GF
Magazine
Weapon
Cards
Blue Magic
Things to Do Differently on Future Playthroughs
This is the second iteration of this post, and I have attempted to fix the below regrets. I have added an explanation for why onto each point.
- Begin Card Queen Quest on Disc 1 - ie, send her to Dollet before beginning Timber Mission. Also, lose only the relevant cards to her, instead of using an unrelated card to shuttle her around. This is just to be efficient.
- Have Seifer level Ifrit up to level 10 during Dollet Mission on Disc 1. Ifrit needs to reach level 10 to unlock Ammo-RF which is useful for Irvine's limit break and for some weapons. I usually play a low-level game until I obtain GFs with stat boosts, so not unlocking this early means getting weapons later than necessary.
- Finish the dog bone quest in Dollet later for better items. I did not previously realise that you get different items based on whether you get them before or during disc 3.
- Watch the scenes between Zell and the library girl. When you obtain the Combat King 003 magazine, it is accompanied by a scene. You only see the full dialogue if you've seen enough prerequisite scenes.
Balamb Garden
- 8 Beginner Cards from the Guy near the 2nd Floor lift.
- Shiva at desk or Front Gate.
- Quetzalcoatl at desk or Front Gate.
- Occult Fan I and Esuna drawpoint in Library. Speak to the pony-tail girl at the desk. She'll tell you the library rules.
- You can draw Sleep and Silence from Grats in Training Centre.
- Blizzard drawpoint in Training Centre.
Fire Cavern
- You can draw Cure, Scan, Thunder, Blizzard and Fire from enemies on Alcauld Plains.
- Defeat Ifrit.
Dollet
- Draw Cure, Fire, Thunder and Blizzard from G-Soldiers. Level Ifrit to 10 to unlock Ammo-RF, which is necessary for Irvine's limit break and weapons. I suggest doing it here because you can use Seifer if you're trying to keep your party's level low.
- Blind Drawpoint in the Comm Tower.
- Draw Esuna from Wedge. I suggest getting 100 each, they are excellent for junctions.
- Draw Siren and Doubles from Elvoret. I suggest getting 100 each, they are excellent for junctions. However, this is quite difficult, so don't worry about the doubles if you can't be bothered.
- Weapons Mon Mar automatically.
- You can only defeat the X-ATM092 for good on or after the bridge. You can draw protects from it, but be aware of the time limit.
Balamb
- Timber Maniacs in Hotel Room or at Train Station. Where you read it changes the first scene with Julia.
- Fastitocalons on the beach give 3AP each and drop Fish Fins which you can turn into Water spells with I-Mag-RF from Shiva. They're good on strength. You can use Card-Mod to turn 5 Fastitocalon-F cards into a Water Crystal, from which Quistis can learn Aqua Breath.
- You can get a Spider Web from a caterchipillar, either after battle or by using Card-Mod on its card. Quistis can learn Ultra Waves from this.
- Card a Bomb in the Fire Cavern and a T-Rexaur in the woods on Alcauld Plains to make card games easier.
- Win the Zell card from Ma Dincht. I suggest collecting Elnoyle cards, Malboro, and Iron Giant cards in that order of priority if they come up, they'll be useful for later weapon upgrades. If you want to change the trading rule, pick up the one you want by beating the Card Queen with it before playing with Ma Dincht.
Balamb Garden
- Win the Minimog card in the Foyer.
- After receiving your grade, speak to Cid before leaving his office to obtain the Battle Meter.
- You can draw Protects from Raldos and Blind and Shell from Granaldo.
- Pick up Weapons Mon April from Squall's new desk.
- Before meeting Zell and Selphie, head to the library to watch the conceited SeeD talk to the Library Committee member at the desk. You may need to enter and exit a few times before it happens. I went and got the Quistis card and then came back before I saw it.
- Win the Quistis card from her groupies in the Cafeteria.
- Pick up the Magical Lamp from Cid immediately after meeting Zell and Selphie. Use it and defeat Diablo to obtain GF and Card. You can draw Demis from him, but it's difficult.
- Visit the library with Zell in your party so he can ask pony-tail girl about a book.
- Obtain Seifer card from Cid in his office.
