THE FF7 BATTLE MECHANICS v0.8 ======================== ==== by Terence Fergusson Final Fantasy 7 Copyright 1997, 1998 Square Co., Ltd. Final Fantasy and Squaresoft are registered trademarks of Square Co., Ltd. This document is entirely my work, and was written and is owned by me, Terence Fergusson. All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged where not specifically mentioned. If you wish to reproduce this document AS IS, you may do so without having to ask for my permission, providing that the entire document including this copyright notice is left intact, and preferably in ASCII text format. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERSION HISTORY --------------- v0.8 : 23/03/02 : Original Release - Not accompanied by sister guides ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOREWORD -------- These guides have been a long time in the making. It started with a webpage. Just a small private one that I created early in April 1999. It was more practice than anything else, and I put up most of my findings about the game at that time. Most of it was incorrect, but I had some basics down. I changed to pure text format soon after when I realised that a webpage was very difficult to update with the number of tables such a Mechanics document requires. Pure text is also a lot easier to simply add stuff to. Updates can be made in seconds. But this was still a private thing. It's been private for years, in fact. But that's not to say it wasn't added to or the information wasn't utilised. During this time, I've met many people who share the same fascination that I have with this subject. We've helped each other too; some of the information included here is due to information that was pointed out to me in the memory dumps. I've learned from it, I've progressed. And the guide grew. Recently, it's become more and more apparent that this kind of information is not only useful, but also in demand. True, it doesn't help the average player, whose only concern is to get from A to B without too much trouble and just having fun along the way... but to others, it's fun to learn how the game works, and exactly what makes the monsters they fight tick. As such, I have finally managed to complete this to my satisfaction. It may not be finished yet, and I may not ever find the time to update it so that it is complete... but at least it is whole. And this is it. NOTE (23/03/0003): This isn't a finished product. It may never be a finished product. As it stands, only this guide of the three planned is being released. Please do not e-mail asking on the progress of the other two; the Battle Mechanics guide is being released now as something to work on. The other two will follow when they're structurally complete, and not before. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPONENT GUIDES ---------------- The FF7 Game Mechanics Guides are split into three files. This guide, the first, will detail the basic formulas, terms and statuses used in battle. The other two are: The FF7 Party Mechanics: Covers the various battle formulas relating to the party, notably formulas regarding spell damage, materia use, and limit breaks. The FF7 Enemy Mechanics: A list of enemies focusing on their attacks and attributes, and how the damage from those attacks are factored into the battle mechanics formulas. The FF7 Battle Mechanics is the main one to start with, since it will define many terms that will be used in both Party and Enemy Mechanics. Note that this guide is based on the PC version. While most alleged gameplay differences between the PC and PSX versions have been proven false, more may exist. NOTE (23/03/0003): Only the Battle Mechanics Guide has been released as of this point. The other two will follow when they are done, which may not be soon. Please don't hold your breath waiting for them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS -------- 1. Definitions 1.1 Character Stats 1.2 Special Term Definitions 1.2.1 Basic Terms 1.2.2 Types of Attack 1.2.3 Target Types 1.2.4 Equipment Modifiers 2. Basic Damage Formulae 3. Battle Damage 4. Statuses 4.1 Status Attributes 4.2 Special Notes On Statuses 5. Game Over 6. Credits ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. DEFINITIONS -------------- --- --------------- 1.1 Character Stats --- --------------- There are seven Primary Stats and seven Derived Stats that make up your basic character. The Primary Stats are: Str: Strength Dex: Dexterity Vit: Vitality Mag: Magic Spr: Spirit Lck: Luck Lvl: Level The Derived Stats are: Atk: Attack At%: Attack% Def: Defense Df%: Defense% MAt: Magic atk MDf: Magic def MD%: Magic def% The Primary Stats dictate the overall strengths of your character. Level dictates exactly how powerful the character is, while the last six stats round off the character. Each character has a starting value for their Primary Stats, and every level, there is a chance that these stats will be raised by a random number of points. In addition, it's possible to further raise these stats permenantly using Sources. The Derived Stats are based from your Primary Stats and your currently worn equipment. They are derived as such: Atk = Str + Weapon Attack Bonus At% = Weapon Attack% Bonus Def = Vit + Armour Defense Bonus Df% = (Dexterity / 4) + Armour Defense% Bonus MAt = Magic MDf = Spirit + Armour MDefense Bonus MD% = Armour MDefense% Bonus Your Derived Stats, along with a few of the Primary Stats (mostly Level and Luck), are what's used in every battle to determine battle damage, spell strength, and so on. NOTE! There is a bug in FF7 such that Armour MDefense Bonus is *not* added to Magic Def. This is reflected in many places, including the Status screen (but the bonus you are supposed to get is visible in the Equip screen). To my knowledge, it is definitely evident in both the PC version and the PSX version. You will take the same amount of magic damage regardless of your Armour's MDefense rating. In addition to the above, many pieces of armour, weaponry and accessories will give you special bonuses to your Primary Stats which, in turn, affect your Derived Stats. You can only see these bonuses in effect on the Status screen though, not on the Equip screen. These bonuses are factored into battle, however. From now on, the three letter abbreviations next to each Stat will be used instead of their full names. --- ------------------------ 1.2 Special Term Definitions --- ------------------------ The following terms will be used throughout the Game Mechanics guides. 