House of Memories (The Orphanage)

After paying a visit to Rinoa in the Infirmary, Quistis will call Squall over the tannoy system, telling him to go to Edea's house. First though, go to the Training Center to find the Weapons Monthly Jun magazine in the western half of the map, and then head to Balamb Town and talk to the girl walking just outside the car rental shop (she's the girl who's normally sat on the stairs by the train station), and she'll say that a girl with a pigtail was looking for Zell. Head to his house and Zell will ask his mum is she's been there, but his mum'll say no. Go to the hotel and stay the night. When you wake up, Zell will be gone; head downstairs and you'll find him talking to the girl with the pigtail; she'll give him the Combat King 003 magazine.

Once all that's done, head for where you fought Galbadia Garden, and then a bit to the west to find Edea's House, the orphanage where the main characters, excepting Rinoa, grew up. By the way, there's a Holy draw point nearby on the world map.

After entering, you'll find the rest of the party there; continue onwards and get the Timber Maniacs issue on the floor and then enter the room to the north, getting Curaga from the draw point. Go back a screen, and then to the right, where you'll find Cid. Talk to him and then continue on to the right, to find Edea. Challenge her to win the Edea card, but bear in mind that the Random rule is in effect here, so this match is pretty tough. Also, if you haven't gotten the Seifer card from Cid yet, do so now, though it's a lot tougher now than when I told you to get it the first time!

When you've got the card, talk to Edea repeatedly, and she'll try to explain exactly what the freaking hell has been going on, explaining about the sorceresses Adel and Ultimecia, as well as why Ellone is being hunted. Try to leave and Edea will call you back. Unfortunately, she can't help with regards to Rinoa either, her sudden sickness being beyond her ability to help...

B-Movie Making! (Trabia Canyon)

Before heading to Balamb Garden's Infirmary, make sure you have Squall and two other members of the party fully junctioned up. Why? You'll see ^_~

Go to the Infirmary to check up on Rinoa; sadly (HAH!) there's been no change in her condition, which infuriates Squall before he suddenly passes out... A party exchange screen will pop up, so exchange the two members who have magic junctioned on with Kiros and Ward. Yup, that's right, 'tis time for another flashback!

We find Laguna in the Trabia Canyon where he's playing the lead in a B-Movie! Apparently he's spent all his travel money so he's taken up acting to cover his costs, but I can't imagine he's getting paid a whole lot going by his complete and utter lack of talent at the job! Y'know, I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't actually a porn film they're shooting...

Anyway, Laguna is playing a knight, trying to save the Princess from a dragon, so cue the dragon, i.e. Kiros and Ward in a dragon costume. My word, that's a VERY good costume there!

Realising that the dragon's real, Laguna will run away, only to be trapped once more! Luckily, Kiros and Ward finally show up, but it's best to choose to run away once more so you can get them junctioned up; put Blizzaga onto your Elem-Atk-J. Once you've done that, walk into the beast!

After defeating the Ruby Dragon, Laguna will see even more coming, so the party will run outta there. At the top of the mountain, he'll see something off on the horizon as the sun sets, the screen fading to black... Next Laguna will be at the Orphanage, talking to Edea about Ellone, who seems to have been taken by the Estharians...

Two notes to make about this section: Firstly, remember in the Shumi Village sub-section I mentioned to not get the Timber Maniacs issue? Well, that's because it's about THIS flashback; if you do get it, Ward will not be there, making the fight against the Ruby Dragon tougher. Of course, this means you can now go back there and get it! Secondly, you can get into encounters in this small section against Mesmerizes; they have Mesmerize Blades which are needed for weapon synthesis so if you do run into them, make sure to mug 'em!

The Search for Ellone (White SeeD Ship)

Y'know, since Edea can't help Rinoa, we need to find someone else who has strong magic to try and heal her... and y'know, a certain name springs to mind, someone who's been interfering a lot recently...

So, Squall decides that he needs to find Ellone to try and cure Rinoa, this of course means we need to find the White SeeD ship that she was last seen on, which means we need to talk to Edea about it. Head back to the Orphanage and talk to her about it; she'll give you a letter to prove that you mean no ill will towards the White SeeDs, and she'll give you a rough approximation of their current location, though it's very vague.

As a note, you can sell the letter Edea gives you for 125 gil and then go back to get another one from her, and so on, so you could in theory make in infinte amount of money here, but it'd take so long it's ridiculous. There's a much better way of doing it later on in the disc.

Anyway, Edea says that the White SeeD ship is located in an inlet somewhere around the Centran Continent. Head a little bit north from the Orphanage and you should see a group of islands forming a rough cirle around a patch of water. The ship should be in the middle...

Upon boarding the ship, you'll meet three of the White/Sorceress SeeDs, and there's another near the hull with two kids, none of whom are happy to see you on their ship. Head into the cabin and you'll find Zone and Watts! What the hell are they doing here? If you haven't got the Angelo card yet, challenge Watts, before following Zone up the stairs to the Bridge. Talk to him and offer to give him the Girl Next Door magazine for free; he'll give you the Siren card and a Rename Card for your generosity, though... it's not really purely magnaminous of you if you're doing it coz' I told you he'll give you that stuff now, is it? XD There's also a Timber Maniacs issue here so nab that as well.

