Final Fantasy VIII  Written By: KatanaSoul  Version: North American (Final)  Date Started: October 24, 2001  Date Completed: March 6, 2003  Email: Katanasoul@hotmail.com  Website: www.geocities.com/bushidosoul  Other Guides/FAQs by me:   www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/23119.html    Disclaimer: This Guide is Copyrighted 2001-2003 to me Dale Ray   (KatanaSoul) and cannot be reproduced in any way, shape, or form and   cannot be sold, distributed, or used in any way to make money or for any   promotinal purposes. This guide is for private use only and any   violation of these terms is a violation of copyright. I write guides to   help all the gamers out there, not to benefit myself with money or   anything else so respect that. If you wish to place this guide onto your   site, drop me a line at my email above, it is very doubtful that I would   refuse. However any future revisions of this guide or my contact info   can be found at my website listed above along with any other of my   guides. As always all trademarks and copyrights contained in this   document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.    Email Policy: I do answer game questions via email, so if you have   questions, comments, suggestions, or anything of that nature send them   on in and I'll reply as soon as I see them, please make sure that you   title the email something like "Final Fantasy VIII Question, Help, or   something like that so I don't delete it. I welcome response to my work   and I enjoy answering questions so its no problem to me at all. Although   I do urge you to search my guide to see if your question is already   answered. Searching is easily done by pushing Ctrl+F and then putting in   what you are searching for into the box to go exactly to what you are   looking for. If that doesn't help feel free to contact me.    Table of Contents    1: Introduction  2: Game Basics  3: Characters  4: Tips and Gameplay Advice  5: Walkthough  5.1: Balamb Garden  5.2: The Fire Cavern  5.3: Dollet Field Exam  5.4: After the Exam, Back to the Garden  5.5: The Train Ride  5.6: Timber  5.7: The Forest Dream and Galbadia Garden  5.8: Deling City and the Tomb of the Unknown King  5.9: Caraway and the Battle with Edea  5.10: Winhill and the D-District Prison  5.11: The Missile Base and the Return to Balamb Garden  5.12: Fisherman's Horizon and the Invasion of Balamb Town  5.13: Trabia Garden, Winhill, and the Centra Ruins  5.14: Galbadia Garden and the Showdown with Edea  5.15: The White SeeD Ship and the Great Salt Lake  5.16: Esthar and the Lunar Gate  5.17: The Lunar Base and the Ragnarok  5.18: The Sorceress Memorial and the Meeting with Laguna  5.19: The CC Group and Dollet  5.20: Jumbo Cactaur and Shumi Village  5.21: Obel Lake and the Card Queen  5.22: Lunatic Pandora and the Beginning of the End  5.23: The Final Battle, Ultimecia Castle  5.24: Back to the Ragnarok, Finding the Card Queen and Tonberry King  5.25: PuPu and the Chocobo Sanctuary  5.26: The Deep Sea Research Center and Omega Weapon  6: Guardian Forces  7: Guardian Force Abilities  8: Weapons  9: Items  10: Magic  11: Cards  12: Monster Locations  13: Location of Timber Maniacs Magazines  14: SeeD Test Answers  15: FAQ  16: Credits    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    1: Introduction     This is the first guide I've written for a game. It took me several   playthroughs and over a year of off and on working in order to compile   all of the information contained within this guide, but it was my   pleasure to have my first opportunity to help others with this great   game. Unfortunatly my skills at giving directions to things on the world   map in this game tend to be terrible, so if my directions are not good   enough email me and I will try to explain a little better how to reach   your location, and once again I aplogize for my terrible directions.   During each section of the walkthough and at every boss I will list my   current party I was using and there level, do not feel you have to try   to keep up with my level or use whomever I was using in my party. As   long as you draw alot of spells and junction well you could afford to be   at a very low level and finish the game with ease. Have fun with your   exprience with this game and experiment with all of the characters to   get a feel of which ones suit your taste, this in my opinion is the best   part of an RPG. Feel free to contact me via email at my email listed   above, I love to hear from you the reader, Comments, Questions, and   Suggestions are always welcome. If you are looking for a certain item,   ability ect you can always search the document using Ctrl+F. I think   thats enough of my rambling, enjoy the Guide :)    My Review:    Characters: 7/10  Story: 9/10  Script/Translation: 9/10  Music/Sound: 10/10  Gameplay: 4/10  Battle System: 5/10  Character Development: 8/10  Look/Feel: 7/10  Fun Factor: 6/10  Originality: 7/10  Replay Value: 6/10  Side Areas: 5/10  Length: 7/10  Difficulty: 5/10  Intro: 8/10  Final Boss: 7/10  Ending: 8/10  Overall: 7/10    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    2: Game Basics    The Main Menu:    At any time during the game when you are not involved in a scene you can   bring up the main menu by pressing the default button which is O. The   entire game revolves around this menu and you should learn to navigate   it well. When you open the menu at the top left of the screen is your   active party, you can keep three party members with you at all times.   The 2nd character that is listed here will be at the front of battle and   will be attacked the most so make sure that you choose who to put here   carefully. The party members at the bottom of the screen (With red lines   under there HP) is your sub party and are not currently with you. On the   right side of the screen is a list of commands. I will explain the use   of these commands as they are listed on screen below:    Junction  Use: Used to junction magic, GFs, and abilitys to your characters.    Item  Use: Views the items you have in your inventory currently. You can use   them to heal your characters as well as sort them to your liking. There   is also a command to organize how the items are placed in the item menu   in battle.    Magic  Use: Views the magic you have stocked by drawing. You can sort the   spells here as well as use them to cure your party, give them to other   party members, and you can also discard them with the square button.    Status  Use: Views the status of your party members. In this menu you can view   your characters limit breaks, stats, current weapon, and compatibility   with there GFs.    GF  Use: Views the GFs that have joined you. You can also view there level,   abilities, and also select which ability you want them to learn.    Ability  Use: Views the menu abilitys that your GFs have learned. These are used   to refine items as well as perform other various tasks.    Switch  Use: Used to switch junctions between party members as well as change   your active party with members from your sub party, the leader of the   party (most commonly Squall) can never be removed. You can only change   your active party on the world map or at a save point.    Card  Use: Views the cards that you have gathered throughout the game.    Config  Use: Changes various aspects of the game such as turning on and off the   analog vibration, controller settings, initial or memory cursor (memory   remembers your last command and automatically puts the cursor on it for   you, initial automatically puts the cursor at the top of the command   list), changing the sound between stereo and mono, whether the ATB gauge   is active or wait (with active selected the battle will progress even   when you are selecting commands in your menus, wait will stop the   progress until you have selected a command), whether the scan spell   works once or always (with it set to once the 2nd time you use the scan   spell on an enemy it will display there data quickly then dissappear,   with always it displays there data as if you never have cast it on them   before), Camera Movement (The higher the percentage the more the camera   moves during battle), battle speed (how fast the battle progresses,   affecting how fast player characters and enemies get there turns),   battle message (effects how fast the message the attack   characters/enemies uses dissappears), and field message (effects how   fast messages in the field are read).    