Walkthrough

DISC ONE DISC TWO DISC THREE DISC FOUR

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Table of Contents:

The Beginning (Balamb Garden)
The Fire Cavern Test
Mission Briefing (Balamb Garden)
The SeeD Examination (Dollet)
Debrief, Disaster and Diablos! (Balamb Garden)
Dreaming of Deling (Deling City)
Liberation of Hope (Timber)
Unveiled Threat (Timber)
Entry and Escape! (Centra)
Garden Hopping (Galbadia Garden)
The Tomb of the Unknown King (Deling City)
When The Poop Hits The Fan (Deling City)

The Beginning (Balamb Garden)

After the breathtaking intro FMV, we find the hero, Squall, on a bed in Balamb Garden's infirmary. After talking to Dr. Kadowaki, she phones his instructor, Quistis Trepe. After the brief discussion, follow her to the classroom on the second floor. After her brief talk is over, talk to her once more and she'll tell you that you need to take the Fire Cavern test before he can enter the SeeD examinations. Return to his desk and use the console. This is VITAL to the success of the Fire Cavern test since it means you get the two GFs, Quezacotl and Shiva. You'll also be taken through a very boring tutorial on how to use GFs. Now, go into your menu by pressing circle and select the GF command. Now, select Learn for Quezacotl and tell it to learn Boost. Do the same for Shiva and you're set to go. Just don't forget to junction them, OK?

Leave the classroom and as you make to leave the hallway, a young girl in yellow will run into you. While Squall is supposed to be cold n' all, I tend to be gentlemanly in my responses so offer to give her (Selphie) a tour around Balamb Garden. Sneakily, this means you yourself get to learn your way around at the same time. Before you take the elevator down, talk to the guy wearing brown and he will give you seven Triple Triad cards. You can play a game against him by pressing square if you want, but at this moment in time, it's really not worth it.

Once you exit the elevator, Squall will take Selphie to the directory where you'll see a map of Balamb Garden. The important places to note are the library, training center and the dormitory.

Anyway, in the Training Center, you get to fight lots of monsters, including the fearsome T-Rexaur. At the moment, if you see one of them, you want to run. FAST. In the Dormitory, you can save and rest, thus filling your health.

Now, Selphie leaves your party here so head for the library. head to the library and check between the bookcases to find an Esuna draw point and the Occult Fan #1 magazine. Head down through the Central Gate, but don't forget to use the Cure draw point located by the fountain. Finally, you will find Quistis waiting for you. Talk to her and you'll both leave Garden for now.

While you can go straight to the Fire Cavern and take the exam, I strongly recommend you level up in the forest, and more importantly, make sure that both Quezacotl and Shiva have learnt Boost.

At this point, it is important to explain just how Squall's gunblade works. When you tell him to attack an enemy, he will rush towards them and swing his blade downwards. Now, if you press R1 at the right time, about when it pauses in its descent, the gunblade will fire and cause extra damage to the enemy. Quite how it fires is unknown since it has no barrel, but I believe the purpose is to make the blade VIBRATE while slicing the opponent, thus increasing the size of the wound inflicted, and thus the damage.

Once you've at least learnt Boost for both GFs and stocked up on Blizzards (from Fastitolocan's on the Rinaul Shores, just south east of Balamb Town), head for the Fire Cavern (East of Balamb Garden). I find it easier to know where I'm heading by using the flat view map which can be accessed by pressing select once.

The Fire Cavern Test

Talk to the two faculty members and they'll give you a choice of four different times in which to pass the examination. While many people claim that the lower the time limit you complete this section in, the higher your SeeD rank, that's crap. In actual fact, it's how much time you have left when you finish the test. As such, I recommend picking twenty minutes, which should be more than enough; I'll tell you how to negate the time gap at the end.

At this stage in the game, your characters levels aren't too important. This is good since I run from almost all of the fights in the Fire Cavern. At the junction of the three paths, the right one will take you to a Fire draw point, the left to a dead end while going straight on will lead you towards the boss.

When you've defeated Ifrit, go through his short speech and then the experience screen until you get to name him. At this point, put down the controller and just walk away and do something else for a while. You see, the timer carries on running through this screen, but you cannot get a game over if it runs out here. Bearing in mind the less time you have left after this, the higher your SeeD rank, this means you can end this section with 00:00 on the clock easily!

Quistis will now give you another tutorial, this time about junctioning elemental magic to your defence and attack. This is key to success later on in the game.

As with Quezacotl and Shiva, make sure that you teach Ifrit Boost (as you should for EVERY GF you can). Once you've done that, head back to Balamb Garden.

Mission Briefing (Balamb Garden)

At the gate, Quistis will leave your party and tell you to change into your uniform. Head back to the dormitory and press X next to the bed, selecting the second option. Don't forget to save before heading to the lobby.

Watch the tutorial about Zell's limit break (though I tend to ignore it for the reason I mentioned in the Limit Break section) and then enjoy the dialogue between Squall and Zell... or rather, the lack of it! Seifer turns up with his compadr?s, Raijin and Fujin, just before the headmaster, Cid Kramer arrives. He'll give you a quick briefing, before the party leaves. head to the Parking Lot and you'll get into a car there.

After a brief bit of discussion, you take control of the vehicle.

• Square: Forwards.
• Triangle: Backwards.
• X/Cross: Get in/out.
• Circle: Main Menu
• R2: Changes Point of View (POV)
• Select: World Map.

Follow the road until you drive into Balamb (south-east of the Garden). Board the boat and you'll be on your way to Dollet. After Xu's briefing, you can talk to any of the people here, but if you want to get your rank up, remember to follow Seifer's orders to the letter. Once you disembark, equip Ifrit to Squall and split Shiva and Quezacotl between Seifer and Zell. Also, exchange all of Quistis' magic to Zell or Seifer (preferably the former since Seifer will be mostly attacking physically since he also wields a gunblade and thus does lots of damage that way).

The SeeD Examination (Dollet)

Go up the steps and use the save point before continuing on. Seifer will run ahead but not to worry, if you face a random fight, he will still be in your party. While in the town, it isn't worth wasting magic on the G-soldiers, but remember to stock up on their magic. Continue chasing Seifer until you reach a fountain. Talk to Seifer and eventually, six G-soldiers will sneak through the screen. Seifer orders you to follow them, and while Zell objects, Squall agrees with him.

As you leave the city, the number of fights with G-soldiers will decrease as you fight more and more monsters. As you reach a large set of stairs, talk to the soldier who is crawling, and he'll be dragged into the bushes!

Continue up to the Communications Tower and you'll find three G-soldiers. They'll briefly discuss some monster that lives in it before heading inside. Seifer will run off leaving you a member short. But not to fear! Selphie turns up (Remember her? You showed her around Balamb Garden earlier) with a message to deliver to Seifer. She'll join your party. Now, equip her with Quezacotl and make sure to make her use it as much as possible for the moment; you're definitely gonna need it soon.

You're given the choice of jumping from the cliff or continuing around the path. I take the path myself so as to get more fights and thus level up my characters while increasing my magic inventory (not to forget increasing Selphie's compatability with Quezacotl). This will also count in your favour when it comes to your SeeD ranking.

Inside the tower, use the draw point and then save the game. You MUST equip at least one person with the item command, preferably two, and one with draw before heading upwards in the lift. Personally, I think you can do without GFs in this fight, so if you need to ditch a command, that's the one to go for.

Two Galbadian soldiers named Biggs and Wedge (Well, they had to be in the game SOMEWHERE) are found on top and you're gonna have to fight them!

Once you've defeated Elvoret, take the lift back down to the ground and use a tent at the save point before saving. Equip Thunder to Squall's Elem-Atk-J and give everyone the GF command once again, especially Selphie since you'll need Quezacotl next. As you leave the Communications Tower, a large shape plummets from the dizzy heights of the tower above...

Now we come to my favourite part of the game; the Black Widow gets up and starts to chase you down! Now, if you follow the following instructions carefully, you can avoid fighting it again. Trust me when I say that's highly advisable!

• On the path you want to just run for it.
• At the top of the cliff, head straight left.
• On the steps, hold down triangle to just walk down them.
• On the bridge, keep running to the right until you hear it jump. Turn around and start running to the left. When it jumps again, start running to the right. Repeat the process until you exit the screen.
• Talk to the dog (Again!)
• RUN FOR IT! But take time to watch the car get trashed!
• And again, just run.
• This one is manic, but just keep going downwards as fast as possible.

Finally, watch the awesome CGI as Squall makes his dash across Lapin Beach!

Debrief, Disaster and Diablos! (Balamb Garden)

You arrive back in Balamb only for Seifer and his posse to steal your car. Head to the hotel and stay the night for 100 gil, making sure to read the Timber Maniacs on the table. Now, you can rent a car but it's not worth it. Instead, leave Balamb and follow the path back to Garden.

Head to the lobby and the debriefing will begin. Talk to Cid and then leave by the right. Talk to Seifer and then head for the elevator. An announcement will come over the tannoy telling you to assemble outside the second floor classroom. Once you get there, you will see several Cadets all waiting upon their results. Just hang around until a faculty members arrives and says that both Zell and Squall have passed.

You'll find yourself in Cid's office. Talk to him and he'll give you the Battle Meter and then you get your full results in the Dollet Field exam. You can now start taking the SeeD tests to raise your ranking, and thus your wage. To do so, go to the classroom on the second floor and access the computer; pick the SeeD Test option, and you'll have ten questions to answer per level, with each level representing a SeeD rank. The answers are as follows:

SeeD Test Answers
Level	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7	Q8	Q9	Q10
1	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
2	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
3	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
4	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
5	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
6	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
7	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
8	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
9	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
10	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
11	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
12	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
13	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
14	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
15	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
16	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
17	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
18	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
19	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
20	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
21	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
22	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
23	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
24	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
25	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
26	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
27	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
28	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
29	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
30	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No

Leave Cid's office and head to the classroom where Seifer and co. will applaud all who passed the examination. Finding yourself in the Dormitory, "use" the bed and change into your formal uniform and then save the game. Talk to Selphie or leave to find yourself...

...in a ballroom. Zell will try to talk to Squall and then so does Selphie. Finally, a girl with black hair will start to talk to you and then drag Squall out onto the dance floor. Not much of a mover is our Squall ^^

However, the girl will run off after the dance and Squall will end up on the balcony. Quistis will meet you there and tell you to change back into your normal clothes before meeting her at the Training Center. Exit and you'll be in Squall's room. Change once more and then equip GFs on only Squall and Quistis, making sure she has some magic. Head for the Training Center and find Quistis there as she said she would be. She'll tell you how to defeat the T-Rexaur before a Status Junctioning tutorial begins. Pay attention, this is VERY important.

Go through the door on the right and follow the path around, making sure to use the Blizzard draw point. Make you way through until you reach a screen with a save point in. Walk into the brightened patch at the back and you'll discover it's actually a door, leading to the secret place where lovers go to be together... And Quistis brought Squall here for just what then? ^_~ *ahem*

Once the conversation is over, exit and use the save point. Follow the path off to the left until you reach the screen with the three exits. You'll know what I mean when you get there!

There's a gigantic wasp-like thingy and it's harassing some girl who looks strangely familiar...

From nowhere, two men dressed in white appear and lead the girl to safety. Exit the Training Center and head back to the dormitory where Zell will tell you that you've been moved to a new room.

When you wake up, you're told to get to the Central Gate ASAP so it's time to haul ass, but AFTER taking the Weapon Mon Apr from the desk. Cid arrives shortly after Zell gets his T-board confiscated and tells you that you've got a mission in Timber, and gives you the password you'll need:

THEM: "The forests of Timber have changed."
YOU: "But owls are still around."

Talk to Cid again and he'll give you the Magical Lamp. Head back inside Garden and talk to the girl with the ponytail again, with Zell in the party. Zell will ask about a book he's been waiting for, "Goodbye Pupurun." Exit from Garden and save straight away. Make sure that everyone has full health and that they're all fully junctioned. Now, use the Magical Lamp!

First thing to do is set Diablos to start learning Mug. It's another one of those truly amazing abilities, and Diablos is one of only TWO GFs who have it. It'll take a while to learn but it's definitely worth it, especially if you want to get the ultimate weapons later on.

Head into Balamb Town and stock up on Phoenix Downs before taking the train to Timber. Onboard, Zell will talk to Squall and Selphie before they go into the main corridor. Follow them and talk to Zell and then Selphie. Follow Zell into the room and talk to him to get the Pet Pals Vol. 1. Talk to him again and pick any option; Selphie will enter and then pass out, quickly followed by Zell and finally Squall as well...

Dreaming of Deling (Deling City)

Three rather peculiar looking fellows seem to have replaced your party members and they go by the names of Laguna, Ward and Kiros. Note that Laguna has all of Squall's GFs, Magic and commands, Ward has all of Zell's and Kiros will have all of Selphie's, BUT you only have 3000 gil! Don't worry, you'll get your money back later =P

Follow the path to the north-east and use the Cure draw point. Just keep following the path, making sure to use the Water draw point, before getting into the truck and driving off.

You arrive in Deling City and dump the truck. Head south-east and follow the path until you find a hotel. Pay 100 gil to spend the night and then head downstairs to the bar, Talk to the waitress and a woman dressed in red will appear and start to play the piano. Once you get control of Laguna, walk up to her and try to talk. Unfortunately, Mr. Laguna here ain't all too suave... CRAMP! RUN AWAY!!!

However, the woman (Julia as you should by now know) approaches Laguna and they start to talk. When she leaves, go upstairs and talk to the man at the counter, picking the first option. Laguna and Julia talk and then the screen fades to black...

Liberation of Hope (Timber)

After Squall and co. wake up, they have a brief discussion about the "dream", before they arrive in Timber. Talk to the guy in front of the pet shop and he'll say "The forests of Timber have changed." Sound familiar? Yup, he's your contact to get into the Timber Owls! Reply with "But owls are still around," and you'll be accepted and taken aboard their train base.

Talk to Zone and Watts and then take the stairs up. Follow the corridor all the way along and enter the room at the end, where you'll find the "Princess." It's none other than the girl Squall danced with at the party!

She (Rinoa) hugs Squall and they have a chat where you'll have a tutorial about Rinoa's limit breaks and are given the chance to name her dog. When she leaves, follow her back to where Zone and Watts were when you came in. A brief discussion will take place and then you'll be taken to the briefing room where you're told about the plan to assassinate President Vinzer Deling.

Once that's done, talk to Zone and pick the first option. Now, head back to Rinoa's room and take the Pet Pals Vol. 2 from the couch. Go back into the main corridor and enter the next room down and use the save point. Find Watts and play a card game against him to try and win the Angelo card, before talking to him and picking the second option...

Junction Fire to Elem-Atk-J and make sure at least one character has the Item command equipped (I'd replace GF with it, NOT Draw, but make sure it's not the character who has Ifrit junctioned) before heading back to the save point. Use it and return to talk to Watts; pick the second option and you'll find yourself in the President's Car. Rinoa goes to talk to him, but it's a fake!

You regroup in the briefing room; talk to Rinoa and you'll get to see your contract. I swear, I was screaming "TEAR IT UP!" at Squall, coz' Rinoa was annoying me that much!

Anyway, Watts comes up with some new info, saying that President Deling is going to make a broadcast live on television, the first one for over a decade. To top it off, he's going to be making it from Timber! Save the game and talk to Watts and say "...OK."

Unveiled Threat (Timber)

Once you get off the train and watch Watts go running after it, go into the Pet Shop and buy Pet Pals Vol. 3 and 4. Now, talk to the old lady in the booth and select all of the options. You'll see why later. Now exit via the bottom-right and watch the sequence on the bridge. Exit and then go south. Approach the guards and Rinoa will insist you stop the G-soldiers from attacking the Timber guards. You'll get two potions and four AP as a reward. Head back to the train station and exit by the right (It's below the platform you got off the Timber Owl's train onto).

Go into the Timber Maniacs building and search all the stacks of magazines to find the naughty magazine "Girl Next Door." Go into the room on the left and there's a draw point hidden behind the desk from which you can get Blizzaga. Back in the main room, head straight up through the doors and go to the right side to find another copy of Timber Maniacs.

Leave the Timber Maniacs building and head to the right. Go down the stairs and fight the two G-soldiers to get a Buel card and then use the Cure draw point. Go into the pub and talk to the drunkard, selecting the second option. He'll give you a Tonberry card and then the owner will move him out of the way of the door. Exit through it and use the draw point to get some Scan spells and then save.

Head left and then up the winding stairs to the giant monitor. Rinoa throws a hissy fit and storms off regardless of what you say to her. Suddenly, the monitor flickers on and the broadcast begins. Vinzer Deling announces that their new ambassador is Sorceress Edea and that they seek to make peace with the rest of the world. However, Seifer barrels on screen, knocking the camera over and he takes Vinzer Deling hostage. Quistis storms in and calls to Squall to hurry to the TV station.

Follow the path all the way along and you'll quickly arrive there. Zell blurts out that they're from Garden and then Seifer drags Deling from the room. As Quistis runs after them, follow her.

