Hello and welcome to my Final Fantasy VI character guide. This guide will help you make the most of each of the game's available characters by providing in-depth character analysis, equipment suggestions, and basic/advanced strategies.

This guide is organized for you to quickly find any particular information you need. Please use the "menu" on the right to go straight to the character/section you need.

Magitek Elite
Trance

When Trance is used, all damage dealt is doubled, and all magic damage
received is halved. While in Trance status, healing from Regen status and damage
from Poison/Seizure status are doubled as well. Note that Terra does NOT start the game with Trance, only gains this after a certain plot event when she rejoins. Also worth noting that when she rejoins in the World of Ruin, Trance's length doubles.

Terra is one of the most respected, if not the best, character in the game. Between her good magic stat, great equipment, and Trance turning her into a nasty boss fighter, she has a strong case for this argument. While it may sound unintuitive that a character whose special is totally situational and needs to be used conservatively is top tier, this actually is a good example of how FF6 characters are not based entirely on their skill set. In fact, even if situational, Trance is one of the few skill sets not rendered obsolete by Magic or Fight.

Being one of the few innate magic users in the game, she learns spells as she levels up. Here is a list of those spells and at what level she gains them:

Lv 1: Cure
Lv 3: Fire
Lv 6: Poisona
Lv 12: Drain
Lv 18: Raise
Lv 22: Fira
Lv 26: Teleport
Lv 33: Cura
Lv 37: Dispel
Lv 43: Firaga
Lv 49: Arise
Lv 57: Holy
Lv 68: Break
Lv 75: Graviga
Lv 86: Meltdown
Lv 99: Ultima

Terra's relative greatness starts showing when she rejoins. Despite that this is the point of the game you get Trance, that's the not reason (mostly cause its still a while until you fight your first boss.) The reason is because Terra's equipment starts to show at this point, with all that magic boosting gear, and stronger magic is now available to her, which offer her game best (for that time) magic..turning her into a quick Death Goddess. There's also Osmose, which kills MP arguments, being a spell that makes MP a self-renewable resource. It’s nice too, since Terra is forced into the next few sections of the game (Sealed Cave, and the whole Thamasa arc), so you'll want your characters at your strongest. When going up against a boss bust out Trance, and watch the boss go splat in only a few turns. To be blunt, if set up properly, using Trance, Terra can actually one hit kill Flame Eater, and hit the damage limit on bosses like Ultros.

When the World of Ruin kicks in, and Terra rejoins, she only gets better. As a minor boost, Trance now has double the duration. The main thing Terra gets now, however, are the godly equipment options. While things like the Enhancer isn't as good as it use to be (due to Evasion working properly), they're still damn fine equipment, since the +7 Magic is certainly not something to scoff at. And then there's the Minerva Bustier, which is about as good an armor as you'll get in this game beyond arguably the Snow Scarf. Sporting defenses just a bit below the Genji Armor, it grants a good boost to stats (most importantly +4 Magic), 10% Magic Evasion, resists all 8 elements, including nullification of the big 3 (Fire, Ice and Lightning), as well as Wind. This armor alone secures Terra's spot in equipment greatness, as only one other character (Celes) gets this.

While at first glance, Terra might seem like a strict mage, especially with all the plot hype, the second highest Magic score in the game, those early magish equips and the low end physical stats, she is in fact not that. Terra is actually more closely resembling a Red Mage type character; she might be better with Magic than physicals, but her physical side isn't a total lost cause. Her weapons are never bad, in fact, early on she gets Rune Blade which has Critical Hits at the cost of MP, (though it does less damage and costs more than casting Fire, so advised against using it for damage purposes), in addition to boosting Evasion as a bonus, and when she rejoins, the Elemental Swords exist for nailing weaknesses. The Morning Star works if you want to keep her in the back row, and Ultima Weapon exists for ignoring defense (though its power is a bit limited at lower levels and being HP reliant makes it probably not optimal.) Later in the game, she gets some really nasty weapons in things like the Lightbringer, Ragnarok, and Apocalypse, all of which have 255 Battle Power (in practice), +7 vigor and 100% Critical Hit rates at the expense of MP (and unlike, say, Ultima Weapon, these get boosted with Trance.)

Its easy to see that Terra garners so much respect from most people. Terra starts off a little slow, picks up somewhat later, and as the game goes on, she gets better and better. This, combined with no real flaws beyond being somewhat unimpressive early game make her an outstanding character, one defiantely worthy of being Top Tier, if not the game's best character. Once you start having full range of choices in your team, she's always a prime option to consider.

• Put Terra in the back row, until/unless you seriously start considering using her physical with non Chain Flail/Morning Star/Lightbringer weapons (all have full power from the back row.) She has enough MP to last her in the early parts, and you want your healer to not die. Not to mention early game Edgar is sufficient enough for offense.
  
  
• Due to the nature of the early game, those early Sleeping Bags you get work well for refilling her MP mid dungeon. In fact, having her cast Cure on the entire team, then using a Sleep Bag on her is just as effective as using a Tent.
  
  
• When Terra rejoins, get her the Ara spells (recommended through Maduin, unless you're fine with just one, in which case, I suggest Shiva), Osmose (recommended through Zona Seeker; if you don't have him, Shiva works too), and Bio (Catoblepas.) Obviously, teaching her healing magic through Seraph is a good idea too, but that is something you should be doing with every character anyway (more healers is always a good thing!)
  
  
• It's also around this time that you should start deciding whether you want Terra to be a Mage or a Fighter, and try to raise her appropriate stat accordingly. Especially if you choose fighter, as you'll need as many Strength boosts as possible for it to have an impact, so you will want that head start.
  
  
• White Dress is probably Terra's best armor in the World of Balance. While worse defensively than the Golden Armor and the Gaia Gear, the +5 Magic more than makes up for it. Gaia Gear might be worth considering though, as it stops a few attacks on the Floating Continent, so don’t forget it exists.
  
  
• Elemental Weapons should be Terra's weapon of choice, due to the Magic Bonus, and how she can often hit a weakness with one of them for optimal physical damage, especially if the random spell kicks (though probably requires Front Row here for best effects.) Morning Star doesn't hurt if you want to keep her in the back row and use her as a fighter, just be sure to give her Genji Glove.
  
  
• Once Terra gets the Mystery Veil, it'd be a wise idea to keep this on her. The only time I might advise against this is if you feel you need defense, then use Red Cap for its HP and Strength Boosts (Genji Helm and Oath Veil are just not worth it on her). This should be Terra's helmet of choice regardless, though, if she's going the Mage path, at all points in the game (those above options mainly exist for Fighter Terra route.)
  
  
• Speaking of Armors, Minerva Bustier all the way once that’s available. There really is no competition in this regard, especially with evade fixed, making Force Armor not as good as it use to be.
  
  
• Terra’s weapon of choice should ultimately be Lightbringer/Apocalypse (depends on what everyone else is using.) Before then? Enhancer for Mage Terra, Organyx for Fighter Terra, with Gladius/Excalibur on the side to hit Holy Elemental weakness (maybe a Man Eater, if you want to conserve Organyx.)
  
  
• Obviously, if taken down the mage route, Terra should be learning strong spells. I don’t just mean “Teach her Ultima!”, I mean just give her some late game spell(s) so that her damage is kept up to par.
  
  
• Use Trance SPARINGLY in Dragon's Den, more so than usual. I say this because not a single enemy in Dragon's Den gives you AP, so once Terra runs out, its either leave Dragon's Den to "refuel" Trance, or just continue the rest of the way without it. This isn't to say that Terra becomes worthless without Trance, but its something to keep in mind when you plan on using it. Ideally, best fight to use Trance on is probably Skull Dragon.

Listed in no particular order.

Lightbringer
Ultima Weapon
Enhancer
Apocalypse
Ragnarok
Zantetsuken
Excalibur
Organyx
Impartisan

Mystery Veil
Circlet
Red Cap
Genji Helm
Oath Veil
Green Beret
Saucer

Genji Armor
Minerva Bustier
Force Armor
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Lightbringer
Paladin's Shield
Green Beret
Force Armor
Zephyr's Cloak
Prayer Beads

Perfect Evade and Magic Evasion yields near immortality, especially since it also nulls things like Meltdown due to the shield. Granted, the flaw of this set up is, due to the Paladin's Shield, only one character can take advantage of it. It also isn't as high on offense as you might like, though its hardly bad (Lightbringer alone takes care of that.)


Lightbringer
Lightbringer
Green Beret
Force Armor
Genji Glove
Prayer Beads

Also gives the Perfect Evasion and Magic Evasion, however, this one is a bit more free due to how there's unlimited Lightbringers, instead of using a lone Paladin’s shield. Also this set up implies you've finished the game at least once, so it’s mostly a Dragon's Den/Soul Shrine thing. Anyway, advantages to the above set up is its much stronger offensively, however it lacks total elemental immunity, and has much lower defense and magic defense which can matter against attacks Leaf Dance or something which cannot be blocked but doesn't ignore defense, as well as back hits in a Surrounded attack. Nevertheless, this is an extremely effective set up, especially for Terra on the Fighter Route.


Apocalypse
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield
Mystery Veil
Minerva Bustier

Given the set up isn't trying for anything in particular other than overall balance without using rare, not unique or easy to get enough of equipment (Paladin's Shield and Lightbringer anyone?), what Relics you want are up to you, though I highly recommend against using Master's Scroll, as all it does is essentially split Apocalypse damage among 4 hits while making it cost 0 MP; not really worth the relic slot, or wasting a rare relic when the effect that matters (Evade ignoring) can be covered with a store-bought relic in Sniper's Eye. For Genji Shield vs. Aegis Shield, depends what you want. Genji Shield is better on physical defense (especially noteworthy for Fighter Terra who will probably be in the front row), while Aegis Shield is better against magic and status.


Lightbringer
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield
Mystery Veil
Minerva Bustier
Soul of Thamasa

If you want to maximize Terra's magic damage, this is the set up you'll want. If you don't want to use Lightbringer for whatever reason, Apocalypse works too, or if before the Dragon's Den, Enhancer fits. Obviously, Paladin's Shield works here, as always, but you only have one, and its best to avoid using it when possible, in case someone else has more need of it (with the Minerva Bustier, Terra's not exactly starving for Elemental Protection.)

