The Queen of Cards side quest is a fairly lengthy quest that you can slowly complete through a number of steps that are completed naturally as you work your way through the game.
The best way to do this is to use the walkthrough strategy guide section here on Jegged.com which points out all of the important parts of the Queen of Cards side quest as they should be completed in order to be as efficient as possible.
This side quest is tied to playing the Triple Triad card game throughout your playthrough of Final Fantasy VIII, and this is something that you should consider doing anyway even through it is a side quest in order to make use of the Triple Triad Power Up Strategy. Refer to the Triple Triad section for more information about the game:
This section is broken up into the Overview section which outlines how the Queen of Cards works and everything you need to know, and then the walkthrough section which contains excerpts from the walkthrough section.
The Queen of Cards serves two important roles in the game:
Kiros Card, Irvine Card, Kiros Card, Doomtrain Card and Phoenix Card)Here are the common questions that come up that new players have about the Queen of Cards and this side quest.
What cards does the Queen of Cards have?
The Queen herself does not actually have any of the rare cards listed above. In order to get each of those cards, you have to lose a specific card to her first, which her father then uses as inspiration to create a new card. That new card will appear somewhere else in the world and you will have to win it off another Triple Triad player.
Which cards do you need to lose and how do you get her to create the new card?
When she moves to Dollet, you can speak with her in the upper level of the Dollet Pub and you will be presented with the option to ask her about her father, at which point she will tell you that her father has used the card you lost to her as an inspiration for another card. Here is the full list of cards you need to lose versus the card that her father will create:
| Card Lost to the Queen | Card That Her Father Creates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
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Minimog Card |
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Kiros Card |
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Sacred Card |
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Irvine Card |
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Chicobo Card |
 |
Chubby Chocobo Card |
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Alexander Card |
 |
Doomtrain Card |
|
Doomtrain Card |
 |
Phoenix Card |
Where can I find the new cards?
Each time you ask the Queen of Cards about her artisan father she will give you a hint as to where you can find the newly created card. The Queen of Cards, nor her father, nor her son, hold the new card. You will have to travel to the following locations…
| Card | Where you can find it… |
|---|---|
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You can win the Kiros Card in Deling City. Make your way to the Galbadia Hotel and continue down the street to the south. The next screen should contain the weapon shop on the right side of the street and there should be a man in black standing across the street from the shops. He holds the Kiros Card. |
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You can win the Irvine Card by challenging the wife of Mayor Dobe in Fisherman’s Horizon. The Mayor (and his wife) is located in the center of the solar panel dish in the middle of town. |
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You can win this card from a man sitting outside of the library in Balamb Garden. |
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You can win the Doomtrain Card by heading to Timber and challenging the pub owner. Just note that he very rarely uses the Doomtrain Card and you may have to challenge him to a lot of card games. The pub owner is the one at the back right area of the pub – he is the only person in the pub you can play cards against and he immediately challenges you to a card game even if you just want to chat. |
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You can obtain the Phoenix Card by heading to Esthar and challenging the Presidential Aide in the Presidential Palace. The Aide can be found in the room where Squall first dropped Rinoa off in. |
How do I get my lost cards back?
You can win your old cards back by challenging the Queen of Card’s son. Travel south from the bar in Dollet where the Queen is located and follow the young child through the doorway into the home on the right side of the screen.
This is the Queen of Card’s son. Follow him into the nearby residence and challenge the youngster to a game of cards.
How and when does the Queen of Cards move to another town?
Every time you lose or win a rare card from her she will move to some other town.
What locations can the Queen of Cards move to and how do I find her?
Each time you lose a rare card to the Queen, or if you win a rare card back from her, she will move to another location. You will have to lose a rare card or higher to her in order to trigger a move. To make most of your questing easier though it is best to have her move between specific towns, such as back and forth between Balamb and Dollet.
So how can you ensure that she moves to a specific town? Unfortunately, you can’t. The only way to do this is to save your game just before you try to get her to move and, if she goes to the wrong place, reset your game and try again. Random elements like this can be really frustrating from a completionists perspective.
