FFR: Spell-like skill list
Oct. 4th, 2025 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorThis is a list of things in Final Fantasy Renaissance that are like spells - and indeed, can be found under the MAGIC menu - but are closer to skills in practice.
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Dancer Dances
These are learned by speaking with dancers in various towns, and occasionally, fulfilling other objectives. You must speak with Arylon first to get any of these. On every level that is a multiple of 5, the base chance of success increases on each by 5%. They get 25% extra at the start of a battle. The chance can be further increased when FIGHT or FLURRY is used by 25+([Hits-1]×10)%. Failing a dance with the DETERMINATION skill raises it by 25%.
The numbers listed here are their success rate at level 1. Success rate in excess of 100% increases potency and how much is expended, though the exact formula is unclear.
- DRAIN SAMBA: 50% base, expends 25%. Performs an attack that drains HP equal to the damage inflicted. Draining caps at however much the enemy has remaining, but damage does not. The drain component is ineffective on mechs and undead.
Dancer: Arylon of Coneria
Nice. It's just an attack plus a self heal. But that can be helpful throughout the game. A notable use of it early on is against the SCUMs in the Marsh Cave since it pierces their high defense.
- QUICK STEP: 50% base, expends 25%. Lowers all enemies' evade and hit% by 20%
Dancer: Darylon of Pravoka after beating the PIRATEs and learning DRAIN SAMBA
Niche and not likely to do much. Even if this is more effective in practice than on paper like one of the below skills, it only affects accuracy from both ends.
- HEALING WALTZ: 50% base, expends 25%. Heals 33-66HP on one ally and removes all statuses except Stone/KO
Dancer: Farylon of Elves' Castle after learning QUICK STEP
An excellent dance. It can heal paralysis, save you PUREs, and acts like a CUR2 at the very least. I found myself using this a lot throughout the entire game.
- PALTRY POLKA: 40% base, expends 25%. Lowers all enemies' attack and magic attack by 20%.
Dancer: Karylon of Melmond after learning HEALING WALTZ
The thing about this is it's closer to "reduce to 20%" in practice. It's really absurd and can cripple nearly anything, especially with potency boosts. Very cheesy.
- SWORD DANCE: 40% base, expends 25%. Boosts all allies' damage by 10.
Dancer: Marylon of Crescent Lake after the VAMPIRE
Whether or not this is good depends on your party. One filled with mages won't get much use out of it, but it can be a solid boost to a physical party. Besides unarmed characters, anyway - they can't get the buff.
- HASTE SAMBA: 30% base, expends 25%. Roughly doubles hit% on all allies.
Dancer: Sarylon of Onrac after showing the Ancient Knife from Sea Shrine B1
FAST on all allies. Enough said. This is also subject to potency boosts and can give more than double hits. Again, this can be either fantastic or mediocre depending on your team.
- FORBIDDEN SPIN: 30% base, expends 25%. Minor AoE damage and potentially inflicts confusion/darkness/silence/poison
Dancer: Varylon of Gaia for 300000G
For such an absurd price tag, this sure isn't worth it except for getting the last song. The damage is only okay, the status ailments don't always land, darkness and poison are useless, and silence is only situational. It might be better when boosted, but when it comes to AoE and status, you generally want it applied as soon as possible. Even with a Dark Knight in the party, there are way better ways of applying darkness.
- LAST WALTZ: 25% base, expends 25%. Massive damage proportional to the user's bravery.
Dancer: Zarylon of Lefein after all 7 others and defeating her in a battle
This can be a very impressive nuke if you have enough bravery. Just one FLURRY can often be enough to boost this to powerful levels. I've seen screenshots of this dealing enough to one-shot CHAOS in NG+ mode (with other buffs). The one problem? Fighting Zarlyon herself. Think KRAKEN if he only used his physical and then started using this in case you thought you could just boost evade: you have to win fast.
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Bard Songs
These are learned by talking to NPCs around the world with them as your lead character. This will give them part of inspiration towards learning a new song. Once all NPCs have been spoken to, the song can be used in battle. While there are different levels of song, they all share the same spell charges, which refresh after each battle or when HIDE is used. Bard has 1 and Troubadour has 2. Up to 4 can be active at once no matter how many bards you have. An individual bard needs their LIMIT to have multiple instances of the same song.
- KNIGHT'S MINNE (Protection): Increases Absorb by 8+(LUCK÷10) points for allies
Inspirations: Coneria-Knight near well, woman near magic shop, man near entrance / Coneria Castle-Knight near entrance
Nice one. 8 absorb is a lot more than you might think, especially at the start of the game. Stays relevant later on, but it's less useful against high attack opponents.
- VALOR MINUET (Courage): Increases damage by 8+(LUCK÷10) points for allies
Inspirations: Coneria Castle-Guard near stairs, not so invisible woman, man in square near TNT / Matoya's Cave-Stationary Broom
Also a great one that stays relevant forever. It effectively gives you 8-16 more damage per hit. Scales a little as of 2.0, much like the above. Notable for being one of the few attack boosts a Monk is allowed to get.
- ANGELSONG (Soothing): Grants allies Regen, restoring 5% of their MaxHP at the end of their turn
Inspirations: Pravoka-Man in central square, woman south of Bikke, young man on east side / Elfland-Elf near item shop
This one is mediocre at the start, but it becomes better later on. If you're up against the right enemy, you can use this skill to stall and heal without using potions or staffs or helmets. This can coexist with Green Mage's or Kirin's REGEN.
- HERO'S RIME (Pride): Increases allies' MORALE and LUCK by 12 points
Inspirations: Elfland-Elf NW of White Magic shop / Elf Castle-Aide, elf NE of entrance / Dwarves' Cave-Dwarf S of stairs, dwarf NW of stairs, dwarf SW of entrance
This results in being able to run more effectively and maybe causing enemies to run. The Bard can also click RUN after this, just weigh the chances of running in the first place against using this and hoping the others make it. This is of questionable use if you have a Thief in the party. You may even want to skip this (aside from pinging the achievement) if you plan to make use of the Auto Harp, especially on NG+.
- MANA'S PAEON (Enchantment): Boosts all allies' magic damage by 30%
Inspirations: Melmond-Man E of White Magic Shop, man N of destroyed clinic, young man near armor shop / Crescent Lake-Front 2 sages, woman N of clinic
Another excellent skill. It's dependent on your party having enough casters, but it shines when it does and should stack with similar buffs like the Geomancer's.
- MAGIC CAROL (Mitigation): Increases allies magic defense by 100%
Inspirations: Melmond-Woman near black magic shop / Sarda's Cave-Sarda / Crescent Lake-Man behind weapon shop / Gaia-Woman near equipment shops / Onrac-Old man near Clinic, witch near magic shops
Magic defense can prevent spells and skills from doubling or hitting, or status on hits like the SORCERER's KO from triggering. Having more than 100 will basically guarantee a physical status attack will not land (the formula is 100-MDef per hit). Probably the most niche, but it's a huge boost when it's needed.
- DEXTROUS ETUDE (Ruthlessness): Increases critical hit chance by 12%
Inspirations: Crescent Lake-Back right sage / Gaia-Pirate, man near equipment shop / Onrac-Man in graveyard, woman near inn / Cardia-Right dragon in Bahamut's room, dragon north of stairs in pit near Bahamut's / Waterfall-CUBE robot
With the critical hit bug being fixed and most weapons having a low chance of landing a critical, this becomes a very useful one for all your physical attackers. It's an excellent candidate to be stacked with their LIMIT.
- VICTORY MARCH (Celebration): Doubles EXP yield of enemies defeated while the song is active. Stacks additively (or so).
Inspirations: Gaia-Woman N of entrance / Onrac-Man near submarine / Cardia-Dragon in westmost pit, dragon in forested pit / Sea Shrine-Mermaid in bottom left room, mermaid in second room in middle row / Lefein-Northmost citizen on left canal / Mirage Tower-Robot on 1F
While it comes very late, this song is good to cast in general. It can be auto-cast by the Gilbart Harp, but you need a Thief to obtain that behind the throne in Ordeals. Note that you can actually get the one in Lefein before getting the SLAB, but it doesn't mean much because you need the CHIME to finish the song anyway.
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Archer Arrows
The 'spells' of the Archer class are actually physical attacks with the chance for a status: they can even miss or critical. Each of these requires certain materials to craft, which can be obtained if the Archer kills an enemy with a melee attack. Shots guarantee their status when hitting certain classes enemy that vary by shot. A list of which enemies drops what can be found here, and a list of racial types can be found here.