Note that this should be the final issue of Timber Maniancs for you to get, adding up to twelve in total. The locations are as follows:

• Balamb Hotel
• Timber Maniacs Office (Timber)
• Dollet Hotel
• Dollet Pub
• Deling City Hotel
• Grease Monkey's House (FH)
• FH Hotel
• Artisan's House (Shumi Village)
• Timber Hotel
• Trabia Garden Cemetary
• The Orphanage
• White SeeD Ship

Back downstairs in the cabin, go into the door that Watts isn't blocking to find a Holy draw point, and then talk to the guy there. He'll tell you that Ellone jumped onto an Estharian ship, a surprising turn around considering that the Estharians once kidnapped her... Squall will go back to Balamb Garden and tells Nida that they'll be heading for Esthar next.

Now's a good time to hunt items for weapon synthesis, since the fights are gonna get a lot tougher in the next section. Also, you might want to nab a spare six Steel Pipes; you'll see why soon. Finally, we're gonna make a major side-trip right now to pick up the Tonberry GF.

Beware the Knife! (Centra Ruins)

First, make sure that whoever is junctioned to Diablos has Auto-Haste equipped, or failing that, Pandemona's Spd-J, that another person has Quezacotl's Card command junctioned, and junction Death to St-Def-J. Head to the Centra Ruins and roam around the place, waiting for fights against Tonberries. These guys are really tough, and normal attacks, limits and magic, are often countered with the nasty Everybody's Grudge, which does damage seemingly based on the characters level. I find the best tactic is to spam Diablos, until it stops doign 9,999 damage and then batter it as hard as you can, reducing its chances to counter.

Once you've recieved twenty Chef's Knives from defeating the Tonberries, leave the Centra Ruins, before healing and saving. Go back in; defeat the next Tonberry and the Tonberry King should emerge...

BOSS: Tonberry King
DRAW: Death, Curaga, Full-Life

Don't waste time trying to draw Full-Life from it, since it'll kick your ass in the meantime. Diablos/Demi won't work on this big boy, but he'll still counter a lot of your stuff with Everybody's Grudge. Start by casting Meltdown and Slow on him, while summoning Cerberus. Triple Aura everyone and let loose with your limit breaks; Zell is excellent in this fight for the awesome Armageddon Fist combo, and I'd recommend a healer as well, probably Selphie.

This fight will be incredibly tough, but it should be possible. You can come back and do this later on in the third disc if you want, after you've got the Doomtrain GF and taught Quistis Mighty Guard, both of which will make this fight easier, but you're liable to be at a far higher level then, meaning the Tonberry King's level is also higher.

NOTE: Actually, when my girlfriend got to this fight, she creamed him. Did it far easier than I've ever managed it ^^; She had Squall, Irvine and Quistis as her party; Quistis stayed as a healer, while Squall and Irvine used their limits after being triple Aura'd. The Tonberry King only got like, three moves out before dying. In essence, my girlfriend owned me XD

WIN: Royal Crown, Tonberry (GF)

When you've defeated it, the first ability you should set it to learn is Initiative, since you'll be needing it very soon.

Entering the Hidden World (Great Salt Lake)

Take Balamb Garden to FH and visit Rinoa in the Infirmary; Squall will sneak off, carrying her on his back as he walks along the abandoned railway towards Esthar. Just follow the path until you reach Seaside Station, where you'll meet up with the rest of the party, as well as Edea! You can include her in your party for now, but as cool as she is, I'd recommend against it for a reason you'll see later...

After some conversation, you'll find yourself on the World Map again; walk to the big lake-type thingy nearby to enter the Great Salt Lake. Walk upwards 'til you get to a dinosaur's skeleton; walk up it on the right to the next screen, and then check to the south to find a Meteor draw point before crossing the bone bridge. At the cliff edge there'll be a Thundaga draw point before you press the X button by the edge to jump off and head to the next screen. Go to the right and use the save point, and then junction Firaga to your Elem-Atk-J, Blind to your St-Atk-J and Confuse to your St-Def-J. Also, if you've learnt Leviathan's Recover ability, make sure to stick that as a command. Head two screen to the left and a gigantic monster will loom above you!

Once you've defeated Abadon, head north-east, and you'll hear some weird sounds. There's a hidden save point here you can use if you want; otherwise, push north and examine the background to discover it's a hologram! A ladder will come down, so climb it and enter the Estharian Continent proper.

Go north-east and examine the panel on the left; you can use this to mess about with the hologram field that you just encountered. Once you've finished having fun, continue along the path to an elevator. Talk to your party and then leave the elevator, stepping onto the next one. Finally, a door will open; walk through it to discover the city of Esthar! However, it seems a case of randomly fainting has struck the party once more...

Operation Rescue (Esthar City)

It seems that Laguna and co. were caught trying to sneak into Esthar via the Trabia Canyon, in a bid to find Ellone and rescue her: we now find the party imprisoned at the Lunatic Pandora Research Center. After Kiros and Ward leave, talk to the two guards and the screen will fade; once back, talk to the guards again, and then talk to the Moomba and the prisoner operating the controls, before talking to the Moomba once more. A soldier should come in now and order Laguna to help upstairs, but you'll end up staying where you are, talking to the prisoners until the guard comes back. Infuriated that Laguna has disobeyed him, he'll attack. Draw any spells you need from him (he has all three basic elements at the -aga level as well as Curaga) before dispatching him.

When Kiros and Ward join up, pick the first option and junction them up before fighting the oncoming guards; two Esthar Soldiers and a Gesper. Mug the Gesper for a Black Hole if Quistis hasn't yet learned Degenerator, since that'll be very useful later when you're hunting Malboros.