Here is a list of the locations that she can move to as well as the percentage likelihood of which location she will choose:
| Current Location | New Location |
|---|---|
| Balamb | Dollet (37.5%) Deling City (62.5%) |
| Dollet | Balamb (37.5%) Deling City (62.5%) |
| Deling City (Galbadia) | Balamb (12.5%) Dollet (12.5%) Winhill (12.5%) Fisherman’s Horizon (62.5%) |
| Fisherman’s Horizon | Dollet (12.5%) Winhill (25.0%) Esthar (62.5%) |
| Winhill (Centra) | Deling City (37.5%) Dollet (37.5%) Fisherman’s Horizon (25.0%) |
| Esthar | Dollet (12.5%) Shumi Village (25.0%) Fisherman’s Horizon (12.5%) Lunar Gate (50.0%) |
| Shumi Village (Trabia) | Balamb (25.0%) Balamb (25.0%) Dollet (25.0%) Lunar Gate (25.0%) |
| Lunar Gate | Random Location with no clue given as to where. |
And here is where you can find her in each of the locations she mentions:
| Location | Where you can find her… | |
|---|---|---|
| Balamb Town | At the train station. |  |
| Dollet | At the pub in the middle of town on the second floor. |  |
| Galbadia | Deling City at the hotel where Laguna first met Raine. |  |
| Fisherman’s Horizon | Next to the save point at the train tracks. |  |
| Trabia | In Shumi Village at the hotel. |  |
| Centra | The hotel in Winhill. |  |
| Esthar | In the presidential palace right when you step off the elevator. |  |
| Somewhere Far Away | At the Lunar Gate. |  |
Is it possible to abolish the “Random” rule in Dollet?
Yes, follow the steps in the “Abolish the Random Rule in Dollet” under the Triple Triad section by clicking the link below:
While knowing all of the above information is helpful, the Jegged.com strategy guide has been setup to identify each of the areas of the game where you need to do something involving the Queen of Cards and exactly what to do.
It is repeated below all in one place with references to the specific spots in the walkthrough where these actions need to be taken.
This is the very first time you are able to interact with the Queen of Cards and can be found in this section of the strategy guide:
Travel over to the train station area and look for the Queen of Cards (shown in the screenshot).
The step which is important to do at this stage is to challenge her to a game of cards until a new “Trade Rule” appears. A Trade Rule will change the amount of cards that you win at the end of battle from ‘One’ to either ‘Diff’, ‘Direct’ or ‘All’.
Direct is a terrible rule - you will lose whatever cards are red at the end of the game and gain whichever cards are blue. However, ‘Diff’ and ‘All’ are great rules.
All can be a little risky, as you’ll lose a full 5 cards if you accidentally lose a game, but ‘Diff’ is great because you win as many cards as the difference between yours and your opponents score. So, for example…
All you have to do is challenge her to a game of cards until the ‘Diff’ Trade Rule appears. You don’t actually have to play against her; just open the window and choose the “Quit” option. Then go challenge other players to cards and the ‘Diff’ rule will start showing up (you may have to Quit and challenge new card players multiple times for the new rule to appear).
You can now earn extra Triple Triad Cards at a much faster pace!
This is your second interaction with the Queen of Cards and it happens during your second visit to Balamb Town in this section of the strategy guide:
Make sure you save your game outside of Balamb before attempting to get the Queen of Cards to move.
Challenge her to a game of Triple Triad and purposefully lose the Minimog Card to her. You can do this fairly easily by selecting just the MiniMog Card along with a bunch of terrible, low-level cards that you have. Losing the MiniMog Card to her will allow you to obtain the Kiros Card later in the game.
Speak to her again after you have lost the card and she will tell you which town she is going to head to next. There is a 62.5% chance that she will say she is headed to Galbadia and a 37.5% chance that she will say that she is headed to Dollet. We need her to go to Dollet! Reset your game if she says that she is going to Galbadia.
This may take several attempts before she finally indicates that Dollet is her next destination. If you are having trouble getting her location correct, consider entering a battle outside of Balamb as this can refresh/change the RNG which may change your odds of where she goes.
The third encounter happens after you visit the town of Timber on your way to Galbadia Garden. You can find it in this section of the strategy guide:
Instead of going to the stop mentioned when leaving Timber, take the train all the way to the last stop (going straight past “East Academy”) to “Dollet Station” and walk down the road to the town of Dollet.
At this stage, you should now consider following the steps to abolish the “Random” rule in the town of Dollet. The “Random” rule is a frustrating rule which causes the game to randomly select a hand of five cards for you when you challenge someone to a game of Triple Triad.
