Getting the Ragnarok Back (Disc 4) - 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:
Cactuar: Luck-J, Eva-J, Defend, Luck+50%, Auto-Potion, Kamikaze, Eva+30%
Bahamut: Boost, Mug, Auto-Protect, Rare Item
Eden: GFAbl Med-RF, Boost, Luck+50%, Expendx3-1, Mad Rush, Darkside, SumMag+% Abilities
GF Junctioning:
Squall: Siren, Brothers, Carbuncle, Leviathan, Tonberry, Eden
Zell: Shiva, Diablos, Pandemona, Doomtrain, Bahamut
Irvine: Ifrit, Quezacotl, Cerberus, Alexander, Cactuar
(Or whomever you choose as your party; junction them as you see above)
To get the Ragnarok back the very first thing you'll need to do is go head over to the portal outside Ultimecia Castle. You're going to want to take the central portal which will put you on the Centra continent. Here you'll want to head to the Forest of Solitude in the northeastern portion, behind the mountains (screenshot below).
If you didn't do the Chocobo Forest Side Quest earlier in the game you'll have to solve that puzzle now. Also, if you need help finding this forest use the screenshots on the Chocobo Forest Side Quest page. Hop on a Chocobo inside the forest then head down to the Kashkabald Desert, in the southeastern portion of the Centra continent.
To get to the Kashkabald Desert you'll need to first go over to where Edea's House is and follow the shallows around the land to get to the other island. I've sketched out the route you need to take on the map location above, click on it to enlarge it if you need to.
In the northeastern part of the Kashkabald Desert you'll find the Ragnarok as well as another portal that you should run through to activate before boarding the Ragnarok and leaving this area. Literally all you have to do is enter it then turn right back around.
Once you're onboard of the Ragnarok press the Circle button and you'll switch to the cockpit view. Except since it's your first time back there will be a scene (if you completed the Card Club Side Quest) and you won't be in the cockpit.
For those of you who completed the CC Group Side Quest, depending on how much side questing you're willing to do, there is a ton of stuff available to use which can make our characters insanely powerful. Everything we went over in The Beginning of the End during Disc 3 still applies here too.
If you haven't finished leveling your characters with stat bonuses you'll want to do that right now so EXP is no longer a concern of yours. I'd recommend the Island Closest to Hell or the Island Closest to Heaven. Or if you haven't finished the Deep Sea Research Center do the fixed encounters there.
Once you are level 100 on all of your characters it's time to play a ton of Triple Triad against members of the CC group. I'd specifically recommend you play against Spade since he is standing in the same room as a Save Point (as pictured below).
Keep in mind that you can only hold ONE Rare Card of a type at a time - so if you have a Quistis Card you won't be able to win another one. You have to Card Mod the one you're carrying first. For this reason what I would recommend you do is keep a solid hand of cards that you basically always play with and Card Mod any new ones that you get right when you get them.
Before I get into all of the Card Mods and Item Refinements you can do, first let's go over how the CC Group works onboard the Ragnarok. First, every single member of the CC Group uses a different set of rules onboard the Ragnarok. One set of rules per member of the CC group.
Technically there is no reason to ever play more than one member of the CC Group so if you didn't change all the rules to something easy prior to Disc 4, just choose the person with the least terrible rules. As far as Rare Cards go, you can win any Rare Card in the game except the Rare Cards that were involved in the Queen of Cards Side Quest. These can only be won from the Queen of Cards who is at the Crash Site (where you got the Alexander Card).
When one of the CC Group members plays a Rare Card they will not play a different Rare Card until you win that one from them. From what I have seen the Rare Card they choose to play is completely random, I have seen them play the same card multiple times in a row and other cards, like Angelo Card, I have rarely seen played at all or ever.
That's pretty much all you need to know about how the CC Group works while onboard the Ragnarok, let's now look at all the Card Mods and Item Refinements you can do!
