Final Fantasy VIII isn’t a difficult platinum run, but it is time-consuming, and there are multiple trophies you can miss along the way. You’re highly encouraged to follow our walkthrough to avoid missing any trophies, as the walkthrough goes out of its way to ensure you earn every trophy/achievement as you play through the game.

Difficulty, and the Low-Level Run¶

While there are no difficulty options, Final Fantasy VIII is a bit of an odd game, difficult-wise, as you can make things considerably easier or more difficult for yourself in the long-run depending on how you play through the game. If you take certain steps early on (and yes, this involves some grinding) you can make the game significantly easier. Specifically you’ll want to learn Quetzalcoatl’s Card Mod ability ASAP so you can weaken foes in combat and turn them into cards instead of outright killing them. This will earn you AP, but not XP, allowing you to learn abilities with your GFs without leveling yourself up.

In Final Fantasy VIII, enemies gain levels as you do, with the average enemy level being roughly the same as your own average party level. If you keep your own level low, you’ll keep the enemy’s level low, but you can increase your strength by learning abilities with your GFs, playing Triple Triad and refining magic via various GF abilities and upgrading your weapons. This will result in a high-powered party facing off against relative munchkins, significantly decreasing the difficulty of the game overall and making trophies like Omega Destroyed, Cactuar, Tonberry, Eden, Diablos and Bahamut much easier to obtain.

Once you’ve obtained Card Mod and played plenty of Triple Triad and refined the cards you’ve won into high-ends spells, you need only acquire the Diablos GF and learn Enc-None with it and you won’t have to fight any random encounters you don’t want to for the rest of the game, making it trivially easy to keep your level down, and generally speeding the playthrough up… although this is admittedly off-set by whatever early-game grinding and card playing you do.

Even if you do want to level up eventually, we suggest following the strategy outlined above, as you can make significant stat gains by keeping your level low until you acquire the Cactuar GF, as this GF starts out with various abilities (HP Bonus, Str Bonus, Vit Bonus, Mag Bonus and Spr Bonus) that improve stats every time a character levels up (something otherwise not guaranteed to happen). The math is pretty simple on this one, if you wait for Cactuar, a level 10 character would see roughly +90 points to any four abilities (you can only have four GF abilities equipped at a time, at most), and since each stat maxes out at 255 (save HP, which maxes out at 9,999) this gets you far, far closer to your goal, allowing you to junction weaker spells to these stats to max them out and use your more powerful magics to boost other stats.

It’s possible to max out most stats through other means, so even if you don’t keep your level low (or level up with Cactuar’s stat boosts), you haven’t necessarily ruined your playthrough, but you will have to sink a disgusting amount of time refining stat-boosting items, and that’s more tedious than watching paint dry in a dentist’s office. Believe it or not, all the grinding required to keep your levels low takes considerably less time and effort than the alternative methods for defeating this game’s biggest baddies.

Other than keeping your level low, you’ll need to play a good bit of Triple Triad if you want an easy time of getting that Cards Club Master trophy/achievement. The better cards you have, the easier winning will be, and following the walkthrough and ensuring you get the best cards whenever you have the opportunity will make for smooth sailing. Defeating the Card Club doesn’t just get you a trophy, however, it’ll ensure these players show up at the end of the game, for you to play whenever you want. The big draw of having them around is any cards you lose, they’ll end up with… somehow… meaning you can refine rare cards for top-tier items, then win them back relatively painlessly. This is a good way to stock up on some otherwise rare restoratives and max out your HP, making the fight with the game’s superboss a breeze.

Missable Trophies¶

As for missable trophies, the POINT OF NO RETURN for most of them is the start of disc 4. Just to be safe, don’t begin the assault on Lunatic Pandora until you have most of the “Missable Trophies”. You can get every single one of those trophies before this point in the game, and there’s no good reason not to.

Many GFs are missable if you fail to draw them from specific bosses when you fight them. Generally, you have two chances to draw these GFs - once when you fight the boss that originally has them, and a second time near the end of the game (past the point of no return) when you fight a second boss. Not having the GF throughout most of the game is bad enough, as you won’t be able to use its abilities (especially crippling in the case of GFs with magic refining abilities or other unique abilities), so be sure to get them the first time. A list of boss-drawable GFs follows:

Finally, there’s the Timber Maniacs trophy, which is even more missable than most trophies. First, keep in mind that most volumes of Timber Maniacs cannot be obtained past the point of no return, but Timber Maniacs 10 must be acquired on your first and only visit to the White SeeD Ship, as you will not visit this location again.

