Cactuars eh? They only got 3 HP, so let us count the ways.

1. Sabin -> Blitz -> take your pick
2. Edgar -> Tools -> Drill, Chainsaw
3. Setzer -> equipped with Dice -> Fight
4. Relm -> Sketch/Control -> 1000 Needles
5. Strago -> Lore -> take your pick
6. Anyone -> Magic -> Ultima (a bit too much)
7. Anyone equipped with Lightbringer, if you got the Ragnarok Sword -> Fight
8. Anyone equipped with the Sniper Eye relic -> Fight

Be careful. You don't want to kill too many cactuars (if you do, a huge one shows up :D And you do NOT want to fight him just yet, if you're having problems with its 3 HP cousins. And ESPECIALLY if you don't have the Reraise spell, from Phoenix)

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Colosseum betting? First you have to analyze what's killing you off. Is it elemental? Status ailments? Instant death magic? These can all be handled with the right equipment and relics. (You can absorb fire, blizzard, and thunder element spells with the right shield, for instance. My characters were roughly at the same level when I was doing the Colosseium thing, though I must tell you I have both the Lightbringer sword and the Paladin shield equipped on the combatant.

However, there are certain spells you can't absorb. Such as Meteor, or that blasted Traveler blue magic. (I get owned a lot by Tonberries, and there's nothing I can do about it, aside from luck!) Gogo's a great person to stick in there, if you have him, since you can customize his command set. If you don't, you may want to stick Terra or Celes once you get Minerva Bustiers. These are awesome element-absorbers.

Y'know, that's probably why I couldn't kill a cactuar. I didn't have Ultima or the other stuff that you mentioned. For example: I had Celes but no Ultima, I didn't have Edgar OR Sabin in my party, etc. I DID kill one though, so I have no idea how that happened.

So for the Coliseum, I take it that you get the same enemy if you wager on the same items? Then exploit whatever they're dishing out at you, although it's still very dependent on luck?

Yes, that's right. Same enemy for same item. So you can prepare, and keep on reloading if you lose.

The Offering/Master's Scroll is the most efficient way to kill Cactuars. You can't miss with it equipped.

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The two most reliable ways to fight in the coliseum are with Gogo or a character decked out with Imp armor. This is, of course, not true if you are Lv. 35+ with the Lightbringer/Paladin's Shield/etc.. Load up 3x the command you want Gogo to use in battle, and he will always do it.

re: Cactuars

There are tons of attacks that never miss in this game - Edgar's Tools, Sabin's Blitzes, Cyan's Bushido, Shadow's Throw, and Setzer's Fixed Dice that I can name off the top of my head. Any one of them will do the job as Cactuar has a tiny amount of HP.

re: Coliseum

Umaro or Gogo are decent basic choices for the Coliseum as they will never waste a turn using worthless magic. A better choice would be Setzer with Fixed Dice + Master's Scroll, Locke with Genji Glove + Master's Scroll + two of his many godly weapons (Valiant Knife, Ultima Weapon, Lightbringer). Also, if your opponent is weak to Instant Death there are several weapons in the game that will make quick work of them.

Cool.

Where do I get Master's Scroll and Paladin's Shield? :D

I got Valiant Knife. Oooo!

Why didn't you warn me about the MASTER TONBERRY!?!?!? -_-;

I haven't played the game for the past few days. I have a large novel to get through before I have to bring it back to the library.

P.S. The mage Odin fought against looks like a ghost.

Master Tonberry is a pushover once you rasp away his magic (after you make him sleep, of course!) and vanish yourself away :p

Thanks a lot for the tip, Zergrinch! I rasped him away and just attacked. Haha, I attempted to put it to sleep but it didn't work, and I never used Vanish. The stupid tonberry never had a chance to attack me :D

Oh, and I got the Master Scroll! Yay!!! To think that I never gotten any of these awesome items when I played the last 2 times >_>
Master Scroll + Brigand's Glove + awesome weapon is good for Locke?

I got the Cursed Shield too, and am at the Solitary Island now to uncurse the damn thing. I first put Shadow in the party to have him steal too for elixirs, but Interceptor kept killing them before I even have a chance to steal, so out he went!

I'm saddened that you have to kill Deathgaze before I can get Bahamut. I've only seen that stupid monster ONCE.

Still haven't gotten Umaro and Strago back yet.

Ragnarok...Esper or sword?

