Carbon Ocelot's Final Fantasy 8 Walkthrough

Index

Intro
Disc 1
Disc 2
Disc 3
Disc 4
SeeD Tests
Side Quests
Other GF
Cheats
Card Game
Card Mods
Weapons
Magazines
GF Abilities
Refine Abilities
Item List

Single Page Version

Return to Laguna (Who is Blue?) :)
Disc II opens up to Laguna (and Ellone) who are in Winhill. There's a save point here and a curaga draw point directly in front of the dresser. Follow the girl downstairs and talk to her, then head outside. Just next door (on the left) of this house is a bar. Head to the front door of the bar. Walk inside and meet "a stranger." When you meet the stranger, you can talk for a while or go and kill monsters. Just FYI - it's super interesting to ask about Julia. You may learn something about the parents of a certain party member of yours. If you want to draw Cura/Slow, you can from a catcharpillar enemy. Also, you'll want to make sure you junction to both your guys. ;) I found an interesting junction in Shiva + Diablos (you can junction to nearly every stat this way). As far as I can tell, this scene only serves to give you more information about Laguna, Raine, Ellone, and Julia. No cool stuff that I can see during this visit to the town of Winhill.

Just do what you can to rid the town of monsters (if you want) or just run away from them and continue on. After you talk to "the visitor" you have to leave the bar, go to the end of town (all the way toward the viewer) and back. Outside the bar is a Dispel draw point (in the lower right of the screen). The next screen down has a Drain draw point and a flower shop. One screen right of the Drain draw point is a Reflect draw point. Down a screen from the Reflect draw point is an empty house, an empty hotel. At the very bottom of the town you can find a store on the left. Bare in mind that Laguna has his own money, but that any items he buys will show up in your inventory when you're returned to the other characters, so try and spend all his money! When Laguna says the circut is complete, head back to the bar and report to Raine and Ellone (well, Ellone tells you to report to Raine). Once you've made your report (after getting caught evesdropping) you'll want to head back to the room you first woke up in. I decided to see what happens if you keep Enc-None equiped. Laguna proudly announces he's exterminated no monsters, and Raine is thrilled...?

Wake up and smell the prison:
Jail Break, Phase One:
The next scene openes up in jail. You are Zell. Talk to Quistis, then Selphie, then Rionoa, then Rinoa again. Now press enter alot. Now you are Squall. Press enter alot. Fairly lame CG. Now back to Zell. Press enter alot. Now back to Squall. Press enter alo... are you getting as bored with this as I am??? Now Zell... Help the Momba. Now Squall... Lie or talk, whatever. Now you're Zell. Talk to Selphie twice ("I hope it won't hurt!"), then talk to Quistis. Finally, you can do something again! Use your get out of jail free card.:) Now it's time to JUNCTION! Go down one level to save your game (technically this is optional), then go up two (or one past your starting) to get the weapons. Kill the guards (if Zell can Mug, you can steal a potion or even a Remedy from a guard) and go back. BTW: Don't bother trying to do anything else. Zell cannot open any doors when he is by himself. ONLY when joined by Quistis and Selphie. As soon as you see your characters do their little zoom in sequence, start pressing the "menu" button.

Jail Break, Phase Two:

You want to get a chance to junction up your guys before the next battle. You'll likely wanna be able to draw, right? So make sure you've got some room available. Once you have returned the weapons to the other prisoners, your cell will be opened. Remember these clowns? (Yup. That's right, it's Biggs and Wedge!) You can mug a Strength Love from Wedge and Regen Ring from Biggs Draw anything you want, then kill them and leave. They had Reflect, Haste, Slow, Regen, Cure, Fire, Protect and Shell during my battle. Again, JUNCTION! Junction before leaving the cell as the three of them. Now that you have three usable guys, I recomend you play around for a bit. Unlike most locations, you cannot come back to the prison. EVER. So, since there are some cool things here, pay attention and get some fun toys. First, go back down to level 6 and save your game. Now descend to level 1 and start from there to get everything you can. ( You cannot go past level 1.) Here is a list of what each level has on it:

Level	Room	Stuff
1	Left	Nothing. (With M/F: Save point, Thanks Zach!)
1	Right	Combat King 001 (Zell learns "Dolphin Blow")
2	Left	Box with Pet Nametag
2	Right	Box with Strength Up
3	Left	Cannot Open Door
3	Right	Box with Pethouse
4	Left	Box with Tent
4	Right	Cannot Open Door
5	Left	Cannot Open Door
5	Right	Man 1*
6	Left	Cannot Open Door
6	Right	Cannot Open Door
7	Left	Nothing (you started here)
7	Right	Cannot Open Door
8	Left	Man 2**
8	Right	Cannot Open Door
9	Left	Cannot Open Door
9	Right	Draw Point: Berserk
10	Left	Save Point
10	Right	Man 3***
11	Left	Man 4****
11	Right	Nothing. (With M/F: Thundaga Draw Point)
12	Left	Cannot Open Door
12	Right	Cannot Open Door

