Back at the front gate of Balamb Garden, Selphie and Zell will leave your party and you will meet with Quistis, Xu, and Headmaster Cid near the directory. Afterwards, you can find Seifer outside of the library where he'll be told because of his reckless actions in Dollet, he will, yet again, not become a SeeD. There will be a PA announcement for the takers of the exam to gather outside of the classroom on the second floor, so take the elevator there.
Talk with the nervous examiners around and a member of the Garden faculty will call for Zell and Squall to meet with Headmaster Cid. There, Squall, Selphie, Zell, and Nida will officially become a part of SeeD and will be given their exam scores.
Talk with Cid immediately afterwards to receive the Battle Meter. This is a missable item and it's important that you get it as soon as possible. While not an actual item in your inventory, under the "information" section of the tutorial on the main menu, you can view it to see how many steps your party has taken (Where's that Step Mine blue magic?), how many battles have been won/escaped from, and total battles fought. Talk with the faculty member here, too, for a cryptic message that will have an influence on the story.
When you exit Cid's office via the elevator, you will see your exam score and receive your first SeeD rank. The maximum you can obtain is 10. Not sure what happened with my Spirit score here; the only battle I escaped from was the first X-ATM092 battle and it is required. Oh well. The low Conduct is due to failing to reach the shore with over 20 minutes left to spare, however, the bonus is from actually defeating X-ATM092. Anyway, what rank you received isn't important, we'll be able to raise it with ease here shortly. Head for the classroom and Seifer and company will congratulate (?) you on your promotion.
Selphie will be in your room waiting for Squall to change into his new SeeD uniform to attend the party; which you can change by searching his bed. Talk to Selphie again when you are ready. At the party, watch the scenes between Squall, Zell, and Selphie, and then an unfamiliar girl will literally drag Squall out onto the dance floor where you will view a very nice movie which seems to melt Squall's cold heart, just a little. Unfortunately, she bails on him at the end and Squall and Quistis will talk out on the balcony. She wants to meet with him at the "secret place" inside the Training Facility to talk more.
Change Squall's clothes, yet again, by searching his bed and then head for the Training Center where Quistis will rejoin your party. You can gain a few levels with Quistis now, if you'd like, as she won't be permanently joining you until a little later into the game. Otherwise, there's nothing else to do here but go to the area in the back near the save point. Quistis will reveal that, probably due to Seifer being her student, she has been demoted from an instructor back to a SeeD, just like Squall. Squall's not really interested in listening to her lament though...showing just how cold he can be. Make sure to save your game before leaving for the exit of the Center.
Near the exit, you'll hear someone being attacked and the party will rush in to save a familiar-looking girl. This battle is simple. Draw and cast Sleep from the Granaldo onto itself and the other three enemies will be helpless. You can use this chance to draw the Protect, Shell, and Blind spells; the first two of which are incredibly nice and must-haves while Blind is needed for an upcoming boss, then you can finish them off with a few Guardian Force summons. After the battle, the girl will call Quistis, "Quisty" and be ushered away by two mysterious men. That girl looks an awful lot like the one who was peeking in on Squall in the infirmary at the beginning of the game.
Quistis will leave your party and you will find Zell waiting for you outside the dormitory. He will inform you that since you're a SeeD now, you have your own, private room. Also, somebody was generous enough to have already moved all of Squall's possessions to it.
The next morning, Selphie will wake Squall knocking on his door. They're to meet out near the front gate to receive their first mission as SeeD members. Before leaving, search Squall's new desk to obtain a Weapons Monthly April item.
Now that you're officially a SeeD, you will be paid a fixed amount of Gil at intervals based on your rank. To raise your rank, look in the tutorial section of the main menu and for TEST. Here you can take multiple choice tests equal to whatever Squall's level is, up to a maximum of 30, then there is one final level, A, after that. I generally don't bother with this until Squall is level 20, then leave the SeeD level around that number and save the last 10 tests for the very end of the game. Your rank will fluctuate as the game goes on, but Gil is very rarely an issue in this game. The way SeeD level works is fairly simple: With each monster
you defeat, which Guardian Forces kills do not count for, you receive +1
SeeD experience. Then, once Squall is payed his salary, his new rank is
determined after -10 experience is deducted from his total amount.
Squall is payed after a set number of steps, so it is actually harder to
raise your rank than you may think once your level is over 20. If you haven't defeated at least 10
enemies before being paid, your rank is in danger of decreasing. Unfortunately, this is bound to happen a lot with towns and side-quests, but don't worry too much about it.
