Sry I didnt mean any offense, I have just been attacked for my longer posts in the past that I really cant hear about it any more without getting a bit angry.
Well I defeated Cerberus with one Limit Break
The trick to building a powerful party as early as possible is to collect rare cards, then use converting abilities to turn them into really great items which can be used (again through the use of converting abilities) to create large amounts of magic spells, which normally you wouldnt get until much later in the game.
The key are the Guardian Forces (GF). Thats the creatures you can obtain and summon in battle. But they have another much more important use. They can learn abilities (like the different converting abilities), so its essential to not miss any GF and learn their abilities as fast as possible.
Here is a list of the GF and where to find them:
QUEZACOTL (check Squalls computer in the classroom)
SHIVA (check Squalls computer in the classroom)
IFRIT (must be defeated during the story and is therefore not missable)
SIREN (must be drawn from El Voret during the boss battle in Dollet)
DIABLOS (after using the Wonder Lamp that Cid gives you you will enter a boss battle against Diablos. Defeat him)
BROTHERS (you must defeat Sacred and Minotaur in the tomb of the unknown king. First seperately and then in a 3rd fight again)
CARBUNCLE (must be drawn from Iguion during the boss battle in Deling City)
LEVIATHAN (must be drawn from Master Norg during the boss battle in Balamb Garden on Disc 2)
PANDEMONA (must be drawn from Fujin during the boss battle in Balamb)
CERBERUS (must be defeated in Galbadia Garden on Disc 2)
ALEXANDER (must be drawn from Edea during the boss battle in Galbadia Garden on Disc 2)
DOOMTRAIN (You need 6 Iron Pipes, 6 Marlboro Tentacles & 6 Remedy-2. Then find Solomons Ring at Tears Point on Disc 3 and use it)
CACTUAR (defeat Jumbo-Cactuar in an optional boss battle on Cactuar Island once you have the airship)
TONBERRY (defeat around 20 Tonberries in a row at the Centra Ruins without leaving or saving. then Tonberry King will appear. Defeat him)
BAHAMUT (travel with the airship to the secret research base and walk towards the light pillar when the lights disappear. You eventually will be asked some questions. Give the rigth answers and you will have to fight 2 Ruby Dragons in a row. Afterwards choose the invisible answer when asked again and you will enter a boss battle against Bahamut. Defeat him)
EDEN (after getting Bahamut, you can enter the lower levels of the research base and have to fight your way through a big dungeon full of the most dangerous monsters in the game. After you reach the excavation site, use the machine and you will have to fight Ultima Weapon. Eden can be drawn from him during the battle)
As you can see some of these GFs are really hard to get and you will need a highly maxed out party with high level upgrade weapons if you want to get Bahamut and Eden.
there is also a small number of Bonus GFs, which you can obtain but you cant learn abilities with them or control them. Those are:
ODIN (solve the riddles in the Centra Ruins and unlock the entrance to Odins chamber within a time limit of 20 minutes. Then defeat him before time runs out)
Note: After you get Odin, he will randomly appear at the start of normal battles. If he does he will instantly kill any enemy. he doesnt appear during boss battles.
GILGAMESH (if you get Odin before you fight Seifer on Disc 3, Seifer will kill Odin. After you defeat Seifer, Gilgamesh will appear and replace Odin)
Note: Like Odin, Gilgamesh appears randomly in battles and uses one of four attacks: Zantetsuken will kill any enemy, Masamune will inflict major damage, Excalibur will inflict medium damage and Excalipoor will only inflict 1 HP damage.
PHOENIX (get the item Phoenix Pinion and use it in battle to summon Phoenix. After that he will appear randomly in battles after your party has been wiped out and resurrect them)
BOKO (after you catch your first Chocobo in a Chocobo Forest, you get Boko as a gift. Use Gysahl Greens in battle to summon him. he doesnt inflict much damage though)
In order to create a powerful party as early as possible follow these tips:
-Learn the ability "Card" with Quezacotl as soon as possible. After that he will be able to learn the invaluable ability "Card Mod". Thats the ability you use to convert cards into items.
-You can win the rare Mogry Kid and Quistis cards at Balamb Garden. You get the Ifrit card after defeating Ifrit and can win the Zell card from Zells mother in Balamb. After defeating Diablos you get the Diablos card as well. The Mogry Kid card can be converted into 100 Pet Houses (fully heals all GF) but those are not very important so rather keep the card cause you will need a powerful deck of cards against future card players who hold some of the best rare cards. Keep the Ifrit Card as well (it only converts into items which give a GF the ability to junction elemental magic). The Diablos card converts into items which can be converted with Time magic mod-ability into 100 Demi spells for each character. Thats good for junctioning but the card is powerful so I would rather keep it for card battles. However the Zell and Quistis Cards are the key. The Quistis card converts into items which can be converted with time magic-mod into 150 Triple spells. Triple is one of the most powerful junctioning spells for strength. Junction 100 triple to Squalls strength and he will already have strength stats of nearly 150 on Disc 1. You can later draw also Triple spells from Odin during the boss battle against him to fill up the Triple spells for the other two characters.