Got Gigantuar. I was in shock when I saw it. It's Jumbo Cactuar from FFVIII! XD Two people survived after the 1000 Needles x 10 attack at the end :D

As I said before:

You can only steal once, sorry. In the past, an abused relic combination (along with Soul of Thamasa + Celestriad, sup infinite ultima) is Master Scroll with Genji Glove. This combo gets a total of 8 hits with the fight command. Personally I think it's not worth it, but striking 8 times IS pretty cool :D

My source of purloined Elixirs is in the Veldt, with Locke stealing from those hapless magic pots. (But I admit it's a wee bit irregular). You can try using Locke to steal, and casting stop to prevent those enemies from suiciding.

Once was all I need, but by the time I was overleveled in magic. Quick + Ultima + Ultima a few times (or Thundaga if low on MP) and he croaked before I even had to Curaga. Deathgaze, by the way, is randomly hidden in one of the 4096 tiles of the overworld map. You can only meet him if you run into him. He stays in that tile until you meet him, and if he runs from you, he hides in random, different tile.

Esper. I only got the sword because I plan to use a cheat code to get the esper, after I complete my other acquisitions (I'm missing Diabolos) :D

I met him when I wasn't even ready, and there was only one guy who could hit him with regularity. Man, it was a tough slog, especially when each of my group members' HP was less than 2000. Reraise saved my ass, with Cyan surviving the last 1000 Needles attack with just 27 HP left.

You should be choosing the Esper simply because you can get infinite Ragnaroks or Lightbringers anyways.

Sure, I can. But I don't intend to fight Kefka that many times. Sure, I'm a completist. But I'm not THAT much a completist! :D

(I just wanted the sword NOW, since I uncursed the shield already.)

Hey...what is the requirement to get Ultima??? Reason I'm asking is that both Locke and Edgar learned the spell, but I was only AP levelling at the time with the Cactuars. Do you need to get a certain amount of AP to get Ultima? I AM CONFUSED. Anyway, Cactuars make learning spells easy ^_^

Tried to get Excalipoor from the auction house, but I gave up after seeing that damn kappa/imp/whatever appear several times in a row. The father should stop bringing his kid with him!

P.S. I got the Cursed Shield uncursed today. While that's good news and all, I'm quite sure I haven't 'battled' 255 times. Does it also count the number of times you fought before getting the Cursed Shield too? That would make more sense then.

P.P.S. Snagged Leviathan :3

The Paladin Shield teaches Ultima x1, which would explain how you learned it. The Ragnarok esper also teaches Ultima x1. Terra learns it automatically at L.99.

And to uncurse the shield you actually have to win 256 battles with it equipped. You probably just lost count.

You need 500,000 Gil to buy Excalipoor. (I must warn you that Gilgamesh is VERY tough.)

You need to have the Ragnarok esper, or Paladin Shield equipped on a character, and gain 100 AP from battles, in order to gain Ultima. Best place to learn is the Cactuar desert or, if you don't want to muddy up with experience from Hoovers, in Fanatics Tower.

Leviathan was killing me before I noticed that he has painful magic counters, but so-so physical counters. Still, his El Nino attack isn't pleasant.

Mmmm, it didn't feel as if I fought 256 battles to me, but that's what it is, then it must be so.

About learning Ultima...only Locke equipped the shield. I take it every character will eventually learn it as long as at least one person is using it? Anyway, now I know why everyone says Ultima will clean house. I had Setzer try it out and it did over 6K damage, and his magic stat is pretty low. MMMM...

No, they learn it IF they equip the shield. Same deal with equipping Fire/Ice/Thunder shields, which teach you Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga at a x1 rate. (If you've equipped it while fighting cactuars, which give 10 AP a fight, it's no wonder why you learn it so fast!)

Gilgamesh and Leviathan are tough? I blew through them during my Celes-Edgar-Setzer run on the first try without knowing any of their stats or anything, and I wasn't particularly overleveled. Gigantuar, on the other hand, took me several tries because he actually managed to do damage to me.

Yea, I killed Gilgamesh and Leviathan in one turn. I haven't made my way into the dragon's den yet. I am wondering if its even worth my time?

For some reason, I don't care for the Paladin Shield or the Diabolos Magicite. The game is already sickeningly easy. Even without Vanish/doom, this game presented no challenge.

I am a bit disappointed. :(

If it's challenge you seek, then the Dragon's Den has the toughest battles in the game, as well as character unique "ultimate" weapons. Though don't expect anything insanely hard.

But Locke was the only one who equipped the shield, yet Edgar learned it! Explain!

UPDATE: D'oh! I checked my file and Edgar apparently is holding it! AHHH! I must have used Optimize. Never mind >_>

Are you absolutely sure you didn't equip Edgar with it? The only way Edgar could have learned it was if he was equipped with the shield or the Ragnarok esper.

Gentlemen, what were your levels when you fought these beasts? Just asking.