Paying to Play...
Allow me to take a moment to explain about the strategy for playing cards here. I know it seems expensive to pay upwards of 500 Gil for each game you play, but there's a silver lining here. If you take three Tonberry or Tonberry King cards, you can use Ifrit's Ammo Refine skill to turn those into 90 AP Ammo, which you can sell to the guy on level 8 for upwards of 5,000 Gil. Other cards that make sense to sell: X-Potions from Wedge, Biggs and Fujin, Raijin, and the Ammo you can refine from Trauma, Oilboyle and Cactuar. Also, the magic you can get from refining Chimera, Ruby Dragon, Krysta, etc are worth WAY more than the money (or time, for that matter) you spend to get them. In addition to this, if you leave every hour or so to go save your game, you're going to earn your Seed salary of up to 30k. The bottom line is, I always leave the jail with WAY more money than I came. As always, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary.)

Prison has its Ups and Downs...
NOTE: Barriers start out on floors 2-6 and 9-12.
When you get to Squall (Level 13), he is called Laguna by the little creature (Momba). Then, he ask you to give them floors to make short cuts to. Be sure to talk to all the Moombas. The first set are "12, 11, 10." Just keep talking to him and recomending floors to make short cuts. All this really means is that later in the game you don't have to run around the ones with barriers. After that, leave, and you will hear the guys talk about stuff. Eventually, you and Selphis and Quistis will board the crain, with Zell up top. Don't bother junctioning to Squall here, you'll have to junction back to Zell before there's any action. When you press the button (go forward and press examine a spot on the right side of the console) you will start moving. In a little bit, you will end up at the bottom of the shaft. If you are peranoid about getting in battles, junction, otherwise just move right and then forward. Open the door to see the sand. Then you hear gun fire and go back. See Zell. See Zell run. RUN ZELL RUN! If you are just going to run, don't bother junctioning here. Otherwise, go ahead. In any event, continue on around the center hole in a clockwise direction. Get SMACKED. Squall comes to the rescue, then gets ridiculeded by Quistis. Everyone get's pinned down nicely and life more or less sucks.

Enter Irvine and Rinoa. After a brief discussion, (interupted by gunfire) Squall and Rinoa go up, taking 1 other person with them. I chose Quistis, so I will use those names to explain the rest of this scene. Junction everyone you have chosen, and head up to the top level. Try to leave, and the scene should switch to the other three. JUNCTION THEM! From this point on, your activity in the prison is basically on rails.

When you're ready to move on, descend toward level 3 where the thingy is waiting. STOP! READ THIS NOW!!! Now you should be back to Squall, Rinoa and Quistis. If you talk to the moomba up and left, you'll get a Cottage. The one just below the stairs down will give you a rename card. He also is trying to tell you that the guy just ahead will use confuse magic, and that you should run. Junction again, then you'll try to leave. Head up the small stairs and save at the save point off to your right. Now head up the stairs to where the catwalk is. If you have Diablos' ST Mag-RF handy, try and ST Mag-RF some Betrayal Swords to get confuse magic. Junction that to ST-Def-J or ST-Def-Jx2 for best results. Head up another flight of stairs until your characters notice the catwalk. Try to head out across the catwalk. You'll fight, then come back in. After a brief conversation over the radio, try to leave again. You'll get a cut scene, then a break, then when the music starts, it will collapse stranding Squall. As soon as any CG starts hold down the right arrow key. (Or controller arrow equivilant.) As the CG progresses you will begin to see a green light at the far right end of the catwalk. Squall should be moving toward it. Once he passes it, he should disappear.

Divided we Stand:
After the scene comes back into focus, you will all discuss stuff then leave in stolen cars. After a while you will park and have more meaningfull discussions near an Aero draw. You really shouldn't need to draw that by this point, but whatever. When you can move again, go climb up on the abandond vehicle and talk to Selphie. After a brief cut scene, talk to her again. You will need to choose 3 characters here. I chose Squall, Quistis and Rinoa to be on one team, and the Zell, Selphie and Irvine to make the 2nd team, so my dialoge will reflect that. Confirm you like whatever you chose, and then the scene cuts. When you see Squall, walk to the left (past the 'turn-sty') and hijack the train by hopping aboard and examining the controls. Some wuss will try to out-run the train to stop you. Then you become the other team.

You can now exit the vehicle, should you wish. I usually do so and go fight fish along the coast to get all four currently possible Stat-Ups from Ifrit (Str), Siren (Mag), Brothers (HP), Carbuncle (Vit). Once you do that, you can use one of the Rosetta Stone items you (may have) acquired in the jail to make one of your characters the level-up target. If you like, you can even head over the bridge to the city of Galbadia and sell/buy/junk - or even win the Rinoa card from her father in his mansion. You just need to talk about cards with him, lose the Ifrit card in a game with him, talk about cards again, and then he'll play with the card and you can win it.