The Zell card converts into items which can teach a GF (just use the item on a GF in the Item menu) the ability Strength + 60 %. This is VITAL. Teach it to three different GFs that are junctioned to three different characters (so that each character gets the strength + 60 boost). This combined with 100 triple spells junctioned to strength will give Squall nearly 200 strength (of 255!) on disc 1. He practically will kill every enemy with a single hit and will be able to kill any boss with one LImit Break. Bosses that used to be tough will be reduced to a mere nuisance.
the Diablos battle is pretty tough. as a preperation you need to learn the Life magic mod with Siren and then buy enough Tents (which can be converted with Life magic mod to the best healing spell Curaga) so you can generate 100 Curaga spells for each member of your party. then junction them to HP and the characters HP will dramatically rise from around 600 to nearly 3000 which dramatically increases your chances of beating Diablos as early as possible.
There are many more rare cards that will either teach your GF invaluable abilities (which normally you would only get much later in the game) or can be converted into powerful magic with the mod-abilities. Thats why you should always hunt for the rare cards, always learn the mod abilities with your GF first, dont miss any GFs and make sure as early as possible that your party members will unlock junctioning for stats like HP, strength, magic, vitality, spirit, speed etc.
Since not every GF can learn every ability you will have to divide the GFs evenly between your characters, so that each of them will have access to the best junctions and abilities.
This is my personal preferred setup:
Character 1 (Squall):
Ifrit
Diablos
Cerberus
Alexander
Bahamut
Eden
Character 2 (in my case Zell)
Quezacotl
Shiva
Carbuncle
Leviathan
Pandemona
Character 3 (in my case either Selphie or Rinoa)
Siren
Brothers
Doomtrain
Cactuar
Tonberry
here a list of the rare Cards that you should go after:
GF Cards:
Mogry Kid (from the running kid at Balamb garden)
Quezacotl (from the mayor or his wife in Fishermans Horizon)
Shiva (after you give Thon the Girly magazine on disc 2 which can be found on disc 1 in the Timber maniacs building, he will give you the card)
Ifrit (after defeating Ifrit)
Siren (from the pub owner in Dollet)
Diablos (after defeating Diablos)
Sacred (after defeating the Brothers in the Tomb of the unknown king)
Minotaur (same as with Sacred)
Pandemona (from the hotel owner in Balamb after defeating Fujin and Raijin there)
Cerberus (after defeating cerberus)
Alexander (from Piet at the space station)
Odin (after defeating Odin)
Bahamut (after defeating Bahamut, converts into 100 Megaelixirs!)
Eden (after defeating Ultima Weapon)
Characters:
Squall (from Laguna in Esthar)
Quistis (from a member of her fanclub in the Balamb garden classroom)
Zell (from Zells mother in Balamb)
Selphie (from Selphies friend at Trabia Garden)
Rinoa (from her father at Deling City but you need to lose the Ifrit card to him first)
Laguna (from Ellone at the space station - converts into 100 Hero´s !)
Ward (from Professor Odyne in Esthar)
Seifer (from Principal Cid before you go to Fishermans horizon)
Edea (from Edea at her house on disc 3)
There are a number of cards which you can only obtain by completing or beginning some special sidequests. Those are:
THE CC CLUB QUEST
after you have won enough card battles in Balamb Garden and once you can drive the Garden, if you talk to very certain people in the Garden and challenge them to a Card game, they will reveal themselves to be part of an elite group known as the CC club. By beating each member of the club you will rise in their hierarchy and will be able to play against other members all the way up to the Card King. Several of these members have rare cards:
Leviathan (CC Joker has this card - he is in the training hall by the wooden planks. But he will not always show up)
Carbuncle (Xu aka CC Heart has this card. She is the final member of the club that you face before the King)
Gilgamesh (Quistis aka the Card King has this card. After beating Xu you have to go to your quarters and go to sleep. Then a sequence will follow where Quistis wakes Squall and challenges him to a card duel. This card is extremely valuable since it can be converted to 10 Holy Wars - which can make the whole party invincible. This is very useful in optional super battles like Ultima Weapon or Omega Weapon)
CARD QUEEN QUEST
This is a VERY tough and annoying quest, probably the most frustrating in the entire game. You need to find the Card Queen, play against her and then "follow" her to whichever location she goes next and you need to influence her so she will eventually go to Dollet. If then you lose a very specific card to her, her father will create a new rare card. You then need to find the owner of this new rare card to win it from him. This can be quite a nightmare. Luckily you can also win all of these rare cards directly from the Card Queen on disc 4, when you find her at the escape pod crashsite in esthar (which is a hidden location). However I would at least try to get her father to create the Kiros card as soon as possible because you can convert that one into 3 accelerators which can teach a GF the Auto-haste ability!
These are the rare cards that can be obtained during the quest or on disc 4 from the Card Queen herself:
Kiros
Irvine
Phoenix
Chubby Chocobo
Doomtrain
Oh and a life-saving advice: ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS save your game before you try to win a rare card or convert a rare card.
using this strategy my party was already so powerful at the end of disc 2 (each having over 200 strength and 5000 HP) that boss battles like Cerberus, Seifer or Edea were over after a couple of hits or one Limit Break attack.
Thats why I love the gameplaysystem of FF VIII - if you really utilize it to its fullest you can make your party practically invincible (except for the super bosses Ultima and Omega Weapon, though they will be much easier as well)
This naturally has lit up the Final Fantasy message boards a few weeks ago after the HD remaster was released (The novella was included in the collectors edition in Japan).
