Final Fantasy VIII Disc 4

Time Compression

Fighting Adel

OK and we’re back. Now that the game has been saved (yes, it’s true that there is nothing useful about having the game saved here). Depending on who was in your party, you may be forced to switch your party around. Head down and sorta left one screen where you will see a big crane thing. How you are supposed to know that this is an important tower is beyond me. I will assume if you wanted to loot Lunatic Pandora you have already done so. If not, feel free. If you backtrack all the way to the Ragnarok and try to leave, Squall will be upset - and that’s kind of funny. ;)

Go over to the tower and climb the bottommost ladder, then run up the crane looking thing. When you get to the top, head right. When the view changes, head forward a little bit. Notice the save point outside the cave. What does that suggest to you? Let’s prep for a minute…

Boss Fight Prep

You’ll need to be able to either use curing magic or items. Being able to mugGF AbilityReplaces Attack with a stealing attack. Learned by Diablos and Bahamut. is a good idea, too.

Upon entering the cave, watch the CG until the battle begins. The point of this battle is to keep Rinoa alive and make Adel dead. Simple right? Remember: most GFSystemGuardian Forces are FF8's summons and the source of most junction, command, support, refine, and stat-growth abilities. attacks hurt ALL your opponents, as do plenty of spells. Use normal attacks, or the spells/items that ONLY AFFECT ONE OPPONENT! Try giving potionsItemRestores HP by 200 to Rinoa or casting Regen on her. On the other hand, you can mugGF AbilityReplaces Attack with a stealing attack. Learned by Diablos and Bahamut. MegalixirsItemFully restores abnormal status and HP to all members Useful chain: buy 10 Elixirs at Esthar Shop!!!, then use Med LV Up to make 1 Megalixir. off her at this point. XD I got 8. I like to have one character use Triple and Curaga to keep everyone healthy, and have the others try and mugGF AbilityReplaces Attack with a stealing attack. Learned by Diablos and Bahamut. from Adel.

Once you have finished her off (I mean Adel, not Rinoa… Most days at least), Laguna and Ellone show up. They will get Rinoa back and give you a pep talk. When you finally finish falling, you can save your game at the first save point (the one you stop on). I like to ensure as many characters can MugGF AbilityReplaces Attack with a stealing attack. Learned by Diablos and Bahamut. as possible here, since you can MugGF AbilityReplaces Attack with a stealing attack. Learned by Diablos and Bahamut. stones (Meteor, Ultima, etc.) from the upcoming enemies. Once you have saved your game, head forward through the door, then battle “sorceresses through the ages.” They’re a bunch of enemies with less than 4k HP. Just kill them all and forget about the fact that they are appearing in different surroundings.

Boss Fight Prep

There’s not a lot of prep needed here. Just be able to keep your HP high and do the opposite to their HP.

The first sorceress archetype has Firaga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga. The second has Haste and Double. After the Winhill battle, you will meet the (obviously) last sorceress. She’s a big worm. When she starts a countdown, you better kill her fast or get your HP WAY up. Remember when you fight her that she has the Counter Skill, which means if one of your characters hits her with a physical attack, she gets a free attack against that character. Your first move should be to cast Triple on one or two characters and spam triple-cast Demi. Or if you’re seriously OP, just use your GFsSystemGuardian Forces are FF8's summons and the source of most junction, command, support, refine, and stat-growth abilities. and kick her butt. When she dies, you will be back at Edea’s house. Head through the house (either door) and down to the beach.

The Chain

Go around the big rock in the middle of the sand to head down to the entrance to the castle. Climb up the chain. As you scale the chain you will notice there are three doors below you to the left. You can use one of the doors below to allow you to go back out and level grind. If you have defeated the Balamb Garden Card Club, you will most definitely like this next section:

Optional: Return to Ragnarok

If you jump through the last door (the one farthest from where you started - you kind of have to jump off the middle of the link) you can get back to the Ragnarok. When you go through the door, you will be on the beach off the eastern coast of Esthar in Grandidi Forest. Enable Enc-NoneGF AbilityPrevents most random encounters. Learned by Diablos., then go north a little way until you can pass through a valley. Then follow the right wall to the small shrine up there. The shrine looks like a normal Chocobo ForestSide QuestOptional forest puzzles where you use Sonar and Ziner to call chicobos, summon the mother chocobo, dig up treasures, and eventually earn the Chicobo Card., except that it is in the middle of a regular forest. Once you get there you can ride the Chocobos in this forest for free. Just hop on him.

Chocobos can run through shallow water. Head east to the coast where your door is, then follow the coastline all the way down to near Cactuar Island. You are looking for the Ragnarok. Hint: you can find it by looking for the big red dot on the full screen map. Once you get to the Ragnarok, if you have defeated all the CC members, you can now play against them again, only this time they have the highest-level cards. You can complete your full collection of cards here and Card ModGF AbilityRefines Triple Triad cards into items, which can often be refined again into strong magic. Learned by Quezacotl. them for all sorts of useful things. In addition to playing the CC group, you can also go after other GF and DevourGF AbilityConsumes certain weakened enemies for unusual rewards or stat gains. Learned by Eden. some enemies. See the end of Endgame Prep for details. You can’t enter any populated areas.

