FFVIII (PSX), a few questions.

[Ahielia]

As Google isn't particularly nice to me nowadays, I'd give it a shot here.

I know that monsters in FFVIII scales with the character levels, I just don't know how. My characters are level 73, 70 and 48. Is the monster level based on the average level? (73+70+48/3=63)

Atm I've just gotten Ragnarok, and going for Bahamut.
Thing is, that second Ruby Dragon keep pwning me every time. As I start with my back to that dragon (and it opens with the breath attack..), 2 characters are dead at the start.
I got Squall and Zell, levels 73 and 70 respectively, whilst Irvine is only 48.

Now, I'm gonna list the stats, GFs equipped and the abilities equipped, if you're interested.

Irvine:

Hp: 6210
Str: 69
Vit: 63
Mag: 134
Spr: 82
Spd: 29
Luck: 17
Eva: 2%
Hit 108%

Weapon: Ulysses

Abilities:
Hp+80%
Mag+40%

Commands:
Attack
GF
Draw
Magic

GFs equipped: Quezacotl, Siren, Brothers.

Squall:
Hp: 7983
Str: 140
Vit: 106
Mag: 76
Spr: 92
Spd: 114
Luck: 20
Eva: 10%
Hit: 255%

Weapon: Cutting Trigger.

Abilities:
Spd+40%
Counter
Str+40%

Commands:
Attack
Doom
Draw
Magic

GFs equipped: Shiva, Carbunkle, Pandemona, Alexander.

Zell:

Hp: 8564
Str: 130
Vit: 30
Mag: 70
Spr: 87
Spd: 99
Luck: 18
Eva: 9%
Hit: 121%

Weapon: Maverick

Abilities:
Hp+80%
Mug
Sped+40%

Commands:
Mug
GF
Draw
Recover

GFs equipped: Ifrit, Diablos, Leviathan, Cerberus.

So what I usually do, is summon Diablos everytime I can (he deals 9999 damage to the dragon), attacking with Squall and Irvine, skipping a turn or two with Diablos if someone gets low on hp (to use Zell's Recover), and using Irvine or Squall to use a Full-Life if someone dies.
Squall and Zell's normal attacks normally deals 1000-1500 damage each. Irvine's dealing substantially less, around 400-500 or so.

I actually was so lucky to have Odin come to my rescue on the second dragon one time, the last dragon had just done a breath before it died, so Zell and Irvine was dead, Squall had like 1000 hp left. But Bahamut got the first turn, did a melee attack, and so I died...

I must admit, I haven't gone around the islands Hell and Heaven to collect draw points, which I probably should, but do they really help that much?

Anyhow, it would be awesome with a few pointers to best handle those dragons.

Edit: Just thought I should mention this, it seems that the dragons are inflicting too much damage to me, as I spend a lot of turns healing instead of damaging the dragon. So the fight is longer than it could be.

__________________

Originally Posted by 4chan

Religion has had its chance to run the world. It's called the Dark Ages.

Originally Posted by Radix865

If you dare to say you hate anime because of pokemon I swear I'll kick you in the nuts so hard that even your unborn grandchild will become impotent!

[Squall-Leonhart]

I recommend improving your GF's abilities so you can junction more items. also, i recommend junctioningall your gf's across your inplay party, rather then all characters.

• Best junction spread (so you get every character with the most abilites):
  
• Character #1
• Diablos
  Shiva
  Cactuar
  Pandemona
  Doomtrain
• Character #2
• arbuncle
  Quezacotl
  Eden
  Brothers
  Leviathan
• Character #3
• Cerberus
  Ifrit
  Siren
  Alexander
  Bahamut
  Tonberry
• CrispyMallow's Junction Spread theory:
  Unless you have a different scoring system, I believe I have a better spread of GFs. If you assign one point for each possible junction/ability added above normal, there are 63 total points available (21 per character * 3 characters)
  HP=0;
  STRENGTH=1;
  VITALITY=2;
  MAGIC=3;
  SPIRIT=4;
  SPEED=5;
  EVADE=6;
  HIT=7;
  LUCK=8;
  STATUS_ATTACK=9;
  ELEMENTAL_ATTACK=10;
  STATUS_DEFENSE_1=11;
  STATUS_DEFENSE_2=12;
  STATUS_DEFENSE_3=13;
  STATUS_DEFENSE_4=14;
  ELEMENTAL_DEFENSE_1=15;
  ELEMENTAL_DEFENSE_2=16;
  ELEMENTAL_DEFENSE_3=17;
  ELEMENTAL_DEFENSE_4=18;
  ABILITY_3=19;
  ABILITY_4=20;
  The GF configuration in your guide results in a total of 53/63 points, but there are ways to get 54 (the most possible with default GF abilities).
  One such method is (Tonberry on any character):
  
• Quezacotl, Ifrit, Siren, Cerberus, Cactuar
  
• Shiva, Diablos, Leviathan, Pandemona, Doomtrain
  
• Brothers, Carbuncle, Alexander, Bahamut, Eden
  which obtains a 54 score and minimizes variance (exactly 18/character).

