FINAL FANTASY 8
NO LEVEL UP GUIDE
version 1.1
Written by: EDMAN
edman@hackermail.com
29th December, 2002
This is a No Level Up Guide. It gets you through the game without
getting your characters to level up a single level (yes, that means
fighting the final boss at LV7). It also includes ways of beating
the Ultimate and Omega Weapons at LV7! Please note that this is an
Advanced level guide. I expect you to have already finished Final
Fantasy 8 and be familiar with it, but if you haven't done so, you
can still use this guide. Just don't expect me to teach you how to
junction stuff and basic commands. If you are familiar with the
game, you can use this guide. Actually, some of the junctions
mentioned here (especially the ones at the end...) can be used in
high level games with the same success. Please see the guide intro
for more details (under the "What This Walkthrough is About"
section).
I have gotten some emails from people who use this guide for their
first game, so I can suggest this guide for your first game. The
reason is that this guide was written as one would play the game,
so it is not broken up into pieces like other walkthroughs.
Feel free to email all questions and feedback to edman@hackermail.com
This guide was based on the European version of the game. That means
that some things might be different, but the differences are so small
that most players won't even notice them.
I am sorry, but there is no way I can write here all the site
names that store this guide, as that list is updating faster than the
guide updates are happening.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
========================================================================
This guide is copyright (c) by Edmunds Steins. You may not reproduce
this guide or any part of it. Anyone who will claim this guide as their
own, sell this guide or use it for any other promotional purposes
(even if it doesn't involve getting money) will be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law. Please note that you may not reproduce this faq
electroniacally. If you wish to put this guide up on your site, you are
encouraged to do so, but you MUST get (e-mail for it) permission from me
to do so, otherwise you are breaking copyright. Suing other people in
the modern world isn't that difficult (especially if your parents are
lawyers, hehehe).
========================================================================
CONTENTS:
Part 1 : Guide Intro
1.1 What this walkthrough is about
1.2 My Style of Playing FF8
1.3 General playing Tips
1.3.1 General ways of avoiding experience
1.3.2 What if you can't run away?
1.3.3 Best Magics to gain stats with & how to get them
1.3.4 Where to get the cards you need
1.3.5 Where to gain AP
1.3.6 Abolishing Card Rules
1.4 About/contacting Me
1.5 Version History
===== No Level Up Walkthrough =====
Part 2 : Disc 1 Walkthrough
2.1 Becoming a SeeD
2.1.1 Balamb Garden
2.1.2 Is it Hot in Here or is it Just Me?
2.1.3 Dollet Mission
2.2 Your first SeeD mission
2.2.1 Gaining AP and Card games
2.2.2 Laguna scenario & Getting through Timber
2.3 Assassination Mission
2.3.1 Second Laguna Scenario
2.3.2 Galbadia Garden
2.3.3 Tomb of the Unknown King
2.3.4 Assassination Mission
Part 3 : Disc 2 Walkthrough
3.1 Laguna Scenario #3
3.2 Desert Prison
3.3 Missile Base Mission
3.4 Saving the Garden
3.5 Fisherman's Horizon
3.6 Side Quests
3.6.1 Getting Odin
3.6.2 Getting Tonberry & Making Use of His Abilities
3.6.3 CC Group Side Quest
3.7 Rescuing Balamb
3.8 Visiting Trabia Garden
3.9 Battle With the Sorceress
Part 4 : Disc 3 Walkthrough
4.1 Another Laguna Scenario
4.2 Finding the SeeD ship
4.3 Esthar, Here We Come!
4.3.1 Getting There
4.3.2 Last Laguna Scenario
4.3.3 Exploring It
4.4 A Holiday Trip to Space...Turns Bad & Lunatic Pandora
4.5 Side Quests
4.5.1 It's AP Gaining Time & Finishing Your GF List
4.5.2 Setting up your Junctions
4.5.3 Deep Sea Research Facility (How to Beat Ultimate Weapon at LV7!)
4.6 Lunatic Pandora...Again?
Part 5 : Disc 4 Walkthrough
5.1 Time Compression & Ultimecia Castle
5.2 Beating the Omega Weapon at LV7
5.3 Let's Just End This!
PART 1 : Walkthrough Intro
___________________________________________________________________________
1.1 WHAT THIS WALKTHROUGH IS ABOUT
Please note that this is an advanced level walkthrough. I insist that
you have finished the game before using this walkthrough, although it
could be of some help if you are playing the game for the first time.
It is just that I am not going to go into detail about how the game
systems, junctions and everything else work. There are other guides for
that. For example, I will tell you to go and fight card games, but I'm
not going to tell you how to do it, because, hey, this is an advanced
level guide - you should have played them before.
By now you are probably saying "OH NO! Not another Final Fantasy 8
walkthrough!" and thinking that whoever wrote this was insane to spend
his time doing something that has already been done before. Over and
over and over. Well people, you are going to get a surprise when you
read this. This is no ordinary walkthrough. What I present to you is a
guide which will let you get through the game without going up a single
level! By the time you finish reading this, you will know how to get to,
and beat, the final boss of Final Fantasy 8 with a main character's
level being at 7. It also includes strategies on how to beat Ultimate
and Omega weapons at the same level.
When you read most of the FF8 walkthroughs floating around the net, you
will see that they get very repetitive. Most agree on the same old RPG
gaming strategy. You go around the world, you talk to people, then you
level up and beat bosses. So most walkthroughs will often say something
like "to beat this boss you will need to be at level 35" or the like.
They forget one very important thing - there is no need to level up in
this game. The whole point of levelling up is to rise your stats. But
the point is, levelling up doesn't rise your stats by all that much (OK,
it does, but it happens so slowly that you won't really notice). What
can really boost your stats is the famous Junction system. If you don't
know how the junction system works, get a beginner's guide. This system
allows you to do things like making your strength 5 times bigger with the
first junction. You must also remember that the junction system allows
you not to just rise your strength, but also your defences. As you don't
have any armor/accessories/relics/anything else to get your defence up
(and now you can't rise your defence by levelling up), your junctions is
the only thing that protects you from the enemy's Ultima's (as if many
have that...). So basically, using the junction system, you can get
through the whole game without levelling up. However, there are several
obstacles:
1. The magic strength, as you progress through your game, doesn't go up
as quickly as the enemy difficulty. So basically, the first bosses will
be very easy, because you are using very advanced magic, but the last
bosses will be much more difficult.
2. You can only get junctions by gaining AP for your GFs. AP is gained
in conjunction with experience, which, in turn, levels you up.
3. There are some abilities that your GFs will never learn, because they
need to be at a certain level to learn them (like Shiva's Doom).
4. You CANNOT get Squall's Lionheart weapon, and with it you don't get
'End of Heart', the most powerful limit break, on which most low-level
FF8 gamerz rely on so much.
5. You CANNOT gain proper Ammo for Irvine (who will just happen to be
your highest level character), and he will just have to stick with Fast
Ammo or Demolition Ammo (some people say that Fast Ammo is his best
Ammo. Unfortunately, you run out of Fast Ammo faster than anything
else...).
6. GF Tonberry will be one of your best GFs, because of the Level-Down
and Haggle abilities. However, getting Tonberry involves getting Odin,
and getting Odin involves getting an @$$hole who kills enemies for you,
and gains experience for you (I know this doesn't sound important, but
I can't even count all the times I had to push 'Reset' because Odin made
an untimely appearance with no warning at all).
7. Getting the best magic to junction is often very difficult, and
involves a very large knowledge of the ability refinement menu.
8. Your GFs will be very very weak, as they will never level up, and you
wouldn't want to waste AP on Summon Mag+??% abilities... (OK, so getting
Sum Mag+??% abilities isn't all that difficult, but it still doesn't rise
the GF's strength by enough to make it even closely as damaging as a
physical attack).
This walkthrough is made so that this difficult task could be achieved in
the best possible means. By that I mean the "BEST POSSIBLE" means. Some
people (addicts), after reading this walkthrough's first few chapters
will go on an AP-gaining spree, spend 10+ hours gaining AP, and another
10+ fighting card battles, and then say - "You suck. The magic you mention
sucks. This whole walkthrough sucks. Why did I even bother reading it?
Loser.". Well, let's get things straight - you are the loser with no life.
Anyone who spends endless hours to level up is pretty close to being a
no-life loser. The whole point of this walkthrough is so that you don't
need to spend time to level up. This walkthrough mentions magic that you
need to get through that particular part of the game (with the exception of
the beginning, where I simply prepare you for the rest of the disc). So yes,
it is possible to get better magics. If I will ever want to, I will update
this walkthrough with the best possible magics.
To sum things up, this walkthrough intends to rise the challenge of FF8 by
trying to get the player through the game without levelling up.
1.2 MY STYLE OF PLAYING
The way a walkthrough is going to look like very much depends on the person
writing it. So it is necessary for me to tell you my style of playing this
game.
1. I HATE GFs. They are
a) Boring to watch
b) I think that only a complete loser would tap the square button (boosting
the GF). I mean, imagine how it would look like if you were watching someone
going hysterical and punching the square button on the controller, then
falling onto the floor shouting "YES, Yes, I got it to 250!!".
c) They are too weak.
d) There will be no way for you to level up your GFs, so they will be even
weaker.
e) At Disc 4 your enemy's spirit stat will be so high your GFs will be a joke.
f) Getting Eden, the strongest GF, will be, to say the least, complicated,
and se will come VERY late in the game.
I'm not saying that it is entirely impossible to beat Final Fantasy 8 by only
using GFs. However, there are better ways of torturing yourself...
2. I NEVER EVER EVER use magic. I think that magic is for the sole purpose of
making your junctions better. Also, magic is very weak and it will get weaker
as the game progresses, because the enemies Spirit stats will go sky high (OK,
it won't, but it will be high enough to make you switch to physical attacks.
So why not start practicing them from the beginning?).
3. Brute Force is the way to go. I like slaughtering my enemies using physical
attacks (effective enough at the beginning of the game) and limit breaks (your
savior at the end).
4. I detest levelling up.
5. I hate Random map battles
6. I am a card master. By that I am not trying to say i'm the best card player
of the world. It is just that there in basically none in the whole game who
could even try to beat me. That's why I am very likely to tell you to go and
fight card battles to get a whole lot of cards, without really telling you how
to fight card battles. Well, this is an advanced level walkthrough, so if you
don't know how to fight card battles properly, go and get a beginner's guide.
I will, however, mention things like how to abolish rules.
Also, whenever you get a new GF, I usually won't tell you who to junction it on,
as that is your own freedom. Just check the GF abilities, see which junctions
and abilities that particular GF has, see which character does not have those
abilities, or which one is most likely to benefit from them the most, and
junction that GF to that particular character. Low level games include spending
a lot of time in the menus, and that is also one of my characteristics -
spending half the game in the GF, abilities and junction menus.
1.3 GENERAL PLAYING TIPS
This could be called the most important section of this walkthrough. Some people
will just get the idea right away after reading this and not even read the whole
walkthrough. This is basically going to tell you how to get through some of the
problems involved in a low level FF8 game.
1.3.1 General Ways of Avoiding Experience
This can actually be pretty difficult. However, FF8 game mechanics come to rescue.
1)Running Away. This is pretty obvious, I guess. However, you must remember that
the escaping system in FF8 has been changed from the previous games, so that when
you run away, you will still get EXP for the damage you did. So if you know you
will have to run away, don't do any damage.
2) You do not gain EXP from bosses. That means that while in games like FF7 you
thought of a boss as your greatest EXP resource (as it should be, really), here
they give you 0 EXP, which is, of course, good news. That means that bosses are
a very good AP resource.
3) You do not gain experience when you card enemies, BUT YOU GAIN AP!!! This is
the main way of getting AP and not getting experience. Basically, what you will
have to do is choose some AP rich enemies (see AP gaining places), card them,
and that way get your junction abilities.
____________________________________________________________________________
| HOW TO CARD ENEMIES properly |
| ===== |
| The key to easy carding of enemies is to get them to as low HP as possible.|
| However, you can card enemies that are at full health. It is very difficult|
| to achieve that though, as it requires a lot of luck. The chances of |
| carding an enemy go up as it's HP/level goes down. So it is easier to card |
| enemies with lower HP. So basically, you have to try to get the enemy's HP |
| as low as possible, but be aware - if you kill him, then you will get some |
| EXP. Therefore, your best bet is to use Scan magic. The way I do it: |
| ===== |
| Once a battle has started, I scan the enemy. That way I know it's exact HP.|
| If I know that there's a chance that I will kill it in one hit, I run away.|
| However, as I usually have one character without Str - J, so I attack it. |
| If it is a crap Enemy (I usually try to avoid those lusers), one hit is |
| enough to get it to low enough HP to card it. If it isn't, then I would |
| use attacks until it has low enough HP. If it has very low HP and it still |
| can't be carded, I use 'Demi' magic or Quistis' Micro Missile. |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
____________________________________________________________________________
| WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!! |
| ====== |
| Not all enemies can be carded. If you hurt an enemy, then try to card it |
| and find out that it can't be carded, and have to run away you will receive|
| EXP for the damage you did. |
| ====== |
| Generally, the enemies that cannot be carded are Human troops and Bosses. |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
Another thing to remember about carding enemies is that not always you will get
that enemy's card when you card it. This is because boss cards can only be made
available through normal enemies. Try going into the cards menu from the main
menu. If you move the cursor over any boss card you will see at the bottom the
name of the enemy you can get it from. So don't be surprised that when you card
a crap enemy you can get a boss card! (Also note that the owner of all rare
cards is Squall...)
4) You will not gain EXP when you petrify your enemies. This is basically using
'Break' magic on your enemies. However, this has a large disadvantage to Carding
enemies, which is that whenever all of your enemies are petrified, the game
thinks that you RAN AWAY, NOT WON. That means you get no AP, and if you hurt
your enemies just a bit, you will gain exp for the damage you did.
5) Encounter-Half and None abilities. These two abilities probably turn GF Diablos
into the second best GF (Quezacotl's Card command can't be beaten) you will get.
Basically, if you have Encounter - None equipped, you will have no random
encounters. These are two abilities that you should learn as quickly as possible.
Personally, I think Encounter-Half sucks, but it's a prerequisite for Encounter-
None, so you will have to get it.
6) Level - Down. This GF Tonberry's ability allows you to decrease the enemy's
level. What this basically means is that you can get an enemy down to level 1.
At level 1 all enemies give you 1 to 3 EXP, which, I guess, is OK. However, if
you want to get your characters 'clean' from EXP, avoid this method.
1.3.2 What if you can't run away?
There are some enemies that you won't be able to run away from, like the ones in
the SeeD Exam. There isn't much you can do about those (apart from reading the
following walkthrough). The general way of avoiding those enemies is to either
1) Card them (very unlikely, as usually those enemies are ones that you can't
card, because they tend to be human troops);
2) Level them down (this usually works, but you get Level-Down so late in the
game that it is not an option for most of the battles);
3) Use 'Break' magic. This is in my opinion the best possible solution. You can
get break very early in the game and human troops are weak to it;
1.3.3 BEST MAGICS TO JUNCTION & WHERE TO GET THEM
HP:
--> First Time (beginning of the game) - Curaga (You can get it by Refining
tents (1 tent = 10 Curagas!) using Siren's Life Magic refinement.