- Use Diablos's Status Mag RF to make Break magic from Cockatrice Pinions and Softs before heading to Timber. If you're playing a low level game, you will need this to avoid gaining exp from human enemies. You'll probably also want to learn Enc-None as soon as possible. T-Rexaurs give 10AP each.
Train to Timber
- In Balamb, buy enough tents to give everyone 100 curagas (via Life Mag RF). It's great on HP.
- Lose the MiniMog Card to the Card Queen and move her to Dollet (speak to her again before leaving the screen and she'll tell you where she's going). You may need to reset a few times.
- Pets Pals Vol. 1 automatically.
Timber
- After the briefing obtain the Angelo card from Watts.
- Pick up Pets Pals Vol. 2 in Rinoa's room.
- Buy Pets Pals Vol 3 and Pets Pals Vol 4 from the Pet Shop near the station.
- You can get free potions from the guy standing on the bridge over the train tracks if Rinoa or Quistis are in your party. I don't think they're limited, you just need to exit and re-enter the screen.
- Pick up Girl Next Door in the stacks of magazines in Timber Maniacs.
- Read the issue of Timber Maniacs in the main office. Encourage the journalist outside to follow his dream.
- Try the Owl's Tears in the house near the railway.
- You can find the man's 500 gil savings if you keep checking the cupboard, but you won't be able to use the Owl's Tears for healing any more.
Side Trips - Dollet, Timber Maniacs, Siren Card, Starting the Obel Lake Sidequest
- You need to get off the train at the right station, or your SeeD rank will go down. You can then walk to Dollet.
- I suggest spreading Open and abolishing Random. This thread has some advice that worked for me, even after I spread Open in a different way.
- Read the issue of Timber Maniacs in the hotel room.
- Read the issue of Timber Maniacs upstairs in the Shining Bomber pub. If you have Move-Find there's a handy save point.
- The Card Queen will also be upstairs in the Shining Bomber. Ask her about her artist father, and she'll confirm that the Kiros Card has been created.
- You can win the Siren Card from the pub owner, near the pool table. When you beat him, he'll invite you to his private room and give you 5 Geezard Cards, 4 Red Bat Cards, 3 Buel Cards, 2 Anacondaur Cards, and a Cactuar Card.
- By examining the magazines around this room, you can randomly find various healing items, Geezard Cards, and, eventually, Occult Monthly II. Exiting and re-entering seems to reset the pile.
- Speak to the boy outside the house nearby, then follow him inside. If you continue with his quest now - looking at the painting and then looking at the location where the bone is three times - you'll gain a potion, a phoenix down, and a soft. If you wait until Disc 3, you'll gain better prizes.
- You can win your Minimog Card back from the boy.
- Fight on the beach nearby until you're able to win a Whisper from an Adamantoise, which can be used to teach Quistis White Wind. They can also be refined into 50 Curagas.
- Head back to Timber.
- Read the issue of Timber Maniacs in the Timber Hotel.
- Go to Mandy Beach just northeast of Timber and run around until you see an alien abduct a statue.
- Go to Obel Lake and try humming until you are asked to find Mr Monkey.
- Find Mr Monkey in the forest west of Dollet.
- Return to the lake and hum to relay the whereabouts of Mr Monkey.
- Throw a rock in the lake until it skips "many many times".
- Throw a rock at Mr Monkey in the forest until he throws one back.
Excavation Site
- The odd actions listed here allow you to find several items later, further detailed here. I've written the below assuming you enter from the ladder further to the north, by the 3-branching path rather than the fork. It doesn't really make a difference, as long as you try to pick up both old keys and tamper with all 3 hatches before hitting the fuses. Going north from the save point will cause you to leave the area permanently, so just get everything done before then.
- Go down the ladder and pick up the Old Key.
- Tamper with the middle door.
- Leave then return and try to tamper with the far-right hatch.
- Pick up the second Old Key on the next screen.
- The right path leads to the ladder near the fork I mentioned earlier. From here you can loop round to try to tamper with the left hatch.
- Hit the red fuse followed by the blue one. Both hatches should swing open.
- Move the boulder to find a cure drawpoint.
Galbadia Garden
- After the story events, you have a good opportunity to abolish undesirable card rules from Trabia.
- Play the student in the locker room near the hockey rink until Open spreads throughout Trabia.
- Play with the students in the nearby classroom to pick up the Galbadian rule set; do not mix rules.
