. Odin will
occasionally come and ruin it for you though, but there's not much
you can do about that, maybe remove any spells in Luck-J.

When you fought all 3 of them, just exit the screen and come back,
they'll be back, so carry on.

Once you've accumulated 100 of them, use Siren's Tool-RF to turn it
into a Dark Matter. Then carry on until you're worn out.

***************** The wonders of a Dark Matter **********************
* First and foremost, you should always give your first one to      *
* Quistis to let her learn her best Blue Magic, Shockwave Pulsar.   *
* You have a choice with the rest of them, there're waaaaaaayyy too *
* many options and believe me, they're all so awesome!              *
*                                                                   *
* 1x Dark Matter -> 100 Ultima (Bahamut: Forbid mag-RF)             *
* I believe that this is the one of the best way of gathering       *
* Ultimas. However, you can draw up to 300 Ultimas from Ultima      *
* Weapon later, plus any Ultimas you've drawn from the DP and count *
* the 100 Ultima Stones (and the ones you have already) you get for *
* beating Ultima Weapon, you should have 600 Ultimas easily without *
* having to spend a Dark Matter, but it's good idea if you don't    *
* feel like drawing from Ultima Weapon.                             *
*                                                                   *
* 1x Dark Matter -> Shaman Stone (Siren: Tool-RF)                   *
* Shaman Stones improves the Compatibility with Bahamut slightly,   *
* but it's just a waste. However, you can refine Shaman Stones into *
* a lot of things. Also note that you can refine 10 Shaman Stone    *
* into a Hero-trail. If you wanna make Heroes manually, then this   *
* is probably the best place for it, but it's much easier to do the *
* card trick in disc 4.                                             *
*                                                                   *
* 1x Shaman Stone -> LuvLuvG (Siren: Tool-RF)                       *
* This is much better if you want Compatibility, but it's still a   *
* waste IMO.                                                        *
*                                                                   *
* 1x Shaman Stone -> Rosetta Stone (Eden: GFAbl Med-RF)             *
* Now this is what you really wanna do. You should have a few GFs   *
* with the Abilityx4 skill (Bahamut and Rosetta Stones you've found *
* earlier) and you can get another later in Ultimecia's Castle. You *
* will probably won't need to refine these if you've been lucky     *
* enough to collect enough of these. The reverse also holds with    *
* Siren's Tool-RF. Note you have not gotten GF Eden yet, so this is *
* not possible yet. However, don't rush to get Eden yet, since all  *
* fixed encounters will be gone after beating Ultima Weapon. So     *
* store everything as Dark Matters for now since it's the most      *
* versatile form.                                                   *
*                                                                   *
* 1x Dark Matter -> Luck-J Scroll (Eden: GF Abl Med-RF)             *
* Another great deal, since only ONE GF in the entire game starts   *
* with Luck-J normally (Cactuar.) You can find 2 scrolls in the     *
* game though, but that's barely enough. Luck is good for Selphie's *
* Slots, and determines the frequency of Rinoa's Angelo Search      *
* (I've seen it twice now, yay!) It also determines how often       *
* Odin/Gilgamesh appears. Also, it affects critical hits, so that   *
* makes Zell and Irvine's Limit Breaks extra effective with the     *
* extra damage. Finally, Luck might have something to do with the   *
* effects of Quistis' Blue Magic (such as the effects of Mighty     *
* Guard.) So you'll need 2 of these for you perfectionists, but     *
* it's still good to get everyone Luck-J. Also, note that you can   *
* refine 2 Luck-J Scrolls into a Luck Source if you have any        *
* spares, but it's again, quite a waste, but it's decent if you've  *
* gotten everything above and have spent a VERY long time gathering *
* Dark Matters.                                                     *
*********************************************************************

When you are satisfied with your load of Dark Matters (I usually get
about 6 or so of them) and is hungry for the last GF, head down. The
second floor has 3 more encounters with a Grendel and an Imp, 2 crap
enemies.

NOTE: Before you carry on, you might want to read the section after
this for an alternate way of acquiring GF Eden.

On the third floor however, Behemoths resides. You can mug/win
Barriers from them. Use one on Quistis immediately to get her to
learn Mighty Guard, possibly her most useful Blue Magic. If you
collect lots of them, you can turn 50 of them into an Aegis Armlet
with Eden's GFAbl Med-RF, which is another cool item, but since you
don't have Eden yet, you can only store them in their "raw" form. Be
careful though, Behemoths uses some very nasty spells like Flare and
Meteor, so make sure you beef up your Spr levels. They also tend to
cast Flare before they die, but they _can_ be killed with Death in
ST-Atk.

Ruby Dragons craws on the fourth floor. They're good for that it's a
nice place to collect 600 Meteor, Flares and Reflects for all your
characters. With Behemoths and Ruby Dragons, it strikes me instantly
as a good Devour place. However, you don't have Eden yet, and all
enemies will disappear once you do. The only option is to mod Pupu's
card into a Hunger Cookpot and teach a GF the Devour command.
However, consider that Pupu's card is the rarest and cannot be won
back with the card trick in disc 4, it's going to be a painful thing
to us perfectionists. It's still an idea though, if you wanna try it,
this place makes it an EXCELLENT place to beef up your HP and
especially Magic. Beware of their Breath attacks though, I remember
getting a Game Over here. If needed, use Colin Pentney's trick by
killing one of your characters.

On the fifth floor lies the Iron Giants. They have insane Vit so it's
a good idea to summon Doomtrain. They don't serve much of a special
purpose except for being there. They do have Reflects though. Oh
yeah, they give you Star Fragments and Running Fires, the latter is
good for refining into Demolition Ammo.

> Magic Check! There are various DPs spread among this place. On the
third floor there's a DP for Triple, and just before exiting the
fifth floor, there's a hidden DP for Ultima. They're both non-
recoverable. :(

At the bottom, there's a large electronic terminal thing. There's a
hidden SP to the left, save there, and prepare to fight Ultima
Weapon. As for party members, try out Quistis/Squall/Zell if they're
all at level 100. However, if Squall and Zell are of lower level,
trade Zell's place for Selphie. Now yes, Selphie is much less
powerful than Zell, _but_ Ultima Weapon seems to have an aversion to
attacking her, very strange indeed. So having her in the party as the
main healer is a great idea. (However, that's what happened in my
game, but things could be different in yours.)

> Junction Check! I'm gonna go into a lot of details here. Junction
your GFs to your characters carefully, make sure they're spread out
and everyone has Spd-J and -J abilities to all their major stats.
Don't worry about the Bonus abilities, since you won't get any EXP.
Here's the commands I used:
   Quistis: Attack, Draw, Magic, GF
   Squall:  Attack, Draw, Magic, Item
   Selphie: Attack, Draw, Magic, Revive

The Draw command is there to take advantage of the unlimited supply
of Ultimas. Everyone needs Magic or Items to Revive each other.
Selphie will be the main healer, so give her Revive since she gets
KO'd the least. Junction 100 Triples to everyone's Speed, this is one
fight where Speed is the most important attribute, then equip Spd+40%
and Auto-Haste/Spd+20%. If you already have Auto-Haste, 100 Triples
and Spd+40% are enough to raise the stats so high that doubling it
with Auto-Haste will automatically hit 255 (the max) so equipping
Spd+20% won't make any difference. As for other skills, equip any HP
skills to get it to 9999 if you want, or Auto-Protect if you have it.
Then _either_ Mug or Rare Item (but not both.) You'll get different
stuff: Mug will get you a Three Stars (Expendx3-1 skill or refined
into 100 Triples) but defeating it will get you 100 Ultima Stones, so
it's up to you. I'd take the Ultima Stones, since you can get a Three
Stars by doing the Obel Lake quest. Rare Item is there because
sometimes Ultima Weapon won't drop anything! (It didn't in my first
game.) Because of this, turn any Ultima Stones you already have into
spells. The one who has the GF command should have Doomtrain
junctioned, or even Cerberus. Junction Quake to your Elem-Def. Oh
yeah, make sure that you adjust the battle speed to the slowest
possible.

Now examine the terminal. It'll take 10 blocks of steam pressures.

BOSS - Ultima Weapon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erh... I guess everyone's familiar with this boss. It does look a bit
like the AtmaWeapon in FF6 and it has Cloud's Ultima Weapon from FF7.

It has some deadly attacks. Light Pillar is the worst, as it'll do
9999 damage to one character no matter what, killing them in one hit,
and he repeatedly used them quite often, that's why you need to keep
up with high Speed. Make sure you immediately revive anyone who gets
KO'd with Light Pillar. It also uses Ultima and Quake occasionally,
but that won't hurt you much. Then it has a regular sword attack,
it'll do about 1000 damage to one character, so that's pretty mild.

> GF Check! Do NOT forget to draw GF Eden!

You might want to cast Haste on you characters, but seeing how often
you get killed, it might not be a good idea. Summon GF Cerberus as
the first thing is a good idea, since at times Ultima Weapon can
knock 2 characters out before you can act, so having Double is quite
useful. (It saved my butt in my game.) Then draw GF Eden.

If you're lucky, Ultima Weapon will waste many of its turns doing
regular attacks. I found that if you don't attack him, he won't use
Light Pillar as much and takes longer to act, which is good. So if
you want to draw Ultima from it, do it now, until you get enough of
them. Revive anyone who's been KO'd.

You might be tempted to use Quistis' Mighty Guard, but I found that
it will provoke Ultima Weapon to use Light Pillar more often if you
do. Whenever you're ready, summon GF Doomtrain to give Ultima Weapon
the Vit Zero status. If Doomtrain gets KO'd, switch to a Meltdown
spell. Then if Squall's in critical, have him use his Renzokuken. If
he has acquired Lion Heart, it can kill Ultima Weapon in one hit. If
not, cast Aura on him, and Quistis too, if she's not in critical
either, then just use her newly acquired Shockwave Pulsar for 20000+
damage! As for Selphie, I do not recommend that you spin away on her
Slots, instead have her do all the reviving and casting Auras. If
she's free, draw Ultima from the Weapon and cast it back on it for
decent damage. If you bought along anyone else, have them do their
best Limit Breaks too. Rinoa would be cool if you managed to get an
Invincible Moon. With your speed, Ultima Weapon shouldn't be a
problem.

Mug him if you want the Three Stars. You'll win Eden's card after
this fight. Yay, one more card to go!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF PROFILE - EDEN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eden is the final GF in the game, as well as having the most powerful
single hit attack in the whole game. "What is that thing?" is the
words in everyone's lips when we see it for the first time. Someone
mentioned that it's the "Garden of Eden", a futuristic Garden like
Balamb Garden. I guess it does make some sense. Other guesses
includes Zodiac of FFT and another one of Bahamut's friends (like Neo
Bahamut etc.) as its portrait does look kinda like a dragon. Anyway,
its summon sequence takes over a minute, which would be a killer in
the old days but in FFVIII, enjoy an easy 250 tapping with Boost. :)
It has really low Compatibility with all characters though, and
summoning it doesn't increase it by very much. So the best way to
increase Compatibility with it is through lotsa LuvLuvGs. Its attack
Eternal Breath is very powerful though, as it can easily do over
35000 damage! Of course, it also has great value in its skills, such
as the Devour command, another decent way of gaining stats. GFAbl
Med-RF is about the only way to get some of the best skills for your
GFs, don't overlook it. Expendx3-1 is great support skill for magic
and Triple, and Eden is the only GF that uses the true potential of
all the SumMag+??% skill.
Best skills: Devour, GFAbl Med-RF, Expendx3-1, Spd-J, Eva-J

NEW!!! <yang1@altavista.net> has e-mailed me about what Eden might
be. It sounds pretty logical, here's what he has to say.