• Terra is one of the easiest characters to get back in the World of Ruins. Simply requires beating a boss (twice if you didn’t do the first half earlier) that isn't particularly hard, especially if you grabbed the early Minerva Bustier via Coliseum, and she joins. As a fun side note, Terra rejoining forces you into a 3 party team, which makes getting Gau right after her ideal since you're already set up for that. In any event, try to take advantage of this and get Terra back as early as possible.
  
  
• Terra is the only character in the game with easy access to the Drain spell. While other characters can only learn it at a x1 rate from Ifrit, Terra learns it naturally and at a relatively low level to boot (its conceivable to have it by the Narshe Battle Sequence, for example.) Not all that useful, but still interesting to note.
  
  
• As a fun random fact, Terra is one of the few PCs who at level 99, will naturally have 999 MP (actually her theoretical value is in the 4 digits, but there's that 999 cap), meaning if you're into getting that value for level 99 purposes, you never need to give her an MP boosting Esper.
  
  
• Terra is the only character who will show up in the Game’s Ending even if you DO NOT recruit her. By extension, she’s one of two characters (Setzer being the other) whose personal ending scene in the montage has no alternative scenarios (be it a whole new scene or the “Face over Town of Importance”)

LOCKE

Adventurer
Steal

Steals an item from the opponent. Chance of success is based on Locke's current level compared to the level of the monster he's stealing from. Chance of success is doubled with Thief's Bracer on. With Brigand's Glove on, Steal becomes Mug, which works exactly like the "Fight" command as if it had an "Add: Steal" attribute to it. Enemies can have up to two potential items to steal; a common steal which occurs 7/8 times, and a rare steal at 1/8. You can only steal once per enemy. If the enemy has only one kind of steal, and the success is made against the empty slot, the game treats it as a failure (so if you go for #128's Kazekiri, and Locke made a successful steal against his common slot which is empty, the game will just give a normal failure message.) If there is nothing to steal at all, the game will make note of this as well.

If there is anyone who can be considered a strict fighter with no strings attached in FF6, that would probably be Locke. With a great weapon selection, low magic stats, and moderate physical stats, as well as lack of a noteworthy special ability (at least as far as damage goes), Locke relies on his physical game to hurt things. Due to how FF6 works with physical damage though, this means he is rather lagging in the early parts of the game, and its only later on that he starts becoming something worth noting.

Locke's big thing comes from the Valiant Knife. This weapon ignores defense, meaning its much stronger than the lowish Attack would imply, and in addition, gets linearly stronger as Locke loses HP. This makes him an ideal candidate for the Master's Scroll, regardless of levels, especially since the Valiant Knife's HP Bonus ignores the Master's Scroll's Damage/2 per hit penalty (though do note that its base damage does not.)

One thing Locke does enjoy in FF6 is how Evasion now does something. Due to this, a few of his weapons get better, most notably would be the Main Gauche early in the game, with its evasion bonus, and his base 15% Evasion, makes him a bit more durable than he originally was. While these boosts are minor, they still are boosts, and make him a little better. As a fun side note, the Valiant Knife also gives an evasion boost itself, so go figure, Locke’s most significant weapon of all things got improved.

Another “niche” Locke has is the best speed in the game, in all ways. His starting speed is game best, and throughout the game, as early as Mt. Koltz with the Main Gauche, he gets weapons that boost his speed, as well as a few other equips like the Ninja Gear that do so as well. This sounds like a nice touch, but sadly, his speed isn’t high enough to really be noticeable, and for a good part of the game, he doesn’t have much use for his turns.

What do I mean? Well, early in the game, Locke has absolutely nothing going for him. He gets slightly stronger weapons than others, but until the Genji Glove kicks in, its not going to offset specials like Magic, Tools, Blitz, etc, especially since Locke requires front row, while all the other characters do not. Genji Glove helps offset this some, but he doesn’t really stand out on damage, and again, still requires Front Row. After Narshe Battle Sequence, he finally gets Back Row damage! Except he still doesn’t really stand out since his damage isn’t very special, and/or he lacks true utility worth like Celes has (such as being a healer.) Espers kick in, Locke ABSOLUTELY requires Ramuh to pull his weight in that dungeon; the enemies have ludicrous defense, and Locke has no way around it otherwise. This is a good idea, though its worth noting that Celes could make use of Ramuh as well, and do more drastic things with it. Locke finally gets a neat weapon in the Hawkeye when that dungeon ends…except now things are spiking somewhat, and he’s just becoming unreliable. To Locke’s credit, he has plenty of time to learn Ara spells and such, so he can make a passable mage, which is probably the best you’ll get out of him early, though he’s not exactly stellar at it (contrast to someone like Terra who has such a Magic advantage, her use with the skill set stands out.)

So what of Locke in the WoR? Well, WoR Locke has the Valiant Knife from the get go, so right there that's a boost. Further more, with relics like the Master's Scroll coming up, Locke suddenly got a decent amount of damage and has some twink potential worth noting that lets him become a competent character, much more than his first half of the game self. Its a pity Locke is practically a pure fighter though; his new weapon from Dragon's Den, the Zwill Crossblade, is pretty darn nice on paper, however, Locke will most likely be used for his physical damage and Zwill Crossblade doesn't really allow that much for that particularly well (barring hitting enemies weak to Wind). Pity really, as its the kind of weapon someone like Cyan or Sabin would kill for, yet it was given to a character who really doesn't have much use for it. Doesn't help the weapon is still completely inferior to Lightbringer...though then again, what isn't?

So what of Steal then? There's sadly not all that much special that can be stolen. There are a few interesting items here and there, but in the grand scheme of things, nothing particularly special. Its best use is saving/making money, as its not particularly great at the getting rare stuff in bulk or getting strong equips early. There are a few gems he can nab here and there, though.

All in all, Locke is a character you use for his weapon selection, and maybe if you want to help monetary issues some at points in the game. He tends to get some really big fans for one reason or another, and some will even try to go as far as saying he's the best character, but in reality, he's fairly middling by the end, with a pretty bad start, and never really being anything close to Top Tier at any point in the game.

Locke has one of the worst, if not the worst, starts in the game, and stays considerably below average for the entire first half of the game, but picks up a bit and becomes decent enough in the second half of the game. He's not exactly the most valuable of character, he's not the worst either (though he might feel like it often in the early parts of the game.) Not really worth the hype he sometimes get for the Master's Scroll + Genji Glove set up or whatever, but that doesn't mean he's strictly bad too. A decent character if built properly, but somewhat of a project.

• When Edgar first joins, give his Mythril Blade to Locke. Edgar won't really be using his weapons ever at this point (Autocrossbow is flat out better), and Locke has nothing but his physical, hence its the best use of it. Plus it saves money.
  
  
• Giving Locke one of the Gigas Glove or Hyper Wrist is another way to improve his worth; do note that Edgar might want one of these as well, so its a tough call as to whether you should give Locke them or not, as its between making your best character better, or improving the worth of someone who needs it.
  
  
• When you first get it, give Locke the Genji Glove (obtained by saying "No" to Banon a few times at the Returner's Hideout). If it was on Terra for the Lethe River, then be sure to remove it form her before doing Locke’s scenario! It’s really the only way he's going to do any sort of damage throughout the next few sections of the game. If you got the Gauntlet instead, use that anyway, even if it’s clearly worse than Genji Glove, its better than nothing. A Gigas Glove or Hyper Wrist would be advisable too, given you start having enough of those to go around.
  
  
• Try to steal the 2nd Air Knife from Tunnel Armor. The extra damage should help some with the Genji Glove, after all. If you were unlucky and got a Bio Blaster instead, though, don't bother resetting; using the Main Gauche works well enough (especially since now the evade does something.)
  
  
• In the Magitek Factory, it might be wise to give Locke Ramuh; he doesn't have any way of hurting enemies otherwise due to their high defense, Genji Glove be damned, so Locke would like at least something, and Thunder, let alone the Ramuh summon, give him at least something approaching damage there. It doesn't hurt to give Locke Ramuh right from the start, actually, to give him a head start in learning spells, hopefully learning Thundara somewhere in the factory. Equipping Locke temporarily with elemental weapons for the Magic Power Boostlike the Icebrand doesn't hurt either.
  
  
• After the Factory, Locke will have access to a lot of useful weapons between the Elemental Swords and Hawkeyes. While equipping Hawkeyes and staying with them the entire way seems effective, the best way to use Locke is to actually micromanage his weapons consistently so that he’s constantly hitting elemental weaknesses, defaulting to Hawkeye whenever he can’t. This does require Front Row, but you may find that relying on Hawkeyes is a bit unreliable, where as while the Elemental Swords are weaker, they are hitting their weaknesses 100% of the time, yielding more net damage than Hawkeyes.
  
  
• When Locke rejoins in the second half of the game, he should be given the Valiant Knife and really thought of as it being stapled onto him. It’s his big unique thing, and what makes him good...best make use of it. I can see taking it off if you wanted to give him Lightbringer, which naturally is never a bad idea (unless you're still using Master's Scroll). In fairness, weapons like the Sniper or Wing Edge have some situational use that you may be able to take advantage of, but for the most part, Valiant Knife is his weapon. This extends even into Dragon's Den, where, despite the Zwill Crossblade, Valiant Knife remains Locke's best overall weapon (barring Lightbringer, of course.)
  
  
• If you're using the Valiant Knife for that matter, Master's Scroll would be a very wise thing to give Locke. This is the thing that turns Locke from "bottom tier" to "competent character" really. There's even some unique and cute ways to enhance the effects of Master's Scroll using the Red Cap and such. Do note that, unless you completed the Soul Shrine and grabbed a second one from a Glutturn, its best to keep Locke and Setzer in different teams, since they both want the Master's Scroll, unless you plan on using Locke with Lightbringer of course.

Listed in no particular order.

Lightbringer
Ultima Weapon
Wing Edge
Zwill Crossblade
Ragnarok
Sniper
Excalibur
Valiant Knife
Impartisan

Circlet
Red Cap
Genji Helm
Green Beret
Priest's Miter
Saucer

Genji Armor
Force Armor
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Valiant Knife
Aegis Shield/Genji Shield/Thunder Shield
Red Cap
Genji Armor
Master's Scroll

Locke's best overall damage set up. I know you're thinking "What about Genji Glove?" and I'll get to the weaknesses of that later. Valiant Knife + Master's Scroll is always a good set up, especially when the HP loss damage bonus increases 4 fold, since that ignores the Master's Scroll damage penalty. Genji Armor was chosen over Force Armor since it boosts Strength, and considering Locke's probably going to want Front Row, he's going to need that extra defense. For shield, though, defense differences are a bit less, so it depends what you're aiming at. If Magic Defenses go with Aegis Shield, if physical, go for Genji Shield, and if you want elemental resistance (this set up is completely lacking in any), Thunder Shield works. Also note the Red Cap strategy explained in miscellaneous info works rather well with this set up. You can use Muscle Belt if you want to further exploit the HP Manipulation trick more, though you may prefer a different filler relic.


Valiant Knife
Ultima Weapon
Genji Helm
Genji Armor
Master's Scroll
Genji Glove

Why did I name it the way I did? Because this set up has been hyped from long before the game got hacked like crazy, hence the legendary part, and Seesaw refers to how the weapons work. Valiant Knife gets stronger as your HP goes down, and Ultima Weapon gets stronger as HP goes up. The issue is, granted, that Ultima Weapon doesn't REALLY get stronger at higher HP; more along the lines that its damage decreases as you lose HP, since it alters damage literally based on your Current HP relative to your Max HP, not like Valiant Knife which just shoves the HP Loss into damage. Any who, Genji Armor used cause its best defense and he needs the defenses in this set up, and it boosts Strength to boot. Genji Helm is the defense reasons again, though I suppose Red Cap might work as a substitute. The Set Up has decent damage, I guess, and was the original 9999x8 (couldn't get 2 Ultima Weapons (aka Atma Weapon) easily in the original FF6), but considering all the downsides, is it worth it? I, alongside many others, personally don't think so, as the set up listed above isn't that far off offensively, much better defensively, and isn't as reliant on relics (notice how the set up before this only requires one Relic, while this one requires two?), but hey, you might disagree. This is another case of me listing it mostly to avoid someone shouting my butt off for forgetting this set up.


Lightbringer
Aegis Shield/Genji Shield/Thunder Shield
Red Cap/Genji Helmet/Circlet
Force Armor/Genji Armor

Ok, you're looking at this set up and probably thinking "What's with all the alternatives?" Well, basically, the concept behind this is that its Locke using Lightbringer in a manner that doesn't require two nor does it require that sole Paladin's Shield. For what to use where…it really depends on what you want. For example, Circlet is best for Magic Damage purposes, Red Cap is better for physical damage purposes, and Genji Helmet is best for overall defenses, providing you equip the other Genji Stuff alongside it (Augmenting Returns.) In any event, this flexible set up has two purposes. One is its well balanced for Locke overall, letting him act as a fighter or a mage, while retaining a good defensive backing. The other is that it opens up things like the Master’s Scroll for characters like Setzer who also want it.

• Master's Scroll + Brigand's Glove, the never ending myth. Sadly, while this combo seems excellent on paper for multi-stealing purposes, but its not as good as it seems. IIRC, there is a bug where once you steal, the game will claim you steal that same object several times in a row, regardless of target, even though you only steal it once. Also, I seem to recall that the game doesn't make the check to steal 4x, its actually only once, and the game just reiterates the steal message multiple times. Not certain on this, but basically, this combo isn't worth it at all. Better off just sticking to Thief's Bracers for raising steal odds.
  
  
• The never ending dungeon of doom! Well, ok, not really, but Locke is quite possibly the hardest and most annoying character to get in the WoR. He has easily the longest dungeon of any character (Phoenix Cave), and said dungeon has annoying enemies too (one of whom is unrunnable), and requires two parties (though, one party, to be fair, could just be Mog solo w/ a Moogle Charm). Granted?
  
  
• Locke is needed to get Ultima and/or Lightbringer (at least, prior to the final battle, where Gogo and Shadow can be used as substitutes), unless you like wasting time getting Terra to level 99 (at which point, its useless.) Both Ragnarok AND the Paladin's Shield require Locke to obtain. This is probably the best reason to get him, as they are nasty objects you'll want, regardless.
  
  
• Thief's Bracers DO NOT STACK. Well, ok, the speed boosts do, but not the Steal aspect. Thought I should throw this out, as its an often enough asked question. So don't bother equipping a 2nd Thief's Bracer unless you like another +5 to speed or something.
  
  
• Mug cancels out replacement effects, as some people call them. Basically, while random spell casting (such as Ice Brand's Blizzard) still works, because those bytes are differently, and thus are Addition Effects (damage dealt first, THEN the special effect kicks in), True Special Effects (often called Replacement Effects) are ignored. Ultima Weapon now acts like a normal 255 Power Sword, for example, same with Valiant Knife acting like a normal 159 Attack weapon. Weapons like Wing Edge or the Assassin's Knife won't ever have their instant death, Blood Sword won't drain HP and do normal damage regardless of the user or enemies HP, weapons like Lightbringer won't have 100% Critical Hit rate anymore (likewise, it won't use up MP either), what have you. If there is anything odd about a weapon that isn't stat related or a random spell casting, Mug removes it.
  
  
• Related to the above, however, for an interesting use of Mug, equip that and the Ultima Weapon together. Suddenly, Ultima Weapon is now a normal weapon with 255 Attack. Sure, sounds meh, but then consider you can do this somewhere halfway through the World of Balance. Not particularly useful, but still neat considering how early it is.
  
  
• If Locke is in your team when you do Gau's Father sequence alongside Edgar, you'll get an extra bit of dialogue (and extra bit of Gau makeover) in that sequence for added humor.
  
  
• Common knowledge, but thought I'd toss it out anyway. If you bring Locke to Rachel's House and the Old Man's Basement in WoB Kohlingen, you can get some extra scenes regarding Locke and Rachel's back story. Again, no real use to this in the long run, but still neat to see.
  
  
• If you do not recruit Locke in the WoR, his ending scene which he shares with Celes will be altered to compensate for the lack of him.

Cyan

Samuria
Bushido

When selected, a bar will gradually raise, below a set of numbers. Pressing A again signifies you are ready to act. What move is used is determined by the highest highlighted number, each having predetermined moves (so if 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all highlighted, whatever move is assigned to 4 will be used. In this case, it'd be Flurry.) There are up to 8 Levels of Bushidos. Note that in order to use a Bushido, the weapon being used must be compatible with Bushido (can be checked on the weapon's stat screen), though its worth noting that all of Cyan's weapons he can use normally are compatible anyway barring the Impartisan, so this factor is trivial. Also note that none of Cyan's Bushidos are targetable, and that unlike other nonFight/Jump commands, time still moves during this, so "Wait" does not help this cause.

There's not much good to say about Cyan, sadly. A lot of people will love him for the "able to break the damage limit (9999) without a relic slot!" aspect, without yielding to the fact that it only becomes significant at levels too high to largely care. Nevertheless, if the stats didn't give it away, Cyan doesn't make a very good mage at all. Decent physical stats, but game worst Magic Power and lacking in the department to boost those stats (Genji Armor and Circlet are his only options) make for a pretty sad mage. As a fighter, Cyan is lacking in any real noteworthy weapons, though he gets a quirky one here and there. For what its worth, he's also the second slowest character in the game, as only Strago is slower. However, one major change from all previous versions of the game was made in the iOS/Mobile version: Cyan's Bushido commands no longer needs to be charged up manually, as a player may select the Bushido level and wait for Cyan to charge it up while the player gives commands to other party members. This is a GODSEND for players who like Cyan regardless of his shortcomings, and significantly increases his usefulness in this port. His Bushidos can't be targeted though, especially in the cases of Flurry and Tempest, where he can end up spreading his 4 hits among multiple enemies, yielding a weak Multitarget move, instead of a strong Single Target move.

In fairness, his armor selection isn't TOO bad, getting most of the same things Locke gets, though misses out on some moderately useful things (Ninja Gear and Gaia Gear to name a few.)

So what about his equipment options? Armor wise, I covered; he doesn’tStand out one way or another in this regard. As far as his weapons go...Cyan kind of got the short end of the stick, at least until Dragon's Den. Any weapon he gets that doesn't boost stats or have some sort of special effect is pretty much meaningless; Fang does more than a physical and ignores row to boot. As such, right there that makes most of his weapons pretty pointless outside of Black Belt purposes. Useful ones? Asura, if only cause its his first one and free, so that’s kind of a default thing. Kazekiri has a unique effect in being the only weapon that randomly casts a MT spell, AND said effect is even compatible with the Master's Scroll. Downside? Master's Scroll lowers the damage of physical Bushidos (so this means Fang, Tempest and Flurry), so Cyan pretty much becomes a one trick pony and pure Random Encounter slayer, and not a particularly good one late. It’s a decent weapon early, I suppose. Murasame and Mitsunokami are both useful if only cause they give evasion boosts, so at least they serve a purpose that compliments Bushiods. His bets weapon overall is Zanmato (at least, for Bushido purposes.) Only weapon of his that boosts Strength, and gives a nice +30% Evade, it compliments Bushidos rather well. Being Holy Elemental has some minor applications I suppose.

All in all, Cyan is a character that wasn't thought out well. Low Magic score with little boosts forces him into being a fighter, which he isn't good at either, and his lack of really special equips barring maybe the Kazekiri, which runs off his game worst Magic Stat anyway, rounds out to be a rather low end character. Some people try to support him coming with a lot of quirk ways, but these set ups tend to benefit Cyan and only Cyan, while hurting the other three members of the party, so its actually hurtful more than helpful in the grand scheme of things. Oh, and do not fall for "Genji Glove + Master's Scroll on Cyan = Win!" Outside of maybe Kazekiri, Cyan is one of the WORST characters to do that combo with.

Cyan’s Hype comes from two areas. One camp is all about the “over 9999 without a relic slot!” and the other is “Kazekiri pwnage!!1!” In truth? Neither is all they’re cracked up to be, and combined with Cyan’s game worst Magic Power, and iffy equipment selection, he doesn’t really came out to be much of a character. I know some people say he’s still effective and usable, and to some degree, it’s true! But this is more that FF6 is an easy game in general, and most characters can be made effective through this; Cyan’s relative worth is clearly not very high, and there’s a reason many go as far as to call him one of the worst characters in the game.

Cyan's skill set is learned through levels. HOWEVER, after you beat Cyan's Soul, Cyan learns ALL Bushidos at once, regardless of level.Sword tech's listed in order of level. So first one is level 1, 2nd is level 2, all the way to level 8.