Hop on the elevator, and you'll find Dr. Odine talking to a research assistant; you can stay and eavesdrop, or leave by the right, whichever you prefer. On the next screen, outside of the Research Center, you'll find the Moomba and the prisoner you helped escape; apparently, he's part of an underground faction seeking to depose the Sorceress Adel who's currently running Esthar with an iron fist. It seems they've got a way to defeat her, but they need someone with undeniable courage (or failing that, naivé stupidity) to put the plan into action. Next, a research assistant will come up to you; he'll tell you that Dr. Odine knows where Ellone is being kept!

Use the Death draw point here and save the game before re-entering the Lunatic Pandora Research Center. Grab the Weapon Mon 1st magazine and use the elevator. Approach Dr. Odine and you'll get into a fight with two Esthar Soldiers and an Elastoid; make sure to stock up on Meltdown from the Elastoid, and mug it for a Laser Cannon if Quistis doesn't yet know Homing Laser.

Follow Odine up the elevator and out of the building, where he'll tell you where Ellone is being held. After taking a car to get to Dr. Odine's lab, head upwards and you'll have to fight a few soldiers; kill them and use the Double draw point before sitting down on the weird object in the center of the room - it's an elevator, kinda. Upon disembarking, check near the left-hand side of the door to find a hidden Flare draw point before entering, and fight two more soldiers. Once you've defeated them, examine the big blue screen and you'll see a video feed of Ellone in her cell; check the panels on the right and a door should open up on the ground floor, so enter to rescue Ellone...

Opening Pandora's Box (Esthar City)

Back with Squall's party, a vehicle will come and take you to the Presidential Palace, where you'll meet Dr. Odine. Talk to him and he'll give you permission to meet Ellone, telling you to go to the Lunar Gate whenever you're ready. Challenge to a Triple Triad game to get the Ward card. Leave the palace and use the Blizzard draw point before heading left and using the lift. Head to the Airstation and talk to the Presidential Aide there before heading back to the Palace. The room just before where you met Dr. Odine should have a secretary in; talk to him and then check the spot where he was standing to find the Occult Fan IV magazine.

You'll want to head down to the shopping mall in the south-east of town; make sure to buy enough Remedies, so that you have sixty in total. There's also a Tornado draw point here. Head west three screens and south another to find a Quake draw point, and then north twice to find a Curaga draw point. Head west twice from here and talk to the soldier there, before heading back the way you came to the screen just west of the Shopping Mall. Go south and stand on the platform; you can either rent a car, or choose to go on foot. I'd recommend going by foot since you're gonna need to hunt in the local area.

Ignore the Lunar Gate for the moment and instead head to the south-eastern part of the continent, where you'll find Tear's Point. Enter and use the Life draw point before continuing along the path; at the base of the statue you should find the Solomon's Ring, referenced in the Occult Fan magazines, and a Reflect draw point.

Leave Tear's Point, and walk around the world map in that rough area, sticking to the Abadan Plains; we're hunting Malboro's for their tentacles, and they're one of the nastiest creatures in the game, since they cast Bad Breath as its first attack every fight, which basically is Berserk, Confuse, Curse, Darkness, Doom, Poison, Silence, Sleep, Slow and Meltdown, all rolled into one attack. There are two tactics to fighting Malboro's:

1) Junction Squall to Diablos and either Pandemona or Tonberry, equipping the Initiative ability. Junction Quistis to whichever is left and lower her HP into the critical range. Mug the Malboro's for their tentacles with Squall, and then have Quistis cast Degenerator on it, all before it gets the chance to attack. Otherwise, you'll be in a whole world of trouble.

2) Make sure the character with Diablos (preferably Squall) junctioned has Berserk, Blind, Confuse and Sleep junctioned to St-Def-J. Junction Blizzaga to everyone's Elem-Atk-J and have someone with Siren's Treatment ability, preferably your second character, and junction Berserk, Confuse and Sleep to their St-Def-J. Have Quistis as your third character, with health in the critical range. Mug it with Squall, have the second character use Treatment on Quistis, and have her use Degenerator on the Malboro to kill it.

Once you've got seven Malboro Tentacles, use Alexander's Med LV Up to turn the sixty Remedies into six Remedy+, and then open the item menu to use the Solomon's Ring, and you'll get the Doomtrain GF, my favourite in the game! Its attack is basically the same as a Malboro's Bad Breath, and it can learn both Elem-Def-J x4 AND the awesome St-Def-J x4! You'll probably be wanting to use Doomtrain at the beginning of every major fight you can. Note I said to get seven Malboro Tentacles; use the seventh one to teach Quistis Bad Breath.

Now you're done with that, head for the Lunar Gate, which is north from Tear's Point. Follow the attendant who greets you, and Angelo will turn up. During the sequence, you'll be asked if you're sure you want to go into space, pick "I'll do whatever it takes," and then you'll be told that there's only room for three people on the shuttle, and Squall and Rinoa already have their seats booked. Edea doesn't want to go in fear that she'll lose control again, and Zell says he wants to stay and protect the Matron; choose to "Trust Zell," and then you have to select a third person for Squall's party. Bearing in mind that you'll have no fights on the Lunar Base, and that Zell's party is gonna have a fair few, I'd suggest picking the weakest member you've got. After all that, Squall and Rinoa will finally blast off into space in a FMV, leaving you in control of Zell's party.

