Deep Sea Research Center - FF8 Guide

The Deep Sea Research Center is a dungeon that can only be accessed after you acquire the Ragnarok during Disc 3. Inside of this dungeon there are two GFs for you to get, Bahamut and Eden as well as some fixed encounters that you're able to manipulate and take advantage of.

You can find this dungeon in the southwestern portion of the map - it's not actually shown on the World Map but when you fly around the area it's pretty hard to miss. If you're having trouble locating it I recommend that you use my screenshot below.

Inside of this dungeon in the very first room you come across you'll find Bahamut (pictured above). Basically how this room works is rather straight forward - if you move while the capsule on the right side of the room is glowing, you'll be thrown into a battle. Slowly make your way over to Bahamut while the capsule isn't glowing and inspect it once there.

Junction Tip: Sleep is a good junction for ST-Atk for the upcoming battles as is protection against fire

You'll want to select the following dialogue options. After selecting each dialogue option you'll be put into battle against a Ruby Dragon. The second Ruby Dragon will get a back attack on your group and usually opens with a powerful Breath attack. If you're underleveled or not Junctioned properly it will wipe you.

It's not our will to fight
Never
Hidden bottom answer that appears to be blank

Important Draw Tip: Bahamut has the Full-Life spell which is one of the best Junctioned magics in the game. Don't defeat him until you get enough on everyone

After the second Ruby Dragon encounter you'll find yourself up against Bahamut. He's vulnerable to both Darkness and Slow which you'll want to use on him if your party is underleveled or underprepared to give yourself the advantage. Shell also helps out quite a bit if you cast it on your group.

Once Bahamut is defeated you'll be rewarded the Bahamut GF as well as the Bahamut Card. You'll want to equip the GF immediately as it comes with Abilityx4 which is insanely good and Bahamut is the only GF that learns this naturally. The only other way to get Abilityx4 is by acquiring a Rosetta Stone and teaching it to a GF.

In order to proceed to the second part of the Deep Sea Research Center you'll have to completely leave the dungeon and enter again. While outside the dungeon you'll need to press the Circle button and switch to the cockpit view on the Ragnarok. Speak to Irvine to take control of the Ragnarok again then land it back on the Deep Sea Research Center.

This will cause a tree root to appear in the middle of the hole as well as a Save Point in the same room (as pictured above). To proceed with the rest of the dungeon at this point just approach the hole to climb down the root. Note: If you do not switch to the cockpit view on the Ragnarok then the tree root won't appear.

 

Deep Sea Research Center - The Steamworks

We're now in The Steamworks portion of the Deep Sea Research Center. This part of the dungeon is basically one big puzzle and there is a part at the bottom which you're able to exploit assuming that you have Zell in your party. There are multiple fixed encounters in the Deep Sea Research Center including an encounter against a Tri-face enemy which is very rare and drops the Curse Spike item.

For more information about how to exploit the fixed encounters I recommend checking out my Deep Sea Research Center Fixed Encounters Guide. That will go over all the information you need, this page instead is going to go over how to properly solve the puzzle.

As for the puzzle that involves the Steam Units/Steam Pressure.... It's a piece of cake if you have Zell in your party, all you need to do is use 1 Steam Pressure on very floor until you reach the bottom. When you're at the bottom (with Zell in your party) you'll see the following dialogue:

The reason you need Zell and don't want to just use more Steam Pressure is because you need a total of 10 Steam Pressure to fight Ultima Weapon at the bottom of the Deep Sea Research Center (as talked about below).

 

Deep Sea Research Center - Bottom

At the very bottom of the Deep Sea Research Center you'll find a terminal that requires 10 steam pressure to operate... Make sure you are fully prepared before using this terminal because the next fight is going to be against one of the toughest enemies in the game.

Ability Junction Tips: EQUIP DRAW!! As well as Auto-Hate, Auto-Shell and Auto-Protect are all great choices for this fight
Elem-Def Junction Tip: Earth protection will help you the most in this fight

Don't equip Mug on your characters, the Mug sucks compared to the drop

Now, as for the fight against Ultima Weapon....

The first thing you'll want to do is cast Meltdown or summon Doomtrain against Ultima Weapon. This will inflict Ultima with Vit0, decrease its massive defenses to nothing. After you've done this you'll want to Draw Eden from Ultima, which is most likely the last GF in the game for you to obtain.

As for deadly attacks, Ultima Weapon has one attack that instantly defeats someone in your group called Light Pillar. It always hits and hits for 9999 guaranteed, making it quite the nuisance. Aside from this attack none of his other ones are extremely threatening. Gravija may be a problem since it reduces your whole groups HP by a % amount, but if you keep healing there shouldn't be a problem.

Once the fight is over you will no longer get into any random encounters or fixed encounters in this dungeon and you'll be one GF stronger. Eden is an extremely awesome GF because it has the GFAbl Med-RF which allows you to refine lesser items into much much better ones. You'll need this ability to make many of the items you farmed during the fixed encounters earlier in the dungeon.