ALL Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
This Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations Guide will tell you exactly where you need to go to collect each Guardian Force in Final Fantasy 8.
If you’re playing Final Fantasy 8, you’re going to want to know where to find each of the Final Fantasy 8 Guardian Forces. This Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations Guide will help you do exactly that. Every Final Fantasy 8 GF allows your character to junction new skills and abilities, so you’re going to want each and every one of them so you can have the strongest party possible.
Most of the Final Fantasy 8 GF locations appear as you progress through the story, though most of them can be missed. A few of the Final Fantasy 8 GF locations are hidden, although if you know where to look, they’re still generally fairly easy to acquire.
More Final Fantasy 8 Guides:
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Without further ado, here are all of the Final Fantasy 8 GF locations.
1. Quezacotl – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Quezacotl is the first GF you acquire. Simply turn on Squall’s computer at his desk in the classroom and start the tutorial to receive Quezacotl.
Best Skills: Quezacotl’s Card Mod skill is one of the most useful skills in the entire game, especially if you’re trying to make all the best weapons as early as possible.
2. Shiva – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Shiva is one of the first two GFs you acquire. You can receive it from Squall’s computer as soon as you gain control of the character.
Best Skills: The most important skill to learn on Shiva is probably Str-J, as Shiva is the only GF other than Ifrit that allows you to boost Strength until you get Brothers at the end of Disc 1.
3. Ifrit – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Ifrit is acquired as part of the story when you venture to the Fire Cavern as part of your SeeD Exam.
Best Skills: Ifrit is most immediately useful because it allows you to junction magic to Strength. It also teaches Str+20% and Str+40%, which you should try to learn as quickly as possible so you can unlock the real prize: Strength Bonus, which gives an additional point of Strength at each level up. Its Ammo-RF skill is also a must if you want to make Squall’s best weapon or use Irvine in your party.
4. Siren – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Siren is gotten by drawing from Elvoret at the top of the Comm Tower in Dollet during your first mission there. If you miss it, you can draw it from Tri-Point in the last dungeon of the game.
Best Skills: Siren’s most useful skills are ST-Atk-J, which allows you to inflict status effects with your normal attacks, and Mag Bonus, which gives an extra point of Magic each time the character levels up.
5. Brothers – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Brothers is acquired by completing the Tomb of the Unknown King after reaching Deling City in Disc 1. The story requires you to visit the dungeon, but doesn’t require you to complete it.
Best Skills: Brothers’ best skills are Str-J, HP+80% and HP Bonus, which you should acquire as early as possible to get the most out of it. Defend is also recommended for some endgame Omega Weapon strategies, but it’s much easier to just chug Holy Wars the whole fight.
6. Diablos – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Diablos is acquired after you’re given your first mission to head to Timber, talk to Cid to receive the Magical Lamp. Use the Magical Lamp to summon Diablos. Diablos can easily be defeated by junctioning Blind to your attack. Once defeated, he’ll join your party.
Best Skills: Diablos has a number of useful skills. Enc-None is a must have on the PS1 version of the game, although on the remastered version it’s useless because you get it automatically. Mug is very useful. HP+80% is always good.
7. Carbuncle – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Carbuncle is acquired by drawing from the Iguions just before the end of Disc 1. If you miss it there, you can draw it from Krysta in the final dungeon.
Best Skills: Carbuncle doesn’t get a ton of very useful skills, but its best ones are probably ST-Def-Jx2 and Vit Bonus. Additionally, Carbuncle gives another character access to ST-Atk-J. It gets Abilityx3, but that’s irrelevant if you pick up 3 Rosetta Stones in the prison right after Disc 2 starts.
8. Leviathan – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Leviathan is received by drawing from NORG once you return to Balamb Garden at the start of Disc 2. It’s not available to draw until NORG loses his shield and can be drawn from directly. If you miss it there, you get another opportunity from Trauma at the end of the game.
Best Skills: Leviathan’s best skill is almost certainly Recover, which heals a single party member to full health without wasting any items or magic. It also learns Spr Bonus which is probably the least useful of the Bonus skills, but still worth mentioning.
9. Pandemona – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Pandemona is available to draw from Fujin in Balamb after returning to the town in Disc 2. If you miss it, you can draw it from the Red Giant in the final dungeon.
Best Skills: Pandemona is the first GF to focus on speed. Its best skills are Spd-J and Spd+40%.
10. Cerberus – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Cerberus can be found in Galbadia Garden when you invade it near the Orphanage at the end of Disc 2. It’s found in the lobby area. All you have to do is fight it and defeat it, though you should make sure to draw a full stock of Triples for each character as it’s an endgame level spell.
Best Skills: Spd-J, ST-Def-Jx4, Spd+40% and Auto-Haste are all amazing abilities available on Cerberus.
11. Alexander – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Alexander can be acquired by drawing from Edea in Galbadia Garden at the end of Disc 2. If you miss it, you have another chance to draw it from Catoplebas in the final dungeon.
Best Skills: Alexander doesn’t have a ton of great skills, but Elem-Def-Jx4 is pretty good and Med LV Up is required to get Doomtrain.
12. Doomtrain – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Doomtrain is one of the optional ‘hidden’ GFs. In order to acquire it, you need Solomon’s Ring, which is found at Tear’s Point in the Southeast part of Esther on Disc 3. You need 6 Malboro Tentacles, 6 Remedy+ and 6 Steel Pipes. Once you have the requires ingredients, use Solomon’s Ring from the item menu and you’ll acquire Doomtrain.
6x Malboro Tentacles: There are a couple ways to do this. The easiest way is to make sure to snag any Malboro cards you see while you’re playing Triple Triad throughout the game until you get Solomon’s Ring on Disc 3, and you’ll probably have enough.
If you don’t have enough, the next easiest thing to do is proceed with the story a little further until you get the Ragnarok and kill/mug Malboros which can be fought commonly on the Island Closest to Heaven in the Northeast corner of the map.
You can also encounter Malboros in the forest north of Esther which is only reachable by chocobo, and it can (very rarely) be encountered in certain locations around Esther
6x Remedy+: Use Alexander’s Med LV Up ability on 60 Remedies.
6x Steel Pipes: Use Card Mod on 6 Wendigo cards or kill/mug a few Wendigos which are commonly found all over Galbadia.
Best Skills: Doomtrain gets Elem-Def-Jx4 and ST-Def-Jx4 which are both pretty good. It also gets Junk Shop which is the only way to upgrade your weapons on Disc 4 if you haven’t done it yet.
13. Bahamut – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Bahamut is one of the ‘hidden’ GFs. Bahamut is found at the Deep Sea Research Center in the far southwest part of the map, only accessible by using the Ragnarok. Land at the Deep Sea Research Center, approach the blue light whenever it’s not shining and answer:
- It’s not our will to fight.
- Never.
- (Invisible 3rd Option) It’s our nature.
Best Skills: Str+60% is good, Mag+60% can be good for certain characters like Quistis and Rinoa. Forbid Mag-RF is useful to convert all the high level spell stones you end up with by the end of the game. Auto-Protect is decent. Abilityx4 is useful if you don’t use the exploit to get easy Rosetta Stones in the prison on Disc 2.
14. Cactuar – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Cactuar is one of the ‘hidden’ GFs. To acquire it, after receiving the Ragnarok, land on Cactuar Island in the easternmost part of the Centra continent. There will be a large desert that’s connected to the continent itself, and then a small desert island a little off shore. That’s Cactuar Island. Jumbo Cactuar will be sticking its head out from the sand. Simply run into it to start the fight and win the fight to receive the GF.
Don’t forget to draw full stacks of the Meltdown spell for each character, as this is the easiest way to get it.
Best Skills: Cactuar gets all of the stat bonus skills, which is easily the best thing about it. Put it on a low level character, equip Str Bonus, HP Bonus, Mag Bonus, and Vit or Spr Bonus and get a character with maxed out stats in no time.
