************************************ ************************************ **F I N A L ** **F A N T A S Y ** **V I I I ** **No Level Up, No Junction FAQ ** **By: TitanCannon4 ** **Started: 6/6/07 June 06, 2007 ** **Finished: 6/29/07 June 29, 2007 ** **E-mail: [email protected] ** ************************************ ************************************ ***Version 2.6*** -****************************************************************************- |I. Table Of Contents | -****************************************************************************- I. Table Of Contents II. Introduction III. Version History IV. Legal Statement V. Rules of Challenge VI. Extras VII. Boss Strategies VIII. Contacting IX. FAQ X. Credits -****************************************************************************- |II. Introduction | -****************************************************************************- Well, hi. This is my first FAQ/Walkthrough I've written, and instead of making a regular walkthrough, I decided to write one for a new challenge. FFVIII is the 8th installment in the FF series from SquareSoft (Later/Now SquareEnix), and is my personal favorite game in the RPG genre. I won't guide you through this game, as if you're attempting a challenge, you should be fairly fluent in knowing what to do at each part. Just to let you know, there's more than one way to win and maybe some strategies better than mine, so feel free to try other ways to beat a boss if it sounds like it'll work. If you'd like to contact me, go right ahead. Refer to the Contacting section on ways to get a hold of me. Enjoy. -****************************************************************************- |III. Version History | -****************************************************************************- Version 0.0- June 6, 2007- I got the idea to write the FAQ, and began doing so. Version 1.0- June 29, 2007- Finished FAQ and submitted to GameFAQs. Version 1.1- July 3, 2007- Corrected numerous spelling errors and added stuff. Version 1.2- July 5, 2007- Corrected some things and added new info. Version 1.8- July 9, 2007- Added another strategy for Propagators, new info, split strategies into paragraphs for easier reading, and changed some things. Version 2.0- June 12, 2008- Noticed I didn't have a boss strategy, touched up some strategies, edited some sentences because the way I had some of them worded made me look like a 4th grader. I don't believe there's any more I can do here. Version 2.6- July 4-16, 2009- Complete overhaul of the guide. Added a lot, found a few spelling and grammar mistakes that I somehow missed before, merged a few sections together to give you guys an easier time so you can simply scroll straight through the main part of the guide instead of having to go back and forth between sections, and I updated my contact information. I also decided to range the EXP totals from enemies from highest EXP count you can get from the enemies to the lowest, in the event that you want to do things your own way. **My game basically broke, however (I got stuck on the FMV with Rinoa on the Garden after it's mobile), so it's not FULLY complete in the overhaul. I'm just updating it now because I'll probably have to go back through the game (or at least a good chunk of it) and the updates I've made are mostly very crucial. Better something, than nothing.** -****************************************************************************- |IV. Legal Statement | -****************************************************************************- This guide cannot be reproduced in any way, shape or form without my consent unless for private use. If you want to use my guide on your web site, you MUST ask for permission by E-mail and I may or may not give permission. Taking my guide and using it without permission is a copyright violation and punishable by law. When, and only when, I give permission will anything other than private use be allowed. Copyright 2007 Chris Boyd. I also note, if you do see my guide on another site other than: www.gamefaqs.com www.neoseeker.com www.supercheats.com Then alert me as soon as possible, please. -****************************************************************************- |V. Rules of Challenge | -****************************************************************************- No Level - This is simple. Do not level, ever. Seeing as the other rule in this challenge prevents you from using Card, you'll have to know how to distribute the EXP, which I will help you do later. AND, if you weren't sure, run from every random encounter. No Junction - About as simple as No Level. You cannot junction whatsoever. So, this means you'll have to rely on base-stat attacking and limits. -****************************************************************************- |VI. Extras | -****************************************************************************- ***NOTE: This section will mostly contain all forced fights and how to disperse EXP (or how not to). The rest will be about what you need to do to make sure you won't be boned over in Ulty's Castle and what to do with left over EXP. I may also include random things that I wanted to include here.*** HOW TO PREPARE FOR ULTIMECIA'S CASTLE: Needs: - Gilgamesh. - Invincible Moon. Wishing Star. Cheap Things to Have: - ePSXe. - Knowledge of how to exploit save states. ORDER OF ULTIMECIA FIGHTS (The strategy for the fights will be covered in the boss strategy section, this is just quick for checking which of the bosses you must fight first, their location, and what to unlock.): 1st: Tri-Point; In the Wine cellar; Limit Break 2nd: Sphinxaur/Sphinxara; Top of the Staircase; Item 3rd: Any boss will do; Resurrection After these three, you're basically free to do whatever you want. Either clear the rest out or go straight to Ultimecia. WHY YOU MUST GET THE GF'S I SPECIFY: In order for you to win at all in Ultimecia's Castle, you need Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh's attacks "Masamune" and "Excalibur" have higher damage the higher your GF's average level is. The only GF's you want to get is Quetzalcoatl, Shiva, Ifrit, Cerberus, Cactuar, and Tonberry. These GF's give you an average level of 13 (rounded up). Gilgamesh's attack Masamune will do about 3900 damage at level 13. A critical hit will do upwards of 4400. Our first boss (Tri-Point) has 4400 HP. In the event that Gilgamesh does about 4300, Squall comes in with a trigger-strike and finishes him. This is impossible to do without Gilgamesh's critical. FORCED FIGHTS: Fight #1- Dollet Fights - Your first fights where you have no choice but to gain EXP, located in Dollet. Right when you enter into the town, you'll encounter a string of fights you cannot run away from as you progress further into the town. But luckily, we have Seifer to absorb all of that nasty EXP. Simply kill off Squall and Zell and then have Seifer demolish all the fights from the first soldiers to the Anacondaur. Even after all the fights, he won't level up, so don't worry. EXP Gained- Somewhere in the 700 zone. Given To- Seifer Fight #2- Timber fights - Make sure your party is Rinoa, Selphie, and Squall, then on the screen of the pub, you'll be forced to fight two soldiers. But wait, we don't have Seifer to absorb the EXP this time! Now, with Selphie, you have her limit break, which really rocks. What you should do is get Selphie into the ~100 HP zone and use her limit, continually using Do Over until you come across Blind, either a set of 2 or 3, and Use them. Hopefully, you'll blind both soldiers, so now they can't attack you. Next, use her limit again and Do Over until you see Silence with a 2 or 3 set and Use them. More than likely, both soldiers will be silenced and blinded, preventing them from attacking at all. If not, use the appropriate magic from Selphie's limit. Now, you have all the time in the world to access Selphie's limit and look for the magic "Break". If you don't find it after about 50 or so Do Over's, exit out of the limit and enter back in and try again. Break doesn't always work, so it may take a while for you to have Break work on both of them. Once they're both petrified, you automatically win the fight and gain no EXP. EXP Gained- 0 Given To- N/A Fight #3- Laguna Dream Sequence - This is the first time you'll be forced to gain EXP for your main party so far, if you're using my methods. Here you only have Squall, Quistis, and Selphie to use, but since Selphie is Kiros, we, sadly, cannot use the "Break" tactic. Damn. Oh well. There's only two forced fights that you gain EXP from, both right at the beginning. Due to the enemies' level being 4/5 or 6/5 of your party's, you may need to reset the game a couple times to get optimal EXP. Kill off Laguna and Ward in the first fight and have Kiros beat the one soldier. Next fight, you have three soldiers to contend with, having only Kiros to us. It won't take long to beat them all, but winning these fights isn't the hard part. From both fights, Selphie (Kiros) should have 675 EXP remaining. If not, reset until it is so. Tiresome, but otherwise you'd be cutting it close later on in the game. EXP Gained- 325 Given To- Selphie (675 Remains) Fight #4- D-District Prison - After you exit the room, run between the stairs and down to Floor 6, save, and then go up to Floor 8. Fight the two guards and you SHOULD only gain 154 EXP. If not, reset and repeat as needed. EXP Gained- 154 Given To- Zell (846 Remains) Fight #5- D-District Prison - In the prison you'll hear gunfire once Squall and his party gets to the bottom floor and finds the sand. After the screen goes black and the dialogue begins, hold down the right button and try to maneuver perfectly to avoid the guard catching you. Simply stay along the edge of the inner circle without getting lagged up by accidentally turning too much and you should go to the next screen without fighting the guard. It's mandatory you avoid this fight to save EXP for later. EXP Gained- Hopefully 0 Given To- N/A Fight #6- Galbadia Missile Base - You're found out by the base soldiers, now you must demolish them. Be sure to have saved. So they