tips for levelling and getting best magic...

hey i need a little help here,

i havent played ffviii for years and i have just recently gone back to it, i am now just before disc four, i have almost every rare card apart from eden and bahamut, and have nothing else to do but the deep sea research facility.

i wanted to get all the good magic before i go there and pound ultima Weapon, so i was drawing on the heaven and hell islands some but that takes ages.

i would like to have my main party to all have 100 of Ultima, Meteor, Full-Life, and Aura (they are the only spells i havent really gotten yet) is there any sort of faster way of getting them somehow other than running around heaven and hell for hours drawing 5-6 at a time?
either by refining or something? or should i just go and get on with the deep sea facility? or do they have all those spells easily available there?

any tips would be grand.

silverjunky

p.s has anyone else had any problem with Ruby dragon at high levels on the heaven and hell islands? cause i was running around there levelling my characters and i got into a fight with one it did nothing for ages while i drew lots of Meteor and then it did this breath attack for like 9000 damage on all my characters, Squall was the only one who survived with 200hp remaining and before i could life or heal anyone it swiped Squall for 2500 damage and ended my game.
Everything else on the island is fine no problem but that ruby dragon did it 3 times to me before i got smurfed off and gave up for the night any tips? cheers

You can draw a lot of spells at the deep sea research facility, but I don't remember which ones.

Is everyone already at level 100? If not, then make sure you use your stat+ abilities on them to get extra stat points.

Fighting monsters is probably the best way to get your spells, if you can survive the fights xD Ultima Weapon should have some way to get ultima, I just don't remember if it's through drawing or by winning ultima stones.

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Originally Posted by rubah

Ultima Weapon should have some way to get ultima, I just don't remember if it's through drawing or by winning ultima stones.

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I think it might be both

What I do is junction the Enc-None ability and then Draw to every character, and fly to The Island Closest to Heaven/Hell and use all the draw points there (they're invisible if you didn't know that). It's time consuming, but they restock quickly, so you can just fly back and froth and draw forever. There's also an Ultima draw point at the Shumi village, but you have to pay for that.

for leveling go to the Island closest to heaven/hell and have quistis in critical health.. when the battle starts quickly get her limit break and use Shockwave Pulsar

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Originally Posted by Sup3rman

for leveling go to the Island closest to heaven/hell and have quistis in critical health.. when the battle starts quickly get her limit break and use Shockwave Pulsar

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You mean Degenerator because all the enemies in those two islands have HP over 9999.

Here's the really easy way to get 400 Ultima spells (well, kind of easy). Refine any Ultima Stones you may have into Ultima spells. Take your ubered level 100 characters down the Deep Sea Research Lab and fight Ultima Weapon. Have all 3 characters draw 100 Ultimas each. Then, when you beat Ultima Weapon when it is at level 100, it will drop 100 Ultima Stones, which you can make into 100 more Ultima Spells. The other methods to getting Ultimas include draw points, which take forever, or refinement. You can refine 1 Energy Crytal into 3 Ultimas, or 1 Dark Matter into 100 Ultimas. The refinement will take some time. I wouldn't wait for that, you can beat Ultima Weapon without Ultimas, you really just need Triple junctioned to everyone's Speed stat and you'll be fine.

I believe your only source of drawing Auras is from the final fight with Seifer. If you have Odin you have to be very quick about it though, because Gilgamesh will step in and end the battle at a certain point. If you have a high speed on everyone (and maybe Haste as well), and give everyone a Regen at the beginning of the battle you can do it. Otherwise you are stuck with winning Fury Fragments from Blue Dragons and getting 3 Auras for each one.

The best place to get Full-Life is from a boss. Since you are going that way anyway, Bahamut is probably your best bet. Without Eden's GF Abl Med-RF ability, the only other fast way to make Full-Lifes is with Regen Rings. It's a semi-rare item from several enemies, and it makes 20 Full-Lifes.

I'm afraid the fastest way to get Meteors is from a Ruby Dragon. However, fighting a Ruby Dragon on the Island Closest to Heaven/Hell is a blessing in disguise (I think). Have one of your characters junction Tonberry and a GF with the Initiative ability, junction Initiative and Lvl Down. I believe all monsters on those islands are at level 100. When you get into a battle with a Ruby Dragon, have the character with Tonberry use Lvl Down, and it will go down to level 50, which still puts it in range to hold Meteor. Ruby Dragon will still be formidable, but much easier. If I'm wrong and you can't do this on those islands, you can find one in the forests around the Centra Ruins areas. However, if you are going to use the level down trick it has to be at a level of at least 90. Most monsters need to be at level 30 to hold their high magics, but Ruby Dragon needs to be at level 45. The other feasible way to get 300 Meteors is to go around and collect 300 M-Stone Pieces and refine them into 300 Meteors. You're better off with Ruby Dragon.

Another thing to do with a Ruby Dragon is to have 1 of your characters KOed during the battle. I'm taking this info from gamefaqs.com, so I'm not for sure, but the Monster Encyclopedia for FFVIII says that a Ruby Dragon will not use its Breathe attack unless all 3 characters are alive on the screen. This will leave you vulnerable to other attack, and Meteor might tear the other 2 characters apart, but you'd probably at survive that one.

I hope that helps. I would say take the time to get these magics and level up so that you can make the most out of the Deep Sea Research Lab.

shockwave pulsar does 9999*2 damage, doesn't it? still not enough for most 8)

It's done over 30000 damage for me some times. It depends on your "crisis level".

Map of all the draw points:mog:
Edit - All the drawpoints on ICTH's regenerate after a short time.

I suggest refining Ultima from Dark Matter. Go to the Deep Sea Research Center and fight the fixed encounters of Tri-Faces. Mug/win Curse Spikes from them, and refine 100 of those into 1 Dark Matter (Siren needs to be level 100 to do this), which refine into 100 Ultimas each. Each Tri-Face battle should yield around 6-8 Curse Spikes, so the process won't take very long. It's much safer than trying to draw them all from Ultima Weapon.

Draw your supply of Full-Life from Bahamut and draw Meteor from Ruby Dragons when you have one party member killed. Definitely the easiest methods for both. Full-Life can also be drawn from Tonberry King if you're at a high enough level.

You can only draw Aura from the fight with Seifer in Lunatic Pandora, and that's pretty late in the game and a one way trip into time compression. There's a better way. Go to Esthar with Tonberry's Familiar ability and buy a bunch of Hypno Crowns and/or Power Wrists. Each of those will refine into 10 Aura Stones which can be refined into 1 Aura each.

my personal theory is to get the strength+ and vit+ from ifrit and carbuncle, respectively, and junction them to squall ASAP. once that is complete, everything should be easy. the only thing i use ultima for is to junction it to elemental defense. i don't have anything junctioned to strength near the end of the game. all you need is triple junctioned to speed and high strength and you won't ever have to use anything besides attack. i just win all the cards and refine them once all are in my hands. everyone has HP 9999, except squall, who has 8987 everytime. everyone has 255 strength and vitality, and in most cases, spirit. i even the GFs out so everyone has at least 2. i never lose, EVER.