--> Second Time (desert Prison) - Regen (Get it by drawing from Biggs the
second time you fight them).
--> Third time (Middle/End of Disc 3 - best junction) - Full Life (You can
draw it from Bahamut).
You can also use Ultima here, but I think it is better used in Strength.
This means that you will be able to rise your HP by 4800 simply using
Junctions. As the attack which will do most damage is Shockwave Pulsar
(made by Griever), which will do definitely less damage, so you should
survive the game with this HP. If you have difficulty, there is always
the HP + ??% attributes you could add.
STRENGTH:
--> First Time (very beginning) - Water (you can get it by refining water
crystals (won from Fastilification - Fs) into Waters using Shiva's
Ice/water magic Refinement ability).
--> Second Time (Before Timber Mission) - Quake (By refining either
T-Rex (2 for 1) or Armadodo (1 for 1) cards using Card Mod you can get
Dino Bones. Using Time Magic refinement you can refine 1 Dino Bone into
20 Quakes.
--> Third Time (Middle of Disc 2) - Triple (draw it from ODIN)
--> Fourth Time (best Spell, Disc 3) - Ultima (draw it from the Shumi
village/Ultima Weapon. Can also be drawn from the Omega Weapon, but you
wouldn't want to...)
Ultima is best placed here. I would usually equip Str+60% AND Str+40%,
simply to double my strength stat. Your initial Str stat is at around 18.
Let's say you used some Str Ups and it is 20. If you equip Ultima, it rises
your strength by 100, so now you have 120. Then you equip the junction
abilities which rise your strength by another 100%, rising to 240. If you
want, you can equip Str + 20% to max out the strength stat at 255, but I
would rather use that slot for something else, like HP+80%.
VITALITY:
--> First and only time before the SeeD mission to Timber - Meltdown -
Refine Gayla Cards into Mystery Fluids and then use Diablo's Status Magic
refinement to Refine them into Meltdowns.
Meltdown IS the best magic for Vitality, and is basically just as good as
Ultima. And the best bit - you can get it very early in the game. Simply,
take the pain, get those Gayla cards and get Meltdowns, and never worry
about Vitality ever again. I also, at the end of the game, get Adamantines
and get the Vit+60% ability, but that's not all that necessary. Another
point about Meltdowns is that it will decrease the enemy's vitality to
0 (!), and it even works on Bosses. That combined with the Maxed out
strength stat is what is going to get you the 9999 damage.
MAGIC:
OK, so I really don't care about using magic, BUT, this stat is essential
for painless drawing from your enemies.
--> First Time - errr, anything really... For most of the Disc 1 & 2 I
used Death. You can get it by refining Tonberry Cards into Chef's Knives
and then refine that into Deaths (1 Chef's Knife = 30 Deaths).
--> Second Time - Curse is the preferred spell. However, honestly saying,
I never even got enough Curses. I just plain simply don't pay attention to
the Magic stat. If you want, you can get Curses, but if your winning Combo
is high strength and no enemy vitality, why bother?
SPIRIT:
Unlike Magic, this actually matters, as it is your magic defence.
--> First Time (beginning of game) - Dispel (errr... where the heck did I
get this?? It doesn't really matter, as in Disc 1, your enemies will use
only weak magic, so you shouldn't really care about Spirit until Disc two,
which takes us to:
--> Second Time - Reflect (draw it from Biggs (the most convenient place)
the second time you fight him in the Desert Prison).
Reflect will be your best Spirit Stat riser. However, I usually have
Spirit+60% equipped to really counter those enemy magic attacks, but Spr+40%
is enough if you don't want to bother too much with it.
SPEED:
Don't worry too much about this stat until very late in the game (end of
disc 3). I usually start bothering with Spd-J when I have enough Ultimas
to junction them to Strength, which leaves me with 100 Triples (drawn from
Odin) per character. Triple just happens to be the BEST magic to junction
with Spd (better than Ultima). If you are going to bother with Spd-J, make
sure you do it with Triples and Spd+??% skills (learnt from Pandemonia and
Cerberus GFs). This way you could get the speed over 100. At this quickness,
you will be twice as fast as the Omega Weapon...
LUCK:
Some people say that this is a very important stat. I never bother with it.
Yes, you can equip SOMETHING on it just to keep yourself happy (and lucky).
You really shouldn't bother too much with it before disc 3. I usually get
Luck-J at the end of disc 3, when you fight Seifer the last time. This is
because the best magic to junction to Luck is Aura, and Seifer has an
unlimited stock of that (Of course, he will be at a too low level to have
Aura, so you will have to level him up (using Tonberry's LV-Up), draw Auras
and then kill him. If you ask me, then that's just too much fighting for a
peaceful person like me...)
EVADE:
This is a very good stat, but the even the strongest possible magic you
junction to it will only rise Evade by 16. And the only 'free' magic after
the important skills have been junctioned will be Tornado (can be gotten by
refining Windmills using Quezacotl's Thunder/Wind magic refinement, which
can be gotten from the Abyss Worm and Pandemonia cards). It will rise the
stat by 13 points, which means that it will still be very low. Getting
Tornados is easy, as the Pandemonia cards gets you 100 Windmills, enough to
get 100 Tornados for everybody, so it is not too much of a bother.
HIT%:
For God's sake, don't use this on Squall! He already has that stat at 255%,
it can't go higher. Use it one someone who needs it, like Zell. However, I
still think it is the most worthless stat of them all. If you just happen
to have Hit-J or a Hit-J scroll, learn it, but otherwise, don't bother too
much with it. I usually just get this stat, as it is a way of making sure
that I'm not going to get any misses in physical attacks). The best spell
for this would be Triple, but that is already used on Speed (and trust me,
speed is waaaaay more important). So the second best spell would be double.
Doubles are easy to get (Elvoret fight at the very beginning of the game), so
it really shouldn't be too much of a bother to equip this stat.
So, in general, by the end of the game, your three characters should have 100
of each of these magics - Full Life, Ultima, Meltdown, Reflect and Triple.
The optional Magics are Curse, Tornado, Aura and Double.
1.3.4 Where to Get the Cards you need
You should just follow the walkthrough and you will get everything you need.
Your card fighting adventures should start after you beat Diablos and get his
card. I have made a list of all the important card locations:
________________ _____________________________ _______________________________
|NAME OF THE CARD| WHERE TO GET IT | WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? |
|________________|_____________________________|_______________________________|
| | | |
|Zells Card | Win it from Zell's mother | Gets you 3 Hyper wrists, |
| | before the Timber mission | which get you three Str+60% |
| | | |
|Gayla Card | Anywhere, really... | Gets you Mystery Fluids which |
| | | get you Meltdowns. |
| | | |
|T-Rex Card | Any person who uses higher | Gets you Dino Bones, which get|
| | level monster cards, | you Quakes. |
| | like Zell's mother. | |
| | | |
|Armadodo Card | Same as T-Rex | Same as T-Rex |
| | | |
|Abyss Worm Card | Same as T-Rex | Gets you Windmills, which gets|
| | | you Tornados. |
| | | |
|Pandemona Card | Hotel owner after you free | Same as Thrustaevis |
| | Balamb in Disc 2 | |
| | | |
|Gylgamesh Card | See the CC Group Side Quest | Gets you Holy waters, which |
| | | make you invisible... |
|________________|_____________________________|_______________________________|
1.3.5 WHERE TO GAIN AP
Let me remind you that gaining AP involves Carding enemies. So when I say that
you "need to go and fight that and that enemy" I actually mean that you "need
to go and CARD that and that enemy". So the best places to gain AP are:
--> Disc 1: On any shore (except the lakes) you will meet Fastolification - Fs.
Each one gains you 3AP, they usually come in 2s, but you can catch them in 3s.
This means an average of 6 AP per battle. Pretty good.
--> Disc 2: Ummmm, difficult to say. I really try to avoid levelling up in
disc 2. However, as far as I can remember, I still used Fastilification - Fs.
Also, if you so wish to level up, go to the Kashkhabald desert on the eastern
side of centra. Chimera's give you a decent amount of AP (although they are
difficult to card), but you might be lucky enough to meet some cactuars. They
give you 4 EXP and 20 AP. Not bad, huh?
--> Disc 3: In disc 3 I only level up after you get the Ragnarok. Just fly to
the Cactuar Island (a small island near the Kashkhabald desert, you will also
see a green thing there). After getting the Jumbo Cactuar, just run around and
fight battles. Before you fight make sure you have very high speed and the
Initiative ability. On this island you will meet only Cactuars. You can make
all of your GFs learn all of their abilities here.
Disc 4: Still Cactuar Island...
1.3.6 HOW TO ABOLISH CARD RULES
This usually is asked about the Random Rule in Dollet and Centra. Simply play
in an area with simple rules, like Timber or Balamb. Then go to the region with
the random rule. Play a game there. The other person will ask you if you want
to combine rules. Say Yes. Then start a card game, but don't accept the rules -
press 'Quit'. After the game ends the person you played with will say something
like "the random rule has been abolished in this region" or "the Open rule has
spread through this region". You are praying for the first message. Please note
that this is very random. Also note that it can take you HOURS to do this, so
don't try it the first time and then send me flames saying that my stuff doesn't
work. Yeah, it works, just have patience.
1.4 ABOUT/CONTACTING ME
My Nick: Edman
Real Name: Edmunds Steins
Nationality: Latvian (that's in Europe, for those who don't know...)
E-Mail Address: edman@hackermail.com
Other guides: Final Fantasy 7 Low Level Guide (DONE!)
Final Fantasy 8 Speed Guide (DONE!)
Final Fantasy 1 One Fighter Guide (DONE!)
Feel free to send me emails asking questions. I am thinking of making a FAQ at
the end of this guide. However, you must remember that I can't dedicate my whole
life to this guide.
1.5 VERSION HISTORY
Version 1.1 = Fixed the Missile Base fight info
Fixed the guide usage info (it is now a complete walkthrough
as an addition to being a No Level Up guide)
Fixed some spelling errors
Version 1.0 = The first version. Contains all the info about a No Level Up
game that anyone could ever possible want.
PART 2 : Disc 1 Walkthrough
_________________________________________________________________________
2.1 BECOMING A SeeD
2.1.1 Balamb Garden
After the opening FMV you will weak up in an infirmary. Just follow the
dialogue. You will also be introduced to Quistis. Then you will just have
to walk out of the infirmary and you will finish up in the classroom.
Once you gain control of Squall, simply go back to your desk and check the
tutorial section to get your first two GFs.
****GF Quezacotl*********
This lightning bird has replaced Ramuh as the thunder GF. What can I say?
The best GF in the game? He has some useful abilities, like HP-J, but
nothing special. His attack is useful for only one battle - against XATM092.
Where he really shines is his Card ability, which is what allows us to
gain AP without getting EXP, so without this GF, this guide wouldn't be
the same.
Useful abilities: HP-J; Mag-J; Vit-J; Card; Card Mod; T Mag-RF
preferred Order of learning: Card; Card Mod; HP-J; T Mag-RF
****GF Shiva*******
Ohhh, it looks like Shiva got even a smaller part of the GF wardrobe in
this Final Fantasy than in #7. Don't you just love it? However, when it
comes to her attacking, you would be amazed with the crapiness... Just
avoid using her after the first parts of disc 1. Ability wise, she has
nothing special. Her super duper special ability is Doom, but you only
get it after she is at level 10. As you will never level up, you will
never see doom in this game...
Useful abilities: Str-J; Vit-J; Spr-J; Vit+40%; Spr+40%; I Mag-RF
Preferred Order of Learning: Just learn the ???-J abilities first, then
all of the above ones. The order really doesn't matter...
Now that you have these two GFs you will of course...want a third one. So
lets go and get it. Get out of the room, and walk to the front gate. You
will bump into Selphie on the way. Just do whatever you want. You might
want to check around the garden. If you want to look/feel like a pro, you
would junction your two new GFs, go into the Training Centre, get into a
fight with a Grat, draw 100 sleeps and Silences and then run away.
REMEMBER TO RUN AWAY!!! Check the library to see Zell's next girlfriend
(the girl with the pony tail). Go into the Cafeteria to see Zell miss his
Hot dog and see the members of the Disciplinary Committee (Seifer, Raijin
and Fujin). Then just go to the front gate to meet up with Quistis.
2.1.2 IS IT HOT IN HERE OR IS IT JUST ME???
Once you are out of the Garden, get into a battle in the plain and you
will fight Bite Bugs. Just draw some scans from it (whatever you think
is enough - I usually take 100, that way I have enough scans for the
rest of the game...) and RUN AWAY. Then get into a forest and fight a
battle there. You will probably fight a Caterchipillar (note: you have
around 0.1% chance of fighting a T-Rex. If you see one, just run as
fast as you can!). Just draw Cures until each character has a hundred.
They are OK for junctioning until you become a SeeD and are always a
cheap healing method. Don't be afraid of using something like 10 Cures
just to heal one character. After you are done drawing, escape, and
run next to the mountains until you fight a Glacial Eye. Draw at least
100 Blizzards from it. Now you are just well enough stocked up on magic
to go and get your third GF. Walk to the Fire cave and get in.
When you are asked for a time limit, pick whichever you want, but I
always choose 10 min as anything longer than that is just a waste of
time. The Fire Cave itself is not exactly a difficult dungeon. Just
follow the one existing passage until you reach a fight with Ifrit.
BOSS FIGHT: IFRIT
-----------------
The God of Fire is back. However, he must be saving his strength for
some later duties, because, as with all of the first bosses, he is
not very difficult. The standard way of defeating him is to have
Quistis cast GF Shiva and Squall cast Blizzard. If Shiva gets to low
health, stop summoning her, use 'Blizzard' instead. Keep on checking
Ifrit's HP. Get it so low, that you are sure that you will kill him
in one hit. Now wait until the timer reaches 40 seconds and then hit
him with Squall's attack. This way you will get a higher SeeD rank.
After the fight you will get GF IFRIT.
****GF Ifrit*******
Ahhh, the great Ifrit has a lot less work to do than in the previous
Final Fantasies. This is due to the fact that there are a lot less
monsters weak against fire in this game. However, he is still one
of my favourite GFs, because he relies on brute force. Relying on
brute force gives him abilities like Str-J and HP-J and
(my favourites) Str+??%.
Useful abilities: Str-J; HP-J; Str+20%; Str+40%
Preferred learning order: same as above, basically...
After this just get out of the cave and walk back to the garden.
2.1.3 DOLLET MISSION
Just follow the storyline until you get into a car. Take it for a spin,
but get to Balamb sometime soon. DO NOT TALK TO ANYBODY IN BALAMB!!
You can use the Thunder draw point, but otherwise, just get straight
in the ship. In the ship, once Seifer tells you to go outside, DO IT.