"While reading through the FFVIII script, I noticed the story one guy
in Balamb was telling to a girl about Hyne and how she split up her
body, gave half to humans, and ran away with the other half, never to
be seen again. Then an idea struck me: could Eden be the part of
Hyne's body hidden from the world? It would explain why Eden was
buried deep, Hyne most likely wanted to keep away from humans, and
would make Eden's power and partial control over time (read below);
such powers belonging to the first sorceress and creator of humans
would not be surprising. Hyne might have created Ultima Weapon to
guard her body from people seeking its power. It also gives an
explanation for why Eden's compatibility is so low with everyone;
having lost a war to humans, Hyne most certainly would not like
having her powers controlled by one and have contempt for its master.

"Of course, this is just my interpretation. Its not by any means
right, and was a product of some boredom on the mind. Hyne theory in
mind, this is my interpretation of Eden's (massive) attack sequence:

"Summoned by humans, Eden traverses the space-time continuum,
reaching the site of the battlefield. It then takes the enemies into
the continuum again, gathering its power up and its foes with it.
Eden uses its power to collect Earth's energy throughout time, from
the creation of the world to the distant futher. Collecting the
power, it shapes it into a beam and uses it to send its unlucky foes
into a distant galaxy, which causes it to explode in a massive
supernovae of many stars in its core, which destroys the galaxy
itself. The power generated from the explosion hurls the enemies back
to its own time, causing it to crash and take spectacular damage."

Pretty convincing huh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> GF Check! Eden should start with Boost, then GFAbl Med-RF and
Expendx3-1. After that, not many of its skills has great appeal so
start with Eden's SumMag+??% skills for a real killer, getting all 4
of them means an extra 100% of damage, wow!

The good news is that you've gotten the last GF, gotten lotsa Dark
Matters and lotsa other bonuses. But the bad news is that all the
fixed encounter have disappeared, meaning no more goodies. :(

Bonus tip - You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ===========
|This is the trick on getting Dark Matters/Rosetta Stones after the |
|Eden event. Thanks to Duncan Day-Myron <wombat_84@hotmail.com> for |
|this trick.                                                        |
|                                                                   |
|1) Acquire GF Siren. (easiest step)                                |
|2) Learn Tool-RF (Ok, this is pretty easy too)                     |
|3) Acquire GF Eden (not hard, not easy)                            |
|4) Learn GFAbl Med-RF (kinda easy)                                 |
|5) Let Rinoa get the Esthar region possesed by devils (from the    |
|   landing of Adel)                                                |
|6) Run around until you fight the enemy "Imp"                      |
|7) DO NOT MUG THEM but kill them brutally or card them or whatever |
|   so that they are no longer there but you receive items after the|
|   battle                                                          |
|8) You will usually receive "Curse Spikes" (about 6)               |
|9) Collect 100xCursed Spikes (*gasp*)                              |
|10) Get GF Siren up to Level 100!!                                 |
|11) Use GF Siren's ability Tool-RF to turn 100xCursed Spikes into  |
|   1xDark Matter (only works if GF Siren is at Lvl 100)            |
|                                                                   |
|Not bad huh? Of course, it's not as good as the one in Deep Sea    |
|Research Centre but hey, we've got no choice.                      |
|                                                                   |
|This method works, but not that well. However, another sorta okay  |
|way of collecting Curse Spikes is to equip Rare Item and Mug, then |
|go to the Island Closest to HEAVEN (not Hell)! You can encounter   |
|Tri-Faces there, but the encounter rate is so low that it alone    |
|will make this trick collapse under its own weight. Although       |
|Malboros are quite common on that island, they will also give you  |
|Curse Spikes. Do NOT mug it when you encounter one, instead defeat |
|it (use Quistis' Degenerator for the best effect) and you'll       |
|occasionally receiver 10 Curse Spikes, with about a 10% chance.    |
|Most of then time you'll just get crap like Malboro Tenticles but  |
|with Rare Item equipped, the chance of receiving Curse Spikes jumps|
|to about 50% or 60%, so you can try gathering Curse Spikes there.  |
|If you do encounter Tri-Faces, mug it then card it for an extra    |
|one. (We're Curse Spike-pinching here!)                            |
=====================================================================


---Acquiring Eden - Alternative!---
Thanks to <yang1@altavista.net> and Ankhorial.

Eden is the most powerful GF in the game with massive number of
awesome abilities. However, it's a double edged knife when acquiring
it. Because you'll loose the fixed encounters in the Deep Sea
Research Centre, where you can all sorts of rare and cool bonuses.
Now there's a solution! *GASP*

Forget about drawing Eden from Ultima Weapon. Wait 'til disc 4 and
get Eden from Tiamat in Ultimecia's Castle. You'll acquire the GF a
bit later, but there are 3 HUGE advantages you get to keep:
1) The fixed Tri-Face encounters can be used with the trick above to
refine Darkmatters, Rosetta Stones and other rare stuff easily.
2) The fixed Ruby Dragon and Behemoth encounters makes a fine "all
you can eat" buffet, perfect for boosting Magic and HP with Devour.
This is VERY valuable, because Behemoths are probably the rarest
enemy in FFVIII.
3) While you're devouring Behemoths, you can mug Barriers from them
which are the ingredients for Aegis Amulets (learns Eva-J.) These are
also very rare!!! Although it's a pain having to collect 50 of those
for one Aegis Amulet, there's no other way.

You'll also be given a few minor disadvantages.
1) Acquiring Eden late in the game, where all towns are sealed. Make
sure you get everything you need and complete all mini-quests before
you do that.
2) Not fighting Ultima Weapon will reduce your Ultima supply by 300.
Although this can be remedied. Darkmatter itself will refine into 100
Ultimas. Else you may want to draw them from ICTH..... or, from Omega
Weapon. (YIKES!!! I know, don't do it...)
3) Miss out on a Three Stars or 100 Ultima Stones. The latter can be
remedied and the former isn't very useful anyway.

Final word: Perfectionists - go for it!!! The advantages are well
worth it!!! Try if you can max your stats this way. :)


---Yikes... I have a Chocobo in my pocket!---------------------------
> NOTE! This section will only apply to gamers who own a Pocket-
station and the PC gamers.

I have recently gotten my hands on a useless Pocketstation accessory
and tried out this game. Here's what I have to say... This game is
AWESOME! Of coruse, I didn't mean it that way. It's a boring game
(what did you expect from a 32x32 pixles screen anyway?) but it
allows you to gain TONS of items with your eyes closed! Perfect for
my Power-Up strategies...

Anyway, here's a break down of the game. Basically, you are Boco, the
Chicobo. You can walk in 4 directions on the world. Pressing the
Start button will bring up the menu. You can view the world map
there. The blinking dot is Boco while other black dots are the event
points. When Boco comes in contact with one of these points, an event
will occur:
         a) A battle (most likely)
         b) Moomba appears to give you a new weapon (10% chance)
         c) Cactuar appears to give you a treasure item (10% chance)
         d) Special set events

Battle
Boring as. You don't get to control the Chicobo at all. What you can
do is to tap the left and right buttons quickly to increase Boco's
ATB, so he can attack before the opponent. When one attacks, both
party's ATB will reset. So if you're good, you can kill the enemy
before it can even attack you! If your HP drops to zero, Boco falls
asleep and his HP will fill up slowly. If you win, a O-&-X-like grid
will appear and a blinking dot will travel through all the points
really quickly. Press the start button to make it stop. When you
managed to get 3 stones in a row to light up, Boco goes up a level.

Moomba
Boco's weapon is a 4 digit number, each digit will be randomly chosen
as the damage done to an opponent when Boco attacks. (Eg, if it's
4546, 50% of the time Boco will do 4 points of damage, 25% 5 etc..)
Moomba will offer Boco a new weapon, but it usually sucks. Choosen
the better of the 2. (If you set it on auto, the computer will choose
for you.)

Cactuar
This is really cute. :) The cactuar says "Hello!" and gives you a
treasure items. Items in this game are catagorized into grades A, B,
C and D. A is the best while D is the worst. These items can be
transfered over to the main FFVIII game!

Special Events
These only happens at set periods within the game. The only random
Special Event is finding Mog. Upon reaching LV25 or so, Boco will be
able to find Mog randomly. You can set Mog to standby and he will
make a final attack for Boco if Boco ever falls in battle. If the
final attack kills the enemy, Boco goes back to 1HP. If it does not
kill the enemy, Mog will get take away and you'll have to find him
again. Note you MUST have Mog with Boco when you port him back to
FFVIII game to be able to use the MiniMog summon, else the game will
say that Mog is not there.

Other special events
  - LV20
    Boco will meet Kiko, a female Chicobo, for the first time
  - LV50
    This depends whether you have Event Wait on or off. For the best
    results, put it on just before you tune LV50 so you can save Kiko
    and get a kiss from her. This will give Boco his first power up.
    If you have Event Wait off, you'll get something bad and you'll
    miss the power up forever.
  - LV75
    Cannot remember, but it's not important
  - LV100
    Kiko will be taken away by the Master Mage or something and
    you'll have to save her. Put Boco's movement on 1 (straight line)
    and run into a event dot to fight the boss. (You can cheat this
    really. Put movement on 1 but control Boco's directions manually.
    This way, it won't take as long.) The boss has 99HP, so good
    luck.

Power ups
Each power up Boco gets shifts his attack up one level. The power of
these attacks also depends on Boco's level (just like other GFs.)

 a) ChocoFire   - Weak fire damage, not even worth the trouble!
 b) ChocoFlare  - Strong Fire damage, can be quite good!
                  (At high levels, can do 4x the damage of Ultima!)
 c) ChocoMeteor - Dunno
 d) ChocoBuckle - Dunno

I have yet to find power ups #2 and #3, simply because I don't have
the patience to play this little game. If anyone knows anyway of
getting them quickly, please let me know.

Grade
This is really unfair. Boco will be given an ID when you first create
the file, which is dependant on your Pocketstation ID. Your ID
determines your grade, and your grade determines EVERYTHING about the
game, from Boco's HP, max weapon to treasure frequency. Basically,
the better grades gives you better stuff but is rarer. The lower
grades are more common and gives you really shitty stuff. :( My ID is
550, lowest grade possible.

Treasures
The ONLY reason to play (or leave it on auto, hehehe...) is for the
treasures. Cactuar gives these to Boco, and when transfered from the
Pocketstation to FFVIII, each item turns into something real. The
treasures' grade determines what items it can turn into.