- FANG SHOT: Damage + 75% chance to lower enemy physical attack by 4-8
Drops: FANG×2 / Called: BEAST arrow
Lots of enemies drop FANGs, but just remember they go into every crafting formula and this one costs two. The added effect is negligible without hitting multiple times.
- LEG SHOT: Damage + 50% chance of paralysis. Guaranteed on giants.
Drops: FANG×1, HIDE×1 / Called: STUN arrow
Paralysis is one of the best ailments to inflict on an enemy: it locks them down with only roughly a 10% chance of recovery each turn. It's effective and readily accessible, arguably too accessible for what it does.
- WING SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to nullify added effects on physical. Guaranteed on flyings.
Drops: FANG×1, WING×1 / Called: PEEL arrow
Now you might be looking at that effect and thinking it's awesome. The problem with it is that most of the enemies who have status on physicals come in massive groups. The most practical uses are against LICH if you fear his paralyzing physical, CHAOS for the same, and a handful of Evoker bosses.
- TAIL SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to reduce enemy's hit%. Guaranteed on aquatics.
Drops: FANG×1, TAIL×1 / Called: DRAG arrow
Pretty nice to inflict on KARY, KRAKEN (who is guaranteed to be slowed) or anything else with a high hit modifier. It's only held back by how more crippling status shots exist.
- SCALE SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to reduce enemy physical defense by 4-8. Guaranteed on dragons.
Drops: FANG×1, SCALE×2 / Called: WYRM arrow
Scales are the only items without a guaranteed source of dropping, and you need two of them to get one use of these. Luckily, this one is questionable. It's theoretically best with allies with high hit%. Monk will love it the most, Dark Knight and Archer itself won't notice.
- THROAT SHOT: Damage + 50% chance of mute. Guaranteed on spellcasters.
Drops: FANG×1, TONGUE×1, BLOOD×1 / Called: MUTE arrow
A good one. Mute can shut certain enemies down, and if they use magic, they're guaranteed to be silenced by this. Just note that some can choose to just ignore their AI scripts if you silence them.
- HEAD SHOT: Damage + 50% chance of blind/confusion/stone. Guaranteed on humanoids.
Drops: FANG×1, EYE×1, BLOOD×1 / Called: TERROR arrow
You're gambling on the right status whenever you use this. Blind is near useless, if you want to shut an enemy down with status just use LEG SHOT, and the instant death of stone isn't reliable. Blind is ironically good on the Dancer superboss (who is humanoid), but she's immune to the other two ailments so it's still a crapshoot.
- SPIRIT SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to reduce magic defense by half. Guaranteed on magic beasts.
Drops: FANG×1, ASH×2, GEL×1 / Called: GHOST arrow
Magic defense governs whether magic deals double damage or status magic hits. It's abusable to say the least, but there can be a difficulty in acquiring the materials. It might not be too hard to amass ASH which drops from almost any undead, but GEL only drops from generally very physically resistant slime enemies. Contrast with just a coinflip to inflict a status outright though, and the main practical use of this is if you're restraining yourself.
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Ronin Weapon Skills
These can be used by having the appropriate weapon and enough TP. Without the RETAIN TP trait, they must be equipped to be used. With it, the weapon just needs to be in the user's inventory.
Blade skills
Wooden Blade - FAST BLADE (100TP)
ST FIGHT attack with hit multiplier increased by 1
Despite being on the initial katana you can buy in the first town, this is actually very solid. It combos with FAST and even FAST2, resulting in triple or quadruple the hit% respectively. The only downside is Wooden Katana having 0 hit% itself, so aside from the few methods of increasing it, you'll have to rely on the Ronin's natural hit%. Which is top tier, but still. Note that because of how hit multipliers work in FFR, Ronin won't get 2-hits with this until level 3.
Scimtar - PALE BLADE (100TP)
AoE non-elemental bind and darkness
This is more or less a skill to support a Dark Knight. Bind is pointless except maybe on New Game+ with Blue Mage, where enemy morale stays the same while your levels shoot up.
Gale Sword - GUST (200TP)
AoE base 80 wind-elemental damage
Having a Spellblade in the same party is required for this, because the Gale Sword can only be obtained by them. It hits twice as hard on everything as the similar elemental attacks from around the same time, for twice the TP. Battles might be over by the time you get to use this.
Kotetsu - REVERBERATION (200TP)
AoE base 160 water-elemental damage
This not only requires a Machinist to be in the party to have access to crafting, but you'll need to bring an Archer along too because the schematics require FANGs! For doing so, you get a solid weapon (especially with DOUBLEHAND and augments) with a WS skill that's a counterpart to the Katana's! Since it has 3 augment slots, you can hit 3-hits fairly early. Then if the Ronin gets hit twice, they'll be able to fire this off on round 2.
Falcata - ASHURA (100TP)
Subsequent elemental damage in the skillchain will deal 50% more damage
So let's talk about this one. This costs 100TP. Let's say you use it with one of the base 160 spells. It bumps them to 240 power. As a Ronin, you have a limit of 300TP. With a skillchain, you'll hit for 240 twice, or 480. Compare to using the base 160 power skill thrice instead: still 480. The math's no different with anything else. You'll need either other skills in play (which all cause economy problems and will probably reduce your overall damage anyway), or use this as a Samurai with a 400TP cap to actually get anything out of it. Falcata is a good weapon with a bad WS.
Scarlet Blade - EXSANUINATE (300TP)
AoE damage, half of it is drained as healing. Ineffective on undead/mech
It's a cool skill and does some solid damage, it's just that battles are almost certainly going to be over by the time you get to use this. It should be a solid skill for solos, however.
Katana - CHIRIJIRADEN (200TP)
AoE base 160 fire-elemental damage
A big strong nuke that hits everything on the field may not be the best thing by the time you can reach Katana due to the lack of big enemy groups, but it can still be nice when you get the chance to employ it.
Masmune - OBLIVION (300TP)
AoE non-elemental KO
Your reward for getting to the end of the game with a Ronin is a skill that can instantly kill CHAOS if you want to cheese him like that. Note that it won't override KO immunity if you want to warp out and use it on class specific bosses.
Knife skills
Small Knife - FANG (100TP)
ST FIGHT that ignores defense
The enemies around the time the Small Knife is viable don't have nearly enough defense to make this worth it. It is the cheapest option for dealing with SCUM if nothing else. It might be interesting in skillchains later on.
Large Knife - SLASH (100TP)
ST halve target HP + inflicts 50HP decay, ineffective on bosses
This is something you can use against WarMECH and HADES, I guess. No Time Mage DEMI nonsense to be had from this job. It might be useful on dragons in New Game+ as an alpha strike with TP storage, but that's about the only other use you're going to get out of this. The decay component may not always proc. Much like the Time Mage's version of the ailment, it'll drain 50, 100, 150, etc.
Silver Knife - ECLIPSE (100TP)
ST non-elemental stun
Stun is a new status that effectively acts as paralysis for one turn. It's kind of niche on a Ronin though, especially for a weapon skill. It's fine, but you're usually better off dealing damage.
Mythril Knife - SPIKE (100TP)
ST base 80 earth-elemental damage
Strangely underpowered compared to the other mythril weapons' skills for no apparent reason. Earth isn't a particularly good element to use either: 64 out of the 128 vanilla game's enemies resist it. And as far as things that are weak to it go, it's just the RAMUH boss of Evoker.
Assassn Dagger - MERCY STROKE (200TP)
ST Death-elemental KO, ineffective on bosses
A Thief is required to retrieve this weapon in Castle Ordeals. I don't really get the logic behind this one: randoms will likely be wasted by damage before you can use this, and you can't use it on the few bosses vulnerable to the Death element. Being 200TP also means it doesn't work with Samurai's TP retention.
Icepick - FROSTBITE (100TP)
ST base 160 ice-elemental damage
This is like an ICE3 that only hits one enemy, but that's still 80-320 damage before INT. It's cheap and accessible reasonably early too.
Ancient Knife - ECONOMIZER (100TP)
Double XP and gold gains from enemies subsequently killed in the chain
A utility one. The one catch is that it needs to be used in a skillchain and that skillchain needs to kill an enemy, so it's not as simple as repeatedly farming a spike tile. Because battles will need to be at least two turns with this one, it's more something to cast incidentally (like against a roaming WarMECH) rather than when grinding.
Catclaw - EQUITY MIRROR (200TP)
ST damage equal to Max HP - Current HP
While the problem with enemies having higher HP than player characters isn't as pronounced in FF1, it's still a problem. You'll have to set this up and hope they don't explode before they can get it off. Coupled with the higher than usual cost and the price to buy a Catclaw? We have a real loser here.
Spear skills
Iron Spear - SKEWER (100TP)
ST physical with all hits critical
A physical where all hits are critical is the same thing as the Master's LIMIT. Iron Spear hurts way less than their fists, but it's still a nice skill.
Steel Spear - THUNDER THRUST (100TP)
ST base 40 lit-elemental damage
A basic elemental attack with the same base power as ICE. It's okay on the ocean early on if your offense is otherwise low, and can be used to get past SCUM's defenses in the Marsh Cave, but that's about it.
Silver Spear - MOMENTUM (100TP)
ST physical, increases damage based on number of skills in chain so far
One of the best skills. It's completely viable to just have a Silver Spear and use this three times in the early game. It even scales well into the lategame if you want to have them FIGHT with a stronger weapon then use 3-4 of these as the skillchain.
Mythril Spear - WHEELING LANCE (100TP)
ST base 160 wind-elemental damage
Another big elemental nuke that you can use for a cheap cost and bringing along a Machinist to craft it, much sooner than the Icepick. It's good on LICH in particular.
Arcane Lance - EMPOWERER (100TP)
Subsequent physical damage in the skillchain will deal 50% more damage
It has similar problems to ASHURA: you'll need to be promoted with 400TP to actually do anything with this, and anything else risks action economy issues.
Platnum Spear - PENTA THRUST (300TP)
ST physical, always deals 5 hits
Not even FAST can increase the number of hits on this. It's pricey and might not be that much more effective than a basic physical or three MOMENTUMs, but it's still one of the better skills on a midgame weapon.
Holy Lance - CLEAN SLATE (300TP)
Restores 25% of the user's max HP and removes most negative status effects
This one is just bad. For 100TP more than the Rose Bow's WS, you heal half of the HP and restore status that A) you are probably preventing with Ribbon anyway and B) any status that you would badly want to heal takes control away. If this was a full heal, it'd be better, but alas.
Tempest - TEMPEST (300TP)
Random 4 physical attacks at 50% damage
It's the last part that can cause problems here. The things you'd get to use this expensive skill on are bosses with high defense, and lowering your attack further against them could result in four 4-damage hits at worst.
Bow skills
Short Bow - ARROW RAIN (100TP)
AoE physical
This is effectively a FIGHT that hits all enemies. It can be hard to use this outside of NG+ or solos though: in a party, those early encounters might be half gone before you get to drop the AoE.
Long Bow - FLAMING ARROW (100TP)
ST base 40 fire-elemental damage
It has the same base power as ICE. Like the Steel Spear, this can be useful in the Marsh Cave against SCUMs and the undead.
Elven Bow - WHISTLER ARROW (100TP)
ST sonic, may inflict silence
Silence is a niche status. The problem with this one is that you want it out as quickly as possible. Most of the things you'd want to use this on are in the first half of the game, so it's mainly good in New Game+ when you can have early access to STORE TP. It's interesting for being sonic damage, meaning nothing resists (or boosts) it.
Iron Bow - PIERCING ARROW (100TP)
ST physical, guaranteed critical
You're usually better off using the Iron Spear when it comes to throwing out guaranteed criticals simply because doing more than one hit will make up for the lower damage rating of the weapon. Still, if you're memeing a Ronin with strictly bows, there are worse things you can use.
Silver Bow - APEX ARROW (200TP)
ST physical, deals 3x normal damage
You might actually see some big numbers out of a bow's single hit with this one. There's better, but this is not a bad one by any means.
Mythril Bow - SPLITTER ARROW (100TP)
ST base 160 lit-elemental damage
Same as the other mythril weapons, just in another element.
Rose Bow - MERCY (200TP)
Restores 50% of the user's Max HP
An interesting one. I feel 200TP is a little overpriced for what it does, and other skills might just get you out of the battle through killing the enemy, but there are worse things to do with your TP than healing your Samurai.
Yoichi Bow - YUMI: ENPI (300TP)
High ST damage, recovers 200TP
You'll need a Ranger to retrieve this, and of course, that means they'll won't be able to use it themselves: they'll have to settle for the stronger but less crit-having Rose Bow (or just spamming HUNTER'S MARK because they can since lol no tiredness). Is it worth it to use though? Kind of? It costs a lot and only restores part of what it uses, but the damage is good. Note that the TP recovery happens when it hits, so you can't use this for infinite TP.
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Machinist Tools
Tool schematics are found from various sources in the game world. Barring winning a coinflip with the Novice or Master Hammer, they're good for exactly one use each: you need to buy or farm materials to create them. They use the Mechanist's stats to some extent. After promotion, you can modify them to have different effects. However, you can still only use one at a time, and all Machinists in the party need to use the same set.
L1
- AUTO-CROSSBOW: AoE physical, 10/10/10
Components: 1 WIRE, 3 BOLTs, 1 METAL / Schematics: Woman in Coneria Castle F2
The damage this deals is absolutely pitiful early on. On top of it, it will cost you 55G a shot at minimum - 60G if you don't have anyone who can use a Small Knife. That's actually a lot at the start. There are way better things to spend your money on in the early game. It can be more viable in the midgame when it can start dealing multiple hits.
- FOCUS CROSSBOW: ST physical, 20/10/10
Components: 1 WIRE, 5 BOLTs, 2 LENS, 1 TUBE, 1 METAL
There are other tools that will do a much better job of single target damage than this. Or you can just have them FIGHT.
- REPEATER: ST physical, floored at 3-hits, 10/30/10
Components: 3 WIREs, 6 BOLTs, 3 METALs
Almost strictly better than the base one. It can deal some decent damage to enemies with lower defense and chip damage to those with higher numbers.
- MEDIC CROSSBOW: AoE heal, base 16
Components: 1 WIRE, 4 HEALs, 1 METAL
Without the Master Hammer, you're better off using an infinite use Heal Staff or Heal Helmet than a limited use tool. But it's a different story with it: combined with INT bonuses this will heal a reasonable chunk of HP. It's a small panic button that might get you out of a jam if you have the sense of when to use it. It might well be the best of these.
L2
- FLASHBULB: AoE status-elemental darkness
Components: 1 LENS, 1 CELL, 1 WOOD / Schematics: Matoya's Cave
Darkness is a questionable status in Final Fantasy 1. The best use of this is supporting a Dark Knight.
- FLOODLIGHT: AoE non-elemental darkness
Components: 4 LENS, 2 CELLs, 1 WOOD, 1 WIND-o
Making the darkness non-elemental still means that it's only going to be useful for supporting a Dark Knight. But if that's your gameplan, this will do a better job of it and is effectively a straight upgrade.
- BLINK-BULB: AoE 1 blink stack to all allies
Components: 2 LENS, 2 CELLs, 1 WOOD, 1 EARTH-o
A top tier tool. Blink, called shadows in game, protects against a single physical hit. You'll get two with the Master Hammer. It might not be the best option if you have an Evoker who can do the same thing but better. Otherwise, it's absolutely worth considering in certain fights.
- MOLOTOV: AoE fire-elemental damage, base 60
Components: 1 WIRE, 1 LENS, 2 CELLs, 1 TUBE, 1 WOOD, 1 FIRE-o
This is basically a FIR2 spell. It still costs materials when you can just spam items instead, although this does benefit from INT and Master Hammer's bonuses. Still an all right choice and better than darkness, probably inferior to BLINK-BULB.
L3
- BIOBLASTER: A chance to inflict bio + AoE poison-elemental damage, base 60
Components: 2 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR / Schematics: Marsh Cave B3, rightmost room in second row
This is one of the best tools you can make, believe it or not. Before INT, it will deal 60-120 damage to all enemies that don't resist the element. Which is quite a lot of them (especially undead), but there's still plenty to be hit by it. It's a good tactical nuke in the early to midgame.
- AQUABLASTER: AoE water-elemental damage, base 60
Components: 2 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR, 1 WATER-o
Water is a much better element than poison in most cases, the Sea Shrine being a big exception. That part of the game aside, there's very little reason not to change over.
- SUPER-SOAKER: ST water-elemental damage, base 120
Components: 3 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR, 1 WATER-o
Whether this one is better or worse than the above depends on your party composition. If you don't need the strong AoE or are content to use itemcasts, this one will be preferred.
- HYPOSPRAY: AoE status heal to all allies
Components: 2 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 3 PUREs, 3 SOFTs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR, 1 BOLT-o
And then you have this niche one. Besides being horribly expensive because of those SOFTs, Ribbons will cover most status through prevention, and you have to make sure the Machinist doesn't get hit with status that could put them out of commission. It might be nice insurance against CHAOS if you don't have status-element protection for someone because he has paralysis on his physicals. It can also heal petrification in battle, so there's that I guess.
L4
- DEBILITATOR: AoE 3 random weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs / Schematics: Dwarf Cave treasure room
These tools all have perfect accuracy, and don't get any better when you use the Master Hammer. That said, it's a complete coinflip what you get here. It's interesting, but could easily become a wasted turn and resources. It can also set weaknesses that it already set.
- DEVULCANATOR: AoE fire/lit weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 FIRE-o, 1 BOLT-o
The redesigns solve the major problem of the randomness involved in the original version: you can pick and choose what you want to inflict. This one is probably the most practical due to having three spellcasting items in the element at the very least. You'll still need the right party to properly exploit this, but the consistency helps.
- DECOMPRESSOR: AoE ice/earth weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 ICE-o, 1 EARTH-o
Ice hits the hardest out of the basic three Black Magic elements. Of course, it's also worth noting that an earth weakness means QAKE becomes more accurate...
- DEFORTIFIER: AoE water/wind weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 WATER-o, 1 WIND-o
These have the least amount of available things to use them with. At least Engineers can hit with the water element themselves, including the SUPER-SOAKER.
L5
- DRILL: ST physical that ignores defense, 15/10/30
Components: 4 BOLTs, 2 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs / Schematics: Earth Cave B3, center of the east side
Ignoring defense might seem like a good thing, but firing a gun is going to be more consistent and not cost you precious materials. It sort of relies on getting criticals to really be worth it. That said, if you're running a tool setup with Novice/Master Hammer, it will do just fine against high absorb targets like fiends. It may be the best of its kind, because the redesigns all have questionable tradeoffs.
- STEADY DRILL: AoE physical that ignores defense, 10/10/30
Components: 4 BOLTs, 2 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 EARTH-o
There are way better ways for a Machinist to hit all foes, including the Scatter Gun you can make in the forge which partly ignores defense due to guaranteed criticals, a few of its other tools which are magical and ignore defense, or good old spellcasting items which will also ignore defense. The gun and items can also be used infinite times without breaking.
- RECKLESS DRILL: ST physical that ignores defense, 20/-30/100
Components: 4 BOLTs, 4 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 WIND-o
A guaranteed critical hit may sound nice. But that accuracy penalty hurts! It will likely end up doing less damage than a normal drill because of that, and might even whiff outright.
- OVERLOAD: AoE stun to all enemies and user
Components: 4 BOLTs, 4 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 BOLT-o
The stun on enemies is a diceroll and lasts only one turn. It also puts the user out of commission for a turn with no way to prevent it. Don't bother.
L6
- NOISEBLASTER: AoE non-elemental confusion
Components: 3 TUBEs, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs / Schematics: Ice Cave B3, west alcove
This is a good one! If the enemy doesn't resist confusion outright (which is only CHAOS and class-specific bosses) and the roll lands, they're confused. There might be better things to do, but it's definitely not a bad thing to try in any fight!
- ALARM: ST non-elemental confusion, doubles foe's damage for duration
Components: 2 WIREs, 2 LENS, 3 TUBEs, 1 SPIKE, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs
Better on single targets, but unless you have low offense, the double damage won't help too much. It's generally better to use the base form, but this can be funny to switch in against bosses or other fights you know are going to be against a single enemy. It can really cause havoc on NG+, because enemies' attack increases while their defense does not.
- MEGAPHONE: AoE heal sleep/fatigued from all allies
Components: 2 WIREs, 3 TUBEs, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs, 1 WIND-o
Sleep is basically flavor since by the time you get this: if it ever hits, it'll wear off naturally the next turn. Fatigued wears off quickly anyway in most cases, so this is only really usable with commands that have priority like DOUBLECAST. Otherwise, you're gambling on turn order.
- SONIC CHOKER: AoE non-elemental silence
Components: 2 WIRE, 3 TUBEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs
Confusion is going to be better than silence in 95% of cases. The other 5% accounts for confusion wearing off and the handful of Evoker bosses who can be silenced and not confused.
L7
- CHAINSAW: ST physical with a 20% chance of death-elemental KO, 20/20/30
Components: 3 BOLTs, 3 CELLs, 6 SPIKEs, 1 CHAIN, 4 METALs / Schematics: Sea Shrine B2, crescent-shaped room
It does not ignore defense like DRILL does, which generally makes it worse. The roll for instant death happens regardless of damage, so feel free to use this on enemies that resist it without worrying about getting screwed over.
- BUZZSAW: ST physical to 4 random targets, 20/20/30
Components: 3 BOLTs, 3 CELLs, 6 SPIKEs, 1 CHAIN, 4 METALs, 1 FIRE-o
It does a lot more damage in exchange for removing the roll for instant death. Not ignoring defense makes this bad on fiends though: unless you get a critical, the saw is going to do low damage.
- KILLSAW: ST 50% chance of death-element KO
Components: 3 BOLTs, 3 CELLs, 4 SPIKEs, 1 CHAIN, 4 METALs, 1 ICE-o, 1 BOLT-o
The problem with this is having the death element. It still works on the fiends besides LICH, and there are worse things you can do besides a coinflip to kill them. It's less justifiable against randoms.
- DOUBLESAW: ST deals 50% of current HP to target and user
Components: 6 BOLTs, 6 CELLs, 12 SPIKEs, 2 CHAIN, 8 METALs
Terrible! Machinist's HP isn't very high in the first place, and the single targets you'd want to use it on have even higher HP.
L8
- WARMECH: Summons a WarMECH that will act on its own. There must be room on the field.
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs / Schematics: Floating Castle F5, defeat a WarMECH
While it's cool to have your very own death machine, the sheer cost of it makes it very impractical to deploy. Unlike Trainer, it doesn't need to use its own action to direct the machine, but it also shares the same limitations of needing room on the field. Note that it will have normal mode stats even on New Game+.
- BLUE WARMECH: Summons a B.WarMECH. It cannot use NUCLEAR and has +50% defense and -50% attack
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs, 5 ICE-o
So in other words, it has 64 attack (2 hits) and 120 absorb. That's still enough attack to deal damage to bulky things. And 120 absorb is absurd: anything short of NG+ fiends will have trouble denting this without a lucky critical. Just remember that enemies won't always attack the machine.
- YELLOW WARMECH: Summons a Y.WarMECH. It cannot use NUCLEAR and has -50% defense, but its physicals may stun
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs, 5 BOLT-o
It's unclear what the odds of stun proccing are. It doesn't seem tied to magic defense at least: I've seen it land on targets with 200. It feels low from what I've tested though, so I'd call this one unreliable.
- RED WARMECH: Summons a R.WarMECH. It will only use NUCLEAR, but has -75% HP
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs, 5 FIRE-o
Funny, but not that great. Having only 250HP will ensure that its time on the field will be a short one. WarMECH also has so much attack that it can usually do a good enough job on single targets anyway: even CHAOS will feel its lasers. Also keep magic resistance in mind: that lowers NUCLEAR's potential damage. It's naturally a waste against randoms (and you might not even be able to fit it on screen with big groups anyway).
MAGITEK
- MISSILE: ST unlisted base non-elemental damage, ignores magic defense
This has unlimited spell charges and is what they'll be reduced to when everything else is out. It's fine. Being non-elemental means it may sometimes be the best offense option.
- FIRE BEAM: ST base 140 fire-elemental damage
- ICE BEAM: ST base 140 ice-elemental damage
- BOLT BEAM: ST base 140 lit-elemental damage
How useful these are depend on the target you're facing. They don't ignore resistance, so keep that in mind.
- HEAL FORCE: Restores 25% of max HP to all allies, including MAGITEK
This is the only way to heal these machines. It's chip healing and you can only do it twice, so weigh it against attacking more and making sure your target dies faster.