Tutorial  Use: An overview of just about everything in Final Fantasy VIII. However   in the information section there are various things that will not appear   until you get certain items, the items and information it displays are   listed below:    Battle Report  Use: Shows how many battles won, ran from, and escaped along with how   many steps your characters have taken  Location: Given to Squall by Cid after you get your SeeD score    Character Report  Use: Shows how many Kills and KOs your characters have had  Location: D-District Prison    GF Report  Use: Shows how many Kills and KOs your GFs have had  Location: From Joker during the CC Group Side Quest    Proof of Omega  Use: Proof you have defeated Omega Weapon  Location: Received after defeating Omega Weapon    Save  Use: Allows you to save your game to a memory card (one block needed).   Can only save on the world map or at a save point. Save points are a   yellow and black star looking thing that are surrounded by several rings   that are spinning around.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Junctioning GFs:    Final Fantasy VIII's battle system revolves around the Guardian Force,   often refered to as the GF in this guide and in game. Guardian Forces   are junctioned to characters via the junction menu that is in the main   menu. Junctioning can be very complicated but hopefully I can shed some   light on the subject for you. First you will need to junction the   Guardian Force to a character. This is easily done by opening your main   menu (the default setting is the O button) and then selecting junction   followed by which character you want to junction a GF to. In this menu   select junction followed by selecting GF. A list of GFs that have joined   you will come up, simply select which ones you wish to junction to the   character, all abilitys that the GF has learned will be added to the   character that you have just junctioned the GF to.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Learning GF abilites:    Guardian Forces all have innate abilitys that they come with, all of   them come with the basic abilities which are Draw, Magic, and Item. Some   of these abilities will be avaiable for you to junction to your   characters, while others will not. In order to use these abilities you   must gather enough AP to use them. Each skill that isn't learned has a   set amount of AP that must be gathered in order for you to be able to   use it. For example Shiva's Vit+20% ability must gather 60 AP before it   can be used. The only way to gather AP is to select the ability that you   want the GF to learn in the GF section of your main menu, and fight   battles. Each enemy you defeat yields a specific amount of AP for   defeating them and after you win the current battle it is added up out   of all the monsters you have defeated and then added to your current AP   count of all your junctioned GFs selected abilitys of any character that   participated in the battle, however, if a GF died in battle no AP will   be awarded to that GF. After you have gathered enough AP to learn the   ability it will be available to you to equip to your character and you   can select another ability to learn. Sometimes when you learn a certain   ability such as Vit+20% with Shiva, a new ability to learn will become   available, in Shiva's case, Vit+40% will become avialable. You can also   teach your GFs abilitys using items, for example, the item Circlet will   teach any GF you want the Mag+20% ability as long as there is room to   learn it in your GFs ability menu. If both pages of abilities is full   then you cannot teach a GF a new ability, nor will they be able to learn   any advanced abilities by learning others. You can delete any GF ability   by using an Amnesia Green on the ability that you want the GF to forget,   this makes room for more abilities to be taught to the GF. There are   three types of GF abilitys that can be learned:    Command Ability  Support Ability  Junction Ability    It is in your best interest to learn all of the abilities that a GF has.   The next section go into detail about these three types of abilitys.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Junctioning Command and Support Abilitys to a Character:    Now that you know how to learn abilitys you need to know how to equip   them to a character. In the main menu select junction followed by which   character you want to junction. In the next menu select ability. Here   you can set two types of abilitys, command, and support. Command   abilitys are used as actions in battle, for example, if you set the item   command ability that character can use items that you have in your   inventory in battle, if you were to set the GF ability then you can   summon your Guardian Forces in battle. You can set up to 3 command   abilitys, the attack command can never be exchanged with another command   ability. Support abilitys are a bit diffrent, they are used to support   your characters in battle in various ways, for example, the GF Ifrit has   the Str+20% support ability. Equiping this to your characters support   ability list will give them a 20% boost to there Str stat. There are   other Support Abilitys that change certain commands, such as equiping   the ability mug that the GF Diablos' has will change your characters   attack command to mug. Think long and hard about which abilitys you want   to equip to your characters, it is one of the keys to success in Final   Fantasy VIII.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Drawing and Junctioning Magic via Junction Abilities:    Drawing magic is the most important aspect of the junction system. Each   enemy that you encounter has a set list of spells that you can draw from   them if you have the draw command ability equiped to your character. As   the enemies grow in level with your characters the spells that they have   to draw will often change to become more powerful, for example, the Buel   enemies at a low level start with the spells Fire, Blizzard, and   Thunder. As they grow in levels with your characters these spells will   change to a higher class, Fira, Blizzara, and Thundara, then when they   reach there highest level you can draw the Firaga, Blizzaga, and   Thundaga spells from them. You can also draw magic from draw points that   are found in various areas of the game, some are invisible and can only   been seen with the Siren GFs Move Find support ability, however the ones   on the world map will always remain invisible even with move find   equiped. You can also use your menu abilitys to refine items into   spells. You should keep in mind that you can only stock 32 diffrent   types of spells, but can discard magic you don't need by using the   square button. These spells that you draw are used in various ways. One   is that they can be used outside of battle to restore HP or status   effects. You can do this by accessing the main menu, then selecting the   magic command, followed by the character that you wish to cast the spell   with. In this menu you can also give stocked magic to other party   members by selecting Exchang in the menu, followed by how many of the   stocked spell you wish to give and then selecting the character you wish   to give the magic to. Another way the spells are used is to use them in   battle, but only if you have the magic command ability equiped to your   character. These spells do many things ranging from dealing damage to   the enemy, to causing bad status effects, to curing and reviving your   characters. Keep in mind though that every time you cast a spell that it   will delete your stock of the particular spell by 1. You can also   rearrange the order your magic is in by going back into your magic menu   in the main menu of the game and selecting rearrange, you can either do   it manually or rearrange it via the type of magic. I personally prefer   Restore-Attack-Indirect but you should rearrange to suit your   preference. Now to the main purpose of drawing magic, and that is to   junction it to your stats, however before you can junction magic to your   stats you will first need to learn a junction ability for each of the   specific stats. For example in order to junction magic to the Str stat   you will first need to learn the Str-J ability. To junction magic to   your stats first open your main menu and select junction. In this menu   select junction and then magic to junction magic to your stats. You can   also use the auto command in this menu to have the system junction magic   to your prefered style. There are three styles to choose from:    Atk: Junctions magic to focus on increasing your Str and attacks.  