Anyway, once you actually start driving the vehicle, it appears you cannot use the 'exit vehicle,' keys anymore. However, it CAN run out of fuel and then it only moves at a slow rate that is really irritating! So when you're ready to go on, head forward and around the inlet of water, following it until you get to the missle base. Feel free to use the map (press select a few times) if you need to to see where exactly you are going. When you get there, you will be allowed in by the security guards because of your amazing skills at subterfuge. Or possibly just incompetence.

To the Missile Base and Beyond!
NOTE: Since you will get different dialogue depending on what you do here, my conversations will all be italicized and written in green. Once you get out of the truck junction your guys for the final battle. You can wait if you want, but don't say I didn't warn you. Also, you'll miss Siren's move/find if you don't have it enabled. If you have the ability to use Siren's move/find, by all means do so. You start out in a banana-colored car. The missle base is north-west of your starting location, but you have to go past a watery inlet first. Just head north past that, then turn due west. You really can't miss it. Drive right in and you'll emerge as a group of your guys disguised in all-blue galbadian soldier uniforms. Here's what you need to do, in order.

1. Once you are junctioned, head over to the building on your left and go thru the door. Save your game if you wish, then examine the wall just to the right of the left most door. Now go through the door and walk past the guard. Walk quietly by.
2. Don't go thru the first door, but continue around the catwalk and head down the stairs. Save if you want, then head down the path past the stairs on the left. Draw blind if you want, then talk to the guards at the right.
3. Now go back down the hall then through the door by the save point. If you have Siren's Move/Find, you'll see the draw point. If not, it's in front of the machine that the guard is examining. Draw Full-Life. Now talk to that guard. They'll go on ahead.
4. Leave that area and head back along the left branch to the place with blind, and talk to the guards again.
5. Now head back up the stairs you first came down (go and draw more full-life if you want first) and talk to the guard at the first door (the one I "walked quietly by").
6. Go through the door (draw blizzara if you want) and Just hit whatever then bang on it hard, and do lots of b2 pressing.. Leave now, and 'try to talk your way out.' We were just going to call you guys!".
7. Go back to where you got full life and Play it cool. Now Help out. I'm not sure you can draw more here, so "push B2 repeatedly."
8. Now you can go back out the door and examine the control panel to the right of the door. Select: TARGET -> SET ERROR RATIO -> set ratio to max -> DATA UPLOAD -> 'YES' -> EXIT.
9. Talk to the man at the last stair case then beat the guys in the office up. You can draw confuse from the guy in red here, and it's useful to have that junctioned to "status defend" from time to time. You can Mug Hi-Potions from the blue guys and a Tent from the Red Base Leader. Afterword, examine all the computer systems in the room, then go to the next room (forward). This is a good time to junction for the BGH251F2 battle, if you haven't already. I junction for lots of HP and Str, then Elem-J Thundaga to as many characters as possible. Now examine the computers in the 2nd room, and set the auto destruct. Depending on how good your guys are, you can make this value whatever. I chose 10 minutes and was fine given the Thundaga junction.
10. After leaving the building, it's time to beat up on the BGH251F2. This large blue vehicle has Shell, Protect and Stop. Feel free to draw if you want, then use Lightning magic on it. Quezacotl is your friend. :) After fighting the vehicle, you'll fight the easy enemies inside. You can mug Potions from the blue soldiers, and another Tent from the red Elite Soldier. You should get 'Weapons Monthly June' for this. Now run around the parimeter like a chicken with it's head cut off and after a while your guys give up and sit down. Farewell my friends - your sacrifice will not be in vain.

What's up with Garden?
Prep work: As soon as you have control of Squall etc, JUNCTION. You can technically leave garden and head to the town of balam to weapon mod if you read the Weapons Monthly June you just won. There's not really much else you can do in Balam, as far as I can tell, though. In any event, leaving Balam Garden at least allows you to save outside on the world map, if you want. If you've been trying to prevent your guys from leveling up, this is where you need to start paying attention to their "to next level" XP info. Junction as many Stat-Up abilities as possible to the character with the least XP to go to the next level. For me, Squall was 100 XP away from level 12, and I won a few Rosetta Stone items from card battles in the Galbadia Prison. I used the Rosetta Stone on Ifrit so he has Abilityx4, and then I junctioned Ifrit, Siren, and Carbuncle to Squall. I junctioned the Move-Find ability, along with Mag Bonus, Vit Bonus, and Str Bonus. For the character with the next-fewest XP to go, I junctioned Brothers so I could get the HP Bonus - just in case TWO characters leveled up at the same time. If you only have Diablos' Abilityx3, use that to junction the Mag/Vit/Str bonus to one character. As your "Stat-Up Junction" character levels up, be sure to do use the Switch menu to switch that junction group to whoever is most likely to level up next. In addition to the above junction, I usuually do Quezacotl, Shiva, and Brothers to the 2nd character, and Diablos to the 3rd. This gives me 3 characters with HP-J, and allows me to junction Enc-None.