aren't difficult, but sort of tiresome. I'm pretty sure you can only get as low as 372 EXP, when you have Zell/Selphie kill the soldier and leader, kill Selphie and Zell, then finish off the last one with Irvine. If you want to take a HUGE risk, you can use Selphie's Slot and Silence, Blind and Sleep all of them. Afterwards, use Selphie's Slot AGAIN and PRAY, oh man, PRAY to find Break of a 3 cast, have it hit all of them, and win. It'll probably take 5 or more Slot casts of Break, regardless of how many casts you get on each one, and even finding Break on slots is a low enough chance as it is. I don't recommend using Break here unless you really want extra EXP in the end, as, unlike the old Timber fights, these guys are stronger and more powerful, which can make this pretty hard to accomplish. Also, I don't even think these guys can be petrified. After about 15 breaks, I had nothing. Just don't waste your time on the Break method and go for the 372 EXP. EXP Gained- 372 Given To- Irvine (628 Remains) Fight #7- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved outside of the Garden and head to the right of the directory and enter the library. Talk to the Faculty and choose the second choice and you'll be forced into a fight with a Grat. Kill off Squall and Quistis then have Rinoa finish the Grat. You should get 149 EXP. Now, to avoid the next battles, just follow as I do. Go to the Training Center and run to the screen where you see the Garden Faculty run off with two other students, then run back to the directory. Head to the hall of the Infirmary and when the option comes up, choose to "Let Them Handle It". Run back to the directory and Squall should see Xu running up the stairs to the elevator. If not, go back to each place and make sure you talked to everyone there. EXP Gained- 149 Given To- Rinoa (851 Remains) Fight #8- FH - Save then run straight down the train tracks and watch the scene. Initiate the battle and have Squall kill off the regular soldiers or a regular soldier and the elite soldier. I'm not sure it has a difference but if anyone wants to verify, go right ahead. After killing two of them with Squall, kill off Squall so he won't get any EXP. Work down Quistis and Rinoa for the next fight then kill off the last one using Rinoa. You should only gain 285 EXP for Quistis and 295 for Rinoa. I think the one who doesn't get the final hit can go as low as 272, though it's only 12 EXP, aim for it. EXP Gained- 285; 295 Given To- Quistis (215 Remains); Rinoa (556 Remains) Fight #9- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved then choose the team of Squall, Irvine, and Selphie. Run up to the classroom and you'll start a scene then end up in a forced fight. Get Selphie weak and have her use Slot. Hope to find Break and petrify them. This process will take a long time and is extremely risky, but it saves you a nice hunk of EXP. I'd have to say it's mandatory to use Break here since later on Irvine will be tight for EXP, so I really advise you to at least Break a couple of the Soldiers, if not all. If you don't, I'm not quite sure, but it might be about 500 EXP. EXP Gained- 0 Given To- N/A Fight #10- Laguna Dream Sequence - Your party should be Laguna-Squall, Zell-Kiros, and Ward-Quistis. Choose the second option when box comes up and go save. Now, this is going to be one of the more riskier fights. You have three objectives to do here. The first is you must give all EXP to Kiros/Zell, the second is make sure the EXP is 800, and the last is get an Inferno Fang from the Ruby Dragon. Now, the Ruby Dragon has a good 3700 HP or so, and everyone's limit should do about 300 damage. Get the picture of what you should do? If you're still weak from the Disc 2 Edea fight, then cure everyone but Laguna/Squall. Have Laguna/Squall have about 200 HP then go into the fight. Ruby Dragon should attack Laguna/Squall and Laguna/Squall should then get a turn. Have him use Desperado 9 times while Kiros and Ward attack. If Laguna/Squall dies before 9 Desperado's, just substitute someone else for him, they all do around the same amount of damage. After the 9 hits, have Kiros/Zell in limit break zone and then have Laguna/Squall and Ward/Quistis kill each other off, if the Ruby Dragon hasn't done so yet. Then, you have Kiros/Zell use Blood Pain until Ruby Dragon falls. EXP Gained- 800 Given To- Zell (46 Remains) EXTRA FIGHTS FOR FLAME SABER: Fight #1- Centra Ruins - Forbidden - This little guy is actually pretty tough. You know to save beforehand, and work down Quistis to use Micro Missiles. Use Micro Missiles until it does double digit damage then kill off Squall and Quistis. Now have Selphie attack quickly to finish off the Forbidden. You should get about ~200 EXP and a Betrayal Sword. Fight #2- Beach behind Dollet - Adamantoise - Keep Quistis and Squall at low HP to use Micro Missiles (Or Degenerator, if it works, I hadn't thought of using that at that moment in time) and Renzokuken. These guys can be tough, all thanks to their ability to use White Wind. Have her use Micro Missiles on one and Squall Renzokuken that same one, then kill Selphie and Squall and escape from the battle. You should get 190 or so EXP and a Turtle Shell. You should already have the 4 screws, so go to the nearest Junk Shop (in Dollet) and get the Flame Saber. EXP Gained- 390-- 200; 190 Given To- Selphie (475 Remains); Quistis (25 Remains) BACK TO THE FORCED FIGHTS... Fight #11- Laguna Dream Sequence - This will easily be the toughest forced fight in the game, because of the sheer difficulty to get everything to work your way. I'll split these into 5 different parts for simplicity. Part 1- Soldier - You get only Laguna to use, and this is easy. Just regularly attack and you should get 74 EXP. Part 2- Soldier, Cyborg, Gesper - Now you have the whole team. Work down Laguna and Kiros then have Kiros Blood Pain the Cyborg and the Gesper to death then kill off Kiros and Laguna. Now have Ward finish off the Soldier. You should get 322 EXP. **Save at the save point once everything goes your way so we don't have to do this again. Part 3- Soldier, Cyborg, Elastoid- Beat down Kiros until he's at about 130 HP. Have Ward attack the Cyborg, then Laguna kill the Cyborg. Have Kiros continually use Blood Pain on the Elastoid until it starts flailing around, then have Ward or Laguna kill it. Kill Laguna and Ward then have Kiros kill the soldier. You should gain 458 EXP. **Make absolutely sure you fully heal your party before anything. Part 4- Soldier x2 - Have Ward kill one of them then kill off Ward and Kiros. Get Laguna to kill off the last one. You should get 148 EXP. **Use a Phoenix Down on Ward then use a potion on Laguna if he needs it. Part 5- Cyborg x2 - Start out with Ward killing one, then kill Ward. Have Laguna finish off the last one and you should get 218 EXP. EXP Gained- 1272 (est.)-- 440; 458; 322 Given To- Squall/Laguna (60 Remains), Irvine/Kiros (170 Remains), Selphie/Ward (153 Remains) ***NOTE: These EXP counts may go lower than I've stated. If you want to tell me, contact me and tell me which one. I'll give full credit per each. *There is one more forced fight if you try to enter the Lunatic Pandora when it comes across the city, but since you don't need to actually get on LP, just let the time run out. And there you are. Every forced fight in the game accounted for. If you've made it this far, your No Level part of this game has no more challenges aside from making sure you don't accidentally fall into a random encounter and gain a level. Your characters should have the following EXP left: Squall- 60 Quistis- 25 Zell- 46 Selphie- 153 Rinoa- 556 Irvine- 118 So that comes to about 958 EXP to use to your needs. **Note: Some EXP counts may be a little off, due to screw ups, parts where I messed up but went on anyway, and so on. I'll get everything near perfect soon. EXTRA BOSS FIGHTS: v. 3.0 Update: The way I wrote this made it look like these bosses were truly optional. They're not optional for this challenge (excluding Diablos) but they are optional for the main storyline. Thus, I'm going to change this so it can be clearer. I also added to Cerberus to the main storyline bosses because you can only get him once (thanks to No Junction). Challenge-Required Boss #1: Jumbo Cactuar Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Head to Cactuar Island on the Ragnarok, work your party down to limit break zone HP amounts and then save. Touch the Cactuar that keeps jumping up from the ground to begin the battle. Start off by casting Acid on JC and hoping for a Vit 0. Now have Squall and Zell use their respective limit breaks (Gotta love JC's actions when Squall does the Renzokuken) doing some nice damage. If no one is killed off, have Quistis use Homing Laser and have Squall and Zell repeat their actions. Just keep doing the same thing until JC falls over. Another setup is to substitute Rinoa for Zell and in the same position, except she should use Invincible Moon/Wishing Star. One less Cactuar in the world. You might die. Rating- 6 Challenge-Required Boss #2: Tonberry King Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: **To beat the Tonberries, simply use three or four Micro Missiles then a Renzokuken. In Centra Ruins, go ahead and beat Odin then fight 16 Tonberries, then go save. Come back in and for every Tonberry you fight that you don't fight TK right after the Tonberry, go back out and save. When you finally do fight him, right off the bat have Zell Duel, Quistis start using Homing Laser, and Squall use a Renzokuken. If Zell doesn't take out TK, the Homing Laser and Renzokuken probably should, if you do get a 12 second Duel, use the Armageddon Fist, and can pull off .20 or less moves in a consistent manner. This is a long fight if you can't pull off good Duels. Like JC, Rinoa can be substituted in Zell's place, with Rinoa again using Invincible Moon/Wishing Star, which I personally prefer this method with Rinoa. You might die. Rating- 6 Challenge-Required Boss #3: Odin Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: You really don't need a strategy. Odin never attacks. You do. It's really simple. Just have Zell Duel, Quistis Homing Laser, and Squall Renzokuken and Odin will go down before the time limit runs out. You won't die, well, at least HE won't kill you. Rating- 1. **NOTE: ONLY DO THIS FIGHT AFTER YOU HAVE BEATEN TRI-POINT!!** Truly Optional Boss #1: Diablos Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: I wonder why this guy is #2...Well, you're late game and normally here, he'd be trouble. Not on this challenge though. Same procedure, have everyone at low HP. This battle will be mostly about how quick you can get attacks off. Use whoever's limit comes first (Homing Laser for Quistis, Combine for Rinoa) then repeat the method. It won't take more than 2 Homing Lasers, one if you nail 9999 on the first shot. You shouldn't die. Rating- 3 Truly Optional Boss #2: Sacred ---> Sacred + Minotaur -****************************************************************************- |VII. Boss Strategies | -****************************************************************************- In order to give you a good run-down of it, I'll give you the name of the boss, my party, the weapons I'm using in parentheses, the strategy, if you will die or not, and the difficulty rating, from 1-10. The rating description for each one is: 1- You'd really have to kill yourself. 2- A suitable opponent...for a Bite Bug. 3- Hey, it might do some damage! 4- Not difficult really. 5- Easy enough, will give you some trouble. 6- It might hurt you. 7- Sort of hard. 8- It takes some luck to win here. 9- "Some luck" changes into "Much luck." 10- 99% Luck. Have fun. *^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^D I S C 1*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^ **Run from all battles, if you didn't know. In the event that you are attacked, you've been given a stock of Potions and Tents to use as you see fit. You should only use them IMMEDIATELY BEFORE the battle with Ifrit, if you even need to at all. **If you decide that you want ~100 Judgment (which isn't completely useless, a higher SeeD rank means more money coming in, which in turn means more curative items you can buy), choose the 10 minute time limit. If you have a lot of time left (5+ minutes) and you've reached Ifrit, sit on the screen and let the time run out. It shouldn't take but about 3-4 minutes to beat Ifrit, so going into the fight at about 5 minutes should keep you safe. Since you can't scan him to see when to stop attacking so as to keep him alive for one final hit at the last second, you can either accept a loss of points or manually keep track of the damage you do and subtract it from 1068, which should be his HP. That's a lot of extra work, though. Boss #1: Ifrit Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Being the first boss and with you having basically only the tactic of hacking and slashing, I suggest you hack and slash. Use limits once your HP is low enough and they should get the job done easily. You have to be very unlucky to die. Rating- 3 **After returning to Garden and changing into your uniform, you obtain a new party member, Zell. Zell's limit break is incredibly important here (just like in a regular playthrough, he can be the most powerful character when his limit is abused correctly), as it makes a few boss fights possible. If you're in the dark about how Zell's limit break is so powerful, then you've obviously not heard of the "Armageddon Fist" combination. It's pretty simple. You use Zell's limit and use Punch Rush and Booya. Over and over and over. Two buttons to input for each of the attacks, and they're right beside each other. O and X, Left and Right. You can beat many bosses with one or two Duels if you have fast enough fingers. Fun challenge: See how fast you can do it. My personal record for Punch Rush is .03 seconds and Booya is .06. Fight #1- Dollet Fights - Your first fights where you have no choice but to gain EXP, located in Dollet. Right when you enter into the town, you'll encounter a string of fights you cannot run away from as you progress farther into the town. But luckily, we have Seifer to absorb all of that nasty EXP. Simply kill off Squall and Zell and then have Seifer demolish all the fights from the first soldiers to the Anacondaur. Even after all the fights, he won't level up, so don't worry. EXP Gained- Somewhere in the 700 zone. (767, personally. It may vary.) Given To- Seifer Boss #2: Biggs, Wedge/Elvoret Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Alright, this isn't real tough. Beat the hell out of Biggs with regular attacks until Wedge shows up. Then, rotate the beatings. Have Squall and Zell attack Biggs while Selphie attacks Wedge on one turn, then have Squall and Zell attack Wedge while Selphie attacks Biggs on the next, and so on. Keep everyone at above 200 HP. Then, Biggs and Wedge are swept away by TORNADO FROM HEAVEN. Elvoret will hit you with Storm Breath for about 100 damage to all, possibly getting Selphie to a limit. Using her limit, you can get any magic. Any. Magic. Aim for something like Thunder or similar to it and make sure it's 3 casts. If you get something like an -aga or Aura, use those too. 1 -aga magic = 3 regular magic, so if it's more than 1 cast of the -aga magic, you're in good shape. If the whole party is about ~100 HP, have Zell and Squall activate their limits then select Selphie to use her's and get her to use Full-Cure. That way, you get in two limits and then back up to full health. Repeat until Elvoret falls, and don't worry if you lose once or twice, he isn't a pushover. You very well could die. Rating- 6 **After the battle, your party will probably be fairly low on HP. Go down the lift, save your game, and then heal up your party appropriately. You can do three things: Heal up Squall and Zell and try to get great magic using Selphie's limit, you can heal up Selphie and Squall and use Duel and abuse Armageddon Fist, or you can use a Tent and heal everyone, then simply pound on X-ATM092, using limit breaks as they come. Whichever you decide. Optionally Forced Boss: X-ATM092 Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon) Strategy: I call this robot spider an "Optionally Forced Boss" because that's what he is. He's optional, but you're forced to fight him this first time. And he's a boss. The name works. Anyway, this guy is fairly tough in a regular game, so here, you're going to have even more fun. He has fairly high HP (something like 5260 or so, based on my memory), but it isn't hard to deplete the required amount of that. I mentioned in the above paragraph about how to heal and prepare for this guy, so defeat him using any of those methods. I chose to heal Squall and Zell and had Selphie's limit conjure up good magic (specifically, I got 3 casts of Thundaga, which dealt out 1500+ damage, quickly ending the fight and I escaped). When I say "Strategy", I'm talking about how to get away from X-ATM092 without having to fight him again. After defeating him the first time, run along the path to the next screen. Hold down, you'll get away from him easily. While the screen is black loading the next screen (the next screen is the screen where you jumped off the cliff and you obtained Selphie), hold left. Right when the next screen loads, you'll be running left across the screen and X-ATM092 will jump up the cliff, narrowly missing you. Now you're on the screen with the hill. WALK, not run, down this hill. Walk the entire thing. On the next screen (where the guy was eaten by the Anacondaur), run like normal to the Bridge. The bridge can screw you over if you aren't listening well. Make sure your TV's volume is fairly high, then run across the bridge until you hear X-ATM092 jump and land. The moment he lands, turn around and run the way you came. He'll jump and land again. This time, when he lands, run the correct way to the next screen. He won't jump again after you turn back the right way. After the bridge, just run to the beach as fast as you can. I ended up making it there at about 24:57. Quistis is hot. **Back in Balamb, you can go to the shop (after the Hotel screen, continue to go left) and pick up some Potions if you'd like. Grab about 10 to be safe. Buy a few tents to be safe as well, have a stock of 5. You can sell any non-healing items you have, and this includes GF Returners since we don't use GFs. Money should be no problem. Ever. Boss #3: Granaldo, Raldo x3 Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Not much of a strategy needed here. Just attack at will, since I doubt you'll be taken to low enough HP for limits. You won't lose. Rating- 2 **Don't use the Magical Lamp. Diablos will honestly screw you over. He'll end up making Gilgamesh's level too low in Ultimecia's Castle, thus causing you to be unable to complete the challenge. Not good. **Also, I'm taking this time to mention, if you haven't gotten the Occult Fan I from the Library, go do that. If you ever happen to need gil, sell this for more than you'll probably ever need. The magazine is in the first bookshelf that you hit when going straight through the Library, about in the middle of the shelf. **Soon, you will obtain Rinoa, and by extension, Angelo. Angelo can learn a few moves by you reading Pet Pals. This can be more of a burden than anything in this challenge. The only Pet Pals you should read are 3 and 5, which contain Invincible Moon and Wishing Star respectively. The more moves he knows, the lower your chances are of getting Invincible Moon or Wishing Star when using him. Boss #4: Fake President/Gerogero Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Damn. Our first boss that is actually sort of hard. On the Fake President, work down Selphie to the yellow HP region while you have Squall and Zell bombard Fake President with regular attacks. Once he hits the ground and goes into the dying phase, initiate Selphie's limit break and Do Over until you get a nice spell like Firaga or even Holy. Gerogero will nail you with an attack that's pretty much him breathing on you, causing a strong 120 damage to one character plus a chance of inflicting the Blind and/or Curse statuses. If the Selphie-Limit break strategy doesn't work, go into the Fake President fight again, only this time working down Zell. Use Zell's Duel on Gerogero for massive damage in all, either using Armageddon Fist or use the "hidden" technique (Remember, you don't have to have the magazine to use the attack) which is Meteor Strike, an attack that has Demi-like qualities. If you don't remember, Meteor Strike's combination is Down-Circle-Up-Circle. Meteor Strike is used on the move list where you have Punch Rush as an option. You have a high chance of dying, to the point of where I can almost guarantee it. Rating- 7 **Once you take care of Gerogero and you're let loose in Timber, go to the shop on the left above the train tracks. You can buy magazines here, and that is exactly what you need to do. Grab Pet Pals Vol. 3 and read it. This allows Angelo to learn Invincible Moon, a skill that makes the party invincible. This challenge is impossible without it, later on. You won't NEED Invincible Moon for a long time, though. If you want to take the time to learn it now, go into a random house, make sure Angelo is set to learn it, and run around until he learns it. Use it as you see fit. Fight #2- Timber fights - Make sure your party is Rinoa, Selphie, and Squall, then on the screen of the pub, you'll be forced to fight two soldiers. But wait, we don't have Seifer to absorb the EXP this time! Now, with Selphie, you have her limit break, which really rocks. What you should do is get Selphie into the ~100 HP zone and use her limit, continually using Do Over until you come across Blind, either a set of 2 or 3, and Use them. Hopefully, you'll blind both soldiers, so now they can't attack you. Next, use her limit again and Do Over until you see Silence with a 2 or 3 set and Use them. More than likely, both soldiers will be silenced and blinded, preventing them from attacking at all. If not, use the appropriate magic from Selphie's limit. Now, you have all the time in the world to access Selphie's limit and look for the magic "Break". If you don't find it after about 50 or so Do Over's, exit out of the limit and enter back in and try again. Break doesn't always work, so it may take a while for you to have Break work on both of them. Once they're both petrified, you automatically win the fight and gain no EXP. EXP Gained- 0 Given To- N/A **Immediately after that forced fight, go to the Item shop to the left of you. Run around for a second to get a SeeD Payment (if you haven't gotten it already) and buy about 5 Phoenix Downs and 20 Potions. If you don't have the cash, sell a magazine, you won't need them. **Before entering the forest on the path to Galbadia Garden, save. Sweet Jesus, save. Here's one of the first times where you may need to reset your game, which can get frustrating if you haven't saved recently. Fight #3- Laguna Dream Sequence - This is the first time you'll be forced to gain EXP for your main party so far, if you're using my methods. Here you only have Squall, Quistis, and Selphie to use, but since Selphie is Kiros, we, sadly, cannot use the "Break" tactic. Damn. Oh well. There's only two forced fights that you gain EXP from, both right at the beginning. Due to the enemies' level being 4/5 or 6/5 of your party's, you may need to reset the game a couple times to get optimal EXP. Kill off Laguna and Ward in the first fight and have Kiros beat the one soldier. Next fight, you have three soldiers to contend with, having only Kiros to use. It won't take long to beat them all, but winning these fights isn't the hard part. From both fights, Selphie (Kiros) should have 675 EXP remaining. If not, reset until it is so. Tiresome, but otherwise you'd be cutting it close later on in the game. **Tip: For here, if it takes more than 3 regular attacks to kill one of the soldiers or the soldiers' regular attacks do 14+, it's a high leveled soldier. Each soldier = 73 EXP at lowest, so you can have a minimum of 292. I chose 325 as a good amount to get because that requires 3 low levels and 1 high, which is fairly likely to happen. 73 + 73 + 106 + 73 = 325. If you get 292, you can have more EXP to use at the end of the game, but 325 will work fine. The amounts of EXP that are possible are 292, 325, 358, 391, and 424. You actually could be fine with any of the EXP counts, but given the unpredictability later on in the game with tougher enemies, getting more wiggle room for later on can save you frustration and time. Possible EXP- 292, 325, 358, 391, 424. EXP Gained- 292 Given To- Selphie (708 remains) **Heal up. Really, the random encounters here CAN kill you if you've only got Kiros alive. I made you buy all of those curative items back at Timber because you'll need to use 2 Phoenix Downs and about 12 Potions thanks to this one sequence. Makes for angry people. From this battle alone, it'll take 2 Phoenix Downs and 6 Potions. **Laguna's Dream Sequence can be fairly hard to do correctly without proper guiding. I've taken the liberty of copy-and-pasting a paragraph detailing how to get through this place perfectly. At the next fork with three paths take the middle path and descend the ladder. At the bottom of this screen, just above the light on the left you can find an Old Key on the ground, however when you pick it up Laguna will lose it immediately, doing this will have an effect later in the game however. Continue down and examine the top of the middle hatch. Choose to tamper with the hatch. Head two more screens to the right, at around the middle of the pile of those big curcular metal rings, whatever they are, you can find another Old Key which you will immediately lose again. Follow the path up two screens and examine the object on the ground. Choose to press the red switch for the furthest boulder. Afterward press the blue switch for the closer boulder. Also, I'm adding in, go up two screens and touch that boulder on the left. You'll cause it to move down the path behind it and take out more Esthar soldiers. Not to mention, thank you A I e x. Doing these makes the forced fight at the end of this sequence shorter and give no EXP. Stupendous. **One of those soldiers at the end of the hit Ward (Selphie) and Kiros (Quistis) with Soul Crush, which took their HP to 1. This is where you use those other 6 potions, to heal up Quistis and Selphie. I had you buy Potions instead of Tents, because 12 Potions is only 1200 Gil, and 2 Tents is 2000. I'm looking out for you guys. **Don't fight Sacred and Minotaur either. They will do what Diablos does. Screw you over. Boss #5: Iguion x2 Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Irvine (Initial Weapon) Strategy: These guys can be hard, if you give them the chance. Have both of them focus attacks on one of the Iguions, while the Iguions probably will use Resonance for 200+ damage on both characters, and probably Magma Breath on Squall or Irvine for an extra 100 or so damage. If you're lucky, Resonance will take Squall to ~250 HP, and then Squall will get hit with Magma Breath, getting Squall into the yellow HP. Use Renzokuken at will on each Iguion, as the first Renzokuken should kill that one Iguion you were regular attacking earlier, and it'll take about 3 Renzokukens for the other to fall. If Squall happens to die, keep regular attacking with Irvine until he either goes into the limit break zone and use it or he finishes the Iguion off. You shouldn't die. Rating- 5 Boss #6: Seifer Party: Squall (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Seifer will mainly use his regular attack, sometimes using it right, sometimes not. He'll probably hit for about 40 damage, 80 or so on criticals. He doesn't use it often, but he can cast Fira. Fira is fairly strong, doing 150+ damage. Watch for it. Chances are, your regular attacks will hurt him pretty bad, and once he gets you into limit break zone, it should only take 1 Renzokuken. I doubt you'll lose, but you might. Rating- 6 Boss #7: Edea Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon), Irvine (Initial Weapon) Strategy: High level Edea uses -aga spells that damage for about 370 HP, and she casts them pretty quickly. Squall will have the same HP as last battle, which is great for getting the Renzokuken in early. Have everyone regularly atttack except Squall, who will be using Renzokuken. It may take 6+ (8 hit) Renzokukens coupled with physical attacks from the others to win against the higher level Edea. The lower level Edea uses -aga spells as well, but not quite as fast as higher level Edea. Her -aga spells will only do about 340 (Huge difference, eh?). Same strategy as higher level Edea, but it will only take about 4 (8 hits) of Renzokuken. Now, for both levels. Hopefully, Edea will take out Irvine or Rinoa with two -aga spells, or hit both of them. If she hits Squall, just keep working on her until either Irvine or Rinoa gets into limit break zone and use them as accordingly. You may lose, but it doesn't matter as the story continues on regardless. Rating- Can't lose. Eh? I guess 0. *^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^D I S C 2*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^ **In Winhill as Laguna, go ahead and spend the 3000 gil he has on phoenix downs and potions. It'll be helpful. His cash pile is separated from yours, if it wasn't obvious. **Funny thing to note in D-District Prison: Watch how Selphie uses "Draw" and casts "Cure" on Zell. It's amazing seeing as we don't have her junctioned and don't have the spell "Cure". Fight #4- D-District Prison - After you exit the room, run between the stairs and down to Floor 6, save, and then go up to Floor 8. Fight the two guards and you SHOULD only gain 154 EXP. If not, reset and repeat as needed. Possible EXP- 154, 182, 210 EXP Gained- 154 Given To- Zell (846 Remains) Boss #8: Biggs and Wedge Party: Zell (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon) Strategy: You need a strategy for them? These guys can be taken down from regular attacks alone. If you actually fall into the limit break zone, let one loose and finish them. A Laser Eye from Quistis on both will finish them, just Duel with Zell, and any magic with 3 casts should do the job. If