Once you are on the Dollet shore, equip your GFs. Spread them evenly
through your characters, but give Seifer a GF with a Str-J ability.
There are 5 battles to fight in Dollet that you can't run away from.
Walk away from the shore and save in the save point. Soon you will get
into the first such battle. Just kill off Zell and Squall and fight
with Seifer. He will gain EXP, but these 5 battles will NOT be enough
for him to gain level. Logically, escape any random map battles for
now (I know it lowers your score, but what can you do?). Just get on
with the plot and remember to fight battles with Seifer only.
Once you get to the communication tower, Seifer will leave your party
and you will get Selphie in his place (she will have all Seifer's
magic/GFs). PLEASE NOTE THAT SQUALL AND ZELL WILL BE REVIVED WITH 1 HP.
So before you do anything, Heal. Also, don't jump off the cliff like
Selphie did it. Walk around instead. Get into the communications
tower, and go up. Get through the text and a boss fight will start.
BOSS FIGHT: BIGGS & WEDGE; ELVOLET
-----------------------------------
Make sure you have the draw command equipped. The fight will start
with Biggs only (or was it Wedge? I can't remember who is who!).
Just attack him with your GFs and Heal. Halfway through the fight
Wedge (...or was it Biggs?) will join, but he sucks even more. Soon
they will be washed away and Elvolet will appear. First thing you
should draw is GF Siren. Afterwards I suggest that you draw doubles
from him. I know it is going to be difficult, but I usually get 300
doubles here. After you are done drawing, just keep your HP over 200
and attack with your GFs. Not too difficult.
****GF SIREN*******
Well, here's something new! A woman with a pair of wings, just as
little of the GF wardrobe as Shiva and the second most useless attack
in the game. What can I say? Only two good abilities - Life Magic
refinement and Status Magic refinement. Some people say that Move-Find
is very good, but I usually don't even bother with draw points, as I
only like 100 of each magic. The only useful thing you can use
Move-Find on is saving. Learn the refinement abilities, then Move-Find
and afterwards, anything that you think might be useful (Status
defence x2 comes to mind...).
A time limit will start, so RUN!! As you will get out of the building,
you will be attacked by XATM082. At this state, you can hardly scratch
him, so do the damage necessary (using Quezacotl) and RUN! Get through
to the next screen. Here just keep your controller's down button
pressed down. While the next room is loading, already hold the left
button down. In the next room, WALK, not run. If you run, you will get
attacked, but if you walk you won't. In the screen after that, just
run like hell. On the bridge, run forwards until he jumps over you,
stop, wait a second or two, then run BACK. He will jump over you again.
As he jumps over you, just turn around and run to the square (Dollet's
square, not the company who made this game!!). As you enter the next
room, talk to the dog and RUN. It is important that you save the dog!!.
After that, just run to the shore, watch the FMV and then get back to
Balamb.
Once you are in Balamb, you could gain some AP, but I would leave it for
later. Just get back to Balamb Garden, talk to Seifer and get your SeeD
report. If you followed everything like I said you should get something
like grade 5. After that, you will see the dancing scene with Rinoa.
After that scene ends, you will be in a balcony, and Quistis will tell
you to get changed and go to the training centre. After that you will
be in your dormitory.
As you are in your dormitory, simply change and walk to the training
centre. Once you get there, you will meet up with Quistis. Before you
go in, move the 100 sleeps and silences that you have to another
character. Also, move any protects you might have to another character.
Walk through the training centre to the secret area. When you are
fighting just one Grat, have both Squall and Quistis draw 100 sleeps
and silences from it, so now you have 300 of each magic. Run away. If
you get into another battle, just run. After the secret area scene
finishes, go back to the entrance. You will be pulled into a battle
against Granaldo and 3 Raldos.
BOSS FIGHT: GRANALDO & 3x RALDO
--------------------------------------
Strategy: You should be at full HP. These guys are slow at attacking,
and when they do attack, their damage is around 30 to 40. At first,
use both characters to draw 100 protects from the Raldos. If one of
your characters gets to low HP, cast his/her limit breaks until you
kill 2 of the Raldos. Afterwards heal and just keep on drawing. Once
both characters have 100 protects, kill the last Raldo. Now Granaldo
is going to show how badly he really sucks. The strongest attack he
did to me did 18 damage. Pathetic. Keep on drawing Blinds and Shells
until you have had enough of him. Afterwards, just kill him with your
limit breaks (that is, if he ever gets you into the critical HP levels).
After the battle finishes, just head for your dormitory.
2.2 YOUR FIRST SeeD MISSION
2.2.1 GAINING AP AND CARD BATTLES
In the next morning, when you wake up, check your table for a Weapons
Monthly April issue. Then just go to the Garden Entrance. Once you get
briefed about your mission, get the magic lamp from Headmaster Cid
(by talking to him). Get out of the garden and save. I put my GFs
accordingly:
Squall: Ifrit and Siren
Zell: Shiva
Selphie: Quezacotl
Give Selphie the Card command. Go to the beach (NO! Not you, your
characters...), and card Fastilification - Fs. The way you fight
them is simple, have Squall attack one, then have Zell attack the
same one, and then just keep on trying to use the card command until
it works. Here your GFs will be gaining 6 AP per battle. Keep on
carding them until Shiva learns Str - J and Ice/water magic refinement.
Once that happens, refine all the fish fins you have into water magics.
Junction all of them to strength (you should have 100 per each
character). Save. Use the Magic Lamp to start a fight with the devil
himself.
BOSS FIGHT: DIABLO
------------------
Strategy: there is lots of people around who are afraid of this guy
(after all, he is supposed to be the devil...), but toasting him is
actually pretty easy. He has 6400 HP. The moment the battle starts,
have all three characters draw Demi from Diablo. Just draw it from
him 3 times and it should be good enough. Now, just attack Diablo
with the Demis you drew. Every time someone uses Demi on Diablo, he
will counter with Curaga (I don't know why, so don't ask, maybe it
is because you are using a cursed spell?), healing that person. Keep
on attacking him with Demis until the damage you do is less than 100.
If someone's Demi stock runs out, just make him/her use Cures. Once
the damage you do is less than 100, start attacking him with your
physical attacks. In one or two turns he should become yours.
Junction Diablo to Zell. Keep on fighting Fastilification - Fs until
you get Diablo's HP-J, status magic refinement and Time/Space magic
refinement. The other abilities you should know are:
Quezacotl: HP-J, Mag-J, T-Mag-RF, Card Command, Card Mod
Shiva: Str-J, Vit-J, Spr-J, I Mag-RF
Ifrit: HP-J, Str-J, Str+20%, F Mag-RF
Siren: Mag-J, ST-Atk-J, ST-Def-J, Move-Find, L mag-RF, ST mag-RF
Now go to Balamb to play some cards. By some I mean at least 200
(of course, there can be many same cards, like you would need a
lot of Gayla cards). And I'm serious. First go and play Zell's mom
to get Zell's card. Then from time to time go and play the Card
Queen near the Balamb station. If you get lucky, there is a chance
that she will change the trade rule to All, which, of course, lets
you have 5 cards after you win. This can really speed up your card
collecting. Also don't forget to go and fight the garden student
who sits at the Balamb dock. He has all but PuPu's card from the
normal monster cards. I suggest you get as many cards as you simply
can and fight card battles until you get too fed up.
Refine all the cards you get using your Card Mod ability. The cards
you should especially look out for are T-rex and Armadodo. These
will refine into Dino Bones, and one Dino Bone refines into 20
Quakes, and Quake will be your strongest spell for quite a time.
So I suggest you get 15 Dino bones and give everyone 100 Quakes.
Also, don't forget to get Gayla cards and refine them into Meltdowns.
After you are done with card fighting, it is time to do something
BAD. I know it isn't good to mod unique cards, but what you get from
it is more important than the card itself. I am going to ask you to
card mod Zell's card. You will get 3 Hyper wrists, which learn the
Str+60% attribute. I suggest making Quezacotl, Shiva and Ifrit learn
that attribute.
So before you go to Timber you should have HP-J junctions (2500+ HP
with Curaga junctioned) on everybody and Str-J on Zell and Squall to
get their Strength over 100. Those are the important ones for now.
Like this you could survive until disc 3. Note that this will be the
last time I'm going to ask you to level up until disc 3.
After that, just buy the train ticket, get into the train and wait
until you get a little bit sleepy...
2.2.2 FIRST LAGUNA SCENARIO & GETTING THROUGH TIMBER
As far as the Laguna scenario goes, i'm not going to go into any
detail with it. Run away from all battles as carding enemies is both
difficult and useless. Just follow the simple plot until the dream
sequence ends.
As you arrive in Timber, just walk down the stairs until one of the
Timber Owls Guys comes and asks you a question. Just answer "But the
owls are still around". It is best to answer like that, as you might
not get promoted a SeeD level if you don't. Then just get into the
train. You can challenge Zone (Or was it the other guy? Can't remember
for the life of me...) for the Angelo card now. Go after Rinoa and get
down to the plan. After the plan execution sequence you will be faced
with the fake president. This is going to be one of the easiest
battles you are going to...akhem...suffer?
BOSS FIGHT: FAKE PRESIDENT; GEROGERO
------------------------------------
This is really easy, as Squall should have strength of over 120. The
fake president will go down in one hit. Before you assassinate Gerogero
I suggest you get 300 Esunas from him. It will take a while, as he is
a pain in the @$$ with his Silence and other status attacks. After you
have finished drawing, finish him off with your physical attacks. If he
gets you to low HP, just use a limit break, but it will be quite of an
overkill...
After that just walk to your right and walk into the house next to the
Timber Maniacs (don't forget to get the 'Girl Next door' from the Timber
maniacs building!). Check out the window and then get out of the house.
Walk right and then down the stairs. In the next screen you will be
pulled into a battle you can't run away from. This one got me unprepared,
so I had to kill those soldiers, but you could refine (Diablo's Status
Magic Refinement, anyone?) Softs into 'Breaks' and use 'Break' magic on
them to stay clean from EXP. After that just walk into the pub, get the
guy to move out of the way, and walk to the TV station. Nothing difficult
is to follow. After that just walk to the train station and leave Timber.
2.3 ASSASSINATION MISSION
2.3.1 SECOND LAGUNA SCENARIO
Theoretically, you could go to Dollet now and cancel the random rule,
and win Siren's card, but it is really your call. I usually leave it
for middle of disc 2, when I have the mobile garden. It doesn't matter
as far as levelling up goes. Get out of the train at the East Academy
station. Equip Squall, Selphie and Quistis with junctions. Once you
are prepared, walk into the forest. The second Laguna dream sequence
will follow. This is a little bit trickier, as you can't run away from
some enemies here. The only thing I can suggest for those two battles
is to make Breaks from Softs and use them here. The other way is to
kill two of your characters and let the other one handle the EXP. You
are in danger of levelling up though...
To get through this place properly, from the place where the battle
happened, just walk straight and go down the stairs. In the next room,
keep at the wall and press the 'accept' button (usually X) until you
have found an old key. Laguna will pick up the key, but also loose it
immediately. That old key DOES matter as it makes more area accessible
in the Lunatic Pandora in Disc 3. Then just go on ahead until you see
door like things on the floor. As you walk over the middle one, try to
tamper with it. Then walk out. You will then see an Estharian soldier
falling into the pit. Then walk BACK and try tampering with the door
on your side. Laguna won't be able to do it properly, but it is
important that you try. After that, keep on going until you come to a
narrow passage with a boulder like thing on your left. Try pushing it
and you will squash another Etharian soldier. After that, just keep
on going until you come to a switch. Press the button for the furthest
boulder first and then for the closest boulder (What were the colors??
Can't remember for the life of me...). Then just walk out. You will
only have to fight only two soldiers. They will be more difficult than
the normal ones, but shouldn't possess any problems.
2.3.2 GALBADIA GARDEN
Try to avoid random battles in the Galbadia Garden area. They are very
tedious (because enemies possess nasty status magic), and you should
be very strong for this part of the game, so you can easily make one
hit kills, gaining EXP you don't want to gain. So just walk straight
into the Garden.
The students of this garden have in their possession all boss cards.
It is your choice to get them or not. It really doesn't affect your No
levelling Up tries, as you can easily (OK, maybe not so easy...) make
it to Disc 3 with the current Junctions. You can also easily get all
of the cards in the possession of the students later in the game, and
the advantage of doing it later in the game is that you get all the
cards form one person (Martine) as opposed to fighting lots of students
here.
Just go up into the garden. Draw 'Haste' from the draw point at the
very center. Then just go to the waiting room. After Squall for some
reason runs out of the waiting room, just walk out of the Garden (this
would be the right time to explore it, but you don't have to if you
don't want to). You will receive your next mission from the headmaster
Martine here and Irvine will join your party. After that, just walk
out (when Irvine chooses parties, let him have it his way to see a
funny scene). Once you are out of the garden, go to the train station
and take the train to the Deling City. You have to take the train, as
the tracks will be blocked by a car.
2.3.4 TOMB OF THE UNKOWN KING
As you get out of the Deling city train station, take the bus to
Caraway's mansion. There you will see a guard, who will tell you to
bring back a proof that you are worthy enough to do this mission, and
so you have to go to the Tomb of the Unknown King. It is located at
the very east of the peninsula east of Deling City. I will guide you
through it without the need of the location displayer. Once you go in,
save. Then get into the tomb itself. There you will see a shining thing
on the floor - check it and it will be an ID number (memorize it).
Just follow on into the tomb. On the first junction go right. Then
go straight, then right, straight until you meet Sacred. It is a boss
fight, but you should be able to take the guy down in one hit (draw
Life if you want). Get out of the room. On the first junction go right,
then straight, then right. You will come to a place where you just have
to touch some stuff on the wall to let the water flow out. Then get out
of the room. On the first junction, go right, then straight, then right.
Again, you just have to touch some stuff until the water levels change.
Then get out of the room. Walk straight until the SECOND junction where
you should walk right, then, at the next junction, turn left. After that
go straight, walk over a bridge until you get into a room where you
will meet Sacred and Minotaur - the two BROTHERS.
BOSS FIGHT: SACRED & MINOTAUR
-----------------------------
errrr... any problems? Draw Life if you want, but it is not all that
useful (OK, so it is useful, it will be one of your best Elem-Defence
junctions). Just kill those morons with your physical attacks. You
should be waaay more powerful than them. So just claim your next GF,
and two very good cards.
****GF BROTHERS******
Well, this is a very good GF, as it is the third one to have Str-J
ability. And it also has HP+??% with HP+80%!!!. This is one of the
things that can let you max out your HP at 9999.
Best Abilities: Str-J; HP-J; HP+80%
After this fight just walk back to the Deling City.
2.3.5 ASSASSINATION MISSION
Once you are back in Deling City go to Caraway's Mansion and tell the
guard the ID # that you found (I remember that once I went to the tomb
and spent so much time afterwards levelling up that I forgot the darned
number and had to go there again... however, that was in a game before
I even thought of this great challenge). He will let you through and
then Caraway will show you how the assassination mission will happen.