Mag: Junctions magic to focus on increasing your magic attacks.  Def: Junctions magic to focus on increasing your defenses.    If your prefer to do it manually, which is often the best course of   action, please keep in mind how each stat effects the character. Each   stats meaning is listed below:    HP: How much damage your character can take in battle, max is 9999.  Str: The power of your attack command and limit breaks, max is 255.  Vit: Your defense against physical attacks, max is 255.  Mag: The power of your magic spells and guardian forces, max is 255.  Spr: Your defense against magical attacks, max is 255.  Spd: Determines how fast your ATB gauge fills in battle, max is 255.  Eva: Determines how often you evade physical attacks. *  Hit: Determines how often you hit with physical attacks, max is 255%  Luck: Determines how often you get critical hits, also effects how often   you get a chance for a first strike against enemies. *    *: Now sure what the max is.    To junction manually move the cursor to the stat you wish to junction   and select it. A list of your stocked magic that you have drawn will   appear. You can now scroll through your list and select which spell is   the best to choose to junction to each stat. If the spell increases the   stat there will be a yellow arrow point up followed by the finish result   of the junction, if there is a red arrow pointing down the stat is   decreased followed by the finish result of the junction. It is always in   your best interest to find which spells junction best to which stat.   Keep in mind that the more of a spell that you have stocked, the more   the stat will be increased by the spell when it is junctioned, also   remember that if you cast a spell in battle that is junctioned (when you   select the magic command in battle there will be an icon next to the   spells that are junctioned) that the stat it is junctioned to will go   down slightly because you are depleting the number of it you have   stocked when you cast it. Besides your stats you can also junction magic   to your elemental and status defense, as well as add elements and status   effects to your normal attack. To junction magic to your elemental   attack and defense you'll first need to learn an elemental junction   ability such as Elem-Atk-J to junction to elemental attack and Elem-Def-  J to junction to elemental defense. Then enter the menu to junction   magic to your stats and press left on the control pad. This will bring   up the screen to junction magic to your elemental attack and elemental   defense, the first slot on the screen is for elemental attack and the   remaining ones are for elemental defense. Before you junction keep in   mind the meaning of each icon that is on the screen, below are the list   of elements as they are listed on the screen:    Fire  Example: Fire, Fira, Firaga    Ice  Example: Blizzard, Blizzara, Blizzaga    Thunder  Example: Thunder, Thundara, Thundaga    Earth  Example: Quake    Poison  Example: Bio    Wind  Example: Aero, Tornado    Water  Example: Water    Holy  Example: Holy    Junctioning to your elemental attack and defense is almost identical to   junctioning to your stats except that you deal with a percentage instead   of a number when you select a spell to junction. In elemental attack the   percentage means what percent of your attack command deals that type of   elemental damage, for example, if you have 40% thunder element in your   attack only 40% of your attack would be Thunder elemental, which would   result in more damage to an enemy weak against thunder, it would heal an   enemy that can absorb thunder, and an enemy that is normal against it   would do normal damage. So in a way elemental attack can be a double   edged sword, think carefully about what you junction to it. Elemental   defense works slightly diffrent. Lets say that you are fighting a enemy   that uses fire attacks on you and you have a 50% elemental defense   against fire. If he uses a fire attack you will only receive 50% of the   damage, so if you had 100% fire defense then the attack would do 0   damage. Also you can go over 100% elemental defense, the percentage will   start over at 1% however this time it will have a green star next to it.   This represents that now any time you are hit with the element it will   heal you instead of taking it as damage. How much the spell heals you is   determined by the percentage, for example if you have the spell at 60%   you would be healed by 60% of the damage that the attack would have   inflicted upon you. To access the menu to junction to your status attack   and defense simple press left from the elemental attack and defense   screen, the first slot on the screen is for status attack junctioning   and the remaining are for status defense. This works exactly like   elemental attack and defense except it deals in what percent of a chance   you have to avoid the status effect or inflict the effect on the enemy   when you strike them with your attack command. Before you start   junctioning you should know what each status effect does. They are all   listed below in the order you see them on the screen:    KO  Effect: Targest dies instantly    Poison  Effect: Target slowly loses HP    Petrify  Effect: Target is frozen and cannot act    Darkness  Effect: Targest's hit rate is decreased    Silence  Effect: Target cannot use GFs, Magic, or Draw commands    Berserk  Effect: Lose control of target and can only use attack command    Zombie  Effect: Target is hurt by any curative magic    Sleep  Effect: Target cannot act until physically struck    Slow  Effect: Targest's ATB gauge fills slowly    Stop  Effect: Targest's ATB doesn't fill at all and cannot select commands    Curse  Effect: Target cannot use limit breaks *    Confuse  Effect: Lose control of target and they use random commands    Drain  Effect: Drains HP from target and heals character with it    *: Curse cannot be added to your status attack. Only status defense.    Status attack and status defense works like this. Lets say you have a   20% poison status attack, when you use your attack command you will have   a 20% chance of causing the poison status effect on an enemy, unless of   course the enemy is immune to the effect completly. If you have a 20%   poison status defense then you will have a 20% chance of avoiding being   afflicted with the status effect.