Final Fantasy 3 Job Guide

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                         Monk                          | Wind Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Monks are very resilient melee

 Attack   |     20     |    14     |     fighters.  Their Retaliate

 Retaliate|     20     |    14     |     ability allows them to    

 Guard    |     20     |    14     |     counterattack while on the

 Item     |     20     |    14     |     defensive."

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

     3     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

     4     |    7     |    14    |   8  |      106       | |     6     |

     5     |    7     |    14    |   6  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |    7     |    14    |   4  |      102       | |     2     |

     7     |    7     |    14    |   2  |      100       | |    --     |

     8     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     9     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Monk.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  11 |  10 |  10 |   9 |   9 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  20 |  16 |  17 |  12 |  14 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  28 |  22 |  24 |  15 |  18 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  36 |  28 |  31 |  19 |  22 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  45 |  34 |  38 |  22 |  26 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  53 |  40 |  44 |  25 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  61 |  46 |  51 |  29 |  33 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  69 |  52 |  58 |  32 |  37 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  78 |  58 |  65 |  35 |  41 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  85 |  63 |  71 |  38 |  45 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack:    Attacks with equipped weapon.

Retaliate: Increases defense, Counterattacks if hit.

            Counterattack Damage = Damage Received x 2

            Defense Bonus        = Defense + JobLv

Guard:     Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:      Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Claws:  All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head:   Leather Cap, Headband, Feathered Hat, Black Cowl, Chakra Band, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Kenpo Gi, Black Garb, Black Belt Gi, Fuma Garb.

Arm:    Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves,

        Protect Ring, Shura Gloves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Shura Gloves

Def:    45

MDef:   19

Bonus:  +20 STR

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-WM} White Mage  |

---------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The White Mage is your basic healer in Final Fantasy III, and it doesn't

deviate much from other White Mage archetypes in the series. 

I consider the White Mage to be a fairly essential Job, not only at the 

beginning of the game, but I suggest using one all the way until you get the 

Jobs from the 4th and Final Crystal. Besides using potions, there are very few

ways to heal your characters, as well as heal multiple characters at the same 

time.

For one, the White Mage has the most MP of Cure magic for a long time, and 

you'll have to use it often, both in and out of battle. 

In boss battles, Cure magic is even more essential. Expect to cast an

all-party Cure spell each and every turn during a boss fight. Some of the

bosses use mega-attacks that deal a considerable amount of damage to your

entire party. If you don't have a White Mage casting an all-party Cure spell,

you might as well reset the game and change Jobs.

The White Mage is pretty much the only Job where I wouldn't suggest using a Red

Mage instead. Yes, the White Mage has all the problems that the Black Mage has;

They have poor armor, they are forced to stay in the back row, and they do 

pitiful melee damage. All of this is true.

However, you REALLY do need all the Cure spells to survive comfortably, at

least until a Bard becomes available using a Dream Harp (if you choose to go

that route). Using a White Mage also ensures that their Job level will be high

throughout the game. Many times you'll barely have enough MP or you'll even run

out - you'll wish you had access to Ethers... which by the way, the game

doesn't happily oblige you with like other games do in the series.

Also, the White Mage's actual magic power is very high. You'll get a lot out of

your basic Cure and Cura spells. It's worth noting that a Devout, the natural 

upgrade to the White Mage Job, heals for half the HP that a White Mage does

with the equivalent Cure spell. Go figure.

There are a few negative points with the White Mage, and with some of them, 

there are no ways to compensate. For one, the White Mage doesn't learn the

Raise spell (the ability to resurrect characters) until Level 5. This means to 

resurrect one of your party members, you are forced to rely the very rare item:

Phoenix Down. Otherwise, you'll have to go to a Wellspring that revives fallen

allies within a town or a specific location - the Inns surely won't do it. If

you're deep in a dungeon, this becomes a problem... and an annoyance. I never

ran out of Phoenix Downs, but in some very unlucky back-attack situations,

I had to use several. Sometimes I just "bit the bullet" and reset the game to

my last save.

Also, the Level 7 spell Esuna comes far too late in my opinion. You'll have to 

rely on items to remove those pesky, annoying status effects... like poison, 

silence or blind. Even when you do get Esuna, you probably won't want to waste 

MP because Curaja is in the same slot - you do only have 2 MP at level 40 after

all.

As for the endgame, the White Mage doesn't make the cut, unfortunately. The 

Devout largely makes the White Mage obsolete, by giving you access to Level 8 

spells (like Arise and Holy), as well as boosting the overall MP of your most 

powerful spells. While the Devout's magic power is surprisingly not as strong, 

with access to over 20 castings of Curaga and Curaja when you initially switch 

over, I doubt you'll find this to be an issue. There's also the Sage Job, which

has the ability to cast Black Magic and level 8 White Magic spells too, giving 

you two good options to upgrade your White Mage.

Overall, the White Mage is a very good Job for the first half of the game, and

even though it's not essential after the Fire Crystal because other Jobs may 

provide better healing combinations, it's still an effective Job to use.

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                      White Mage                       | Wind Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "White mages are casters who

 Attack   |     20     |    10     |     specialize in restorative magic.

 Magic    |     20     |    10     |     They're not physically strong,

 Guard    |     20     |    10     |     but their willpower is

 Item     |     20     |    10     |     incomparable!"

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     2     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     3     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a White Mage.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 | 13  2  1  0  0  0  0  0 | | 10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |   9 |  10 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 23  7  5  3  0  0  0  0 | | 20 |  15 |  16 |  16 |  14 |  17 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 33 12  9  7  2  1  0  0 | | 30 |  20 |  22 |  22 |  18 |  24 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 43 17 12 10  4  3  2  0 | | 40 |  24 |  28 |  28 |  22 |  31 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 53 22 15 14  7  5  3  0 | | 50 |  29 |  34 |  34 |  26 |  38 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 63 27 18 18  9  8  5  0 | | 60 |  34 |  40 |  40 |  29 |  44 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 73 32 21 21 11 10  6  0 | | 70 |  38 |  46 |  46 |  33 |  51 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 83 37 24 25 14 12  7  0 | | 80 |  43 |  52 |  52 |  37 |  58 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 93 42 27 29 16 14  9  0 | | 90 |  48 |  58 |  58 |  41 |  65 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 99 47 29 32 18 16 10  0 | | 99 |  52 |  63 |  63 |  45 |  71 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can cast up to Lv. 7 White Magic.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: All (excluding Sage Staff)

Rods:   Wizard Rod, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Light Rod.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe, Angel Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Angel Robe

Def:    45

MDef:   45

Bonus:  +20 MIND

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-BM} Black Mage  |

---------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Black Mage in Final Fantasy 3 is your standard elemental nuker that you can

use at the beginning of the game. While you may not use this job very often 

during the main story, the Black Mage really becomes an asset during boss 

fights.

The best ability on the Black Mage is their ability to cast Black Magic, and

out of all the beginning caster jobs, they have the most MP and have much

quicker access to the "-ara" spells than Red Mages do, which is a definite

perk. 

During some boss fights, the "-ara" spells are nearly essential. They will deal

3x the damage (or more) compared to your regular fighting jobs. And in a tough 

boss fight, you really want to get it over with quickly! Elemental spells are 

the best way to achieve that.

While you can use attack items like Zeus' Wrath or Antarctic Wind for similar 

effects, it's nice to have non-item uses of these spells because finding those 

items is rare - you cannot purchase them. And truthfully, why not cast Blizzara

and Antarctic Wind at the same time?

The Black Mage is also useful at eliminating multiple targets, especially those

with elemental weaknesses. They provide a great way of getting rid of pesky 

high-damage enemies, like Bombs, with a simple Blizzard spell. In fact, in the 

Molten Cave, the Blizzard spell is absolutely essential to survival.

The common problem with the Black Mage is their overall lack of usefulness. 

While they excel very well in a few niche areas, they are just not that 

effective 95% of the time when you have them.

Because they can only wear cloth-type armor, they need to stay in the back row.

Otherwise they'll get pummeled into the ground fairly easily.

Also, Black Mages don't deal a whole lot of damage with their rods or staffs. 

They can use a bow and arrows surprisingly, but it's not much better. When 

you're trying to conserve MP for the boss battle coming up (thus avoiding using

MP whenever possible), you can't help but get the feeling that the Black Mage

is merely along for the ride until you arrive at the final boss. 

There's one exception to this, and that's right when you acquire the elemental 

staffs. At this time, the attacks - even from the back row - surprisingly deal 

decent damage... as long as you're using the right elemental staff. Keep in 

mind, the damage is not as much as your Red Mage, Monk or Warrior would deal, 

and it's still decent.

On the plus side, the Black Mage's elemental spells will continue to deal great

damage to bosses after the Fire Crystal too, however you will receive more 

options for dealing elemental damage by that time, such as using a Ranger. 

After the Water Crystal and beyond, the Black Mage becomes nearly useless.

There are just more effective ways to deal damage to multiple enemies, and many

of them don't rely on using MP (Geomancer or Souleater). The game also doesn't 

provide a lot of equipment upgrades for either the Black or White Mage, so the

Black Mage won't be very competitive. 

Also, the Black Mage becomes obsolete when the Summoner, Sage and Magus become 

available. Without the ability to cast level 8 Spells, as well as only being 

able to cast a handful of the obviously more powerful spells, the Black Mage 

isn't a very useful choice in the endgame.

Overall, the Black Mage isn't bad at the beginning of the game because of its 

boss-nuking abilities, however I can't quite shake the feeling that the

Red Mage is still overall more useful. My recommendation is to stay away from

this job, or use one Black Mage to deal with the story until you beat the

Molten Cave.

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                      Black Mage                       | Wind Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Black mages are casters who

 Attack   |     20     |    10     |     specialize in offensive magic.

 Magic    |     20     |    10     |     Despite their appearance, they

 Guard    |     20     |    10     |     can take a few hits, too."

 Item     |     20     |    10     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     2     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     3     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a Black Mage.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 | 13  2  1  0  0  0  0  0 | | 10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |   9 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 23  7  5  3  0  0  0  0 | | 20 |  15 |  16 |  16 |  17 |  14 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 33 12  9  7  2  1  0  0 | | 30 |  20 |  22 |  22 |  24 |  18 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 43 17 12 10  4  3  2  0 | | 40 |  24 |  28 |  28 |  31 |  22 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 53 22 15 14  7  5  3  0 | | 50 |  29 |  34 |  34 |  38 |  26 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 63 27 18 18  9  8  5  0 | | 60 |  34 |  40 |  40 |  44 |  29 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 73 32 21 21 11 10  6  0 | | 70 |  38 |  46 |  46 |  51 |  33 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 83 37 24 25 14 12  7  0 | | 80 |  43 |  52 |  52 |  58 |  37 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 93 42 27 29 16 14  9  0 | | 90 |  48 |  58 |  58 |  65 |  41 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 99 47 29 32 18 16 10  0 | | 99 |  52 |  63 |  63 |  71 |  45 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can cast up to Lv. 7 Black Magic.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: Staff, Fire Staff, Ice Staff, Light Staff.

Rods:   All (excluding Millenium Rod)

Bows:   Bow, Great Bow, Killer Bow.

Arrows: Wooden Arrow, Holy Arrow, Iron Arrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Black Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Lilith Rod

Atk:    110

Bonus:  +20 INT

Effect: Casts death.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-RM} Red Mage  |

-------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Red Mage is your jack-of-all-trades Job in Final Fantasy III, but unlike

other games in the series, it's anything but typical. 

I, for one, love this Job. In my first play-through, I made the mistake of

trying to emulate a classic FF party setup using: Warrior, Monk, White Mage

and Black Mage. I did this because I thought it would make a balanced party. It

wasn't until after the Vikings' Cove that I switched my Warrior to a Red Mage

(I needed more magic power to deal with the enemies in the Nepto Temple due to

the Mini status). It was then that I discovered just how useful and powerful

this Job could be.

The Red Mage is a superior beginning Job, and I thoroughly recommend using it

at the beginning of the game up until you acquire the Jobs from the Fire

Crystal.  The Red Mage can use all the weapons a Warrior can, allowing for the

same damage dealt (excluding the Advance skill obviously). It can also use the

same armor too, so you won't need to keep them in the back row.

Red Mages can also use up to Lv. 5 Black magic for those areas where you need

to exploit enemy weaknesses. They can use up to Lv. 5 White Magic as well. This

will help with any extra healing you might need in and out of battle. The only 

real complaint here is that you'll get half of the MP a White or Black Mage 

would. But the ability to do excellent damage with two Mythril Swords more than

makes up for that.

Looking at all these benefits the Red Mage brings to the table, I can't help

but recommend that you take 2 or 3 Red Mages and 1 White Mage as your beginning

party. With this party setup, you'll comfortably breeze through the first 

quarter of the game. You'll have 3 strong attackers, 3 characters to deal with 

elemental weaknesses, and 4 characters to cast timely cures when needed, making

sure that you'll never need to use Potions or have to worry about not having 

enough Cure magic. The only reason I recommend taking a White Mage is to raise 

their Job level for their use after you get the Jobs from the Fire Crystal... 

because you will likely keep the White Mage around.

As for end-game possibilities, the Red Mage can become an extremely powerful 

Job.  It is the only Job that can use the Crimson Vest, Excalibur, and the 

Ultima Weapon at the same time. This provides a +30 stat boost across the board

and makes him quite godly.

However, if you are unable to unlock all ultimate equipment by using the 

Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, or don't want to invest the time, you'll probably 

retire this Job once you get access to more effective Jobs from the Fire 

Crystal. The Red Mage just doesn't get the equipment upgrades to remain 

competitive. Even if you do plan on using the Red Mage during the endgame, it's

still recommended that you retire this Job and only pick it up again after you 

get access to the Legendary Blacksmith.

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                       Red Mage                        | Wind Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Red mages can use both white and

 Attack   |     20     |    12     |     black magic, but they cannot use

 Magic    |     20     |    12     |     high-level spells from either

 Guard    |     20     |    12     |     school."

 Item     |     20     |    12     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     2     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     3     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     5     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     7     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     8     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     9     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

    10     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 8-9 actions per battle to level up a Red Mage.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  4  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  8  1  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 13  5  3  2  0  0  0  0 | | 20 |  15 |  15 |  16 |  16 |  16 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 17  8  5  4  1  0  0  0 | | 30 |  20 |  20 |  22 |  22 |  22 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 22 11  8  6  2  0  0  0 | | 40 |  24 |  24 |  28 |  28 |  28 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 26 15 10  8  4  0  0  0 | | 50 |  29 |  29 |  34 |  34 |  34 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 31 18 13 10  5  0  0  0 | | 60 |  34 |  34 |  40 |  40 |  40 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 35 21 15 11  7  0  0  0 | | 70 |  34 |  34 |  40 |  40 |  40 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 40 25 17 13  8  0  0  0 | | 80 |  43 |  43 |  52 |  52 |  52 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 45 28 19 15 10  0  0  0 | | 90 |  48 |  48 |  58 |  58 |  58 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 49 31 21 16 11  0  0  0 | | 99 |  52 |  52 |  63 |  63 |  63 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can cast up to Lv. 5 White Magic and Lv. 5 Black Magic.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knives: Knife, Dagger, Mythril Knife, Main Gauche, Poison Dagger.

Swords: Golden Sword, Longsword, Wightslayer, Mythril Sword, Tyrfing,

        Serpent Sword, Salamand Sword, Freezing Blade, Royal Sword,  Defender,

        Break Blade, Excalibur, Ultima Weapon.

Staves: All (excluding Elder Staff, Sage Staff)

Rods:   Mythril Rod, Wizard Rod, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Light Rod.

Bows:   Bow, Great Bow, Killer Bow.

Arrows: Wooden Arrow, Holy Arrow, Iron Arrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

        Ribbon, Crystal Helm.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor, Flame Mail,

        Reflect Mail, White Robe, Black Robe, Crimson Vest, Crystal Mail.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves.

Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Aegis Shield,

        Crystal Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Crimson Vest

Def:    50

MDef:   25

Bonus:  +10 All Stats

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-TH} Thief |

---------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When it comes to Final Fantasy games, I like Thieves. I like them because they

can Steal from the enemy party. Thieves to me are a huge investment, and being

the completionist that I am who wants to get the best items, weapons and armor

possible, Thieves in Final Fantasy are a means to that end, especially in the 

later installments in the series. 

However, I forgot FFIII was a remake of an old game where all the Thief could 

steal was potions and generally things you could buy at the Item Shop. Thus,

Steal amounts to a near useless ability.

To be fair, the Thief can steal more than stuff found at the Item Shop, such

as rare attack items and the most-coveted Elixirs. However, none of these items

are what I would call essential or game-breaking, and Elixirs (the most

important of them all) can be found by defeating dragons in the later stages of

the game.

What quality items can the Thief steal? Well, sadly there's only two. The first

is called Gungnir, the best lance in the game for the Dragoon Job. This is a 

very important steal because without spoiling anything, the item is entirely 

miss-able if you don't steal it at the appropriate time (or you don't get it

when it's dropped... which is also very rare so you're better off trying to

steal it).