Obtained at Level 1
Effects
Physical damage to one foe

Comments
Probably most useful Bushido in general, only cause it's to-go. Beats his fight command for raw damage pretty much always, unless Genji Glove and/or Master’s Scroll is involved, late game.

Obtained at level 6
Effects
Puts Cyan into a counter mode, of sorts. When hit with a physical attack, he counters with a non-elemental magic attack

Comments
Great damage early on, but a bit hard to trigger being a counter only. Later in the game, though, Fang out damages it (you heard me), and given its not exactly an insured trigger, its not a particularly good move. You could use a Knight’s Code to help trigger this more, but again, you’re often better off just using Fang.

Obtained at level 12
Effects
Deals damage equal to 50% of enemies HP, adds Seizure Status

Comments
Not particularly useful. Bosses tend to be immune to it, and Dispatch tends to kill enemies anyway making Gravity pointless. Late in the game, when doing half damage is more than Dispatch, these enemies like to be immune to it as well or you’re better off just casting some Instant Death spell, which hits all the same enemies with a better effect and is instant.

Obtained at level 15
Effects
Attacks random enemies with 4 separate attacks.

Comments
Not bad on damage, though, this is the first move where the charge times start actually becoming apparent. Also note that unlike Fang, this does not ignore defense, so it's worthless on a high defense enemy (like those in the Magitek Factory.) Probably the last Bushido that's actually worth the wait, all things considered.

Obtained at level 24
Effects
Magic damage and MP damage to one foe, heals Cyan for an
amount equal to the damage done, both HP and MP wise, restricted by
Cyan's Max Hp and MP.

Comments
Not particularly useful, really. Drain and Osmose more or less do the same thing, this move just puts them into one attack, and adds an annoying charge time on, and you can't aim it. For the most part, its easier to use one of those two moves, as rarely you need to heal BOTH HP and MP. One advantage it has, I suppose, is it ignores defense, so against the rare enemy it might be better.

Obtained at level 34
Effects
Non-elemental magic damage to all enemies, randomly inflicts Stop

Comments
Alright, this is where the Charge times start outweighing the use. Eclipse is effectively an improved version of Sabin’s Razor Gale on paper, but the charge times really kill its use (as does Cyan's base magic score) Not particularly useful, though, if you can get the time up without killing all enemies and not harming your own team, then by all means, use it.

Obtained at level 44
Effects
Attacks random enemies with 4 separate attacks. Difference between this and Quadra Slam is that this Ignores Defense

Comments
The move that Cyan gets a lot of hype over. However, the charge times really limit the use of this otherwise fine move. Its about as strong as Phantom Rush, and due to how algorithms work, Hyper Wrist actually raises its damage decently. Besides that? It's damage is generally matched with a magic spell hitting a weakness, or Sabin's Phantom Rush, or Shadow's Throw, or whatever. It's damage, relatively speaking, is just too low to consider useful, and it loses use on multiple foes since its likely to spread hits out, let alone has the chance of hitting the wrong foe several times in a row. Note that if you have Quick, this should be the move Cyan is using, as its his strongest move by far.

Obtained at level 70
Effects
Instant Death to all enemies, dicing style (ala Odin, for example)

Comments
WAAAAY too long a charge time to consider this useful. With things like Banish, and Odin/Raiden around, you're better off just using those, and enemies will die, for MP cost instead of an annoying Charge time. Likely the most useless Bushido, as unlike Tiger, it takes a while to build up, and unlike the others, there are very easy ways to mimic this through Magic.

• When you get to South Figaro, be sure to buy one extra Heavy Shield
  for your team (you should only need 3, granted. Celes gets one in the
  dungeon she rejoins in, and Locke will probably sacrifice his for a
  Genji Glove); Cyan will want to make use of that after all.
  
  
• Don't ever bother buying a weapon for Cyan. All his noteworthy weapons are found in chests orstolen. It’s a waste of money since Fang will always out damage his physical; only point to hisphysical is targetable damage (or alternatively, with Black Belt), but its worth it since itssignificantly worse than Fang in general and it requires giving up Back Row anyway.
  
  
• If you can pull it off, try to steal that Kazekiri from Number 128 on the mine cart ride; if you miss it, you'll be left with only one Kazekiri from the Sealed Cave until the Soul shrine, which kind of hurts his use (he'd like to Genji Glove Kazekiris for, say, IAF Sequence.)
  
  
• When Cyan gets Murasame on the Floating Continent, keep that equipped at all times until you get the Mutsunokami or Zanmato, at least if you plan on using Bushidos. Anytime you want to use his physical, opt for Zantetsuken or Kazekiri, since those at least allow him something special to occur.
  
  
• Keep Cyan in back row until you get Kazekiri for that matter; Kazekiri gives Cyan a reason to use his physical, any other weapon outside of Zantetsuken does not.
  
  
• Even though those Masamunes and Murakumos look nice, they're better spent at the coliseum for more Holy Lances for Edgar or Mog to make use of (or as throwing ammunition for Shadow.) Again, they lack any real useful application over Murasame for Bushidos, and are flat out worse than Zantetsuken in everyway (weaker and no special effects.)
  
  
• For Cyan's WoB armor, give him the Power Sash. Minor loss of defenses from Golden Armor is worth the boost to Vigor and Speed you get from it. Twist Headband couldn't hurt either, though I'd suggest he stays with Green Beret or Priest’s Miter for the defensive edges they give being more significant than Twist Headband's offenses.

Listed in no particular order.

Kazekiri
Murasame
Zantetsuken
Mutsunokami
Zanmato
Impartisan

Priest's Miter
Circlet
Red Cap
Genji Helm
Green Beret
Saucer

Genji Armor
Force Armor
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Zanmato
Aegis Shield/Thunder Shield/Genji Shield
Red Cap/Genji Helm
Genji Armor/Force Armor

Cyan lacks any real specific set ups, and now that Magic Evasion is no long universal evasion stat it use to be, its harder to make a call between Force Armor and Genji Armor, or the shields. Basically, it depends what you want. Again, rather than telling you what to use, I’ll just say try to think of the set up as a whole and consider what equip compliments each other, if you want this to be effective.


Kazekiri
Kazekiri
Genji Helm/Circlet
Genji Armor
Master's Scroll
Genji Glove


While I personally don't like this set up (mostly cause it gives up your only Master's Scroll before Soul shrine), this is Cyan's best set up for beating random encounters probably. Genji Helm vs. Circlet is there for if you want more defenses or if you want more damage (Cyan would really like that +4 Magic Power.) Anyway, this set up means you'll get 4 Wind Slashes on average; that's effectively a 192 spell power attack being tossed each turn, though it is unreliable and totally screwed by Wind Immunity/Absorption. This set up also has a flaw of needing front row (the Wind Slashes DO get halved in back row), and it kills the use of Bushidos since Master's Scroll halves their damage, sadly, and since it uses both Relic slots as well as running off Cyan’s Game Worst Magic Power, him opting for Magic as a reliable back up doesn’t quite cut it.


Kazekiri
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield
Genji Helm/Circlet
Genji Armor
Master's Scroll


Similar to the above, except in this set up, Cyan's trading damage for the ability to take a hit. This set up probably works nicely with a Black Belt, mind, but wasn't sure if that was worth calling default, as you may prefer a different filler relic.

• Psycho Cyan Glitch! Basically, this makes Cyan attack an unlimited amount of times due to some combination of glitches; before you say anything, people tend to throw this out for Cyan's worth cause its no better than abusing that old Vanish/Doom glitch. In any event, the way it works is you kill Cyan, revive him, have him cast Sky, then Imp him. He'll counter any physical, be it yours or the enemies, by attacking a limitless amount of times.
  
  
  
• Not many people realize this, but Cyan gets a weapon at the end of the "Cyan's Soul" sequence. That weapon is the "Masamune." Should be good, having to go through an entire sequence to get it, and that the game makes it look great and such, right? Especially since it’s the Masamune in an FF game? Actually, the weapon is below the Murakumo in power (yes, that weapon you get simply by beating Red Dragon), and thus inferior in everyway (in fact, betting Masamune at Coliseum gives you a Murakumo.) Talk about a massive disappointment.
  
  
• DO NOT GIVE CYAN THE MASTER'S SCROLL IF YOU PLAN ON USING BUSHIDOS. At least, the physical ones. Master's Scroll halves ALL physical damage a character has, including stuff it doesn't effect directly. So this counts for attacks like Fang and Flurry, which is not something you want to take advantage of. Its quite depressing considering a lot of old strategies that suggested “Genji Glove + Offering” for the SNES version use to single Cyan out as a good candidate for that cause he’s a “Strong Fighter”.
  
  
• You're probably wondering how Valor would make Cyan a stronger character, since tripling Tempest's Damage would make breaking 9999 matter, right? Not quite. Valor only affects the next physical HIT, as in, only the first hit of multi-hit attacks gets tripled. So if Cyan was doing 8000 damage total with Tempest, meaning 2000 a hit, only the first hit would be boosted to 6000, and the other 3 would do 2000, meaning you do 12000 total, instead of the expected 24000.
  
  
• Do NOT attempt the famous Dragoon Combo with Cyan using Kazekiri. It sounds nice and a decent alternative to Master's Scroll for Wind Slashes, however, there is a bug associated with it. If Cyan uses Wind Slash on anything but his LAST hit of jump, it'll be used on the rest of the actions (due to a different bug that WOULD be beneficial), however Cyan won't come down, and become "Invisible" thus he can't be seen or manually targeted. However, you can't perform actions with him either, so really, you just kind of lost a character permanently. Avoid if possible.

Assassin
Throw

Shadow chooses from a list of "Throw able" weapons. Throwing one weapon causes permanent loss of the item. When a weapon is used in this manner, its damage is doubled, and it ignores defense, evade, all other factors but elemental affinities are ignored. When throwing scrolls, the affect is based on the scroll itself, and it ignores normal Throw aspects.

Every Final Fantasy game has their Ninja, and...ok, fine, NOT every Final Fantasy game has their ninja, as I'm aware about half the series is lacking in that department, but that's got nothing to do with this! Stop nitpicking ;_;. Anyway, Shadow is indeed the ninja of FF6, sporting the usual good physical stats, high speed, and high evade. What he has that most Ninjas don't though is a competent magic score, in that its middling instead of lower end. This makes Shadow a well rounded character.

