General Strats

[J.D]

So I have a few questions
I just started playing FF8 for the first time
I was wondering whats the general strat

I mean, do I really have to draw 100 from every magic I find
Is really annoying you know, I remember I quit this game 3 months (I was on my first visit to timber) ago cause of this.

Plz help

[nik0tine]

It's always good to draw 100 of the good magics. However, drawing is a pain in the ass. What I do is this: I junction my best magic to my 'magic' stat so that I have the highest magic level possible. The higher that level is, the easier it is to draw magic. That's the key. Also, learn ALL of the bonus abilities and equip them IMMEDIATELY and never take them off 'till you reach level 100.

[Mitch]

The general strat is a great all around guitar suitable from anyone, beginner to master

[Captain Maxx Power]

The general strat is a great all around guitar suitable from anyone, beginner to master

All your general are belong to strat.

[Skyblade]

Junction 100 Death to St-Atk J. Battles made easy.

[J.D]

It's always good to draw 100 of the good magics. However, drawing is a pain in the ass. What I do is this: I junction my best magic to my 'magic' stat so that I have the highest magic level possible. The higher that level is, the easier it is to draw magic. That's the key. Also, learn ALL of the bonus abilities and equip them IMMEDIATELY and never take them off 'till you reach level 100.

But ath begining of the game, only quzacotl allows me to junction magic, any advice for the others?

[nik0tine]

be patient. And learn magic junction with the other GF's if they have it. (Can't remember which ones do.) And make sure you draw siren from elvoret.

[FinalBob42]

It is possible to make this game incredible easy (as in, one of the easiest games ever) if you concentrate on getting only the best junctions. You really don't have to draw magic from enemies at all (unless the enemy has something like Cure, which is generally useful, or a Guardian Force).

Here is a list of good/great junctions (Strength as the base):

Ultima
Meteor
Aura
Triple
Holy
Flare
Tornado
Pain
Quake

Check GameFAQs for info on how exactly to obtain these, especially this guide. (Remeber to search the document for the spells)

You should try getting all the main GFs (a list of their locations is provided at the end, the formatting is messed up, sorry).

Also, avoid leveling up as monsters level up with the main character. It's best to avoid random battles and just fight monsters that give a lot of AP to increase the abilities of your EQUIPPED Guardian Forces, which let's just junction magic to more stats for example, depending on the ability the Guardian Force is learning.

