Final Fantasy VIII

G.F.'s

Diablo
Before you leave for Timber, Cid will give you the Magic Lamp. When you use this item, it will put you in a fight with Diablo. For this fight, i suggest you have both zell and selphie equipped with the item command, and have squall in the critical range so he can use his limit break each turn. if he dies, have zell or selphie use a pheniox down on him. The rest of the time, have them draw cures from Diablo to heal your party. If you use this item as soon as you get it, this will be a tough fight. I recommend getting him as soon as you are able, becuase he has some good abilities. One of them is a neccessity for getting Odin.

Brothers
This G.F. is in the Tomb of the Nameless King. Once your there, head as far to the right as you can. Here is an explanation of the map which you must buy.

Okey, the map doesn't change perspectives according to which direction your facing. the top of the map is always facing north. so if you take the path to the bottom of the screen when you are facing north, you will be heading south. The map, however, will still be facing north. so if your heading east, you need to take the path to the left, not the one to the right, as the map would suggest.

Cerberus
This GF is in Galbadia Garden, when you infiltrate it in disk 2 i believe(at the end). He's in the main hall, in the lights, so he's a little hard to see. Once you beat him you have him. He's not that hard. Just be sure to have a dispel or two on hand for when he casts triple on himself.

Doomtrain
This is the only GF in the game that you don't need to fight someone to get. What you do need to do though is go on a scavenger hunt. First, you need Solomens Ring. It can be found at Tears Point near Esthar (at least i think it's tears point. it's the one place where you can get into battles inside a "city"). Next, you need 6 Hi-remedy's. To get this, you need Alexandars Med-up ability, and 60 remedys. Then just use Med-Up on them, and you have 6 Hi-Remedy's. The next thing you need is 6 Steel Pipes. I explain how to get them earlier in this page. Lastly, you need 6 Marlboro Tenticles. This is also found earlier in this page. Then, go to your item screen and use the Solomen's Ring, and you will get Doomtrain.

Sabotour(sp?)
Really easy. Just go to cactour island(a small island in the Southeast). Occasionally, you will see a cactus pop up out of the ground. That is the GF. Run into it, and you will fight it. I recommend you have Alexander's Revive and Leviathan's Restore. You will use the both in this fight. First off, draw and cast meltdown on him. This will take his vitality(defence) down to zero. You might as well stock up about 20 for the later bosses, as this helps a lot. Anyway, once you have done that, you should cast Leviathan on it as much as you can. It is weak against water, so this will really damage it. Another thing you can do it junction water to squalls weapon and get his health down so he can use his limit break on him. If you do this, he'll die in no time.

King Tonberry
Once you get Odin(i'll add that walkthrough soon), go to the ancient ruins where you got Odin, and in the first area with the draw point, you will fight tonberrys. They have a ton of health, and their attacks to a lot of damage. The good thing is that they are really slow, and you can usually kill them before they attack. If you follow my stradgy, that is. Give one person Alexander's Revive, and another Leviathan's Restore. Have the third person's(Squall, Zell, or Irving; preferable Squall) health in the yellow, so they can use their limit breaks. If they die, or if someone's health gets low, just heal them with your abilities. Once you kill 20 tonberry's(keep track or you'll get discouraged really fast), the King Tonberry will appear to avenge his bretheran. Use the same tactics on him that you did the other Tonberries. Just be sure to keep the person who has Revive's health up.

Bahamut
Yes, that's right, the king of all GF's is back in FFVIII. After all, what ff game would be complete withought this awsome dragon? Once you get the Ragnarok, fly it to the South-West corner of the map, and you will find an uncharted land mass. Land on it, and you will enter a floating labratory. Go in the doorway and you will be in a room with a glowing colomn in the middle. You'll get some creepy message or something, then your free to wander. There's one problem; every time you take a step, you get into a fight. A useful way of getting expereance points, but really annoying. Solution? Wait untill it stops glowing. Every other time it will look like it's going to stop glowing, but it wont, so be carefull. Make your way to the pillar, and examine it. Something will talk to you. The first time your givin a choice, say the first option. The second time, the second option. The third time, there is a third option that you can't see. It's right below the second one(duh), and there's nothing there. Oh, and every time you say something, you fight a Red Dragon(the first two times anyway). You've fought them before, and they're just the same. The third time, you will fight Bahamut. There really isn't a stradgy to beat this guy, just do whatever you usually do for bosses. Ultima seems to work well on him, but little else. Don't even bother using Meteor on him. Be sure you have either Leviathan's Restore ability equipped, or have a lot of Cura's or Curaga's, 'cause this guy packs a punch. You'll eventually beat him, and you'll get Bahamut with his card.

