Alright, so I bought ff8 back when it came out after playing ff7, like a lot of folks I'm sure, and I've gotten to the second Laguna dream this time around. I'm just now starting to realize why I didn't finish the game before.

So far, basically the only viable battle strategy, by an epic long shot, is to just repeatedly summon your GF. I don't understand the point of Squall, Zell, and Selphie even going on a mission when Ifrit, Shiva, and Quetzecoatl are a hundred times stronger and you can summon them an unlimited number of times per battle.

Why would I even want to attack for 100 damage when I could just summon my GF to do 600-1200 damage? You'd think at this point, Shiva would just stay above ground instead of constantly coming out of an ice cocoon every few minutes she's summoned.

Is this just how the game is, where attacking and magic are pretty much pointless and you just repeatedly summon your GF?

thats what n00bs do, no offence.

the true power of a GF is through its Junctioning abilities; the sooner your GF's learn HP-J, ATK-J, MAG-J, the sooner you can beef up your characters.

my normal walkthrough goes something like this;

Obtain GF -> teach all Junction abilities -> maximize MAG stat (better 'Draw' results) -> teach all GF's their 'Refine' abilities.

Powerful magic + proper Junctioning abilities = BAMF team.

Although it is very tempting to over-rely on summoning GFs for much of the game, by the game's end however, it will actually punish you for summoning in a sense namely, the battle against Adel in the Lunatic Pandora at the end of disc 3, where she's Junctioned Rinoa to herself - using a GF will most likely kill Rinoa, resulting in a Game Over. Additionally, once you get to the final dungeon all your commands and abilities other than Attack are locked, including GFs, meaning you can't rely on them until you defeat the bosses in the castle (and therefore unlock them).

The reason for this discrepancy though is simply because the way the battle engine works - because levelling doesn't boost stats by anything more than tiny amounts, the only way to make yourself more powerful is to Junction magic spells to individual stats. Hence, in order for your physical attacks to become more stronger, you need to junction a powerful spell to Strength, and likewise, for spell casting junction a spell to your Magic stats.

In fact, this system is easily abused in that by simply finding a Draw Point for spells like Ultima as early as you can and then Junctioning them to Strength, you can make your party so powerful that you'll eventually render GFs obsolete unless you Boost them to maximum.

This particularly is true for Squall if you've gained his ultimate weapon the Lionheart, as it will do consistently more damage physically than anything your GFs can dish out (with the possible exception of Cactaur and Eden).

Alright, so at the current point in the game, what can I do then? I've tried junctioning 100 thunders and other spells to strength or magic, but they're still pathetically weak compared to summoning.

Is there any way I can get this ultima or another spell that can make attacking a viable option now, or do I have to rely on summoning until much later on in the game?

As far as I recall, you can't get access to a draw point for Ultima until somewhere around the Shumi Village (I'm not sure what disc that's on, as I haven't played FFVIII in ages). Personally, I recommend upgrading your weapons, as the enemies level up with your characters, so Junctioning and upgrading your weapons can give you a edge on them (Hell... you can get Lionheart, Squall's ultimate weapon, not long into Disc 2. The others can be gained throughout discs 2 and 3, depending on which one you're upgrading).

Actually, you can get Lionheart on disc 1. I used to think it was disc 2 as well until someone (I think it was Agent but not entirely sure as this was a while ago) told me otherwise. I'm sure you can google how to get it because I'm sure you'll have to refine cards as well to get the right items.

Alright, so at the current point in the game, what can I do then? I've tried junctioning 100 thunders and other spells to strength or magic, but they're still pathetically weak compared to summoning.

Is there any way I can get this ultima or another spell that can make attacking a viable option now, or do I have to rely on summoning until much later on in the game?

I like refining magic from items to boost stats. If I recall correctly, you can refine Fish Fins (Fasticocalan-F drop) into Waters by Shiva's Ice-Magic Refine ability, and that boosts Strength a lot (Water is a relatively medium-level spell). Alternatively, Diablos's Time-Mag Refine ability turns Steel Orbs (Wendigo drop? Something like that) into Demis, which also boost Strength a lot.

