Board the train headed for Deling City and talk with your party members as Irvine makes his way around the cabin to the females. Quistis will scold him and you will arrive in Deling City, which for being such a large city, there's not a whole lot going on in.
Like every town, take a stay at the Galbadian Hotel, that you visited with Laguna in his first dream, and you can take a hidden Timber Maniacs magazine sticking out from beneath one of the beds. Other than this, there's absolutely nothing else in Deling City besides a junk/item shop and a Thundara draw point.
Your destination is Caraway's Mansion, where, because the assassination of the Sorceress is of utmost urgency, will send you on a errand to test you. You are to go to the Tomb of the Unknown King and search for the ID number of a missing student; which you would totally find if he was eaten by a monster, but, anyway, talk to the soldier again to buy a location marker for some Gil. It's not an actual item, but if you don't get it now, you won't be able to get it after going to the Tomb. You can also allow the soldier to escort you to the city entrance where you can rent a car, if you'd like. Outside of Deling City there are only draw points and one area of interest for battles.
Just below the city, search the quickly-growing trend of hidden draw points in train tunnels, for an Esuna draw point.
In an alcove in the cliff headed down towards the Galbadian Missile Base, you can find a hidden Scan draw point. While Scan is a horrid junction magic for stats at this point, I recommend keeping it stocked on at least one character at all times.
Circle around the Missile Base and the desert D-District Prison, that we will be getting a better view of shortly, and search near the edge of the map for a hidden Haste draw point.
This is our first encounter with desert terrain, so let's take a look at some of the enemies that are popping up there. Most of the Fastitocalons you encounter here will be of the Fastitocalon-F variety, but occasionally, an actual Fastitocalon will show itself. It's got the same type of draws as a Fastitocalon-F, so it is difficult to distinguish until it pops up from out of the sand. The much-larger Fastitocalons can be mugged for Water Crystals, which will teach Quistis the blue magic, Aqua Breath. Water Crystals can be refined into a lot of Water magic, as well. It's a good, usually safe, option for your elemental attack junction.
The other enemy to look out for in the desert, although appears rarely, is the Abyss Worm. They have both the Tornado and Quake spells to draw, both of which junction incredibly to HP and Strength. The Abyss Worm isn't as dangerous as it looks, so use this chance to heavily upgrade your junctions.
Leaving the desert, keep circling around the outside of the continent and you will find the train tracks to Timber that the Galbadian Army had blockaded earlier; in the center of the tracks is a Aero draw point.
The last hidden draw point of the area is well-hidden. Stay on the tracks and head back toward Deling City. On the right-hand-side tracks you will notice a ramp that takes you up into the cliffs overlooking the Galbadia Garden. Search the cliffs here for a Shell draw point. Now, we're ready to venture to the Tomb of the Unknown King which is on the peninsula to the east of Deling City.
The second screen in, you will find a sword on the ground which contains the needed student number for Caraway's guard. It is random for each time you play, so make sure to write it down. We could leave now, but there is a new Guardian Force for us to obtain inside the maze-like Tomb. The most important thing to keep in mind in this dungeon is that the screen shifts to be behind Squall each time he moves in a direction other than forward, which will undoubtedly confuse you, but you can bring up the map and your location marker with the Select button. However, do not use the Triangle button to escape the dungeon; your SeeD rank will be reduced by one.
Look for the Armadodo monsters inside the Tomb that you can steal Turtle Shells from; they also have Protect, Shell, and Quake spells to stock up on. Turtle Shells have a variety of good use: they will be used for two of Squall's weapons and refine into a large number of Protect magic. Alternately, they can teach a GF the Vit+20% ability. Armadodo's can drop Sharp Spikes, too, but we will be able to steal them in the next dungeon. Shell is a great option for your elemental defense, as well is Protect, but the latter is better suited for Vitality, for now.
Turtle Shells can also refine into a good number of Protect Stone items and, in my opinion, this is the best way to obtain the item. So, now for navigating to the hidden Guardian Force...
Starting from the screen where you found the sword, assuming you are coming from the direction of the entrance of the Tomb, proceed to the right each time and you will enter a room where you will engage in a battle with Sacred. Sacred hits very hard, so drawing and casting Protect on your allies is recommended. He also has the extremely valuable Life spell to draw. Not only will this rid you of your need for Phoenix Downs, it junctions perfectly to element defense and is good for a variety of other stats, as well. In the next dungeon, we will encounter a monster that has Life to draw, so it's not completely necessary to stock up at the moment. You can cast Float on Sacred to keep him from being healed, if you'd like, but you should be able to get him to flee after a few GF summons.