Afterwards you are free to explore the great Deling City. You can really
do whatever you want, but there really isn't all that much to do... After
you are finished exploring, report to the Caraway's mansion.
The mission itself would be pretty easy if it wasn't for Quistis' idea
of apologizing to Rinoa. Anyway, after you get locked in, go to the
cupboard, and take a glass cup. Afterwards go to the statue and place
the cup on the statue's hands. A secret passage will appear. Just follow
down that passage. This will seem like a pretty difficult system, but it
is actually impossible to get lost, as there is only 1 way. Make sure you
have Encounter-None equipped, as things can get very tedious at times.
This is due to the fact that you will meet lots of red bats. These guys
have close to zero HP, so killing them will be very easy. Of course,
killing them means gaining EXP, which you don't want. After some awesome
FMVs you will have to go and save Rinoa. And that involves fighting a
couple of crappy bosses...
BOSS FIGHT: 2x IGUIONS
----------------------
Draw GF Carbuncle right away. Now kill one of them. Just do it - it really
isn't difficult. Once there is only one left you should draw 'Breaks'
from it (that is, if you think you haven't got enough of them in stock,
or if you don't have any...). It really isn't good for junctioning, but
it is very good to counter troops you can't run away from. definitely get
at least 30 of them. Afterwards, just kill the last Iguion.
****GF Carbuncle*****
This is THE MOST WORTHLESS GF EVER!! (S)He has got basically no good
abilities (although Abilityx3 comes to mind...), and no unique commands.
The only thing that you should learn from this GF would be Recover Med-RF.
The rest is really up to you to choose, but don't take HP-J, as you
already have 3 of those.
After this fight open the hatch and get into the carousel clock. Then you
will have to get Quistis' party through the last bits of the sewer maze.
After that you will have to close the gate, Irvine will shoot, but the
shot will bounce off a protect barrier (Of course, it isn't really protect,
cuz those sorceresses use cooler stuff than that!). So you will have to
take the sorceress head on. But first you will have to get through
Seifer...
BOSS FIGHT: SEIFER
------------------
Just one physical attack should be enough to take him down... If you have
mug you can get a Hero from him, but it is very difficult to do so, as it
is easy for you to kill him. That Hero will still be available from him
in the later Seifer fights.
BOSS FIGHT: SORCERESS EDEA
--------------------------
As far as I can remember, she did not have anything good to draw. Her
attacks are also pretty weak for the 'greatest sorceress in the world'.
They will hit you hard if you don't have HP-J, but you should have that
on all three characters since the very beginning of the game. If hitting
with regular attacks gets too boring, simply sit back and wait until she
gets your HP down so you get limit breaks.
After the fight Edea will do something like a limit break and damage
Squall pretty badly... Prepare your FF8 box, cause you will need Disc 2.
PART 3 : Disc 2 Walkthrough
_________________________________________________________________
3.1 LAGUNA SCENARIO #3
The first time I played this scene, I was like "what the heck? Is this
really the correct disc?" I just played along, although I was still
pretty convinced that it was the wrong disc. Anyway, you are Laguna
again and this time you have to protect this small place called Winhill.
To your advantage, the only two enemies that you will meet here are
Bite Bugs and Caterichipillars. You might find that it is pretty
difficult to card these guys, as they will have very low HP. If you
really wish to card them, take away Kiros' Str-J junction to take down
his attack strength (beware - you can still kill them) and give the
card function to Laguna. Or the other way round, just remember that
Kiros is quicker. My suggestion is Encounter - None.
You can get through Winhill whichever way you want, but I suggest that
you turn right when you get to the house with flowers all over it.
After that just get to the end of the town.
___________________________________________
| DON'T FORGET TO RIP OFF LAGUNA! |
| ===== |
| In all the scenarios with Laguna, he |
| either has no money or there are no shops |
| around. However, here he has 3000 gil |
| and at the end of the town there will be |
| a shop. So spend that gil on some items |
| and Squall will have them in his |
| inventory later in the game! |
|___________________________________________|
After you have gotten your well deserved items, just walk back into
the town, go into the house where you met Kiros and walk upstairs.
After that you should just follow the dialogue, then walk to the
house where the scenario started, and it will end.
3.2 DESERT PRISON
You will wake up in a room with Zell, Selphie, Rinoa and Quistis.
There is nothing special about this part, just get through the text
until you are free to walk with Zell. Once you have control of him,
check his junction (by that I mean, rejunction him his GFs) and
then walk up the stairs. You will meet two guards. They can't be
carded and you can't run away from them. I suggest using up your
stock of break magic. Afterwards you will reclaim your weapons.
Then you will see a scene where Zell, Quistis and Selphie will show
off their weapon skills. Afterwards the menu will open. Do take the
time to junction your team (just junction them as they were before!),
as there is a boss battle coming up. Give 'Draw' to all three
characters. After you close the menu Wedge and Biggs will show up.
BOSS FIGHT: WEDGE & BIGGS
-------------------------
This is the #1 magic drawing time. You will never again draw so much
magic as here. Get 300 Reflects (best magic for Spr Junctions), 300
regens (VERY useful for HP junctions until you get Full-Life) and
some hastes, as you will always want to keep your speed higher than
that of your enemies... The battle itself is very easy. Their attacks
aren't really all that much better than the one's of the normal
soldiers, but they do have higher HP. Don't you think that they
should have something like a Wedge and Biggs combo? It would put
more fun into battles with these guys! Just finish them off with a
physical attack and limit breaks combination.
After you finish off these two, you are free to explore the Prison.
The Enemies here are a complete pain in the @$$, I always use
encounter-none, even in games where I did level up in. Theoretically,
you should go up, as Squall is there, but I suggest you go down, as
there are more goodies there, like some magazines.
___________________________________________
| YOU CAN GET VERY GOOD ITEMS HERE! |
| ===== |
| As you might see, there is quite a lot |
| of people in the prison cells who will |
| play cards with you for money and will |
| give you items if you win. Usually these |
| items are crap, like potions and eye |
| drops. But if you already have 100 of all |
| of those crappy items, those guys have no |
| choice but to give you good stuff, like |
| HP-ups, junction scrolls, rosetta stones, |
| etc. So if you have the cash you can try |
| some card battles which do get you some |
| very useful stuff. |
|___________________________________________|
Afterwards you are finished with the card battles just go to the top
floor to find Squall there. After you've gotten Squall you will go
down using a movable 'arm'. At the bottom you will find that you are
buried under the ground, so you will have to go back up. When you are
in control of Zell, the moment the room loads, just hold the down and
right buttons and the guard should not be able to catch you. After
some more dialogue, Rinoa and Irvine will appear. You will have to
take Squall upwards, and afterwards you will have to take Irvine
downwards. The next time you get control of Squall's team you should
junction your guys, as there is a boss battle coming up.
BOSS FIGHT: 2x GIM54A & Elite Soldier
-------------------------------------
This fight will be sooo easy that the boss in 'boss fight' shouldn't
be there. The elite soldier can use aura, but you can't draw it, so
what do you have left to do? Just kill them! It is as simple as it
sounds. The GIM54As can use Micro Missiles to halve your HP, but
they should be dead before they do that attack too many times.
After the fight the prison will 'pack up' and dive into the sand.
Move Squall into Rinoa's direction to escape the sand. I'm not sure
what happens if you go the other way, I've never tried. After all,
even if you move in Rinoa's direction you will still get swallowed
by the sand...dunno.
Afterwards the scene will shift to the prison's 'car park'. All of
the girls will get into one of the cars and they guys into the other
(and Irvine will be very disappointed...). After that the scene will
shift to another place, where you will have to go through tons of
dialogue. The important part here is that you will have to choose
your party members for the next mission. I always choose them like
this:
Squall's party: Squall, Zell and Rinoa
Selphie's party: Selphie, Quistis and Irvine
I think that this is the best balance. Rinoa is in Squall's party
for an FMV and Zell is the second best fighter. As Squall's party
will have to do waaaay more fighting than Selphie's, I put him there.
It is really your call, though.
3.3 MISSILE BASE MISSION
Afterwards you will see Squall escape with a train and head for Balamb.
Then you will have control of Selphie in a car. Right now you can head
for Deling City and go to Caraway's mansion to get Rinoa's card. You
will first have to loose the Ifrit card (don't worry - you will get
it back just a little later in the game) and only then you can win
Rinoa's card. Anyway, do whatever you want (you can even go to Dollet
now, but i'd leave it until middle of disc 2), but you will have to
go to the missile base to get on with the story.
Note: try walking into the missile base on foot to see a funny scene
with Selphie...
To do it properly you have to enter the missile base with a car. After
you are inside, just enter the door using the ID card. Afterwards you
will see a pretty funny scene with Selphie thinking that you were
caught, but it is actually because you ran (actually, if you use the
analog controller function to walk, you will still get that warning.
Strange...). Just progress onto the next screen, and guess what?
then go to the next one! Afterwards, go left and the guards there
will tell you to tell something to the other guards. So go to the
guards into the missile room, feel free to use the Full-Life draw
point, and tell the guard there that he should go on and the others
will catch up later. Then go back to the first guards, and they will
tell you to go to the maintenance room. Now go back to the guard that
told you to not to run and enter the room next to him. Just mess up
everything there until the lights go out. Afterwards the base will
switch to emergency lighting and the two maintenance guards will
catch you. Talk your way out of it. DO NOT FIGHT ANY BATTLES. After
you have taken care of the maintenance guys, go back to the launcher
room and help to move the missile into it's place (doesn't that mean
that you are helping them to blow up the garden???). After you have
done that you can go and check up the panel outside that room. You will
not be able to change to coordinates, as you don't have the authority
(Wouldn't you just luuuve to blow up Deling City?), but you can set
the error ratio, so the missiles have a high chance of missing the
target. So do that, and afterwards check the one last place you
haven't been in - the control room. There you will have to fight some
soldiers. As far as I remember, it is not a boss battle, but you can't
run away, so you will have to gain EXP here. It is only something like
180 EXP, so you really can't level up here.
I know that some people have already gotten into trouble, because the
previous version of my guide said that you can use 'Break' magic on
them. However, I got some complaints about this. My version was that
in the European version of the game, it is possible to petrify these
guys. However, I have no way of confirming that, so I will just have
to go with the version that you can't do it.
After you have taken care of those soldiers check the computers to
cancel the missile launch (not lunch, launch!) and then set the
missile base to self-destruct. Set the timer to 20 minutes if you
want to be safe (I did it in 10 though). I'm not sure if it affects
anything, but it could be that the rise in your SeeD rank at the end
of this mission is determined by the time limit. So choose 10 min if
you want to be sure to get a rise by 2. If you set it to 10 or 20
min you can use the door next to you, so you don't have to walk
through the base. When you walk out the save point there would have
magically disappeared (Square was making sure you don't mess up your
game by saving 10 secs before the time limit ends...). When you walk
out, you will be pulled into a boss fight with an 'iron clad' - BGHZ51F2
BOSS FIGHT: BGHZ51F2; Elite soldier & two normal soldiers
---------------------------------------------------------
The iron clad should be a breeze, just use Irvine's limit break to take
him down. Once when I fought this battle I managed to use Selphie's limit
break to get aura on her, and afterwards, because her HP was very low,
I got 'The End'. After you are done with the iron clad you will have to
take care of 3 soldiers. Use Irvine's Fast ammo to take them down.
(BTW, you can refine ammo from cards...).
After the battle ends just run around until the dialogue begins and the
missile base blows up. Is Selphie & Co going to be all right?
3.4 SAVING THE GARDEN
You will now have control of Squall and you will be in front of the garden.
Just walk inside to find the garden in a state of chaos. For the moment
being, agree to whatever the garden deputies say. Once you are near the
control panel you will meet Raijin and Fujin. They will run away to,
theoretically, warn others, so basically they won't be of any help to you.
Now walk around the garden CLOCKWISE, entering each area, and fighting the
Garden Master's monsters. However, when you get to the infirmary (first area),
you will have to 'let them handle it'. I know it is sad, but it is the
game's fault. This is due to the fact that you will have to fight Granaldo
(who would be at the same level as in disc 1, hahaha!), who is a boss, so you
can't card him (I'm not sure about 'break', but it safer not to try, as
bosses usually can't be petrified), but you will gain EXP. So avoid him. In
all the other areas, you can defeat the enemies by either carding or petrifying
them (I suggest petrifying on the weaker ones, like the Bomb, and carding on
the stronger ones, like the T-Rex). Always check the people who will be in that
area to receive some good items. The one in the library will give you a mega-
phoenix. After you are done clearing out the garden you will meet Xu at the
stairs to the second floor. Follow her. Soon you will get through a whole lot
of dialogue with her and the headmaster and you will have to go to the lower
level to find some type of a secret.
The lower level has got some very annoying enemies, so (as usual) equip encounter-
none. Head for the structure in the center to find some stairs. Squall alone
will have to go up and the stairs will fall and you will be in another room.
Try messing around with the control panel there until some stuff in the
background moves. Then just simply walk back down. Use the stairs down right next
to you. Once you are down walk into the room right across. There you will have
to train up your finger by pressing the square button. As far as know, you will
need two people to open the thing. In the previous room, another 'hole' will
appear. Just go down, save at the save point and pull the switch. Just go ahead
and a boss fight will start.
BOSS FIGHT: 2x OILBOYLE
-----------------------
These guy are wimpos, but if you don't have HP-J, their oil can damage you badly,
but that shouldn't be a problem now. Just use your physical attacks. Two Squall's
physical attacks should kill one of them.
After the battle just go into the next room, go down the stairs and mess around
with the control panel you find there. Probably the coolest scene of the whole
game will happen here. Whenever you have to take over the controls, just push
whatever buttons and the garden will move.
3.4 FISHERMAN'S HORIZON
The next morning Rinoa will wake you up. You will go for a walk, but the garden
will have to avoid Balamb town.
At one point Squall will be asked to report to the Garden Mater NORG. Make sure
you have Draw equipped on someone!! Norg will decide to kill Squall & co, but,
of course, you're going to show him who's the boss.
BOSS FIGHT: NORG
----------------
At first Norg will be in his 'pod'. All you have to do is attack the pod a
couple of times - it has around 2000 HP, but high defence. After the pod goes
down, Norg himself will appear. The first thing you should do is draw Leviathan
from him (yeey, another GF!), and then just kill him with a limit break.
****GF LEVIATHAN******
The Great Sea serpent and the God of Water is back. This time he comes in a
more useless form - his attack will be useless and his abilities aren't the
best either. The recover command is quite good, as it recovers your full HP
for free and he has 2 good menu abilities (which you should learn first) -
GF Med-RF and Supt Mag-RF. Not all that useful, but learn them.
After the fight some more useless scenes will start. They are easy to get
through. You will have to find Ellone once the SeeD ship arrives - she's in
the library. The fun starts when the garden runs into FH.
