AP and Learning Abilities: Guardian Forces

Learn how to effectively earn AP and unlock new abilities for your Guardian Forces in Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. Discover strategies for low-level runs and ability management.

When you defeat enemies, you will earn Experience Points (XP) and Ability Points (AP). XP is used to level up your main characters (Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine). AP is used to learn abilities for your Guardian Forces (GFs). XP is split among GFs equipped to a character, meaning the more GFs equipped, the less XP each GF receives. GFs gain more HP and deal more damage as they level up, and may unlock new abilities.

Each GF can learn a total of 22 abilities. You can tag desired abilities in the GF menu, and accumulated AP will go towards learning them. Unlike XP, AP is not split; all equipped GFs gain the full amount of AP earned. Learning certain abilities can be a prerequisite for others, such as HP+20% potentially unlocking HP+40%. Be mindful not to fill up your GFs with unnecessary abilities, as this can prevent you from learning new ones if the GF has already learned 22 abilities.

GFs can learn new abilities through items, with rarer abilities often requiring rarer items. You can also use Amnesia Greens (purchased from the Timber Pet Shop) to force a GF to forget skills. Be cautious, as some easily unlearned abilities may be difficult or impossible to teach again. Generally, it's advisable to remove common, redundant, or lackluster abilities like Magic, GF, Draw, and Item, as you typically only need one character with these. Other candidates for removal include Elem-Atk-J (only one needed), Elem-Def-J and Elem-Def-Jx2 (obsolete with Elem-Def-Jx4), and similarly ST-Atk-J, ST-Def-J, and ST-Def-Jx2. GFHP+10% and SumMag+10% are also fairly disposable.

To increase a GF's AP without leveling up your characters (ideal for low-level runs), you can use Quezacotl's Card ability. This weakens enemies and allows you to turn them into Triple Triad cards. This defeats the enemy, voids XP, but retains the AP, enabling GFs to learn abilities without character leveling. Since monster levels scale with character levels, keeping your characters at a low level means lower-level enemies. Card allows your GFs to gain power and learn abilities, which can unlock options like refining higher-tier spells earlier than usual. This makes your characters relatively more powerful than enemies, which is an effective way to progress in Final Fantasy VIII until disc 3, when power-leveling becomes more lucrative with a specific GF.