Germinas Boots. If you’ve scored a pair of Gaius Caligae from Rendezvous Mode,

they’re even better as they boost your movement range by 2 instead of the

Germinas Boots’ 1.

Parry (Knight) + Nagnarok sword + Treasure Hunter

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

If you’re using a character for Treasure Hunting, you want the character to

have low Bravery ... but this also makes most Reaction Abilities useless, since

they depend on Bravery to activate. Parry, however, only depends on your

weapon’s block rate, so pair it with the Nagnarok sword and its 50% block rate

(add Equip Swords if needed) and you’ve got a decent Reaction Ability for even

a low-Bravery character.

Steal Weapon (Thief) + Throw (Ninja)

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

This isn’t that great a combo, but there’s a certain joy in stealing somebody’s

weapon and then turning around and killing them with it.

Gil Snapper (Thief) + Throw (Ninja) or Iaido (Samurai) or Items (Chemist)

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

Throw, Iaido, and Items all consume items from your inventory, which cost

money to replace. Over the course of a battle, Gil Snapper will give you some

extra spending money to help replace what you used. (But, the money earned

from Gil Snapper is usually nothing compared to your post-battle Bonus Coin, so

this is not a very effectice combo.)

%%%CHARACTER STRATEGIES%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%00char

---Generic Character Strategies------------------------------------------------

MONK (esp. RAMZA)

Reaction Ability : Counter or First Strike

Support Ability : Dual Wield

Movement Ability : Lifefont

Equipment : no weapon equipped

Bravery : High (as close to 97 as possible)

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

The Dual Wield ability gives you two punches. Coupled with a high Bravery,

this makes for an extremely powerful attack -- and you’ve also got all the

Monk’s helpful restorative abilities. Strong punches are particularly useful

early in the game when you don’t have access to high-level weapons to equip.

You can land even more attacks if you equip the Monk’s own Counter or First

Strike. (First Strike is only good against humans and special monsters.)

Since you’ll have a high Bravery, these abilities will activate quickly and let

you counterattack a lot! Since this set-up leaves your Monk without any extra

armor, Lifefont is pretty useful for recovering HP.

This set-up can be particularly useful for Ramza because his Shout ability lets

him raise his own Bravery quickly.

BLACK MAGE or SUMMONER

Action Ability : Arithmeticks

Reaction Ability : Magick Counter or Mana Shield

Support Ability : Arcane Strength or Vehemence

Movement Ability : Manafont

Equipment : Rod of Faith, Brass Coronet, Lordly Robe,

Magepower Glove or Septi`eme or Brigand’s Glove

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

The ultimate magic-user. Be sure to have all the Arithmeticks, and get as

many spells (Black, White, Time, and Mystic Arts) as you can. If you want

maximum magick strength, switching back to Black Mage is the way to go.

Alternately, Summoner has a high magick attack as well, and gives you

additional magick variety by letting you cast all the summons, too -- although

a maxed-out Arithmeticks command already gives you pretty much everything you

could need!

Vehemence is probably the best support ability for this set-up. It increases

the potency of attack & healing magick, and the increased damage you receive

isn’t a real problem as mages tend to hang back out of danger most of the time

anyway. If you don’t have Vehemence or want to play a bit more defensively,

Arcane Strength works great too.

The Brass Coronet headgear is only available in Rendezvous Mode, but makes a

great addition if you score it. It raises your Magick Attack by 3 and also

prevents you from being Silenced.

If the character is female, Septi`eme perfume is a great accessory as it gives

you a permanent Haste and gets you turns much faster. For males, a Magepower

Glove increases your magick power. (In Rendezvous Mode, you can also acquire

Brigand’s Gloves, a unisex accessory that allows males to have a permanent

Haste too.)

For a more defensive character of this character, swap out Magick Counter for

Mana Shield, which uses your MP to protect you from physical attacks. As long

as you’re using Arithmeticks, you don’t need MP anyway, and if you keep walking

around, Manafont will regenerate your MP and keep up your Mana Shield!