- Play with the student until Random or Plus is abolished. Repeat above until the second one is also abolished.
- Life Drawpoint in Locker Room.
- Haste Drawpoint in golden light.
Deling City
- Pick up Timber Maniacs in the hotel.
- You can use the woman downstairs in the hotel and the woman outside to edit the rules of FH as you did Trabia earlier.
- The man in black on the left side of the shopping area has the Kiros Card.
Tomb of the Unknown King
- You can draw Life from Sacred and Double from Minotaur.
- Defeat Sacred and Minotaur to gain the Brothers GF and their cards.
- Now you have the Sacred Card, you can lose it to the Card Queen in Dollet. This will make her move elsewhere. Make sure it's somewhere convenient, like Deling City or Timber. Make a note of where she goes. You can then win the Sacred Card back from her son.
Deling City
- As Rinoa, pick up Weapons Mon May from the sewers.
- Draw Carbuncle from the Iguions.
- If you have mug you can steal a Hero from Seifer and an Elixir from Edea.
Winhill
- Spend all of Laguna's money at the shop.
D-District Prison
- You can draw Reflects from Wedge and Haste and Regen from Biggs. If you have mug, you can steal a Regen Ring from Wedge and a Strength Love from Biggs.
- Go downstairs before going up.
- Play cards on level 5 for a 1/32 chance to win a Luck-Up or a 3/256 chance to win a Phoenix Pinion.
- Tent on level 4.
- Pet House on level 3.
- Pet Nametag and Str Up on level 2.
- Combat King 001 on level 1.
- Play cards on level 10 to improve your Battle Meter.
- Play cards on level 11 for a 1/128 chance of winning a Rosetta Stone.
- Pick up a Cottage and a Rename Card from two moombas on the top floor, after control switches back to Squall.
Missile Base
- Selphie can win Rinoa's card from General Caraway if you head to Deling City first and lose your Ifrit card to him.
- Full-Life Drawpoint in Missile Launch Bay.
- Weapons Mon June automatically from BGH251F2.
Balamb Garden
- Mega-Potion from the SeeD by the gate.
- Remedy from SeeD in library. If you have Zell with you, this is a Mega-Phoenix.
- Remedy from SeeD in Training Area.
- Tent from SeeD in Parking Lot.
- Gysahl Greens from SeeD in Canteen.
- X-Potion from SeeD in the Quad.
- Elixir from Dr Kadowaki.
- Full-Life Drawpoint under Garden.
- Challenge the CC Club's Jack near the directory.
- Challenge the CC's Club's Club in the hallways of Balamb Garden.
- Win Leviathan card from Joker in the Training Centre. He will improve your Battle Meter.
- Defeat Diamond by the Directory. They have a full set of level 7 cards.
- If you have Mug, then steal a Mag-Up from Left Orb, a Spr Up from Right Orb, and a Circlet from Norg. If you don't have mug yet, go kill/card a few T-rexaurs first.
- Draw Leviathan from Norg.
- Defeat Spade near the 2F lift. He also has a full set of level 7 cards.
- See the conceited SeeD and the librarian with a ponytail talking about books. They'll be interrupted by another librarian, and ponytail girl will get embarrassed. Zell must not be in the party. Although I brought him to Balamb, I saw this scene when Squall was alone after the ship arrived. You might also be able to see it when Squall and Irvine are alone after battling the BHG251F2 (always happens, not dependent on your party choices).
Fisherman's Horizon
- Head down to the Master Fisherman and say "What are you talking about?" to obtain Occult Fan III.
- Read the issue of Timber Maniacs in the Grease Monkey's house.
- Read the issue of Timber Maniacs in the hotel.
- Speak to the fishing kid near the weapon shop until he runs out of dialogue.
- Win your Ifrit Card back from Martine.
- Win the Quetzalcotl card from Mayor Dobe and the Irvine Card from his wife.
- Ultima drawpoint in the Mayor's House.
- Steal Adamantine from BHG251F2. If you've been doing enough card-playing, you might be able to get Selphie's Strange Vision.
- Return to the Master Fisherman. Meet him at the inn as requested. Follow him and listen to his story for a Megalixer.
- Take Irvine and Squall down to the Grease Monkey's House for a Mega-Phoenix.
- Full-life Drawpoint where the fisherman was standing.