Lionheart¶

Obtain all trophies

Quezacotl¶

Unlock Guardian Force Quezacotl

You’ll obtain this GF at the beginning of the game. In your classroom, interact with your “study panel” (computer), pick the option Turn on the power and… then select the Tutorial option to acquire Quezacotl and Shiva.

Shiva¶

Unlock Guardian Force Shiva

You’ll obtain this GF at the beginning of the game. In your classroom, interact with your “study panel” (computer), pick the option Turn on the power and… then select the Tutorial option to acquire Quezacotl and Shiva.

Ifrit¶

Unlock Guardian Force Ifrit

Another basically unmissable trophy/achievement, you’ll acquire Ifrit when you defeat him early in the game.

Siren¶

Unlock Guardian Force Siren

The first missable GF - and hence, trophy - in the game. You can acquire Siren by drawing her from the boss Elvoret. If you miss her here, you won’t get another chance to acquire her until you fight Tri-Point near the end of the game, so absolutely do not miss her early on.

Handyman¶

Upgrade your weapon

You can only “miss” this through sheer neglect, and considering how easy it is to upgrade some weapons, you pretty much have to go out of your way to not get this. You can first upgrade weapons as you’re departing on your first SeeD mission, but junk shops are available pretty much throughout the rest of the game, so it’s not something you have to worry about much. A list of every weapon can be found on each character’s page:

The same early-game Triple Triad grind that can get you an excellent selection of mid-tier magic will also get you a variety of useful crafting materials, and comes highly recommended.

Card Player¶

Play Triple Triad

Another trophy that it’s almost inconceivable you can miss. After acquiring Shiva and Quezacotl you’ll bump into a transfer student. Whether you offer to give her a tour or not, continue to the next screen (an overhead view of a bridge) and you’ll find another student standing around. Talk to him and he’ll give you a starter set of cards. To play, just walk up to any character who plays cards and press [Square]. Whatever the results, you’ll get this trophy/achievement.

If you actually want to win some early games, you should probably wait until you acquire Ifrit, as you’ll get both the GF and the Ifrit Card at the same time, and the Ifrit Card is powerful enough to swing many early games in your favor, allowing you to build up a deck of mid-tier cards.

First Salary¶

Get your first salary from SeeD

After you pass the SeeD Field Exam (however well you do) you’ll be given your SeeD Rank, which will determine your wages. After this point, it’s inevitable you’ll earn this unmissable trophy, as your pay periods are determined by how many steps you take. Just keep playing the game (or run around in circles) and you’ll get this trophy eventually.

Brothers¶

Unlock Guardian Force Brothers

Another optional GF, this time, however, it’s not a matter of drawing them from some boss, but rather putting in the extra work to defeat them in battle. Do so and they’ll join the cause, earning you this trophy in this process. They can be found in the Tomb of the Unknown King, which is covered in greater detail in the link provided.

Maximum HP¶

Reach maximum HP

This can actually take some doing, especially for a low-level party. General advice? Ignore it, play through the game, and worry about this trophy when you have high-tier magic.

If you want to try to make a run at this earlier, you’re going to need to stack GFs with varying HP +% abilities. Brothers and Diablos can both learn HP +20%, HP +40% and HP +80%, although this takes quite a lot of AP to do (60, 120 and 240, respectively). Still, their effects stack, and you’ll need them. Along with equipping as many HP +% abilities as possible, you’ll also need to junction the best magic you can via HP-J:

Of these spells, Tornado is probably the best that’s easiest to acquire in significant quantities early on. Just play Triple Triad for Abyss Worm cards, which can each be Card Modded into 1x Windmill, which in turn can be refined (T Mag-RF) into 20x Tornado spells.

100 Kills¶

Kill 100 enemies

You’ll get this trophy as you play the game normally. Can’t be missed.

Chocobo¶

Capture a Chocobo

As with so many things in Final Fantasy VIII, it has a… unique take on chocobos, who are scarcely encountered save for the Chocobo Forest side quest. Fortunately you only need to catch one for this trophy, so use the provided link for more information about this minigame/side quest

Magician¶

Draw (Stock) magic from enemies 100 times

Most GFs have the Draw ability, which you can equip to draw magic from enemies. Drawn magic can be stocked or cast, and for this trophy you’ll need to do the former. While you’ll likely get a lot of magic from refining cards, you should still stockpile plenty of magic directly from enemies. Just draw and stock magic 100 times for this trophy - you should accomplish this naturally over the course of the game, and the trophy is unmissable in any event.