Carbuncle Card: 3 Glow Curtains (Teaches Auto-Reflect)
(GFAbl Med-RF) 100 Lightweight: 1 Accelerator (Teaches Auto-Haste)
To get 100 Lightweights Card Mod the Cerberus Card
(GFAbl Med-RF) 20 Adamantine: 1 Steel Curtain (Teaches Auto-Protect)
Card Mod Minotaur Cards for the Adamantine.
(GFAbl Med-RF) 20 Magic Armlet: 1 Moon Curtain (Teaches Auto-Shell)
Purchase the Magic Armlets from the Esthar Pet Shop
(Tool-RF) Hungry Cookpot: 1 Shaman Stone
This item is very easy to obtain from Automated Angelo Search Farming; I got about 1 a day
(GFAbl Med-RF) Shaman Stone: 1 Rosetta Stone
(GFAbl Med-RF) 100 Hypno Crown: 10 Royal Crown
Purchase Hypno Crowns for 15,000 Gil each from Esthar Pet Shop. Use the Unlimited Gil trick for money
(GFAbl Med-RF) 100 Force Armlet: 10 Magic Armlet
Purchase Force Armlets for 15,000 Gil each from Esthar Pet Shop. Use the Unlimited Gil trick for money
(GFAbl Med-RF) 100 Giant's Ring: 10 Gaea's Ring
Purchase Giant's Ring for 15,000 Gil each from Esthar Pet Shop. Use the Unlimited Gil trick for money
(Forbid Med-RF) 15 Rocket Engine: 3 Spd Up
Card Mod Irvine Card for 5 Rocket Engines each time
(Forbid Med-RF) Gaea's Ring: 1 Hp Up
Card Mod Ward Cards or do the Unlimited Gil trick and buy Giant's Ring to turn into Gaea's Ring
(Forbid Med-RF) 10 Royal Crown: 1 Mag Up
Use the Unlimited Gil trick to turn Hypno Crowns into Royal Crowns
(Forbid Med-RF) 10 Magic Armlet: 1 Spr Up
Use the Unlimited Gil trick to turn Force Armlets into Magic Armlets
(Forbid Med-RF) 100 Cactus Thorn: 1 Spd Up
Card Mod Cactuar Cards or Jumbo Cactuar Cards for these
Of course all of the items that you get for Card Moding the Rare Cards can also be turned in high level magic as well. If you'd like more information on the best high level magic and which GF Abilities you'll want to use to refine it, head over to my FF8 Junctions Guide for more information.
Also if you'd like to learn more about How to Farm Stat Increasing Items I recommend you follow the link provided to that guide as well. It goes into more detail about how to farm the Stat Increasing items on this page like Hp Up and Spd Up as well as talks about other ways to permanently increase your stats.
For those of you that are curious about all the items you'll need to make sure every character is the best they can be, below is a list. You'll be able to Junction magic to every single stat on your main 3 characters if you collect the following items. You'll also be able to equip the most powerful abilities in the game (imho) all of the Auto-s.
2 Rosetta Stones
1 Aegis Amulet
1 Luck-J Scroll
3 Accelerators (Auto-Haste)
3 Steel Curtain (Auto-Protect)
3 Moon Curtain (Auto-Shell)
2 Glow Curtains (Auto-Reflect)
3 Hp-J, Str-J, Vit-J, Spr-J, Mag-J Scrolls
I also highly recommend that you use Amnesia Greens on all of the GFs that have abilities you don't need. Delete Abilityx2, Abilityx3, Elem-Def-Jx2 etc etc. Only delete these if you already used items on the GFs to teach them the better Junctions. This is to clear space in their abilities list.
After doing this you should hit up the Timber Pet Shop and purchase 3 of each Hp-J, Str-J, Vit-J, Spr-J, Mag-J Scrolls. Use these on GFs that do not have the abilities. For the final fight against Ultimecia you're not allowed to choose your party, it's chosen randomly for you amongst the 6 characters you have, so it's best to have some magic Junctioned to everyone.
Much like the previous chapter, you can take this as far as you want. Either collect everything like it's Pokemon or only do a few things - your call. When you're ready to tackle the final dungeon, head on over to the next section.
Continue to Ultimecia Castle (Part 1) Walkthrough
Return to Start of Disc 4 Walkthrough