From the battle with Sacred, proceed down and then continue to take the path to the right. You will enter a room with a Float draw point on the left-side of the room and a switch on the right-side which will release some water.
From this room, once again, head down once and then keep taking the right path. There is a hidden Cura draw point on the right-side of this room and a switch that will activate a drawbridge on the left-hand side.
We can now access the chamber of the Guardian Force. For the last time, one screen down and then the path to the right, yet again, to take you outside of the Tomb so you can use a Tent and save your game. Once back inside, proceed due north and into a battle with Sacred and Minotaur. Immediately at the beginning of the battle, draw and cast Protect on your party members and Double on at least one character. Have the character with Double cast Float on Sacred and Minotaur; followed up by on your party while the other characters summon GFs. Keep this up with the Double character using Aero and Tornado spells in between re-casting Float and Protect when needed.
After the battle, the earth-elemental Guardian Force, Brothers, will join you and you will receive both the Sacred and Minotaur playing cards and can proceed down and then up to exit the Tomb. The Brothers GF has the Str-J ability to learn, so I would recommend starting with it on a character that cannot junction to that stat yet.
Returning to Deling City, and now that we have Turtle Shells, we can create Squall's next weapon, but to do so, we will need to refine a Forbidden card into a Betrayal Sword. If you don't have one, it's not a big deal, but we won't be able to obtain Betrayal Swords for quite a while otherwise and you can create the Flame Saber now from it. Hopefully you wrote down the student ID from the Tomb and can give it to Caraway's guard to enter the mansion.
Inside the mansion, talk with your party until Rinoa leaves the room; explaining that this is her house and General Caraway is her father. Caraway will then enter, without Rinoa, and begin to explain the mission to assassinate the Sorceress, Edea. If Irvine fails with his shot, it will be up to Squall to lead a full-on frontal assault on Edea. Follow Caraway around Deling City as he lays out all that will go down with the ceremonial parade and how the parties will be divided up and positioned. Afterwards, when you are prepared, return to the mansion to begin the mission.
You will then be in control of Quistis, who will bump into Rinoa as they try to leave the mansion. Rinoa has a plan of her own, involving an Odine Bangle and the Sorceress, but Quistis will lecture her on the seriousness of the situation and how this is not a game. Back in control of Squall and Irvine, follow Caraway to the waiting point and you will be switched, yet again, back to Quistis' party who wants to return to the mansion to apologize to Rinoa for being so harsh. They will be caught in a timed door lock, intended for Rinoa, and become trapped in the room. The scene then switches to Rinoa...
As Rinoa, save, and then examine the manhole that is behind the boxes to enter the sewer. Be wary, as there are random encounters here, but head all the way to the left to pick up a Weapons Monthly May magazine. This is a missable item and you will only get one other chance to pick the magazine up besides with Rinoa.
Climb the boxes to the top of the building and enter into the Sorceress' room. Edea will throw Rinoa around like a rag-doll and then proceed to give her world domination speech to the people, while a confused Vinzer Deling and a seemingly brainwashed Rinoa look on. Edea will promptly kill Deling, which the crowd doesn't seem to notice and/or care, and create monsters out of stone statues to take care of Rinoa. Afterwards, you will be switched back to Quistis.
In control of Quistis, the goal is to find a way to escape the room. The window would be too easy, so there's got to be a hidden passage, right? Search the glasses on the wall beside the door to have Quistis pick one of them up, and then place it into the statue's hands to the right of the glass display to reveal said hidden passage that leads down into the Deling City sewers.
Before you descend the ladder to the next area, in the stairwell you can frequently encounter the Grand Mantis. You can steal Sharp Spikes from them. They are an important item in creation of several character weapons, including Quistis' best, so make sure you pick up many of these, although we will be able to encounter the Grand Mantis easier later on. Sharp Spikes can be refined into AP Ammo for Irvine, which at this point, is way overpowered, but very useful. Once you descend the ladder, hop on the waterwheel here to advance to the next area and the parade above will begin.
