No Level/No Junction Challenge

Helps the player complete the game without ever leveling up or junctioning! It's mainly a fun (albeit incredibly luck based), self-imposed challenge meant to breathe a little life into the game for those of us who have played it too many times.

Introduction

I made this guide way back in 2007 and have sporadically updated it from time to time since. It was the first and only guide I've ever written and it could honestly use more work put into it. While it isn't polished and does appear like a 15 year old wrote it (since I was 15 years old when I wrote it), it will provide you everything you need to complete the challenge. Good luck.

Challenge Rules

As if I really needed this section. Nevertheless...

No Level - This is simple. Do not level, ever. Seeing as the other rule in
this challenge prevents you from using Card, you'll have to know how to
distribute the EXP, which I will help you do later. AND, if you weren't sure,
run from every random encounter.

No Junction - About as simple as No Level. You cannot junction whatsoever. So,
this means you'll have to rely on base-stat attacking and limits.

Storyline Bosses (Beginning to Granaldo)

**Run from all battles,. In the event that you are attacked, you've been given a stock of Potions and Tents to use as you see fit.

**100 Judgment is not necessary, but I'm not your dad and I can't stop you from doing what you want. Not that you should let your dad do that anyway.


Boss #1
Ifrit: Difficulty - 0.5/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Shouldn't even be a problem. To go fast, work Squall (and Quistis if you want) down to critical health beforehand or during the fight even, so as to come out of the gate popping off limits. A few rounds of limits is all it takes.


*You get Zell, and while that sucks because he is who he is, Zell's limit break is powerful, using what is called Armageddon Fist, a combination of Punch Rush and Booya. Over and over and over. Two buttons to input for each of the attacks, and they're right beside each other. O and X,
Left and Right. You can beat many bosses with one or two Duels if you have
fast enough fingers and a high crisis level. See how fast you can do it, like a competition of sorts. My personal record for Punch Rush is .03 seconds and Booya is .06.

************************SAVE AT EVERY SAVE POINT AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY********************
There's a ton of RNG in this challenge and whether it comes down to enemy level rolls for lower EXP or simply needing to retry a boss repeatedly, there will be a point where you need to reset. Saving every chance you get is basically mandatory.


Fight #1- Dollet Fights - Right when you enter into the town, you'll encounter a string of fights you cannot run away from. But luckily, we have Seifer to absorb all of that nasty EXP. Simply kill off Squall and Zell and then have Seifer demolish all the fights. Even after all of them, he won't level up, so even if you're some kind of purist you'll be okay. Attacks for the soldiers, limits for the anacondaur.

EXP Gained- Somewhere in the 700 area
Given To- Seifer

***Save before going up the elevator and use a tent while you're there since Squall and Zell are still at 1 HP.

Boss #2
Biggs, Wedge/Elvoret: Difficulty - 3.5/5
Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Beat the hell out of Biggs with regular attacks. Wedge will show up after enough damage, at which point you should switch to attacking Wedge (he has about 100 less HP). Try to keep everyone at above 200 HP, using Selphie's limit break to heal up, if you need, before Elvoret shows up.

Elvoret will hit you with Storm Breath for about 100 damage to all. Once the whole party is at about ~100 HP, have Zell and Squall activate their limits then select Selphie to use her's and get her to use Full-Cure. That way, you get in two limits and then back up to full health. Repeat until
Elvoret falls. He can do some GREAT decision making and kill your party, so be careful.

***Go down the lift, save your game, and then you can do one of three things:
----Heal up Squall and Zell and try to get great magic using Selphie's limit
----You can heal up Selphie and Squall and use Duel and abuse Armageddon Fist
----You can use a Tent and heal everyone, then simply pound on X-ATM092, using limit breaks as they come
Any of these will suffice for the one encounter that you'll have to make it through.



Wild Wild West Spider:
X-ATM092: Difficulty - Don't actually try to kill him please
Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: I mentioned in the above paragraph about how to prepare for this guy, so defeat him using any of those methods.

The actual strategy here is how to get away from X-ATM092 without having to fight him again. After defeating him the first time, run along the path to the next screen. Hold down, you'll get away from him easily. While the next screen is loading(the next screen is the screen where you jumped off the cliff and you obtained Selphie), hold left. Right when the next screen loads, you'll be running left across the screen and X-ATM092 will jump up the cliff, narrowly missing you. Now you're on the screen with the hill, where you need to walk and not run, down this entire hill. On the next screen
(where the guy was eaten by the Anacondaur), run like normal to the bridge.

Run across the bridge until you see/hear X-ATM092 jump over you. The moment he jumps, turn around and run the way you came just a bit. He'll jump and land again. This time, when you hear him jump, run back the correct way to the next screen. He won't jump again after you turn back the right way. After the bridge, you just need to hold down and avoid objects, or hide in the building that Squad C evacuates. Easy.


**Back in Balamb, you can go to the shop (after the Hotel screen, continue to
go left) and pick up some things if you'd like. I grab 10 potions, 5 tents, and about 50 of both Ammos for later.



Boss #3:
Granaldo, Raldo x3: Difficulty - 0.4/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Legitimately easier than Ifrit. Attack. Limit break. The Raldos go into a type of small madness if Granaldo is defeated first, but they're still not threatening even then. Defeat in whatever order you want.


**Don't use the Magical Lamp. Diablos will make Gilgamesh's level too low in Ultimecia's Castle, thus causing you to be unable to complete the challenge.

Storyline Bosses (Before Timber to Dream Sequence in Lunatic Pandora)

**Also, I'm taking this time to mention, if you haven't gotten the Occult Fan
I from the Library, go do that. If you ever happen to need gil, sell this for
more than you'll probably ever need. The magazine is in the first bookshelf
that you hit when going straight through the Library, about in the middle of
the shelf.


**Soon, you will obtain Rinoa, and by extension, Angelo. Angelo can learn a
few moves by reading Pet Pals. This can be more of a burden than anything
in this challenge. The only Pet Pals you should read are 3 and 5, which
contain Invincible Moon and Wishing Star respectively. The more moves he
knows, the lower your chances are of getting Invincible Moon or Wishing Star
when using him.


Boss #4:
Fake President/Gerogero: Difficulty - 4/5
Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: HARD BOSS LETS GO. On the Fake President, work down Selphie to the yellow HP region while you have Squall and Zell bombard Fake President with regular attacks. Once he hits the ground and goes into the dying phase, initiate Selphie's limit break and Do Over until
you get a nice -aga spell or any fire spell. A couple of these is enough.

If the Selphie Limit break strategy doesn't work, go into the Fake President fight again, only this time working down Zell. Use Zell's Duel on Gerogero, using Armageddon Fist with the occasional Meteor Strike. If you don't remember, Meteor Strike's combination is Down-Circle-Up-Circle, and is used on the move list where you have Punch Rush as an option. You have a high chance of dying, to the point of where I can almost guarantee it.



**Once you're let loose in Timber, go to the Pet Shop and grab Pet Pals Vol. 3, which allows Angelo to learn Invincible Moon, a skill that makes the party invincible. Don't forget to choose the skill on Rinoa's Status page so she can learn it. You can learn it now if you'd like, but it isn't mandatory for a while.