1.2.1 Basic Terms ----- ----------- Base Damage: This is a special term which means the basic power of most basic types of attack. For physical attacks, Base Damage is dependent on Atk and Lvl. For magical attacks, it is dependent on MAt and Lvl. Most attacks will use Base Damage to determine the damage they do. In ability formulas, this will be listed as Base. NRV: Short for No Random Variation, this means that the attack will not vary in power according to a random factor. Caster: The character that used the ability. Also known as the source of the attack's effect. Target: The character that is affected by the ability. BD Modifier: This term applied to quite a number of abilities. The primary use for BD Modifiers is for Ultimate Weapons. In this case, the name which has been given to them is UW Modifier. As of writing, only one BD Modifier is known that is not connected to Ultimate Weapons, but the distinction, however slim, still stands. All BD Modifiers take the form of a fraction with a denominator of 16. (For example: 3/16) See below for details. BD stands for Before Defense, in case you were wondering. UW Modifier: A subset of BD Modifiers. UW Modifiers are for Ultimate Weapons only. They are seperated for clarity. Take note that UW Modifiers are only applied to Base Command skills, which are defined as: Attack, 2x-Cut, 4x-Cut, Slash-All, Mug, Morph and D. blow. Added Damage Effect: This term applies to certain weapons and abilities. It is a modifier that is multiplied to the damage during damage calculations. See below for details. Element: Some attacks will use a special Element that will determine certain factors about the attack. Most enemies will have certain elemental weaknesses and strength; this factor will determine whether the attack will do extra damage or be defended against. For example, an attack described as a 'Elm: Fire' attack will do Fire Elemental damage. Note that FF7 uses the following common Elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Poison, Gravity, Water, Wind, Holy, Restorative. The absence of any Element is termed Non-Element, which, while not technically an element in itself, will be used to denote this state. Also note that there are five more Elements that apply only to Physical Attacks. While FF7 is aware of them, they are not normally utilised in Elemental calculations because almost nothing is weak or defends against them: Cut, Hit, Punch, Shoot, Shout. And finally, there is a 16th Hidden Element that was obviously supposed to have been dummied out, but due to sloppy coding, has ended up having unexpected effects with the Elemental Materia and certain attacks. Of the above Elements, Restorative, Cut, Hit, Punch, Shoot, Shout and Hidden are not made known to the player. They can be described as follows: Restorative :- See below for the definition of Restore. Restorative is the difference between the Cure and Life series of spells which give back HP, and the Holy Elemental attack spells like Alexander, which cause Holy Element damage. While Undead are often said to be Weak to Holy, they *Absorb* Restorative instead. Cut :- Used to describe an attack that uses an edged weapon. Hit :- Used to describe an attack that uses a blunt weapon. Punch :- Used to describe an attack that uses a piercing weapon. Shoot :- Used to describe attacks that use projectile weapons. Shout :- Used to describe attacks that are sonic or energy-based in nature. Hidden :- Unknown. Unlike the others, Hidden is the name I've given it. Very few attacks have this element. Any that do can be protected from by linking any non-Element Materia with the Elemental Materia in a character's armour. 1.2.2 Types of Attack ----- --------------- When an attack type is given, the following terms will be used to describe them. These are the most common terms; unique terms will be described within the notes for the appropriate ability itself. Physical: Any attack termed as Physical will use Att and Def as the primary damage calculating stats, and is affected by Barrier. It will also normally use the Physical Formula for Base Damage, unless noted otherwise. Magical: Any attack termed as Magical will use MAt and MDf as the primary damage calculating stats, and is affected by MBarrier. It will also normally use the Magical Formula for Base Damage, unless noted otherwise. Piercing: This means that the attack will ignore the target's Defense and Magic def stats when determining how much damage it will do to them. Attack: Any attack with this modifier will cause damage to some stat. By default, this is HP, but this can be modified. For example, MP Attack would mean an ability that reduces the target's MP. Absorb: The same as Attack, except that the caster benefits in some way from the damage given to the target. Unless otherwise noted, the benefit is equal and opposite to the damage dealt to the target. LR: Short for Long Range, this means that the ability will not factor Back Row modifiers into the formula. Thus, the ability will do full damage no matter what the distance. This also means that the ability can target enemies that are 'Can't reach'. Restore: Restorative is a special Element that has the damage rules for Elements reversed. Specifically, with no Restorative affinity, targets will gain HP or MP from this Element. However, targets that are listed as Absorb Restorative will alternatively take damage from this element. If an attack is listed as Restorative, it will replace the Attack modifier. Restore is used just to remind that this is a healing ability; 'Elm: Restorative' will still be listed within the attack, and in all other ways, it is classed as an Attack. Recovery: A special type of attack, this ability will completely refill the target's HP and MP. It can function without an Element, but if it does have one, then against any target that Absorbs the ability's Element, it will inflict Death status instead of restoring their HP and MP. The words 'Recovery' or 'Death' will flash up over the target to demonstrate which is being used. Change Status: This attack type attempts to change the statuses on a target. Changes in Status are divided into three types: Cure, Inflict or Toggle. Cure will remove an instance of that Status. Inflict will attempt to give the target that Status. Toggle will either Inflict the Status on the target, or Cure it if the target already has that Status. If at any time a spell or ability is described as Curing, Inflicting or Toggling a Status, it will also have a number in square brackets. This number is the relative chance of success. (Example: [15] Inflict 'Death' is a Rating 15 chance of inflicting the Death Status. The exact formula is not yet known, but a rough guide is to think of the Rating as a chance out of 64. This approximation works well when used against enemies of equal level to you) A Change Status ability, like any other attack, will be either Physical or Magical; however, if Change Status is used, then this means that the attack itself does no damage. The only reason Physical or Magical is listed is for certain enemies that may react to one or the other. If the chance reads [63], then the Status Chance is as near enough to 100% as it's going to get. I've only ever seen a [63] Rating fail once thus far, and that was Death Dealer's Hidden One against a L99 Barret. Misc Ability: Any ability that is not adequately described by the above categories falls under this category by default. Whatever effect the ability has will be depicted under Notes. 