Final Fantasy VIII - Chapter 21: A Time-Compressed World

This next chapter will focus on obtaining the last-remaining items for our inventory before we enter the final dungeon. For those that aren't completionists, you may want to skip ahead to the last chapter; as there is little left to do in the world other than re-acquiring the Ragnarok for use, using Devour to raise your character's stats, playing cards, and farming items. That said, for my fellow completionists, jump through the middle portal off the chain-link-like bridge before the gates of Ultimecia Castle to get started.

 

The portal will take you to the world map on the Centra continent. If you bring up the large view of the world map, you'll see the flashing red dot indicating the location of the Ragnarok, however, to get there we'll have to hitch a ride on a chocobo. If you'll recall, there is a chocobo forest hidden behind a mountain range on the northeastern tip of the continent. Circle around the mountain range to the forest and pick up a chocobo. If for whatever reason you haven't already completed the forest, you'll need to before you can ride one.

Ride the chocobo around to the southwestern side of the continent, past the Centra Ruins to the shoreline, and you can use the chocobo to cross the shallows over to the land Edea's House is on.

 

From Edea's House, you'll take the path to the east, you more than likely have before, that leads between two mountain ranges and eventually to the Kashkabald Desert; where the Ragnarok awaits. Before boarding it, there is a new, fourth portal back to Ultimecia Castle nearby you can access and add to the other three already there.

You'll notice that nearly all areas on the world map are covered by a light barrier, preventing Squall from entering them. Despite the time compression, someone is still paying Squall's SeeD salary, thankfully. Anyway, the only available areas are as followed:

• Fire Cavern
  
• Tomb of the Unknown King
• Centra Ruins (Odin)
  
• Tears' Point (Encounters are gone, though)
• Trabia Canyon
• Lunar Base's Escape Pod Crash Site
  
• All Chocobo Forests, including the Sanctuary
• Deep Sea Research Center

You can also still do a handful of side-quests:

• Chocobo Forests
• Obel Lake Quest (If done on disc 3, the lake creature and Mr. Monkey will be gone)
  
• Odin/Tonberry King/Jumbo Cactaur
  
• The UFO/PuPu Quest
  
• The Solomon Ring & Doomtrain
• Deep Sea Research Center/Deposit

If you return to the escape pod crash site, which is a hidden area on the world map just a few steps off from the southeastern tip of the Esthar continent (See Chapter 16 for exact details), you'll find the Queen of Cards has taken up residence here; without her son, of course. If you did the CC Group quest at Balamb Garden earlier, there is no reason to play cards with her; she's also using about every card rule in the book. However, if you didn't do the CC Group quest, and more-than-likely didn't do the Queen of Cards quest either, you can still win the cards from that quest from her now. What you can use her for, however, is to change the card trading rules for the upcoming section.

The first time you access the interior of the Ragnarok, if you completed the CC Group quest, the party will run into Xu, who will have brought all of the card-playing members of the CC Group to the Ragnarok, which, apparently, is immune to time compression. Laguna, Kiros, and Ward will have abandoned ship, if you're curious, 'cause it'd be a shame to to have other character's help beside the main six. Anyway, now all of the CC Group members will be dispersed throughout the Ragnarok, each using a set of rules from a particular region, and you can play cards with them. The Man from Garden (Joker) will also provide a basic item and junk shop for the party just off the elevator.

If you want to play cards with Quistis (King), you'll need her in your active party, and head to the very back of the Ragnarok, to the area where Squall and Rinoa originally entered inside the spaceship. You can talk/play cards with her here even with following Squall around.

The Diamond duo, found at the bottom of the stairs, is the only one of the CC Group members we ever need to play, thankfully. Keep in mind that although they say the same thing, they are, in fact, two different players, and we always want to challenge the one on the left-side. If you placed the Queen of Cards at Shumi Village on disc 3, her trade rule at the crash site will effect the Diamond duo's trade rule here, as she is a user of the Trabia region's rules. Also, if you manipulated the card rules there in Chapter 19, the only rules she should be using is Open and/or Plus; making her an easy target for card-playing. If you didn't, you can still use the basic premise of eliminating her random rule outlined in that Chapter on the Ragnarok with each CC Group member here using a different region's rules.

So, what's so special about the CC Group on the Ragnarok, and in particular, the Diamond duo? Well, besides playing all of the level 6 and 7 boss cards, with the exception of PuPu, they will also play ANY GF or player card that is missing from your inventory; whether it was not acquired or Card Modded. The difference with the Diamond (Left) duo is that including all of these cards, she can also play any of the Queen of Cards quest cards, which the other CC Group members cannot. This will allow you to endlessly use Quezacotl's Card Mod ability to refine cards into extremely rare items, then win them back, and refine them again. Also, if you decided to keep the Girl Next Door item and not hand it over to Zone at the White SeeD Ship, you can now win the Shiva card from one of the CC Group members.

