After being launched from the Lunar Gate, the party's capsule will be collected and brought onto the Lunar Base. Float around for a bit, then, Piet, the director of the Base, will enter the room. Collect Rinoa and follow him into the nearby room, make sure you save your game, then challenge Piet to a game of cards.
Holy cow! There's pretty much every rule you can imagine in play on the Lunar Base...Do not play unless you have saved first; this will be difficult. The good news is: after playing once, or twice, one of the rules will likely get abolished, and if you're really lucky, like I was, it will be the Random rule.
Piet has the Alexander GF card in his deck for you to win. I lost like 10 times trying to get this...Then finally gained the upper-hand when Random was abolished. You will have a chance to win this card later, but the same rules will still be in effect.
Leave Rinoa in the room next door and continue to follow Piet into the Lunar Base. Climb the stairs on the left-side and talk with the two workers that are standing near the window. It will be explained how the device used to seal Adel in space works. This is crucial for gaining the "Adel's Tomb" portion of the tutorial/information section in the main menu. If you don't speak with them now, it will become missable soon. Down the hall is Ellone's room, you may want to go back and save; she has a rare card to win, as well.
Ellone carries her uncle, Laguna's card. The Lunar Base is your only opportunity to obtain this card from her, however, you can still get it on disc 4 if you miss your chance.
Speak with Ellone and Squall will request that she visit Rinoa to see if she may be of help to her. She'll then follow behind him and your fellow party member.
Stop by the control room to the north of the stairs and talk with Piet. It looks like things are getting a bit bizarre on the moon...Monsters are rapidly clustering together and something is definitely amiss.
Try to return to Rinoa, only to find that she has become possessed by Sorceress Ultimecia. There's nothing you can do to stop her; she will throw Squall around like a rag-doll if he tries to touch her. All you can do is follow her to the control room where she will deactivate the first lock on Sorceress Adel's tomb...
The Lunar Cry will then begin: millions of monsters flowing from the moon down to Earth. The same event that wiped out the civilization of Centra. Continue to trail Rinoa up the stairs and into the prep room for spacewalks. Have Squall grab a spacesuit of his own and follow her outside. The Esthar President and two of his aides will be returning from space. Listen to what they have to say, then follow them back into the Lunar Base. As the aides pull him away, the President will tell Squall to protect Ellone.
Back in the control room, the group will watch helplessly as Rinoa deactivates the second, and final, lock on Adel's tomb.
The Sorceress Adel has returned...Not good, at all. Her tomb is swallowed by the Lunar Cry and plunges down to Earth with it.
The wave of monsters and Adel's tomb will come crashing down onto Tears' Point and Lunatic Pandora. The Crystal Pillar inside of the structure will then begin to activate. The party must evacuate the Lunar Base immediately, so follow Piet to the right-side of the control room and down an elevator with Ellone to the escape pods. Squall will plead with Ellone to take him into Rinoa's past so that he can save her.
Watch the scenes from Rinoa's past and Ellone will manage to take Squall into Rinoa's present consciousness. Scared and conceding herself to death, Squall will encourage her to hold on as he exits the escape pod out into space to search for her. When the rescue begins, all you need to do is line-up Squall with the drifting Rinoa in the center of the screen and wait for the timer to run out and he will catch her; it's fairly easy, but you can retry, if need be.
Finally reunited, but drifting hopelessly in space, the pair will miraculously find a dragon-like spaceship nearby and find a way inside. Once onboard, make sure to save and junction Rinoa, if you haven't already.
Looks like we aren't alone here. In order to take control of the ship, we are going to need to exterminate these Propagators, but to so, we have to take them out in order of color, or else they will continually return to life. Take the flight of stairs down to face your first Propagator.
These things are a mini-boss, at best, and are little threat to you. If you haven't stocked 100 Pain spells yet, this is the perfect time to do so. Also, make sure not to steal from the Propagators; they will instead drop various stones (Flare, Meteor, Shell, ect.) upon defeat, which are much-more valuable to you than what they have to steal (Wizard Stone). With your first purple one defeated, take the upper-left exit and quickly exit out of the next room to the left before the red Propagator engages you. In this room, the second purple-colored Propagator is here and when it is defeated, this type has been eliminated. Return to the previous room and defeat the red-type, followed by returning up the stairs to eliminate the other red Propagator, taking care of them.
Take the stairs down, once more, but this time, into the room to the upper-right. Inside will be a green Propagator, a save point, and a hidden Full-life draw point. With the first green-type defeated, return to the room you faced-off with the first red-type and take a left; there will be a second green-type sitting upon the lift. Once it's defeated, the green-types will be gone. Exit downward from the lift and across the aisle to where you entered the Ragnarok. A yellow-type has taken up residence here. With it defeated, the final Propagator is in the room to the left-side of the lift. You can also check the control panel in this room to learn what you already know about the Propagators, but it may be of some interest. With the yellow-types finished, you can now use the before-hand lift and take control of the Ragnarok.
