Fresh out of the Fire Cavern with Ifrit. What abilities should I teach my GF's in the beginning?

[GASPIPE]

So I just started a new file on Final Fantasy VIII and I have some questions, if I may.

I have the three starting GF's. Quezocotl, Shiva, and Ifrit. I don't know exactly which abilities I should teach them though.

Quezacotl just learned the first tier of Refine T-Magic, and is now learning Boost. Though I'm apprehensive to teach him that over the Card ability.

For the three GF's in general, or any for that matter. What abilities should I teach them immediately? Everyone's opinions are greatly accepted. Keep in mind though, I am not level grinding. I'm trying to stay at the lowest level possible - as I'm aware enemies level with me. So in a way, I feel like I need to learn certain abilities for my GF's very sparingly. I have not taken the SeeD exam at Dollet yet, but am currently on my way to change into my uniform and assemble in the lobby. Should I hold off on this and head back into the field to gain AP on the beach just South of the garden?

The abilities I feel like I need are definitely the Card ability, as I know I can refine cards into magic if I'm not mistaken? Now once I have the Card ability, can I immediately turn enemies into cards and then refine? Or is that a whole other ability? Also.. Quezocotl is the only GF that can learn the Card ability, correct?

[Rowan]

The abilities I feel like I need are definitely the Card ability, as I know I can refine cards into magic if I'm not mistaken? Now once I have the Card ability, can I immediately turn enemies into cards and then refine? Or is that a whole other ability? Also.. Quezocotl is the only GF that can learn the Card ability, correct?

Correct. Do you want to have an incredibly powerful party that can 1 hit any boss? Then play the way of the card modder. No doubt you know that enemies level up as you do (they scale to your level) so levelling up in ff8 is actually detrimental to your overall parties power over enemies. This is why bosses do not give EXP after battles, but lots of AP. By card modding enemies you will be able to finish the battle without gaining EXP but still gain AP, which is required to learn abilities, of course. You will want to learn for all other GF's their refine skills as this will be the means to create magic from items you mod from cards. I would say give priority to this and then learn the stat-J's. Strength, Hp, Vit, Spirit, Mag (not that necassary). And dont forget to check bosses with the 'draw' command to see if they have a GF, just a help tip for you whilst playing the game.

If you have anymore questions, post here ill be glad to help you out.

[Michael Swayne]

I really like the Boost ability. It gives me something to do while the GF sequence is happening. And if you're like me, you use GFs a lot. Not only does it give you less actual battling to do, but it also raises your compatibility with the GFs.

And since Boost is only 10 AP, it is something you can learn quickly and then move onto Card (which is 40 AP, I believe). I would learn Card when I played, but I rarely used it. All I know about it is that it is best used when enemies are weaker. Kinda like Pokemon.

But I like the abilities that refine items to make magic, as well as the ones that increase the HP and power of the GFs. Since GFs HP become your HP during the summoning process, sometimes a high HP is necessary when your compatibility is low with a certain GF. Since your character can't do anything but stand there while summoning, having the GF take damage for you is great.

[GASPIPE]

Correct. Do you want to have an incredibly powerful party that can 1 hit any boss? Then play the way of the card modder. No doubt you know that enemies level up as you do (they scale to your level) so levelling up in ff8 is actually detrimental to your overall parties power over enemies. This is why bosses do not give EXP after battles, but lots of AP. By card modding enemies you will be able to finish the battle without gaining EXP but still gain AP, which is required to learn abilities, of course. You will want to learn for all other GF's their refine skills as this will be the means to create magic from items you mod from cards. I would say give priority to this and then learn the stat-J's. Strength, Hp, Vit, Spirit, Mag (not that necassary). And dont forget to check bosses with the 'draw' command to see if they have a GF, just a help tip for you whilst playing the game.

If you have anymore questions, post here ill be glad to help you out.

Very good! Your advice is what I've been looking for. As I said though, I haven't started the SeeD mission at Dollet yet. Should I start the exam? Or should I head out and battle enemies around the garden for AP to gain the Card/Card Mod abilities before the SeeD exam at Dollet? Understandably, I know if I do go around the garden to battle enemies to gain the AP, since I don't have the Card/Card Mod abilities - I will of course, gain EXP. Which I know will be bad.