Grade A: Rare stuff and really good stuff. Unfortunately, if your
         Chicobo Grade is 7 (lowest) like mine, you will NEVER get a
         grade A treasure! Luckily, I don't think there's anything in
         Grade A that's not obtainable in other treasure grades.
Grade B: Mostly the same as Grade A, pretty rare. You get a LOT of
         good stuff here though, like all the Chocobo World exclusive
         items, stats-boosts (!!), rare GF items (Rosetta Stones) and
         other rare items. You can get unique items here too, like
         the Magic Lamp!!!
Grade C: Mostly medicines and healing items. You can get the +grade
         variants too (eg, Potion+). Some pretty good junk too, and
         bullets (even Pulse Ammo!)
Grade D: Most common treasures found and mostly junk. You get a LOT
         of those crappy Magic Stones here. Some fairly decent
         refinement items can be found too.

Conclusion?
Well... if you have access to a Pocketstation, use it immediately
when you have access to it in disc 2. You'll get a LOT of nice items
early, many refining items to turn into good spells, rare stuff for
Quistis (Power Generator anyone?) and sell the rest for loads of
cash.

Also, if you're up for it, you can acquire GF Doomtrain in disc 2!!!
That's right. The Soloman Ring can be gotten as a Grade B item
(rare), but once you've gotten it, you're basically home free! The
Malboro Tentacles are common Grade D items, while the Remedy+ can be
gotten as Grade C items, they're pretty common too. As for Steel
Pipes, they are really common in disc 1 and 2. What are you waiting
for? The Pocketstation is there to be abused. :)

What else? Well, if you are having trouble getting some Pulse Ammo
for Squall's Lionheart, look no further, because you'll be getting a
lot of them with the Pocketstation. Many of the junk can also be used
for weapon upgrades. Some cool stats-boosts too, helping you power up
faster. Also, extremely rare material can be gotten, like Hungry
Cookpot (!!), Darkmatters, Rosetta Stones, Power Generators etc..

Finally, there's the Pocketstation-only items, Mog's Armlet (learns
MiniMog Command/Summon), Friendship (Summons Moomba) and Ribbons.
You'll also be able to see a few new summons.

GF Profile  Chicobo* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chicobo is a cute little baby Chocobo, you can play his own little
minigame with the Pocketstation peripheral. Although he likes
slacking off with his friends, Moomba, Cactuar and Mog, his summon
can be quite damaging. Gaining power ups from the Pocketstation will
translate into a more damaging attack for Boco when you summon him
with a Gysahl Green. To those gamers without a Pocketstation, bad
luck as his default ChocoFire is very weak, but it's rather cute
don't you think?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF Profile  Mog* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mog's status picture is really really cute, but his summon, Mog
Dance, is really REALLY scary. It looks almost exactly like the baby
dance from Ally McBeal... I know, very disturbing. Other than that,
it can be useful as it is the only means of healing GFs inside
battle, although it does cost you a lot of Gil. Note you can only
summon Mog when he is with Boco.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GF Profile  Moomba* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A new mascot for this game, a Moomba looks like a little panther and
is as cute as Moogles and Chu-Chus. :) You can summon him with the
item Friendship. Moomba jumps at the enemy, delivering a series of
kicks, will knock their HP down to 1 (damage caps that 9999 though.)
It can be very useful, especially when you're Devouring/Carding
enemies, but considering that Friendship is so rare, you may want to
spare them. It's another cute summon though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


---Whoa, careful with that... what do you call that thing anyway?---
A few people have requested that I should cover sections on every
character's best weapons and the locations of their ingredients. I
personally have thought about covering these in some detail since
some of the are pretty hard to find. Anyway, the best time to gather
these items is IMO, while you're powering up! Many of these
ingredients are carried by the enemies on the Island Closest to Hell,
so here we go!

BTW, remember how I've said that you DON'T need to have read the
magazine to remodel your weapons, all you need is all the ingredients
then then option to remodel you weapon into that will become
available.

Squall - Lion Heart
Requirements: 1x  Adamantine
              4x  Dragon Fang
              12x Pulse Ammo

The Adamantine is easy. You can steal one from fighting BGH251F2 boss
the second time. The you can win them from Adamantoise near Dollet.
Dragon Fangs are also pretty easy. Just beat the Blue Dragons or
steal from them. Pulse Ammo is probably the hardest to get. If you
did that quest with Irvine in disc 2, you'll have 5 of them. You can
refine them from an Energy Crystal dropped rarely by Ruby Dragons,
they refine into 10 each. Elnoyles drops them at a steady rate, but
they're hard to find until after the Lunar Gate event. You can get as
many as you want from the Elnoyle trick in Esthar, but they MUST be
at a high level (else you'll get Wizard Stones) which makes it a pain
when you're at a low level, since LV Up doesn't work on it. So power
up a bit before going to Esthar. Else you can try collecting Elnoyle
cards, if you can modify the trade rule to All or Diff.

Zell - Ehrgeiz
Requirements: 1x  Adamantine
              4x  Dragon Skins
              1x  Fury Fragment

The Dragon Skins caused me the most problems. They're occasionally
dropped/can be stolen from Blue Dragons, or Anacondours. You should
get some of them if you fight on Island Closets to Hell for a while,
if not, you'll have to max out someone's level and equip Rare Item,
and mug an Anacondour in the forests near Timber. Fury Fragments are
not all that hard to get, Blue Dragons and Ruby Dragons will drop
them occasionally. If not, refine Blue Dragon's cards.

Quistis - Save The Queen
Requirements: 2x  Malboro Tenticles
              4x  Sharp Spikes
              4x  Energy Crystals

Malboro Tenticles are pretty easy, you should have some left-overs
after acquiring GF Doomtrain, if not, just defeat Malboros. Sharp
Spikes can be refined with Grand Mantis cards, or can be stolen from
them. Energy Crystals however, are the hardest, especially when she
need FOUR of them! Sorta not worth it since this weapon don't
increase Str/Hit by a lot like Squall/Selphie's, but considering how
useful Quistis is...

Rinoa - Shooting Star
Requirements: 2x  Windmill
              1x  Regen Ring
              1x  Force Armlet
              2x  Energy Crystal

Windmills can be stolen from Abyss Worms in the desert, or refined
from its card. Regen Rings can be stolen from Toramas around Esthar,
and you should have one by mugging Biggs in disc 2. Force Armlets can
be bought in Esthar, and some monsters drop them but I forgot which
one, you probably have one already.

Selphie - Strange Vision
Requirements: 1x  Adamantine
              2x  Curse Spikes
              3x  Star Fragments

Curse Spikes are easy, you should know where to get them by now
right? ;) Tri-Face cards can also be refined. Star Fragments ain't
all that hard either, you can mug Iron Giants for them. Few other
enemies also drop them, like Ruby Dragons and Blue Dragons. It's the
easiest out of all these weapons.

Irvine - Exeter
Requirements: 2x  Dino Bone
              1x  Moon Stone
              2x  Star Fragment
              18x Screw

Dino Bones are easy, defeating T-Rexaurs. Moon Stones can be gotten
by stealing from Elnoyles, and maybe defeating Imps occasionally too.
Screw are by far the most common weapon upgrade ingredients. Geezards
drop them, and you can refine their cards too.


---Abra Kadabra---
This is the section on magic and what you should keep and what goes
in the trash. Each characters has 8x4=32 slots to keep up to 100 of
each spell. Better keep an eye on what goes in and what goes out the
window, because the last thing you want is to try to draw truck loads
of a good spell from the boss but realizing that the slot is occupied
with Fira or some junk like that.

So, these spells are what you should keep for everyone in your team.
Make sure everyone in your team has 100 of them, as they're mostly
for junctioning to your vital stats. Of course, getting 300 of each
of the best spells ain't that hard, but try to get 600 as you'll need
everyone in your party active at the end of the game. Of course, it
can be a pain gathering them all but there shouldn't be much of a
problem for us experts right?

Spells that definitely should be kept. Note I've sort them in a
certain order but it's not necessarily the "official" order.
--------------------------------------------------------------
| Ultima       | Quake        | Life         | Reflect       |
| Meteor       | Tornado      | Full-Life    | Double        |
| Flare        | Curaga       | Protect      | Triple        |
| Holy         | Esuna        | Shell        | Aura          |
--------------------------------------------------------------
| Sleep        | Death        |
| Silence      | Pain         |
| Confuse      | Drain        |
| Berserk      | Meltdown     |
-------------------------------

* Note: If you like Rinoa's Angel Wing, then you might consider
taking away the status spells (except for Meltdown.) Then the only
spells she'll use are the powerful ones. Give her some elemental
magic in place of the status spells if so.

That leaves each characters with 8 slots for other spells. Anyway,
Ultima and Meteor are both great junction spells, Flare is good for
Elem-Def, Holy is just another one of those fixer-upper spells in the
series that no one has the guts to dump. :) Quake is there as a back-
up junction spell but Tornado is great in Eva-J. Curaga is simply
there for your use and the same goes with Esuna, although it has some
ok effects with ST-Def. Life are there for your own use too but Full-
Life is a good junctioner. Protect and Shell are both just "there"
but you never know when you'll need it (and has some decent effects
with Elem-Def.) Reflect is super lousy regularly but it's excellent
for Spr. Double is just "there" but Triple is great for Speed. Aura
is good for your own use as well as Hit-J. Panel #5 are mainly for
ST-Def (or Atk), can't live without them. Death too, but it's also
good with ST-Atk. Pain is good for a lot of juctions and the same
goes to Meltdown while Drain is an okay spell in ST-Atk.

Here's the list of spells that at least one or two team member should
have, but keep everyone's collection varied to some degree.
---------------------------------------------------
| Blind        | Demi         | Haste             |
| Break        | Dispel       | <elemental magic> |
| Stop         | Scan         | Float             |
| Slow         | Regen        |                   |
---------------------------------------------------

The first panel are status spells that are not all that great for
junctions, but keep some of them around. Demi is very good though, so
keep more of those. Dispel is basically uselss, but do keep just a
bit of them just in case, and make sure you keep them away from
Rinoa! Scan is also a good spell, so having some of them around is
handy, the "Rinoa exception" still applies. Regen is good for casting
occasionally, the same goes to Haste, but they're not worth giving
everyone. As for a <elemental spell>, I give everyone a different
one, like Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, Bio and Water. They're quite
weak so that's why I'm only keeping 100 of them. Float can be useful,
but rarely.

The weaker spells like Fira or Aero ain't worth keepin', and the
useless ones like Zombie ain't either. If you have spare slots, play
around with them and see what's useful.

Now lets find a way to get all the best spells, I'll include them in
this section. Note only the rare and best spells are listed here, as
some spells like Sleep are simple to get. These should be enough to
get you 600 of them.

  - Ultima: Draw from Ultima Weapon to get 300
            Draw from the DP in Shumi Village for about 100+
            Win 100 Ultima Stones by defeating Ultima Weapon
            Draw from various other DPs for about 50
            Refine Dark Matters/Energy Crystals to fill the rest

  - Meteor: Draw from Ruby Dragons for an easy 300 each time
            Draw from various DPs

  - Flare: Draw from Ruby Dragons/Tri-Faces/Bahamut etc.

