Improving weapons in Final Fantasy VIII is one of the ways to increase a character's strength (thereby increasing his physical damage in battle) and hitting accuracy on a target. To make an upgrade, you need the appropriate issue of the Weapon Monthly magazine, which describes the ingredients required for this; the ingredients themselves and some money. And these magazines are quite rare, and you will not be able to get them all on disk 1. And how to get Lionheart in FF8 on disk 1 with such restrictions? It's very simple.
We'll do without magazines
Fortunately for us gamers, the game developers, for some reason, did not implement the principle of "there is a magazine - there is an upgrade" in the game. That is, you can upgrade weapons in Final Fantasy 8 without even having the right issue of the weapon magazine. It is enough to have a bunch of giles (game currency in the FF series) and the necessary ingredients with you.
So all gunblades for Squall except Lionheart can be bought even before the start of the exam mission in Dollet in the Balamba store. And the ability of the Card Mod of the Quezacotl guard will help you with this: you win the necessary cards in the Triple Triad, convert them into items and run to Balamb for shopping.
How to get the coveted Lionheart already on 1 disc
To get the most powerful weapon for Squall in the game, allowing you to use the most powerful limit in FF8, one game of cards will not be enough. It requires fairly rare items that are obtained from certain monsters of certain levels. But that doesn't mean you can't build Lionheart on 1 disc.
Dragon fang
Your first trophy will be 6 Dragon Fangs, which you can get after defeating T-Rexaur in the Balamb Garden Training Center. True, there is one caveat: Tirex must have a level of 20 to 29 - this will allow you to get 6 Dragon Fangs after defeating him with a 20% probability. So first you will need to pump up your characters so that their average level rises above 20. And who said that the process of obtaining the "Lion Heart" will be easy and fast?
If Tirex does not grow together, Dragon Fang can be obtained from the Grendel monsters that live in the forests next to Galbadia's Garden. The chance of dropping 1-2 dragon fangs before level 19 is 75%, after 20 - 20%.
Adamantine
You can get one Adamantine by defeating the Adamantoise monster. If he is at level 20-29, the chance of dropping the desired item is only 4.7%, but after level 30, almost every victory over the beast will bring you 1 Adamantine. Only now you can find this turtle on disk 1 only on the beach east of Dollet, and it appears there extremely rarely. But you can always use the alternative: get the Minotaur card after defeating him in the Tomb of the Unknown King and transform it into as many as 10 Adamantine.
Pulse ammo
You can get 12 pulsating cartridges in the 2nd scenario of the Lagoon, where he and his comrades go to the Lunatic Pandora complex. At the very end of this location, running in front of the cliff, you will periodically meet Elastoid monsters, which, starting at level 30, after death (or using the Diablos guard's Mug command, which replaces the standard attack), will happily part with 1 Laser Cannon. Each such thing is converted to 5 Pulse Ammo by the Ifrit RF Ammo ability, so you need 3 cannons.
Energy Crystal after transformation gives as much as 10 Pulse Ammo, but to get one crystal you need to win as many as 10 Elnoyle cards. So you need 20 cards in total.
Thus, you can get all the ingredients for Lionheart on disc 1 near Galbadia's garden in the second dream of the Lagoon, or at the end of the mission in the Tomb of the Unknown King, if you decide to get Adamantine from the Minotaur map. In either case, the sword itself can be purchased at Dehling's weapons store.