Card Club Strategy

One of the quickest ways to get your characters really leveled up involves playing the card gameSystemFF8's card game. Winning cards feeds Card Mod, which feeds items, magic, weapons, GF abilities, and all sorts of nonsense in the best way. here. In the room where you first found the Purple Propagator (the one with the long staircase on the right) you’ll find the two girls who are Card Club Diamond. They play with Trabia’s rules. Directly up from there, through the big door with the circle, is CC Jack, who plays with Balamb’s Rules. If you go through the smaller door on the far right instead, you can find a save point. So here’s the trick. The girl on the left will regularly play with any card you don’t have from pages 8-10. You can use the Balamb / Trabia jump to try and have various rules you don’t like abolished. This means you can get rid of random, if you haven’t already.

One thing to know about CC Diamond. The one on the LEFT is the one you want to play. She plays with pretty much all cards. The one on the RIGHT only plays with SOME cards. If you play Left CC Diamond, she’ll play with the first page 8 card you don’t have, then the first page 9, then the first page 10. This means you can Card ModGF AbilityRefines Triple Triad cards into items, which can often be refined again into strong magic. Learned by Quezacotl. the Angelo Card into 100 ElixirsItemFully restores abnormal status and HP, then Med LV UpRefine AbilityImproves medicine items to stronger versions. Learned by Alexander. those to 10 MegalixirsItemFully restores abnormal status and HP to all members Useful chain: buy 10 Elixirs at Esthar Shop!!!, then use Med LV Up to make 1 Megalixir., then win back the Angelo Card and quickly get yourself 100 MegalixirsItemFully restores abnormal status and HP to all members Useful chain: buy 10 Elixirs at Esthar Shop!!!, then use Med LV Up to make 1 Megalixir., which could come in handy. I like to play with Irvine, Zell, Edea, Seifer, and Squall. That’s a power card in every corner, and Zell as a good all-rounder.

Card Mod Strategy

I’m guessing you’re OK with becoming ridiculously overpowered at this point, so here’s a guide for which cards to use and win back, and what you can do with them:

Card	What you get	Use Ability	To get…
Fat Chocobo Card	100x LuvLuv GItemRaises compatibility with all GF (20 pts)	Nothing	Each LuvLuv GItemRaises compatibility with all GF (20 pts) will raise compatibility with all GFSystemGuardian Forces are FF8's summons and the source of most junction, command, support, refine, and stat-growth abilities. by 20.
Gilgamesh Card	10x Holy WarsItemMakes all party members invincible	GFAbl Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines GF ability medicine from items. Learned by Eden. / Forbid Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines forbidden medicine from items. Learned by Doomtrain.	10x Holy WarsItemMakes all party members invincible -> 2x Knight’s CodeItemGF learns Cover ability -> 2x Vit-Up
Minotaur Card	10x AdamantinesItemGF learns Vit+60% ability	Forbid Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines forbidden medicine from items. Learned by Doomtrain.	10x AdamantinesItemGF learns Vit+60% ability -> 2x Vit-Up
Eden Card	3x Monk’s CodeItemGF learns Counter ability	Forbid Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines forbidden medicine from items. Learned by Doomtrain.	1x Monk’s CodeItemGF learns Counter ability -> 1x Str-Up
Irvine Card	3x Rocket EnginesItemGF learns Spd+40% ability	Forbid Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines forbidden medicine from items. Learned by Doomtrain.	5x Rocket EnginesItemGF learns Spd+40% ability -> 1x Spd-Up
Zell Card	3x Hyper WristItemGF learns Str+60% ability	Forbid Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines forbidden medicine from items. Learned by Doomtrain.	10x Hyper WristItemGF learns Str+60% ability -> 1x Str-Up
Edea Card	3x Royal CrownsItemGF learns Mag+60% ability	Forbid Med-RFRefine AbilityRefines forbidden medicine from items. Learned by Doomtrain.	10x Royal CrownsItemGF learns Mag+60% ability -> 1x Mag-Up

Need money? You can Card ModGF AbilityRefines Triple Triad cards into items, which can often be refined again into strong magic. Learned by Quezacotl. Laguna’s Card into 100 Heroes, which can be sold for 750,000. Or you can turn them into 10 Holy War-TrialsItemMakes all characters invincible sometimes, which can then be turned into a Holy WarItemMakes all party members invincible to make your party invincible.

When you have had your fun (or become bored), return to the area where you got the Ragnarok and go through the doorway there to return to the main plot line.

Other Doors

There are two other doors by the chain. The first door teleports you to Galbadia - Wilburn Hill (near the now destroyed base). For yucks, you can go stand on top of the remains and draw Confuse. ;) The second door takes you to Centra - Serengetti Plains. You can get to the Centra Ruins from here, and obtain OdinGuardian ForceOptional Centra Ruins summon that randomly appears at battle start. Odin does not junction like a normal GF. and/or TonberryGuardian ForceGuardian Force earned by defeating enough Tonberries in the Centra Ruins. Tonberry brings LV Up, LV Down, shop abilities, and useful economy tricks. at this location. I’m not sure there is anything else you can do on the Centra plains. Well, other than fight fish, Jelleyes and Geezards. I suppose you can get one at the Chocobo forestSide QuestOptional forest puzzles where you use Sonar and Ziner to call chicobos, summon the mother chocobo, dig up treasures, and eventually earn the Chicobo Card. there, but, uh, why…?