1.2.3 Target Types ----- ------------ Any ability used will often require a target to be given. The following shorthand will be used: Op: Opponent Al: Ally Tar: Target (Opponent or Ally) 1 Tar: This means that the ability can only hit one selected target. Normally, this target will be selected by the player or enemy. Multi-hit attacks that only hit one selected target also fall under this category. Tar: This special variation of the above means that the ability will hit randomly selected targets in the chosen target group. For example, Omnislash will be listed as '15 Op', which means it will hit 15 randomly selected targets in a selected opponent target group. All Tar: This means that the ability will hit all targets within the selected target group once each. If this Target Type is used, the strength of the ability must be multiplied by 2/3; that strength is then used to determine the damage for each single target in the group. Note that if there is only one Target in the group, then the ability is used at full strength instead; it's counted as a 1 Tar attack. All Tar (NS): NS stands for No Split. This means that the strength of the ability is NOT multiplied by 2/3 when used against All Targets. It will thus do full damage to each and every single target in the group. Area: This means that the entire battlefield is a valid target for the ability. Both the party and the enemies will be affected. Random: This means that the target will actually be a randomly selected single target out of a valid group. Similar to Tar, except that the valid group is what's being specified. Random [All] specifies a single random target out of a single target group. Random [Area] specifies a single random target out of all valid target groups in battle. (Example: Random [All Tar] would allow you to decide which target group to attack, and then a single target would be picked randomly from that group. Random [Area] would have no such choice, and the single target would be picked from all targetable characters in the battle.) 1.2.4 Equipment Modifiers ----- ------------------- The following terms will be used as shorthand to describe various modifiers equipment and accessories may give. +?? : This indicates that wearing the given equipment will give the indicated bonus to the described Basic Stat. In the Weapon List found in the FF7 Player Mechanics, there are columns already for Mag, Spr, Vit and Dex bonuses, so bonuses for those stats given by Weapons will be found in those columns instead. Half/Void/Absorb : The equipment will automatically allow you to either Halve, Void or Absorb damage from the relevant Elements. If you have a better Elemental Defense than the one given, it will not be affected; the better Defense automatically takes priority. Immune : Wearing this equipment will automatically make you immune to the given Status. Note that Immunity is really a Resist. If you are Immune to that Status, then it is also impossible to Cure that Status should you have it on you. This is best shown by wearing a Ribbon and using a Hyper outside of battle; you will gain the 'Fury' Status, but nothing will be able to remove that Status while you are inside battle. Start with : This means that wearing the piece of equipment will make sure you begin each battle with the named Status(es). You cannot protect yourself from this initial infliction. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. BASIC DAMAGE FORMULAE ------------------------ First, it is important that you are familiar with the [x] convention. Basically, [x] is the greatest integer equal to or less than x. Thus, [4.5] would be 4. This convention will be used throughout the guides, and is very important for battle damage. In addition, you should also be familiar with the following convention - x ... y - which defines an integer random number between x and y inclusive. For example, 3 ... 8 would be a random number out of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Finally, a function Rnd is defined here, since it is also required by this guide. Rnd picks a random number between 0 and 1 inclusive. It is not known yet what precision of accuracy Rnd uses at this point. The Base Damage formula is the most important battle formula in the game, so it will be listed here. The Physical Formula for Base Damage is defined as such: Base Damage = Att + [(Att + Lvl) / 32] * [(Att * Lvl) / 32] The Magical Formula for Base Damage is defined likewise: Base Damage = 6 * (MAt + Lvl) Note that while Att and MAt are used in the above formulas, it is possible for FF7 abilities to be coded to use each formula with the opposite attack stat (using MAt instead of Att in the Physical Formula, for instance). However, this is purely academic, since no known ability has been found within the game code that does this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. BATTLE DAMAGE ---------------- Now that the basic terms and formulae have been covered, the basic battle process of determining damage can be defined. Note that certain abilities may skip certain aspects of this procedure; for example, Mindblow will never need to work out either Base Damage, DefMod or Random Variation, because it is a Piercing attack with NRV, and uses a formula that doesn't need Base. A boolean flag named 'Negative Damage' shall be defined at this point. The only factor it checks at this stage is whether the attack contains the Restorative Element. If it does, then Negative Damage is true. Otherwise, it begins as false. The purpose of this flag shall become clear later. --- First, for most attacks, Base Damage must be worked out. If the formula used for the ability does not use Base, then this part may be skipped. The Base Damage formulae are listed in the previous section, and depend on whether the attack is Physical or Magical. If the character is 'Small', then Base Damage must be worked out with Att = 0. Finally, the character's Physical Base Mod and Magical Base Mod are checked. Hero Drinks (as an example) raise both of these by 30 each time you drink them, to a maximum of 100. If the attack is physical: Base Damage = [Base Damage * (100 + Physical Base Mod) / 100] If the attack is magical: Base Damage = [Base Damage * (100 + Magical Base Mod) / 100] --- Next, the formula for the attack is worked out. This is usually either an independent formula or a multiple of Base. This gives us the power of the attack. FF7 has several formulas that it may use: Physical Base Damage Formula * Power of Attack Magical Base Damage Formula * Power of Attack Percentage of Target's HP Percentage of Target's Max HP Magical Formula + Power of Attack (the Cure Formula) Fixed Power of Attack Recovery Special Formulas The last in that list refers to formulas that require special variables that aren't normally checked in battle, like for Chocobuckle, which requires the number of times the party has escaped from battle as a defining variable. In addition, there are many different Fixed Power formulas. Since this is not a hex debug document, no attempt will be made to further explain this; the formulas used will instead be listed next to each ability in the FF7 Party Mechanics and the FF7 Enemy Mechanics. Many abilities will have