Meet Selphie and Headmaster Cid outside the front gate and Zell will ride in on a hover-board, which will quickly be confiscated by the faculty. He will tell you that you are to go to Balamb Town and take a train to Timber where you will meet with members of a resistance faction. Squall will, predictably, be the leader. Zell and Selphie will become permanent members of your party now.
Before you leave, talk to to Cid again to receive the Magical Lamp item. This is missable, just like the Battle Report, and we need this to obtain a new GF.
Speaking of Cid, once you leave the screen, Cid will return to his office on the third floor that you can now reach via the elevator. He carries the Seifer card and plays it often. If you didn't get the Battle Report or Magical Lamp, you can talk to him again here to get them. This is your last chance to get both. Once you leave for Timber, you will be unable to obtain them. In fact, once you leave, it will be a long time before you can return to Balamb Garden, so if you haven't gotten the Quistis, Mini Mog, or Zell cards yet: do so now.
If you take Zell by the library and talk with the girl near the bookcase, you will get a short scene. Much later in the game, this will eventually cumulate in an item. If you read Squall's study panel, you will see that it is actually Raijin whom has the book Zell is looking for, and it's way overdue. We're now ready to make use of that Magical Lamp item and obtain a new Guardian Force. First, make sure you are rested up, saved, and out on the world map, then use the item from your inventory.
Diablos will, without a doubt, be your hardest challenge yet. Hopefully you hit the Blind draw point that was inside the communications tower in Dollet or drew some from the Granaldo boss, otherwise you will probably need to wait until you acquire some to win this battle. It's imperative that you cast and inflict the Blind status on Diablos at the onset of the battle. If you fail, and he takes out a party member, just reset and start the battle over. I would also cast Protect on Selphie who, more than likely, has the lesser HP of the three. Once you have Blind and Protect in place, have all three characters attempt to draw and cast Demi onto Diablos; this will cut his HP by 25% with each cast down until it begins to deal little damage to him. If you are low-level, and are failing at your attempt to draw more-often-than-not, abandon that strategy and just use your GFs on him. With, hopefully, Diablos being unable to land a physical attack on your party, you only have to watch out for his Demi and Gravija spells; which while can't kill you, will heavily reduce your HP. Once your HP gets low, you can risk trying to use your limit breaks, but I would recommend looking for Full-cure in Selphie's Slots to restore the entire party back to health. When Diablos is defeated, you gain him as a GF and receive the Diablos card. With it in hand, you now have an almost unstoppable deck of cards, unfortunately, the game will soon throw you a curveball with rule changes, so don't get too confident...
Now that you have Diablos, for completionists, it's important that you learn his Mug ability as soon as possible. In fact, I advise learning it before you leave for Timber so you can collect the rare items available to you on the island of Balamb; you will not be back here anytime soon. On the beaches, you can fight groups of two Fastitocalon-F that will net you 6 AP per battle. If you're concerned about leveling up too much, you can use the Fire Cavern to gain AP, but very little experience. There are groups inside the Cavern where you can get 3-4 AP. Once you've learned Mug, it's important to keep in mind that once you steal an item from an enemy, that enemy will not longer drop an item. Read boss sections carefully, as you will sometimes have to decided between either stealing from them for one item, or holding off so they will drop another.
While you're gaining AP, and your party's average level is over 20, you will begin to see the monsters in the area carrying new spells to draw such as Fira, Cura, Thundara, and Blizzara. Draw as much of these as you can: especially Cura.
Before I begin with the collection of items, I want to talk about Quezacotl's Card Mod ability for a second. This is an incredible way to gain some rare items, however, I will be looking at steals/drops from enemies and refining other items to obtain the majority of them in the game, unless acquiring them from cards is a more reasonable way of doing so. When it comes to the Guardian Force and Player cards, the vast majority of them are the best way to obtain their specific items, however, I would recommend you not convert them to items until the very end of the game, where we will have a chance to obtain them again infinitely. Also, once the Random rule begins to enter into play, you will want to have as many high-level cards in your deck as possible. This is just my opinion, however, and if you'd like to farm cards and create as many high-level items as you can, as early as possible, feel free to do so. Varying play styles is a great thing about playing RPGs.
Let's start inside Balamb Garden's Training Center. The Grats inside you can steal, and also frequently drop, Silence Powders from. You can use this item in the menu to raise a character's compatibility with the Siren GF, but take note that it will slightly lower the compatibility with all other GFs, so in my opinion, it's better not to use these. Silence Powders can also be used to refine into Silence magic. You will encounter the Grats only inside of Balamb Garden, so it's best to get these before disc 4, when it will become unavailable to you. Grats will, however, like most monsters, appear in the final dungeon.