The second and final item worth stealing is the Protect Ring. Not only is the 

opportunity to steal it very rare (it's a random spawn), but the game already 

provides you with 2 Protect Rings found in chests (which is probably all you'll

ever need, honestly).

Not only is it bad enough that the Thief can only steal 1 essential item during

the entire game, but you need to raise your Job Level to 71 in order to steal 

it! This requirement alone means that only the most dedicated of players are 

going to grind their Thief up to level 71 in order to get this item. You need

to do a lot of work to make your Thief worthwhile, and it's just to make the 

Dragoon a top-contender for the end-game! - What I consider a total side-event!

This doesn't bode well for the Thief's usefulness in my opinion.

Besides stealing, what else does the Thief having going for it? Well, his

damage isn't too bad. Early on in the game, your damage will be lower than a

Warrior, Monk or Red Mage, but not so much once the game progresses. Also,

daggers are plentiful throughout the game. Specialized daggers like the

Air Knife can actually deal quite a lot of damage against the right enemies.

However, if you're looking for fast damage, you might as well look elsewhere.

The Thief actually has an incredibly high speed stat to make up for its weaker

damage - actually making it the fastest acting Job in the entire game. This 

causes the Thief to act first in every battle round. Depending on the

situation, if you really need a more predictable battle order, the Thief is

your best bet to make that a reality. Many players consider this aspect to be

the Job's most defining and greatest asset. 

However, as a side know, keep in mind depending if you unlocked the Thief's 

mastery weapon and someone is using Ultima Weapon, you might not act first in 

the round after all.

Lastly, there are a few places where the game pushes you to use a Thief. 

Although it's not required, a Thief is very useful to have in Goldor Manor and

the Temple of Time. These areas have multiple locked doors that the Thief can 

pick. The game further encourages you to use a Thief by placing powerful 

Thief-specific items in these places too, so you might as well use a Thief

since the equipment is available. However, you don't have to use a Thief to

open locked doors; you can buy 20 keys for 2000 Gil, which will be enough to

open all the locked doors for the entire game.

Undeniably, the Thief has its uses throughout the game, but overall, the Thief

is a situational Job at best. It knows where it can excel, and you should use

it for those situations only. 

However at the beginning of the game, avoid using a Thief and opt to use

another Job instead (the Red Mage or Monk come to mind). The steals might net

you some extra gold, but you probably won't ever be strapped for cash. Also,

there are no locks to pick at the beginning of the game either. The first time

you will encounter a locked door will be right before the Fire Crystal, which

is almost to the half-way point of the game.

As for endgame, the Thief doesn't really have much potential either. The 

Ninja is a much better choice due to their higher strength and better weapon 

selection. The Ninja also starts every battle first, just like the Thief, 

despite the Ninja's speed stat being lower. For all intents and purposes, the 

Thief's high speed stat is overkill. Also, in the last quarter of the game,

gold is very easy to come by, making the Steal ability useless too. 

My conclusion is this: if you enjoy playing a Thief, use the Ninja instead - 

it's the natural upgrade for this Job. My recommendation is to stay away from

the Thief unless either the game calls for it, or you really, REALLY have to 

acquire the Gungnir lance for your Dragoon.

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                         Thief                         | Wind Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.    "Thieves are very fast and agile,

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |     and they can swing their weapons

----------|------------|-----------|     lightning-fast.  They also have

 Attack   |     20     |    18     |     the ability to pick locked doors.

 Steal    |     20     |    18     |     Their Steal ability allows them

 Flee     |    NONE    |   NONE    |     to take items from enemies. Also,

 Item     |     20     |    18     |     everyone will take less damage

----------'------------'-----------'     while escaping if they use Flee."

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     6    |    18    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     2     |     6    |    18    |   8  |      116       | |    16     |

     3     |     5    |    18    |  16  |      106       | |     6     |

     4     |     6    |    18    |   6  |      114       | |    14     |

     5     |     5    |    18    |  14  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     6    |    18    |   4  |      112       | |    12     |

     7     |     5    |    18    |  12  |      102       | |     2     |

     8     |     6    |    18    |   2  |      110       | |    10     |

     9     |     5    |    18    |  10  |      100       | |    --     |

    10     |     6    |    18    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

    11     |     6    |    18    |   8  |      116       | |    16     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 6-5 actions per battle to level up a Thief.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  10 |  11 |  10 |   9 |   9 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  16 |  20 |  16 |  14 |  12 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  22 |  30 |  22 |  18 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  28 |  40 |  28 |  22 |  19 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  34 |  50 |  34 |  26 |  22 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  40 |  60 |  40 |  29 |  25 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  46 |  70 |  46 |  33 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  52 |  80 |  52 |  37 |  32 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  58 |  90 |  58 |  41 |  35 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  63 |  99 |  63 |  45 |  38 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Steal:  Steal and item from an enemy.

Flee:   Higher chance of escaping from battle.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knives:   All

Throwing: All (excluding Shuriken)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

        Black Cowl, Ribbon.

Body: Vest, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor,

        Black Garb, Fuma Garb.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Thief Gloves, Power Bracers,

        Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring.

Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Gladius

Atk:    130

Bonus:  +20 AGI

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stealing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To make things simple, there are 4 items you can steal from enemies.

Here is a sample chart of the enemies and what you can steal from them:

---------------------------------------------------------------------.

Enemy:      |Item 1:      |Item 2:      |Item 3:       |Item 4:      |

------------|-------------|-------------|--------------|-------------|

            |             |             |              |             |

 Sample     | Potion      | Potion      | Hi-Potion    | Elixir      |

            |             |             |              |             |

*Boss       | Nothing     | Nothing     | Elixir       | Elixir      |

            |             |             |              |             |

------------'--------------------------------------------------------'

NOTE: An enemy with a * by its name is a Boss!!

Pretty simple right?

Now to explain the items.  Here are the Job Level ranges at which they can be

stolen.

------------------.

Item: | Job Level |

------|-----------|

  1   |    1-30   |

 1-2  |   31-70   |

 1-3  |   71-98   |

 1-4  |   99-99   |

------'-----------'

So if you are between Job Levels 1 and 30, you can only steal Item 1.  If you

are between Job levels 31 and 70, you can steal Items 1 or 2, etc....

Next is the Steal Rate for each item.

------------------.

Item: |Steal Rate |

------|-----------|

  1   |    19%    |

  2   |    17%    |

  3   |    15%    |

  4   |    12%    |

------'-----------'

Another thing.  When you steal, the game will try for the rarest item first.

So if you are Job Lv. 82, it will attempt to Steal Item 3.  If it fails

to steal Item 3, it will try for Item 2. If that fails, Item 1, and if that

fails, you fail completely and have to try again!

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-RA} Ranger  |

-----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

In many ways, the Ranger plays a lot like a Warrior, but uses a bow instead of

a sword. It is believed by many that this job is worthless. This may be true

when nearing the final areas of the game, but when you first acquire the

Ranger, it's a very useful job.

Rangers can use higher defense armor like a Knight, which is pretty useful. And

sice their attack is ranged, they can also do FULL damage from the Back Row!

Seeing that you take LESS damage from the back row (and are wearing nice armor

to boot!), this is a huge advantage during the early stages of the game.

Even better though, many enemies at this time are weak against Light damage, so

using your Holy Arrows (which can be bought for 10 Gil a piece) will cause

considerable amounts of damage.  You will also get the Rune Bow shortly after

you acquire the Ranger job, which will allow you to simply decimate everything!

With a Rune Bow + Holy arrows, you'll deal around 600-700 damage.

You can also use the other elemental arrows to exploit those weaknesses too,

making this a very good job. The game practically begs to use a Ranger because

the game provides all the necessary equipment upgrades to make it worthwhile.

I found their Barrage ability to be a mixed bag, which allows you to split the

damage of your attack while being able to attack multiple enemies at the same

time. Because most enemies require a full attack to destroy them, I can't

possibly see how this ability is useful. The best case scenario is that you can

use a Ranger to kill much weaker enemies more quickly, but where's the sense in

picking a Ranger just for that?

Even when you exploit a weakness using Barrage, the damage actually turns out

to be the same. This is also true when using Barrage against a single foe. So

let me get this straight... I use 4 Arrows, yet it only deals the same damage

as one arrow? In all honestly, Barrage is a complete waste of arrows and time

to use, regardless who your target is. I would suggest that you avoid using

Barrage completely.

As for end-game possibilities, the Ranger becomes less useful, mainly because

their ultimate Bow and Yoichi arrows have an attack power of 165, which is

about 100 points less compared to other jobs dual-weilding better weapons.

Furthermore, boomerang-type weapons (such as the Fullmoon Blade) deal

considerable more damage without having to refil your arrows.

Overall, the Ranger is decent pick when you acquire him, and nothing more.

There are a whole slew of superior jobs to choose from after you gain access to

the Water crystal. I suggest you replace your Ranger with one of those ASAP.

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                         Ranger                        | Fire Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |    "Rangers are experts in ranged

----------|------------|-----------|     combat.  With their bows, they can

 Attack   |     20     |    14     |     attack for full damage from even

 Barrage  |     20     |    14     |     the back line! Their Barrage

 Guard    |     20     |    14     |     ability allows them to unleash

 Item     |     20     |    14     |     a hail of projectiles at the enemy!"

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

     3     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

     4     |    7     |    14    |   8  |      106       | |     6     |

     5     |    7     |    14    |   6  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |    7     |    14    |   4  |      102       | |     2     |

     7     |    7     |    14    |   2  |      100       | |    --     |

     8     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     9     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Ranger.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  10 |  11 |  10 |   9 |   9 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  17 |  20 |  16 |  14 |  14 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  24 |  28 |  22 |  18 |  18 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  31 |  36 |  28 |  22 |  22 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  38 |  45 |  34 |  26 |  26 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  44 |  53 |  40 |  29 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  51 |  61 |  46 |  33 |  33 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  58 |  69 |  52 |  37 |  37 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  65 |  78 |  58 |  41 |  41 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  71 |  85 |  63 |  45 |  45 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack:   Attacks with equipped weapon.

Barrage:  Attacks randomly, 4 times, with decreased damage.

            

           Damage Per Hit = Original Damage x Factor

            .-------.---------.

            | JobLv | Factor: |

            |-------|---------|

            |  1-20 |   0.2   |

            | 21-70 |   0.3   |

            | 71-99 |   0.4   |

            '-------'---------'

Guard:    Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:     Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bows:     All

Arrows:   All

Throwing: Boomerang, Chakram.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

        Black Cowl, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor, Ice Armor,

        Flame Mail, Black Garb.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Artemis Bow

Atk:    122

Bonus:  +10 STR, +10 AGI

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-KN} Knight  |

-----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Knight is a very solid job to use in Final Fantasy 3. Warriors should 

immediately upgrade to a Knight once it's available. The automatic cover

ability has saved my butt more than a few times when other characters had low

life, which really made me feel like I made a good investment. It's

unfortunate the actual Defend ability is garbage because the Knight will do 

this automatically during battle anyway. So in this way, you lose the ability 

to have an effective special command. 

Still, Knights can cast Cure spells, and while they don't heal as much as a 

White Mage's cure spell, it's nice to have that extra safety net when you are 

playing between the Fire and Water Crystals. It takes some pressure off the

White Mage. I found that in a few parts of the game, my White Mage was low on

Cure Magic. Those extra Cures on the Knight were enough so that I didn't have

to go to my inventory and use potions. Poisona was also a nice spell to use.

I think the Knight loses its appeal when the 3rd tier jobs come in. To me, 

Viking, Dragoon and Dark Knight are all more interesting. That's not to say the

Knight is useless. I guess I consider it on the same tier as these jobs because

it's definitely usable from the Fire Crystal onwards until the end of the game.

Unlike the Dark Knight, the Knight can wear Crystal armor (very good defense)

as well as equip the both Excalibur and Ragnorok found in Eureka. It can also

use the Ultima Weapon. This setup makes him a top contender for the endgame.

So even though the Knight goes out of fashion for a big chunk of the game,

it'll become viable again since some fighting jobs cannot use those weapons. In

the Ancient's Maze, the game provides you with Crystal armor and a Break Sword.

The game is practically saying, "You really should start using your Knight

again... there's big things in store for you."

Overall, the Knight is a fairly solid job. They have great stats, do excellent 

damage, and are a tough mark for enemies to kill. Unlike other final jobs like 

the Ninja or Black Belt, the Knight is capable of surviving focused magical 

attacks like Flare. And by equipping the best weapons in the game, he'll also 

have the highest attack power out of any other job to my knowledge. 

For these reasons, you just might want to stick with your Knight until the end 

of the game to make sure his job level will be the highest possible, but you 

have to be pretty stubborn not to use some of the cooler 3rd tier jobs in the 

meantime. Overall, I give this job 2 thumbs up.

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                        Knight                         | Fire Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Knights take pride in their high

 Attack   |     20     |    12     |     defense.  Their Defend ability

 Magic    |     20     |    12     |     allows them to step in and take

 Defend   |     20     |    12     |     damage for weakened allies.  And

 Item     |     20     |    12     |     they can use white magic, too!"

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     2     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     3     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     5     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     7     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     8     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     9     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

    10     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 8-9 actions per battle to level up a Knight.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  7  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 10 |  11 |   9 |  11 |   9 |  10 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 12  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 20 |  20 |  14 |  20 |  14 |  15 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 15  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 30 |  28 |  18 |  28 |  18 |  20 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 17  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 40 |  36 |  22 |  36 |  22 |  24 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 20  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 50 |  45 |  26 |  45 |  26 |  29 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 20  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 60 |  53 |  29 |  53 |  29 |  34 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 20  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 70 |  61 |  33 |  61 |  33 |  38 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 20  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 80 |  69 |  37 |  69 |  37 |  43 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 20  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 90 |  78 |  41 |  78 |  41 |  48 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 50  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 99 |  85 |  45 |  85 |  45 |  52 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can use Lv. 1 white magic.

Defend: Increases defense.  Takes damage for weakened allies.

         

         Damage Received = Original Damage x (100 - (40 + JobLv / 5))%

         If JobLv = 99, total percentage cut is about 60%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Swords: All (excluding Onion Blade, Onion Sword)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

        Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Crystal Helm.

Body:   Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor,

        Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Knight Armor, Reflect Mail, Diamond Mail,

        Crystal Mail.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Power Bracers, 

        Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves.

Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Heroic Shield,

        Diamond Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Save The Queen

Atk:    140

Bonus:  +10 VIT, +10 MIND

Effect: Casts reflect.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-SC} Scholar  |

------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Scholar is essentially a misfit Job. It's definitely a niche Job, because 

you can't really plug it into any sort of group like "fighter" or "caster" for 

example. The Scholar really doesn't stand for anything. The best way to

describe a Scholar is that it's a collage of several "interesting" abilities.

Lets start with the good points, because there aren't many. The Scholar has a 

very useful ability called Item Lore. This ability doubles the effect of any 

item used by the Scholar, whether its attack or support. This means that 

Hi-Potions will restore 1000 HP instead of 500 HP. Likewise, attack items will

deal double damage (or quadruple if the enemy has a weakness to that item's 

element). Up until you acquire the Jobs from the Fire Crystal, taking advantage

of elemental weaknesses this way is a good way to decimate enemy bosses

quickly.

Secondly, the Scholar has a Study ability that analyzes the enemy and tells

you its HP and Weakness while nullifying any positive status effects (like

Haste, Protect, etc.). During the Hein Castle incident, a Scholar makes the

final battle much easier because their Study ability removes Hein's special

protective Barrier, which constantly reactivates and changes his elemental

weakness. This makes the Scholar almost essential during this point in the

game.

Thirdly, the Scholar can make good use of the gear found in Castle Argus.

There, you'll find armor and elemental books for the Scholar well before you

can even utilize the Job. You can complete your set of equipment by eventually

beating the Molten cave. All this early access to equipment is nice, and

definitely hints at their necessity later on in the game. These books actually

deal okay damage when you first get them, even from the back row, however only

initially.

That's about all the Scholar's actually good for. Unfortunately, Scholars have 

the worst Vitality in the game, which means they have the worst HP growth when 

your character levels up. While I don't imagine anyone would take a Scholar to 

level 99, if someone uses the Scholar Job and gains a few levels with it, you 

will notice that this character will PERMANENTLY be behind in their HP growth 

compared to other characters!

Also, vitality impacts the character's defense too (an area where Scholars are 

already troubled in due to weak armor), which means Scholars are limited to 

being placed in the back row. What does that mean? Their rather weak physical 

attacks become even worse! Sure, the books have elements which can exploit 

elemental weaknesses... and when you first acquire them, they are actually 

somewhat effective. But when the enemies become more difficult, ask yourself 

this: "Does weakness exploiting really make a huge difference?" Because we're 

talking about the Scholar, the answer is NO!

The Scholar has the ability to cast Black Magic at Level 1-3. However, due to 

his insanely low MP curve, you'll only have access to Level 1 spells for a 

majority of the time. You will only start gaining access to level 2 Black Magic

spells when your character level reaches mid 30's - That's around the time most

people reach the Temple of Time! How well do you think the basic Thunder spell 

fairs in this crazy-difficult dungeon? NOT GOOD! During the endgame, level 1-3 

Black Magic is even more useless. Not even Magi or Sages use it!