  - Holy: Draw from high level Elnoyles, easy.
          Refine Krysla cards into Holy Stones with Tool-RF

  - Quake: Draw from high level T-Rexaurs/Cerberus etc.
           Refine from Dino Bones

  - Tornado: Draw from Abyss Worms/Jumbo Cactuar
             Refine from Windmills
             Upgrade Aeros with HighLV Mag-RF

  - Full-Life: Drawn from Bahamut for 300
               Drawn from Fujin later (save room if you want.)
               Refine from Regen Rings, stolen from Toramas
               Drawn from various DPs for about 50

  - Triple: Drawn from Odin to get 300
            Refine from Three Stars (bad choice!)
            Drawn/refine Double and refine from HighLV Mag-RF

  - Aura: Draw 300 from Seifer at end of this disc (save some room!)
          Drawn from overworld DPs (not very effective)
          Refine Hypno Crowns (bought) into Aura Stones with Tool-RF

  - Pain: Drawn from high level Tri-Faces
          Refined from Curse Spikes

  - Meltdown: Drawn from high level Gaylas/Bombs/Jumbo Cactuar
              Refined from Mystery Fluids

Basic Junctions
This section below is all about what and how spells should be
junctioned to maximize their effects. This one below is the basic
structure on how your junctions should look like.

HP   Full-Life
Str  Ultima/Meteor/Holy         Spd  Triple/Haste
Vit  Meltdown                   Eva  Tornado
Mag  Ultima/Meteor/Holy         Hit  Aura
Spr  Reflect                    Luck Pain/Death

Anyway, let me explain. Ultima should go in the slot that's best
suited for the character, whether they're fighing or magic based. For
example, Zell should have Ultima in his Str and Selphie should have
it in Mag. Meteor is a good alternative. Ultima, however, is great
for EVERYTHING, so if you do want to remove it somehow, Holy and
Meteor makes a fine replacement. Also, there are times when your
stats are so high that a lesser spell will be enough to make it hit
the maximum point, so don't waste a good spell when your stats are
high enough. (For example, simply by power-levelling-up Rinoa, her
Str will hit 255 with only 100 Meteors, so if you junction 100
Ultimas instead, it'll still be at 255 so they're wasted.)

Some people likes to place Triple in Mag though, but I think it's
MUCH more useful is it's in Spd. If you do take Triple off Spd some
how, Haste is a decent replacement.

Pain is a very good spell for Luck, but it also has nifty effects in
Mag and works wonders in ST-Def/Atk (since it's basically a 3 in 1
spell) which makes Death a good replacement. If you need to remove
either, Float may become an option.

Another note is that, if you did not use the "Customized character"
powering up method, 100 Full-Life will NOT bring your max HP up to
9999 without a support Character Ability. (Unless you've refined a
lot of HP-Ups or Devoured Ruby Dragons.) At least an HP+20% is
needed. If you do not have enough slots, most character's HP can be
maxed if you take Ultima off Str/Mag and place it in HP.

Elemental Junctions
Of course, there are no fixed best spells in this category as it's
based a lot on the situation, so expect to alter these junctions when
the situation changes. However, this is the all-round Elem-J I use.

Elem-Atk  <None>
Elem-Def  Flare
Elem-Def  Shell
Elem-Def  Life
Elem-Def  Protect

Elem-Atk is basically useless and making it non-elemental is actually
the best option, however, you can toy around with it if you want to
do extra damage but be careful, the wrong spell can mean disaster.
You might also want to try Holy in Elem-Atk, since there are no
normal enemies who are strong against Holy attacks and it's usually a
good element to deal extra damage. However, remove it when you're
fighting Omega Weapon or you'll regret it.

The 4 Elem-Def spells listed above will provide 100% absorption for
Fire/Ice/Thunder based attacks and half damage for all other
elements. The best thing about this is that those 4 spells don't
really collide with your regular and status junctions.

Happy Matt recommends junctioning Ultima (!!) to Elem-Def, which
coupled with Flare/Life/Shell will absorb everything. This is not a
bad junction but I think Ultima is much better when used in other
attributes. However, when your stats are so high that Ultima is no
longer needed, you might feel free to do so. :)

Whenever you're facing a boss that uses a particular elemental
attack, remove Protect and junction any elemental spells you wish to
me protected against. The best are the -ga spells, Bio if you want
protection against Poison, Tornado for Wind, Quake for Earth, Holy
for Holy etc. The fancy ones like Meteor ain't worth the trouble.

Status Junctions
Like elemental junctions, this will also depend on the situation, at
least in the beginning of the game where only 1 member is protected
against 1 or 2 status. However, later in the game it becomes more or
less irrelavent if all 3 members has ST-Defx4 and junction all the
worst status spells there, so the only status you'll be affected are
the mild one. This is what I use for all-round ST-J though.

ST-Atk  Sleep/Death
ST-Def  Confuse
ST-Def  Berserk
ST-Def  Silence/Pain
ST-Def  <any>

Anyway, junction your favourite form of status in ST-Atk, I've listed
the decent ones in the tips section. Sleep, Death and Drain are all
good ones.

Confuse and Berserk should ALWAYS stay in your ST-Def slots IMO,
since they are among the worst status there are.

For the other 2 slots, junction any statuses that you don't like. I
usually use Silence since many bosses use that spell on you and it's
usually a very restrictive status. However, if you're not using Pain
in any other junctions, choose that one instead since it protects
against 3 statuses (Poison, Silence and Blind.)

Oh yeah, ALWAYS have at least one member with 100 Death junctioned to
their ST-Def. Death is a VERY nasty spell, and unlike in the previous
FFs, it will ALWAYS work on a character without protection. This is
especially important when fighting Omega because of its LV5 Death
attack, and the maximum level is 100, making impossible for your
characters to escape without it. (I remember getting Game Overs when
the Toramas decided to use LV5 Death...)


---The limiting factor---
With weapons and spells outta the way, it's time to obtain all the
Limit Breaks for your characters. You might have already gotten them,
if so just ignore this.

Squall
Did you get a Lion Heart? That weapon says it all as it contains his
best finisher and his other not-as-good finishers. There's not much
you can do when the lesser finishers appears since you cannot unlearn
it without sacrifising Lion Heart. So if you wanna see Lion Heart
more often, make Squall critical and cast Aura on him. (I wish there
was an "Auto-Aura" skill in the game... *sign*)

Zell
All 6 magazines should be available in Esthar bookshop right now if
you haven't gotten them yet. Remember, you must "read" them (ie, use
them in the Item menu.) Since you don't necessarily have to use a
certain learnt Duel move, it doesn't matter if you learn them all.
(Unlike Squall and Rinoa, who have no control on what attacks they'll
execute.)

Quistis
Gathering all 16 Blue Magic isn't an easy job, but a page with all
the blank spaces being filled looks a lot nicer. Remember, MANY of
the items used for the earlier Blue Magic can be refined from Cards.
The hardest one to learn is Ray-Bomb so make sure you get the free
Power Generator. (If you missed it as Zell, you still have another
chance as Squall, but only if you triggered the traps in Laguna's
sceanrio.) Shockwave Pulsar shouldn't be a problem with the Dark
Matter trick. The only thing I might have left out is White Wind,
which is learnt with a Whisper, stolen from Adamantoise. If Quistis
hasn't got Homing Laser yet, you can get another one soon. Make sure
you've gotten White Wind, Mighty Guard and Shockwave Pulsar, her top
3 Blue spells.

Rinoa
Like Zell, if you've missed the first 2 edition of the magazines, you
can buy them from Esthar bookshop. Issues 3-6 can be bought too.
However, like Squall's finishers, you might want to skip a couple of
the moves. One definate crap is Angelo Strike, which is when weaker
than Angelo Cannon right now. Not learning it would increase the
chances for both Wishing Star and Invincible Moon appearing.

Note Wishing Star takes a VERY long time to learn, and I ran out of
patience so if you can't seem to make her learn it, try this trick.
Equip the Enc-None skill and put Rinoa in your team (select Wishing
Star in her status) then take the Ragnarock to the deserts in the
Galbadia region. Make sure you're away from Deling City (somewhere
around the Missile Base should be fine.) Now grab a rubber band and
wrap it around the left stick and the left edge of the controller,
this will make Squall run in anti-clockwise circles. Leave it on for
10-20 minutes and go make yourself some coffee or bacon and eggs.
When you get back, voila! She should have learnt it. Note however,
this will lower your SeeD rank by 1 or 2, but it didn't matter too
much to me since you can get as much gil as you want with the
infinite credit trick.

NOTE!!!!! To get Rinoa to learn Wishing Star and Invincible Moon
REALLY quickly, jump onto a Chocobo and take it for a spin. Since
Chocobos are much faster than humans, you virtually double your
learning speed! This is also a good way of gaining Gil. Thanks to
Mega Moth for this tip.

As for her non-command Angelo moves, Angelo Recover was the one I
didn't wish to learn because it kept ruining my attempt of easy Limit
Break trick with critical characters, however now Aura has become
available, you might want to learn that move.

If you're keen with her Angel Wing, make sure she has 255 Mag and
(preferably) a high Spd with Auto-Haste. Then trade as many status
spells to someone else so she won't use them as much, and if you
want, remove any damage dealing spells that you don't want her to
cast. Definitely get rid of all her Dispel and Scan magic. This will
make her spells extremely powerful, and she won't have to waste her
time on status spells. The reason with the high Speed is to make up
her damage dealing potentials. Since Rinoa is "Berserk", her command
will be set the instant her ATB is full. Since it's set by the
computer, you won't waste any time having to tap for your Limit
Breaks and even if you don't tap, inputting command manually will
waste minute amounts of time. At this rate, she may even be able to
take on Squall!

Selphie
Well, not much to say as her Slots ain't as pratical as all other
member's Limits in the heat of battle, however, it does not mean it's
useless. You must _cast_ her unique Slots spells to make them appear
in her status screen, simply getting them to appear but not casting
them won't do a thing. To make them useful, get all of them to appear
in her status screen, that way, the chance of her unique spells
appearing will be increased by a LOT! Oh yeah, make sure Selphie gets
a high Luck rating, this way, getting the best spells will ba a LOT
easier!!! The saddest thing about Selphie's Slots is that 2 of the
spells didn't make it into the final game. Those 2 empty slots at the
bottom of her list are really annoying.

If you have problem getting The End, try this. Properly junction
everyone and make sure you give the best spell (preferably Ultima) to
Selphie's Luck attribute and equip the Luck+50% skill. Lower her HP
by a LOT (to 3 digits or less), use Demi if you can't seem to hit
her. Go to the Trabia region and encounter a Gayla. Try your hands at
her Slots. The Gayla can't even hurt you!!! Be careful though, as I
missed The End THREE times when it came on her Slots, so the less
responsive players are at a disadvantage. Slow down if you're having
trouble, since you have all the time in the world. You can try make
her Blind, maybe even Zombie, Vit Zero and Silence. Casting Aura
should make it easier, but it just don't last as long to be useful.
The "soft-freeze" trick can also be used for this.