The Ragnarok is being hailed from the Esthar control station and they will be able to guide Squall through the process of returning the spaceship to Earth. Unfortunately, with Rinoa now being a sorceress, Esthar will seize her upon return and seal her powers like Adel's. Watch the beautiful scenes as Squall and Rinoa spend their last moments together...
Rinoa will willingly go along with Esthar, wanting to protect the world from what may happen if she is left to roam free under the influence of Ultimecia. A distraught Squall, feeling he has no choice but to accept Rinoa's decision, will then be left alone with the Ragnarok. Return to the passenger seating area of the spaceship and the party member you took with you to the Lunar Base will arrive; followed by Zell and the rest of your friends.
Selphie and Irvine will make off for the bridge while Zell and Quistis will think Squall a fool for allowing Rinoa to be taken without a fight. Take the lift to the bridge and Squall will be resolved to do whatever it takes to stay with Rinoa and you will then be in control of the awesome Ragnarok. With the Ragnarok at our disposal, the entire world is now open to be explored, but before we do that, we need to return Rinoa to our side. The Sorceress Memorial is in the very center of the Esthar continent; southwest of the Lunar Gate.
At the Sorceress Memorial, the soldiers will allow Squall to enter, thinking he is just there to see Rinoa off, but the weapons come out when inside. Your party members will hold everyone off as Squall cuts Rinoa free from the sealing device and they are reunited again. Upon fleeing the Memorial, a familiar-looking, silent man will call the Esthar Soldiers off, allowing you to escape. Onboard the Ragnarok again, the party will pledge their loyalty and friendship to Rinoa; sorceress or not, and she will want to visit Edea's House, which will be our next destination.
Fly to Edea's House and you will see Angelo run off on a side-path of the orphanage. Follow him and Squall and Rinoa will have another heartfelt scene. Like Seifer is with Ultimecia, Squall vows to be Rinoa's knight and stay with her, no matter what. Zell will run in, interrupting things, to say that a man named Kiros requests SeeD's presence at the Esthar Presidential Palace for a plan to defeat Ultimecia. Afterwards, you can take Rinoa to speak with Edea for some scenes between the two.
Speaking of Edea, I'm sure you've noticed by now she has been dumped from the party. Why she doesn't want to fight Ultimecia with you is beyond me, but anyway...The Gameshark code to add Edea back to your available party members is: 80077CC4 0001. Unlike Seifer, Edea will follow you around in places she could previously visit: Tears' Point, Sorceress Memorial, the Esthar-FH station, but otherwise, the same caution should be given to her that is to using Seifer. Issues usually come from staying at inns (Such as Balamb), where each
party member has their own animations the next morning, or taking her
into story events. If you keep Edea in the third party member slot
(Following last behind Squall; Irvine's position in the screenshot), the game will think that you only have
two members in your party and you shouldn't have any problems in the
field, however, there will be issues with ladders and other special
animations if in the second slot. If you put Edea and Seifer together, the game will think Squall is alone in the field, and you should have no problems with it. Remember: if not using them together, Seifer or Edea should ALWAYS be in the third party slot to avoid any potential issues.
You may be asking: "What about Laguna, Kiros, and Ward?". Since the game handles them differently than Seifer and Edea, they are trickier to place in your party, but can easily be done. Before that though, you need Seifer and/or Edea already available. Since the trio take over the position of characters during his scenarios, that is how you add them back to your party as well. Here are the codes:
Replace Seifer: 80077BA0 00??
Replace Edea: 80077C38 00??
Then, at the end of the code (??), you place the digit of the character you want. 08 for Laguna, 09 for Kiros, and 0A for Ward. Unfortunately, it's impossible to have more than two extra characters and the trio's weapons, in the status menu, will remain as Seifer and Edea's, however this is only cosmetic and has no effect on actual combat. There are codes to fix this, and if you're really interested, you can find them online or contact me and I will be glad to help you.
Having succeeded Edea as Sorceress, Rinoa now has a new limit break, along with her usual Angelo one. Angel Wing acts a lot like a magical Berserk, but extreme caution needs to be used before deploying it. Once you activate it, Rinoa is lost to you for the entire battle. She will continually cast offensive magic from her stock (But it's not deducted from the amount), at a rate of three times the damage, until the battle ends or she is knocked out. This can be abused by only putting magic such as Flare, Meteor, Holy, Ultima, in her stock; Meteor of which can be devastating combined with Angel Wing.
Now that we have the ability of flight with the Ragnarok, we can access virtually anywhere in the world. To start, there is a hidden area on the world map, near the extreme southern end of the Esthar continent. In the screenshot, the Ragnarok is hovering over the exact spot it is located.