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Index
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Dancer Dances
These are learned by speaking with dancers in various towns, and occasionally, fulfilling other objectives. You must speak with Arylon first to get any of these. On every level that is a multiple of 5, the base chance of success increases on each by 5%. They get 25% extra at the start of a battle. The chance can be further increased when FIGHT or FLURRY is used by 25+([Hits-1]×10)%. Failing a dance with the DETERMINATION skill raises it by 25%.
The numbers listed here are their success rate at level 1. Success rate in excess of 100% increases potency and how much is expended, though the exact formula is unclear.
- DRAIN SAMBA: 50% base, expends 25%. Performs an attack that drains HP equal to the damage inflicted. Draining caps at however much the enemy has remaining, but damage does not. The drain component is ineffective on mechs and undead.
Dancer: Arylon of Coneria
Nice. It's just an attack plus a self heal. But that can be helpful throughout the game. A notable use of it early on is against the SCUMs in the Marsh Cave since it pierces their high defense.
- QUICK STEP: 50% base, expends 25%. Lowers all enemies' evade and hit% by 20%
Dancer: Darylon of Pravoka after beating the PIRATEs and learning DRAIN SAMBA
Niche and not likely to do much. Even if this is more effective in practice than on paper like one of the below skills, it only affects accuracy from both ends.
- HEALING WALTZ: 50% base, expends 25%. Heals 33-66HP on one ally and removes all statuses except Stone/KO
Dancer: Farylon of Elves' Castle after learning QUICK STEP
An excellent dance. It can heal paralysis, save you PUREs, and acts like a CUR2 at the very least. I found myself using this a lot throughout the entire game.
- PALTRY POLKA: 40% base, expends 25%. Lowers all enemies' attack and magic attack by 20%.
Dancer: Karylon of Melmond after learning HEALING WALTZ
The thing about this is it's closer to "reduce to 20%" in practice. It's really absurd and can cripple nearly anything, especially with potency boosts. Very cheesy.
- SWORD DANCE: 40% base, expends 25%. Boosts all allies' damage by 10.
Dancer: Marylon of Crescent Lake after the VAMPIRE
Whether or not this is good depends on your party. One filled with mages won't get much use out of it, but it can be a solid boost to a physical party. Besides unarmed characters, anyway - they can't get the buff.
- HASTE SAMBA: 30% base, expends 25%. Roughly doubles hit% on all allies.
Dancer: Sarylon of Onrac after showing the Ancient Knife from Sea Shrine B1
FAST on all allies. Enough said. This is also subject to potency boosts and can give more than double hits. Again, this can be either fantastic or mediocre depending on your team.
- FORBIDDEN SPIN: 30% base, expends 25%. Minor AoE damage and potentially inflicts confusion/darkness/silence/poison
Dancer: Varylon of Gaia for 300000G
For such an absurd price tag, this sure isn't worth it except for getting the last song. The damage is only okay, the status ailments don't always land, darkness and poison are useless, and silence is only situational. It might be better when boosted, but when it comes to AoE and status, you generally want it applied as soon as possible. Even with a Dark Knight in the party, there are way better ways of applying darkness.
- LAST WALTZ: 25% base, expends 25%. Massive damage proportional to the user's bravery.
Dancer: Zarylon of Lefein after all 7 others and defeating her in a battle
This can be a very impressive nuke if you have enough bravery. Just one FLURRY can often be enough to boost this to powerful levels. I've seen screenshots of this dealing enough to one-shot CHAOS in NG+ mode (with other buffs). The one problem? Fighting Zarlyon herself. Think KRAKEN if he only used his physical and then started using this in case you thought you could just boost evade: you have to win fast.
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Bard Songs
These are learned by talking to NPCs around the world with them as your lead character. This will give them part of inspiration towards learning a new song. Once all NPCs have been spoken to, the song can be used in battle. While there are different levels of song, they all share the same spell charges, which refresh after each battle or when HIDE is used. Bard has 1 and Troubadour has 2. Up to 4 can be active at once no matter how many bards you have. An individual bard needs their LIMIT to have multiple instances of the same song.
- KNIGHT'S MINNE (Protection): Increases Absorb by 8+(LUCK÷10) points for allies
Inspirations: Coneria-Knight near well, woman near magic shop, man near entrance / Coneria Castle-Knight near entrance
Nice one. 8 absorb is a lot more than you might think, especially at the start of the game. Stays relevant later on, but it's less useful against high attack opponents.
- VALOR MINUET (Courage): Increases damage by 8+(LUCK÷10) points for allies
Inspirations: Coneria Castle-Guard near stairs, not so invisible woman, man in square near TNT / Matoya's Cave-Stationary Broom
Also a great one that stays relevant forever. It effectively gives you 8-16 more damage per hit. Scales a little as of 2.0, much like the above. Notable for being one of the few attack boosts a Monk is allowed to get.
- ANGELSONG (Soothing): Grants allies Regen, restoring 5% of their MaxHP at the end of their turn
Inspirations: Pravoka-Man in central square, woman south of Bikke, young man on east side / Elfland-Elf near item shop
This one is mediocre at the start, but it becomes better later on. If you're up against the right enemy, you can use this skill to stall and heal without using potions or staffs or helmets. This can coexist with Green Mage's or Kirin's REGEN.
- HERO'S RIME (Pride): Increases allies' MORALE and LUCK by 12 points
Inspirations: Elfland-Elf NW of White Magic shop / Elf Castle-Aide, elf NE of entrance / Dwarves' Cave-Dwarf S of stairs, dwarf NW of stairs, dwarf SW of entrance
This results in being able to run more effectively and maybe causing enemies to run. The Bard can also click RUN after this, just weigh the chances of running in the first place against using this and hoping the others make it. This is of questionable use if you have a Thief in the party. You may even want to skip this (aside from pinging the achievement) if you plan to make use of the Auto Harp, especially on NG+.
- MANA'S PAEON (Enchantment): Boosts all allies' magic damage by 30%
Inspirations: Melmond-Man E of White Magic Shop, man N of destroyed clinic, young man near armor shop / Crescent Lake-Front 2 sages, woman N of clinic
Another excellent skill. It's dependent on your party having enough casters, but it shines when it does and should stack with similar buffs like the Geomancer's.
- MAGIC CAROL (Mitigation): Increases allies magic defense by 100%
Inspirations: Melmond-Woman near black magic shop / Sarda's Cave-Sarda / Crescent Lake-Man behind weapon shop / Gaia-Woman near equipment shops / Onrac-Old man near Clinic, witch near magic shops
Magic defense can prevent spells and skills from doubling or hitting, or status on hits like the SORCERER's KO from triggering. Having more than 100 will basically guarantee a physical status attack will not land (the formula is 100-MDef per hit). Probably the most niche, but it's a huge boost when it's needed.
- DEXTROUS ETUDE (Ruthlessness): Increases critical hit chance by 12%
Inspirations: Crescent Lake-Back right sage / Gaia-Pirate, man near equipment shop / Onrac-Man in graveyard, woman near inn / Cardia-Right dragon in Bahamut's room, dragon north of stairs in pit near Bahamut's / Waterfall-CUBE robot
With the critical hit bug being fixed and most weapons having a low chance of landing a critical, this becomes a very useful one for all your physical attackers. It's an excellent candidate to be stacked with their LIMIT.
- VICTORY MARCH (Celebration): Doubles EXP yield of enemies defeated while the song is active. Stacks additively (or so).
Inspirations: Gaia-Woman N of entrance / Onrac-Man near submarine / Cardia-Dragon in westmost pit, dragon in forested pit / Sea Shrine-Mermaid in bottom left room, mermaid in second room in middle row / Lefein-Northmost citizen on left canal / Mirage Tower-Robot on 1F
While it comes very late, this song is good to cast in general. It can be auto-cast by the Gilbart Harp, but you need a Thief to obtain that behind the throne in Ordeals. Note that you can actually get the one in Lefein before getting the SLAB, but it doesn't mean much because you need the CHIME to finish the song anyway.
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Archer Arrows
The 'spells' of the Archer class are actually physical attacks with the chance for a status: they can even miss or critical. Each of these requires certain materials to craft, which can be obtained if the Archer kills an enemy with a melee attack. Shots guarantee their status when hitting certain classes enemy that vary by shot. A list of which enemies drops what can be found here, and a list of racial types can be found here.
- FANG SHOT: Damage + 75% chance to lower enemy physical attack by 4-8
Drops: FANG×2 / Called: BEAST arrow
Lots of enemies drop FANGs, but just remember they go into every crafting formula and this one costs two. The added effect is negligible without hitting multiple times.