Irvine
Most of his ammunition can be gotten easily. Refining ammo from items
or cards will give you the best deals, but if you want, you can also
buy all the ammo except for Pulse and AP from Esthar's shop (with the
Familiar skill.) As for the last 2, you should have some ingredients
for AP. I'm sure you still have a lot of Chef's Knives after
acquiring Tonberry, so turn them into AP Ammo. As for Pulse Ammo, the
items needed are very rare, that's why you should take advantage of
the fixed Elnoyle encounter in Esthar, getting 100 Pulse Ammo is
pretty easy that way. Talking about Energy Crystals, you may want to
keep a lot of them in your inventory as spares, since you will not be
able to enter Esthar (or any towns for that matter) in disc 4.

=====================================================================
                     The end of Power Up Extra
Well, that's probably all of them. At the end of your powering up,
you should have all cards (except for Squall's, since it's not
available yet) and GFs, the best stats, magic and weapons and all
your character's Limit Breaks. If I missed anything or anyone wants
to cover more about a certain aspects of the game, just drop me a
line. Enjoy the final bits of the game!
=====================================================================


---Say you'll be there---
Make it back to Edea's orphanage and go out to the garden. A scene
will occur where the third member will say something and leaves the
love birds alone. (It's completely different depending on whoever is
your third character, I like Selphie's.) Then another scene will take
place between the 2, kinda uninspiring for a moment of intimacy. Then
Zell comes along saying that Kiros (!!) from Esthar has a mission for
Squall and team. Leave the place and Edea will make her speech.


---Mission impossible---
Take the Ragnarock back to Esthar and make your way back to the
Presidentical Palace. Now the guards to the left screen will let you
in. Inside you'll see even MORE familiar faces, Kiros, Ward and
Laguna. Gee, since when did he become the president. You might want
to catch on with what he's been doin' over the past 17 years. And
when you choose to hear you mission, Dr. Odine will come over and
explain the current situation and the mission briefing. To rescue
Ellone, let Ultimecia possess Rinoa and let Ellone send Rinoa back in
time to complete her Time Compression.

> Card Check! Before you go anyway, play a game with Laguna and scab
Squall's card off him. Ironically, it's exactly the same as Seifer's
except the placement of the values are all inverted. It's also the
last card you need to complete your collection, Check your menu now,
you should see a * next to the Card option.

When you decide to take accept the mission, Laguna and team will
"move in" with you to the Ragnarock.


---Sacrifice---
Whenever you're ready (remember, do ALL the mini-quests before this,
as you won't get a chance to complete most of them later), take the
Ragnarock and fly towards the Lunatic Pandora, Selphie will make the
ship crash into the box to get inside it. It's a very cool FMV, enjoy
the Dual Shocks! :)

> Jucntion Check! Junction whatever. Everyone of you should be a
walking demi-god right now so it doesn't matter what you do. Equip
Enc-None though, as you don't wanna be bothered with the lousy random
encounters. Don't equip Mug.

> Magic Check! Well, I did say you can draw Full-Life from Fujin
didn't I? So if you don't have 600 Full-Lifes yet, don't panic. (You
should already have 300+ after Bahamut right?) Just trade as much
Full-Lifes as you can to the non-active member.

Whoever you choose doesn't really matter right now. If you want to
leave, just talk to whoever is at the pilot seat and choose to take
off. Walk forward and you'll meet up with your friends, Fujin and
Raijin!

BOSS - Fujin, Raijin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Damn, don't you love these guys? They look so damn awesome and gives
you free goodies each time. I wished they're playable characters.

Anyway, Fujin is MUCH stronger this time, but Raijin is still so so.
Fujin can cast some very nasty spells, including Pain on you and
Regen on themselves. She don't act all that often though. If you drag
this battle on for a while, she will say something then release
Meteor. Fujin also has a VERY dangerous attack, Sai, that will lower
one member's HP to 1!!! Raijin on the other hand will just stand
around most of the time, occassionally striking you with a physical
attack. Sometimes he casts Aura on himself and attacks with his
"Limit Break" Raijin Special. Strangly enough, neither of them will
cast their native elemental spells.

Remember how you can steal Str-Ups from Raijin? Don't do it this
time, as you'll get a Hyper Wrist instead. :( Instead, winning will
score you 3 of them. Fujin will give you a Megalixir as usual.

If you were prepared to draw Full-Life, get them off Fujin. Fujin has
Curaga if you want healing. They won't do much damage unless you piss
off Fujin and gets hit by her Sai.

When you're satisfied with your load of Full-Life, also any attacks
will do. The easiest way is probably summoning Doomtrain which will
deal 9999 damage to them both, summon it twice should knock them out.
If not, just use normal attacks.

NOTE! Katman told me that if you summon Carbuncle, it'll scare the
**** outta Fujin and she'll only use her weak Zan projectile. Never
tries it myself though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walk along and you'll meet up with another pair of your old friends,
Biigs and Wedge! No fight this time though. You know this place
right? Just make it all the way to the place where Zell's team got
kicked out, but do save at the SP before it. All the old DPs are
still here if you wanna be bothered with it.

> Junction Check! Pack Mug this time, and remove any spells
junctioned to Str for the character who has Mug.

In the next screen, you'll see Fujin and Raijin who sends a robot to
get you.

BOSS - Mobile Type 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm still a bit puzzled with the this boss' attacks. Anyway, it
attacks in whole when you first meet it. Just hit it a few times and
it will split into the body and 2 probes. During the period where
it's a whole, it'll counter attack with Twin Homing Laser, which is
REALLY weak compared to Quistis' version, about 300 damage.

When it splits, mug 2 Str-Ups from the Left Probe and 2 Vit-Ups from
the right one. They have low HP so that's why you need to remove your
Str, as you might accidentally end up killing it. You can mug a Laser
Cannon from the main body though, useful if you haven't gotten
Quistis' Homing Laser yet.

It'll still counter with laser though, but it doesn't matter. At
sometime during the fight, the boss will unleash Corona, making your
HP down to 1. I think it only uses it upon its defeat. It's an easy
boss anyway, normal attacks will do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now your characters will have their HP dropped to 1, so get back to
the SP and use a Tent. Save.

> Magic Check! Remember how I told you to save some room for Aura? If
you have, trade all your member's Aura to the non-active members.
Make sure your character has an empty slot in their magic list.

Now enter the room beyond the place where you fought Mobile Type 8.
You'll see Seifer, he orders Fujin and Raijin to take care of you.
They refused and... well, I guess they're just not happy with the way
that Seifer had become. (Note not Fujin is actually speaking normally
in this scene? So she's been fakin' it all along. I wonder if that
eye patch is fake.) They released Ellone and walked away. It's time
to fight Seifer yet once more.

BOSS - Seifer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first thing that will happen is Odin will enter the screen,
trying to Zantetsuken Seifer. But no, Seifer learnt to not only avoid
Odin's sword, but countering him and slicing him in half. (*Gasp*
Dj vu!!!) A strange scene then takes place where Odin's sword flies
into the air and gets caught by someone.

Seifer is REALLY weak. All he does is normal attacks. Just draw 300
Auras from him and then switch to normal attacks. Summon Doomtrain if
you want, it should do 9999 damage to Seifer.

You can Mug a Hero from Seifer, but you can also get it by defeating
him. He'll occasionally drop a Holy War instead though.

This is a really easy fight. When you've done enough damage, the one
who caught Odin's sword will descend from the heavens and uses the
sword to "kill" Seifer. He is indeed Gilgamesh! (DarkHoly17@aol.com
commented that Gilgamesh looked a LOT like Gogo from FF6, and you
know what? He has a point there. :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the fight ends. Another scene will take place where Seifer
rushes to Rinoa and kidnapped her. (Hope he didn't molest her in the
precess. :) All of a sudden, the screen goes blank and... Yup, end of
disc 3.

GF PROFILE  GILGAMESH* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gilgamesh returns from FFV to take Odin's place, except he's MUCH
more versatile than Odin. Like Odin, he cannot be junctioned nor
summoned, but comes randomly. However unlike Odin, he may appear
_anytime_ in combat, like Angelo Search. His "summoning" sequence is
really cool. Four swords will drop from the sky and Gilgamesh will
rise from the ground, chooses a sword and swings it at the enemy. The
4 attack includes Excalibur, Excalipoor (Excalipur), Masamune and
Zantetsuken. This also means that he will attempt to instantly kill
boss characters will Zantetsuken, which will have no effect at all.
(Don't expect it to be like Selphie's The End. :) The other attacks
will be damage based, Excalipoor (worst translation since "Blow Fish"
in FF3US) will do 1 point of damage to all enemies though, just an
inside joke and reference from FFV; Excalibur will deal decent damage
to all foes (around about 5000) and Masamune will deal heavier damage
(maybe 7000 or 8000). One thing distinguishes between Gilgamesh and
Odin is that Gilgamesh appear a LOT less often than Odin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

========================== End of Disc 3 ============================

============================= Disc 4 ================================
The final disc of this game concludes the plot, not a very good one
if you ask me, but that's another matter. It's short, it's not all
that exciting and it's restrictive since you cannot enter any towns.
Hopefully, you won't be disappointed with the ending.


---Which is the witchiest?---
You'll have to select another member to accomedate the loss of Rinoa,
I'd choose Squall, Zell and Quistis has my team.

> Junction Check! While Rinoa is taken hostage, exchange her
junctions with another member. Just junction whatever, but equip Mug.

Head back to the screen where you fought Mobile Type 8, you'll see
that there's a ledge leading to the "thing" to the right (what is it
anyway?) Climb that and climb the first set of stairs.

> Magic Check! If you climb another set of stairs you can reach a
Slow DP. Claimb back down afterwards.

Follow another platform to the left, you can reach the outer ledge,
then just make it all the way to the right. It'll lead to a shrine-
like structure. Inside, you'll see Seifer holding Rinoa in front of
Adel, as if she was to be sacrificed. He releases Adel who somehow
grabs a hold onto Rinoa. (Gee, look at the details in the FMV, you
can see the texture of Rinoa's clothing! And they call that seamless?
Ok bad joke...)

BOSS - Adel, Rinoa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is strange. Rinoa is hanging from Adel's chest (who is twice as
tall and... hey, you sure she's a woman?) Rinoa is actually being
junctioned by Adel! (Try Scanning her.)

You don't want to hurt Rinoa in this fight, because if her HP goes to
zero, the game is over.

Whenever Adel's turn comes up, she'll cast a powerful spell (Meteor,
Flare) and uses Drain on Rinoa for about 700HP. You can actually draw
from Rinoa (!!) so drawn Regen and cast it on her to counter Adel's
Drain.

This fight is pretty easy if you get it under control. Because Rinoa
is on the other side of the battlefield, you shouldn't use any all
target attacks. Try out a Meltdown on Adel to lower her defense. Then
you may want to cast Aura on your characters and use their Limit
Breaks. Zell's Duel works the best, but stay away from the multi-
target finishers. If you have Quistis, try out her Homing Laser.
Squall shouldn't use his Renzokuken because of Fated Circle and
Blasting Zone. However, I found that regular attack works just as
well.

