SeeD: Ranking Up and Down

I decided to play through FFVIII again and right now I'm up to going to Caraway's Mansion. Usually when I'm at this part of the game my Seed Rank drops I was wondering what exactly causes a SeeD rank to increase or drop. I know tests bring it up, but does anything else? Also why does the game usually drop me a rank down around this time. I just came back from the tomb and acquired The Brothers. I didn't leave the cheap and lazy way by bringing up the map and pressing triangle.

I just basically want to know what brings ranks up and down.

Fighting lots of battles raises it - Avoiding battles or escaping from them makes the rank drop. I'm not sure about other stuff.

escaping battles huh? That's probably why it drops around that time. Around that time I start to get tired of fights and run from them occasionally. Does the action in battles affect it too, like using scan when you come across a new enemy or defeating enemies as fast as possible, or relying on GFs too heavily?

There's a massive guide on it in GameFAQs, but the most common reason my SeeD rank falls is because I haven't been fighting enough. I remember that you have to maintain a certain number of fights between payments for your SeeD rank to go unaffected, so when I learn Enc-Half and Enc-None, the rank just slowly begins to wind down, supported only by my test doing and the game's occasional set tasks that can raise it. This is also the reason why you may notice that your rank will almost always drop from A to 30 towards the end of the game.

edit: GFs are fine, but I think if you do the killing blow with a GF instead of with a character, the fight doesn't count to your quota.

edit2: should've done this first, but here you go.

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Originally Posted by guide

• Running from battle has no effect on your SeeD experience. If a battle has multiple enemies, any enemy defeated before escaping does count as a kill and affects your SeeD experience.

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I always felt like this is something FFVIII really should have exploited more; it's so irrelevent and obscure for the major part of the game, once your SeeD missions are done, and it could have been a prominent and important Karma system like thing that actually influence gameplay.

I thought it depends on the economy status of the world! :bigsmile:

Naturally doing story events the 'right' way tends to raise it, while doing things the 'wrong' way tends to lower it. I use quotes because sometimes it feels subjective.

My playthrough at the end of Disc 3 had maxed rank, but as I fought to max stats I found it bounced between 30 and A.

Uhm...I believe the SeeD rank raises or drops accordingly to if you're on task or not.

So if you're messing around and going to random places, it lowers.
If you keep following the story task, then it raises.

But it's all cool. Go to GameFaqs and look at the Test answers :thumb:

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Originally Posted by Clo

I always felt like this is something FFVIII really should have exploited more; it's so irrelevent and obscure for the major part of the game, once your SeeD missions are done, and it could have been a prominent and important Karma system like thing that actually influence gameplay.

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Irrelevent storyline wise, but I'll take the ridiculous amounts of cash for not really doing anything xD

It actually makes more sense to get a regular paycheck than have monsters drop Gil.

I know for a fact that riding on a chocobo lowers your SeeD rank. I alway thought that salary was paid based on the number of steps you take because of that.

Also if you do the uncoupling of train carriages (before fighting the fake president) without messing up, your Rank goes up. And if I recall correctly getting Diablos increased my rank too, or it could just be a coincedence.

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Originally Posted by BG-57

It actually makes more sense to get a regular paycheck than have monsters drop Gil.

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It does for VIII, but I think VIII is the only one where you're working for an organization so they could send you money electronically. For all the others probably what XII did would've made more since.

There is an action you can take at this point-- I want to say asking the guard for help with the Brothers quest, or maybe exiting the dungeon -- that lowers your SeeD ranking.

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

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Originally Posted by BG-57

It actually makes more sense to get a regular paycheck than have monsters drop Gil.

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It does for VIII, but I think VIII is the only one where you're working for an organization so they could send you money electronically. For all the others probably what XII did would've made more since.

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Agreed, but what good is it for monsters to carry around money?

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Originally Posted by rubah

There is an action you can take at this point-- I want to say asking the guard for help with the Brothers quest, or maybe exiting the dungeon -- that lowers your SeeD ranking.

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Ohj I'm wayy past that now. Just got back from Space with Rinoa. Haven't been playing much.

Apparently if you fight lots of battles with GFs your SeeD rank doesn't increase or hardly increases and when you fight without your GFs, then your rank increases. I could be wrong. And like Dark Bahamut said, if your off task a lot (playing cards or wandering around) ten your rank does drop.

But I noticed that when I became A Rank it kept on changing between Rank A and Rank 30.

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Originally Posted by Hot Shot

Apparently if you fight lots of battles with GFs your SeeD rank doesn't increase or hardly increases and when you fight without your GFs, then your rank increases. I could be wrong.

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Yeah, pretty much. A certain number of battles are required to have been won for your SeeD rank to go up, but if the GF kills the monster, then that battle doesn't count to your SeeD rank quota. You can use GFs as much as you want, so long as it doesn't do the finishing blow.

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Originally Posted by Hot Shot

But I noticed that when I became A Rank it kept on changing between Rank A and Rank 30.

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And the reason for this is because you're not fighting enough to build up the quota to maintain your SeeD rank level. This will happen to just about everyone because by the time you're on Rank A, you're most likely running around with Enc-None on.