Sinkhole : Soil, Wasteland

Torrent : Canal, River, Lake, Ocean, Waterfall

Tanglevine : Grassland, Underbrush, Vines

Contortion : Gravel, Flagstone, Stone Wall, Earthen Wall, Gravestone

Tremor : Stone Outcropping, Basalt

Wind Slash : Book, Tree, Brick, Bridge, Furnishings, Iron, Moss, Coffin

Will-o’-the-Wisp: Wooden Floor, Carpet, Coffer, Stairs, Wooden Deck

Quicksand : Marsh, Swamp, Poisonous Fen

Sandstorm : Sand, Stalactite, Salt Flat

Snowstorm : Snow

Wind Blast : Roof, Chimney

Magma Surge : Lava, Machinery

--Reaction Abilities--

TRIGGER BRV JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Nature’s Wrath Phys. attack Yes 300 Counter using Geomancy command

or Geomancy

--Support Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Attack Boost * 400 Raises physical attack damage

--Movement Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Ignore Terrain 220 Moving through water does not

decrease movement range

Lavawalking 150 Can move across and stop on lava

tiles

JP to master: 2870

--MY THOUGHTS--

Geomancers are sort of a hybrid physical/magick job -- they’re pretty decent

fighters, and can also do long-range elemental and status attacks with their

Geomancy. When the Geomancer job first becomes available, it can be quite

useful. Geomancy doesn’t cost any MP and activates instantly, and it can hit a

group of enemies. Unfortunately, as the game progresses, the damage inflicted

by Geomancy doesn’t keep pace with enemy HP, and they quickly become less

useful. Plus, there’s also the disadvantage that you don’t have much choice

over the Geomancy attacks available at any given time -- at most, you can

choose between two or three different attacks by moving to tiles with different

terrain. You can’t really choose a specific kind of status condition to

inflict.

Attack Boost, however, is a good support ability throughout the game and can be

useful for any fighting-oriented job (though not as good as Dual Wield). It

increases the power not just of the Attack command, but other "special"

physical attacks like sword techniques.

Lavawalking is the game’s most singularly useless ability, as only a single,

optional map has lava on it, and it’s usually a fairly easy battle anyway.

But, hey, it’s only 150 JP, what a steal!

---DRAGOON---------------------------------------------------------------------

Required jobs : Thief lv. 4

Needed for jobs : Samurai (lv. 2), Dancer (lv. 5), Mime (lv. 5),

Dark Knight (lv. 8)

Equippable weapons: Polearms Movement range : 3

Equippable armor: Shields, helms, armor, robes Jump height : 4

Physical evade : 10%

Stats When Active Job:

HP: **** MP: * Phys. Atk.: **** Mag. Atk.: * Speed: ***

Stat Growth Rates:

HP: **** MP: ** Phys. Atk.: **** Mag. Atk.: * Speed: *

--ABILITIES--

--Action Abilities: Jump--

Damage based on user’s: Physical Attack & Weapon Strength

Attack time based on user’s: Speed

RNG RAD

MP TIC H/V H/V TAR JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------------

Horizontal Jump 2 * 150 Extends horizontal range of Jump to

2 or fewer tiles

Horizontal Jump 3 350 Extends horizontal range of Jump to

3 or fewer tiles

Horizontal Jump 4 550 Extends horizontal range of Jump to

4 or fewer tiles

Horizontal Jump 5 800 Extends horizontal range of Jump to

5 or fewer tiles

Horizontal Jump 8 * 1100 Extends horizontal range of Jump to

8 or fewer tiles

Vertical Jump 2 * 100 Extends vertical range of Jump to 2

Vertical Jump 3 250 Extends vertical range of Jump to 3

Vertical Jump 4 400 Extends vertical range of Jump to 4

Vertical Jump 5 550 Extends vertical range of Jump to 5

Vertical Jump 6 700 Extends vertical range of Jump to 6

Vertical Jump 7 * 1000 Extends vertical range of Jump to 7

Vertical Jump 8 1500 Extends vertical range of Jump to 8

The Jump command causes the user to temporarily disappear from the battlefield

(by jumping off the screen). On return, the user strikes the targeted unit

with a physical attack, then bounces back to his/her original tile. (Note that

the user’s tile cannot be moved into while s/he is off the screen.) Jump does

NOT require an unobstructed line of fire.

Initially, Jump has a horizontal range of 1 and a vertical range of 1. All the

action abilities simply extend the maximum horizontal range or vertical range of

the Jump command.

Jump cannot be evaded and always has a 100% hit rate, except when the target

has Shirahadori.