Shadow's main thing he has going for him is Throw. Its got damage similar to Blitz, and can be targeted like Tools. This is to say, its pretty damn sweet, since it has no real downsides while stays good throughout the entire game. It also adds in two Physical Immunity options with Shadow Scroll and Invisibility Scroll, cause apparently 28% Base Evasion, evade boosting equipment and Interceptor weren't enough. Well, Throw has a downside in that you lose whatever you hit the enemy with, but you could always not throw the rare stuff. Shurikens, and later on Fuma Shurikens, are dirt cheap and can be bought in a bulk of 99 right when they're first available. Shadow can also use this to hit every elemental weakness in the game so his boss damage can jump quite a bit, though elemental weapons (since they're actual weapons and not just Throw ammunition) cost a bundle. Basically, Shadow is a character who almost never has a reason to use his physical, so he can work with a pure defensive weapon if he wants.

So what of Shadow's equipment? His Armor options are a bit lagging, sadly. His armor is effectively Locke without a few options, most notable being the lack of Force Armor. His weapons, now, aren't half bad. Unlike Sabin and Cyan, two characters who often never use their physical, Shadow can actually take advantage of his "useless Fight" command, in that he can focus on weapons that are purely passive on stat boosts. For example, early on he gets the Thief Knife which is 10% to both evasion stats and+3 to Speed; this is better than anything what Cyan gets for most of the game, and unlike Locke, he sacrifices nothing in return. He also gets a few other nice options along the way like Swordbreaker or the Assassin's Dagger. This keeps him as a nice evasive tank to physicals, without hindering his offenses at all.

So what's Shadow's flaw then? For starters, his utter lack of...well...existence in the WoB. Sure, he's useful when you first get him, but then he leaves at the Barren Falls, at the latest (possibly earlier if the game doesn't like you.) The next time he's available you have to pay him for his services, a four digit price too when that's still kind of pricey, and he can leave whenever he wants after battle. Third time he's barely with you, so it’s really not until the Floating Continent (and thus, the World of Ruin) that Shadow can be made full use of. Sure, he's nice on the Phantom Train, but that dungeon is fairly weak in general, and he doesn't really stand out compared to Sabin and Cyan anyway (they all kill things in one hit, Shadow just has better speed and targeting, but needs to use items, if dirt cheap ones) Also, this has the side effect of him not knowing any magic on the FC (Well, you can give him some earlier, but that requires going out of your way), which hurts his use some, though you can teach it to him pretty quickly there at least. Similarly, his Esper time is pretty horrid as well, so his good starting stats get compensated as a result.

It should be clear that Shadow likes the evade bug being fixed, given the 28% Base Evasion and how all those evasion boosting equips (most notably Swordbreaker) suddenly have a purpose. Furthermore, proof he likes this version of the game is his Dragon's Den weapon, the Oborozuki, is actually pretty good. Raising all the important stats he wants, and then giving a slight Magic Evasion bonus, its definitely one of the best of the new weapons in the game.

All things considered, Shadow is a well rounded character. He's certainly not top tier, but considering his damage always solid, he's got decent stats and weapons, passable (though unremarkable) armor options, and he can even target his damage to boot, which is something most damage specials cannot. He's got his flaws, but for the most part, he covers his bases enough, its only a pity you couldn't use him more in the first half of the game. His magic isn't as bad as you'd expect too, though don't expect to see me hyping it as special either.

Shadow is a fine well-balanced character. Throw gives him good damage the entire game, and he can serve as a passable back up mage should the time be needed (though there are probably better options for this one). Some interesting equipment options in weapons give him some variety, as well as being able to hit every elemental weakness in the game fairly easily. I hate to say this (cause its so controversial), but the more I think about it, the more Shadow just strikes me as an improved Sabin, even his damage is a little worse, the ability to target it (and probably better against bosses due to the elemental thing) gives him the edge.

Shadow's Throw skill set can throw many weapons. It’s hard to evaluate ALL of them, though, I'll mention the "Throw Only" abilities, those being the Shurikens and the Scrolls.

Bought at various shops
Effect
Physical damage to one foe.

Comments
Cheap, efficient, and easy to find. The damage is too good for just 30 GP, and it has no flaws. Shadow’s Work Horse weapon for the WoB, when he’s available. Stock up on lots of these.

Bought at various shops
Effect
Physical damage to one foe.

Comments
The WoR's answer to the Shuriken, more or less. This is better in everyway, just a more expensive, but still easy to horde lots of given later in the game, you have more money. Good default source of damage for Shadow.

Gotten in a few chests around the WoR, and through betting a Fuma Shuriken at the Coliseum
Effects
Physical damage to one foe

Comments
The "Ultimate" Star weapon. This would be good if they weren't a bit of a pain to get lots of. Yes, its easy enough, but probably not worth your time, better to just buy some Falchions, or nab some Impartisans, and use those instead. As I said before, this is kind of the middle ground of the two.

Bought at various shops
Effects
Adds Image status to the user

Comments
Nifty little trick. More fun than useful, likely, but it can still serve some use. Granted, not as useful as it use to be, since Shadow has lots of evade (something evade bug took away), and Interceptor (always had this, granted), so he's hard enough to hit with physicals anyway. Admittedly, Gogo can use this too, and makes somewhat more use of it, so its best use is probably NOT on Shadow.

Bought at various shops
Effects
Adds Clear status to the user

Comments
Early on, it's decent. Later, though, you get the Vanish Spell, which basically makes this ability kind of worthless, and a waste of money.

Bought at various shops
Effects
Fire Elemental Magic damage to all enemies

Comments
A bit pricey when you first can get these, but for good reason. This thing kicks butt. It’s your best magic damage in the WoB as far as consistent attacks go, and does massive damage when hitting weakness. Think of this as a Level 2.5 for damage (Better than an Ara spell, but worse than an Aga) If you can afford these, stock up on lots of these early, they are quite nice.

Bought at various shops
Effects
Water Elemental Magic damage to all enemies

Comments
Water version of the Fire Scroll. Do note that the new Flood spell taught by the new esper Leviathan is identical to this in everyway, for how the spells work anyway, so not as useful as it use to be.

Bought at various shops
Effects
Lighting elemental Magic Damage to all.

Comments
Lightning version of the above two. Probably best Lightning damage you'll get until Thundaga, at least for groups.

• This might sound odd, but when Shadow first joins, take off his armor, and give it to Sabin, and vice versa. I know Kenpo Gi < Ninja Gear, but the fact is that Shadow is a temporary character, and Sabin is not; Shadow can do just fine with a weaker armor anyway thanks to Interceptor and his evade covering most physicals.
  
  
• From the traveling merchant, buy 99 Shurikens right off the bat. Shurikens are cheap, and its worth it to insure Shadow always has good ammo. You can continually restock on the Phantom Train from merchant ghosts, mind, should you run out (...and you shouldn't...) It couldn't hurt to buy some scrolls as well, and if you want, use an Invisibility Scroll and watch as Shadow single handedly takes down the entire Imperial Camp with the exception of the Satellite from the Monster in the Box (which Shadow Scroll SHOULD cover for the most part as well.)
  
  
• Do NOT buy Shadow when you get the chance in Kohlingen. Zozo is not a place to take lightly, and you don't want to suddenly have Shadow leave you there midway, even if he is pretty good there. If it’s after Zozo? Well, Shadow will leave in the middle of the Opera, which means you practically get no use out of him; and by “middle” I mean “before Ultros’ shenanigans start.”
  
  
• Giving Shadow Seraphim is probably the first thing he should bother with. He doesn't need any offensive magic early in the game, since Throw is sufficient on offense (especially when you factor Scrolls are flat out better than Ara spells ANYWAY), so you might as well stick with getting him some healing magic.
  
  
• Speaking of Scrolls, if you can afford some, get some scrolls for Shadow before starting the Floating Continent; they are pretty powerful for the time, and worth spending some money on, especially if you're into Veldt Grinding for the purpose of getting Gau some rages, in which case, you'll have plenty of cash to spend on Throwing Ammunition. Also, around this time, stocking up on Sakuras, since this is the only part of the game those are available, and they're the best weapon Shadow can use for Wind Elemental Ammunition by far (and wind is a rarish element to boot). Also, if you want Shadow’s best Throw damage, Darts would be that weapon, though it is kind of pricey, and probably better to just stick with Shurikens as those would last you. Or you could use those Sakuras I told you to buy if you want, as they're slightly weaker, but MUCH cheaper than Darts.
  
  
• Shadow should always be using weapons that boost stats. In the WoB, these would be Thief's Knife (+10% to both evades, +3 Speed, added bonus of random Stealing, if you're into that), and Assassin's Dagger (+10% Evasion, +3 Speed, +2 Magic Power, randomly inflicts instant death with physical.) WoR, its probably best to keep Shadow with a Swordbreaker for the most part, as the evasion that gives is more useful than what most other weapons yield, barring maybe Thief Knife’s Magic Evasion boost.
  
  
• In the WoR, Shadow can get a plethora of nice elemental weapons to throw at enemies, and abuse just about any weakness in the game (besides Wind, which I said earlier, requires Sakuras.) Getting a decent stock of these never hurts. Similarly, this would be the time Shurikens start falling behind sadly, however, at the same time, Fuma Shurikens are store-bought, and are relatively cheap, so stocking up on 99 of those should be a priority if you're using Shadow. Falchions are another good thing to stock up on; they're considerably stronger than Fuma Shurikens, but much more expensive, so keep on eye on your Gil.
  
  
• If you don't mind taking the time, stealing Impartisans from Greater Mantis' is the best way to use Throw. See, Throw ignores special aspects of weapons, this includes the whole "Need to be an Imp to use this Attack!" aspect Impartisans have, so when thrown, they actually use their listed Attack of 253! This is MUCH stronger than anything else Shadow can throw, which he can reasonably stock up on in bulk. Its time consuming, but if you can snag a bunch of these, it'll be worth it.
  
  
• If Falchions are too expensive, and Impartisans are too annoying to get, you could always try to stock up on Pinwheels at the Coliseum. Betting a Fuma Shuriken yields a Pinwheel, for beating up a fairly easy enemy in Chaos Dragon. This is still kind of time consuming, but its much cheaper (expenses wise) than Falchions (and stronger to boot), and somewhat faster than hording Impartisans, call it the balance of the two.

Listed in no particular order.