Check out the “Abolishing the Random Rule in Dollet” page in the tips and tricks section for more information. You should also make sure that Siren has learned the 
Move-Find ability and that one of your characters has it junctioned.
Head into Dollet and make your way to the Dollet Pub. The Queen of Cards can be found on the second floor of the pub. Use the nearby Save Point on the second floor (which you can only see if you have Move-Find equipped).
Challenge the pub owner to a game of cards; he’s the man standing to the left of the Queen of Cards wearing a pale green jacket. There’s also an issue of 
Timber Maniacs lying on the table which you should pick up.
Defeat the pub owner in a game of cards and he will give you access to the private room at the back of the bar. The stacks of magazines around this room have different magazines each time you enter; there’s even a chance that one of them will have Occult Fan II.
Challenge the pub owner to another game of cards while in his private room and you can win the Siren Card off of him.
Walk back into the pub and ask the Queen of Cards about her “artist father”. She will tell you that she gave the Minimog Card that you lost to her in Timber to her son. You can find her son in Dollet and he is involved in the Dog and its Bone side quest which you can read about below.
Complete the first part of the Dog and its Bone side quest to re-obtain your MiniMog Card. There are a few other rewards that you can obtain while completing it:
You can receive your first card from the Queen of Cards side quest when you reach Deling City for the first time during this part of the strategy guide:
From the train station area in Deling City, take a right into the next area, run past the Galbadia Hotel (note that you can obtain a Timber Maniacs issue if you stay for a night in the hotel!), and into the next screen.
The next screen, across from the weapon and item shops, is a man wearing black standing next to the road. This is the man that holds the Kiros Card. Challenge him to a game or two until he uses the card and you win the game!
Note: In the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and more modern version of the game, the man in black is very blurry and looks as though he is just part of the background. Use the screenshot to help you find him.
There are a few more steps of the Queen of Cards side quest that you can complete before you head to Deling City after completing the Tomb of the Unknown King. Click on the link below to view that section of the strategy guide:
After leaving the Tomb of the Unknown King, walk back to the town of Dollet. Save your game using the Save Point near the Queen before you challenge her to a game. Remember that you need to have Siren’s Move-Find ability enabled for the Save Point to be visible.
Purposefully lose the Sacred Card to the Queen of Cards and make sure that she indicates that she plans to travel to Balamb (and not Galbadia or Deling City). Reset the game if she plans to go anywhere other than Balamb.
It has been reported that there are instances where she seems to just continually indicate Galbadia as her next location no matter how many times players reset their game.
If this occurs, challenge some other players around town to a game of cards in the hopes that you will reset the RNG and the issue should eventually be resolved.
You can grab your new Irvine Card when you visit Fishermans Horizon during this part of the game:
Mayor Dobe’s wife, Flo, who sits behind the mayor on the second floor of his house, holds the card. After leaving Fisherman’s Horizon, when you have access to the now mobile Balamb Garden you should also complete the Chocobo Forest side quest in order to obtain the Chicobo Card:
This section of the guide can be completed after you have concluded the visit to Trabia Garden up in the north:
Make sure you save your game!
The last time you challenged the Queen of Cards in Dollet you should have ensured that she travelled to Balamb next. She should now be in the Balamb Town near the train station otherwise you will have to complete this part of the Queen of Cards side quest later on in the game.
Travel to Balamb Town and save your game just outside the town (in case you need to reset). You will find the Queen of Cards parked out in front of the train station in her usual spot.
The Queen of Cards will speak her usual line asking whether you want to play a card game combining both “Trabia’s rules and ours”. It is very important that you select “No” when presented with this option this time as you risk spreading the Random rule if your last game played was in Trabia.
Select “No” and continue asking her until she submits to playing a game without changing the rules, and consider resetting your game if you accidentally initiated a game and spread new rules to this region.
You need to purposefully lose the Chicobo Card to the Queen of Cards. The Queen of Cards will then say “This region is getting boring. I’m going to head towards _______”. We need her to travel to Dollet following this card game. Reset your game if she says she is going to head towards Galbadia.
Note that there is only a 37.5% chance that she will go to Dollet so this may take several attempts.
Travel back to Dollet and meet up with the Queen of Cards in the upstairs section of the pub. Ask her about her artist father and she will explain that her father has created a new Chubby Chocobo Card based on that card which can be found in Balamb Garden. She will also mention that she gave the Chicobo Card to her son.