NINJA or BALTHIER

Action Ability : Steal

Support Ability : Brawler

Equipment : Mirage Vest or Ninja Gear, Green Beret or Lambent Hat or

Thief’s Cap or Acacia Hat, Hermes Shoes

or Brigand’s Gloves

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

If you’re looking to steal items, this will do the trick! Ninjas have the

highest speed of any regular job, and the equipment raises it even further,

increasing your hit rate for stealing. Brawler raises it even more! Once you

get Balthier, he’s even better for stealing items, as his Plunder abilities

have a higher rate of success than a regular Steal and his Sky Pirate job has a

high Speed to boot.

SUMMONER

Action Ability : Iaido or Martial Arts

Reaction Ability : Absorb MP or Mana Shield

Support Ability : Swiftness

Movement Ability : Manafont

Equipment : Rod of Faith or Crown Sceptre, Wizard’s Robe or Lordly Robe,

Gold Hairpin or Brass Coronet, Magepower Glove

Faith : High

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

Summons are powerful, but take a while to charge and use lots of MP. You can

remedy the former with Swiftness and the latter with Manafont and/or MP Absorb.

To increase the strength of your summons, raise your Faith and equip a Wizard’s

Rod, Wizard’s Robe, and/or Magepower Glove. (Pure gains in magick attack may

be more helpful for a Summoner than elemental boosts since many summons are

non-elemental).

A good second action ability, if available, is the Samurai’s Iaido. Iaido is

boosted by the Summoner’s high magick attack but doesn’t drain any of your MP.

It also activates instantly, so you can use it instead of Summon when you need

a quick heal or attack.

For a more defensive version of this character, use Mana Shield instead of

Absorb MP. Martial Arts could also be added as your other action ability, so

that you can use Chakra to regain MP.

The Brass Coronet is only availlable in Rendezvous Mode, but it gives you a

nice magick attack boost and also protects you from Silence. In its absence,

the Gold Hairpin is a good substitute.

ARCHER

Action Ability : Arts of War

Reaction Ability : Archer’s Bane or Shirahadori

Support Ability : Concentration

Movement Ability : Teleport or Ignore Elevation

Equipment : Bow

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

When you’re attacking from a distance with bows, you often don’t have a choice

of what angle to strike from, so Concentration will ensure you hit even when

attacking from the front. Adding Arts of War as an action ability lets you

rend enemy stats or equipment from a distance, and Concentration helps this as

well. To keep the enemy from shooting bows back at you, you can use the

Archer’s own Archer’s Bane ability initially, and later Shirahadori, which also

protects you against guns. Finally, on any map with high peaks or towers,

Teleport or Ignore Elevation is a great movement ability for an Archer; you can

quickly get up to a high vantage point and shoot almost anywhere on the map.

GEOMANCER

Reaction Ability : Nature’s Wrath

Support Ability : Arcane Strength

Movement Ability : Move +1/2/3 or Teleport

Equipment : Runeblade, Magepower Glove or Genji Glove or Tynar Rouge

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

Geomancy isn’t really the most useful action ability, but if you want to use

it, the movement abilities Move +1/2/3 or Teleport will give you access to more

tiles on any given turn, allowing you to pick and choose which elements and

status ailments you want to attack with. Runeblade and a Magepower Glove

(or, even better, a Genji Glove or the Tynar Rouge if available) will increase

the power of the Geomancy attacks, as will the Arcane Strength support ability.

NINJA

Reaction Ability : Reflexes

Support Ability : Equip Shields

Equipment : Crystal Shield or better, Featherweave Cloak

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

It’s almost impossible (if not actually impossible ;) ) to get hit by any

evadable attack. Your only weakness is attacks that can never be evaded, like

sword techniques and monster breath attacks.

NINJA

Reaction Ability : Mana Shield

Movement Ability : Manafont

Equipment : Thief’s Cap, Hermes Shoes, Ninja Gear

Bravery : High (as close to 97 as possible)

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

One weakness of a Ninja is that they’re pretty fragile and can get KOed easily.

This set-up uses the Ninja’s speed to remedy that. You’ll get many turns and,

every turn you get, you can move and get some MP back with Manafont, which will

protect you from another hit. The Thief’s Cap, Hermes Shoes, and Ninja Gear

can boost your speed even higher.

DRAGOON or KNIGHT or DARK KNIGHT

Action Ability : Martial Arts

Reaction Ability : Dragonheart

Support Ability : Defense Boost

Equipment : Escutcheon II, Lordly Robe

Bravery : High (as close to 97 as possible)

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

Combine a tough fighting job with Dragonheart, which casts Reraise as long as

you aren’t killed in a single hit. Then, add the Lordly Robe (which has an

auto-Protect and auto-Shell) and Defense Boost to make it even harder for

enemies to KO you in one hit. An Escutcheon II or other good shield will also

make it hard for many attacks to hit you. Then, you can use Martial Arts to

keep all your other allies alive as well, when you’re not attacking with your

own attack strength and abilities.

RAPHA - OR OTHER LOW-BRAVERY FEMALE CHARACTER

Job : Thief or Ninja

Reaction Ability : Parry

Support Ability : Equip Swords

Movement Ability : Treasure Hunter

Equipment : Nagnarok, Septie`me

Bravery : Low (just above 10)

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

Hunting for items in Midlight’s Deep? With this set-up, you can turn Rapha (or

any other character with a low Bravery) into the ultimate Treasure Hunter.

Thief and Ninja are mobile jobs; both have a move and jump of 4, allowing Rapha

to navigate to more remote locations. The Septie`me perfume gives Rapha a

permanent Haste, allowing her to get more turns and scoot around the map even

more quickly, as well as making her Invisible. As long as she never takes

action and just moves around looking for items, the enemies will never attack

her. Finally, if she DOES lose her Invisibility (e.g. because she was hit in a

wide-radius attack spell), the Nagnarok coupled with Parry gives her a 50%

evade rate despite her low Bravery. Actually, this is pretty much overkill;

you could go Treasure Hunting with half these abilities... :)

SAMURAI or DARK KNIGHT ... or SQUIRE [RAMZA] or SWORD SAINT [ORLANDEAU]

Reaction Ability : Mana Shield

Bravery : High (as close to 97 as possible)

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

The downside of Mana Shield is that it’s only good with high MP ... and most

high-MP jobs are magick-using jobs, where you need to *keep* your MP! But

Samurai and Dark Knight are two jobs that don’t need MP to use their abilities,

but still have a high MP total. Ramza’s "special" Squire job and Orlandeau’s

Sword Saint job have even more, and are also melee-oriented jobs. With these

jobs, Mana Shield turns their extra MP into a nice buffer of extra health.

Raise your Bravery as high as possible so Mana Shield will activate more

frequently.

ONION KNIGHT (JOB LV. 8) - SINGLE-PLAYER

Equipment : Chaos Blade, Escutcheon II or other rare shield, Ribbon,

Maximillian or Ninja Gear, Tynar Rouge

Faith : Low (as close to 03 as possible)

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

Even without the Onion gear from the multiplayer modes, a Job Level 8 Onion

Knight can be a pretty effective fighter. Remember that even male Onion

Knights can equip the gear normally reserved for female fighters.

Onion Knights can’t use magicks and don’t need Faith, so you should lower your

Faith as low as possible to protect yourself from enemy magicks.

ONION KNIGHT (JOB LV. 8) - MULTIPLAYER

Equipment : Orochi or Onion Sword, Onion Shield, Ribbon, Onion Armor,

Tynar Rouge or Brigand’s Gloves

Faith : Low (as close to 03 as possible)

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

The Onion equipment is all good, but the plethora of buffs from the Onion Armor

don’t include an automatic Haste. So, you may want to swap out the Onion

Gloves for Brigand’s Gloves or a Tynar Rouge, both of which give you an auto-

Haste. You’re now vulnerable to status ailents, but you can prevent this by

equipping a Ribbon as your headgear. (Remember that even male Onion Knights

can equip Ribbons and the Rouge since they can use *any* equipment.)

While the Onion Sword is the strongest weapon in terms of raw attack power, the

Orochi ninja blade has the advantage of draining enemy HP so your Onion Knights

can be self-healing. You may prefer this.

