With Galbadia having been driven from the town of Balamb, Selphie will ask if we can visit her former Garden, Trabia, to view the state of it after the Galbadian missile strike. Trabia Garden is located on the snowy plains just to the northeast of the Balamb island. Before we set sail, there are a few new tidbits back in the newly-liberated Balamb Town.
The owner of the Hotel, standing outside, will play cards with you now that his wife isn't nagging him about it.
He holds the Pandemona GF card for you to win in his deck.
Speaking of card playing, there is an inconspicuous guy crouching near the edge of the harbor. He doesn't have any rare, but if you play cards with him, all of the rules you may have picked up and can spread, will be abolished; save trade rules. It also resets whatever rules may have been spread through Balamb Town and/or Garden. Why? I have no idea, but is very useful.
Remember the Galbadia Soldier who dropped his Gil in the ocean? If you use the Cure draw point now, Squall will obtain small increments of Gil each time. You have to wait until it recharges to receive more, and, as far as I know, it never runs out of Gil. If you have Selphie in your party, if you talk with the guy standing nearby, you will get a small scene involving the two. With Zell, on the previous harbor screen, if you search around the barrels in the lower-right corner, you will find the Big Bad Rascal and can view another scene. We are now ready to leave for Trabia Garden.
The Trabia continent is massive and it can be easy to get lost; thankfully they have already marked its Garden on your world map. On the lightly-covered snow plains you will frequently encounter the Mesmerize monster. You can steal Mesmerize Blades for them. With these, if you haven't Card Modded for one yet, you can create Squall's Cutting Trigger and Rinoa's second-best weapon, the Cardinal now. Mesmerize Blades can be refined into Mega-Potions and Regen magic, as well. Mega-Potions are fairly rare at this point, but we will be able to purchase them, eventually.
On the snowy tundra and forests, Bite Bugs have made another return. Now that they're (More than likely) well-over level 30, you can steal Wizard Stones from them; although you probably have gotten many of these through drops from other enemies by now. Still, this is your best source for them and they refine into all kinds of high-level magic like Firaga, Curaga, Dispel, ect.
The tundra, as well as mountains, are home to Gayla monsters. You can mug them for another Quistis blue magic item, the Mystery Fluid. This will teach her the limit break, Acid. Level 30+ Gaylas will also have the excellent Meltdown to draw; which you can refine from Mystery Fluids, alternately. Quistis' Acid blue magic causes damage and a variety of status effects which depend on how close her HP is to 0. Meltdown, as stated in a previous chapter, is the best spell you can junction to your character's Vitality.
Into the forests, let's look for the huge Snow Lion enemy. Before facing off with them, I highly suggest junctioning Firaga to all three character's elemental attack. Snow Lions have a ridiculous amount of HP, but otherwise, not too threatening. They can have Healing Mails stolen from them. Healing Mails are not of much use, teaching a GF the GFHP+10% ability, and refining options are mediocre at best, but this is the best place to obtain them for your inventory.
Snow Lions, almost always, will drop the North Wind item. North Winds are another GF compatibility item, for Shiva, but I would refrain from using them since like others of its type, it will lower other Guardian Force compatibility. You can use it to refine Blizzaga magic, also.
Unfortunately, the Snow Lion has a very rare drop that we will, eventually, need to farm to create another rare item, but we lack the ability to do so, at the moment. For now, try to win at least one Silver Mail from them and we will return to this when we have the necessary GF ability to refine. Silver Mails teach the SumMag+20% ability.
Lastly, in the forests, the Blue Dragon is a rare encounter. We need to pilfer Fury Fragments from them. You can use this to refine to useful Aura magic and Aura Stones, but mostly, you need this item to create weapons for Zell. With it, you can now create Zell's Gauntlet, or if you have enough items, skip right over it to Zell's best weapon, Ehrgeiz.
Blue Dragons will, thankfully, commonly drop Dragon Fangs that you probably have a few of already. Four of these are needed to create Squall's best weapon, and we'll need a great deal to refine into another rare item, like the Silver Mail, but we'll return to this later on when we have the ability. With the Trabia area's items out of the way, let's take a look at the hidden draw points.
From Balamb island, as soon as you sail up onto the shore of the continent, just to the east, in a carved-out part of the mountain, is a valuable Flare draw point.
To the southwest of the Flare draw point, in an alcove of the snow-covered mountains, you can find a Confuse draw point.
From Trabia Garden, wrap yourself along the mountain range to the northeast, where at the very end of the range, you can draw Dispel.
At the extreme tip of the continent, to the northeast, you can find a hidden Slow draw point.
From the Slow draw point, make your way southeast along the continent to an edge, past a shoreline, containing the Quake draw point. That's it for this section of the continent, we are ready to enter Trabia Garden to continue the story.
The Trabia Garden has been utterly devastated by the missile attack...Selphie will run in and scale the fencing to get inside. Follow her and in the square she will be speaking with a former friend. Remember her: we'll be needing to play cards with her soon.
Search near the very bottom of this screen to find a hidden Weapons Monthly August magazine, then take the path to the right.
You'll find Selphie here, sharing to her passed-away friends the experience she had with her dream of performing with a band. There is a hidden Zombie draw point amongst the tombstones, as well.