either the Non-Damaging formula or a Power of 0. Thus, they may skip this part, since these are generally abilities that change statuses or do other non-damage related abilities. Element checking may still take place though to determine success of certain abilities. At this point: dam = [dam] --- BD Modifiers are factored in now, since they're a measure of your base damage. Note that UW Modifiers are classified as BD Modifiers. BD Modifiers on weapons *ONLY* take effect if the ability used is a BASE Command skill. These commands are: Attack, 2x-Cut, 4x-Cut, Slash-All, Mug, Morph and D. blow. Limit, Magic, Summon, Item and E. Skill are exempt from this (thus, an Ultimate Weapon will not lend its added damage capability to a Limit Break, for example). In addition, attacks that don't use Base Damage or use their own formula (like Throw) are also exempt from this. The key thing is to note how two BD Modifiers are put together (this should only be necessary when using Morph with most Ultimate Weapons, but the method is listed here just in case). The formula is: New BDM = [(BD1 * BD2 * 16) + (15 / 16)] / 16 This may seem confusing, but what we're actually doing is everytime we multiply two BD Modifiers together, we have to round *up* to the nearest 1/16th. For example: 9/16 * 2/16 = 18/256 = 9/128, which rounds up to 2/16 or 1/8. If we use the formula to check this, we get: New BDM = [(9/16 * 2/16 * 16) + (15 / 16)] / 16 = [(9 * 2/16) + 15/16] / 16 = [18/16 + 15/16] / 16 = [33/16] / 16 = [2 + 1/16] / 16 = 2 / 16 By going through the BD Modifiers as above, you should eventually end up with one final BD Modifier. This is applied to the damage like so: dam = [BD Modifier * dam] --- Attacks that target All Targets are granted a modification now. If the attack is No Split (listed as All Tar (NS)), then this section is skipped. In addition, if there is only 1 target in the group, then this section is skipped (it counts as if it was only used against 1 Tar instead). Whether an ability is No Split or not depends on the formula and valid target data for the ability in question. Attacks that use the Physical Formula will always split their damage (they can never have the No Split ability). Attacks that use the Magical Formula are only No Split if they cannot be switched between All Tar and 1 Tar. Any ability that works with the All Materia will thus automatically be denied No Split. The exception here is the Cure Formula, which always splits no matter what the valid target data. The rest of the formulas will generally be No Split, but exceptions will be noted. If the attack is not No Split: dam = [dam * 2 / 3] --- If the ability is linked to Quadra Magic and Quadra Magic works with it, then: dam = [dam / 2] This happens no matter what, unless the ability does not do any kind of damage or healing. (Demi and FullCure are affected as well) --- Defense comes next, if warranted. If the attack is Piercing, then this part is ignored. If the attack is Physical, then the target's Def stat is used; otherwise, if the attack is Magical, the MDf stat is used. The Defense Mod and MDefense Mod of the character is checked at this point. This is a special battle-only stat that is modified by Hero Drinks and Dragon Force (as examples). Each Hero Drink raises both Mods by 30. Each Dragon Force raises both Mods by 50. Neither Mod can ever exceed 100. The two values are applied as such: If attack is Physical: DefNum = [Def * (100 + Defense Mod) / 100] If attack is Magical: DefNum = [MDf * (100 + MDefense Mod) / 100] And finally, we apply the damage reduction: dam = [dam * (512 - DefNum) / 512] --- If the character is in 'Berserk' and the ability uses a Physical Base, then: dam = [dam * 1.5] Critical Strikes and Deathblow damage are also done at this point. If the attack is a Critical Strike (either through luck, via the Deathblow command, the Lucky Girl status, or any other move that has automatic Criticals), and the ability uses a Physical Base then: dam = dam * 2 --- At this point, after Critical Strike, if the Caster is a 'Frog' and the attack utilises Physical Base Damage, then: dam = [dam / 4] --- MP Turbo also gets a look in at this point if the ability is compatible and is currently paired with the requisite Materia. Depending on the level of the MP Turbo Materia, damage is adjusted accordingly: dam = [dam * (1 + (MP Turbo Level / 10))] --- Back Row modifier occurs now. If the attack is Magical or is Long Range, then this part is ignored. If either the Caster or the Target is in the back row, then: dam = [dam / 2] Note that the above applies even if attacking an ally or even yourself. It is only applied once though; you will do 1/2 rather than 1/4 damage if you attack yourself with a non-LR physical attack while in the back row. --- Barrier and MBarrier are now looked at. If the target has Barrier and the attack is Physical and does not have the No Barrier attribute, then: dam = [dam / 2] The same goes for MBarrier; if the target has MBarrier and the attack is Magical and does not have the No Barrier attribute, then: dam = [dam / 2] Generally, only the Physical Formula, the Magical Formula and the Cure Formula attacks are affected by Barrier and MBarrier. The rest will usually be No Barrier. As always, exceptions will be noted as and when we come to them. --- Sadness is skipped if the ability is NRV, a Restore or from an Item. If the target has the Status 'Sadness', then the damage is modified accordingly: dam = dam - [dam * 79 / 256] --- If the ability being used is listed as NRV, then we skip this part: Random Variation comes next. Thus, the following is applied: dam = [dam * (15 + Rnd) / 16] --- Lower bound sanity checking takes place at this point. Thus: If (dam < 1) Then: dam = 1 Damage greater than 9999 is left unchanged at this point. --- Added Damage Effects are now done. These are simple integer multipliers. Added Damage Effects on weapons, like BD Modifiers above, *ONLY* take effect if the ability used is a BASE Command skill. No doubling up of Yoshiyuki with Goblin Punch, for example. In any case, for all Added Damage Effects that must be done: dam = dam * Added Damage Effect --- Finally, Elemental Damage and Final Status Checks takes place. Once one Elemental is found in the order of priority, the others will be skipped. Note that Poison Element is special; if you're Immune to the status, then you also count as being Immune to the element (but Asrb: Poison will always be checked first). Within this section, checks against Shield, Peerless and certain special abilities of enemies are also made. It is impossible to be sure of the order this happens in, so no attempt will be made to integrate these checks into the below Elemental system. However, relative notes on the subject can be found in the respective Status descriptions and the specific enemy attributes this applies to. Also, once again, any Elemental affinity the player has on their weapon is only taken into consideration for base Command abilities. You can't have a Fire-element Omnislash, for example, or Throw Gravity-element Mythril