Timber: Second SeeD Mission - 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
Selphie: Shiva, Siren
While you're in control of Laguna you'll want to follow the linear path until you reach a vehicle and hop inside of it. Any magic, EXP or AP that you collect on these characters will automatically be transferred to Squall and everyone else once you're back in control of them.
Laguna will drive the vehicle into town and park it in the middle of the road. Travel up the eastern most road until you reach the Galbadia Hotel (pictured above). There are a few different things that we have to do in this hotel.
1. Speak with the young girl down the stairs on the right
2. Sit at the table, approach the piano when you stand up
3. Sit at the table again
4.
Speak with the Hotel Receptionist
Once you're back in control of Squall and off the train you'll want to tell the guy on the stairs "but the owls are still around" to proceed with the story. On the train you're going to want to save your game then play Watts (pictured above) until you spread the "Open" rule to throughout the region as well as until you get the Angelo Card from him.
If Same gets abolished or any other changes happen to the rules that you do not want - hard reset the game then try again. For more information about changing the rules with Triple Triad I recommend you read my Triple Triad Rule Changing Guide. It goes into much more detail there.
When you're ready to proceed with the story go wake "the princess" aka Rinoa. After meeting Rinoa and her dog Angelo (apparently the person who made this part of the game has no clue how a dog acts or the sounds they make) return to your team.
Another long story sequence will begin, this time you'll be informed of your mission and what you have to do.
With the scene over you'll want to collect Pet Pals Vol 2 in Rinoa's room (where the bed used to be) then save your game. To begin the Timber Train Mission you'll want to speak with Watts next to the same door we entered the train from.
**Semi-Missable Item Tip** This is your last chance of getting the Angelo Card from Watts until Disc 3. It's strongly recommended you get this card now since it mods into 100 Elixirs which you can use to make a ton of Gil early on - or use for other things.
This next part of the game is possible to fail/mess up however there is no significant reward for perfectly completing it, only a single SeeD Rank. It's your decision whether or not you want to get a perfect run while doing this, tips for completing it without messing up are provided below.
Red Soldier: MOVE
Blue Soldier: STOP
1. Sneak across the roof of the second escort car, stop for blue soldiers and keep moving for red ones
2. Input 3 successful passwords to uncouple the first escort car
3. Input 5 successful passwords to uncouple the second escort car
If you'd like to see a video of this mission being completed without any issues I recommend you watch my Timber Mission FF8 Video Guide. I know that there's some people that learn better through videos, so I got 'yalls back too!
Before doing anything else - make sure you have your GFs properly equipped. Everything you had equipped before the mission was un-equipped from Selphie and Zell, Squall kept his Junctions though. The game will give you a warning about this too, but you should get into the habit of always checking this yourself. Yes it's frustrating and yes the game is going to be like this the entire time.
Junction Tips: Fire to Elem-Atk and Slow to ST-Atk are good choices for the upcoming boss. Also it's strongly recommended you have Draw on all three characters as the boss has some new magic we haven't seen before. Also put Item on at least two characters.
Now would be a good time to save the game too, incase anything goes wrong with the upcoming boss you won't have to repeat the train part. Speak with Rinoa when you're ready to continue the story and face the boss.
Important Draw Tip: Stock up on Double, this is your first time seeing it in the game. People who aren't using the Steam Magic Booster will want to stock up on everything he has.
The main thing you have to worry about with this boss is his status ailments. Luckily the boss has Esuna in his Draw list so any time he inflicts a status ailment on your group, Draw Esuna and use that on the character afflicted. When you're ready to defeat the boss, use an Elixir, Phoenix Down or X-Potion on him. Since he is an undead enemy this will instantly defeat him.
After the fight watch the scenes then you'll have to form a party. I'd recommend replacing Selphie with Rinoa and swapping their GFs/Junctions. Once you've done this speak with Watts and tell him you're ready to be dropped off at Timber.
There are a few different things for us to do before progressing the story forward. First thing you should do is stop at the Pet Shop and purchase any Pet Pals magazines you don't have right now. Head south to the Weapon Shop if you'd like to upgrade your weapons, there's an Inn down here too with a Save Point. Further south is the town's exit which if you approach it you'll have to fight two guards and there'll be a scene.
Before doing anything else I recommend you use that Save Point and then stock up on some high level spells. If you haven't been following my refinement advice throughout the guide yet then this part will be new to you. All those GF abilities that we've been learning are finally going to be put to good use. Here's what you're going to want to do...
First: Card Mod all lower level cards that you don't use & refine those items into magic. Don't waste Elixirs until you've done this step.
1. Card Mod the Angelo Card into 100 Elixirs
2. Sell 50 Elixirs & Occult Fan I
3. Purchase 20 Draw Scrolls at the Pet Shop
4. Use the Tool-RF Ability on 10 to turn them into Wizard Stones
5. (Optional) Use the F Mag-RF ability to turn the 100 Wizard Stones into Firaga magic for your characters
6. (Optional) Use the Time Mag-RF ability to turn the other 100 Wizard Stones into Stop magic for your characters
7. (Optional) Use any Mag-RF ability to turn the 200 Wizard Stones into high level magic
You can choose what magic you'd like (don't do Blizzaga for everyone right now) to turn the Wizard Stones into. Stop and Firaga magic are the two hardest to come across at this point from the card game. However you're probably missing a lot more than just Stop and Firaga - so the choice is ultimately yours.
Keep in mind too that you have 50 more Elixirs you can sell, you could repeat this entire step with another 200 Wizard Stones and get yourself even more magic. You sincerely don't need the Elixirs and once you get to Disc 3 you can get unlimited Elixirs for free - so I say go to town now if you want to.
If you used the Steam Magic Booster and also have been Drawing a lot from enemies then you may be getting close to your Magic cap. You can only have 8 pages of spells in Final Fantasy 8 and in order to make room you'll have to delete older magic fairly regularly. For more information on How to Delete Magic follow the link provided; this guide is part of my Final Fantasy 8 Junctions Guide.
Note: You can also boost how much Gil you earn by walking around by raising your SeeD rank, for more information about How to Raise your SeeD Rank follow the link provided.
When you're done all of this don't forget to Junction your upgraded magic then head down the walkway that leads to the Timber Maniac's building (use the screenshot above for guidance).
Our first stop is inside of the Timber Maniacs building. It's the large building right in front of you on the screen. Inside you'll find a Girl Next Door magazine in the front room as well as a copy of the Timber Maniacs in the back room. The doorway to the left in the hallway has a Blizzaga Draw point, this first -aga magic we've seen.
When you're done inside of here head east to the next screen, our next stop is the pub which is down the stairs. However if you need to heal you can continue east to the Old Man's house that Watts told you about. Alternatively if you don't need to heal you can still go to the Old Man's house and raid his cupboard for 2000 Gil... If you do this though you'll burn this bridge with him and he won't heal you anymore.
At the pub you'll find a drunk on the ground blocking off the back exit, tell him about his card which you got from the guards outside and he'll give you a Tonberry Card and move out of the way. If you buy him a drink you'll get a Forbidden Card but the Tonberry Card Mods into better stuff. Go through the doorway he was blocking when you're done.
It's a linear path through the alleyway to the TV station. There will be a scene along the way and another long scene at the TV station. When you have control of Squall again he'll be standing outside the TV station. Our next destination is the house next to the Timber Maniacs building where there will be more story scenes. Rinoa will lead us right here so no worries finding it.
There are a few things we'll be doing in this area to advance the story forward...
1. Speak with Quistis upstairs to push the story forward
2. Downstairs, try to leave the house to trigger another scene
3. Outside speak with the G Soldier standing close to the screen (pictured below)
4. Travel back to the screen with the stairs down to the pub to get train tickets
5. Travel east to the train station
6. Hop aboard the train to Galbadia Garden
Once on the train you'll want to speak with Selphie in the hallway until she stops giving new dialogue then speak with Zell until you get the choice "Leave him alone". Select that to proceed with the game. Now you have two options, you can stop at East Academy Station and go straight to Galbadia Garden. Or you can ride the train to Dollet and then to Timber again to complete some side questing first.
I'd highly recommend you go to Dollet and do the optional content, there is much you still need to learn about the Triple Triad side quest in this game and that guide will be your first foray into it.
Continue to Dollet (Optional) Walkthrough
Continue to Galbadia Garden Walkthrough
Return to Balamb Garden (Part 2) Walkthrough