When you're ready to tackle this section, head through the main Balam Garden gate. You will almost immediately be acosted by a faculty member asking a weird question. In my game I chose to say that I was a follower of Cid (You know, the HEADMASTER) so I got attacked alot. If you tell the first guy you swear allegence to "Garden Master Norg," you can avoid some of the battles here, but you'll miss out on some excellent loot. Here's your general explination of what to do:

Finding Cid:

1. At the turn sty area, talk to the guy there for a mega-potion.
2. Now go to the directory area and talk to Rajin and Fujin, then circle around the garden clockwise. At each area of the garden, go and help people for cool prizes.
3. Your first stop will be the infirmary. If you jump in to the battle, you can mug wizzard stones from the enemy called. After the battle, you can card-talk to the doctor to try and prevent rule propagation here. Basically just keep card-talking and saying you don't want to play until she does NOT start off with "You know some rules unknown to this area." This will keep any rules from Galbadia from spreading to the garden, and will set Balam as your new home base for future card battles. This is one of two places where you can play cards during this session. Before you leave the area, be sure to non-card-talk to her also; you'll get an elixir!
4. Leave the infirmary and continue running around the area clock-wise to the Quad. Head left after the Faculty member retreats, head left and - since these people are in SeeD uniforms - explain you're with the Headmaster. Talk to the people here for an x-potion, then leave and continue your clock-wise circuit of the Garden.
5. Head to the cafeteria and talk to the Facutly member to start a Bomb fight. You can Mug a Bomb Fragment, if you want. After the battle, talk to the people in the Cafeteria for a Gyshall Greens, then continue your circuit around the loop.
6. Next stop is your dorm. Talk to the Facutly member there to fight a Catcharpillar (mug a Spider Web if you want), and then continue on. My party consited of Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis. Squall's room consisted of one bed. So that's awkward. Anyway, you can rest if you want. And you can save.
7. Continue around the loop toward the Parking Lot. You'll fight a Grendle along the way. You can draw Double if you need, and you can mug a Dragon Fin. After the battle, head to the Parking Lot and talk to Cid (and the other people here) for a Tent.
8. Head to the Training Center and save the younglings. You may not get the same encounter I did, but the dude called a t-rexaur on me. Mug a Dino Bone, then kill him off or card mod him. Talk to the gal afterwords for a Remedy.
9. Now you can head to the Library. Chat with the faculty member to fight a super powerful Grat (LOL), and talk to everyone to for a Remedy.
10. Continue around the loop. After you come full circle around the garden, you should see Xu running up the stairs. Follow her. She'll get off on the 2nd floor and goes around the corner past the classroom. Talk to her and she'll invite you to meet Cid. If you continue past where she was, you can go outside and talk to the Bandana guy there to play cards. He plays with Page 6 cards now, so if you failed to get something you wanted while card battling the girl in Galbadia Garden on Disc 1, you have another chance. (i.e., if you want to win a bunch of Krysta cards and refine them for Holy magic, now's your chance.)
11. When you're ready to move on, head back to the elevator and it will go up to the 3rd floor to Cid's office.

Saving Garden:

1. When the elevator breaks down, talk to the girls, examine the control pane, then examine the floor panel. You noticed that panel, right?.
2. Climb down the ladder quickly, and thank the stars Selphie isn't here. What a terrible angle for a ladder.
3. Anyway, once you get to the bottom you will automatically jump to safety as the elevator crashes down past you. (Wait, I thought it was STUCK. What broke? And why does it work in the next scene? Oh sorry Suspend Disbelief for maximum pleasure.)
4. Now, head down the hall and examine the floor with the big thing sticking out of it. When Squall jumps down the hole, he talks to himself about fire for a while. (fire... fire... he he he... FIRE... uh huh huh. huh...)
5. When he's finished, head down the tube and around the corner.
6. Go out the tube and down the ladder.
7. Get off the ladder and cross to the door across from you.
8. Open the door and go inside.
9. Examine the huge valve there in the middle. I needed two people to finish the job.
10. Now go back out the door you came in through and down the new ladder that has appeared.
11. Exit the ladder and head down the long catwalk. Begin random encounter sequence. Use Diablo's "Enc Half" or "Enc None" if you have it, or just fight/run.
12. If you do find a Tri-Face here, be sure to Card him, then card mod for the curse spike, then status-mag refine for pain. It's cool stuff. Anyway, go and draw full life here, then go around the big pillar in the middle of the floor.
13. I chose to just have Squall climb way up.
14. When you ge to the room, press the button on the panel and watch the effects.
15. Examine the ladder and climb back down. NOTE: BE SURE TO PRESS THE BUTTON FIRST! You can't come back up. Anyway, I tried to go around the corner and look for more full life but it was used up. There is a glowing green light on a gate on the ladder screen. (pretty much in the center of the screen.)
16. Examine the gate, then go down the ladder.
17. Save your game, then flip the lever and head toward the door; fight Oingo Boingo. I mean, the Boiling Oil. I meant he Oilboyles. You can mug fuel here, but you cannot card them. This is not an easy battle, unless you follow a few suggestions here. First off, be sure you saved your game! At high levels, these guys will have confuse, and that can ruin your day. If you drew and juntioned confuse earlier like I suggessted, this will not be quite so hard. Junction Blind to your status defense as well. If you don't have confuse (and you REALLY want to draw now), I recommend killing off one of them, then drawing confuse, while using curaga to keep your guys alive. If you get confused, be sure to quickly cast esuana (you can draw and cast, if you need to) to clear the status. Go ahead and junction confuse to your status def if you haven't already. You may not need it soon, but it's ALMOST NEVER good to have your character attack a friend (exceptions are: reducing HP to get limit breaks and clearing statuses like 'confuse.') For the curious, I always junction 'defensively' for this exact reason. Junctioning offensively can get your characters killed off very quickly. In any event, I summoned Ifrit and Quezacotl twice (a different time through the game) and that was a fairly easy way to kill them off.
18. Once you beat the oilboyles, go through the doorway and down the ladder (you have to jump on from the left). More cool cg.
19. Go down the ladder (you may not be able to see yourself, but you're at the top of the ladder) and off to the left.
20. Go forward and push buttons. Keep it up until Squall talks back to Rinoa. More cool CG.