Fight #2- Timber fights - Make sure your party is Rinoa, Selphie, and Squall,
then on the screen of the pub, you'll be forced to fight two soldiers. Get Selphie
into the ~100 HP zone and use her limit, continually using Do Over until you
come across Blind. Use her limit again and Do Over until you see Silence. Both soldiers will be silenced and blinded, almost completely preventing them from doing damage. Now look for the magic "Break". If you don't find it after about 50 or so Do Over's, exit out of the limit and enter back in and try again. Break also doesn't always work, so it may take a few times for you to have Break work on both of them. Once they're both petrified, you automatically win the fight and gain no EXP.

EXP Gained- 0
Given To- N/A



**Immediately after, go to the Item shop to the left of you and buy up to 5 Phoenix Downs and 20 Potions for safety healing during the dream sequence.


**Before entering the forest on the path to Galbadia Garden, save, as the next encounters are heavily RNG-based and you'll almost certainly need to reset to get the acceptable totals.



Fight #3- Laguna Dream Sequence - This is the first time you'll be forced to
gain EXP for your main party so far. There's only two forced fights here that you gain EXP from, both right at the beginning. The enemies' levels will be either 4/5 or 6/5 of your party's, so you may need to reset the game a couple times to get optimal EXP. Kill off Laguna and Ward in the first fight and have Kiros beat the one soldier. Next fight, you have three soldiers to contend with. If it takes more than 3 regular attacks to kill one of the soldiers/the soldiers' regular attacks do 14+, it's a 6/5 level soldier.

Each soldier = 73 EXP at lowest, so you can have a minimum of 292, but you'll be okay if you get the 325 as well. For the purposes of this guide, I'm going with best case scenarios.

Possible EXP- 292, 325, 358, 391, 424.
EXP Gained- 292
Given To- Selphie (708 remains)



**Don't forget to heal after the battle, some random encounters can be rough if you aren't able to immediately escape.


**Perform the dream sequence in this order:

- Go forward to a three pronged fork and go in the middle path, press X around the light area on the left to get the Old Key.

- Tamper with the top of the middle hatch on next screen.

- Two screens later, there will pieces of metal, search around the top of it for another key.

- Up two more screens, the detonator needs to be pressed Red first and Blue second.

- Once again, up two more screens and touch the boulder on the left to push it down.

Doing these makes the forced fight at the end of this sequence shorter and give no EXP.

Storyline Bosses (End of Dream Sequence in Lunatic Pandora to End of Disc 1)

**One of those soldiers at the end of the hit Selphie and Quistis to 1 HP, so heal up.

**Don't fight Sacred and Minotaur either, same situation as Diablos.


Boss #5:
Iguion x2: Difficulty - 2.5/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Irvine (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Have both party members attack one of the Iguions, as they have a joint atack that does a lot of damage. The Iguions will use Resonance for 200+ damage on both characters, and usually a Magma Breath for an extra 100 or so damage on one character. Whoever gets hit with both Resonance and Magma Breath first will most likely be able to use their limit, which you use as soon as you're able to. Getting one of them down is most important, after that it's easy.


Boss #6:
Seifer: Difficulty - 2/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Seifer will mainly use his regular attack, sometimes using it right,
sometimes not. He'll probably hit for about 40 damage, 80 or so on criticals.
He doesn't use it often, but he can cast Fira, doing 150+ damage. Your regular attacks will hurt him pretty bad, and once he gets you into limit break zone, it should only take 1
Renzokuken.


Boss #7:
Edea: Difficulty - You can't actually lose
Party:Squall (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon), Irvine (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: 6/5 level Edea uses -aga spells that damage for about 370 HP, and
she casts them pretty quickly. Squall will have the same HP as last battle,
which is great for getting the Renzokuken in early.The lower level Edea uses -aga spells as well, but not quite as fast as higher level Edea, only doing about 340 HP. Edea should target Irvine or Rinoa with one -aga spell each, or hit one of them with two. Use Renzokuken unless she kills Squall, then just keep working on her until either Irvine or Rinoa gets
into limit break zone and use them


End of Disc 1.

Storyline Bosses (Beginning of Disc 2 to Balamb Garden Return)

**In Winhill as Laguna, go ahead and spend the 3000 gil he has on phoenix
downs and potions.


**how does selphie even use cure.


Fight #4- D-District Prison - After you exit the room, run between the stairs
and down to Floor 6, save, and then go up to Floor 8. Fight the two guards and
you can only gain 154 EXP, otherwise Zell gets too close to levelling up. If not, reset and repeat as needed.

Possible EXP- 154, 182, 210
EXP Gained- 154
Given To- Zell (846 Remains)


Boss #8
Biggs and Wedge: Diffculty - 1/5
Party: Zell (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Selphie
(Initial Weapon)
Strategy: make dead. These nice and easy fights will be greatly missed later on.


Fight #5- D-District Prison - In the prison you'll hear gunfire once Squall
and his party gets to the bottom floor and finds the sand. After the screen
goes black and the dialogue begins, hold right and try to maneuver perfectly to avoid the guard catching you. Stay along the edge of the inner circle without getting lagged up by accidentally turning too much and you should go to the next screen without fighting the guard. It's
mandatory you avoid this fight to save EXP for later.

EXP Gained- 0
Given To- N/A



**When Squall is being tortured, choose to let him die. He won't actually die, but instead, he'll have Moombas interact with him. These Moombas will later allow him to open shortcuts on each floor by talking to them when able to. When you choose these shortcuts to make, make them for Floors 5, 4, and 12.

**After meeting back up with Irvine and Rinoa, make your party Squall, Zell,
and Rinoa.

**When you get control of Irvine and his party, save. You'll need to reset a lot in the next battle.


Boss #9
GIM25A x2 and a Soldier: Difficulty - 2.5/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Take out the soldier first, and by the time the soldier falls, the
GIM25A's have probably used Micro Missiles a couple times. If you're in limit
break zone, use them, focusing on one at a time. They have a good bit of HP and are strong, so they aren't entirely easy. What you want mainly, however, is to get both Missile and Screws as drops, which could take a few reset and gets old fast.


**Make one party Squall, Quistis, and Rinoa, the other party Selphie, Irvine, and Zell. That way, both parties have huge damage dealers.

**Save before you go up the stairs to the forced fight in case of resets.


Fight #6- Galbadia Missile Base - I'm pretty sure you can only get as low as 372 EXP, when
you have Zell/Selphie kill the soldier and leader, kill Selphie and Zell, then
finish off the last one with Irvine.

I don't recommend using Break here unless you really want extra EXP in the
end. I don't even think these guys can be petrified. After about 15 breaks, I had nothing. I
really suggest not wasting your time and just get the EXP. That's what I did.

Possible EXP- 372
EXP Gained- 372
Given To- Irvine (628 Remains)


**Once they're finished, use Phoenix Downs on Zell and Selphie, and completely
heal up Irvine. No healing Zell and Selphie. You need to get the limit breaks
off as fast as you can. Also, save again.


