Forbidden Magic Refinement, which allows us to refine ultimate spells, although the rates at pitiful - one Ultima Stone refines into 1 Ultima, and we have acquired a mere 4 of those in the game so far. We'd need some kind of massive source of Ultima Stones for it to matter, but how likely are we to get that?
The item you want here is the Energy Crystal, which is dropped by the Elnoye and the Ruby Dragon (for the latter, the probability is low, but it can be changed to around 50% if you equip the "Rare Item" ability Bahamut has); each one refines into 3 Ultima, which isn't much, but still better return than the Ultima Stone. To farm from the Elnoye, you would need to fight the fixed one in Esthar that was mentioned by the thread before - it is infinitely repeatable and, as you've seen, with a team that is sporting Status-Atk Death, not that hard to do. Ruby Dragon can obviously be found on the Island Closest to Hell, and while there you have to contend with the other monsters on the island and getting tons of EXP in the process, it might be the better idea, as the other drop it has, the Fury Fragment, can be refined into Aura. Of course, the Elnoye only drops Energy Crystals, so if you don't care about Aura, only Ultima, it's the better deal.
Alternatively, once Siren hits level 100, she'll be able to refine 100 Cursed Spikes into 1 Dark Matter with "Tool Refine"; Dark Matter has a lot of uses, and refining into 100 Ultima is one of them. Cursed Spikes can be mugged from Tri-Face (either 6 or 8 per mug), and are dropped from the Marlboro (the probability is low, but it can be changed to around 50% if you equip the "Rare Item" ability Bahamut has), so the best place to hunt for them (well, outside of saving at the entrance of the undersea research center) is the Island Closest to Heaven. Grandidi Forest also has the Forbidden who can drop them (alongside the Marlboro), but the issue there is that equipping Rare Item, while it increases the chances of Cursed Spikes drop from Marlboro, decreases (if only slightly, 10% or so) the chance of Cursed Spikes drop from the Forbidden. Meanwhile, the Marlboro will drop 10 Cursed Spikes if it does so, which is more than any other monster. The Tri-Face, if you have Rare Item on, has a 50% chance of dropping 8 as well (should you kill it with repeated failed mug attempts - the mug chance is only 25%). So, overall the Island Closest to Heaven has better returns.
Of course, you can refine 1 Curse Spike from 1 Tri-Face card, and 1 Energy Crystal from 10 Elnoye cards. That'll take a lot longer, but some people prefer it. There's no other real way of collecting Ultima outside of drawing it from Draw Points (well, and from Ultima Weapon).
Breath is always an instant TPK, even at full health.
The way to deal with this is by just… Praying that Ruby Dragon won't use Breathe on its opening turn
Well... see, the thing is, despite how it looks, this is a physical attack.
As such, having AutoProtect equipped (from Bahamut), or just casting Protect on the team, would halve the damage; also, having high VIT helps reduce its impact (that's why Squall was surviving at first, because he had Metldown junctioned to VIT), and of course, as is true for ALL physical attacks in the game, the Defend ability (which Brothers and Cactuar have) would fully nullify all of the damage from it.
However, you wouldn't know that it's a physical attack from looking at it; that's a trick that FFVIII is going to pull out again with some bosses you have yet to face, by the way. I won't tell you which ones to avoid spoilers - just, if it seems like an attack is busting past defenses, check whether Protect does anything against it. Or just have Bahamut on Squall and always keep Auto-Protect active; I do that. Just one of the many reasons why Bahamut is the best GF - and FFVIII has the coolest looking version, as well. Also, check what his card refines into!
Anyway, now that you've faced the full power of the Ruby Dragon, would you say that it is the strongest random encounter in the game, or do you still think the Marlboro is more dangerous? I don't think any other monster can be argued as a contender, but it's interesting to see what you feel is the most dangerous of the two.
the first enemy asset reuse I've seen in the game so far, which is genuinely impressive:
I think the fact that the only enemy assets reuse in the game are of this sort - the Elvoret was a boss, the Elnoye is a random encounter, and a couple other bosses also have a single random encounter variant - adds to the game's exploration feeling.
And, speaking of monster variants and the lack of reused monster sprites, do you think you've seen enough now of the monster rooster to confirm whether the initial impression that the FFVIII monsters have more personality than any previous entries hold water? Or do you feel like, progressing through the game, the monsters' originality went down? I'd be curious to hear your opinion on the matter.
Even after the first Holy War wears off and I cast Aura before reapplying it, I have the unpleasant surprise to find out that Angel Wing is itself a status effect, meaning Rinoa is 'immune' to it while invincible.
Yeah, this is a known issue. How you do it is that you have Rinoa enter Angel Wing
first, and
then turn her invincible. Her repeated Meteor will kill anything in the game before the invincibility has time to run out.
Eden, though.
That thing is insane.
So it is. You have speculated on how the abilities Eden has might make or break whether it's a good enough reward, but have you considered the Boost ability? If you don't remember, it's the ability which, if you press Select when a summon animation starts, lets you press Square to increase a counter that is then used as a multiplier for the GF's power, starting from 75(%) and capping at 250(%). I seem to remember (although I can't find the quote right now) that you abandoned the ability after trying it out, because of difficulty handling the "stop pressing Square the moment the red X appears, or you'll lose all of your progress" with proper timing; however, Eden gives you enough time to do the button-mashing more carefully, so you should be able to reach 250 with its summon easily enough. I would suggest you try - it'll be amusing to see what you think of the results. And whether that makes you consider Eden's attack power something worth mentioning when judging if it's a good enough prize to have.
on't try to be smart, just use your fists…