- As Irvine alone, visit the library and speak to the ponytail girl near the Esuna drawpoint.
- As Irvine alone, head back to the Grease Monkey's place for a Phoenix Down. Examine the Sergeant for 5 AP, 5 Fast and 5 Pulse Ammo. Do not use the Pulse Ammo in battle, you need it for Squall's ultimate weapon.
- The next day, take Squall alone to the library and see the conceited SeeD asking about the library committee members at the desk. You might also want to take this opportunity to run in and out of the library a few times, since you'll need to have entered 50 times before the final scene in this sidequest.
Side Trips - CC Club, Chocobo Forest, Odin, Tonberry, Blue Magic...
Misc
- Challenge Hearts on the bridge. Hearts has the Carbuncle card.
- Take Zell to the library so the committee can question him on his favourite things.
- Challenge Dr Kadowaki then rest in your Dorm Room (alone) to face King. It's random, you might have to try a few times. King has the Gilgamesh card.
- On the way past, search Balamb Beach for a stone with letters carved on it.
- Pick up a Pet Nametag from the guy outside the Timber Maniacs Building.
- Head to the Island just north of the railway bridge near Timber. It's classed as part of Mandy Beach and there's another rock with letters on it here.
Chocobos
- Head to The Basic's Forest on the western tip of Trabia, Sorbald Snowfield. After catching the Chocobo blow the whistle on the western side of the screen for a Flare Stone. There is a more detailed guide here.
- Head to The Roaming Forest, north of Trabia Garden. The hidden items here are a Shell Stone and a Holy Stone.
- Head to the Beginner's Forest next to Shumi Village. The hidden item is an Aura stone.
- Head to the Chocobo Forest of Solitude north of the Centra Ruins. The items are a protect stone and a Meteor Stone. You'll need to challenge Chocoboy to a card game, then ask him to move.
- Head to the Chocobo Forest of Fun east of Edea's house. The prizes here are a Fire Stone, Meteor Stone and Ultima Stone.
- Ride the Chocobo to the eastern edge of this island to find the Enclosed Forest. The prize here is a Meteor Stone, a Holy Stone and an Ultima Stone.
- While you're here, head to Kashkabald desert to watch an alien abduct a pyramid.
- You can gain lots of AP and very little exp from Cactuars on the edge of Kashkabald Desert nearest to Cactuar Island. It is considered part of Cactuar Island and is named as such in the menu.
- Go back to the Roaming forest north of Trabia and ride the Chocobo to the forest on the north-easternmost tip of Esthar, over the water. Speak to the Chicobo to obtain a Chicibo card.
- Find the Card Queen, wherever you sent her, and lose the Chicibo card to her. Return her to Dollet, where you can ask her about her artist father and win your Chicibo card back from the Queen's son.
- Win the Chubby Chocobo card from the Seed on the 1st floor near the Training Centre.
Winhill
- Watch an alien abduct a cow across the Winhill bluffs.
- Complete the Vase quest for a Holy Stone, by finding the five pieces hidden throughout the town. You'll need Irvine to find one of the pieces.
- Pop the Chocobo into the air for a Phoenix Down and some Gysahl Greens.
Centra Ruins
- This sidequest is straightforward, but there is a time limit so be sure to save beforehand. The time limit just boots you out, you can try again. It doesn't reset your Tonberry count.
- You can draw Stops, Deaths, Doubles, and Triples from Odin and mug for a Luck-J scroll. Defeat Odin to gain Card and GF. Odin will randomly defeat enemies for you, so you might choose to wait until later.
- Fight tonberries in the ruins until King Tonberry shows up after 20. You can go out and save, the count won't reset. If you card them it won't count, but they don't give any exp anyway. Tonberry King is extremely useful for getting the items needed for weapons because of his level up and level down skills.
Items for Ultimate Weapons
- Full post here. Level up/down always doubles/halves the monster's level, so if you struggle to get them between 20-29, try levelling them to 100 and then back down to 25.
- If you mug an enemy, it won't drop anything.
- Your Chicobo may bring you some of these things if you're playing the Chocobo World game.
- You'll need 7 Energy Crystals which are difficult to get at the moment. You can Card-Mod 10 Elnoyle Cards into one energy crystal. I suggest trying to get at least 1 and then using Ammo-RF to turn it into 10 Pulse Ammo. That, combined with the 5 Pulse Ammo from FH will be enough for Squall's Lionheart.