Finding Norg: Before you go off to fight Norg, you might be interested to learn you can finally challange the CC group here. See the Card Game Section for more information. I used to think you can't battle CC Club yet, but he WILL show up on the screen one down from your dorm - if you've beaten Jack and Joker already. He came in from the west when I played against him.

1. Go to the second floor observation deck (past the classroom, through the door at the end of the hall. NOT THE EMERGENCY EXIT!)
2. When you have control again, go back toward the classroom. Now press B1 alot. :) Eventually, you will end up back in your room with Rinoa and she will ask you to show her around Garden. (Don't change your junctions unless you are planning on doing the CC side quest.)
3. Go counter-clockwise toward the directory and talk to the doctor along the way. After visiting the Doctor, head back the other way and visit the Parking Lot, the Training Center, and the Library. When Rinoa looks around the library, head one screen right. Try talking a few times, then leave the library and head toward the elevator.
4. When you get to the directory screen, a member of the Garden Faculty will come and tell you to go down the elevator. You can leave the screen now, if you want. You can do the Card Game side quest for Balam's club.
5. Talk to Cid, then follow the Faculty guy to the battle with Norg.

Squall now wants to go talk to Cid. Junction Leviathan and set him to learn Supt-Mag. After that you'll want to teach him Spr+20%, Spr+40%, and then Spr Bonus. Once he's learned Spr Bonus, you can use the Abilityx4 junction to really level up one of your characters as I mentioned above. Before starting, save your game in the training center and have a little play time to explore Garden. I like playing the Card game here. Even if you lose your cool cards, you can always go back to the save point in the center. Also, it's a good idea to card a bunch of things here and have Leviathan learn Supt-Mag RF. His recover skill can also do 9999 damage to undead, so it's good to have as well. GF-Med RF is usefull, I guess, but I've never used it. :) 'Man from Garden' also begins appearing here in the TC, so you can buy/sell stuff if you want. Things you can't do: Talk to Pigtail Girl in library. Leave Garden. Play cards against CC Heart or Cid. (but you can beat the Balam Garden Card Club through Spade en route. When you are ready to continue, go to the Infimiry and talk to the doctor and Cid. Give report, etc. Now walk around to the directory and tell Xu where Cid is, then head to the 2nd floor observation deck. After your party splits up, go and find Ellone. (Big hint: She's in the Library.) Press "ok" a lot, watch squall go through a crisis...

Fisherman's Horizon
After Squall's philosophy lecture, he'll wake up in his room. Either go with Rinoa or not, then you'll walk around a little bit and end up in Cid's office. When you get control back, you have another opportunity to win the Seifer card from Cid before it becomes really hard later. After talking with Cid, head down to the 2nd floor deck and head down the catwalks toward the center of town. Talk to the guys of FH for some background info. On the way, there will be a ladder down in the middle of a catwalk. Take that and head left up and down some ladders. You'll meet the Master Fisherman and (if you're good) you can spread the OPEN card rule around, but be careful of the Sudden Death rule. Also, regular talk to him and he'll give you occult fan III. Keep talking to him until he asks you to talk to his 'pupil.' Go back up the ladder and continue right.

Mayor:(The mayor's house is in the middle of the big solar cell array.) If you're playing the card game, head right a screen before walking through the front door. You should run into Martine, who has the Ifrit card if you lost it to Rinoa's Father. Talk to the mayor, then go right and draw Ultima from the hidden draw point by the machine. You can win the Quezacotl card from the mayor, if you're good (it took 6-7 games before he even played with it for me). If you've been playing along with the Queen of Cards side quest, you can also win the Irvine card from the mayor's wife. After that, head back to garden to ask Cid for permission to allow outsiders into Garden. Along the way, Galbadia will show up, and you'll have to follow the mayor to help him (If you try to go back to garden before helping him, Cid will just ask you if something's wrong.) Then you fight standard Galbadia soldiers.

