Final Fantasy VIII Disc 1

The Mission

The Plan

Remember that ID number from the sword? WHAT? You forgot to get it? I told you TWICE. Sheesh. Why do I bother with these things anyway. Oh. Sorry. Head back to Deling City.

Optional: Timber Maniacs

If you go to the Hotel and stay the night, you can get into the suite and get the off the floor beside the middle bed.

Tell the number to the guard outside Caraway’s Mansion. Enter the ONES digit first, then TENS, then finally the HUNDREDS (pad with zeros if necessary). After entering the mansion, talk to all of your guys and listen (and listen and listen) to Caraway. Leave the mansion and follow him around town. When he dismisses you, you’re free to wander around and do whatever. When you’re ready to advance the plot, return to Caraway’s mansion.

After some discussion, you’ll follow Caraway around again. Eventually your teams will split up, and Caraway will head back to his mansion. Watch Quistis make a decision that reinforces why she was demoted from her faculty position. I mean, it’s not like the fate of the world - not to mention all her friends - is riding on her doing her job. Go back to Caraway’s Mansion and get locked in. You are now Rinoa. Technically you can pick up a magazine now, but a) it will be easier in just a bit, and b) you can’t use it yet anyway.

Save your game and climb up the boxes - when you get to the top, you’ll automatically jump to the wall. Head left, climb up the ladder and scale the little ledge there. When you have control of Rinoa again, switch any/all from her to one of the three locked in the general’s mansion, then walk up to the sorceress and talk to her (I card talked for irony’s sake.) Now press OK a lot, walk forward and watch the CG. After Rinoa gets killed by the Iguion, the scene switches to Quistis and the rest looking for a way out.

Go grab a glass from the shelf by the door. A little farther down that same wall is a shrine. Put the glass in the hand of the statue. Now Junction your to Quistis, Zell and Selphie. Head down the corridor and save your game.

The Sewers (Part I)

Area Enemies: Deling City Sewers

Enemy	Location	Card / Rare Card	Useful Draws
Creeps	Deling City Sewers	Creeps Card / Sphinxara Card	Lv 1-29: Thunder, Life; Lv 30+: Thundara, Life, Drain
Grand Mantis	Deling City Sewers	Grand Mantis Card / BGH251F2 Card	-
Red Bat	Deling City Sewers	Red Bat Card / X-ATM092 Card	-

Go down the ladder. Now you are in the Sewers. This place is a bit of a maze.

After you descend the ladder, step on the little bridge and inspect the water wheel.
Inspect the gate to open it and go through.
Go down the walkway until the scene switches to Squall and Irvine.

Squall to the Rescue

Oh yeah, Rinoa didn’t really die. I was just pulling your leg. :) Now you have to go rescue her. Follow Irvine around the parade float and into the same area Rinoa climbed up the boxes. SAVE GAME AND JUNCTION Squall and Irvine. Of note: Both should be able to draw. Don’t junction Fire or Bio to your elemental attack! For Status Defense, Junction Break to prevent petrification if you can. If you’ve got the ability for , enable it. Check again that you can draw. You don’t want to know how irritating it is to not be able to draw in the next scene. If you have Quake or Holy, consider junctioning these to Elemental Attack for this battle.

Optional: Weapons Monthly

See that Sewer portal on the far right (not the big circle - the littler one)? Save your game, and go down into the sewer. Head left a bunch and grab the (this was the magazine I told you about before). After grabbing it, head right to the ladder and climb up out of the sewer.

Head up the crates, jump to the wall and scale the ledge just like the Rinoa, then another ledge to your immediate left. Run down the hallway to start…

Boss Fight Prep

Make sure someone can Draw or you’ll miss a . Enable if you can.

Boss Fight: Iguion

Steal	6 from each Iguion
Weak / Absorbs	Weak to Earth; absorb Fire.
Reward	20 AP and the if you draw it
Drops	4 from each Iguion
Strategy	Draw first to remove their Reflect. Earth attacks work well; draw-cast Esuna if Magma Breath petrifies someone.

DRAW from the Iguion before attacking. If you’ve managed to get the skill by now, you should be able to steal some G-Return items from them. Kill them before they kill you. Note that their Magma Breath attack can inflict Petrify on you, but they helpfully have Esuna you can draw-cast it to prevent a character from turning into their most statuesque self.

Optimizing GF Distribution with Carbuncle

Group 1: Siren, Carbuncle

Group 2: Quetz, Ifrit, Brothers

Group 3: Shiva, Diablos

Strategy: Separates Carbuncle and Diablos so two characters can use Abilityx3.