Find the Queen of Card’s son and challenge him to a game of cards to win back the Chicobo Card. Then go back in to Balamb Garden and look for a man sitting on a bench to the right of the directory (shown in the screenshot below).
This man holds the Chubby Chocobo Card. You may have to leave the area and re-enter it if he does not initially appear.
This section of the side quest can only be completed after you have gained access to the Ragnarok:
This next step of the quest can be completed now that you have the Alexander Card which you should have obtained from Piet aboard the Lunar Base.
The Queen of Cards should be located in Dollet right now, but even if she is not, you can meet up with her in any of her other locations as well. You need to lose the Alexander Card to her, have her move locations to Dollet, and then speak to her about her artisan father. Make sure to save your game at the Save Point or outside the town.
If she’s in Dollet already it will be all the easier because you can just talk to her again, ask her about her father, and she will let you know that he has created a new card based on this one. After you lose the card to her though, you need her to ideally travel to Balamb next as you need her to come back to Dollet one more time very soon.
Now go back down to the street level and challenge her son to a game of cards to win your Alexander Card back. The card that was created was the Doomtrain Card. Exit Dollet city and travel to the town of Timber.
The man with the Doomtrain Card is the pub owner in the back right corner of the pub. You might get lucky and see him play this card relatively quickly, but you might also get stuck playing a ton of games against him because he tends to be very stingy with his use of the Doomtrain Card.
Take your new Doomtrain Card and get ready to lose it straight away to the Queen of Cards again. As mentioned above, you need to lose it to her and to have her go back to Dollet so that her father can use it to create another card.
This is achieved easiest if you managed to get her to go to Balamb last, but either way, use the guide above and get her to go back to Dollet. Once she’s there, ask her about her artisan father one more time.
This is the last card you need to lose to her in order to have her father create a new one. Go back downstairs to win your Doomtrain Card back from her son, and then travel to Esthar. This is where you will obtain the last card that her father creates, the Phoenix Card.
Fly the Ragnarok over the Esthar/Airstation and enter the metropolis. Travel back to the Esthar Presidential Palace one more time (refer to the maps on the Esthar page) if you need help finding it.
You can win the Phoenix Card from the Presidential Aide in the room that you first started in during your first visit to Esthar.
This is an optional step to complete but it can make things quite a bit easier for you if you manage to complete it ahead of reaching Disc 4. You can use the Queen of Cards to change the trading rules (One, Diff, All or Direct) of the region still in Disc 4, but she can no longer move around to some of the locations (which become inaccessible).
One of the card players that you can challenge, one of the Diamond girls of the CC-Group (the one on the left), has some high level cards that you can win from her, but she plays using Trabia’s rules, so if you can get the Queen of Cards to Trabia (or more specifically, to Shumi Village), you can adjust the trade rule for when you play games against her.
The strategy behind getting the Queen of Cards to Trabia / Shumi Village is pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, you are going to need some RNG and some luck to get her there. So make sure you save your game before you play a game of cards against her and have your route mapped out.
Referencing the table above that shows where she will move, in short, you need the Queen of Cards to move to Esthar, which is the only location where she has a chance of going to Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%). The only way to get her to go to Esthar is to get her to go to Fisherman’s Horizon (62.5% chance), etc.
So here are the easiest routes… if she is currently in:
| Current Location | New Location |
|---|---|
| Balamb | Go to Galbadia / Deling City (62.5%) Then Fisherman’s Horizon (62.5%) Then Esthar (62.5%) Then Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%) |
| Dollet | Go to Galbadia / Deling City (62.5%) Then Fisherman’s Horizon (62.5%) Then Esthar (62.5%) Then Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%) |
| Galbadia / Deling City | Go to Fisherman’s Horizon (62.5%) Then Esthar (62.5%) Then Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%) |
| Fisherman’s Horizon | Go to Esthar (62.5%) Then Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%) |
| Centra / Winhill | Go to Fisherman's Horizon (25.0%) Then Esthar (62.5%) Then Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%) |
| Esthar | Go to Trabia / Shumi Village (25.0%) |
| Lunar Gate | Random |
And that’s it for the Queen of Cards Side Quest. You should now be close to obtaining all of the Triple Triad cards in the game. Check out the full list of Triple Triad Cards using the link below:
