Points of Interest II hints and tips for Final Fantasy VIII

Points of Interest II

First off - a correction. You can only get an adamantine the SECOND TIME you face the 'Iron Clad' (it's name is far too awkward to remember). Sorry.

This time I will be focussing on junctions, and ways to get them.

To begin with, Ultima is occasionally NOT the best magic for a particular stat. The best example is that the best magic to junction to 'hit' is triple, not ultima, and by FAR. 100 triples add 150% accuracy to the equipped character - normally enough to raise accuracy to the ceiling 255%, and pretty much gaurantee a hit every time. (Very helpful under blind or against cactaurs.)

And, Meltdown comes very highly recommended for vitality; given that it's easier to obtain than Ultima, use it in it's stead.

The second point is how to obtain regular junction scrolls (i.e. Str-J, vit-J, HP-J, spr-J, mag-J) - you get Tonberry's Familiar ability, and you can then buy them from Timber Pet Shop - and a few of the 'rarer' ones.

Spd-J is the easiest to get, and very helpful too. You'll need Eden's ability to refine items into gf-teaching items, and Doomtrain's ability to refine things like str-up. Then, keep facing plenty of cactaurs. When you have 100 cactuar needles, refine them (using Eden) into 1 'hundred needles' (teaches Return Damage). Then further refine into 1 spd-up - raises speed by 1 point. Do this twice, and you can then refine the two spd-ups into a spd-J scroll.

The Aegis Amulet is much tougher to get a hold of, but allows junctioning to Evade (and so works in part with spd-J). Get 50 barriers, and you can then refine them into 1 Aegis Amulet. (You tend to get barriers from Iron Giants and Behemoths most - but at around 2 a time, if you're lucky!) You'll need Eden again, though.

Luck-J scrolls can be hard to get too. Get a level 100 siren, 100 curse spikes (Best bet is to mug from Tri-Faces) and then use tool refine to create 1 Dark Matter. This is a very useful item for several things. It can be refined into Shaman Stones (Which increase compatability for Bahamut by 3 each) using a further Tool refine, then further refined into a Rosetta Stone - which teaches a GF the Abilityx4 ability. Or, it can be given to Quistis to teach Shockwave Pulsar - which can break the limit of 9999 for damage. Lastly, to get the luck-J scroll, it can be refined into 1 luck-up, which should be refinable into 1 luck-J scroll. Given you have Eden again...

I'm afraid I don't know of any item with which you can teach hit-J, though.

Oh, and thirdly, triple is easiest made by refining dragon fins into Doubles, then using Alexander's High Magic Refine to turn the 20 doubles from each fin into 2 triples. If that takes too long for your liking, draw as many as possible from Odin or Cerberus.

And fourthly, a hint I read here before, but has since gone missing... To absorb 90% of every element, equip 100 ultimas, 100 shells, 100 lifes and 100 full-lifes to elemental defence (If you have less than 4 slots, then Ultima takes proirity, followed by full-life and then life). This is very helpful for me as a substitute for healing magic in a fix...

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