The final Laguna dream begins with the group, having finally made it to Esthar, doing slave labor on something known as Lunatic Pandora. Talk with the guards and other prisoners until a soldier confronts Laguna; followed by another battle with Kiros and Ward joining in. Make sure you take the chance to junction the duo as they are coming in with no GFs equipped. This will be the last appearance in the game for the Gesper enemy, a minor note, but make sure you take it out first to keep from getting hit with Degenerator.
Take the elevator upstairs and have Laguna get near Dr. Odine and his assistant to overhear their conversation. At the end, there will be mention of a Weapons Monthly magazine. Outside the Lab, Laguna will learn that Odine knows the location of Ellone; so back inside we go.
If you listened to the entire conversation a second ago, the before-mentioned magazine will now be laying on the floor and you can acquire the Weapons Monthly 1st issue. You should now have all of the Weapons Monthly magazines: March-August and 1st.
Back down to the second level, you'll then have to face-off with another set of Esthar Soldiers. Like the Gesper, this will be the last appearance in the game for the Elastoid enemy: make sure to steal one final Laser Cannon from it and watch out for the always-dangerous cyborg Esthar Soldiers. Laguna will then confront Odine and he will reveal that Ellone is being held at his laboratory. Make your way back outside and the party will hitch a car ride over to Odine's Laboratory.
More enemies to fight at the entrance of Odine's Lab, then take the strange-looking lift in the center of the screen to the next floor where you can find a hidden Flare draw point on the left-side of the screen. In the next room, have Laguna check the control panel on the right-side until you get the message that something has been unlocked.
Enter the door that was previously locked on the first floor, and Laguna will finally be reunited with Ellone.
Switching back to Squall and his party, a man will arrive to ask them about their business in Esthar. Edea will explain the situation about meeting with Odine and the representative will take you into Esthar to see him. You'll be taken to the Presidential Palace of Esthar.
Odine will agree to take you to meet Ellone and exorcise Ultimecia's
power over Edea as long as you let him observe Rinoa first. Squall
reluctantly agrees and the party is directed to the Lunar Gate outside
the city. We now have free reign over exploring the city.
You may want to go out into the city and save first (There is a save and healing point to the left of the entrance to Dr. Odine's Lab). Odine, himself, has the excellent Ward playing card to win.
Once you leave the Presidential Palace via the lift, return inside, and there will be a Presidential Aide outside the room where the party left Rinoa and Odine. Talk with him a few times and he will complain about the President's collection of magazines allowing you to pick up the Occult Fan IV he leaves behind. This is a missable item and you absolutely need to get this right now. With this in your possession, you should now have all the Occult Fan magazines I-IV. Also, that painting looks an awful lot like Winhill, doesn't it?
Back outside the Palace, take the left-side path, left again, then finally, the right path to arrive at the above screen. Make sure to talk to the Esthar Soldier here; it doesn't seem noteworthy, but it is necessary to receive an upcoming item. From here, continue right, right again, the path to the lower-right, and right one more time to reach the shopping center.
There is a hidden Tornado draw point in the lower-left corner of the shopping center. Note: This draw point switches to the upper-left-hand corner and becomes visible after the Lunar Cry. Phew, okay, so lots to cover here at the shopping arcade, but only if you have learned Tonberry's Familiar ability. If you do not have it yet, I highly recommend you leave the city and learn it now; it and the following shops are crucial to obtaining rare items.
First: make sure you enter each shop at least once; this will unlock the shops in Tonberry's Call Shop ability. You do not want to be stuck on disc 4 with the inability to access these shops, trust me. Johnny's Shop will not always be open, but keep selecting it and you will eventually be given access. Second: Cloud's, Johnny's, Karen's, and Cheryl's (Which will never open) will all randomly give Squall items for accessing them. The former three will give two items, while the latter, only one. Keep entering, then exiting, and you will eventually get them all. Cheryl will give you a Rosetta Stone, Cloud, a Hi-Potion and X-Potion, Johnny, a Hi-Potion and Mega-Potion, and lastly, Karen a Hi-Potion and Mega Phoenix. If you acquired another Rosetta Stone way back at the D-District Prison, two-of-three of your characters should have one of their GFs taught the Ability x4 skill. Only one GF in the game has this ability by default, which we will be obtaining not too long from now.