you lose, you've lost respect points as well. Rating- 2. Fight #5- D-District Prison - In the prison you'll hear gunfire once Squall and his party gets to the bottom floor and finds the sand. After the screen goes black and the dialogue begins, hold down the right button and try to maneuver perfectly to avoid the guard catching you. Simply stay along the edge of the inner circle without getting lagged up by accidentally turning too much and you should go to the next screen without fighting the guard. It's mandatory you avoid this fight to save EXP for later. EXP Gained- 0 Given To- N/A **When Squall is being tortured and you have an option to choose, choose to let him die. He won't actually die, but instead, he'll have Moombas watching him. These Moombas will later allow him to open shortcuts on each floor. When you choose these shortcuts to make, make them for Floors 5, 4, and 12. **After meeting back up with Irvine and Rinoa, make your party Squall, Zell, and Rinoa. You're forced to have Squall and Rinoa, so really, just add Zell. **When you get control of Irvine and his party, save. You'll be glad you did, you may need to reset a lot in the next battle. Boss #9: GIM25A x2 and a Soldier Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Man this place is weak. Make sure to save before this battle though, in case you don't get the "Missile" and "Screw" drops that you need, the chance of getting both of them is fairly low, so you may need to reset a few times. Take out the soldier first, and by the time the soldier falls, the GIM25A's have probably used Micro Missiles a couple times. If you're in limit break zone, use them. A lot. They have a good bit of HP, so it may take a couple minutes to knock 'em down. As well as high HP, they're also slightly fast so they might actually beat someone...You probably won't lose. Rating- 6. **The missiles are launched at Trabia, and now you have to decide on a team. Well, the party that goes with Squall will have harder bosses, so we should give Squall the stronger party members. Make one party Squall, Quistis, and Rinoa, the other party Selphie, Irvine, and Zell. That way, both parties have huge damage dealers. Fight #6- Galbadia Missile Base - You're found out by the base soldiers, now you must demolish them. Be sure to have saved. They aren't difficult, but they are sort of tiresome. I'm pretty sure you can only get as low as 372 EXP, when you have Zell/Selphie kill the soldier and leader, kill Selphie and Zell, then finish off the last one with Irvine. If you want to take a HUGE risk, you can use Selphie's Slot and Silence, Blind and Sleep all of them. Afterwards, use Selphie's Slot AGAIN and PRAY, oh man, PRAY to find 3 casts of Break, have it hit all of them, and win. It'll probably take 5 or more Slot casts of Break, regardless of how many casts you get on each one, and even finding Break on slots is a low enough chance as it is. I don't recommend using Break here unless you really want extra EXP in the end, as, unlike in the old Timber fights, these guys are stronger and more powerful, which can make this pretty hard to accomplish. Also, I don't even think these guys CAN be petrified. After about 15 breaks, I had nothing. I really suggest not wasting your time and just get the EXP. That's what I did. Possible EXP- 372 (only? That's all I've ever gotten...Clarification, anyone?) EXP Gained- 372 Given To- Irvine (628 Remains) **Once they're finished, use Phoenix Downs on Zell and Selphie, and completely heal up Irvine. No healing Zell and Selphie. You need to get the limit breaks off as fast as you can. Boss #10: BGH251F2 Party:Irvine (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Screw this guy...Gerogero looks like Ifrit next to this dude. No wonder the last place had easy bosses...Lulled us into letting our guard down for this guy...Prepare yourself, this is gonna be one hell of a strategy. Make sure Selphie and Zell are in limit break zone and Irvine is at full health. Begin the fight with Irvine regular attacking, and Zell using his Duel limit break. Have him use Armageddon Fist (Booya and Punch Rush) on any second Duel. Have Selphie use any and all Thunder magic you see on her Slot limit. Just keep with this strategy and he will fall at about the 8 minute mark. Just to be a little more helpful, I tell you how my battle went. -First Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, and Selphie used Slot-Haste. -Second Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, one of the containers exploded. -BGH's Turn, Killed Selphie. -Third Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, two more containers exploded. -BGH's Turn, Attacked Irvine. -Fourth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, another container exploded. -Fifth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel. -Sixth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, BGH exploded. -Seventh Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel coupled with Burning Rave to take out both soldiers and almost kill Elite Soldier. -Elite Soldier's Turn, Attacked Zell. -Eighth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell attacked. -Ninth Turn, Irvine attacked, Elite Soldier fell. See? They got in three turns and I got nine. Not as hard as it could be, but I got unbelievably lucky with BGH not attacking Zell. Do know, however, your battle may not work like this, so it may be exponentially harder. You will lose at least one time, for sure. Rating- 9 Fight #7- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved outside of the Garden and head to the right of the directory and enter the library. Talk to the Faculty and choose the second choice and you'll be forced into a fight with a Grat. Kill off Squall and Quistis then have Rinoa finish the Grat. You should get 149 EXP. The easiest way to tell if it's the low level Grat that you need is if its attacks do 15-16 damage. The high level Grat does 19-22 damage. Now, to avoid the next battles, follow this exactly. Enter the Library and talk to the students, you must get the Remedy from the girl between the bookcases or this won't work. After that, go to the Training Center and run to the screen where you see the Garden Faculty run off with two other students, then run back to the directory. Head to the hall of the Infirmary and when the option comes up, choose to "Let Them Handle It". Run back to the directory and Squall should see Xu running up the stairs to the elevator. If not, go back to each place and make sure you talked to everyone there. Possible EXP- 149, 205 EXP Gained- 149 Given To- Rinoa (851 Remains) Boss #11: Oilboyles x2 Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: These guys can either be tough or easy, depending on your luck. Make sure you have Invincible Moon, then go into a random battle and work Squall and Quistis down into limit break zone, then save. Pull the level near the save point and then run to the door and battle with them. Hopefully, Rinoa will get an attack first and Quistis will too, but behind Rinoa's. During Rinoa's attack animation, have Quistis use Micro Missiles (Learned from the Missile you got in D-District Prison) on either one, and quickly use Squall's Renzokuken on that same one. Go through the same thing, but have Quistis use Micro Missiles on the other Oilboyle this time, this way they both are low on HP. Now, if you're lucky, Squall can use another Renzokuken, so use it on the Oilboyle that was just Micro Missiled. Pray that Squall gets killed off, or Rinoa gets attacked, and unleash a Laser Eye on the first Oilboyle. If the Oilboyle is still alive, have Squall (if he's alive) use Renzokuken on it, killing it. If it's already dead, use it on the other one. If Squall is dead, have Rinoa attack the first Oilboyle or use a limit if she can. Rinoa may get an Invincible Moon, and if she does, this is in the bag. If she gets an Angelo Cannon, they're both going down. If either is still alive, have Quistis use a Laser Eye on it. There are probably many more strategies, but this one worked consistently with me, making a logical change to the strategy when needed. You will lose at least one time, for sure. Addition: After testing over and over, I found that you do not, in fact, need Invincible Moon to win this fight. Surprising. Well, as it stands, if you don't have Invincible Moon, you don't need it. Just be fast enough to get Micro Missiles and Renzokukens off in time. Many times I found, the Oilboyles didn't even get a hit in. 2 Micro Missiles, 2 Renzokukens, 2 regular attacks, and a possible Laser Eyes. That's all it takes. Rating- Still, 9. Boss #12: NORG Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Have Rinoa attack the orbs to keep them from going red while Quistis and Squall work each other down to about 100 HP. Have Squall continuously Renzokuken NORG until the pod breaks, while Rinoa keep attacking the orbs and Quistis has a turn ready to activate her limit. Once Squall blows up the pod, immediately activate Micro Missiles on NORG. Have Squall Renzokuken NORG and Quistis use another Micro Missiles, then another Renzokuken should finish off NORG. You might lose. Rating- 7. Fight #8- FH - Save then run straight down the train tracks and watch the scene. Initiate the battle and have Squall kill off the regular soldiers or a regular soldier and the elite soldier. I'm not sure it has a difference but if anyone wants to verify, go right ahead. After killing two of them with Squall, kill off Squall so he won't get any EXP. Work down Quistis and Rinoa for the next fight then kill off the last one using Rinoa. You should only gain 285 EXP for Quistis and 295 for Rinoa. I think the one who doesn't get the final hit can go as low as 272, and though it's not much EXP saved, aim for it. EXP Gained- 285; 295 Given To- Quistis (215 Remains); Rinoa (556 Remains) Boss #13: BGH251F2 Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: This guy again!? So, we get to face him with MORE HP and no Zell. Plus that, he's got, guess what, a forced fight before him! Hoo-*expletive*rah! What makes this harder, is we have no Squall. Why? Look