Drive the army vehicle into the Missile Base and the guards will just let you on through. Nice security, but that's just the start for this ragtag group of "soldiers". Selphie and company will then don soldier outfits in order to infiltrate the base. Search the light on the side of the door on the left and one of your party members will have conveniently found a card key for it. Inside, choose to walk by the guard quietly. While not important, if we can make it through here without being discovered, our SeeD rank will increase.
After descending the stairs, take the red-lighted path down beside the stairs and talk to the maintenance soldiers there, then head inside the room to the north. There is a hidden Full-life draw point near the left-most missile silo here. This is an amazing spell that is rarely available outside of draw points, and this one will actually recharge at a decent rate, if you'd like to farm from it. Once the alarm activates later, however, you will no longer be able to access this room. Talk to the soldier nearest the silo and tell him that he should go on ahead and then take his message back to the maintenance guys.
They will send you to do their job inside the circuit room; which was the room the soldier that stopped you earlier was standing by. Have Selphie just "hit whatever", followed up by "pressing whatever", and the power will be shut down. The maintenance soldiers will come by and ask what is going on. Tell them you were just about to go and find them and the party will lure them inside the circuit room and kick the crap outta them.
Try to take the stairs to the right of the silo room and a soldier will stop you. Select to "play it cool" and then help them push the missile launcher into place. Afterwards, back outside, you can access the nearby control panel.
On the control panel: select target, followed by increasing the error ratio to maximum, then select to upload the data. Is this an actual, legit thing for launching missiles? Why would there be an option to intentionally increase the chance your missiles would miss their target? Anyway, if you go under simulation, and hold the square and triangle buttons down (Which will be different if you changed your button configuration, like I did) and either up or down, you can see a Galbadian or Elite Soldier dance. Just a little easter egg.
Talk to the guard near the stairs and inside the next room the party will reveal themselves and we'll be sent into a simple battle with soldiers. When it is over, have the party search the control panels to find the one you're looking for, however, before you go into the room above, there are now random encounters you can return to in the previous areas.
The Missile Base is one of only a few areas you can encounter the SAM08G enemy; neither of which can be returned to. You can mug these things for the Running Fire item, which will teach Quistis the blue magic, Gatling Gun, which uses Quistis' Strength stat to determine damage, instead of the usual Magic stat. This item is only available elsewhere by Card Modding the SAM08G card or from a rare drop later on, so this is the best place to obtain it or if you want to farm the SAM08G enemy for its cards. You can refine extra Running Fires into Demolition Ammo for Irvine, as well.
If you didn't get any from the low-leveled Grendels earlier in the game, SAM08Gs will also rarely drop Dragon Fangs, which are needed for Squall's best weapon, the Lion Heart. There will be better opportunities for this later, but this is your second chance to do so. You may want to do some level-building with your characters here, as these three will likely be many levels below Squall's group later on.
Make sure you have used a Tent and saved, then return to the control panel room and into the room to the north. Inside, you will be given an option to set a timer. Like with the Fire Cavern at the beginning of the game, the lowest is always best for your SeeD rank, so select 10 minutes and hurry out the door on the right and back outside to a boss fight.
You're basically battling the clock here. If your max HP is low, you may want to draw and cast Protect on everyone, other than that, cast Double on the characters that don't have Quezacotl junctioned, and have them double Thundaga spells onto the BGH251F2 while Quezacotl is being summoned. Once you defeat the machine, you will have to quickly take out a group of basic Soldiers. For winning, you receive the Weapons Monthly June magazine. Afterwards, Selphie and the party will be trapped inside the Base as it explodes; having failed to stop the missiles from launching...
Enter: Squall's party at Balamb Garden. Swap your character's junctions, then proceed inside to the chaos. One of those shady Garden faculty guys will stop Squall and ask him who's side he is on. You can avoid a battle by saying you are with the Garden Master or I don't get it to be forced into a battle.
Talk with the guy by the turnstiles twice to be given a Mega Potion item. Near the directory, the party will run into Fujin and Raijin, who say that Headmaster Cid is in hiding and everyone is looking for him. It's imperative that Squall tell him about the approaching missiles, so we will have to check the Garden from top-to-bottom for him.
Return to the front gate of the Garden and another faculty member will be out here. He'll summon two Bombs for you to fight. Bombs are much more of a threat at this point than they were when we first encountered them inside the Fire Cavern. If you target them, whether to do damage or draw, three times, they will explode on a party member doing massive damage, which is unfortunate since they have the excellent Meltdown spell to draw at level 30+. My advice when encountering Bombs here: draw with two characters and then summon Shiva to finish them. Meltdown is the best spell in the game you can junction to a character's Vitality. If you'll recall, I mentioned back at the Fire Cavern that Bombs at level 30 have a rare item to steal, the Bomb Spirit, which you can attempt to get now, but I will be covering it when we reach an area Bombs can be consistently encountered throughout the game.
Take a right at the directory to start making a loop around to the various areas of the Garden looking for Cid. At the library, you will have to fight a Grat and, if you have Zell in your party, the girl he had a scene with early in the game will give him a Mega Phoenix. If Zell isn't with you, it will be a basic Remedy.
Next is the Training Center where the faculty will have a T-Rexaur for you to fight if you choose to intervene and save the students. The SeeD will give you a Remedy afterward. You can find the Man From Garden, who also escaped from the D-District Prison, apparently, on the screen to the right with the Blizzard draw point, if you need to buy some items.
In the parking lot, you'll have to battle a dangerous Grendel, and will find a hologram of Cid. One of the SeeDs here will give Squall a Tent. Continue the loop over to the dormitory to defeat the Caterchipillar and you can rest and save in Squall's room.