You can use the "Card" abilitity of Quezacotl to card enemies (transform them into a card) which prevents you from gaining EXP but still gives you AP. You can card enemies if their health is low. On any beach in the game (such as near Balamb) you'll meet a pair of red/orange fish. These give decent AP early on.
_____________________________________________________________________
|Name Of Guardian Force |Location of Guardian Force |Disc|
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Quezacotl |In the lecture room. Examine the laptop | |
| |in Squall's seat and read the Guardian |1~3 |
| |Force tutorial with the <New> beside it.| |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Shiva |In the lecture room. Examine the laptop | |
| |in Squall's seat and read the Guardian |1~3 |
| |Force tutorial with the <New> beside it.| |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Ifrit |Defeat Guardian Force, Ifrit at the Fire| |
| |Cavern. | 1 |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Siren |Draw from Elvoret during the Dollet | |
| |Mission. Elvoret will appear and fight | 1 |
| |you after defeating Biggs and Wedge. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Brothers |Defeat Guardian Force, Brothers at Tomb | |
| |Unknown King. The two brothers are | 1 |
| |Sacred and Minotaur. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Diablos |Use the magical lamp given by Headmaster| |
| |Cid and click on it at the item | |
| |inventory to have a fight with Diablos. |1~4 |
| |Defeat Guardian Force, Diablos. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Carbuncle |Draw from Iguion, one of the two lizards| |
| |summoned by Sorceress Edea in Deling | |
| |City, Presidential Residence. Deling | 1 |
| |City is the capital of Galbadia. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Leviathan |Draw from Norg in the basement of | |
| |Balamb Garden. | 2 |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Pandemona |Draw from Fujin at Balamb Hotel. You | |
| |will first fight Rajin outside the | |
| |Balamb Hotel, followed by a combined | 2 |
| |team of Rajin and Fujin inside the | |
| |Balamb Hotel. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Cerberus |Defeat Guardian Force, Cerberus at the | |
| |main hall of Galbadia Garden. Cerberus | 2 |
| |is the monster whom has triple heads. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Alexander |Draw from Sorceress Edea at Galbadia | |
| |Garden, immediately after you fought | 2 |
| |with Seifer the second time. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Doomtrain *** |Have 1x Solomon's Ring, 6x Steel Pipe, | |
| |6x Remedy +, 6x Malboro Tentacles, then | |
| |in the item inventory, click on the | |
| |Solomon's Ring. Note that you must get |2~4 |
| |solomon's Ring at Tear Point before | |
| |going to the Lunar Base. | |
|Leave the city (Esthar) and drive Northeast. Before going anywhere |
|else, try to find something which looks quite circular, it's further |
|South than all of the other three locations around the Southeastern |
|side of the continent, however to get there you have to go around the|
|top past the other destinations. This place is called Tears' Point. |
|Run down the path toward the middle where you will find the Solomon. |
|_____________________________________________________________________|
|Bahamut *** |Defeat Guardian Force, Bahamut in Deep | |
| |Sea Research Center. [Deep Sea Research | |
| |Centre] It can be found in the southwest| |
| |of the World Map and can only be access | |
| |by Ragnarok. Choose the first option, |3~4 |
| |the second option to fight Ruby Dragons | |
| |respectively. Next, choose the third | |
| |option, which is hidden to fight | |
| |Bahamut. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Cactuar *** |Defeat Guardian Force, Cactuar at | |
| |Cactuar Island near Centra Region. You | |
| |should notice a tiny cactus sticking | |
| |out of a small island. It can only be |3~4 |
| |access by the Ragnarok. Go near it to | |
| |enter a fight. | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|
|Tonberry *** |Defeat 20 Tonberries inside Centra Ruin.| |
| |Once you have defeated the 20th Tonberry| |
| | Tonberry King will appear and fight |2~4 |
| |you. Note that the fight is continuous. | |
| |Defeat Guardian Force, Tonberry King. | |
|When you enter the Centra Ruins, which by the way is the diamond |
|shaped structure in the middle of the Southern Centra continent, you |
|will see a twenty minute timer. About two screens in is a circular |
|area with kind of like a broken down statue or fountain in |
|the middle. While running around in this area you can fight the |
|Tonberry enemy which has a hell of a lot of HP and gives very little |
|experience and AP. Your goal is to kill 19 to 22 of these little |
|creatures, the exact number is random. |
|_____________________________________________________________________|
|Eden *** |Draw from Ultima Weapon at Deep Sea | |
| |Deposit, which is the underground base- | |
| |ment of Deep Sea Research Center. [Deep | |
| |Sea Research Centre] You must first | |
| |obtain Guardian Force, Bahamut before |3~4 |
| |you can enter the basement to fight | |
| |Ultima weapon to draw Eden. [Refer to my| |
| |weapon guide faq for ways to beat Ultima| |
| |weapon.] | |
|_______________________|________________________________________|____|

[xtreme112]

You don't have to draw 100 magics of everything if you can't be bothered, simply learn each gf's refine abilities and collect lots of M-stone peices, Magic stones and wizard stones then refine them for each magic. Yes it is also time consuming, but at least your characters and gf's will level up while you beat up the monsters

But chances are there will be a lot of magics in the game that you will not end up using. You don't probably won't need every character in the game to have 100 fires each or something like that, so don't bother drawing every single magic for every single person

Or just follow my other stratergy:
Buy lots of tents and refine them into curaga's using siren's life/cure refine ability.