Irvine (Final Fantasy VIII card)

Irvine is a one-of-a-kind Triple Triad card in Final Fantasy VIII used to play the minigame and for turning into items with Quezacotl's Card Mod. Irvine is the hundred and fifth card in the inventory and the sixth Level 10 card. It depicts Irvine Kinneas who is playable in the main party. The card is part of the Queen of Cards sidequest.
As a Level 10 Player Card, Irvine has good values with a 9 and an A, which represents the value 10 for the minigame and is unbeatable without special rules. It is good to place in a top right corner. Its value placements may also be useful for games that use Same and/or Plus.
==Obtain==
Irvine is the second card obtained from the Queen of Cards quest. It becomes available in Flo's hand in the mayor's house in Fishermans Horizon after losing Sacred to the Queen of Cards and sending her to Dollet. While there, she gives the card to her son and her father creates the Irvine card, which shows up in FH. Flo plays with FH region rules.
The earliest the player can get the Irvine card is by first winning MiniMog in Balamb Garden before setting out to the Timber mission. Before boarding the train, the party can play the Queen of Cards on the train station, purposely lose the MiniMog to her, and talk to her again to ensure she is heading to Dollet; if she is going to Galbadia instead, the player should reset and try again until she is going to Dollet. Then, after the events in Timber the party is instructed to go to Galbadia Garden. Rather than do that, they can go to Dollet and find the queen at the upstairs of the pub, where she says that her father has made a new card that is somewhere in Deling City. The party can win MiniMog back from the boy in the artist's atelier across the street from the pub. When the story takes the party to Deling City, they can find the man in black near the shops and win the Kiros card off him.
Leaving Deling City, the party heads to a nearby peninsula to the Tomb of the Unknown King. Completing the dungeon is optional, but accomplishing this earns the Sacred card. Instead of progressing the story by going to meet General Caraway, the party can return to Dollet and lose the Sacred card to the queen, ensuring she goes back to Balamb Town again. Dollet has Random as a default rule, however, meaning this could be very tricky (it is possible to abolish Random from Dollet, but this is based on chance and may take countless tries). She then says that the new card her father made is somewhere in the world and the party can win Sacred back from the queen's son. When the story takes the party to FH, Flo already holds Irvine, and the player can win it off her the first time they visit the mayor's abode.
It is still possible to do the queen's quest later, in fact, it is easier with the airship available, cutting down on travel time. The goal is to get the queen to travel to Dollet by losing and winning rare cards from her. When in Dollet she says what card she needs, but if the player already knows prior to the queen telling them they can lose the cards to her early, speeding up the quest.
After the events at the Lunatic Pandora, the game progresses to the endgame and there aren't many Triple Triad players left. The Queen of Cards is now found on the escape pod crash site, which is not marked on the world map, but is found by walking around the peninsula south from Tears' Point. (Video of correct spot) The queen will have all the cards from her sidequest.
If the player completed the Card Club quest before the point of no return (fighting the boss atop the Lunatic Pandora), the club members will appear aboard the Ragnarok in the endgame, from whom the player can win all Level 8–10 cards they do not currently hold in their deck, even the cards they had modified before. Though the Queen of Cards will have Irvine if the player didn't get it, the left girl of CC Diamond will play any Level 8–10 card in order that the player does not currently have. This also allows the player to modify the Irvine card and then win it back.
==Card Mod==
The Irvine card refines into 3 Rocket Engines, which teach the Spd+40% ability to a Guardian Force. This is a very good ability, but Cerberus and Pandemona already learn it natively, and a boss in the final dungeon yields one as well. Another use is to convert the Rocket Engines to Triples, a top tier spell for junctions, but there are other ways to get Triple.
==Physical version==
In 1999, following the release of Final Fantasy VIII in Japan, Bandai produced a full set of collectible Triple Triad cards in Final Fantasy VIII Carddass Masters Perfect Visuals. The set was made up of the 110 cards as seen in the game along with 72 artwork cards and a collector's edition playing mat. The cards have a blue side and a red side. The cards have become a rare collector's item.
category:Triple Triad cards in Final Fantasy VIII