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[RealOne]

I dont remember much, but you could use AURA on your characters. It is the most effective way to use Limit Breaks without your HP going low.

You could Draw Aura from Seifer when you fight him at one point of the game.. I am not sure when exactly. XD

the second way is to refine Fury Fragments, I think you get 5 Aura for 1 Fury Fragment.

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[Squall-Leonhart]

1 Circlet=2, 1 Fury Fragment=2, 1 Hypno Crown=10, 1 Power Wrist=10, 1 Steel Pipe=1, 1 Strength Love=2

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[Cheesus]

Just have one of your characters dead as you enter the battle. It shouldn't cast breathe.

Also Squall's attack is pretty weak. Try junctioning something like Meteor to it.

And if worst comes to worst, there's always tonberry's LVL Down.

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Originally Posted by TheCloudOfSmoke

"Save the balls, save the world."

[Spyhop]

Originally Posted by Ahielia

So what I usually do, is summon Diablos

Better known as

TEH_DEVIL

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[Ahielia]

I got all GF from Quezacotl to Alexander (+Odin), which means that I'm missing Bahamut, Doomtrain, Tonberry, Cactuar and Eden.

I figured I should go grab Bahamut first, then collect the stuff for Doomtrain, then go find Cactuar, Tonberry, and finally Eden.
But first of all, run around on the islands Heaven and Hell to grab some high level magic.
If I remember correctly, it's only Cerberus and Alexander that has some half-useful abilities left to learn, the rest either only have some useless stuff like GFHP to learn, or they have no abilities left to learn.

And, I think I read somewhere that when Diablos is level 100, he takes 100% of the hp off the target(s) (excluding bosses), so does that mean that if I level him to max, he'll kill the Ruby Dragon in 1 summon? Or is the max damage each summon 9999 damage?

And how is the monster's level calculated?
Kinda sucks having Irvine so far behind the others, and since he has such a weak attack, he normally does not get the killing blow, which is hampering his leveling even further. Normally if it's weak monsters I fight, I just use Mad Rush and afk-watch

Oh and I thought I should mention this as well: I manage to press R1 every time Squall attacks (well, 99% of the time..)

__________________

Originally Posted by 4chan

Religion has had its chance to run the world. It's called the Dark Ages.

Originally Posted by Radix865

If you dare to say you hate anime because of pokemon I swear I'll kick you in the nuts so hard that even your unborn grandchild will become impotent!

[fivefeet8]

Originally Posted by RealOne

I dont remember much, but you could use AURA on your characters. It is the most effective way to use Limit Breaks without your HP going low.

You could Draw Aura from Seifer when you fight him at one point of the game.. I am not sure when exactly. XD

the second way is to refine Fury Fragments, I think you get 5 Aura for 1 Fury Fragment.

You can also refine items or rare cards to create items that in turn give you Aura and Holy War(100 for refining a rare card). I believe you can also do this to get tons items that increase your base characters stats which if you junction with the right GF would give you max stats.

I remember my last play through of the game, most of my characters had most of their stat levels at the max of 255. I had spent quite a bit of time refining and combining items and magic into the most powerful magic and had a ton of Aura spells and Holy Wars. All my characters were at their max level of 100. I had leveled them up very early in the game because that lets you get more powerful spells from the monsters.

When the battle starts, try to cast Aura on Squall. Then use Holy War on him. With Squall at the max strength level, his final limit break does about 100,000 points of damage(9999 x 10?). You can also keep skipping his turn until he hits the limit break. Keep doing his limit break as he takes no damage from anything while Holy War is still in effect.

If the battle is long enough, Aura and Holy War wears off, try to cast and use them again or try catching Squall with Holy War when his HP is low enough to do his limit break.

Originally Posted by Ahielia

And how is the monster's level calculated?
Kinda sucks having Irvine so far behind the others, and since he has such a weak attack, he normally does not get the killing blow, which is hampering his leveling even further. Normally if it's weak monsters I fight, I just use Mad Rush and afk-watch

IIRC the monster levels are simply the average of all your characters levels.