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Battle Basics:    As in all Final Fantasies before (with the exception of Mystic Quest)   Final Fantasy VIII's battles are random and involve the ATB gauge which   starts to fill up as soon as the battle begins and your characters can   select a command once it fills to max, the same works for the enemy   characters. When you get into a battle sometimes you will enter the   battle under certain conditions. They are First Attack (Your party gets   to act first before the enemies do), Struck First (The enemy gets to act   first before your party does), Back Attack (Either the enemies or party   has a chance to attack the enemies back which will result in double the   normal damage). The commands you can select during battle depend on what   command abilitys that your GF have learned and you have equiped in the   junction menu. When selecting an attack all you have to do is place the   cursor on the target you want to use the command on and the action will   take place immediatly unless the enemy's turn has come before yours. If   you preass L1 while selecting an enemy to attack a window will appear   that lists all enemies that are available to attack. When using the draw   command a small menu you will appear with two commands that you can   choose from, stock and cast, if you select stock the character will draw   the magic and stock it for future use, if you select cast the character   will draw and then immediatly cast the spell, which sometimes proves to   lessen the damage the spell does. Also if your characters level is low   they may fail to draw the spell. If you have learned the GF command   Boost that every GF has when you select a GF to summon (one that causes   damage anyway) immediatly press select when there attack animation   begins and repededly press the square button to increase the damage of   the GFs attack, stop pressing the square button however if an x appears   over the square at the button right hand side of the screen. Pressing   square during this will result in your boost returning to its original   level. In battle you only have one stat to watch, and thats your HP.   Enemies will attempt to damage you until your entire party's HP reaches   0, if this happens the game is over, also if your entire party becomes   petrified the game is over as well. If a characters HP reaches critical   (the numbers will be displayed in yellow) the character can now use   there limit break. If the limit break becomes available there will be a   blinking arrow beside the attack command, simply press and hold the   right arrow and select the limit break you want to use to preform it.   You can also keep trying to get the character limit break to come up by   switching between character's turns repededly by using the Square   button. There are two colors of numbers you need to look for, if the   numbers are white, damage has been dealt, if the number is green, then   the attack has healed the character/enemy's HP. You can run away from   battle by holding down the L2 and R2 buttons and your character turn   around and try to run from the enemy (this may take a little while) keep   in mind though that if the characters are hit from behind they will take   double the damage. After you defeat all of the enemies you will be   rewarded with a set amount of experience that is added up out of all the   enemies you defeated and it is added to your characters exprience (often   shown as EXP) points. If your characters have performed any action in   battle or received damage they will receive a small amount of experience   even if they run away from the battle. However if a character died died   and was not brought back to life or was petrified when the battle ended   they will receive no exprience at all. Once this amount reaches 1000 the   character will level up and some of there stats will slightly increase.   The GFs your characters have equiped also gain a little bit of the   exprience you receive after battle and level up, however, if a GF died   during battle they will receive no experience at all. Also the enemy may   leave behind an item, that will be added to your character inventory,   most of these items are very rare. You also get AP after battle which is   used to learn GF abilitys, there is more about AP in the learning GF   ability section. Each enemy that you encounter will grow in level as   Squall's level grows, as does the experience and AP they leave after   battle, they may also start to leave even more rare items as there level   grows. If you place the cursor on a monster, command or ability and   pause the game (start button) it will display either the monster name or   a short description of what the command/item/spell/GF does, this can be   extremely useful to a first time player of this game.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Acquring Money and Remodeling Weapons:    Unlike the other Final Fantasies, you do not acquire money from winning   battles. You only receive money, known as Gil, by Squall's SeeD rank,   you can also sell items to get gil. After the Dollet field exam, Squall   will be given a SeeD rank, this rank will determine how much the Garden   pays Squall for his services. Squall will be payed at random intervales   during the game and the amount he gets paid is determined by his current   SeeD rank which you can view from the main menu. You can raise Squall's   SeeD rank by taking tests in the tutorial menu of the main menu, keep in   mind that Squall can only take a number test that is equal to his   current level. For example if his level is 26 he can only take up to   SeeD test 26. There are also other parts of the game where Squall will   have a chance to raise his SeeD level by performing tasks well. Also   keep in mind that Squall's SeeD rank is not perminate and it may go up   or down randomly depending on Squall's actions throughout the game. If   this happens its not that big of a deal just take the tests to regain   your level back. The following is how much Squall gets paid via each   SeeD level:    Level 1: 500 Gil  Level 2: 1000 Gil  Level 3: 1500 Gil  Level 4: 2000 Gil  Level 5: 3000 Gil  Level 6: 4000 Gil  Level 7: 5000 Gil  Level 8: 6000 Gil  Level 9: 7000 Gil  Level 10: 8000 Gil  Level 11: 9000 Gil  Level 12: 10,000 Gil  Level 13: 11,000 Gil  Level 14: 12,000 Gil  Level 15: 12,500 Gil  Level 16: 13,000 Gil  Level 17: 13,500 Gil  Level 18: 14,000 Gil  Level 19: 14,500 Gil  Level 20: 15,000 Gil  Level 21: 15,500 Gil  Level 22: 16,000 Gil  Level 23: 16,500 Gil  Level 24: 17,000 Gil  Level 25: 17,500 Gil  Level 26: 18,000 Gil  Level 27: 18,500 Gil  Level 28: 19,000 Gil  Level 29: 19,500 Gil  Level 30: 20,000 Gil    Gil is not very important in Final Fantasy VIII. You only really need it   to buy items and to remodel your weapons, as well as a few other things.   Remodeling your character's weapon is easy. In just about every town   (and on board the Ragnarok on Disk 4), there is a remodeling shop. If   you have read any Weapons Monthly Magazines then the weapons that were   featured in them will be listed in the remodel list along with the items   and gil needed. Also if you have enough items to remodel a weapon you   don't need to have read about it in Weapons Monthly, it will   automatically be listed in the remodeling shops list. After selecting to   remodel your weapon you pay the shop owner a certain amount of gil and   give up the items needed to make it. With each remodeling to a new make   of a weapon there is a slight increase in attack power and hit   percentage, unless of course you remodel to a weaker weapon.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Playing the Card Game:    The Triple Triad card game may look confusing at first but in fact its   actually quite simple to learn how to play. First you need to know how   to challenge someone to a game of cards, simply talk to them using the   square button and if they are a player they will accept your challenge.   