- 18 screws. You can get 5 by card-modding 1 Geezard card, or they can be won by battling Geezards.
- 4 Sharp Spikes - Card-Mod Grand Mantis cards.
- 2x Windmills. You can create them by Card-Modding Abyss Worm cards.
- 4 Dragon Fangs, dropped by T-Rexaurs at level 20-29. You can also mug Star Fragments from them at level 30+.
- 5x Star Fragments (4 if you already have Selphie's weapon) - each takes 3 Iron Giant cards, or are sometimes dropped by T-Rexaurs over level 30.
- Mug six Steel Pipes from Wendigos in the forest near Timber. They will always have steel pipes to steal at levels 20-29, with more at level 30+. These are needed to obtain a future GF. Alternatively, you can Card-Mod Elastoid cards. Anacondaurs also show up in this forest sometimes.
- 4x Dragon Skins, dropped by Anacondaurs at level 30+. They can be found near Dollet. At this level, you can also mug Star Fragments from them, with a 4.68% chance of success.
- You'll need 3 adamantines (2 if you already got Selphie's weapon). Level-Up Adamantoises on the beach near Dollet until you have 2 more Adamantines (dropped at 30+). You can also mug a Whisper, at any level, to teach Quistis White Wind or mod into 50 curagas.
- You need 2 curse spikes (unless you already got Selphie's weapon). You can mod Tri-Face cards.
- 2 Dino Bones, dropped by low level (20-) T-Rexaurs or from card-modding T-Rexaur cards.
- 1 Fury Fragment from Card-Modding 4 Blue Dragon Cards.
- 2x Malboro Tentacles from Card-Modding 4 Malboro cards each. You'll need another six to obtain a future GF, but no hurry.
- For Rinoa, you'll need a Regen Ring, which you can get by modding 10 Chimera Cards. This can wait until later.
- For Rinoa you'll need a Force Armlet (as well as two Energy Crystals). You may have won this from X-ATM092 (20% chance), or you'll have a chance to win one from a boss soon. Alternatively, you can level up Ochus in the forests near Timber for a 4.68% chance of them dropping one. Since you'll need two energy crystals anyway, I suggest waiting a bit.
- for Irvine you'll need a moonstone, which will not be available until Disc 3.
- You should now be able to get Lion Heart, Ehrgeiz, and Strange Vision.
Shumi Village
- Ultima Drawpoint near the entrance.
- Pick up the issue of Timber Maniacs on Artisan's Bed in Shumi Village. Reading this now means Ward will not show up in a later flashback.
- Collect all the stones in Shumi Village for a Phoenix Pinion.
- Leave and return. Talk to Elder, Assistant and Artisan until you are asked to find a way to convince Artisan to help.
- Visit the Grease Monkey in FH, then return to Artisan. Return to the Elder after convincing Artisan to help to receive a Status Guard.
Balamb Invasion
- You can win the Pandemona card from the hotel owner's daughter now or from the hotel owner by returning to Balamb after this event.
- Draw Pandemona and Full-Lifes (if she's over level 30) from Fuijin. There are limited places to obtain full-lifes, so I suggest making sure you get the full 300 here.
- Mug two Strength-Ups from Raijin. and Fuijin for a Hero/Megalixer.
- Win Combat King 002 automatically from Raijin.
- Speak to the girl in the SeeD uniform at Balamb Train Station (I missed this one).
Trabia
- Pick up Weapons Mon August, south of the statue.
- Pick up Timber Maniacs at the graveyard.
- Aura Drawpoint near the rocket.
- Win the Selphie card from her friend.
- Take Zell down to the library to see the committee discussing his answers. They're by the esuna drawpoint.
Galbadia Garden
- The important orders are for attack, defence, and care of the junior classmen. - Pick up a Cottage on 2f of Balamb.
- Aura Drawpoint under the two trees after rescuing Rinoa.
- Life drawpoint in locker-room.
- Mug Cerberus for Speed-J scroll. You can draw Doubles, Quakes, and, if he's over level 30, Triples. Defeat Cerberus for GF and Card.
- Mug Seifer for 8 Mega-Phoenixes or don't and he'll drop eight mega-potions.