Boss #10:
BGH251F2: Difficulty - 4/5
Party:Irvine (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Begin the fight with Irvine regular attacking, and Zell using his Duel limit
break. Have him use Armageddon Fist (Booya and Punch Rush) on any second Duel.
Have Selphie use any and all Thunder magic you see on her Slot limit.. Just to
be a little more helpful, I tell you how my battle went.

-First Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, and Selphie used Slot-Haste.

-Second Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, one of the containers exploded.

-BGH's Turn, Killed Selphie.

-Third Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, two more containers exploded.

-BGH's Turn, Attacked Irvine.

-Fourth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, another container exploded.

-Fifth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel.

-Sixth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel, BGH exploded.

-Seventh Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell used Duel coupled with Burning Rave to
take out both soldiers and almost kill Elite Soldier.

-Elite Soldier's Turn, Attacked Zell.

-Eighth Turn, Irvine attacked, Zell attacked.

-Ninth Turn, Irvine attacked, Elite Soldier fell.

They got in three turns and I got nine. Not as hard as it could be, but I got lucky with BGH not attacking Zell. This was a very, very good scenario, that took a few tries to get.


Fight #7- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved outside of the Garden and
head to the right of the directory and enter the library. Talk to the Faculty
and choose the second choice and you'll be forced into a fight with a Grat.
Kill off Squall and Quistis then have Rinoa finish the Grat. You should get
149 EXP from the 4/5 level Grat (that does ~14 damage).

Now, to avoid the next battles, enter the Library and talk to the students, you must get the Remedy from the girl between the bookcases. After that, go to the Training Center and run to
the screen where you see the Garden Faculty run off with two other students,
then run back to the directory. Head to the hall of the Infirmary and when the
option comes up, choose to "Let Them Handle It". Run back to the directory and
Squall should see Xu running up the stairs to the elevator. If not, go back to
each place and make sure you talked to everyone there.

Possible EXP- 149, 205
EXP Gained- 149
Given To- Rinoa (851 Remains)

Storyline Bosses (Oilboyles to before the city of Balamb)

**After the headmaster, revive Squall and Quistis, but don't heal them. Then go into a random battle and work Rinoa down to critical HP as well.

Boss #11
Oilboyles x2: Difficulty - 4.5/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial
Weapon)
Strategy: Make sure you have Invincible Moon, then save. The best case scenario is if Rinoa goes first (if Invincible Moon, you win; if not, maybe you'll get lucky with the timings) and allows you to refresh the menu on Quistis until she can Micro Missiles one of the Oilboyles, which will then give you time to queue up a Renzokuken on that same Oilboyle. The strategy consists entirely of that, just stagger the actions so you can abuse the animation time. A Micro Missiles, 2 Renzokukens, a Laser eye, and a hit from Angelo Cannon should be enough almost every time.


Boss #12
NORG: Difficulty 3.5/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial
Weapon)
Strategy: Have Rinoa attack the orbs to keep them from going red while Quistis
and Squall work each other down to about 100 HP. Have Squall continuously
Renzokuken NORG until the pod breaks, while Rinoa keep attacking the orbs and
Quistis has a turn ready to activate her limit. Once Squall blows up the pod,
immediately activate Micro Missiles on NORG. Have Squall Renzokuken NORG and
Quistis use another Micro Missiles, then another Renzokuken should finish off
NORG.



Fight #8- FH - Save, then initiate the battle and have Squall kill off the regular soldiers or a
regular soldier and the elite soldier. I'm not sure it has a difference but if
anyone wants to verify, go right ahead. After killing two of them with Squall,
kill off Squall so he won't get any EXP. Work down Quistis and Rinoa to ~50 HP to give him a high crisis level, thus better chances of getting strong Laser Eyes modifier and IM. The lowest count I've gotten yet was from having Squall kill the Elite and Regular, then Rinoa finishing the last one, with the counts below.

EXP Gained- 260; 266
Given To- Quistis (240 Remains); Rinoa (585 Remains)



Boss #13
BGH251F2: Difficulty- 4.5/5
Party: Squall (Initial Weapon), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial
Weapon)
Strategy: Have Quistis shoot out Laser Eyes and have Rinoa use her limit. If IM, perfect, continue using Laser Eyes and Angelo until IM either doesn't happen and you die, or BGH dies. About 4/5 full cycles of IM with Angelo Cannons and Laser Eyes is about all it takes, which is already a lot, but with RNG there's always wiggle room for more or less.


EXTRA FIGHTS FOR FLAME SABER:

Fight #1- Centra Ruins - Forbidden - This little guy is actually pretty tough.
You know to save beforehand, and work down Quistis to use Micro Missiles. Use
Micro Missiles until it does double digit damage then kill off Squall and
Quistis. Now have Rinoa attack to finish off the Forbidden. You should get about ~200 EXP and a Betrayal Sword.

Fight #2- Beach behind Dollet - Adamantoise - Keep Quistis and Squall at low
HP to use Micro Missiles and Renzokuken. These guys can be tough,
all thanks to their ability to use White Wind. Have her use Micro Missiles on
one and Squall Renzokuken that same one, then kill Rinoa and Squall and
escape from the battle. You should get 190 or so EXP and a Turtle Shell.

You should already have the 4 screws, so go to the nearest Junk Shop (in
Dollet) and get the Flame Saber.

EXP Gained- 390-- 200; 190
Given To- Rinoa (171 Remains); Quistis (45 Remains)

Storyline Bosses (1st Raijin Fight to End of Disc 2)

*Now that you have the Flame Saber, head to Balamb with Zell in your party and do the Big Bad Rascal quest. Begin this by going into Zell's house and talking to BBR twice, resulting in him leaving. Go talk to the two guards in front of the hotel after that and then go into the house beside the Zell's house, speak to the girl, exit and re-enter to see BBR consoling a girl. Talk to him, then go to the entrance to town and bring up the guard's dialogue box, but don't press through the conversation. Once the girl's father has walked back to the mother, then you can clear the dialogue off the screen. Talk to BBR and then you can leave whenever. I suggest leaving to save and making sure Quistis is at low HP as close to the Raijin fight as you can; in other words, right after the dog chases Raijin out of the train station.


Boss #14:
Raijin, G-Soldier x2: Difficulty - 1/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Have Quistis use Micro Missiles on Raijin while Zell and Squall take out ONE soldier. Raijin will never attack Quistis as long as one soldier is alive. Have Quistis use Micro Missiles again, and Raijin should take Squall down to limit break zone. Have Squall use Renzokuken on Raijin and Raijin should fall. Leaving Zell at full-ish HP and having Squall and Quistis in crisis mode produced the most reliable strategy at the time of writing this, so that's my suggestion at your own risk. Now, kill the last soldier.



Boss #15:
Raijin, Fujin: Difficulty - 5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Get Squall to use Renzokuken on Raijin and have Quistis use Micro Missiles on Fujin. Raijin should attack Zell and Zell should have above 400 HP left. Zell should have a full ATB bar as Fujin casts Tornado. Now, refresh the menu until Zell can use Duel, then quickly use Duel on Raijin before he gets an attack. At this moment, Zell should have about 140 or so HP. On Zell's Duel, it must be at least a 9 second Duel using the following combo: Meteor Strike (Down, Circle, Up, Circle), Heel Drop (Up, Down), and Booya (Right, Left) continuously. If done at a fast enough speed, Raijin should fall by the end of the Duel. Raijin will run away and Zell should have a nearly full ATB bar when Fujin uses Aero for about 110 damage. Zell should use his limit break and the same combination as before. This should finish off Fujin.