Originally Posted by Ahielia

And, I think I read somewhere that when Diablos is level 100, he takes 100% of the hp off the target(s) (excluding bosses), so does that mean that if I level him to max, he'll kill the Ruby Dragon in 1 summon? Or is the max damage each summon 9999 damage?

The only GF that can do over 9999 points of damage per summon is Eden IIRC.

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Last edited by fivefeet8; January 22nd, 2009 at 22:25.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[hushypushy]

Damn, I whipped this game out and started playing for the first time since I originally beat the game in 2000. I remember spending hours on sidequests just for the accomplishment of getting all the GF's and whatnot...but Squall-Leonhart just blew my mind with how complicated the battle system can be. Damn. No wonder your username is Squall

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[Spyhop]

I like complicated systems when they serve a purpose. That stupid junctioning crap was complicated just for the sake of being complicated though. Made the game tedious.

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[Cheesus]

Originally Posted by Spyhop

I like complicated systems when they serve a purpose. That stupid junctioning crap was complicated just for the sake of being complicated though. Made the game tedious.

It really isn't that complicated. More like badly explained.

Just google it. Simple really.

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910GB HD; 22" HansG Hi221D; Windows 7 .7201 / iATKOS 10.5.7

Originally Posted by TheCloudOfSmoke

"Save the balls, save the world."

[Demi Fiend]

There is nothing complicated about it. You basically don't need to level up your character. Just spend a whole day drawing all the spells you come across for all the characters and junction it to all your status and it's done. Also level up your GFs to open the junctioning stuff. (That's where you'll eventually level up the character) > (All of this is a boring process, of course, sometimes it reminds some kind of mental torture)

I remember I didn't even bothered to use the GFs, it was boring waiting all the animation every time, so I just killed every monster in the game in the simple way.

Cast Aura on everyone and keep passing turns by pressing triangle until a limit break pops up full. End of story. That's for bosses. Normal monsters won't stand a single turn if you just junction a strong spell for Str.

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Last edited by Demi Fiend; January 22nd, 2009 at 23:55..

[fivefeet8]

Originally Posted by Demi Fiend

There is nothing complicated about it. You basically don't need to level up your character. Just spend a whole day drawing all the spells you come across for all the characters and junction it to all your status and it's done. Also level up your GFs to open the junction stuff. (It is a boring process, of course.)

You actually don't need to draw so much once you're able to refine items and spells from other items(including cards).

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[Spyhop]

Originally Posted by Cheesus

It really isn't that complicated. More like badly explained.

Just google it. Simple really.

No, I got it just fine. It was just needless.

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[RealOne]

All this talk of Final Fantasy VIII, hmmmm, i'll play it again XD

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[Squall-Leonhart]

I rarely used summons when i finally managed to finish it on the PSX (i'd only ever managed on the emulator, since my memory cards would die at random)

The summons i used were usually Cerberus, Doomtrain, and Eden

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[Exodus]

I remember liking Cactuar because it was guaranteed, unpumped damage, and most importantly, a quick summon.

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[RealOne]

Eden had the maximum damage from what I can remember. For GF's. though its a really slow summon. You could boost upto 255 I think.

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[Ahielia]

Originally Posted by Exodus

I remember liking Cactuar because it was guaranteed, unpumped damage, and most importantly, a quick summon.

Cactuar does damage kinda like this formula:

tens x 1000 = final damage

So, if Cactuar is level 50, he does (5 x 1000 = 5000 damage)
And if Cactuar is level 100, he does (10 x 1000 = 10000 damage)

And according to this GF faq, and I quote:

Eden's attack animation is exceptionally long, and easily allows for Boosting to the
full 250 maximum. This usually makes the attack do about 35000 damage to all enemies.

Eden can apparently get over the 9999 "normal" damage limit.
Have any of you experienced it?

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Originally Posted by 4chan

Religion has had its chance to run the world. It's called the Dark Ages.

Originally Posted by Radix865

If you dare to say you hate anime because of pokemon I swear I'll kick you in the nuts so hard that even your unborn grandchild will become impotent!

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Ahielia

Cactuar does damage kinda like this formula:
So, if Cactuar is level 50, he does (5 x 1000 = 5000 damage)
And if Cactuar is level 100, he does (10 x 1000 = 10000 damage)

Exactly. So I can get that 10k damage without pressing buttons, and without waiting a couple minutes for the summon animation to end.

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