Dollet (Part 2) (Disc 1) Optional Content - FF8 Guide
At the top of every page of my Final Fantasy 8 Walkthrough I will have a list of the most important GF Abilities for you to learn as well as my personal preference for who to junction GFs to for this part of the story. The game's auto order for GFs learning abilities is extremely terrible so it's strongly recommended you interfere and do the abilities in the order I provide here.
Throughout the game you can also refine Cards into Items and then those Items into magic. I've provided a list of the refinements that you can do for the cards that you will most likely have in your possession at this time during the story below as well. This same information will be provided at the top of every page during the full walkthrough, keep checking it as it'll change as the story progresses.
GF Abilities to Learn:
Quezacotl: Card, Card Mod, T Mag-RF, Mid Mag-RF, Boost, Vit-J, Elem-Def-J, Elem-Defx2, Mag+20%, Mag+40%, Mag Bonus
Shiva: I Mag-RF, Str-J, Elem-Atk-J, Elem-Def-J, Elem-Defx2, Vit-J, Spr+20%, Spr+40%, Spr Bonus, Boost
Ifrit: F Mag-RF, Str+20%, Str+40%, Str Bonus, HP-J, Str-J, Ammo-RF, Elem-Atk-J, Elem-Def-J, Mad Rush, Boost
Siren: Tool-RF, L Mag-RF, Mag+20%, Mag+40%, Mag+60%, Mag Bonus, Move-Find, St Med-RF, Boost, Junctions
Diablos: ST Mag-RF, Time Mag-RF, Enc-Half, Enc-None, HP-J, Mag-J, Mug, Hit-J, Mag+20%, Mag+40%, Mag Bonus
GF Junctioning:
Squall: Ifrit, Diablos
Zell: Quezacotl, Shiva
Selphie: Siren
The first thing you're going to want to do in Dollet is mess with the Triple Triad Rules. Challenge the young girl wearing red (pictured above) near where you enter Dollet to a game of cards. Select 'Yes' to playing a game with mixed rules then quit at the rule screen until we get one of the two outcomes that we want.
Outcome we want: Random abolished or spread Open
Reset if: Same spreads; Elemental abolished or she stops asking you to mix rules
(Soft Reset on Steam Version: Hold Ctrl + R)
Once you get one of the two rule changes that we want (most likely Open spreading; Open spreading is the most common thing that can happen in these scenarios) you'll want to return to Timber. Run along the path the entire way and you won't get into any random encounters.
At Timber you're going to want to challenge the guard to the left when you enter to a game of Triple Triad until he stops asking to mix rules. We're trying to adopt this region's rules again so we can force another rule change in Dollet. If you'd like to learn more about any of this stuff I recommend you read my Triple Triad Rule Changes Guide.
Before leaving Timber there are some other things we can do first. Spend a night at the Timber Hotel so that you can grab the Timber Maniacs issue on the table before leaving. Also return to the Timber Maniacs building and speak to the man out front (pictured above). Tell him "No way" when he asks if he should give up, this will net us some rewards later in the game and you can only talk to him on Disc 1.
With all of that out of the way return to Dollet and this time we're going to want to abolish Random. You can try talking to the girl we talked to last time in Dollet who spread Open for us and try to abolish Random that way but it'll likely not work... Instead what you will need to do is one of the many different tricks to exploit the RNG into our favor.
There are a ton of weird steps you have to do in order to change and abolish rules for this card game, I talk about this in detail in the Triple Triad Changing Rules section. You should read that page, it'll likely confuse you the first time reading it, I honestly hate this part of Final Fantasy 8 and I assume most people feel the same... However it's required if you plan to play this game and accomplish all there is to accomplish.
In order to abolish "Random" from Dollet you're going to want to first go to the Inn, as seen in my screenshot below. Inside is a save point which you will want to use after which you're going to want to exit out of your game. Don't just reset it but actually completely exit out and then load your previous save.
When you load your save file there are three steps that you need to complete in order and do nothing else. Here are the three steps:
1. Exit and enter the hotel quickly
2. Challenge the girl in green twice and decline to play both times
3. Agree to play on the third time and then quit the game when you get to the rule screen
If you do these things correctly then Random will be abolished from the region. This little trick is repeatable as it changes the RNG of the game and allows you to spread a rule or abolish a rule in this region. There are more tricks like this in many different areas throughout the game and the trick changes depending on whether or not the Queen of Cards is in the area or not.
Note: On some Youtube videos I see comments that get "some" up votes of people saying they had to decline 5 times and accept once to abolish Random instead. I'm putting this here because obviously more than just one person experiences this and if you're one of these people, try experimenting a little bit like these people did.
Now that you're done all of that Save your game and then head to the Dollet Pub which is where you will find Queen of Cards, assuming you sent here her from Balamb Town earlier in the game. If you didn't then you will want to either do that right now or skip this half of the guide.
If you're having trouble finding the Dollet Pub, it's shown in the screenshot above. It's also just south of the Dollet Hotel where we just were - you ran past it to get here. Speak to the Queen of Cards about her Artist Father and while you're here set her Trade Rule to "All" just like we did before in Balamb Town.
To do this, keep playing her (accepting her challenge and quitting at the rules screen) until her Trade Rule is "All". Once she uses "All" close out like we have been and check another nearby NPC to see if the rule has stuck, if they use All too then it most likely stuck and you can start playing them. From here on out just leave the Queen alone.
Note: To learn more about how the Queen of Cards changes the Trade Rules follow the link provided.
While you're still in the Dollet Pub grab the Timber Maniacs magazine on the table next to the Queen of Cards and then challenge the bar's owner (pictured above) to a game of Triple Triad. Make sure he is using the "All" rule, if he isn't repeat the above steps with the Queen.
Beating this NPC will cause him to lead you to a secret room in the back of the pub. Inside of this room you can find Occult Fan II along with a bunch of other items by examining the magazine stack closest to the entrance. You get three items each time you enter/exit the room from examining the stack of magazines.
If you don't get the Occult Fan II magazine the first time you enter the room simply exit, enter again and examine the stack of magazines again. This NPC will also give you the following cards when you talk to him inside of this room:
5 Geezard Cards
4 Red Bat Cards
3 Buel Cards
2 Anacondaur Cards
1 Cactuar Card
Before you leave this area you're going to want to play this guy for the Siren Card. Additionally you will want to commit this area to memory as we'll be using these magazine stacks a lot for manipulating the Triple Triad Rules.
Note: If you have the Move-Find ability on Siren junctioned to a character you'll be able to see a Save Point in the Dollet Pub. This is the Save Point that is used for the rule manipulation as well.
Once you get the Siren Card from the pub owner there isn't much left for us to do here. You can play whomever you want in cards but most people here don't play with Level 5 Cards, which is both good and bad. Here is a quick list of who plays what...
Level 1 Cards: Lady in yellow near the junk store
Level 2 Cards: Pub Bartender
Level 3 Cards: Blue sleeved man near stairs to beach
Level 4 Cards: The girl in red near the car rental
I'd recommend running around and playing each of them multiple times, collecting their cards then using the Card Mod ability on all of the lower level cards much like we did back in Timber. I know this probably sounds boring but it's strongly recommended that you do this. The card game as stupid as it is, is a core part of Final Fantasy 8. Save your game often and play a bunch of cards.
**Important Trade Rule Tip** If the Trade Rule changes to One or anything else DON'T play a game, instead cancel and keep trying until it's All again. Then play as usual.
The only other thing to do in Dollet right now is the Dollet Artist Quest which I don't recommend you do anyway as the rewards get better when you do it on a later Disc. Once you've played enough cards and are satisfied with what you've gotten from Card Moding then you'll want to continue with the next part of the guide.
Keep in mind that this is one of your last opportunities to play cards under the Queen's "All" rule for awhile that we pass during the game's normal story. That means if you planned to farm cards to make the first part of this game easier for yourself it's now or never.
Note: You can challenge the kid in the Dollet Artist Quest to a card game and win your MiniMog Card back. It's totally optional to do this right now, it doesn't even card mod into anything that impressive.
Continue to Galbadia Garden (Disc 1) Walkthrough
Return to Timber Forest Walkthrough