While the Jump command can be used with any weapon type, you receive a 50%

BONUS to the damage dealt by Jump if you’re equipped with a polearm.

The number of clock ticks required for a Jump attack to activate is equal to

50 divided by the user’s Speed statistic. If you want to determine for sure

whether or not your Jump will strike before the enemy moves, first calculate the

number of ticks your Jump will take (50 divided by your Speed). Then, look at

the enemy’s current CT and Speed. The number of ticks until the enemy’s next

turn is the number of CT points needed to reach 100, divided by the enemy’s

Speed stat (rounded up). If the number of ticks needed for the Jump attack is

less than or equal to the number of ticks until the enemy’s next turn, the enemy

will have no chance to move away from your Jump and you can land the hit.

Note that the Jump command cannot be used when you are standing directly

underneath a tile at a higher elevation. It also can’t target any enemies who

happen to be standing on a tile like that. (This is only an issue on a very

small number of maps.)

--Reaction Abilities--

TRIGGER BRV JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Dragonheart * Phys. Attack Yes 600 Cast Reraise on self (return once

from KO automatically)

--Support Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Equip Polearms + 400 Can equip Polearms regardless of job

--Movement Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Ignore Elevation * 700 Infinite jump height in movement

JP to master: 9150

--MY THOUGHTS--

Dragoons are sort of a souped-up Knight. They have comparable HP and attack

power, can equip armor, and their polearms have a range of two tiles. Dragoons

also have the Jump attack, which is quite effective. It does a good amount of

damage, potentially has a HUGE range (if you’ve learned the right abilities),

and puts the Dragoon temporarily out of damage. Just make sure your target

doesn’t move out of the way and cancel your Jump attack! Unfortunately, you

can’t preview the exact CT list for a Jump attack like you can with magicks,

but you can look at the enemy CT gauges when selecting a target. Don’t target

any enemy who has a high CT gauge, especially if your character is relatively

slow.

A tip about learning the Jump action abilities: Each Horizontal Jump or

Vertical Jump ability replaces all the ones below it. In other words, if you

have Horizontal Jump 8, you can do a jump of 1-8 panels; you don’t need to

learn any other remaining Horizontal Jumps. So, a good strategy is to just

learn a couple of the early Horizontal and Vertical Jump abilities (like

2 or 3) to give yourself a decent Jump, then save up your JP for Horizontal

Jump 8 and Vertical Jump 7 or 8. Once you get those, your Jump attack will be

amazing! Don’t waste your JP building up your range one ability at a time.

(Horizontal Jump 8 is more advantageous to learn first because in most cases

you don’t need that great a vertical range to your jump, anyways.)

Dragonheart and Ignore Elevation are also valuable abilities, though neither is

essential. Dragonheart gives you a Reraise when physically attacked, and

Ignore Elevation is helpful for taking shortcuts up and down towers and cliffs.

Note, however, that the Time Mage’s Teleport gives you this same ability and

then some, so Ignore Elevation is kind of redundant. The only reason to learn

Ignore Elevation is if you’ve been building a melee-oriented character and

don’t want to spend time earning JP as a Time Mage -- and, in fact, it can be

quite useful for this purpose.

---SAMURAI---------------------------------------------------------------------

Required jobs : Knight lv. 4, Monk lv. 5, Dragoon lv. 2

Needed for jobs : Dark Knight (lv. 8)

Equippable weapons: Katanas Movement range : 3

Equippable armor: Helms, armor, robes Jump height : 3

Physical evade : 20%

Stats When Active Job:

HP: ** MP: **** Phys. Atk.: ***** Mag. Atk.: *** Speed: ***

Stat Growth Rates:

HP: ** MP: *** Phys. Atk.: **** Mag. Atk.: * Speed: *

--ABILITIES--

--Action Abilities: Iaido--

Damage based on user’s: Magick Attack

RNG RAD

MP TIC H/V H/V TAR LF JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------------