Also, the Study ability further minimizes their usefulness, because shortly 

after the Hein Castle incident, you will be able to find/purchase the Libra 

White Magic spell, making the Study ability obsolete.

Lastly, while Item Lore is decent, it also loses effectiveness in the endgame. 

Elixirs being the best support item in the game, giving a character 100% HP and

MP. How is using Item Lore going to improve 100%? Exactly - it can't! 

Also, given that powerful spells become readily available later on in the game,

the Scholar's Item Lore ability becomes obsolete entirely. Even an improved 

Arctic Wind won't be enough to compensate for the sheer power of the Geomancer

or Black Mage at this point by the time the Water Crystal roles around.

Essentially, the Scholar is only good for the Hein's Castle segment of the 

storyline, just so you can eliminate Hein's Elemental Barrier. However, later

on in the game in Eureka, there is a similar boss to Hein called Anon, and

neither Study or Libra are required to defeat him - he's a real pushover

despite being much tougher compared to Hein.

Overall, The Scholar is highly situational and quirky Job. It simply doesn't

make the cut for endgame... or even after Hein's Castle for that matter. Take

my advice: Use it for Hein's Castle... and never use it again!

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                       Scholar                         | Fire Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.    "Scholars can examine enemies and

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |     spot their weak points.  They can

----------|------------|-----------|     also enhance the effects of the

 Attack   |     24     |    24     |     items they use. They can dispel magic

 Magic    |     24     |    24     |     effects from enemies they've studied.

 Study    |     24     |    24     |     Surprisingly enough, these bookworms

 Item     |     24     |    24     |     can also use magic!"

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     5    |    24    |  --  |      120       | |    20     |

     2     |     4    |    24    |  20  |      116       | |    16     |

     3     |     4    |    24    |  16  |      112       | |    12     |

     4     |     4    |    24    |  12  |      108       | |     8     |

     5     |     4    |    24    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     4    |    24    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     7     |     5    |    24    |  --  |      120       | |    20     |

     8     |     4    |    24    |  20  |      116       | |    16     |

     9     |     4    |    24    |  16  |      112       | |    12     |

    10     |     4    |    24    |  12  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

Scholars are by far the easiest Job to level up.  Every action you take, no

matter what Job Level, you will always gain 24 JP.

On average, you must take 4-5 actions per battle to level up a Scholar.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  5  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 10 |  10 |  10 |   9 |  11 |   9 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 10  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 20 |  16 |  17 |  12 |  20 |  14 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 15  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | | 30 |  22 |  24 |  15 |  30 |  18 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 20  7  3  0  0  0  0  0 | | 40 |  28 |  31 |  19 |  40 |  22 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 25 10  5  0  0  0  0  0 | | 50 |  34 |  38 |  22 |  50 |  26 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 29 13  7  0  0  0  0  0 | | 60 |  40 |  44 |  25 |  60 |  29 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 34 17  9  0  0  0  0  0 | | 70 |  46 |  51 |  29 |  70 |  33 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 39 20 12  0  0  0  0  0 | | 80 |  52 |  58 |  32 |  80 |  37 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 44 23 14  0  0  0  0  0 | | 90 |  58 |  65 |  35 |  90 |  41 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 48 26 15  0  0  0  0  0 | | 99 |  63 |  71 |  38 |  99 |  45 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can cast up to Lv. 3 White Magic and Lv. 3 Black magic.

Study:  Scan enemies HP and weakness. Also dispels beneficial magic.

Item:   Items have double the potency. Use an item from the item list. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Books:  All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Scholar Hat, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Scholar Robe, White Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Omnitome

Atk:    130

Bonus:  +10 INT, +5 MIND

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-GE} Geomancer  |

--------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Coming Soon!

---------.-------------------------------------------------------.-------------

Profile: |                       Geomancer                       | Fire Crystal

---------'-------------------------------------------------------'-------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |    "Geomancers harness the power of

----------|------------|-----------|     nature itself, manifested in their

 Attack   |     20     |    14     |     different terrain attacks.  Their

 Terrain  |     20     |    14     |     damage potential rises

 Guard    |     20     |    14     |     exponentially by job level."

 Item     |     20     |    14     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

     3     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

     4     |    7     |    14    |   8  |      106       | |     6     |

     5     |    7     |    14    |   6  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |    7     |    14    |   4  |      102       | |     2     |

     7     |    7     |    14    |   2  |      100       | |    --     |

     8     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     9     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Geomancer.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  15 |  17 |  15 |  17 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  20 |  24 |  20 |  24 |  20 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  24 |  31 |  24 |  31 |  24 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  29 |  38 |  29 |  38 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  34 |  44 |  34 |  44 |  34 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  38 |  51 |  38 |  51 |  38 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  43 |  58 |  43 |  58 |  43 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  48 |  65 |  48 |  65 |  48 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  52 |  71 |  52 |  71 |  52 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack:  Attacks with equipped weapon.

Terrain: Uses the environment for an attack.

          Damage = (Power + JobLv x 2) x (INT + MND) / Adjustment x Random No.

          

          Random No. = number between 0.8 to 1.0

           .-------------.--------.-------------.-----.

           | Attacks:    | Power: | Adjustment: | Wt: |

           |-------------|--------|-------------|-----|

           |Whirlpool    |   30%  |     ---     |  4  |

           |Wind Slash   |   45   |      3      |  3  |

           |Ice Storm    |   55   |      4      |  4  |

           |Magma        |   70   |      4      |  3  |

           |Ice Pillar   |   80   |      3      |  3  |

           |Flame Burst  |   80   |      3      |  4  |

           |Black Hole   |   80%  |     ---     |  4  |

           |Earthquake   |   90   |      4      |  3  |

           |Close-In     |  100   |      3      |  4  |

           |Shadowflare  |  110   |      1      |  9  |

           '-------------'--------'-------------'-----'

Guard:   Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:    Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bells:   All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body:    Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Black Robe, Gaia Vest.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

         Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Geomancer Card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Blessed Bell

Atk:   130

Bonus: +10 AGI, +10 INT, +10 MIND

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terrain Attacks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-------------.-------.--------------------------------------------------------.

 Attacks:    |Target:| Descriptions:                                          |

-------------|-------|--------------------------------------------------------|

Whirlpool    |  All  |Calls forth the waters of the sea, drowning all enemies.|

Wind Slash   |  One  |Slices the enemy with blades of wind.                   |

Ice Storm    |  All  |Damages enemies with the piercing cold of the Arctic.   |

Magma        |  All  |Shoots out molten lava causing severe burn damage.      |

Ice Pillar   |  One  |Incredible damage with spears of ice.                   |

Flame Burst  |  One  |Scorches the enemy with a blazing fire.                 |

Black Hole   |  One  |A world destructing force consumes the enemy.           |

Earthquake   |  All  |Shakes the earth causing damage to all enemies.         |

Close-In     |  One  |Drops the weight of a thousand boulders onto the enemy. |

Shadowflare  |  One  |Massive non-elemental damage to the enemy.              |

-------------'-------'--------------------------------------------------------'

-------------.----------------.

 Attacks:    | Element:       |

-------------|----------------|

Whirlpool    |  Ice, Water    |

Wind Slash   |  Wind          |

Ice Storm    |  Ice, Water    |

Magma        |  Fire          |

Ice Pillar   |  Ice, Water    |

Flame Burst  |  Fire          |

Black Hole   |  Non-elemental |

Earthquake   |  Earth         |

Close-In     |  Earth         |

Shadowflare  |  Non-elemental |

-------------'----------------'

Here are the chances of what Terrain attack will be used in different areas.

--------------------------.-------------------.

 Environment:             | Success Rate:     |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Land (World Map)          | Wind Slash  = 50% |

Forest (World Map)        | Ice Storm   = 48% |

Castle Sasune             | Shadowflare =  2% |

Dragon's Peak             |                   |

Tower of Owen (Except F1) |                   |

Castle Hein               |                   |

Goldor Manor              |                   |

Dragon Spire              |                   |

Crystal Tower             |                   |

Bahamut Boss Fight        |                   |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Desert (World Map)        | Earthquake  = 40% |

Altar Cave                | Close-in    = 38% |

Mythril Mines             | Wind Slash  = 20% |

The Sealed Cave           | Shadowflare =  2% |

Tozus Tunnel              |                   |

The Cave of the Circle    |                   |

The Ancient Ruins         |                   |

Cave in Falgabard         |                   |

Bahamut's Lair            |                   |

The Cave of Shadows       |                   |

Doga's Grotto             |                   |

Ancients' Maze            |                   |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Sea (World Map)           | Ice Pillar  = 40% |

Underneath Sea (World Map)| Whirlpool   = 38% |

Nepto Temple              | Wind Slash  = 20% |

Tower of Owen (Floor 1)   | Shadowflare =  2% |

Subterranean Lake         |                   |

The Cave of Tides         |                   |

Amur Sewers               |                   |

Sunken Cave               |                   |

Saronia Catacombs         |                   |

Temple of Time            |                   |

Behind Falgabard Waterfall|                   |

Lake Dohr                 |                   |

Secret ??? Dungeon        |                   |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Sky (World Map)           | Wind Slash  = 50% |

                          | Ice Storm   = 48% |

                          | Shadowflare =  2% |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Ur (Path to Storehouse)   | Wind Slash  = 50% |

                          | Ice Storm   = 50% |

--------------------------|-------------------|

The Molten Cave           | Magma       = 40% |

                          | Flame Burst = 38% |

                          | Wind Slash  = 20% |

                          | Shadowflare =  2% |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Southwest Saronia         | Blackhole   = 50% |

 (Tavern Fight)           | Shadowflare = 40% |

                          | Wind Slash  = 10% |

--------------------------|-------------------|

Eureka, The Forbidden Land| Blackhole   = 40% |

                          | Shadowflare = 40% |

                          | Wind Slash  = 20% |

--------------------------|-------------------|

The World of Darkness     | Wind Slash  = 23% |

                          | Ice Pillar  = 23% |

                          | Flame Burst = 22% |

                          | Earthquake  = 22% |

                          | Shadowflare = 10% |

--------------------------'-------------------'

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-VI} Viking  |

-----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Viking is an interesting job, in that it's a very different role from a 

warrior-type job. Firstly, they use Hammers and Axes as their main weapons, but

even further, they are geared towards defense rather than dealing damage, like 

the Knight, Dark Knight and Dragoon.

Firstly, the Viking shouldn't be called upon if you just want to deal damage. 

While the Viking has a very high strength stat, Hammer and Axe-type weapons are

designed to have lower hits per round, which obviously means lower damage when 

its all said and done. When you first acquire the Viking after the 3rd crystal,

his performance is rather disappointing compared to other jobs. He just doesn't

deal out very decent damage.

Secondly, the Viking agility stat is among the worst out of all the jobs. This 

is essentially the trade off for having such a high strength, despite his

damage becoming curved due to his weapon types. Unfortunately, the causes the

Viking to act last in battle whenever he attacks, further minimizing his use.

Let it be said, it is far better to have a weaker defensive character attack

first rather than having a high-defensive character act last. This makes jobs

like the Ninja come out on top.

Thirdly, the Viking has the Provoke ability, which causes one enemy of the

enemy party to target the Viking. However, initially this ability isn't very

reliable - it requires many job levels to work successfully. Also, Provoke

won't stop the OTHER enemies from attacking your other characters. So if

you're facing 2 or 3 enemies at a time, you can still expect to take some

damage. When compared to Souleater, Throw or Jump, this ability isn't nearly

as useful.

Lastly, the Viking has a moderate Intelligence stat, and a low Mind stat,

which causes him to fall to heavy magic, especially anything focused.

Admittedly, many jobs have this problem - Black Belt being slightly worse, and

Ninja being slightly better. Still, with all the other problems the Viking

has, this is just one more to add to the list.

Because of these issues, the Viking is perhaps one of the more situational

jobs in the game, ranking near Ranger and Scholar in terms of niche

usefulness. The Viking is fairly useful when fighting enemies under water,

because his Hammer weapons all possess the Lightning element attribute. This

is substantial as there are a lot of water levels and water enemies after you

acquire the 3rd crystal. 

What about endgame? Firstly, outside of the Wi-Fi connection, the best weapons

you can weild are the Blessed Hammer and Dual Haken, and they only combine for

242 attack power... which is considerably lower compared to other jobs

(namely, Knight, Ninja and Dragoon for example). Adding the fact that they hit

far less often and that the Viking will attack near the end of the battle

round, I can't recommend the Viking as a top damage-dealer. This role is

better suited to Knights, Dragoons, Dark Knights, Ninjas, etc.

Having said that, the Viking is a true superstar when facing massive boss 

battles where the boss has powerful physical attacks. Simply have your Viking

equip a full set of Crystal Armor and give him two shields: The Crystal Shield

and the Aegis Shield. Then, place the Viking in the back row and have them use

their Provoke ability over and over.

This diverts all the damage from the boss towards your Viking, which allows

your healer to focus all of their healing efforts on the Viking. Since the

healer is only responsible for one character, they can use lower level and

more plentiful healing spells like Cura, or even a healing staff like the

Elder Staff. If necessary, use the Protect spell, Turtle Shell or the Bard's

Protect on the Viking, to make him the ultimate meat shield.

Using this method is a fantastic way to beat tough bosses when you are 

underleveled (ie Cloud of Darkness and Iron Giant). It is one of the MOST 

effective ways to CONTROL the flow of a big battle - you are basically exerting

mind-control over the enemy, nearly dictating what the boss does. The entire 

battle becomes predictable and stable at that point.

It's also been said that this combo's well with the Warrior, as the Warrior can

use their Advance ability to deal 2.4x the damage at job level 99. However,

Most people won't level a Warrior to level 99, making this combo moot for many 

players. Even then, I still can't help but notice that two characters doing 

incredibly damage on their own is more useful if you were going to use Provoke 

just for that.

Overall, I'd say the Viking is a situational class, being usable during the 3rd

crystal only. It's also not entirely necessary to use a Viking either, since a 

Dragoon with Wind/Thunder lances will accomplish much the same thing. With his 

rather low magic defense and the fact that he acts near the end in battle, it's

hard to recommend a Viking for the endgame, or to use one at all over other 

classes.

However, if you want to exploit the Provoke ability against tough bosses and 

design an end-game party around this ability, then go for it. The choice is 

ultimately yours. As a stand-alone character though, the Viking really doesn't 

make the cut.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                       Viking                         | Water Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Vikings have the ability to lure

 Attack   |     20     |    14     |     enemies into attacking them instead

 Provoke  |     20     |    14     |     of other members of the party,

 Guard    |     20     |    14     |     but it's gonna hurt!"

 Item     |     20     |    14     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

     3     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

     4     |    7     |    14    |   8  |      106       | |     6     |

     5     |    7     |    14    |   6  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |    7     |    14    |   4  |      102       | |     2     |

     7     |    7     |    14    |   2  |      100       | |    --     |

     8     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     9     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Viking.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  11 |   9 |  10 |   9 |  10 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  20 |  14 |  17 |  14 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  30 |  18 |  24 |  18 |  20 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  40 |  22 |  31 |  22 |  24 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  50 |  26 |  38 |  26 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  60 |  29 |  44 |  29 |  34 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  70 |  33 |  51 |  33 |  38 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  80 |  37 |  58 |  37 |  43 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  90 |  41 |  65 |  41 |  48 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  99 |  45 |  71 |  45 |  52 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack:  Attacks with equipped weapon.

Provoke: Lure enemy attacks onto yourself. Reduces enemy defense.

          Enemy Defense = Original Defense x (100 - (0.5 x JobLv))%

           .-------.---------------.

           | JobLv | Success Rate: |

           |-------|---------------|

           |  1-20 |      60%      |

           | 21-40 |      70%      |

           | 41-80 |      80%      |

           | 81-98 |      90%      |

           | 99-99 |     100%      |

           '-------'---------------'

Guard:   Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:    Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hammers: All

Axes:    All (except Gigantic Axe)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

         Viking Helm, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Crystal Helm.

Body:    Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor,

         Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Reflect Mail, Viking Mail, Demon Mail,

         Diamond Mail, Crystal Mail.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Power Bracers,

         Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves.

Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Demon Shield,

         Diamond Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:    Mighty Hammer

Atk:     145

Bonus:   +20 VIT

Effect:  Deals lightning damage.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-DR} Dragoon  |

------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Dragoon is very much like a Knight, however it relies on a Lance rather

than a Sword. The Dragoon can also Jump in the air to land devastating attacks

on foes instead of covering other party members. Besides that, the character

model for this job is one of the best in the game ;)

The Dragoon has grown to be one of my favorite jobs, but during early 

playtesting, it didn't start that way. I always liked this job when it was 

introduced in Final Fantasy 4, but when I first tried them out in this game, I

was not all that impressed. The damage seemed comparable to the other jobs... 

yet the Jump ability had some issues with it.