After the scene with Master Fisherman (which could be voted as the funniest
scene in the whole of Final Fantasy 8...), you will have to go to FH and
apologize to the mayor. In the third screen of FH, there will be hard to
see stairs leading down to Master Fisherman (you will have to take some other
stairs once you are down). Talking to him gets you Occult Fan Volume III, one
of the rarest items in the game, as it can't be won in battles and it also
can't be bought in a shop (volumes I and II can, IV can't). Then go back up
and go into FH. Once you come to a place where paths cross, take the right
one, save, and then go left. Once you come down to the center of the town,
go right even more. There you will find Martine with all the cards of the
Galbadia Garden students and the Ifrit card, if you went after the Rinoa
card. After you are finished with him, go into the house. I suggest you save.
Go up and talk to the mayor. Once you are finished talking, challenge him for
a card game - he holds the Quezacotl card. There is also a hidden Ultima draw
point. Unfortunately, it is non-renewable, so you get only one draw...
Once you are done here, save and walk back into the town. You will be
notified that Galbadian soldiers are here (encounter-none, anyone?) and Mayor
Dobe will want to go and talk to them. Mayor's wife will accuse you of having
gotten FH into trouble. Just run through the town until you see Mayor Dobe
again, this time being bullied by a galbadian soldier. You will have to go
and help him. Note that the first battle you fight is NOT a boss fight, so
you will have to petrify the soldiers to not to gain EXP. After that fight
ends you will be drawn into a fight with someone you have already seen
before - the iron clad!
BOSS FIGHT: BGHZ51F2
--------------------
This time he is even easier. If you have mug (although I doubt it), you can
get an Adamantine from him. He has less HP than the first time you fought it,
so two hits by Squall should kill him.
After this you will see a pretty funny scene with Rinoa and Squall. Afterwards,
try talking some sense into mayor Dobe. Once you are done, explore FH. Try
talking to the boy fishing in a boat to see a funny scene where he almost
kills the shopkeeper. Just explore the town and talk to everyone. You should
also see another scene involving Master Fisherman. After you are done with FH,
just head back to the garden, where Irvine will join you and you will have to
go to the quad to cheer up Selphie (I guess motivating staff is one part of a
leader's job...)
Afterwards headmaster Cid will appoint Squall as the leader of the garden.
Then you will have to make up some music. It is really your choice, my
favourite is when you use Sax, Piano, Electric Guitar and Base Guitar.
Afterwards it is just a whole lot of dialogue. Pretty soon you will be in
control of the garden, and then it is Side Quests Time!!
3.6 SIDE QUESTS
Please note that you won't be able to use Selphie right now. If you really want
to use her, wait until you finish off the rescuing Balamb Scenario. Also note
that you don't have to do the Side Quests in this order... (but it is preferred
that you get Tonberry after Odin, as you won't have the time limit). Also note
that I expect you to go to the Shumi village and use the Ultima draw point
periodically. Another point is that this Side Quest section only covers Side
Quests relevant to your No-Level-Up tries. The other Side Quest you could do now
are:
1. Re-explore Timber
2. Dollet Side Quest
3. Stone Hunting in Shumi Village
4. Vase Side Quest in Winhill
5. General Card Fighting (to get more unique and normal cards)
3.6.1 GETTING ODIN
Odin's Layer (Centra Ruins) can be found at the center of the main Centra
continent. You will have a 20 min time limit. The maze itself is pretty easy,
just make sure that you do have encounter-none equipped, otherwise it is hell.
I will leave the fun of solving it to you... The main point is that at the end
of this maze you will meet the easiest boss in the game: ODIN
BOSS FIGHT: ODIN
----------------
I had around 13 min left on the clock when I entered the battle. This must be
the easiest boss fight ever - Odin does NOT attack you. He just stands there
hoping that the time limit will run out. Isn't that just pathetic? Well, the good
point is that he has lots of good spells to draw, the best one being Triple, which
is the second best junction for Strength (after Ultima). So just get 300 triples
(you can't afford to get less), and the rest of the spells if you so wish. I had
full stock of all his drawable spells on all characters (meaning I could not draw
any magic from him anymore...), and there were still over 3 min left on the clock.
Anyway, he will be at level 9 and have 3700 HP, so one physical attack/limit break
should take him down...
****GF ODIN******
Well, this is no ordinary GF. He can't be junctioned and you can't learn any
abilities. And the last thing you want to do is to make him appear in battles,
cause he will slaughter the enemies for you (I'm serious, I've never (Seifer is an
exception) seen him miss!) and leave you with a whole lot of EXP! So just pray he
does not appear...
Try equipping Triple - it should seriously boost your Strength. My Squall's
strength at this point was 193...
After the battle ends, walk out of the dungeon and save. but don't even think
that this is the last time you will visit this place...
3.6.2 GETTING TONBERRY & MAKING USE OF HIS ABILITIES
Yup, this GF can be found in Odin layer. It is pretty simple to get him, but VERY
VERY annoying. Basically, in the second and third screen of the Centra Ruins you
will meet green little enemies, called tonberries. They will give you 0 EXP and
1 AP when you beat them. As an addition to that, they have one of the highest
monster HP stats (at LV9, he has 16800 HP! That's more than the Final Boss!!!
However, Squall should be doing around 4200 to 4500 damage with one hit, so even
a four hit Renzokuken should take him out...), so they are very difficult to kill.
To get GF Tonberry, you will have to kill AROUND 20 Tonberries. It all depends
on your luck - Once I got GF Tonberry to appear in battle after 18 killed
Tonberries. The other time, it was 26... Anyway, be prepared for some long
fighting. After you have killed that particular number of Tonberries, GF Tonberry
will appear in battle. He is larger and has superior strength, so I will detail it
as a Boss Fight.
BOSS FIGHT: TONBERRY KING
-------------------------
This guy appears to take revenge for all the killed Tonberries... At higher levels
he has Full-Life to draw, but at LV9...nope. He will have 22500 HP, so he is not
that difficult. I guess 2 Renzokukens is the answer, but one might be enough. I
really thought that this guy should have been more difficult...(he is way more
difficult at higher levels).
****GF TONBERRY******
This is a very good GF. He has some very good unique abilities, like LV Down,
LV Up, Haggle, Sell High (the latter two allow you to make money at shops...)
and Familiar. I think the latter three should be learnt above all of his
abilities. They are very expensive, so I usually wait until middle of Disc 3
to level him up.
Get out of the ruins, but before you start the next quest, I want you to go to
the snowy plains near Shumi village and fight some Mesmerizes there. If you use
Level Up (from your new GF!) and get them to a high enough level, you can draw
Dispels from them (Don't Forget to run away!). Also, if you did not get the
Meltdowns, go to the Trabia region, get into a fight with Gaylas, level them up
and draw Meltdowns! If you want to get your hands on Tornados, go to the Deling
City grass area and fight Thrustaevis. Level them up above LV40 and you can draw
Tornados! Tornados are also good for HP junction, but a very small bit better
than Regen. After you are done, let's get onto the next quest!
3.6.5 CC GROUP SIDE QUEST
This is a card quest which will take place in Balamb garden. The main objective
is to get Gilgamesh's Card, so that you can get 10 Holy Wars, a life saver when
fighting difficult battles.
Get inside the Balamb Garden. First you will have to fight and win around 20 card
battles within the garden. I know it sounds boring, but I'm a card fanatic, so I
just can't wait for this bit... Once you are done you can challenge the CC Group
members in this order:
1. Jack - you can find him in the first floor directory
2. Club - appears randomly at the Northern Part of the first floor of the Garden
3. Diamond - Two Girls Standing at the directory panel
4. Spade - Near the 2nd floor lift. Appears randomly and rarely, so you will have
to re-enter the area to meet him
5. Heart - Xu, on the bridge. She has Carbuncle Card (just as useless as the GF!)
6. King - to meet the king, you will have to talk to Nida after you beat Xu,
then you should go to the infirmary and talk to Dr. Kadowaki. Afterwards go to
your dormitory, choose the option for the others to leave you alone, save and
rest. The king will appear randomly during the night, so you might have to rest
several times... The King has the Gilgamesh Card.
7. Joker - man in the training center. Once you enter the training centre, go
right. He will appear there randomly. Joker holds the Leviathan card.
I was kind of dissapointed when I first won the CC King. After all, aren't you
supposed to become the King? And what about the Joker? Without the Leviathan card
he is probably the weakest member of the whole gang! I think Square should've
increased depth on this quest...
I think that by now you are totally fed up with card gaming, so lets take a
small break from that...
3.7 RESCUING BALAMB
When you go into the town of Balamb you will be notified that the town is under
the control of Sorceress Edea. So what do you have left? Liberate it!
Talk to the guard again and he will let you in. Go to the hotel and talk to the
guards there. Then go to the docks (furthest screen) and talk to the guard there.
Then go to the train station and talk there. Afterwards go to Zell's house,
talk to Ma, rest, save and then go to the train station again. Lastly, go to the
docks, talk to the dog and follow him to the train station. Afterwards the dog
will wake up the captain, who actually is Raijin. Go to the Hotel and two
consecutive boss fights will begin:
BOSS FIGHT: RAIJIN & 2x GUARDS
------------------------------
Raijin has 3000 HP. Mug him if you have the ability. Otherwise just kill him
using physical attacks. He should be a piece of cake...
BOSS FIGHT: FUJIN & RAIJIN
--------------------------
Fujin has GF Pandemona to draw. She has 3000 HP and Raijin has 4000 HP, so not
much more difficult. These guys will have trouble to even touch you, the only
way they will defeat you is if you went to eat dinner at this time. Easy, but
don't forget Pandemona.
****GF PANDEMONA****
Well, what can I say? errrr... wasn't it supposed to be Pandemonium? This is
an all speed GF. Learn her Spd-J first, and afterwards the Spd+??% abilities.
However, if you are like me, you would wait until disc 3s Cactuar Island to
level up, and anyway, as the last two fights prove it, Boss Fights are already
way to easy, so what's the point to level up?
3.8 VISITING TRABIA GARDEN
This is not really a quest. All you have to do is go to the garden, get inside,
explore it (don't worry, there will be no battles...) and read a whole lot of
dialogue. I'm not going to go over this quest, as there is really nothing here
that concerns your No levelling Up tries.
3.9 BATTLE WITH THE SORCERESS
Go to the southern Centra continent, where Edea's House is. To the east there
will be the Galbadia Garden. As you go close to it, Nida will warn you about
the enemy. Choose whichever options you like. Afterwards, go down. Pick your
team members, then get in the elevator. Clear (give out orders to everyone)
the second floor, then go down to the first one and go to the quad. Afterwards
you will be called to the bridge and the Galbadian invasion will start. Once
you have control of Zell just run (Encounter-None, anyone?) into the Quad and
another cut scene will start. After that one head for the front gate. Once you
gain control head for the second floor classroom. Make sure you have GFs and
Encounter-None equipped. A small battle will happen there - make sure you use
break magic, as it seems that those guys are like normal soldiers. Afterwards
talk to the SeeD in the room and say "Good work. Take them somewhere safe".
Afterwards you will have to go to the bridge. A long dialogue and a speech by
Squall will follow. Once you regain control you will have to go to the second
floor. There a girl will ask you to help her find Mark. So do just that - go
to the corridor and get to the very end of it (past the classroom). After you
save Mark you will be attacked. There are two very good methods of winning:
keep on kicking the guy until he falls off, or block his hits and wait for the
deathblow command to appear. You can retry this as many times as you want so
nothing can go really wrong. Afterwards Squall will save Rinoa and the scene
will shift to the Galbadia Garden.
Note: Don't miss the Aura draw point by the entrance! You can see it with
Move-Find.
Get inside the garden, pick your team (I prefer Squall, Zell and Irvine, simply
because they have the best limit breaks...), equip your GFs, equip Encounter-
None, save, and let's go and kill that Sorceress! Go Right, Right, Up the
stairs, Left, Right, Get the Card Key, Get out of the Room, Go Down, Down the
stairs, Down the stairs, Down, Left, Left, Up, Right, Get the Card Key, Out of
the Room, Go Down, Right, Right, Up the stairs, Up the stairs, go on, jump off,
go on, go on, go down, go on, at the center you will find Cerberus.
BOSS FIGHT: GF CERBERUS
-----------------------
He has 8000 HP, so he is better off than some others, but still nothing good
enough to be a challenge... Just use physical attacks or some limit break to
take him down. If you didn't get all the Quakes as I told you, you can draw
them from him now.
****GF CERBERUS****
I remember how important this GF was to me back in the days when I thought that
magic was the center of this game. Things have changed since then, I don't use
magic anymore, and with that the importance of this GF has gone down. The main
things about Cerberus are Spd-J ability and its follow-ups, the Abilityx3
ability, and the rest isn't all that important. You won't need alert, as you
won't get attacked at all...All the other junction abilities (except Hit-J)
you should already have for all three characters.
Afterwards go left, left, get the card key, get out of the room, go up, then up,
up, right up the stairs, left and enter the door. Save at the save point and go
further into the room until a battle against Seifer starts.
BOSS FIGHT: SEIFER
------------------
He has 4000 HP, so, again, just a piece of cake. You can draw haste if you
really want to, but I just prefer to slaughter him...
After you are done use the elevator to get out of the room, go down, right,
down, and enter the auditorium where another boss battle awaits you.
BOSS FIGHT: SEIFER; EDEA
------------------------
You will fight Seifer first. He has 2600 HP, so it should be a one hit kill.
Afterwards you will face Edea. Don't forget to draw Alexander from her! She
has 5000 HP, and can barely scratch you. Nothing good to draw either...
Pretty crap for a 'Sorceress Bent on Conquering the World'... Just kill her.
****GF ALEXANDER****
Well, this guy has got some very good abilities. The ones you are really
aiming for are Med Data and Medicine Level up, because those will let you
get GF Doomtrain. The other good abilities this guy has are Elm-Defx4 and
Revive. A good GF overall, with some of the most expensive abilities yet,
so I suggest you wait until Cactuar Island to gain AP.
After the fight some dialogue will follow and you will have to get ready to
change the discs!
PART 4 : Disc 3 Walkthrough
_________________________________________________________________
4.1 ANOTHER LAGUNA SCENARIO
Afterwards you will wake up and Squall will wonder in his thoughts. He can't
stop thinking about Rinoa. The scene will shift to the Infirmary and Squall
will be called to go to Edea's Orphanage. So get out of the infirmary, go to
the 3rd floor and go to Edea's house. A whole lot of dialogue and explanation
will follow. Once you regain control of Squall, go to the infirmary. Another
Laguna scenario will follow.
This is a relatively simple scenario. I had the whole trio, but you might
have only Laguna and Kiros. Once you have to fight the Dragon with the
gunblade, simply attack all the time and defend once the dragon moves back
to attack you (hehe, I managed to do it without losing a single HP to him).