Obviously, this entire strategy only applies if you’re playing the multiplayer

game since this equipment is all multiplayer-only.

---Special Character Strategies------------------------------------------------

RAMZA

Reaction Ability : Counter or First Strike

Support Ability : Dual Wield

Movement Ability : Lifefont

Equipment : No weapon equipped

Bravery : High (as close to 97 as possible)

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

This set-up, described above in Generic Character Strategies, works great for

Ramza because his Shout ability lets him raise his own Bravery quickly.

MUSTADIO AND/OR BALTHIER

Job : Machinist

Action Ability : Items

Reaction Ability : Auto-Potion

Support Ability : Throw Items

Equipment : Magick gun, Japa Mala or Sage’s Ring

Faith : High

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

After you’ve mastered Machinist, Chemist is a great supplementary for Mustadio

because it allows him to keep his gun (and consequently his long-range Aimed

Shot abilities). Once you’ve mastered Chemist, switch him back to a Machinist

for its improved Speed, then give him Items and Throw Items to make him into a

great healer/support character. If you’re using the magick guns, you can

increase their damage output by raising his Faith and giving him a Japa Mala

or the multiplayer-only Sage’s Ring for the elemental boost.

Since Mustadio’s guns give him a ranged attack, you could also consider giving

him Arts of War, which will let him break enemy gear or reduce their stats from

a distance. However, you might find this somewhat redundant with Arm Shot and

Leg Shot, which while not identical are also pretty effective at shutting down

enemy forces.

If you want to Balthier to be a gun-user, you could use a pretty similar

set-up for him, since he has all of Mustadio’s abilities. Balthier also has

an extra advantage in that he can equip shields and heavy armor for a better

defense than Mustadio.

LUSO

Job : Game Hunter

Reaction Ability : Auto-Potion (optional)

Support Ability : Dual Wield or Doublehand

Movement Ability : Lifefont (optional)

Equipment : Knight’s sword, Power Garb, Headband, Bracer

Bravery : High (as close to 97 as possible)

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

Luso’s distinguishing characteristic is his inherent Poach. If you want to

exploit this, you’ll need to make it easy for Luso to kill enemies with

physical attacks. Give him a couple strong knight’s swords with Dual Wield;

or, if you have only a limited supply, one knight’s sword plus Doublehand.

Raising his Bravery with Shout will make his knight’s sword even stronger. For

further attack boosts, equip a Bracer and perhaps a Power Garb and/or a

Headband. The Power Garb and Headband aren’t the best armors in terms of HP

ratings, so if you give him these, you may want to give him Auto-Potion or

Lifefont to keep his HP up.

RAPHA

Job : Thief or Ninja

Reaction Ability : Parry

Support Ability : Equip Swords

Movement Ability : Treasure Hunter

Equipment : Nagnarok, Septie`me

Bravery : Low (just above 10)

Faith : Low (as low as possible)

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

As described above, this is a great set-up for the Treasure Hunter ability if

you want to exploit Rapha’s low Bravery.

If you plan to focus on Rapha’s Sky Mantra abilities, drop her Faith as low as

possible. Sky Mantra doesn’t depend on Rapha’s Faith, so lowering her Faith

will protect her against enemy magicks without affecting her offense. (Of

course, doing this does mean she won’t be able to other magicks effectively.)

MARACH

Job : Netherseer

Action Ability : Iaido

Support Ability : Swiftness or Arcane Strength

Movement Ability : Move +1/2/3

Equipment : Magepower Glove

Faith : Low (as close to 03 as possible)

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

If you want to use Marach’s Nether Mantra abilities, the first step is to lower

his Faith as low as possible (using Enlighten) to increase the damage Nether

Mantra does. This will also raise his defense against enemy magick. However,

it also means he won’t be effective using regular magick.

Instead, try giving him the Samurai’s Iaido ability, which makes use of his

high Magick Attack but doesn’t depend on Faith. Another advantage of Iaido is

that (unlike Nether Mantra) it doesn’t affect friendly targets, so you can use

it when he’s in close quarters and Nether Mantra is a no-go. A Magepower Glove

or other gear that boosts magick attack could also be added to make both Nether

Mantra and Iaido stronger.