Firstly, the Jump ability takes 2 entire battle rounds. The damage finally

comes at the very end of the second battle round. So in the meantime, if you

haven't killed the enemies yet, you'll be hit by enemy attacks. Whereas two

standard attacks from the Dragoon might have killed the enemies sooner, thus

lessoning the damage you would have taken.

Secondly, this ability increases the chance that your low durability party 

members will be hit by the enemy party since enemies can't target your Dragoon 

while he's in the air. So lets say you have a Bard, White Mage, Geomancer, etc.

in your party? Well, you can kiss them good-bye in a tough spot.

Thirdly, the damage is typically 1.5 times the normal damage, and sometimes a 

little less. To me, if this ability is going to take 2 entire turns to execute,

I expect some kind of reward for the sacrifice of not being able to attack for

a turn as well as acting last in a battle. This ultimately renders the Jump 

ability useless in most situations, because normal attacks will do more damage

in comparison.

This means in most situations, with comparable weapons (especially when the

time you can choose this job)... the Dragoon is basically a Knight without the

cover and cure abilities. Also, spears are few and far between for a long

part of the game... while swords are plentiful and increase in power over time.

That Thunder Spear doesn't go a long way.

Now, that's not to say this job is garbage - that's far from the truth. For

one, the Jump ability is EXTREMELY useful against flying enemies, especially

flying bosses. The damage seems to get doubled against these, and since the

attack is 1.5x that of a normal attack, the Jump will actually do TRIPLE

damage. Now that's more like it!

For example, against Garuda, a flying boss that has ~10,000 hit points, if you

had an entire party of Dragoons using the Jump ability, you could end the

battle in 2 turns: First turn Jump, next turn dead... as each Jump does around

3000-4000 damage. If you were to use standard attacks at 700-900 damage each,

it would be very difficult to survive this battle long enough to kill him,

since his attacks are extremely powerful. The answer to quickly beating him is

using the Dragoon's Jump ability, preferably using 3 Dragoons and 1 White Mage.

Also, lances (and their elemental properties) seem to do very well against some

specific enemies, almost to a point of decimating them with 4000 to 9999

damage. These numbers look insanely high compared to the damage your other

fighting jobs will be doing. I think some enemies are just weaker to lances, or

possibly the wind/thunder elements typically found on the beginning lances

(like in the Temple of Time), which makes Dragoons a very worthwhile investment

if you know which enemies to target.

This leads me to my next point. While Dragoons are not the best job when they 

first become available, it's worth using a Dragoon when you can purchase two 

Wind Lances in Saronia Kingdom, and acquire all of the Dragon Gear in Dragon 

Spire Tower, also found in Southeastern Saronia. From that point on, Dragoons 

seem to excel much better than Knights could ever hope to.

Even further, Dragoons get weapon upgrades that are sickening, and they pace 

very well with the enemies you'll be up against. These include Heavy Lance, 

Blood Lance, Dragon Lance and Holy Lance. I know from experience that 2 Blood 

Lances refill around 800-1100 life per attack, which is far better than the 

Blood Sword.

If you have a level 71 Thief, you can also steal Gungnir, which is the best 

Dragoon lance in the entire game without a Wi-Fi connection, and it essentially

removes any doubt that the Dragoon can be used for endgame. Also, to top things

off, Dragoons can wear Crystal armor! 

And if you're so inclined to put in the time with the mastery weapon from the 

Wi-Fi Connection, you can aquire the Magic Lance! With both Magic Lance and 

Gungnir equipped, you have 285 attack power with an +30 strength and +10

agility modifer, which is better than what most classes can achieve.

Overall, the Dragoon is an extremely effective job, whether you're using the 

Jump ability on flying enemies, or are just attacking normally. Even without

the Gungnir lance, this job isn't a terrible choice for the endgame. With the 

Gungnir, it's a no-brainer (at least I would hope you use decide to use the 

Dragoon in your final party if you went through all that trouble getting it!)

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                       Dragoon                        | Water Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Dragoons are polearm experts. Their

 Attack   |     20     |    16     |     Jump ability allows them the deal

 Jump     |     20     |    16     |     massive damage while being

 Guard    |     20     |    16     |     impervious to enemy attacks."

 Item     |     20     |    16     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    7     |    16    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    6     |    16    |  12  |      108       | |     8     |

     3     |    6     |    16    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     4     |    6     |    16    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    7     |    16    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     6     |    6     |    16    |  12  |      108       | |     8     |

     7     |    6     |    16    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     8     |    6     |    16    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     9     |    7     |    16    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

    10     |    6     |    16    |  12  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 6-7 actions per battle to level up a Dragoon.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  17 |  17 |  15 |  15 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  24 |  24 |  20 |  20 |  20 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  31 |  31 |  24 |  24 |  24 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  38 |  38 |  29 |  29 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  44 |  44 |  34 |  34 |  34 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  51 |  51 |  38 |  38 |  38 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  58 |  58 |  43 |  43 |  43 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  65 |  65 |  48 |  48 |  48 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  71 |  71 |  52 |  52 |  52 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Jump:   Jump into the air to avoid damage.  Hits enemy on the way down.

     

         Damage Inflicted = Original damage x (1.5 + JobLv / 110)

         If JobLv = 99, then multiply all damage by 2.4!

         If Enemy's weakness is Wind, all damage will be further doubled.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spears: All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

        Dragon Helm, Diamond Helm, Ribbon, Crystal Helm.

Body:   Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor,

        Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Reflect Mail, Dragon Mail, Demon Mail,

        Diamond Mail, Crystal Mail.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Power Bracers,

        Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring, Crystal Gloves.

Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Demon Shield,

        Diamond Shield, Aegis Shield, Crystal Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Magic Lance

Atk:    145

Bonus:  +20 STR

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-DK} Dark Knight  |

----------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Dark Knight is another fighting Job, like the Dragoon, Viking or Knight. 

However, this Job plays a little differently than those.

The big advantage to using a Dark Knight is for its Souleater ability, which 

damages the entire enemy party. Even better, the damage is comparable (if not a

little more sometimes) to what your regular attack would be. Essentially, it's 

like doubling or even tripling your damage in a single round! Also, you can

deal this damage from the back row! Holy Mackinaw!

Of course, there's a drawback... you lose 10% of your current health (Note, 

that's not your maximum health). So, you can't kill yourself using this ability

directly, but you can put yourself in the yellow. In my experience, the lower 

the health is, the less damage you will do with the Souleater ability.

To compensate for this (which I found really exciting!), you can use the Blood

Sword to refill your life when you're not using the Souleater ability! 

Admittedly, my early experiences with this combo were not very good. I found it

difficult to keep my Dark Knight alive or healthy while using Souleater and

then trying to replenish my life with the Blood Sword. This is due to the Dark 

Knight's speed stat being fairly low, making him act last in battle far too 

often. 

You see, by the time you can use the Dark Knight, the difficulty of the game 

ramps up considerably. Enemies being dealing 100-200 damage per hit instead of 

30-50. It takes awhile to grind up to a competitive level, let alone trying to 

get this combo to work properly.

However, I found a better way than using the Blood Sword. You can combo the

Dark Knight with a Bard and have the Bard use his Dream Harp! The Dream Harp

will replenish about 10-20% of your party's health (Depending on your

character's and Bard's Job), which is enough to replenish the life you lose

when using the Souleater ability! How convenient! 

By putting your Dark Knight in the back row, he won't be taking that much

damage from enemies, so you can use Souleater to your heart's content! Be sure

to use Cure on him every few battles to keep him healthy. 

This Dream Harp/Souleater combo becomes even powerful later. Better swords 

become available, like the Defender and Ancient Sword as well as the Dark 

Blades. All of these swords make your Blood Sword obsolete, but it doesn't 

matter because the Bard will refill your life anyway!

Even better, this combo seems to get more powerful as the Job levels increase, 

because you'll actually start to net life!

Because this combo is so much better than mucking with the Blood Sword, stay 

away from the Dark Knight until the Dream Heart becomes available. Then, start 

using the Bard and Dark Knight together. Not only can the Bard heal your Dark 

Knight, but he'll heal the entire party! Not to mention, the Bard can cast

Haste and Sing other songs too! The healing alone is about as powerful as an

"All Member" level Cure spell, which relieves pressure off your White Mage and

makes it possible to not use a White Mage at all.

Does the Dark Knight work well as an endgame Job? Yes and no. As far as 

equipment goes, the Dark Knight can use Masamune and Ragnarok, which are both 

extremely powerful weapons. Of course, using this combinations completely ruins

the possibility of using a Knight and Ninja in your final party, but there's 

always room for other Jobs (like the Dragoon, for example, which doesn't cause 

an overlap in weapons).

Also, if you have a Wi-Fi connection and are willing to invest the time into 

obtaining the ultimate weapons, Dark Knights can use the Ultima Weapon and

Murakumo, their mastery sword. This combination proves to be more powerful than

a Ninja, however you can't Throw Shuriken's and act first in battle - 

essentially, that's the trade off here. I still prefer the Ninja.

However, in the final stages of the game, most normal enemies are like facing 

individual bosses - there's very little need to damage multiple targets at the

same time. This makes Souleater rather ineffective. Also, with the Summoner 

entering the mix, it's doubtful Souleater will be that useful even when

multiple enemies are present, as that Job can damage multiple enemies without

the HP loss.

Therefore, I think the Dark Knight only has a place mid-game. During that time,

the Dark Knight is one heck of a Job to use! And if you do unlock the ultimate 

equipment, then go nuts using a Dark Knight during the endgame. I guess that

can be said for any Job though.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                      Dark Knight                     | Water Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Dark Knights are warriors of the

 Attack   |     20     |    14     |     dark blade.  Their Souleater ability

 Souleater|     20     |    14     |     allows them to convert their life

 Guard    |     20     |    14     |     into extra damage."

 Item     |     20     |    14     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

     3     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

     4     |    7     |    14    |   8  |      106       | |     6     |

     5     |    7     |    14    |   6  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |    7     |    14    |   4  |      102       | |     2     |

     7     |    7     |    14    |   2  |      100       | |    --     |

     8     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     9     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Dark Knight.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  17 |  15 |  17 |  15 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  24 |  20 |  24 |  20 |  20 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  31 |  24 |  31 |  24 |  24 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  38 |  29 |  38 |  29 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  44 |  34 |  44 |  34 |  34 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  51 |  38 |  51 |  38 |  38 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  58 |  43 |  58 |  43 |  43 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  65 |  48 |  65 |  48 |  48 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  71 |  52 |  71 |  52 |  52 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack:    Attacks with equipped weapon.

Souleater: Sacrifice HP to increase attack power and deal more damage.

           Damage Inflicted = Weapon Attack x 5 + JobLv x 10 + Current HP x 0.9

           HP Sacrificed    = 20% of Current HP

Guard:     Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:      Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knives:      Knife, Dagger, Mythril Knife, Spark Dagger, Main Gauche,

             Poison Dagger.

Swords:      Golden Sword, Longsword, Mythril Sword, Tyrfing, Salamand Sword,

             Freezing Blade, Serpent Sword, Royal Sword, Blood Sword,

             Ancient Sword, Defender, Break Blade, Ragnarok.

Dark Blades: All (excluding Muramasa)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Mythril Helm, Shell Helm, Ice Helm, Feathered Hat,

        Ribbon, Genji Helm, Crystal Helm.

Body:   Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Mythril Armor, Shell Armor,

        Ice Armor, Flame Mail, Demon Mail, Genji Armor, Crystal Mail.

Arm: Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring,

        Genji Gloves, Crystal Gloves.

Shield: Leather Shield, Mythril Shield, Ice Shield, Demon Shield,

        Genji Shield, Crystal Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Murakumo

Atk:    140

Bonus:  +20 AGI

Effect: Effective against dividing enemies.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-EV} Evoker  |

-----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Evoker is the first Job that you'll get that uses Summon Magic, which

allows you to summon monsters to do your bidding, both good and evil. These

spells offer a range of effects, such as damaging the enemy party, healing your

own party, attempting to cast nasty status effects on the enemy, or causing you

to escape from battle. While the Evoker sounds like an interesting Job, it has

its share of problems, even right from the beginning.

Firstly, when you acquire the Evoker and try and use Summon Magic, you'll

notice that you have no spells to cast - you have to buy them at a town called

Replito.  If you're like me and don't use a guide, you might not come across

Replito until the final sections of the game. 

Regardless, you can't visit Replito until you release the chain on your

airship, which is several hours of gameplay after you acquire the Jobs from the

Water Crystal. Also, if you do happen to visit a certain area (not saying for

spoiler potential), you will lose access to your ship and will not be able to

visit Replito until much after you regain the ability to use an airship again.

To me, all of this lowers the Job's immediate usefulness - literally, as you

have no Summon Magic to use at all! At least with a Bard, you have one harp

to use!

Secondly, when the Evoker uses a Summon spell, it will randomly choose between

a "White" and "Dark" version of the spell, which in most cases has two

completely different effects. For example, casting Escape (Chocobo) gives you a

50% chance to flee the battle, or do a pitiful amount of damage. If you want to

escape, this is not the best way for you to achieve that goal. You have a

better chance running away with all 4 characters.

Likewise, Icen (Shiva), Spark (Ramuh) and Leviath (Leviathan) will either 

inflict the enemy party with negative status effects, or deal damage to the 

entire enemy party. Since inflicting status effects usually fails or isn't very

useful, you'll only do the desired damage 50% of the time. While this damage is

considerably more than a Black Mage could do, the fact that it's random makes 

the overall ability questionable to use.

Some summons come out a little better. Heatra (Ifrit) will either heal your 

party, or deal damage to the enemy. Both are mutually positive as long as you 

have wounded party members. Also, Hyper (Titan) will always damage the enemy, 

regardless if it's the Black or White version of the spell. Bahamur (Bahamut)

is also interesting, increasing your attack power or KO'ing a single enemy. I'd

rather hope for the attack power boost myself because KO typically fails, at 

least when you really need it to work.

Overall, the random chance for a White or Black version of the spell makes 

casting Summon magic extremely unreliable. You'll only get the effect you want 

50% of the time. It's like gambling, and why would you want to gamble during an

important boss fight? To me, the game's boss battle's mega-attacks, random 

back-attacks and sometimes overall unforgiving difficulty make the game unfair 

as it is. Unless you enjoy a sadistic challenge, why add to it?

As you can tell, I am not a fan of this Job at all, and I recommend that you 

ignore it completely. At the time you receive the Jobs from the Water Crystal, 

you'll be able to deal damage to all enemies with the Geomancer, the Black 

Mage's '-ara' and '-aga' spells, or with the Dark Knight's Souleater ability - 

just to name a few. Why mess with this Job for?

Also, the Evoker has no endgame potential whatsoever, as it's easily replaced

by both the Summoner and Sage Jobs when you get access to the Earth Crystal. 

With the Sage, not only can you cast the same Summon magic as the Evoker 

(although why you would WANT to do this is beyond me), you can also cast Level 

1-8 White and Black magic! Technically, this makes the Evoker 100% obsolete.

Also, with the Summoner, you'll be able to cast High Summon spells instead of 

the regular White or Black versions. These spells ALWAYS deal damage to the 

enemy party, and the Summoner will do MORE DAMAGE compared to the Evoker 

versions to boot! Since the Summoner's spells are considered to be different 

than the Evoker's spells, you miss out on several unique abilities, such as 

healing your party with Heatra (Ifrit). However, the Summoner's spells are so 

effective, it's highly doubtful that you'll care.

Because the Evoker is so unreliable, and since both the Sage and Summoner make

the Evoker obsolete, it's my recommendation that you avoid this Job like

the plague; Unless you like the outfit, of course!  ^_^

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                        Evoker                        | Water Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Evokers are initiates of summoning

 Attack   |     20     |    10     |     magic, able to randomly draw either

 Summon   |     20     |    10     |     the light or dark power of

 Guard    |     20     |    10     |     summoned beasts."

 Item     |     20     |    10     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     2     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     3     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up an Evoker.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 | 10  1  1  1  1  0  0  0 | | 10 |  10 |  10 |   9 |  10 |  10 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 20  5  5  5  5  0  0  0 | | 20 |  16 |  15 |  14 |  17 |  17 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 30 10 10 10 10  1  0  0 | | 30 |  22 |  20 |  18 |  24 |  24 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 40 14 14 14 14  6  3  1 | | 40 |  28 |  24 |  22 |  31 |  31 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 50 19 19 19 19 11  7  3 | | 50 |  34 |  29 |  26 |  38 |  38 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 60 23 23 23 23 16 11  5 | | 60 |  40 |  34 |  29 |  44 |  44 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 70 28 28 28 28 21 15  7 | | 70 |  46 |  38 |  33 |  51 |  51 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 80 32 32 32 32 26 19  9 | | 80 |  52 |  43 |  37 |  58 |  58 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 90 37 37 37 37 31 23 11 | | 90 |  58 |  48 |  41 |  65 |  65 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 99 41 41 41 41 36 27 13 | | 99 |  63 |  52 |  45 |  71 |  71 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Summon: Randomly chooses the Level 1 or Level 2 effect of summons.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: Staff, Fire Staff, Ice Staff, Light Staff, Golem Staff, Rune Staff.