Afterwards, when you have the choice, choose "H-Hold on a sec" and you can
check your junctions. Mine were like this:
Laguna (Squall):
GF: Ifrit, Siren, Carbuncle, Leviathan
Abilities: Mag+40%, HP+40%, Str+40%
All magic Junctioned favouring Magic stat
Kiros (Irvine):
GF: Shiva, Diablos, Pandemona, Alexander
Abilities: Str+60%, HP+40%, Vit+40%
All magic Junctioned favouring Magic stat
Ward (Zell):
GF: Quezacotl, Brothers, Cerberus, Tonberry
Abilities: HP+40%, Str+60%, Mag+60%
All of them have 'Draw', and Ward has LV Up and LV Down. All HP is restored
to full health. Once you are done, save and let's go and beat up some
dragon @$$!!
NOT A BOSS FIGHT: RUBY DRAGON
-----------------------------
This is not a boss fight, so you will have to end it with either 'Break' or
LV Down him to LV1, where you gain 1 to 3 EXP. But that's not the point of
this fight - the point is to get the best possible magics from this guy. So
level him up to LV40 or above (that is dangerous, that's why I told you to
junction yourself properly...), then draw Flare and Meteor from him. You can
also get Reflect if you didn't get it before. However, beware his Breath
attack. Be sure to use Shell and Protect. Cast Double or Triple if necessary.
Note that you don't have to do this if you don't want to, its just that you
can get some very good magics very early in the game. However, you can skip
this part and just defeat the dragon by getting him down to LV1 and then
killing him.
After this fight the Laguna scenario will shortly end.
4.2 FINDING THE SeeD SHIP
There will be some dialogue afterwards, but pretty soon you will regain
control of Squall. Just go to the Bridge and get the garden moving and
go to Edea's house. Talk to Edea and she will give you directions to find
the SeeD ship and also give you a letter for the SeeD. So now you have to
find the SeeD Ship! And that is a little bit more tricky... Even after
playing this game 4 times, I still have difficulty doing it.
From Edea's house head straight North, and in the first possible place turn
right (East). An keep on turning. You would have to turn upto 250 degrees
to see the ship. Just make sure you turn a lot.
The SeeDs inside the ship will tell you to simply get out, but allow you
to do so, which means you can still move around. There is no danger
what-so-ever, so just explore the ship at your covinience. Just talk to
the 'Boss' of this ship and he will tell you what happened to Ellone.
Then the scene will shift to the Balamb Garden. Tell Nida to get going
and head for FH.
4.3 ESTHAR, HERE WE COME!
4.3.1 GETTING THERE
After you run into FH, long scenes, with a lot of dialogue and minimal control
over Squall, will follow. At one point you will have to choose the party
members. Do NOT choose Edea. You might notice that she is at LV 26. As the
enemy's level is proportional to the average party's level, she will rise the
level of enemies by quite a number if you have her. Not by enough to defeat you,
of course, but why bother?
Walking through the ice field is easy. At one point you will fight Abadon.
BOSS FIGHT: ABADON
------------------
He has nothing good to draw. Just cast 1 Curaga on him and he should be dead.
And what if he isn't? Guess what? Cast another one! Oh, are these boss fights
ever going to get difficult??
Once you have finished off that undead just walk into the next screen. In the
center of that screen, you will find the entrance to Esthar. From here on it
is just one-way really, so you can't do anything wrong. Just keep on going
until you get sleepy...
4.3.2 LAST LAGUNA SCENARIO
Just follow the dialogue and the simple storyline. You will have to fight one
battle with Laguna alone handle that with a 'Break'. Afterwards Kiros and Ward
will join the scene and a battle will start. You can use 'Break', but the main
soldier cannot be petrified so you will have to LV Down him and then kill him.
It will gain you 1 or 2 EXP. Afterwards the rest is easy. Just don't forget to
get Weapons Monthly First Issue when you return to the lab! Then another battle
will start. The only difference from the previous one is that you will also
have to LV Down the Elastoid (it was an Elastoid in my game) to LV1 as it
doesn't look like you can petrify him. Afterwards just follow Odine out of the
laboratory and get into the car.
The scene will shift to Odine's Lab and you will have to fight another battle.
Just take those guys out with Break. Then just sit down on the platform and go
up. There you will have to fight another battle. Those guys can't be hurt with
'Break', so you will have to LV Down them. After the battle run into the screen,
then back, push some buttons on the control panel until the message [Unlocked]
appears on the screen. Once that happens go down and then run into the screen.
Shortly the scenario will end.
4.3.3 EXPLORING IT
All you have to do is head for the Lunar Gate, but I suggest you explore this
place a little bit before you do. Your main attraction here is the shopping
arcade, so get out of the presidential palace and then walk right. Get on to
the lift here and get out in the Shopping Mall. At this point I suggest you
purchase anything you want, but the real shopping will be done once we are
half way through the Cactuar Island AP gaining. You can try entering some
shops for some good presents.
Once you are done in the shopping mall I suggest you go to the airport. So
head for the presidential palace, go two screens left and get on the lift
there, which will take you to the airport. Talk to the Presidential Aide
there. Now go back to the Presidential Palace and talk to whoever is standing
at the door. As he leaves, he will leave something behind - it is Occult
Fan Volume IV, one of the rarest items in the world!
You can explore the rest of the city, but there isn't much to it, so just go
to the city entrance. You can rent a car if you wish, but as you have
Encounter-None, you don't have to (cars aren't really all that much more
faster...) I suggest you visit Tear's Point and get the Solomon's Ring.
Afterwards just go to the Lunar Gate. I suggest taking someone useless with
you, like Selphie. Afterwards you will be loaded into a cell and shot into
space.
4.4 A HOLIDAY TRIP TO SPACE...TURNS BAD & LUNATIC PANDORA
Watch the awesome FMV where the team are shot into space. Once you regain
control over Zell, save at the first save point and head back for Esthar
City. Once you are back, go to Odine's Laboratory. He will give you a mission
briefing. Afterwards get out of the laboratory.
Please note that you might want to miss the Lunatic Pandora completely, as it
isn't really a place where to get good items, and it will cause you to fight
some battles. However, the storyline includes Lunatic Pandora, so I will go
along with it.
A timer will start ticking. Press the square button. Walk left, then straight
until you come to a junction where there is a road clearly going to the right
and another road going to straight. Take the right one. Keep on running
straight (there isn't much choice) until you come to the place drawn on the
picture. The timer should be before 18:00. Talk to the guards, who will say
that it was predicted that the Lunatic Pandora will fly by here. Otherwise,
just stand there and wait. At 15:00 the Lunatic Pandora will appear. You will
have to fight a battle, which is easily handled with 'Break'. Afterwards you
can take your time to explore the Pandora, just don't take the door #1 first.
That's where you go if you want to get kicked out... No boss fights and no
danger here.
Afterwards the scene will shift to Space. Once you have control of Squall talk
to the guy in white. Then go and pick up Rinoa. Afterwards just follow Piet.
Put Rinoa into the medical lab, get out of the room, and SAVE! Then just walk
out of the room, then into the screen, and afterwards up the stairs, then just
down the screen. In the next Room, you will meet Ellone. Now, she holds the
famous Laguna card, which refines into 100 Heros. Try winning it from her,
but the Lunar Base rules are a pain in the @$$! They have random, so you will
have to abolish that rule (or modify all of the worthless cards...) Once you
have gained the Laguna card, do NOT talk to her. Instead, return to the save
point, save, and then go to the command center. There you can witness the
gathering of monsters and challenge Piet for the Alexander's card.
Once you are done, go and talk to Ellone. Rinoa will turn into a zombie like
creature (ummm...a sorceress, actually). Go check her out. Squall will be
repelled from her, as if she emits some type of an energy field. She will
deactivate the seal to Adel. Then she will try to go into space. You have
to try to stop her, so get out of the control room, run up the stairs and
get into the room to your right (you will see the Lunar Cry on the way).
Get into one of the lockers and change and then walk out. You will have to
try to stop Rinoa, but you will be unsuccessful. Afterwards just walk to the
control room and watch how Rinoa unlocks Adel's seal. Afterwards you will
have to evacuate. On the way Ellone will send you to some of the scenes in
Rinoa's past and you will finish up trying to save her.
What you will basically have to do is try to keep her in the middle of the
screen. And by that I mean the exact middle, so that when your timer runs
out, she will run into you.
After some moments, Ragnarok will just happen to appear. Soon after you will
get in. Basically, you will have to try to take control of this ship by
taking out some monsters called Propagators. You will have to kill them in
pairs by their colour (hey! Let's not be racist here, OK?). Just walk down
the stairs and fight the first one. They have 1800 HP and it counts as a
boss fight, so you won't get any EXP. After you are done with the first one,
go through the main door, but don't fight the one that's there - quickly sneak
through the door to your left. Fight the one there (notice that this one is
the same colour as the last one you fought...). Then run into the next room
(you will see a green one standing, but don't fight it just yet...) and then
run into the screen. You will fight a red one. Then walk beck to the first
Propagator that you ran away from - that one is also red. Then walk back into
the room where you fought the first one and walk to the room right next to the
main one. You will fight a green propagator. Once you are done return back to
the standing one, which is green. Then walk to the place where you entered
Ragnarok and you will fight a yellow one there. Now go back where there used
to be the standing Propagator, and walk to your left into the screen. You
will be in a room with the last of the monsters. Kill it and return on the
platform where the green, standing Propagator was.
LONG scenes will follow, so you will simply have to read a whole lot of text.
The next time you regain control of Squall you will be on the Earth (is it
Earth??). All you have to do is to go into the Ragnarok and sit in one of the
seats in the crew's cabin. The rest of the team will come to you and you will
have to go to Esthar's Sorceress Memorial and get her back. There will be no
military conflict.
Afterwards you will have to go to Edea's House. There Rinoa and Squall will
have a long talk, and you might recognize some of the words they say from the
beginning of the game. Afterwards Zell will rush in and say that the President
of Esthar is trying to hire SeeD to kill sorceress Ultimecia. So head for
Esthar's presidential palace and you will have a long talk there with someone
you might know... Afterwards you will be back in Ragnarok and you are free to
go anywhere. This is the right time to do all those Sub Quests that you wanted
to do.
4.5 SIDE QUESTS
Remember - I will only detail Side Quests which involve either heavy fighting
or are needed to finish the game. There is tons of other things to do, like
increasing/finishing your card collection, Obel lake side quest and lots of
others.
4.5.1 IT'S AP GAINING TIME & FINISHING YOUR GF LIST
At first I suggest you gain some AP (by some I am actually thinking of a
number into the 4-digits), then get the rest of the GFs (except Eden, as
that will be detailed in the Deep Sea Research Center Side Quest), and then
gain more AP, then get Eden, finish off the rest of the Side Quests, then get
the last of the AP you need to get.
First, I suggest you go to the Cactuar Island. It is south of the Kashkabald
desert (where the Ragnarok was in the first place). You will see a small,
green thing there it is a Jumbo Cactuar. Run into it and you will fight it.
BOSS FIGHT: JUMBO CACTUAR
-------------------------
This is your next GF. He has 57000 HP (and yes, he is at LV9!) and an attack
which does 10000 HP damage, killing you instantly. The best method is to cast
Meltdown on him first and then just use all of your limit breaks. I usually
have Squall, Irvine and Zell in my team at this point, because they have the
best limit breaks. It isn't all that difficult to take him down. I remember
that the last time I fought him he died before he had attacked me even once!
Of course, for that to happen, you need to go into the battle with very low
HP.
Now is the levelling up time. You will have to get the GF Alexander's
Medicine Level Up ability, as that is needed for the Doomtrain GF. First you
will need to learn the 200 AP Med Data, and then that ability. Make sure as
many of the GFs as possible are learning the Initiative ability. This will
always get you the first turn.
The enemies you are going to use to gain AP are going to be Cactuars - they
give you 4 EXP and 20 AP (and in some battles you might fight 4 of them!).
They have around 300 HP. However, during a battle, a cactuar will always try
to run away, that's why it is important that you have a high speed rating
when you fight them (or Initiative). Irvine's Scatter shot limit break is
especially good when it comes to killing 4 cactuars... On the Cactuar Island
you will meet only cactuars. So when I say 'go gain some AP now', you just
have to go to the cactuar island and fight Cactuars there. Happy AP gaining.
Once you are done (you think you have enough abilities), you should go and
get the Bahamut GF. He is located at the Deep Sea Research Centre, which
is in the Southwest Corner of the map (in the sea...). You will sea a
structure there. Land on it with the Ragnarok. Get in and you will have
to reach the core of the shining thing. Simply don't walk when it lights
up, and walk like hell when it goes out. Pretty soon you will get to the
core and will be drawn into 2 battles with a Ruby Dragon. I think that they
are best handled with LV Down and a kill. At first you will have to pick the
first and only option. Then you pick the second option. Afterwards you pick
the hidden third option. After you pick the third option you will be put
into a fight against Bahamut.
BOSS FIGHT: BAHAMUT
-------------------
This guy is another major drawing point. Get 300 Full-Lifes and 300 Flares.
He has only 17200 HP, so after the Cactuar fight this should be a breathe.
His strongest attacks do only 450+ damage, so nothing to worry about.
HOWEVER, occasionally, he will cast his Mega Flare, which will do around
3000 HP damage, so don't let your HP get too low...
Next I will ask you to go for a very dangerous adventure. First junction
your newly gained Full-Life to your HP and drop in another HP+??% to rise
it very high. Now I suggest that you Card Mod the Gilgamesh's Card and
Bahamut's Card. (This is just to make sure that you don't run out of
defences...and last second chances to save your game). Make sure everyone
has the Item command. Also, equip Triples on speed stat for everyone
(although you probably have speed for only 2 people, so I guess it is OK to
leave Squall out). That should make you around 3 times quicker. Make the
battle speed the slowest possible. Also, equip either Irvine or Zell with
Mug and de-equip their Hit-J junctions, if they have any. Go to the Island
Closest to Heaven (the East most Island on the world map) and get into a
fight (make sure that it is not a Marlboro) and cast Blind on the person
that you have equipped Mug on. Basically, what you are trying to achieve
is a some type of a "Hit-n-Run" battle tactic. But in this case, it is
"Steal-n-Run" attack. 'Huh?', you are asking, 'There is no Steal in FF8!'.
Well, there might not be a command like it, but we definitely created the
effect. We have a fighter with low Hit% Blinded. He will have a very small
chance of hitting his target. But he will still be able to steal. So use
this new found method! Get into fights until you fight a Marlboro. Unless
it is a 'Struck First' or a 'Back Attack' battle, there will be a small
time gap between thebeginning of the battle and Marlboro's Bad Breath. You
have to exploit that time gap. You will have to mug him and run away before
he has even moved. That way you might not get all 6 tentacles as quickly,
but you will get them without gaining any EXP.
Afterwards you should go to the rocky area near Deling City and fight
Wendigos. Mug them with the same "Steal-n-Run" method as you used with the
Marlboros. But this time you don't have to be afraid of any deadly attack...