 

If you've been following along, with the acquisition of the Shiva card, you should see a nifty-looking star next to your card option in the main menu: indicating you have all the cards in the game. Coming up, I'm going to outline which cards you should Card Mod for items, along with the other last-remaining items in the world we need to refine now that we have all the refining abilities in the game. Note: Once you refine a card, I recommend winning it right back, preventing the Diamond girl from holding multiple powerful cards in her deck at one time.

 

Recommended Cards:

• Shumi Tribe (Lvl 6 boss, 5 needed for Gambler's Spirit, only way to obtain this item)
• Chubby Chocobo (LuvLuvG x100)
• Angelo (Elixir x100)
  
• Gilgamesh (Holy War x10)
• Ifrit (Elem Atk x3)
• Siren (Status Atk x3)
• Minotaur (Adamantine x10) 
• Carbuncle (Glow Curtain x3)
• Leviathan (Doc's Code x3)
• Alexander (Moon Curtain x3)
• Phoenix (Phoenix Spirit x3)
• Bahamut (Megalixir x100)
• Doomtrain (Status Guard x3)
• Eden (Monk's Code x3)
• Ward (Gaea's Ring x3)
• Kiros (Accelerator x3)
• Laguna (Hero x100)
• Selphie (Elem Guard x3)
• Quistis (Samantha Soul x3)
• Irvine (Rocket Engine x3)
• Zell (Hyper Wrist x3)
• Rinoa (Magic Armlet x3)
• Edea (Royal Crown x3)
• Seifer (Diamond Armor x3)
• Squall (Three Stars x3)

Let me just comment on the basic items first. 100 LuvLuvGs are the easiest, and quickest, way to max out your character's compatibility with all Guardian Forces. Unlike other compatibility items, these have no side-effect of altering other GFs due to it having a positive effect on all GFs. Elixir and Megalixirs should be self-explanatory, but these are also perfect to sell for additional Gil.

 

The Hero items you obtain from the Laguna card can be refined over to the Holy War-trail item. While useless with being able to obtain basic Holy Wars from the Gilgamesh card, it's important to have for us completionists.

Holy Wars, from the Gilgamesh card, which grants your entire party invincibility for a short period of time, will be essential for an upcoming optional boss inside of Ultimecia Castle, so I recommend you refine this card several times. In addition, you can refine Holy Wars to the Knight's Code item, that teaches a GF the Cover ability.

 

While you can get Adamantine as a drop from the Adamantoise enemy, it's much more advantageous to refine them from the Minotaur card. Adamantine teach a GF the Vit+60% that none of them have by default, but refine into two rare items, as well. The first being Vit Up, that permanently increases a character's Vitality stat.

 

The other item is the Steel Curtain. This can teach a Guardian Force the Auto-Protect ability and is the only way you can obtain the item. The Gaea's Ring (HP+80%), Hyper Wrist (Str+60%), Magic Armlet (Mag+60%), and Royal Crown (Spr+60%), while important Guardian Force ability items for your character's statistics, are also used to refine into permanent stat-raising items, as well. If you don't want to use the card-refining route, you can also your Call Shop ability to purchase Power Wrists, Hypno Crowns, Force Armlets, and Giant's Rings and refine them into their improved counterpart; although be warned: this will take a substantial amount of Gil to do.

 

Gaea's Rings can be turned into the HP Up item.

 

Hyper Wrist to Str Up.

 

Magic Armlet refines over to Spr Up.

 

And lastly, Royal Crowns can create Mag Ups.

Let's take a look at three of the other items on the card-refining list: Elem Guard, Diamond Armor, and Samantha Soul. These are important for maximizing your Guardian Force's abilities. Diamond Armor teaches the GF ability GFHP+40%, while Samantha Soul teaches SumMag +40%. Elem Guard is needed on, at least, a third character, opposite Doomtrain and Alexander, to teach a GF the Elem-Defx4 ability.

Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Diablos, and Cerberus all should have Diamond Armor used on them to maximize their HP. The rest of the Guardian Forces either already come with GFHP+40% or max out their HP (9999) at or around level 100.

For SumMag+40%, Eden, Bahamut, and Doomtrain have this ability by default, while Diablos, Carbuncle, Cerberus, and Cactaur have no use for it, leaving Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Brothers, Leviathan, Pandemona, Alexander, and Tonberry needing to be taught it via the Samantha Soul.

The remainder of the items listed for card-refining are mostly for your inventory and completionists, but their usage is as followed:

• Elem Atk (Elem-Atk-J Ability)
• Status Atk (ST-Atk-J Ability)
• Status Guard (ST-Defx4 Ability, important, but obtained item previously)
  
• Glow Curtain (Auto-Reflect Ability)
• Moon Curtain (Auto-Shell Ability) 
• Accelerator (Auto-Haste Ability)
  
• Doc's Code (Med Data Ability)
• Monk's Code (Counter Ability)
  
• Phoenix Spirit (Revive Ability)
• Three Stars (Expendx3-1 Ability)
• Rocket Engine (Spd+40% Ability)

Now, let's focus on the remainder of items we need to farm in order to obtain the last items for our inventory. A lot of these are going to revolve around the Dark Matter item, unfortunately. If you'll recall, you need 100 Curse Spikes and a lvl 100 Siren to create Dark Matters. You can commonly find Tri-Faces, that you typically steal 6/8 Curse Spikes at a time from, on the first few floors after climbing down into the Deep Sea Research Center. Dark Matter can be turned into a Shaman Stone; a fairly useless Bahamut compatibility item on its own, but this also refines into other rare items.