Another T-Rexaur awaits you before the cafeteria. Then you can find a hidden Demi draw point, which is only here during this part of the game, near the potted tree. A student here will give the party Gysahl Greens, which can summon the minor GF Boko, the chocobo, during battle, which isn't of much use to us since it will only grow stronger via the PocketStation not available outside Japan. However, this item will do nothing until we visit a Chocobo Forest, first.
Around to the quad next, you'll battle a Bomb and Glacial Eye and then can obtain an X-Potion from one of the SeeDs.
Finally, at the infirmary, we will fight a former boss, the Granaldo. If he is level 30+, he will have the Pain spell to draw. Pain is a fantastic spell to junction to a character's Magic and use for your status attack or defense. It can inflict poison, blind, and silence all on one enemy, which basically negates the need to have the other three spells stocked. Inside the infirmary, Dr. Kadowaki will give Squall an Elixir.
Having cleared all the areas of the faculty members and their monsters, if you return to the directory, you will see Xu running for the elevator; follow her to the second floor. Squall will explain the missile threat and Xu will tell you that Cid has been in his office on the third floor all along.
Take the elevator to the third floor and talk with Cid. He believes that there may be a way to save the Garden hidden below in the MD levels. Squall insists going to investigate it in Cid's place and he will reluctantly hand over the key. Before heading for the elevator, you can talk to Cid to use a Tent and save your game.
Unfortunately, the elevator to the bottom will stop and Squall will need to examine the hatch on the floor to find a ladder to climb down. As you would expect, just at the last minute, the elevator will begin to function again and the party will barely escape into an oil stratum before they are squished. Squall will suggest junctioning fire to your elemental attack, but with Ifrit, it's not really necessary. Continue through the linear area until you find a giant valve, which Squall will attempt, and fail, to open, followed by another party member helping; it will only open when at least one other member helps turn it with Squall.
In the next set of areas, you will, rarely, encounter the Tri-Face monster. This monster is your best source of Curse Spikes in the game, which start in a string of extremely rare refining options. However, since you can never return to the MD levels and fight Tri-Faces, I will cover these once we reach an area we can. For now, you can draw Pain and the very nice Flare spell from them. I highly recommend stocking as many of these as possible as it will be a while until we can again. Flare junctions very well to Strength and elemental defense. Returning to the dungeon, once you reach the area with a circular pillar in the center, there is a Full-life draw point here and Squall will have to climb the ladder up the pillar, which, of course, breaks and sends him crashing through a window conveniently into a control room. Check the control panel here and then climb back down to your party members. You will then see a blinking green switch near the bottom of the screen Squall will need to activate to reach a ladder into the next area. Save your game and flip the lever on the right-side of the screen, then attempt to cross the bridge.
Oilboyles! If you have learned all of the SumMag+ abilities for Ifrit, this boss fight is over in one casting, for the most part. You can mug both of them for Fuel items, if you don't want to waste any Gil trying to buy 100 of them, but other than that, be prepared to draw and cast Esuna and Curaga as the Oilboyles use Demi-like and status effect attacks.
Past the bridge, Squall will find the control room, and just in time as the Galbadian missiles are headed this way. He will just push whatever, which seems to be the prevailing way of acting in these circumstances, and the Garden will begin to shake.
An elevator will rise up beneath Cid's feet and carry him, as well as Squall's party, into a new control room of the Garden. The Garden will then begin to move away from its location, just before the missiles strike the area it once sat. Cid will then ask Squall to check on things down below.
Sorry...Anyway, proceed down the elevator to the second floor and out onto the new deck just past the classroom. If Rinoa is in your party, you will get a special scene with her here as the party watches the now floating Garden. Returning to Cid, unfortunately the Garden is out of control and is drifting into the path of Balamb Town, but Squall will use his improvising skills to pilot it out of the way just in the nick of time.
Some time afterward, Squall will wake in his room. If Rinoa is with you, she will ask Squall to take her on a tour of the Garden. You can take her by some of the areas for scenes, one of which involves Zell down at the cafeteria, but your goal is to head for the directory. One of the Garden Master's faculty will tell Squall that his presence is demanded by the Master. Make sure you have saved, then take the elevator to B1.
Once you step off the elevator, your party members will join you, then you will witness a scene between Cid and the Garden Master. Cid will leave, then you can follow the faculty member over to meet NORG.
NORG's not happy with anyone; Martine, Cid, Edea, or you about the situation involving the failed assassination of the Sorceress. He drops the bombshell that Cid and Edea are, in fact, married, and wants to offer Cid and your heads to the Sorceress to suppress her anger.
NORG and his Pods look intimidating, but it's actually quite a simple boss. First, summon Carbuncle to cast reflect on the party, and then steal from both Left and Right Pods for a Spr and Mag Up items; which, if you are lucky, you may get more than one of. Once you destroy NORG's protective Pod, you can steal a Circlet from him; it's a bit of a rarity.
When NORG, himself, is exposed, immediately draw the Guardian Force, Leviathan, from him. Like most cases with bosses having GFs, if you don't get this here, you will not have another chance to obtain it until the final dungeon of the game. With Carbuncle summoned, you only have to worry about NORG's Blast attack and the Tornado spell that cannot be reflected. If you find yourself taking too much damage from Tornado, consider drawing and casting Shell on your party instead of using Carbuncle.
After the battle, Squall is furious over his perceived use as a pawn by everyone. Before you confront Cid, check near NORG's now egg-like Pod for a hidden Bio draw point, junction your new Guardian Force, then take the elevator back to the first floor of the Garden.