Giving him Move +1, 2, or 3 will help him reach enemy territory before the rest

of your characters do, so he can use Nether Manta without any risk of hitting

an ally by mistake.

Finally, if you’re concerned about the charge time of Nether Mantras, Swiftness

will help with that. Alternately, you can use Arcane Strength to boost the

power of both his Mantras and Iaido.

MARACH

Action Abilities : Nether Mantra and other magick ability

Support Ability : Swiftness or Arcane Strength

Movement Ability : Move +1/2/3

Equipment : Rod of Faith, Magepower Glove

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

Later, once when you get the Rod of Faith, you may want to consider giving it

to Marach. The Faith status maximizes both the Faith bonuses from Nether

Mantra *and* from regular magicks, allows him to use both! However, it also

means he’s no longer resistant to enemy magicks.

Move +1/2/3 and Swiftness or Arcane Strength will still be useful in wielding

Nether Mantra effectively.

ORLANDEAU

Job : Sword Saint

Action Ability : Iaido or other

Reaction Ability : Shirahadori

Support Ability : Dual Wield

Movement Ability : Teleport or Move +3

Equipment : Chaos Blade, Excalibur, Maximillian,

Thief’s Cap or Grand Helm, Angel Ring

Bravery : High (97)

Faith : Low (03)

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

Orlandeau’s tough in any form, but with the right set of ability, he comes to

close to the ultimate character and could win almost any single-player battle

by himself. As long as he’s not using magick (and with his sword techniques,

there’s not much reason to), you can lower his faith to render him nearly

impervious to enemy magick. He can’t equip Chantage, of course, but an Angel

Ring makes a good back-up as it gives him one Reraise per battle in case he

does get KOed.

Either Teleport or Move +3 is a great movement ability. Move +3 lets him cover

the map faster, but Teleport makes him more agile through difficult terrain and

large crowds of enemies.

You could give him a Grand Helm for maximum HP, but a Thief’s Cap may actually

be more useful as it gives him a +2 bonus to Speed, allowing him to take more

turns. He’s probably tough enough that the extra 50 HP from the Grand Helm

won’t matter much. Plus, the Thief’s Cap also protects him from Immobilize and

Disable.

Iaido might be a good secondary action ability since it gives him both group

attack capability and (through Murasame and Kiyomori) some healing and support

abilities.

For a more defensive version of this character, you can swap out Shirahadori

and Move +3/Teleport for Mana Shield and Manafont. You’ll be a little less

mobile, but Mana Shield and Manafont will provide Orlandeau with an almost

constant buffer of HP that is effective against any kind of attack.

ORLANDEAU - RENDEZVOUS MODE VERSION

Job : Sword Saint

Action Ability : Iaido or other

Reaction Ability : Shirahadori

Support Ability : Vehemence/Attack Boost or Safeguard or Poach

Movement Ability : Teleport or Move +3

Equipment : Chaos Blade, Escutcheon II or Reverie Shield,

Grand Armor or Brave Suit, Thief’s Cap or Grand Helm,

Brigand’s Glove

Bravery : High (97)

Faith : Low (03)

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

If you’re playing Rendezvous Mode, obtaining a Brigand’s Glove gives Orlandeau

an automatic Haste without the Excalibur. That means you no longer need the

Excalibur and Dual Wield, so you can equip the Escutcheon II (or Reverie

Shield) and another support ability of your choice. Vehemence or Attack Boost

is a good general-purpose choice, or you can use Safeguard if you’re expecting

to fight enemies who will steal/rend your equipment or use Unyielding Blade.

Poach can also be used if you’re monster-hunting.

Either the Grand Armor or Brave Suit, also both multiplayer-exclusive, will

give Orlandeau a permanent Reraise.