We find Seifer backing away, still holding his gunblade to Vinzer Deling's neck as a mysterious woman walks through a wall behind him. She talks to Seifer and he drops the President. Quistis comes running in but the woman uses some magic to send her flying backwards. As Squall and his party arrive, the woman and Seifer walk through the wall. Was that Sorceress Edea?

Deciding that they need to hide quickly, Quistis and Rinoa will run off. Follow them to the house next to the Timber Maniacs building. They hold a conversation about Seifer but the Galbadians arrive! Upstairs, talk to Quistis twice and go back downstairs. Try to leave and after Squall decides they should go to Galbadia Garden, the lady gives him an Antidote, Phoenix Down, Potion, Remedy and a Soft. Outside, head to the right and take the tickets from Zone (who's dressed up like an old man).

Exit via the right again and go up the steps. Enter the house and talk to the old man, choosing the second option, "Yeah, kind of..." Use the basin to the left and you'll be fully healed; this is the Owl's Tear that the old woman in the booth was talking about. You can't use it twice in the same visit to the house. Also, you can repeatedly search the cupboard to steal 500 gil, but afterwards, you can't "get" the Owl's Tear anymore. Leave the house, go across the bridge and head downwards to where Quistis is standing if she isn't in your party. Talk to her and you'll all get onboard the train.

Onboard, talk to everyone, saving Zell for last. Pick the first option and the train journey will end. On the world map, head west into the forest where Squall, Selphie and Quistis pass out...

Entry and Escape! (Centra)

Yup, Laguna and co. are back! After the brief conversation check your junctions. You'll end up on a walkway; use the Sleep draw point and get ready to fight a bunch of Esthar Soldiers. Once you've wiped the floor with them, junction Thunder* to Elem-Atk-J since most of the enemies for this section are mechanical. Hopefully by this point, you'll be able to draw mid-level spells, so if you can, make sure to stock up on 'em!

Head on up the walkway and carry on the path, not taking the one on the right. You'll be at a three-way junction; take the right to get Confuse from a draw point and then down the middle path to reach a ladder. Head down it and go through the reactor room, to a room with three trapdoors. Tamper with the second but don't wak back over it since you'll set it off. Follow the path along to a huge pipe, and in the bottom right, you should be able to find an old key... which Laguna will then proceed to lose through a hole in his pocket. Walk up the next two screens until you reach a room with a boulder to the right and a grey thingy on the floor. Use the "thingy" and select the second option, and then the first option, thus detonating a few explosives, including the boulder in that room. Head upwards to find a long, metal bridge; walk all the way round, and you'll reach a long, curving room. Examine the boulder to push it, thus uncovering a Cure draw point. Exit from the south-east and you'll find that you're back in the room where Laguna lost the key.

It's important to note that around this area you can find both Gespers and Elastoids, from which you can get Black Holes and Laser Cannons. These in turn can teach Quistis Degenerator and Homing Laser respectively; the former being incredibly useful in fights later on.

Go back up a screen and then exit via the right; follow the path along until you find yourself at a cliff edge. You'll have to fight some Esthar soldiers (the more advanced ones) and once defeated, one of them will cast Soul Crush, thus reducing Ward's and Kiros' health to 1.

Now, it is possible to actually only have to fight one party of Esthar soldiers, or a total of five, depending upon what you did inside the site:

1) Tamper with the trap door.
2) Detonate the rock farthest from the detonator.
3) Detonate the rock nearest the detonator.
4) Push the rock to reveal the hidden draw point.

Spotting a boat below, Laguna decides it's their only way to escape, and thus pushes Kiros and Ward off the cliff edge before stumbling off himself...

Garden Hopping (Galbadia Garden)

Since Quistis and Zell were the ones who took Kiros and Ward's place in the dream world, they now have one health each, so it's recommended to use a tent now. Have you taught Mug to Diablos yet? If not, I'd recommend doing so as quickly as possible. If you do, junction Thunder to Elem-Def-J and run around in the forest. You want to Mug Wendigos to get Steel Pipes which you'll need to remodel Squall's Revolver to the Shear Trigger, thus teaching him the Fated Circle limit break. You need Thunder junctioned to Elem-Def-J because you'll probably fight a fair few Cockatrices and Grendels in there, which have very strong Thunder attacks.

Once you have enough Steel Pipes, head into Galbadia Garden which should be visible from the other side of the forest. At the central gate, Quistis will leave your party to go and find the headmaster of G-Garden. Upon entering the main hall, an announcement will come over the tannoy for you to head to the reception room on the second floor, but we'll ignore that for now. There's a Haste draw point in the bright light at the center of the hall, so use that. Take the right path and then the left door. You can't get at the draw point on the ice hockey pitch so head to the left and use the door there. In the locker room you should find another draw pointm this time Life. Head back to the main hall and take the path upwards. Keep heading that way until you reach an athletics track; use the Shell draw point here and return to the screen with the stairs. Head upwards and take the right path. Follow the circular path around to the Auditorium, where you'll find a hidden Double draw point by the podium. Now, head back to the top of the stairs and talk to the guard; he'll let you into the room.

A brief scene will follow; talk to Zell and then try to leave. After talking to Quistis, talk to Rinoa and then Selphie, before Squall storms out of the room. Head down to the main hall and you'll bump into Fujin and Raijin; once you're done talking to them, head for the central gate. You'll find Quistis there; talk to her and then Rinoa when she arrives. Martine will then turn up and brief you on the mission that you've just been given; to assassinate the Sorceress! However, you need a sniper to do the job and none of your team fit that description, so Martine introduces sharpshooter Irvine Kinneas, your newest party member.

You'll need to make up a party now and Irvine knows what he wants... pick the option "That's no good..." to get a tutorial about the Switch Member/Junction commands. Once you've picked your party, head to the northwest from Galbadia Garden to Far East Galbadia Station. Talk to the train attendant and fork over 3000 gil. The second party will join you on the train, with Irvine hitting on all the girls. As usual, Selphie will head off to her singing spot, this time followed by Irvine. Go after them and you'll have a short sequence. Talk to Selphie and head back to the entrance chamber for one last talk before you arrive in Deling City.

Tomb of the Unknown King (Deling City)

I find it's incredibly easy to get lost in Deling City on your first visit, but there have been a few changes since Laguna was here, most notably in the introduction of the bus service system. All around the city you'll find bus attendants at bus stops; if you talk to them while a bus is parked next to them, they'll let you on the bus. Even more important is the fact that it's free, and saves you a lot of time.

Head up the escalator and a short sequence will occur. If Rinoa is in your party, she sure seems to know a lot about Deling City... Head north to a fountain and you should be able to see a bus attendant (they all wear green). Talk to him when the bus arrives and choose the first option to get onboard it. It'll take you to just outside General Caraway's Mansion. Follow the onscreen instructions to get off the bus. Now, head across the street and exit via the left. Use the draw point to get Thundara and continue to the left to the gateway. Head down from there and you should be at a screen where there are three bus stops. Exit to the left to find the shopping arcade. Find the Junk Shop and remodel Squall's Revolver to the Shear Trigger, and stock up on any items you feel you need. You may also want to find the Hotel, and spend the night there, so that you can find another Timber Maniacs issue.

Head back the way you came to just outside General Caraway's Mansion, and this time talk to the soldier on the right side of the screen. He tells you that to get in, you need to get the password from the Tomb of the Unknown King. After giving you a map, choose the fifth option to be escorted to the Rent-A-Car shop. The choice is up to you, but renting a car should make the trip a lot easier, but you will need to stock up on certain spells which means walking is worth it as well.

The Tomb of the Unknown King is found to the northeast of Deling City on a peninsula. On the way, you should fight at least a few Thrustaevis; you need to draw at least twenty Floats from them; stock up on Aeros if you can get them as well.

At the tomb, you will see two female Galbadia Garden cadets running like hell. They'll drop a very useful hint about using the Float spell... Use the save point and the Protect draw point before venturing inside. Head straight up and you'll see a gunblade lying on the floor. Examine it to get the password you need, but you're not done here yet! Just as a note, the password is different for every game so I can't just give it to you here so you can skip this section. You shouldn't want to anyway because there's a very valuable prize at the end of it...

Now, here's a simple rule of thumb for navigating your way around the Tomb of the Unknown King. If you can, turn right. If you can't, go straight on. This will take you to the four corners which are the key points of the maze. Also, you'll want to be stocking up on Shell and Protect from the monsters here. Your first stop will be the easternmost part of the maze. Here you'll find a giant statue; take this opportunity to junction Aero to your Elem-Atk-J, and then approach the statue, upon which it comes to life!

After he's defeated, Sacred will scarper. Don't worry about it for now, you've still got some more things to do in here. Follow the rule of thumb once more to end up at the northernmost part of the maze. Examine the right-hand side of the chain to undam the water, and draw some more Float from the draw point.

Again, follow the rule of thumb and you'll end up at the westernmost part of the maze. Use the gears and then, if you have Siren's Move-Find equipped, use the hidden draw point to get some Cura.

For the final time, use the rule of thumb to get out of the Tomb of the Unknown King. Now, I'm sure you'll be asking yourself: Why did I do that stuff with the chain and gears if I'm going to leave right now? The answer is, you're not leaving. Use a tent on the savepoint and then save before heading back inside. This time, ignore the rule of thumb and keep heading up until you find Sacred again, but this time, he's brought a friend... or rather, his big brother. No, really... the little one is older than the big one.

You'll receive Minotaur's card from the Unknown King and then you can leave the Tomb at last.

When The Poop Hits The Fan (Deling City)

As you may guess from the title I've given this section, all hell is going to break loose. Head back to Deling City and make your way to Caraway's Mansion once more. Talk to the soldier and pick the first option. Now, it's important to note that you must put the three digit code in BACKWARDS. If the code was 123, then you need to enter it as 321. Once you give him the right password, he'll let you in. Use the savepoint by the entrance and then enter.

Talk to Rinoa and she'll talk about General Caraway in a very familiar way... Caraway will eventually enter the room. He'll brief you on the mission, but insists that his daughter, Rinoa, cannot be allowed to participate in it. Next, he will give you a guided tour of sorts; showing you around the places that are vital to the success of the assassination attempt to be made on the Sorceress.

Once you gain control of Quistis, exit the area and you'll bump into Rinoa, upon which, Quistis lets rip. GO QUISTY, GO!

Back to Squall; follow Caraway to the Presidential Residence and then exit via the left.

Quistis once more; she'll want to apologise to Rinoa. Head back to the mansion via the quick path (the one with the Thundara draw point on).

Rinoa: Daddy dearest tries to lock her in the briefing room, but she escapes and sets off to use the Odine Bangle on Edea...

Back to Quistis; once they reach the briefing room, the door locks shut behind them, with the time running out! Oh crap!

You should now gain control of Rinoa. Use the savepoint and then examine the manhole and opt to go inside. Keep heading left until you find the Weapon Mon May, and then return. Now, climb up the crates by using the X button. Head left once you reach the ledge and use the ladder on the next screen. Climb onto the final section of roofing and Rinoa will find herself inside. Walk to the chair and... well, I'm not gonna spoil it. Just sit back and watch!

We come back to Quistis and co. once more. Examine the painting on the wall and you can see the statue has a glass in its hand. Walk to the cabinet on the left and take a glass. Now, it's very hard to see, but in the very top-left part of the room is a seperate section, in which is a statue which looks remarkably like the one in the painting. Put the glass in the statues hand and it will reveal a secret door!

Enter it and then go down the ladder, making sure to equip Quistis and co. with GFs and whatnot. Walk onto the wooden platform next to the waterwheel and press X to climb over it. Head upwards and you will be greeted with a FMV of the parade beginning...

Controlling Squall once more, follow Irvine into the Presidential Residence. Equip them both with GFs and magic. Simply follow the route you took as Rinoa (except skipping the manhole). Head towards the building when on the rooftop and you'll see Vinzer Deling's corpse. Head into the building, taking note of the hatch in the floor. Continue on and you'll find Rinoa about to be attacked by the monsters Edea created!

Head back to the room with the hatch and use it to get to the firing point. Examine the sniper rifle to the left of the entrance and you'll have a short sequence, where Irvine reveals at the end that's he's scared. Just what we need...

We switch to Quistis and co. for the last time. Junction them up with GFs and magic before heading into what is every FFVIII FAQqer's nightmare...

Move forward and open the gate in front of you, and then head to the upper-left corner, opening that gate. Walk to the ladder on the wall and you'll knock it down, forming a bridge across the water. Cross it and follow the path to find an Esuna draw point. Double back to across the ladder and then head left, through the next gate. Continue on 'til the next bridge; cross it and then leave via the gate on the right. Go across the bridge and leave by the top-left to get to the Zombie draw point, before going back to the bridge and examining the waterwheel. Head right and examine the next waterwheel, clambering over it as before, and then head down. Examine this waterwheel and then down once more, to yet another waterwheel before going down once more. You can knock the ladder down and cross it to get to a save point, but there's another one a few screens away so I suggest not bothering. Instead, head right and examine the final waterwheel; clamber over it and then follow the path.

The Cliff Notes version for that section is as follows, since it's a bugger to navigate:

• Forward; open gate
• Upper-left corner, open gate
• Touch ladder, knock down to form bridge
• Cross and follow path to Esuna draw point
• Retrace back to ladder and then left
• Through next gate
• Forward, cross next bridge; gate on right
• See Zombie draw point; reach via next screen
• Examine waterwheel
• Go right, examine waterwheel
• Down, examine waterwheel
• Down, examine waterwheel
• Down
• Knock down ladder and cross it
• Use save point and return back across ladder
• Head right, examine waterwheel
• Follow path

Use the savepoint and climb up the ladder. You'll find yourself inside the Gateway. Get back on the ladder and climb up once more. Walk to the window and after a few seconds, the clock will hit 20:00. Push the switch to the left of the ladder and this section will be done and dusted...

We come back to Squall and Irvine, with the latter still afraid. Squall succeeds in convincing Irvine to take the shot and the aim is good, but Edea's magic stops the bullet, meaning Squall has to take her out himself...

So, Seifer is down, leaving only Edea to go. Luckily, Rinoa and Irvine show up to help out; trust me when I say Squall would get slaughtered on his own...

When her HP hits 0, the fight is over, but the trouble has only just begun. For one, Edea most definitely looks like she's still alive and that gigantic shard of ice she just threw at Squall... well it looks sharp. And having it stick out of his chest like that? Gotta be painful. The world fades to black...

Table of Contents:

The Winhill Connection (Winhill)
Jailhouse Rock (D-District Prison)
Warhead Rampage (Galbadia Missile Base)
Faculty Fracas (Balamb Garden)
Reunions (Fisherman's Horizon)
Second Disc Extras (Various)
-- Race Against Time (Centra Ruins)
-- Carving out the Past (Shumi Village)
-- Another's Memories (Winhill)
-- Hail to the King Baby! (Balamb Garden)
-- Military Games (Deling City/Fisherman's Horizon)
-- Renovations (Dollet)
-- Choo-Choo Train! (Timber)
-- Chocobo Forests (Various)
Under Occupation (Balamb Town)
Errant Stupidity (Trabia Garden)
Invasion! (Balamb/Galbadia Garden)

The Winhill Connection (Winhill)

Want to know what happened to Squall and co. next? TOUGH! We're with Laguna once more, but there's no sign of Kiros or Ward. Instead, you'll find that Laguna is talking to a little girl called Ellone. When the dialogue finishes, check the cupboard to find a Curaga drawpoint, and then head downstairs. Talk to Ellone again and head for the pub, after checking your junctions. In the main town screen, it's located below Laguna's house. Talk to the woman in yellow, Raine, and she'll tell you that you have a visitor. Kiros! But where's Ward?

Have a natter with your old buddy and when you're done, pick the fourth option for Kiros to join your party. Now you need to go on Laguna's daily patrol so junction up Kiros and get ready to rock! Junctioning Blizzard to Elem-Atk-J will help, but it's hardly necessary.Leave the pub and head to the south-east of the main town screen, down the stairs to find a Dispel draw point. Now exit the screen via the south-west, across the bridge. Exit south and you'll find yourself outside a flower shop. Draw Drain from the Draw Point and exit via the East, since you can't get back this way later. by the truck is a hidden draw point (Reflect), so make sure to use it. Head down the slope and then exit via the west. You can sleep in the hotel for free, or buy stuff from the shop, which I'd recommend doing. You have 3000 gil to blow, none of which will make a difference to the amount you have in Squall's world. Once you get to the very bottom of this screen, your patrol will be over!

Head all the way north, not going back the way you came. Go back to the pub and to the second floor where a sequence will occur. Once it's finished, talk to Ellone for another one, and then head back to Laguna's house. Save the game and then go to sleep...

Jailhouse Rock (Galbadia D-District Prison)

You'll find yourself in control of Zell; talk to everyone, saving Rinoa for last. Heading over to Squall, he's in a portable cell and is taken up to the thirteenth floor. Back to Zell and co., three guards will enter the cell and beat the crap out of Zell, before they release Rinoa.