Leave the Lunar Gate and you'll see a FMV of the Lunatic Pandora approaching Esthar City; head into Esthar City. Inside the city, go to the Shopping Mall and keep trying to get into Cheryl's shop, despite it being closed; eventually you'll get a Rosetta Stone. from there, head west thrice, north once and twice west again; talk to the soldier there and he'll give you the Combat King 004 magazine. Trace your way back to the elevator junction you passed, and head south from it to Dr. Odine's laboratory. Talk to the guard and pick the first option; head inside and ride the elevator you used when you were here with Laguna to get to the control room, where you'll find Dr. Odine. He'll explain that the Lunatic Pandora will pass through three areas of Esthar City where you can board it during certain time periods. You will have a twenty minute clock counting down, in which, the first opening is from 15:00 to 12:00, the second from 10:00 to 05:00, and the third from 03:00 to 00:00. If you don't manage to board the Lunatic Pandora during any of these periods, you'll miss out on a bunch of stuff on board, but it's not the end of the world.

Leave Dr. Odine's lab and the countdown will begin. Head east twice, north, and then up the stairs; wait here for the Lunatic Pandora. When it arrives, you'll have to fight a G-Soldier and an Elite Soldier to get on board, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Inside the Lunatic Pandora, use the Meteor draw point and head up the stairs. Use the Curaga draw point to the left and then get on the blue 02 elevator and follow the path until it splits, taking the left path. Continue along the path until you reach a red 03 elevator; in the bottom-right should be some stairs so take them, and then climb down the ladder. Use the Confuse draw point here and check in the alcove to the right to find a LuvLuv G. Head left from the Confuse draw point to find the three hatches you should have opened when here with Laguna; from right to left they should contain a Power Generator, a Silence draw point, and a Phoenix Pinion. Continue on to the left to find the Combat King 005 magazine. Trace your way back to the red 03 elevator and board it this time. Head left and board the green 01 elevator, using the Holy draw point there. Head up a screen and check the hole you should be able to see to get a Spd-J Scroll, before continuing up the path 'til you come face to face with the Mobile Type 8 robot, which promptly turfs you out of the Lunatic Pandora.

After the FMV sequence, you'll have a short sequence before we switch over to Squall's party...

Howl at the Moon (Lunar Base)

Upon waking up in the Lunar Base, talk to the man in the white coat, Piet, and then go over to check on Rinoa. Follow Piet to the Medical Bay and use the save point there. Leave and head north to the Bridge; examine the panels in the top-right - a scientist will tell you that the Lunar Cry is starting - before talking to Piet; pick the second option to ask where Ellone is. Challenge Piet to a Triple Triad game for the Alexander card, but bear in mind the Random rule is active up here.

Leave the Bridge and head down until you reach some stairs; head up them and go through the door. Talk to the girl here to see a scene of some astronauts tending to the seal on the Sorceress Adel. Continue along the tunnel and then go in the door to the south, where you'll find Ellone. Challenge her to a card game to win the Laguna card and then talk to her; she'll agree to take a look at Rinoa for you, so head towards the Medical Bay and a sequence will cut in. Continue on your way there and you'll see one of the Medical Technicians go flying out of the room, followed by Rinoa. You can try to approach her, but she'll knock you away; follow her to the Bridge and you'll see her deactivate the seals that were locking Adel away. Approach Rinoa once more and she'll stagger off; the other member of your party will rush to the console, go over and check it out to see the monsters on the moon going crazy. Head to the passageway leading to Ellone's room and you'll see an FMV of the Lunar Cry beginning. Enter the room to the north-east, which is a locker room, and check the lockers to find a spacesuit Squall can put on.

Chase after Rinoa into the airlock, but you can't reach her in time. Back in the locker room, leave it to see a sequence where two aide's haul the President away, before continuing on to the bridge. Talk to everyone here, saving Ellone for last; you'll see Rinoa freeing Adel, who gets caught up in the Lunar Cry and is sent down to the planet. Head right and use the elevator; at the bottom use the savepoint, and the hidden Meltdown draw point to the left, before heading right to the escape pods. Talk to Ellone, and she'll agree to insert Squall into Rinoa's memories like she's done before with Laguna's memories. After the sequence ends, Squall gets it in his thick head to leave the escape pod and try to rescue Rinoa.

After drifting through space for a bit, you'll find a dragon-shaped spaceship. After boarding it, check the panel to the left to close the airlock, and then head up for a brief conversation with Rinoa. Head through the door, and you'll see a sequence of a big alien moving about on a lower level. Make sure Rinoa and Squall are fully junctioned up, with Thundaga on Elem-Def-J, as well as Blind and Silence on St-Def-J, before heading down the stairs, where you'll encounter your first Propagator.

Throughout the ship, there are eight Propagators, two of each colour. You must kill the same-coloured Propagators consecutively, or they'll respawn. Also, it's important to note that as soon as a Propagator sees you, it'll chase after you. Avoid contact with it to not get into a fight; you'll need to be able to do this to be able to complete this section.

The Propagator you just killed was purple, so we need to find the next purple one. Take the left door and run through the next room to the door on the left, to avoid the Red Propagator in there. Kill the Purple Propogator in here, and then head back to the right, killing the Red Propagator you just avoided. Use the Cura draw point in the top-left, before going back to the hanger where you fought the first Purple Propogator and climb the stairs to the right to find the other Red Propogator. After killing it, go back down to the first floor, and enter the door in the top-right to find a Green Propagator. Use the save point here and the head south, take the top-left door and then left twice; kill the second Green Propagator here. There should be a door to the left; go through to find a Yellow Propogator and once you've killed it, head to the room where you first entered the spaceship to find the final Propogator.

Now that you've cleared out the ship, head north and use the Life draw point to the left and then return to the room with the save point; there should be a hidden Full-Life draw point in here. head south, take the top-left door and use the Cura draw point here, before heading left twice. Use the elevator to get to the Bridge, where you'll have a long sequence while the Faye Wong song, "Eyes on Me," plays in the background.

