a few things..

[seanb]

So, I'm pretty far in the game now, and I think its great. really pleased. I hadn't played it until this year because I just never got round to it before.

So I wanna ask what you think of the card game? tetra master, I think its called. I like it. I'm not 100% sure about what all those letters mean on the cards, but I kinda have a good sense of whats good.... and maybe I'm just lucky but I've won most of the time.

Music is great too... a lot of the synth sounds seem to have been re-used in ffx which is kinda nice.

and oh yea, do you find the synth ability for weapons useful? Ive done it a couple of times but not alot...

also... is there any reward for successfully delivering all the letters to all the moogles or what?

[loaf]

Why don't you deliver the mail for them and find out.

Synth is for items you can't really find.

Tetra Master was more of just a card game and that was it. I honestly forgot what the numbers and letters represent but I know how the arrows work. Unlike Triple Triad (which I never got into) it's more then just doing it to play cards.

I honestly love Tetra Master, if I was playing FFXI a lot, I'd probably even pay the 1$ a month for Tetra Master.

[Shine Dalgarno]

Its been awhile but I think you need to synth the Angel Bless and equiping that gives Zidane his strongest trance. There may be some various other pieces of equipment you can only get by synthing.

I actually never fully understood the Tetra master letters/numbers either. I do know one is for attack, another defense...

[Xithor]

The one thing that I remember is that when you go to Terra there is an dagger that can only be bought there that synths into a very powerful weapon for Zidane. I wanna say the Zorlin Shape but don't quote me.

I really liked the card game, tried to get all the cards but its hard to part with some bc you can only carry 100.

There is a prize for helping the moogles but I can't remember it at the moment. It's a great game though. My favorite.

[Lily]

So, I'm pretty far in the game now, and I think its great. really pleased. I hadn't played it until this year because I just never got round to it before.

So I wanna ask what you think of the card game? tetra master, I think its called. I like it. I'm not 100% sure about what all those letters mean on the cards, but I kinda have a good sense of whats good.... and maybe I'm just lucky but I've won most of the time.

No, there was never really incentive for me to play it. I was addicted to Triple Triad, and thought Id love IXs card game, but it never really did anything for me. I did work out how to play it eventually, but even then i only really play it when I have to for that tournament

Music is great too... a lot of the synth sounds seem to have been re-used in ffx which is kinda nice.

Definate4ly one of my favourite OSTs. Id say I was a sad bastard for having some onmy ipod, but we're members of an FF forum, and you cabn't get much sadder than that, so at least Im in fine company

and oh yea, do you find the synth ability for weapons useful? Ive done it a couple of times but not alot...

Yeah, but I tend to end up hoarding weapons, just in case. I should know by now what I can and cant get rid of.

also... is there any reward for successfully delivering all the letters to all the moogles or what?

Yes. That warm and fuzzy feeling you get inside <3 The actual reward you get once youre done is utter bollocks, im sure its summat pants like a life ring, which chances are you will already have one. But I still do it everytime, just coz the moogles are mint

Also, Artemicion is the mutts nuts

[loaf]

SPOILER!!:

Artemicion is an addict.

[Mindu]

I didn't ever get into Tetra Master. I tried it out a few times, but never got my head around the rules and only played it when I had to that time in Treno. I thought Triple Triad was a lot more addictive.

[Red Mage]

I use to love Triple Triad until i lost my rarest cards.

[Nidogod]

This is my favorite Final Fantasy, mostly due to how it's sort of a throw back to the older games with the settings, character designs, and even a hefty amount of easter eggs.

You should get used to synthing, it's how you obtain some of the best equipment throughout the game.

Just to jog everyone's memories, fixing Mognet by delivering the letters throughout the game and then delivering the special ones (to Moogles in unmarked locations and one of them even in a different spot than he was the last time you ran into him!) earns you a protect ring. It's not bad, but you only need one and it's also found in a Dead Pepper spot. Other than that you can only get them from synthing dark matter at Hades or answering all the Ragtime Mouse's riddles correctly I believe, so it's pretty rare.

I personally found Tetra Master to be the #1 worst thing about FFIX. It's a great premise with card collecting and battling, but it works that the cards attacks and defenses are randomized by 50% when they battle, so they pretty much don't mean anything. The system was so badly screwed up that the deepest strategy you can use is "lay a card down and hope for the best, and make sure you saved beforehand."

[Lily]

Just to jog everyone's memories, fixing Mognet by delivering the letters throughout the game and then delivering the special ones (to Moogles in unmarked locations and one of them even in a different spot than he was the last time you ran into him!)

The second time I had to deliver mail to Atla had me tearing my hair out. I couldn't for the life of me remember where that furry little football was, and since I cant be doing with towns that have random encounters within them, Burmecia was like the last place I checked... urgh. It took forever...

There's that little shite that's lurking in Qu's marsh as well.... though I have to admit, Atla had me baffled for a few days <_<

That was up there in annoyance levels (and come second playthrough, I wrote down the location of every sodding moogle in the whole game which I still have haha) of chocographing. Well, specifically the Ocean Chocograph. I wanted to kill myself with my control pad wire.

Actually, Im glad they weren't wireless back in the days of my first run of IX. There would have been control pad shaped holes everywhere.

[Cry For Garnet]

1) Tetra Master card explanations

There are 3 numbers and a letter on any tetra master card, a number, followed by a letter, followed by two numbers.

The first number is the strength of that card's attack, for example, if a card has a strength of 3, the amount of damage it can do to an opposing card is between 48 and 63 (if i remember correctly).

The letter is the type of that card's attack, if the letter is a P, then it is a physical attack, meaning this card will attack the opposition card's physical defense, if the letter is an M, it is a magical attack and will attack a card's magical defense, if the letter is an X, this is a 'weakness' attack, in this case your card will attack the weakest value of the opposition card's two defences, if the letter is an A (This is complicated) then your card will attack using the highest value of its three stats (attack power, physical defence and magical defence) and will attack the lowest of the opposition card's three stats.

This has probably already been explained, but the first number after the letter is your card's physical defence, this is how well it defends against physical attacks.

The third and last number is the card's magical defence, this is how well it defends against magical attacks.

2) Benefits of Synthesising

Sythesising your items is very useful and absolutely essential if you want to get the best items and a completionist playthrough. Synthesising is perhaps not as helpful in the earlier parts of the game, but what it does allow is for the player to obtain items, particularly weapons, way before they become available in weapon shops, this is particularly handy for Zidane's weapons because you get his Dyne abilities that much earlier. In the later parts of the game, there are only certain items that can be obtained through synthesis, and more specifically Hades' synthesis shop, such as Steiners Tin Armour and the Pumice, which allows Garnet to summon Ark (Who is fu**ing awesome) and this is really where synthesis comes into its own.

3) The moogle delivery system

This isn't really something that is all that worthwhile because the rewards are not that great, you don't get any unique items apart from the aloha shirt for it and it can be very time consuming.

Essentially, when a moogle asks you to deliver a letter and you do so successfully, the recipient of the letter (another moogle) gives you a Kupo Nut (which I imagine as being a cashew nut). Which you can then take to the moogle couple in Gizamaluke's grotto in exchange for a pretty poulty reward, this can be done as many times as you have Kupo nuts but you only get decent rewards for it 3 or four times, after that you usually get a tent or a phoenix pinion. The only reason this side quest should be done is so that you can get the aloha shirt if you are looking for 100% completion of the game. 9500 gil is not that much by the time you get it.