15. Tonberry – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Tonberry is one of the ‘hidden’ GFs, and it’s available in the Centra Ruins. After Balamb Garden becomes mobile, you can go to the Centra Ruins which in the northeast portion of the southern continent. The only enemy that appears there are Tonberries. Kill 20 of them and you’ll encounter a King Tonberry. Defeat it to earn the Tonberry GF.
Best Skills: Call Shop, which lets you summon any store you’ve previously visited no matter where you are, is Tonberry’s best and most useful skill. Lvl Up/Down is also useful, as is Haggle, Sell-High and Familiar.
16. Eden – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Eden is the ‘ultimate’ GF. You acquire it by drawing it from Ultima Weapon at the bottom of the Deep Sea Research Center. After defeating Bahamut, return to the Ragnarok, enter the cockpit and talk to Irvine to go back to the world map (you have to do this for some reason). Once that’s done, return to the Deep Sea Research Center and you can go further inside.
Once inside, the easiest thing to do is bring Zell with you.
Floor 1: Use 4x RSP
Floor 2: Use 2x RSP
Floor 3: Use 4x RSP on the terminal below the stairs to unlock a side room and gain 7x RSP, then use 1x RSP.
Floor 4: Use 1x RSP
Floor 5: Use 1x RSP
Floor 6: If you want to get 100 Curse Spikes to make a Dark Matter (teaches Quistis’s ultimate limit break) easily, let Zell take care of the machine. Otherwise, use 4x RSP.
If you had Zell unlock the door, you’ll fight 3 fixed encounters against increasingly difficult enemies as you head to the bottom. In the first room you’ll face off against Tri-Face enemies which you can mug for curse spikes, and they’ll respawn each time you enter and exit the room.
At the bottom, equip Siren’s Move-Find ability to unlock a hidden save point. Use 10 RSP to fight Ultima Weapon.
Best Skills: Eden’s best skills are Spd-J, Devour, Expendx3-1 and GFAbl Med-RF.
17. Odin – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Odin is not a traditional GF. It can’t be junctioned, it simply randomly appears in battle and kills all enemies. To find it, head to the Centra Ruins any time after Balamb Garden becomes mobile. Centra Ruins are on the northeast part of the southern continent. Be sure to turn off encounter either with Diablos’ Enc-None skill or the Remastered version’s built in no encounters feature.
You’ll have a 20 minute timer upon entering the ruins. Head to the top, collect the ruby eyes, put them in the top-most gargoyle to get a code. Remove the ruby eyes, go back down and put them in the other gargoyle and enter the code. Go inside to fight Odin. Feel free to take as much time as you need to draw all the available magic as he never attacks.
Once you’ve defeated him, Odin will join your party and begin appearing randomly in non-boss encounters.
18. Gilgamesh – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: In FF8 Gilgamesh is not a normal GF, just like Odin. In fact, Gilgamesh replaces Odin, except instead of killing enemies outright, he can appear at any time and has a variety of attacks he can perform.
To acquire Gilgamesh, simply acquire Odin any time before the end of Disc 3. If you have Odin, once you fight Seifer at the end of Disc 3, Odin will be replaced with Gilgamesh.
19. Phoenix – Final Fantasy 8 GF Locations
Location: Like Odin and Gilgamesh, in FF8 Phoenix is not a normal GF and can’t be junctioned. To acquire it, get your hands on a Phoenix Pinion, which can be found in a few locations, such as from the card player on level 5 of the prison at the start of Disc 2, as a side quest reward in Shumi Village, at Lunatic Pandora if Laguna opened the trap doors in the second dream sequence, or by refining 3 Mega Phoenixes using Siren’s Tool-RF.
Once summoned the first time, Phoenix will have a 12.5% chance of reviving your party whenever all party members die, preventing a Game Over.
More Final Fantasy 8 Guides:
Getting Final Fantasy 8 Best Weapons EARLY
ALL Final Fantasy 8 Seed Test Answers
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