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Porcelain's Guide to Early Strength, Ultimate Weapons and Bosses.

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2022-03-16 15:33:07

Becoming Ultra Powerful Before Leaving Balamb Garden.

You can do this right after you leave the Garden to get Ifrit. I suggest getting Ifrit before grinding. This method will take 2-3 hours but you will have no trouble with bosses for a long time. All the way through the 3rd disk will be no problem.

So, we have Squall and Quistis. Assuming that you have Ifrit, we have Ifrit, Quetza and Shiva. To start off you're going to want to grind for some of their abilities.

NOTE: If you're looking to get the highest amount of strength you can, Card every enemy after you unlock the command. As enemies that are turned into cards will NOT give EXP. This also means that Ifrit will not be able to learn Ammo RF, as he can learn it at level 10, which will make getting the Ultimate Weapon for Squall harder to get.

NOTE: This is not the way to become the strongest in the game. The way to do that is to holding off on leveling until you have all of the Bonus junctions like "Strength Bonus" but for all stats and leveling all characters individually. But this is the best way to get your characters/one character strong enough to carry the party all the way through disk 3 and into disk 4. If you card every enemy and recieve no EXP, then this method will not interfere with gaining the highest possible stats if that's what you'd prefer to do. But you can still do this method for early strength to carry you.

So now into the guide. You're going to want to unlock the following abilities for your GF's Card, Card Mod, Lightning Magic RF, Fire Magic RF, Ice Magic RF (Ammo RF is optional) The best way to learn these abilities is by going on to the beach and fighting the fish that swim in the sand. After you unlock Card, you can stay at the beach or go into the forest and use the Card command on T-rexaurs for 10 AP per battle with them. You will want 4 T-rexaur cards before continuing.

--How to card T-rexaurs without dying?---

Have the person who's going to card the enemy only have Quetza junctioned. Have the other character using Shiva and Ifrit. Have the person with the Card command use it every turn while the other one uses Shiva every time. If a character gets low on HP, use a potion. I have never run out of potions while Carding T-rexaurs, but if you do, Card Mod the other enemies that you have Carded and sell the Spider Web drops and the things those other cards refine into for money. Go to Balamb Town (by the railroad tracks) and buy potions. DO NOT CARD MOD T-REXAUR OR IFRIT

NOTE: You can card bite bugs, the Landfish and the Big Green Worm for a chance at getting the rare cards they drop, they will help with card battling, but they are not needed.

--What to do after getting the cards?--

Go to Balamb Town to the shop that you went to before. Next to it, you'll see a woman in a white dress. Challenge her to a card battle (S or Square.) The rule for trading cards will change. There are multiple options.

One - Take one card of your choice at the end of the battle.

Diff - Take as many cards as you captured during the match as your own. (If you caught two of their cards, you can choose two at the end.)

Direct - Take cards that you've captured.

All - Take the enemies entire hand.

We want to have the "All" Rule. This is going to make grinding and refining A LOT more profitable. Sometimes when you do a card battle, the rule will change to One. Don't be scared, just exit the card game and rechallenge them, it will change back to all. Now we have 4 T-rexaurs and Ifrit. It's time to get battling. Run back to Balamb Garden and save your game.

--Getting a good hand to play cards with--

I suggest starting by battling the guy at the gate. (The old man with the hat by the stalls that say "In, Out") He doesn't use super good cards, but good enough to get diversity in your hand. Now we're going to learn how to play cards and win, EVERY TIME. I have played about 86 hours of this game on Steam and 100s of hours on PS1. After I started using this method, I have never lost a card game.

For the following section, 1 is top left, 2 is top middle, 3 is top right, 4 is middle row left, 5 is the center of the board, 6 is middle row right, 7 is bottom left, 8 is bottom middle and 9 is bottom right.

So, I could've used a picture right? WRONG! I don't wanna. So, 99% of people that you play in the game will play their first card in the 1 spot. (Top Left) What I do is start by looking at their highest number in every direction. So, look at their five cards and see what their highest bottom number is, their highest top number is, their highest left/right number is. Then play cards that cannot be taken. After that, they will play some cards that get rid of their highest number in that direction, so just look over their cards and find their next highest number. Play completely defensively. Play cards that cannot be taken and do not worry about taking their cards. Stick to the bottom and keep defending yourself UNTIL the time arises that they have a card that you can take without it being taken back.