at the forced fight paragraph above. So, we enter this fight with a weakened Quistis and a near if not full HP Rinoa and no Squall to take on a boss that a full HP Irvine and weakened Zell and Selphie had a hard time taking care of, and it's stronger this time. I say again, hoo-*expletive*rah! Remember to save beforehand. Enter with Quistis at extremely low HP and Rinoa at practically full. Have Quistis shoot out Laser Eyes and have Rinoa attack herself. When BGH attacks, hope that he attacks Rinoa and have Rinoa use her limit. Now, hope that Rinoa uses Invincible Moon so that you can be free for 2 or 3 turns. While invincible, have Quistis use Laser Eye and Rinoa keeps using her limit break, hopefully getting Angelo Cannon both times. If Rinoa gets a third turn up before the invincibility wears off, just hold her there until it wears off then use her limit again, hoping for another Invincible Moon. If you can pull off two Invincible Moons, coupled with Quistis' constant Laser Eyes and Rinoa's spare turn Angelo Cannons, BGH should fall soon. It may take a third risky Invincible Moon but if so, it won't take much longer. Another way to do this is having Rinoa at low HP at the beginning too, which might be riskier, but...Meh, not a huge difference but I recommend having Rinoa at about 300 HP into the battle. You will lose at least one time, for sure. Rating- 9.5 **Get the Flame Saber now. It makes bosses...easier? Eh. I guess you can call it that. Either way, I doubt you'll want to pass on the Flame Saber once you get a taste of the next boss fights. Here's your reminder: EXTRA FIGHTS FOR FLAME SABER: Fight #1- Centra Ruins - Forbidden - This little guy is actually pretty tough. You know to save beforehand, and work down Quistis to use Micro Missiles. Use Micro Missiles until it does double digit damage then kill off Squall and Quistis. Now have Selphie attack quickly to finish off the Forbidden. You should get about ~200 EXP and a Betrayal Sword. Fight #2- Beach behind Dollet - Adamantoise - Keep Quistis and Squall at low HP to use Micro Missiles (Or Degenerator, if it works, I hadn't thought of using that at that moment in time) and Renzokuken. These guys can be tough, all thanks to their ability to use White Wind. Have her use Micro Missiles on one and Squall Renzokuken that same one, then kill Selphie and Squall and escape from the battle. You should get 190 or so EXP and a Turtle Shell. You should already have the 4 screws, so go to the nearest Junk Shop (in Dollet) and get the Flame Saber. EXP Gained- 390 (total)= 200; 190 Given To- Selphie (475 Remains); Quistis (25 Remains) Boss #14: Raijin, G-Soldier x2 Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Well yay. Before going into this fight, make sure to do the Big Bad Rascal thing so you can exit town. If you don't know, then here it is: Go into the Dincht's and into the back room and talk to BBR twice. He'll exit the house. Exit the house as well and run around for a bit then enter the house on the other side of the Dincht's. You should see BBR standing next to a girl. Talk to him and then run back to the town entrance and talk to the guard. When the guard has his dialogue box up, just leave it there and don't press anything until BBR is done talking to the old man then close the box. Run back and you should see BBR standing there. Talk to him twice and he'll let you out of town anytime now. Now, outside get into a random battle and work Quistis down less than 100 HP then run away. Enter back into town then go back to the Dincht's and save up in Zell's room. Now go to the hotel. This battle, coupled with the next, is arguably the hardest fight in this challenge. Prepared, ready, pray. Engage in the fight and have Quistis use Micro Missiles on Raijin while Zell and Squall take out ONE soldier. Raijin will never attack Quistis as long as one soldier is alive. Have Quistis use Micro Missiles again, and Raijin should (Prayer #1) take Squall down to limit break zone. Have Squall use Renzokuken on Raijin and (Prayer #2) Raijin should fall. Now, just kill the last soldier. You might die here, maybe. Rating- 8 Boss #15: Raijin, Fujin Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Wow. This fight took me over 100 resets simply because they are awesome. Now, (Prayer #3) get Squall to pull off a Renzokuken on Raijin and have (Prayer #4) Quistis use Micro Missiles on Fujin. (Prayer #5) Raijin should attack Zell and (Prayer #6) Zell should have above 400 HP left. Zell (Prayer #7) should have a full ATB bar and Fujin casts Tornado. Now, hammer the re-do button (Which is Triangle) until Zell can use Duel, then quickly (Prayer #8) use Duel on Raijin before he gets an attack. At this moment, Zell should have about 140 or so HP. On Zell's Duel, (Prayer #9) hope it's about a 9 second Duel and use the following combo: Meteor Strike (Down, Circle, Up, Circle), Heel Drop (Up, Down), and Booya (Right, Left) continuously. If done at a fast enough speed, (Prayer #10) Raijin should fall by the end of the Duel. Raijin will run away and (Prayer #11) Zell should have a nearly full ATB bar when Fujin uses Aero for (Prayer #12) about 110 damage. Zell (Prayer #13) should use his limit break and use the same combination as before. This should (Prayer #14) finish off Fujin. I'm betting you'll die here many times. Rating- 10 **Use all Str Ups on Squall. **Notice during the "PLOT TWIST!!!" it no longer makes sense, seeing as we haven't junctioned all game. Fight #9- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved then choose the team of Squall, Irvine, and Selphie. Run up to the classroom and you'll start a scene then end up in a forced fight. Get Selphie weak and have her use Slot. Hope to find Break and petrify them. This process will take a long time and is extremely risky, but it saves you a nice hunk of EXP. I'd have to say it's mandatory to use Break here since later on Irvine will be tight for EXP, so I really advise you to at least Break a couple of the Soldiers, if not all. If you don't, I'm not quite sure, but it might be about 500 EXP. EXP Gained- 0 Given To- N/A Challenge-Required Boss #1: Cerberus Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Before the fight, get into a random battle and work Quistis and Rinoa down to ~100 HP then go save. Head over to Cerberus and click to talk to him and you'll begin the fight. Right off the bat, have Quistis use Micro Missiles and Squall regular attack. Rinoa should use her limit and hope to get Invincible Moon. If Quistis gets another turn, have her use another Micro Missiles. Squall should just continuously attack while Rinoa uses her limit. From here on, just have Quistis use Laser Eye, Squall attack, and Rinoa use her limit until Cerberus falls. You may die. Rating- 7 Boss #16: Seifer Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Go in with the same setup as Cerberus and do the same tactic, except instead make Squall be low on HP and have Zell at full health. If you're lucky, you can pull off a Micro Missiles and a Renzokuken or two before Seifer finishes both of them off. Once they're gone just hold you position until Seifer attacks you into limit break zone HP and unleash a Duel. Use the old Armageddon Fist and finish him off. You will probably die a couple times. Rating- 8 Boss #17: Seifer, Edea Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Go into the battle full HP. Seifer is weaker than the last time you fought him; his attacks do about 60 now. Beat down Zell and Quistis then have Zell Duel, using Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, Booya until Meteor Strike does 2 digits of damage (I'd say about 34) then just let time run out. Then, have Squall physically attack Seifer until he's dead. When Seifer is falling, make sure Quistis has just selected Micro Missiles to use and Zell has just selected Duel to use. You should get in Micro Missiles and Duel before Edea uses Maelstrom. Micro Missiles will take off a load of her HP, then using Duel's combo of Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, Booya until Meteor Strike is doing 0. You might lose this battle. Rating- 6 *^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^D I S C 3*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^ Fight #10- Laguna Dream Sequence - Your party should be Laguna-Squall, Zell-Kiros, and Ward-Quistis. Choose the second option when box comes up and go save. Now, this is going to be one of the more riskier fights. You have three objectives to do here. The first is you must give all EXP to Kiros/Zell, the second is make sure the EXP is 800, and the last is get an Inferno Fang from the Ruby Dragon. Now, the Ruby Dragon has a good 3700 HP or so, and everyone's limit should do about 300 damage. Get the picture of what you should do? If you're still weak from the Disc 2 Edea fight, then cure everyone but Laguna/Squall. Have Laguna/Squall have about 200 HP then go into the fight. Ruby Dragon should attack Laguna/Squall and Laguna/Squall should then get a turn. Have him use Desperado 9 times while Kiros and Ward attack. If Laguna/Squall dies before 9 Desperado's, just substitute someone else for him, they all do around the same amount of damage. After the 9 hits, have Kiros/Zell in limit break zone and then have Laguna/Squall and Ward/Quistis kill each other off, if the Ruby Dragon hasn't done so yet. Then, you have Kiros/Zell use Blood Pain until Ruby Dragon falls. EXP Gained- 800 Given To- Zell (46 Remains) Boss #18: Abadon Party:Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Have Quistis going into the fight at low HP and everyone else at full. Make sure Quistis has learned Fire Breath from the Inferno Fang you've recently gotten from the Ruby Dragon forced fight and go save. Engage in the fight and immediately use Fire Breath. Just keep spamming Fire Breath and regular attacks and he'll go down in seconds. You shouldn't die. Rating- 3. Fight #11- Laguna Dream Sequence - This will easily be the toughest forced fight in the game, because of the sheer difficulty to get everything to work your way. I'll split these into 5 different parts for simplicity. Part 1- Soldier - You get only Laguna to use, and this is easy. Just regularly attack and you should get 74 EXP. Part 2- Soldier, Cyborg, Gesper - Now you have the whole team. Work down Laguna and Kiros then have Kiros Blood Pain the Cyborg and the Gesper to death then kill off Kiros and Laguna. Now have Ward finish off the Soldier. You should get 322 EXP. **Save at the save point once everything goes your way so we don't have to do this again. Part 3- Soldier, Cyborg, Elastoid- Beat down Kiros until he's at about 130 HP. Have Ward attack the Cyborg, then Laguna kill the Cyborg. Have Kiros continually use Blood Pain on the Elastoid until it starts flailing around, then have Ward or Laguna kill it. Kill Laguna and Ward then have Kiros kill the soldier. You should gain 458 EXP. **Make absolutely sure you fully heal your party before anything. Part 4- Soldier x2 - Have Ward kill one of them then kill off Ward and Kiros. Get Laguna to kill off the last one. You should get 148 EXP. **Use a Phoenix Down on Ward then use a potion on Laguna if he needs it. Part 5- Cyborg x2 - Start out with Ward killing one, then kill Ward. Have Laguna finish off the last one and you should get 218 EXP. EXP Gained- 1272 (est.)