**Use all Str Ups on Squall.



Fight #9- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved then choose the team of Squall, Irvine, and Selphie. Run up to the classroom and you'll start a scene then end up in a forced fight. Get Selphie weak and have her use Slot to find Break and petrify them.

EXP Gained- 0
Given To- N/A



Challenge-Required Boss #1:
Cerberus: Difficulty - 2.5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Before the fight, get into a random battle and work Quistis and Rinoa down to ~100 HP then go save. Have Quistis use Micro Missiles and Squall regular attack. Rinoa should use her limit and hope to get Invincible Moon. If Quistis gets another turn, have her use another Micro
Missiles. Squall should just continuously attack while Rinoa uses her limit. From here on, just have Quistis use Laser Eye, Squall attack, and Rinoa use her limit until Cerberus falls.



Boss #16:
Seifer: Difficulty - 2/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Go in with the same setup as Cerberus and do the same tactic, except instead make Squall be low on HP and have Zell at full health. If you're lucky, you can pull off a Micro Missiles and a Renzokuken or two before Seifer finishes both of them off. Once they're gone just hold your position until Seifer attacks you into limit break zone HP and then Duel to finish him.



Boss #17:
Seifer, Edea: Difficulty - 3.5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Go into the battle full HP. Seifer is weaker than the last time you
fought him; his attacks do about 60 now. Beat down Zell and Quistis then have
Zell Duel, using Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, Booya until Meteor Strike does 2
digits of damage then just let time run out. Then, have Squall physically attack Seifer until he's gone. When Seifer's loss animation begins, make sure Quistis has selected Micro Missiles to use and Zell has selected Duel to use. You should get them in before Edea uses Maelstrom. Micro Missiles will take off a load of her HP, then using Duel's combo of Meteor Strike, Heel Drop, Booya until she falls

Storyline Bosses (Beginning of Disc 3 to Fujin/Raijin in Lunatic Pandora)

Fight #10- Laguna Dream Sequence - Your party should be Laguna-Squall,
Zell-Kiros, and Ward-Quistis. Choose the second option when box comes up and
go save. Now, this is going to be one of the more riskier fights. You have
three objectives to do here. The first is you must give all EXP to Kiros/Zell,
the second is make sure the EXP is 800, and the last is get an Inferno Fang
from the Ruby Dragon. Now, the Ruby Dragon has a good 3700 HP or so, and
everyone's limit should do about 300 damage. Get the picture of what you
should do?

If you're still weak from the Disc 2 Edea fight, then cure everyone but
Laguna/Squall. Have Laguna/Squall have about 200 HP then go into the fight.
Ruby Dragon should attack Laguna/Squall and Laguna/Squall should then get a
turn. Have him use Desperado 9 times while Kiros and Ward attack. If
Laguna/Squall dies before 9 Desperado's, just substitute someone else for him,
they all do around the same amount of damage. After the 9 hits, have
Kiros/Zell in limit break zone and then have Laguna/Squall and Ward/Quistis
kill each other off, if the Ruby Dragon hasn't done so yet. Then, you have
Kiros/Zell use Blood Pain until Ruby Dragon falls.

EXP Gained- 800
Given To- Zell (46 Remains)



Boss #18:
Abadon: Difficulty - 1.5/5
Party:Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Selphie (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Have Quistis going into the fight at low HP and everyone else at
full. Make sure Quistis has learned Fire Breath from the Inferno Fang you've
recently gotten from the Ruby Dragon forced fight and go save. Engage in the
fight and immediately use Fire Breath. Just keep spamming Fire Breath and
regular attacks and he'll go down in seconds. You shouldn't die.



Fight #11- Laguna Dream Sequence - This will easily be the toughest forced
fight in the game, because of the sheer difficulty to get everything to work
your way. I'll split these into 5 different parts for simplicity.
Part 1- Soldier - You get only Laguna to use, and this is easy. Just regularly
attack and you should get 74 EXP.

Part 2- Soldier, Cyborg, Gesper - Now you have the whole team. Work down
Laguna and Kiros then have Kiros Blood Pain the Cyborg and the Gesper to death
then kill off Kiros and Laguna. Now have Ward finish off the Soldier. You
should get 322 EXP.

**Save at the save point once everything goes your way so we don't have to do
this again.

Part 3- Soldier, Cyborg, Elastoid- Beat down Kiros until he's at about 130 HP.
Have Ward attack the Cyborg, then Laguna kill the Cyborg. Have Kiros
continually use Blood Pain on the Elastoid until it starts flailing around,
then have Ward or Laguna kill it. Kill Laguna and Ward then have Kiros kill
the soldier. You should gain 458 EXP.

**Make absolutely sure you fully heal your party before anything.

Part 4- Soldier x2 - Have Ward kill one of them then kill off Ward and Kiros.
Get Laguna to kill off the last one. You should get 148 EXP.

**Use a Phoenix Down on Ward then use a potion on Laguna if he needs it.

Part 5- Cyborg x2 - Start out with Ward killing one, then kill Ward. Have
Laguna finish off the last one and you should get 218 EXP.

EXP Gained- 1272 (est.)-- 440; 458; 322
Given To- Squall/Laguna (60 Remains), Irvine/Kiros (170 Remains), Selphie/Ward
(153 Remains)



Bosses #19-26:
Propagator (Purple) (Red) (Yellow) (Green) <-- Kill them in this order: Difficulty - 4.5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Rinoa (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: With initial weapons, these would be an 11 rating of impossible.
They have about 1300 HP, which may not sound like a lot, but they have twice
your speed and they do anywhere from 200 to 800 damage depending on the
attack. You have to get way lucky, by pulling off as low as two 7-hit
Renzokukens. Squall should take only one hit from the Propagator and then a
hit from Rinoa, then he should pull off some Renzokukens easy. Only difficult
if Squall is killed. After this fight, leave Squall in the low HP so the rest
of the fights will go faster without having to set yourself up. All the fights
are practically the same, and this will be tough trying to do all of these
in order continuously. You'll probably die.

Alternate Strategy: If you got Odin before this, then he'll come in handy if
you kept your initial weapons. Odin CAN appear up here, as these guys aren't
bosses but sub-bosses. Now, when you are at the first screen, run down the
stairs and you'll notice the Purple Propagator is walking around. Well...we
have to get past him, so wait until he is on the other side of the room,
directly to the left of the stairs. Now run to the little door on the far
right and enter it. Now you'll see a Yellow (Or Green, those two colors look a
lot alike)Propagator and a save point but he won't attack you since he can't
"see" you yet. Now, here where you need a bit of luck. If you wait until he's
walking toward the save point then run to the left of him, hugging the wall
and running forward. If you're lucky, you'll run straight by him without him
noticing you. Save, then run into him.

Hold the escape buttons and hopefully Odin will pop up. Save, then run to the
other one of that color without getting in a fight and then do the same
method. Continue on killing all of them with Odin until they are all dead.
This method needs a little more patience than the other method, however. Thanks to Cannibal for this.