Thief's Knife
Assassin's Dagger
Kagenui
Ichigeki
Oborozuki
Swordbreaker
Impartisan

Red Cap
Priest's Miter
Circlet
Genji Helm
Green Beret
Saucer

Genji Armor
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Oborozuki
Aegis Shield/Thunder Shield
Green Beret
Genji Armor

This set up gives Shadow 108% Evasion (out of 128%, remember) before any Relics, which is to say, he's pretty much set on the physical side. Magic...Green Beret was tossed on cause it gives him that slight HP boost while still supporting the evasion. I chose not to include Genji Shield here because Shadow does not need anymore physical defense, hence he'd rather focus on his magic durability, or elemental resistance. Nice strong set up that doesn't require any relics, granted it does require Dragon's Den, though Swordbreaker makes a decent substitute before then.


Oborozuki
Oborozuki
Red Cap/Priest's Miter
Genji Armor
Genji Glove

Gives Shadow 128% Evasion and keeps a relic slot open. Pretty nifty, though getting two Oborozuki's isn't the easiest of things (requires giving up a Zwill Crossblade at the coliseum) This set up has some flaws in that Shadow is practically defenseless on the magic defense end, outside of the 20% Magic Evasion his weapons combined give him, hence why he'll need to rely on Red Cap's HP boost or Priest's Miter's Magic Evasion as well. I'm personally more a fan of giving him a shield, sacrificing that bit of evade, and letting a combination of high Evasion and Interceptor cover most hits, but if you like the Genji Glove, this would be the set up Shadow would use with it.


Lightbringer
Paladin's Shield
Green Beret
Force Armor
Merit Award

Normally, I am not a fan of Merit Award set ups, however, in this case, I'm willing to make an exception. The reason is that, for once, Shadow actually has unique use of one in a manner no one else does. Shadow is the *ONLY* character in the game who can get perfect Evasion and Magic Evasion and still have a relic slot open. Why does this work? First off, he breaks a Magic Evasion benchmark (every x8% = One Benchmark, so 8%, 18%, etc.), AND he breaks *3* Evasion benchmarks. This means he doesn't need either the Prayer Beads OR the Zephyr's Cloak. As such, Shadow can use that last relic slot for whatever he wants, without sacrificing anything defensively. Flaw of this set up? It uses that lone Paladin's Shield, so it could hurt the overall set up of your team in specific circumstances. Because of the free Relic slot, though, you COULD use Genji Glove and give him a second Lightbringer (or heck, Save the Queen in the second hand would suffice), and still max out both evasions, though that sort of defeats the purpose of 128/128 Evasions with a free Relic Slot.

• Remember that Shadow CAN be turned into a makeshift Thief with the Thief’s Knife, due to its random “Mug” aspect. No, he’s not exactly reliable at it, and he’s nowhere near as effective as Locke and Gogo, cause not only is it random, but lacks Thief’s Bracer too. You can, however, should you get a second Thief’s Knife, use Genji Glove to up the steal rate some, by giving him 2 chances per attack to initiate the random Mug effect (ups the rare to 75% chance of using at least one Mug a turn, instead of 50%, in case you don’t wanna do the math), and to increase the number of attempts at stealing per turn, a Black Belt can aid there, as each counter attack Shadow uses is another chance for him to attempt a steal. This all applies to Locke as well, of course, but its probably just easier to give him a Thief’s Bracer and use Steal outright, though Thief’s Knife + Black Belt combo would give him an extra random chance to Steal each turn, while still keeping that Thief’s Bracer so that might not be a bad idea, if stealing is your thing.
  
  
• Most people know this, but anyway, I'll say it still. Sleep at an inn with Shadow in your team, and there's a chance you might see a scene. This scene is Shadow's dream, and a part of Shadow's past. There are four dreams seen this way (NOT 7) Should you lose count, the last Dream Shadow has is one where he's in Thamasa.
  
  
• Also common knowledge, but should be pointed out. On the floating Continent, do NOT leave without waiting for Shadow. If you leave, something will happen and he'll be gone for good. Instead, get there, choose "Wait", and when the clock hits "0:05", Shadow will come, and all is well :)
  
  
• If you are wondering, you can get a 5th Dream by just getting Shadow in the WoR. This dream, unlike the others, always happens in the same place (right after you beat King Behemoth), and it doesn't matter WHICH dreams you've seen or not, they'll always appear.
  
  
• Shadow does not have interceptor on the FC. He’ll get him back in the WoR, though, so don’t worry.
  
  
• NEVER let Shadow get hit with Rippler. Or if he is, hope Strago/Gogo is in your team and let them Rippler the enemy. Shadow getting Ripplered loses Interceptor PERMANATELY. Having another ally Rippler Interceptor will get him back, maybe not on the right character, but hey, he's back! To give him back to Shadow, just have Shadow in a team with a Rippler user, and have him confuse them just before they use Rippler (IE have Shadow cast Confuse, before Shadow casts Confuse, tell them to cast Rippler, but make sure Shadow's spell comes off first, and only AFTER the Command to use Rippler was issued)
  
  
• Shadow has a unique Relic (well, shares it with one person; that person should be obvious because they come EQUIPPED with it) in the Memento Ring, which is functionally identical to the Safety Bit. This is handy as Safety Bits aren't the easiest things to come across, so an advantage to using Shadow is sort of like adding an extra Safety Bit to your options, which is never a bad thing.
  
  
• Shadow will never use Throw in the Coliseum. This can be a good thing, since it means if you were careful about what magic you taught him, he can win fights without you worrying about stupid actions. Its also good because he won't, say, throw that nice Lightbringer you got out of idiotic AI either.

Machinist
Tools

Selects a Tool from a list of ones that are in your current
Inventory. Only one Tool of that type is needed to use the attack.
Tools can be used indefinitely, with absolutely no penalties or
restrictions.

As one of the most respected characters throughout the entire game, you'd expect Edgar to be good, right? Thankfully, Edgar does not disappoint. While its true gets a bit more love than he deserves, especially for Tools in later parts of the game, he's by no means a bad character. Edgar probably falls into this really odd class of characters who are about as good as they are hyped, but for reasons completely different to their hype. What do I mean? Well, as I said only a few sentences ago, people tend to see Edgar and often immediately think "Tools = Awesome = Edgar ROCKS!!" or something. While this logic works fine for the first half of the game, Edgar's Tools just kind of stop improving, damage wise after the Chain Saw, which is gotten in Zozo; sure, there are Air Anchor and Debilitator, but they're not something you use for damage. That alone should indicate that Tools are going to go on a decline, and really they do. Thankfully, though, Edgar has other uses besides Tools!

However, back to the issue of Tools, the good thing about them is that they do, in fact, dominate the early parts of the game, and remain solid throughout the rest of the World of Balance. Make no mistake; Auto Crossbow and Bioblaster are among your best forms of damage when you first get them, both Single Target and Multitarget, until Sabin arrives. Even after Sabin arrives, Edgar's still your best form of MT damage until Gau arrives, and DESPITE then still, Edgar's got the edge of reliability that Gau never has. To add to that, Noiseblaster just kind of dominates random encounters, being Multitarget Confusion that cannot fail. Its pretty clear who the dominant force is through the early game. These first three tools are all Edgar gets through the Narshe Battle Sequence, but frankly, they are all he needs for the most part. However, after Narshe Battle Sequence, some new abilities and equipment start appearing, like Sabin getting Rising Phoenix making him much better on MT Damage, or Celes getting the White Dress for a magic boost, what have you. This doesn't bode well for Edgar...except that he too gets some new tools! Flash works for Edgar to keep his MT damage up, even if not the same relative dominance of the Auto Crossbow, its serviceable enough, and being magical, gets you through the Magitek Factory at very least. Drill, and the soon to come Chain Saw, make Edgar have good consistent Single Target damage as well, which unlike Aura Cannon and Fang, can even be targeted, which comes in handy against multipart bosses like the Cranes. The fact that they ignore defense makes them even more useful too, since you are about to go into a high defense area.

Tools start having a noticeable decline around the time Terra rejoins. This isn't strictly cause its Terra, mind, but because of what's available around that time, which she also just happens to take advantage of. Ara class spells and Bio are now much easier to get (Ifrit, Shiva, Maduin and Catoblepas primarily), and you get Mog soon who just rips apart stuff with Dances this early, to give you a few ideas. Granted, Edgar still remains a solid enough character, he's just making a sort of noticeable decline at this point. It doesn't help that he can't use the Gaia Gear, though he makes up for this some by being able to use the Golden Shield, when most other characters are stuck with Mythril Shield.

Then comes the World of Ruin. It’s about now that Tools stop being dominant. They'll last Edgar a while, but there's definitely a point where they just stop being adequate enough. For example, Drill is Edgar's best consistent damage (Chain Saw can randomly use an Instant Death version), and that is completely outclassed by Shadow's Shurikens, which actually matter now that Shadow is a normal character and not an unstable Temp. Doesn't help that Shadow has an upgrade in Fuma Shurikens, AND how Scrolls out damage Flash (let alone when they hit weakness). What does Edgar get in terms of Tools? The relatively pointless Debilitator, and the even less useful Air Anchor. OUCH! Looks like Edgar's big skill set that lasted him the entire first half of the game just got beaten with a massive nerf stick. Is there any hope for Edgar in the second half of the game?

As a matter of fact, there is! Edgar is one of the only characters in the game who can use Spears (excluding the Impartisan), which means he makes a fine Dragoon Character. Dragoon set up wasn't really worth much early in the game, since Drill > Jump, and Dragon Horn didn't exist, not to mention Spears weren't that good. However, Edgar can now use stronger weapons (Holy Lance comes to mind, which can be gotten fairly early to boot), and the Dragon Horn suddenly makes those relatively useless Dragoon Boots something not to be ignored. This combo keeps Edgar at least a workable character through the rest of the game.

So what of his Non-spear Equipment? Edgar happens to be one of the four natural Lightbringer users! That alone is worth mentioning. He's got most of the same stuff Locke gets on armor, though misses out on Gaia Gear and Power Sash early game, but gains the better store-bought shields in the higher end store-bought shields, and gets a few other equips in the Royal Crown and Red Jacket (neither of which are that useful, but they're there.) He can also use the Enhancer, so this salvages his lowish magic stat some, making him a potential secondary mage if you need him for that. I'll be honest though; Edgar's use mainly comes from the Dragoon Set Up, as without that, he ends up being an inferior clone of Terra and Celes, who can use all the same noteworthy equips he gets otherwise, except they get female specifics like Minerva Bustier instead of Red Jacket and Royal Crown (LOSING TRADE, in Edgar’s case), MUCH better Dragon's Den weapons, and have higher Magic Stats which matters a lot more than Tools does later on (also roughly equal Esper Time, so Edgar doesn’t have time to catch up). Basically, Dragoon Set Up is what keeps Edgar at least unique compared to those two, though in an area like Dragon's Den or Kefka's Tower, you can't use both in every team, it might not hurt to use Edgar in the same vain as those two if you need to shift around roles or something, as he’s a decent supplement to those two.