For the initial battle, you can pretty much just attack them; standard Galbadia soldiers shouldn't be much of a fight for you by this point. As a bit of an asside, though, if you've been leveling up your guys, the enemies will also level up and have better stuff. You can mug potions/tents from low level Galbadia soldiers, and Hi-Potions/Cottages from higher level ones. After the battle a familiar looking BGH251F2 (Ironclad) shows up. If you have steal (mug), use it. I got an adamantine out of this thing! To beat it easily, use Quezacotl. 3 tries for me and it was toast. Now we see our friends again! You'll have to talk to Rinoa first, then you can talk to Dobe. If you come back to this screen later, there's a man at the bottom of the stairs. He tells you he has 256 cats, but that he can't count higher than that. This is a joke. For those of you who don't get it, Final Fantasy has nearly always relied on 8 bit numbers. 8 bits lets you count between 0 and 255, for a total of 256 different values. I guess you kinda have to be a computer nerd for it to be funny.

More Fisherman's Horizon: After talking with everyone there, head up the stairs and across the street to the tower looking thing. Go inside and examine the Momba. Then read the issue of Timber Maniacs. Now you can talk to the man about the battle. Play cards with him if you want, then leave. When you exit, head down the tracks and along the road to the right. Talk to the kid over and over until he gets it right. NOTE: If you try this conversation before talking to the Mayor, you may find the kid gives up until after the battle. Read any Weapon's Monthly magazenes you haven't already, then you can talk to the old guy on this screen to remodel your weapons. Remember, card battles can get you the hard to find stuff!

Head back left across the dock, and you can go upstarirs of the shop across the street for another Timber Maniacs. When you are ready, head back to garden, but don't let Irvine's schpeal keep you from talking to the master fisherman on the way there. He wants to meet you at the inn. Play along. Head back up the long ladder and head right. Down the elevator, and right to get to the inn. Talk there and head out to the junk shop area. Eventually you'll get a megalixer out of this, but you may have to talk to people for a while. And where the master fisherman used to sit, there is now a full-life draw point. ;) Now head on up to the garden.

A Couple of Couples: Along the way, talk to Irvine about Technitians, Selphie, guns and women. Head to your room and save. If you haven't already done it, I'd use this time to start take on the CC group (aren't you tired of me saying that over and over?) You can get GREAT cards this way. You'll not be able to play Queen or King until you've watched the concert. Head to the quad (stage area) and find Selphie. Then you will go to Cid's office and report. Amazingly, every single one of your charcters learned to play every instrument in their childhood. Be sure to pick the right ones. The dialogue later depends on what happens here. I recomend Flute, Guitar, Tap and Violin. Not only do you end up with dialogue that will explain alot, it's also pretty funny to watch Zell Tap Dance. :) After you watch it, you might want to go back and select Sax, Bass, Electric Guitar, and Piano. They'll play a different song (one that you may recognize...)

Once you decide, you will wake up as Squall. Leave your room and talk to Rinoa. OK, the two of you are going to hook up eventually, so you better get used to the idea. When you finally meet her, head out and talk to Irvine. Twice. Then you should get some decent music and a fun time all round. Then you'll go back down memory lane and.. OOPS! Time to go to the bridge IMMEDIATELY... Remember, that word comes from the greek, "IMME" or "Whenever" and "DIATELY" or "you have time." :) Just walk around if you want. So go to the 2nd floor classroom and talk to the girls to get your stats. Then go to your terminal and login.

Select "Garden Festival Commite" and read Selphie's diary, etc. You can also see the "Sir Laguna" page where all those Timber Maniacs you have read will show up. OK. I know it's confusing, but here is how this works. The Diary goes in reverse order, so that you can exit when you get to a place you have already been to. Unfortunately, it's irritating to no end to try and figure out what Selphie is talking about at any given time. I guess that makes sense, though. :) SO! When you are done, head out and up to Cid's Office (now the bridge.) If you've been following along, play against CC Heart, then talk to Nida (did you catch what Quistis just said...?)

You'll take control of the garden, but exit back to Squall (triangle, or equiv). If you want to play against CC King, just head back to your room and have everyone leave, then rest. Save when you've beat the King, then head back up to the bridge to continue. If you are playing the PC version you may now cheat, otherwise, I'd suggest you engage in other side quests. You should be able to continue the Queen of Cards side quest now, too. Of course, I always suggest heading to Shumi Village for a bit of Ultima Magic (it's all in the side quest area on your left). It cost 5,000 gil, but it's worth it. See the Other GF section to see how you can get Odin and Tonberry at this time, also.

