The most frustrating rule to deal with when playing Triple Triad in Final Fantasy VIII is the Random rule, which causes the game to pick a random set of cards from the ones you hold rather than allowing you to choose your own. Most players will make every effort to abolish this rule from Dollet and prevent it from spreading if at all possible (check out the “Abolishing the Random Rule” page for more details).

The Elemental rule, however, is much less annoying to deal with, but you may want to abolish that rule from Dollet if possible as well. The steps below allow you to do that.

Note that you must complete these steps during a visit to Dollet after the Forest Owl’s mission in Timber, and the Queen of Cards needs to be in Dollet Check out the Queen of Cards guide in the Side Quests section for more information on how to move her to different cities if she is not there, or scroll to the bottom of this page for an alternate strategy if the Queen of Cards is somewhere else.

Dollet

Travel to Dollet and challenge the owner of the pub to a game of cards. The owner can be found on the second floor of the pub, standing next to the Queen of Cards. He will give you access to his private room after you beat him at one single game of Triple Triad.

You will need the Galbadian card rules for the next step, which you can obtain in Timber. Travel back to Timber by exiting the town and following the road.

Timber

Challenge the guard near the front gate to a game of Triple Triad by pressing . He will ask if you would like to mix the rules that you have with those of Galbadia. Choose “no” every time until he stops asking if you’d like to mix the rules. You now have the Galbadia Triple Triad rules and can travel back to Dollet.

Dollet

Head back up into the pub and save your game using the Save Point on the second floor of the pub. The only way you’ll be able to see this hidden Save Point is if you have the Move-Find ability equipped from your Siren Guardian Force.

You now need to complete a “hard reset” of the game. A soft reset involves pressing:

+ + + +

A soft reset will reset the game, but it will not reset the Random Number Generator, which will prevent this trick from working. Instead, you either need to power off the PlayStation 1 if you are playing the original game or press the Home button () if you are playing PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 and select “Quit Game”/“Close Application.” Load up your save file inside the Dollet pub.

Enter the private room of the pub and examine the pile of magazines closest to the door exactly two times. Challenge the pub owner (sitting behind the table in the private room) to a game of cards. Accept his challenge but quit before the game begins. This should automatically abolish the “Elemental” rule in Dollet.

No Queen of Cards

The strategy for abolishing the random rule in Dollet is exactly the same if the Queen of Cards is not in the city. Follow all the steps above, except rather than examining the pile of magazines two times, examine it exactly three times. This should abolish the “Elemental” rule.