*There is one more forced fight if you try to enter the Lunatic Pandora when
it comes across the city, but since you don't need to actually get on LP, just
let the time run out.


**When you get the Ragnarok, if you haven't learned Wishing Star, just run
around the ship for about 4 SeeD Payments. Then you should get Wishing Star.

**THIS IS WHEN YOU SHOULD GO FIGHT JUMBO CACTUAR AND TONBERRY KING IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO. STRATEGIES FOR THEM ARE IN THE EXTRAS (CONTINUED) SECTION.


Boss #27:
Fujin, Raijin: Difficulty - 3.5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: These guys again huh. Don't worry, they aren't as tough as last
time, but that doesn't mean they're easy. Go into the fight at full health and
have everyone attack Fujin. Raijin will beat down Squall while Fujin casts
Haste. Soon, Fujin will say some dialogue then she'll use Meteor. It shouldn't
kill you (aside from Squall), in fact you should have about 200 HP left on
Quistis and Rinoa. Raijin will say some dialogue then hopefully he'll attack
Rinoa. Have Rinoa use her limit and pray to get either Wishing Star or
Invincible Moon. Invincible Moon will keep you alive longer, whereas Wishing
Star will kill them.

If you get Invincible Moon, just keep using Rinoa's limit break for Wishing
Star until it comes up. If you actually come out of invincible status, pray he
attacks Quistis this time, and keep using Combine with Angelo while Quistis
should now use Fire Breath. They'll go down fairly quick. You might die.

Storyline Bosses (After Fujin/Raijin to End of Disc 3)

**Use the Str Ups you get on Squall.

**If you did everything right back in Laguna's Dream Sequence #2 (In this same
place), you can go back to where the hatches are and get a Power Generator
(Teach Quistis Ray-Bomb), a draw point (Who cares), and something else.

**After this screen, keep going for Zell's Combat King 005 (My Final Heaven).

**Monsters here only give 1 (2 for last hit) EXP, so if you get into some
fights with Torama and an Imp, beat them for Curse Spikes to teach Quistis
Lv?Death, among numerous other monsters here to get other items for Quistis.
It's not really required, it's more of a perfectionism kind of thing.



Boss #28:
Mobile Type 8: Difficulty - 2.5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Go into the fight with Rinoa and Squall at low HP from the last
battle and Quistis at full health. Run in and I'm betting he'll attack
Quistis. Have Rinoa use Combine. If she gets Invincible Moon, keep unleashing
hell. If she gets Wishing Star, then it's over. Fairly easy. You shouldn't
die.

**You must get a Power Generator from Mobile Type 8 and teach it to Quistis
for Homing Laser.

**Go save, it's your last chance till Disc 4.



Boss #29:
Seifer: Difficulty - 3/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Rinoa (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Odin will come, and Seifer will cut him in half when...Seifer...is
standing perfectly still...Well, assault Seifer with everything you can.
Mainly have Quistis nail him with Homing Laser, Squall using Renzokuken, and
just have Rinoa do whatever. Soon, Gilgamesh will come down and blow Seifer
away. That is, if you don't die. You might die.

Storyline Bosses (Beginning of Disc 4 to Tiamat)

Boss #30:
Adel: Difficulty - 4.5/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Anyone (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: You need awesome reflexes to nail this. Be absolutely sure Quistis
and Squall are at low HP from the Seifer battle, and run back to the save
point and save. Now run to Adel. This will take loads of luck. Right as the
dialogue starts for the battle, Squall should have his turn up. Get it to
Renzokuken, then wait for Quistis and your other party member to get a full
ATB bar. Now have Squall quickly use Renzokuken while Quistis selects Homing
Laser. Keep your last party member's attack page up until Squall and Quistis
are done. Now, right when Squall and Quistis' ATB bars are filled, have that
party member attack. Now have Quistis use another Homing Laser. This should
finish off Adel. For insurance, go ahead and use Squall's Renzokuken. You will
die at least once.



**In the Commencement Room (with all the save points), save and switch your
other party member to Rinoa and heal everyone but Quistis.



Bosses #31-43:
Sorceress A (Bosses 1-6), Sorceress B (Bosses 7-12), Sorceress C (Boss 13): Difficulty - 4.5/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: You should have Ray-Bomb for Quistis, and Ray-Bomb one-hit-kills the
Sorceress A's, so use that and pray Quistis is still alive. Just have everyone
else attack regularly. They have about 1000 HP. On Sorceress B, if you get two
to come, have Quistis use Ray-Bomb. If someone has a turn before Quistis has a
turn, hold them there and tap Triangle to reload the page a couple times and
then once she has a turn, attack. Now have Quistis use Homing Laser if it's
one sorceress, Fire Breath if it's two. Now you're on the last Sorceress B, so
use a Homing Laser. These have about 2000 HP.

It's time for Sorceress C, who is a worm basically. She counterattacks only,
and her only action is to count down from 5. So you have 5 turns to finish her
off. You should make Quistis use Homing Laser, and if it's not Quistis' turn,
have that person attack Squall into the limit break zone HP. Homing Laser
won't kill it so there goes Quistis. But, we had attacked Squall so he can use
Renzokuken. If you nail all of the triggers, it will finish off Sorceress C.
It has about 10,000 or 11,000 HP. You will probably die.



**Save in the entrance in case you accidentally fight Sphinxaur.

**To get to Tri-Point, run in between Sphinxaur and the staircase banister. Run
through the door and the chandelier falls onto the hatch of the wine cellar.
Now you can enter down there.



Boss #44:
Tri-Point: Difficulty - 5/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: This will only work if Tri-Point's regular attack does 30 damage or
so. Gilgamesh should do about 3900 damage, which is 500 damage too little.
Now, how can we get that? Well, one way is to get Angelo to Angelo Rush
Tri-Point over and over every time Rinoa is attacked, then have Squall attack
after about 4 or 5 Angelo Rushes. The other way is to go to the DSRC and get
Bahamut, but you'll have to be amazingly lucky to pull off a Break on the Ruby
Dragons. Then you'd have to beat him, which isn't really hard anyways. Then,
he'll raise the level of Gilgamesh to about 15, which means Gilgamesh will do
4100 or so. Add this to the fact that you could do this regularly if Gilgamesh
gets a critical hit, it could either one-hit-kill Tri-Point, or come way
close.

What you should do if you want a win, is make your team Squall, Quistis, and
Zell/Selphie, then hope Gilgamesh uses Masamune and gets a critical hit. The
critical hit will do about 4400 HP. To get Gilgamesh to appear, you have to
either just sit there for a bit, or reload the attack page a couple times
until he does come. If this doesn't kill him, use Squall coupled with trigger
to finish him off. You will probably die, due to having to get everything
right, he could kill you before you do.

**Unlock Limit Break.



Boss #45:
Sphinxaur/Sphinxara: Difficulty - 1/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: This guy should be cake now that you have limit breaks. Nail a
Homing Laser on both forms plus some regular attacks to make him fall in a
snap. He'll use mainly -aga magic on first form, and he'll summon weak
monsters on the second form. You shouldn't die.

