In this last chapter I'm going to cover my preferred character and Guardian Force setups along with a few other notes to wrap up 100% completion of the game.
Seed Rank: A
We'll start with obtaining the SeeD rank A and maintaining it. As you more-than-likely already know, there are 30 SeeD tests Squall can take in the tutorial section of the main menu. With each passed one, equal to Squall's current level, you can grow your rank to 30 easily, however, once you have completed test 30, you are no longer able to use the tests to increase your rank and you will need to use the game's SeeD experience system to proceed to the next, highest level, A. Saving these tests (I recommend no less than 10) until the very end of the game can help you easily manage the A rank without your rank decreasing through lack of battles (In towns and side-quests, for example).
How does the SeeD rank experience work? It's fairly simple: With each monster you defeat, which Guardian Forces kills do not count for, you receive +1 SeeD experience. Then, once Squall is payed his salary, his new rank is determined after -10 experience is deducted from his total amount. Squall is payed after a set number of steps, so it is actually harder to raise your rank than you may think. If you haven't defeated at least 10 enemies before being paid, your rank is in danger of decreasing. In fact, with rank A, specifically, if you don't defeated 10 enemies before Squall is payed, you WILL be reduced down to rank 30, again.
So, besides using tests, what is the best way to go about raising your rank? Since number of steps is used to determine when Squall is payed, we need a high encounter rate and a large number of enemies in each one, and the huge discrepancy in the encounter rate between dungeons and the world map makes this a no-brainer. The encounter rate on the world map is considerably higher than dungeons, so we will be using that. In my opinion, the absolute best place to easily raise your SeeD rank is in the screenshot above. West of Deling City, if you hug the nearby mountains (Not on the mountains, just running around close to them), if you stay within Deling City's darkness, the most-common encounter here are three Geezards that are easily dispatched. The second most-common encounter are two Funguars, then finally, you can find two Geezards and one Funguar in a battle. This guarantees at least two, but more-commonly, three, kills per battle. If your rank is below 20, you should easily be able to increase your rank by two each time, if you are persistent with battles. Once above 20 and start towards 30, you'll need to grind a little bit more to increase your rank, which is why I recommend saving at least 10 of the tests for the end of the game. Hopefully this information helps you obtain the A rank for your save file.
Item Completion
Guardian Force Compatibility
Guardian Force Setup
Onto Guardian Forces, now. What Guardian Forces should you give which characters? That's a hard determination to make and is ultimately a personal decision based upon your goals. Do you want each character to have a GF or divide all them between three characters and switch their junctions around? Do you want to to have the maximum amount of abilities accessible to all three characters? I'll try to guide you along in the best way I can, but you'll need to make a decision for yourself and the goals for your save file.
First, I'll go over the abilities that are limited to specific Guardian Forces and cannot be taught via an item. To maximize the amount of abilities for your characters, you'll need to separate these GFs between characters.
- Hit-J: Diablos, Cerberus, Eden
- Luck+50%: Cactaur, Tonberry, Eden
- Eva+30%: Cactaur, Tonberry
- Mad Rush: Ifrit, Eden
- Darkside: Diablos, Doomtrain, Eden
- Mug: Diablos, Bahamut
- Absorb: Pandemona, Doomtrain
- Defend: Brothers, Cactaur
- Expendx2-1: Cerberus, Bahamut
- HP Bonus: Brothers, Cactaur
- Str Bonus: Ifrit, Cactaur
- Vit Bonus: Carbuncle, Cactaur
- Mag Bonus: Siren, Cactaur
- Spr Bonus: Leviathan, Cactaur
- Initiative: Pandemona, Cactaur, Tonberry
- Auto-Potion: Leviathan, Cactaur, Tonberry
- Move-HP Up: Bahamut, Tonberry
Just to give you my personal preference, I divide my Guardian Forces like so:
Character 1: Shiva, Diablos, Carbuncle, Alexander, Bahamut, Tonberry
Character 2: Ifrit, Siren, Leviathan, Doomtrain, Eden
Character 3: Quezacotl, Brothers, Pandemona, Cerberus, Cactaur
Note: I don't use this setup to maximize the number of abilities, but it does provide the most-useful ones to each character, in my opinion, Hit-J and Luck+50%. This is just a guideline; have fun and experiment which GFs you think fit each character and the goals for your save file. As for what what abilities should be taught to your GFs, I will outline that in an upcoming section about setting up your characters, however, below I give recommendations on the abilities to teach to maximize your Guardian Force's summoning power and HP.
GFHP+30% (Gold Armor): Quezacotl, Shiva, Siren
GFHP+40% (Diamond Armor): Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Diablos, Cerberus
SumMag+40% (Samantha Soul): Quezacotl, Shiva, Ifrit, Siren, Brothers, Leviathan, Pandemona, Alexander, Tonberry
Diamond Armors and Samantha Soul's can be obtained from refining the Seifer and Quistis cards, respectively, while the Gold Armor is a much-rarer item. To obtain them, you need to defeat Snow Lions, located in the forests around Trabia Garden, to drop Silver Mails and refine five of them into one Gold Armor.