- LEG SHOT: Damage + 50% chance of paralysis. Guaranteed on giants.
Drops: FANG×1, HIDE×1 / Called: STUN arrow
Paralysis is one of the best ailments to inflict on an enemy: it locks them down with only roughly a 10% chance of recovery each turn. It's effective and readily accessible, arguably too accessible for what it does.
- WING SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to nullify added effects on physical. Guaranteed on flyings.
Drops: FANG×1, WING×1 / Called: PEEL arrow
Now you might be looking at that effect and thinking it's awesome. The problem with it is that most of the enemies who have status on physicals come in massive groups. The most practical uses are against LICH if you fear his paralyzing physical, CHAOS for the same, and a handful of Evoker bosses.
- TAIL SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to reduce enemy's hit%. Guaranteed on aquatics.
Drops: FANG×1, TAIL×1 / Called: DRAG arrow
Pretty nice to inflict on KARY, KRAKEN (who is guaranteed to be slowed) or anything else with a high hit modifier. It's only held back by how more crippling status shots exist.
- SCALE SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to reduce enemy physical defense by 4-8. Guaranteed on dragons.
Drops: FANG×1, SCALE×2 / Called: WYRM arrow
Scales are the only items without a guaranteed source of dropping, and you need two of them to get one use of these. Luckily, this one is questionable. It's theoretically best with allies with high hit%. Monk will love it the most, Dark Knight and Archer itself won't notice.
- THROAT SHOT: Damage + 50% chance of mute. Guaranteed on spellcasters.
Drops: FANG×1, TONGUE×1, BLOOD×1 / Called: MUTE arrow
A good one. Mute can shut certain enemies down, and if they use magic, they're guaranteed to be silenced by this. Just note that some can choose to just ignore their AI scripts if you silence them.
- HEAD SHOT: Damage + 50% chance of blind/confusion/stone. Guaranteed on humanoids.
Drops: FANG×1, EYE×1, BLOOD×1 / Called: TERROR arrow
You're gambling on the right status whenever you use this. Blind is near useless, if you want to shut an enemy down with status just use LEG SHOT, and the instant death of stone isn't reliable. Blind is ironically good on the Dancer superboss (who is humanoid), but she's immune to the other two ailments so it's still a crapshoot.
- SPIRIT SHOT: Damage + 50% chance to reduce magic defense by half. Guaranteed on magic beasts.
Drops: FANG×1, ASH×2, GEL×1 / Called: GHOST arrow
Magic defense governs whether magic deals double damage or status magic hits. It's abusable to say the least, but there can be a difficulty in acquiring the materials. It might not be too hard to amass ASH which drops from almost any undead, but GEL only drops from generally very physically resistant slime enemies. Contrast with just a coinflip to inflict a status outright though, and the main practical use of this is if you're restraining yourself.
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Ronin Weapon Skills
These can be used by having the appropriate weapon and enough TP. Without the RETAIN TP trait, they must be equipped to be used. With it, the weapon just needs to be in the user's inventory.
Blade skills
Wooden Blade - FAST BLADE (100TP)
ST FIGHT attack with hit multiplier increased by 1
Despite being on the initial katana you can buy in the first town, this is actually very solid. It combos with FAST and even FAST2, resulting in triple or quadruple the hit% respectively. The only downside is Wooden Katana having 0 hit% itself, so aside from the few methods of increasing it, you'll have to rely on the Ronin's natural hit%. Which is top tier, but still. Note that because of how hit multipliers work in FFR, Ronin won't get 2-hits with this until level 3.
Scimtar - PALE BLADE (100TP)
AoE non-elemental bind and darkness
This is more or less a skill to support a Dark Knight. Bind is pointless except maybe on New Game+ with Blue Mage, where enemy morale stays the same while your levels shoot up.
Gale Sword - GUST (200TP)
AoE base 80 wind-elemental damage
Having a Spellblade in the same party is required for this, because the Gale Sword can only be obtained by them. It hits twice as hard on everything as the similar elemental attacks from around the same time, for twice the TP. Battles might be over by the time you get to use this.
Kotetsu - REVERBERATION (200TP)
AoE base 160 water-elemental damage
This not only requires a Machinist to be in the party to have access to crafting, but you'll need to bring an Archer along too because the schematics require FANGs! For doing so, you get a solid weapon (especially with DOUBLEHAND and augments) with a WS skill that's a counterpart to the Katana's! Since it has 3 augment slots, you can hit 3-hits fairly early. Then if the Ronin gets hit twice, they'll be able to fire this off on round 2.
Falcata - ASHURA (100TP)
Subsequent elemental damage in the skillchain will deal 50% more damage
So let's talk about this one. This costs 100TP. Let's say you use it with one of the base 160 spells. It bumps them to 240 power. As a Ronin, you have a limit of 300TP. With a skillchain, you'll hit for 240 twice, or 480. Compare to using the base 160 power skill thrice instead: still 480. The math's no different with anything else. You'll need either other skills in play (which all cause economy problems and will probably reduce your overall damage anyway), or use this as a Samurai with a 400TP cap to actually get anything out of it. Falcata is a good weapon with a bad WS.
Scarlet Blade - EXSANUINATE (300TP)
AoE damage, half of it is drained as healing. Ineffective on undead/mech
It's a cool skill and does some solid damage, it's just that battles are almost certainly going to be over by the time you get to use this. It should be a solid skill for solos, however.
Katana - CHIRIJIRADEN (200TP)
AoE base 160 fire-elemental damage
A big strong nuke that hits everything on the field may not be the best thing by the time you can reach Katana due to the lack of big enemy groups, but it can still be nice when you get the chance to employ it.
Masmune - OBLIVION (300TP)
AoE non-elemental KO
Your reward for getting to the end of the game with a Ronin is a skill that can instantly kill CHAOS if you want to cheese him like that. Note that it won't override KO immunity if you want to warp out and use it on class specific bosses.
Knife skills
Small Knife - FANG (100TP)
ST FIGHT that ignores defense
The enemies around the time the Small Knife is viable don't have nearly enough defense to make this worth it. It is the cheapest option for dealing with SCUM if nothing else. It might be interesting in skillchains later on.
Large Knife - SLASH (100TP)
ST halve target HP + inflicts 50HP decay, ineffective on bosses
This is something you can use against WarMECH and HADES, I guess. No Time Mage DEMI nonsense to be had from this job. It might be useful on dragons in New Game+ as an alpha strike with TP storage, but that's about the only other use you're going to get out of this. The decay component may not always proc. Much like the Time Mage's version of the ailment, it'll drain 50, 100, 150, etc.
Silver Knife - ECLIPSE (100TP)
ST non-elemental stun
Stun is a new status that effectively acts as paralysis for one turn. It's kind of niche on a Ronin though, especially for a weapon skill. It's fine, but you're usually better off dealing damage.
Mythril Knife - SPIKE (100TP)
ST base 80 earth-elemental damage
Strangely underpowered compared to the other mythril weapons' skills for no apparent reason. Earth isn't a particularly good element to use either: 64 out of the 128 vanilla game's enemies resist it. And as far as things that are weak to it go, it's just the RAMUH boss of Evoker.
Assassn Dagger - MERCY STROKE (200TP)
ST Death-elemental KO, ineffective on bosses
A Thief is required to retrieve this weapon in Castle Ordeals. I don't really get the logic behind this one: randoms will likely be wasted by damage before you can use this, and you can't use it on the few bosses vulnerable to the Death element. Being 200TP also means it doesn't work with Samurai's TP retention.
Icepick - FROSTBITE (100TP)
ST base 160 ice-elemental damage
This is like an ICE3 that only hits one enemy, but that's still 80-320 damage before INT. It's cheap and accessible reasonably early too.
Ancient Knife - ECONOMIZER (100TP)
Double XP and gold gains from enemies subsequently killed in the chain
A utility one. The one catch is that it needs to be used in a skillchain and that skillchain needs to kill an enemy, so it's not as simple as repeatedly farming a spike tile. Because battles will need to be at least two turns with this one, it's more something to cast incidentally (like against a roaming WarMECH) rather than when grinding.
Catclaw - EQUITY MIRROR (200TP)
ST damage equal to Max HP - Current HP
While the problem with enemies having higher HP than player characters isn't as pronounced in FF1, it's still a problem. You'll have to set this up and hope they don't explode before they can get it off. Coupled with the higher than usual cost and the price to buy a Catclaw? We have a real loser here.
