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Tips & Hints

Final Fantasy VIII - Tips and Hints

Here are a few useful tips and hints to aid you in your adventure through the game.


The tips and hints here are all confirmed to be true but it is subjective how useful they will be during your playthrough. If you have any suggestions for this section or any tips you feel should be mentioned, please contact us via the Contact page.


Before adding any tips, they will be verified by me as there are a lot of tips online that are not true or have not been verified. I will also not mention any glitches such as item duplication as I do not want to be responsible for any adverse effects.

Big Bad Rascal - Balamb Town (Occupation)

During the occupation of Balamb Town by Galbadia; you can do a few things to allow you to leave town during the occupation.


Firstly, enter the house next door to Zell's House and talk to the girl; her parents are stuck outside town and not allowed in.


Next, head to Zell's house and talk to Big Bad Rascal twice for him to leave, then talk to his mother next to him.


Leave the house and head to the house next door again and talk to the girl again. Leave and re-enter and Rascal shouldbe there. Talk to him again then leave.

Head to the entrance to town and you ill see Rascal by the car, talk to the guard but don't end the conversation until he has time to talk to the Hotel owner.


Head back into town and Rascal will be outside the girl's house and if you talk to him, he will distract the guard to allow you to leave town.


You can re-enter buy talking to the guard. If you visit the girl again, she will say she is feeling better as she has her dad's cards.

Ragnarok Auto-Pilot

When you have the Ragnarok, you can use the auto-pilot to fly to a destination.


Press [Select] until you get the detailed map (full screen map) and move the cursor over the town you want to visit.


Pressing [Accept] on the town will bring up a confirmation message asking if you want to travel to the location; select yes to fly there.

Easy AP (Early Game)

During the Dollet mission, the boss X-ATM092 can be fought multiple times and each time, it will give you 50AP.


If you are not going for the best SeeD Rank, you can allow X-ATM092 to catch up to you in the 8 locations of Dollet:

  • Communications Tower Side Road
  • Communications Tower Hilltop
  • Hill Path
  • Stairs
  • Bridge
  • Dollet Square
  • Path to the Square
  • Path to the shore


At each of these locations, you must reduce its HP by 25% so it starts repairing itself, then reduce its HP to 0 while repairing and it will stand up without saying repairs were completed. You then have to reduce its HP by 25% again to get it to start repairing again, then run from the battle and move to the next location. You will get 50AP each time.


The usefulness of this is debatable.

Deling City Sewers Maze

The Deling City Sewers can be a bit of a maze during the Deling City mission to assassinate the Sorceress Edea. The Gateway team has to navigate their way to the Gateway via the sewers using water wheels, bridges and opening gates to proceed.


Below is a play-by-play of how to get through the maze and collect the Draw Points along the way.

Energy Crystal Farming (Disc 3)

Once you have the Ragnarok, you can visit Esthar via the Airstation and fight a battle against an Elnoyle.


When you land at the Airstation, head forward and then take a right. Follow the path past the Save Point then, on the next screen, is a lift station. Head north past the top tube to the next screen where you will see stairs on the right; head down the stairs.


You will find a person in black who, when you interact with him, will laugh and a battle will start.


Energy Crystals are very useful; they can be used to refine into Ultima Magic, Pulse Ammo and Samantha Soul.


From level 40 onwards, the enemy will drop Energy Crystals upon defeat 100% of the time and up to 4 at once (5%). You can also mug Moon Stones, Draw Holy Magic and make Elnoyle or Catoblepas Cards.


Once defeated, leaving the screen and coming back resets the encounter so you can do it again.

Abolishing Triple Triad Random Rule

Some rules in Triple Triad can be a pain, but the main source of frustration is the Random rule.


This rule can cause problems when trying to complete the Queen of Cards Quest as the Dollet rule set has the Random rule and this stops you from choosing the cards you wish to play.


To abolish the random rule, do the following:

  1. Head to Timber and challenge the guard on the left as you enter the town. He uses the basic Galbadia Rules which we want to use as a base.
  2. Head to Dollet, do not talk to anyone and enter the Dollet Hotel.
  3. Save your game.
  4. Hard reset the game. (Turn off the game/close the game completely then start the game up again).
  5. For the next part, what you need to do will depend on if the Queen of Cards is in Dollet.
  6. Queen of cards is in Dollet
  7. Exit the Hotel without speaking to anyone
  8. Re-enter the Hotel
  9. Challenge the girl in green to Triple Triad but do not play her; decline when she asks to mix rules
  10. Challenge her again and decline to mix rules.
  11. Challenge her a third time but this time accept but do not play her; leave before choosing cards.
  12. Queen of Cards not in Dollet
  13. Challenge the girl in green and decline to play 4 times.
  14. Challenge her again and accept but do not play her; leave before choosing cards.
  15. This should abolish the Random Rule.


Esthar Map (Rough)

This is a very rough map to the city of Esthar. Unlike all other cities and towns, there is a network of roads and automated lifts that form a ring around the city and a few cutting through the city. To make it easier to find what you are looking for, this map shows the roads and locations.

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