Ashura 0 Slf 3/3 Foe N 100 "Spirit Blade": Non-elemental

magick attack

Kotetsu 0 Slf 3/3 Foe N 200 "Binding Darkness": Non-elemental

magick attack

Osafune 0 Slf 3/3 Foe N 300 "Verse of Oblivion": Lowers enemy

MP

Murasame * 0 Slf 3/3 Ally N 400 "Rain of Wisdom": Restores HP

Ama-no-Murakumo * 0 Slf 3/3 Foe N 500 "Cloudsea Curse": Non-elemental

magick attack, causes Slow

Kiyomori 0 Slf 3/3 Ally N 600 "Purifying Breeze": Gives both

Protect and Shell status

Muramasa * 0 Slf 3/3 Foe N 700 "Doomed Aspirations": Non-

elemental magick attack,

causes Confuse and Doom

Kiku-ichimonji 0 4Dir 8/3 Foe N 800 "Sanguine Blossom": Non-elemental

magick attack

Masamune 0 Slf 3/3 Ally N 900 "Ethereal Embrace": Gives Regen

and Haste status

Chirijiraden 0 Slf 3/3 Foe N 1000 "Raging Inferno": Non-elemental

magick attack

Iaido abilities can only be used if you possess the corresponding katana in

your inventory (NOT equipped on the character). There is a chance that the

katana will break when the ability is used. Aside from the Masamune and

Chirijiraden, all of the katanas can be purchased at the Outfitter, although

some do not become available until later in the game.

All Iaido abilities have a 100% hit rate.

When Iaido abilities are used, a special attack name (not just the name of the

sword) is displayed -- these are listed in quotation marks above.

--Reaction Abilities--

TRIGGER BRV JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Bonecrusher Critical HP Yes 200 Counterattack and do damage equal to

your own maximum HP

Shirahadori * Phys. Attack Yes 700 Block physical attacks. DOES work

work against bows and crossbows,

despite the in-game description.

Even works against guns and

physical monster attacks!

--Support Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Equip Katana + 400 Can equip Katanas regardless of job

Doublehand 900 Equip one weapon in two hands to

increase damage dealt by regular

attacks and Aim. Does not affect

other weapon-related abilities

like Jump.

--Movement Abilities--

JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------

Swim 300 Can move and act even in water of

depth = 2 (i.e., water up to your

head)

JP to master: 8000

--MY THOUGHTS--

Somewhat like the Monk and Summoner, Iaido nicely mixes both offense and

healing. Murasame in particular is a GREAT healing ability, since it restores

HP to a large group and requires no charge time. Masamune is in theory also

very useful as it casts Regen and Haste to a group of characters, but its value

is more limited in practice since Masamunes are pretty hard to get.

Unfortunately, the downside to Iaido is that the katana have a tendency to

break pretty frequently, which means that this job expensive quickly. (Why,

it’s almost like Samurai were throwing money at their enemies!) This means

Iaido actually tends to get more useful later on, when you have more spare cash

for katana. If you want to use a particular Iaido ability, bringing a couple

of copies of that katana into battle is a pretty good ability. Equipping

accessories that boosts your magick attack is also advantageous since damage

from Iaido depends on your magick attack stat, not physical attack.

Perhaps the best Samurai ability, then, is Shirahadori, which pumps up your

evade rate in accordance with your Bravery. With a high Bravery, you can be

virtually invulnerable to physical attacks! This is the best reaction

ability in the game and definitely worth learning.

Note that the Samurai only has modest stats. They have limited HP, although

they can equip heavy armor to boost it. Their attack is pretty good, but since

they only have one katana for a weapon, they falter in comparison to the Ninja

(which gets TWO weapons) or the Knight (which can use knight’s swords). Sure,

you can equip Doublehand to increase your attack power, but that uses up your

support ability slot.

Overall, my feeling is that Samurai is a decent job, but not quite as effective

as Dragoons or (especially) Ninja. However, Iaido is a good supplementary

Action Ability and can be particularly good when paired with a magick-oriented

job -- the job’s high magick attack will increase the power of Iaido, and Iaido

gives a mage an alternative to magick that doesn’t cost MP and doesn’t require

charging.

---NINJA-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Required jobs : Archer lv. 4, Thief lv. 5, Geomancer lv. 2

Needed for jobs : Dark Knight (lv. 8)

Equippable weapons: Knives, ninja blades, flails Movement range : 4

Equippable armor: Hats, clothes Jump height : 4

Innate ability: Dual Wield Physical evade : 30%

Stats When Active Job:

HP: * MP: * Phys. Atk.: **** Mag. Atk.: ** Speed: *****

Stat Growth Rates:

HP: ** MP: *** Phys. Atk.: **** Mag. Atk.: * Speed: *****

--ABILITIES--

--Action Abilities: Throw--

Damage based on user’s: Speed

Range based on user’s: Move

RNG RAD

MP TIC H/V H/V TAR LF JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------------

Shuriken * 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 50 Throw shuriken

Bomb 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 70 Throw bombs

Knife 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw knives

Sword * 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw swords

Flail * 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw flails

Katana 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw samurai katanas

Ninja Blade 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw ninja blades

Axe 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 120 Throw axes

Polearm 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw polearms

Pole 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw poles

Knight’s Sword 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw knight’s swords

Book 0 #/* 1/- Any Y 100 Throw books

The Throw command allows you to attack by throwing weapons & items from your

inventory. Obviously, the item/weapon is lost when it is thrown.