Eventually, you'll land back on the planet, and Rinoa is hauled away by Esthar guards since they think she's still being controlled by Ultimecia. Get back on the Ragnarok and head for the room that contained the first Yellow Propogator. There you'll find the rest of the party. Talk to them and they'll convince Squall to go and rescue Rinoa. The controls for the Ragnarok are as follows:

• Up/Down - Ascend/Descend.
• Left/Right - Turn left/right.
• R2 - Changes Point of View (POV).
• Square - Forwards.
• Triangle - Backwards.
• X - Get in/out.
• Circle - Takes you to the Cockpit.
• Select - World Map (Press three times to get to the auto-pilot destination selection screen - just select where you want to go and it'll take you there automatically.)

Set the auto-pilot to go to the Sorceress Memorial Hall and disembark once there. Enter and head up the stairs, using the Stop draw point before talking to the guards. Inside, head left to set Rinoa free, and then make to leave. Outside, a group of Esthar Soldiers will try to stop you from leaving, but a big man will come along and motion the guards to let you go... seems familiar, doesn't he?

Third Disc Extras (Various)

Rinoa will ask you to go to the Orphanage, but now you have the Ragnarok under your control, you can now traverse the entire world, thus meaning you can do even more sidequests. Oh yay. So let's do that first.

Rockin' Out (Obel Lake)

So, let's start with the sidequest that is gonna drive you absolutely insane, since I'm such a lovely chap. Fly to the northern part of the Galbadian continent, and you should find a big lake. Land by it and walk out onto the peninsula, pressing X when you reach the edge. You should get a message giving you two options; pick the second one, "Try humming," and a black shadow will rise to the surface of the water. Try humming again and the shadow will talk to you. Press X and it'll ask you if you can do it a favour, select "What is it?" and it'll ask you to find Mr. Monkey.

Examine the lake again and select "Throw a rock," this time. A dialog box will pop up, telling you how many times the rock skipped along the water. Keep doing it until it says "The rock skipped many many times."

Now head towards Dollet and you'll see a train station nearby; to the far left should be a forest (The area is designated on the map as Dollet-Hasberry Plains). Walk into it and you'll get a prompt, pick "Throw a rock," and you should hit Mr. Monkey; he'll get angry and chuck a rock back at you. Interestingly enough though, the rock that just got thrown at you has some writing on it... "URHAEO." If you sing for Mr. Monkey, he'll tell you that you suck, and if you throw a rock at him that didn't bounce "...many many times,", he'll hurl insults at you, including a funny one about your mother. It's worth doing that just for a laugh.

Report back to the black shadow in Lake Obel, and after talking to him a few times, he should come up with one of the following six lines:

• "At the beach in Balamb something special washes ashore at times"
• "You'll find something on an island of east of Timber, too."
• "There's also something on top of a mountain with a lake and cavern."
• "Take sometime off at Eldbeak Peninsula. I bet its a wonderful place."
• "Take a break at the railroad bridge."
• "Back in the day, south of here, there used to be a small but beautiful village surrounded by deep forests. Everybody lived a happy life there."

All of them refer to little hidden extras. First, we'll continue with the writing rocks part of this quest; there are another three to find, and the clues are the first three quotes.

• Balamb Island (Rinual Shores) - "At the beach in Balamb something special washes ashore at times"

Head to Balamb Island and get off on the shore just south-east of the town. There should be some kind of sand peninsula visible when the tide's out; search there to find a stone reading "STSLRM."

• Timber (Mandy Beach) - "You'll find something on an island of east of Timber, too."

There'll be a raised island in this area; search on it to find a stone reading "REAIDR."

• Galbadia (Monterosa Plateau) - "There's also something on top of a mountain with a lake and cavern."

The cliffs south of where Galbadia Garden used to be should have a waterfall coming out of 'em; land on top of the one that does and search around the area. You'll find a bird warming up an egg; pick the first option, "Check it out," and you'll get into a fight with two Thrustaevis. Dispatch them and you'll get the fourth rock, reading "EASNPD."

Go back to Obel Lake and the black shadow will line up the rocks in a certain order:

Standard Table 2
Location	Letters
Rinaul Shores	S	T	S	L	R	M
Hasberry Plains	U	R	H	A	E	O
Mandy Beach	R	E	A	I	D	R
Monterosa Plateau	E	A	S	N	P	D

If you were to read the letters in the Japanese style, i.e. from top to bottom, starting from the right, you'll get the sentence "MORDRED PLAINS HAS TREASURE."

Fly the Ragnarok over to the Mordred Plains; they're a star-shaped area north of Esthar. Land jutst off to the side of it and walk onto it. Press X and a message will come up saying that there's lots of different coloured rocks here. Press X once more and a blue-faced rock will tell you that the rocks are called the Liar Rocks. There are three different colours that will give you hints as to where the treasure is; black, red and white. Black stones always say the same thing, the white stones spout random directions that won't help, and red stones always tell you to go the opposite way that you should. Walk around the area pressing X, using the red stones as your guide, until you find one that says "The treasure is not here." Since the red stone always tells the exact opposite of the truth, this means that the treasure is there. Press X again and you'll get a Three Stars.

Now for the rest of the hints from the black shadow in Lake Obel:

• Trabia (Eldbeak Peninsula) - "Take some time off at Eldbeak Peninsula. I bet it's a wonderful place."

The Eldbeak Peninsula is located due east from Dollet; search there and you'll another code: TRETIMEASUREATMINOFFDEISLE. The clue that the black shadow gave you was to "Take some TIME OFF..." so remove TIME and OFF from the code to get the sentence, "TREASURE AT MINDE ISLE."

