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Final Fantasy VIII

Cactuar

By
Nathan Garvin

To acquire the Cactuar GF you’ll need to land on Cactuar Island, which is off the coast (southeast of) the Kashkabald Desert. This requires you to have the Ragnarok, which itself is acquired on disc 3. On Cactuar Island you’ll find a massive Cactuar rising from the sand. Chase it down to provoke an encounter with Jumbo Cactuar. Defeat this thorny menace to gain the Cactuar GF. Cactuar’s signature attack, 1000 Needles, will deal 1000 damage to every opponent per ten levels of Cactuar, dealing 2,000 damage at levels 20-29, 3,000 damage at levels 30-39, and 10,000 damage at level 100.

Cactuar Stats

Level HP Attack
20 1,766 2,000
100 8,150 10,000

Cactuar Base Compatibility

Squall Quistis Zell Selphie Rinoa Irvine
580 550 540 700 640 560

Cactuar Compatibility Factors

Compatibility Factor Source
Opposed GF --
Compatibility Items Cactus Thorn
Favored Magic --
Opposed Magic --

Cactuar Abilities

Cactuar can learn the very rare Eva-J and Luck-J junctions, and fittingly enough can also learn Eva+30% and Luck+50%, although its dubious these latter two are worth using.

Other abilities include Auto-Potion (character uses restoratives when damaged), Defend (negates physical attack damage outright and reduces magic damage by 50%), Expendx2-1 (only expend one spell when doublecasting spells), Kamikaze (user sacrifices themselves to deal damage equal to the character’s max HPx5), Initiative (character starts battle with their ATB bar filled) and Move-HP Up (character regenerates HP as they walk).

While Cactuar has a slew of interesting abilities and junctions, perhaps the most interesting abilities this GF possesses are all of the stat bonus abilities - HP Bonus, Str Bonus, Vit Bonus, Mag Bonus and Spr Bonus. If you keep a character low level until you reach Cactuar and equip this GF onto them, they can potentially boost four stats at the same time while leveling up, making for some pretty great stat gains.

Ability AP
Eva-J 200
Luck-J 200
Magic --
GF --
Draw --
Item --
HP Bonus --
Str Bonus --
Vit Bonus --
Mag Bonus --
Spr Bonus --
Auto-Potion 150
Defend 100
Expendx2-1 250
Kamikaze 100
Initiative 160
Move-HP Up 200
Eva+30% 150
Luck+50% 200
GFHP+10% 40
GFHP+20% 70
GFHP+30% 140
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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Square Enix
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS1, PS4, Switch, XB One
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    15 March 2019
  • Last Updated
    4 June 2022
    Version History
  • Guide Author

Share this free guide:

Follow the exploits of Squall, a resident of Balamb Garden and SeeD aspirant whose first contract as a professional mercenary expands into a fight to save the world from an evil sorceress.

This guide will cover the main quest-line chronologically, giving advice on leveling (and how to avoid it), where to find the best spells, how to acquire all GFs and defeat all bosses. In addition the guide will cover all side quests and will also include in-depth mini-guides for Chocobo World and Triple Triad. By following this guide you can aspire to the following:

  • Complete walkthrough of the main questline.
  • All side quests and optional content.
  • How to defeat both of the game’s superbosses.
  • Information on how to acquire each GF and a discussion of their abilities, including where to assign them.
  • Information on Triple Triad, including the location of every card in the game and how to best use them.
  • Low-level run information.
  • Information on min-maxing stats.
  • A mini-guide for Chocobo World.
  • Information on all characters, including stats and how to acquire all their weapons and limits.
  • Triple Triad guide.

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