- Draw Hastes from Seifer.
- Draw Alexander from Edea and mug a Royal Crown or don't and she'll drop a Force Armlet. You can also draw Demis and Esunas.
Balamb
- With Zell in your party, speak to the library girl at the desk in Garden.
- Pick up Weapons Mon July from the Training Centre.
- Speak to the girl with the red skirt at the entrance to Balamb. Head to Zell's house then stay at the hotel. You should receive Combat King 003 in the morning. I was still missing a single line of dialogue, possibly due to the scene I missed above.
Edea's House
- Try to spread Open and abolish Random in Cetra, just to make your life easier. The instructions here worked for me. Because Balamb only had the open rule, which had already spread to Cetra, I used Dollet and Winhill (which counts as Cetra).
- Win Edea's card from Cid.
- Pick up the issue of Timber Maniacs.
Esthar Mountains
- You can level up Ruby Dragon to 45+ to steal Flares, Reflects and Meteors. This is quite tricky - especially without Selphie's Full Cure - so you might want to wait to hunt them down later. I'd recommend getting at least one Meteor.
- This was the scene affected by the issue of Timber Maniacs in Shumi Village. If you avoided picking the magazine up earlier, you can go back and get it now.
White Seed Ship
- Pick up the issue of Timber Maniacs.
- Give Girl Next Door to Zone for free, and you'll get a rename card and the Shiva Card.
- Holy Drawpoint in the Cabin.
Salt Lake Flats
- Have Edea level your GFs if necessary.
- As Laguna, pick up Weapons Mon First in Odine's Lab.
- Flare drawpoint in O-Lab.
Esthar
- Win Ward card from Professor Odine.
- Buy Pet Pals 5 and 6 at the Pet Shop. You can also buy Combat King 4 and 5 from the Book Store, though you'll be getting those last two for free soon. Click on Cheryl's store until you get a Rosetta Stone. Click on Esthar Shop!!! until it lets you in at least once.
- Speak to Presidential Aide outside of the Airstation then speak to him again outside Odine's room at the palace. Examine the stack of magazines to receive Occult Fan IV.
- Pick up the Solomon's Ring from Tear's Point. You can win Malboro Tentacles from the Malboro's around here when you return after plot events. You'll need 6 of those, 6 Steel Pipes, and 6 Remedy Pluses (Use Alexander's Med Level Up ability), then you can use the Ring to summon Doomtrain.
Lunatic Pandora
- As Zell, pick up Combat King 4 from the running soldier on the high walkway in Esthar. After speaking to Odine, the first contact point is one screen to the right of this one.
- Meteor Drawpoint in entrance to Lunatic Pandora. Lift 1 leads to the next part of the game, so go there last. Lifts 2 and 3 form a loop.
- Go down the ladder after elevator 3 to find a LuvLuvG in the nearway doorway and a Phoenix Pinion and a Power Generator under the panels you opened as Laguna.
- Combat King 005 and Ultima Drawpoint in the next corridor.
- Holy Drawpoint in corridor after lift 1.
- Speed-J scroll where you pushed the boulder as Laguna. Use Move-Find to save,
Space
- Because Space has all the card rules, there's a chance one will be randomly abolished after playing a game (or choosing to play then quitting). If you challenge Piet before putting Rinoa down, you'll be right by a save point. I suggest trying to get rid of Random. Saying 'no' once and then saying 'yes' and quitting repeatedly worked for me.
- Win the Alexander card from Piet.
- Win the Laguna card from Ellone.
Ragnarok and Side Trips
Misc- You can do the below anytime after obtaining the Ragnarok and before entering the Lunatic Pandora again. I suggest at least going to the Sorceress Memorial first.
- Set Rinoa up for the Meteor trick. Basically, give you only magic which targets the party and meteor, and when your use her new limit break, she will only cast meteor. This is a good thing, because meteor is multi-hit, allowing her to do more damage per cast than other spells. You should also try to get her magic stat as high as possible. It will be tripled when she is under her new limit break.
- Full-Life drawpoint in downstairs corridor of Ragnarok.
- Win the Squall card from Laguna in Esthar.