Eden
It's a good thing this is the best GF in the game, 'cause if it wasn't, it wouldn't be worth it. To get this, you need to press the menu button while your in the Ragnarok above the island laboratory. You'll then get to the room where you fought bahamut, only the pillar thing is gone. Go down the hole, and examine the computer. I'm going to take this opportunity to say that it would be a good idea to have zell in your party, which i will explain later. The computer will explain the energy situation, and ask you how much energy units you want to use. The goal of this is to have 10 units left by the time you get to the bottom floor. I can't remember the numbers to use, but just use the least ammount at each choice and you should get to the bottom with enough energy(what i just said will make sense when you're there). Once you get to the bottom, there will be a machine. Examine it, and it will ask for 10 energy units. If Zell is in your party, he can do it for no energy units. Anyway, continue through the path that opens up, and you'll be in an underground dungeon type thing. You'll get into a fight with a powerful enemie every so often, so be prepaired(oh, and you can't run away). You go through about 5 floors of this, and once you get to the bottom floor, there will be a computer thing in front of a pond. Whatever you do, DON'T EXAMINE THE COMPUTER YET! Equip Siren's Move-Find ability to reveal a save point, and save your game. Now, you can examine the computer. Something will happen and you'll fight the Ultimate Weapon. And talk about packing a punch! Dang, this guy's good. None-the-less, I have found a great stradgy that i've proven to work very well. First, you must have Laguna's Card(i think it's Laguna, anyway. it's one of the character cards. I'll confirm this at a later date), and use Quetzalcotls Card-mod ability on it, to give you 100 Holy-Wars(be sure it gives you Holy-Wars). These will make your party invincible for a shor time, so equip your party with the item command before you fight the Ultimate Weapon. Another thing you need is at least 20 aura's(there is a character card you can card-mod into 100 aura stones, but i'm not sure which one). I'm labeling your other two party members character 1 and 2 for convienence. Once the battle starts, have character 1 use an aura stone on squall, and then have character 2 use a holy war on your party. It is important that you use an aura stone on squall before you use holy war, because your immune to status change while under holy-wars influence. Once squalls in aura mode, and your party is invincible, have squall use his limit break(oh, it's a good idea to have squalls ultimate weapon, the Lion Heart, before you do this) on the ultimate weapon, and have characters 1 and 2 use high level magic or summons on him. Keep repeating this process, and you shouldn't die once.

Odin
Odin is a quite useful GF, except in boss fights. It does an instand kill attack, and you need to get this GF if you hope to get King Tonberry. Anyway, on the island Edea's house is on(or one of the islands around it), there is an Ancient Shrine or something(Not hard to find. You'll know it once you see it). Once you enter it, you will have 30 minutes to get Odin, or you'll have to start over(or die, i can't remember which). Before you enter, equip Diablo's Encounter-None ability. This is a must have, so refer back in this section if you don't have him. Continue through the shrine thing, and you will come to a tall tower, with ladders on the left and right. I believe that you need to go up the one on your right, but not sure. The wrong way is just a dead end. At the top, there will be a computer. Once you examine it, the stairs will pop out of the wall. Go up the stairs, and you will come to a ledge with a ladder going up to a dragon statue, a locked door, and stairs continuing up. Go up the ladder to the dragon statue, and pull out his eye. Go back down the ladder, and continue going up the stairs. You will get to another dragon statue. Put the eye you got from the first statue into this statue, and you will get a combonation. Get both eyes, and go back to the first dragon statue. Put both eyes into the statue, and enter the code you got from the other dragon. The door is now unlocked, but do NOT go in yet. You usually don't have enough time to beat Odin at this point. Leave the palace, and the come back in, and work your way back to the door, which is still unlocked. By doing this, you have added roughly 5-15 minutes to the time you have to beat Odin. When fighting him, treat him like any other boss. Don't hold back too much, or you won't beat him in time. Once you beat him, he isn't on your GF list. That is because he isn't a normal GF. He shows up at the beginning of battle and instantly kills your enemies, which doesn't work on Bosses.

Gilgamesh
Get Odin. It's that simple, but you don't get Gilgamesh untill disk 4, so get Odin before then(before lunatic pandora).

Pheniox
Not too hard. You must get a item to use this GF, called the Pheniox Pinion. You can either use card-mod on some kind of card(i forgot which), or you can complete a mini-task in the Shumi Village and get one. Keep in mind that one pheniox pinion will let you call the pheniox once. It does some fire damage, but it's main advantage is that it casts Life2 on all your party members. To do the mini-quest, go to shumi village(it's on your map) and take the elevator down(oh, and that draw point is ultima. Definately use it at least once). Anyway, go down the elevator, go as far left as you can, and go in a big work center of some kind. In the back, a shumi will be working on a statue, and he asks you to get 4 stones.(you may have to talk to the mayor first, but i can't remember). The first stone is right behind the statue. I don't remember which order the stones are in, so i'll just list the ones i remember here. The green stone(earth stone i think) is on the only hill in the place you can climb. Climb up all the way and you'll get the stone. The Water stone is in the artisans home, in the sink. The wind stone is the big blue stone near the exit of the elevator. The shadow stone is up by the Ultima draw point, where the shadows make an "X." Go back to the statue guy, and he'll tell you to talk to the mayor i think. Anyway, talk to the mayor, and before you leave he'll give you a pheniox pinion.