 

Shaman Stones can refine to Rosetta Stones, which you should have gotten a few of already. If you're lacking one for your inventory, you will find one inside of Ultimecia Castle. Alternately, you can turn Rosetta Stones back into Shaman Stones. Rosetta Stones teach a very important ability: Ability x4, which only the Bahamut GF has by default.

Ten Shaman Stones and a lvl 100 Doomtrain are needed to create Hero-trails...The most-useless, and hardest-to-obtain item outside of the Hungry Cookpot. Hero-trails can, occasionally, render one character invincible. Confused characters really seem to like to use this item, too...

Dark Matter can create Luck-J Scrolls, as well. You could have gotten two of these already, but if not, you need two of them for your characters as Cactaur is the only Guardian Force that possesses the Luck-J ability by default.

 

The Luck-J Scroll you can use to refine to a Luck Up item. This is the only way you can perma-increase a character's Luck stat.

We need 100 Whisper items to create a Healing Ring. Healing Rings teach a GF the useful Recover ability. About 50% of the time you can get 3-4 Whispers from mugging Adamantoise enemies; best located on the shorelines near Dollet.

 

One Healing Ring creates 20 G-Mega-Potions, which is a total waste, but unfortunately, this is the best way to acquiring a large-number of these. If you only want one, or a few, you can alternately refine Propagator or Sphinxara boss cards.

Silver Mails create Gold Armor; the little brother of the Diamond Armor. Although the menu says you need ten of these, you, in fact, only need five to create one. Silver Mails are, rarely, won from Snow Lions you can find in the forests around Trabia Garden. Junction Firaga to your elemental attack to dispatch them quicker. If you want Quezacotl, Shiva, and Siren to have maximum HP, they will need a Gold Armor in addition to a Diamond one.

 

For our next item, we need to farm Dragon Fangs. Eight of these are normally dropped by Blue Dragons. You can find them commonly inside the steam room of the Deep Sea Research Center, or rarely, in the Trabia forests where you found the Snow Lions. Once you have gathered 100, they can refine into a Med Kit that can teach a GF the Treatment ability.

We need to encounter Behemoths next. They are semi-rare on the world map around the Tears' Point and Lunar Gate area. They can be mugged for a handful of Barriers at a time, which, when you have acquired 50 of, refine to an Aegis Amulet. This teaches the necessary Eva-J ability that only Eden and Cactaur have by default.

 

For the last farming session, take a trip to Cactaur Island. Cactaurs can be mugged for and drop Cactus Thorns. Squall, Seifer, and Selphie, with the Strange Vision weapon, can all land a guaranteed hit on Cactaurs, just as a reminder. With 100 of these on hand, you can create a Hundred Needles item. This teaches a GF the Return Damage ability that no Guardian Force in the game has. Equipped, the ability reflects a respectable amount of damage an enemy inflicts on a character back onto them. Very nice to have.

Hundred Needles can also be used to create the Spd Up item. This is the only way in the game you can permanently increase a character's Speed stat. Alternately, you can farm Irvine's card for Rocket Engines, which many of refine to Spd Ups, as well.

 

And last, but not least, if you can get your hands on two Spd Ups, you can refine to a Spd-J Scroll, which you should only need for your inventory with Pandemona, Cerberus, and Eden having the Spd-J ability already.

Check your item inventory now. On the final page (18), you should only be lacking six items. Two of these are for the Magical Lamp and Solomon Ring you have no choice but to use to obtain the Diablos and Doomtrain Guardian Forces. However, the other four: Chocobo's Tag, Friendship, Ribbon, and Mog's Amulet can only be obtained via the PocketStation, not available outside of Japan. So, if you are only lacking those six items, congratulations: you have obtained every item possible.

 

Before we advance to the final dungeon, I want to note the usefulness of Eden's Devour ability. If you weaken specific enemies down to critical condition, you can use this command ability to raise a character's statistics permanently. Demi and Scan can help with getting enemies into critical condition, but avoid Diablos because it can, in fact, kill enemies if used too many times. In the above screenshot, you can see Selphie used Devour on a Behemoth, and although it will always give a vague message, her Magic stat increased by 1. Below are the monsters you can Devour for stat increases and their locations:

• Ruby Dragon: HP+10 (Forests outside Edea's House, First screen of Deep Sea Research Center)
• Adamanotise: Vit+1 (Beaches outside of Dollet)
• T-Rexaur: Str+1 (Forests outside Balamb area, Island Closest to Hell)
• Behemoth: Mag+1 (World Map near Tears' Point)
• Malboro: Spr+1 (Grandidi Forest, which is due-north of Esthar)

See you next in the final chapter!