With Squall once more, Seifer enters the cell and beats up on his one-time compadre, before two Moombas come to take him away, to be tortured. Seifer keeps asking Squall about the true purpose of SeeD, but he doesn't know the answer...

Back to Zell again, Selphie is trying to heal him with Cure spells, but it's just not working. Apparently the place has an anti-magic field up and running. A Moomba will enter, being harassed by one of the guards. You're given a choice to either help it, or do nothing; choosing the former strikes me as the better option.

Either way, you're taken back to Squall. You can choose between sacrificing yourself, or saving your own backside. Choose the first option and the world fades to black...

Controlling Zell again, talk to Quistis and once Zell beats up the guards, the Moomba will tag along. Leave the cell and head up a floor. Walk up to the two guards and you'll have to fight them; draw-cast Sleep and then stock up on magic, before finishing them off with GFs. A quick bit of plot moving with Squall, and then general silliness once the prisoners get their weapons back. In come our favourite Galbadian soldiers; Biggs and Wedge! It's time to kick their arse again!

After leaving your cell, I'd recommend going all the way to the bottom and back up to a) get all the treasure around the place, b) get loads of nifty spells drawn, and c) to gain more AP for your GFs. On each floor there are two doors; some will be locked, others not. Here's a list of what can be found:

D-District Prison Rooms
Floor	Left Room	Right Room
1st	Save Point (Hidden)	Combat King 001
2nd	1x Pet Nametag	1x Str Up
3rd	Locked	1x Pet House
4th	1x Tent	Locked
5th	Locked	Card Player, 500 gil
6th	Locked	Locked
7th	Your Cell	Locked
8th	Shop	Locked
9th	Locked	Draw Point - Berserk
10th	Save Point	Card Player, 300 gil
11th	Card Player, 200 gil	Draw Point - Thundaga
12th	Locked	Locked

In addition to that, there is a save point on the sixth floor, and the card player on the 10th floor will add to your Battle Meter if you defeat him.

When you've finished raiding the D-District Prison, it's time to bust outta there! Head up to the thirteenth floor, where you'll find a different layout. Walk into the room all the Moomba's are standing outside of, and you'll find Squall!

After a bit of talk, with the other charaters, talk to the Moomba's and pick the floors you want them to create shortcuts on, but don't pick any below the fifth floor or above the twelfth. Exit the torture room for more talking. Zell runs off to operate the crane as Squall, Selphie and Quistis get in the cell. Press X at the keyboard to get lowered down and head through to the next room. Go to the end of the corridor and press X again to discover you can't get out this way. As gunfire sounds out, the party realise that Zell is no longer with them...

In control of Zell, you'll find yourself being chased so run around the curve as quickly as possible to avoid getting dragged into a fight. When you get off that screen, Zell's knocked to his knees by another guard, only to be saved by a kamikaze Squall!

All hell breaks loose, but after a while, Rinoa and Irvine show up. Split the group into two parties of three, and take the first party up to the thirteenth floor and then the second party down to the fourth.

Back once more to Squall's party, the first one, and you'll find two Moomba's. Talk to them to get a Rename Card and a Cottage before taking the south stairs to the fourteenth floor. Head through the chambers until you reach the control room. Here you'll want to check your junctions and stick your thunder variants on your Elem-Atk-J. Exit and you'll find yourself outside. After a brief bit of conversation, the boss of this section approaches:

A message will come from Irvine and Squall's party will be back in the control room. Head back outside and as the bridge starts to collapse, just peg it across. When the D-District Prison finishes sinking into the ground, the group will reconvene and take the two vehicles to a rocky outcrop.

Once you regain control of Squall, draw Aero from the drawpoint and then talk to Selphie. Missiles will launch from the Galbadian Missile Base, heading for Trabia Garden, and you'll have to split the party into two groups of three; Squall leading one to warn Cid of the threat, while Selphie takes command of the other to try and decommission Edea's arsenal. I recommend taking Irvine and Quistis with Selphie, leaving Zell and Rinoa with Squall.

With Squall's party, sneak past the guards and board the train with the X button to end this section.

Warhead Rampage (Galbadia Missile Base)

Do a bit of levelling up around the Dingo Deserts/Monterseru Plateau, stocking up on Thundaga and Curaga spells, as well as Tornado from the Thrustaevis to junction on Strength. Also, this is a good opportunity to start learning Selphie's limit breaks, especially Full-cure, Rapture and The End, though the odds of getting the latter are pretty low. When you're good and ready, head to the Missile Base and enter while still in the truck.

Once inside, head to the left and examine the blue light and you'll open it with the ID card you received while driving in. You'll run into a guard, and are given three options; pick any one you want, hold down the Triangle button so that you walk rather than run, and exit the screen.

There's three point of interest in this room: the door being guarded leads to a room containing dismantled warheads - check near the one marked "03" to find a hidden Full-Life draw point; south from the save point leads to a ledge containing a Blind draw point; the computer on the right controls the missile guidance and launch systems.

Head to the ledge first and talk to the two men there before going to the missile bay and talking to the inspector there. Return to the ledge and talk to the guys there once more. Head back to the guard by the security system and talk to him to be allowed access into the next room. Use the draw point to get a Blizzara spell and then examine the keyboard. Pick any of the options and Selphie will screw it up. Looks like it's time to bail!

Run from the room and you'll find two G-Soldiers; you're given the option to either fight them (method a) or to try and talk your way through the base (method b)- I usually pick the first option to get a bit more levelling in before the boss, but either way is pretty much fine.

As you're making your way out, you'll feel the ground start to shake. As you walk across the road, the missiles will be fired in a short FMV, just before the boss of this sections trundles onto the screen.

There's only one problem left now... check the gate and you'll find that it's locked and there's no way out! Run back to the missile launchers and check them to see an FMV of the Galbadia Missile Base being blown sky-high...

Faculty Fracas (Balamb Garden)

You'll be in control of Squall's party once more, finding yourself at the entrance of Balamb Garden. A few preparataions first are in order; junction Blizzard* to Elem-Atk-J, Sleep and Blind to St-Atk-J, and Thunder* to Elem-Def-J.

Head through the central gate and you'll find a Garden Faculty member. Talk to him and choose the second option, "I don't get it..." to initiate a fight against a Grat and a Caterchipillar. Make sure to draw Blind, Sleep, Thundara* and Cura* from them if you haven't got 300 of each.

Now, you have to find Cid Kramer, the headmaster to warn him of the imminent missile attack, but with the entire Garden in chaos, he could be anywhere.

Go to the next screen and talk to the wounded SeeD cadet twice to get a Mega-Potion, and then proceed on to the lobby to talk to Raijin and Fujin. Now you have a choice in which way to go around the Garden; clockwise or anti-clockwise. I recommend anti-clockwise (heading eastwards first) so the harder fights are done first.

So, our first destination is the Library, which will involve a fight against a lone Grat on the path to it. Zell will talk to the library girl he's got a crush on and will get a Mega Phoenix (If you didn't bring Zell, you have to talk to her to get the Mega Phoenix).

Next, we're heading for the Training Center. You'll come across two SeeD cadets and a Garden Faculty member; choose the first option, "Help them," and you'll have to fight a T-Rexaur. Attack it with whoever has Sleep or Blind junctioned to their St-Atk-J and then draw as much as you can from it. After you're done drawing, let rip with Shiva and your weapons with Blizzard Elem-Atk-J on to polish it off. Once it's dead, talk to the female SeeD cadet and she'll give you a Remedy.

On to the Parking Lot now to fight a Grendel. Attack with the Blind St-Atk-J and then draw away, especially Double. This is where the Thunder* Elem-Def-J helps since it'll lash out thunder-based attacks fairly often. As always, once you're done drawing pummel it to the ground as long as you don't use any thunder-based attack upon it. After defeating it, move northwards and talk to the two SeeD cadets there to get a Tent.

Head to the Dormitory next and defeat the Catechipillar guarding it. Rest and then on to the Cafeteria, switching your Thunder* Elem-Def-J with Fire*. You'll fight a Bomb; while it'd be great to draw as much Meltdown from it as you can, this guy is dangerous since he can wipe out one of your party in a single hit, so either put him to sleep and then draw away, or just obliterate him with your Blizzard* Elem-Atk-J as quickly as possible. After it's dead, talk to the cadet there to get a Gysahl Green. Unfortunately, at least for Zell, the hotdogs are still all sold out.

Remove the Blizzard* Elem-Atk-J and replace it with Fire* before heading to the Quad. Tell the Faculty member there that "I'm with the Headmaster's faction," and you'll get in a fight with a Bomb and a Glaccid Eye. Draw/cast the Glaccid Eye's Blizzard* spells on the Bomb to get that out of the way quickly and then use the Fire* Elem-Atk-J on the Glaccid Eye. Carry on into the Quad and three SeeDs will jump down from the stage; talk to the one in the middle to get an X-Potion.

Junction Aero to Elem-Atk-J and then head to the next destination, the Infirmary. Choose the "Help them," option when there to initiate a fight with a Granaldo. Put it to sleep and draw the defensive spells from it before polishing it off with Aero. Dr. Kadowaki will now lead you into the Infirmary; talk to her once inside and she'll give you an Elixir.

You've now cleaned out the outer perimeter, but there's still no sign of Cid, not to mention Xu. Head back to the lobby and you'll find Xu heading for the elevator. Follow her and go up to the second floor. Head north and you'll find Xu waiting; talk to her and then head back to the elevator, going up to the third floor. Head north once more and you'll find Cid; he'll explain that Balamb Garden has a Missile Defence system, but that it needs to be activated. He'll give you a special key for the elevator; head back to it and then examine the controls on the right-hand side to set off a power cut.

After the CGI sequence, check the controls and then open the hatch underneath Squall's feet, climbing down it. Make sure to get out of the way when the elevator reactivates! Examine the hatch in front of Squall to pass through, and when he suggests you junction Fire* to your Elem-Atk-J, do so, and then head to the left and check the large tap. Spam the Square button as fast as you can when it tells you to, to turn it; if you don't get it the first time, the rest of the party will assist you. Once you've done that, climb down the ladder in the northern section of the screen. Walk down the stairs and you'll find a Full-Life draw point near the pillar before heading upwards.

The next screen is very big, and the party is confused as to where they're supposed to go next. Choose the second option, "I'll go and check it out," and you'll control Squall by himself. Climb the ladder and part-way up it'll break, falling over to form a bridge. Enter the control room and fiddle with the ones on the right to set the ground shaking. Examine the ladder and choose the "Climb down again" option. You'll find a door with a blinking green orb; examine it and climb back down the ladder.

Push the handle next to the save point to open the metal gate, and then save and heal because a boss fight starts as you cross the bridge.

Continue crossing the bridge onto the next screen and go down the ladder. A FMV showing the incoming missiles play. Head left to a gigantic pillar and then up to the controls, checking the right-hand side for a key, before examining the controls. After a short sequence, the pilar will have raised to the third floor and the Missile Defence system will have been activated. Talk to Cid and pick any of the options before heading to the elevator and going to the door north of the classroom on the second floor for another FMV. Head back to the elevator and Xu will be there, asking you to see the Headmaster.

After the next FMV sequence, you'll find Squall resting on his bed. If Rinoa is in your party, she'll come in and say she wants to go to the cafeteria, where, if Zell's in your party, you'll find him waiting for his order. Head to the Library next, and you should find Dr. Kadowaki standing outside. Talk to her and then enter; go to the reading room where you'll find the mysterious girl from earlier. After talking to her, leave the Library and head to the Lobby and a Garden Faculty member will rush up to you, saying that you're wanted down in the basement. Junction Aero to your Elem-Atk-J and Blizzard*/ Water to your Elem-Def-J, before heading to the elevator. The rest of your party will join you so go down to the basement where you'll see Cid being ushered out. Head left and NORG, the Garden Master, will reveal himself. After Squall insults NORG a bit, you'll have to fight him...

Once you've defeated NORG, check his pod thingy to find a hidden Bio draw point, before returning to the elevator. You might want to save in the Dormitory before heading to the Infirmary. Talk to Dr. Kadowaki and pick the second option, and then talk to Cid.

As a note, there should now be a man in the Training Center whom you can buy stuff off, though his appearances there are random.

Head to the Lobby, and you'll meet Xu there, who'll tell you a ship has docked with Balamb Garden, so head to the second floor and to the northern-most door. After a few sequences, head to the library. You'll find the girl you rescued from the Training Center near the beginning of the game, and there'll be another sequence, before she leaves on the White SeeD ship.

Squall will be back in his room, and after a scene, if Rinoa is in your party, she will come; pick any option and exit the Dormitory. You'll hear Cid's announcement over the tannoy system, and so ends this section.

Reunions (Fisherman's Horizon)

It seems no-one actually knows how to properly control Balamb Garden in its new form, leading it to crash into the small island known as Fisherman's Horizon. You'll find Squall on the bridge with Cid, telling you to head to the Mayor's Residence in FH and apologise for the inconvenience of having a great big bloody flying machine embedded in the town. Before you leave to do so, challenge Cid to a Triple Triad game to get the Seifer card, which is pretty damn good as all character cards are.

Leave Balamb Garden via the door on the second floor, and after the short sequence, head to the right, talking to everyone you come across. Along the way, there'll be a ladder which you can climb down; do so and head left. Talk to the guy there, the Master Fisherman, and choose the first option, "I'm sorry... it's our fault," and he'll give you he Occult Fan III magazine.

Head back up the ladders and continue to the right; talk to the guy near the elevator to get down to the main town. Head down and then right to find a Regen draw point, and then go back to the left and go to the second floor of the windmill there to talk to Mayor Dobe and his wife. Check the lower-right corner to find a hidden Ultima draw point, and then challenge Dobe to a card game to win the Quezacotl card.

Leave Dobe's house and head to the right to find Martine, the ex-head of Galbadia Garden; he has most of the monster cards in the game, so you may want to spend quite some time playing Triple Triad against him. Once you've done enough of that to your satisfaction, walk up the path. A sequence will ensue with Dobe dashing off and his wife blaming you for Galbadian soldiers being in FH! What did we do?

Follow Dobe to the right and down the track into the town. Junction Thunder* to your Elem-Atk-J and then head to the right. On the next screen, walk across the pier and talk to the old guy there, to remodel your weapons. Back across the pier, head north and you'll find Dobe being harrassed by an Elite Soldier from Galbadia. Turns out, they're not here for the SeeDs, they're after Ellone, the girl with the White SeeDs. Pick the first option to get into an easy fight with a few soldiers, followed by the reappearance of an earlier boss...

When you defeat the Iron Clad, it'll explode, revealing three familiar faces: Selphie and the final two members of the group (Irvine and Quistis if you've been following this walkthrough precisely.) Everyone will leave, with only Squall and Rinoa remaining; pick any option and eventually Rinoa will leave as well. Head north to the abandoned train station, where you'll find a Haste draw point, and then right and into the house to find a Timber Maniacs magazine as well. This is the house of a guy called Grease Monkey, remember it coz' you'll be back here in a short while.

Talk to the boy on the boat, and choose the first option, "Sort of..." the first option again, "I saw him," and then the first option once more, "I was sort of... impressed." Keep talking to him for several sequences, until the kid asks you to go talk to the Master Fisherman for him.

Head back to the elevators and Irvine will meet up with you; go back to where you first met the Master Fisherman and he will tell you to meet him in the inn. Instead of doing that though, go to Grease Monkey's house and you'll find a Galbadian soldier threatening Grease Monkey. Talk to the soldier and then leave, beofre going back in. The soldier will have jumped out of the window! In return for the help, Grease Monkey will give you a Mega-Phoenix.

Go to the main street and enter the building on the left, which is the inn; you can use the machine which will tell you about the origins of Fisherman's Horizon. Talk to the owner and you can buy items from him or get a room. Since the Master Fisherman ahs already booked the room, you can enter the room already; do so and after the sequence, pick the second option, "Why not?" Grab the Timber Maniacs on the floor before exiting and having another sequence.

Pick the first option, "I think you are right," and then talk to him again, picking the second option, "No, it's all right," to get a Megalixir. On your way back to Balamb Garden, go to where you first met the Master Fisherman to find a Full-Life draw point. If you haven't already done so, play Mayor Dobe to get the Quezacotl card.

Once back in Balamb Garden, head for the Quad, where you'll meet Selphie. After a short sequence, Squall will be on the bridge again and Cid will declare that Squall is now the Chief Commander of Balamb Garden. Once the entire sequence ends, the party will be assembled outside of FH's windmill. You're supposed to pick which members play which instruments in the upcoming celebrations, but instead of doing that, exit the screen and head back into FH. Go to Grease Monkey's house and you'll find the Elite Soldier from earlier is back; leave the house and then come back in. Talk to Grease Monkey and he'll give you a Phoenix Down. Next, talk to the soldier a few times to get Fast Ammo (x5), AP Ammo (x5) and Pulse Ammo (x5.)