**Unlock Item.



Boss #46:
Red Giant: Difficulty - 2/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Zell
Strategy: Micro Missile him about 5 times then follow up with a Homing Laser.
His attacks do about 300 but he should fall before he does any major damage.
If he does kill Quistis, use Zell's Meteor Strike to really hurt him. You
might die.

**Unlock Resurrection.



Boss #47:
Trauma: Difficulty - 1.5/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: A simple Homing Laser or two will get the job done. He'll attack you
for hardly any damage and sometimes use Mega Pulse Cannon, which will kill
you. He'll also summon Mini-Trauma who use Mini Pulse Cannon for weak damage.
If he gets two Mini-Trauma summoned, use Ray-Bomb to make his previous turns
just look like wastes, while you still do a good 3000 damage.

**Unlock Save.

**From now on, unlock anything you want.



******These next bosses are unnecessary for you to beat. Defeat them if you want.******

Boss #48:
Krysta: Difficulty - 2/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: This guy might take a different strategy approach. Use Rinoa's
combine until you get an Invincible Moon. Otherwise, his last attack will
finish you. Once you get Invincible Moon on, Homing Laser him into submission.
He'll cast Ultima as a parting gift, which should be negated from invincibility.


Boss #49:
Gargantua: Difficulty - 1.5/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: Defeat the Vysage, Righty, and Lefty with a Fire Breath or two, then
he'll come out. Keep using Fire Breath, and have Squall use Renzokuken and
Rinoa combine. Curse is annoying but not too problematic.



Boss #50:
Catoblepas: Difficulty - 2/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: Get off an Invincible Moon, then unleash Homing Laser coupled with
Renzokuken. Once he dies he, like Krysta, will give you a parting gift, but
this time of Meteor. Invincibility rocks.



Boss #51:
Tiamat: Difficulty - 1/5
Party: Squall, Quistis, Rinoa
Strategy: If you want, get an Invincible Moon on you, just in case you don't
kill him before he uses Dark Flare. Have Quistis use Homing Laser constantly
and Squall use Renzokuken. Hopefully he'll die before Dark Flare is cast.



**Ready? Save outside of Ultimecia's Main Chamber, and get ready for a long
haul.

**Get Rinoa and Quistis to low HP beforehand.

**Remember, since everyone is about equal in this challenge, don't focus on
using one team. Use whoever is at your disposal, though Rinoa does have added importance near the end.

Storyline Bosses (Ultimecia)

Boss #52:
Ultimecia (Form 1): Difficulty - 4/5
Party: Random
Strategy: Hopefully you'll get Quistis or Rinoa in your party, but if you
don't then kill off someone until you get either. It's better if you get Rinoa
since you can get Invincible Moon off, then once you have invincibility,
attack with regular attacks and have Rinoa use Combine, hopefully getting
Wishing Star. Ultimecia has pretty low HP (around 11000), so if you get a
Wishing Star she falls, or two/three Homing Lasers.



Boss #53:
Griever (Form 2): Difficulty: 4.5/5
Party: Rinoa, Any other two members
Strategy: Keep using Rinoa's Combine for either Wishing Star or Invincible
Moon (if you need it). Make sure your party has on invincibility, and use
Combine, hopefully getting Wishing Star. Wishing Star will kill Griever, but
he'll finish with Shockwave Pulsar so watch out.



Boss #54:
Griever/Ultimecia (Form 3): Difficulty - 5/5
Party: Rinoa, Quistis, Anyone
Strategy: You should still have invincibility, so use Combine and Homing Laser
to chip away at Grievmecia. If you don't get a Wishing Star, Grievmecia will
summon a Helix or two. These things will basically do jack-squat. Grievmecia
has pretty awesome magic, containing spells such as Ultima and Holy, so you
really gotta keep the invincibility on. Not only that, but Ultimecia also uses
an attack called "Great Attractor", which will one-hit-kill your whole party.
Invincibility = Must. Wishing Star will one-hit-kill them, so aim for that. If
you never get a Wishing Star, continuous Homing Lasers will soon make
Grievmecia's back part fall off. That indicates that Grievmecia is low on HP,
so it shouldn't take many Homing Lasers to finish it off (Range is about 3-6).



Boss #55:
Ultimecia's True Form (Form 4): Difficulty - 5/5
Party: Rinoa, Any other two members
Strategy: She only has three attacks that matter. Hell's Judgment, which takes all characters to 1 HP, Apocalypse, which will kill your party, and a regular attack that will kill off one of your party
members. This form is unlike the other 3, since one Wishing Star won't kill it. As long as you keep invincibility on, and get Homing Laser/Wishing Star, it won't be too long until she begin talking. Once she begins talking, keep laying on attacks and keeping invincibility on. She'll talk a good bit, then when she says "And...", one or two more shots will finish her.

Extras (Forced Fights, Required GF Fights, etc...)

ORDER OF ULTIMECIA FIGHTS (The strategy for the fights will be covered in the
boss strategy section, this is just quick for checking which of the bosses
you must fight first, their location, and what to unlock.):

1st: Tri-Point; In the Wine cellar; Limit Break
2nd: Sphinxaur/Sphinxara; Top of the Staircase; Item
3rd: Any boss will do; Resurrection

After these three, you're basically free to do whatever you want. Either clear
the rest out or go straight to Ultimecia.


WHY YOU MUST GET THE GF'S I SPECIFY:

In order for you to win at all in Ultimecia's Castle, you need Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh's attacks "Masamune" and "Excalibur" have higher damage the higher
your GF's average level is. The only GF's you want to get is Quetzalcoatl,
Shiva, Ifrit, Cerberus, Cactuar, and Tonberry. These GF's give you an average
level of 13 (rounded up). Gilgamesh's attack Masamune will do about 3900
damage at level 13. A critical hit will do upwards of 4400. Our first boss
(Tri-Point) has 4400 HP. In the event that Gilgamesh does about 4300, Squall
comes in with a trigger-strike and finishes him. This is impossible to do
without Gilgamesh's critical.



FORCED FIGHTS:

Fight #1- Dollet Fights - Your first fights where you have no choice but to
gain EXP, located in Dollet. Right when you enter into the town, you'll
encounter a string of fights you cannot run away from as you progress further
into the town. But luckily, we have Seifer to absorb all of that nasty EXP.
Simply kill off Squall and Zell and then have Seifer demolish all the fights
from the first soldiers to the Anacondaur. Even after all the fights, he won't
level up, so don't worry.

EXP Gained- Somewhere in the 700 zone.
Given To- Seifer

Fight #2- Timber fights - Make sure your party is Rinoa, Selphie, and Squall,
then on the screen of the pub, you'll be forced to fight two soldiers. But
wait, we don't have Seifer to absorb the EXP this time! Now, with Selphie, you
have her limit break, which really rocks. What you should do is get Selphie
into the ~100 HP zone and use her limit, continually using Do Over until you
come across Blind, either a set of 2 or 3, and Use them. Hopefully, you'll
blind both soldiers, so now they can't attack you. Next, use her limit again
and Do Over until you see Silence with a 2 or 3 set and Use them. More than
likely, both soldiers will be silenced and blinded, preventing them from
attacking at all. If not, use the appropriate magic from Selphie's limit. Now,
you have all the time in the world to access Selphie's limit and look for the
magic "Break". If you don't find it after about 50 or so Do Over's, exit out
of the limit and enter back in and try again. Break doesn't always work, so it
may take a while for you to have Break work on both of them. Once they're both
petrified, you automatically win the fight and gain no EXP.

