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Final Fantasy VIII: how to Abolish the Random Rule in Dollet for Triple Triad

by Alex Donaldson on 16 November, 2020

One of the most addictive aspects of Final Fantasy VIII is Triple Triad, its much-loved card game. Triple Triad has a variety of different formats and forms it can take throughout FF8, but one form absolutely sucks: the Random Rule. You'll want to abolish the random rule as soon as you can, for the sake of fun and sanity.

If you're unaware, the Random Rule is an annoying little rule that basically means you don't get to select your own deck of cards for a match - instead, the game will choose give cards at random from all the cards you own.

While you can manipulate the random rule somewhat by simply getting rid of cards you don't want to appear, it's better to simply remove the rule, especially if you're following the Triple Triad Queen of Cards quest to get all of the rare cards, which will require you to deliberately throw matches to lose certain cards at certain times.

Key to completing that quest in particular, but also just to fun and good taste, is getting rid of the Random Rule. On this page we explain how to abolish the random rule in Dollet - but first, let's talk about how Triple Triad rule spreading and abolishing works.

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How Triple Triad Rule Spreading Works

First of all, it's important to establish how Triple Triad rules spread in the world of FF8. It's pretty simple, really - it works like this:

  • Every region of FF8's world has its own unique set of Triple Triad rules it starts out liking and playing.
  • When you play a game in a region, you log and 'carry' those rules with you. Because of where the game begins, that means you'll start out with the Balamb rules - the simplest in the game.
  • If you then go to a different place, NPCs will offer you the chance to mix their rules and yours together. This will give you a random smattering of the rules of the last place where you played and the rules of the place where you are. 
  • To prevent unwanted rules from spreading, you should simply decline to mix rules when NPCs ask if you'd like to. If you keep asking an NPC to play cards and declining a rule mix, eventually they will let you play a game without mixing rules.
  • It therefore follows that to spread rules you like, 'carry' them with you to a place that doesn't have that rule, and then mix rules with an NPC. However, this isn't all...

There's an element of the random to rule changes, unfortunately. That means that you can get different results with the same NPC - you'll just have to keep trying to abolish or spread your rule of choice. However, you can manipulate it, since the random counter is reset when you first load a save on a cold boot of the game.

You see, this element of FF8 is controlled by a Random Number Generator that runs behind-the-scenes, and that means you can manipulate the RNG to get your desired results. By hard resetting the game and loading a save you can get multiple chances to spread or abolish rules, or if you get the positioning exact, directly manipulate which rule you get.

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How to Abolish the Random Rule in Dollet

That brings us on to the core of this page: to advance the cards quest you'll need to do a good share of cards playing in the town of Dollet, home to the Random region. You'll make your life endlessly easier by abolishing the random rule in Dollet, but doing it can be difficult. However! We have the answers.

  1. First, go to Timber, just a quick jaunt on foot across the world map from Dollet. Challenge the guard on the left-hand side of the gate as you enter Timber. This guard carries the basic Galbadia cards ruleset, which you want. Challenge him, play him.
  2. Leave Timber and head to Dollet. Waste no time, speak to nobody, and go to the Dollet Hotel. This is the central building off the Town Square area, where the fountain is and where Seifer got annoyed at the dog during the SeeD exam. Save your game inside the hotel.
    • This isn't part of the steps, but if you don't know if the Queen of Cards is in Dollet (she's upstairs in the pub, a western exit off a few screens south), find out if she is.
  3. Now hard reset your game. On PS1 this involves turning the machine off. On modern machines, completely close the game/app, then reboot into it. Load up the save.
  4. For the next step, it all depends on if the Queen of Cards is in Dollet.
    • If the Card Queen is in Dollet, do the following:
      • Load the save
      • Exit the Dollet Hotel
      • Immediately re-enter the Dollet Hotel
      • Challenge the girl in green in the hotel to a game, but do not play her or enter the card game screen. Instead, decline when she asks if you want to mix rules.
      • Do the same again - challenge her and then decline to mix rules.
      • Challenge her a third and final time, but this time actually go through to the game - but then quit before the choosing cards stage.
      • This should change the rules!
    • If the Card Queen is not in Dollet, do the following:
      • Do the same as the above, but now challenge the girl to a game and decline four times. Play on the fifth time, but again quit the Triple Triad game without choosing cards or playing.
      • This should change the rules!
  5. These steps should Abolish Random! Rejoice! As a note, if the Open Rule is not currently in Dollet, it might spread that first. If that happens, simply save, and then head back to Timber to start the process over again - it should work on the second occasion.