Rods:   Mythril Rod, Wizard Rod, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Light Rod, Omnirod.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon, Royal Crown.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe, Black Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Evoker Card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Royal Crown

Def:   33

MDef:  36

Bonus: +10 INT, +10 MIND

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summoning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------.   

Lv. 1 |   Escape

------'   

Summon:   Chocobo 

Level 1:  Chocobo Dash  - Instant escape from battle.

Level 2:  Chocobo Kick? - Poor chocobo fails to kick a monster.

Level 3:  Chocobo Kick  - Successfully kicks a monster!  Good chocobo!

------.   

Lv. 2 |   Icen

------'   

Summon:   Shiva

Level 1:  Mesmerize    - Causes all enemies to fall asleep.

Level 2:  Icy Stare    - Damages one enemy with ice.

Level 3:  Diamond Dust - Massive damage with shards of ice.

------.   

Lv. 3 |   Spark

------'   

Summon:   Ramuh

Level 1:  Mind Blast    - Paralyzes all enemies.

Level 2:  Thunderstorm  - Damages one enemy with a lightning bolt.

Level 3:  Judgment Bolt - Strikes all enemies with pillars of lighting.

------.   

Lv. 4 |   Heatra

------'   

Summon:   Ifrit

Level 1:  Healing Light - Restores a lot of HP to all allies.

Level 2:  Hellfire      - Damages one enemy with fire.

Level 3:  Inferno       - Massive flame damage to all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 5 |   Hyper

------'   

Summon:   Titan

Level 1:  Clobber      - Damages one enemy with a punch.

Level 2:  Stomp        - Damages one enemy with a kick.

Level 3:  Earthen Fury - Creates a destructive earthquake damaging all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 6 |   Catastro

------'   

Summon:   Odin

Level 1:  Protective Light - Casts magical barrier around all allies.

Level 2:  Slash            - Slices all enemies.

Level 3:  Zantetsuken      - Kills all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 7 |   Leviath

------'   

Summon:   Leviathan

Level 1:  Demon Eye  - Instantly petrifies all enemies.

Level 2:  Cyclone    - Damages all enemies with powerful tornado.

Level 3:  Tidal Wave - A devastating flood that damages all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 8 |   Bahamur

------'   

Summon:   Bahamut

Level 1:  Aura       - Increases attack power of all allies.

Level 2:  Rend       - Instantly kills one enemy.

Level 3:  Mega Flare - Massive non-elemental damage to all enemies.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-BA} Bard  |

---------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bards were given a bad name in the Final Fantasy series, mainly because of 

Edward in Final Fantasy 4, who was really weak physically and just didn't help 

out the party a whole lot. In Final Fantasy 3, it appears that way too... until

you get access to some cool Harps that cast spells using the Bard's Sing 

ability! The Sing ability is unique because it functions at the beginning of a 

battle, before anyone else is given a chance to act - regardless of the speed 

stat. Even cooler, the spell effect lasts 2 turns in many cases, so you can 

alternate between two harps sometimes (like the Loki and Dream harps to have 

haste and cure yourself for example).

The first harp you get allows you to cast a mass protect spell over your party.

Now, the FAQs all say this ability is awesome. In theory, this is great... a 

high level spell is cast on all party members for free! 

But in reality, it's not that good. It would have been great if Protect worked 

the same way Protect does in other Final Fantasy games and brought the damage 

down to 50% instantly. However, this spell does not do anything close to that 

unless your Job Level is very high, and even the max is 30%. Most times, in my 

experience of playing with the Bard, I hardly noticed any meaningful difference

in damage taken. And against a powerful enemy or boss, the difference was 

negligible. It's too bad, because at these times, that's exactly when you would

want the protect ability to make a meaningful difference!

So instead of trying to avoid damage across 4 characters using this protect 

spell Harp, I recommend using the Dream Harp, which heals around 10-20% of your

party's HP, depending on your character's and/or Bard's Job Level. By the time

I got to the Earth Crystal, I was healing for 260 hit points on each character,

which was slightly better than a level 76 White Mage's level 1 cure spell. WOW!

And you can cast this every round in a battle! WOW! People have also stated

that the Bard can cure your party up to 1200 HP per round at the highest

Job Levels.

There's also another Harp called the Loki Harp which casts Haste on your party.

That's right, a level 7 spell on all of your party members! Unlike the protect 

spell, this one actually works. I find it useful in areas where I am slightly 

under-leveled and need my characters acting first to cure and/or attack the 

enemies to kill them so that I don't get crushed by their attacks (i.e. the 

Temple of Time is a good place to use this Harp). Since it lasts for 2 turns, 

you can alternate with the Dream Harp to refill your HP!

Like the Dark Knight Job (which is a great combo by the way - read the

Dark Knight section!), I wouldn't use this Job when you first get access to

it. The damage of the initial Harp, while 60, does pitiful damage from the

back row... far worse than a White mage with a Staff! It's not worth attacking

with a Bard at all - always use the Sing ability! Also, the protect spell

isn't worth it and I found myself wanting any other Job compared to this one. I

was fortunate to give the Job one last chance with the new harps.

However, once you can buy the Dream and Loki harps, I think this Job makes a 

very good mid-game Job. It combos well with the Dark Knight (as said before), 

which more than makes up for its lack of damage potential on its own as the 

Dark Knight can do double or triple damage every turn, and the damage is very 

high per target. Again, you'll be hard-pressed to find a Job equally the Dark 

Knight's damage to a single target. In addition, with healing and haste, it's 

hard to go wrong with this Job. The Bard is highly recommended once it gets 

going.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                         Bard                         | Water Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Bards use their songs to enhance

 Attack   |     20     |    18     |     their party's performance. The effect

 Sing     |     20     |    18     |     of their songs varies depending

 Guard    |     20     |    18     |     on the harp they use."

 Item     |     20     |    18     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     6    |    18    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     2     |     6    |    18    |   8  |      116       | |    16     |

     3     |     5    |    18    |  16  |      106       | |     6     |

     4     |     6    |    18    |   6  |      114       | |    14     |

     5     |     5    |    18    |  14  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     6    |    18    |   4  |      112       | |    12     |

     7     |     5    |    18    |  12  |      102       | |     2     |

     8     |     6    |    18    |   2  |      110       | |    10     |

     9     |     5    |    18    |  10  |      100       | |    --     |

    10     |     6    |    18    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

    11     |     6    |    18    |   8  |      116       | |    16     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 6-5 actions per battle to level up a Bard.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |   9 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  14 |  16 |  16 |  16 |  16 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  18 |  22 |  22 |  22 |  22 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  22 |  28 |  28 |  28 |  28 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  26 |  34 |  34 |  34 |  34 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  29 |  40 |  40 |  40 |  40 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  33 |  46 |  46 |  46 |  46 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  37 |  52 |  52 |  52 |  52 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  41 |  58 |  58 |  58 |  58 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  45 |  63 |  63 |  63 |  63 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Sing:   Sings a song. The song varies with each harp.

         Minne:

         Recipient's Defense + (20 + Recipient's JobLv / 11)%

         Minuet:

         Recipient's Attack + (20 + Recipient's JobLv / 11)%

         Requiem:

         Damage Inflicted = Enemy's Current HP x (10 + JobLv / 11)%

         Paeon:

         HP Recovery      = Recipient's Max HP x (10 + JobLv / 11)%

         Elegy:

         Damage Reduced   = (20 + Recipient JobLv / 11)%

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knives: Knife, Dagger, Mythril Knife, Spark Dagger, Main Gauche,

        Poison Dagger.

Harps:  All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon, Ballad Crown.  

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe, Bard Vest.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Ballad Crown

Def:    35

MDef:   35

Bonus:  +10 VIT, +10 MIND

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Songs to Sing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------.-----------.-----------------------------------------------------.

 Harp:      | Song:     | Effect:                                             |

------------|-----------|-----------------------------------------------------|

Madhura Harp|Minne      |Increases defense of all allies.                     |

Loki Harp   |Minuet     |Increases attack power of all allies.                |

Lamia Harp  |Requiem    |Damages all enemies.                                 |

Dream Harp  |Paeon      |Restores HP of all allies.                           |

Apollo Harp |Elegy      |Reduces damage given to all allies.                  |

------------'-----------'-----------------------------------------------------'

TIP: It may not seem like it, but you aren't limited to only one song during

     battle.  All you need to do is select the "Equipment" menu in battle,

     and equip a different Harp! This definitely makes the Bard more versatile!

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-BB} Black Belt  |

---------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Black Belt is the long-awaited upgrade to the Monk class. In every way, the

Black Belt is simply better. Once you get his job level up, there's no looking 

back; The Black Belt's strength, vitality and speed are all top notch, in fact,

Strength and Vitality will cap out, and speed won't be far behind. Overall,

this class was built to deal damage, and when his jobs level start to max out,

the Black Belt is 30% more effective compared to your Monk.

There's really not much more to say. The Black Belt continues to deal insane 

amounts of damage with their bare bands, and they will dish out an insane

amount of hits per round when their job level increases.

Now, I do have one beef with the Black Belt. Training him is a lot like

training your Monk in the beginning of the game. Without weapons, he'll do

800-1000 damage. This is simply unacceptable. Most parties at endgame can beat

FFIII with job levels of around 30. There's no need to level grind here.

However,  the Black Belt will literally have to grind to job level 50 or 60 to

start out-performing characters with the ultimate weapons. In all honestly,

you have to make a serious commitment to get the most out of the Black Belt.

And in some ways, keeping your Monk might not be such a bad idea!

So when training your Black Belt, be sure to equip those claw weapons initally,

like the Hellish Claws found in the Ancient's Maze. Yes, I know I said these 

claws were useless: For a Monk! However, these claws are essential when

training your Black Belt until your bare hands gain enough attack power to be

effective on their own. Or, you can power-level using the Guard trick and not

even bother with them at all. Personally, that's not my style.

Black Belts do get a Boost ability, and much like the Monk's Retaliate ability,

it's absolutely useless. The Black Belt doesn't even have a single saving grace

like the Monk does either! 

The Boost ability lets you store up energy so that the Black Belt will be able

to deal 2x the damage on the next turn. Using the command twice boosts your 

attack even more, but using it three times will hurt the Black Belt and

release all the built up energy. Why anyone would want to do this is simply

beyond me.

For one, how is delaying an attack to get twice the damage worth it? Really,

how is that different than attacking twice normally? Well, it isn't! Delaying 3

turns is totally inconceivable as most enemies will be dead by then.

Now, I thought really hard how Boost could be put to good use, and the best

idea I came up with was boosting to ensure that you could take out those Divide

and Multiply enemies, because often most characters cannot take them out in a

single hit! I was really proud of myself when I thought of this, however, you

acquire the Black Belt AFTER you fight these enemies, making the whole point

moot!  Just simply avoid using Boost.

Also, like the Monk, the Black Belt has problems with magic defense - it's the

worst among all the fighting jobs. So in a way, I prefer using the Ninja

anyway. Truthfully, some grinding will probably be required to ensure your

Black Belt doesn't get one-shotted to death, even with the Fuma Garb,

Protect Ring and Ribbon equipped.

On a more positive note, the Black Belt has the highest Vitality statistic 

available, so if you want to maximize your HP growth per level, you can have

all of your characters become Black Belts and grind them to character

level 99 so that they potentially get 9999 HP. This is only made possible by

using the Black Belt job, so I thought I'd mention it here.

Overall, the Black Belt can be an endgame class... IF and ONLY IF you want to 

put the time into it. Otherwise, you can pass it off for a Ninja, Dragoon, 

Knight or another class that is more suited to endgame. All of those classes

are immediately useful at endgame with very little grinding. They also happen

to make very good use of endgame weapons and armor too.

Another weird thing, is that since you have to level grind your Black Belt,

you must as well unlock the Master Dogi using the Wi-Fi connection. However,

the armor isn't tremondously essential.

If you really, really want to serve knuckle sandwiches to the final boss, or 

to big powerful dragons, the Black Belt is the job for you! Otherwise, stick 

with your Monk, or change to a Ninja, Knight or Dragoon - all better choices.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                      Black Belt                      | Earth Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Black Belts are experts in unarmed

 Attack   |     20     |    14     |     combat.  They can boost their attack

 Boost    |     20     |    14     |     power to deal massive damage, but

 Guard    |     20     |    14     |     be careful not to boost too much!"

 Item     |     20     |    14     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     2     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

     3     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

     4     |    7     |    14    |   8  |      106       | |     6     |

     5     |    7     |    14    |   6  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |    7     |    14    |   4  |      102       | |     2     |

     7     |    7     |    14    |   2  |      100       | |    --     |

     8     |    8     |    14    |  --  |      112       | |    12     |

     9     |    7     |    14    |  12  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    7     |    14    |  10  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 7-8 actions per battle to level up a Black Belt.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  11 |  10 |  11 |   9 |   9 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  20 |  17 |  20 |  12 |  12 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  30 |  24 |  30 |  15 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  40 |  31 |  40 |  19 |  19 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  50 |  38 |  50 |  22 |  22 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  60 |  44 |  60 |  25 |  25 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  70 |  51 |  70 |  29 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  80 |  58 |  80 |  32 |  32 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  90 |  65 |  90 |  35 |  35 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  99 |  71 |  99 |  38 |  38 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Boost:  Raises attack power.  Self-destructs if used too many times in a row.

         Boost #1 = Damage x 2

         Boost #2 = Damage x 3

         Boost #3 = Self Destruct. Current HP is reduced by 50%.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Claws:  All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Headband, Feathered Hat, Black Cowl, Chakra Band,

        Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Kenpo Gi, Black Garb, Black Belt Gi,

        Fuma Garb, Master Dogi.

Arm:    Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Power Bracers, Diamond Gloves,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Master Dogi

Def:    54

MDef:   23

Bonus:  +10 AGI, +10 MIND

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-MA} Magus  |

----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Magus Job is your standard upgrade to the Black Mage, and is superior

to the Black Mage in every way. Unlike the White Mage to Devout transition, you

won't miss having 40 MP of those Level 1 spells ;)

Interestingly enough, the Magus uses a totally different MP curve compared to 

the Black Mage. Rather than using the typical pyramid structure, the Magus's MP

is balanced at all levels within the spell tree. This means the Magus will have

more MP dedicated to powerful spells, like the '-aga' spells or Quake.

Another main attraction is that the Magus has the ability to cast Level 8 Black

Magic. They also have twice as much MP dedicated to casting level 8 spells 

compared to the Sage. 

Of the level 8 spells, the best among them would have to be the almighty Final 

Fantasy staple: Flare. This spell deals heavy non-elemental damage to a single 

target, and is considered the ultimate focused attack spell in the entire game.

Since it's non-elemental, it can't be resisted in any way, unlike other 

elemental spells.

Meteor is also a very good spell to use when you want to damage multiple 

targets. If you don't have a Summoner in your party, this is the only way to 

reliably deal a lot of damage to the entire enemy party. It's too bad that it 

uses up a Level 8 slot, because you only have 5-8 MP, depending on your 

character level.

While the Magus has loads of MP to cast the '-aga' spells, they aren't much 

needed at this point in the game. Almost all enemies do not have elemental 

weaknesses by the time you acquire the Magus class. 

Also, the Summoner's High Summons will frequently deal more damage, and the 

Summoner will have the same or even more MP available to cast these spells.

Even when comparing Meteor/Flare to Leviathan/Bahamut, the Summoner comes out

on top by having twice the amount of MP for these extremely powerful spells.

This doesn't bode well for the Magus in my opinion. However, if you're going to

use a Magus, instead of sitting around doing nothing, you might as well cast

these spells to contribute to the overall party's damage.

Unlike White Magic, Black Magic is not nearly as impressive or diverse. At this

point in the game, nearly all the low-level spells are worthless. In fact, if 

you really want to remain competitive, you can only realistically use the 

highest level magic, because Black Magic is so damage-dependant. Unfortunately,

The Magus (nor the Sage) is balanced with enough MP to really take advantage of

this sad but crucial fact. 

Overall, getting access to a more balanced MP curve and having access to

level 8 spells makes the Magus a fairly decent Job, all considering. If you

were using a Black Mage, the Magus is the natural upgrade (however, that

doesn't say much).

When it's all said and done, I believe that the Summoner is a more effective 

Job. The High Summons typically deal more damage than the Magus' elemental 

spells. You'll also have more MP to cast these powerful summons in comparison

to the Black Magic spells.

Comparing Flare/Meteor to Bahamut/Leviathan is tricky. One combination is 

clearly better against single targets, while the other is stronger against 

multiple enemies. Given that Bahamut can deal 7000-9000 damage at reasonable 

character and Job Levels to the entire enemy party (and thus, to a single 

target), I'd say that the Summoner is a better choice for the endgame overall.

Also, a Sage provides more utility than a Magus, as well as better use for all 

that wasted MP if you are considering the Magus for a support castor.