Head back to the rest of the party, and then select the instruments; you have a choice of Guitar, Sax, Electric Guitar, Piano, Violin, Flute, Bass Guitar and Tap. Different combinations can give different tunes, e.g. Sax + Electric Guitar + Piano + Bass Guitar = a rendition of Rinoa's Theme, and Guitar + Violin + Flute + Tap = a folk music song. I find the folk song provides the best sequence, even if it does mean having to watch Quistis trying to tap-dance XD

Choose the second option, "I don't know..." and you'll be in front of FH's windmill once more. Talk to Irvine twice and then head down the ladder to commence the beginning of the concert. Walk across the bridge, then press Square and head right to check the magazine.

After the sequence, you'll be back in the Dormitory, so exit, and make your way to the elevator. Get off on the third floor and you'll find Quistis, Xu and Nida (the only other person to graduate with you from the Dollet examination.) Talk to Nida and you can reorganise your party, before taking control of Balamb Garden.

• Square: Forwards.
• Triangle: Backwards.
• X/Cross: Get in/out.
• Circle: Takes you to the Bridge.
• R2: Changes Point of View (POV)
• Select: World Map.

Second Disc Extras (Various)

OK, now that you have full control of Balamb Garden, you can traverse most of the world, so there's a lot of sidequests you can undertake right now. You don't HAVE to do these, but I'd recommend doing at least the Centra Ruins quest to get the Odin GF, and the Shumi Village is a worthwhile trip to make I believe.

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Race Against Time (Centra Ruins)

The Centra Ruins are located to the south of the world; after locating them, make sure to have Diablos' Enc-None ability enabled to save a lot of hassle, since this sub-section is a race against time, and believe me, you'll need all the time you can get.

Upon entering, the twenty minute countdown begins; head north twice and use the hidden Drain draw point to the east, before taking the stairs to the right and entering the chamber. Check the big stone block and it'll turn out to be an elevator; climb the right-hand ladder to get to an Aero draw point and then go back down, taking the left-hand ladder this time. Examine the orb, making it glow blue and then go back down the ladder to examine the blue orb down here, revealing a set of stairs. Climb them until you reach a statue and then climb the ladder to the left. Examine the statue and pick the top option to take the ruby eye it has, before continuing up the stairs to the next statue. Put the ruby you just took into it and you'll get a five digit password, before taking both eyes out. Check to the right to find a hidden Pain draw point, and then head back to the first statue before placing both rubies into the statues eye-sockets. Enter the password you obtained a moment before to reveal a secret chamber containing Odin!

BOSS: Odin
DRAW: Stop, Death, Double, Triple

Considering the timer is running out, it's fortunate that Odin doesn't attack you during this fight, unless the timer runs out. In which case, he'll use Zantetsuken on you and you're all sliced up.

Make sure to mug him and then unload as much damage on him as you can. I recommend either using limit breaks or tripling spells on him to try and get this done as quickly as possible.

If you've got plenty of time, try to stock up on Triple and Death as much as you can.

WIN: G-Mega Potion (x8), Odin Card
MUG: Luck-J Scroll

Once he's defeated, you gain the GF Odin. Bear in mind you cannot summon him; he will randomly appear in fights and use Zantetsuken on the opponents, slicing them in half, winning you the fight instantly. Also, there is another GF you can get here in the Centra Ruins, but at this stage, you're probably not strong enough to fight the Tonberries required to get it. We'll be back here in the third disc.

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Carving out the Past (Shumi Village)

At the north end of the Trabian continent, you should find a structure on an island known as Winter Island. Land Balamb Garden outside and enter. Y'know, these guys look kinda familiar...

Talk to the fellows off to the left, and pay the money to get access to an Ultima draw point, and then enter the elevator to the north to be taken down to the town proper. Head off to the north-western corner and inside you'll find a statue of none other than Laguna! What the hell's that doing here? Talk to the sculptor and pick the first option, and then use the draw point at the back to get Firaga. Now, leave the building and head right a screen to the building that had previously been guarded by a Moomba. Grab Blizzaga from the draw point and then enter. After a talk, the Elder will ask you to assist the Sculptor in finishing the statue; head back to him and pick the second option. You'll have just undertaken his mini-quest; it seems the Sculptor has misplaced a bunch of stones he needs to finish the statue. He'll send you off to find them one at a time; after finding one, return to him and he'll send you off for the next one. The locations are as follows:

• Blue Stone - Inside the statue room, it's on the back wall.
• Wind Stone - Should be in the rocks outside the hotel near the elevator.
• Life Stone - On the screen with the Elder's House in, check the tree and you should climb up to find the stone.
• Shadow Stone - On the screen with the Ultima draw point, check behind the shadow-casting pillar to find it.
• Water Stone - Check the pond first and return with the stone you find there, to be told it's just a stone. Next, check by the sink in the house to the right of Sculptor's to find the real one.

NOTE: While there is a Timber Maniacs issue by the bed in Artisan's house, do NOT take it just yet; you'll want to come back her after a later event to get it.

Once you've completed the mini-quest, the Sculptor will tell you to talk to the Elder once again. After a short sequence there, you'll get a Phoenix Pinion. Upon leaving, you're given two options on whether to discuss the whole thing with the rest of the party or not. Choose whichever you want. Once you're done, head to the house in which you found the Water Stone. You can also talk to the Artisan to see all the car models.

Leave the village completely, and then come back in. Talk to the Sculptor and he'll tell you that he's having problems, and then talk to Attendant, off in a corner. Now go to the Elder's House and talk to him; he'll ask you to talk to the Moomba outside - do so and it will get up and head to the Sculptor's building. Follow it and you'll see a short scene.

Head back to the Elder's House once more and talk to him; you'll give a report on the statues progress. Once you're done, go back to the Sculptor's building and talk to the Attendant, who'll suggest that help from the Artisan would make this go a lot easier. Go to his house and talk to him, but he'll refuse to help!

Leave the village and head to Fisherman's Horizon; go to Grease Monkey's house and the Moomba statue in there will greet you. Apparently, it only does that for people who've been to the Shumi Village! Talk to Grease Monkey and he'll give you the Moomba doll, suggesting you take it to Artisan.

Back in Shumi Village, do as Grease Monkey said and the Moomba doll will talk to Artisan; leave his house and you'll see the Master Fisherman from FH. Artisan will follow you out and agree to help. Go to the Elder's House and talk to him to get rewarded with a Status Guard!

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Another's Memories (Winhill)

On the back of that bizarre discovery about Laguna, let's head to Winhill, where Laguna spent time recovering after escaping from the Lunatic Pandora. It's located in the southern section of the Galbadian continent.

Head north to the main square and enter the big mansion. Talk to the owner there and he'll ask you to find four Vase Pieces. Check the suit of armour to the left for a funny scene, and it'll topple over, a Chicobo running from inside of it, leaving a Vase Piece behind. Leave the mansion and enter Raine's pub (to the left) and head up the stairs... Squall will have a hallucination of sorts, seeing Raine standing there! However, it's just the new tenant; talk to her and she'll mention something about a flowers fragrance. Go back downstairs and check the flower to the south-east to see Raine once more, and then check the central flower to find another Vase Piece. Leave the pub and head south to the florists; talk to her and then examine the flower-bed to the bottom-right inside the shop to find the next Vase Piece. Head south and you'll wind up on a small path with a Chicobo running across it. Press X to kick it and an item will fall from it; pick it up to find the final Vase Piece and a Gysahl Green. Repeat the process to get a Phoenix Pinion, though it claims that it's a Phoenix Down.

Head back to the mansion and talk to the owner to receive a Holy Stone.

Now we're about to begin a whole bunch of card quests, so these really don't have to be done whatsoever, but if you want to finish the game completely, then these will need to be done sooner or later.

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Hail to the King Baby! (Balamb Garden)

The first of our card challenges is the Balamb Garden Card Club, a group of players who have their own ladder, their ranks coming from card names (Real cards that is, not Triple Triad cards.) Before undertaking this challange, you may want to complete the first five pages of cards (excepting the PuPu card you can't get 'til disc three,) and make sure that you don't have the Random rule in Balamb Garden. In case you have, play several games inside Balamb Garden to remove it.

There are also two more cards within Balamb Garden you can get; the young boy in blue who runs around the Lobby has the Mini-Mog card, and Trepe Groupie #3 in the classroom on the second floor has the Quistis card; make sure to get those as well before beginning this quest.

The CC members are dotted around Balamb Garden; you'll need to find them and then challenge them in order. The rankings are as follows:

• Jack - Walks in front of the elevator; usually from the Library.
• Knight Club - The curving corridor with exits to the Dormitory, Parking Lot and Cafeteria.
• Princess Diamond - Two female cadets in front of the Directory in the Lobby.
• Prince Spade - Second floor, corridor leading from the elevator; he's the guy who gave you the cards near the beginning of the game.
• Queen Heart - At the bridge; it's Xu. You can get the Carbuncle card from her.
• Former King - In the infirmary; this time it's Dr. Kadowaki.
• Master King - In the Dormitory; choose to sleep and the Kingwill wake you in the middle of the night. It turns out to be Quistis! Defeat her for the Gilgamesh card.
• Joker - Inside the Training Center; he's the guy who sells stuff in there. He'll give you a Battle Meter upgrade, and you can also win the Leviathan card from him.

NOTE: To be able to start this quest, you must have won several games in Balamb Garden; I'm not sure of the exact number, but I think it's around twenty to thirty.

Once you're done with this quest, you may want to pop into the Library with Zell in your party, to find a SeeD who wants to talk to the girl with a pigtail, but her colleage says that she's on leave.

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Military Games (Deling City/Fisherman's Horizon)

Head to the Caraway Mansion and talk to the General himself; select the "Ask about Cards" option and he'll mention he has Rinoa's card. However, he won't play it unless you lose your Ifrit card to him! Your best bet here is to play the Ifrit card first and then play four of your weakest cards to ensure he wins. Play him again and defeat him to get the Rinoa card and then talk to him once more. Miraculously, without leaving the room, he's already lost your Ifrit card to Martine, the ex-headmaster of Galbadia Garden, now retired on the island of Fisherman's Horizon. Hightail it over there and defeat him to get it back.

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Renovations (Dollet)

Head for the Pub and go to the second floor to find another Timber Maniacs issue. Talk to the well-dressed man and pick the second option every time. When you've finished talking, challenge him to a card game, and if you win, he'll lead you to his secret gaming room. Challenge him again and he'll now use his Siren card so make sure to win that. Talk to him and he'll give you 5 Geezard Cards, 4 Red Bat Cards, 3 Buel Cards, 2 Anacondaur Cards and a Cactaur Card. Search the piles of magazines to get items; after finding three items, you have to leave and re-enter the room to get more items. Eventually, you'll find the Occult Fan II magazine. Next, go to the Hotel and book a room; another Timber Maniacs issue will be on the desk.

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Choo-Choo Train! (Timber)

Back in Timber, head to the eastern Train Station (the one you escaped Timber from) via the road with the Hotel on. You'll see a little girl trapped in the train tracks with an oncoming locomotive! Squall rushes out to help her and the screen fades to white... He'll come to, inside the Timber Hotel; there's a Timber Maniacs issue here, and you may also want to examine the model train near the bed.

Yeah, this was really worth giving it's own subsection, honest!

That's it for the card quests on this disc, but there's still the obligatory Chocobo mini-game to do as well!

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Chocobo Forests (Various)

Dotted around the world are seven different Chocobo Forests; they're fairly easy to identify since they're dome-shaped forests (like in FFIX, but a bit more subtle.) The locations are as follows:

Chocobo Forest Locations
Name	Difficulty	Location
Beginner's Forest	Beginner	Next to Shumi Village
Basics Forest	Beginner	South of Beginner's Forest
Roaming Forest	Intermediate	North of Trabia Garden
Forest of Solitude	Intermediate	North-east of the Centra Ruins
Forest of Fun	Expert	South-west Centra, near the lighthouse
Enclosed Forest	Expert	South-east Centra, beach leading to a mountain path; follow it and head west to the forest
Chocobo Sanctuary	N/A	Ride a Chocobo south from Roaming Forest into shallow water and head onto a beach near a heavily forested area. Follow the path round to find the Sanctuary

Inside the first six forests is Chocoboy, a kid who absolutely loves Chocobos. He'll give you a ChocoWhis, which is basically like a sonar device for finding Chicobos, and that is the aim of this quest. In each forest, Chicobos are hiding away and you need to use the ChocoWhis to find them; when you get them all, the Mother Chocobo will come out, whom you can ride out of the Forest and around the world, or help you find the stones hidden underneath the earth.

The ChocoWhis consists of two key components: the ChocoSonar and the ChocoZiner. The ChocoSonar allows you to detect the location of the Chicobos and the ChocoZiner is the Chocobo-call which lures them out. To use the ChocoSonar, select it with the X button and hold down Triangle; the red bar in the bottom-right corner gives the readings of the ChocoSonar, telling you how close you are to where a Chicobo is hidden. To use the ChocoZiner, hit Square to bring up the ChocoWhis menu and select the ChocoZiner with X, and then press Triangle to blow the whistle. If you're not in the right spot, a Chicobo will land on your head and steal your ChocoWhis, meaning you'll need to buy another from Chocoboy for 700 gil.

• Beginner's Forest - Try to find a spot where only one falls down

Pinpoint the location in the north-west corner of the screen with the ChocoSonar before using the ChocoZiner. When the Mother Chocobo appears, search the north-east corner to find an Aura Stone.

• Basics Forest - You only need to blow the whistle twice

Pinpoint the first spot near the center of the map, which will cause two Chicobos to fall down, and then to the far left, parallel to the first spot, near the left-most Chicobo. A third Chicobo will come down; use the same spot again and two of the Chicobo's will go back up, leaving just one behind. With the Mother Chocobo, search near the second ChocoZiner spot to find a Flare Stone.

• Roaming Forest - Be careful where the sonar reacts

Use the ChocoZiner near the right-hand Chicobo to make two return up top, and then in the middle to call down another three. Use it again near the exit to call another Chicobo, and then use it once more on the left-most Chicobo to make all three there jump back up, calling out the Mother Chocobo. Search the northern part to find a Shell Stone and a Holy Stone.

• Forest of Solitude - Search carefully where the sonar reacts

This one took me a freaking age to do; so much hate for it XD

Basically, there's only one Chicobo, but you have to be precise in where you use the ChocoZiner; it should be approximately due north of Chocoboy, with the ChocoSonar bar at nearly max. After finding it, challenge Chocoboy to a Triple Triad game and then tell him to move; get the Mother Chocobo to dig where he was standing to find a Protect Stone and a Meteor Stone.

• Forest of Fun - Chocobowling with 4 bottles and 1 ball

Pinpoint the spot to the right of Chocoboy to call down three Chicobos, and then walk a little to the left towards Chocoboy to find the next ChocoZiner spot, bringing down another Chicobo. The next spot is behind the right-most Chicobo to call down a fifth Chicobo. Use the ChocoZiner on the left-most Chicobo to "bowl" the fifth Chicobo into the others, knocking them back up. Search the upper-right hand corner to find a Meteor Stone, Flare Stone and Ultima Stone.

• Enclosed Forest - Collect on outer side, then go in

Pinpoint the spot north of ChocoBoy to call down two Chicobos, and then use the spot eastwards from there to send the first two back up, and calling down a third. Use the first spot again to now have three Chicobos down, before using the spot in the north-east corner to call down a fifth Chicobo. Use the ChocoZiner in the middle of the four Chicobos to send them all back up, while calling down a fifth one, bringing out the Mother Chocobo. Search in the upper-right-hand corner to find a Meteor Stone, Holy Stone and Ultima Stone.

After completing all six forests, you can now head to the Chocobo Sanctuary. After the ceremony is completed, talk to the Chicobo to get a Chicobo card, and then talk to Chocoboy to get a Chocobo so you can leave.

Hallelujah! Finally done with the sidequests for disc two! Back to the main story!

Under Occupation (Balamb Town)

Before all of that kerfuffle, you may remember Xu mentioning that Galbadia are bound to be up to something since Balamb Garden escaped the missile attack, and in your travels across the world, you may jsut have noticed a big red flying thing near Balamb Town... y'know, it looks kinda similar to Balamb Garden, doesn't it?

Land on the beach nearby and enter the town to find that Galbadia has invaded! Talk to the owner of the Rent-A-Car shop and the lady by the entrance, before talking to the G-Soldier. Talk to them again in the same order to gain entrance into the town; if Zell wasn't in your party, he will join now, being a compulsory member in this section.

Before going into Zell's house, talk to everybody in town. Take a nap in Zell's room (if you've got Irvine in your party, he'll comment on all the rifles Zell has) and then go into the dining room, on the right of the ground floor, where you'll meet Zell's mum, a boy called Big Bad Rascal and his mum. I'm pretty sure that's not his real name, but it's what they call him in the game XD

Make sure to challenge Zell's mum to win the Zell card, and then talk to her; BBR (as I'll now call him since his name is a nuisance to type repeatedly) will run out of the house because there's a girl he wants to help. Go to the house north of Zell's, and you'll find BBR and the girl there; talk to her and BBR will leave again. Next go to the town entrance and you'll see BBR there; talk to the guard but keep the dialogue box open until you see BBR finish talking to the Hotel owner. Go back to the street outside Zell's house and BBR will give you two options; choose "Nah," to escaping for the moment. We've got more to do here first.