Out on the grassy plains of the world map, if your average party level is between level 20-29, you can steal Magic Stones from the Bite Bugs; which they also will drop. Note: if your party is below level 20, Bite Bugs will have M-Stone Pieces to steal. Like the M-Stone Pieces at low levels, once your party reaches the average level of 30, Bite Bugs will no longer carry Magic Stones and you will have use the Card Mod ability to obtain more of this item. Try to pick up at least 3 of these. You will need them to create some weapons later on and can be used to refine into mid-level magic like Cura and Fira.
I was actually over-leveled and couldn't get a screenshot, but if your party is still under level 20, you can steal Arctic Wind items from Glacial Eyes around the mountains of Balamb. Once you've exceeded level 20, the only way to obtain this item through conventional means is to Card Mod a Glacial Eye card. Arctic Wind will slightly raise your compatibility with Shiva while lowering the rest of the GF's. These can refine into Blizzara magic, too.
On the beach areas, you can encounter Fastitocalon-Fs and steal Fish Fins from them. They will raise a character's compatibility with a GF you will acquire later, Leviathan, but like the other compatibility items, will lower all other GF's. Fish Fins can be refined into Water magic.
While the T-Rexaur can more commonly be found inside the Garden Training Center, you can encounter them for the game's entirety in the forests outside. They have Dino Bones you can steal. You'll need at least two of these to create weapons later; they also raise a character's compatibility with a GF we will get not too long from now, Brothers, but again, lower all other GF compatibility. These can be refined into very nice Quake spells, as well.
Inside the Fire Cavern now, Bombs carry Bomb Fragments to pilfer. The Bomb is a rather elusive enemy, that shows up every now and then in story areas you tend to not be able to return to. Once your party reaches average level 30, Bombs, while still carrying Bomb Fragments, will also begin to carry a very rare item: the Bomb Spirit. Unfortunately, you'll have to settle for just Bomb Fragments for now since the Fire Cavern enemies remain at low levels, but when we reach an area we can encounter Bombs throughout the game, I will post about the Bomb Spirit. You'll need one Bomb Fragment for a weapon later on, but otherwise, they raise a character's compatibility with Ifrit, while lowering the other GF's.
Lastly, Red Bats have Vampire Fangs to steal. There is no use for this item other than you can refine it into the Drain spell. That's all of the items to be acquire on the island of Balamb. When you are prepared, head over to the train station at Balamb Town to continue the story. Since you have a source of income now, you may want to purchase some items from the shop by the station as well; particularly the status-recovery items and Tents.
Onboard the train, Squall will let an excited Zell and Selphie inside. Follow them and into the passenger cabin where Zell will find a Pet Pals Vol.1 magazine and tell Squall a little history of Timber. Selphie will come in not feeling well and she, then Zell, will pass out, followed by Squall.
You'll then be in control of three new characters: Laguna, Kiros, and Ward who are in a bit of a situation out in the forests of Timber.
The status of the three characters is directly reflected of that Squall's party and all experience, AP, items, ect. gained will be carried over once Squall regains control. For now, just proceed through the linear forest; fighting some battles and hitting the two draw points that are on the way. The trio will jump into their vehicle and head off for Deling City.
Laguna will park the vehicle in the middle of the street, causing a traffic jam, and you are free to explore a bit of the city. To the north, you can enter a building and descend the ladder down into the sewers and fight some new monsters, if you'd like. Squall and company will transverse that dungeon a little later on, but you can check if out now if you're interested. Your destination is the Galbadian Hotel to the south and the stairs that lead down to the bar.
Talk to the waitress here and have the party take a load-off and enjoy the piano-playing of Julia. If you haven't figured it out yet, the dialogue in gray are the thoughts of Squall's party. Watch the scenes as Laguna is encouraged to approach Julia and wave. Even though his leg cramps up, he still manages to do it, and to his surprise, Julia will come by and offer for the two to talk privately in her room.
I've played this game many times, but this is the first time I've noticed that this soldier is responsible for what happens to Laguna...Anyway, talk to the hotel front desk and ask for Julia's room. Laguna and Julia will get to know each other, sharing their hopes and dreams, but will be interrupted by Kiros knocking on the door saying that they have been given new orders. You would think, with how much Kiros and Ward wanted this for him, they would at least wait until the next day, but I digress.
The scene will then switch back to Squall and his group who, surprisingly, dreamed the same dream of Laguna and his friends. Confused, but returning the focus to their mission, the train arrives in Timber.