Damage from the Throw command is based on the power of the weapon being thrown

and on the user’s Speed statistic (a higher Speed is better).

# The range of the Throw command is equal to the user’s current Move range.

(So, anything that changes your Move statistic also changes the range of Throw.)

Note that some weapons can only be found in the game’s multiplayer modes. Such

weapons cannot be thrown with the Throw command.

--Reaction Abilities--

TRIGGER BRV JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Vanish Any HP loss Yes 1000 Gain Invisiblity status

Reflexes Any evadable No 400 Doubles existing evade %

attack

--Support Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Dual Wield +* 1000 Equip weapons in both hands

Note that the damage estimate for Dual Wielded attacks is just for the FIRST

attack -- if you have a weapon in both hands, the total damage will be much

higher!

--Movement Abilities--

JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------

Waterwalking 420 Stand on surface of water rather

than decreasing height to go

underwater. Can move on top of

deep water without penalty.

JP to master: 4040

--MY THOUGHTS--

With a high speed and attack strength, and the innate ability to wield two

weapons, Ninja make life very dangerous for your opponents. You can do a lot

of damage with two weapons, and their high speed means that Ninjas get to act

first and strike before your enemy does. (Plus, their good movement range

and jump height makes it easy for them to reach enemies.) Ninjas are effective

for sneaking in and taking out enemy archers, gunners, or mages before they can

get a spell or shot off. Overall, Ninja is one of the most effective standard

job. Aim for leveling up Archer and Thief quickly to unlock it!

Throw is also a pretty good action ability. It’s not the strongest attack, but

throwing good weapons usually does a fair amount of damage and has a nice

range. The strongest weapon that you can buy to throw is the Morning Star

flail ... well, it’s tied with the Slasher axe, but the Slasher costs more

money. Buying weapons does mean that the gil costs of Throw add up, but,

fortunately, you can always switch back to regular attacks since the Ninja’s

regular attacks are good too.

Good abilities from other jobs to consider for your Ninja are Steal (Ninjas

have a very high speed, so this makes your steals more effective) and the

Monk’s Brawler. Brawler lets you get two punches, which can be an extremely

strong physical attack, especially with high Bravery.

The main weakness of Ninjas (besides pirates) is their physical frailty; they

have very low HP and can’t take much damage. This is particularly problematic

if you’re using Ninjas to rush in and attack first -- they can get surrounded

and KOed while your other characters catch up. To solve this, you can equip

cloaks or Shirahadori to boost their evade rate, give them an Angel Ring or

Chantage or the Dragonheart reaction ability for a Reraise, or use Equip Heavy

Armor to gain more HP.

Note that Ninjas can equip both ninja blades and flails. Overall, flails are

stronger, but they’re also more unpredictable -- sometimes they do MORE than

the estimated damage, sometimes they do LESS. This can be frustrating if

you’re trying to finish off a weak enemy and end up not quite doing enough

damage. On the other hand, in the long run, flails DO do more damage. It’s

your call whether you want to favor predictability or the potential for more

damage.

---ARITHMETICIAN---------------------------------------------------------------

Required jobs : White Mage lv. 5, Black Mage lv. 5,

Time Mage lv. 4, Mystic lv. 4

Needed for jobs : none

Equippable weapons: Poles, books Movement range : 3

Equippable armor: Hats, clothes, robes Jump height : 3

Physical evade : 5%

Stats When Active Job:

HP: * MP: *** Phys. Atk.: * Mag. Atk.: * Speed: *

Stat Growth Rates:

HP: ** MP: **** Phys. Atk.: * Mag. Atk.: * Speed: *

--ABILITIES--

--Action Abilities: Arithmeticks--

Damage based on user’s: Magick Attack & Faith, plus target’s Faith

RNG RAD

MP TIC H/V H/V TAR LF JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------------

CT 0 n/a Any N 250 Base equations on CT

Level 0 n/a Any N 350 Base equations on level

Exp 0 n/a Any N 200 Base equations on EXP

Height * 0 n/a Any N 250 Base equations on height

Prime * 0 n/a Any N 300 Selects by prime number

Multiple of 5 0 n/a Any N 200 Selects by multiple of 5

Multiple of 4 * 0 n/a Any N 400 Selects by multiple of 4

Multiple of 3 * 0 n/a Any N 600 Selects by multiple of 3

Each time you use Arithmeticks, you select one from the first four abilities

and one from the second four abilities. This determines what characters the

ability will target. For example, selecting "Height" "Multiple of 5" will

target all characters whose current height on the map is a multiple of 5.