Head to the hotel and talk to the two soldiers there; apparently their captain has disappeared off somewhere. Go to the train station and talk to the guards there before going to the docks, where you'll find someone caught a big fish. Next, go back to Zell's house and his mum will tell you someone used their oven to cook a big fish... pretty fast work there I must say! Go back to the hotel, and choose the first option, "Where the heck is he?"

Head to the docks and there'll still be no sign of the captain anywhere. Fortunately, you've got a dog on hand to try and track the scent of the Captain, or maybe it's the fish? Talk to the dog and it will lead you into the train station and aboard a train. After an almighty crash, the captain will come out of the train cabin where he was sleeping after his meal, chased by the dog! Wait a minute... didn't he look kinda familiar?

Junction Blind and Silence onto St-Atk-J as well as Poison/Bio onto Elem-Atk-J before heading to the hotel in pursuit of the "Captain."

The captain is Raijin! What the hell is he doing here, working with the Galbadians! Not only that, but Raijin never goes anywhere without...

After you defeat them both, they'll tell you that they're only doing this because Seifer wants them to before they run away. After a short sequence on the Balamb Garden bridge where Selphie returns (Dammit!), you'll be back on the world map. Re-enter Balamb Town and head to the Hotel; challenge the owner to a card game to get the Pandemona card, and then go to the train station. There should be a girl sitting on the steps; talk to her.

Errant Stupidity (Trabia Garden)

Gah! I want to bash my brains out with a kettle when I do this section! It's so freaking stupid! You'll see why in just a moment...

Selphie wants to return to the Garden she trained at and had lots of friends in, to see what's happened to it since the missile attack she failed to stop. First though, go into the Library with Zell in your party and the ponytail girl's friends will ask Zell some questions...

Once you get to Trabia Garden, Selphie will run off ahead of you; follow her, climbing up the green webbing before continuing upwards. Talk to her there and pick either option; the draw point by the Gargoyle is Thundaga. Instead of heading west to the basketball court like Selphie suggests, head right to a graveyard; there's a hidden Zombie draw point and a Timber Maniacs issue there. Head back left, ignoring the people if you want to 'til you reach an embedded missile; examine it to find a hidden Aura draw point. Continue left to the basketball court. Talk to everyone and then try to leave; a basketball will roll across the floor as Selphie comes along. Cue utterly ridiculous sequence...

You'll find yourself in control of a spectral Squall; head left to find young Squall and talk to him, causing him to disappear. Head upwards to enter the house and turn right, before going up again. Follow the path down to the beach and talk to young Squall once more. After a few more sequences, talk to all the kids and they'll disappear one-by-one, and then leave by the right; you'll be on the beach again. Talk to Irvine and then Quistis, and finally Selphie. Suddenly, you'll be back in the house again and a familiar woman walks past...

Back in the basketball court, the group will discuss their memories before leaving one-by-one, leaving only Squall and Rinoa. Talk to her and the screen will fade to black, bringing up the party select screen...

Invasion! (Balamb/Galbadia Garden)

After their defeat in Balamb Town, Galbadia Garden has high-tailed it outta there, and are now located floating above the Centran continent, near the Forest of Fun, the fifth Chocobo Forest. Note the small house just to the west...

First though, head into the Balamb Garden Library and go to where the Esuna draw point was, and you'll have a short sequence...

Fly Balamb Garden into close range of Galbadia Garden and you'll be taken to the Balamb Garden bridge. After a short sequence, you're given several options; it doesn't really matter which one you pick as far as I'm aware, though they may possibly have some bearing on your SeeD rank, i.e. "What to do with the hotdogs," doesn't strike me as responsible leadership, and thus might have a negative effect on your ranking.

After issuing your orders, take the elevator down and you'll meet up with Irvine, Quistis and Selphie; Rinoa and Zell are unaccounted for so far. After forming your new party, talk to Quistis and then head for the Quad for an FMV sequence.

Regaining control on the second floor, go back to the Quad once more and head to where the stage used to be; you'll find Zell there so talk to him. Squall will give him his ring after Zell asks for it. Next, the rest of the party, including Rinoa, come on screen; talk to her and you'll be back on the Bridge, just in time for another FMV.

In control of Zell, junction his party up, and then head left of where the stage in the Quad was to kick in yet another sequence. Head for the lobby, making sure to save just outside the Infirmary, and after meeting up with Squall's party, head to the Central Gate.

You'll be asked to reform Squall's party once more, with the choice of either two from Irvine, Quistis and Selphie. Head to the classroom for yet another FMV sequence, before a fight against four Paratroopers. Silence them and draw Water* from 'em before finishing them off. Head to the classroom and talk to the lady there; she'll leave with the two children to find safety.

Go back up to the Bridge and you'll meet Dr. Kadowaki there; after a short sequence, possibly my favourite in the game, head to the second floor and talk to the girl by the elevator. She will tell you one of the junior cadets is missing somewhere on this floor; head to the door north of the classroom and you'll find the kid there. After he runs for safety, a Paratrooper attacks Squall in some weird flying device.

You'll be given three options; pick the third, "Look around for another option," and then hit the second option, "Press the button for the emergency exit," to begin a mini-game.

When you've defeated him, you'll get a FMV of Squall saving Rinoa. After landing, head left for one of the most awesome FMVs in the game. You get the chance to name your ring here; the default name is Griever, but trust me when I say that "YOUR ASS" is a great name for it. You'll see why near the end of the game XD

On this screen, check near the tree in the background to find a hidden Aura draw point, before heading into Galbadia Garden proper. You should know the basic layout from your first visit, though there's a lot more to it than you'll have noticed back then. Use the save point and then take the path leading to the right. Go through the open door on the right and up the staircase, where you'll find Fujin and Raijin. Talk to them and then head left, before entering the door on the right. Talk to the Garden cadet there, and he'll give you the Key Card for the first level.

Head back to the save point and take the left path this time, and then entering the door on the left to an Ice Hockey rink. Get Protect from the draw point in the goal, and Life from the one in the locker room to the left, before leaving via the right. Take the right path and you'll end up in a lecture hall; talk to the guy in here to get the Key Card for the second level.

Go back to the save point again and make your way to Fujin and Raijin once more. Continue up the stairs and open the door with the Key Card, leading you to the Athletics Field. Jump down to the Basketball court and check the gate to find a Shell draw point. Head left and go all the way south until you reach the main hallway. In the center you can see a big monster, but circle around it to use the save point. Junction Blind onto your St-Atk-J, Thunder*, Aero* and Float to your Elem-Def-J, and then examine the beast to begin the fight.

Head west from the hall and take the left-hand door to find a girl; talk to her and she'll give you the level three Key Card. Go back to the main hall and take the north-west exit to the staircase leading to the second floor. Ascend and then use the elevator to get to the third floor, where you'll find Seifer and Edea. Save, and then junction Bio to your Elem-Atk-J, as well as Fire*/Thunder* to your Elem-Def-J. Silence and Blind on your St-Atk-J might be an idea as well, and then approach the waiting Seifer...

With Seifer beaten yet again, Edea will disappear. Save again and go back down the elevator, before heading to the hall via the right. You'll be on a balcony that runs around the room; use Siren's Move-Find ability to find another save point, and junction Death, Silence and Slow onto your St-Def-J, and add Blizzard* to your Elem-Def-J if you can, or replace Thunder* to get it on. However, keep the Bio on your Elem-Def-J. Go through the door on the opposite side of where you came in and you'll be in the auditorium. Rinoa will run in if she isn't already in your party, just before Edea comes soaring in from above. Seifer soon trails in, and we're about ready to kick off the final fight! Except, y'know... this is only the second disc of four!

As Edea starts giving off an immense amount of smoke, Squall's vision is badly affected. Rinoa moves over to Seifer, saying something to him before collapsing as Seifer walks away. Meanwhile, Edea comes to with no memory of what's been going on, and doesn't seem at all like the villain you've been battling for the last two discs. What the hell is going on here?

Table of Contents

Disc Three - The Hidden World
House of Memories (The Orphanage)
B-Movie Making! (Trabia Canyon)
The Search for Ellone (White SeeD Ship)
-- Beware the Knife! (Centra Ruins)
Entering the Hidden World (Great Salt Lake)
Operation Rescue (Esthar City)
Opening Pandora's Box (Esthar City)
Howl at the Moon (Lunar Base)
Third Disc Extras (Various)
-- Rockin' Out (Obel Lake)
-- The Truth Is Out There (Various)
-- 10,000 Needles o' Pain (Cactuar Island)
-- The Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell
-- Down Down! Deeper and Down! (Deep Sea Research Center)
-- Bad to the Bone (Dollet)
Reopening the Box (Lunatic Pandora)

House of Memories (The Orphanage)

After paying a visit to Rinoa in the Infirmary, Quistis will call Squall over the tannoy system, telling him to go to Edea's house. First though, go to the Training Center to find the Weapons Monthly Jun magazine in the western half of the map, and then head to Balamb Town and talk to the girl walking just outside the car rental shop (she's the girl who's normally sat on the stairs by the train station), and she'll say that a girl with a pigtail was looking for Zell. Head to his house and Zell will ask his mum is she's been there, but his mum'll say no. Go to the hotel and stay the night. When you wake up, Zell will be gone; head downstairs and you'll find him talking to the girl with the pigtail; she'll give him the Combat King 003 magazine.

Once all that's done, head for where you fought Galbadia Garden, and then a bit to the west to find Edea's House, the orphanage where the main characters, excepting Rinoa, grew up. By the way, there's a Holy draw point nearby on the world map.

After entering, you'll find the rest of the party there; continue onwards and get the Timber Maniacs issue on the floor and then enter the room to the north, getting Curaga from the draw point. Go back a screen, and then to the right, where you'll find Cid. Talk to him and then continue on to the right, to find Edea. Challenge her to win the Edea card, but bear in mind that the Random rule is in effect here, so this match is pretty tough. Also, if you haven't gotten the Seifer card from Cid yet, do so now, though it's a lot tougher now than when I told you to get it the first time!

When you've got the card, talk to Edea repeatedly, and she'll try to explain exactly what the freaking hell has been going on, explaining about the sorceresses Adel and Ultimecia, as well as why Ellone is being hunted. Try to leave and Edea will call you back. Unfortunately, she can't help with regards to Rinoa either, her sudden sickness being beyond her ability to help...

B-Movie Making! (Trabia Canyon)

Before heading to Balamb Garden's Infirmary, make sure you have Squall and two other members of the party fully junctioned up. Why? You'll see ^_~

Go to the Infirmary to check up on Rinoa; sadly (HAH!) there's been no change in her condition, which infuriates Squall before he suddenly passes out... A party exchange screen will pop up, so exchange the two members who have magic junctioned on with Kiros and Ward. Yup, that's right, 'tis time for another flashback!

We find Laguna in the Trabia Canyon where he's playing the lead in a B-Movie! Apparently he's spent all his travel money so he's taken up acting to cover his costs, but I can't imagine he's getting paid a whole lot going by his complete and utter lack of talent at the job! Y'know, I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't actually a porn film they're shooting...

Anyway, Laguna is playing a knight, trying to save the Princess from a dragon, so cue the dragon, i.e. Kiros and Ward in a dragon costume. My word, that's a VERY good costume there!

Realising that the dragon's real, Laguna will run away, only to be trapped once more! Luckily, Kiros and Ward finally show up, but it's best to choose to run away once more so you can get them junctioned up; put Blizzaga onto your Elem-Atk-J. Once you've done that, walk into the beast!

After defeating the Ruby Dragon, Laguna will see even more coming, so the party will run outta there. At the top of the mountain, he'll see something off on the horizon as the sun sets, the screen fading to black... Next Laguna will be at the Orphanage, talking to Edea about Ellone, who seems to have been taken by the Estharians...

Two notes to make about this section: Firstly, remember in the Shumi Village sub-section I mentioned to not get the Timber Maniacs issue? Well, that's because it's about THIS flashback; if you do get it, Ward will not be there, making the fight against the Ruby Dragon tougher. Of course, this means you can now go back there and get it! Secondly, you can get into encounters in this small section against Mesmerizes; they have Mesmerize Blades which are needed for weapon synthesis so if you do run into them, make sure to mug 'em!

The Search for Ellone (White SeeD Ship)

Y'know, since Edea can't help Rinoa, we need to find someone else who has strong magic to try and heal her... and y'know, a certain name springs to mind, someone who's been interfering a lot recently...

So, Squall decides that he needs to find Ellone to try and cure Rinoa, this of course means we need to find the White SeeD ship that she was last seen on, which means we need to talk to Edea about it. Head back to the Orphanage and talk to her about it; she'll give you a letter to prove that you mean no ill will towards the White SeeDs, and she'll give you a rough approximation of their current location, though it's very vague.

As a note, you can sell the letter Edea gives you for 125 gil and then go back to get another one from her, and so on, so you could in theory make in infinte amount of money here, but it'd take so long it's ridiculous. There's a much better way of doing it later on in the disc.

Anyway, Edea says that the White SeeD ship is located in an inlet somewhere around the Centran Continent. Head a little bit north from the Orphanage and you should see a group of islands forming a rough cirle around a patch of water. The ship should be in the middle...

Upon boarding the ship, you'll meet three of the White/Sorceress SeeDs, and there's another near the hull with two kids, none of whom are happy to see you on their ship. Head into the cabin and you'll find Zone and Watts! What the hell are they doing here? If you haven't got the Angelo card yet, challenge Watts, before following Zone up the stairs to the Bridge. Talk to him and offer to give him the Girl Next Door magazine for free; he'll give you the Siren card and a Rename Card for your generosity, though... it's not really purely magnaminous of you if you're doing it coz' I told you he'll give you that stuff now, is it? XD There's also a Timber Maniacs issue here so nab that as well.

Note that this should be the final issue of Timber Maniancs for you to get, adding up to twelve in total. The locations are as follows:

• Balamb Hotel
• Timber Maniacs Office (Timber)
• Dollet Hotel
• Dollet Pub
• Deling City Hotel
• Grease Monkey's House (FH)
• FH Hotel
• Artisan's House (Shumi Village)
• Timber Hotel
• Trabia Garden Cemetary
• The Orphanage
• White SeeD Ship

Back downstairs in the cabin, go into the door that Watts isn't blocking to find a Holy draw point, and then talk to the guy there. He'll tell you that Ellone jumped onto an Estharian ship, a surprising turn around considering that the Estharians once kidnapped her... Squall will go back to Balamb Garden and tells Nida that they'll be heading for Esthar next.

Now's a good time to hunt items for weapon synthesis, since the fights are gonna get a lot tougher in the next section. Also, you might want to nab a spare six Steel Pipes; you'll see why soon. Finally, we're gonna make a major side-trip right now to pick up the Tonberry GF.

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Beware the Knife! (Centra Ruins)

First, make sure that whoever is junctioned to Diablos has Auto-Haste equipped, or failing that, Pandemona's Spd-J, that another person has Quezacotl's Card command junctioned, and junction Death to St-Def-J. Head to the Centra Ruins and roam around the place, waiting for fights against Tonberries. These guys are really tough, and normal attacks, limits and magic, are often countered with the nasty Everybody's Grudge, which does damage seemingly based on the characters level. I find the best tactic is to spam Diablos, until it stops doign 9,999 damage and then batter it as hard as you can, reducing its chances to counter.

Once you've recieved twenty Chef's Knives from defeating the Tonberries, leave the Centra Ruins, before healing and saving. Go back in; defeat the next Tonberry and the Tonberry King should emerge...

BOSS: Tonberry King
DRAW: Death, Curaga, Full-Life

Don't waste time trying to draw Full-Life from it, since it'll kick your ass in the meantime. Diablos/Demi won't work on this big boy, but he'll still counter a lot of your stuff with Everybody's Grudge. Start by casting Meltdown and Slow on him, while summoning Cerberus. Triple Aura everyone and let loose with your limit breaks; Zell is excellent in this fight for the awesome Armageddon Fist combo, and I'd recommend a healer as well, probably Selphie.

This fight will be incredibly tough, but it should be possible. You can come back and do this later on in the third disc if you want, after you've got the Doomtrain GF and taught Quistis Mighty Guard, both of which will make this fight easier, but you're liable to be at a far higher level then, meaning the Tonberry King's level is also higher.

NOTE: Actually, when my girlfriend got to this fight, she creamed him. Did it far easier than I've ever managed it ^^; She had Squall, Irvine and Quistis as her party; Quistis stayed as a healer, while Squall and Irvine used their limits after being triple Aura'd. The Tonberry King only got like, three moves out before dying. In essence, my girlfriend owned me XD

WIN: Royal Crown, Tonberry (GF)

When you've defeated it, the first ability you should set it to learn is Initiative, since you'll be needing it very soon.

