Guardian Force Guardian Forces ( GF ) are the summoned creatures of " Final Fantasy VIII " used by junctioning them to a character . Conceived and designed by Hiroyuki Ito , the GF govern major stat growth , elemental / status effect offense and defense , and the commands the character may use during battle . Each GF has a preset list of abilities they can learn , but through certain items , the GF can learn additional abilities and forget those that were previously learned . A total of twenty - two abilities can be learned . Profile . The " Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania " explains that each Guardian Force possesses special characteristics and can appear in multiple different forms as mighty autonomous energy bodies . Guardian Forces exist in specific energy fields and can reside within objects and living organisms . When a Guardian Force is junctioned to a human , two kinds of beings are brought together , and if the junctioner possesses a comparable consciousness , the Guardian Force will lose its solid form and can only manifest for limited periods of time . Guardian Forces are known for giving superhuman strength and enhancing the users ' body functions . It is stated in - game that long - term junctioning causes memory loss ( as seen with Selphie and the unnamed GF she junctioned when she was a child ) , because the Guardian Force draws power from the same section of the mind that stores memories . This , however , is only a plot point ; junctioning has no negative effects on the characters during gameplay . Memory loss is stated to be the reason the use of Guardian Forces is widely criticized , and within Garden , Balamb Garden is the only school where their use has been approved . When designing the Guardian Forces , Tetsuya Nomura felt they should be unique beings and not humanoid , unlike the summoned monsters in many previous games . Ramuh , which had been the staple Lightning summon until " Final Fantasy VIII " , was thus replaced by Quezacotl , a bird - like entity , and Ifrit , who appears as a human - like being in " Final Fantasy VII , " was redesigned as a beast with lion features . Even the most humanoid Guardian Force , Siren , was designed to be more beast - like , wearing feathers to conceal her body instead of clothing , having a pair of wings descending from her head substitute for human hair , and having long and sharp toenails that resemble paws more than feet . Leviathan was the first Guardian Force created , which was included in a game demo . After receiving a positive reaction from players , Nomura decided to create the remaining sequences in a similar fashion . Gameplay . Support abilities and stats . Most Guardian Forces can be junctioned onto a character , although there are a few that can ' t . A character can junction an unlimited number of Guardian Forces , and when junctioning a GF , gains access to its abilities , such as command abilities , support abilities and stat boosting abilities . " Final Fantasy VIII " is the first game where summons have their own growth path , gaining level s and learning abilities . Abilities are learned via accumulating AP in battle . All Guardian Forces gain the same amount of AP from battle even if the GF or the character junctioning the GF is knocked out at the end of the battle . Experience Points , however , are a different matter : EXP is divided between all the GFs the character is currently junctioning , meaning the more GFs a character junctions , the less EXP each receives . Most GFs take 500 EXP to level up , but some take only 400 , and Eden takes 1 , 000 . The junctionable Guardian Forces have their own HP stat which can be boosted by leveling the GF up and by learning HP boosting abilities on the GF . There are a number of GF medicine items that heal a GF ' s HP , and similarly to the Move HP Up ability , a GF ' s HP is restored just by walking around on the field . Summoning . A Guardian Force can be called during battle with the GF Command every junctionable GF learns by default . After the summoning has been initiated there is a charge period whereupon the GF ' s HP replaces the character ' s , and every attack the character takes damages the GF instead of the character . This can be used for strategic advantage , whereupon the character may use a GF as a shield to survive strong enemy attacks . If the GF dies before the charge period is finished , the summon is cancelled . Usually when the player kills enemies it affects their SeeD ranking in a positive way , but enemies killed by Guardian Forces do not count toward this . CC Joker gives an enhancement called GF Report to the party ' s Battle Meter in the Balamb Garden training center that lets the player view the kills and KO ' s of each GF . Charge time and compatibility . The charge time depends on the compatibility between the character and the GF and the Battle Speed , which can be adjusted in the config . The greater the compatibility , the less time it takes to summon . The initial compatibility is around 600 for most characters , but Edea has higher compatibility with Guardian Forces than the other characters . Compatibility can be boosted with compatibility boosting items , by casting magic that is the same element as the Guardian Force ( e . g . casting fire magic boosts compatibility with Ifrit ) and by summoning the GF during battle . Boosting one GF ' s compatibility reduces another one ' s ; Shiva , the ice - elemental GF , loses compatibility when a character uses fire magic , and also when Ifrit is summoned . Using compatibility items boosts the compatibility with the assigned GF , but slightly reduces ( by 1 ~ 2 points ) the compatibility with all other junctioned GFs . Many junctionable GFs have another GF that is " opposed " to them that when summoned , reduces their compatibility with said character the most . Eden in many ways is an exception to the rules , with only minimal boost in compatibility when summoned to both itself , and , curiously enough , all other GFs the character has junctioned as well . This game mechanic is made to make players think which Guardian Forces to assign to which character , and to avoid switching junctions between characters regularly , however , as the charge time is never very long , compatibility doesn ' t actually have much impact on the gameplay . Charge time is calculated by : Compatibility modifiers . " The exact compatibility values in this chart are from Absolute Steve ' s Final Fantasy VIII Walkthrough " . Damage calculation and the Boost ability . Every GF except for Diablos , Carbuncle , Cerberus , and Cactuar learns the Boost ability . During the summon animation , the player can tap to increase damage ; however , it has a drawback : if the player fails to boost the GF properly , it may end up dealing less damage than it otherwise would have . The damage ranges between 75 % and 250 % of the normal damage . The percentage rises when the player taps correctly , but drops to 75 % if the player presses the button during a time a red cross appears over the cursor . GFs with longer summon animations are the easiest to boost . With battle speed set to medium , the list below displays the approximate length of time allowing the player to boost and the approximate value of % increase for summon damage . Each GF uses the following formula for determining the amount of damage they deal . The Boost modifier is equal to 100 if the player does not attempt to boost the damage or does not have the ability learned . The LevelMod and Power values vary per GF . If the Guardian Force is elemental , the target ' s elemental defense attributes affect the damage outcome . Elemental Defense starts at 800 ( 0 % ) , 900 nullifies damage and 1000 absorbs it . If an enemy is shown to be weak against an element , its Elemental Defense is below 800 . If damage becomes negative ( due to high Elemental Defense ) , the target is healed by that amount . List of Guardian Forces . There are sixteen Guardian Forces that can be junctioned and summoned by the summon command , and six that cannot be junctioned , and appear either randomly or are summoned with items . There are also two GFs , Griever and Tiamat , that only appear as enemies under Sorceress Ultimecia ' s control . Other appearances . " Final Fantasy Legends II " . Diabolos and Gigantuar from " Final Fantasy VIII " appear as summons . " Dissidia Final Fantasy " . Ifrit appears as an auto summon in " Dissidia Final Fantasy " , boosting the summoner ' s Bravery for 50 % . It activates when player receives stage Bravery . Shiva appears as an auto summon , preventing the opponent ' s Bravery from rising for 13 seconds . It activates when opponent ' s Bravery drops to zero . Carbuncle appears as a manual summon , matching opponent ' s Bravery to the summoner ' s Bravery . Phoenix appears as a manual summon , and for 50 seconds , if the player is afflicted with break , will automatically " Reraise " with base Bravery and opponent will not receive stage Bravery . Alexander appears as a manual summon that prevents player ' s Bravery from changing for 25 seconds . Leviathan appears as an auto summon that decrements opponent ' s Bravery by 20 per second for 33 seconds and activates when opponent receives stage Bravery . Cactuar appears as a manual summon that reduces opponent ' s Bravery by 1000 , but does not inflict break . Tonberry appears as a manual summon that makes it so after 26 seconds the opponent loses Bravery equal to the amount of HP the summoner has lost . " Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy " . The same summons return in " Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy " . " Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade " . Some of the Guardian Forces appear in " Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade " . " Pictlogica Final Fantasy " . Some Guardian Forces appear in " Pictlogica Final Fantasy " . " Final Fantasy Record Keeper " . Some Guardian Forces appear in " Final Fantasy Record Keeper " . " Final Fantasy Trading Card Game " . Some Guardian Forces appear in " Final Fantasy Trading Card Game " with cards usually the same element as the summon was in " Final Fantasy VIII " . " Triple Triad " . Some Guardian Forces appear on Triple Triad cards in the version available via " Final Fantasy Portal App " . Merchandise . When " Final Fantasy VIII " was first released many of the Guardian Forces were released as action figures . Different versions of this set exist : the Japanese and the North American versions , and full colored and colorful translucent versions . The Japanese GF figures each included a piece of the airship " Ragnarok " , able to be built if one collected all its pieces ; the translucent versions would also give translucent " Ragnarok " pieces . Serial - numbered statues featuring the party members alongside the Guardian Forces were also released in limited editions of this time . Later on , the Guardian Forces have appeared in Square Enix ' s monster series of figurines .