You can get your first set of cards by talking to one of the guys   outside of the elevator on the 2nd floor of Balamb Garden during the   beginning of the game, you can also turn monsters into cards by using   Quenzacotl's Card command ability. During the beginning of the game once   you get some rare cards by beating bosses, such as Ifrit and Diablos you   will easily be able to defeat your opponents in cards. Basically the   idea behind the card game is that each player gets to select five cards   (if the random rule is not in effect) and you place them on a board that   is similar to a tic tac toe board with 6 areas to place cards. Every   card has 4 numbers. One on the top, bottom, right, and left sides of the   cards. The idea is to "flip" the other person's card by placing a higher   number card next to theres. That may sound a little confusing but let me   try to explain a little better. Say that the opponent places a card in   the upper left corner that has these numbers on it:      9  6   8    3    Because the 9 and 6 are facing against the edge of the board you cannot   attempt to overpower those numbers so that leaves you to try to best a 8   or 3. Lets say that you have a card that reads:      4  2   A    5    Now since you have an A on the top (which is the equivilant of 10) you   can flip there card because an A beats a 3. Each person starts with five   points so when you flip there card that will earn you one point and   deplete there points by one. So you would be in the lead with 6 to there   4. Now they would try to place a card that they have to try to flip the   card you just placed and it goes back and forth until all of the spaces   on the board are filled and the player with the most points at the end   will be the winner and will be able to choose a card they want from   there opponents deck which will be added to your card inventory,   however, there are some rules in certain lands you will visit that play   by rules that will affect how many cards you can get from winning a card   game and some will affect a few aspects of the way you play cards, but   in all the cards game the aspect that I just explained will always   remain the same. Cards are very important to getting some of the rare   items in the game so its in your best interest to play cards with as   many people as possible because you never know who has a rare card.   There are several rules that each town you visit will inforce you to   play with and as you countinue past this town other players may ask you   to play with these rules that you have picked up. As long as you save   before you play a card game you should do just fine with the card game   despite any rules they may throw at you. Below are some tips to help you   with the card game:    Always save before playing a card game. This way if you lose a rare card   you can always reset and try again.    Use what I like to call a blocker. This is basically a card that has two   As on its corners. An example is the Edea card, other cards that have   high corner numbers can also be used. If you get the chance to play   first and you place this card with the two As facing outward there is no   chance that the other player can flip your card for that turn.    Ignore the Card Queen and her attempts to spread rules throughout the   regions, especially the random rule. Unless you are really huge into the   card game you'll probably only end up hurting yourself.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    3: Characters    Squall  Weapon: Gunblade  Limit Break: Renzokuken  Method of Learning Limit: Wielding Different Weapons    Squall is without a doubt the best character in the game. He will   probably be several levels above the rest of your party for most of the   game, and with his Lion Heart limit break he can deal tens of thousands   of damage to the enemy. With his gunblade Squall has the chance for a   critical hit with every attack command by pressing the R1 button right   before Squall strikes the enemy, after a couple of battles this will   become second nature to you.    Renzokuken:    Renzokuken is Squall's Limit Break. He charges at an enemy and proceeds   to slash them many times, how many times depends on the enemy. The   amount of damage Squall deals each time he strikes the enemy is   determined by pushing the R1 button when the Renzokuken gauge reaches   the small box near the end of the gauge, you can also turn off the gauge   in Squall's status menu so that you can try to time the strikes without   the gauge. Squall will randomly use a finishing technique after using   Renzokuken, what technique he can use depends on what weapon he is   wielding, the four possible finishing techniques are listed below.    Rough Divide: Squall drives a cut into the enemy and rises up high   causing a shockwave to follow that deals damage: Can be used with all of   Squall's weapons.    Fated Circle: Squall leaps into the air and spins his gunblade which   releases a shock wave at all enemies: Can be used with the Shear Trigger   and all weapons above it.    Blasting Zone: Squall forms a large column of light from his gunblade   that pierces the atmosphere and he proceeds to drop it on all enemies:   Can be used with the Flame Saber and all weapons above it.    Lionheart: This is what I like to call a mass kill move, Squall knocks   an enemy into the air and slashes them many many times dealing an insane   amount of damage: Can be used with and only by the Lion Heart.    My Personal Squall:    GFs: Shiva, Siren, Diablos, Alexander, Eden  Commands: Attack, Magic, GF, Item  Skills: HP+80%, Strength+60%, Mag+60%, Spr+60%    Junction Info:    HP: Quake  Str: Meteor  Spd: Haste  Vit: Meltdown  Mag: Triple  Eva: Tornado  Hit: Firaga  Luck: Aero  Spr: Curaga  Elem Attack: Water  Status Attack: Pain  Elem Defense: Full-Life, Ultima, Flare, Shell  Status Defense: Esuna, Holy, Bio, Aura    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Quistis  Weapon: Whip  Limit Break: Blue Magic  Method of Learing Limit: Items    Quistis is probably one of them most overlooked characters in RPG   history. I'd say she is the 4th best character in the game once you   acquire all her Blue Magic skills, not only can she protect and shell   the entire party, but she can restore HP to them, cause multiple status   effects to enemies, and cause five digit damage to all enemies with   Shockwave Pulsar. Keep Quistis in mind any time you are having   difficulty with a boss.     Blue Magic:    If you have played other Final Fantasies you know how all about the Blue   Magic system. It works a little diffrent in Final Fantasy VIII though,   but the basic idea remains the same, you use enemy skills. Quistis   learns Blue Magic by using items that are found in various ways on her   that perminatly teachs her the ability.    Laser Eye: Quistis fires an Eye Beam at an enemy: Already Learned    Ultra Waves: Sonic waves rush around the field and hit all enemies:   Learned from Spider Web    Electrocute: Bolts of Lighting rush around Quistis' body then strike an   enemy dealing thunder damage: Learned from Coral Fragment    LV? Death: Casts death on random enemies: Learned from Curse Spike    Degenerator: Eliminates an enemy from battle: Learned from Black Hole    Aqua Breath: Quistis Fires a water wave at all enemies dealing water   damage: Learned from Water Crystal    Micro Missiles: Quistis fires several missiles at an enemy that cuts its   HP down depending on there level (Similiar to the Demi Spell): Learned   from Missile    Acid: Quistis hits enemy with poison, dealing poison damage and   sometimes causing the poison status effect: Learned from Mystery Fluid    Gatling Gun: Quistis fires a wave of bullets at enemy: Learned from   Running Fire    Fire Breath: Quistis fires a wave of fire at all enemies dealing fire   damage: Learned from Inferno Fang    Bad Breath: Inflicts just about every status effect in the book on all   enemies: Learned from Marlboro Tentacle    White Wind: Restores the HP of all Party Members: Learned from Whisper    Homing Laser: Quistis fires a laser at an enemy: Learned from Laser   Cannon    Mighty Guard: Quistis casts Shell and Protect on the party: Learned from   Barrier    Ray Bomb: Quistis sweeps a laser across the battle field that blows all   enemies into the air:  Learned from Power Generator    Shockwave Pulsar: Greivers special attack and one of the best attacks in   the game, with a decent magic stat deals five digit damage. Quistis   sucks all enemies up in a ball that carries them up into the sky and   they are blasted with a ball of energy: Learned from Dark Matter    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Zell  Weapon: Glove  Limit Break: Duel  Method of Learning Limit: Reading Combat Kings Magazines    Zell is a pretty good character, but not as useful as some of the other   characters. In the beginning of the game his Limit Break does rather low   damage, but toward the end of the game with a high strength rating and   if your good at using Duel, he can do pretty good damage. To get more   out of Zell's Duel limit break cast meltdown or summon doomtrain to   lower an enemies Vit to 0.    