-- 440; 458; 322 Given To- Squall/Laguna (60 Remains), Irvine/Kiros (170 Remains), Selphie/Ward (153 Remains) Bosses #19-26: Propagator (Purple) (Red) (Yellow) (Green) <-- Kill them in this order. Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: With initial weapons, these would be an 11 rating of impossible. They have about 1300 HP, which may not sound like a lot, but they have twice your speed and they do anywhere from 200 to 800 damage depending on the attack. You have to get way lucky, by pulling off as low as two 7-hit Renzokukens. Squall should take only one hit from the Propagator and then a hit from Rinoa, then he should pull off some Renzokukens easy. Only difficult if Squall is killed. After this fight, leave Squall in the low HP so the rest of the fights will go faster without having to set yourself up. All the fights are practically the same, and this will be tough trying to do all of these in order continuously. You'll probably die. Rating- 10 (Every fight is a 9 rating, doing it without dying is 11, and I made this an average.) Alternate Strategy: If you got Odin before this, then he'll come in handy if you kept your initial weapons. Odin CAN appear up here, as these guys aren't bosses but sub-bosses. Now, when you are at the first screen, run down the stairs and you'll notice the Purple Propagator is walking around. Well...we have to get past him, so wait until he is on the other side of the room, directly to the left of the stairs. Now run to the little door on the far right and enter it. Now you'll see a Yellow (Or Green, those two colors look a lot alike)Propagator and a save point but he won't attack you since he can't "see" you yet. Now, here where you need a bit of luck. If you wait until he's walking toward the save point then run to the left of him, hugging the wall and running forward. If you're lucky, you'll run straight by him without him noticing you. Save, then run into him. Hold the escape buttons and hopefully Odin will pop up. Save, then run to the other one of that color without getting in a fight and then do the same method. Continue on killing all of them with Odin until they are all dead. This method is really luck based... Thanks to Cannibal for this. *There is one more forced fight if you try to enter the Lunatic Pandora when it comes across the city, but since you don't need to actually get on LP, just let the time run out. **When you get the Ragnarok, if you haven't learned Wishing Star, just run around the ship for about 4 SeeD Payments. Then you should get Wishing Star. Boss #27: Fujin, Raijin Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: These guys again huh. Don't worry, they aren't as tough as last time, but that doesn't mean they're easy. Go into the fight at full health and have everyone attack Fujin. Raijin will beat down Squall while Fujin casts Haste. Soon, Fujin will say some dialogue then she'll use Meteor. It shouldn't kill you (aside from Squall), in fact you should have about 200 HP left on Quistis and Rinoa. Raijin will say some dialogue then hopefully he'll attack Rinoa. Have Rinoa use her limit and pray to get either Wishing Star or Invincible Moon. Invincible Moon will keep you alive longer, whereas Wishing Star will kill them. If you get Invincible Moon, just keep using Rinoa's limit break for Wishing Star until it comes up. If you actually come out of invincible status, pray he attacks Quistis this time, and keep using Combine with Angelo while Quistis should now use Fire Breath. They'll go down fairly quick. You might die. Rating- 7 **Use the Str Ups you get on Squall. **If you did everything right back in Laguna's Dream Sequence #2 (In this same place), you can go back to where the hatches are and get a Power Generator (Teach Quistis Ray-Bomb), a draw point (Who cares), and something else. **After this screen, keep going for Zell's Combat King 005 (My Final Heaven). **Monsters here only give 1 (2 for last hit) EXP, so if you get into some fights with Torama and an Imp, beat them for Curse Spikes to teach Quistis Lv?Death, among numerous other monsters here to get other items for Quistis. It's not really required, it's more of a perfectionism kind of thing. Boss #28: Mobile Type 8 (Personal favorite boss) Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Go into the fight with Rinoa and Squall at low HP from the last battle and Quistis at full health. Run in and I'm betting he'll attack Quistis. Have Rinoa use Combine. If she gets Invincible Moon, keep unleashing hell. If she gets Wishing Star, then it's over. Fairly easy. You shouldn't die. Rating- 5. **You must get a Power Generator from Mobile Type 8 and teach it to Quistis for Homing Laser. **Go save, it's your last chance till Disc 4. Boss #29: Seifer Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon) Strategy: Odin will come, and Seifer will cut him in half when...Seifer...is standing perfectly still...Well, assault Seifer with everything you can. Mainly have Quistis nail him with Homing Laser, Squall using Renzokuken, and just have Rinoa do whatever. Soon, Gilgamesh will come down and blow Seifer away. That is, if you don't die. You might die. Rating- 8 *^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^D I S C 4*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ *^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^ Boss #30: Adel Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Anyone (Initial Weapon) Strategy: You need awesome reflexes to nail this. Be absolutely sure Quistis and Squall are at low HP from the Seifer battle, and run back to the save point and save. Now run to Adel. This will take loads of luck. Right as the dialogue starts for the battle, Squall should have his turn up. Get it to Renzokuken, then wait for Quistis and your other party member to get a full ATB bar. Now have Squall quickly use Renzokuken while Quistis selects Homing Laser. Keep your last party member's attack page up until Squall and Quistis are done. Now, right when Squall and Quistis' ATB bars are filled, have that party member attack. Now have Quistis use another Homing Laser. This should finish off Adel. For insurance, go ahead and use Squall's Renzokuken. You will die at least once. Rating- 9.5 **In the Commencement Room (with all the save points), save and switch your other party member to Rinoa and heal everyone but Quistis. Bosses #31-43: Sorceress A (Bosses 1-6), Sorceress B (Bosses 7-12), Sorceress C (Boss 13) Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa (You should be quite familiar with the weapons now) Strategy: You should have Ray-Bomb for Quistis, and Ray-Bomb one-hit-kills the Sorceress A's, so use that and pray Quistis is still alive. Just have everyone else attack regularly. They have about 1000 HP. On Sorceress B, if you get two to come, have Quistis use Ray-Bomb. If someone has a turn before Quistis has a turn, hold them there and tap Triangle to reload the page a couple times and then once she has a turn, attack. Now have Quistis use Homing Laser if it's one sorceress, Fire Breath if it's two. Now you're on the last Sorceress B, so use a Homing Laser. These have about 2000 HP. It's time for Sorceress C, who is a worm basically. She counterattacks only, and her only action is to count down from 5. So you have 5 turns to finish her off. You should make Quistis use Homing Laser, and if it's not Quistis' turn, have that person attack Squall into the limit break zone HP. Homing Laser won't kill it so there goes Quistis. But, we had attacked Squall so he can use Renzokuken. If you nail all of the triggers, it will finish off Sorceress C. It has about 10,000 or 11,000 HP. You will probably die. Rating- 9.5 (Altogether) **Save in the entrance in case you accidentally fight Sphinxy. **To get to Tri-Point, run in between Sphinxy and the staircase banister. Run through the door and the chandelier falls onto the hatch of the wine cellar. Now you can enter down there. Boss #44: Tri-Point Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: This will only work if Tri-Point's regular attack does 30 damage or so. Gilgamesh should do about 3900 damage, which is 500 damage too little. Now, how can we get that? Well, one way is to get Angelo to Angelo Rush Tri-Point over and over every time Rinoa is attacked, then have Squall attack after about 4 or 5 Angelo Rushes. The other way is to go to the DSRC and get Bahamut, but you'll have to be amazingly lucky to pull off a Break on the Ruby Dragons. Then you'd have to beat him, which isn't really hard anyways. Then, he'll raise the level of Gilgamesh to about 15, which means Gilgamesh will do 4100 or so. Add this to the fact that you could do this regularly if Gilgamesh gets a critical hit, it could either one-hit-kill Tri-Point, or come way close. What you should do if you want a win, is make your team Squall, Quistis, and Zell/Selphie, then hope Gilgamesh uses Masamune and gets a