Ability Priority: Recov Med-RF, Vit+20%, Vit+40%, Vit Bonus, Mag-J, HP-J. Full list.

Once you’ve finished them off, press OK a lot, then head back into the hallway again. Notice the trap door? Go down it and grab the rifle. After messing with Rinoa’s head and watching Irvine have a nervous breakdown, it’s time to see how the other half of your party is doing.

The Sewers (Part II)

Area Enemies: Deling City Sewers

Enemy	Location	Card / Rare Card	Useful Draws
Creeps	Deling City Sewers	Creeps Card / Sphinxara Card	Lv 1-29: Thunder, Life; Lv 30+: Thundara, Life, Drain
Grand Mantis	Deling City Sewers	Grand Mantis Card / BGH251F2 Card	-
Red Bat	Deling City Sewers	Red Bat Card / X-ATM092 Card	-

SWITCH THE JUNCTIONS BACK!!! Don’t wander around down here with a bunch of unjunctioned characters! Note that and both have - be sure they’re junctioned to different characters to maximize how many abilities you can slot. Refer to the Area Enemies panel for card mods and draw opportunities.

So now we’re back in the sewers. This time it’s a serious maze. Originally I had this as a bunch of bulleted text, but hopefully highlightable table format will make it easier to track where you are in the maze…

Deling City sewer route
Step	Action
1	Go straight and inspect the gate to get through.
2	Cross the little bridge and inspect the gate on the upper left.
3	After you go through the gate, inspect the ladder. It should fall. If you cross the ladder, you can draw Esuna on the next screen to the left.
4	Go past the ladder and up the stairs on the next screen to the left.
5	Inspect the gate and go through.
6	Go down the hallway and through the next gate.
7	Go over the little bridge and through the gate to your right. See the draw point at the bottom of the next screen? The detour is coming up, if you need it. It is also easy to get from the card game.
8	Go right for the full screen. You should come to a bridge.
9	Optional draw-point detour: go over the little bridge and through the gate down.
10	Pass this screen and get the draw point.
11	Go back one screen, through the gate, and back to the bridge.
12	Go part way over the bridge and up the wheel.
13	Go across the little bridge and down the other wheel.
14	Go through the gate at the bottom of the screen and go down a full screen.
15	Go down the wheel.
16	Go through the gate at the bottom of the screen and go down a full screen.
17	Open the gate and go down the wheel.
18	Go through the gate at the bottom of the screen and go down a full screen.
19	Open the gate, go down the stairs, and inspect the ladder that is on your current side.
20	Open the gate just after the ladder and go a full screen right. If you’ve been following along, you shouldn’t see a magazine here. You needed to get that either as Rinoa or as Squall/Irvine.
21	On the screen here, ride the wheel up. You only had to knock down the ladder if you didn’t get the magazine already.
22	Go through the gate and up a screen.
23	Go over the bridge, save your game, and then go up the ladder.

When you get to the first floor of the Arch, you will get off the ladder. Get back on the ladder and select ‘go up.’ When you get to the next floor, talk to Zell to trigger looking out the window, then run over and flip the switch on the far left wall. Then (eventually) Irvine will fire the shot.

Boss Fight Prep

When given the chance, set up your junctions for the last boss fight on this disc. Junction to Rinoa, Squall, and Irvine - don’t forget to heal up the characters if their HP changes. Be sure Squall has Ability, then it’s time for…

Boss Fight: Seifer and Edea

Steal	from Seifer; from Edea
Weak / Absorbs	No notable elemental weakness; it absorbs nothing.
Reward	40 AP
Drops	n/a
Strategy	Junction Rinoa, Squall, and Irvine before climbing the Arch. Draw-cast their healing magic on them while Mugging, then draw Edea’s Dispel, Life, Double, and Cura before finishing the fights.

This is one of those instances where it pays to follow the low-level route or to have one GOOD and the rest mediocre characters. If you have the ability, Squall can mug a from Seifer and an from Edea; both have healing magic junctioned, so you can just draw cast it at THEM to keep your mug attack from killing them off before you’ve stolen. It took about 8 mugs before I succeeded. After stealing their stuff, deploy your best attacks.

I used to mop the floor with everyone. One use of killed Seifer, and two killed Edea. Seifer doesn’t have any magic to write home about, but Edea’s Dispel, Life, Double, and Cura could be worth drawing. As always, if you’ve been playing the , you probably don’t actually need these. Anyway, after you win the battle Squall get’s iced, you get to save the game.

Congratulations, you have completed the first disc.