Lastly, go to a shop and buy 60 Remedies. Use Alexander's Medicine Level
up Skill to refine them into 6 Remedy+. Now use the Solomon's Ring and you
will get GF Doomtrain.
Now go to the Cactuar Island and gain some AP.
At this point I would normally get the character's strongest weapons, but,
as you really can't get the strongest weapons, because they require either
killing of monsters that you can't afford or refining items that you can't
do (Squall's Lionheart comes to mind - you can't get the pulse ammo for
it...)
4.5.2 SETTING UP YOUR JUNCTIONS
Before you do this, make sure that you have the GF Tonberry's Haggle,
Sell-High, Familiar and Call Shop abilities. Also make sure that you have
Carbuncle's Recov Med-RF.
First you will need a lot of money (by a lot I mean anything around
1,000,000), and it is very likely that you have pretty much none right now.
This trick teaches you how to make money.
1. Use Tonberry's Call Shop and get into a normal store.
2. Buy 100 Tents and 100 Cottages
3. Refine the tents and cottages using Recov Med-RF into Mega-Potions
4. Sell the Mega-Potions for a much higher price.
Pretty soon, if you keep on repeating this trick, you can make millions.
Please note that you can use the millions you make to make ???-Ups, which
increase your basic stats.
You don't necessarily need to have all that much money. You just need
enough to get your GFs to good shape. Afterwards, go to a shop and buy some
Amnesia greens, some ??-J scrolls, lots of healing items (100 Hi-Potions
and X-Potions come to mind) and anything else you think will be useful.
Afterwards, lets go and tweak your GFs.
Please note that I am preparing the GFs for 3 people. That means, that if
your party has got to be split, you will just have to exchange junctions.
Or prepare the GFs for 6 people.
First I suggest you start by unlearning some abilities. Some hints to which
abilities should be unlearnt:
1. SumMag+??%. If you never use a GF for an attack, and your GFs just happen
to suck, you don't need to enhance his strength. What's the point?
2. GFHP+??%. The same reason as above.
3. Abilities that overlap, like Magic, GF, Item, Draw Commands and lots of
Junction commands.
4. Out of date stat enhancers, like Mag+20%. You wouldn't exactly use that
now, as you have Mag+60%, right?
Abilities that one should NEVER unlearn are refinement abilities and unique
abilities, like Card command. To successfully unlearn all the usless
abilities, you will have to sort out your GFs:
Squall: Ifrit, Siren, Carbuncle, Leviathan, Bahamut (Eden after you get it).
Irvine: Shiva, Diablos, Pandemona, Alexander, Tonberry
Zell: Quezacotl, Brothers, Cerberus, Doomtrain, Cactuar
I am sure that this isn't even close to being the best combination, but
that's just me :)
After cutting down the number of skills each GF has I was left with this:
Quezacotl: HP-J, Vit-J, Mag-J, Magic, GF, Draw, Item, Card, Str+60%,
T Mag-RF, Mid Mag-RF, Card Mod;
Shiva: Str-J, Vit-J, Spr-J, Elem-Atk-J, Str+60%, Vit+40%, Spr+40%,
I Mag-RF
Ifrit: HP-J, Str-J, Elem-Atk-J, Elem-Defx2, Magic, GF, Draw, Item,
F Mag-RF
Siren: Move-Find, L Mag-RF, ST Med-RF, Tool-RF
Brothers: Str-J, Spr-J, HP+80%, Mag+60%
Diablos: HP-J, Mag-J, Hit-J, Abilityx3, Magic, GF, Draw, Item, HP+80%,
Mug, Enc-None, Time Mag-RF, ST Mag-RF
Carbuncle: Vit-J, Mag-J, St-Atk-J, ST-Def-Jx2, HP+40%, Vit+40%,
Recov Med-RF
Leviathan: Mag-J, Spr-J, Recover, Spr+40%, Supt Mag-RF, GFRecov Med-RF
Pandemona: Spd-J, Absorb, Spd+40%, Initiative
Cerberus: Spd-J, Hit-J, Abilityx3, Spd+20%, Spd+40%, Auto-Hast, Alert
Alexander: Elem-Defx4, Revive, Med Data, High Mag-RF, Med LV Up
Doomtrain: Elem-Atk-J, St-Atk-J, Elem-Defx4, St-Def-Jx4, Darkside,
Absorb, Auto-Shell, Junk Shop, Forbid Med-RF
Bahamut: Abilityx4, Str+60%, Mag+60%, Mug, Move-HP UP, Auto-Protect,
Rare Item, Forbid Mag-RF
Cactuar: Eva-J, Luck-J, Defend, Kamikaze, Eva+30%, Luck+50%, initiative,
Auto-Potion
Tonberry: LV Down, LV Up, Eva+30%, Luck+50%, initiative, Auto-Potion,
Haggle, Sell-High, Familiar, Call Shop.
Eden: I will detail this later as you haven't got her yet. Once you
get her, I will tell you which of her abilities are the most important.
And yes, the above list is all the abilities I had at this point of the
game. However, you don't have to be that radical - You can leave some
useless abilities as well. Actually I could unlearn even more of the abilities
there. BTW, did you notice that you can actually unlearn ALL of GF Brothers
abilities, as all other GFs have what that GF has!
At this point, split up all the Ultimas you have between the three
characters (even if you have only three!)
Now let's take a look at each character's magic junctions:
SQUALL:
______________ ___________________ ___________________ ________________
| STAT | MAGIC JUNCTIONED |ABILITY JUNCTIONED | VALUE |
|______________|___________________|___________________|________________|
| HP | Full-Life | HP+80% | 9514 HP |
| Strength | Ultima | Str+60% | n/a |
| Vitality | Meltdown | Vit+40% | 117 |
| Magic | Triple | NONE | 75 |
| Spirit | Reflect | Spr+40% | 107 |
| Speed | NONE | NONE | 21 |
| Evade | NONE | NONE | 1% |
| Hit% | NONE | NONE | 255% |
| Luck | NONE | NONE | 16 |
|______________|___________________|___________________|________________|
Elemential Attack: NONE (can be adjusted when fighting a specific Boss,
but best left as None)
Elemential Defence: Life, Tornado
Status Attack: Blind
Status Defence: Esuna, Death
ZELL:
______________ ___________________ ___________________ ________________
| STAT | MAGIC JUNCTIONED |ABILITY JUNCTIONED | VALUE |
|______________|___________________|___________________|________________|
| HP | Full-Life | HP+80% | 9619 HP |
| Strength | Ultima | Str+60% | n/a |
| Vitality | Meltdown | NONE | 85 |
| Magic | Meteor | NONE | 58 |
| Spirit | Curaga | NONE | 69 |
| Speed | Triple | Spd+40% | 127 |
| Evade | Tornado | NONE | 24% |
| Hit% | Double | NONE | 139% |
| Luck | Death | NONE | 53 |
|______________|___________________|___________________|________________|
Elemential Attack: NONE (can be adjusted when fighting a specific Boss,
but best left as None)
Elemential Defence: Life, Quake, Shell, Flare
Status Attack: Sleep
Status Defence: Esuna, Beserk, Zombie, Stop
IRVINE:
______________ ___________________ ___________________ ________________
| STAT | MAGIC JUNCTIONED |ABILITY JUNCTIONED | VALUE |
|______________|___________________|___________________|________________|
| HP | Full-Life | HP+80% | 9898 HP |
| Strength | Ultima | Str+60% | n/a |
| Vitality | Meltdown | NONE | 87 |
| Magic | Flare | NONE | 54 |
| Spirit | Curaga | NONE | 72 |
| Speed | Triple | Spd+40% | 128 |
| Evade | NONE | NONE | 12% |
| Hit% | Double | NONE | 148% |
| Luck | NONE | NONE | 14 |
|______________|___________________|___________________|________________|
Elemential Attack: NONE (can be adjusted when fighting a specific Boss,
but best left as None)
Elemential Defence: Life, Tornado, Shell, Meteor
Status Attack: NONE?!
Status Defence: NONE?!
All three characters have the same command abilities: Draw, Magic and Item
(GFs are useless). I know that these guys don't have the best possible magic
junctions and that you can get better. Some people might say that Squall is
the weakest character of this trio. Well, I'm not too sure about it - he is
too well balanced (look at those Vitality and Spirit stats!), plus I am going
to junction GF Eden on him after I get her. Some people might say that Irvine
is the weakest of the trio, because he doesn't have any status defence. Well,
the only argument against that is that with enemies at a LV this low, their
AI is pretty bad, so status attacks aren't the #1 thing to be afraid of...
However, no doubt, the strongest character is Zell - he has ALL junctions
possible, and there is a reason for that. Zell has the best limit breaks. As
Squall doesn't have his Lionheart, Zell's several hits is the most deadly attack.
About the strength stat - I junctioned Ultima with a purpose: you are going to
get 100 of the per character. Just junction them to your strength, and don't
worry about the stat itself, as you won't need to attack until you have a good
strength. At the beginning of Disc 4 I will post any changes I made to the
junctions.
Another point - while you are running around, replace Irvine's Spd+40% with
Encounter-None. As a battle is coming up, swap them back. Now that you are fully
(OK, so it's not exactly fully...) junctioned, it's time to kick some major butt!!
4.5.3 DEEP SEA RESEARCH CENTER
Now, this place surely has changed since Bahamut... If you can't get inside, just
talk to everyone in the Raganarok and try again. Go down the tree/whatever. Talk
to Zell, and afterwards just go down. Take a look at the monitor. When you are
asked how much RSP you want to use, say 2. Go down. Check out the monitor to the
LEFT, below the stairs. It will open the way to a steam room. Get inside the room
and check out the bright, yellow thing. It will replenish your supply of RPS. Get
out. Check out the monitor to the right. Use 1 RPS. Go down. Keep on going down
using 1 RPS. At one point you will use a lift to get down. Check out the thing
down of the lift, and it will ask you to spend 4 RPS. Do so and the door to the
Excavation site will open.
BTW, I know some people have had problems here, and they can only get past this bit
using Zell. Well, the above walkthrough should solve just that.
Get inside the excavation site. Normally you would be fighting battles on every
second step (every eighth with Encounter-None), but now that shouldn't be the case.
The path is simple, so just keep on heading down until a place where the music changes
(stops) and you see a machine thing on the background. Exchange Squall's Spr+40% for
Siren's Move-Find ability and you will see a save point. Walk into the save point,
open the menu, exchange back the abilities, and SAVE!!! And prepare (actually, you
already prepared...) for a fight against the ULTIMATE WEAPON. AT LV7!! Check out
the machine thing when ready.
BOSS FIGHT: ULTIMATE WEAPON
---------------------------
He is at LV9, and has 59900 HP. His most famous attack is Light Pillar (it's not all
that damaging...WHAT?!?! 9999 Damage? You have to be joking!), and he is very likely
to start the fight with that. You should start with a Life (if someone is killed), a
triple, three hastes to follow that up and a Holy War to make you invisible. After
you have managed this setup, draw GF Eden from him and then just draw one Ultima
after another. You only need 200 Ultimas, as at the end of the fight you will get
100 Ultima stones, which can then be refined into Ultimas. At one point your Holy War
will wear off. I suggest that you simply use another one, until your drawing of
Ultimas is done. If you didn't cast Haste before, now was your chance. Just keep on
drawing Ultimas until you think you have 200. You should be done around the time your
second Holy War wears off - it all depends on how fast you are. Once it has worn off,
cast 3 Auras on yourself. You can cast another Holy War if you want to be safe, but
you don't have to. Just unleash your Limit Breaks, and as he has only around 60,000 HP,
he should go down quickly.
CONGRATUALTIONS!!! You just managed to kill Ultimate Weapon at LV7!!! Now there is
only one monster more difficult than this - the Omega Weapon.
****GF EDEN****
Ahhh, at last - a full GF list. Eden is your most powerful GF, and combined with the
boost ability can put in quite a punch - even over 30,000 damage. That makes her a
pretty damaging GF, so I will ask you to not to unlearn her Sum Mag+??% abilities (she
has four of them!) and maybe even use some items to speed up the research. She can
come in handy at some time... you never know If you junction her to Squall, he will
have an almost full junction list. Nice! Pretty much all of her abilities are good,
so just learn them all.
Note: Once you junction GF Eden, you should take away the Triple from Magic and add it
to Speed, put Flare in Magic slot, and add Tornado to Evade. Hit-J can even stay
empty, as his Hit% is already 255.
Once you are done, go back up and head back to the Cactuar Island. It's time to
prepare your last GF and learn all of the last of your abilities. So keep on gaining
AP until you don't have any more abilities to learn. Afterwards save somewhere (in
another slot, so you can come back to this save file), and head for the Lunatic
Pandora.
4.6 LUNATIC PANDORA...AGAIN?
Get into the Ragnarok and head for the Tear's Point. Run into the building like thing.
A couple of FMVs and cut scenes will follow. Once you regain control of Squall just
run out of the Ragnarok and you will meet up with some old friends.
BOSS FIGHT: FUIJIN & RAIJIN
---------------------------
They seem to be as crap as they were the last time you fought them. I wonder why?
Anyway, before I got into the battle I junctioned Irvine's junction on someone
else and then junctioned him back. That lowered his HP down to low levels, which
you should keep until, really, middle of Disc 4. Just unleash any ammo (I took
Demolition) and the duo should be goners.
Encounter-None is a must, although you might see that the enemies here are all at
LV1, so you really can't gain any EXP. Just head for the next screen, then go up
and left at the very end. In the next screen you will meet your 'pals' Wedge and
Biggs. They won't fight you, instead they will just talk about retirement. Follow
them into the next screen. If you want to explore the place, take the path up.
If you just want to continue on with the story, take the path down. In any way,
you will come to the place with the lifts, and take lift #1 if you want to get on
with the story. Follow into the next screen, and you will see a save point. Save
and head straight. You will meet up with Fuijin and Raijin, but the won't fight.
Instead, they will make a mechanical monster attack you.
BOSS FIGHT: MOBILE TYPE 8
-------------------------
It has 32400 HP, so making it an immobile type isn't going to be all that difficult.
First I suggest you cast meltdown, but if you don't want to waste it, then you
don't have to. The main point is - Irvine's Demolition Ammo Limit Break: 4 shots
and it will go down.
Once you are done, head back and save again, and then head forwards. You will meet
up with Seifer.
BOSS FIGHT: SEIFER
------------------
This battle will start with Odin appearing, but Seifer will kick his @$$. The
battle will go on as normal from here on. Unfortunately, he has no Aura to draw
at this level. If you want, you can use LV Up to get it, but I just couldn't be
bothered. If you want the best spell for Luck, then do it, but it doesn't matter
all that much. Just kill him with a limit break. Before the end of the battle,
Gilgamesh (an Odin replacement) will appear and kick the guy's @$$ so badly that
it's basically game over for him.
But before that happens he will take Rinoa and bring her to Adel. But before you
can get to save her, it's disc changing time!
