Guardian Forces in FF8 are beasts which can be junctioned to any user. They can be summoned as many times as you like in battle and when summoned, green balls surround the user before he/she disappears. (Green balls also are in FF10 and 6) A side effect of using Guardian Forces involves loosing long term memories.

Guardian Forces are animals rather than human-like, this is why unlike in other games, Shiva looks like a hybrid of a fish or aquatic animal and a woman.

She's one of the two initial Guardian Forces you have at the very beginning of the game on the 2F Garden Classroom. In actuality, Squall has to read the tutorial at his desk about GFs before being able to use Shiva. She's at Level 1 when aquired and gains AP and levels the more you use her and battle.

Attacks
Shiva's only attack is Diamond Dust, a powerful Ice-Elemental attack on all enemies. Even if it does more damage on Fire-Elemental enemies, it does a lot of damage on enemies in general. It can be boosted in battle to do more damage (maximum 9999) if she is taught the "boost" ability.

Abilities
In my opinion, Shiva's most important abilities to learn are Vit-J, Spr-J, Elem-Atk-J, Elem-Def-J, Elem-Defx2 and Boost. She's also the only one able to use Ice Magic Refine, if you ever need to refine. She initially has learnt Spr-J, Magic, GF, Draw and Item. If you want to instantly teach her an ability or forget one, you can use various items as well.

ABILITY	AP	DESCRIPTION
Str-J	50	Junctions Magic to Strength
Vit-J	50	Junctions Magic to Vitality
Spr-J	n/a	Junctions Magic to Spirit
Elem-Atk-J	160	Junctions Magic to Elemental Attack
Elem-Def-J	100	Junctions Magic to Elemental Defense
Elem-Defx2	130	Junctions Magic to 2nd Elemental Defense
Magic	n/a	Use Magic command in battle
GF	n/a	Use GF command in battle
Draw	n/a	Use Draw command in battle
Item	n/a	Use Item command in battle
Doom	60	Use Doom command in battle
Vit+20%	60	Raises Vitality by 20%
Vit+40%	120	Raises Vitality by 40%
Spr+20%	60	Raises Spirit by 20%
Spr+40%	120	Raises Spirit by 40%
SumMag+10%	40	Raises GF damage by 10%
SumMag+20%	70	Raises GF damage by 20%
SumMag+30%	140	Raises GF damage by 30%
GFHP+10%	40	Raises GF HP by 10%
GFHP+20%	70	Raises GF HP by 20%
Boost	10	Boost GF during animation
I Mag-RF	30	Refines Ice/Water Magic from Items

Statistics

LEVEL	HIT PTS	POWER
1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100	298 734 1226 1726 2334 2750 3274 3806 4346 4894 5450	263 564 897 1230 1564 1897 2230 2563 2897 3230 3563

Compatibility
Compatibility ranges from 0 to 1000. The higher the number, the faster the Guardian Force's Active Time Bar countdown will be. 1000 being the fastest and 0, being the slowest. At Compatibility = 0, Shiva comes in at about 16.8s. At 1000 she comes in at about 2.8s.

Summoning Shiva makes Ifrit's compatibility drop by 10 but Shivas goes up. Having Ifrit equipped also lowers her compatibility. Using Ice Magic makes Shiva's compatibility go up and using Fire Magic makes Shiva's compatibility drop by 1-2.

Triple Triad Card
Gotten at the White Seed Ship from Zone. If you give him the "Girl Next Door" magazine for free, he'll give you a rename card and the Shiva card. If you sell him the magazine for 25,000 gil you can then only get Shiva's card from the Card Club members on Disc 4.

Gallery