EXP Gained- 0
Given To- N/A

Fight #3- Laguna Dream Sequence - This is the first time you'll be forced to
gain EXP for your main party so far, if you're using my methods. Here you only
have Squall, Quistis, and Selphie to use, but since Selphie is Kiros, we,
sadly, cannot use the "Break" tactic. Damn. Oh well. There's only two forced
fights that you gain EXP from, both right at the beginning. Due to the
enemies' level being 4/5 or 6/5 of your party's, you may need to reset the
game a couple times to get optimal EXP. Kill off Laguna and Ward in the first
fight and have Kiros beat the one soldier. Next fight, you have three soldiers
to contend with, having only Kiros to us. It won't take long to beat them all,
but winning these fights isn't the hard part. From both fights, Selphie
(Kiros) should have 675 EXP remaining. If not, reset until it is so. Tiresome,
but otherwise you'd be cutting it close later on in the game.

EXP Gained- 325
Given To- Selphie (675 Remains)

Fight #4- D-District Prison - After you exit the room, run between the stairs
and down to Floor 6, save, and then go up to Floor 8. Fight the two guards and
you SHOULD only gain 154 EXP. If not, reset and repeat as needed.

EXP Gained- 154
Given To- Zell (846 Remains)

Fight #5- D-District Prison - In the prison you'll hear gunfire once Squall
and his party gets to the bottom floor and finds the sand. After the screen
goes black and the dialogue begins, hold down the right button and try to
maneuver perfectly to avoid the guard catching you. Simply stay along the edge
of the inner circle without getting lagged up by accidentally turning too much
and you should go to the next screen without fighting the guard. It's
mandatory you avoid this fight to save EXP for later.

EXP Gained- Hopefully 0
Given To- N/A

Fight #6- Galbadia Missile Base - You're found out by the base soldiers, now
you must demolish them. Be sure to have saved. So they aren't difficult, but
sort of tiresome. I'm pretty sure you can only get as low as 372 EXP, when you
have Zell/Selphie kill the soldier and leader, kill Selphie and Zell, then
finish off the last one with Irvine. If you want to take a HUGE risk, you can
use Selphie's Slot and Silence, Blind and Sleep all of them. Afterwards, use
Selphie's Slot AGAIN and PRAY, oh man, PRAY to find Break of a 3 cast, have it
hit all of them, and win. It'll probably take 5 or more Slot casts of Break,
regardless of how many casts you get on each one, and even finding Break on
slots is a low enough chance as it is.

I don't recommend using Break here unless you really want extra EXP in the
end, as, unlike the old Timber fights, these guys are stronger and more
powerful, which can make this pretty hard to accomplish. Also, I don't even
think these guys can be petrified. After about 15 breaks, I had nothing. Just
don't waste your time on the Break method and go for the 372 EXP.

EXP Gained- 372
Given To- Irvine (628 Remains)

Fight #7- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved outside of the Garden and
head to the right of the directory and enter the library. Talk to the Faculty
and choose the second choice and you'll be forced into a fight with a Grat.
Kill off Squall and Quistis then have Rinoa finish the Grat. You should get
149 EXP. Now, to avoid the next battles, just follow as I do. Go to the
Training Center and run to the screen where you see the Garden Faculty run off
with two other students, then run back to the directory. Head to the hall of
the Infirmary and when the option comes up, choose to "Let Them Handle It".
Run back to the directory and Squall should see Xu running up the stairs to
the elevator. If not, go back to each place and make sure you talked to
everyone there.

EXP Gained- 149
Given To- Rinoa (851 Remains)

Fight #8- FH - Save then run straight down the train tracks and watch the
scene. Initiate the battle and have Squall kill off the regular soldiers or a
regular soldier and the elite soldier. I'm not sure it has a difference but if
anyone wants to verify, go right ahead. After killing two of them with Squall,
kill off Squall so he won't get any EXP. Work down Quistis and Rinoa for the
next fight then kill off the last one using Rinoa. You should only gain 285
EXP for Quistis and 295 for Rinoa. I think the one who doesn't get the final
hit can go as low as 272, though it's only 12 EXP, aim for it.

EXP Gained- 285; 295
Given To- Quistis (215 Remains); Rinoa (556 Remains)

Fight #9- Balamb Garden - Make sure you've saved then choose the team of
Squall, Irvine, and Selphie. Run up to the classroom and you'll start a scene
then end up in a forced fight. Get Selphie weak and have her use Slot. Hope to
find Break and petrify them. This process will take a long time and is
extremely risky, but it saves you a nice hunk of EXP. I'd have to say it's
mandatory to use Break here since later on Irvine will be tight for EXP, so I
really advise you to at least Break a couple of the Soldiers, if not all. If
you don't, I'm not quite sure, but it might be about 500 EXP.

EXP Gained- 0
Given To- N/A

Extras (Continued)

EXTRA FIGHTS FOR FLAME SABER:

Fight #1- Centra Ruins - Forbidden - This little guy is actually pretty tough.
You know to save beforehand, and work down Quistis to use Micro Missiles. Use
Micro Missiles until it does double digit damage then kill off Squall and
Quistis. Now have Selphie attack quickly to finish off the Forbidden. You
should get about ~200 EXP and a Betrayal Sword.

Fight #2- Beach behind Dollet - Adamantoise - Keep Quistis and Squall at low
HP to use Micro Missiles (Or Degenerator, if it works, I hadn't thought of
using that at that moment in time) and Renzokuken. These guys can be tough,
all thanks to their ability to use White Wind. Have her use Micro Missiles on
one and Squall Renzokuken that same one, then kill Selphie and Squall and
escape from the battle. You should get 190 or so EXP and a Turtle Shell.

You should already have the 4 screws, so go to the nearest Junk Shop (in
Dollet) and get the Flame Saber.

EXP Gained- 390-- 200; 190
Given To- Selphie (475 Remains); Quistis (45 Remains)

BACK TO THE FORCED FIGHTS...



Fight #10- Laguna Dream Sequence - Your party should be Laguna-Squall,
Zell-Kiros, and Ward-Quistis. Choose the second option when box comes up and
go save. Now, this is going to be one of the more riskier fights. You have
three objectives to do here. The first is you must give all EXP to Kiros/Zell,
the second is make sure the EXP is 800, and the last is get an Inferno Fang
from the Ruby Dragon. Now, the Ruby Dragon has a good 3700 HP or so, and
everyone's limit should do about 300 damage. Get the picture of what you
should do?

If you're still weak from the Disc 2 Edea fight, then cure everyone but
Laguna/Squall. Have Laguna/Squall have about 200 HP then go into the fight.
Ruby Dragon should attack Laguna/Squall and Laguna/Squall should then get a
turn. Have him use Desperado 9 times while Kiros and Ward attack. If
Laguna/Squall dies before 9 Desperado's, just substitute someone else for him,
they all do around the same amount of damage. After the 9 hits, have
Kiros/Zell in limit break zone and then have Laguna/Squall and Ward/Quistis
kill each other off, if the Ruby Dragon hasn't done so yet. Then, you have
Kiros/Zell use Blood Pain until Ruby Dragon falls.