Inside the Esthar Pet Shop, you can buy the Pet Pals Vol.5&6 which will teach Rinoa Angelo Search and her best limit break, Wishing Star. If you didn't visit the Timber Pet Shop with Familiar earlier, this shop will also sell the basic stat-j scrolls. However, the ultimate prize here, are the GF ability items.
You can use Force Armlets to refine over to Shell Stones. This is the best way in the game to obtain this item.
Power Wrists and Hypno Crowns can both be refined into Aura Stones; also the best way to obtain them. If you want, you can then turn Aura Stones into Aura magic. Aura junctions well to Strength, Hit%, and later on, Luck.
Over at Cloud's Shop, you can buy the vast-majority of ammo in the game for Irvine to use with his limit break. The only two that are missing are AP and Pulse Ammo. At Karen's Book Store, you can buy most-all of the magazines in the game; with the exception of Occult Fan III-IV. You can go ahead and purchase Combat King 004-005 for Zell, but in this chapter we will obtain both for free.
Lastly, at Johnny's shop, we've got a whole array of rare recovery items for sale. X-Potions, Mega-Potions, Mega Phoenixs, and Elixirs. Also, I recommend you buy 100 basic Remedy items. With this shop, and Alexander's Med Lv Up ability, we can refine into some even-rarer recovery items.
Basic Potions will refine over to Potion+, which at this point, is useless, but it's the only way in the game to obtain the item.
Hi-Potions can be refined to Hi-Potion+, another pointless item, but important for completionists.
However, it's very important that you refine the basic Remedy over to, at least six, Remedy+. This will be needed to obtain an upcoming Guardian Force and there is no other way to acquire this item but through refining.
Finally, now that you can buy Mega Phoenixs, they can be refined to Phoenix Pinions that summon the minor-GF, Phoenix. If you haven't gotten one of these yet, you need to use it at least once during battle to give the party a chance for the Phoenix GF to be be summoned if your entire party is defeated in battle. I apologize if the previous section was a bit boring, but it's all important if you are attempting to obtain every item in the game. We're now ready to leave the city. From the shopping arcade, head south, keep heading west from there, then first downward path to an elevator that will take you out onto the world map.
Outside of Esthar, the majority of the enemies will be weak ones you've already faced before; save for one. Don't get cocky though, this will be changing very soon. The one, very rare, encounter is the Malboro and we need to do a little prep-work before facing-off with them. Whichever character has Cerberus junctioned, and hopefully learned its ST-Def-Jx4 ability, needs to junction 100 Berserk, Silence, Confuse, and Sleep spells to their status defense. When the battle opens up, the Malboro will almost-always use the Bad Breath skill, which, if you're a Final Fantasy veteran, know usually amounts to trouble; especially in a game with no Ribbon. With the above status defense, that character should only be inflicted with blind, slow, poison, and gradual-petrify states, but otherwise, free to cast Esuna on himself and the other characters. Malboros also, unfortunately, have a ton of HP, and will frequently reuse Bad Breath, so I recommend drawing and casting Demi with each character until it begins to do small amounts of damage, then finish it off with physical attacks. Note: We need Malboro Tentacles, at least 9, from this enemy. You can steal them for lesser amounts, or try to get them to drop for a higher number. One Malboro Tentacle can be used to teach Quistis the blue magic, you guessed it, Bad Breath. Like Acid, Quistis' Bad Breath inflicts more status effects the lower her HP gets to 0. Two other Marlboro Tentacles are needed for Quistis' best weapon, while the remaining six will be used soon.
If you check your world map, you will see a variety of areas have been added. We need to first head for Tears' Point, which is on the far-east side of the continent, past the Lunar Gate. This eerie-looking place has a few draw points to use, but more importantly, you can see an item on the ground to the right of the Reflect draw point. Pick it up to obtain the Solomon Ring.
In your inventory, with six Steel Pipes, Malboro Tentacles, and Remedy+s, use the Solomon Ring to obtain the Guardian Force, Doomtrain. If you don't have the Steel Pipes, you can Card Mod the Elastoid card for them, otherwise, you will have to wait until you have access to the Wendigo enemy around Deling City again.
Not entirely important at this very moment, but eventually, we need to learn Doomtrain's Forbid Med-RF to refine some ultra-rare items. Doomtrain comes with a second Absorb command, that cannot be taught to other GFs, so you may prefer to junction him opposite Pandemona to give your character's more command options.