AGRIAS

Job : Holy Knight

Action Ability : Darkness or Iaido

Reaction Ability : Shirahadori

Support Ability : Dual Wield

Movement Ability : Teleport or Move +3

Equipment : Chaos Blade, Excalibur, Ribbon, Maximillian or Grand Armor,

Chantage or Tynar Rouge

Bravery : High (97)

Faith : Low (03)

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

Same as Orlandeau, but with the Ribbon’s immunity to status changes, she’s even

more invulnerable. For an accessory, you can choose between a Chantage (for

a permanent Reraise), or the instant Haste, attack boost, and protection of the

Tynar Rouge. The Rouge is probably the overall better choice, with the extra

attack power and permanent Shell/Protect, you may not even need a Reraise that

often! (If you can get a Grand Armor from Rendezvous Mode, this will also give

Agrias a permanent Reraise.)

The Darkness ability is also great for Agrias because it gives her additional

sword techniques, including techniques for draining enemy HP and MP.

(Orlandeau already has these as part of Swordplay.) HP-drain attacks are

great for keeping Agrias healthy while still doing damage.

Since Agrias is female and can’t use the Bard job, getting Move +3 requires

unlocking Dark Knight; in the mean time, you can give her the Thief’s Move +2.

BEOWULF

Job : Templar

Action Ability : Summon or Darkness

Equipment : Excalibur

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

Beowulf’s Templar job is fairly useful as it can inflict a lot of status

conditions with no charge time. It also has the highest MP total of any job in

the game. This means that Beowulf can also make a good Summoner, since the

high MP cost of Summons isn’t such an issue for him. If you take this route

with him, you may also want to give him Swiftness so the Summons charge faster.

Since Beowulf’s Spellblade abilities don’t depend on the strength of his

weapon, maximizing out his weapon power isn’t so important. Instead, give him

an Excalibur for its permanent Haste effect.

Or, if you’ve unlocked Dark Knight, the Darkness abilities pair up well with

Beowulf’s Vengeance ability. You can first use Darkness attacks, which sap

Beowulf’s HP ... thus making his Vengeance attack stronger! And, if his HP

gets *too* low, you can restore it with Sanguine Sword.

REIS

Job : Dragonkin

Action Ability : Martial Arts or Steal or Jump

Support Ability : Brawler

Movement Ability : Move +3

Equipment : no weapon, Minerva Bustier, Septie`me or Tynar Rouge

Bravery : High (97)

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

Although Reis has high HP, her punches are pretty weak without Brawler and a

high Bravery. Finally, since her move range is somewhat short, Move +3 (or a

lesser movement ability) will help her get across the battlefield. She can’t

use much equipment, but you CAN give her perfume or lip rouge. Both the

Septie`me or Tynar Rouge will increase her magick attack (making her breath

attacks stronger) and give her Haste, allowing her to take more turs.

What about action abilities? If you’ve equipped Brawler, it makes sense to

also give her Martial Arts or Steal as an action ability since both these

abilities benefit from Brawler. Or, you could give her Jump, since she has

very high speed and this will make your Jump attacks execute quickly.

If you’re playing the multiplayer modes, you’ll also want to collect a Minerva

Bustier from Melee Mode for Reis. This is the only armor that she can equip as

a Dragonkin!

Finally, since Reis’s Dragonkin job has outstanding stat growth, try to do the

bulk of her level-gaining as a Dragonkin.

Paired with a Tiamat or Greater Hydra, Reis makes for one heck of a fighting

team, and she’s also good at recruiting enemy monsters with her inherent Tame.

CONSTRUCT 8

Bravery : High (97)

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

Since Construct 8 can’t change abilities or equipment and always has the

minimal level of Faith, the only way you can improve it is to max out its

Bravery and level it up.

BALTHIER

Job : Sky Pirate

Action Ability : Jump

Equipment : Javelin II or other strong polearm

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

The Jump command is great for Balthier because he has a good physical attack

rating and fantastic speed, allowing his Jump attacks to execute before the

enemy can get out of the way. Give him a polearm instead of a knight’s sword

-- although its attack power is lower, you’ll get a 50% boost to the damage

from your Jump attacks. At closer ranges, Balthier can use Barrage as a strong

physical attack with no delay.

BALTHIER

Job : Sky Pirate

Support Ability : Brawler

Equipment : Mirage Vest or Ninja Gear, Green Beret or Lambent Hat or

Thief’s Cap, Hermes Shoes