Finally, you select the magick to cast on these targets. Allowable magicks are

those marked with an "A" under Black Mage, White Mage, Time Mage, and Mystic

(see above). Note that you do NOT need those jobs’ Action Abilities equipped;

Arithmeticks always allows access to ALL the allowable magicks you’ve learned.

--Reaction Abilities--

TRIGGER BRV JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Cup of Life HP restore Yes 200 If healing ability used on character

restores more HP than is needed to

return to max HP, the excess HP is

distributed to the rest of the

party

Soulbind * Any HP loss Yes 300 Inflicted damage is divided between

you and the character who

inflicted it

--Support Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

EXP Boost * 350 Doubles EXP received in battle

--Movement Abilities--

JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------

Accrue EXP 400 Earn EXP whenever you move

Accure JP 400 Earn JP whenever you move

JP to master: 4550

--MY THOUGHTS--

Arithmeticians are extremely powerful magick-wielders. Unlike conventional

magick, Arithmeticks takes no time to charge, can strike all the way across the

board, and costs no MP! By trying different combinations of multiple and

CT/Level/EXP/Height, you can customize exactly who your magick is going to hit.

Note that you can preview who Arithmeticks will hit before you use it. Look

for the characters with yellow targeting tiles at their feet. If you don’t

like the combination of targets you’re getting, cancel back a few menus and

pick a different match of base and multiple. You can’t always target exactly

the characters you want, but you can usually get reasonably close. Check out

the Arithmeticks Chart (Ctrl+F and then 00arith) for help targeting.

The problem is that Arithmeticians also require a lot of JP to reach this level

of power. First of all, you need to learn spells from the other magick-using

jobs, then you have to learn all the Arithmeticks abilities to make your

targeting flexible. Moreover, Arithmeticians are REALLY pokey and don’t get

many turns, making them slow to earn JP. (Giving them an accessory to boost

their speed will help.)

Arithmeticks also have a very low magick strength, so their spells won’t be too

effective while they’re still an Arithmetician. To remedy this, change the

Arithmetician into a Black Mage after you’ve learned all their abilities and

set their second action ability to Arithmeticks. In this highly-evolved form,

they can toast enemies around the battlefield or heal your whole party, without

even having to charge or use MP!

In other words, Arithmeticians are great if you want to spend the time to build

them up, but you certainly don’t need them to beat the regular game.

---BARD------------------------------------------------------------------------

Required jobs : Summoner lv. 5, Orator lv. 5, MALE characters only

Needed for jobs : none

Equippable weapons: Instruments Movement range : 3

Equippable armor: Hats, clothes Jump height : 3

Physical evade : 5%

Stats When Active Job:

HP: * MP: * Phys. Atk.: * Mag. Atk.: **** Speed: ***

Stat Growth Rates:

HP: * MP: * Phys. Atk.: * Mag. Atk.: * Speed: *

--ABILITIES--

--Action Abilities: Bardsong--

Damage based on user’s: Magick Attack (Seraph Song/Life’s Anthem)

RNG RAD

MP TIC H/V H/V TAR LF JP EFFECT

---------------------------------------------------------------

Seraph Song * 6 All allies N 100 Restores MP

Life’s Anthem 6 All allies N 100 Restores HP

Rousing Melody * 8 All allies N 100 Raises speed by 1

Battle Chant * 8 All allies N 100 Raises physical attack power by 1

Magickal Refrain 10 All allies N 100 Raises magick attack power by 1

Nameless Song * 10 All allies N 100 Gives Reraise, Regen, Protect,

Shell, or Haste

Finale * 20 All allies N 100 Fills CT to 100 (instant turn!)

Bardsong abilities activate repeatedly until a new command is entered for the

character. This means that even if you wait out your turns, you can keep

activating the ability.

Bardsong abilities do not affect allies afflicted with Sleep status.

--Reaction Abilities--

TRIGGER BRV JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Magick Boost Any HP loss Yes 500 Magick attack power + 1

Faith Boost Magick Yes 400 Faith + 3

--Support Abilities--

none

--Movement Abilities--

JP EFFECT

----------------------------------------------------------

Move +3 * 1000 Movement range + 3

Fly 5000 Ignore terrain and obstacles while

moving