If you want to a use a Magus anyway, you'll still have a decent party. However,

I would strongly recommend that you look at the other tier 4 classes, such as 

the Sage or Summoner, before you make your final decision.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                        Magus                         | Earth Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Magi are casters who have mastered

 Attack   |     20     |    10     |     black magic.  If they can learn the

 Magic    |     20     |    10     |     forbidden black magic spell, they

 Guard    |     20     |    10     |     may be able to destroy all..."

 Item     |     20     |    10     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     2     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     3     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a Magus.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  4  3  3  3  4  4  3  2 | | 10 |   9 |  10 |  10 |  11 |  10 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  7  6  6  4  8  7  5  2 | | 20 |  14 |  16 |  15 |  20 |  15 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 10  9  8  6 11 10  7  3 | | 30 |  18 |  22 |  20 |  30 |  20 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 13 12 11  8 15 13  9  4 | | 40 |  22 |  28 |  24 |  40 |  24 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 16 15 13 10 18 16 11  5 | | 50 |  26 |  34 |  29 |  50 |  29 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 18 17 15 12 21 19 12  5 | | 60 |  29 |  40 |  34 |  60 |  34 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 21 20 18 14 25 23 14  6 | | 70 |  33 |  46 |  38 |  70 |  38 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 24 23 20 16 28 26 16  7 | | 80 |  37 |  52 |  43 |  80 |  43 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 27 26 23 17 32 29 18  7 | | 90 |  41 |  58 |  48 |  90 |  48 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 30 28 25 19 35 32 20  8 | | 99 |  45 |  63 |  52 |  99 |  52 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can use all Black Magic.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: Staff, Fire Staff, Ice Staff, Light Staff.

Rods: All (excluding Lilith Rod)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, Black Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Millenium Rod

Atk:    110

Bonus:  +10 INT, +10 MIND

Effect: Casts blizzaga.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-DE} Devout  |

-----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Devout is the essential upgrade for those using a White Mage, and if you 

haven’t been using a White Mage by the time you got the Jobs from the Earth 

Crystal, maybe you should consider the Devout anyway. The Devout is superior to

the White Mage in almost every way except for using low-level magic. If you’ve 

been taking a White Mage through the entire game, you may have gotten used to 

being able to cast 40 Cure Spells, but the Devout promises not to disappoint!

One of the main attractions with this Job is that you’ll get a nice balance of 

MP for magic at all levels, rather than the typical pyramid structure found in 

Tier One Jobs. This means you’ll have roughly the same amount of MP for spells 

like Raise and Curaga, and surprisingly, you’ll have 9 or 10 castings of Curaja

too... which really outclasses what the White Mage would have had with the same

character level. With so many castings of high level spells, I doubt you’ll 

truly miss ~40 castings of Cure. You can leave the responsibility for level 1 

magic to Poisona.

Another main attraction is that the Devout can cast Level 8 spells, namely

Arise (I.e. Full Life) and Holy. Every Final Fantasy fan knows these spells are

the penultimate for any White magic user. Even though you won’t get these

spells until slightly after you acquire the Devout Job, Arise makes the

transition well worth it. Unfortunately, the Holy spell only does Light damage.

So if the enemy isn't weak against the Light element, the damage won't be all

that high compared to Flare. This is disappointing for a level 8 spell.

Later on in the game, Raise and Phoenix Down are very ineffective during 

important boss battles. You’ll have to become very lucky that your Raise

happens after the boss uses his attacks because your raised character won’t be

restored to full health. This means it’s often better for your slowest

character to use a Phoenix Down instead, and then attempt to heal the raised

party member quickly during the next round. Arise eliminates this whole problem

altogether. Keep in mind though, while you’ll have plenty of MP for all the

other spells, you’ll have less MP for level 8 spells, so use them sparingly or

until you have plenty of Elixirs.

My initial impression was that the Devout Job was fairly weak to start. Even 

though I had plenty of Curagas and Curajas to cast, I found that it wasn’t 

enough to blow through the later sections in the game without some level 

grinding, so expect to do some of that. You’ll need a Job level of 25 and a 

character level of 50 to safely and comfortably beat the game using a Devout.

Also, the Devout is not as powerful as the White Mage surprisingly. By the time

I got the Devout, my White Mage’s Job level was around 75 and character was 

around 50. This meant that my White Mage’s level 1 Cure spell healed for as

much as my Devout’s Level 3 Cura spell! This pattern continues on to the end of

the game actually, unless you level grind your Devout... but I consider that a 

unreasonable option. To offset this, you’ll have to get accustomed to using 

Curaga more frequently, even if it’s power is wasted to get out of tough spots.

Overall, I think with the big boost of spells like Curaga and Raise, as well as

being able to cast Level 8 magic, makes it worth it to upgrade your White Mage 

to a Devout. It's not an automatic "uber" Job that many guides make it out to 

be, but in the final endgame, you won’t find a better Job suited to healing

than the Devout.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                       Devout                         | Earth Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Devouts are casters who have mastered

 Attack   |     20     |    10     |     white magic.  They can use all white

 Magic    |     20     |    10     |     magic spells, so make sure to always

 Guard    |     20     |    10     |     have one in your party!"

 Item     |     20     |    10     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     2     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     3     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a Devout.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  4  3  3  3  4  4  3  2 | | 10 |   9 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  11 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  7  6  6  4  8  7  5  2 | | 20 |  14 |  16 |  15 |  15 |  20 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 10  9  8  6 11 10  7  3 | | 30 |  18 |  22 |  20 |  20 |  30 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 13 12 11  8 15 13  9  4 | | 40 |  22 |  28 |  24 |  24 |  40 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 16 15 13 10 18 16 11  5 | | 50 |  26 |  34 |  29 |  29 |  50 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 18 17 15 12 21 19 12  5 | | 60 |  29 |  40 |  34 |  34 |  60 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 21 20 18 14 25 23 14  6 | | 70 |  33 |  46 |  38 |  38 |  70 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 24 23 20 16 28 26 16  7 | | 80 |  37 |  52 |  43 |  43 |  80 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 27 26 23 17 32 29 18  7 | | 90 |  41 |  58 |  48 |  48 |  90 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 30 28 25 19 35 32 20  8 | | 99 |  45 |  63 |  52 |  52 |  99 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Can use all White Magic.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: All (excluding Sage Staff)

Rods:   Wizard Rod, Fire Rod, Ice Rod, Light Rod.

Wands:  Holy Wand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Holy Wand

Atk:    110

Bonus:  +20 MIND

Effect: Casts curaga.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-SU} Summoner  |

-------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Summoner is a standard upgrade from the Evoker Job, and it works more like 

the way Rydia did in Final Fantasy 4, minus the Black magic ability. Unlike the

Evoker Job, who's summons were unpredictable because of their chance of having 

either White and Black magic effects, the Summoner Job only uses

"High Summons", which focus entirely on doing high-powered damage to the

entire enemy party.

At first glance, I was amazed that the Summoner had ~15 MP for all the

Level 2-5 summons. These are all your basic elemental attacks, and are great at

exploiting elemental weaknesses (albeit, the enemies in the later stages of the

game don't really have any). 

The sheer number of MP available allows you to use summons as the Summoner's 

main attack. There's no point to conserve your MP for boss battles. Even if 

there's only one enemy on the screen, the summons are still an effective way to

contribute to the overall damage done by your party. The only summon I don't 

like is the Chocobo at level 1, which is pretty useless unless you are 

power-leveled because the damage is based on the difference in level between

you and your enemies.

What's great about these summons though, is that they will deal

2000-3000 damage to all enemies at reasonable Character/Job levels. This is a

very effective way to nuke the entire enemy party, and using these summons is

far better than using the Black Mage or even the Magus' elemental spells

(except for Flare, which is better at single targets). 

While the damage might not exceed standard attacks dealt by your fighting

Jobs, the damage spread across multiple enemies more than makes up for this.

It's also a great way to soften them up so that your fighting Jobs can take

them out.

Even better, once you get access to Leviathan and Bahamut (the level 7 and 8 

summons), you'll be doing 7000-9000 damage to all enemies easily. These summons

are obtainable through side-quests, and surprisingly, they don't take 

high-level parties or an extreme amount of luck to acquire. These are best 

reserved for boss battles.

If you haven't completed the summon side-quests for some reason, you can also 

purchase them in one of the final areas of the game, although there are several

bosses before that point where using these summons would be useful. It's best

to acquire them through the side-quests.

Overall, the Summoner is a very good Job. It might not be able to deal 

high-powered damage to a single target (like the Magus or Sage can with the 

Flare spell), but the Summoner is hands-down the most effective caster at 

dealing mass damage to the enemy party. The Summoner comes highly recommended.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                      Summoner                        | Earth Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |    "Summoners are able to draw the

----------|------------|-----------|     hidden powers of summoned beasts.

 Attack   |     20     |    12     |     Their powers will be further enhanced

 Summon   |     20     |    12     |     if they can find the legendary

 Guard    |     20     |    12     |     beasts..."

 Item     |     20     |    12     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     2     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     3     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     5     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     7     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     8     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     9     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

    10     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 8-9 actions per battle to level up a Summoner.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 | 10  1  1  1  1  0  0  0 | | 10 |   9 |   9 |  10 |  11 |  11 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 20  5  5  5  5  0  0  0 | | 20 |  14 |  14 |  15 |  20 |  20 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 30 10 10 10 10  1  0  0 | | 30 |  18 |  18 |  20 |  28 |  28 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 40 14 14 14 14  6  3  1 | | 40 |  22 |  22 |  24 |  36 |  36 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 50 19 19 19 19 11  7  3 | | 50 |  26 |  26 |  29 |  45 |  45 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 60 23 23 23 23 16 11  5 | | 60 |  29 |  29 |  34 |  53 |  53 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 70 28 28 28 28 21 15  7 | | 70 |  33 |  33 |  38 |  61 |  61 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 80 32 32 32 32 26 19  9 | | 80 |  37 |  37 |  43 |  69 |  69 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 90 37 37 37 37 31 23 11 | | 90 |  41 |  41 |  48 |  78 |  78 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 99 41 41 41 41 36 27 13 | | 99 |  45 |  45 |  52 |  85 |  85 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Summon: Draws out the Level 3 powers of summoned beasts.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: All (excluding Elder Staff)

Rods:   All (excluding Lilith Rod, Millenium Rod)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe, Black Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring, Astral Bracers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Astral Bracers

Def:    47

MDef:   20

Bonus:  +10 INT, +10 MIND

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summoning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------.   

Lv. 1 |   Escape

------'   

Summon:   Chocobo 

Level 1:  Chocobo Dash  - Instant escape from battle.

Level 2:  Chocobo Kick? - Poor chocobo fails to kick a monster.

Level 3:  Chocobo Kick  - Successfully kicks a monster!  Good chocobo!

------.   

Lv. 2 |   Icen

------'   

Summon:   Shiva

Level 1:  Mesmerize    - Causes all enemies to fall asleep.

Level 2:  Icy Stare    - Damages one enemy with ice.

Level 3:  Diamond Dust - Massive damage with shards of ice.

------.   

Lv. 3 |   Spark

------'   

Summon:   Ramuh

Level 1:  Mind Blast    - Paralyzes all enemies.

Level 2:  Thunderstorm  - Damages one enemy with a lightning bolt.

Level 3:  Judgment Bolt - Strikes all enemies with pillars of lighting.

------.   

Lv. 4 |   Heatra

------'   

Summon:   Ifrit

Level 1:  Healing Light - Restores a lot of HP to all allies.

Level 2:  Hellfire      - Damages one enemy with fire.

Level 3:  Inferno       - Massive flame damage to all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 5 |   Hyper

------'   

Summon:   Titan

Level 1:  Clobber      - Damages one enemy with a punch.

Level 2:  Stomp        - Damages one enemy with a kick.

Level 3:  Earthen Fury - Creates a destructive earthquake damaging all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 6 |   Catastro

------'   

Summon:   Odin

Level 1:  Protective Light - Casts magical barrier around all allies.

Level 2:  Slash            - Slices all enemies.

Level 3:  Zantetsuken      - Kills all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 7 |   Leviath

------'   

Summon:   Leviathan

Level 1:  Demon Eye  - Instantly petrifies all enemies.

Level 2:  Cyclone    - Damages all enemies with powerful tornado.

Level 3:  Tidal Wave - A devastating flood that damages all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 8 |   Bahamur

------'   

Summon:   Bahamut

Level 1:  Aura       - Increases attack power of all allies.

Level 2:  Rend       - Instantly kills one enemy.

Level 3:  Mega Flare - Massive non-elemental damage to all enemies.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-SA} Sage  |

---------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Sage is an interesting Job, as it lets you cast White Magic, Black Magic

and Summon Magic, all the way up to level 8! This makes the Sage extremely 

versatile, and makes it an obviously better choice to using a White Mage,

Black Mage or the Evoker. Also if you cannot unlock the ultimate equipment for

the Red Mage, it replaces that Job too to some extent.

Before you get too excited though, like the Red Mage, all this flexibility

comes at a cost. For one, Sages use a different MP curve than the Devout and

Magus, the other tier 4 caster Jobs. Interestingly, the Sage receives more MP

for Level 1-3 spells, but receives less MP for Level 6-8 spells. Ultimately,

this curve weakens the Sage since lower-level magic in all 3 schools is nearly

useless.

Secondly, the Sage's Summon Magic is only as effective as the Evoker, meaning 

they cannot cast the High Summon versions of these spells. So like the Evoker, 

their spells are unpredictable, and won't be as effective as their high summon 

versions. Ultimately, this makes their Summon magic worthless. Let's be honest,

if you want Summon magic at this point in the game, you'll choose a Summoner.

Thirdly, because you can only learn 3 spells per spell level, this leaves you

at a predicament: "What spells should my Sage lean?" Fortunately, not all

spells are made equal, so in many cases you can select the best ones. Also,

Summon magic at the Evoker level isn't considered to be all that great, making

the selection process even easier.

Here are a couple of recommendations for advanced spell levels for Sages:

Level 5: Curaga, Raise, Thundaga 

Level 6: Bio, Firaga, Haste 

Level 7: Curaja, Esuna, Quake 

Level 8: Arise, Holy, Tornado, Flare, Meteor, Bahamut.

Therefore, to really get the most out of the Sage, you have to take advantage 

and use the best White and Black magic available to you, and use them well. 

Furthermore, because of the weird MP curve the Sage uses, instead of thinking

of your Sage as the primary magic user, instead, you should think of your Sage

as a support caster - you'll get more mileage out your Sage that way. 

A Sage/Summoner combo ensures that enemies go down quickly and the party can be

healed when necessary. Likewise, a Devout/Sage combo can heal the party to full

strength and resurrect fallen party members to full health in the same turn. In

fact, this combination makes it possible to use Arise if your Devout should

ever fall without using Phoenix Downs, which is actually quite convenient and

might prove to be very effective during boss bottles. This fact alone makes

this combination the stronger out of the two.

Overall, the Sage is a dicey Job to include in your endgame strategy. If you 

don't pair it with a primary caster as stated above, you risk making your 

battles much tougher than they need to be, or you'll end up using the Sage as

an inferior healer a majority of the time, often wishing you just used a

Devout.

Sages can be equipped as well as any tier 4 Job in the endgame, however, I

can't help but say that the Summoner and Devout are clearly more useful and are

overall better Jobs. Still, if you're looking for that niche support caster, 

then the Sage is THE Job for you! Placed in that role, the Sage is a very good 

Job.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                        Sage                          | Earth Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Sages are those who have gained

 Attack   |     20     |    10     |     knowledge in all schools of arcane

 Magic    |     20     |    10     |     arts.  They can use all types of

 Guard    |     20     |    10     |     spells!"

 Item     |     20     |    10     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     2     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     3     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

     5     |    10    |    10    |  --  |      100       | |    --     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 10 actions per battle to level up a Sage.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  5  5  4  4  3  2  2  1 | | 10 |   9 |   9 |  10 |  11 |  11 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 10  9  8  7  5  4  3  2 | | 20 |  12 |  12 |  16 |  20 |  20 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 15 13 11  9  8  6  4  2 | | 30 |  15 |  15 |  22 |  28 |  28 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 20 18 15 12 10  7  5  2 | | 40 |  19 |  19 |  28 |  36 |  36 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 25 22 19 15 12  9  6  3 | | 50 |  22 |  22 |  34 |  45 |  45 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 30 26 22 18 14 11  7  3 | | 60 |  25 |  25 |  40 |  53 |  53 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 35 30 26 21 17 12  8  3 | | 70 |  29 |  29 |  46 |  61 |  61 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 40 35 29 24 19 14  9  3 | | 80 |  32 |  32 |  52 |  69 |  69 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 | 45 39 33 27 21 15 10  4 | | 90 |  35 |  35 |  58 |  78 |  78 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 | 49 43 36 30 23 17 10  4 | | 99 |  38 |  38 |  63 |  85 |  85 |

------------------------------' '----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level       NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:  Use all magic. Randomly uses the Level 1 or Level 2 effect of summons.

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staves: All

Rods:   All (excluding Lilith Rod, Millenium Rod)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Feathered Hat, Ribbon.

