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Triple Triad

Final Fantasy VIII - Triple Triad

Triple Triad is a card battling game in Final Fantasy VIII that has a couple of side quests in the game.


The cards themselves depict various monsters, bosses, characters and Guardian Forces that are encountered throughout the game. They can be obtained from defeating enemies in battle (3.5% drop rate), by using Quezacotl's Card Mod ability to turn the enemy into a card, winning cards from opponent's in a game or by completing side quests.

How to Play: Basics and Getting Started

The Cards

FF8 Ifrit Triple Triad Card

The cards are made up of a few elements but only two are important; the Ranks and the Element. The Ranks are a group of 4 numbers in the top left corner of the card and the Element is represented by a symbol in the top right corner (not all cards have an element).


The ranks correspond to each side of the card; the number on the top represent to top edge of the card, the number on the right represents the right edge and so on. The cards are colour-coded blue and pink to show who they belong to; player and opponent respectively.


The Element is important in some games with the Elemental rule in place; this will be explained later.

The Game Board

FF8 Triple Triad Board

The board is made up of 9 spaces in a 3x3 grid.


The players' cards are shown on either side and can be placed on the spaces.


As the board is only 9 squares but players have 5 cards each, the person who goes 2nd will have 1 card left after all spaces have been filled on the board.

Playing and Winning

At the start of the game, an arrow spins to decide who starts. Each player starts with 5 cards and take turns to place cards on the grid with the objective to have the most cards in your colour by the end.


You can capture your opponents' cards by placing a card adjacent to their card that has a higher rank. The rank that matters in this case are the two that touch; for example, if they place a card in the top, middle space with a rank of 3 on the left, placing a card with a rank higher than 3 on the right will capture that card.


The player who goes second will have a card left in hand and this will count towards their card count at the end. The winner will take 1 or more cards from the loser (depending on trade rules, see below).

Card Types

Level 1 - 5: Monster Cards. These cards usually have weak rank numbers but have no limit on how many you can have (Except PuPu Card)


Level 6 & 7: Boss Cards. Stronger than Monster cards and depicting Boss monsters, there is also no limit on the number of cards.


Level 8 & 9: GF Cards. These are obtained by defeating GFs or by finding them from certain players. These cards have 2 strong ranks and 2 weaker ranks. You can only have 1 of these.


Level 10: Character Cards. These cards depict playable characters and are usually held by someone connected to the character. These cards usually have 3 strong ranks and 1 weak rank. You can only have 1 of these.

Rule Variations

Special Rules

When you start playing, you play by the rules of Balamb which are simple but there are special rules that vary based on region. When you challenge a player in a different region, they may ask to play with both regions' rules and the game will use all rules for both regions.


You can refuse to play a mixed game and you will play a game with just the new regions' rules only.

Rule Description
Open Player can see which cards opponent is using.
Same When a card is played and it touches 2 or more cards (1 or both must be opposite colour); if the ranks touching are the same (7 touching 7), then the other 2 cards are flipped. Combo Rule applies.
Same Wall Extension of the Same rule. The edges of the board count as A rank for the purpose of the Same rule. Combo Rule applies. (If Same rule does not exist in region with Same Wall, Same Wall will not appear in list of rules but can be carried to another region.
Sudden Death If the game ends in a draw, a new game will start but the cards will be distributed based on the colour they were at the end of the last game.
Random Players do not choose their cards, five cards are chosen at random from the deck.
Plus Similar to the same rule, but the cards are both captured, not flipped. Combo rule applies.
Combo Cards adjacent to cards captured by the Same, Same Wall or Plus rule will be captured as well if their ranks are lower.
Elemental One or more spaces on the grid are marked with an elemental symbol. When an elemental card is played on the corresponding space, each rank goes up 1 point; if an elemental card is placed on a non-matching space, each rank goes down 1 point.*

(*) This rule does not affect Same, Same Wall and Plus; cards' original ranks apply.

Rules per Region

Region Rules
Balamb Open
Galbadia Same
Dollet Random, Elemental
Fisherman's Horizon Elemental, Sudden Death
Trabia Random, Plus
Centra Same, Plus, Random
Esthar Elemental, Same Wall*
Lunar Same, Plus, Elemental, Same Wall, Random, Sudden Death

(*) This does not appear in game rules unless player spreads Same to the region first.

Trade Rules

This rule dictates how many cards are won in a game.

Rule Rank Description
One 1 Winner may claim 1 card from the loser.
Difference (Diff) 2 Winner may claim 1 card per difference in the score of the game.
Direct 3 Players claim the cards that were their colour at the end of the game.
All 4 Winner claims all cards.

Every time a challenge is made, there is a chance that the region's trade rule will change; this is not shown in any way prior to starting a game.


The current Trade Rules can be changed in 3 ways:


  • If the Queen of Cards is in a region; every challenge made in that region, including the Queen herself, has a 35% chance of the Queen's current region adopting her personal trade rule. Every challenge to the Queen will have a 86% chance of increasing or decreasing her trade rule by one step (This change occurs after the change in the region's trade rule).

  • Every challenge has a chance of the dominant region's rule being adopted by a random region (including itself). The Queen of Cards will tell you which region is currently dominant if asked about trade rules; the more dominant a region is, the higher the chance of the rule spreading.
    Playing in the dominant region will increase the dominance level by 1 up to a maximum of 10.
    Playing in a non-dominant region (or an opponent from a non-dominant region) will decrease that region's dominance by 1.

  • Every time Dominance is triggered, there is a chance that a random region will adopt the One rule. Every challenge adds between 0-3% to the degeneration chance but it resets if it reaches 98%. Asking the Queen about trade rules when degeneration is at 50% she will say people are avoiding risky trades.


If the Queen is in the target region, it is easy to get the desired trade rule if the Queen's personal rule is set to what you want. You can then simply challenge anyone in the Queen's region (Except the Queen herself) until they offer to play with the desired rule.


The Queens region cannot be changed in the endgame, she will always be at the Crash Site and her personal trade rule cannot be changed either.

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