Sabers. First, check if the target Absorbs one of the Elements of the attack. If so, then the Negative Damage flag is toggled (if Negative Damage was true, it's now false; and vice versa). If the target doesn't Absorb any of the Elements, but does Void it, then: dam = 0 If the target doesn't Absorb or Void any of the Elements, but does Half it, then: dam = [(dam + 1) / 2] Finally, if the target hasn't Absorbed, Voided or Halved any of the Elements already, then Weak is checked. If the target is Weak against any of the Elements, then: dam = dam * 2 --- After all this, only one thing remains. If (dam > 9999) Then: dam = 9999 If the attack does damage to MP and the target does not have the 'HP<->MP' Materia equipped, then the sanity check is instead: If (dam > 999) Then: dam = 999 The 999 'Sanity Check' is also used if the target *does* have 'HP<->MP' equipped and the damage is dealt to HP instead of MP (the 'HP<->MP' Materia not only reverses HP and MP, but it also reverses the max damage allowed against that target). --- The final damage has, at that point, been calculated. All that remains is to check the status of the Negative Damage flag. If Negative Damage is true, then the amount 'dam' will be healed to the target. The type of the attack will define what exactly is healed and what else is done with the 'dam' variable. If Negative Damage is false, then the amount 'dam' will be used as damage against the target's appropriate stat (usually HP). The above sequence can be summarised as such: Small Check Base Formula Hero Drink Check BD Modifier All Tar Reduction Quadra Magic Defense Berserk / Critical Strike Frog Check MP Turbo Check Back Row / Long Range Barrier / MBarrier Sadness Check Random Variation Damage < 1 Added Damage Effects Elemental Damage and Final Status Checks Damage > 9999 Negative Damage (Note: This order may not be 100% accurate. There are too many combinations of factors to test them all, and without seeing the code for the battle algorithms, a lot of what is displayed here are educated guesses derived from results seen. It is presumed accurate enough for 99% of all results at this present time though.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. STATUSES ----------- There are 31 major Statuses in the game, although a few of them are not shown on the Status screen and are sometimes transparent to the user. The statuses available are thus: Death, Near-death, Sleep, Poison, Sadness, Fury, Confusion, Silence, Haste, Slow, Stop, Frog, Small, Slow-numb, Petrify, Regen, Barrier, MBarrier, Reflect, Shield, Death-sentence, Manipulate, Berserk, Peerless, Paralysed, Darkness, Dual, Death Force, Resist, Lucky Girl, Imprisoned. Of those, Death Force, Resist and Lucky Girl are nearly transparent to the player, and a few of the others (like Imprisoned) are completely invisible save for their effect. Several are not listed on the Status screen; these are: Dual, Death Force, Resist, Lucky Girl and Imprisoned. What follows is a breakdown of the statuses visual effects and gameplay attributes. --- ----------------- 4.1 Status Attributes --- ----------------- Death ----- The ultimate offensive Status Attribute. If you're successfully hit with it, you are immediately reduced to 0 HP. Death is also the state of having 0 HP. You can protect from it, fortunately. That is, you can protect yourself from 'Sudden Death', which is any attack that causes you to instantly die, regardless of how much HP you have or how much damage the attack actually caused. However, if you are reduced to 0 HP by taking too much damage... well, you can't protect against that at all. Visuals: Character lies down Effects: Character cannot Act Character flagged as 'Dead' Removes all Statuses except for 'Frog' and 'Small' Duration: Until cured Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Safety Bit, Destruct+Added Effect, Odin+Added Effect, Death Force Cured by: Life, Life2, Phoenix Down, Angel Whisper, Phoenix Near-death ---------- When your character is heavily wounded, but still able to fight, they are classed as Near-death. They kneel down and their HP indicator turns yellow to notify of this. Otherwise, this Status Attribute means nothing else; it occurs only when your HP is 25% or less of your current Max HP, and you are not yet dead. Visuals: Character kneels Effects: None Duration: Until cured Protected by: Anything that prevents HP loss Cured by: Anything that serves to boost your HP above 25% of Max HP Sleep ----- This nasty affliction is one of four temporary 'Can't Act' Status Attributes in FF7. Once under this Status, the character is asleep, and cannot fight normally. However, Sleep is easily reversed; any Physical hit is enough to wake up a sleeping character. Visuals: Character kneels/has Zzz above head Effects: Character cannot Act Duration: 26 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Headband, Seal+Added Effect, Hades+Added Effect Cured by: Any Physical Hit, Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper Poison ------ Any character inflicted with this Status will continually take Poison Elemental damage throughout the battle. It won't be purged naturally until the battle ends. Note: The Status Attribute Poison is different from the Element Poison. But, if you Void or Absorb Poison Elemental, any attack that does Poison damage will no longer inflict the Poison Attribute. However, you will still be vulnerable to things like Bad Breath, which causes various Status Attributes without causing damage. The reverse also has effects; being Immune to the Status Attribute Poison will mean that you are also considered Immune to the element. Visuals: Character kneels/flashes Green Effects: Chracter takes [1/32 of Max HP] of Physical Poison Elemental damage every 2.5 units of time (ignores Def, Barrier and is NRV) Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Poison Ring, Star Pendant, Fairy Ring, Poison+Added Effect, Hades+Added Effect Cured by: Poisona, Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Antidote Sadness ------- A character inflicted with Sadness is more subdued and careful in battle. They tend to take less damage from attacks, but they find it difficult to get angry at anything. Hence, the growth of their Limit Bar is severely reduced. The Limit Bar turns blue to notify you of this condition. Visuals: None Effects: Character takes approximately 177/256x damage from most attacks (see Section 3: Battle Damage for details) Limit Bar growth halved Duration: Until cured Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Peace Ring Cured by: Hyper, Esuna, Remedy Fury ---- Anyone in Fury status is more prone to rushing the enemy, and attacking them with greater fervour. As such, while they don't benefit from the reduced damage of Sadness, they instead get an increase in the growth of their Limit Bar, allowing them to pull of Limit Breaks with greater frequency. However, their attacks are more erratic, and miss more often. The Limit Bar turns red to notify you of this condition. Visuals: None Effects: Character Attack% reduced Limit Bar growth doubled