- You can farm energy crystals in Esthar by repeatedly talking to the soldier on the low bridge, who will turn into an Elnoyle. You can mug a moonstone at any level and it will drop Energy Crystals at level 30+. These should be the last items you need for weapons. Level-Up doesn't work, so you can either farm the cards or come back after levelling. You can draw Pain, and Moon Stones can be turned into 20 Holys with L-Mag-RF. You can also draw doubles which can be refined into Triples with High-Mag-RF.
- You can mug a Regen Ring from a Torama in or around Esthar.
- You can mug Malboro Tentacles from Malboros in Grandidi Forest (including the forest-y bits on top of cliffs) or the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell. You'll need to either protect your characters from berserk with junctioning and get lucky, or, ideally, protect them with the Ribbon ability. The latter is only an option if you have access to Chocobo World, as your chocobo will occasionally find the Ribbon item your GF's need to learn the ability.
- Draw Ultima, Aura, Flare, Meteor, Full Life and Quake at the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell. These are good levelling spots, but I suggest holding off until you have Cactuar and all his stat-up abilities. Ability x4 is also essential.
- Buy Hypno-Crowns from the Esthar Pet Shop. Use Tool-RF to convert to 10 Aura Stones, then use Supt Mag RF to refine to Aura spells, if you need them.
- Use a Phoenix Pinion in battle at some point. This unlocks the possibility of the Phoenix showing up to save you if you're all KO'd.
Alien
- Run around on the island near Heath Peninsula until you see an Alien abducting a glyph.
- Defeat the alien Spaceship on Grandidi plateau, north of the Chocobo forest.
- Go to the remains of Balamb Garden to fight Pupu. Give him five elixirs to receive his card.
Card
- Head to Dollet. Ask the Queen about her artist father and hand over your Alexander card. Win it back from her son. You can finish his dog quest while you're at it.
- Win the Doomtrain card from the Timber Pub Owner.
- Give the Card Queen your Doomtrain card to get her back to Dollet. In my case, the RNG was not in my favour. I tried asking her to play cards X amount of times, saying no, then playing on the next turn. It took 12 nos before the RNG finally hit Dollet. You can then try to move her to wherever you want her to stay for the rest of the game. There's a discussion here. Avoid leaving her with Direct as her personal trade rule.
- Ask about her Artist father, then win the Doomtrain Card back from her son.
- Win the Phoenix card from the Presidential Aide in Odine's office in Esthar.
Obel Lake
- Head to Monterosa Plateau, above the previous site of Galbadia Garden. Search until you find a bird guarding a nest and choose to check it out, or keep checking until the birds have left. If you choose the former, you can level up the Thrustaevis until you can draw Tornados if you want them.
- Head back to Obel Lake and show the rocks to the creature. Have it tell you to take some time off at Eldbeak peninsula. You might have to come back after finding the treasure at Mordred Plains.
- Head to Mordred Plains, north of Esthar. Click around until the rocks start talking to you. Remember that the red rocks always say the opposite of the truth and search for a Three Stars.
- Read the pillar at the tip of Eldbeak Peninsula. Head to Minde Island and search until you find a Luck-J scroll. It won't be there unless the lake creature has told you to take some time off at Eldbeak Peninsula even if you found the clue anyway.
GFs
- Head to Cactuar Island and draw Meltdowns and Tornados from Jumbo Cactuar. Defeat him to gain him as a GF.
- Head to the Deep Sea Research Centre. Avoid moving when the light is on. You'll be forced to fight at least two Ruby Dragons, which do give exp. There's a hidden answer on one of the questions you're asked, scroll down further than you should be able to. Draw Full-Life and Flare from Bahamut. Defeat him to obtain Card and GF.
- Return to Deep Sea Research Centre. You can farm for Curse Spikes here if you want. I didn't bother because I got plenty of Rosetta Stones from Chocobo World, and I only needed 200 more Ultimas, which can be drawn from the next enemy or created from Energy Stones.
- Draw Ultimas, Regens, and Eden from Ultima Weapon. Defeat Ultima Weapon to obtain Eden card.
- If you have 6 Steel Pipes, 6 Malboro Tentacles, and 6 Remedy +s, use Solomon's Ring to obtain Doomtrain.
Levelling and Stats
- It's at this point that I generally level my characters to 100. You don't need to; enemy levels will match yours, so if your junctions are good, you can defeat everything at whatever level you are.