critical hit. The critical hit will do about 4400 HP. To get Gilgamesh to appear, you have to either just sit there for a bit, or reload the attack page a couple times until he does come. If this doesn't kill him, use Squall coupled with trigger to finish him off. You will probably die, due to having to get everything right, he could kill you before you do. Rating- 10 (In the sense you need a load of luck to get Gilgamesh to appear, get Masamune, hit critically, and kill him with Squall) **Unlock Limit Break. Boss #45: Sphinxaur/Sphinxara Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: This guy should be cake now that you have limit breaks. Nail a Homing Laser on both forms plus some regular attacks to make him fall in a snap. He'll use mainly -aga magic on first form, and he'll summon weak monsters on the second form. You shouldn't die. Rating- 2 **Unlock Item. Boss #46: Red Giant Party: Squall, Quistis, Zell Strategy: Micro Missile him about 5 times then follow up with a Homing Laser. His attacks do about 300 but he should fall before he does any major damage. If he does kill Quistis, use Zell's Meteor Strike to really hurt him. You might die. Rating- 5 **Unlock Resurrection. Boss #47: Trauma Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: A simple Homing Laser or two will get the job done. He'll attack you for hardly any damage and sometimes use Mega Pulse Cannon, which will kill you. He'll also summon Mini-Trauma who use Mini Pulse Cannon for weak damage. If he gets two Mini-Trauma summoned, use Ray-Bomb to make his previous turns just look like wastes, while you still do a good 3000 damage. Man, these bosses are just plain pitiful, huh? You shouldn't die. Rating- 3 **Unlock Save. **From now on, unlock anything you want. **These next bosses are unneeded for you to beat. Defeat them if you want. Boss #48: Krysta Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: This guy might take a different strategy approach. Use Rinoa's combine until you get an Invincible Moon. Otherwise, his last attack will finish you. Once you get Invincible Moon on, Homing Laser him into submission. He'll cast Ultima as a parting gift, which is why you have to be invincible. You shouldn't die. Rating- 4 Boss #49: Gargantua Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: Defeat the Vysage, Righty, and Lefty with a Fire Breath or two, then he'll come out. Keep using Fire Breath, and have Squall use Renzokuken and Rinoa combine. He might get some attacks off that curse you, but just keep fighting on regardless. You shouldn't die. Rating- 5 Boss #50: Catoblepas Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: Get off an Invincible Moon, then unleash Homing Laser coupled with Renzokuken. Once he dies, he, like Krysta, will give you a parting gift, but this time of Meteor. Invincibility rocks. You shouldn't die. Rating- 4 Boss #51: Tiamat Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa Strategy: If you want, get an Invincible Moon on you, just in case you don't kill him before he uses Dark Flare. Have Quistis use Homing Laser constantly and Squall use Renzokuken. Hopefully he'll die before Dark Flare is cast. You shouldn't die. Rating- 5 **Ready? Save outside of Ultimecia's Main Chamber, and get ready for a long haul. **Get Rinoa and Quistis to low HP beforehand, so you'll have a good chance of getting them on your team to use for early pain. **Remember, since everyone is about equal in this challenge, don't focus on using one team. Use whoever is at your disposal, though you will need Rinoa almost the whole battle. Other than that, use anyone. Boss #52: Ultimecia (Form 1) Party: Random Strategy: Hopefully you'll get Quistis or Rinoa in your party, but if you don't then kill off someone until you get either. It's better if you get Rinoa since you can get Invincible Moon off, then once you have invincibility, attack with regular attacks and have Rinoa use Combine, hopefully getting Wishing Star. Ultimecia has pretty low HP (around 11000), so if you get a Wishing Star she falls, or two/three Homing Lasers. You shouldn't die. Rating- 7. Your party needs Rinoa for the next battle. Boss #53: Griever (Form 2) Party: Rinoa, Any other two members Strategy: Keep using Rinoa's Combine for either Wishing Star or Invincible Moon (if you need it). Make sure your party has on invincibility, and use Combine, hopefully getting Wishing Star. Wishing Star will kill Griever, but he'll finish with Shockwave Pulsar so watch out. You may die. Rating- 9. Your party needs Rinoa still. Boss #54: Griever/Ultimecia (Form 3) Party: Rinoa, Quistis, Anyone Strategy: You should still have invincibility, so use Combine and Homing Laser to chip away at Grievmecia. If you don't get a Wishing Star, Grievmecia will summon a Helix or two. These things will basically do jack-squat. Grievmecia has pretty awesome magic, containing spells such as Ultima and Holy, so you really gotta keep the invincibility on. Not only that, but Ultimecia also uses an attack called "Great Attractor", which will one-hit-kill your whole party. Invincibility = Must. Wishing Star will one-hit-kill them, so aim for that. If you never get a Wishing Star, continuous Homing Lasers will soon make Grievmecia's back part fall off. That indicates that Grievmecia is low on HP, so it shouldn't take many Homing Lasers to finish it off (Maybe 3-6). You could die. Rating- 8. You still need Rinoa...You need Rinoa for this whole fight. Boss #55: Ultimecia's True Form (Form 4) Party: Rinoa, Any other two members Strategy: Damn I hate this form. She only has three attacks that matter. Hell's Judgment, which takes all characters to 1 HP, Apocalypse, which will kill your party, and a regular attack that will kill off one of your party members. This form is unlike the other 3, since one Wishing Star won't kill it. As long as you keep invincibility on, and get Homing Laser/Wishing Star, it won't be too long until she begin talking. Once she begins talking, keep laying on attacks and keeping invincibility on. She'll talk a good bit, then when she says "And...", that means one or two more shots will finish her. You'll die once for sure. Rating- 9.5. We don't need Rinoa after this. Or anyone else really. There you have it. Watch the well-deserved ending movie and now you can say you have beaten the NJNL Challenge on FFVIII. -****************************************************************************- |VIII. Contacting | -****************************************************************************- [email protected] for all your needs. You must label them as "NJNL Concern" if you want an answer however. I don't know what concerns you would have though. Still, I probably won't answer you if it isn't labeled exactly as I ask. Cheers. I'm rarely on them, but my AIM screen name is Chr14t and my MSN address is [email protected]. -****************************************************************************- |IX. FAQ | -****************************************************************************- 1. So, is this challenge even possible? A: Yes, if you do everything as instructed, with few to no differences. Changing how you do it is fine, but know that it MAY not work. 2. [Insert Boss] is unbeatable! Your way just never works! How did you do it?! A: Most of my strategies have a huge amount of luck , but don't give up. It could take a good long time to get a boss beaten with luck. If you still have trouble, you can contact me and I'll go through it step-by-step with you to see how you've got it working. 3. Can I use Seifer and Edea to level my GF's? A: A lot of people see that as a form of cheating, but be my guest. If you do, then I don't think you should consider it a true No Level challenge. 4. But if you use Seifer and Edea, you can get Lionheart and make this challenge way easy! A: Challenges aren't meant to be easy. They're supposed to be, as the name implies, a challenge. Don't try to make things easier for you. If anything, make it harder. Though, not to the point of impossible to do. 5: Ultimecia is way too hard! This has got to be impossible! A: She is arguably the hardest boss in the challenge, but that's why she's the final boss isn't it? Don't be alarmed if it takes a very long time to even beat her. My first time to attempt this challenge, I used a cheap save state to win. But when I did it in a legitimate way, it took 150+ tries. No lie. She is difficult, but stay persistent. More questions will be added as they are asked. I don't get many questions, however. -****************************************************************************- |VII. Credits | -****************************************************************************- A I e x- I'm betting I referred to his guide 100 times for reminders on what to do on certain areas. Not only that, but every guide of his for other games that I've used were top quality. I suppose I'm advertising him or something but it's deserved. Cannibal- He did a WHOLE lot of work for this. I don't know if I could've done it without his help. Xuxon- Gave me a lot of info on different things, like Gilgamesh. Stefan Gerads- The person who mentioned "Break" method to save EXP on soldiers. Ttly- I suppose he is the originator of the NJNL challenge. Wouldn't have been possible without him. He's who I got idea from. Larynna- Confirmed that Gilgamesh can do a critical hit, needed information for which I'm thankful. My hands- For going through this near 30+ day task. I congratulate them. CJayC- Making GameFAQs. How else would this be possible? SquareSoft/Enix- Making FFVIII and the FF series in general. Standing ovation. The people who Cannibal and Xuxon got their info from originally. -****************************************************************************- Thanks for reading this FAQ, I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope that I have been of some help to you and your endeavor on this challenge. If you completed the challenge, well done. You've finished the toughest known challenge for FFVIII that's actually possible. *Clap clap* -****************************************************************************-