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Final Fantasy VIII Tomb of the Unknown King Quest: how to navigate the tomb and get the Brothers GF

by RPG Site Staff on 04 September, 2019

As part of the main story progression of Final Fantasy VIII, you'll be tasked with paying a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown King. You'll need to head there in order to obtain a special passcode to give to Caraway's Guard in order to obtain entry to Caraway's Mansion - but there's also a side quest associated with venturing deeper into the Tomb of the Unknown King that will net you a great reward - a new GF.

If all you care about how to get the Brothers GF, check out our full Final Fantasy VIII GF location guide, which lists the details on this quest in a really quick-fire format - plus information on how to get all the other summons. Otherwise, read on for full instructions on the Tomb of the Unknown King quest.

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Tomb of the Unknown King sidequest: getting the Student ID Number

The basic thing you need to do at the tomb in order to progress the story is retrieve the Student ID number that's hidden there. First of all you actually need to head to the Tomb of the Unknown King - it's North-East of Deling City. So leave the city, head out onto the world map (you can rent a car if you really want), and head to the tomb.

When you get to the tomb there's an outside area with a save point. It's well worth saving if you plan on going deeper into the Tomb. When you enter the Tomb, head forward/north a couple of screens until you see a sword laying on the floor. Interact with this sword to learn the Student ID, and remember it: you'll need to repeat it back later, and the student ID is randomized on each play-through and save file.

Here's where your choice comes in: if you want to keep progressing FF8 and the adventures of Squall and his SeeD squad, you can now leave the tomb and head back to Caraway's Mansion. But continue deeper into the tomb and you'll have the chance to battle Sacred and Minotaur, which will net you two rare cards and unlock the Brothers GF. There's also some useful enemies in here that can be farmed or carded for weapon upgrade materials. Here's how.

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Navigating FF8's Tomb of the Unknown King

First thing's first: the tomb is deliberately confusing and easy to get lost in, but you should resist the temptation to ask for help or indeed fast travel to the Tomb's exit. Doing these things will have a negative impact on your SeeD rank and SeeD level. The Tomb of the Unknown King actually has a map, and you can see it by pressing Select Back, Minus or your platform equivalent to inspect it. The map doesn't have an icon pointing where you are, however, so you have to track manually, which some find hard. That's why we're here, though - so here's our glorious step-by-step on navigating the tomb:

  • From the screen with the discarded sword on the floor with the student ID number, head immediately right.
  • This will put you on a curved path. Follow it until you reach another four-way fork.
  • Once again, turn right here, then follow the curved path again.
  • Another fork - turn right once again. This puts you on a dead straight corridor. Walk up it.

In this room, you'll see a character that is clearly not part of the CG background standing on a plinth. This is more than a statue...

Ensure you're combat ready, and then talk to the statue to initiate a battle. This is actually a really easy fight, so it shouldn't be any real challenge to you. If you really want to make it trivial, Junction Quake magic defensively in order to boost your resistance to Earth element attacks. Beat this mini-boss, Sacred, and he'll do a bit of cursing and then scarper. 

You can now save in this room, and you should it won't hurt. Now it's time for more dungeon crawling:

  • Now turn around and exit the room. Head through the straight corridor, back to a branching path.
  • Once again, turn right at the fork and then follow the curved path.
  • At the next fork turn right again (are you noticing a pattern?), then around the curved path yet again.
  • This is actually the final fork. Turn right, then follow the straight path in front of you. It looks a little different to last time, with a step, but don't worry about that.

In this room you'll have a sort of dam leading to water outside, a chain, and a draw point that will give you Float Magic, which will come in very handy. 

Once you've drawn, go to the right hand side of the chain and interact with it. The chain will let the water flow into the Tomb of the Unknown King, which in turn makes some important changes to progressing.

It's time for another bit of navigation. I bet you can guess what it is in this, the most complicated dungeon in FF8 (or perhaps not):

  • Exit the dam room at the rear, then follow the straight hallway again. 
  • Turn right at the fork and follow the curved hallway around.
  • Once again, take the right at the fork and follow the curved hallway again. 
  • Turn right at this final fork, then follow the straight hallway to another new unique room.

This unique room has a water wheel in the background, a save point and another draw point. Do what you need to do here, then interact with the cogs on the left of the archway in order to remove something to make the mechanism work. Simple. It's time to get on the move again:

  • Leave the room and walk up the straight hallway.
  • Turn right at the fork - shocker! And (gasp) follow the curved hallway.
  • Once again take a right, then follow the curve yet again. 
  • This is it! The final right turn. Turn right. Then head straight. Whoops, you're outside the dungeon! That's okay, though, that's by design.

Use the save point outside the Tomb of the Unknown King if you want to; we're about to embark on a boss fight. When you're ready, simply re-enter the tomb and this time keep walking straight. Up, up, up, north as far and as often as you can. 

Eventually you'll reach a moat with a drawbridge across it leading to a central building. This is what all your puzzle shenanigans did - it made the drawbridge lower. Enter the building at the middle to meet Sacred and Minotaur and fight one of FF8's earliest optional boss battles.

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Boss Battle: beating Sacred and Minotaur to get the Brothers GF

As mentioned in our full FF8 GF Locations & Abilities guide, the boss battle against the Brothers Sacred and Minotaur isn't actually all that difficult. The key is that these guys are Earth Elemental, so if you junctioned Earth Magic to defense earlier that'll help.

What will also help is the Float magic you drew earlier in the dungeon. If you case Float on your party members, many of the pair's hardest-hitting attacks will miss you entirely. 

The pair like healing themselves, and one great way to combat that is to cast Shell on them to lessen the effect of the heals or cast Reflect so their heals bounce and hit you instead. Just remember that this will impact your own ability to hit the pair with magic, too.

If you're going to target one first, Sacred, the larger of the two, is the weaker. Don't judge by size! 

Once you beat the pair you'll obtain the Brothers GF, plus the cards of Sacred and Minotaur. You can take Sacred to the card queen right away, as detailed in our Triple Triad Rare Card locations & Queen of Cards guide. When ready, return to Deling City - and be sure to remember that Student ID, as you'll need to tell it to Caraway's gate guard.