Edgar, like most Force Armor users, isn't a fan of some of the changes in FF6a. Enhancer went from "fairly godly store-bought weapon" to just merely solid, and Force Armor got considerably worse, due to Magic Evasion no longer being worse. Furthermore, his new weapon in Longinus is in running for the worst of all the new equips. I know you're thinking "A new spear for Edgar, better stats than anything else he can use? How can that not be useful?" There's a good reason its not useful, but I'll get into that later.

Edgar is kind of like FF6's version of a Jeigan, to borrow a term from Fire Emblem. He starts the game off incredibly brutal and evil, but slowly declines. Granted, he never actually declines below a certain level, as he's always a solid character, and works well. Good character so long as you use him properly, and get out of the mind set that Tools are godly, since they do eventually decline. Use him to your hearts desire.

Edgar's skill set, Tools, is based on what Tools he has. There are 8 of them, all with unique abilities. I'll list what they do, and how to get them, generally (meaning not EVERYWAY)

Obtained At
Figaro Castle, after Terra talks to Edgar, an Auto
Crossbow will be added to your inventory. Can also buy one at the shop in Figaro
Effects
Physical damage to all foes.

Comments
Great Tool early on. MT damage better than what he has with no downsides? Yes please!

Obtained At
Figaro Castle shop, and the weapon Shop in South Figaro.
Effects
Does Poison Elemental Magic damage to all enemies, inflicts Poison status

Comments
Interesting alternative to Auto Crossbow. Use it in a similar manner, and experiment which is better, as its situational. In most case, this is better against single targets while Auto Crossbow is better against groups, but this isn’t strictly the case.

Obtained At
Figaro Castle shop, and the weapon Shop in South Figaro.
Effects
Adds confusion status to all enemies

Comments
Great Tool early on, since this confusion can only fail if the enemy is immune. That immunity thing tends to start kicking in later in the game, as well as other nasty status effects start appearing to be used. Still fun to play around with, and should last you well into the first half of the game.

Obtained At
Figaro Castle, after the Narshe Battle sequence
Effects
Non elemental Magic damage to all enemies

Comments
Replaces Bioblaster and Auto Crossbow for Edgar's MT damage later on. Decent, though not stellar. Its best use is in the Magitek Factory, where enemies have high physical defense, this gives you some crowd control. Not bad, but nothing to go crazy about.

Obtained At
Figaro Castle, after the Narshe Battle sequence
Effects
Non elemental physical damage to one foe

Comments
Great tool when you first get, its definitely one of Edgar's best. Does high damage, and ignores defenses so the damage is always good too. One of Edgar's prime sources of offense, at least in the WoB
anyway.

Obtained At
Zozo, complete the clock puzzle
Effects
Non elemental physical damage to one foe, 25% of the time, it instead will be turned into an attack that does no damage and just inflicts instant death, indicated by animation (its basically 2 attacks on one tool, a damage version and an instant Death version. The latter NEVER does damage, for the record. Its hit or miss, like most instant death)

Comments
Excellent Tool, no mistake. Does the best RAW damage of any tool, and easily his best option if the enemy is vulnerable to instant death, as the Drill's one advantage over it is gone. Mind, on bosses, it’s a bit risky, as any time Edgar uses the Instant Death version, it’s a wasted turn, you might want to use Drill instead. Regardless, this is one of Edgar's selling points early on, be sure to take advantage of it.

Obtained at
Stealing from one of the Cranes or Air Force in the WoB, Figaro Castle in the WoR.
Effects
Adds a random weakness from one of the 8 elements in the game. If enemy is already weak to an element, it skips that element, and chooses an element he's not already weak too. Weaknesses dealt by Debilitator override innate resistances

Comments
Not as useful as it sounds, sadly. This because random encounters tend to die too fast before you can make full use it (being single target doesn't help) and most bosses after you get it are weak to something already, let alone that something being one of the Big 3 (Fire, Ice and Lightning.) Bosses that aren't weak? Edgar is better off just using his turns for strict offense, rather than making the enemy weak to a useless element like Earth vs. a Flying enemy or Poison against like anything. Possibly Edgar's Worst Tool.

Obtained at
Secret Room in fanatics tower. Also gained by betting Genji Armor at the coliseum.
Effect
Gives enemy a "Status" where after their next turn goes, they die. Note that the death does NOT kick in until AFTER their turn, so should the enemy kill you on their last turn, its game over. Does some minor physical damage upon success.

Comments
This tool sounds great. What's more fun than watching enemies kill themselves, or threatening them with the words "Move and you're dust?" Well, beyond the novelty factor, how good is this tool? Well, remember how I ranted about the Debilitator being a bad tool, possibly his worst? I was wrong. THIS is his worst tool, easily. I mean, if you wanted to kill something with instant death, wouldn't it be easier to just cast Death or Banish? That way the enemy dies, and they don't get a free action. Plus this weapon doesn't work on bosses. Really, it’s a pitiful, pure novelty Tool, meant to pass off as Edgar's "Ultimate Tool" when its really rather pathetic.

• Shove Edgar in the back row. There's no reason to keep him in the front row, as Tools, Jump AND Lightbringer all ignore the back row.
  
  
• If for whatever reason Edgar's weapons matter early game (and they shouldn't), you can get a nice free Mythril Spear for him by stripping Mog of his equipment during the "Save Terra!" sequence, and give that to Edgar. Naturally, that Mythril Sword Edgar COMES with should be given to Locke, since he needs his physical more than the other two (Edgar has Tools, Terra has Magic)
  
  
• Speaking of Weapons, never use Edgar's Fight command in the WoB...or heck, never use it unless he's equipped with Lightbringer or Fight happens to be labeled "Jump." Tools are pretty much always the better option, especially early on.
  
  
• Giving Edgar those Hermes Sandals, Gigas Glove and/or Hyper Wrist early on you get in South Figaro and Mt. Kolts is a good way to optimize his offensive worth. Granted, Locke also wants those so his damage lags less, though Hermes Sandals should be given to Edgar regardless, since boosting his speed is most important.
  
  
• Bioblaster is your best friend in the Narshe Battle Sequence. It will one hit kill whole groups of Corporals, which has the side effect of causing the Hunting Hound they sometimes come with to run. The Heavy Armor and Fidor won't die, but they still take good damage, and typically aren't threatening by themselves anyway (especially if you were smart and paired Edgar with either Terra or Celes, for healing support.)
  
  
• Rune Blade is a good weapon to give Edgar at this point (assuming you grab it now, rather than waiting for it to “turn” into a Ribbon in the WoR). Since he never is using his physical, the 10% Evasion will benefit him more than any other weapon. Especially after Narshe Battle Sequence where Celes probably prefers a Chain Flail which does more damage in the Back Row anyway without expending MP.
  
  
• Don't forget to nab the Drill and Flash when you go through Figaro again! We don't want Edgar falling behind now do we? This also applies to getting the Chain Saw in Zozo.
  
  
• Its probably a good idea to give Edgar that Hero's Ring you got from the Future Coliseum. Edgar's damage is good on both ends, instead of being primarily magical (like Celes or Sabin) or primarily physical (like Cyan.) This will boost both Drill/Chain Saw and Flash, which will help you out somewhat in the Magitek Factory when you want to optimize both Edgar's Single Target and Multi-target damage.
  
  
• At this point, I think its pretty clear that until somewhere in the World of Ruin, Edgar's strategy should consist of "Spam Drill, Chain Saw, and Flash" for his most effective use in general. So I'll just say that, and move onto the next point which is much later in the game!
  
  
  
• Naturally, Edgar should take priority in learning defensive spells (like Healing) in the WoB, since he doesn’t need the offensive push from magic. Not that having side options for damage hurt of course; after all, Edgar casting an Ara on something weak to it can very well out damage Drill/Chain Saw, just saying it shouldn’t be his PRIORITY.
  
  
• Dragoon Set Up. Take advantage of this as soon as you can get the items (Coliseum guides can help with this.) The main items you want are Dragoon Boots (which are store-bought, at very worst), Dragon Horn and Holy Lance to get the combo started.
  
  
• Unless of course you’re using Edgar as a Mage of sorts, in which case, give him at least Enhancer, and just keep his Magic built up. Again, though, as I noted before, Edgar as a mage is resigning him to a generally inferior Terra/Celes, of course…
  
  
• You could hand him Lightbringer and just keep him with that, but then, that weapon is hax. If you want to Genji Glove it, and only have one, I recommend using Organyx, Man Eater, or Gladius/Excalibur/Holy Lance, depending on enemy.
  
  
• Do NOT use Longinus, under…really any circumstance, especially Dragoon Set Ups. It looks great at first, but note that unlike other Spears, it does not grant the same damage bonus with Jump; other spears give 2x damage, Longinus gives 1.5x damage (same as any other weapon), so it comes out much worse than Radiant/Holy Lance as a result. Pity, as its got the perfect stats to be a good Dragoon Weapon too…

Listed in no particular order.

Holy Lance
Radiant Lance
Lightbringer
Enhancer
Ultima Weapon
Ragnarok
Longinus
Excalibur
Impartisan

Priest's Hat
Red Cap
Genji Helm
Royal Crown
Circlet
Green Beret
Saucer

Force Armor
Genji Armor
Red Jacket
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Holy Lance/Radiant Lance
Aegis Shield/Genji Shield/Thunder Shield
Red Cap/Genji Helm
Force Armor/Genji Armor
Dragoon Boots
Dragon Horn

As usual, the equipment doesn't have a defined purpose here, so you'll have to make the call on equipment there based on what you want and what is available. For Holy Lance vs. Radiant Lance...well, its not easy to make that call either. Radiant Lance is more reliable, but Holy Lance (thanks to random Holy castings) has more potential, and is elemental (which is a double edged sword of course), so which you want probably depends on enemy and/or playing style.