Squall is already level 8-9 for me, since I've been using Draw like crazy before I entered the Fire Cavern. Stocked up on Cure, Scan, Sleep, Blizzard, and Fire. So I just don't want to gain unnecessary levels, as I'm sure you understand. At the same time, I need the AP to gain these abilities.

So just to be 100% clear, kind sir. The order of abilities are:

1) Card (Quezocotl Only)
2) Card Mod (Quezocotl Only)
---
1) Refine Mag (On only available GF's)
2) Refine Mag Tier-2 (On only available GF's - If I'm not correct there are two tiers to the Refine Mag?)
3) Stat-J's (On only available GF's)

Thank you for letting me pick your brain by the way kind sir. Much appreciated on many levels.

[Rowan]

No problem, sir. You can do well by unlocking the strength junction on a gf with squall and junctioning fire to it. That will make you strong enough to get through the dollet mission as you dont really need to junction a great deal to be able to finish up the enemies you find there. I usually just go through dollet and take out the forced enemy battles (you cant run or card mod so exp is gained for sure) and get the ap from bosses. By the time I return, I have card mod ready. Although there is a special reward from defeating the aTMX-34014 or as I like to call it, 'Metal Spider Thing'. If you fight it enough times, you can actually destroy it and gain over 100AP (im sure) and some special items. In order to do so though you are going to need some dangerous magic junctioned to your strength stat in order to be able to do enough damage to kill it multiple times within the time limit. I reccomend giving this a shot since you really only get one chance at it. So continue battling enemies around garden until you get the card mod ability. Then begin modding everything so that you can get access to the refine abilities and more stat-junction abilities via AP recieved from battles. Once you have learned the refinement abilities, then start battling people in garden for their cards. Some people to take note of are the following:

The kid who runs from right to left in the area with the access panel/ or stairs to the lift. He has a 'minimog' card which will be useful when battling other people as it has a high number. The quistis groupies who are at the back of the cafeteria (they sit next to each other) There is a white guy and a black guy. From memory, the black guy has the Quistis card. Her card is incredibly powerful as its a player card, and definitly one you will keep until end game as it will help you win. The idea is to get powerful cards and keep using those to win games. Once you have won these powerful cards, your next mission will be to go the town of balamb and challenge Zells Mother, or 'mother dincht'. She has Zells card (best in game, in my opinion) and a variety of powerful cards that mod into useful items. But the reason we play here is not just for zells card, but the rule of "all" can be also applied to all furthar games. To unlcok this rule, challenge the queen of cards to a game (shes the hippie looking person where the trainstop/item shop is. Challenge her and if the rule says "all" then play the game and win. Then the All rule will have spread. If it doesnt say "all" then dont choose to battle her and then try again. The 'all' rule is so important when farming cards as it allows you to keep all cards instead of 1. But if you lose, you will lose all cards in your hand. but with powerful cards such as minimog, quistis, zell and ifrit, I doubt you will be losing even if you tried.

Once you have a great collection, mod every card that you dont use and leave only the cards that you do. You will have an abundance of items now that can be refined into various magicks. From memory, its possible to have Firaga, Blizzaga, Tornado (if you junction that to attack, WOOOOBUDDDDDY), quake and others. Such powerful magic with low level characters = 1 hit death for bosses.

On a side note:
Modding cards also makes it possible for you to create new and stronger weapons for characters without needing the Magazines for them. As long as you have the parts and cash, the weapons will appear in the weapon shop. All weapons can be made from the start of the game with the exception of a weapon for irvine that requires a moon stone .. there may be another weapon as well.