Duel:    If you have played Final Fantasy VI, take Sabin's Blitz technique and   add the ability to chain them together and you have Zell's Duel Limit   Break. Although not as good as Sabin's blitz techniques Zell can do some   pretty good damage with them. The idea behind Duel is to input a   combination of attacks which are shown at the bottom of the screen when   you choose duel. When you choose duel a timer starts, how much time you   have to input techniques is random, and basically you just put in a   combination of attacks, depending on which ones you chain together   you'll have the option to use a finishing techique, which you can choose   to use or you can continue with other attacks. Usually chaining attacks   and ignoring the finishing techniques does more damage, considering   finishing techniques end the timer, although some of them look pretty   cool. You can also set Zell's duel to auto in his status menu whichs   makes the computer chain techniques instead of you doing it. Zell learns   new Duel Skills by reading Combat King Magazines which are located in   various places. Below are the techniques Zell can chain together and   what chains to put together to use the finishing techniques.    Normal Techniques:    O+X    Punch Rush: Zell performs a double punch on an enemy: Already Learned    Left+Right    Booya: Zell deleivers a blow with his knee to an enemy: Already Learned    Up+Down    Heel Drop: Zell drops a forceful heel drop on an enemy: Already Learned    Left+Left+O    Mach Kick: Performs a powerful kick to an enemy: Already Learned    L1+R1+L1+R1    Dolphin Blow: Zell Perfoms a water uppercut on an enemy: Combat King 001    Down+O+Down+O    Meteor Strike: Zell graps an enemy, leaps into air and slams them back   down to the ground, seems to miss alot though: Combat King 002    Finishing Techniques:    PunchRush+MachKick+PunchRush+HeelDrop+Down+Down+Down+Down+O    Burning Rave: Zell punches the ground sending a wave of aura that   engulfs all enemies: Already Learned    PunchRush+Booya+HeelDrop+MachKick+HeelDrop+Booya+PunchRush+MachKick+Up+X  +Down+Triange+O    Meteor Barret: Zell leaps into air, powers up, then flys through and   enemy causing them to explode: Combat King 003    PunchRush+HeelDrop+MachKick+HealDrop+Booya+Triangle+Square+X+O+Up    Different Beat: Zell knocks an enemy into the air and repededly kicks   them before stomping them back to the ground: Combat King 004    PunchRush+Booya+HeelDrop+MachKick+PunchRush+Up+Right+Down+Left+Triangle    My Final Heaven: Zell runs around the planet, building power, then runs   over all enemies burning them with aura (I liked Tifa's better): Combat   King 005    My Personal Zell:    GFs: Quenzacotl, Brothers, Pandemonia, Cerberus, Bahamut  Commands: Attack, Magic, GF, Item  Skills: HP+80%, Str+60%, Mag+60%, Spd+40%    Junction Info:    HP: Quake  Str: Meteor  Spd: Haste  Vit: Meltdown  Mag: Triple  Eva: Tornado  Hit: Flare  Luck: Aero  Spr: Curaga  Elem Attack: Water  Status Attack: Pain  Elem Defense: Full-Life, Ultima, Protect, Shell  Status Defense: Esuna, Holy, Bio, Aura    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Seifer  Weapon: Gunblade  Limit Break: Fire Cross  Method of Learning Limit: None    Not much to say about Seifer he joins the party for a short time during   the SeeD field exam, then he becomes your enemy shortly there after.   Fire Cross is pretty useful for the time you do have him though and his   gunblade works just like Squall's, pressing R1 before Seifer strikes the   enemy for a critical hit.    Fire Cross: Seifer casts fire on an enemy then fires a ball of aura at   them from his gunblade.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Selphie  Weapon: Nunchaku  Limit Break: Slot  Method of Learning Limit: Randomly found when using Slot    In battle Selphie is probably the weakest of all the characters. Early   in the game she will be of great help with her Full Cure Slot Limit   Break, but later in the game once you start getting Curaga and Triple   spells this becomes not as useful. Her other slot magics also become   quite overshadowed by the ability to cast double and triple on your   party, although if you have the patience to try to bring up her The End   Limit Break, she could quite possibly be the most poweful character but   you'll probably be better off with more powerful characters.    Slot:    Selphie's Limit Break is quite simple, she brings up a menu which will   randomly select a spell and how many times it is cast, you can choose to   do the slot over again to try to get better spell or if your lucky you   may stumble upon one of Selphie's four Limit Breaks. How often these   Limit Breaks appear in her slots is determined by her level, so the   higher it is, the more likely it is that one of her Limit Breaks will   come up. Below are the four possible Slot Limit Breaks.    Full Cure: Selphie fully restores the entire party's HP.    Wall: Casts Shell and Protect on the entire party.    Rapture: Eliminates an enemy from a battle.    The End: Eliminates all enemies from a battle, this move, although very   rare, can kill any enemy in the game, that includes bosses.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Laguna  Weapon: Machine Gun  Limit Break: Desperado  Method of Learning Limit: None    You will take control of Laguna multiple times during Squall's "dream"   sequences along with Kiros and Ward. As a Character Laguna is not all   that great, his limit break only hits once but for pretty decent damage   nothing else about him really sticks out though.    Desperado: Laguna tosses a grenade into the enemy ranks, then proceeds   to fire his machine gun repededly into the enemies. Bailing out just in   time for the grenade to explode damaging all enemies.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Kiros  Weapon: Katal  Limit Break: Blood Pain  Method of Learning Limit: None    Unlike his counterparts, Laguna and Ward, Kiros is a great character   when given a decent strength stat. His Blood Pain Limit Break does   really good damage and is extremely useful during the sequences in which   you control Laguna.    Blood Pain: Kiros goes into a frenzy and attacks an enemy multiple   times.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Ward  Weapon: Harpoon  Limit Break: Massive Anchor  Method of Learning Limit: None    Ward is basically just like Laguna. Massive Anchor hits all enemies for   a little bit more damage than Laguna's Desperado. Its funny to watch him   run outside of battle though.    Massive Anchor: Ward launches his harpoon high into the air and then   rides it back to the ground causing a shockwave which strikes all   enemies.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Rinoa  Weapon: Pinwheel  Limit Break: Combine, Angel Wing  Method of Learning Limit: Reading Pet Pals Magazines    Rinoa is a great character, and the 2nd best in the game behind Squall.   Although her Combine limit break is random all of them are great and you   can't really lose with any of them. Grom an high damaging attack with   Wishing Star, to making your party invincible with Invincible Moon, as   well as random events that will happen from time to time that assist the   party in various ways, she is almost invaluable in battle.     