Spear skills
Iron Spear - SKEWER (100TP)
ST physical with all hits critical
A physical where all hits are critical is the same thing as the Master's LIMIT. Iron Spear hurts way less than their fists, but it's still a nice skill.
Steel Spear - THUNDER THRUST (100TP)
ST base 40 lit-elemental damage
A basic elemental attack with the same base power as ICE. It's okay on the ocean early on if your offense is otherwise low, and can be used to get past SCUM's defenses in the Marsh Cave, but that's about it.
Silver Spear - MOMENTUM (100TP)
ST physical, increases damage based on number of skills in chain so far
One of the best skills. It's completely viable to just have a Silver Spear and use this three times in the early game. It even scales well into the lategame if you want to have them FIGHT with a stronger weapon then use 3-4 of these as the skillchain.
Mythril Spear - WHEELING LANCE (100TP)
ST base 160 wind-elemental damage
Another big elemental nuke that you can use for a cheap cost and bringing along a Machinist to craft it, much sooner than the Icepick. It's good on LICH in particular.
Arcane Lance - EMPOWERER (100TP)
Subsequent physical damage in the skillchain will deal 50% more damage
It has similar problems to ASHURA: you'll need to be promoted with 400TP to actually do anything with this, and anything else risks action economy issues.
Platnum Spear - PENTA THRUST (300TP)
ST physical, always deals 5 hits
Not even FAST can increase the number of hits on this. It's pricey and might not be that much more effective than a basic physical or three MOMENTUMs, but it's still one of the better skills on a midgame weapon.
Holy Lance - CLEAN SLATE (300TP)
Restores 25% of the user's max HP and removes most negative status effects
This one is just bad. For 100TP more than the Rose Bow's WS, you heal half of the HP and restore status that A) you are probably preventing with Ribbon anyway and B) any status that you would badly want to heal takes control away. If this was a full heal, it'd be better, but alas.
Tempest - TEMPEST (300TP)
Random 4 physical attacks at 50% damage
It's the last part that can cause problems here. The things you'd get to use this expensive skill on are bosses with high defense, and lowering your attack further against them could result in four 4-damage hits at worst.
Bow skills
Short Bow - ARROW RAIN (100TP)
AoE physical
This is effectively a FIGHT that hits all enemies. It can be hard to use this outside of NG+ or solos though: in a party, those early encounters might be half gone before you get to drop the AoE.
Long Bow - FLAMING ARROW (100TP)
ST base 40 fire-elemental damage
It has the same base power as ICE. Like the Steel Spear, this can be useful in the Marsh Cave against SCUMs and the undead.
Elven Bow - WHISTLER ARROW (100TP)
ST sonic, may inflict silence
Silence is a niche status. The problem with this one is that you want it out as quickly as possible. Most of the things you'd want to use this on are in the first half of the game, so it's mainly good in New Game+ when you can have early access to STORE TP. It's interesting for being sonic damage, meaning nothing resists (or boosts) it.
Iron Bow - PIERCING ARROW (100TP)
ST physical, guaranteed critical
You're usually better off using the Iron Spear when it comes to throwing out guaranteed criticals simply because doing more than one hit will make up for the lower damage rating of the weapon. Still, if you're memeing a Ronin with strictly bows, there are worse things you can use.
Silver Bow - APEX ARROW (200TP)
ST physical, deals 3x normal damage
You might actually see some big numbers out of a bow's single hit with this one. There's better, but this is not a bad one by any means.
Mythril Bow - SPLITTER ARROW (100TP)
ST base 160 lit-elemental damage
Same as the other mythril weapons, just in another element.
Rose Bow - MERCY (200TP)
Restores 50% of the user's Max HP
An interesting one. I feel 200TP is a little overpriced for what it does, and other skills might just get you out of the battle through killing the enemy, but there are worse things to do with your TP than healing your Samurai.
Yoichi Bow - YUMI: ENPI (300TP)
High ST damage, recovers 200TP
You'll need a Ranger to retrieve this, and of course, that means they'll won't be able to use it themselves: they'll have to settle for the stronger but less crit-having Rose Bow (or just spamming HUNTER'S MARK because they can since lol no tiredness). Is it worth it to use though? Kind of? It costs a lot and only restores part of what it uses, but the damage is good. Note that the TP recovery happens when it hits, so you can't use this for infinite TP.
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Machinist Tools
Tool schematics are found from various sources in the game world. Barring winning a coinflip with the Novice or Master Hammer, they're good for exactly one use each: you need to buy or farm materials to create them. They use the Mechanist's stats to some extent. After promotion, you can modify them to have different effects. However, you can still only use one at a time, and all Machinists in the party need to use the same set.
L1
- AUTO-CROSSBOW: AoE physical, 10/10/10
Components: 1 WIRE, 3 BOLTs, 1 METAL / Schematics: Woman in Coneria Castle F2
The damage this deals is absolutely pitiful early on. On top of it, it will cost you 55G a shot at minimum - 60G if you don't have anyone who can use a Small Knife. That's actually a lot at the start. There are way better things to spend your money on in the early game. It can be more viable in the midgame when it can start dealing multiple hits.
- FOCUS CROSSBOW: ST physical, 20/10/10
Components: 1 WIRE, 5 BOLTs, 2 LENS, 1 TUBE, 1 METAL
There are other tools that will do a much better job of single target damage than this. Or you can just have them FIGHT.
- REPEATER: ST physical, floored at 3-hits, 10/30/10
Components: 3 WIREs, 6 BOLTs, 3 METALs
Almost strictly better than the base one. It can deal some decent damage to enemies with lower defense and chip damage to those with higher numbers.
- MEDIC CROSSBOW: AoE heal, base 16
Components: 1 WIRE, 4 HEALs, 1 METAL
Without the Master Hammer, you're better off using an infinite use Heal Staff or Heal Helmet than a limited use tool. But it's a different story with it: combined with INT bonuses this will heal a reasonable chunk of HP. It's a small panic button that might get you out of a jam if you have the sense of when to use it. It might well be the best of these.
L2
- FLASHBULB: AoE status-elemental darkness
Components: 1 LENS, 1 CELL, 1 WOOD / Schematics: Matoya's Cave
Darkness is a questionable status in Final Fantasy 1. The best use of this is supporting a Dark Knight.
- FLOODLIGHT: AoE non-elemental darkness
Components: 4 LENS, 2 CELLs, 1 WOOD, 1 WIND-o
Making the darkness non-elemental still means that it's only going to be useful for supporting a Dark Knight. But if that's your gameplan, this will do a better job of it and is effectively a straight upgrade.
- BLINK-BULB: AoE 1 blink stack to all allies
Components: 2 LENS, 2 CELLs, 1 WOOD, 1 EARTH-o
A top tier tool. Blink, called shadows in game, protects against a single physical hit. You'll get two with the Master Hammer. It might not be the best option if you have an Evoker who can do the same thing but better. Otherwise, it's absolutely worth considering in certain fights.
- MOLOTOV: AoE fire-elemental damage, base 60
Components: 1 WIRE, 1 LENS, 2 CELLs, 1 TUBE, 1 WOOD, 1 FIRE-o
This is basically a FIR2 spell. It still costs materials when you can just spam items instead, although this does benefit from INT and Master Hammer's bonuses. Still an all right choice and better than darkness, probably inferior to BLINK-BULB.
L3
- BIOBLASTER: A chance to inflict bio + AoE poison-elemental damage, base 60
Components: 2 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR / Schematics: Marsh Cave B3, rightmost room in second row
This is one of the best tools you can make, believe it or not. Before INT, it will deal 60-120 damage to all enemies that don't resist the element. Which is quite a lot of them (especially undead), but there's still plenty to be hit by it. It's a good tactical nuke in the early to midgame.
- AQUABLASTER: AoE water-elemental damage, base 60
Components: 2 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR, 1 WATER-o
Water is a much better element than poison in most cases, the Sea Shrine being a big exception. That part of the game aside, there's very little reason not to change over.
- SUPER-SOAKER: ST water-elemental damage, base 120
Components: 3 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR, 1 WATER-o
Whether this one is better or worse than the above depends on your party composition. If you don't need the strong AoE or are content to use itemcasts, this one will be preferred.
