DarkDan88

DarkDan88

850
45
5
11 Jan 16
11 Apr 17
1,444h 9m
100%
DarkDan88

Contrived Finish achievement in Final Fantasy VIII

Contrived Finish

Finish the game with Squall's initial level

Contrived Finish0
11 April 2017 - 2 guidesOffline Mode - These achievements require play in game modes that do not necessitate a connection to any online services.Single Player - These achievements can be obtained by a single player.Missable - These achievements can be missed.Time Consuming - These achievements require at least 20 hours of play time to obtain.
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How to unlock the Contrived Finish achievement

  • VivenmortVivenmort23,456
    14 May 2019 25 Apr 2019 14 May 2019
    0 0 0
    Only Squall needs to avoid Exp. Other party members are fair game. To avoid Exp Squall can be KO'd, or you can use Card or Break to safely dispose of enemies. You may also run, but it is important to stress that you must not deal damage to an enemy before running away because you will earn partial experience. If you accidentally kill an enemy because you were trying to lower their HP to Card them, or deal damage to something you can't Card or Break, you're basically forced to KO Squall before running or finishing the fight.

    Besides Carding, Breaking, or KOing Squall/Laguna, a final option is LV Down from the Tonberry GF. Killing Tonberries for this GF awards NO exp, and can be earned as soon as you can pilot Balamb Garden. Using LV Down until it no longer works and then killing the enemy will grant a very minimal amount of experience, often in the single digits. This is occasionally important for some humanoids who are both immune to Break and Card.

    Break spells can be earned relatively early in the game by winning Cockatrice cards, refining them into Pinions with Card Mod, and refining Pinions into Break's with Status Magic RF. Card and Card Mod can also be earned relatively early by killing Zell and Squall during the Dollet SeeD exam and grinding Soldier encounters with Seifer for AP

    Additionally, keep in mind any Exp earned by Laguna will be transferred to Squall, so treat Laguna as you would treat Squall. Boss fights do NOT give exp with the exception of Odin for some silly reason. Scripted non-boss fights DO give exp AND can't be run from, so keep that in mind too. Save often in case you mess up because you probably will sooner or later.
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  • DarkDan88DarkDan8822,012
    11 Apr 2017 11 Apr 2017 12 Apr 2017
    0 0 0
    This really isn't that hard. First, obviously, run from all non-scripted non-boss battles. Duh. Boss battles provide 0 EXP, and so the only thing you have to worry about is not gaining EXP from scripted non-boss fights. For those, either make sure that Squall is KO, use the Card ability, or use Break. Oh, and the same applies to Laguna during the dream sequences, since any EXP Laguna gains goes to Squall.

    Once you get to Dollet and Seifer is in your party, KO Squall and Zell, and put all 3 GFs you have at that point (which should be Quezacotl, Shiva, and Ifrit) onto him and grind AP). Make sure you at least learn the Card ability for Quezacotl, since carding enemies is a great way to gain AP without gaining EXP. Now, the Steam version of FF8 has a 'magic booster'. Use it. Also, you can get some pretty decent items in Chocobo World that you can transfer over to your FF8 main game save. For instance, you get an item that teaches GFs the 'Ribbon' ability).

    Moreover, if you take the time to complete the Queen of Cards and CC Club side quests, you can card mod rare cards for decent items/spells and then win said cards back from the CC Club on board the Ragnarok in Disc 4. In order to get the components to summon Doom Train: 1) you can get Steel Pipes from Wendigos outside the forest right before you first get to Galbadia Garden, 2) you can get Marlboro Tentacles by card modding Marlboro cards, and 3) once you get Alexander, you can learn the Med Data and Med Lv Up abilities by waiting until Edea joins your party, giving her all the GFs, KOing the other characters, and then grinding. You can also get Tonberry without getting Odin, since the Tonberry count doesn't reset when you leave Centra Ruins, and Tonberrys drop 0 EXP.

    You also don't need to fight Ultima Weapon to get Eden. You can draw Eden from Tiamat in Ultimecia's castle instead. The only tricky fight can be the fight against Ultimecia at the end. There are certain enemies you can farm draws from... or just card them and use items they drop to mod into better magic. I just grinded w/Seifer in Dollet, and learned Med Data and Med Lv Up using Edea and then just fast-tracked to the end. It only took me two attempts to beat Ultimecia (on account of the fact that Squall was absorbed into time before I could revive him, and it kind of went downhill from there). Oh, and make sure to get at least 20 Elnoyle cards from Cid. You can card mod them into Pulse Ammo.
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