Duration: Until cured Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Peace Ring Cured by: Tranquilizer, Esuna, Remedy Confusion --------- The pure opposite of Berserk, despite the fact that the character suffering from Confusion doesn't have any increased damage potential. You immediately lose control of the character, and they will randomly attack their allies, even themselves. Fortunately, it's easy to cure; a single Physical hit will take care of it. However, a recently Confused character will always carry out the last command they were asked to irregardless; but it will always be against you. Visuals: Character continually spins in place Effects: Character randomly attacks allies Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Peace Ring, Contain+Added Effect, Mystify+Added Effect, Hades+Added Effect Cured by: Any Physical Hit, Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper Silence ------- The power of this affliction is often underestimated. While under its influence, you are unable to cast any Magic, Enemy Skills or Summons. However, your other commands are untouched. Its usefulness lies in using it on the enemy; many of them have attacks that would be better left sealed with Silence. Visuals: Character kneels/has speech bubble over head Effects: Character cannot use Magic/Enemy Skills/Summons Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Seal+Added Effect, Hades+Added Effect Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Echo Screen Haste ----- One of the best Status Attributes, Haste has your time bar filling up twice as fast as normal. However, on the flip-side, all timed effects like Slow-numb, Barrier and so forth, will run out twice as quickly. But, the pros far outweigh the cons in this instance. Visuals: Character Animation speed doubled Effects: Time Unit speed doubled Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist' Cured by: DeSpell Slow ---- The complete opposite of Haste, Slow causes your time bar to fill up twice as slow as normal. But, it has its good side; Barrier, MBarrier, Slow-numb, Death-sentence... all those take far longer to run out of time. Visuals: Character Animation speed halved Effects: Time Unit speed halved Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Time+Added Effect Cured by: DeSpell, White Wind, Angel Whisper Stop ---- The second worst of the four temporary 'Can't Act' Status Attributes, Stop completely shuts off the Time counter for that character. However, on the other hand, things like Barrier, MBarrier, Regen and so on will not count down during this time, until Stop has worn off or it's been dispelled. Visuals: Character Animation speed paused Effects: Time Unit speed reduced to zero Character cannot Act Duration: 15 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Contain+Added Effect, Time+Added EFfect, Choco/Mog+Added Effect Cured by: DeSpell, White Wind, Angel Whisper Frog ---- Perhaps the worst of the transformation Statuses, Frog both reduces your attack power, as well as preventing you from using almost all of your Materia. The only options available to you are Fight, Item, and if you have it equipped, the Magic Spell 'Toad'. You can't even perform Limit Breaks while transformed into a frog. Visuals: Character is a frog! Effects: All Physical attacks do 1/4 of Base Damage Character can only use Fight (not Limit), Item (including W-Item) or cast Toad Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, White Cape, Transform+Added Effect, Hades+Added Effect Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Toad, Maiden's Kiss, Impaler Small ----- While not as bad as Frog, this is still a terrible condition. While Magic is still wide open to you, every physical attack you do will have an Attack of 0; you will do 1 HP damage until modifications added after the random variation are added. Elemental attacks and Added Damage Effects will use the 1 HP damage as the basis for their calculations. Visuals: Character size is significantly reduced Effects: Character Attack reduced to 0 Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, White Cape, Transform+Added Effect, Hades+Added Effect Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Mini, Cornucopia, Shrivel Slow-numb --------- One of the banes of the beginner player, Slow-numb can easily take out a character within moments if you're not prepared for it. Essentially, it's a countdown to petrify; you have 30 units of time (as shown by the counter above the character's head) to cure them of the affliction, or end the battle. Otherwise, they are inflicted by the Status Petrify. Visuals: Character has timer above head/flashes Grey Effects: 30-unit Timer set on character When Timer reaches 0, Petrify is inflicted on character Duration: 30 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Jem Ring, Safety Bit Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Soft Petrify ------- Completely turned to stone, this is a very bad Status Attribute to earn. You can't act, and even worse, you're flagged as 'Dead'; if everyone in your party is flagged as 'Dead', then the game is over. However, it's easily curable, and while Petrified, you cannot be inflicted with any other Status Attributes, or take damage in any way at all. However, that also means you can't have damage healed while Petrified either. Visuals: Character Animation speed paused/Character coloured Grey Effects: Character cannot Act Character flagged as 'Dead' Voids all damage Prevents Status changes Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Jem Ring, Safety Bit, Contain+Added Effect Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Soft Regen ----- An alternative to the standard healing spells, Regen has the potential to be greater than any of them, for half the cost of Cure3. However, its healing ability takes place over time, and it heals at a rate proportional to your current Max HP value. In addition, it has a short duration, and it can be DeSpelled. Visuals: Character flashes Orange Effects: Character steadily gains approximately 1/32 of their Max HP over each unit of time Duration: 32 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist' Cured by: DeSpell Barrier ------- A protective Status Attribute, and the first available to you. It halves the damage from all Physical attacks, but it has a limited duration. The time left for Barrier can be checked in the Barrier gauge in the left window, next to the character name. Visuals: None Effects: Halves all Physical damage Duration: 30 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist' Cured by: DeBarrier, DeSpell MBarrier -------- The counterpart of Barrier, MBarrier simply halves the damage from all Magical attacks. Again, it only has a limited duration; the time left for MBarrier can be checked in the MBarrier gauge in the left window, next to the Character name. Visuals: None Effects: Halves all Magical damage Duration: 30 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist' Cured by: DeBarrier, DeSpell Reflect ------- One of the most interesting Status Attributes, Reflect allows you to bounce