Editing Rules
By far, the most annoying part of the card game is the random rule. How do you get rid of it? Once you get to a new region, save your game. Then, challenge a person to a card game. They should say something like, "Let's combign our rules and your rules", indicating that your bringing a rule that that region didn't have before. After you say yes, you can either pick your cards and play them, or you can cancel the game. Afterwards, if you see a message "This region has adopted new rules" or something like that. After this happens, play them again, and look at the rules. If the rule is still there, reset and try again. As you probably already assumed, this works with any rule.

The CC Group
This is a rather fun little mini-quest that you can do any time your in balamb garden. Besides the entertainment you'll get from this, you will also be able to get a number of rare items only available from cards that you can get from the CC group. Well, enough chit-chat. Let's get on w/ the walkthrough.
The first thing you need to do is win about 15-20 games in the garden itself(i don't know the exact number). Anyway, once you do, talk to the guy by the map of the garden in the jean uniform that you wore while infiltraiting Dollet. He's the one who tells you about the cc group in the first place. Talk to him and he'll challenge you. Once you beat him, go to the hallway near the dorms, and talk to the guy in the SeeD uniform, and he'll challenge you. Once you defeat him, go to the map of balamb again and talk to the two girls talking. They'll walk onto the screen after a few seconds and stop in front of the map. After you defeat them, head up to the second floor. Remember that guy who gave you your first cards? That's him. If he isn't there the first time, leave the screen and come back on again untill he's there. This may take several tries. After you defeat him, go to the training center and go to the area with a thunder draw point. Someone will be standing there(not allways. It's like the guy on the second floor. he won't allways be there). Once you defeat him, find Xu. It'll be easiest to find her in disk two, as she's always on the bridge. Once you defeat her, play cards w/ Dr. Kadawodi(or however you spell it.) Once you win, she'll tell you stuff about King. Go to your dorm, ALONE(this is important), and rest. King will eventually show up(again, this is random. You may have to rest several times before King shows up). King's Identity may suprise you. Well, that's it. One you defeat king, they will be in the Ragnarok in disk 4.

Queen of Cards
The Queen of cards can first be found in Balamb. If you can get her to dollet, she'll ask for one of your cards, and if you lose the card to her(do this BEFORE you get her to dollet. i'll have a list of the cards she will want later) and ask her about her artist father, and she will tell you where the new card is, and that your old card is with her son. To get her to move, you need to lose a rare card to her. I recomend losing Mini-mog; it sucks anyway. Once she moves, go to the city she hints at(i'll have a list of these hints later, but most of them are fairly obvious), and play her until she uses mini-mog(or the card you lost to her). She will then move again. Keep doing this untill she goes to dollet, and perform the above described action. So far, here are the cards i know she asks for: Sacred, Alexander. There are only five, so i will have them fairly fast.

Rare Cards
It'll be awhile before this section will be complete, but it will be done in time. I'll start with what i can remember, and do the rest when i get them on my game. anyway, on to the cards.

Cards obtained from battles
These are the ones i can remember, but are not the only ones obtained from fighting someone. Keep in mind that i am only including rare cards. I will list the card's name, and who you must fight to get it.
1. Pupu - i'll include a walkthrough for this card later.
2. Sacred - Brothers.
3. Minatour - Brothers.
4. Ifirit - Ifirit.
5. Diablos - Diablos.
6. Cerberus - Cerberus.
7. Odin - Odin.
8. Bahumut - Bahumut.
9. Eden - Ultimate Weapon.

Shiva
Before you get this card, you need to get the "Girl Next Door" in the "Timber Maniacs" head quarters in Timber. Once you enter the building, you'll see stacks of books on the floor. In the hallway you enter in, search all the stacks, and one of them will have the Girl Next Door. Much much later in the game, when you need to go to the white SeeD ship, you will meet an old friend(i won't say who 'cause i don't want to spoin anything, but you'll know him when you see him). Talk to him about 4 times and he'll eventually ask for the girl next door. give it to him for free and he'll give you a rename card and the shiva card.

Leviathan
You get this from CC group member 'Joker' if you beat joker at cards(and he uses the card, obviously).

Gilgamesh
You get this from CC group member 'King' if you bet King ar cards.

Rinoa
Fairly easy to get. Play cards with general carway after disk 1, and lose the Ifirit card to him. Don't worry, you can get it back. Anyway, he will then play with the Rinoa card. To get back your ifirit card, talk to general caraway about cards, and he will tell you he lost the card to headmaster martine. You can find him in F.H.

Angelo
Easy to get. Play cards with Watts, and he'll eventually use angelo. You may need to do this when your in the Forest owls hq, but i havn't confirmed this.

Mini-mog
Play cards with the kid in a blue shirt running around Balam Garden. He'll Eventually use mini-mog.