• Whenever you are fighting enemies, take a look at what their weakness is (example: A Flower-type enemy would be weak against Fire or Flare). This is very important, since if you know what the enemy's main weakness is, you can properly plan ahead in the fight, and know what kind of attacks to use against that enemy.

• ALWAYS use the Opposite attack/ability/magic attack that the enemy's strength is (i.e., use Fire against Water-based enemies, or just use the attacks/abilites that the enemy is weak against).

• Try not to use powerful attacks or use more than one party member with the same Innate color as the enemy(s). This is because if you are a Red Innate color fighting a Red Innate color enemy, you will take more damage, as well as give off more damage to that enemy. Although the upside to this is that it goes both ways, so your attacks will give off a bit more damage to your foe, and they will take more damage than usual.

• Save your game whenever possible, no matter what. This is the most basic rule for all RPGs, since saving is crucial, especially for a 50+ hour game like Final Fantasy IX™. Don't be cocky and try to be "the man" by trying to see how far you can get without saving, because something bad will happen (i.e., you die in battle, the electricity goes out at your place, your little brother/dog/cat/hampster accidentally turns off your PlayStation), and you will lose TONS of gameplay and precious game hours, and you will go crazy, get pissed off, and break your controller, or do something else in a fit of rage. Not good. Not good at all. So remember kiddies: Always save your game.

• Oh, and save your game at the right spots in the game. For all of you out there who do not know how to save your game (don't worry, I forgive you), here's how. There are two ways to save your game:

A) Save with a Moogle, which are those little cat-like animals that appear at various spots in the game, like Inns, or at key places in the game, and mainly before a tough area or a boss fight.

B) Or you can save on the World Map. To do this, just get onto the World Map, and press [Square] to call a Moogle, and save your game like normal with him. Simple eh?

• Choose your fights wisely. You should run into enemies in random battles in most areas of the game, and you should fight most of the stronger enemies if you want to increase your HP fast, or if you are just plain bored. Of course, there are some enemies who you must fight to access a chest or a hidden place, or a new area, but these are useful battles.

• When in doubt, run away from the battle. 99% of the time you can run away from a battle successfully, without losing anything except Gil. I suggest doing this only when you are either VERY low on HP, or you need to replentish your Magic and/or Armor and Accessories. You should do this when necessary and stock up any items that you may need for the fight, and to beat the ferocious monster.

• Turn on the option that lets you see what world you are in on the World Map. Just by seeing what World you are in increases your chances of succeeding in the game, and vastly decreases the chance that you will get lost or stumped in the game.

• Speak to everyone. Hell, speak to everyone twice or three times in fact. Why? Simple. Because people give you precious hints for your quest, and can also give you Key Items for the game, as well as trigger certain events in the game, some of which are crucial to your game advancement.

• Search high and low, near and far for any items that you can access. Doing this (searching everywhere basically), increases your chance of getting that Key Item that you need to recruit a party member, or just a item or element that will save you Gil, since instead of having to purchase that element or item or armor/accessory/weapon, you can just find it in a Chest or under a bed or something.

• Synth items, synth items, synth items! Synthing is a wonderful addition to the game, and is a welcome feature to Final Fantasy IX™. Synthing weapons allows you to choose the specific type of weapon/armor/accessories that you want/need for the game, and select how strong your weapon/armor/acc- essories are, depending on what item/weapon that you choose to Synth.

• Always buy in bulk. Buy your items that you can find in bulk, or in other words, buy a lot of them. Buying around 10 items of the same kind allows you to use all of them a lot more in battle, which makes you all the more powerful against your enemies, especially defensively.

• Once you find an attack or ability that does some SERIOUS damage to your enemy, keep using that attack, then just continue to pound your enemies with the effective attacks and elements.

• Level up as much as possible early on in the game. Doing this allows you and your party to become stronger earlier in the game, and therefore making most battles and boss fights a lot easier. Leveling can take a lot of time, since as you gain levels from monsters and fights, it takes more EXP (experience points) to level up your characters. In the Side- Quests/Mini-Games section, I have pointed out a very good place to level up quickly, so be sure to read it in that section to learn more about how to level up as fast as you can. By the way, if your characters are strong throughout the game, you won't have to worry as much about your weapons and items, and you can focus more on the smaller things about the game, like the Side-Quests, and just having fun, rather than making long-winded strategies just for a boss fight.