away certain spells up to a maximum of four times per casting per character. A list of spells that cannot be reflected can be located in the next section. Visuals: None Effects: Will reflect spells up to four times back at caster, or random enemy if caster is an ally Will only reflect certain magical spells Duration: Until end of battle or exhausted Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist' Cured by: DeBarrier, DeSpell Shield ------ A very powerful defensive Status Attribute, second only to Peerless. It voids all normal attacks, and absorbs all Elemental Magic. However, it will not absorb Non-Elemental damage, and also, Items seem able to breach Shield and still cause full damage, whether they're Elemental items or not. Visuals: None Effects: Voids normal attacks Absorbs Elemental Magic and Physical damage Does not defend against Item damage or Non-Element Magic attacks Duration: 17.5 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Resist' Cured by: DeBarrier, DeSpell Death-sentence -------------- Under this condition, a counter positioned above the character's head begins to count down to zero. If it does reach zero, then the Status Death is inflicted on the character, subject to protection from Death. Visuals: Character kneels/has timer above head Effects: 60-unit Timer set on character When Timer reaches 0, Death is inflicted on character Duration: 60 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', 'Death Force', Ribbon, Safety Bit Cured by: None Manipulate ---------- The only Status Attribute that cannot be used on your party, Manipulate is a very useful tool. Using it on an enemy, if they're susceptible to it, will place the enemy under the character's command. Note that each character can only Manipulate one enemy at a time, and a single Physical hit will free the enemy from your control. Visuals: Character flashes Cyan Effects: Character is controlled by whomever used Manipulate on them Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Resist', 'Sleep', 'Stop', 'Paralysed' Cured by: Any Physical hit, White Wind Berserk ------- This is a very risky Status Attribute. On the plus side, a character under this Attribute hits harder than usual with every attack. But on the minus, they cannot be controlled, and they randomly attack the enemy any time they can. It is also impossible to Critical Strike when under Berserk Status. Berserk has another use; it's an effective alternative to Silence when used on the enemy.... Visuals: Character flashes Red Effects: Character's Physical Damage is multiplied by 1.5 Character attacks random Enemy with Physical Attack Impossible to get Critical Strikes Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Peace Ring, Mystify+Added Effect Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper Peerless -------- The ultimate defensive Status Attribute. Unfortunately, only one character has the ability to use this: Aeris. When used, it fully voids all damage of any type, as well as acting like Resist with regards to Status Attributes. However, it has a limited duration, and the Void state makes it impossible to heal while under it, but it is still a formidable Attribute. Visuals: Character flashes Yellow Effects: Voids all damage Immune to all Status Attributes Duration: 17.5 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Resist' Cured by: None Paralysed --------- The least powerful of the temporary 'Can't Act' Status Attributes, it's still a pain at times. It acts almost exactly like Sleep and while it lasts for a very short time, you can't cure it with a simple Physical attack. Visuals: Character kneels/Character animation speed paused Effects: Character cannot Act Duration: 8 units Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Jem Ring Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper Darkness -------- A nuisance at best, Darkness simply reduces your attack accuracy, causing you to miss more often. It's easily cured, however, and it has little tactical use. Visuals: Character kneels/flashes Black Effects: Character Accuracy% reduced Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: 'Petrify', 'Peerless', 'Resist', Ribbon, Silver Glasses, Fairy Ring Cured by: Esuna, Remedy, White Wind, Angel Whisper, Eye drop Dual ---- This extremely rare Status only turns up during one battle; that with Bottomswell. Whenever Bottomswell uses Waterpolo at you, both Imprisoned and Dual are placed on you. Dual is dangerous however; it acts like a reverse Regen. HP is drained over time, requiring swift attention. Visuals: None Effects: Character steadily loses approximately 1/32 of their Max HP over each unit of time Duration: ??? Protected by: ??? Cured by: Killing Waterpolo Death Force ----------- A useful status, which allows you to temporarily give yourself protection from Death until the end of the battle. Its usefulness stems from the fact that very few enemies actually use the Death Status. Recognise them, and you can possibly spare an Accessory slot or a few Materia slots and just rely on Death Force for protection when you need it. Of course, the disadvantage is that the immunity is temporary; if that character gets hit by DeSpell or White Wind or gets killed, then they will lose the immunity immediately. Visuals: None Effects: Immune 'Death' Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: ??? Cured by: DeSpell, White Wind Resist ------ You are never given any indication of when you have Resist, but its effects are quickly apparent; any Status change is prevented by the power of Resist. Unfortunately, that can also mean, for example, if you have Frog and then Resist is placed on you, you cannot then cure Frog without removing Resist first. Its best use is to trap enemies with certain Status Attributes so that they can't heal themselves. As a secondary use, it can be used as a temporary defense against nasty Statuses, but it's expensive, and not easy to remove. Visuals: None Effects: Immune to all Status Attributes Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: None Cured by: DeSpell, White Wind Lucky Girl ---------- Only one attack in the game can inflict this Status: Lucky Girl. This is one of the Limit Combinations in Cait Sith's Slot Limit. It is a somewhat useful status, causing all subsequent attacks to be Critical Strikes. However, this is offset by its rarity; most players will go through the game without ever seeing Lucky Girl. Visuals: None Effects: All attacks are automatic Critical Strikes Duration: ??? Protected by: ??? Cured by: None Imprisoned ---------- The final temporary 'Can't Act' Status. Unfortunately, the temporary nature of this status is dependant on what is causing it; various enemies have a few ways of dealing out this attribute, and each requires its own method of removing it. In addition, the character is flagged as 'Dead'. It is easily the worst of the four 'Can't Act' Statuses. Visuals: Character Animation speed paused Effects: Character cannot Act Character flagged as 'Dead' Character cannot be targeted by attacks/spells Duration: Until end of battle Protected