Let's do a Pseudo Duel, They play a card in one, you play a card in 9 (Ifrit, let's say. Since he has 9 up and 8 left. Meaning that their cards wont be able to take him.) They play a card in 2. You play a card in 8. They play a card in 3. Now you have a few options. You can take any card in the top row and they will not be able to take it back. Just be careful that YOUR card cannot be taken after you take theirs. Otherwise it's still going to be a tie. They wont be able to take the card in 3 back if you play a card in 6 because there's already a card in the 2 spot. After you win one card, just make sure none of your cards get taken and you win! It's really easy to get the hang of.

--Getting an even better hand--

After you get an acceptable hand, head upstairs into the classroom and fight against Trepe Groupie #3. You're looking for 4 cards in specific. Quistis' Card and Three Malboros. With these cards, your hand you will always use is Quistis, Ifrit, Three Malboros.

NOTE: Why the Malboros in specific? They have a 7 up and 7 right. This gives you three free defensive moves as other than Quistis, nobody will play a card until after the Dollet Mission that is capable of taking your Malboro. This means that you play them in the order of 7,8,9 (or 7,8,4 if you can take their card in the 1 spot.)

What Cards are we looking for to card mod?

Abyss Worm: Card Mod into windmill that will refine with T-MagRF into 20 Tornados.

Snow Lion: Card Mod into North Wind that will refine with I-MAGRF into 20 Blizzaga.

Blitz: Card Mod into Dynamo Stone that will refine with T-MAGRF into 20 Thundaga.

3 Hexadragon Cards: Card Mod to Red Fang that will refine with F-MAGRF into 20 Fira

Landfish Cards (5 of them): Card Mod into Water Crystal with I-MAGRF into 20 water.

Thrustaevis Card: Card Mod into Shear Feather with T-MAGRF into 20 Aero.

Go to next section. Character Limit.

Getting Powerful Before Leaving Balamb Garden (Continued)

--Some more difficult ones to grind for--

10 Ruby Dragons refine into Inferno Fang that turn into 20 Flares. This means that you'll need FIFTY Ruby Dragons for one stack of flare. It will take 2-3 hours to accomplish this alone but I did it for 3 full stacks. Took me about 7 hours. (RNG RIP.)

10 Behemoth Cards turn into a Barrier that will teach Quistis her Mighty Gaurd limit.

(Gesper to Black Hole will teach her Degenerator, which is really good as well.)

10 Elnoyle Cards turn into 1 Energy Crystal. That can be refined with AMMO-RF into 10 Pulse Ammo. Now is the time to say it. If you're looking to get all of the Ultimate Weapons you can on Disk 1, REFER TO THAT SECTION. You can get a lot of the materials here. Such as, you'll need a lot of Energy Crystals.

After you grind to get all of the magic you want, Junction it! Now you're dealing over 1,000 damage with physical attacks and have more than 3,000 HP! I suggest Card Modding every card that you're not using to card battle that is also not a rare card. Also look up the Queen of Cards quest online if you want to finish that. The only information you need for right now is that a boy will run across the room in the room with the sign, the elevator and the save point on floor one. Battle him until you get minimog and then go lose it to the girl in the white dress that we used to change the trading rule. Save before you give it to her, she'll either go to Galbadia or Dollet. If she doesn't go to Dollet, reload your save and go lose it to her again.

You can also refine to get some of the character's weapons that are pretty good, but not their ultimates YET.

Sidenotes - In your battle in the Training Room with Quistis to protect the girl that visited the infirmary, draw 100 Shell and Protect. They're very useful skills. As well as when you get Diabolos and Siren, you'll be able to refine a lot of items you get from Card Modding these items into spells like Pain, Break, Haste, Stop, e.t.c. They're super good for junctioning to stats (Pain and Break are.)

During your battle with the Machine in Dollet, save before you kill it. You'll want the item that teaches a GF STR+40%. Then you can have Ifrit with STR+40% and another GF. Making two of your characters break 100 STR if they have Tornado Junctioned to it. Siren can learn up to HP+80% which will make one character have over 5,000 HP if they have Quake junctioned to it.

The Machine in dollet has 4 possible drops and they all teach GF's abilities. I suggest the STR one but they all teach Stat related ones, so if you like a different one, use it.

Ultimate Weapons!