Entering the Hidden World (Great Salt Lake)

Take Balamb Garden to FH and visit Rinoa in the Infirmary; Squall will sneak off, carrying her on his back as he walks along the abandoned railway towards Esthar. Just follow the path until you reach Seaside Station, where you'll meet up with the rest of the party, as well as Edea! You can include her in your party for now, but as cool as she is, I'd recommend against it for a reason you'll see later...

After some conversation, you'll find yourself on the World Map again; walk to the big lake-type thingy nearby to enter the Great Salt Lake. Walk upwards 'til you get to a dinosaur's skeleton; walk up it on the right to the next screen, and then check to the south to find a Meteor draw point before crossing the bone bridge. At the cliff edge there'll be a Thundaga draw point before you press the X button by the edge to jump off and head to the next screen. Go to the right and use the save point, and then junction Firaga to your Elem-Atk-J, Blind to your St-Atk-J and Confuse to your St-Def-J. Also, if you've learnt Leviathan's Recover ability, make sure to stick that as a command. Head two screen to the left and a gigantic monster will loom above you!

Once you've defeated Abadon, head north-east, and you'll hear some weird sounds. There's a hidden save point here you can use if you want; otherwise, push north and examine the background to discover it's a hologram! A ladder will come down, so climb it and enter the Estharian Continent proper.

Go north-east and examine the panel on the left; you can use this to mess about with the hologram field that you just encountered. Once you've finished having fun, continue along the path to an elevator. Talk to your party and then leave the elevator, stepping onto the next one. Finally, a door will open; walk through it to discover the city of Esthar! However, it seems a case of randomly fainting has struck the party once more...

Operation Rescue (Esthar City)

It seems that Laguna and co. were caught trying to sneak into Esthar via the Trabia Canyon, in a bid to find Ellone and rescue her: we now find the party imprisoned at the Lunatic Pandora Research Center. After Kiros and Ward leave, talk to the two guards and the screen will fade; once back, talk to the guards again, and then talk to the Moomba and the prisoner operating the controls, before talking to the Moomba once more. A soldier should come in now and order Laguna to help upstairs, but you'll end up staying where you are, talking to the prisoners until the guard comes back. Infuriated that Laguna has disobeyed him, he'll attack. Draw any spells you need from him (he has all three basic elements at the -aga level as well as Curaga) before dispatching him.

When Kiros and Ward join up, pick the first option and junction them up before fighting the oncoming guards; two Esthar Soldiers and a Gesper. Mug the Gesper for a Black Hole if Quistis hasn't yet learned Degenerator, since that'll be very useful later when you're hunting Malboros.

Hop on the elevator, and you'll find Dr. Odine talking to a research assistant; you can stay and eavesdrop, or leave by the right, whichever you prefer. On the next screen, outside of the Research Center, you'll find the Moomba and the prisoner you helped escape; apparently, he's part of an underground faction seeking to depose the Sorceress Adel who's currently running Esthar with an iron fist. It seems they've got a way to defeat her, but they need someone with undeniable courage (or failing that, naiv? stupidity) to put the plan into action. Next, a research assistant will come up to you; he'll tell you that Dr. Odine knows where Ellone is being kept!

Use the Death draw point here and save the game before re-entering the Lunatic Pandora Research Center. Grab the Weapon Mon 1st magazine and use the elevator. Approach Dr. Odine and you'll get into a fight with two Esthar Soldiers and an Elastoid; make sure to stock up on Meltdown from the Elastoid, and mug it for a Laser Cannon if Quistis doesn't yet know Homing Laser.

Follow Odine up the elevator and out of the building, where he'll tell you where Ellone is being held. After taking a car to get to Dr. Odine's lab, head upwards and you'll have to fight a few soldiers; kill them and use the Double draw point before sitting down on the weird object in the center of the room - it's an elevator, kinda. Upon disembarking, check near the left-hand side of the door to find a hidden Flare draw point before entering, and fight two more soldiers. Once you've defeated them, examine the big blue screen and you'll see a video feed of Ellone in her cell; check the panels on the right and a door should open up on the ground floor, so enter to rescue Ellone...

Opening Pandora's Box (Esthar City)

Back with Squall's party, a vehicle will come and take you to the Presidential Palace, where you'll meet Dr. Odine. Talk to him and he'll give you permission to meet Ellone, telling you to go to the Lunar Gate whenever you're ready. Challenge to a Triple Triad game to get the Ward card. Leave the palace and use the Blizzard draw point before heading left and using the lift. Head to the Airstation and talk to the Presidential Aide there before heading back to the Palace. The room just before where you met Dr. Odine should have a secretary in; talk to him and then check the spot where he was standing to find the Occult Fan IV magazine.

You'll want to head down to the shopping mall in the south-east of town; make sure to buy enough Remedies, so that you have sixty in total. There's also a Tornado draw point here. Head west three screens and south another to find a Quake draw point, and then north twice to find a Curaga draw point. Head west twice from here and talk to the soldier there, before heading back the way you came to the screen just west of the Shopping Mall. Go south and stand on the platform; you can either rent a car, or choose to go on foot. I'd recommend going by foot since you're gonna need to hunt in the local area.

Ignore the Lunar Gate for the moment and instead head to the south-eastern part of the continent, where you'll find Tear's Point. Enter and use the Life draw point before continuing along the path; at the base of the statue you should find the Solomon's Ring, referenced in the Occult Fan magazines, and a Reflect draw point.

Leave Tear's Point, and walk around the world map in that rough area, sticking to the Abadan Plains; we're hunting Malboro's for their tentacles, and they're one of the nastiest creatures in the game, since they cast Bad Breath as its first attack every fight, which basically is Berserk, Confuse, Curse, Darkness, Doom, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Slow and Meltdown, all rolled into one attack. There are two tactics to fighting Malboro's:

1) Junction Squall to Diablos and either Pandemona or Tonberry, equipping the Initiative ability. Junction Quistis to whichever is left and lower her HP into the critical range. Mug the Malboro's for their tentacles with Squall, and then have Quistis cast Degenerator on it, all before it gets the chance to attack. Otherwise, you'll be in a whole world of trouble.

2) Make sure the character with Diablos (preferably Squall) junctioned has Berserk, Blind, Confuse and Sleep junctioned to St-Def-J. Junction Blizzaga to everyone's Elem-Atk-J and have someone with Siren's Treatment ability, preferably your second character, and junction Berserk, Confuse and Sleep to their St-Def-J. Have Quistis as your third character, with health in the critical range. Mug it with Squall, have the second character use Treatment on Quistis, and have her use Degenerator on the Malboro to kill it.

Once you've got seven Malboro Tentacles, use Alexander's Med LV Up to turn the sixty Remedies into six Remedy+, and then open the item menu to use the Solomon's Ring, and you'll get the Doomtrain GF, my favourite in the game! Its attack is basically the same as a Malboro's Bad Breath, and it can learn both Elem-Def-J x4 AND the awesome St-Def-J x4! You'll probably be wanting to use Doomtrain at the beginning of every major fight you can. Note I said to get seven Malboro Tentacles; use the seventh one to teach Quistis Bad Breath.

Now you're done with that, head for the Lunar Gate, which is north from Tear's Point. Follow the attendant who greets you, and Angelo will turn up. During the sequence, you'll be asked if you're sure you want to go into space, pick "I'll do whatever it takes," and then you'll be told that there's only room for three people on the shuttle, and Squall and Rinoa already have their seats booked. Edea doesn't want to go in fear that she'll lose control again, and Zell says he wants to stay and protect the Matron; choose to "Trust Zell," and then you have to select a third person for Squall's party. Bearing in mind that you'll have no fights on the Lunar Base, and that Zell's party is gonna have a fair few, I'd suggest picking the weakest member you've got. After all that, Squall and Rinoa will finally blast off into space in a FMV, leaving you in control of Zell's party.

Leave the Lunar Gate and you'll see a FMV of the Lunatic Pandora approaching Esthar City; head into Esthar City. Inside the city, go to the Shopping Mall and keep trying to get into Cheryl's shop, despite it being closed; eventually you'll get a Rosetta Stone. from there, head west thrice, north once and twice west again; talk to the soldier there and he'll give you the Combat King 004 magazine. Trace your way back to the elevator junction you passed, and head south from it to Dr. Odine's laboratory. Talk to the guard and pick the first option; head inside and ride the elevator you used when you were here with Laguna to get to the control room, where you'll find Dr. Odine. He'll explain that the Lunatic Pandora will pass through three areas of Esthar City where you can board it during certain time periods. You will have a twenty minute clock counting down, in which, the first opening is from 15:00 to 12:00, the second from 10:00 to 05:00, and the third from 03:00 to 00:00. If you don't manage to board the Lunatic Pandora during any of these periods, you'll miss out on a bunch of stuff on board, but it's not the end of the world.

Leave Dr. Odine's lab and the countdown will begin. Head east twice, north, and then up the stairs; wait here for the Lunatic Pandora. When it arrives, you'll have to fight a G-Soldier and an Elite Soldier to get on board, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Inside the Lunatic Pandora, use the Meteor draw point and head up the stairs. Use the Curaga draw point to the left and then get on the blue 02 elevator and follow the path until it splits, taking the left path. Continue along the path until you reach a red 03 elevator; in the bottom-right should be some stairs so take them, and then climb down the ladder. Use the Confuse draw point here and check in the alcove to the right to find a LuvLuv G. Head left from the Confuse draw point to find the three hatches you should have opened when here with Laguna; from right to left they should contain a Power Generator, a Silence draw point, and a Phoenix Pinion. Continue on to the left to find the Combat King 005 magazine. Trace your way back to the red 03 elevator and board it this time. Head left and board the green 01 elevator, using the Holy draw point there. Head up a screen and check the hole you should be able to see to get a Spd-J Scroll, before continuing up the path 'til you come face to face with the Mobile Type 8 robot, which promptly turfs you out of the Lunatic Pandora.

After the FMV sequence, you'll have a short sequence before we switch over to Squall's party...

Howl at the Moon (Lunar Base)

Upon waking up in the Lunar Base, talk to the man in the white coat, Piet, and then go over to check on Rinoa. Follow Piet to the Medical Bay and use the save point there. Leave and head north to the Bridge; examine the panels in the top-right - a scientist will tell you that the Lunar Cry is starting - before talking to Piet; pick the second option to ask where Ellone is. Challenge Piet to a Triple Triad game for the Alexander card, but bear in mind the Random rule is active up here.

Leave the Bridge and head down until you reach some stairs; head up them and go through the door. Talk to the girl here to see a scene of some astronauts tending to the seal on the Sorceress Adel. Continue along the tunnel and then go in the door to the south, where you'll find Ellone. Challenge her to a card game to win the Laguna card and then talk to her; she'll agree to take a look at Rinoa for you, so head towards the Medical Bay and a sequence will cut in. Continue on your way there and you'll see one of the Medical Technicians go flying out of the room, followed by Rinoa. You can try to approach her, but she'll knock you away; follow her to the Bridge and you'll see her deactivate the seals that were locking Adel away. Approach Rinoa once more and she'll stagger off; the other member of your party will rush to the console, go over and check it out to see the monsters on the moon going crazy. Head to the passageway leading to Ellone's room and you'll see an FMV of the Lunar Cry beginning. Enter the room to the north-east, which is a locker room, and check the lockers to find a spacesuit Squall can put on.

Chase after Rinoa into the airlock, but you can't reach her in time. Back in the locker room, leave it to see a sequence where two aide's haul the President away, before continuing on to the bridge. Talk to everyone here, saving Ellone for last; you'll see Rinoa freeing Adel, who gets caught up in the Lunar Cry and is sent down to the planet. Head right and use the elevator; at the bottom use the savepoint, and the hidden Meltdown draw point to the left, before heading right to the escape pods. Talk to Ellone, and she'll agree to insert Squall into Rinoa's memories like she's done before with Laguna's memories. After the sequence ends, Squall gets it in his thick head to leave the escape pod and try to rescue Rinoa.

After drifting through space for a bit, you'll find a dragon-shaped spaceship. After boarding it, check the panel to the left to close the airlock, and then head up for a brief conversation with Rinoa. Head through the door, and you'll see a sequence of a big alien moving about on a lower level. Make sure Rinoa and Squall are fully junctioned up, with Thundaga on Elem-Def-J, as well as Blind and Silence on St-Def-J, before heading down the stairs, where you'll encounter your first Propagator.

Throughout the ship, there are eight Propagators, two of each colour. You must kill the same-coloured Propagators consecutively, or they'll respawn. Also, it's important to note that as soon as a Propagator sees you, it'll chase after you. Avoid contact with it to not get into a fight; you'll need to be able to do this to be able to complete this section.

The Propagator you just killed was purple, so we need to find the next purple one. Take the left door and run through the next room to the door on the left, to avoid the Red Propagator in there. Kill the Purple Propogator in here, and then head back to the right, killing the Red Propagator you just avoided. Use the Cura draw point in the top-left, before going back to the hanger where you fought the first Purple Propogator and climb the stairs to the right to find the other Red Propogator. After killing it, go back down to the first floor, and enter the door in the top-right to find a Green Propagator. Use the save point here and the head south, take the top-left door and then left twice; kill the second Green Propagator here. There should be a door to the left; go through to find a Yellow Propogator and once you've killed it, head to the room where you first entered the spaceship to find the final Propogator.

Now that you've cleared out the ship, head north and use the Life draw point to the left and then return to the room with the save point; there should be a hidden Full-Life draw point in here. head south, take the top-left door and use the Cura draw point here, before heading left twice. Use the elevator to get to the Bridge, where you'll have a long sequence while the Faye Wong song, "Eyes on Me," plays in the background.

Eventually, you'll land back on the planet, and Rinoa is hauled away by Esthar guards since they think she's still being controlled by Ultimecia. Get back on the Ragnarok and head for the room that contained the first Yellow Propogator. There you'll find the rest of the party. Talk to them and they'll convince Squall to go and rescue Rinoa. The controls for the Ragnarok are as follows:

• Up/Down - Ascend/Descend.
• Left/Right - Turn left/right.
• R2 - Changes Point of View (POV).
• Square - Forwards.
• Triangle - Backwards.
• X - Get in/out.
• Circle - Takes you to the Cockpit.
• Select - World Map (Press three times to get to the auto-pilot destination selection screen - just select where you want to go and it'll take you there automatically.)

Set the auto-pilot to go to the Sorceress Memorial Hall and disembark once there. Enter and head up the stairs, using the Stop draw point before talking to the guards. Inside, head left to set Rinoa free, and then make to leave. Outside, a group of Esthar Soldiers will try to stop you from leaving, but a big man will come along and motion the guards to let you go... seems familiar, doesn't he?

Third Disc Extras (Various)

Rinoa will ask you to go to the Orphanage, but now you have the Ragnarok under your control, you can now traverse the entire world, thus meaning you can do even more sidequests. Oh yay. So let's do that first.

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Rockin' Out (Obel Lake)

So, let's start with the sidequest that is gonna drive you absolutely insane, since I'm such a lovely chap. Fly to the northern part of the Galbadian continent, and you should find a big lake. Land by it and walk out onto the peninsula, pressing X when you reach the edge. You should get a message giving you two options; pick the second one, "Try humming," and a black shadow will rise to the surface of the water. Try humming again and the shadow will talk to you. Press X and it'll ask you if you can do it a favour, select "What is it?" and it'll ask you to find Mr. Monkey.

Examine the lake again and select "Throw a rock," this time. A dialog box will pop up, telling you how many times the rock skipped along the water. Keep doing it until it says "The rock skipped many many times."

Now head towards Dollet and you'll see a train station nearby; to the far left should be a forest (The area is designated on the map as Dollet-Hasberry Plains). Walk into it and you'll get a prompt, pick "Throw a rock," and you should hit Mr. Monkey; he'll get angry and chuck a rock back at you. Interestingly enough though, the rock that just got thrown at you has some writing on it... "URHAEO." If you sing for Mr. Monkey, he'll tell you that you suck, and if you throw a rock at him that didn't bounce "...many many times,", he'll hurl insults at you, including a funny one about your mother. It's worth doing that just for a laugh.

Report back to the black shadow in Lake Obel, and after talking to him a few times, he should come up with one of the following six lines:

• "At the beach in Balamb something special washes ashore at times"
• "You'll find something on an island of east of Timber, too."
• "There's also something on top of a mountain with a lake and cavern."
• "Take sometime off at Eldbeak Peninsula. I bet its a wonderful place."
• "Take a break at the railroad bridge."
• "Back in the day, south of here, there used to be a small but beautiful village surrounded by deep forests. Everybody lived a happy life there."

All of them refer to little hidden extras. First, we'll continue with the writing rocks part of this quest; there are another three to find, and the clues are the first three quotes.

• Balamb Island (Rinual Shores) - "At the beach in Balamb something special washes ashore at times"

Head to Balamb Island and get off on the shore just south-east of the town. There should be some kind of sand peninsula visible when the tide's out; search there to find a stone reading "STSLRM."

• Timber (Mandy Beach) - "You'll find something on an island of east of Timber, too."

There'll be a raised island in this area; search on it to find a stone reading "REAIDR."

• Galbadia (Monterosa Plateau) - "There's also something on top of a mountain with a lake and cavern."