[GASPIPE]

No problem, sir. You can do well by unlocking the strength junction on a gf with squall and junctioning fire to it. That will make you strong enough to get through the dollet mission as you dont really need to junction a great deal to be able to finish up the enemies you find there. I usually just go through dollet and take out the forced enemy battles (you cant run or card mod so exp is gained for sure) and get the ap from bosses. By the time I return, I have card mod ready. Although there is a special reward from defeating the aTMX-34014 or as I like to call it, 'Metal Spider Thing'. If you fight it enough times, you can actually destroy it and gain over 100AP (im sure) and some special items. In order to do so though you are going to need some dangerous magic junctioned to your strength stat in order to be able to do enough damage to kill it multiple times within the time limit. I reccomend giving this a shot since you really only get one chance at it. So continue battling enemies around garden until you get the card mod ability. Then begin modding everything so that you can get access to the refine abilities and more stat-junction abilities via AP recieved from battles.

So just to be sure. I should do the Dollet SeeD exam first, and then go around the garden to farm AP for other abilities? Or do I go around farming AP around the garden until the Card/Card Mod ability is gained - then start the Dollet SeeD exam? I'm sure if I start the Dollet battle and fight the 'Metal Spider Thing' (lol) - that I will gain plenty of AP to acquire both Card and Card Mod abilities. Regardless of which way I take it though, I'm going to be gaining EXP during the Dollet mission, correct?

As for the card battles itself. I'm going to hope I'm right on this and say that I do this after the Dollet mission?

I want to be sure that I'm doing things in a certain order so I don't confuse myself later on. Lol. So my apologies if I'm absorbing a lot as an information sponge.

[Rowan]

If you want to actually destroy the spider machine, you will have to do it prior and get access to powerful magic before you attempt the dollet mission. You can still 1 shot bosses even if your characters get to level 20. If you are farming for 'card' then you will only get to level 11.

go for it! Also headmaster cid has Siefers card, but its only obtainable after the dollet mission.

[GASPIPE]

If you want to actually destroy the spider machine, you will have to do it prior and get access to powerful magic before you attempt the dollet mission. You can still 1 shot bosses even if your characters get to level 20. If you are farming for 'card' then you will only get to level 11.

go for it! Also headmaster cid has Siefers card, but its only obtainable after the dollet mission.

Very well then! I will start farming before I begin the Dollet mission. I definitely want to one-shot some bosses. Lol! Thank you again sir, for your help in this matter.

All are still welcome to post their own opinions on abilities. I'm definitely trying this one though!

[cetra_aeris]

Another note for you to remember, Shiva has the magic refine for Water and Ice magick. If you want to make your characters as strong as possible early in the game, go farming for the fish creatures on the shore of Balamb. Their cards work as well, once you have the card mod ability but the "fish fin" item you get allows your characters to get Water. When you equip water in the Str-J it is by far the strongest early on for raising strength. Once you Have Siren after the Dollet Misson, Teach her Life magic refine, and then you can use Tents to get Curegas for you to equip to HP-J.

I just started playing again myself the other day. I always teach my GF's boost first, Then learn Card and Card mod and teach them all their magic refining. Then I go for the status enhancing junctions. If you want some quick AP you can train with the T-rexars in the training center and woods near the Fire Cavern. They give quite a bit of AP, but they're difficult to defeat. As long as you watch your health though and have Sleep or Blind you're usually good.

Once you've got the magic refine abilities though you may want to take some time to let the GF's learn the GF HP and Summon power up abilities too. Definitly makes things easier.

[Sheechiibii]

Another note for you to remember, Shiva has the magic refine for Water and Ice magick. If you want to make your characters as strong as possible early in the game, go farming for the fish creatures on the shore of Balamb. Their cards work as well, once you have the card mod ability but the "fish fin" item you get allows your characters to get Water. When you equip water in the Str-J it is by far the strongest early on for raising strength. Once you Have Siren after the Dollet Misson, Teach her Life magic refine, and then you can use Tents to get Curegas for you to equip to HP-J.

Actually the strongest for strength that early on is Tornado, which is pretty near the strongest for the whole game (I think it's second only to Ultima). You get it from refining the Abyss Worm card which you get from the gatekeeper in Balamb Garden.

I would learn card mod first. Once I have the card ability I only defeat monsters using that since it nets you AP but not EXP.

[cetra_aeris]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Tornado. I remember using that now, but I didn't figure it out until after I'd played through a couple times how to get it early. X3 I just started another play through after forever, but there's so much I've forgotten and my guide seems to have ran away. <<;