Huh, Seifer's not dead? Shocker. Watch the parade and follow Irvine as he and Squall advance on the Presidential Palace to save Rinoa. You will be near the save point and platform of boxes that Rinoa was earlier. If you didn't get the Weapons Monthly May magazine from the manhole as Rinoa, you need to do so now or you will not get another chance. Climb to the top of the platform, and past the corpse of Vinzer Deling, into the Sorceress' room for a boss.
Make sure you draw the new Carbuncle Guardian Force from one of the Iguions or else you will be unable to do so again until the very final dungeon of the game. If you happen to be inflicted with their gradual petrify status, just simply draw and cast Esuna from them, but other than stocking the Break spell, one or two GF summons, other than Ifrit, will defeat them easily. When the battle is over, make sure to junction Carbuncle opposite of the character that has Siren, this way you will have two characters with the status defense junction.
Now that Rinoa is saved and rejoins you, you can search the hatch on the floor in the previous area to find the waiting point for the sniper team. Check the rifle and the scene will switch back to Quistis. The sewer seems confusing, but it is, in fact, extremely linear, and hard to get lost.
Quistis' party will begin to encounter the Creeps enemy here. You can mug Coral Fragments from them that teach Quistis the blue magic, Electrocute (Basically, a lightning elemental Ultra Waves), and refines nicely into Thunder magic. High-level Creeps also have the Death and Life magic to draw, which I highly suggest drawing to 100 in this dungeon. Life junctions nicely to elemental defense while having 100 Death spells junctioned to your status defense will negate enemies' instant death attacks.
Creeps will also drop Curse Spikes, which teach Quistis the blue magic, LV? Death. It's a very valuable refining option in which MANY will be required, but we lack the necessary GF abilities to do so as well as a viable monsters to obtain them from, so for now, just get at least one to learn the blue magic and I will cover the refining later on. You may receive Dynamo Stones as drops, also, which will be required for character weapons, but can be easily stolen later on. One final note about Creeps, until the final dungeon of the game, you will not encounter them in an area you can frequently return to, so use this chance to stock up on what you need from them; including their cards. Quistis' LV? Death limit break casts the Death spell on enemies when at near 0 HP, but otherwise, the spell will miss those that don't have a level that is a multiple of 2, 3, or 4, depending on how low Quistis' HP is.
Note: At this point, I had Selphie's third Slot limit break, Rapture, show up. Her level was over 40 for me here. Only one more for her left.
There's absolutely nothing at all to note inside the sewers, other than a few draw points, of which there is a hidden Bio point in the screenshot above. From where Quistis begins, proceed up and into the next area. Head left and knock the ladder down into the water, which you can use to hit the Esuna draw point across it. Back across the ladder and to the left again, then up, and through the stretch there taking a right. In the next area, proceed to the right, but don't use the waterwheel in the area yet, instead, head down, which takes you to the hidden Bio draw point. Head back to the area you came from with the waterwheel, and directly left from the down entrance to a Zombie draw point. Now, cross the wheel and then the one to the right of it. Proceed down and across the waterwheel there; heading down once more and across the wheel in the next area. Once again, head down and to the right, making sure to knock the ladder into the water which can return you to the earlier areas and the mansion, if you'd like. Before you use the waterwheel in the next area, make sure you have done all you need to do in the sewers, as once you use it, you will not be able to return. This will take you to a save point and a ladder that will lead you to the switch that Quistis needs to pull to trap the Sorceress for Irvine's shot.
Irvine has cold feet, but Squall will eventually be able to talk him into taking the shot. The shot is dead-on but Edea will block it with her magic. Squall's only choice is to engage her directly...Watch the scenes as Squall makes his way through the crowd and to the parade float.
You will, of course, have to get through Seifer first. At a high level, Seifer will fall extremely quick, so you may want to cast Protect on him so you can keep him alive to attempt to steal a Hero item; these are very valuable.
Rinoa and Irvine will join Squall to battle Edea. Summon Carbuncle and this battle is pretty much over from the beginning. With Carbuncle casting Reflect on the entire party, all she can use against you is Astral Punch and attempt to Dispel your Reflect, which you can just summon Carbuncle again to replenish. Nothing else to note other than you can steal an Elixir from her.
A the conclusion of the battle, Edea will create a shard of ice that she uses to impale Squall; knocking him from the float as Rinoa looks on. This brings a close to disc one.