Going up to Balam
When you rea ready to move on, head to the city of Balam for your next mission. When you arive, you realise that there are guards everywhere, and that Galbadia has taken over the town. Equip your party with Zell (and Quistis for a laugh), set your Junctions and head down toward the city. Talk to the two old people out front, then talk to the soldier. You may have to walk around a little bit before he finally gets suspicious. I just had my guys leave and then come back. Eventually, you should be able to convice him to let you into the city. Here is the order of what you have to do here.

1. Talk to the soldiers in front of the inn.
2. Talk to the soldiers down at the dock. Both guys and the dog.
3. Go talk to Zell's Mother (wander around his house. If you have Quistis in your party, head upstairs for a laugh).
4. Talk to the guys by the train.
5. Go talk to Zell's Mother again.
6. Go talk to the sick men at the train station, and the engineer.
7. Go gack and talk to the Dog (yes the dog) and follow him to the train station.
8. Now SECURE YOUR JUNCTION then follow Raijin back to the inn. Junction Notes: For battles where I'm using the Mug skill, I try no to junction any magic to Strength, Elem-Atk, or Status-Atk on that character. That way I don't have to spend time curing my enemy while mugging, or accidentally kill them off without getting the cool items I'm looking for. For this comming boss battle, if you junction Pain to Status-Atk on someone you can inflict them with Darkness.

Trabia:
Head to Trabia Garden in the norther part of the Island between Shumi Village and Balam. You should be able to see it on the map, actually. When you get there, Selphie will run ahead. Here's the order you have to do stuff in...

1. Follow her and talk to her and the gal she is with.
2. Now go right to the grave yard if you want to get another copy of Timber Maniacs.
3. Now go back past Selphie and head left. When you get to a fork in the road, go right.
4. Talk to the guy reading the book twice.
5. Follow the directions in the book for a copy of Weapons Monthly, August. (Head to the Fountain, and go down untill just before the scene switches. It's on the ground to the right.) You may have to talk to the little girl to get her to leave first, though.
6. When you have that, head back to the fountain.
7. Talk to her best friend then go and watch her cry at the grave yard.
8. Go and talk to the friend again, and then go and meet Selphie at the basketball court. Draw Aura from the rocket on the way, if you want. The basketball court is three screens left.
9. Talk to everyone, then try to leave.
10. Press enter alot and follow the guys outside. Talk to the little boy, then take the left path down to the ocean.
11. Now talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Then talk. After that you can go and talk. Here's a little story 'bout a man named TALK! Oh sorry. IF you pay attention here you MIGHT figure out what is going on.

• If you are good enough, go back and try to win Selphie's card from her best friend. Be carefull, though, since Trabia uses Random. FWIW, I came here after Dollet and she recommended a game with Dollet's rules and Trabia's rules. When I accepted and won, the Random rule was abolished from Trabia!
• I would also recommend people go after Odin/Tonberry if you haven't already.
• Shumi Village Side Quest (see the Side Quests section)
• Winhill Side Quest (see the Side Quests section)
• Chocobo Forests Side Quest (see the Side Quests section)
• Queen of Cards Side Quest - up through Chubby Chocobo (see Card Game section)

Eada's House:
To get to Eada's house, head due north from shumi village (which is very close to due north from Trabia. While you're there, get some Ultima!) When you encounter a land mass (not the one shumi village is on) follow it around to the left. When you see the lighthouse, you'll probably also see Galbadia Garden floating around nearby. Try to stay away from it. Don't leave the water until you are really close to the lighthouse. Then, land as soon as you can and walk the rest of the way. When you get to the lighthouse it looks familiar to Squall. If you go exploring he'll get the feeling there is something huge nearby. Duh! Go back to your Garden and head toward Galbadia's Garden. It should be floating over some trees nearby.

Attacking Galbadia Garden:
OK. This is going to be a long section, so don't try this without a bit of time to spare. I'm going to assume by this point you have the move/find skill and that it is always equiped. Get your party all healed up and head toward Galbadia Garden. It's floating over a bunch of trees near Eada's house. After seing Galbadia in binaculars with lenses that seem to be made of wax paper (then battle music starts. How could a battle be inevitable? It looks like a rotten apple!) Squall will be asked to make announcements.

Gentlemen, start your gardens!: Make your announcments. Pick as many as you want to make and then press 'no orders/end.' I chose { prepair for attack, prepair for defense, take care of lower classmen, and call my comrads. } If you jabber on about meaningless stuff everyone gets confused and it's kinda comical, but your SeeD level may suffer or your comrads may ridicule you. When the announcement is finished, head down the elevator. Squall tells you not to bother junctioning yet, and he isn't kidding.

After you go down the elevator, watch the CG of a deer with bad tendonitus. (I mean, how lame can a deer look jumping?) Talk to everyone you meet so that squall looks important. You'll end up on Level 2 first, so head for the classroom. Talk to the people there, then head back to the elevator and go to the first floor. Since you can't get anywhere else, head for the Quad. You can save at the save point along the way (by the trash can in front of the wheel-chaired guy ("Strategist"). GO to the quad and talk to everyone. Zell takes the ring, you talk to everyone again and try to leave. Nida comes on the air and requests you come to the bridge now, so go. Cool CG scenes.

