Levels up medicine
Description
Med LV Up is a menu ability in Final Fantasy VIII that allows the player to create high grade restorative items and invincibility items from their base variants. It is notable for making Remedy+ needed for recruiting Doomtrain.
Obtained[]
The Guardian Force Alexander learns Med LV Up for 120 AP after mastering Med Data first. Alexander is drawn from the boss at the end of the Battle of the Gardens segment, or from Catoblepas in the final dungeon. If the player removes Med LV Up with Amnesia Greens (or Med Data before it is mastered), there is no way to get it back. If Alexander's ability list is full when Med Data is mastered, the player needs to make space for Med LV Up to appear by deleting some other ability with Amnesia Greens.
Mechanics[]
Using Med LV Up in the Ability menu enables the player to make rare and high grade medicinal items.
| Item | Refine Into |
|---|---|
| Elixir | 10 = 1 Megalixir |
| Hero | 10 = 1 Holy War-trial |
| Hero-trial | 10 = 1 Hero |
| Hi-Potion | 3 = 1 Hi-Potion+ |
| Hi-Potion+ | 3 = 1 X-Potion |
| Holy War-trial | 10 = 1 Holy War |
| Phoenix Down | 50 = 1 Mega Phoenix |
| Potion | 3 = 1 Potion+ |
| Potion+ | 3 = 1 Hi-Potion |
| Remedy | 10 = 1 Remedy+ |
| Remedy+ | 10 = 1 Elixir |
| X-Potion | 3 = 1 Mega-Potion |
Use[]
Med LV Up has some overlap with Recov Med-RF from Carbuncle and Forbid Med-RF from Doomtrain. Its main boon is making Remedy+, six of which are needed for recruiting Doomtrain, as this is the only way to get them. It is worth setting Med Data as one of the first abilities for Alexander to master to gain access to Med LV Up and master it by the time Solomon Ring can be picked up at Tears' Point.
Though Med LV Up can also make Heros and Holy Wars, this is a poor use of the ability as getting 10 Hero-trials with Forbid Med-RF is already a gargantuan task (1000 Curse Spikes→10 Dark Matters→10 Shaman Stones→1 Hero-trial); despite what the description to Hero-trial claims, it will work identically to a Hero, so using 10 Hero-trials to make a Hero is a bad conversion. Making X-Potions into Mega-Potions is also not very good, as the player can get the latter from Mesmerize Blades easily with Recov Med-RF.
Remedy+ into Elixir is potentially a good conversion and Elixirs can further be upgraded into Megalixirs. However, the player can also buy Elixirs from Johnny's Shop in Esthar City when they have Familiar, or Card Mod the Angelo card for 100 of them.