The low level spells boost stats by the lowest amounts, obviously, but you can't really boost your stats by huge amounts yet because the high spells don't become available until later on. However, you can gain access to higher level spells through those refine abilities. First, I recommend getting Quezacotl's Mid-Mag Refine ability, which can convert Thunders into Thundaras, Fires into Firas, etc. I always get the Life-Magic refine ability from Siren to convert Tents (buy at stores) into Curagas (1 tent = 10 Curagas), and then junction 100 Curagas to HP. Of course, if you like playing Triple Triad, you can always win a lot of cards and then use Quezacotl's Card-Refine ability to turn cards into magic (or items that can then be refined into magic).

Upgrading your weapons and even leveling up are less important than junctioning powerful spells. You can really circumvent a lot of needless summoning by junctioning high magic which is refined/upgraded by using GF abilities to the right stats. Good luck and experiment around with refining!

i find it more fun if you simply 'Card' every enemy you can, that way you DONT get exp but you still get AP, allowing you to refine powerful magic while keeping your level quite low (finished the game at only lvl 9), making your characters much more powerful despite their levels.

heres some tips for early game;

Grind on Fastitocalon-F's on the Balamb beach, good AP and they drop Fish Fins- 30x Water per fin.

Draw 'Siren' from Elvoret during the Dollet mission. She learns the ~Life Magic Refine~ ability. Once you start earning a SeeD Salary, buy Tents from Dollet- 10x Curaga per tent, ~2000 HP when Junctioned.

Once you're about to leave for the Timber mission, talk to Headmaster Cid after the briefing to receive 'Magic Lamp', save your game and use it. Defeat and obtain 'Diablos' then have him learn ~Mug~ as well as ~Space/Time Refine~, go back into the Garden and go to the Training Area. The area right at the top of the screen with the Blizzard draw point (one screen to the right of save point) is abundant in T-Rexaurs. Mug "Dino Bone" from them- 20x Quake per bone, awesome for STR-J or MAG-J.

Also if you have no interest in playing cards, teach 'Quezacotl' his ~Card Mod~ ability (must learn ~Card~ first), then you can refine the Diablos card into 100 Black Holes- 30x Demi per quantum singularity, a VERY powerful Junction spell.

I like a challenge so you won't find me playing this game like a pussy. Especially when I want to fight Omega Weapon. I make sure all my characters are level 100 before then...even if I have to grind on one of the Islands when I reach Ultimecia's Castle.

I like a challenge so you won't find me playing this game like a pussy. Especially when I want to fight Omega Weapon. I make sure all my characters are level 100 before then...even if I have to grind on one of the Islands when I reach Ultimecia's Castle.

But then what about Lv 5 Death?

But yeah, I kind of thought the same upon first playing, but once I got to disc 3 I regretted it. The summoning kind of becomes useless by that point, with the exception of maybe Eden, who you probably wouldn't have in the first place anyway if that was all you relied on.


But nah, I like trying to complete the limit breaks and weapons of everyone, because they become VERY useful.

Though, not gonna lie, you think summoning is cheap, you clearly don't have Quistis's "Degenerator". That spells out cheap, especially considering how early it becomes available to you. Well, it doesn't work on bosses, but it instantly KO's any enemy that's not undead, and never misses. It's nice, because it makes grinding less tedious... but still! You can get it with the Black Hole item using Card Mod on Gesper cards, which are extremely common since the beginning of the game. Also, the way limit breaks work in this game which lets you use them over and over again is kind of cheap anyway. It's fun though :D

But then what about Lv 5 Death?

I have a tendency to give all magic to Squall and since I know where to go to get Death spells, Squall will have junctioned 100 Death spells to his stats long before the Omega battle. As for summoning GFs, they are only useful to me in the beginning of the game when I'm lazy and want to end a battle quickly. And the only time they're useful later is if I'm stalling for time (such as trying to cure the party or something).

I know this is old where someone mentioned they came across the magic called "Percent" on a gameshark website or something. I finally got around to it and it's animation is that of the "Fire" spell. It does okay damage, but there are others in-game spells that are more efficient.

As others have said junctioning is where the money is at. Taking the time to get strong magics and junctioning them the the appropriate stats will pretty much make GF's completely redundant. On disk 1 you can aquire many powerful spells such as tornardo, pain, holy, flare, meltdown, "ga" spells and even full life if your insane. When I use to play years ago I would always use GFs but now I could easily go through the whole game without using a GF once.

Click here if you want to know how to get tornardo, pain, holy, flare, meltdown and the "ga" spells on disk 1 (http://ffviii.com/tips.html)