- HYPOSPRAY: AoE status heal to all allies
Components: 2 TUBEs, 2 CELLs, 3 PUREs, 3 SOFTs, 1 CLOTH, 1 LEATHR, 1 BOLT-o
And then you have this niche one. Besides being horribly expensive because of those SOFTs, Ribbons will cover most status through prevention, and you have to make sure the Machinist doesn't get hit with status that could put them out of commission. It might be nice insurance against CHAOS if you don't have status-element protection for someone because he has paralysis on his physicals. It can also heal petrification in battle, so there's that I guess.
L4
- DEBILITATOR: AoE 3 random weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs / Schematics: Dwarf Cave treasure room
These tools all have perfect accuracy, and don't get any better when you use the Master Hammer. That said, it's a complete coinflip what you get here. It's interesting, but could easily become a wasted turn and resources. It can also set weaknesses that it already set.
- DEVULCANATOR: AoE fire/lit weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 FIRE-o, 1 BOLT-o
The redesigns solve the major problem of the randomness involved in the original version: you can pick and choose what you want to inflict. This one is probably the most practical due to having three spellcasting items in the element at the very least. You'll still need the right party to properly exploit this, but the consistency helps.
- DECOMPRESSOR: AoE ice/earth weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 ICE-o, 1 EARTH-o
Ice hits the hardest out of the basic three Black Magic elements. Of course, it's also worth noting that an earth weakness means QAKE becomes more accurate...
- DEFORTIFIER: AoE water/wind weakness to all enemies
Components: 1 TUBE, 3 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 WATER-o, 1 WIND-o
These have the least amount of available things to use them with. At least Engineers can hit with the water element themselves, including the SUPER-SOAKER.
L5
- DRILL: ST physical that ignores defense, 15/10/30
Components: 4 BOLTs, 2 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs / Schematics: Earth Cave B3, center of the east side
Ignoring defense might seem like a good thing, but firing a gun is going to be more consistent and not cost you precious materials. It sort of relies on getting criticals to really be worth it. That said, if you're running a tool setup with Novice/Master Hammer, it will do just fine against high absorb targets like fiends. It may be the best of its kind, because the redesigns all have questionable tradeoffs.
- STEADY DRILL: AoE physical that ignores defense, 10/10/30
Components: 4 BOLTs, 2 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 EARTH-o
There are way better ways for a Machinist to hit all foes, including the Scatter Gun you can make in the forge which partly ignores defense due to guaranteed criticals, a few of its other tools which are magical and ignore defense, or good old spellcasting items which will also ignore defense. The gun and items can also be used infinite times without breaking.
- RECKLESS DRILL: ST physical that ignores defense, 20/-30/100
Components: 4 BOLTs, 4 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 WIND-o
A guaranteed critical hit may sound nice. But that accuracy penalty hurts! It will likely end up doing less damage than a normal drill because of that, and might even whiff outright.
- OVERLOAD: AoE stun to all enemies and user
Components: 4 BOLTs, 4 CELLs, 1 SPIKEs, 2 METALs, 1 BOLT-o
The stun on enemies is a diceroll and lasts only one turn. It also puts the user out of commission for a turn with no way to prevent it. Don't bother.
L6
- NOISEBLASTER: AoE non-elemental confusion
Components: 3 TUBEs, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs / Schematics: Ice Cave B3, west alcove
This is a good one! If the enemy doesn't resist confusion outright (which is only CHAOS and class-specific bosses) and the roll lands, they're confused. There might be better things to do, but it's definitely not a bad thing to try in any fight!
- ALARM: ST non-elemental confusion, doubles foe's damage for duration
Components: 2 WIREs, 2 LENS, 3 TUBEs, 1 SPIKE, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs
Better on single targets, but unless you have low offense, the double damage won't help too much. It's generally better to use the base form, but this can be funny to switch in against bosses or other fights you know are going to be against a single enemy. It can really cause havoc on NG+, because enemies' attack increases while their defense does not.
- MEGAPHONE: AoE heal sleep/fatigued from all allies
Components: 2 WIREs, 3 TUBEs, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs, 1 WIND-o
Sleep is basically flavor since by the time you get this: if it ever hits, it'll wear off naturally the next turn. Fatigued wears off quickly anyway in most cases, so this is only really usable with commands that have priority like DOUBLECAST. Otherwise, you're gambling on turn order.
- SONIC CHOKER: AoE non-elemental silence
Components: 2 WIRE, 3 TUBEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 WOOD, 2 METALs
Confusion is going to be better than silence in 95% of cases. The other 5% accounts for confusion wearing off and the handful of Evoker bosses who can be silenced and not confused.
L7
- CHAINSAW: ST physical with a 20% chance of death-elemental KO, 20/20/30
Components: 3 BOLTs, 3 CELLs, 6 SPIKEs, 1 CHAIN, 4 METALs / Schematics: Sea Shrine B2, crescent-shaped room
It does not ignore defense like DRILL does, which generally makes it worse. The roll for instant death happens regardless of damage, so feel free to use this on enemies that resist it without worrying about getting screwed over.
- BUZZSAW: ST physical to 4 random targets, 20/20/30
Components: 3 BOLTs, 3 CELLs, 6 SPIKEs, 1 CHAIN, 4 METALs, 1 FIRE-o
It does a lot more damage in exchange for removing the roll for instant death. Not ignoring defense makes this bad on fiends though: unless you get a critical, the saw is going to do low damage.
- KILLSAW: ST 50% chance of death-element KO
Components: 3 BOLTs, 3 CELLs, 4 SPIKEs, 1 CHAIN, 4 METALs, 1 ICE-o, 1 BOLT-o
The problem with this is having the death element. It still works on the fiends besides LICH, and there are worse things you can do besides a coinflip to kill them. It's less justifiable against randoms.
- DOUBLESAW: ST deals 50% of current HP to target and user
Components: 6 BOLTs, 6 CELLs, 12 SPIKEs, 2 CHAIN, 8 METALs
Terrible! Machinist's HP isn't very high in the first place, and the single targets you'd want to use it on have even higher HP.
L8
- WARMECH: Summons a WarMECH that will act on its own. There must be room on the field.
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs / Schematics: Floating Castle F5, defeat a WarMECH
While it's cool to have your very own death machine, the sheer cost of it makes it very impractical to deploy. Unlike Trainer, it doesn't need to use its own action to direct the machine, but it also shares the same limitations of needing room on the field. Note that it will have normal mode stats even on New Game+.
- BLUE WARMECH: Summons a B.WarMECH. It cannot use NUCLEAR and has +50% defense and -50% attack
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs, 5 ICE-o
So in other words, it has 64 attack (2 hits) and 120 absorb. That's still enough attack to deal damage to bulky things. And 120 absorb is absurd: anything short of NG+ fiends will have trouble denting this without a lucky critical. Just remember that enemies won't always attack the machine.
- YELLOW WARMECH: Summons a Y.WarMECH. It cannot use NUCLEAR and has -50% defense, but its physicals may stun
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs, 5 BOLT-o
It's unclear what the odds of stun proccing are. It doesn't seem tied to magic defense at least: I've seen it land on targets with 200. It feels low from what I've tested though, so I'd call this one unreliable.
- RED WARMECH: Summons a R.WarMECH. It will only use NUCLEAR, but has -75% HP
Components: 12 WIRE, 10 BOLTs, 1 LENS, 4 CELLs, 4 TUBEs, 4 SPIKEs, 2 CHAINs, 1 CORE, 10 SILVERs, 5 FIRE-o
Funny, but not that great. Having only 250HP will ensure that its time on the field will be a short one. WarMECH also has so much attack that it can usually do a good enough job on single targets anyway: even CHAOS will feel its lasers. Also keep magic resistance in mind: that lowers NUCLEAR's potential damage. It's naturally a waste against randoms (and you might not even be able to fit it on screen with big groups anyway).
MAGITEK
- MISSILE: ST unlisted base non-elemental damage, ignores magic defense
This has unlimited spell charges and is what they'll be reduced to when everything else is out. It's fine. Being non-elemental means it may sometimes be the best offense option.
- FIRE BEAM: ST base 140 fire-elemental damage
- ICE BEAM: ST base 140 ice-elemental damage
- BOLT BEAM: ST base 140 lit-elemental damage
How useful these are depend on the target you're facing. They don't ignore resistance, so keep that in mind.
- HEAL FORCE: Restores 25% of max HP to all allies, including MAGITEK
This is the only way to heal these machines. It's chip healing and you can only do it twice, so weigh it against attacking more and making sure your target dies faster.
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Index