Character Junctions
We'll focus now on setting up our character's junctions effectively. Like with the Guardian Forces, this will be subjective based upon your preferences, but I will try to provide an outline for you from my perspective. Before I delve in, a few notes. When it comes to individual characters, there is very little difference when it comes to base statistics, so maximizing their limit breaks should be your focus. Below is the determining factor in each character's limit breaks.
Strength: Squall, Zell, Irvine, Seifer, Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Rinoa (Angelo)
Magic: Quistis, Selphie, Edea, Rinoa (Angel Wing)
There are, however, a few jarring differences in character statistics to look out for when when setting up your characters. Rinoa, for instance, has a ridiculous advantage on every other character in terms of Strength and Magic; only rivaled by Edea in the latter, while Seifer has a near 2000 HP upside on Squall at level 100. With that said, what spells should be junctioned to each stat? Below, I will give my recommendations, the best, followed by a secondary, or third choice. Keep in mind that Squall, Seifer, and Selphie (With Strange Vision) have no use for the Hit% stat and the two former characters, Squall and Seifer, get no bonus from Luck. If you weren't sure, a higher Luck stat increases your character's chance to land a critical hit.
HP: Ultima, Meteor, Tornado, Regen (w/HP+80%)
Strength: Ultima, Meteor, Aura
Vitality: Meltdown
Magic: Ultima, Triple, Pain
Spirit: Ultima, Full-life, Reflect, Curaga
Speed: Triple, Ultima, Haste, Stop
Evade%: Ultima, Triple, Tornado
Hit%: Triple, Aura, Double
Luck: Ultima, Aura, Float
For reference, here are some screenshots of my preferences.
Note: These stats are combined with junction abilities you will see in the next section.
Elemental attack and defense is a little easier to decide upon. The above setup I use for all three of my characters and I highly recommend it. You can junction Ultima here to absorb the rest of the elements as HP, but in my opinion, this is a waste of your Ultima stock. If you'd like to take Full-life out for another stat, you can get some benefit from Protect in its place. For elemental attack, I leave mine un-junctioned unless facing a particular situation.
For my magic-based character, I prefer to use Pain instead of Reflect, to completely null the chance of being silenced, while plugging Reflect into their Spirit junction. Pain can also make an excellent addition to your status attack, but, in my opinion, this spell is best junctioned elsewhere. Drain, as well, is a good choice for your status attack: just make sure to be wary if you are facing an undead enemy. If you're curious, my third character is using Slow for their status attack.
Character Abilities
With the statistics taken care of, what commands and abilities should round your characters out? Again, this is ultimately subjective, but I will give you my opinion. When it comes to commands, honestly, there is not much use for anything outside of Magic, GF, Draw, and Item; the basic commands. Early in the game, commands such as Treatment, Recover, and Revive are useful, but by the end, with the ability to buy Remedies, X-Potions, and easily refine Esuna and Full-life spells, in my opinion, there is little use for these anymore. Outside of the basic four, Darkside, with the ability to triple your attack power at the expense of losing HP from it, could be a nice choice, but which command would you replace it with? I, myself, can't justify its use over one of the others, but you make the call for yourself.
Lastly, we take a look at character abilities. These are all about how much you want to offset your character's statistics. Below I will give a listing of the abilities I recommend you take a look at.
HP+80% (Gaea's Ring, Diablos, Brothers)
Str+60% (Hyper Wrist, Bahamut)
Vit+60% (Adamantine)
Mag+60% (Royal Crown, Bahamut)
Spr+60% (Magic Armlet)
Spd+40% (Rocket Engine, Cerberus, Pandemona)
Luck+50% (Cactaur, Tonberry, Eden)
Counter (Monk's Code, Carbuncle)
Return Damage (Hundred Needles)
Auto-Protect (Steel Curtain, Bahamut)
Auto-Shell (Moon Curtain, Doomtrain)
Auto-Haste (Accelerator, Cerberus)
For how to obtain all of the above items, head back to Chapter 21. Below are screens of the commands and abilities I prefer to use.
Increasing Character Statistics
There are are a few ways available to players to permanently increase their character's parameters (255 being the maximum) without the need for spell junctions or abilities. Those being: items and the Devour command. For the items, see Chapter 21 on how to refine them. Below I will list the enemies and their locations you can use Eden's (Or Hungry Cookpot) Devour command to increase statistics.
- Ruby Dragon: HP+10 (Forests outside Edea's House, First screen of Deep Sea Research Center)
- Adamanotise: Vit+1 (Beaches outside of Dollet)
- T-Rexaur: Str+1 (Forests outside Balamb area, Island Closest to Hell)
- Behemoth: Mag+1 (World Map near Tears' Point)
- Malboro: Spr+1 (Grandidi Forest, which is due-north of Esthar)
My Statistics
In this final section, for those that may be curious, you can view the various statistics that I managed to compile in my game whilst writing this completionist guide. It took a long time, trust me!
Thanks for reading! Hope to see you on my next completionist project!