Alexander¶

Unlock Guardian Force Alexander

A missable GF, you can acquire Alexander by drawing it from the boss Edea. If you miss it here, you won’t get another chance to acquire it until you fight Catoblepas near the end of the game, so absolutely do not miss it early on.

Leviathan¶

Unlock Guardian Force Leviathan

A missable GF, you can acquire Leviathan by drawing it from the boss NORG. If you miss it here, you won’t get another chance to acquire it until you fight Trauma near the end of the game, so absolutely do not miss it early on.

Pandemona¶

Unlock Guardian Force Pandemona

A missable GF, you can acquire Pandemona by drawing it from the boss Fujin. If you miss it here, you won’t get another chance to acquire it until you fight Red Giant near the end of the game, so absolutely do not miss it early on.

Cerberus¶

Unlock Guardian Force Cerberus

A bit of an odd case, while Cerbeus is technically a missable GF you need to fight a boss for, the boss you need to fight is… Cerberus itself! If you fail to defeat Cerberus and acquire it when you first fight it, you won’t get another chance to acquire it until you fight Gargantua near the end of the game, so absolutely do not miss him early on.

Carbuncle¶

Unlock Guardian Force Carbuncle

A missable GF, you can acquire Alexander by drawing it from the boss Iguion. If you miss it here, you won’t get another chance to acquire it until you fight Krysta near the end of the game, so absolutely do not miss it early on.

Doomtrain¶

Unlock Guardian Force Doomtrain

Another odd GF, this is one of the rare GFs you don’t have to fight for. You do, however, have to acquire a variety of items required to summon Doomtrain. The limiting factor is the Solomon Ring, which you can only acquire from Tear’s Point (accessible on disc 3). In addition, you’ll need the following:

Malboro Tentacles: You can score these by defeating Malboros, which you can find in various places on the Esthar continent: on the western coast of the Esthar continent, near the entrance to the Great Salt Lake, just outside Tear’s Point in Esthar’s Abadan Plains (stick to the rocky parts, not the sandy parts) to the north of Esthar City (Nortes Mountains) and a few areas you can’t access yet. If you go hunting them, just make sure you’re in the right place by checking the bottom of your menu screen.

You can also get this via Card Mod, as four Malboro Cards turn into one Malboro Tentacle - twenty-four cards is a bit much, but it’s an option.

Remedy+: Probably the easiest item to obtain, you can get these by using Alexander’s Med LV Up ability to turn ten Remedy items into a Remedy+. Sixty Remedy items will get you the six Remedy+ items you need. Remedy items can be purchased from a variety of shops, including Balamb Shop, Dollet Shop, Timber Shop, Esthar Shop, Man from Garden and Esthar Shop!!!. With all of Tonberry’s abilities, this should set you back 45,000G.

Steel Pipe: Perhaps the most common item, you can get them from GIM47N and Wendigo enemies, the latter of which are probably more easy to encounter. You can find Wendigo enemies in forests near Dollet and Timber, to name a few places. You can also obtain Steel Pipes by using Card Mod on the Elastoid Card - one card, one pipe.

When you have all the items above, go into your inventory and use the Solomon Ring. The items will be consumed, and you’ll earn the Doomtrain GF.

Loser¶

Lose a rare card in a Triple Triad game

Not really much of an “achievement” this, but it should be easy enough to accomplish. Just save your game, play a rare card and lose on purpose. The opponent will almost always take a rare card when possible, and once you’ve lost it you’ll gain this trophy. Or, more organically, you can do this during the Queen of Cards side quest, which requires you to lose specific cards so new rare ones can be created.

Cards Club Master¶

Defeat every member of the CC group

You can start - and finish - this side quest after Balamb Garden becomes mobile and the ensuing events at Fisherman’s Horizon. To earn this trophy you’ll need to defeat all six members of the CC Group:

• Jack: On the circular hallway running around the ground floor of Balamb Garden, on the screen that leads to the front gate. Talk to the male students you see walking around until you find Jack - if he doesn’t appear, zone in and out and try again. He has no rare cards.
• Magician Joker: You’ll encounter him in the Balamb Garden’s Training Center, on the screen with bridges and water. You can win the Leviathan Card from him.
• Knight Club: On the circular hallway running around the ground floor of Balamb Garden, on the screen that leads to the Dormitory area. Talk to all the male students until one mentions he’s Knight Club and defeat him - he has no rare cards.
• Princess Diamond: On the circular hallway running around the ground floor of Balamb Garden, on the screen that leads to the front gate (the same screen where you found Jack). Two girls will occasionally be chatting here (sometimes they’ll need to walk up from the bottom of the screen, so be patient) - collectively, they’re Princess Diamond. Again, no rare cards, but they do play every Level 7 Boss card.
• Knight Spade: Knight Spade can be found on the elevator-adjacent bridge on the 2nd floor. He fields no rare cards, but will use Level 8 Boss cards.
• Queen Heart: Xu is Queen Heart. You can play her on Balamb Garden’s bridge. She possesses the Carbuncle Card.
• King: After defeating Queen Heart, go down to the Dormitory and rest until the King graces you with their presence. Defeat them to acquire the Giglamesh Card and complete this quest.