Minde Isle is an island just off the coast of Esthar, south-west from Tear's Point. Search on it to find a Luck-J scroll.

• Galbadia (Various) - "Take a break at the railroad bridge."

This one's simple enough; you can find hidden draw points on the world map on railway bridges.

• Centra - "Back in the day, south of here, there used to be a small but beautiful village surrounded by deep forests. Everybody lived a happy life there."

Just north of the Orphanage should be several forests, forming a rough circle. Search inbetween them to find the ruins of a village.

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The Truth Is Out There (Various)

Now, by this point in the game, you may have had one or two very strange fights in which a UFO has floated off in the distance, carrying some strange object. There are four encounters like this you need to get. The locations are as follows:

• Winhill Bluffs/Lallapalooza Canyon (east from Winhill) [Cow]
• Mandy Beach (south-east from Timber). [Moa Statue]
• Kashkabald Desert (north-west from Cactuar Island) [Pyramid]
• Heath Peninsula (east from Trabia Garden) [Who knows?]

Note that you can get into these fights while you have Diablos' Enc-None activated, which makes life a lot easier. Once you have all four sightings, fly the Ragnarok to the hilltop just north of the Great Grandidi Forest. Walk around and you'll get into a fight with the UFO. Just beat it to death and it'll go kablooey while flying away. You'll also get an Aegis Amulet.

Now, you need to make sure someone in your party has Item in their combat menu, and that you've got five Elixirs; you can buy them from Johnny's shop in Esthar, or make them in the following ways:

Alexander's Med LV Up

• Remedy+ x10 = Elixir x1

Doomtrain's Forbid Med-RF

• Mega Potion x20 = Elixir x1
• Elem Atk x1 = Elixir x4
• Elem Guard x1 = Elixir x4
• Status Atk x1 = Elixir x4
• Status Guard x1 = Elixir x4

Quezacotl's Card-RF

• Angelo x1 = Elixir x100

Once you've done all that, head to Balamb Island and walk around in the crater left behind by Balamb Garden when it escaped the missile attack. Eventually you'll get into a fight with the little fellow who was piloting the UFO, PuPu. You can either fight him, and win an Accelerator, or use five Elixirs on him, and get a PuPu card, which you can refine into a Hungry Cookpot. Personally, I recommend the latter, since the Hungry Cookpot is far better than the Accelerator.

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10,000 Needles o' Pain (Cactuar Island)

First up, make sure you've got 300 water spells so you can junstion them up to your Elem-Atk-J, and that you've got as many Aura spells as you can lay your grubby mitts on, and I'd recommend getting the Lionheart for Squall, since his final limit break will come in handy for the upcoming fight. Once you've got your party prepared, preferably with Zell and Quistis as your other party members, head to the island off the south-east coast of the Centran continent. You'll be able to recognise it by the big green shape you can see move around it every now and then. Land on the island and walk into the big green thingy, to get into a fight...

BOSS: Jumbo Cactuar
DRAW: Meltdown, Demi, Tornado

Holy Christ on a pogo-stick, is this guy big or what? He's over four times as tall as your characters! Start the fight by summoning Cerberus, Draw/Casting Meltdown on the Jumbo Cactuar, and then casting Aura on the entire party. Use Squall's Renzokuken, Zell's Armageddon Fist combo, and Quistis' Aqua Breath to do as much damage as possible.

The Jumbo Cactuar has two moves: Ker Plunk is where it topples over, doing low to medium damage on the whole party; just triple Cura/Curaga on the party to heal up. The more important move that the Jumbo Cactuar does is 10,000 Needles, which is an instant kill attack, seeing that it does 10,000 damage and the max HP is 9,999. When he does this, just use life so they can leap right back to using Limit Breaks; just keep at least one person's HP above 2,000 so that they don't all get wiped out by Ker Plunk.

Finally, I recommend you don't mug the Jumbo Cactuar since the Gaea's Ring is far superior to the Cactuar's Thorn, and you'll be getting plenty of the latter soon.

This fight will drag on for quite a while since at high levels, the Jumbo Cactuar has well over 100,000 HP; the biggest worry though is that after dealing like, 90,000 damage, the Jumbo Cactuar just runs away. You've got to try and put it away as fast as you can, or you'll have to start all over again.

WIN: Gaea's Ring, Cactuar (GF)
MUG: Cactuar's Thorn (x3)

You should now have the Cactuar GF, which has the very valuable HP/Str/Mag/Vit/Spr Bonus abilities, which are key to making your characters as ownage as possible.

It's also useful to note that you can fight normal Cactuars on this island; they give you twenty AP per Cactuar, so this is the ideal place to learn all of your GF abilities.

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The Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell

In the world FFVIII inhabits, there are two islands packed to the rafters with nasty monsters and great draw points, these being the Island Closest to Heaven, and the Island Closest to Hell. Hell is located to the west of the Galbadian Continent, while Heaven is just north-east of the Great Grandidi Forest. I recommend roaming around these islands with Diablos' Enc-None equipped to get the draw points; the spells available include Ultima, Meteor, Flare, Quake, Full-Life, Triple and Aura, and the draw points recharge very quickly. By the time you've raided both islands, the first may well have recharged all of its draw points, so keep hopping between them to max out all your spells.

