___________ __ __ \_ _____/|__| ____ _____ | | | __) | |/ \\__ \ | | | \ | | | \/ __ \| |__ \___ / |__|___| (____ /____/ \/ \/ \/ ___________ __ \_ _____/____ _____/ |______ _________ __ | __) \__ \ / \ __\__ \ / ___< | | | \ / __ \| | \ | / __ \_\___ \ \___ | \___ / (____ /___| /__| (____ /____ >/ ____| \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ ____________________ |_ __ _ _ _ _| \ \/ / | | | | | | __\ /__| |_| |_| |_ |____________________| ____________________________________________________________________________ |~\/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~| | || Guide written and compiled by A I e x || | |_||______________________________________________________________________||_| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Author: Alex Eagleson | | Began: May 20th, 2005 | | Completed: June 5th, 2005 | | Email: StarOceanDC(at)gmail(dot)com | | Donations [Paypal]: StarOceanDC(at)gmail(dot)com | | University of Guelph, Ontario | |____________________________________________________________________________| |~\/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~| | || Plot spoilers are omitted wherever possible || | |_||______________________________________________________________________||_| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ O============================================================================O | *** INTRODUCTION *** (0000!) | O============================================================================O This is actually a rather important introduction for various reasons which is why I put it above the table of contents. One of the reasons it is so important is because the guide is extremely large, and if you want to use it effectively then having prior awareness of how it works is going to help you out in the long run, besides, given the guide is like almost a megabyte of plain text you'll likely be forced to read this while your browser is loading it anyway. First let's start off with the issue of "Spoiler-free guide." Contained in this guide are two things, first what you have is the walkthrough: The walkthrough is a full detailed paragraph form walkthrough for basically all areas, items and stuff you'll want to find in the game. It does NOT include story descriptions or anything like that, it does not contain spoilers in that sense. Now beyond that you should note the other inclusion: in the boss guide which is a condensed collection of strategies for every boss in the game one after another, in between each boss there is a very short point form guide for exactly what you need to get from place to place through the entire game. All boss names and descriptions in the boss guide has been censored, basically the boss guide doubles as an "ultra spoiler-free to the most extreme extent" guide which will help people who don't know where to go and little else. Unlike the main walkthrough it will not cover every nook and cranny, it's designed solely so you can play the game totally by yourself and get a boost of help if you just don't know where to go, or just can't beat a boss. I have received numerous emails from people requesting specific boss sections, so this is my answer to them and attempt to at least give the section some purpose, I believe it turned out quite well actually. What else do we have? Well you should know that this guide does not contain the kindergarden basics of the game "How do I junction?" "How do I attack?" "How do I move?" Final fantasy VIII includes a very helpful tutorial which is always available right in your menu and will show you however everything works right there in the context of your menu far better than any guide could, so utilize the help there whenever you forget how the magic system works. Lastly I would like to say a few things about one new inclusion I have added, the game encyclopedia. The encyclopedia is there for a couple of reasons. The first is because the story can get quite confusing at times and you might not exactly understand what the hell something is that they're talking about, or who this guy is. Note that like the plot summary, the game encyclopedia is NOT spoiler-free at all, it is totally separate from the walkthrough and you will not find spoilers unless you go looking for them. The second reason the guide includes the game encyclopedia is quite simple: as you may know, summer has all but arrived and sometimes on a nice hot 30 degree (Celsius) day like today, I would prefer to sit out in the backyard with my laptop in the shade. I can't exactly work on the walkthrough while sitting outside, but with the game encyclopedia, I can take the knowledge I have about game terms, make up a list and spend some putting it all together. Actually it's quite enjoyable ;) I believe that's everything covered for the introduction, I sincerely hope you enjoy this guide for Final Fantasy VIII, feel free to email me about anything. O============================================================================O | Table of Contents | O============================================================================O ** In order to navigate this guide I have implemented a Ctrl+f system, which means you press ctrl+f in your browser or word processor to bring up the search menu, then enter the letters in brackets on the right of the section that you're looking for. 1. Introduction........................................................(0000!) 2. Full Walkthrough....................................................(00000) i - Balamb Garden.................................................(00001) ii - Fire Cavern..................................................(00002) iii - Balamb Garden...............................................(00003) iv - Dollet.......................................................(00004) v - Balamb Garden.................................................(00005) vi - Balamb.......................................................(00006) vii - Laguna......................................................(00007) viii - Timber.....................................................(00008) ix - Laguna.......................................................(00009) x - Galbadia Garden...............................................(0000A) xi - Deling City..................................................(0000B) xii - Tomb of the Unknown King....................................(0000C) xiii - Deling City................................................(0000D) xiv - Winhill.....................................................(0000E) xv - D-District Prison............................................(0000F) xvi - Missile Base................................................(0000G) xvii - Balamb Garden..............................................(0000H) xviii - Fishermans Horizon........................................(0000I) xix - Balamb Garden...............................................(0000J) xx - Balamb.......................................................(0000K) xxi - Trabia Garden...............................................(0000L) xxii - Balamb Garden..............................................(0000M) xxiii - Galbadia Garden...........................................(0000N) xxiv - Orphanage..................................................(0000O) xxv - Trabia Canyon...............................................(0000P) xxvi - White SeeD Ship............................................(0000Q) xxvii - Great Salt Lake...........................................(0000R) xxviii - Esthar...................................................(0000S) xxix - Lunar Base.................................................(0000T) xxx - Ragnarok....................................................(0000U) xxxi - Preparations...............................................(0000V) xxxii - Lunatic Pandora...........................................(0000W) xxxiii - Time Compression.........................................(0000X) xxxiv - Final Dungeon.............................................(0000Y) 3. Sidequests..........................................................(00000) i - CC Group......................................................(00000) ii - Queen of Cards...............................................(00000) iii - Centra Ruins................................................(00000) iv - Jumbo Cactuar................................................(00000) v - Deep Sea Research Center......................................(00000) vi - Smaller Sidequests...........................................(00000) vii - Leftovers...................................................(00000) 4. Boss Guide & Spoiler-Free Walkthrough...............................(000E0) i - Ifrit.........................................................(000E1) ii - Biggs & Wedge................................................(000E2) iii - Elvoret.....................................................(000E3) iv - X-ATM092.....................................................(000E4) v - Grenaldo & Raldo..............................................(000E5) vi - Diablos......................................................(000E6) vii - Fake President..............................................(000E7) viii - Gerogero...................................................(000E8) ix - Sacred.......................................................(000E9) x - Sacred & Minotaur.............................................(000EA) xi - Iguion.......................................................(000EB) xii - Seifer......................................................(000EC) xiii - Edea.......................................................(000ED) xiv - Biggs & Wedge...............................................(000EE) xv - GIM52A.......................................................(000EF) xvi - Base Leader.................................................(000EG) xvii - BGH251F2...................................................(000EH) xviii - Oilboyle..................................................(000EI) xix - NORG........................................................(000EJ) xx - BGH251F2.....................................................(000EK) xxi - Raijin......................................................(000EL) xxii - Fujin & Raijin.............................................(000EM) xxiii - Cerberus..................................................(000EN) xxiv - Seifer.....................................................(000EO) xxv - Edea & Seifer...............................................(000EP) xxvi - Ruby Dragon................................................(000EQ) xxvii - Abadon....................................................(000ER) xxviii - Propagator...............................................(000ES) xxix - Odin.......................................................(000ET) xxx - Tonberry King...............................................(000EU) xxxi - Jumbo Cactuar..............................................(000EV) xxxii - Bahamut...................................................(000EW) xxxiii - Ultima Weapon............................................(000EX) xxxiv - Sphinxaur.................................................(000EY) xxxv - Fujin & Raijin.............................................(000EZ) xxxvi - Mobile Type 8.............................................(000P1) xxxvii - Seifer...................................................(000P2) xxxviii - Adel....................................................(000P3) xxxix - Tri-Point.................................................(000P4) xl - Krysta.......................................................(000P5) xli - Trauma......................................................(000P6) xlii - Red Giant..................................................(000P7) xliii - Gargantua.................................................(000P8) xliv - Catoblepas.................................................(000P9) xlv - Tiamat......................................................(000PA) xlvi - Omega Weapon...............................................(000PB) xlvii - Final Boss 1..............................................(000PC) xlviii - Final Boss 2.............................................(000PD) xlix - Final Boss 3...............................................(000PE) l - Final Boss 4..................................................(000PF) 5. Plot Summary........................................................(000H0) i - Disc 1........................................................(000H1) ii - Disc 2.......................................................(000H1) iii - Disc 3......................................................(000H1) iv - Disc 4.......................................................(000H1) 6. Game Encyclopedia...................................................(000K0) i - Section #.....................................................(000K1) ii - Section A....................................................(000KA) iii - Section B...................................................(000KB) iv - Section C....................................................(000KC) v - Section D.....................................................