Mug from Adel for a Samantha Soul, a pretty classy item. Try out
Rinoa will net you 8 Megalixirs, no kidding! (You may wanna use teh
"steal and not mug" trick so you won't accidentally kill her.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you defeat Adel, Rinoa will inherit her powers and Ultimecia
will possess Rinoa. Ellone steps in and shows that she's on top of
the "food chain" and sends them all back in time.

Time Compression has begun. You'll see a very cool sequence where
your members fall through everything. Wow. After that, you'll end up
in Edea's room in Deling City (you know, in disc 1.) Save at the SP.

When you approach "Edea", she turns into a witch and attacks.

BOSS - Sorceress x5, x6, x1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You'll have to fight a buncha witches. The first type of sorceress
are "thin" and they're really weak. Try mugging them though, they'll
die in one hit but you may end up nabbing yourself an Ultima Stone or
something. There are 5 of them, and the background will morph with
each Sorceress killed.

The second type are "fat" and comes in 2's (I think.) They're equaly
as easy but you can still steal goodies from them.

When you've beaten all 6 of the second kind, the boss witch will
appear to avenge the death of the other sorceressed, and she is the
"fatest".

Anyway, there's not much to it. Just use your regular attacks, don't
even have to waste your time summoning Doomtrain for this.
Eventually, it'll start a countdown from 5, then it'll cast Ultima,
which should only hit for about 400 or so to each member. Just kick
her butt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually, you'll reach Edea's orphanage... in the past! Enter the
door to the right and get outside to the beach. It'll shift to the
present but keep moving and it'll morph into the future! You'll see
corpse of white SeeDs lying on the ground.

Get behind the the rock and you'll enter the next screen with even
more dead bodies!

> Magic Check! There's a DP for Triple near the entrance.

Keep going and you'll walk along huge chains connecting Edea's house
to Ultimecia's Castle.

> Magic Check! There's a DP for Flare to the right of the castle's
entrance, it's hidden.

Your other members will come to aid you when you decide to enter the
castle. Save at the SP though.

<I don't think I will write the walkthrough for Ultimecia's Castle,
because for one, I really HATE that place. It's got some of the most
annoying puzzles and it's just so damn boring! I absolutely hate it!
However, I'll carry on with some other tricks to do in disc 4>

I will give you some tips though. I recommend that you find and fight
all 8 of the optional bosses. Not only will they unseal your powers,
they'll also give you really awesome GF ability items like Status
Guard and Rocket Engine.

Final trick - Mad about the Rosetta Stones ==========================
|This is what? The fifth tip on Rosetta Stones? Anyway, thanks to   |
|Zachary Lim <bio_freak90@hotmail.com> for this awesome trick.      |
|                                                                   |
|"In disc 4 at ultimecia castle, get the flood gate key in the      |
|library room. After that, go to the flood gate room and examine the|
|red lever... use the Floodgate Key on it and pull the lever, all   |
|the water should stop flowing. Now go to the chapel and play the   |
|piano by holding all the buttons. After that, go to the passageway |
|to the right of the fountain. The fence should be gone now, if not |
|then play the piano again. Go inside and you should find the       |
|Rosetta Stone. Go through the other way to find your way back to   |
|the prison room."                                                  |
|                                                                   |
|Mmmmmmm, Rosetta Stones, can't get enough of them. If you have     |
|enough of them already, you can always change it into a Shaman     |
|Stone and a whole lotta other stuff. Have fun! :)                  |
=====================================================================


---Other optional stuff---
First you'll need to get outta Ultimecia's Castle. It took me a long
time to figure out how to get out. You need to walk along the chains
and you'll see 3 portals to the left. Approach it and your characters
will hop over and you can enter it. All 3 portals will lead to a
different place on the world map.

Take the middle portal, which will lead you somewhere in the Centra
region. Find a Chocobo forest in that region and try to find your way
to the Ragnarock, which ended up in the desert somehow. Sorry, I
can't offer you much of a guidance on which direction to go since I'm
pretty much confused about the topography in the Centra region
myself, so just wander around with a Chocobo and listen to the WORST
remix of the Chocobo theme ever!

When you do finally get back to the Ragnarock, hop onboard and you'll
see Xu! (BTW, this will only happen if you've completed the CC quest
in disc 2 or 3.) She said that the CC members are all here (!!) and
they want to play cards with Squall! Excellent!

The CC members will use any rare cards that you don't have, meaning
it's sorta a "last resort" on getting the cards since you cannot
enter the towns anymore. However, this will also lead to a nifty card
trick.

You can mod most rare cards into nifty items then play a hand with
any CC member, they'll use it and you can mod them again and again!!!
This is the best when done with the CC Spade, since he uses friendly
rules (Esthar rules) and there's a SP in the same room!

However, this does not work with some cards, and those are the Queen
of Cards quest cards (wow, what a tongue twister!) Irvine, Kiros,
Chubby Chocobo, Doomtrain and Phoenix simply didn't even exist
originally, and was painted by the father of the Queen of Cards,
which is why you cannot win them back. Which is sad, since those
cards are the ones that gives you the best items. :( The other card
you cannot win back is Pupu, because Pupu does not technically count
as a rare card, since it's only a LV5 card.

The Queen of Cards will still available to challenge though. She's
somewhere on the world map, south of the Esthar region and Tear's
Point. (It's _near_ the southern coast and to the east.) She seems to
ONLY use the Queen of Cards quest cards though, so you can get them
back from her if not the CC members. However, she only seems to use
them once, and just play with crap cards afterwards. Also, make sure
you're prepared for Same/Same Wall/Plus/Random and Sudden Death
WITHOUT Open!!! You know, sometimes I doubt the fairness of a card
game without the Open rule, as it seems the CPU gets to peek at your
cards even though they're denying it. Can't trust computers! >:(

Oh yeah, if you wanna play cards, DON'T screw around with all the
members since each one of them uses the rules of a specific region.
So to keep the rules from spreading, keep answering "No" when they
offer to combine rules. It is because of this that makes certain CC
members extremely annoying to play with, namely Joker and Diamond.
You can also abolish the rules just like the normal game.

NOTE!!! You CAN win back QoC cards back, it goes something like this:
(Sorry, I cannot remember who submitted this trick...)
1)	Mod the 5 cards all at the same time or seperately, you choose
2)	Challenge the QoC and win them back
3) Mod them again
4) You can now win them back from Diamond (or maybe other CC
members.)
Make sure you abolish the crappy rules from Diamond or else, ready
lots of Asprin and prepare for a cheap fight.


---GF customization---
Whoohoo, I bet you have a LOT of GF ability items in your inventory
after the trip through Ultimecia's Castle and card mod trick. Now
it's time to customise the GFs for your characters. Also, I recommend
that you split your 16 GFs 6 ways, so each character will get 3 or 2
GFs. You should keep them in their possession for the rest of the
game (not that there's much left anyway) but it's nice to let your
characters get used to them. Also, tailor the GFs to suit your
character's style. For example, don't give any GF that has the Hit-J
ability to Squall or Selphie since they can hit with 255% accuracy
already.

Also, try to minimize and maximize the GF's abilities, forget the
extra and repeated abilities to create room to learn new ones. For
example, don't give a character 2 GFs that both has the Spr-J
ability, try to mending the weaknesses of one GF with another. For
example, GFs Shiva and Diablos is a good combination to give to your
characters, since Shiva offers Str-J, Vit-J and Spr-J while Diablos
has HP-J, Mag-J and Hit-J, voila! All your basic attributes are
covered! No repeats meaning no skills getting wasted. Spend sometime
trying to find the perfect GF combination for all your characters,
and take into account what stats benefit which character the most.

It is because of this, it is a very good idea to save all your -J
Scroll items in your inventory to allow maximum "min-maxing". (The
scrolls for rarer stats like Speed are VERY hard to find.)

Then buy truckloads of Amnesia Greens from the shop and start
brainwashing your GFs. Forget the basic commands on the 1 or 2 GFs
since only 1 GF is needed to use those skills.

You may also want to upgrade certain abilities, just as fogetting
Siren's ST-Def and ST-Defx2 but use a Status Guard on her to learn
ST-Defx4. Also, try to get Abilityx4 on everyone, then forget the
Abilityx3 skills. That way, you should have more than enough slots
for all your favourite skills.

Elem-Atks are aplenty, so delete any repeats. You may also want to
teach some of your GFs certain commands, like if you found
Leviathan's Recover command useful, get a Doc's Code (easily gotten)
and teach it to another GF.

It may take hours, but you'll eventually come out with a _perfect_
set of GF and skill combinations that'll make you a winner. Also,
decide who you want to use against Omega Weapon and try to give those
characters the best GFs (ie, Doomtrain) and skills (ie, Auto Haste.)

I have spent hours and hours devising the perfect combination of GFs
for the characters and came up with this:
   Squall:  Quezacotl, Pandemona, Bahamut
   Quistis: Shiva, Diablos, Doomtrain
   Zell:    Ifrit, Leviathan, Eden
   Rinoa:   Cactuar, Cerberus
   Irvine:  Carbuncle, Tonberry, Alexander
   Selphie: Siren, Brothers

Note that my best team was Squall, Zell and Quistis, so all the best
GFs goes with them (ie, Eden, Doomtrain, Bahamut etc.) Rinoa however,
has 2 really useful GFs too, so she's another really good character
to put in your team. If you like other members, you can exchange
Zell's/Quistis' with Irvine or Rinoa. Selphie is more of a pain,
since she has that 255% hit thing, so the best thing is probably
exchange her junctions with Irvine.

Of course, I was at a disadvantage since I've used many of the rare
GF items (like Aegis Amulet etc) on the GFs at an early stage, which
made it hard to find the perfect combination. However, if you didn't
use a Rosetta Stone on Shiva, here's a waaaaaaay better solution:
   Squall:  Quezacotl, Pandemona, Doomtrain
   Quistis: Shiva, Diablos, Bahamut

This is because Quezacotl already has Mag+40% and Pandemona already
has Str+40%, so junctioning Bahamut to Squall (with Str/Mag+60%)
would simply put them to waste, so the latter combination is better,
although my first strategy still works, as there weren't any repeated
key abilities and no pointless abilities given to the wrong character
(such as Hit-J with Squall.) Selphie needs to really beef up both
Brothers and Siren though, as they don't come with all that many
abilities.

You should have 6 characters with -J abilities to all their basic
attributes. Spd-J Scrolls are hard to come by, the same goes to Eva-J
Scrolls, so use them wisely. Luck-J Scrolls shouldn't be a problem if
you've gotten lotsa Drak Matters. If certain characters don't have
the necessary xxx+??% skills, buy the items required to learn them
from the pet shops.