Isn't she Expendable?!?: You are now Zell, et all. JUNCTION, then head left to the main area. After the ring switch, head farther left and watch Rinoa fall to her near-death. Now leave and go to the front gate to enlist Squall's help. The team will divide again, but you may have to wait until you leave the turnsty screen before you can junction. Remember to junction Rinoa's GF etc to someone else, as she really doesn't need it where she's "Hanging Out." Head your party to the elevator and select "2nd Floor."

Go left and enter the classroom. Beat the twerps here and talk to all the survivors. After sending the female student away, you will be summoned to the bridge. Head up and talk to the doctor. After about 20 minutes (no I'm teasing, it just seems like that long) you will again have control of Squall. You have to save Rinoa, but how? Well, she's at the Quad, so head for the classroom! (Bizarre, ain't it?)

Actually, your elevator stops on the 2nd floor and the idiot that was supposed to be taking the students to the infimary is lollygagging around looking for one lost sheep. Anyway, go help Mark. Choose "Look around for another option." Then "Press the button for the emergency escape." Just hold down the triangle punch button and wail on him. It's a pretty stupid way to do this in my opinion. I mean, the guy knocked my character off, and he had 9999 health and 255 str. I mean, one punch should have knocked him into oblivion. But anyway... After you save Rinoa and land, head left and listen to the dialogue.

Enter the Garden: Eventually you can enter Galbadia Garden. If you have move/find, there is a draw point in the distance past the entrance. It's aura for those of you who don't have enough allready. Head in, choose a party, junction and save your game. Here's the play-by-play, er, I mean, step-by-step.

1. Now head right, then right again at the next hallway.
2. Go up the stairs to the 2nd floor and talk to your good friends Raijin and Fujin.
3. Go left (past Raijin) and take the first door on your right.
4. Talk to the guy there for the first Key Card.
5. Go back the way you came and save your game at the save point.
6. Head left this time and go thru the door on the left which you can now open with the key card.
7. Cross the rink (you can draw protect at the far goal and life in the locker room), and head out the door.
8. You should be in a hallway. If not, you are probably in the locker room. Leave the room and head right until you find another door. Go through it.
9. Now that we are all in the hallway, head through the door on the right.
10. Talk to the guy there for the next Key Card [2].
11. With level [2], return to the save point by going down twice (after leaving the room where you got the card, of course).
12. Go right again twice to return to the stairway and go up to the third level (Rajin and Fujin are on the 2nd floor).
13. Go up the stairs, and use Key Card [2] to go through the door and head left until you jump off the ledge.
14. Continue left (draw shell if you want) and enter the garden.
15. You should be on a screen with chandallers. Go down three screens.
16. Head around Cerberus and save your game. Make sure you have junctioned everyone nicely (junction Mag Def to Quake).
17. Optional Great Magic: You can draw Pain, Bio, Flare and Stop from a tri-face here. (You can also mug curse spikes from them, but it's kind of unnecessary if you're drawing everyone up on Pain.) At the very least, get flare! I stocked up here (my guys are immune to poison). If the Tri-Face doesn't have the high-level magic you want, you can use Tonberry's LV-Up ability to increase the level and get the good magic.
18. Beat the dog (you may have to "talk" to him to fight him). If your team is lower level, I recommend junctioning air magic to Mag-Def. If they are higher level, be sure to junction Quake magic to your defense. Be sure you mug a Spd-J scroll from him, and if your charactes are a high enough level, he'll have Tripple you can draw, so be sure to have space available! Save again, then junction him, set him to learn "alert." Draw "haste" here if you want, then head left one screen.
19. Go through the door on your left and talk to the girl there for the next key card [3].
20. Back past where you beat cerberus and up to the 2nd level (you passed the stairs leading there on your way into this room.)
21. At the top, head left and go up the elevator. When the elevator stops, you can head right and save your game at a point there before these last nasty battles.
22. Draw from Seifer if you want and/or mug some mega phoenix potions, then beat him and head back to the elevator.
23. When it gets to the bottom, head down one screen, then right past the stairs.
24. Circle around the bottom of the screen and save you game at the save point.
25. You'll get 50 AP from the upcoming battle, so set your GF to learn accordingly. Now head right into the auditorium. After beating Seifer again (depending on his level, you can mug a Hero or Holy War from him) DRAW ALEXANDER FROM EADA!!! Now take her out too (you might be able to mug a royal crown from her - I did). If she hits your characters with status attacks, just draw-cast esuana from her. Her Malestrom attack can cause curse - be sure to cure it. She is reflected, and if you cast dispel at her she'll waste time casting that instead. I had to use cura on both Seifer and Edea to keep them alive while I used steal/mug to acquire the stuff I wanted.