Body:   Vest, Leather Armor, Mage Robe, White Robe, Black Robe.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Bracers, Rune Bracers, Diamond Bracers,

        Protect Ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Sage Staff

Atk:    110

Bonus:  +10 All Stats

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summoning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------.   

Lv. 1 |   Escape

------'   

Summon:   Chocobo 

Level 1:  Chocobo Dash  - Instant escape from battle.

Level 2:  Chocobo Kick? - Poor chocobo fails to kick a monster.

Level 3:  Chocobo Kick  - Successfully kicks a monster!  Good chocobo!

------.   

Lv. 2 |   Icen

------'   

Summon:   Shiva

Level 1:  Mesmerize    - Causes all enemies to fall asleep.

Level 2:  Icy Stare    - Damages one enemy with ice.

Level 3:  Diamond Dust - Massive damage with shards of ice.

------.   

Lv. 3 |   Spark

------'   

Summon:   Ramuh

Level 1:  Mind Blast    - Paralyzes all enemies.

Level 2:  Thunderstorm  - Damages one enemy with a lightning bolt.

Level 3:  Judgment Bolt - Strikes all enemies with pillars of lighting.

------.   

Lv. 4 |   Heatra

------'   

Summon:   Ifrit

Level 1:  Healing Light - Restores a lot of HP to all allies.

Level 2:  Hellfire      - Damages one enemy with fire.

Level 3:  Inferno       - Massive flame damage to all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 5 |   Hyper

------'   

Summon:   Titan

Level 1:  Clobber      - Damages one enemy with a punch.

Level 2:  Stomp        - Damages one enemy with a kick.

Level 3:  Earthen Fury - Creates a destructive earthquake damaging all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 6 |   Catastro

------'   

Summon:   Odin

Level 1:  Protective Light - Casts magical barrier around all allies.

Level 2:  Slash            - Slices all enemies.

Level 3:  Zantetsuken      - Kills all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 7 |   Leviath

------'   

Summon:   Leviathan

Level 1:  Demon Eye  - Instantly petrifies all enemies.

Level 2:  Cyclone    - Damages all enemies with powerful tornado.

Level 3:  Tidal Wave - A devastating flood that damages all enemies.

------.   

Lv. 8 |   Bahamur

------'   

Summon:   Bahamut

Level 1:  Aura       - Increases attack power of all allies.

Level 2:  Rend       - Instantly kills one enemy.

Level 3:  Mega Flare - Massive non-elemental damage to all enemies.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-NI} Ninja  |

----------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Ninja is what is be considered the ultimate fighting Job, having access to 

some of the best weapons in the game (Masamune, Moonring Blade and 

Kiki-Ichimonji) and also being able to use much of the exceptional armor too 

(namely the Genji gear and specialized Garbs, but they cannot use Crystal

armor unfortunately). 

The best way to describe a Ninja is that it's a cross between a Thief and a

Dark Knight. They have the second highest speed stat out of any character, and

often act first in battle in the same way a Thief would. However, unlike a

Thief, they do superb damage as their stats are all in the right places for

doing fast, powerful damage. 

They are also like a Dark Knight since they can use Dark Blades, like Masamune,

which are extremely powerful weapons. This also allows them to out-perform a 

Thief. In fact, even though their attack statistic was often less than other 

characters (like a Knight with the best weapons for example), the Ninja was 

still dishing out equal or more damage to the enemies in the final areas of the

game. 

In a sense, the Ninja is the game's natural upgrade for either Job, and I think

it works quite well. For one, by the time you get this Job, you'll have so much

money that you won't need the Steal ability. And Souleater, while very nice,

can be replaced by using other Jobs, such as the Summoner.

Initially, the Ninja is very powerful and you won't have to spend a lot of time

improving its Job levels to improve the number of hits. When you first switch

over to the Ninja, you'll start to dish out 18-20 hits per round right away. I

also noticed I didn't have to grind to superior levels just to get this 

character to act first in battle, unlike other fighting Jobs that need extra 

levels to get them to act quicker.

Another main attraction for this Job is their Throw command, which will enable 

you to throw weapons (namely the all-powerful Shuriken) to deal massive amounts

of damage to bosses. This Job is truly a boss-killer.

The only disadvantage to using a Ninja is putting up with their low magical 

defense. Often times, they can get "one-shotted" by an enemy's Flare attack, or

even by a mass damage spell for example. This often happens even when the Ninja

is at full health. So if you plan on using the Ninja, expect to make good use

of the Devout's level 8 Arise spell. You may even plan on using the Protect

spell at the beginning of the battle to prevent this from happening.

Overall, the Ninja is a fine addition to an end-game party. It's a highly 

recommended Job to use, and there's even more than enough Dark blades to use

two Ninjas if you're so inclined.

---------.------------------------------------------------------.--------------

Profile: |                        Ninja                         | Earth Crystal

---------'------------------------------------------------------'--------------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "Ninja excel at using dark blades.

 Attack   |     20     |    12     |     They have the ability to throw

 Throw    |     20     |    12     |     weapons, which deal enormous amounts

 Guard    |     20     |    12     |     of damage."

 Item     |     20     |    12     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     2     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     3     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     4     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     5     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     6     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

     7     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

     8     |     8    |    12    |   8  |      104       | |     4     |

     9     |     8    |    12    |   4  |      100       | |    --     |

    10     |     9    |    12    |  --  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 8-9 actions per battle to level up a Ninja.

----------------------------------.

              Stats:              |

----------------------------------|

 LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  10 |  11 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 |  17 |  20 |  15 |  15 |  15 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 |  24 |  28 |  20 |  20 |  20 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 |  31 |  36 |  24 |  24 |  24 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 |  38 |  45 |  29 |  29 |  29 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 |  44 |  53 |  34 |  34 |  34 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 |  51 |  61 |  38 |  38 |  38 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 |  58 |  69 |  43 |  43 |  43 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 90 |  65 |  78 |  48 |  48 |  48 |

----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 99 |  71 |  85 |  52 |  52 |  52 |

----------------------------------'

NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack: Attacks with equipped weapon.

Throw:  Throw weapons for massive damage.

         Damage Inflicted = (Weapon Attack x 2.5 + 100) x (100 + JobLv) x

                             10 / 99 x Random No.

         Random No.       = number between 1.0 and 1.8

         Hit Rate         = (95 + JobLv / 22)%

Guard:  Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:   Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knives:      All (excluding Gladius)

Dark Blades: All (excluding Murakumo)

Throwing:    All   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head: Leather Cap, Headband, Feathered Hat, Black Cowl, Chakra Band,

        Ribbon, Genji Helm.

Body:   Vest, Rusty Mail, Leather Armor, Kenpo Gi, Black Garb,

        Black Belt Gi, Genji Armor, Fuma Garb.

Arm: Bronze Bracers, Mythril Gloves, Gauntlets, Thief Gloves,

        Power Bracers, Diamond Bracers, Diamond Gloves, Protect Ring,

        Genji Gloves.

Shield: Leather Shield, Genji Shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Muramasa

Atk:    140

Bonus:  +5 STR, +10 AGI, +5 VIT, +5 INT, +5 MIND

Effect: Effective against dividing enemies.

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{JOB-OK} Onion Knight  |

-----------------------'

Description:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Onion Knight is a secret Job in Final Fantasy III, and can be obtained by 

using Mognet and the Wi-Fi connection. To learn about how to acquire this Job, 

read the "Mognet" section in Seferaga's FAQ/Walkthrough:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/file/924897/50148

The Onion Knight is named after the starting Job of the original game, in case 

you were wondering. The best way to describe the Onion Knight is that it's 

ugh... well... it's the best Job in the game. It's so good, that I'll say it's 

cheesy. I know Onions aren't cheesy in real life, but hopefully you get what I 

mean!

Now, the Onion Knight doesn't look very powerful when you first get access to 

it, however at level 93, your base stats will all be pumped to insane levels.

At level 99, you'll have perfect stats in every category. Essentially, the

Onion Knight is a God and rewards players for getting their characters all up

to level 99. I would argue that by this point, you don't need an Onion Knight

to win the game as you can beat it with any Job at level 99, but who am I to

stop you?

Moreover, the Onion Knight can cast all White and Black Magic, in the same way

a Sage can. However, the Onion Knight does not get access to Summon Magic. 

Square-Enix, what were you thinking!? I want High Summons too! 

Despite being able to cast nearly every spell and having 99 in each statistic, 

you can also use nearly every piece of equipment in the entire game. That's 

right - you can literally take the best weapons and armor from every Job (minus

the ultimate gear from the Master Smith), and use them on your 4 little, cheesy

Onion Knights!

If that isn't enough (and for some people, it won't be), Square-Enix has 

included special Onion equipment, and they also stink of cheese! This gear

drops randomly from Yellow, Green and Red dragons, and to be fair, it's very

rare to drop. However, if you were persistent enough to get Character level 99

for all of your characters, why stop now? Go and kill dragons until you obtain

Onion weapons and armor for each character! 

The Onion equipment is easily the best in the game, offering the best defense 

and magic defense available hands down. In addition, each piece is very much 

like the Master Smith gear. They provide stat boosts, and if that's not enough,

they also protect you from negative status effects the same way Ribbon does! 

There is one exception though, where one piece of equipment is better to use 

compared to the Onion gear... and that's the Ultima Weapon! It's the only

weapon that can best the Onion Sword. The Ultima Weapon provides one lucky

Onion Knight with +15 to all stats... rather than the absolutely terrible...

the absolutely horrible... the absolutely horrific +5 to all stats given by the

Onion Sword! Oh darn! I guess one little Onion Knight is going to be a little

better than the others! The world is going to end!

To be honest, I've written enough about this Job, as there's nothing more to

say about it. If you want to take all strategy and fun away from the game, by

all means, use an Onion Knight. I can understand if you want to have this stuff

as a personal trophy, or to create a perfect save file. However, when it comes

to intelligent Job strategy and analysis, I think I've said enough about the

Onion Knight.

---------.---------------------------------------------------------.-----------

Profile: |                     Onion Knight                        | Secret Job

---------'---------------------------------------------------------'-----------

-----------------------------------.

 JP Gain: | JobLv 1-14 | JobLv 14+ |

----------|------------|-----------|    "The way of the onion knight is a

 Attack   |     20     |     8     |     long and hard one... but once you

 Magic    |     20     |     8     |     master the job, the rewards just

 Guard    |     20     |     8     |     might be worth it!"

 Item     |     20     |     8     |

----------'------------'-----------'

Actions........ Total actions taken during battle, for one character.

JP Gain........ Amount of JP you gain for each action.

Add............ Additional JP from previous battle.(Overflow)

Total JP Gain.. The amount of JP at the end of battle.

Overflow....... Extra JP that will carry over to the next battle.

-----------.----------.----------.------.----------------. .-----------.

 Battle #  | Actions: | JP Gain: | Add: | Total JP Gain: | | Overflow: |

-----------|----------|----------|------|----------------| |-----------|

     1     |    13    |     8    |  --  |      104       | |     4     |

     2     |    13    |     8    |   4  |      108       | |     8     |

     3     |    13    |     8    |   8  |      112       | |    12     |

     4     |    12    |     8    |  12  |      103       | |     3     |

     5     |    13    |     8    |   3  |      107       | |     7     |

     6     |    13    |     8    |   7  |      111       | |    11     |

     7     |    12    |     8    |  11  |      102       | |     2     |

     8     |    13    |     8    |   2  |      106       | |     6     |

     9     |    13    |     8    |   6  |      110       | |    10     |

    10     |    12    |     8    |  10  |      101       | |     1     |

    11     |    13    |     8    |   1  |      105       | |     5     |

    12     |    13    |     8    |   5  |      109       | |     9     |

    13     |    12    |     8    |   9  |      100       | |    --     |

    14     |    13    |     8    |  --  |      104       | |     4     |

    15     |    13    |     8    |   4  |      108       | |     8     |

-----------'----------'----------'------'----------------' '-----------'

Etc, etc...

On average, you must take 13-12 actions per battle to level up an Onion Knight.

------------------------------. .----------------------------------.

           MP Chart:          | |              Stats:              |

------------------------------| |----------------------------------|

 LV | L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 | | LV | STR | AGI | VIT | INT | MND |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

  1 |  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1 | |  1 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |   5 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 10 |  5  5  4  4  3  2  2  1 | | 10 |   6 |   6 |   6 |   6 |   6 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 20 | 10  9  8  7  5  4  3  2 | | 20 |   7 |   7 |   7 |   7 |   7 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 30 | 15 13 11  9  8  6  4  2 | | 30 |   8 |   8 |   8 |   8 |   8 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 40 | 20 18 15 12 10  7  5  2 | | 40 |   9 |   9 |   9 |   9 |   9 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 50 | 25 22 19 15 12  9  6  3 | | 50 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 60 | 30 26 22 18 14 11  7  3 | | 60 |  11 |  11 |  11 |  11 |  11 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 70 | 35 30 26 21 17 12  8  3 | | 70 |  12 |  12 |  12 |  12 |  12 |

----|-------------------------| |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

 80 | 40 35 29 24 19 14  9  3 | | 80 |  14 |  14 |  14 |  14 |  14 |

----|-------------------------| '----------------------------------'

 90 | 45 39 33 27 21 15 10  4 | .----------------------------------.

----|-------------------------| | 90 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |

 99 | 49 43 36 30 23 17 10  4 | |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

------------------------------' | 91 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |

NOTE: LV = Character Level      |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 92 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 93 |  27 |  27 |  27 |  27 |  27 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 94 |  39 |  39 |  39 |  39 |  39 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 95 |  51 |  51 |  51 |  51 |  51 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 96 |  63 |  63 |  63 |  63 |  63 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 97 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 98 |  87 |  87 |  87 |  87 |  87 |

                                |----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

                                | 99 |  99 |  99 |  99 |  99 |  99 |

                                '----------------------------------'

                                 NOTE: LV = Character Level

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Battle Commands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack:  Attacks with equipped weapon.

Magic:   Can cast all White and Black magic.

Guard:   Increases defense, reducing all damage by 50%.

Item:    Use an item from the item list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weapons to Use

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knives:      All (excluding Gladius)

Swords:      All (excluding Save the Queen)

Staves:      All (excluding Sage Staff)

Rods:        All (excluding Lilith Rod, Millenium Rod)

Dark Blades: All (excluding Muramasa, Murakumo)

Bows:        All (excluding Artemis Bow)

Arrows:      All

Books        All (excluding Omnitome)

Claws:       All

Hammers:     All (excluding Mighty Hammer)

Axes:        All (excluding Gigantic Axe)

Spears:      All (excluding Magic Lance)

Throwing:    All (excluding Shuriken)

Bells:       All (excluding Blessed Bell)

Harps:       All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armor to Equip

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head:        All (excluding Royal Crown, Ballad Crown)

Body:        All (excluding Angel Robe, Crimson Vest, Master Dogi)

Arm:         All (excluding Celestial Gloves, Shura Gloves, Astral Bracers)

Shield:      All

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mastery Item 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:   Onion Blade 

Atk:    150

Bonus:  +7 All Stats

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to Unlock

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See the "Finding the Onion Knight" section above.  Ctrl+F. {UNLOCK}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Onion Stats

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You might have heard that the Onion Knight has the best stats when compared to

any other Job!  This is TRUE!  But there is something else you should know.

If your *CHARACTER* is not Lv. 99, the Onion Knight Job is almost worthless!

If you don't understand why, this quick chart will clear it up for you! ;)

              .------------------------.

              |        -Stats-         |

--------------|----.----.----.----.----|

 Character Lv |Str:|Agi:|Vit:|Int:|Mind|

--------------|----|----|----|----|----|

     ----     | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |

      10      |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |  6 |

      20      |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  7 |

      30      |  8 |  8 |  8 |  8 |  8 |

      40      |  9 |  9 |  9 |  9 |  9 |

      50      | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |

      60      | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |

      70      | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |

      80      | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |

      90      | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |

      99      | 99 | 99 | 99 | 99 | 99 |

--------------'----'----'----'----'----'

You see, the Onion Knight has some of the worst stats compared to the other

Jobs.  So basically, you aren't going to want to level up with one of these

because it would make things VERY difficult! If you do manage to level up your

character that high, enjoy the most powerful Job in the entire game! :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Onion Equipment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The best Job in the game, even has its own set of equipment!  To get this rare

and powerful equipment, you must have access to the Secret ??? Dungeon or the

Crystal Tower.  The reason for this is because all of the Onion Equipment is

dropped by Yellow, Green, and Red Dragons; Which are found in those two places.

Now don't go thinking this will be easy, because it's NOT!  The drop rate for

these items are VERY VERY low.  You may fight 30 battles before you even get

an Onion Shield!(this is the most common piece!)  To help speed this up, fight

the dragons in the Secret ??? Dungeon.  Why?  Because the only creatures in

the ??? dungeon are the colored dragons!  Yay!

Good luck attaining your full Onion Set....or four!  :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Onion Sword 

Atk:       156

Bonus:     +5 All Stats

Location:  Win from Yellow, Green, or Red Dragons.