Leave, then reenter the cemetery, and you can access the area where Selphie was. You can barely catch a vague glimpse of a Timber Maniacs magazine on the ground. Return to the square, followed by the path to the left-side. The sleeping guy here mentions battling a Tonberry King GF...You can then take the path to the right for a save point and can inspect the terminal to bring up a brief look at Selphie's school records. Back on the previous screen, you will see another scene with Selphie and some more old friends.
The path to the left contains a Galbadian missile that landed in the Garden's stage. Search it for a hidden Aura draw point, then take exit to the left out onto the basketball court where your party will gather. Talk with them, and try to leave the screen and Selphie will arrive. Watch the scenes as a rather large plot twist is revealed by Irvine.
Irvine, Selphie, Quistis, and Zell all belonged to the same orphanage as children, but only Irvine seems to be able to remember. Once the shade of Squall enters the room, you can visit the various rooms and speak with another child inside, but ultimately, need to follow the children down to the beach where they will be setting off fireworks.
It will be revealed that Squall (In his best Charlie Brown shirt), Ellone, and Seifer were all there too, but when Ellone was taken away, Squall became detached from the others and would only rely on himself.
You'll need to talk with a contemplative Quisits, then Irvine will speculate that use of the Guardian Force is the reason why nobody but him can remember their childhood. If you recall, when you got your SeeD exam scores, a faculty member there told Squall not to pay attention to the rumors that Guardian Force use caused you to become forgetful.
There is, yet another, twist in the plot as the party will remember that Sorceress Edea was, in fact, their Matron, at the orphanage.
It will begin to snow and the party resolves, despite Matron being the Sorceress, that they must face her in battle. Rinoa will feel like she is different from the others, but Squall will encourage her to fight alongside them and it will be determined that the party should look for Edea's house. You will be taken out to the world map to begin the search.
Return to Trabia Garden, but make sure you save first. Selphie's friend in the Garden square has Selphie's card to win, but be careful, some nasty rules are in effect here: including Random. Thankfully, this is the only person you need to play, but once you do, be wary not to accept anybody's request to play by Trabia's rules when in other towns. It's recommended you return to the guy at the Balamb Town harbor and cleanse yourself of having picked the rules up. Now, we're ready to begin some side-quests instead of continuing on in the story.
Since we'll be returning to the Galbadian continent, you can find a newly-hidden Confuse draw point at the ruins of what use to be the Galbadian Missile Base on the world map.
Also, where the Galbadia Garden once sat, there is a Dispel draw point in the center of the platform.
We're looking for the small village of Winhill, which you'll remember (Unless you junctioned a GF recently), we visited as Laguna at the very beginning of the disc. Winhill is fairly-easy to find at the southeastern end of the continent.
There are several new items for us to collect from enemies in the Windhill area. First, you'll frequently encounter a group of hands: Lefty and Righty. Life Rings can be stolen from Lefty. You will need one of these to create Selphie's next weapon, alternately, these can be used to refine to a large amount of Life magic.
The Righty can be pilfered for a Rune Armlet. These can teach a GF the Spr+20% ability and refine into Shell magic as well as Shell Stones.
In the mountain areas, you'll encounter Lefty and Righty's papa, Vysage. This trio is very dangerous and it's recommended that you summon Siren to silence the lot of them. Vysage holds Lightweights to steal; a rather useless item other than to create Haste magic. Just to note, since you have Pandemona now and can junction to your Speed stat, Haste is the best spell you can junction to it, for the moment. Vysage can randomly be found, by himself, on the grassy plains of the area, too.
Before we go inside Winhill, in the mountains to the west, there is a hidden Life draw point. Also, to complete a side-quest, we're going to need Irvine in our party.
A whole lot of nothing is happening inside of Winhill; not even a Timber Maniacs magazine at the inn. The two previously-hidden draw points, Curaga and Reflect, remain empty from Laguna's time. Head for the large mansion at the northern-end of town and talk with the owner on the stairs. His precious vase has been smashed, and he requests you search for the pieces of it.
Only if Irvine is in your party, you can search the set of armor inside the mansion. A chicobo will have been hiding within and leave behind a Vase Piece for Squall to find after the scene.
At the fork in the road containing the Drain draw point, enter the house on the left and talk with the elderly woman here, then search the flowers at the bottom of the screen; Squall will find another Vase Piece.
At the chocobo crossing, have Squall bump into the crossing chicobos and a Vase Piece will slowly float its way down to the ground. If you do this two more times, you will find a Phoenix Pinion (Although it says Phoenix Down when you pick it up) and some Gysahl Greens. Once you have all three, a mother chocobo will come and rough Squall up a bit and the chicobos will run from you from there on after. If this is your first Phoenix Pinion, you need to use this as an item during battle as soon as you can. Once you have, there is a chance that the Phoenix GF will appear and revive the party if they fall during battle for the remainder of the game.
Lastly, return to Raine's former house and talk with the lady on the second floor whom lives here now. She will talk about how there is a strange presence inside the home and mentions the white flowers downstairs. Downstairs in the pub, examine the flower on the table in the bottom-right-hand corner and a vision of Raine will appear. Approach it and it will be revealed as a cat who has the final Vase Piece.
With all the Pieces in hand, turn them over to the mansion owner and he will give you a definitely-underwhelming Holy Stone. We're then ready to continue on to the next side-quest in the coming chapter.