Combine:    Rinoa's Combine limit break is very simple, choose combine in battle and   depending on which of her limit breaks you have learned, Angelo will   rush out and do various things. Rinoa learns her limit breaks by reading   Pet Pals Magazines which are bought and found throughout the game, once   you have read the magazine you can choose which limit break to start   learning by going to Rinoa's status menu and selecting the limit break   you wish to learn. After walking around with Rinoa in your party for a   while, the bar will begin to fill and when it fills up Rinoa perminatly   learns the limit break, you'll hear a ping once the limit break has been   learned. Rinoa also has various limit breaks that cannot be used with   Combine but rather happen at random intervals during battle. Rinoa's   Combine limit breaks and random limit breaks are listed below.    Angelo Rush: Angelo charges through an enemy: Already Learned    Angelo Cannon: Rinoa fires Angelo into the enemy ranks causing an   explosion which damages all enemies: Already Learned    Angelo Strike: Angelo performs a body slam on an enemy: Pet Pals 1    Invincible Moon: Angelo runs out onto the battle field and howls to the   moon making the party completely invincible for a short period of time:   Pet Pals 3    Wishing Star: Angelo and Rinoa repededly charge into random enemies   causing a massive amount of damage: Pet Pals 6    Random Events:    Angelo Recover: Restores the HP of a party member with HP in the   critical: Pet Pals 2    Angelo Reverse: Revives a dead party member: Pet Pals 4    Angelo Search: Angelo comes to battle and gives an item to the party:   Pet Pals 5    Angel Wing:    Toward the end of Disk 3 Rinoa will have a new limit break option other   than Combine, which is called Angel Wing. Using it in battle will make   Rinoa go into a Berserk like state, but instead of using physical   attacks, she will attack with magic, all of which will be tripled in   power. None of the magic she uses comes from your stocked magic either.   Also once Rinoa uses Angel Wing it will last until the battle ends, even   if she dies and gets revived.    My Personal Rinoa:    GFs: Ifrit, Carbuncle, Leviathan, Doomtrain, Cactuar, Tonberry  Commands: Attack, Magic, GF,I tem  Skills: HP+80%, Str+60%, Mag+60%, Vit+60%    Junction Info:    HP: Quake  Str: Meteor  Spd: Haste  Vit: Meltdown  Mag: Triple  Eva: Tornado  Hit: None  Luck: Aero  Spr: Curaga  Elem Attack: Water  Status Attack: Pain  Elem Defense: Full-Life, Ultima, Flare, Shell  Status Defense: Esuna, Holy, Bio, Aura    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Irvine  Weapon: Shotgun  Limit Break: Shot  Method of Learing Limit: Acquiring Different Ammo    Irvine is a great character and is easily the third strongest character   in the game. When you first get him, he won't seem so powerful, but once   you get ahold of some of his powerful ammo, such as AP, Fast, and Pulse   Ammo, he will start outclassing all the other characters in damage with   his Shot limit break. With the exception of Squall of course.    Shot:    Using shot is simple, just select Shot when Irvine gets his limit break   and choose the ammo you wish to use, then press R1 rapidly to fire off   shots at the enemies. You can press left or right to switch between   enemeis to fire at, and your ammo count is at the bottom right hand   corner of the screen along with the time left to use shot. Keep in mind   if your ammo starts doing 0 damage to the enemies they are already dead   and you should switch to another target or stop firing. Each Ammo has a   diffrent attack power and firing time, and all of Irvine's possible   shots are listed below.    Normal Shot: Fires bullets an an enemy: Normal Ammo    Scatter Shot: Fires bullets at all enemies: Shotgun Ammo    Dark Shot: Fires Dark Aura at an enemy and causes various status   effects: Dark Ammo    Flame Shot: Fires Flames at all enemies: Fire Ammo    Canister Shot: Fires a slow but powerful blast at an enemy:  Demolition Ammo    Quick Shot: Fires a VERY quick and painful blast at all enemies: Fast   Ammo    Armor Shot: Fires an armor piercing shot at an enemy, pretty quick too:   AP Ammo    Hyper Shot: Fires a powerful laser quickly for maximum damage or close   to it: Pulse Ammo    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Edea  Weapon: None  Limit Break: Ice Strike  Method of Learning Limit: None    Edea joins for a short while during your trip to Esthar and leaves   shortly there after. She really has nothing about her that sticks out   and her Ice Strike limit break is rather pathetic.    Ice Strike: Edea forms a large magic ice shard and fires it at the   enemy.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    4: Tips and Gameplay Advice    DRAW, DRAW, DRAW, AND DRAW SOME MORE! I can't emphasize how important it   is to draw as much magic as you can. As soon as you encounter a new   enemy draw a large amount of each magic as they have. Especially if it   is curative magic such as Cure, Cura, Curaga, Life, Full-Life, and   Esuna, these spells are essential to surviving in this game.    After you draw a new spell compare it with other spells you have   junctioned to your stats so that you will always be up to date as to   which spell should be junctioned to which stat.    The Spell Meltdown and the GF Doomtrain are your best friends in Final   Fantasy VIII. Both will almost always inflict the Vit 0 status effect on   an enemy which will make your attack command and limit breaks do a ton   of damage. You'll know if Vit 0 is inflicted on the enemy because they   will become discolored.    Know your characters and know there limit breaks. Experiment with all of   them and decide for yourself which ones work toward your preference. You   can find success with any party you choose, as long as you know there   strengths and weaknesses.    Fight every battle you encounter unless your party is on the verge of   death. Although leveling up is not very important in this game, gaining   AP to learn GF abilitys is. Also alot of enemies you will encounter   carry very rare items you will not be able to find anywhere else, its in   your best interest to fight as many battles as possible.    If at any time you need to reset your game you can preform a soft reset.   Pressing L1+L2+R1+R2+Select+Start will reset the current game and return   it to the title screen. This has become a common theme in many games.    Raise your characters compatibility with there GFs as high as possible.   This will allow your characters to call there GFs quickly in battle   before the enemy gets a chance to possibly kill them. There are items   that raise compatibility with certain GFs but above all the best method   is to summon your GFs often so that your compatibility will raise.    Start to learn the Diablos GFs mug ability as soon as he joins you. This   support ability is important to gaining alot of the rare items in the   games needed to refine and remodel your weapons.    Remodel your weapons often, especially Squall's. Although the small   attack and hit percentage boost you get for remodeling doesn't mean   much, Squall's weapon determines what limit breaks he can use with his   Renzokuken skill. These are important to winning some of the harder boss   fights in the game.    Play alot of cards. Once you get the starter deck at the beginning of   the game from the guys outside of the elevator on the 2nd floor of   Balamb Garden start playing cards immediatly. Even if you don't always   get a rare card by playing you can always refine the cards into useful   items using Quenzacotl's card mod menu ability. Also make sure that you   save before playing any of your rare cards in a card game. In case you   lose them you'll want to reload your game and try again.    If you have a large amount of low level spells such as Blizzard, Fire,   Cure ect. Use GF menu abilitys to refine them into more powerful magic.   For example the menu ability I Mag-RF the GF shiva has refines low level   Blizzard magic into the more powerful Blizzara spell. Also you can use   it to turn Blizzara spells into Blizzaga spells. There is a refine menu   ability for each type of magic, use them to your advantage. The same can   be done for items such as Potions.    