(000KD) vi - Section E....................................................(000KE) vii - Section F...................................................(000KF) viii - Section G..................................................(000KG) ix - Section H....................................................(000KH) x - Section I.....................................................(000KI) xi - Section J....................................................(000KJ) xii - Section K...................................................(000KK) xiii - Section L..................................................(000KL) xiv - Section M...................................................(000KM) xv - Section N....................................................(000KN) xvi - Section O...................................................(000KO) xvii - Section P..................................................(000KP) xviii - Section Q.................................................(000KQ) xix - Section R...................................................(000KR) xx - Section S....................................................(000KS) xxi - Section T...................................................(000KT) xxii - Section U..................................................(000KU) xxiii - Section V.................................................(000KV) xxiv - Section W..................................................(000KW) xxv - Section X...................................................(000KX) xxvi - Section Y..................................................(000KY) xxvii - Section Z.................................................(000KZ) 7. Soundtrack List.....................................................(000J0) i - Disc 1........................................................(000J1) ii - Disc 2.......................................................(000J2) iii - Disc 3......................................................(000J3) iv - Disc 4.......................................................(000J4) 8. Shop List...........................................................(000I0) i - Balamb........................................................(000I1) ii - Timber.......................................................(000I2) iii - Deling City.................................................(000I3) iv - Winhill......................................................(000I4) v - D-District Prison.............................................(000I5) vi - Balamb Garden................................................(000I6) vii - Fishermans Horizon..........................................(000I7) viii - Balamb.....................................................(000I8) ix - Esthar.......................................................(000I9) 9. Test Answers........................................................(000F0) 10. Blue Magic List....................................................(000U0) 11. Item List..........................................................(000C0) 12. GF List............................................................(000B0) i - Quezacotl.....................................................(000B1) ii - Shiva........................................................(000B2) iii - Ifrit.......................................................(000B3) iv - Siren........................................................(000B4) v - Brothers......................................................(000B5) vi - Diablos......................................................(000B6) vii - Carbuncle...................................................(000B7) viii - Leviathan..................................................(000B8) ix - Pandemona....................................................(000B9) x - Cerberus......................................................(000BA) xi - Alexander....................................................(000BB) xii - Doomtrain...................................................(000BC) xiii - Bahamut....................................................(000BD) xiv - Jumbo Cactuar...............................................(000BE) xv - Tonberry King................................................(000BF) xvi - Eden........................................................(000BG) 13. Card List..........................................................(000A0) 14. Magic Junctions....................................................(000Q0) 15. Magic List.........................................................(000L0) 16. Monster List.......................................................(000D0) 17. Version History....................................................(0000X) 18. Legal..............................................................(0000Y) 19. Credits............................................................(0000Z) O============================================================================O | Full Walkthrough (00000) | O============================================================================O __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Balamb Garden | (00001) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o When you wake up you'll be prompted to enter | | your name, Squall is the default name of | Geezard Card..........._____ | your main character. The game opens with a | Funguar Card..........._____ | scene as you walk down the hallway. After | Red Bat Card..........._____ | everything is said and done you have control | Gayla Card............._____ | of Squall in the main classroom. Don't | Gesper Card............_____ | actually get up from your desk, instead sit | Fastitocalon-F Card...._____ | back down and examine your terminal. Log in | Caterchipillar Card...._____ | and select the tutorial, it seems there are | Occult Fan I..........._____ | two GFs registered for Squall, GF Quezacotl | | and GF Shiva. You now have the ability to o------------------------------o summon these in battle if you junction them. Run up to the front of the room and speak with Quistis. Leave the room and you'll bump into a girl. When she asks for a tour of the garden you can agree if you really want, but you don't get anything for it, and it's a lot more fun to just go around and explore on your own without constant dialogue. Continue right down the hall and speak to the man on the way there, he'll give you seven cards. You can learn for about the card game in the Triple Triad section. Ride the elevator down and descend the stairs, that odd looking blue and yellow sphere is a save point and you can use it to save your game. Now head right to the next screen, turn right again at the first path you come to, this is the library. Examine the bookshelf above you, near the edge to find 'Occult Fan I.' There's also a draw point in here at the top if you're interested, draw points in this game allow you to store magic which you can use and junction. When you're ready to leave, return to the main area where you came down the elevator and head down. On your way out you'll find a craw point for Cure on the left. On the world map you'll find the Fire Cavern located directly East of the Garden, however you may want to do some leveling first and get some new GF abilities. Make sure to junction both Squall and Quistis each with one of the GFs and head for the nearby shore. On the shore you will fight the Fastitocalon enemy which is easily the best source of AP at this point in the game and for awhile to come. Summon the Quakazotl GF over and over as they are weak to the damage, you can level up quite well here doing that. When you enter the first battle on the grassy area, you'll be given a quick tutorial on the Gunblade. When Squall attacks if you press the R1 button just as he strikes you will always get a critical hit, this is painfully easy to do and with a little practice your success rate will easily approach 100%. Whenever you're ready, make your way to the Fire Cavern and go inside to begin your preliminary test. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Fire Cavern | (00002) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Speak to the men in front of the cavern, now | | you'll have to choose the time limit at | None...................... / | which you think you can perform best. Ten | | minutes will give you more than enough time, o------------------------------o even then you'll probably be waiting around. The path in the cavern is actually quite linear, it's just a straight line to the boss. Along the way after a couple of screens be sure to head down the path on the right to find a Fire draw point. Continue up a couple more screens until you reach the boss. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Ifrit | Level: 6 | Hit Points: 1068/1068 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....Absorb | | | Strength......High | Ice......Weak | Fire GF; uses fire magic. | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | It's a strong opponent, but | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | as it is part of Garden's | | Defense.......High | Earth....N/A | exam, not impossible to | | Spirit........Very High | Poison...N/A | defeat. | | Evasion.......Very Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Ifrit is the Fire Guardian Force so obivously you're not going to want to | | be casting a lot of fire magic on this boss, lest you want to keep | | healing him over and over again. The opposite element to fire is ice | | so in this battle, ice magic is going to be the key to victory. What you | | should be using are spells like Blizzard and summoning Shiva as much as | | possible. Note that Ifrit has Cure magic on him so whenever you need to | | heal simply use the draw command and then cast Cure on either of your | | party members. Ifrit has a couple of basic attacks. First of all he | | will cast the Fire spell on your party quite often which only deals around | | 50 damage so you should be able to survive against this easily. After the | | boss has taken a certain amount of damage he will change his tactic and | | begin using a new type of attack. The jumping body check will hit one of | | your party members for about 150 damage which can be dangerous if you're | | hit more than once so if this occurs be sure to heal up quickly after. | | Now here's something to keep in mind, the time limit you have does not | | include leaving the cave, meaning that you shouldn't be worried about | | leaving time for you to escape after the battle is over. In fact your | | upcoming SeeD rank is actually influenced more positively the LESS time | | you have on the clock when you defeat Ifrit, meaning ideally you should | | get his health down as low as possible and then strike the final blow | | when the timer is at about ten seconds or so. It won't make a huge | | difference, and once you receive your rank it's only the basic level, | | to can upgrade it anyway, but it's nice to start off high. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o It's time now to leave the Fire Cavern and return to Balamb Garden. If you haven't already by now it would be a good idea to head to the shoreline and fight enemies until Shiva learns the I Mag-RF ability. Using this you can take all the many Fish Fin items you will inevitably pick up from those battles and convert each of them into 20 Water magic, doing this will allow you to easily obtain 100 Water magic for both Squall and Quistis and when you junction all those spells to something like your strength, it really gives it an enormous boost. After this your next destination is Balamb Garden again. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Balamb Garden | (00003) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Your primary goal when you arrive here is to | | get dressed and meet up in the front hall. | None...................... / | Your room is located at the other end of the | | garden, meaning you have to run around o------------------------------o either to the left or right and when you reach the path leading directly up take that one. Squall's room is the room on the room on the right. Examine his little dresser and opt to get changed. Once you leave your room you'll automatically find yourself in the front hall. After the scene when you try to leave you'll automatically get into the car. While on the world map simply drive forward in the car using the square button. Your destination is the town of Balamb which you can't miss if you simply follow the road straight. Once you're out of the car follow the into the ship and shove off. After speaking with everyone get up from your seat and check out what's going on outside. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Dollet | (00004) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Let's first take a minute to note something, | | this is a test and as such you are being | None...................... / | graded on your conduct. While it's not | | possible to actually change the outcome of o------------------------------o passing or failing, it is possible to influence your starting rank. First of all don't actually talk to anybody while you're here unless you cannot proceed without doing so, that's the first thing to note. The rest will follow when necessary during this section of the guide. Climb the stairs at the start and use the save point at the top. There are a few scripted battles here as you head up, just normal soldiers that are extremely easy to defeat, especially if you junctioned 100 Water spells to your strength. Once you reach the town square and Seifer tells you to go and scout for enemies head up the path to the upper right and you'll find a soldier hiding behind a car. Speak to Seifer after this and then just stand around waiting. Approach Seifer when the camera angle changes and then follow him to the next screen and across the bridge. As you climb the stairs you'll encounter a miniboss battle against the Anacondaur. It's pretty much just a normal enemy with more HP, so don't worry about it. Continue up until another scene triggers. After the scene do not approach the cliff, instead go around to the right and down to the bottom via the safe path, it'll earn you more points in the end. Enter the communications tower and use the draw point for Blind on the left side. Be sure to save your game and junction everyone before you ride the elevator. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Biggs | Level: 8 | Hit Points: 640/640 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | A Galbadian Major. | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | Activated the Dollet | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | Communication Tower. | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....N/A | Very short-tempered. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Wedge | Level: 8 | Hit Points: 579/579 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | A Galbadian soldier assigned | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | to Dollet communication | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | tower. Always picked on by | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....N/A | his superior, major Biggs. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Immune | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | The battle begins with just your party against Biggs. He looks like a | | normal Elite Soldier but he boasts quite a bit more power and hit points. | | Biggs carries the Esuna spell which junctions quite well at this point | | in the game and junctions extremely well later in the game when you have | | access to junctioning magic to your status defense. Hit Biggs with your | | most powerful attacks, it doesn't take much, once again having the Water | | spell junctioned to your strength is quite helpful. Biggs' attacks are | | very similar to the Elite Soldiers', he'll raises his are and clothes- | | line one of your characters for moderate damage. After he has taken about | | 300 damage Wedge will join the battle. At this point your should just | | focus on finishing off Biggs. Wedge too, like a normal soldiers has most | | of the basic attacks. These two are more like a miniboss than anything | | else. You actually shouldn't even have to attack Wedge at all, once | | Biggs' HP has been depleted, something occurs and the real battle begins. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o O=========================o==================o===============================O | Elvoret | Level: 10 | Hit Points: 3300/3300 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | A monster that lives in the | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | abandoned Dollet | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | communication tower. No one | | Defense.......Low | Earth....Immune | knows where it came from. | | Spirit........Very High | Poison...Immune | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | The absolute first thing you should do without exception is use the draw | | command on this boss, you will notice that one magic spell isn't in ???? | | form even though you have never drawn it before, this is Siren of course. | | Use the draw command to extract Siren from the boss, it turns out that | | Siren is a Guardian Force and drawing it like this will allow you to | | acquire the GF immediately when the battle ends. Elvoret has quite a | | lot of hit points and good strength to back it up, certainly the first | | boss fight in the game that provides any challenge at all. Elvoret will | | use a normal claw attack that deals roughly 100-150 damage to a single | | character. It is good to note that you can draw the Cure spell from | | Elvoret, so if anyone is hurt simply draw-cast the Cure spell directly | | from Elvoret to make things easier. Have your party attack and use | | limit breaks if they get the, In order to use a limit break you need to | | have the character to the point where their health appears in yellow | | (not a "requirement" per se, but rarely occurs otherwise.) When their | | HP is in yellow there's a random chance that increases the lower their | | current HP gets that you'll hear a noise and see a flashing arrow beside | | the attack command. In this circumstance hold right and use the limit | | break. Just so you know, Squall's Renzokuken executed perfectly with | | Water junction on strength can deal more than 1500 damage. Back to the | | actual battle again, by far Elvoret's most dangerous attack is the | | kind of tornado breath he uses that deals almost 180 damage to every | | member of your party. To restore after this has occurred have them all | | draw-cast Cure of if Selphie has a limit, Do Over until you find the | | Full-Cure. This is about all that Elvoret can do besides another Thunder | | attack so use normal attacks to the best of your ability and don't be | | afraid to summon your GFs, especially if you're learn the Boost ability. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o After the battle and when everyone's done talking you've got 30 minutes to get out of here, which is once again more time than you're going to need, and there's going to be a bit more incentive than just the time limit to start running your ass off... there's a giant robot chasing your party! O=========================o==================o===============================O | X-ATM092 | Level: 10 | Hit Points: 5770/5770 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | Galbadia's mobile attack | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..Weak | weapon. AKA "Black Widow." | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | Doesn't stop until it kills | | Defense.......High | Earth....N/A | all enemies in its path, | | Spirit........Low | Poison...Immune | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | The giant sub-optional mechanical spider boss is one heck of a monster to | | be fighting. First of all let's look at the boss' various attacks, as it | | has quite a few of them. There are two normal attacks, one where the boss | | grabs you and deal damage, the other where it kind of fires a projectile | | from its leg. These only hit one person and don't amount to much at all. | | The next more dangerous one does about the same damage, but to your | | entire party, the boss knocks you backward, but still no big deal. The | | most dangerous attack you need to watch out for is the Ray-Bomb where the | | boss fires a beam that will send you into the air and deal about 100 | | damage to everyone, somewhat painful but still barely half as bad as | | Elvoret's most powerful attack. This boss' strengths don't lie in its | | attacks but rather in its whoppingly huge hit point total, luckily you | | aren't actually supposed to kill this boss. Once you've done about 1500 | | damage the boss will fall to the ground and begin to repair itself. At | | this point it becomes possible (and pretty much required) to hold L2+R2 | | to escape from the battle. In order to deal that required 1500 damage | | easily all you need to do is summon Quezacotl once or twice and the boss | | will go down. Now here's an interesting fun fact, it IS possible (albeit | | very difficult) to kill this boss. Note that speed is a requirement | | since it will eventually repair itself, you must destroy the boss before | | this happens and there's only one way to do this. You'll need a character | | with Quezacotl junction and 100 Water junctioned to their magic stat. | | Quezacotl needs to know Boost, for sure, as well as SumMag+10%, SumMag+20% | | and hopefully even SumMag+30%. You will also want the highest possible | | compatibility you're willing to work for so the person can do the | | summoning quickly since like I said, speed is important. Your reward for | | defeating the boss is a whopping 50 AP for all your guardian forces, that | | reward is quite decent for the work it takes to actually prepare to | | beat the thing. Either way it still doesn't stop it from chasing you, | | which is actually kind of nice because it makes it possible to defeat the | | boss multiple times (I'm not 100% on that point however.) | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Once the battle is over start running right and the thing will chase you again. On the next screen after where Selphie jumped over the cliff try to run along the upper part of this path so when the robot spider jumps it'll jump right over you. Further on, run down through the next screen, then on the one after than when you reach the bottom of the stairs hold the triangle button to start walking rather than running, this will allow you to remain upright when the boss jumps down from above and then keep running down to avoid the fight. Lastly you'll find yourself on the bridge. When the boss jumps over you, you can try to run in the other direction and try to pickle your way across, however I'm not even sure if it's possible to avoid this fight at all. Regardless of whether you fight or not, when you get to the right side of the bridge you'll be back in the central square once again. Speak with the dog quickly as you run down to get it out of the way for bonus points. As you keep running down there will be an opportunity to enter the bar and avoid the spider, do NOT take this opportunity or you will lose massive points. Other than that it's just a linear path back to the beach where you get to see a big cutscene and escape from Dollet beach. Back in Balamb once again there's not much to do besides return to Balamb Garden. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Balamb Garden | (00005) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Enter the garden and split up from the rest | | of your party. Meet with Headmaster Cid, | Battle Meter..........._____ | Quistis and Xu in the front hall then go | Weapons Mon Apr........_____ | right to meet up with Seifer. From here | MiniMog Card..........._____ | return to the front hall and ride the | Quistis Card..........._____ | elevator up. Walk left toward the hall | Magical Lamp..........._____ | where everyone is waiting and just stand | | there for awhile, eventually someone will o------------------------------o walk in with an announcement, you'll probably have to speak with Zell once first to make them actually show up. After the event speak with Headmaster Cid and he'll give you a 'Battle Meter.' Return to the second floor and go left for yet another scene with Seifer. Following this you are given your SeeD rank and sent back to your room. Enter your room and change into the SeeD uniform, then save your game and leave. When Selphie asks you to join the Garden Festival Committee you might as well, you don't really have to do any work for it. Once the whole dance thing is over and you're back in your room again, change into your normal clothes and head for the Training Center which is down and two paths right of the dormitory. Head up into the Training Center and make a right when you come to a fork. What Quistis said before coming in here was actually quite important, you're probably going to encounter an enemy in here called a T-Rexaur which is a super powerful enemy. While it's normal to just run away every time, here's how to beat it. First get into a fight with the more common enemy in this area, you can Draw Sleep magic from this enemy. Draw 100 Sleeps and then junction the Siren GF which should allow you to use ST-Atk-J. Put Siren on Squall and put the 100 Sleeps on ST-Atk-J. Now junction Quistis with the Shiva GF. The T-Rexaur has a rather large weakness to ice, not only that the casting of a Guardian Force will not wake an enemy up. So the idea is this, have Squall attack which should put the T-Rexaur to sleep 90% of the time, also have Quistis casting Shiva on each one of her turns. Doing this should practically eliminate the enemy's ability to get any turns at all and by the end, hopefully you can win the battle. Back to the actual game, continue up the path to a draw point which contains Blizzard. Continue left and save your game before going up to the supposed secret area. After the scene save your game once again. This time return to the entrance via the left path. When you arrive you'll find a rather unfortunate scene. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Granaldo | Level: 11 | Hit Points: 1538/1538 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | A large insect-type monster | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | that is a survivor of some | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | ancient race. Uses its | | Defense.......Low | Earth....Immune | large spikes and tail to | | Spirit........Low | Poison...N/A | attack. | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....Weak | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Raldo | Level: 11 | Hit Points: 287/287 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....Moderate | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | May look slow due to its | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | stone-like body, but it is | | Dexterity.....Moderate | Water....N/A | actually quite fast. May | | Defense.......Very High | Earth....N/A | appear in numbers. | | Spirit........Very High | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Very Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | You fight this boss along with three of its little helpers, first and | | foremost you should only ever aim for the actual boss, the helpers will | | get in the way but bother to destroy them will really only end up wasting | | your time in the long run. The boss only really has one single attack, | | it kicks the little Raldo things at your party for about 30 damage. | | Sometimes when it gets angry it will lift the things off the ground and | | drop them on a single member of your party for about 50 damage. You may | | notice this does not fit the example of a what bosses in a game normally | | do, and this is of course "get progressively harder." Instead this boss | | opts to actually be easier than the previous bosses you faced, so all you | | really need to do is attack or start summoning some Guardian Forces in | | here. To add more insult to injury in the boss' case he is very | | susceptible to Sleep attacks meaning if you've got Sleep junctioned on | | your weapon or if you just simply cast a sleep spell then you can | | pretty much keep the boss dozing for the entire battle which is kind of | | nice. The Raldo enemies don't actually attack on their own so while the | | main boss is asleep you can do pretty much anything you want without | | fear of being attacked. Note that one single Renzokuken can kill this | | boss in a single turn. Once the boss is dead then the Raldo enemies will | | start attacking, they're actually far harder than the boss since their | | normal attack does as much as Grenaldo's stronger attack and since there | | are three of them, they attack three times per turn. Ouch. It still | | only takes a single summoning of Quezacotl to take them out though. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Exit the Training Center and return to your dorm room. In the morning when you wake up, examine the table in the corner of your room to get 'Weapons Mon Apr.' Save your game and then head for the front gate of the Garden. Now if you're interested in the card game (which you should be since it can yield some of the best items in the game) then use the save point at the bottom of the stairs. Every 30 seconds or so a little boy in a blue shirt will run by going from left to right, run up to the kid and challenge him to a card game. Eventually he will play the 'MiniMog Card' which is extremely rare. Now let's head up the elevator to Quistis' classroom. You'll find a number of girls there called Trepe Groupie, it doesn't matter which one you play, all of them have the ability to use the 'Quistis Card,' one of the best cards in the game, but once you've won it from one of them you can't win it from any of the others. Now that you've got these it's time to leave the grounds and head for the exit. Along the way a scene triggers. After all is said and done speak with Headmaster Cid again and he'll give you the 'Magical Lamp.' Leave the Garden and head for the world map. Now save your game and prepare to fight an optional boss if you wish to do so. That Magical Lamp Cid gave you can be used on the world map to summon a new Guardian Force however you must first fight the GF before it will join your team, so once again, save your game. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Diablos | Level: 9 | Hit Points: 8000/8000 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | A mysterious GF living in | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | another dimension. Uses a | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | powerful gravity attack | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....Immune | called Gravija. | | Spirit........High | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....Weak | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Diablos is an extremely difficult boss if you don't know what you're | | doing. You have to understand how powerful gravity magic can be, and if | | you don't then Diablos is going to show you whether you like it or not. | | Diablos has three main attacks that it uses. A normal physical attack | | that deals just over 200 damage, this is his most dangerous attack by | | far and you're going to be very relieved to know that he rarely uses it | | for reasons explained soon. His second attack is the Demi spell which | | is a basic gravity spell that shouldn't do much damage to your party at | | all. The most powerful spell Diablos has is of course the Gravija which | | takes approximately 75% of the HP off of everyone, but again, like Demi | | this is a gravity based attack meaning that even if you only have one | | hit point, it cannot kill you. That's what makes the normal attacks so | | dangerous, it's the only attack he has that can actually kill you, the | | rest are just for severely weakening you. The two most important | | characters in this battle are Squall and Selphie, it really doesn't matter | | what you do with Zell. Squall should have 100 Water magic junctioned to | | his weapon, and if you still don't have that yet you can simply run down | | to the shore right now and fight a couple battles to get five Fish Fin | | items and refine them. With this, his Renzokuken limit break will be | | extremely powerful. Couple this with that fact that gravity magic can | | only weaken you, not kill you, and there should be quite a few | | opportunities to use your limit break. Basically the tactic is, while | | Diablos is casting his magic you should draw and cast Demi on him which | | will deal over 1000 damage at the start but get gradually weaker. Also | | note that using draw on Diablos fails quite often. Next, when he has used | | Gravija and your characters' HP is in the yellow, cycle through until | | Squall's limit comes up and then use that on the boss. During this time | | (while Rough Divide is going is best) you should have Selphie's limit. | | Keep using Do Over until you find the Full-Cure spell in there, it isn't | | too rare. This will fully restore your party to max and you can start the | | cycle all over again. Doing this should give you the edge you need. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Give your new Guardian Force a name. You should have also received his card from that battle which is nice. Now it's time to enter the town of Balamb. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Balamb | (00006) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Head down the path in the town of Balamb and | | near the bottom make a right, not toward the | Zell Card.............._____ | inn and docks but into the door of the | Pat Pals Vol.1........._____ | house, this is Zell's house. The main | | reason to come here is to challenge Zell's o------------------------------o mother to a game of cards, she carries the 'Zell Card,' yet another super awesome character card. Once you have won the card from his mother leave the house and check out the junk shop on the left above the save point. Note that the inventory of junk shops is solely dependant on which weapons monthly magazines you have, so the junk shop inventory listed here in the guide could be different from the one you see if you happened to miss any of those magazines. Right now you should have both the March and April editions. Take the lower o-- Junk Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Revolver........100 Gil (Squall) M-Stone Piece....6 Screw............2 | | Shear Trigger...200 Gil (Squall) Steel Pipe.......1 Screw............4 | | Metal Knuckle...100 Gil (Zell) Fish Fin.........1 M-Stone Piece....4 | | Maverick........200 Gil (Zell) Dragon Fin.......1 Spider Web.......1 | | Chain Whip......100 Gil (Quistis) M-Stone Piece....2 Spider Web.......1 | | Flail...........100 Gil (Selphie) M-Stone Piece....2 Bomb Fragment....1 | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o o-- Item Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Potion......................100 Gil Hi-Potion...................500 Gil | | Phoenix Down................500 Gil Antidote....................100 Gil | | Eye Drops...................100 Gil Soft........................100 Gil | | Echo Screen.................100 Gil Holy Water..................100 Gil | | Remedy.....................1000 Gil Tent.......................1000 Gil | | Fuel.......................3000 Gil Normal Ammo..................20 Gil | | Shotgun Ammo.................40 Gil G-Potion....................200 Gil | | G-Returner..................500 Gil | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o right path down and enter the inn. Upstairs in the bedroom on the table there's an old issue of Tiber Maniacs you can read that doesn't really do anything. Head back left past the junk shop toward the station. There's an item shop at the bottom of the stairs, just make sure not to spend any more than 3000 Gil, that's how much you'll need to board the train. Enter the station and get on the train to Timber. When you're on the train, use the save point and then head up the hallway. Follow Zell into the room, he'll give you the magazine 'Pet Pals Vol.1' when you speak to him and then... __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Laguna | (00007) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Here you will find yourself in control of | | Laguna, Kiros and Ward. They don't need to | None...................... / | be equipped or anything, Squall, Zell and | | Selphie's junctions have already been o------------------------------o transferred. Simply run up and follow the path. Use the draw point along the way containing the Cure spell. The path is totally linear to the end so just keep running and running, don't worry, there's nothing to find or anything like that. When you arrive at the town follow the road down to the lower right. Enter the building marked as the Galbadia Hotel. You can save your game here and then continue down the stairs on the right. Speak to the person in blue standing at the front and choose to sit at your table. When you have control of Laguna again, approach the piano to continue the scene. Next when it's all over go upstairs and speak with the person at the reception desk. After this it's just a matter of speaking to Julia whenever you can move again until the scene ends and everything is back to normal on the train once again. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Timber | (00008) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Remember when you arrive, the correct | | password is "But the Owls are still | Angelo Card............_____ | around." Head down the stairs and go down | Pet Pals Vol.2........._____ | from there. Follow the guy in the yellow | Girl Next Door........._____ | vest onto the train. After he's done | 500 Gil................