This is where the escape pod Squall, Piet, and Ellone were on, crashed. You can find a downtrodden Piet still here. This will be an semi-important place on disc 4, but for now, you can try to win the Alexander card from him if you didn't get it at the Lunar Base. You need the Alexander card for an upcoming side-quest, by the way.
Now, let's acquire a new Guardian Force that was only available once we had the Ragnarok. Remember the desert where we fought Cactaurs earlier on the lower-eastern-side of Centra? There is a small Cactaur Island just off from it that you will see a green figure pop in-and-out of the sand on. Before you engage, I recommend you junction Water to your elemental attack. Land and try to catch the bugger as soon as it pops its head up for a battle.
A Jumbo Cactaur! Don't be intimidated by the size: he is only an annoyance and not much of a threat. Summon Cerberus, followed by using triple to cast Haste on the party, and if your HP isn't at least over 6000, cast Protect, as well. Follow up with Doomtrain to inflict Vit-0 and Slow on him and then you can use Leviathan for a quick 9999 with each casting. Note: Do not steal from Jumbo Cactaur, his drop, the Gaea's Ring, is much-better than the Cactus Thorns he has to pilfer. With Water set to elemental attack, those without Leviathan can deal great damage with just their physical attacks. Every once-and-a-while, he will hit the party with hard physical attacks, but you only need to look out for his 10,000 Needles which is instant death to a character, no matter what. Simply cast Life afterwards and take advantage of limit breaks when that happens. When Jumbo Cactaur's HP gets low, you will receive the message: "Jumbo Cactuar is hesitating"; this means he is about to flee from battle. You'll need to use your strongest attacks to finish him off, since if he escapes, you will have to redo the battle over again. When the battle is won, the party receives the Cactaur Guardian Force. While weak at first, every ten levels, Cactaur's damage increases by 1000; maxing out at 10,000 damage, with no possibility of being decreased, when at level 100. Cactaur is, also, the only GF that has the Luck-J ability. Your two other characters will need to use Luck-J Scrolls on one of their GFs to be able to junction to the Luck stat, of which I recommend the Aura spell. The Luck stat increases your chance of landing a critical hit, also, if you weren't sure. Note: Cactaur comes with a second Defend command, which cannot be taught to other GFs, so you may prefer to junction him opposite of Brothers; the other holder of the Defend command.
As you might expect, you will only encounter Cactaurs on Cactaur Island. Like mentioned when we previously talked about Cactaurs: you receive 20AP for every Cactaur you defeat, but their evasion is extremely high. Squall and Seifer have a guaranteed high-rate, while Selphie's best weapon, which we will be acquiring soon, does as well. Other than being able to steal Cactus Thorns from them, Cactaurs will also rarely drop the Jet Engine item and it's the only reliable way to obtain them. Jet Engines can teach a Guardian Force the Spd+20% ability and, with large amounts, can refine into Spd Up and Rocket Engine items; both of which can be obtained better ways than farming Jet Engines.
Back in the Esthar area now, you'll notice the land and sky have both been stained red by the Lunar Cry. Subsequent with the event, there are now new, dangerous enemies all around. You'll find encounters at the Sorceress Memorial, Tears' Point, and even within the city of Esthar, itself. The first new monster is the annoying, status effect-inducing Imp. You can steal Poison Powder from them. This is a compatibility item for Doomtrain, but otherwise, not of much use other than refining to Dark Ammo.
The most frequently encountered enemy around is probably the Torama. They can have Regen Rings pilfered from them. This item teaches a GF the HP+20% ability and refines over to the excellent Full-life magic that is, generally, a rare draw to find. Also, one Regen Ring is needed for Rinoa's best weapon, the Shooting Star. When facing the Torama, make sure to junction Break to your status defense, as their Blaster attack can petrify a character instantly.
Next up is the dangerous Iron Giant; another Final Fantasy series regular. Blind these guys immediately! They carry Star Fragments to steal, which can teach a Guardian Force the SumMag+20% ability. More importantly, however, it is an essential item for weapon creation. With two, we can change Squall over to his next-to-last weapon, Punishment, one is needed for Irvine's last weapon, and if you have three, you should be able to create Selphie's best weapon, Strange Vision.
Star Fragments are your best source for the creation of Meteor Stones, as well. Alternately, you can use both of these items to refine to the Meteor spell.
Still on the Iron Giants, with the SAM08G no longer being able to be encountered, other than by Card Modding, Iron Giants are now your source for the Running Fire item, which they will drop.