Ultimate Weapons are awesome, aren't they? Well, I'm going to tell you how to get every ultimate weapon except for Irvine's on disk 1. I'll include Irvine's Ultimate Weapon as well, but you can only get it starting on Disk 3.

The estimated times may overlap, meaning that they are not additive as multiple of them can be done together/at the same time.

-----Squall's Lionheart------

12 Pulse Ammo - You need to get Elnoyle Cards (10 of them) and refine them into an Energy Crystal. Refine that with Ammo-RF into 10 Pulse Ammo. You need 12 Pulse Ammo, meaning that you need to win 20 Elnoyle Cards.

1 Adamantine - You'll need to go unlock the Brother's GF (Refer to the How to unlock all GF's section.) You will recieve the Minotaur card. Card Mod it into 10 Adamantine. You only need 1 for Squall's Ultimate Weapon.

4 Dragon Fang - Before you go to the Trabia Garden, in the forest with the Kiros, Laguna and Ward scene. Run in the forest while touching the mountain. You'll encounter an enemy there that can drop Dragon Fangs. You need 4 of them. DO NOT MUG these enemies, as they'll give you something else and no longer drop the Dragon Fang. It is easiest to get them as a drop from level 1-19. They do still drop passed that, but become more rare.

Estimated time: 4 hours. (3 hours for the Elnoyle Cards alone. 1 to 1 and a half hours for Brother's and Dragon Fangs.

4-5 hours.

---Zell's Ermagerd--

1 Adamantine - From the Minotaur Card Mod.

4 Dragon Skin - Find them from Anacondaur (Very rare drop until they're level 30+.)

1 Fury Fragment - Card mod 4 blue dragon cards into 1 fury fragment.

Complete RNG based from Anacondaurs. Very hard to get them to drop them unless you're level 30+. Then they're common.

---Quistis' Save The Queen---

2 Malboro Tentacles - Card Mod Malboro card into them.

4 Sharp Spikes - Card Mod Grand Mantis or Death Claw into them.

4 Energy Crystals - Elnoyle Card. (10 of them)

10 hours.

---Selphie's Strange Vision---

1 Adamantine - Card Mod Minotaur Card.

3 Star Fragment - Refine Iron Giant Cards into them.

2 Cursed Spikes - Refine tri-face cards into them.

2 1/2 hours. (An hour to an hour and a half is just getting Minotaur.)

---Irvine's Exeter---

2 Dino Bones - Find them from T-rexaurs or Card Mod their cards.

1 Moon Stone (Not available on Disk 1) - Elnoyle's Drop them. Imp's Drop them. Toroma Drop them. Can also be stolen from Elnoyles.

2 Star Fragments - Refine Iron Giants.

18 Screws - You should have a bunch of these from grinding Card Games and refining your extra cards.

1 1/2 hour to 2 hours. 99% of this stuff, you will already have. The moon stone will be all you need to get.

---Rinoa's Shooting Star----

2 Windmills - This one is easy, fortunately. You need to Card Mod Abyss worm, which is easily won in Balamb or later on.

Regen Ring - You can steal it from Biggs in Dollet or Card Mod 10 Chimera Cards.

Force Armlet - This can drop from the Machine in Dollet that attacks you.

2 Energy Crystals - Refine 20 Elnoyle Cards into 2 Energy Crystals.

TO GET ALL ULTIMATE WEAPONS ESTIMATED TIME

BUM

BUM

BUM

12-20 hours

All depends on the 60 Elnoyles you need to get and the Anacondaur Drop.

Reminder that these things can be found much more easily later on. But it can be totally satisfying and something to do, to get them on disk 1.

How To Get All GF's

Ifrit, Quetzacoatl and Shiva are unavoidable, so I will not cover them.

----------Siren----------

When you go to Dollet with Zell for your seed mission, you will fight Elvoret at the top of the Communication's Tower. (The monster with Red Wings that uses wind spells.) Siren is Drawn from her.

---------Diabolos--------

When you go to leave for Timber, talk to Cid before leaving Balamb. He will give you a magical lamp (And the battle meter, but that just keeps track of kills.) Use the Magical Lamp in your menu, out of battle, to start the fight. If you're weak, he will stomp you. But there's a trick to him. (Check out the Bosses section for help with this Boss. But just to put it in one line, use Blind and keep health high.)