_____ | talking there's another rare card you can | Buel Card.............._____ | get, from Watts. There's a trick you should | Tonberry Card.........._____ | learn however. After playing cards in one | Potion................._____ | region and moving to another, another region | Phoenix Down..........._____ | might have different rules. The people of | Soft..................._____ | these regions will agree to play a game of | Antidote..............._____ | cards with both region's rules combined then | Remedy................._____ | after the game, a rule from where you played | | previously will be spread across this o------------------------------o region. The basic rule of the card game is that the more rules there are, the harder the game. You don't WANT to pass new rules around, so here's how to avoid it. When you ask Watts to play cards he'll ask if you want to play with both region's rules, select no and speak to him again, he'll ask you again. Keep doing this over and over and eventually he'll just ask "Do you want to play cards?" Agree to this and now you won't spread any new rules around (the same rules of this region still apply though.) Every single person in the game who plays cards will eventually stop asking if you keep refusing like this, always remember that. Most of the time on the very first game, Watts will play the 'Angelo Card.' Be sure to pick it up. After the card game climb the stairs above you and save your game using the save point on the left. Continue up to the next screen and go into the room. After speaking with the girl return to where your party was and follow them into the meeting room. When the meeting is over return to Rinoa's room once again, there you will find 'Pet Pals Vol.2' sitting on the couch. Save your game and then speak to Watts. You start out on top of the train. Run left and follow Rinoa across. Once you jump to the next train that marks the start of the five minute timer. Keep running left over top of the soldiers below. Soon enough it will be time to drop down and enter the codes. Press down on the D-pad to drop down and Rinoa will feed you the code, keep an eye on the number pattern thing so you know which buttons to press, you can also press L1 to look to your left. If you're quick you can input all three of the codes before you are caught, even though Zell will warn you about the blue guard on the second code, you can still get all three. I would still recommend going up after the second one if you aren't sure however. Once you've entered the code watch the scene, then get ready to do it again. On this next one enter the first two codes then go up until the two guards have passed by. Drop down after that and you'll have more than enough time to enter the next three codes. Another scene follows and if you managed to do this without screwing up, your SeeD rank will increase by one. Head up and save your game before speaking to Rinoa, tell her you're ready to begin (be sure you've junctioned everyone accordingly, keep in mind Zell and Selphie will be completely empty even if they had stuff before.) Enter the president's train car and prepare yourself. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Fake President | Level: 12 | Hit Points: 778/778 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | President Deling's double | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | Attacks in a strange way, | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | but not very strong. | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....N/A | However... | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Defeating the Fake President should not be too hard, his HP total is | | pretty pathetic and his attacks are nothing special. He'll use some kind | | of vampire bite attack that deals less than a hundred damage to a single | | character and really doesn't use anything else. Anyone with a decent | | amount of magic junctioned to their strength should be able to take | | this boss out in a mere few turns. But of course, when he dies... | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o O=========================o==================o===============================O | Gerogero | Level: 12 | Hit Points: 3650/3650 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....Weak | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | A monster that posed as | | Intelligence..High | Thunder..N/A | President Deling. Attacks | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | with its deformed arms | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....Weak | and status attacks. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Immune | | | Evasion.......Moderate | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....Weak | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Technically this is still part of the previous fight but its an entirely | | new boss. The Fake President falls to the floor when defeated, only | | to spring up and transform into this disgusting beast. Gerogero can | | use some very nasty status attacks. First, Gerogero will use kind of | | a vomit spew to inflict darkness on one of your characters. When someone | | is under the darkness status, they will have a severe reduction in their | | ability to hit the enemy with normal physical attacks. Other status | | related attacks the boss uses include the two spells Silence and Berserk | | which will disable the use of magic with one character and make one | | character only able to physically attack every turn respectively. Here's | | how to deal with any of these occurrences, all you have to do is use the | | draw command on the boss and cast his Esuna spell on whichever character | | has been affected, since Esuna will remove any abnormal status effect, | | not just one in particular. His final attack is an arm swipe that deals | | nearly 200 damage to a single character and can be quite dangerous. | | Let's talk about how to actually defeat this boss, there are a couple ways | | of doing it. If you have any Wizard Stones you can refine perhaps just | | one of them into some Firaga magic and really exploit his weakness to | | fire, but this is still the far more complicated way. Note that this | | boss carries the undead property, meaning that not only is he weak to | | holy based magic but also to cure based magic. If you cast the Cure spell | | on this boss he will take damage rather than gain life, and of course you | | can see where this is going to lead. Have one of your characters minimum | | able to use the Item command in battle. Select Item, then choose one of | | the Elixirs you should have obtained recently. Use the Elixir on | | Gerogero to find out what an easy weakness it is. The Elixir will | | deal 3650 damage to the boss automatically and kill him instantly. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Following the battle you'll be back in the train again. Speak to Selphie and Zell, then to Rinoa. When you're done go save the game and talk to Watts when you're ready to leave. Be sure to check out the Pet Shop just above the train platform and pick up Pet Pals Vol.3 and Pet Pals Vol.4. Follow the road down to the lower right of the train platform, check out the junk shop here and you can save your game at the inn. Return to the train platform and take the upper right path. Enter the Timber Maniacs building and check out the stack of magazines on the floor beside the desk to get 'Girl Next Door.' Next enter the room on the left, there's a hidden draw point in here containing Blizzaga. If you go up into the other room you can find an old issue of Timber Maniacs on the floor. Leave the building and head right to the next screen. Ignore the stairs and keep going right. Though the door at the top you'll find a sink, when you examine it you can drink the Owl's Tear and heal yourself fully. After doing this examine the cupboard at the top of the room four o-- Junk Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Revolver........100 Gil (Squall) M-Stone Piece....6 Screw............2 | | Shear Trigger...200 Gil (Squall) Steel Pipe.......1 Screw............4 | | Metal Knuckle...100 Gil (Zell) Fish Fin.........1 M-Stone Piece....4 | | Maverick........200 Gil (Zell) Dragon Fin.......1 Spider Web.......1 | | Chain Whip......100 Gil (Quistis) M-Stone Piece....2 Spider Web.......1 | | Flail...........100 Gil (Selphie) M-Stone Piece....2 Bomb Fragment....1 | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o o-- Item Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Potion......................100 Gil Hi-Potion...................500 Gil | | Phoenix Down................500 Gil Antidote....................100 Gil | | Eye Drops...................100 Gil Soft........................100 Gil | | Echo Screen.................100 Gil Holy Water..................100 Gil | | Remedy.....................1000 Gil Tent.......................1000 Gil | | Fuel.......................3000 Gil Normal Ammo..................20 Gil | | Shotgun Ammo.................40 Gil G-Potion....................200 Gil | | G-Returner..................500 Gil | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o o-- Pet Shop ----------------------------------------------------------------o | | | G-Potion....................200 Gil G-Hi-Potion.................600 Gil | | G-Returner..................500 Gil Pet House..................1000 Gil | | Magic Scroll...............5000 Gil GF Scroll..................5000 Gil | | Draw Scroll................5000 Gil Item Scroll................5000 Gil | | Amnesia Greens.............1000 Gil Pet Pals Vol.3.............1000 Gil | | Pet Pals Vol.4.............1000 Gil | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o times to get '500 Gil,' however after stealing this man's money you may no longer use his faucet. Return to the stairs in the previous area you passed by and go down them this time, you'll have to fight a couple of normal Galbadian soldiers, after which you receive the 'Buel Card.' Check out the item shop and use the Cure draw point. Go into the pub and speak to the man by the back door, choose to tell him about the card and he'll let you keep it, giving you a 'Tonberry Card' as well. Proceed into the back alley and save your game. Continue left and quite a long scene occurs. It pretty much doesn't end until you're downstairs in the old lady's house. Before you leave she'll give you a 'Potion,' 'Phoenix Down,' 'Soft,' 'Antidote' and 'Remedy' to take with you. Leave the house and go right. Continue right after speaking with Zone and cross the bridge to get to the train platform. Board the train and you're off. Speak to everyone on the train and you'll be dropped off at the East Academy Station. Across the bridge and Northwest of the station is a forest between two mountain sides, end the forest and watch the scene. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Laguna | (00009) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Head up and go down the hill. Use the Sleep | | draw point then go straight at the fork. At | None...................... / | the next fork with three paths take the | | middle path and descend the ladder. At the o------------------------------o bottom of this screen, just above the light on the left you can find an Old Key on the ground, however when you pick it up Laguna will lose it immediately, doing this will have an effect later in the game however. Continue down and examine the top of the middle hatch. Choose to tamper with the hatch. Head two more screens to the right, at around the middle of the pile of those big curcular metal rings, whatever they are, you can find another Old Key which you will immediately lose again. Follow the path up two screens and examine the object on the ground. Choose to press the red switch for the furthest boulder. Afterward press the blue switch for the closer boulder. Climb the stairs at the top of this area and follow the linear walkway across into the next area. When you reach a save point go up from there until a scene triggers. You'll fight against some cyborg soldiers which are stronger than the normal soldiers however a simple cast of Quezacotl which exploits their weakness to Thunder will really clean their clocks. After the second battle the scene continues and you're back with your party once again. Leave the forest and make tracks for Galbadia Garden. Keep in mind that since Selphie and Quistis were technically Kiros and Ward in the fantasy, both of them have the one remaining HP from when the party was hit by Soul Crush so careful if you go into battle. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Galbadia Garden | (0000A) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Head inside the Garden and speak to your | | party members at the gate. Just into the | None...................... / | main hall you'll find a save point on the | | right. Take a look where the beam of yellow o------------------------------o light hits the ground in the centre of this room, examine that area to find a draw point for Haste magic. Continue up until you reach a set of stairs, climb up and go through the door right below you at the top. Speak to your party members and Quistis will enter the room. Speak to all your party emembers when you have control again. Leave the room and go down the stairs, as you go to leave another scene triggers as you approach the main entrance hall. Leave the Garden and meet up with your party. After forming your battle party there is a train platform right beside Galbadia Garden. Give the man 3000 Gil and board the train for Deling City. Once you're on the train try to leave and the rest of the party will come in. Go check on Selphie and Irvine. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Deling City | (0000B) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Get off the train and ride the escalator | | down and then up into Deling City. From the | None...................... / | fountain head down and right. This will | | lead you to the Galbadia Hotel. Upstairs in o------------------------------o the Galbadia Hotel you can find an old issue of Timber Maniacs, you actually have to stay the night, you'll find it between the beds. Levae the hotel and continue down. On the right side of the road are the shops, check out the item shop and the junk shop. Head down and then take the right path at the fork. This o-- Junk Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Revolver........100 Gil (Squall) M-Stone Piece....6 Screw............2 | | Shear Trigger...200 Gil (Squall) Steel Pipe.......1 Screw............4 | | Metal Knuckle...100 Gil (Zell) Fish Fin.........1 M-Stone Piece....4 | | Maverick........200 Gil (Zell) Dragon Fin.......1 Spider Web.......1 | | Chain Whip......100 Gil (Quistis) M-Stone Piece....2 Spider Web.......1 | | Flail...........100 Gil (Selphie) M-Stone Piece....2 Bomb Fragment....1 | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o o-- Item Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Potion......................100 Gil Hi-Potion...................500 Gil | | Phoenix Down................500 Gil Antidote....................100 Gil | | Eye Drops...................100 Gil Soft........................100 Gil | | Echo Screen.................100 Gil Holy Water..................100 Gil | | Remedy.....................1000 Gil Tent.......................1000 Gil | | Fuel.......................3000 Gil Normal Ammo..................20 Gil | | Shotgun Ammo.................40 Gil G-Potion....................200 Gil | | G-Returner..................500 Gil | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o is the area with Caraway's Mansion. Speak to the soldier on the right and he'll tell you about the test. It's time to head for the Tomb of the Unknown King. You might want to buy a location displayed from him for 5000, then have him escort you out of town. The tomb is located far to the Northeast. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Tomb of the Unknown King | (0000C) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Use the Protect draw point on the left then | | the save point on the right. The entrance | Minotaur Card.........._____ | to the tomb is at the top of the screen, not | | it is very easy to get lost in here so o------------------------------o follow my directions exactly. When you first enter the tomb go up one screen and you'll find a sword on the ground, it should have the ID number on it. Write this number down, now if you want, you can leave. If you want a new Guardian Force you'll have to keep going. Make a right at the fork here, go around the curved path, make a right at the fork, go around the curved path, make a right at the fork, head straight, examine the minotaur here. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Sacred | Level: 15 | Hit Points: 2468/2468 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | Earth GF in the Tomb of the | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | Unknown King. Recovers by | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | power of the earth. Attacks | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....Immune | with a large steel orb. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Weak | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....Weak | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Sacred is the Earth GF, equipped with a huge spiked mace and ready to | | clomp you over the head with it. He has a basic attack for just over | | 100 damage where he basically just smacks you in the face with his weapon. | | Sacred also has some kind of Regen in effect allowing him to restore HP | | at a consistent rate through the battle. This is pretty much all he does | | for the entire fight so your primary job is to just make sure you can | | keep up with the damage, and that the damage you deal isn't balanced | | by his HP gain. The best way to do this is through the use of Guardian | | Forces and Squall or Zell's limit breaks if you can get them. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Keep in mind that this whole temple is based on YOUR perspective, so when leave it's going to look almost the same as it did when you came. Just follow my specific directions and you'll be fine. Head down from where you fought Sacred, then up, make a right at the fork, go around the curved path, make a right at the fork, go around the curved path, make a right at the fork, head straight up. Use the draw point here (seriously) and hope you get a lot of the Float spell. Next use the controls on the right side to open the floodgate. Leave this room. Now head up, go up at the fork, make a right at the fork, go up at the fork, go around the curved path, make a right at the fork, go straight up. Now examine the handle on the right to remove it. Also check out the right corner for a Cura draw point which is invisible. Head down to leave the room, now go up, go up at the fork, make a right at the fork, make a left at the fork, make a left at the fork, head straight up. You should now be inside staring at the miniotaur. Note that if you're still looking for this area, it's in the exact middle directly up from the entrance. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Sacred | Level: 15 | Hit Points: 2468/2468 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | Earth GF in the Tomb of the | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | Unknown King. Recovers by | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | power of the earth. Attacks | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....Immune | with a large steel orb. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Weak | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....Weak | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Minotaur | Level: 11 | Hit Points: 2455/2455 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | Sacred's older brother. | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | This Earth GF has healing | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | ability, as long as his feet | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....Absorbs | are on the ground. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Weak | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....Weak | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Watch out for these two, who can be very dangerous when combined. First | | of all, Sacred is pretty much the same as he was in the previous | | battle. He'll use his normal attack every single turn and heal HP while | | doing it. It's the Minotaur who provides the real challenge in this | | battle. He has a normal attack just like Sacred does that deals about | | the same amount of damage. He also has an attack called Mower, which | | pretty much "mowers" across you party and deals normal attack damage to | | everyone in your party. This is all well and good, in fact the fight | | would be easy if that's all it was, but that's not all it is. The | | Brothers are able to use a special combination attack called Mad Cow. | | This attack is basically an earthquake attack that will shake the ground | | violently and deal serious damage to everyone in your party, about 400 | | damage to every one of them. If you're not prepared then this attack | | will totally wipe you out. Here's what you need to do to stay alive and | | win this battle. First use the draw command and notice that they carry | | the Protect spell, this is good because you're going to need it. Cast it | | on all three of your party members and it will pretty much last the entire | | battle, cutting all physical damage you take in half. Now here's where | | you hope you were able to stock a lot of those Float spells. It's best | | if you distribute them among your party so you can cast it quickly. Use | | Float on everyone in your party, this will make it so the earthquake | | spell Mad Cow can't even touch your party members and you take no | | damage. As if this wasn't nice enough, cast Float on both Sacred and | | Minotaur. Their ability to heal comes from some kind of bond with the | | Earth so when they are separated from it (floating in the air) that | | healing ability disappears and you are free to start smashing. When they | | are no longer healing, simply a couple casts of both Shiva and Quezacotl | | each should be enough to eliminate both of them simultaneously. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o For defeating the to Brothers you now get the ability to junction and use them as a Guardian Force. Also from the spirit you will get the 'Minotaur Card' which is nice since you already got the Sacred Card from the boss battle you just fought. If you've forgetten the student's ID number then be sure to check again as you head straight down toward the exit and back to Deling City. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Deling City | (0000D) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Return to General Caraway's mansion and give | | the guard out front the student's ID number. | Weapons Mon Mar........_____ | The way you have to enter it is stupid and | | you might get confused. You have to enter o------------------------------o the ones columns, then the tens column, then the hundreds. Meaning that if the ID number was 11, you would enter 1, 1, and 0. Head inside the house after saving your game and speak to Rinoa. A scene with General Caraway follows, just stick behind him wherever he goes. After his explanation you've got time to go do whatever you wish. When you're prepared to begin the operation then return to General Caraway's house, save your game, and go inside. After the scene, leave the house and follow General Caraway once again. When you have control of Quistis at the gateway aferward head right down the path behind the tree and return to Caraway's house. After the scene you'll have control of Rinoa. Up at the top right you'll find an entrance to the sewer. Choose to climb down and head left for a few screens until you find the magazine 'Weapons Mon Mar.' Climb out of the sewer once again and save your game. Now start making your up those crates toward the top and jump across to the walkway. On the next screen there is a ladder on your left and you can get up from there. Another scene triggers after this and lasts until you're back at Caraway's Mansion again with Quistis' party. Examine the wine glasses on the left side of the room to take one, then go to the upper left corner and place it in the hands of the statue. Leave the room and save your game. Head down into the sewer and climb over top of the water wheel. Examine the bars to go through the door and a cutscene triggers when you do. You'll now have control of Squall, move right and navigate between the people, through the parade and into the building. You'll find yourself once again here, the same place Rinoa was before. Make sure Squall and Irvine are junctioned properly. Climb up the crates and up to the top where you'll find Rinoa and the lizards. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Iguion | Level: 12 | Hit Points: 944/944 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....High | Fire.....Immune | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | A mutated gateway decoration. | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | Uses Petrify attacks. | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | Someone has given it the | | Defense.......High | Earth....Weak | Reflect power. | | Spirit........Low | Poison...Immune | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....Weak | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | These bosses have pathetically low HP totals, so low that it's well... | | pathetic. With less than 1000 HP a piece you can easily eliminate them | | with a few normal attacks from Squall as .long as he has a decent magic | | spell junctioned, however don't be too quick to eliminate them. Most | | important of all the first thing you should do is the the Draw command | | and draw the Carbuncle Guardian Force from either of the bosses. While | | doing this also note the bosses carry the Cure spell and the Esuna spell, | | both will come in handy for this battle. The Iguions will most often | | use a normal slash attack that deals about fifty damage or so, there are | | two other attacks you need to watch out for. The first is the more | | uncommon of the two, while both bosses are still alive they can team | | up and use the Resonance attack which will deal about 250 damage to both | | party members, you'll likely need to cure after being hit by that. The | | more common of the two is the Magma Breath which hits for decent damage | | to a single character but also has the added effect of inflicting the | | gradual petrify status, meaning a number will appear above the character's | | head and when that countdown reaches zero, the character turns to stone. | | In order to prevent this simply draw-cast the Esuna spell and use it on | | the character to fix them. As for offenses, Squall's attack is great and | | Renzokuken should be able to take one of them down in a single use. The | | best thing however is the Brothers GF. Not only is it strong but it | | exploits their weakness to Earth, if you have Boost, instant kill there. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o When the battle is over go back one screen and examine the trap door in the floor on the right side. Go down through it and pick up the sniper rifle. After the scene you'll have control of Quistis again. Head up and go through the gate. Cross the bridge and then go left through this gate as well. Try to climb the ladder and it falls over. Cross the ladder bridge to the other side and continue left. Use the Esuna draw point here and then head back across the ladder bridge. Make your way left through the gate, then up through the next one. Continue up to the next screen with the water wheel and head right, through the gate. When you reach the next water wheel if you go down and left you can find a draw point with Zombie in it. Head back and jump across the water wheel, then across the one on the other side. Now head down through the gate. Jump across the water wheel here and continue down. Jump across the water wheel yet again and head down for a third time. Drop the ladder down at the bottom and head right. Jump across this water wheel and run up to find the save point. Climb up the ladder above the save point, past the first floor and high up to the second floor. There's a quick scene here and then you need to hit the switch. From here it's beyond your control. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Seifer | Level: 19 | Hit Points: 1076/1076 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | Decided to become a Sorceress'| | Intelligence..High | Thunder..N/A | Knight under Edea. Uses Fire | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | magic in conjunction with | | Defense.......Very High | Earth....N/A | sword attacks. | | Spirit........Very High | Poison...Weak | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Before this battle begins make sure you equip the Carbuncle Guardian | | Force, it will make things a lot easier, although this battle isn't | | exactly too difficult in the first place. Even though you're only | | fighting with Squall, about 1000 HP isn't that much to take off anyway. | | Seifer has a couple of main attacks, first he of course has his normal | | Gunblade slash. Seifer will also use the Fira spell which deals over | | 200 damage to Squall and can become quite dangerous. There are two ways | | to deal with this. The first is to junction Fire to your Elem-Def, but | | the far easier way is to simply summon the Carbuncle GF and then all of | | Seifer's magic will be reflected back onto him, not only preventing the | | damage to you, but inflicting damage upon him. Even if Seifer does | | manage to get Squall's HP low enough, one use of Renzokuken will | | totally obliterate Seifer with any decent spell junctioned. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o O=========================o==================o===============================O | Edea | Level: 11 | Hit Points: 4300/4300 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | A powerful sorceress and | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..N/A | ruler of Galbadia. Her | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | sorceress powers may be the | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | most powerful in the world. | | Spirit........High | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Following the battle with Seifer, the battle with Edea begins. Although | | it opens with only Squall against her, Irvine and Rinoa will quickly | | join the fray. Edea is equipped with powerful magic spells, the highest | | level of their kind like Thundaga, so your curative abilities had better | | equal her offensive capabilities. Of course there is one surefire way | | of standing up to these spells and it's the same tactic you used for the | | previous battle, summoning Carbuncle and having Reflect on your entire | | party will ease the difficulty significantly. Edea in one respect is | | unlike Seifer, she will not cast powerful magic and do harm to herself, | | instead she will use the Dispel spell over and over, What Dispel does is | | remove the Reflect status from a party member. Fortunately there is | | still one good thing about this, since Dispel only targets one person at | | a time she will waste three turns Dispel-ing your entire party after | | which you can simply summon Carbuncle again, all the while attacking her | | with your most powerful GFs and physicals. Her physical defenses are her | | weak point so rather than working out a bunch of powerful magic and such, | | sometimes it's easiest to rely on brute strength here if your characters | | have the junctions to back it up. One interesting facet about this | | battle is that victory is not actually required, the outcome after the | | battle remains unchanged regardless of whether you actually win or not, | | the only difference is that you don't get the AP bonus if you lose. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Winhill | (0000E) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Following the switch to disc two you'll have | | control of Laguna once again. There's an | None...................... / | invisible draw point containing Curaga | | beside the armoire. head downstairs and o------------------------------o speak to the little girl. Leave the house and go down, the pub is right next door. After you're done talking to Kiros it's time to begin working for your food. Laguna's job is to help clear out the town of monsters. Leave the pub and head down. Follow the path out of town, head down until Laguna says the patrol is complete. From here go left and the item shop is right beside you. o-- Item Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Potion......................100 Gil Hi-Potion...................500 Gil | | Phoenix Down................500 Gil Antidote....................100 Gil | | Eye Drops...................100 Gil Soft........................100 Gil | | Echo Screen.................100 Gil Holy Water..................100 Gil | | Remedy.....................1000 Gil Tent.......................1000 Gil | | Fuel.......................3000 Gil Normal Ammo..................20 Gil | | Shotgun Ammo.................40 Gil G-Potion....................200 Gil | | G-Returner..................500 Gil | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Note that Laguna's funds and Squall's funds are separate, meaning you'll have 3000 Gil here no matter what you had as Squall. This also means that when you go back to Squall your money will disappear, but since item inventory remains the same, you should spend every last bit of the money on anything. Return to the pub and speak with Raine. After that, go next door and up to your room. Save the game then examine your bed and choose to take a rest. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ D-District Prison | (0000F) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Speak to all three of your party members and | | then speak to Rinoa again. The rest of this | Tent..................._____ | is a rather long scene until you have | Pet House.............._____ | control of Zell once again. Go down one | Pet Nametag............_____ | floor to find a save point, then back up two | Str Up................._____ | floors to find the weapons being guarded by | Combat King 001........_____ | two enemies. Approach them to trigger a | Cottage................_____ | battle. After this you'll have your party | | again, use the opportunity to access the o------------------------------o menu as a means to prepare all your characters for the next battle. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Biggs | Level: 9 | Hit Points: 1671/1671 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | He was a major during the | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | Dollet Communication Tower | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | Operation, but was demoted | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | after the operation failed. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...N/A | Hates SeeD. | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Wedge | Level: 13 | Hit Points: 1743/1743 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | Demoted along with Biggs | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | for his part in the Dollet | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | Communication Tower | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | Operation. Unfortunately, | | Spirit........Low | Poison...N/A | still works under Biggs. | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Biggs and Wedge make their not so triumphant return battling what they | | thought to be unarmed prisoners as they sit in a jail cell. Hopefully | | you set yourself up properly for this not so difficult battle. Each one of | | them pretty much relies on a single physical attack meaning that as long | | as you have a decent supply of curative magic (which you probably won't | | even need) there is very little chance of actually being defeated. Now | | and then Wedge will use a Fire spell but it doesn't deal much more than a | | normal attack. To really soften them up cast Protect on your party and | | then just start picking away at their health. To make this even more of | | a joke, draw Reflect from Wedge and cast it on your party, this is | | totally a waste of time really, I'm just coming up with ways to make this | | fight so stupidly easy, that it's kind of funny. Sometimes Wedge and | | Biggs give humourous little bits of dialogue anyway so it's interesting | | to just mess around here. It's also a good chance to stock up on some | | spells that junction fairly well like Haste, also Protect, Shell and | | Reflect all junction extremely well to Elemental Defense. When you're | | actually ready to end the battle, simply summon Brothers or Ifrit or | | any other decently powerful Guardian Force to bring the two down. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o If you want some items, start making your way down the stairs. Check all the rooms on your pay to the bottom floor to find 'Tent,' 'Pet House,' 'Pet Nametag,' 'Str Up,' and 'Combat King 001.' Head all the way back again and start making your way up the stairs, your final destination is the thirteenth floor. When you reach the tenth floor and you're around on the right side, go through the door and speak with the man, press square to play a card game with him. If you win, he will customize your battle meter to keep more detailed records. Continue up the stairs toward the thirteenth floor. Enter the room and recruit Squall back into your party. Once you're in the elevator, press the button to drop down. As Zell once again, start running right, in the opposite direction you were moving before. After the scene you'll need to form a party of Squall, Rinoa and one other person then make your way once o-- Item Shop ---------------------------------------------------------------o | | | Potion......................100 Gil Hi-Potion...................500 Gil | | Phoenix Down................500 Gil Antidote....................100 Gil | | Eye Drops...................100 Gil Soft........................100 Gil | | Echo Screen.................100 Gil Holy Water..................100 Gil | | Remedy.....................1000 Gil Tent.......................1000 Gil | | Fuel.......................3000 Gil Normal Ammo..................20 Gil | | Shotgun Ammo.................40 Gil G-Potion....................200 Gil | | G-Returner..................500 Gil | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o again up to the thirteenth floor. As you go up the scene will change to Irvine's party back on the eighth floor. Enter the cell right above you and speak to the guy, he'll show you his shop inventory. From here begin making your way down, saving on your way until you reach the third floor. As Squall's party once again speak to the Moomba to get a 'Cottage.' Head down to the next screen and go up the stairs below you. Follow this path up to the next level and then up once again to encounter a boss enemy. O=========================o==================o===============================O | GIM52A | Level: 14 | Hit Points: 2114/2114 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | A Galbadian machine that | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..Weak | attacks with magic and | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....Weak | missiles. The more advanced | | Defense.......Low | Earth....Weak | models use high-powered | | Spirit........Very High | Poison...Immune | beams. | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Elite Soldier | Level: 14 | Hit Points: 330/330 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....Low | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | An officer acting together | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | with Galbadian Soldiers. | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | Defeat him first, before he | | Defense.......Moderate | Earth....N/A | uses recovery magic on the | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Weak | other soldiers. | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | A lone Elite Soldier is working with these two powerful GIM52A enemies, | | like the description says, the soldier will provide support to his two | | allies so the first thing you should do in this battle is destroy him. | | Once the soldier is out of the way your next task of course becomes | | getting rid of the large machines. This fight is somewhat similar to the | | fight with Diablos. The robots have an attack designed to be quite | | powerful and able to weaken you called Micro Missiles. Micro Missiles | | can't ever actually kill you, instead what it does is take off half of | | your current HP, so even if your party is really strong this attack is | | still going to hurt you. After using Micro Missiles the enemies will | | rely on their fast speed and moderately powerful physical attacks to | | knock off whatever remaining HP you have left which is why it is very | | important to heal in this battle. They use their physical attacks a lot | | more often than Diablos did so the chances of actually being killed are a | | lot greater, but at least the attacks aren't too strong. To eliminate | | these enemies I prefer to just let Micro Missiles take Squall's HP down a | | bit and then just blow them away with Renzokuken, but considering their | | weakness to thunder magic, a Boosted Quezacotl can work just as well. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Watch the quick scene with Irvine and then leave the room through the exit that leads outside. Start crossing the bridge to trigger a cutscene. Keep crossing afterward and get ready to move! While hanging onto the ledge hold diagonal up-right to shimmy along the side. It's quite easy if you're holding it the whole time but if you stop for some reason, you'll probably end up with a game over. There's another scene after you finish this. You need to choose a party, just as a quick note, choose your more preferred party to go with Squall, you'll be using that party more frequently than the other. When you get out of the car go left past the U shaped bars and get onto the train. When you have control of the car on the world map, you can reach the Missile Base by going Northeast a bit then turning and driving directly West. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Missile Base | (0000G) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Once you get inside the Missile Base head | | left and go through the door. There's a | None...................... / | save point here right in front of you and | | two doors on your left. Examine the panel o------------------------------o in between the two doors to open the one on the left. Head forward and choose to walk by casually. Run across the walkway on the next screen and down the stairs. Another save point here. Speak to the two men and take the lower left exit beside the stairs. You'll find a draw point here containing Blind and a couple of guards standing around minding their own business. Speak to the guard standing on the left of the other one. After speaking with him go back up one screen, then through the door leading up. Speak to the man at the top and tell him the other crew says to go on ahead. After speaking with him return to the other crew and give them the news. Return once again back to the room being guarded by the soldier who commented on your walking style. Talk to him to get him to leave his position. Examine the control panel in the room and just hit whatever. Once the lights are out, leave the room. Try to talk your way out of the situation by telling them you were just about to go make the call. Go back down the stairs again and approach the door. When the guy comes out, agree to give him a hand with the thing. Check the left part of this room beside one of the large missile silos to find an invisible draw point for Full-Life. Now get in between the two guys and then tap square repeatedly to move the launcher. Finally leave this room and examine the computer terminal on the right side of the door. Choose the Target option and then set error ratio. Next choose data upload and then exit the program. After this head upstairs and it's time to cause a ruckus. O=========================o==================o===============================O | Base Leader | Level: 14 | Hit Points: 1149/1149 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | Galbadia Missile Base | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | security leader. Stronger | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | than regular Galbadian | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | soldiers. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Weak | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Base Soldier | Level: 12 | Hit Points: 489/489 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....Moderate | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | Galbadia Missile Base | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | security soldiers. Paid a | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | little better than regular | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | Galbadian soldiers. | | Spirit........Low | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | I'm not even quite sure why this is classified as a boss battle, it's | | only marginally more difficult than a normal battle with the same | | basic enemies slightly upgraded. The only thing that makes this battle | | difficult even in the slightest is the enemy ability to use Confuse on | | your party, implying that the enemies themselves aren't actually hard, | | you only need to watch out for your own party members in this battle. | | A confused ally can be cured easily with a simply weak physical attack, | | from there all you need are one or two Guardian Forces to end the fight. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o When Quistis tells you to go look for the missile controls, check the terminal on your left, that's the one you're looking for. Next examine the terminal on your right and beside the door, then go through the door, this is where the self-destruct mechanism is located. Set it for whatever time you feel is necessary. If you choose ten minutes and manage to do it successfully, your SeeD rank will increase on the next paycheque. Run out of the base as quickly as possible, as you reach the parking lot you'll encounter a boss. O=========================o==================o===============================O | BGH251F2 | Level: 10 | Hit Points: 6000/6000 | O=========================o==================o===============================O | Hit Points....Very High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Moderate | Ice......N/A | Named Iron Clad for its | | Intelligence..Moderate | Thunder..Weak | defense capability. The main | | Dexterity.....Moderate | Water....Weak | cannon is more powerful than | | Defense.......Very High | Earth....Weak | X-ATMO92's Ray-Bomb. | | Spirit........Low | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Very Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Base Leader | Level: 14 | Hit Points: 1149/1149 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....High | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | Galbadia Missile Base | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | security leader. Stronger | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | than regular Galbadian | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | soldiers. | | Spirit........Moderate | Poison...Weak | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Base Soldier | Level: 12 | Hit Points: 489/489 | |=========================+==================+===============================| | Hit Points....Moderate | Fire.....N/A | | | Strength......Low | Ice......N/A | Galbadia Missile Base | | Intelligence..Low | Thunder..N/A | security soldiers. Paid a | | Dexterity.....Low | Water....N/A | little better than regular | | Defense.......Low | Earth....N/A | Galbadian soldiers. | | Spirit........Low | Poison...N/A | | | Evasion.......Low | Wind.....N/A | | | | Holy.....N/A | | |-------------------------o------------------o-------------------------------| | | | Definitely the hardest boss you've had to face so far, plus you have a | | time limit to watch out for. I'll assume you chose the ten minute timer, | | so even if you didn't, obviously a strategy that will kill the boss | | quickly will benefit you anyway. In terms of offense, the boss has all | | the bases covered. In fact this is the first boss with an attack that | | has quite a good chance of killing you even at full HP, so Guardian | | Forces with HP Junction ability are going to help out quite a bit. | | Believe it or not the boss only has two attacks. The first is a physical | | blast of gunfire to a single character which deals about 200 - 300 damage. | | This is the attack you're going to see most often so it's a good idea | | to do what you can to lessen the damage. The boss is stocked with the | | Protect spell which will reduce the damage taken from the gunshot attack | | by 50%. Draw and cast it on all your characters at the beginning of the | | battle. If you chose ten minutes doing this is optional, as it does | | admittedly waste a turn. The next attack the boss has is the much more | | dangerous one. The boss will use a single turn to prepare for the beam | | cannon and then let loose on the next one. The beam cannon does about | | 900 damage to a single character and cannot be weakened by either the | | Protect or Shell spells the boss is carrying. From this point on, the | | boss will no longer announce the Beam Cannon, it will just fire the | | cannon peridoically. As for killing the boss quickly and efficiently, | | this job falls solely in the capable hands of the Quezacotl Guardian | | Force which is so much more effective than anything else, with the | | possible exception of limit breaks. You're not going to have time to | | be summoning GFs with all of your characters, so assign your most | | powerful magic user to be the summoner of Quezacotl, and the reamaining | | two characters should just focus on using physical attacks enhanced by | | junctioned magic for the entire battle. Boost is the most important | | ability to have for Quezacotl followed by SumMag+10% and the ones that | | follow, you're going to want to be able to deal more than 1000 damage | | per cast. The boss has 6000 HP approximately and for every 1000 damage | | dealt, one of the six pods on its head will explode. When the boss | | gets down to two pods it will use the powerful Beam Cannon on EVERY | | turn, totally obliterating your party. At this point it doesn't matter | | how bad the idea sounds, you need to go on an all out offensive and take | | the boss down as quickly as possible. If you're looking for a way to | | effectively survive as long as possible, note that Siren L Mag-RF | | ability combined with Tents, Cottages and Wizard Stones should provide | | a good deal of Curaga spells which will boost your hit point total to | | the 3000-4000 range. After the boss has been defeated, three more | | soldiers pop out, but a single GF cast should eliminate those guys. | | | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Run back and forth in the parking lot, to the left and then back to the right in order to trigger the scene. After that you'll be back at Balamb Garden. If this doesn't happen either your time ran out or you screwed up when you set the error ratio on the computer control panel back in the Missile Base. __ |__ inal Fantasy VIII /-----------------------------------------------------o | ---------o----------\ Balamb Garden | (0000H) \----------------------------------------------------o o------- Item Checklist -------o Head into the Garden and make your way | | toward the front hall. When you are | Gysahl Greens.........._____ | approached by the robed man just say "I | X-Potion..............._____ | guess... for now" or something along those | Elixir................._____ | lines to avoid a pointless random battle. | Mega Phoenix..........._____ | Keep going until you find a scene in the | Remedy................._____ | front hall. If you're looking for a save | Tent..................._____ | point, and there's a good chance you are | Seifer Card............_____ | (and should be after the missile incident) | | then you'll have to head for your room in o------------------------------o the dormitory. Doing so requires you to get past one of the robed guards and admitting you're still siding with Headmaster Cid, but no matter. All you have to do is fight a weak normal enemy to get by. Head toward your room and save your game. You can also rest in your bed as well, which is nice. All right let's begin looking for Headmaster Cid. Leave the dormitory and go left. Head up the first path and speak with the robed man. Fight your way through the random battle, then continue up to the cafeteria. Speak to the girl at the top two times, on the second time she'll give you 'Gysahl Greens.' Leave the cafeteria and make your way left to the next area, the quad. When the three SeeDs jump down tell them you are with the Headmaster. Speak to the three of them to get an 'X-Potion.' Keep going around counter-clockwise to the next area, the infirmary. Defeat the Granaldo enemy and then head inside. Speak wit