The Behemoth monster also makes, yet another, Final Fantasy return. Make sure to both Blind and Silence Behemoths (Doomtrain), because they can be dangerous. You can draw Flare magic and steal Barrier items from them, as well. Barrier teaches Quistis the blue magic, Mighty Guard, and will need to be farmed for an important GF item once we have the ability to refine them. When Quistis casts Mighty Guard, Protect and Shell are guaranteed on the party, with Float, Haste, Regen, and Aura having the possibility of being added as well the lower Quistis' HP gets to 0.
With the addition of Mighty Guard, if you've been following along, Quistis' limit break list should now be complete. If you don't have Shockwave Pulsar yet, that's okay, we will be farming for its item, again, before long.
I decided, since Quistis' limit breaks were finished, to attempt to finish Selphie's, as well. Getting her final one, The End, to appear in her slots is extremely rare. At this point, my Selphie was over level 90, but I had to get her HP as close to 0 as possible for it to appear. Once you have cast it, along with Full-cure, Wall, and Rapture, her limit break list in the status menu should be filled out. The End has the unique ability to instantly kill ANY enemy, boss or not, in the game, as long as it is not of the undead-type.
Now that items are out of the way, let's take a look at the hidden draw points we can access in the Esthar area with the Ragnarok. Land on the mountain ridge facing Tears' Point and you can hit a Holy draw point there.
Directly behind Tears' Point, on the other side of the camouflage, is a useful Ultima draw point.
There is a mountain range to the southeast of Esthar city where a Flare draw point sits.
If you fly northeast from the Esthar continent, there is a mostly-inaccessible amount of forests. There is a small, solitary island just off the coast you can draw Confuse from.
From there, you can land the Ragnarok on the mountain ridges and access the top-side forest areas. After the Lunar Cry, Malboros stopped appearing in the Esthar area, but we can still find them here, if we need Malboro Tentacles.
While not of any importance, the Hexadragon monster appears here, as well. I'm only noting it as it is an enemy that is not commonly encountered. You can steal Red Fangs from it, and it will sometimes drop Inferno Fangs.
There is one last draw point on top of one of the ridges. It's on the very end, just off the eastern coast, and facing the Chocobo Forest (Dome-shaped forest) that is down in the deeper forest below. The draw point contains Blind. Now, we're finally ready to enter Esthar city. There is an airstation you can land the Ragnarok at on the west-side of the city.
The enemies within the city are all ones we encountered outside, save for one (Although, if you want, you can find it rarely on the Esthar streets outside, as well). Look for the above screenshot, which is directly north from Dr. Odine's Lab. There is, what looks like, a wounded Esthar Soldier here, but if you speak with him, you will enter combat with an Elnoyle.
Elnoyles are essential for finishing our collection of the best weapons for each character and you are guaranteed an encounter with one every time you talk with the "soldier". When the battle is over, simply exit and reenter the screen and the "soldier" will have returned for another battle. Elnoyles are the only basic encounter in the game you can draw the Holy spell from, so make sure to stock the maximum you can of it. Elnoyles hold two very rare items, as well. First, they can be mugged for Moon Stones. With one of these, we can now create Irvine's best weapon, the Exeter. They can also be used as a compatibility item for Alexander and refine to Holy magic. Holy is best junctioned to your status defense, in my opinion.
Most importantly, Elnoyles drop Energy Crystals frequently. Alone, Energy Crystals teach a GF the SumMag+30 ability, but, otherwise, are the final item we need to complete each character's best weapon. With six in your inventory, you can now switch to Rinoa and Quistis' best weapons, Shooting Star and Save the Queen.
Then, Pulse Ammo can be refined over from one Energy Crystal. Once we have twelve Pulse Ammos in our inventory, we can equip Squall with his final weapon, the Lion Heart. The addition of Pulse Ammo should complete Irvine's limit break list, too. You should now have all six character's best weapons.
Squall: Lion Heart
Rinoa: Shooting Star
Zell: Ehrgeiz
Irvine: Exeter
Quistis: Save the Queen
Selphie: Strange Vision
At this point, all character's limit break lists should be filled, as well.
Lastly, although not recommended because we will be getting 100 of these for our inventory soon, you can refine Energy Crystals over to Ultima Stones and their magic. Next, let's head for the Presidential Palace to continue on with the story. Before you enter the office, if you go inside the room where Squall left Rinoa when he first visited Esthar earlier in the game and inspect the couch, Squall will sit down and Odine will come running out of the other room; which is odd, but a scene you can miss, I guess.
I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but Laguna, himself, is in fact, the President of Esthar, with his aides Kiros and Ward. Make sure you speak with him regarding every subject.
Honestly, I'm not going to bother to try to explain the story, cause it's a bit convoluted, but basically, we're going to enter Lunatic Pandora and save Ellone while defeating Adel, then, with the help of Ellone and Rinoa, we are going to be sent to the future to kill Ultimecia; the root of all of this chaos. Accept the mission and everyone, Laguna included, will board the Ragnarok for a final briefing.