The CC Group Quest is covered in more detail in the link provided.

Obel Lake Secret¶

Complete the Obel Lake side quest

This is a long, complicated quest, which you can start fairly early, but you’ll want access to the Ragnarok before starting this quest in earnest, so you can finish it all in one go. It’s covered in detail here.

1000 Kills¶

Kill 1000 enemies

This might actually be a hassle to get if you’re doing a low-level run. 100 enemies should happen naturally, but 1,000 might be a bit of a grind. You can always just save your game, go on a killing spree, then reload after you get this trophy. Perhaps do this while grinding for the Top Rank trophy.

Omega Destroyed¶

Beat the Omega Weapon

The stiffest challenge Final Fantasy VIII has to offer is Omega Weapon, which is an optional superboss found in the game’s final dungeon. Before you even consider trying to fight this boss, ample preparations are in order, which should include acquiring useful items like Holy Wars and Megalixirs, topping off your spell stocks, ensuring you have the right spells and abilities junctioned. All of this is covered in some detail on the Omega Weapon page. Defeat the superboss to score this trophy.

Magic Miner¶

Draw magic 100 times from draw points

Throughout the game you’ll encounter draw points, both in areas and on the world map. To get this trophy, you’ll need to draw from them 100 times, total. Most of these draw points restore their stock over time (steps taken - not actual time passed) so you really can’t miss this, but it can be something of a chore to grind, especially since many draw points are hidden and require a GF with the Move-Find ability to spot. Draw points on the world map are always hidden regardless of whether you have Move-Find or not, but you don’t need this ability to actually draw magic.

The best way to get this trophy? Ignore it. Yeah, there’s a bit of that with this game. Anyways, after you acquire the Ragnarok you’ll be able to fly to the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell, which are liberally stocked with draw points you can gather just by running around and mashing the [X] button. Best of all, these draw points restock and contain some of the most powerful spells in the game, so you’ve got incentive to pillage them aside from this trophy.

Timber Maniacs¶

Collect all Timber Maniacs magazines

The trophy list for this game on PS4 is far easier to manage than the achievements on Steam, as most of the more obnoxious objectives were removed. This is one of the few that remained, and while it’s not difficult, it is one of the game’s missable trophies. To add insult to injury, you don’t really get much out of finding all these things save the trophy, so it’s pure busy-work.

Their locations are as follows (listed in the order in which they can be acquired, not their volume number):

• Timber Maniacs 1: Can be found in one of two locations, either on a desk on the second floor of the Balamb Hotel, or on the floor of the train platform.
• Timber Maniacs 2: Can be found on the floor of the Timber Maniacs building in Timber.
• Timber Maniacs 8: On a table in the pub in Dollet.
• Timber Maniacs 7: Rest in the Dollet Inn and search the table in your room for this magazine.
• Timber Maniacs 3: Rest in the Timber Inn and search a table in the lower right corner of the screen for this magazine.
• Timber Maniacs 12: Rent a room at the Galbadia Hotel in Deling City, then search under the corner of a bed to find this magazine.
• Timber Maniacs 5: In the Fisherman’s Horizon Inn, on the floor of the room you can rent.
• Timber Maniacs 4: On the floor of the Grease Monkey’s house, in Fisherman’s Horizon.
• Timber Maniacs 9: In the Artisan’s House in Shumi Village, on the bed.
• Timber Maniacs 6: Search behind a tombstone in Trabia Garden.
• Timber Maniacs 11: Edea’s House, in the interior of the orphanage, on the floor to the east.
• Timber Maniacs 10: On the White SeeD ship. Head upstairs to find Zone - you’ll find this book on the floor to the left.

Most Timber Maniacs magazines can be found any time you’re free to explore, just be sure to do a sweep for them after you acquire the Ragnarok. By the time you reach disc 4, however, most will become unavailable. The one exception to this rule is Timber Maniacs 10, which is even more restrictive than the rest - you must pick this up on your one and only visit to the White SeeD Ship. If you leave without grabbing it, you’re not getting this trophy.