--------Brother's---------

When you meet with the General in Galbadia for the Assassination, you will be requested to visit a place known as The Tomb of the Unknown King. Completely explore the area and interact with the walls/items around until you fight the hidden bosses (It's not very difficult to complete, if you have trouble, just watch a video. It'll be much more clear than me trying to explain.) Afterwards you will recieve them as a GF and their card, Minotaur.

--------Carbuncle--------

Ohhh, he's so cute! ^w^. When you're doing the Assassination, you will have to go save Rinoa with the help of Irvine. You'll be attacked by two Lizard-like creatures called Iguions. Draw Carbuncle from one of them. This guy has Counter as an ability! Super useful!

-------Leviathan-------

Draw it from NORG, he's a story quest boss and I'm going to avoid spoiling this one cause plot twist. But when you fight him, draw it from him. This one has Auto-Potion and Recover, which is nice.

-------Pandemona------

You will fight Raijin and Fujin at some point, when you do, Draw Pandemona from them! This one is really easy to boost it's power. It has super useful abilities like SPD-J, Initiative, Absorb.

-------Cerberus-------

When Galbadia Garden attacks, he is found in the Main Hall of Galbadia Garden. He must be defeated in battle (just like Ifrit and Diabolos.) He learns Auto Haste! Super useful ability.

------Alexander-----

He's drawn from Edea during your second fight with her in Galbadia Garden. He's alright, not one of the shining ones IMO. (kekeke)

------Doomtrain------

Not drawn?! Hidden?! How to get?! I got you :>.

You're going to need to collect a few things. You need 6 Remedy+ The easiest is to use Alexander's Med LV Up and level up 10 Remedies into 1 Remedy+ IMO.

You'll need 6 Steel Pipes. Refine Elastoid Cards into them.

You'll need 6 Malboro Tentacles, Drop from Malboros or just refine their cards.

Then you'll need Solomon's Ring. It is found at Tears' Point under the huge statue. Tears' Point is in Esthar Plains, east of the city. Use the ring when you have the other things and baddaboom.

-----Bahamut------

You gotta beat him, and I'll help you do it. You must trek into the Hidden Deep Sea Research Center. The Research Center is in the South-West corner of the world map. In the first room, you will see a HUGE blue light. Approach it >:D. It will ask you a question: So you wish to challenge me? Answer with: It is not our will to fight. You will then fight a Ruby Dragon. After the battle, it will ask another question: Begging me for mercy? Answer with: Never. You will fight another Ruby dragon and afterwards it'll ask the third and final question: Damned Imbeciles. Why do you wish to fight? You have to answer with a hidden option that is below the first two. It is revealed to be,"It is in our nature." (OwO) Then you have to fight Bahamut. Refer to the Bosses section for more info. You can delve deeper to fight Ultima Weapon!

----Cactuar----

You have to defeat Jumbo Cactuar on Cactuar Island. He is not a random encounter, but will appear and disappear on the world map (on the island.) You just have to run up to him before he runs away again. He deals a lot of damage, be careful :x.

---Tonberry---

You have to go to Centra Ruins and defeat 20 Cactuars and then he'll show up. Beat him and he joins you. Refer to the Bosses: Guardian Forces for help defeating him.

---Eden---

Drawn from Ultima Weapon at the bottom of the Deep Sea Research Center. Look at Bosses: Hidden Bosses

------------NONJUNCTIONABLE!-----------

-Odin-

Complete Centra Ruins within the time limit. Find the red stones and place them in the statues. Use Enc-None learned by Diabolos for an easier time doing this.

-Giglamesh-

Replaces Odin if you acquire odin before the end of Disk 3. Personally, I prefer Odin due to the Instakill, but Giglamesh is still really good! You'll get him automatically after the final boss of disk 3.

-Boko-

Get him from a Chocobo Forest, he levels up with your chocobo in chocobo world. Use Gyshal Greens to summon him.

-Moomba-

Use the Friendship item to summon him. He will leave an enemy at 1 hp. If the enemy has more than 9,999 HP. It will deal full damage instead.

-Phoenix-

Use Phoenix Pinion in battle, it has a chance of coming if the entire party is K.O.'d as well. It revives the party and deals fire dmg to the enemies.

-MiniMog-

The Item Mog's Amulet summons him. He'll heal all of your GF's and revive the dead GF's.

Work In Progress

I've created all of the information available in the last hour or so. I plan on adding guides to nearly ALL of the bosses in Final Fantasy 8. How to beat them and how to cheese them! There's more to come to hold out for it!

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1566780140

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