Hope all goes well, and good luck with Omega. And I hope you all had
as much fun reading this as I've had typing it, and yes, my guide is
"officially" complete. There will be updates if the situation calls
for it and if more readers send in helpful tips. Have a fresh start
with the new millennium, I've personally made my resolution. :)


****** Combo cheap trick - Beat Omega Weapon in under 5 rounds ******
* This is a cheap trick that combines most of the tips I've taught  *
* you in my guide and take on Omega to show him who's boss. I have  *
* tested this trick and it really works, although it does backfire  *
* occasionally due to the random nature of many of the gameplay     *
* aspects. So whatta you waiting for? Lets get ready to kick some   *
* butts, and for the players who have failed to beat Omega in FFV,  *
* it's time to get our sweet revenge. :)                            *
*                                                                   *
* First of all, you need to choose the team members to use for this *
* mission, and it's quite flexible on who you can use this time     *
* around. Quistis is a mandatory member for this trick and she will *
* act as the support member who's going to be the backbone of this  *
* trick. Other than that, you can choose 2 characters out of Zell,  *
* Squall, Rinoa or Irvine who will be the main offensive units. (We *
* can leave Selphie outta this but look below for a mission built   *
* especially for her.) Anyway, it is indeed possible to dump Squall *
* in favour of another character, thanks to the Dual Team Division  *
* system used in Ultimecia's Castle (although you might not want    *
* to, since Lion Heart is especially powerful.)                     *
*                                                                   *
* Of course, how well this trick works will be dependant on who you *
* chose as the offensive units. This is the basic requirement for   *
* each character, ranked in order of decreasing strength:           *
*                                                                   *
* Zell - None, but mastering Armageddon Fist or Grand-Calamity      *
*        Symphony will be helpful                                   *
*   Yes Zell is actually more powerful than Squall because he will  *
*   be able to execute more hits than Squall's Lion Heart with a 12 *
*   second Duel and that he can make full use of critical hits.     *
*                                                                   *
* Squall - Lion Heart learned, need Lion Heart gunblade model       *
*   Another very powerful character, the only weakness is that the  *
*   Aura + critical status trick don't work as well for Squall as   *
*   it does for other characters.                                   *
*                                                                   *
* Irvine - 100 Fast Ammo stocked                                    *
*          100 Normal Ammo OR ~50 AP/Pulse Ammo                     *
*   Irvine is actually not a bad character in terms of power, and   *
*   like Zell, he can make full use of critical hits. The only      *
*   really disappointing thing about Irvine is that he can only     *
*   hold up to 100 of each type of ammunition in your inventory,    *
*   seriously hindering Irvine's usefulness, since many of his      *
*   bullets are next to worthless.                                  *
*                                                                   *
* Rinoa - Wishing Stars learned                                     *
*         Do NOT learn Angelo Strike (recommended)                  *
*         Do NOT learn Angelo Recover (recommneded)                 *
*   Rinoa's Wishing Stars really packs a punch, although it doesn't *
*   inflicts nearly as much damage as the other boys. It does hit   *
*   all enemies on screen though, but she cannot take the advantage *
*   of that in this fight.                                          *
*                                                                   *
* Quistis - Mighty Guard learned                                    *
*           Shockwave Pulsar learned                                *
*   Not much to say about her damage potential, as it stinks. On    *
*   the other hand, Mighty Guard will come in really handy. Like    *
*   Squall, the Aura + critical trick don't work as well either.    *
*   See below for precautions.                                      *
*                                                                   *
* After you choose your team, you need to prepare. Take your team   *
* to fight some weak enemies (the random ones inside Ultimecia's    *
* Castle are ok.) And you need to low all of your HP to at least    *
* the 3 digit mark, although it will be ideal if you can lower them *
* to somewhere around 100HP. I know it's hard work, you can try     *
* Demi if their HP is high, or poison them with Bio. The latter is  *
* easier, as it removes abour 800HP everytime they take an action.  *
* Then use your regular attacks to do small amounts of damage,      *
* remove the Poison if needed. Then finally cast Blind on all 3     *
* characters and Silence on Quistis.                                *
*                                                                   *
* The you need to junction your characters, here's the requirements *
* for the 2 attackers:                                              *
* - 9999 HP maximum                                                 *
* - 255 Strength, 200+ Vitality and Spirit                          *
* - 100x Triple junctioned to Speed                                 *
* - 100x Tornado (or better) junctioned to Evade                    *
* - 100x Pain (or better) to Luck (for Zell and Irvine)             *
* - 100x Death junctioned to ST-Def                                 *
* - Abilityx4                                                       *
* - Commands Attack, Magic, Item and something else would be ideal  *
* - Equip Spd+40% Character Ability                                 *
* - Abilities to fulfill above requirements if needed (eg, Vit+40%) *
* - Luck+50% for Zell and Irvine                                    *
* - Evade+30% recommended                                           *
* - One character has Initiative                                    *
*                                                                   *
* For Quistis, her requirements are slightly different:             *
* - 9999 HP maximum                                                 *
* - 255 Strength and 255 Magic recommended                          *
* - 200+ Vitality and Spirit                                        *
* - 100x Triples junctioned to Speed                                *
* - 100x Tornado (or better) junctioned to Evade                    *
* - 100x Death junctioned to ST-Def                                 *
* - Commands Attack, Item and 2 other (note that she's Silenced)    *
* - Equip Spd+40% Character Ability                                 *
* - Abilities to fulfill above requirements if needed (eg, Vit+40%) *
* - Evade+30% recommended                                           *
*                                                                   *
* When you're ready, save outside Ultimecia's Castle. Switch the    *
* batle speed to its slowest and use Wait. You'll have to divide    *
* into 2 teams, the one who fights Omega will be Team A while the   *
* other one will be Team B. Junction Diablos to Team A and place    *
* one of your abilities with Enc-None temporarily. You need to get  *
* to the screen with a fountain (outside the Chapel) and remove     *
* Diablos and replace Enc-None. Switch to Team B with the Switch    *
* Point.                                                            *
*                                                                   *
* As Team B, junction Diablos and the Enc-None ability. Take the    *
* door to the right and you'll see a large bell hanging from the    *
* ceiling. Now you need to pull the rope (to take the steps down    *
* and it's located to the left corner. When you do a message will   *
* pop up saying you can hear a monster roaring from afar. You have  *
* a minute to get to Omega. Now switch back to Team A with the      *
* Switch Point in the room. You don't really have to re-junction    *
* Team A if the absence of Diablos don't make much difference. (It  *
* shouldn't.)                                                       *
*                                                                   *
* As Team A, head for the Chapel gates and Omega will be there.     *
* Note it is possible that you may run into a random encounter on   *
* the way to Omega, although it might not be probable since random  *
* encounter rates in Ultimecia's Castle are quite low.              *
*                                                                   *
* BOSS - Omega Weapon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
* Omega Weapon will always use a certain attack pattern, it's       *
* important to learn the first few:                                 *
* (0) - Physical attack                                             *
*  1  - LV5 Death                                                   *
*  2  - Meteor                                                      *
*  3  - Megido Flame (the rest don't matter)                        *
* There are 2 things to note here, Omega only seems to use action   *
* zero (physical attack) sometimes. Megido Flame will inflict 9998  *
* points of damage to all 3 members, so if you haven't beaten Omega *
* by then, you'll probably gonna be all wiped out, so be speedy.    *
*                                                                   *
* If it execute its physical attack, chances are, he'll miss due to *
* your Eva-J. This is the most obvious hole in my strategy as Omega *
* will hit once in a while, but I've never seen how much damage it  *
* does, but since your HP are so low, you'll probably get KO'd. If  *
* you've powered up your character a lot and that Ultima is no      *
* longer needed in other stats, junction it to Eva and equip        *
* Eva+30% to prevent this. Otherwise, let's pretend that he misses. *
* :) I'll divide the rest into simple steps.                        *
*                                                                   *
* 1 - Character 1 (with Initiative) cast Aura on Quistis            *
* 2 - Quistis use Mighty Guard                                      *
*     Note: Tricky here. If the > has already appeared before       *
*     Quistis was affected by Aura, it don't seem to register. So   *
*     if that happens, you need to re-tap the O button to get the > *
*     to show up again. With low HP + Darkness + Silence, it        *
*     _should_ give all your characters Aura on topa all the other  *
*     positive statuses. You may also want to execute action #3     *
*     first instead.                                                *
* 3 - Character 2 cast Meltdown on Omega (Doomtrain takes too long) *
* 4 - OPTIONAL Someone use a Holy War                               *
*     Note: It's tricky to say if you should or shouldn't execute   *
*     this action. This is recommended if Omega did not try to hit  *
*     you with a physical attack (action zero) or if you're using   *
*     Rinoa and/or Irvine. Basically, use this if you don't think   *
*     you can kill Omega before he uses Megido Flame. (It takes     *
*     longer than 5 rounds if you're using Rinoa/Irvine.) Also note *
*     that the Holy War will negate all the negative statuses       *
*     aiding the better Limit Breaks.                               *
* 5 - Beat on him with your best Limit Breaks. It should achieve    *
*     the best effects (except for Squall, but his 7 or 8 initial   *
*     Renzokuken hits should make up for it.)                       *
*                                                                   *
* Notes:                                                            *
* - Omega's action #1 (LV5 Death) will not harm your characters,    *
*   therefore, it buys you sometime for the preparations.           *
* - The reason why you need to lower your HP so much is because     *
*   Mighty Guard also gives you Regen. With Zell and Squall, you    *
*   can finish Omega in just under 5 rounds, HP at about 2000. With *
*   Irvine and Rinoa however, it takes about 7 rounds, HP at about  *
*   3100. Note your condition is still considered to be critical if *
*   your HP is less than 32% of maximum, so the Aura trick still    *
*   works.                                                          *
* - Omega's action #2 will not harm you because of your high Spr,   *
*   Shell (Mighty Guard) and Regen. Buying your even more time.     *
* - Omega's behavior pattern changes from game to game. Sometimes   *
*   it's really slow, just sit there and let your whip his a$$, but *
*   sometimes it goes all berserk. If it does the latter, it maybe  *
*   wise to use a Holy War.                                         *
* - Oh, don't save your game after beating it, because if you do,   *
*   you have to complete another game just to fight it again. You   *
*   might want to use a different team or whatever. I always keep   *
*   an "Omega file" on my memory card just for this purpose. With   *
*   all the preparations (low HP) and junctions done so I can have  *
*   some fun with Omega once in a while.                            *
* - The reason not to learn Angelo Recover is that dog may come and *
*   heals you, ruins the Aura + critical combo.                     *
* - Here's a Jap/NA difference for ya. Happy Matt told me that Hero *
*   and Holy War will NEVER work on Rinoa. (Best guess is that      *
*   they're SeeD items.) However, it works fine in the NA version.  *
* - He also said that Aura + critical doesn't work as well in the   *
*   Japanese version of the game, meaning our version has been      *
*   toned down AGAIN!!                                              *
*                                                                   *
* Now comes the fun part, calculations!                             *
* Zell - 12 second Duel + Armageddon Fist/Grand-Calamity Symphony   *
*   An expert will probably be able to execute about 4 (or more)    *
*   moves per second, both Punch Rush and Booya will do about 4500  *
*   damage, and with high Luck, half of them will be criticals!     *
* => (4 x 12)/2 x 4500 + (4 x 12)/2 x 9000 = ~324,000 (or more!!)   *
* => Add a few thousand for Grand-Calamity Symphony                 *
*                                                                   *
* Squall - 7 or 8 hit Renzokuken + finisher                         *
*   I don't know why, Squall executes mostly 7 hit combos. Also,    *
*   Aura + critical will not always work (mumble mumble Blasting    *
*   Zone mumble.) I only got to see Lion Heart just over 50% of the *
*   time.                                                           *
* => (7 x 9000) + (9999 x 17) = ~233,000                            *
*                                                                   *
* Irvine - Shot with Fast Ammo and others                           *
*   Fast Ammo works really well, but only lasts 2 rounds. :( Try to *
*   shoot 50 of them per round (a turbo controller might work.)     *
*   They'll do 2000 damage per hit and half of them are criticals.  *
*   Afterwards, you may think of resort to Pulse or AP Ammo, but    *
*   Normal Ammo actually works a bit better, since it has decent    *
*   speed and can take advantage of critical hits. The damage of    *
*   Normal Ammo is identical to Zell's Duel moves, and can be shot  *
*   17 times. You can only shoot 8 AP or Pulse bullets. Ironic huh? *
* => Fast Ammo: (50/2 x 2000) + (50/2 x 4000) = ~150,000            *
*    Normal Ammo: (8 x 4500) + (9 x 9000) = ~117,000                *
*    AP/Pulse: 8 x 9999 = 79,992 :(                                 *
*                                                                   *
* Rinoa - Wishing Stars                                             *
*   Not all that powerful, as it only does 8 hits, but it sometimes *
*   deals more damage than Squall should his Lion Heart fail.       *
* => 8 x 9999 = 79,992                                              *
*                                                                   *
* Quistis - Shockwave Pulsar                                        *
*   Better than nothing I guess...                                  *
* => 31,000~35,000                                                  *
*                                                                   *
* Other notes and extras:                                           *
* If you really want Squall to do Lion Heart, try Silencing him as  *
* well, it doesn't guarantee a Lion Heart but it may help. (Note    *
* the Holy War will cancel it, but you probably won't need it if    *
* you see Lion Heart.) You also need to adjust his strategies a     *
* bit since he's Silenced. Instead of casting Aura on Quistis, use  *
* an Aura Stone with the Item command instead. Note Darkness and    *
* Silence are the only ones that you can use, since you don't want  *
* to spend time Petrifying and Doom your characters while in battle *
* (actually, you can't.)                                            *
*                                                                   *
******* Super Douper Mega Cheap Trick - As Cheap As It Gets *********
*            "Selphie is the most powerful after all!"              *
*                                                                   *
* Simple, just do the same to Selphie as for the other characters   *
* above (low HP + status) and junction 100x Ultima to her Luck.     *
*                                                                   *
* Get into battle, cast Aura on Selphie and open the lid of the     *
* PlayStation. The game will "freeze" when Omega tries to cast LV5  *
* Death. Do the tap tap easy Slot trick until The End comes up      *
* (should be quite common, I once got 3 The Ends in 10 "Do overs"!) *
* Boom, bang, whoohoo, over! Easy but cheap as hell...              *
*********************************************************************


