HOW TO BECOME A COMPLETE BADASS
or
HOW TO USE LIMIT BREAKS EVERY ROUND WITHOUT A GAMESHARK CODE

by Gamethought Productions' Per Christian Malloch 3/3/99
pcm19@columbia.edu
www.gamethought.com (coming soon!)
www.thechickenmusical.com (coming soon!)

Maybe you've been slaughtered by those big red dragons that can cast
'meteor.' Maybe you're looking for a good way to avenge yourself. How
about... killing them in one attack? Here's the strategy that acts like a
"chump ray," turning every enemy in the game into a chump. I took out
Bahamut in two attacks, Ultimate Weapon in three with this strategy. I
think that's proof enough that it works. 

First, using the Guardian Force and Magic junction options, give Squall
everything that increases speed and attack power (favoring attack,) and
give everything that increases magic, defense, hit points, whatever, to
the others. It would take more time than it's worth to explain the
junction system and the stats, which can be figured out through trial and
error, or learned from the other faqs on this site.

To maximize speed, get Cerebrus in the flying city on disc 2 by killing
the three headed dog in the lobby. Not only does he raise your speed score
by up to 60%, he can effectively double it with the autohaste ability
(it's the character ability whose second letter is a dash.) If you just
can't wait to get the required AP points, ride a chocobo to the special
desert in the southeast quadrant of the world map. It's the only desert
which you can't reach by boat, because there are mountains in the way, and
it has an island just offshore where you can sometimes see a cactus.
There, you can fight cactus guys who give you huge amounts of AP to your
heart's content. (The chocobo can walk on shallow water...)

To maximize attack power, as soon as you get the boat, find the
dome-shaped town at the northern end of the map. At the gate of this town
is a draw point where, after repeatedly talking to the little guys in
front of it, you can draw Ultima for 5000 gold a pop. Don't worry, you
won't have much else to spend your money on. The draw point takes a while
to recharge, during which you should wander off and do something else, if
only to get more money. Once you have 100 Ultima spells joined to Squall's
attack command, your attack stat will be absurdly high and you will be
able to kill virtually anything (even many bosses) in one or two hits with
your limit break. 

"That's great, but I hardly ever get to use the limit break" you say,
unaware that in fact you can use it every round. All you have to do is
keep Squall's hit points yellow, i.e. low. When they're yellow there's a
random chance you'll be able to do your limit break every time you call up
Squall's menu window. If you wait until someone else is drawing or casting
a spell, you can toggle his menu on and off repeatedly by pressing
triangle while time is 'frozen' (i.e. the ATB bars aren't moving) until
you get it. Then, BAM! "Betcha didn't expect to get hit with my limit
break twice before you even had a chance to attack, did ya?" If you like
knowing that you have done enough damage to kill your enemy several times
over, turn them purple with the 'melt/molten' spell for double damage
(amazingly, this spell can turn anything purple if you cast it a few
times, even the last boss, so stock up!) 

While Squall is accustoming the enemy to levels of punishment they never
imagined possible, your other characters, to whom you'll have given all
the "HP up" abilities so that they're virtually unkillable, should draw
magic and resurrect squall with 'raise' or phoenix down. In boss fights,
have them also cast protection magic on themselves after they've hit the
boss with 'melt/molten.' There's simply no point in the other characters
being anything other than Squall's nurses because he's so much better than
them. Ignore any advice you may have heard to keep Squall's level low so
that the enemies will be low level too-- a coward's strategy. Using Squall
properly, you can kill anything no matter what its level. 

Well, that's it. You are now a badass. If you follow these instructions,
your party should be unstoppable by the middle of the second disc. But
take the time to draw a couple dozen more Ultima spells and give them to
another character for emergencies and for the last boss. He's one boss
that doesn't screw around.