Once you've done that, you can take off Diablos' Enc-None to get some great levelling done here; make sure you've got all the Bonus abilities equipped that you can make the most of it

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Down Down! Deeper and Down! (Deep Sea Research Center)

Anyway, now for one of the toughest sections of the game; head to Edea's House and head due west from there, and you should find the Deep Sea Research Center sitting out to sea, all by itself. Upon landing on it, if Zell's in your party, he'll tell you what little he knows about this place. Make your party, preferrably Squall, Zell and Quistis, and junction Sleep to two of the character's St-Atk-J, and Blind on the third character; Blizzaga to their Elem-Atk-J, Ultima to their Str stats, Meltdown to their Vit stats, Death to their St-Def-J, and Firaga, Holy, Quake and Thundaga to their Elem-Def-J.

Enter the building and you'll see a bright pillar in the center of the room. When the pillar brightens up, don't move or you'll get into a random fight; move towards the pillar whenever it's in its gloomy stage. When you get close enough, a voice will talk to you; pick the second option, "It's not our will to fight," and you'll get into a battle with a Ruby Dragon. Smack it with a normal attack to put it to sleep and then summon Doomtrain. Draw whatever you need from it and then mug it, before beating it to death. Once more the voice will speak to you; pick the second option, "Never," and you'll get into a fight with yet another Ruby Dragon, but this time it will be a Back Attack, unless you have Cerberus' Alert equipped. I didn't and it started with Breath before I could turn around, and since Breath is a physical attack, the damage was doubled, killing my entire party at once. Just repeat the tactic from last time to dispatch it. The voice will speak one more time; pick the hidden third option, "It's our nature," and the speaker will show itself!

BOSS: Bahamut
DRAW: Flare, Curaga, Full-Life

Start the fight by smacking it with the attack of whoever has Blind junctioned to their St-Atk-J, to blind Bahamut, rendering him nearly useless, and then follow it up by summoning both Cerberus and Doomtrain. Triple Aura onto the party, and if Quistis has learnt it, use Mighty Guard to defend against Bahamut's Mega Flare, or just triple shell onto the party. Pummel Bahamut with Renzokuken and Armageddon Fist, while you have Quistis draw any spells necessary. This shouldn't take too long to finish off. As a note, Squall's Renzokuken looks absolutely awesome in this fight, the way he jumps up onto Bahamut's wings XD

WIN: Hyper Wrist, Bahamut Card, Bahamut (GF)
MUG: Hyper Wrist

Leave the Deep Sea Research Center and board the Ragnarok; press circle to get to the cockpit and talk to you party, before returning back into the Deep Sea Research Center. Heal yourself up at the save point and then descend into the hole where the pillar used to be.

Use the Dispel draw point and then examine the computer terminal; it'll say that the doors in the Deep Sea Research Center need to be opened via steam power, and that to open the final door, ten units of the Reserve Steam Pressure, RSP, need to be used. You start with twenty units of RSP, and there are six floors, including the one you're currently on. Squall will automatically use four units of RSP to open the first door, leaving you sixteen RSP.

There are two different methods to do this section, depending on whether you have Zell in your party or not.

Method A: On each floor, use one RSP to open the door, and on the sixth floor, have Zell try to fiddle with the machine; he'll beat it up, making it so you don't need any RSP to open the final door.

Method B: On the second floor, use two RSP. On the third floor, use the monitor on the left to open up the steam room for four RSP; inside will be an Esuna draw point, and a machine that will recharge seven units of RSP, giving you seventeen now; open the door to the next level with one RSP. On the fourth and fifth floors, use one RSP each, and on the sixth, use four RSP to end up with just ten RSP left.

Note that Enc-None and Enc-Half do not work in here, and you can't run from any of the random battles you may find yourself in. After you reach the bottom of the tower, and enter the excavation level, you'll end up having at least one fixed battle against certain enemies per screen.

On the first screen, you'll have to fight a Tri-Face; using the same junction setup from the Bahamut fight, Blind it and put it to sleep, before mugging it for the valuable Curse Spikes. You'll need 100 of them to refine into a Dark Matter via Siren's Tool-RF, which enables Quistis to learn Shockwave Pulsar, her ultimate Limit Break. Note, Siren has to be at level 100 to be able to perform this refination.

On the second screen, you'll have to fight a Grendel and an Imp; just beat them to death as quickly as possible. The imp will counter with Holy when it's defeated, which should heal you if you've followed my junctioning advice =D?

On the third screen, you'll fight a Behemoth. Switch your Blind St-Atk-J for another Sleep, and then put both of these big boys to sleep. Mug them for Barriers to teach Quistis Mighty Guard if she doesn't already know it; you'll want another fifty Barriers to refine into an Aegis Amulet via Eden's GFAbl Med-RF, but it's not absolutely necessary, so you can skip that if you want. Make sure to use the Triple draw point before proceeding.

On the fourth screen, you'll fight a Ruby Dragon. As before, just smack it to sleep and then summon Doomtrain, before resuming beating up on it. Now that all of your party has Sleep to their St-Atk-J, you can just pummel away quite happily on it.

On the fifth screen, you'll fight a pair of Iron Giants. For this battle, you'll want to put Thundaga as your Elem-Atk-J, and then stick with the Ruby Dragon tactic; hit them to sleep and then summon Doomtrain, before resuming just beating up on them. You can mug them for Star Fragments which are fairly useful. There should be an Ultima draw point hidden at the foot of the stairs.

Before using the final steam machine, use Siren's Move-Find ability and heal/save at the save point you'll uncover, and then sort out your junctions: Ultima to Str, Meltdown to Vit, Triple to Spd, Quake to Elem-Def-J. The Revive and Recover command abilities will be invaluable of this fight, and you may well have to resort to using items to keep people alive, so leave Draw on only one person. When you're ready, use the final steam machine and a huge monster will rise from the water...