Drop Rate: 1.5%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Onion Helm

Def:    40

MDef:   40

Bonus:  +5 Int, +5 Mind

Effect: Protects against all status ailments.

Location: Win from Yellow Dragons.

Drop Rate: 4.5%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Onion Armor

Def:    60

MDef:   40

Bonus:  +5 Str, +5 Vit

Effect: Protects against all status ailments.

Location: Win from Red Dragons.

Drop Rate: 4.5%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Onion Gauntlets

Def:    50

MDef:   25

Bonus:  +3 All Stats

Effect: Protects against all status ailments.

Location: Win from Green Dragons.

Drop Rate: 4.5%

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:  Onion Shield

Def:    30

MDef:   30

Bonus:  +2 All Stats

Effect: Protects against all status ailments.

Location: Win from Yellow, Green, or Red Dragons.

Drop Rate: 7.0%

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

                           V) The Effective Jobs: {E1}

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

This section will discuss all the different weaknesses of each Boss that awaits

you throughout the game.  You will discover which Jobs are the most effective,

and learn of the many favorable strategies which are commonly used to become

victorious!

=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=-*=

{E1-1} Land Turtle  |

--------------------'

Freelancer works really well here. >_ Onion Knight

Freelancer has very low stats, period. And if you can change away from it, do

it sooner. Onion Knight is even more severe, their stats do not improve until

Character LV 93. These two classes are only recommended for adventurous

players.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pure Attacker:          Monk, Warrior ----> Dragoon, Dark Knight,

                                            Black Belt, Ninja

Pure attackers, as implied, are some classes that the mostly used command is

"attack" and their special skills deal with extra damage. Monk and Warrior are

of lower stats growth and so if you can, shift to the higher end Dragoon, Dark

Knight, Black Belt, and Ninja. These four classes are all moderately quick.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tactical Attacker:      Knight, Ranger, Viking

These group are mostly doing physical attack in a less head-to-head way. Knight

has supreme defense and this class can also guard other member who is in low HP

condition. Ranger can deal with high damage even put to back row. Viking is sea

creature specialist while his skill lowers enemy's defense with the expense of 

being the enemy's target.  With a good mix and match of pure and tactical

attackers one may have a bit more fun in the battles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oddies:                 Thief, Scholar, Evoker, Geomancer

I called them oddies not because of they are useless, but chance is if you have

more than two of these in your team, you may have a relatively risky (or fun)

team design. Thief is a high speed class that can deal decent damage, in the

later he can also steal items. However, item profile in FFIII is very

unexciting and you may not wish to keep a thief till end game. Scholar is

useful for their ability to check enemy and double potency of using items.

Evoker is famous for unpredictable random effect of summon magic. Geomancer can

deal really good damage with terrain, however, the effect of terrain is random

and sometimes an action can be wasted because the instant death effect doesn't

kick in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Offensive Mage:         Black Mage ----> Magus, Summoner

As name implied, they are magical killer. Black Mage has lower stat profile

compared to Magus and Summoner. As soon as you can access level 8 magic,

changing to Magus would be better. Summoner's magic only deal group damage, a 

more extreme form of offensive mage; they also have higher MP proflie and I

consider it a tag better than Magus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defensive Mage:         White Mage ----> Devout

They use healing magic to keep others alive. Devout has better mind growth

compared to White Mage. So change to Devout if you intended to have a white

magic user in the later game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tactical Mage:          Red Mage ----> Sage, Bard

Red Mage is a magical fighter with limited physical and magical potency. They

can be active in the beginning, then die out a bit. At the near-end of the game

one can revive them with high class weapons such as Ultima Weapon and Crystal

series. However, their melee ability is probably shadowed by other stronger

classes. If you wish to keep the versatality of magic using, consider a Sage.

They can cast all spells, with a bit lower MP compared to Devout and Magus.

However, because they can equip all staffs and rods, you have a better chance

to configure their Int or Mnd. Bard is also a supreme tactical assistant. Their

songs have different assistant effects.

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{S1-3} Quick Party Set-ups  |

----------------------------'

Wind Crystal Chapter:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warrior - Monk - White Mage - Black Mage

The classical FFI combination. Making good use of warriors' equipment gathered

from the dungeons. Monk will underperform at the beginning but it will pay off

as they level up (both character and job levels). White mage is useful for

dealing with the undead in Mystril and Sealed Caves. Black Mage can wipe out

small creatures, while equiping some bow and arrows can help them being useful

with low MP.

To increase SPEED, consider:

Warrior - Thief - White Mage - Black Mage

To increase PHYSICAL ATTACK, consider:

Warrior - Monk - Monk/Warrior - White Mage

Warrior - Monk - Red Mage - White Mage

Warrior - Thief - Red Mage - White Mage

Tactics before the Fire Crystal are pretty limited, because of low number of

combinations and low variety of magic. There are, however, some hints to make

the party more viable.

1. Use Warrior "Advance" only if there is less enemy, because the skill also

lower warrior's defense. Consider putting Warrior on back row with bow and

arrow and then use Advance.

2. Give the mages all the elemental staffs for some free damage. They probably

cannot save the day, but at least you maximize potential damage.

3. Give Black Mages a bow and arrows.

Fire Crystal Chapter:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight - Ranger - Whtie Mage - Black Mage

Knight - Ranger - Scholar - White Mage

Knight - Monk - Scholar - White Mage

Knight - Ranger - Geomancer - White Mage

These would be some of the reasonable upgrades. The Knight can keep dealing

physical damage, plus they can cast some spells (only level one white). A White

Mage should stay for constant HP recovery backup. Mix either one tactical or

pure attacker, and maybe one oddy (like scholar or geomancer) to spice up a bit

if you wish.

To increase PHYSICAL ATTACK, consider:

Knight - Monk - Ranger - White Mage

To increase ITEM POTENCY, consider these, make sure to bring enough potions

and hi-potions.

Knight - Scholar - Scholar - White Mage

Knight - Scholar - Scholar - Black Mage

To EXPLOIT ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS, consider:

Knight (Elemental Sword) - Ranger (Elemental Arrow) - Black Mage - White Mage

Knight (Elemental Sword) - Scholar (Elemental Books) - Black Mage - White Mage

To increase SPEED, consider:

Knight - Thief - Ranger - White Mage

After Fire Crystal, things start to be a bit more interesting. Especially with

Geomancer's Terrain attack and Scholar's surprisingly high physical attack.

White Mage should continue to serve the party, unless you decided to make

Scholar pick up the recovery work, which is significantly harder way. Geomancer

is good in a sense that they induce magic-like damage without using MP.

However, in most of the dungeons there are a good change that the geomancers

would cast whirlpool and blackhole, which are instant-death skills; if that

skills failed, geomancer wasted a round.

With the introduction of Ranger and Scholar who have an array of elemental

weapons, plus the collection of various elemental swords and staffs, after

Fire Crystal the team should be able to wipe out monster with elemental

weaknesses pretty efficiently.

Water Crystal Chapter:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight - Dark Knight - Bard - White Mage

Knight - Viking - Black Mage - White Mage

Knight - Dragoon - Bard - White Mage

Knight - Dragoon - Bard - Evoker

These are some of the possible upgrades. You may swap Knight with Dragoon, Dark

Knight, and Viking. I consider them of the same tier. Now the combinations are

richer and more specific. Other than the above example I have shown, you can

consider these followings:

Flying creature SLAYER:

Dragoon - Thief (Air Knife) - Ranger - White Mage (Aero)

Dragoon - Dragoon - Bard - White Mage

Notice that there has been a common thought that "Dragoon is great becasue when

it's up in the air it won't take damage." I cannot really agree, because who is

then going to take the damage? Those cannot jump, namely the poor mages and

front row non-jumpers. So, I would suggest if you are heavy on Dragoons, keep

the remaining party at back row by changing to Ranger or Mages. Also Dragoons

do not enjoy the group healing magic when they are up, so mix in a Bard, whose

songs, including the recovery song, always go first in a round.  The Dragoon at

least can have some HP replenished.

Sea creature SLAYER:

Dragoon (Thunder Spear + Jump) - Viking - Ranger (Thunder arrow) - White Mage

Viking can actually be quite useful in the late middle where there is a lot of

sea and undersea exploration. If you plan to raise a Viking, do so earlier to

take advantage of Job LV growth. Viking's hammers have thunder element. So,

they are deadly to the sea creatures.

Self-replenishing PHYSICAL ATTACK team:

Dark Knight (Souleater) - Dark Knight (Souleater) - Bard - White Mage

Dark Knight (Blood Sword) - Dragoon (Blood Spear) - Bard - White Mage

Perhaps the most sought after combination. Because of the level-based MP

system, it's very important to save up your White Mage's MP for boss fights. 

Thus free HP recovery became a hit in FFIII. Mix Dark Knight with Bard together

has the advantage of massive multiple target attacks followed by free HP

recovery. Put in a White Mage in case of series recovery is needed, that can

also spare the Bard to sing other songs. There is one Blood Sword and a lot of

purchasable Blood Spears in this FF, so, make good use of them by introducing

classes that can use these weapons. Also don't forget to put a White Mage or

Scholar in, just in case if the enemies are of undead property.

Earth Crystal Chapter:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight - Black Belt - Devout - Summoner

Knight - Ninja - Devout - Magus

Knight - Ninja - Devout - Summoner

Knight - Ninja - Black Belt - Sage

are some of the suggested upgrades after the Earth Crystal.

For SPEEDY ATTACKING:

Ninja - Black Belt - Dark Knight - Devout

Ninja, Black Belt, and Dark Knight are some of the quicker classes. Dragoon is

also a nice choice. Keep a Devout for HP recovery.

For MULTIPLE targets:

Dark Knight - Ranger - Summoner - Devout

Dard Knight can use Souleater, and then recover with Blood Sword (Notice that

Souleater performed with Blood Sword DOES NOT recover HP); Ranger can use

Barrage; Summoner can wipe out the enemies with high-summon.

For SERIOUS BOSS FIGHTS:

Ninja - Knight - Dragoon - Devout

Knight and Dragoon can use the Blood weapons to recover some HP, Ninja can

throw Shuriken at back row, Devout constantly heals.

Notice that after Earth Crystal, you probably have your preference. The main

points of making job decision here would be:

1. How many strong weapons does this class have?

2. If it's a fighting class, can it equip strong armor like Crystal series? 

   With this two questions you can probably screen out some classes. And there

   are the third question for those who can use Mognet:

3. can the job-specific ultimate equipment compensate the first two

   disadvantages? Some classes, like Black Belt, is very strong in encounters

   but they take massive physical and magical damage in boss fights, however,

   they have protective gear from the blacksmith event. You may then consider

   using a Black Belt for boss fights.

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{S1-4} Thematic Parties  |

-------------------------'

This section is to share some thematic party ideas. If you completely have no

clue or are too bored with the current party, you may consider these for an

experiment.

FFI prototype:     Warrior, Monk, W Mage, B Mage 

                   ----> Knight, Black Belt, Devout, Magus

FFI prototype II:  Warrior, Monk, R Mage, W Mage

                   ----> Knight, Black Belt, Sage, Devout

FFI prototype III: Warrior, Thief, R Mage, W Mage

                   ----> Knight, Ninja, Sage, Devout

In FFI you're allowed to advance your job once, you may do the same for more

restrictions. This is also the basic form when I compose this guide. Feel free

to use this as blueprint and mix in the different class categories I described

at the beginning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Knight of the Round: Knight, Knight, Knight, Sage

Pretty much just lacking a round table. This party is quite fun but it is also

expensive. At the end there might not be enough good swords for everyone, they

you can consider changing one knight to a Dragoon. In the movie King Arthur

there is also a girl Genevieve who is a kick-ass archer. You may change Rafia

to a Ranger for this dramatic look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Force of Nature: Ranger, Geomancer, Devout, Summoner

Well... Pretty much like Robinhood teammed up with a natural power ESP user

and two animal-befrienders, one calls anaimals; one dressed like an animal...

(-_-;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Magic User Conference: Sage, Summoner, Devout, Magus

Good for seeing all the magic effects. This party can also be at back row all

the time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gladitors: Viking, Warrior, Dark Knight, Dragoon

This is a very interesting party. First you'll need a lot of potions. But then

what you can do is equip Blood series to Dragoon and Dark Knight for constant

stable killing characters. While when you face one enemy, you can equip Viking

with two shields and have him used Provoke, followed by Warrior's Advance. The

damage would be massive; while you don't have to worry about the sacrified

defense of the warrior because the enemy is more likely to target the Viking.

Later one can replace Warrior with a Devout for better recovery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Assassin Guild: Ninja, D Knight, Thief, Magus

The look of them is just cool. There isn't really evil healing class... and

shouldn't evil class abandone the idea of white magic? But if you wish to get

serious with it, change it to Ninja, D Knight, Magus, Sage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lord of the Rings: Viking, Knight, Sage, Ranger

These are my favourite four characters, but you can change either of them into

a freelancer as Frodo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FFIV Nostalgia: Dark Knight, Dragoon, Sage, Ninja

There isn't Paladin... so either change the Dark Knight to Knight, or LV99

Onion Knight. Refia would be a mushed up Rydia and Rosa, who can use White,

Black, and Summon spells.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Money Saver: Monk, Black Belt, Devout, Bard

Pratically no equipment cost. Bard can also enhance the fighers' low defense.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gamble-philia: Viking, Geomancer, Evoker, Bard

A team who likes risk. Viking provokes to lower defense, Geomancer uses random

terrain effect, Evoker uses random summon, Bard's harp attack also randomly

causes bad status. A party for those who love to bet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hardcore Challenger:Freelancer, Freelancer, Freelancer, Freelancer

Or more extreme: Onion Knight, Onion Knight, Onion Knight, Onion Knight. These

party suffers from low and super low stats. However, these two jobs have high

affinity to various equipment, they are weak but very flexible. If you want a 

great challenge, this is it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The High-bishop Team:

Knight, Red mage, Red mage, Sage

The sage is the high-bishop, apparently. With two Red Mages as close body guard

and a Knight in the front. A very defensive team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guardians of the Evil Scroll: Dark Knight, Thief, Scholar, Sage

Pretty much the opposite of the previous team. This team is a bit more evil

feeling. Thief can replenish item through stealing, Scholar can efficiently use

items and Dark Knight can equipe Blood Sword. Sage is handy when great recovery

is called for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gulliver's Travels: Knight (male), mini-Magus, mini-Devout, mini-Summoner

A very cute but deadly team. Gulliver apparantly pulled three greatest mages

from the village for a serious adventure. The mages should be at the back,

while Gulliver would protect them if their HP is low. It may be fun, but don't

do it in boss fight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snow-white: Devout (Refia), Viking, Viking, Viking

Although Arc would be a cuter Snow-white, let's stick to the original gender

profile. There are seven dwarves, you can pick three to join. Later, when you

decide to put in a Prince Charming, change one of them to Knight or Dragoon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frog Prince: Devout (Refia), a toad, a toad, and a toad

A variation of Snow-white. A completely harmless team. Would Refia even make

it to kiss one of the toads before the party is wiped out?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8-bit theatre: Red Mage, Thief, Black Mage, and Warrior

For 8-bit theatre fans. I personally think Luneth would be good as the theif,

and Arc can be the Warrior... Red Mage... could be Ingus.

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                             VII) Version History  

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What's New in Version 1.10:

- Corrected some of the spellings and statistics.

- Revised comments on two-handed fighting.

- Added scholar's MP profile.

- Revised Thief's loot table.

- Added details on Geomancer's Terrain attacks.

- Expanded a Section 3 about job combination for the clueless.

What's new in version 1.20:

- Corrected the stats chart of Devout.

- Revised the Job Level chart, now Sage is back.

- Added a section [s1.09] about calculatinng number of battles required to get

  through job change penalty.

What's new in version 1.30:

- Revised section [s1.09].

- Added some suggested information.

What's new in version 1.40:

- Complete revision by Seferaga.  Added his Job Guide to this one and added an

  all-new layout in the process.

- Some mis-translations were fixed.

- Added a whole lot of new content, including JP Overflow, detailed Job

  descriptions and Boss strategies.

- Spelling errors fixed.

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                               VIII) Credits 

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Penguin Knight:

 Author; Translated and provided all statistics throughout this Guide.  Wrote

 section VI and most of the General Information section.

 

Seferaga:

 Co-Author; Put this whole FAQ together; Layout, organization, etc... Wrote for

 most of the smaller sections; Introductions, explanations, charts, etc... Some

 parts were taken from his FAQ/Walkthrough.

 

Egervari3:

 Writer; Wrote most of the Job descriptions that are in the "Descriptions,

 Stats, and Abilities" section.

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                               IX) Copyright                                 

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This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, 

private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed 

publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other 

web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a 

violation of copyright.   All rights reserved (C) 2007-2008.

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If you have any questions or comments about the FAQ, please send us an email!

Penguin Knight: [email protected]

Seferaga: [email protected]</sarcasm></p>

Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides, which means I run GamesRadar's guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.