EXP Gained- 800
Given To- Zell (46 Remains)


Fight #11- Laguna Dream Sequence - This will easily be the toughest forced
fight in the game, because of the sheer difficulty to get everything to work
your way. I'll split these into 5 different parts for simplicity.
Part 1- Soldier - You get only Laguna to use, and this is easy. Just regularly
attack and you should get 74 EXP.

Part 2- Soldier, Cyborg, Gesper - Now you have the whole team. Work down
Laguna and Kiros then have Kiros Blood Pain the Cyborg and the Gesper to death
then kill off Kiros and Laguna. Now have Ward finish off the Soldier. You
should get 322 EXP.

**Save so you don't have to do this ever again.

Part 3- Soldier, Cyborg, Elastoid- Beat down Kiros until he's at about 130 HP.
Have Ward attack the Cyborg, then Laguna kill the Cyborg. Have Kiros
continually use Blood Pain on the Elastoid until it starts flailing around,
then have Ward or Laguna kill it. Kill Laguna and Ward then have Kiros kill
the soldier. You should gain 458 EXP.

**Make absolutely sure you fully heal your party.

Part 4- Soldier x2 - Have Ward kill one of them then kill off Ward and Kiros.
Get Laguna to kill off the last one. You should get 148 EXP.

**Use a Phoenix Down on Ward then use a potion on Laguna if he needs it.

Part 5- Cyborg x2 - Start out with Ward killing one, then kill Ward. Have
Laguna finish off the last one and you should get 218 EXP.

EXP Gained- 1272 (est.)-- 440; 458; 322
Given To- Squall/Laguna (60 Remains), Irvine/Kiros (170 Remains), Selphie/Ward
(153 Remains)

***NOTE: These EXP counts may go lower than I've stated. If you want to tell
me, contact me and tell me which one. I'll give full credit per each.

*There is one more forced fight if you try to enter the Lunatic Pandora when
it comes across the city, but since you don't need to actually get on LP, just
let the time run out.

And there you are. Every forced fight in the game accounted for. If you've
made it this far, your No Level part of this game has no more challenges aside
from making sure you don't accidentally fall into a random encounter and gain
a level. Your characters should have the following EXP left:

Squall- 60
Quistis- 45
Zell- 46
Selphie- 153
Rinoa- 556
Irvine- 118

**Note: Some EXP counts may be a little off



EXTRA BOSS FIGHTS:


Challenge-Required Boss #3:
Jumbo Cactuar: Difficulty - 3/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Head to Cactuar Island on the Ragnarok, work your party down to limit break zone HP amounts and then save. Start off by casting Acid on JC and hoping for a Vit 0. Now have Squall and Zell use their respective limit breaks, and Quistis use Homing Laser. Repeat until he falls. Another setup is to substitute Rinoa for Zell, using Invincible Moon/Wishing Star.


Challenge-Required Boss #4:
Tonberry King: Difficulty - 3/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy:For every Tonberry you fight that you don't fight TK, go back out and save. When you finally do fight him, have Zell Duel, Quistis start using Homing Laser, and Squall use Renzokuken. If Zell doesn't take out TK, the Homing Laser and Renzokuken should. Like JC, Rinoa can be substituted in Zell's place, with Rinoa again using IM/WS.


Challenge-Required Boss #1:
Odin: Difficulty - 1/5
Party: Squall (Flame Saber), Quistis (Initial Weapon), Zell (Initial Weapon)
Strategy: Just have Zell Duel, Quistis Laser Eyes, and Squall Renzokuken and Odin will go down before the time limit runs out.

Legal Statement and Contact Infomation

This guide cannot be reproduced in any way, shape or form without my consent
unless for private use. If you want to use my guide on your web site, you MUST
ask for permission by E-mail and I may or may not give permission. Taking my
guide and using it without permission is a copyright violation and punishable
by law. When, and only when, I give permission will anything other than
private use be allowed.

Copyright 2007 Chris Boyd.

I also note, if you do see my guide on another site other than:

www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com
www.supercheats.com
Steam's Guides

Then alert me as soon as possible, please.


If you need to get in contact with me and Steam isn't an option because I'm not online or what have you, e-mail [e-mail].

[Luna van Wolfen]

oh damn i totally forgott about that xD my fail

[Titan]

Solaris Infernalis: While a true fact, not junctioning anything also means not being able to junction commands, which includes the Item command. The only command available in each battle is the Attack/Limit Break command.

[Luna van Wolfen]

well if i remembered correctly u could kill that fake zombie president easy with just a phoenix down. not sure if it works on his human form but the zombie one should be fairly easy killed with it... but its a long time ago since i played the game

[Bekness]

Oh, I thought the / meant No Level OR No Junction. Not both. I did No Junction years ago, and I think I leveled but I honestly can't remember...

Maybe look in the Wiki then if there's another way to get the item. Maybe Chocobo World? I'm not sure if that's allowed..

[Olde]

You can't use Card Mod because it's a no-junction challenge.

[Bekness]

XMomox, I think you can get Acid using the Card Mod ability. I'm not sure, though.

[Bekness]

I just started this challenge, I wish I found your guide before I started. (It was easy to find, but I didn't look up one initially) I'm mostly just trying to get the achievement but I'd rather keep everyone else as low as possible, too.

I didn't even think to use Break from Selphie's slots during the Timber scenes and I picked a different team for the Missile Base. I did try to use Break (without slots) at the Missile Base on the soldiers before the boss and wasn't successful. I found a different guide on GameFAQs that said Break could be used in the European version of the PS1 game (and also that they're only 180XP... which just wasn't true at all)

I'm kinda just freaking about the challenge in general, constantly wondering if I'm doing it right.

[xMomox]

Thanks for the reply. I remembered you also coming up with a new combo for Zell which includes using Dolphin Blow, would love to see the outcome of that as well. Thanks again for the hard work. =)

[Titan]

Hey, my fault man, I'm not great at responsibilities. Anyway, it's been a long time since I've really played this challenge, so I've just recently began going back through using the guide and checking stuff along the way. With that, I can't exactly remember what I said to do, however fighting a Gayla won't cause some characters to level up (Rinoa for sure, maybe for Selphie and Irvine). From this, I'd say Rinoa could defeat Gaylas without worrying about level.

Other than that, I won't have a better answer until I commit to finishing my current playthrough, but giving the exp to Rinoa should suffice. I'll keep this in mind during the run and if I can remember another option, I'll make sure to include it.

[xMomox]

Hi, I have used your guide a few years back, and have emailed some questions to you before. I remembered asking you how do you get Acid on Quistis and you said something about needing to update the guide about that, however, I am still seeing the "cast Acid" on Cactuar, without information on how to get that ability on Quistis.

To my knowledge, it's through using Mystery Fluid, which is dropped by Gayla, and since we are not fighing anything, how do you get it? Thanks.