Final Fantasy Strategies - Share your tips for the different games in the series!
I have tips for Final Fantasy VIII and IX, with the intend of making the games significantly easier than they would normally be.
I would appreciate others' tips on some of the earlier FF games especially, ideally explained in-depth for even newbies to understand.
Final Fantasy 8
Level Up Trick:
All enemies in the game level up as your party members do. However, because the power of your characters in FFVIII depends almost exclusively on your junctions, it is actually counter-productive to level up, because it just makes the enemies stronger. Because you need AP to learn new abilities, you somehow need to make it so you get AP from battles, but no EXP.
How? By using the ability 'Card.' You learn this from the Guardian Force Quezacotl which you get in the very beginning of the game when you first gain controlf of Squall and check the computer terminal on his desk. All of you have to do is find an enemy and damage it quite a bit without killing it. Once its HP is low, use the Card command and the enemy gets transformed into a card. You get all the AP, but none of the EXP.
The best way to abuse this technique is by fighting Fastolification - Fs enemies. These can be found all over the continent on beaches (like the beach near Balamb Garden). They usually come in pairs and give 6 AP.
Obtain All Guardian Forces!
For a list, go here: Guardian Forces Locations
Some of their most useful abilities are the refinement ones (L Mag-RF, I Mag-RF, etc. etc.) that let you refine items and magic into better items and magic, which becomes extremely useful later in the game because it let's you get the most powerful weapons in the game.
HP Boost early in the game:
To get a big HP boost for your characters early on, go to the town of Balamb, preferrably as soon as you are able upon first leaving Balamb Garden. Go to the Balamb Item shop and buy as many Tents as you can. At the end of your first mission (the Dollet mission) on top of the communications tower, you will fight Biggs and Wedge, and then the story Boss Elvolet. Draw the Guardian Force 'Siren' from Elvolet. Siren has an ability called 'L Mag-RF' (Life Magic Refinement). Using this, you can turn the tents into Curagas (1 tent for 10 Curagas), and then junction 100 of them them to a chracter, massively increasing their HP.
Final Fantasy 9
General Tips:
Steal from Bosses whenever possible because they have fantastic items!
Level Up Trick!
Early in the game, on your way to Burmecia, you go through Gizamaluke's Grotto. At the end of the Grotto, there is an alternate exit where you can climb up some vines and reach a mountain side. Here, you can fight the powerful Grand Dragons. On your first visit to this place, you'll likely get annihilated.
However, later in the game, you'll be able to take them out easily and gain a ton of EXP (8000 EXP per party member in a full party). To prepare for this, use Quina's 'Eat' command to learn Level 5 Death from one of the following enemies (thanks LMagnuz from GameFAQs):
Draco Zombie (Iifa Tree)
Lich (Memoria)
Whale Zombie (Shore outside Esto Gaza)
Stropper (Iifa Tree).
As it turns out, the level of all dragons in the game are multiplies of 5! Use the skill on the Grand Dragons once and they die, and you get a ton of EXP.
9999 Damage for almost all characters!
Most characters in the game have the potential to do 9999 damage by means of certain skills.
Zidane - Thievery Skill. This skill's damage depends on how many times Zidane has successfully stolen something from an enemy. The skill can first be obtained from the weapon 'Angel Bless' on your visit to Alexandria at the beginnig of Disk 3 (from the Synthesis shop). If you steal at an even and frequent pace throughout the game, you should arrive at near-9999 damage by the end of the game. Remember that Bandit greatly increases your chances for a successful steal.
Freya - Dragon's Crest. The damage depends on the number of dragons you've killed throughout the game. The Level Up trick I mention at the beginning under "General Tips" ensures that you'll kill enough dragons for 9999 damage in no time. Can first be obtained from the weapon 'Holy Lance' which you can steal from the boss you fight at the end of the Oeilvert area on the Forgotten Continent (his name is Ark and he is the giant Battle Ship boss).
Steiner - Shock pretty much guarantees 9999 damage on its own. Acquring the skill is problematic, however, because it can only be learned from Steiner's Ragnarok weapon. You need to dig up Chocograph #21, but to do this you need to have received the Gold Chocobo from the Chocobo sidequest.
Quina - With her 'Eat' command, consume a Gigan Toad with low HP (these can be found in Qu's March near Chocobo forrest as regular enemies) to learn the skill "Frog Drop." The damage depends on how many frogs you've caught in the Frog Catching minigame that becomes available once Quina joins your party.
Special Note about the Frog Catching Minigame: Maxing Frog Drop is best done later in the game. At that point, you'll have access to 4 Qu's Marches in the world. Never catch all frogs in the pond. Instead, leave 1 male and 1 female, and 1 gold frog if there is one. That way, the frogs will repopulate faster.
Vivi - He does a lot of damage with the skill 'Flare.' In order ensure max damage, have Vivi equipped with the Reflect x2 ability (can be acquired from the 'Black Robe,' which is synthesized in Daguerreo) and the Auto-Reflect ability (from the 'Reflect Ring,' first synthesizeable in the Black Mage Village) and then cast Flare on himself. Note that enemy elemental resistances might decrease this damage signficantly.