The cliffs south of where Galbadia Garden used to be should have a waterfall coming out of 'em; land on top of the one that does and search around the area. You'll find a bird warming up an egg; pick the first option, "Check it out," and you'll get into a fight with two Thrustaevis. Dispatch them and you'll get the fourth rock, reading "EASNPD."

Go back to Obel Lake and the black shadow will line up the rocks in a certain order:

Standard Table 2
Location	Letters
Rinaul Shores	S	T	S	L	R	M
Hasberry Plains	U	R	H	A	E	O
Mandy Beach	R	E	A	I	D	R
Monterosa Plateau	E	A	S	N	P	D

If you were to read the letters in the Japanese style, i.e. from top to bottom, starting from the right, you'll get the sentence "MORDRED PLAINS HAS TREASURE."

Fly the Ragnarok over to the Mordred Plains; they're a star-shaped area north of Esthar. Land jutst off to the side of it and walk onto it. Press X and a message will come up saying that there's lots of different coloured rocks here. Press X once more and a blue-faced rock will tell you that the rocks are called the Liar Rocks. There are three different colours that will give you hints as to where the treasure is; black, red and white. Black stones always say the same thing, the white stones spout random directions that won't help, and red stones always tell you to go the opposite way that you should. Walk around the area pressing X, using the red stones as your guide, until you find one that says "The treasure is not here." Since the red stone always tells the exact opposite of the truth, this means that the treasure is there. Press X again and you'll get a Three Stars.

Now for the rest of the hints from the black shadow in Lake Obel:

• Trabia (Eldbeak Peninsula) - "Take some time off at Eldbeak Peninsula. I bet it's a wonderful place."

The Eldbeak Peninsula is located due east from Dollet; search there and you'll another code: TRETIMEASUREATMINOFFDEISLE. The clue that the black shadow gave you was to "Take some TIME OFF..." so remove TIME and OFF from the code to get the sentence, "TREASURE AT MINDE ISLE."

Minde Isle is an island just off the coast of Esthar, south-west from Tear's Point. Search on it to find a Luck-J scroll.

• Galbadia (Various) - "Take a break at the railroad bridge."

This one's simple enough; you can find hidden draw points on the world map on railway bridges.

• Centra - "Back in the day, south of here, there used to be a small but beautiful village surrounded by deep forests. Everybody lived a happy life there."

Just north of the Orphanage should be several forests, forming a rough circle. Search inbetween them to find the ruins of a village.

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The Truth Is Out There (Various)

Now, by this point in the game, you may have had one or two very strange fights in which a UFO has floated off in the distance, carrying some strange object. There are four encounters like this you need to get. The locations are as follows:

• Winhill Bluffs/Lallapalooza Canyon (east from Winhill) [Cow]
• Mandy Beach (south-east from Timber). [Moa Statue]
• Kashkabald Desert (north-west from Cactuar Island) [Pyramid]
• Heath Peninsula (east from Trabia Garden) [Who knows?]

Note that you can get into these fights while you have Diablos' Enc-None activated, which makes life a lot easier. Once you have all four sightings, fly the Ragnarok to the hilltop just north of the Great Grandidi Forest. Walk around and you'll get into a fight with the UFO. Just beat it to death and it'll go kablooey while flying away. You'll also get an Aegis Amulet.

Now, you need to make sure someone in your party has Item in their combat menu, and that you've got five Elixirs; you can buy them from Johnny's shop in Esthar, or make them in the following ways:

Alexander's Med LV Up

• Remedy+ x10 = Elixir x1

Doomtrain's Forbid Med-RF

• Mega Potion x20 = Elixir x1
• Elem Atk x1 = Elixir x4
• Elem Guard x1 = Elixir x4
• Status Atk x1 = Elixir x4
• Status Guard x1 = Elixir x4

Quezacotl's Card-RF

• Angelo x1 = Elixir x100

Once you've done all that, head to Balamb Island and walk around in the crater left behind by Balamb Garden when it escaped the missile attack. Eventually you'll get into a fight with the little fellow who was piloting the UFO, PuPu. You can either fight him, and win an Accelerator, or use five Elixirs on him, and get a PuPu card, which you can refine into a Hungry Cookpot. Personally, I recommend the latter, since the Hungry Cookpot is far better than the Accelerator.

---

10,000 Needles o' Pain (Cactuar Island)

First up, make sure you've got 300 water spells so you can junstion them up to your Elem-Atk-J, and that you've got as many Aura spells as you can lay your grubby mitts on, and I'd recommend getting the Lionheart for Squall, since his final limit break will come in handy for the upcoming fight. Once you've got your party prepared, preferably with Zell and Quistis as your other party members, head to the island off the south-east coast of the Centran continent. You'll be able to recognise it by the big green shape you can see move around it every now and then. Land on the island and walk into the big green thingy, to get into a fight...

BOSS: Jumbo Cactuar
DRAW: Meltdown, Demi, Tornado

Holy Christ on a pogo-stick, is this guy big or what? He's over four times as tall as your characters! Start the fight by summoning Cerberus, Draw/Casting Meltdown on the Jumbo Cactuar, and then casting Aura on the entire party. Use Squall's Renzokuken, Zell's Armageddon Fist combo, and Quistis' Aqua Breath to do as much damage as possible.

The Jumbo Cactuar has two moves: Ker Plunk is where it topples over, doing low to medium damage on the whole party; just triple Cura/Curaga on the party to heal up. The more important move that the Jumbo Cactuar does is 10,000 Needles, which is an instant kill attack, seeing that it does 10,000 damage and the max HP is 9,999. When he does this, just use life so they can leap right back to using Limit Breaks; just keep at least one person's HP above 2,000 so that they don't all get wiped out by Ker Plunk.

Finally, I recommend you don't mug the Jumbo Cactuar since the Gaea's Ring is far superior to the Cactuar's Thorn, and you'll be getting plenty of the latter soon.

This fight will drag on for quite a while since at high levels, the Jumbo Cactuar has well over 100,000 HP; the biggest worry though is that after dealing like, 90,000 damage, the Jumbo Cactuar just runs away. You've got to try and put it away as fast as you can, or you'll have to start all over again.

WIN: Gaea's Ring, Cactuar (GF)
MUG: Cactuar's Thorn (x3)

You should now have the Cactuar GF, which has the very valuable HP/Str/Mag/Vit/Spr Bonus abilities, which are key to making your characters as ownage as possible.

It's also useful to note that you can fight normal Cactuars on this island; they give you twenty AP per Cactuar, so this is the ideal place to learn all of your GF abilities.

---

The Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell

In the world FFVIII inhabits, there are two islands packed to the rafters with nasty monsters and great draw points, these being the Island Closest to Heaven, and the Island Closest to Hell. Hell is located to the west of the Galbadian Continent, while Heaven is just north-east of the Great Grandidi Forest. I recommend roaming around these islands with Diablos' Enc-None equipped to get the draw points; the spells available include Ultima, Meteor, Flare, Quake, Full-Life, Triple and Aura, and the draw points recharge very quickly. By the time you've raided both islands, the first may well have recharged all of its draw points, so keep hopping between them to max out all your spells.

Once you've done that, you can take off Diablos' Enc-None to get some great levelling done here; make sure you've got all the Bonus abilities equipped that you can make the most of it

---

Down Down! Deeper and Down! (Deep Sea Research Center)

Anyway, now for one of the toughest sections of the game; head to Edea's House and head due west from there, and you should find the Deep Sea Research Center sitting out to sea, all by itself. Upon landing on it, if Zell's in your party, he'll tell you what little he knows about this place. Make your party, preferrably Squall, Zell and Quistis, and junction Sleep to two of the character's St-Atk-J, and Blind on the third character; Blizzaga to their Elem-Atk-J, Ultima to their Str stats, Meltdown to their Vit stats, Death to their St-Def-J, and Firaga, Holy, Quake and Thundaga to their Elem-Def-J.

Enter the building and you'll see a bright pillar in the center of the room. When the pillar brightens up, don't move or you'll get into a random fight; move towards the pillar whenever it's in its gloomy stage. When you get close enough, a voice will talk to you; pick the second option, "It's not our will to fight," and you'll get into a battle with a Ruby Dragon. Smack it with a normal attack to put it to sleep and then summon Doomtrain. Draw whatever you need from it and then mug it, before beating it to death. Once more the voice will speak to you; pick the second option, "Never," and you'll get into a fight with yet another Ruby Dragon, but this time it will be a Back Attack, unless you have Cerberus' Alert equipped. I didn't and it started with Breath before I could turn around, and since Breath is a physical attack, the damage was doubled, killing my entire party at once. Just repeat the tactic from last time to dispatch it. The voice will speak one more time; pick the hidden third option, "It's our nature," and the speaker will show itself!

BOSS: Bahamut
DRAW: Flare, Curaga, Full-Life

Start the fight by smacking it with the attack of whoever has Blind junctioned to their St-Atk-J, to blind Bahamut, rendering him nearly useless, and then follow it up by summoning both Cerberus and Doomtrain. Triple Aura onto the party, and if Quistis has learnt it, use Mighty Guard to defend against Bahamut's Mega Flare, or just triple shell onto the party. Pummel Bahamut with Renzokuken and Armageddon Fist, while you have Quistis draw any spells necessary. This shouldn't take too long to finish off. As a note, Squall's Renzokuken looks absolutely awesome in this fight, the way he jumps up onto Bahamut's wings XD

WIN: Hyper Wrist, Bahamut Card, Bahamut (GF)
MUG: Hyper Wrist

Leave the Deep Sea Research Center and board the Ragnarok; press circle to get to the cockpit and talk to you party, before returning back into the Deep Sea Research Center. Heal yourself up at the save point and then descend into the hole where the pillar used to be.

Use the Dispel draw point and then examine the computer terminal; it'll say that the doors in the Deep Sea Research Center need to be opened via steam power, and that to open the final door, ten units of the Reserve Steam Pressure, RSP, need to be used. You start with twenty units of RSP, and there are six floors, including the one you're currently on. Squall will automatically use four units of RSP to open the first door, leaving you sixteen RSP.

There are two different methods to do this section, depending on whether you have Zell in your party or not.

Method A: On each floor, use one RSP to open the door, and on the sixth floor, have Zell try to fiddle with the machine; he'll beat it up, making it so you don't need any RSP to open the final door.

Method B: On the second floor, use two RSP. On the third floor, use the monitor on the left to open up the steam room for four RSP; inside will be an Esuna draw point, and a machine that will recharge seven units of RSP, giving you seventeen now; open the door to the next level with one RSP. On the fourth and fifth floors, use one RSP each, and on the sixth, use four RSP to end up with just ten RSP left.

Note that Enc-None and Enc-Half do not work in here, and you can't run from any of the random battles you may find yourself in. After you reach the bottom of the tower, and enter the excavation level, you'll end up having at least one fixed battle against certain enemies per screen.

On the first screen, you'll have to fight a Tri-Face; using the same junction setup from the Bahamut fight, Blind it and put it to sleep, before mugging it for the valuable Curse Spikes. You'll need 100 of them to refine into a Dark Matter via Siren's Tool-RF, which enables Quistis to learn Shockwave Pulsar, her ultimate Limit Break. Note, Siren has to be at level 100 to be able to perform this refination.

On the second screen, you'll have to fight a Grendel and an Imp; just beat them to death as quickly as possible. The imp will counter with Holy when it's defeated, which should heal you if you've followed my junctioning advice =D?

On the third screen, you'll fight a Behemoth. Switch your Blind St-Atk-J for another Sleep, and then put both of these big boys to sleep. Mug them for Barriers to teach Quistis Mighty Guard if she doesn't already know it; you'll want another fifty Barriers to refine into an Aegis Amulet via Eden's GFAbl Med-RF, but it's not absolutely necessary, so you can skip that if you want. Make sure to use the Triple draw point before proceeding.

On the fourth screen, you'll fight a Ruby Dragon. As before, just smack it to sleep and then summon Doomtrain, before resuming beating up on it. Now that all of your party has Sleep to their St-Atk-J, you can just pummel away quite happily on it.

On the fifth screen, you'll fight a pair of Iron Giants. For this battle, you'll want to put Thundaga as your Elem-Atk-J, and then stick with the Ruby Dragon tactic; hit them to sleep and then summon Doomtrain, before resuming just beating up on them. You can mug them for Star Fragments which are fairly useful. There should be an Ultima draw point hidden at the foot of the stairs.

Before using the final steam machine, use Siren's Move-Find ability and heal/save at the save point you'll uncover, and then sort out your junctions: Ultima to Str, Meltdown to Vit, Triple to Spd, Quake to Elem-Def-J. The Revive and Recover command abilities will be invaluable of this fight, and you may well have to resort to using items to keep people alive, so leave Draw on only one person. When you're ready, use the final steam machine and a huge monster will rise from the water...

BOSS: Ultima Weapon
DRAW: Regen, Dispel, Ultima, Eden

Oh boy is this fight tough, the second hardest in the game. Ultima Weapon has five basic moves it'll use throughout the fight: It's basic physical attack will do around 1,500 to 2,500 damage, depending on your vit; Quake will heal you because of having it junctioned to your Elem-Def-J, which will be a great help; Meteor is annoying, but there isn't much you can do about it, except Triple Shell on your party; Gravija hits the entire party and will regularly knock off 3,000 to 5,000 HP; Light Pillar can easily kill everyone in your party if your Vit is under 200 since it'll do 9,999 damage.

The key to winning this fight is to spam Squall's Renzokuken and Zell's Armageddon Fist, while keeping Quistis back to heal and cast Mighty Guard. Start by casting Aura on Quistis and have her use Mighty Guard, and then draw Eden from Ultima Weapon, before casting Meltdown on it. Keep Quistis at full health at all times and be ready to use items like Phoenix Pinions to resurrect Squall and Zell after they get killed by Light Pillar. I recommend not wasting Aura's on them, instead letting Ultima Weapon get their health into critical range for your limits. Quistis' Mighty Guard should give the party a regen status that will keep Squall and Zell alive through Meteor, seeing how it takes so long to finish casting, and they can't die in the middle of it, BUT the regen is still active throughout.

This is a fight unlike any you've had in the game so far; Ultima Weapon attacks far faster than any other boss that's come before, so don't be surprised if you get killed a fair few times trying to do this. Just don't give up and you'll beat it in the end.

WIN: Ultima Stone (x100), Eden Card, Eden (GF)
MUG: Three Stars

---

Bad to the Bone (Dollet)

Entering Dollet via the rear path, head south, west, and then north. You'll see the dog you saved during the SeeD Examination Test at the beginning of the game, and a boy next to a door. Talk to the boy and then follow him inside. After the short scene, look at the painting, and Squall will recognise it as somewhere he's been before. Leave the house and head to the fountain, three screens north, and check the dog over to the right to get an X-Potion. Go back to the painter's house and there'll be another scene. Check the painting again and it'll be a different scene; leave the house and head north; check the dog to get a Mega-Potion. Back to the painters once again and after the scene, check the painting for the final scene. Leave the house and check the dog to get an Elixir.

As a note, you can do this quest on both the first and second discs as well, but the items you'll get aren't as good, so I saved it 'til now.

Reopening the Box (Lunatic Pandora)

Since we're done with the sidequests for this disc, let's head to the Orphanage like Rinoa initially requested. Upon entering, one of two things will happen, depending on whether Rinoa's in your party or not. If she isn't, Angelo will turn up, and promptly run off; follow the dog and you'll find yourself in a field full of flowers, followed by Rinoa walking in. If she is in your party, walk through the Orphanage 'til you find Edea; talk to her and when you leave, you'll see Angelo run off.

Either way, Squall and Rinoa will have a short conversation before Zell butts in, saying some guy has been in contact, and that the President of Esthar wishes to meet with the party.

Take the Ragnarok and land on the platform sticking up out of the city to land at the Esthar Airstation, on the west side of the city. Note that the city is now populated with monsters, including Iron Giants, Toramas and Behemoths. Head east twice to find a guy dressed all in black; if you talk to him, you'll get into a fight with an Elnoyle, which you can steal Energy Crystals from. If you need to stock up on them, simply talk to the guy, kill the Elnoyle, leave the screen and come back on to repeat the process until you've got all you need. Once you've done that, head to the Presidential Palace.

Use the elevator and then head left until you reach the President's room. Enter and... what the hell? Freaking Laguna is the president!? How the hell did that happen? Talk to him and pick the "What are you doing here?" option to find out what happened after he rescued Ellone from Dr. Odine's Laboratory. Speaking of Ellone, where is she? Ask Laguna and he'll launch into the plan to defeat Ultimecia. Once he's finished talking, you'll find yourself on the Ragnarok; when everyone's left the room, go to the hangar and save the game, before returning and challenging Laguna to a Triple Triad game, to win the Squall card. Also, talk to Kiros and Ward, they have a few interesting comments. Now that Laguna is on board the Ragnarok, head to the Shumi Village. You'll find that they've finished the statue!