by: None Cured by: Killing Pyramid, Waterpolo or Left Arm/Right Arm --- ------------------------- 4.2 Special Notes On Statuses --- ------------------------- In addition to the above, the following notes must be taken into account. Colours ------- The different colours you flash have a priority system; if you currently have a Status that has a higher priority than another one you have, then you will flash the colour of the higher priority Status. The priorities are: Highest Priority Lowest Priority ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slow-numb Poison Berserk Peerless Darkness Regen Manipulate GREY GREEN RED YELLOW BLACK ORANGE CYAN Thus, if your character has both Darkness and Berserk on them, they'll flash Red rather than Black, because Berserk is the more important one to know about. (For instance, you don't want to mistake Slow-numb for Death-sentence just because you've got Regen on, do you?) Status Incompatibilities ------------------------ Various statuses will cancel out other ones as soon as they're inflicted upon a character. The following table will demonstrate this: Status Name Cancels ----------- ------- Death All Status Attributes except Frog and Small Sleep Manipulate Sadness Fury Fury Sadness Haste Slow Slow Haste Stop Manipulate Petrify Slow-numb, Manipulate Paralysed Manipulate Removing Conditions ------------------- What follows are the various ways of removing multiple Status Attributes at the same time. Those not listed are self-explanatory (ie they tell you what they cure. Also, if something cures Petrify, then it also cures Slow-numb) Note: Healing spells and effects work in strict order, first healing HP, then removing Status Attributes from the top down. Thus, White Wind takes two tries to be able to remove, for example, Frog and Resist; the first time, it can't remove Frog because of Resist. The second try, Resist is gone, so it can finally remove Frog. Keep this in mind. Status Name Esuna Remedy DeBarrier DeSpell White Wind Angel Whisper ----------- ----- ------ --------- ------- ---------- ------------- Death - - - - - O Sleep O O - - O O Poison O O - - O O Sadness O O - - - - Fury O O - - - - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Confusion O O - - O O Silence O O - - O O Haste - - - O - - Slow - - - O O O Stop - - - O O O --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frog O O - - O O Small O O - - O O Slow-numb O O - - O O Petrify O O - - O O Regen - - - O - - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barrier - - O O - - MBarrier - - O O - - Reflect - - O O - - Shield - - O O - - Death-sentence - - - - - - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manipulate - - - - O - Berserk O O - - O O Peerless - - - - - - Paralysed O O - - O O Darkness O O - - O O Death Force - - - O O - Resist - - - O O - Note: Due to space constraints, it is difficult to fit any more abilities onto the above list. What's shown above are the most common ways of removing multiple statuses. The others can be summarised as such: Holy Torch: Cures everything DeSpell does except 'Death Force' and 'Resist'. Reflection ---------- Finally, the following skills can be reflected using the Status Reflect. Magic: Cure, Cure2, Cure3, Poisona, Esuna, Resist, Life, Life2, Regen, Fire, Fire2, Fire3, Ice, Ice2, Ice3, Bolt, Bolt2, Bolt3, Quake, Quake2, Quake3, Bio, Bio2, Bio3, Sleepel, Confu, Silence, Mini, Toad, Berserk, Haste, Slow, Stop, Barrier, MBarrier, Death, Freeze, Break, Tornado, Flare, Wall Enemy Skills: Frog Song, L4 Suicide, Magic Hammer, Death Force, Flame Thrower, Laser, Matra Magic, Aqualung, Shadow Flare, Pandora's Box All Summons and Items are non-reflectable. As a companion to this section, here are the specific Magic and Enemy Skills that *CANNOT* be reflected. Magic: Demi, Demi2, Demi3, Reflect, DeBarrier, DeSpell, Escape, Remove, Comet, Comet2, FullCure, Shield, Ultima Enemy Skills: White Wind, Big Guard, Angel Whisper, Dragon Force, Bad Breath, Beta, Trine, Magic Breath, ????, Goblin Punch, Chocobuckle, L5 Death, Death Sentence, Roulette ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. GAME OVER ------------ There are a number of ways to lose the game, most of which can only occur in battle. The most common way is to have all three characters in your battle party flagged as 'Dead'. This involves losing each of your characters to any of the following situations: 1. Gaining the Status 'Death' 2. Gaining the Status 'Petrify' 3. Gaining the Status 'Imprisoned' (This occurs if you are either picked up by one of Carry Armor's arms, or you are surrounded by Reno's Pyramid or Bottomswell's Waterpolo. You must destroy whatever is imprisoning the character to bring them back) 4. Being knocked out of battle by Eat (used by Hungry), Goanni (used by Ghost Ship) or Whirlsand (used by Ruby Weapon). Midgar Zolom's Blown Away, Scissors(Upper)'s Scissor Tornado and Gighee's Sun Diver all knock you out of battle, but flag the character as escaped instead of dead; so instead, if all other characters die or are knocked out, the battle itself will count as an escape. If you are still flagged as 'Dead' at the end of a successful battle, then that character will gain no EXP or AP from the battle. However, the Status 'Death' is the only one that lasts into the next battle if you don't cure it. You will also lose the battle in one other special case: running out of time in the Emerald Weapon battle. This only occurs if you do not have the Underwater Materia equipped during that battle, however. Note that if you lose a battle in Battle Square, the Five Gods Pagoda or Fort Condor, you won't lose the game, just the battle. In all other cases, losing a battle means 'Game Over'. Finally, if you run out of time in the Mako Reactor 1 Mission, you will automatically lose the game, without having to be in battle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. CREDITS ---------- A large majority of the work here is my own... but there are some people that I feel it is necessary to mention on this long road. The Denizens of alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg: My old haunt. More a shout-out rather than credit, but hey, it's where I began, really ^_^ It's also where I met... Qhimm: ...with whom I worked on the FF8 savemap with. Lots of fun, and we actually got something useful out of it: a working save editor that he programmed named Griever. It was also on his site that met others who took the same interest in this field. Which leads to.... The Denizens of Qhimm's Forum: The SaiNt. Ficedula. Alhexx. And *especially* L.Spiro. There were others, of course, but those are the names who stand out. Enemy Stats and Attack Properties would've been hell to compile without the effort made by those at Qhimm's Forum. I collected data myself, but understanding it? L.Spiro provided the first and most important step in deciphering the attack and enemy dumps. And... that's that, really. Hope you've enjoyed the show. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The FF7 Battle Mechanics, copyright 2001-2003 Terence Fergusson