The Final Fantasy 8 section is great; I like it.
I have the Official Strategy Guide, but I like this a bit better..
Anyhow; it says in "Limit Breaks" that you need the magazines to get a better weapon.

Not true, if you have the tools to make the weapon; you can.
I had Squall's secon best weapon, and Quitis' 3rd weapon before I even fought Ifrit. (I played ALOT of card games, and spread the "All" rule.)

In fact, I'm still on Disk 1, this time around; I'm in the 2nd dream with Laguna, in Esthar; and I have Zell's 2nd weapon, Squall's 2nd best weapon, Quistis' third weapon, Selphie's 2nd best weapon; and Rinoa's 2nd best weapon.

Another small thing, you can get pulse ammo on disk one; from the Elastoid things; (They drop Laser cannons, or you can mug them for laser cannons if they are at level 30 or so.)

Also, I haven't confirmed this myself yet; but the Guide says that on rare occasion, you can card Ultima weapon cards from Elastoids. I'll keep trying to see if it works.

I do know that on rare occasion, you can card Shumi Tribe cards from Grats; which makes the card game REALLY easy, really early; if you spend enough time. I have MOST of the cards already, and I'm still on disk one. ^_^

The trick is to get a few Shumi Tribe cards, then get the MiniMog card from the jogging kid; then the Quistis from the Treppie; with those, and a few Shumi Tribes; you'll be hard to beat....after you get a few more cards like Diablos, Ifrit, Seifer, and Angelo...you should be able to piece together a nearly unbeatable deck. Like I said; I'm not even in Galbadia Garden yet, I've played well over 200 card games with the 5 cards that I normally use; and I haven't lost yet. I've tied, but not lost.

Another good tip...if you have the time, spend time at the very start; before you even go outside Balamb Garden....to draw all the spells from the Grats, up to 100. If you do that, you can boost your junction fairly well; then, if you use alot of card mods from Grat cards, you can get magic stones; which can refine to 5 firas, blizzaras, or thundaras; if you get 100 of those 3; you're doing great. ;)

My hero, has 100 water, 100 firaga, blizzaraga, thunderaga, fira, blizzara, thundera, 100 death, protect, float...etc...etc..etc...100 double, 100 curage, 100 cura....

Point is; I'm not even in Galbadia yet, and I have almost 5000 HP; and hit for a good 1500 with Gunblade.

Another nifty thing to do is get Quetzcotl to a fairly high level, BEFORE you first visit Dollet; for the mission. Learn Boost, and all the SumMagic skills for him; and go...when you fight the robot, each time; its possible to deplete all his HP, then; when you run...you can get 40 AP for it, each time!

That SERIOUSLY helps you learn some skills.
Your SeeD rank will be a bit lower because you ran away from him so many times, though.

Also; you can kill him on the Bridge to get a 100 pt. bonus, and the 40 AP.

I've got more tips, but I think my hand is going numb, cya. :)

Just confirmed it.
You CAN get Ultima Weapon cards from Elastoids;
Its rather hard, and you only get one like, one time in ten,
But I find it worthwhile, since you'll likely be fighting Elastoids for a few Laser Cannons, anyhow.
Actually; its a really good idea to fight Elastoids for a while when you're Laguna. Keep carding them so you get AP without leveling up so much (Trust me).
Elastoids ALSO can be mugged for Dynamo stones, and those come alot faster than the Laser Cannons; therefore...after a couple of hours, you could end up with a few Ultima Weapon Cards (And card-mod those for some Ultima stones),
A few Laser Cannons (Refine them into pulse ammo)
And some Dynamo stones. (Useful for thunder-magic refine, they refine into 20 Thunderagas; it's nice to have good magic to junction at such an early stage in the game. :P)

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Uhh.. that's nice. Please don't double post, though. If you need to add or change something, please edit your first post.. Thanks ^^;;;
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Noted.
I just hate having extremely long posts though.
:uh?:

You sure know a lot about FFVIII, don't YA?;)

Or have way too much free time on your hand, nice to know that you put so much effort in getting strong characters in the beginning of the game... I wouldn't do it though.. since It's somewhat pointless in my eyes.. and boring as hell ;)




no offense meant in this post :)

I know it's pointless.
That's the point....or complete lack thereof.
I beef up my GF's, and make everyone semi-invincible early, so that the game flows smoothly this time around; and besides my constant agitation while doing more things to beef them up; I can mainly focus on the plot, and not on trying to beat some ignorant monster. :P

i don't see the point in doing that it means there is absolutely no challenge in the game and defeats the whole point

fool!(no offence)

Rofl.
Maybe you didn't read my post thoroughly;
This isn't my first time around, but making it so that the bosses and such are no hard task to beat, gives me more time to enjoy the plot; instead of worrying about how to kill [insert boss here].

Since you're willing to put in the time and effort to make your characters strong in the beginning of the game, I suggest you find the items, and remodel your Gunblade into the Lionheart Model while its still early in the game. First get 1 Adamantine from either the Adamantoise's on the shores of Dollet or Long Horn Island, or Card Mod the Minotaur Card you recieved when obtaining Brothers. Next get 4 Dragon Fangs by defeating Blue Dragons behind Shumi-Village up against the mountains (You will get them more often if you have the Rare Item GF ability on). Lastly, either win some Elnoyle cards (not sure how many) and refine them into Energy Crystals and then into Pulse Ammo (12 needed), or refine 3 laser Cannon's into 15 Pulse Ammo. There you have it. Lionheart. Sorry if you all ready knew this

I knew about the Pulse ammo from Laser Cannons, just got my third; Thank god for Laguna.

I also think I have the Dragon Fangs....if not, I'll definitely be hitting that area.

The Adamantoise part was helpful though, I sure as hell don't wanna mod the minataur card. :P

Much obliged.

Just wanted to add...

I was just checking my Brady Games strategy guide; and I found a bit of an error; if anyone else is using the same guide...

It says that you can only do the CC Group sidequest after the Seifer/Edea battle in Galbadia Garden; Not true.

I defeated the CC Group right after Balamb Garden became Mobile.

You CAN challenge the CC Group early; in fact, I've beaten Jack right before facing NORG.

The problem is, you can only face the Queen and King after Xu is on the bridge.

So basically, you can challenge them before that; but to finish the quest, Xu has to be on the bridge. She's on the bridge right after the whole deal in FH, so directly after Nida asks you where to go, you can land somewhere; get back in, and challenge the Queen and King; which is a LONG time before the Seifer/Edea battle in Galbadia Garden.

Anyhow, just wanted to point that out; you can get some pretty Nifty cards from the CC group; Leaviathan, Carbuncle, and Gilgamesh....not to mention a good deal of the level 6 and 7 Boss cards.