Final Fantasy 8

Cactaur's Island

Items:
1x Gaea's Ring

Magic:
n/a

Save Pts:
World Map

GF:
Cactaur

Essential Preparations
100x Water to Elem-Atk-J. Water can be drawn from Grand Mantis [found in forests of Lenown Plains.] You need to get as much as 300x Water to have a super party combination.

100x Aura spells in magic inventory [you can refine 1x Fury Fragment to get 5x Aura Spells through Leviathan's Supt Mag-RF]. Fury Fragments can be mugged from Blue Dragons.

100x Ultima - draw from draw points at Island closest to Hell and Heaven with Enc-None equipped. You can get a regenerative one at Shumi Village for 5,000 gil. Junction 100x Ultima to Str-J. Normally, I will get until 300x Ultima before I battle it.

Recover Command [Leviathan, 200 AP] -> restores HP fully

Revive Command [ Alexander, 200 AP] -> removes K.O and HP to full.

GFs: typically all from Disc 1 and 2.

Party Optimizer
Items:
Phoenix Downs, Mega Phoenix, Phoenix Pinion, Aura Stone

Recommend HP:
Above 5000 HP for each character

Commands:
Magic, GF, Draw, Attack
Magic, Revive, Draw, Attack
Magic, Recover, Attack, Item

Abilities:
Auto-Haste, Expend 2-1, Str +40%, Mag +40%, Vit +40%, Initiative you could summon Cerberus immediately]

Preferred:
Squall (you have no choice), Quistis (Mighty Guard), Zell (Duel, Armageddon Fist [interchange with Rush Punch and Booya])

Squall
- with Lion Heart, 255 Str Stats
- 100x Water to Elem-Atk-J

Quistis
- with Mighty Guard learnt, Aqua Breath and Shockwave Pulsar
- Get her best weapon, plus high Str/Mag Stats.

Selphie
- with Full-Cure learnt, Wall and The End
- Get her best weapon, along 255 Mag Stats

Irvine
- 255 Str stats, along a lot of AP Ammo and Pulse Ammo,
- 100x Water to Elem-Atk-J

Zell
- 255 Str stats, with all Limit Breaks accquired.
- 100x Water to Elem-Atk-J

Rinoa
- 255 Str Stats, with Invisible Moon and Wishing Star learnt.
- 100x Water to Elem-Atk-J

It is somewhere in south-east area on the World Map, located in Centra Continent. The place have a green cactaur icon that's moving about in the desert [that's is the Cactaur!]. Make contact with it, by walking approaching it but not using Ragnarok! [it's not like Ruby Weapon of FF7] It is a HUGE one, not those tiny cactaurs! If your attacking power is not strong enough, it can run away! It is called the Jumbo Cactaur, about 4 times larger than your characters!

Boss 23 - Jumbo Cactaur
Level 91
HP: 100,000+
Description: Some Cactaurs live long lives and grow huge. The Jumbo Cactaur is one of those.
Attacks: 10,000 Needles, Ler Plank
Facts: Weak against Water
Draw: Meltdown, Demi, Tornado
AP gained: 20
Mug: 3x Cactaur's Thorn
Win: 1x Gaea's Ring
Squall's Level: 97

Jumbo Cactaur Data Information

|||||||||||||||||| < HP > ||||||||||||||||||
       |||||||||| STR  DEF ||||||
             |||| INT  SPI ||||||||
                | DEX  EVA |

Strategy
Even though this Boss has extremely high HP, it's still possible to defeat it. You need to get the above requirements. And there are a lot of strategies to defeat it. Typically, it's no sweat! Just have your highest attacking character with 100x Water Elem-Atk-J to increase damage inflcit by half! [I have Squall do 9999 HP damage each time, he attack with 255 strength stats!].

The Ker Plank does average damage to all characters. So it's best if you have summon Cerberus to counter to status. Now have this combo chain [make use of the Three Stars that you found early on one of the old GFs such as Quezacotl]: Triple -> Curaga-All -> Aura -> Limit Break

The 10,000 Needles can does an instant death attack to any character, regardless of Vit Stats. So be prepared to have some Life spells stocked or item such as Mega Phoenix [very effective if two characters are dead] or Phoenix Down. Don't bother to waste Full-Life, just simply do this and your character can survived with this combo: Life -> Limit Breaks. Make sure that at least one character has HP over 2,000 as the Ker Plank can does another dead attack against all characters. [This makes Rinoa a valuable party for this counterattack. Her Invisible Moon works like the Holy War.]

If you don't have the Water-Elemental Attack Combo, this battle could be quite hard. Just draw and cast Meltdown on it. Don't bother to use Demi/Diablos as Gravity-based attacks are not working against this Boss.

TIP: With all moves countered, half of the victory is yours.

Now with GF Cactaur, you can get super characters. Typically, I just left Irvine in the bay from the moment, I had recruited him. [as a result he's more powerful than any other characters, as he has more levels to go.] Now try to train him/Rinoa at the Islands closest to Hell/Heaven with all those Str Bonus, Mag Bonus and Vit Bonus. Once you have gotten Bahamut, get HP Bonus added to it.

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