PART 5 : Disc 4 Walkthrough
_________________________________________________________________
Disc 4 is the shortest disc. If you do things quickly enough, you can get through
it in 2 hours. Please note that once you reach the Ultimecia Castle you can get
back on the world map and get Ragnarok, but I won't detail that. I will just get
you through this disc (And trust me, I am somewhat eager to finish this guide!).
5.1 TIME COMPRESSION AND ULTIMECIA'S CASTLE
So just get out of that screen, go left, up the stairs, don't go up again but go
into the screen upwards, then turn right and into the next screen. Walk to the
doorway (whatever you call it...), and you will be in the next screen. Equip
Move-Find and you will see a save point. Run into it, open the menu, exchange
Move-Find back for another ability and then save. Once you are done, run forwards.
Some FMVs and cut scenes will follow and you will have to fight Adel.
BOSS FIGHT: ADEL
----------------
Ahhh, the great Adel. This is the fight most newbies fear so much, and there is
so many questions asked on how to beat her at low levels. I remember that once
someone asked a question on how to beat Adel at LV20. ALL of the answers were
simple: Level up. Well, now you are fighting her at LV7, and you are about to
take her down...in one turn. She holds Rinoa, and if Rinoa dies, it's game over.
So use attacks that hit only one person, like most Irvine's shot Limit Breaks.
Fast ammo is good, and so is Demolition ammo. Just use those limit breaks and
she will go down easily. As your speed is so superior, you can actually do
several limit breaks with the same character before she even moves. I killed her
with one round of Demolition ammo. Piece of cake.
Once she is dead Time compression will happen. Once you regain control of Squall
walk into the save point, but you won't be able to save. Just walk through the
door and a fight with a crapload sorceresses will follow. All of them are very
easy and will go down with just one physical hit. The exception is the last one,
which you could kill with a limit break, but I still used physical attacks.
Once you are done you will be in Edea's house, but in the future. Run forwards,
then right through the door, then forwards through the door, then down the path
to the beach (the world will appear the way it really looks like on the way,
and Ultimecia's castle will be shown on the way). Simply run up the huge chain.
You can use the portals to get to the outside world, but all towns are blocked
so there really isn't a point. Just run up until you get to the castle door. Save
at the save point and enter.
As you enter your abilities will be blocked by the Ultimecia's servants, so you
will have to try and get them back. When you are asked to divide into two parties
I think you should put Irvine, Zell and Quistis in one party and put Rinoa and
Selphie with Squall. Just don't forget to change the junctions accordingly. Heal
everyone, make sure you have Encounter-None on at all times in this castle. Once
you are done head back in and go up the stairs. You will fight the first of the
servants.
BOSS FIGHT: SPHINXAUR
---------------------
As you only have the 'Attack' command available you don't have much choice. So
simply attack until s/he/it is dead. You will have to pick an ability to unseal.
I would take Limit Break.
Head up the stairs and through the door. Go on top of the lamp and it will fall
down. Check the hatch right next to you. When you open it head down the stairs
and you will have to fight another one of Ultimecia's servants.
BOSS FIGHT: TRI-POINT
---------------------
There was a reason why you took Limit Break last time. Just cast one Renzokuken
(unjunction Squall and junction back to get his HP low) and you are home free!
I picked Magic next.
Head back up the stairs and go into the green circle. Switch to the other team.
When I say switch to the other team, I also mean to switch the junctions as well.
Head back to that lamp, but this time it won't fall down. Go straight across and
you will find another one of Ultimecia's servants.
BOSS FIGHT: KRYSTA
------------------
S/he/it has 7400 HP, so it isn't all that difficult (less HP than you!).
Attacking with physical attacks will make him counter with an attack that does
around 900 damage. Even though there is this counter-attack, you are better off
by killing it with physical attacks, as you have to be high HP once you kill him
- once he dies he will cast Ultima on you (which should do around 1200 damage...)
Pick Resurrection next.
Once you are finished walk back two rooms until you can take the stairs to your
left. go there, then go down the stairs and to your left. Then walk down the
stairs. At the SW corner of the room you will see a thread. Try going next to
it and you will ring a bell. This is the bell that calls up on Omega Weapon.
Remember where it is, as you will need it later. Just walk through the door right
ahead.
You will be in a gallery. Check all the pictures on the walls, except for the one
to your right (large one). The ones you are looking for are 'Vividarium',
'Intervigilium' and 'Viator'. Once you have found those three check the large
picture and choose those three in that order. Another Servant will appear.
BOSS FIGHT: TRAUMA
------------------
He has 11146 HP, so, and I know this is getting boring, but things are far from
over, just use a limit break. You will kill him before he even does a thing.
After the battle I suggest that you pick Item.
Afterwards just head forwards through the door. Keep on heading straight. Then
go left, but before you do, split all the Demis you have between the three
characters. Then head into the room. Get the shining key and another boss will
appear.
BOSS FIGHT: RED GIANT
---------------------
This is the most defensive boss of the game. All damage that you do will only do
1/10 of the damage. On top of that he has 30,000 HP. The only way of defeating
him would be to use Demi, which is why I asked you to put it in all three
characters. Another way is to cast Meltdown on him and then send him back to
the future with a limit break. I would pick Save.
Afterwards just head back and stop at the green spot. Change the parties
(and junctions).
Head straight through the door. Keep on heading straight and you will come to a
church like place. At the end there is an organ, which you can play. Remember
this place - you will encounter Omega Weapon here. Otherwise, just go up the
stairs. Go over the bridge until you see a white thing fall off it. Head back
to the green spot you saw before and change parties. Using Irvine's party head
down again and then right. You will see a glowing thing there. Pick it up and
you will see that it is a key. Head through the door to your right.
BOSS FIGHT: Vysage & Lefty & Righty; Gargantula
-----------------------------------------------
The Vysage & co suck badly - one shot limit break (aim different shots at
different enemies) and they are out. Afterwards Gargantula will appear. He
will cast his Evil Eye. Simply use a Remedy on Irvine and cast another limit
break. He has 11200 HP, so one limit should be enough. At the end I would
pick Command Ability.
Head out of the room, where you saw the green circle. Swap parties.
Head back, then left through the door. Go down through the door. Then head
up the stairs, but turn left. Go left through the door. Head down the stairs
and through the door. Go straight down the long hallway. Get on the green
spot and swap parties.
Head up the stairs and to your left. You will see a save point on the way,
so save there. Keep on heading to your left and you will come to the same
room as your second party. Get on the green spot and change your parties,
but before you can, your second party will be elevated up. Use your second
party to get inside the door that is there and pick up the shining key
(floodgate key). Go back on the green circle and switch party members. Put
back your winning trio - Squall, Zell and Irvine.
Head back to the place where you fought Red Giant and Gargantula. I know
it's a long walk, but that's the game. At the entrance to the room with the
Red Giant you will see a red lever. Use the floodgate key (touch the lever
twice). Now, do you remember where the church was (where Omega is supposed
to appear)? Go to one room before that. In the fountain you will see a shining
thing. Pick it up (It's the treasure vault key), head into the green circle
and swap parties.
Head out of the room and on the midway of the long hallway head left into the
Treasure Vault. You will have to try to open all 4 boxes. There really isn't
a pattern there, just keep on trying and you should get them. Another boss
will appear.
BOSS FIGHT: CATOBLEPAS
----------------------
He has 14,000 HP, and although you don't have anyone in your party to do high
damage attacks, he shouldn't be too difficult. If you have spent your time to
learn Quistis' limit breaks (very much not like me... BTW, does she have limit
breaks???), then she could be pretty powerful. Otherwise, Rinoa is the second
best. Don't use her Angel Wing though, as she might use a useful spell (one
that you don't want to be using). Selphie is quite good...if you get her slots
to pop up the best magic... Catoblepas will use Meteor as he dies. Pick GF
once you are done.
Remember the room with the bell that calls Omega? Well, head there. There is
a Green circle there, so swap parties.
OK, it is time to release the last of the seals. And, believe it or not,
this is the easiest boss to deal with. Head into the church, up the stairs,
over the bridge, equip Move-Find to see a save point, save and head up. Keep
on heading up until you see a swinging lamp. Once the lamp swings to you, jump
(press the 'accept' button) and the team will jump to the other side. Get in
and you will see Tiamat, the last and the greatest of the Ultimecia's Servants.
But before you run into him I will ask you to open your menu and put Ultima and
Life at the elemental defence. Put anything you want at the strength stat. Now
get into the battle.
BOSS FIGHT: TIAMAT
------------------
Ahhh, the Fiend of Wind is an 'old school' enemy and comes from FF1. He has
29600 HP and his only attack is Dark Flare. I don't know which elemental property
Dark Flare has, but as you absorb all of them, you should absorb Dark Flare
totally (OK, so most likely not toatally, but a percentage). So his only attack
will heal you for around 3000 HP. I will let you decide how to knock out his
29,600 HP. Once you kill him you will get to unseal your last ability. After
the battle ends, swap back your Ultima Junction.
From here you could just go and kill Ultimecia, but you wouldn't want to miss
the chance to kill the strongest enemy in the game, the Omega Weapon, with a
main character being at LV7, would you?
5.2 KILLING THE OMEGA WEAPON (AT LV7)
From where you are now head back down to the last save point. Save and run to
the green square near the fountain and swap parties. With the other party ring
the bell. A 1:00 time limit will appear. Quickly get into the green spot and
swap back the parties. Run to the Organ and Omega should be there waiting for
you.
SUPER DUPER BOSS FIGHT: OMEGA WEAPON
------------------------------------
Wow, you are taking on the strongest monster in the game at LV7! Isn't that
incredible? Unlike the Ultimate Weapon, the Omega is ALWAYS at LV100 - try
scanning him. So it really doesn't matter if you are at LV100 or LV7, he
will have the same stats. The way to beat him is to simply be faster than him.
That means a very good speed stat. If you have everything junctioned as I told
you, that shouldn't be a problem. As the battle starts have one person cast
Triple on a person that has at least 3 Auras. Have that person cast the three
Auras. The third character should use a Holy War. Omega WILL use LV5 Death,
and it is likely to happen before you cast the holy war, but don't worry, none
in your party should have a level multiple of 5, so it will miss. After this
cast a meltdown to get his Vitality to 0. From here on it is just limit breaks.
And it will seem endless. At one point your Holy War will wear off. If you are
unlucky to have one character killed while there is a gap between the Holy War
that wore off and the new one you are casting, the only thing I can suggest is
to try to go on with the flow - cast Life (NOT Full-Life!) and then a Holy War.
As your speed is greater than Omega's you should get all those things done
before you finish up dead. After that just keep on casting Limit Breaks. Just
to give an idea of the number of limit breaks you will need - I used over 40
Demolition Ammo in this battle, and most of the times my fire rate was 3/limit
(I had no aura the time I fought him, but you should, as it increases the fire
rate). He isn't very difficult, as I didn't die a single time while fighting him.
So you shouldn't either. Now go to the Tutorial Menu, check under Information
and you will see a new entry - 'The Proof of Omega'.
5.3 LET'S JUST END THIS!!!
Well, right now there is just one boss in this world that you haven't sent
straight to hell - and that is Ultimecia herself. The Final Boss of Final
Fantasy 8.
Go back up where you fought Tiamat, but don't jump onto the lamp. Instead
keep on heading up. In the clock itself walk downwards. Then walk down until
the stairs and keep on walking down. Then just walk down the next stairs. You
will be on a long passage. Just walk into the screen. You will reach a save
point. Make your last save. Then knock on Ultimecia's door. Say 'Get it over
with. Fight her now' to fight her. Please note that the following boss battles
are actually one battle - it is just that she keeps on changing form or summons
someone else.
BOSS FIGHT: ULTIMECIA
---------------------
HAHAHAHAHA!!! What's this supposed to be, some type of a warm up lesson? OK, so
it is a warm up lesson. She is at LV9 and has 9,400 HP. Well, I guess there were
easier bosses than this. However, use her weaknesses to make up your team. She
will choose to fight three people randomly, and the chances that she will choose
your favourite trio are very slim. So if other members happen to be in your party
at this moment, kill them and wait until they are absorbed and replaced by the
members that you want. If you have 3 auras, cast Triple on the person with Auras,
then cast Aura on everyone. Use the same person with Triple to cast 'Shell' on
everyone, as it will protect you from Griever's Shockwave Pulsar. When you are
ready, attack her with a limit break and you will progress onto the next stage of
the battle.
BOSS FIGHT CONTINUES: GRIEVER
-----------------------------
Griever is supposed to be the strongest GF ever. Well, if you ask me, Eden would
whip his @$$ without any problem. Anyway, I can't exactly tell you how much HP he
has, I just know it is simply not enough to survive the power of your Junctions. I
suggest you cast a Meltdown on him to get his Vitality to zero and then attack
with Limit Breaks. As you kill him he will cast Shockwave Pulsar, an attack that a
lot of people fear and because of it they have gotten a game over screen. Well,
your junctions are close to perfect so it should be no problem. On top of that I
told you to put up shield, so the attack's power will be halved. Bye Bye Griever!
BOSS FIGHT STILL CONTINUES: ULTIMECIA JUNCTIONED ON GRIEVER
-----------------------------------------------------------
What type of a sick combination is this??? Well, this is supposed to be Ultimecia's
power together with Griever's power. Well, they aren't all that good together. Cast
a Meltdown on him/her/him&her/it and then just cast a limit break. That's right -
just one should be enough.
BOSS FIGHT DRAGS ON: ULTIMECIA'S FINAL FORM
-------------------------------------------
Well, this is supposed to be the ultimate challenge. Errr...even she isn't any good
at fighting. However, she will start the fight with 'Hell's Judgement', which will
make your HP go down to 1. Use this moment to unleash 2 limit breaks and use the
third character to cast a megalixer - there might be a chance of her casting an
Ultima, but she probably won't do that. Anyway, two limit breaks is enough to
basically finish her off. After those two limit breaks she will start talking. From
here on simply hit her with a physical attack to knock out another line. When she
says "And..." hit her once more and you have beaten her. Now just sit back and watch
the ending FMV until the words "The End" appear on the screen.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
YOU HAVE FINISHED FINAL FANTASY 8 WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER'S LEVEL AT 7!!!
Now go and brag...
CLOSING NOTES:
Well, when I started this guide and the No Level Up game, I thought I set out for
a great challenge. It turned out to be the easiest Final Fantasy 8 game I have
played so far. The junctioning system of Final Fantasy 8 makes it so simple to get
through the game, that you sometimes have to laugh at the worthlessness of the Bosses.
Well, the great challenge turned out to be an easy game. I am still happy that I have
written this guide and played this game, as this proves that RPGs are not all about
boring levelling up, because in this game, I (and hopefully you joined me :) didn't
level up at all...
============================== THANK YOU FOR READING =================================
FINAL FANTASY 8
NO LEVEL UP GUIDE
WRITTEN AND COPYRIGHT BY EDMAN
edman@hackermail.com
COPY THIS GUIDE AND YOU'LL BURN IN HELL WITH ALL
THE BOSSES I HAVE BEATEN WHILE WRITING IT!!!