Now it's time to get to business; head to Tear's Point, and you'll find the Lunatic Pandora floating above it. Fly the Ragnarok into it to get a FMV and then talk to whoever's flying the Ragnarok (Selphie normally, unless she's in you party, in which case it's Quistis,) and choose the first option. Junction Blind to St-Def-J, Sleep to your St-Atk-J, Thundaga and Tornado to your Elem-Def-J and Bio to your Elem-Atk-J, before leaving the Ragnarok via the hull (the north-west end of the first floor.) You'll find Fujin and Raijin waiting for you just inside the Lunatic Pandora.

Once they're defeated, go to the next screen and head up, then left; talk to Biggs and Wedge, before using the save point and then going to the next screen. You should recognise where you are now, this being the third time that you've been through here, so head for the screen just before the one where you got thrown out when you were here with Zell. Junction Thundaga to your Elem-Atk-J and then continue along the path to get revenge on the sentry robot.

Go back to the save point you passed and heal up, and then junction Bio to Elem-Atk-J, Firaga to Elem-Def-J and Blind to St-Atk-J, before continuing past where you fought the Mobile Type 8.

If Rinoa is in your party, Seifer will snatch her and run away, or if she wasn't, then another member of your party will run on screen and say that she's snatched. And so ends the third disc...

Table of Contents:

Closing the Box (Lunatic Pandora)
Fourth Disc Extras (Various)
Ultimecia's Castle

Closing the Box (Lunatic Pandora)

If Rinoa was in your party, junction up the new member in it, but make sure to keep Rinoa's HP, Vit and Spr at relatively decent levels; you'll see why in a moment.

To the right you should be able to see a structure you can climb to get to the top level of the Lunatic Pandora. Climb both ladders to get to a Break draw point, before going back down the second ladder and running off to the left to scale the white pole. At the top, turn right and head into the next screen; Siren's Move-Find ability should uncover a save point. Use it and generally prepare yourself for a tough fight. Follow the path all the way along to find Adel's chamber...

After a rather surreal FMV of Time-Compression, you'll find yourself inside the Presidential Palace in Deling City. Walk to the save point and a whole bunch will suddenly appear; only the one you initially walked to is real, so use that and heal up your party before making your way to the doorway...

You'll now be in the Orphanage, but it's littered with the corpses of several Sorceress SeeDs. Make your way throughout the building, making sure to nab the Triple draw point, until you reach a large chain stretching out towards Ultimecia's Castle. Walk onto the chain and ignore the first two doors; head to the third and press X to jump onto the ledge in front of it before entering.

Fourth Disc Extras (Various)

You should find yourself close to the Great Grandidi Forest; equip Diablos' Enc-None to save yourself the hassle of having to fight through hoardes of monsters such as Malboros and Hexadragons, and head north-east into the Chocobo Sanctuary. Take a Chocobo and ride it south along the Esthar coastline until you reach the southern tip, and then cross the shallows that link up to the Kashkabald Desert. Use the beach on the south-eastern side to get onto dry land and then head towards the center of the continent to find the Ragnarok. If you're having difficulties locating it, bring up the map; the Ragnarok will appear as a red dot on it.

Inside the Ragnarok, you should find those members of the CC Group that you defeated back in disc two; the exception here is the Joker, who'll turn up regardless of whether you beat him or not. They hold all but five of the cards in the game, so it's worth playing them to get the ones you need. Note that they all play by different regions rules, making some of them very difficult to beat. Finally, note that if you mod a card, you can challenge the CC Group members to card games in which they'll play the card you modded. This is a good way to max out the really good items if you want to, but bear in mind they're going to be really tough to beat. Locations and rules are as follows:

CC Group Positions
Rank	Location	Rules
Jack	Aisle; near Entrance	Balamb
Club	Aisle; near Air Room	Dollet
Diamond	Hangar	Trabia
Spade	Hangar; near save point	Esthar
Heart	Entrance	FH
King	Air Room	Lunar Base
Joker	Aisle; near Passenger Deck	Centra

Fly the Ragnarok to the Estharian continent, and land south of the wall near Tear's Point. On the southern-most top of the Abadan plains, you should be able to find where the Lunar Base crashed. Note that it isn't visible on the World Map, you'll just have to stumble onto it. If you came here in disc three after that happened, you'd find Piet here. Now however, it is where the Card Queen is located. She holds the last five cards in the game: Chubby Chocobo, Doomtrain, Irvine, Kiros and Phoenix. Be warned though, she plays with every rule in the game, so she's even tougher to beat.

As a note, you could get those five cards on the third disc, but the quest for that is a gigantic headache; I find doing it this way is far easier.

Hit the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell to stock up on spells and to make sure that the rest of your party is at least level with Squall, if not higher that him, since you're going to need them all soon.

Ultimecia's Castle

Head to either the gateway in the Great Grandidi Forest, Kashkabald Desert (where you found the Ragnarok), Serrengetti Plains (on the Centran Continent) or just east of the destroyed Galbadia Missile Base, to get back to the chain. Follow the chain all the way along to reach Ultimecia's Castle.

Use the hidden Flare draw point on the right and the save point on the left before trying to enter the castle proper. You'll have to split the party up into two groups of three; I recommend Squall, Rinoa and Zell in one, Quistis, Selphie and Irvine in the other. Inside, the following abilities are locked:

• Item - You can't use items in battle or in the field
• Magic - You can't use magic in battle or in the field
• GF - You can't summon GFs
• Draw - You can't draw from enemies or draw points
• Command Ability - You can't use any command abilities, e.g. Devour
• Limit Break - You can't use any Limit Breaks
• Resurrection - You can't revive players, even if you have Item or Magic unlocked
• Save - You can't save

To unlock these abilities, you have to defeat the eight bosses lurking within Ultimecia's castle, one ability of your choice unlocked per boss. You start by only being able to attack. If you've got all of the GFs, I recommend unlocking Magic first; otherwise, Draw would be best, since you can get the Siren, Carbuncle, Leviathan, Pandemona, Cerberus, Alexander, and Eden GFs here if you hadn't beforehand.

You should also be able to see a bright green glowing circle; use these to switch between the two groups; you'll need to do this several times throughout this dungeon, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

Once you're ready, walk to the monster you can see on the stairs; this is the first of the eight bosses.

Go up the stairs and head to the right, going down the spiral staircase. Ignore the bell at the bottom for the moment, but keep it in mind; we'll be back here later to ring it. Go through the door in the background and you'll find yourself in the Art Gallery. On the walls, there are thirteen paintings; five on the first floor, and eight on the second, along with a Meltdown draw point. Ignore the big painting to the left and examine the other four on the first floor before going up the stairs and checking the other eight. The paintings all have names on them; take note of these. Head back to the first floor and note the big clock painted on the floor. The hour hand is pointing to eight, the minute hand to four, and the seconds to six. Check the big painting, and a box will pop up with the names of all the paintings in; you can enter three painting names. Worked out which ones yet? Well, this table should help:

Painting Codes
Name	Numerals	Image
Ignus	I	Fire
Inandantia	II	Flood
Inaudax	IX	Cowardice
Intervigilium	IVIII	Sleep
Iudicium	III	Judgment
Venus	V	Love
Viator	VI	Messenger
Vigil	VII	Watchman
Vividarium	VIVII	Garden
Xemampelinae	XI	Red Clothes
Xiphias	XII	Swordfish
Xystus	X	Tree-lined Road

The Roman numerals for eight is VIII, four is IV, and six is VI. Now, note how all the obvious words are in the correct order, e.g. Vigil is VII, which is seven. No Roman numeral has two V's, so eliminate the second one in Vividarium to get VIII, or eight. Also note that no Roman numeral has four I's, but also that four is IV, which are the first two numerals in the word; thus, Intervigilium must be IV.

Enter the correct words in the order of Hour, Minute, Seconds - Vividarium, Intervigilium and Viator; the painting will now read "Vividarium et Intervigilium et Viator," meaning "In the garden sleeps a messenger."

Behind you, the second boss will appear. Junction Tornado to your Elem-Atk-J and then walk into it.

Make sure that all your characters now have GF in their combat menu, and unjunction Tornado from your Elem-Atk-J; it's better off on a stat for now. Leave by the other door and note the party switcher, before continuing through the next door. Walk through the door to the left and you'll get locked into the cell. Examine the corpse and you'll find a key, upon which another boss turns up.

Go back to the party changer you passed, and use it to switch to the secondary group. Change over the junctions, this time putting Thundaga on Elem-Def-J. Walk up the stairs where Sphinxaur was and go through the door to the north. Go onto the chandelier and it will crash to the floor of the Great Hall; when you get to your feet, examine the hatch and a prompt will come up. Choose to open it and walk down into the Wine Cellar. Head south and you'll find the next boss, a flying creature.

There's a hidden Aura draw point among the barrels on the north end, so make sure to nab that. Junction on the command abilities you want and then go back to the Great Hall and enter the door at the back to get into the Courtyard. There's a Slow draw point to the north-west, and the chapel to the north, which is where you want to head. Inside there's a Dispel draw point and a big organ (It took every muscle in my body to stop from making the obligatory joke here); check it and it'll pop up a scale, with the different buttons for each note. Hit all eight at the same time and then press Start to exit, before going up the stairs to the right; you'll see a key on the bridge but as you run to it, it will fall off, or, if you walked across the bridge, then you can just pick it up normally.

Back to the courtyard, and go to the top-right; if you played the Organ correctly, the big spikes barring the path will have gone. If not, just try playing the organ again until they have. Go back to the Party Changer in the Great Hall and switch to Squall's party; note that you'll force a lever down, stopping the chandelier from falling again.

Back with Squall, the key that fell off will wash up in the water south of the bridge going to the right; grab it and then junction Holy to Elem-Atk-J, as well as make sure someone has the Treatment command, coupled with Berserk, Confuse, Death and Sleep junctioned to St-Def-J. If you can, junction them all up like that; if you have to miss any out, skip Sleep since that has less damaging repercussions. Also, junction Blind to your St-Atk-J. Enter the Armoury to the right, and you'll find the next boss.

Go back to the Party Changer, and switch over. From the Great Hall, head left and through the corridor, to get back to the entrance room. Go up the stairs and turn left this time; go down the stairs, noting the Party Changer at the bottom, and go through the door in the background. In this room, use the left-hand Party Changer.

Outide of the Floodgate, head up the stairs to the left, ignoring the save point and step on the Elevator on the right, before switching back to the secondary party. They'll now be up on the second floor if your party balance is right; in the primary group you need two guys and a girl, and in the secondary group, you'll want two girls and a guy to get the balance right on the elevator.

Head left into the Storage Room, and you'll find a Curaga draw point, and the Water Gate key. Go back to the Party Changer and switch to the primary team. Walk off the elevator, bringing the secondary party back down, and then make your way to the Floodgate. By the bottom-right corner of the cell should be a lever; press X to insert the Water Gate key and then press X again to push it. This will begin the process of draining all the water from the castle. Head to the Courtyard and search the fountain to find the Treasury key, before using the Party Changer in the Great Hall.

Switch your junctions over and junction either Quake or Water to Elem-Atk-J, and Thundaga to Elem-Def-J. Head south and check the door to use the Treasure Vault key. Inside you'll find four coffins, and a Holy draw point. Consider the coffins as being numbered from one to four, starting from the left; close Coffin 1, then Coffin 4, then Coffin 2, and finally Coffin 3. The boss will appear; examine it to fight it.

Make your way back to the Chandelier, and now that you've pushed the lever in the Great Hall, you can walk across it quite safely. Put Recover and Revive in your commands and makine sure that your Spr is high, before entering to find the next boss.

Go to the foot of the East Stairwell where the bell is, and use the Party Changer. Switch your junctions over and junction either Firaga and Thundaga to your Elem-Def-J, or Flare; I recommend the prior since Flare is useful for boosting stats. Make your way to the courtyard and take the north-east path that you unblocked earlier; the water will have drained from here so make your way through and you'll find a Rosetta Stone. Go back to the Courtyard and this time enter the Chapel; walk up the stairs to the right and cross the bridge. Enter the Clock Tower and make your way around the winding path 'til you reach the bell. Position yourself at the edge and wait 'til the bell is as close to you as possible, and then press X to hurl yourself at it. Go through the door you land in front of and you'll find the next boss.

Now we're almost done in Ultimecia's Castle; check to find a hidden Triple draw point, and then head back down to the base of the clock tower. Using Siren's Move-Find ability, you'll find a save point; use it. Trust me, you NEED to use it.

Now, this next bit is optional, and extremely hard, but if you want to do everything, then you'll definitely want to do this sidequest. Make your way back to the Party Changer in the Great Hall, but don't use it yet, instead sorting out your junctions. Junction Death to St-Def-J, Defend to every characters Combat Menu, make sure that at least one of your characters has 9,999 HP if not all three of them in the party, Triple on Spd-J, Ultima on Str-J, Meltdown on Vit-J, Curaga on Spr-J, Meteor on Mag-J, Full-Life on HP-J and nothing on Elem-Atk-J. Make sure you have the Recover and Revive commands on someone as well.

My GF setup was as follows:

GF Setup Table
Characters	GFs	Junctions	Stat +XX%	Extras
Zell/Irvine	Bahamut	None	Str +60%	Ability x4
			Mag +60%	Mug
	Brothers	HP-J	HP +20%	Defend
		Str-J	HP +80%
		Spr-J	Vit +60%
	Eden	Spd-J	Eva +30%	Darkside
		Eva-J	Luk +50%	Devour
		Luk-J		mad Rush
	Leviathan	Mag-J	Spr +20%	Recover
		Spr-J	Spr +40%
		Spd-J
	Siren	Mag-J	Mag +20%	Elem-Def-J x4
			Mag +40%	St-Atk-J
				St-Def-J x4
				Treatment
	Tonberry	Hp-J	Vit +60%	Initiative
		Vit-J	Eva +30%	LV Down
			Luck +50%	LV Up
Squall/Quistis	Alexander	Spr-J	Spr +20%	Revive
			Spr +40%
	Cactuar	Eva-J	Eva +30%	Ability x4
		Luck-J	Luck +50%	Defend
				Initiative
				Kamikaze
	Diablos	HP-J	HP +20%	Darkside
		Mag-J	HP +40%	Mug
		Hit-J	HP +80%
			Mag +20%
			Mag +40%
	Doomtrain	None	None	Absorb
				Darkside
				Elem-Def-J x4
				St-Atk-J
				St-Def-J x4
	Pandemona	Str-J	Str +20%	Absorb
		Spd-J	Str +40%	Initiative
			Spd +20%
			Spd +40%
	Shiva	Str-J	Vit +40%	Doom
		Vit-J	Vit +60%
		Spr-J	Spr +20%
			Spr +40%
Rinoa/Selphie	Carbuncle	HP-J	HP +20%	St-Atk-J
		Vit-J	HP +40%	St-Def-J x2
		Mag-J	Vit +40%
			Vit +60%
	Cerberus	Str-J	Spd +20%	Ability x4
		Mag-J	Spd +40%	St-Atk-J
		Spr-J		St-Def-J x4
		Spd-J
		Hit-J
	Ifrit	HP-J	Str +20%	Mad Rush
		Str-J	Str +40%
	Quezacotl	HP-J	Mag +20%	Card
		Vit-J	Mag +40%
		Mag-J

I recommend either a combination of Squall, Zell and Rinoa, or Squall, Zell and Irvine for the upcoming boss; if you're using Rinoa, set her up for the Meteor Angel Wing trick described in the Limit Break section, or stock up on Pulse Ammo for Irvine. Also, buy as many Mega Phoenixes as you can and customise your GFs so they boost your characters as much as possible. You should still have all ten Holy Wars you got from card modding the Gilgamesh card; you may well want to use them in the upcoming battle.

Finally, make sure you know exactly where all of your commands are in the Combat Menu; you do not want to hesitate at all in the upcoming battle, or you're dead meat!

Switch over to the secondary party, and examine the bell to ring it; a message will pop up and a timer will start. Switch back to the primary party and run into the Chapel as fast as you can; you'll find Omega Weapon in front of the Organ.

Wow, finally done it! Admittedly, I pulled it off on my first attempt, but that's more down to me being a fluky git, than me being better than you if you had a lot of difficulty here. Once you've defeated Omega Weapon, head back to the save point in the Clock Tower and prepare your junctions: you can either spread your GFs and magic over all six characters, or keep it to your best three party members; the second option is far smarter in my opinion, since you'll be incredibly vulnerable without your usual compliment of GFs and magic. Stock back up on Mega Phoenixes and Megalixirs if you wish, though I don't think you'll really need to. Make sure that someone has the Treatment command, that you don't have any Draw commands, and that you've got as many Aura's as possible. Once you're ready, re-enter the Clock Tower and climb all the way to the top, ignoring the bell this time. You should find yourself amongst the gears and cogs making the clock run; use the Stop draw point and walk across the clock hands to the ladder. Climb down and follow the path until you find a save point. Use it and enter the final room in the game. The next few boss battles are actually all one fight, but it's easier for me to seperate them up =P

And that's it, you've completed FFVIII! Now prepare yourself to watch a very long and good end sequence; it's actually my favourite end sequence of any Final Fantasy game.