BOSS: Ultima Weapon
DRAW: Regen, Dispel, Ultima, Eden

Oh boy is this fight tough, the second hardest in the game. Ultima Weapon has five basic moves it'll use throughout the fight: It's basic physical attack will do around 1,500 to 2,500 damage, depending on your vit; Quake will heal you because of having it junctioned to your Elem-Def-J, which will be a great help; Meteor is annoying, but there isn't much you can do about it, except Triple Shell on your party; Gravija hits the entire party and will regularly knock off 3,000 to 5,000 HP; Light Pillar can easily kill everyone in your party if your Vit is under 200 since it'll do 9,999 damage.

The key to winning this fight is to spam Squall's Renzokuken and Zell's Armageddon Fist, while keeping Quistis back to heal and cast Mighty Guard. Start by casting Aura on Quistis and have her use Mighty Guard, and then draw Eden from Ultima Weapon, before casting Meltdown on it. Keep Quistis at full health at all times and be ready to use items like Phoenix Pinions to resurrect Squall and Zell after they get killed by Light Pillar. I recommend not wasting Aura's on them, instead letting Ultima Weapon get their health into critical range for your limits. Quistis' Mighty Guard should give the party a regen status that will keep Squall and Zell alive through Meteor, seeing how it takes so long to finish casting, and they can't die in the middle of it, BUT the regen is still active throughout.

This is a fight unlike any you've had in the game so far; Ultima Weapon attacks far faster than any other boss that's come before, so don't be surprised if you get killed a fair few times trying to do this. Just don't give up and you'll beat it in the end.

WIN: Ultima Stone (x100), Eden Card, Eden (GF)
MUG: Three Stars

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Bad to the Bone (Dollet)

Entering Dollet via the rear path, head south, west, and then north. You'll see the dog you saved during the SeeD Examination Test at the beginning of the game, and a boy next to a door. Talk to the boy and then follow him inside. After the short scene, look at the painting, and Squall will recognise it as somewhere he's been before. Leave the house and head to the fountain, three screens north, and check the dog over to the right to get an X-Potion. Go back to the painter's house and there'll be another scene. Check the painting again and it'll be a different scene; leave the house and head north; check the dog to get a Mega-Potion. Back to the painters once again and after the scene, check the painting for the final scene. Leave the house and check the dog to get an Elixir.

As a note, you can do this quest on both the first and second discs as well, but the items you'll get aren't as good, so I saved it 'til now.

Reopening the Box (Lunatic Pandora)

Since we're done with the sidequests for this disc, let's head to the Orphanage like Rinoa initially requested. Upon entering, one of two things will happen, depending on whether Rinoa's in your party or not. If she isn't, Angelo will turn up, and promptly run off; follow the dog and you'll find yourself in a field full of flowers, followed by Rinoa walking in. If she is in your party, walk through the Orphanage 'til you find Edea; talk to her and when you leave, you'll see Angelo run off.

Either way, Squall and Rinoa will have a short conversation before Zell butts in, saying some guy has been in contact, and that the President of Esthar wishes to meet with the party.

Take the Ragnarok and land on the platform sticking up out of the city to land at the Esthar Airstation, on the west side of the city. Note that the city is now populated with monsters, including Iron Giants, Toramas and Behemoths. Head east twice to find a guy dressed all in black; if you talk to him, you'll get into a fight with an Elnoyle, which you can steal Energy Crystals from. If you need to stock up on them, simply talk to the guy, kill the Elnoyle, leave the screen and come back on to repeat the process until you've got all you need. Once you've done that, head to the Presidential Palace.

Use the elevator and then head left until you reach the President's room. Enter and... what the hell? Freaking Laguna is the president!? How the hell did that happen? Talk to him and pick the "What are you doing here?" option to find out what happened after he rescued Ellone from Dr. Odine's Laboratory. Speaking of Ellone, where is she? Ask Laguna and he'll launch into the plan to defeat Ultimecia. Once he's finished talking, you'll find yourself on the Ragnarok; when everyone's left the room, go to the hangar and save the game, before returning and challenging Laguna to a Triple Triad game, to win the Squall card. Also, talk to Kiros and Ward, they have a few interesting comments. Now that Laguna is on board the Ragnarok, head to the Shumi Village. You'll find that they've finished the statue!

Now it's time to get to business; head to Tear's Point, and you'll find the Lunatic Pandora floating above it. Fly the Ragnarok into it to get a FMV and then talk to whoever's flying the Ragnarok (Selphie normally, unless she's in you party, in which case it's Quistis,) and choose the first option. Junction Blind to St-Def-J, Sleep to your St-Atk-J, Thundaga and Tornado to your Elem-Def-J and Bio to your Elem-Atk-J, before leaving the Ragnarok via the hull (the north-west end of the first floor.) You'll find Fujin and Raijin waiting for you just inside the Lunatic Pandora.

Once they're defeated, go to the next screen and head up, then left; talk to Biggs and Wedge, before using the save point and then going to the next screen. You should recognise where you are now, this being the third time that you've been through here, so head for the screen just before the one where you got thrown out when you were here with Zell. Junction Thundaga to your Elem-Atk-J and then continue along the path to get revenge on the sentry robot.

Go back to the save point you passed and heal up, and then junction Bio to Elem-Atk-J, Firaga to Elem-Def-J and Blind to St-Atk-J, before continuing past where you fought the Mobile Type 8.

If Rinoa is in your party, Seifer will snatch her and run away, or if she wasn't, then another member of your party will run on screen and say that she's snatched. And so ends the third disc...

Disc Two - Liberation :|: Disc Four - Time-Compression