Cactuar¶

Unlock Guardian Force Cactuar

After you acquire the Ragnarok, you’ll be able to land on Cactuar Island, which is off the coast of the Kashkabald Desert, where you’ll find a Tonberry moving around the world map. Chase it down to start a fight with Jumbo Cactuar and defeat it to acquire it as a GF.

Tonberry¶

Unlock Guardian Force Tonberry

After Balamb Garden is mobile, you’ll be able to find the Centra Ruins in the Centra Crater region. Inside, ignore the timer and kill Tonberries (random encounters, so be sure to unequip Enc-None!). The number you need to kill is random, and using Diablos and/or exploiting limit breaks will help speed this process up significantly. Once you kill the unknown, random number of Tonberries, the Tonberry King will show up. Defeat him in combat and you’ll acquire him as a GF.

Eden¶

Unlock Guardian Force Eden

To acquire this GF, you’ll need to obtain the Ragnarok, after which you’ll need to visit the Deep Sea Research Center and defeat Bahamut. After this, you’ll be able to descend to the depths of the Deep Sea Research area and fight Ultima Weapon. You can draw Eden from this boss, but if you miss it here, you can always draw Eden from Tiamat near the end of the game.

End of Game¶

Finish the game

You’ll acquire this trophy when you beat the game. Can’t be missed.

Diablos¶

Unlock Guardian Force Diablos

After passing your SeeD Field Exam and the incident with Quistis following the graduation party, you’ll set out on your first mission, ultimately getting a debriefing from Cid near the exit to Balamb Garden. After he finishes telling you about your mission, talk to him again and he’ll give you the Magical Lamp. As long as you acquire this item and do not sell it, you can attempt to acquire Diablos at any time, which will require you to defeat the GF.

Bahamut¶

Unlock Guardian Force Bahamut

To acquire this GF, you’ll need to obtain the Ragnarok, after which you’ll need to visit the Deep Sea Research Center and defeat Bahamut. Make sure you do this before disc 4 to avoid missing out.

Ragnarok¶

Find Ragnarok

This is a story-based trophy and cannot be missed. You won’t acquire Ragnarok until midway through disc 3. Follow the link provided for more details.

Top Rank¶

Reach SeeD rank A

Somewhat annoying for low-level parties, to earn this trophy/achievement you’ll have to reach SeeD rank A. Depending on the choices you make from the start of the game until the end of the SeeD Field Exam you could start as high as Seed Rank 10, but it doesn’t matter one bit if you start out lower.

Aside from this initial ranking, you can boost your SeeD Rank by taking various actions throughout the course of the game, although these are quite rare and nowhere near sufficient for you to reach Rank A. You also earn SeeD Rank XP by defeating monsters. Quality doesn’t matter, each monster defeated (yes, Card Mod counts as defeating a monster) earns you 1 SeeD XP. On the downside, however, every time you get paid you’ll lose 10 SeeD XP. Killing monsters good, running around in circles bad.

There’s another, better way to boost SeeD Rank, however - taking tests! Yes, despite being a mercenary organization, SeeD favors bureaucratic displays of trivia knowledge far more than combat prowess. There are thirty tests you can take, and each one consists of a series of ten yes/no questions. Answer them all correctly and your SeeD rank goes up by one. The only rub? You can only take a number of tests equal to Squall’s level, so you’d need to be level thirty to take all the tests. A list of all the SeeD Test answers can be found here.

Our solution to this trophy is pretty simple: ignore it. Ignore it and don’t take any SeeD Tests for most of the game, and when you’re on disc 4 make a burner save, then run around killing monsters and leveling up. The more monsters you kill, the better, and when your Squall hits level thirty (or enough to take sufficient SeeD Tests to reach Rank A - which is effectively Seed Rank 31) just take however many tests you need to achieve this end. Reload an earlier save and keep playing as normal.

If you’re worried about money - don’t be. As soon as you have the Carbuncle GF you can learn some abilities you can exploit for infinite Gil. The pittance SeeD will pay you over your career pales in comparison to what you’ll earn in the Mega-Potion refining and reselling business.

UFO¶

Complete the PuPu side quest

You can technically start this quest when you reach any of the locations where the UFO can be spotted (see below), which in two cases is after Balamb Garden becomes mobile. To complete the quest, however, you’ll need to acquire the Ragnarok in disc 3. This quest is covered in more detail here.