After the Field Exam

Complete walkthrough for Final Fantasy VIII Remastered after the Field Exam. Find the Timber Maniacs magazine, obtain the Zell card, and learn L Mag-RF.

You’ll make the journey from Dollet to Balamb uneventful, after which you’ll be told by Quistis that you have some free time. This is good news, as there’s a bit of loot worth gathering here in Dollet, and perhaps some grinding to do.

First things first, however. Leave the port and Seifer will make off with the car, forcing you to return on foot. First up you can find the Timber Maniacs 1 magazine lying in two places around Balamb. While there’s not much gameplay incentive to find them all, you do get a Steam achievement for it, as well as some info on a character later on. This particular magazine can, if read, marginally change the way things play out in the future, although it’s a trivial difference.

To find these magazines, either make your way into the Balamb Hotel (the blue building on the screen adjacent to the port) and head up the stairs to the left. In the hotel room on the second floor you’ll find Timber Maniacs I on a desk to the right of the Save Point. The other place you can find this magazine is on the train platform. Just head left from the hotel, exit the town square to the left to reach the Balamb Station, then exit the screen by heading up past the conductor. You’ll find this copy of Timber Maniacs 1 on the ground to the left near some red railing.

Zell Card

Next up, a bit of Triple Triad is in order. Make your way to the town square (the area just south of the gas station, where a Thunder Draw Point can be found) and note that there are two houses to the right. Enter the lower one (the one closer to the camera) and you should get some chatter between Zell and his mother. Leave the house and return, then challenge Ma Dincht to a game of cards. She’s got a mediocre deck with a health spread of Level 1-5 Monster cards. The card you’re looking for is the Zell card, so play her until you get it.

As far as Card Mod goes, Zell refines into three Hyper Wrist items, which will teach a GF the Str+60% ability. This is rather appealing. We’ll leave this one to you, as the Zell card is good enough to play with, but it’s hardly essential.

L Mag-RF

With that, you’re done in Balamb and free to return to Balamb Garden, but there are grinding opportunities that need to be pointed out. Now that you have Siren, you have new abilities you can learn with that GF, and the two most immediately interesting are the L Mag-RF and Tool-RF abilities. The former will allow you to turn items into restorative magics from items while the latter will let you turn items into other items, some of which can be further refined into powerful magics later in the game.

You should already know how this works, go grind Fastitocalon-Fs on the beaches (use Card to avoid getting any experience if you’re shooting for a low-level run) and get these two abilities. Once you’ve learned L Mag-RF you can use your trust Card Mod ability to obtain the following items and spells:

Of course, your ability to get cards is limited right now, although you can play people in Balamb if you really want. Still, it’s worth noting this for later at the very least:

• While Tornado is still the best option for most stats, Regen and Curaga junction admirably well into HP and are easy enough to get. Both spells are excellent junctions for Spirit and Vitality, as well.
• Death is another incredibly easy spell to refine this way, and junctions well into Spirit and Magic, being just behind Tornado in the latter case.
• Although Full-