Cactuar (Final Fantasy VIII enemy)

Cactuar is an enemy in Final Fantasy VIII. Cactuar is a fast enemy, and is likely to escape before anyone can attack if the party has low speed stats.

It is possible to reach Cactuar Island with Balamb Garden because a small portion of the Kashkabald Desert is part of Cactuar Island, which itself is currently inaccessible (one cannot fight Jumbo Cactuar like this). To reach this area of the world map one must pilot Balamb Garden to a small gap in the mountain range surrounding the south of the desert and proceed on foot.

Battle
The 1000 Needles attack ignores evade and status effects such as Protect and Defend, and will inflict 1,000 HP every time. Cactuars are immune against Quistis's Degenerator and Selphie's Rapture. Cactuars grant 20 AP when killed, making them good prey for learning new GF abilities.

Strategy
Cactuars are weak against Water, so Water spells or summoning Leviathan work well. Although Cactuars have massive evasion, Squall's 255% accuracy guarantees him a hit. Selphie is the only other character who can attain a natural 255% accuracy with her Strange Vision ultimate weapon. The other characters can boost their accuracy with junctions. Junctioning Water spells to attack makes them deal double damage as well.

The Initiative ability lets the user start the battle with a full ATB gauge. One strategic setup is junctioning Initiative to Squall, Irvine, or Quistis and have them use Limit Breaks that damage all enemies, i.e. Fated Circle, Scatter Shot, or Ultra Waves.

Odin (Final Fantasy VIII) rarely (or never) appears when fighting Cactuars.

Chocobo World
In Chocobo World, Cactuar is one of Boko's friends and assists him on his quest to find MiniMog, and later on in his quest to save Koko. He helps by finding items for them to use throughout the game.

Related Enemies

 * Jumbo Cactuar

Kaktor (FFVIII) Kyactus (Final Fantasy VIII)