Now, let's take a look at the hidden draw points outside the Esthar region. Check the screenshot above, overlooking Tears' Point, for an Aura draw point. Note: This draw point disappears after the Lunar Cry occurs.
From the Aura draw point, hug the coastline to the west 'till you come to the above area where, at the end of the ridge, there is a Meteor draw point.
Head back toward the Aura draw point, past Tears' Point, and continue to hug the coastline and the mountain ridge. You'll see some mountains and forests, that are unreachable, and then at the end of this area, between the ridge and Esthar's camouflage, a Double draw point.
Keep proceeding along the mountains and camouflage to the west-side from there, and you will find another draw point, Full-life, again, between the ridge and camo. We are now, finally, ready to continue on with the story to the Lunar Gate.
Entering the Lunar Gate, after being greeted by a worried Angelo, the party will find out that they will be put into a cryogenic sleep to be launched out into space. Well, that escalated quickly. Anyway, Zell and Edea will head back to Esthar to see Dr. Odine, while Squall and Rinoa will launch to the Lunar Base. You will need to pick a party member to accompany both, but keep in mind that the one that goes with Squall will see no combat, while the one with Zell will see plenty of it. As you might expect, don't take Seifer for either party, and the member that is left out will not be able to be exchanged for. Squall's party will board the shuttle leaving you in control of Zell.
As you're leaving, the massive Lunatic Pandora will begin making its way toward Esthar. We need to hurry back to Esthar and see Dr. Odine at his Laboratory.
Remember the soldier from a little bit ago we talked to that seemed meaningless? Now in control of Zell, talk with him again and a fellow Esthar Soldier will run by and he will follow, giving you the Combat King 004 magazine that teaches Zell Different Beat; his highest-damaging limit break.
From the city entrance, Odine's Lab is two screens to the left-side, and then down. Lunatic Pandora must be stopped before it reaches Tears' Point, but the only way to do so is to catch up with it as it passes over Esthar. Odine will tell you the exact three points at which you can intercept the colossal structure, but you need to be there on time. Of course, Galbadian Soldiers will have infested the city, so you will have random battles slowing you down. To counter this, equip Diablos' Enc-None ability.
As soon as you step outside of Odine's Lab, the timer will begin. We must make it to the first contact point between 12-15 minutes. With Enc-None, this is simple. Take the right-side path, then the path to the north, climb the stairs and the path to the left, which will place you on a screen with soldiers and a car that has been abandoned. Wait for the timer to reach under 15 minutes and Lunatic Pandora will arrive at the section. Some soldiers will, conveniently, come out of a hatch to engage the party, which will allow entry inside.
Within Lunatic Pandora marks the final appearance in the game for the SAM08G and GIM52A
enemies. If you want to farm Running Fires and their card from the
SAM08G and Missiles from the GIM52A easily, this is your last chance to
do so. In the elevator hall, take elevator #3, then the stairs to the bottom-right, followed by climbing the ladder down.
Note: None of the following items will be here unless you fulfilled the necessary requirements during Laguna's visit to the Lunatic Pandora excavation site on disc 1. At the bottom of the ladder, search inside the crevice to the right for a LuvLuv G item.
Continue down the path to the left and you will see the familiar panels from Laguna's time. The one on the right-side contains a Power Generator, while the center holds a Silence draw point. If this is your first Power Generator item, it teaches Quistis the blue magic, Ray-Bomb, and can also refine into a large number of Pulse Ammo, but I don't recommend that due to the Power Generator's rarity.
The last panel has a Phoenix Pinion for you to plunder.
The very next screen, you will see a Combat King 005 magazine on the ground that will teach Zell his final limit break, My Final Heaven, which is weaker than Different Beat, but damages all enemies.
Then there is a hidden Ultima draw point in the back of the same room. Now, make your way back to the ladder and take the elevator to the elevator hall; followed by using elevator #1.
After the Holy draw point, there is a small hole in the wall on the left-hand-side that contains a Spd-J Scroll. Follow these caves up to a save point and then north one final time.
Zell and company will be booted out of Lunatic Pandora by a strange machine-creature. Well, that was anti-climactic.
The party will be forced to retreat back to Esthar as Lunatic Pandora settles itself, eerily, above Tears' Point.