Learn the boost ability with each of your GFs that can learn it. Using   boost (holding select and repededly pressing the square button as soon   as the GF's attack animation begins) increases the GF's attack   considerably. However stop pressing the square button if an X appears   over the icon in the bottom right hand side of the screen. If you press   square while the X is there the boost gauge will reset itself. The max   that you can boost a GF's attack to is 250, however, under most   circumstances only certain GFs can reach this mark.    Don't worry to much about how much Gil you have. Gil is of very little   importance in this game. You will mainly only be using it to remodel   your weapons and buying magazines in stores, both of which come at a   very low price especially if you have a high SeeD rank. Buying items is   not important unless you are planning to use your item command in   battle, which you will probably find yourself avoiding once you get   powerful healing magic. Later in the game once you gain the Tonberry   GF's familiar ability you will be able to buy rare items at a very hefty   price so its best if you stockpile your money till late in the game.    Get your SeeD rank as high as possible. It is one of the only ways to   gain Gil. Squall can take tests in the tutorial of the main menu up to   the number equal to his level. So whenever Squall gains a level make it   a habit to go into the menu and take the next test. The tests go all the   way up to 30.    If you use your item command in battle and play the game until Active   battle mode its best if you rearrange your battle items so that you can   get to your more important ones quickly.    Think carefully before junctioning magic to your elemental attack. You   certainly don't want to have a fire elemental attack in an area full of   fire elemental monsters.    All towns become sealed off on disk 4 so make sure that you do any side   quests that involve towns, and the Obel lake quest before disk 4 (they   are all listed in the walkthough before entering Lunatic Pandora).    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    5: Walkthough    After watching the magnificent intro to the game, the main character of   the game awakens in a doctors office, respond to her question and you'll   get the chance to name him. Quistis comes to get Squall and he follows   her to their classroom. After hearing from Quistis in the class room,   check Squall's desk under the Tutorial menu to receive your first two   GFs Quenzacotl and Shiva. I suggest giving Shiva to Squall to start out.   If your not familiar with how to junction yet, there will be a tutorial   about it coming up in the game soon, or it is explained in the game   basics section of this guide. Proceed to the front and speak with   Quistis. Your first destination is to go to the Fire Cavern, but first   you'll have a chance to explore Balamb Garden.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    5.1: Balamb Garden    Party: Squall (Level 7)    Items: M-Stone Piece, Spider Web, Occult Fan I    Cards: Quistis, Mini Mog, Starter Deck    Draw Points: Curex2, Esunax2, Blizzardx2    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    From the classroom head toward the elevator to the south, and you'll run   into another student that wants Squall to take her on a tour of the   garden. I suggest doing it so you will get to know Balamb Garden a   little better. After agreeing or disagreeing to take her speak with the   guy near the elevator for a starter set of cards and proceed down the   elevator. From the Directory head east into the library, search the   bookcases for an Occult Fan I Magazine and there is an Esuna Draw Point   to hit in here as well, which will be useful to junction. Leave the   library and take the next east into the Training area, I suggest you hit   the Blizzard Draw Point here and perhaps gain a level or two the   monsters aren't too strong, If you get in trouble just call Shiva in and   she will take care of the enemies. There are a few rare cards to pick up   in the Garden, head to the Cafeteria which is to the left of the   dormitory which is west of the Training Area. Inside you'll run into   Seifer, after the scene head to the right, the Trepe Fan in the back has   the Quistis Card you can win, he also has some boss cards that are   pretty good cards as well but make sure to pick up the Quistis card now,   it will be a powerful card for a while. The other Card is the Mini Mog   Card, there is a kid jogging around the garden whom you will see from   time to time, he has the card, its not as good as the Quistis one but   this is the only place to pick it up, although I should note you will   have other chances in the game to win these two cards, but I suggest   doing it now. When you are finished proceed to the main gate south of   the directory, making sure to hit the Cure Draw Point towards the exit.   Quistis will teach you how to junction GFs and will give you your first   two GFs, Quenzacotl and Shiva, if you have not already gotten them out   of Squall's study panel. Then you will set out to the world map toward   the Fire Cavern. When out on the world map proceed towards the mountain   behind the garden and search for a Cure Draw Point, then head towards   the town of balamb to the west to the tracks behind it to hit the Esuna   Draw Point, a good spell to junction early in the game. There is one   last draw point on the cliff behind the Fire Cavern to the east its a   blizzard draw point. Now its time to start gathering items and learning   GF abilities, the first items you should concern yourself with getting   are the M-Stone Pieces which are dropped by the Bite Bugs, Glacial Eyes,   and Caterpillars around the area, also take note that the caterpillars   are mostly found in the forest and drop a Spider Web which will teach   the blue magic Ultra Waves to Quistis. Get a couple of these because   they are used to remodel weapons as well. Beward of the T-Rexaur enemy   in the forest though he is quite the enemy, best to run away for now if   you see one. As for GF Abilities I suggest learning Boost before you   even go into the cavern on Shiva and Quenzacotl, after that focus on   learning juction abilites, like HP-J and Str-J. Card for Quenzacotl is   also not a bad idea to start adding monster cards to your collection   with Quenzacotl's Card Ability, the Bomb in the Fire Cavern is pretty   good to turn into a card. The best place to earn AP here on the plains   is on the beach, the Fastitocalons there give good amounts of AP. Also   make sure you fight alot of battles to draw magic from the enemies, I   suggest stocking up alot on Cure and Blizzard Spells for the Cavern.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    5.2: The Fire Cavern    Party: Squall (Level 10), Quistis (Level 10)    Items: G-Returner    Cards: Ifrit    Draw Points: Fire    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Enter the cavern and Quistis will explain how to junction magic as well   as tell how to use the gunblade properly again. Talk to the two guards   toward at the entrance and choose a time, I suggest 20 Minutes, because   the lower the time left when you defeat the boss of the cavern, the   higher your SeeD rank will be when you get ranked. Proceed into the   cavern, nothing really to mark here except there is a Fire Draw Point to   hit and the enemies here are very weak to blizzard magic so I suggest   hitting them with blizzard and countinuing through the cave. Quistis   will make comments as you proceed, none which matter much just continue   on to the boss.    -----------------------------------------------------------------------    Boss: Ifrit    Party: Squall (Level 10), Quistis (Level 10)    This is a simple boss, whomever has Shiva junctioned should summon her   repededly, while the other character casts Blizzard Magic or summons   Quenzacotl. Use Scan on Ifrit every once in a while until he has enough   HP left that you can kill him in one more hit, then wait for the counter   to get down to about 10 seconds left then finish him off. You get a G-  Returner and Ifrit's Card for winning.    --------------------------------------------------------------