10 Video Game Weapons You Cheated To Get

There’s a great many systems in FF8 that were proof of Square experimenting with the formula and one of these is the weapon upgrade system. Unlike other games in the series, better weapons can’t be found in the wild and instead players must craft them - predating the wave of similar systems in modern games.

And, like many other systems in Final Fantasy VIII, it’s easy enough to exploit.

Now, this isn’t cheating by everyone’s measure, it’s just taking advantage of loopholes, right? Although it’s fair to say SquareSoft weren’t intending you to have the main character Squall Leonhart’s most powerful weapon, the Lion Heart, about a quarter of the way into the story.

The enemies in Final Fantasy VIII level as the player does so with careful minded battling it’s possible to abuse this. The creature Grendel strangely has the chance of dropping Dragon Fang, one of three required items, but only if it matches the player’s level of 20 or below. From here, it’s a matter of winning a bunch of the in-world trading card game to get a certain card that can be refined into energy crystals and then pulse ammo. And finally, hunting down an Adamantoise to grab some Adamantium.

Doing all this means you can have Lion Heart well before you ever finish the first disc of FF8’s four, which is certainly not what the developers intended.