- Between Cactuar and several other GFs, you should have two each of mag up, str up, vit up, spr up, and HP-up.
- I generally equip all but str-up to the ladies, level them until their HP hits 9999 with junctions (auto, magic), and then swap the hp up for str up. At level 100, I equip them with a ribbon, spr +40% (or 60%), vit +40% (or 60%), str +60%, and ribbon.
- The same for the guys, but give them str up from the beginning and mag up when their hp hits max. Give them mag +60% instead of str.
- This should give you almost perfect stats, with maybe a little more needed on magic or strength. To increase those, you can farm str ups or mag ups. For str ups: buy 100 of the Power Wrists from Esthar Pet Shop. Use Gf-Abl Med-Rf to turn them into 10 Hyper Wrists. Then use Forbid Med-Rf to turn those 10 Hyper Wrists into 1 Str Up. You can do the same thing with Hypno Crowns to Royal Crowns, to Mag Up.
- This is expensive. If you need money - approx 1 million gil for 5 Mag or Str ups - use the mega-potion trick. Buy tents and cottages, convert to mega-potions, sell the megapotions for a profit.
- All of this is much quicker with Tonberry King's Call Shop, Haggle, and Familiar.
- Alternatively, you can Devour T-Rexaurs for strength and Behemoths for magic. I've found this takes longer than just buying stuff.
Lunatica Pandora
- Mug 2 Megalixers from Fuijin.
- Mug 8 Megalixers from Rinoa.
- Mug a Samantha Soul from Adel.
Time Compression
- Go through the second arch and head to the Chocobo forest on the North-Eastern tip of the Centra continent. Head to the Ragnarok, which is indicated by a red dot on the map. There'll be another arch near there. If you enter it, a fourth arch will rise near the other three, as a shortcut back here.- Play Triple Triad with the CC Club on the Ragnarok if necessary. If you've modified rare cards you can win them back from the CC Club (unless they're from the Card Queen Quest).
- Within the castle, you'll need to defeat a number of enemies to unlock your abilities. You can find Ultimecia by climbing up inside the clock tower, out over the clock face, and then across a bridge. The game will warn you and allow you to turn back before facing her.
- Sphinxara, on the stairs.
- Tri-Point, in the wine cellar. Go up the stairs from the entrance and try to cross the chandelier. When it falls, it will damage the trapdoor to the cellar, allowing you to open it.
- To get across the chandelier - to fight Krysta - have one party stand in the green thing to the right of the trapdoor, switch, and have your other party cross.
- Trauma, in the library. There is a puzzle involving using the clock on the floor (visible from the balcony) and the names of the paintings, in order to divine the name of a painting which has been damaged. The name of each painting includes Roman numerals. You need to enter the names of the paintings corresponding to the hour, minute, and second of the clock, in that order. Full solution here.
- Tiamat, by climbing up inside the clock tower past the piano, and using the bell to swing across the gap.
- Gargantua is in the Armory, past the library. The Armoury Key is on the bridge, up past the piano. Walk, don't run, or it will fall into the water. If it does fall, it will be the sparkly object in the water right outside the armory.
- You can also use the floodgate key on the lever in this area. The floodgate key requires both parties. One will need to go up the stairs from the lobby, then left, and stand on the lift. The other party will need to go through the library and round to the left, in order to stand on the other side of the lift and raise the first party. Once raised, the first party can continue left to grab the floodgate key. Operate the lever near the prison cell until the water drains away.
- Red Giant appears in the prison cell, once you go for the key.
- Once the water is drained, you can access the waterway to the right of the fountain. First, play every key on the piano, to make the spikes blocking the waterway withdraw. You can then walk down, picking up the a rosetta stone on the way, to the other door of the prison cell.
- Catoblepas is in the treasure vault, so you'll need the key out of the fountain, just before the piano. The treasure vault is in the long corridor, if you head left out of the upstairs lobby. You'll need to make all the boxes open for him to appear.
- Omega Weapon is an optional boss. He'll appear in front of the piano for one minute after you ring the bell in front of the library. It's just outside, near the stairs. It's easiest to park the party you intend to use in front of the fountain, have the other party save near the dungeons then ring the bell, and then switch parties to reach Omega in time. He'll open the battle with level 5 death on everyone, and cast Megiddo Flame shortly afterwards, which will do 9998 damage to your party.