MISCELLANEOUS
=============
This section just includes all the weird and interesting stuff on
this game.

* Is Doomtrain REALLY the train boss from FF6? Well, I asked Happy
Matt and he checked the monster compendium in the Japanese version of
FF6 and he said that the boss' name could be directly translated into
"Magic Train" or "Phantom Train" or something along the lines of it.
The Japanese name of Doomtrain is "Grasharaboras" so there is NO
evidence that Doomtrain is exactly the Phantom Train in FF6. However,
it's possible that they're related.

* Like FFT, FFVIII contains lotsa references from the previous
fantasies (and I don't just mean the FF motifs like Chocobos,
Moogles, Shiva, Behemoth etc), these are the ones I've found:

-FFIV-
None yet.

-FFV-
-> Gilgamesh, who was Ex-Death's servant in FFV, a comical villain.
Likewise, 2 of his sword attacks are also from FFV.
  => Excalibur: The sword he wanted so much but..
  => Excalipur (Excalipoor is just a poor translation) was the one he
got. A joke item in FFV as it could only ever do 1 point of damage.

-> Boco (again, Boko is another bad translation): Butz's Chocobo is
now the default Chicobo name.

-> Omega: I hated this bonus boss as it's next to impossible to beat!

-> Brothers: Flanker358@aol.com said that Sacred and Minotaur were
bosses in FFV. I think I remember seeing something like it so I
assume that he's right.

-> Siren: Siren was a boss in FFV too, although she didn't act
anything like her 8th self. She's the boss in the Ships Graveyard.

-FFVI-
-> Doomtrain (see above)

-> Odin's fate: Remember what happened to Odin in FFVI? That's right,
he got slaughtered by an inverted version of his sword attack, which
is used by Seifer in FFVIII.

-> AtmaWeapon (Ultima Weapon): see below

-> Vicks and Wedge: Vicks is originally named Biggs in the Japanese
version. These 2 are the imperial soldiers that accompanied Terra at
the beginning of the game. (Note that they fixed Vicks back to Biggs
in the Playstation Anthology version of FF6.)

-> Merton: Merton was renamed Meltdown in the NA version of FFVIII.
However, the original Merton in FFIII (Snes version) has been changed
to Melton in the FFA (FFV and FFVI) rerelease. Why? Probably trying
to accomedate the changes in FFVIII and "Meltdown" won't fit.

-FFVII-
-> Cloud: He owns a shop in Esthar where he sells some useless stuff.

-> Ultima Weapon: Another bonus boss that appeared in FFVI, VII and
VII.

-> Ultima Weapon: And the Ultima Weapon is holding Cloud's Ultima
Weapon. It's not as strong as it was in FFVII though.

-> Biggs and Wedge: Two Avalanche members make a triumphant return in
FFVIII with another identity. (Thanks to Ed Asano for reminding me.)
Oh yeah, he also mentioned that Biggs and Wedge are from the original
Star Wars, so is it possible that the crew at Square are huge Star
Wars fans?

-FFT-
-> Olan/Orlan (I'm not sure which is the bad translation) is the
person who invented Triple Triad. And he IS Olan from FFT since
there's a picture of him in the card tutorial. You can also see a
Black Mage in the background drawn in FFT style.

-> Diablos: Have you ever wondered how much Diablos resembles that of
the Lich (the summon) in FFT? They look identical and works the same
way, so I guess they're the same thing.

-> Eden: Is Eden Zodiac? They look kinda similar and share few
features, that they're both the most powerful summons and that it's
next to impossible to tell what they're supposed to be. (IMO, Zodiac
looks like a fairy and Eden looks like a giant mushroom.)

-> Save the Queen: Quistis' best weapon is of the same name is
Meliadoul's (and other Divine Knight's) sword.

-> Blind: Ok, this is a bit off the topic but the Blind spell in
FFVIII looks suspiciously similar to the one in FFT.

-Other-
-> Ehrgeiz: The fighting game, but the timer runs out way too fast
for my liking!

-> Vicks and Wedge: Can't believe I forgot this. Viki reminded me
that Vicks (Biggs) and Wedge also appeared as puppets in Chrono
Trigger. Also, she said that the other puppet Piette (or something)
bears a resemblance towards Piet, the guy in the space station.

* In Laguna's scenario where he asked the receptionist about Julia's
room, the receptionist called her "Ms Julia". Actually, it does not
mean that she's married like in my last version. Qualera e-mailed me
saying that "Ms" is like "Mr" in that it does not contain any
information on a person's martial status. But then again, why could
they have just used "Miss Julia". (The difference is 10 years..)

* Did you notice who was playing the role of the sorceress in
Laguna's fourth scenario? That's right, the Queen of Cards!

* What's the third FFVIII theme song? Selphie's one of course! Here
are the lyrics.. Anyone wanna write the music to it?

        Train, Train, Take Us Away
        Take Us Away, Far Away
        To The Future, We Will Go
        Where It Leads No One Knows :)

* Is it just me or does anyone else think that Irvine looks like
Michael Jackson? (I mean, he even has THE hat!!)

* Does anyone thinks that Zell's opening stance when he bends over
and stretches looks a lot like Fei's in Xenogears? Likewise, Zell's
in battle standby animation is also very similar to Fei's.

* Sorry to have to say this but being a male myself, I can't help but
noticing that none of the females in the game has exceptionally large
chests. Anyway, my point was not to be rude but FFVIII is a good
proof that silicone polygons are not the only thing that sells games
these days.

* Have you noticed that ALL GFs always starts off with the highest
compatibility with Rinoa and Selphie? Likewise, Leviathan's
compatibility with Rinoa is the highest. Hmm, I wonder if this has
any connection with the demo.

* Who thinks Quistis looks like Aya Brea? Actually, it's almost
impossible to have not noticed that. :)

* Ok so this is not FFVIII related but I discovered this last week
and I just want everybody to know. It's about Xenogears and FF6, but
since I won't write an FAQ for either game, this guide is the closest
thing that I can put this tidbit on.

Anyway, do you recall the middle names of the Figaro brothers? (It
was never mentioned in the game but it's in the manual, I think.)
Edgar's middle name was "Roni" while Sabin's "Rene". Now head all the
way back in time to the first generation of the Fatima family in
Xenogears, Bart's great ancestor was named "Roni Fatima" and in one
of the cut scenes, a guy called Rene was present (along with Roni,
Lacan and Krelian.) Who was "Rene" anyway? Could he have been Roni's
brother? In that case, would the Fatima and Figaro family be somehow
related? Oooh, the plot thinkens.

* Something bothers me about the way that Laguna speaks. Is it
because he's a big Seinfeld fan? :) Actually, Laguna's stardards are
so bad it's probably on par with Spin City.

* I don't know if this will happen to you but when I fought the
enemies in Dollet with Seifer to max out my GF's level, the first
time I got paid, I went up *FIVE* SeeD ranks!!!!! How is this
possible?! (I wonder if you can get a straight LVA when you fight
enough enemies.)

* Ok, it's about time everyone should know about this. I have the
exact birthday as Squall Leonhart (no kidding!) I'm 17, and the jerk
is 17... Talk about getting your identity stolen by a looser.

* Ok this tidbit is not about FFVIII but you can get Zantetsuken in
Kartia! Go to create a weapon and choose Swords, then choose the
Kanji "Cut", "Steel" and "Sword" which are the exact Kanji for Odin's
sword attack, but it's been translated into something very different.
(And a lot weaker. :) Good only for Odin fanatics.

There's more but my head's only so big so I cannot remember it now.





This FAQ is intended to be used for non commercial purposes and there
shouldn't be any money involved. It is free to everyone who is
interested and you can print it if you like (although with my type of
format, it's not very print friendly.) Please do not rip me off by
claiming that it's your own work or rip any others off by selling
them a free FAQ. As I've learnt from my "debut" walkthrough, that
writing a walkthrough is really not an easy task at all but I've
really worked hard on it. So enjoy this "free" guide!

Copyright 1999 by me. E-mail me at i_love_aya@hotmail.com
              Visit my homepage at
http://www6.50megs.com/vanceayahan/

Final Fantasy VIII (c) 1999 Squaresoft