Lightbringer
Paladin's Shield
Green Beret
Force Armor
Zephyr's Cloak
Prayer Beads

If you're getting Deja Vu, its because you already saw this set up with Terra. Basically, the 128% Evasion and Magic Evasion set up rears its ugly head again, yielding a near un-killable character. And again, this set up is possible with only one character due to that Paladin's Shield, so...


Lightbringer
Lightbringer
Green Beret
Force Armor
Genji Glove
Prayer Beads

You can use this one instead as well! A little weaker defensively, stronger offensively, and there are unlimited Lightbringers while only one Paladin's Shield, you may choose to opt for this one, assuming you have the necessary resources and wish to use Edgar like this.


Lightbringer
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield/Thunder Shield
Genji Helm/Red Cap
Force Armor/Genji Armor

If you don't feel like abusing the hell out of the Lightbringer, but you DO feel like taking advantage of it on Edgar, this is a pretty generic set up for it. I suggest only using this if you either have enough Lightbringers to go around, or if you don't like the Dragoon Set Up, and you are content giving Terra and Celes their Dragon's Den weapons (or alternatively, they’re not in the same team as Edgar), yet want Edgar to pull his weight, while not giving up that Paladin's Shield.

• Edgar gets a 50% Discount if he's in the FRONT of your party at Figaro shops (IE his sprite is the one being shown), for obvious reasons. The game will give the same dialogue if he's in your team, but the discount won't occur (maybe cause they have less respect for him following the orders of someone else? Who knows.) Something to take advantage of when you want normal store-bought items (like Hi Potions and such) which can be bought anywhere.
  
  
• More interesting, in South Figaro, in the WoR, Edgar also gets the discount, but the game never even hints you are getting one. Just have Edgar talk to the guys, and someone else, and notice the price difference. You'll be pleasantly surprised :) Doesn't work in South Figaro when you first get there, unfortunately. Useful for stocking up on Tridents for Shadow or something.
  
  
• For reasons unknown, and quite arbitrarily, after Terra speaks to Edgar for the first time, an Auto Crossbow gets added to your inventory for free. This means if you think you are slick in buying an Auto Crossbow before talking to Edgar, all you did was waste money, as you are about to get one anyway. Quite nice how the game outright hands one to you, possibly so Edgar always has at least ONE option for Tools (you'll note that Noiseblaster and Bio Blaster are store-bought in South Figaro, but not Auto Crossbow.) Note that when I say “reasons unknown” I don’t mean “this is a weird bug”, it’s more just “why did the programmers do that? And why didn’t they give us an indication of that?”
  
  
• Edgar is one of the only characters forced into your team in the WoR, so whether you like it or not, you're getting him! This also means he gets some extra Esper time, which can be taken advantage of.
  
  
• Common knowledge by now, but if you have Edgar sleep at Figaro with Sabin in your team, you can trigger a scene with both characters explaining their past, and the usual resolve happens.
  
  
• Also, if Edgar and Locke are in your team when you do Gau's Father sequence, you'll get an extra bit of dialogue (and extra bit of Gau makeover) in that sequence for added humor.
  
  
• If you did not recruit Sabin in the WoR, Edgar’s ending scene (which he shares with Sabin) will be changed to compensate for the lack of Sabin.

Monk
Blitz

Using this prompts the player to enter a button combo. If successful, a Blitz is used. Which blitz is determined by what button sequence is pushed (For example, Left Right Left is Raging Fist) If Button sequence does not correspond with a Blitz among those already learned, then it’s a failure. Failures result in no attack, and a wasted turn.

If Shadow is the token Ninja of FF6, Sabin is the token Monk. Except that Sabin doesn't really work like most other monks for the most part. You might think that looking at his stats, he's a fighter. Having one of the highest strength and Attack scores, and one of the lowest Magic Power scores, he must be a fighter, right?

That would be the problem many people who make Sabin their fighter run into. Sabin, outside of a short section in the middle of the game where Burning Fist is the best weapon available, has a fundamental lack of noteworthy weapons. By this I mean his weapons lack any sort of special feature to make them good for "Fight" purposes. They also don’t really stand out in power much either, for that matter. Furthermore, his Blitzes for the most part are based off Magic Power, NOT Strength like you'd expect. What this means is that raising Sabin for Strength is a good example of raising a character the wrong way due to a stereotype, and not looking at facts and such. Yes, you read that right; Sabin's Blitzes are often based off his low magic score, which is why the damage isn't as high as you'd expect from the Spell Powers of those attacks, assuming you bothered to check the algorithm or attack guides. Yeah, it’s incredibly unintuitive that the game’s “Monk” is functionally a mage, but that’s the truth.

This isn't to say Sabin's damage is BAD though. That's pretty much the one thing he has going for him. Sabin's damage is consistently good throughout the entire game, with the exception being late WoB and Early WoR where the Ara class spells come in, as do characters with stronger attacks (Aqua Breath is a stronger attack, for example, than Aura Cannon, and it comes on a character with somewhat higher Magic Power), when Sabin is still relying on moves he had early in the game. Unfortunately for Sabin though, the damage he has can never be targeted, which hurts the ST damage, and its also all he has until he gets Rising Phoenix a bit later on. For this reason, Sabin's high damage is mostly just coloring, since he tends to one hit kill random encounters, which most characters not named Locke do anyway, and you don't fight enough noteworthy (pseudo-)bosses early in the game either (stuff like Satellite, for example, counters all Blitzes with Megazerk, which means Sabin can only use one unless you got that lone Ribbon on him.) By the time the Single Target damage starts mattering (around Zozo), other characters like Edgar or Gau start become comparable in this regard. To his credit, he also gets Rising Phoenix around now, so he's the second best consistent MT Damage dealer you have outside of Edgar.

The first time in the game that Sabin's damage is actually significantly higher than anyone else's, and during a point when it matters (as in, there are randoms that can actually take hits now, as well as actual competent bosses) would be right after you get the Falcon, when Sabin gets Phantom Rush. This move is, in fact, Sabin's best damage, and will be your best damage until you get some of the later game equips like Master’s Scroll, or late game spells like the Agas. The attack still has the flaw of being unable to be targeted, granted, which can hurt at times, so its not the be all, end all move some people make it out to be, but it does keep Sabin's offense up at least. Razor Gale coming around the same time is nice too for keeping his Multitarget damage up, as he wasn't going to last forever with Rising Phoenix after all.

Sabin's big failing would be his equipment though. He's a Magic Power reliant character who doesn't get a single Magic Boosting equip until the WoR, where a few things like Circlet and Tiger Fangs appear. Due to this, he basically must be raised with Esper Boosts to have full impact, cause his equipment surely isn't salvaging him. His armor options aren't exactly something to be hyped either. His Best armor, the Red Jacket, is probably the 2nd worst of the ultimates in the game (only Gogo's Magus Robe is worse), so Sabin's pretty much a pure cannon character. He does at least get Gaia Gear for the Floating Continent, but he wastes some other decent options like the Power Sash due to how he has little use for his Strength stat. To Sabin’s credit, he is probably the character with the most Esper time in the game, being available for all the big points in the WoB (barring Thamasa), and pretty much the entire WoR.

Sabin ends up being a favorite among new players, cause he is so straight forward and requires little to no effort to figure out how to use him, and as a result, they'll even start using and hyping him in very odd ways (like claim he's a strong defensive fighter based on his base stats, when his armor more than speaks otherwise.) This leads to him being one of the most overrated characters in the game. At the same time, however, players who are a bit more experienced at this game will automatically hate Sabin cause of all the newbie love he gets, and start deeming him as one of the worst characters in the game. As such, Sabin gets over hated and underrated by some people. The end result is that Sabin is overall an averagish character. He's got points where he's pretty good (early Post-Falcon era), and points where he kind of lags, even obsolete possibly (Floating Continent, where his damage doesn’t stand out at all, and he has nothing to compensate.).

I will say, though, that one flaw Sabin has is not really bringing much to the table compared to Gogo or Shadow. Gogo can use Phantom Rush too, and thanks to Magic Stat Boosts, the low Magic Power is compensated for, AND he can use a bunch of other nice skill sets as well (though he has even worse armor in fairness, but better Magic Evasion...), where as Shadow isn't that far behind on damage (especially if he's abusing those elemental weaknesses, where he probably ends up AHEAD), however this damage can be targeted, and he's better in all ways defensively. This would be one of the reasons Sabin kind of suffers late game; he just doesn't have anything else to deliver besides damage, where as other characters have damage not far from his, and have other things to offer.

So what about Sabin's new weapon, the Godhand? Well, remember how I said Longinus is merely ONE of the worst weapons in Dragon's Den for Edgar? Godhand would be the other one. Yielding a very minor boost in attack and strength over the Tigerfang makes its damage increase rather minor, and its Holy Elemental, which is a minor quirk at best (Holy Immunity/Absorption and Weakness are pretty rare; most things weak are undead anyway, so its kind of moot.) Worse? It doesn't boost Magic Power, while Tigerfang does, so it’s a worse weapon to use Blitzes with.

To be blunt, Sabin is not worth the hype, be it good or bad. Haters will act like he's the worst thing ever, when he clearly is not that bad, meanwhile, inexperienced players will act like he's equivalent to FFT's Orlandu. Sabin is a pretty averagish character in general. A typical “good at what he does” character and not much else.

Sabin's Blitzes are all gained at different levels, except Bum Rush, which can be gained in an optional plot sequence. All of them have a special command sequence, though, you can check that up yourself in game. As a side note, trying a sequence before Sabin learns it WILL result in a failure; no trying Phantom Rush before the plot sequence or before Sabin is level 70.

Gained at level 1
Effects
Physical damage to one enemy

Comments
Not bad early game, though, kind of obsolete from the get go, since Sabin will have Aura Cannon, which is generally superior. It does have a few good moments, like against Holy immune early game enemies like Ifrit and Shiva.

Gained at Level 6
Effects
Holy elemental magic damage to one enemy

Comments
Sabin's best Blitz for raw ST damage for quite a while (until he gets Razor Gale or Phantom Rush, basically) Besides being elemental (which is a double edged sword), this Blitz has no flaws, and is about on par with an Ara spell for power.

Gained at level 10
Effects
Physical damage to one enemy, fails against some enemies, does half damage if more than one enemy is alive

Comments
I don't know WHAT Square was thinking but…seriously, a Single Target attack that does NOT ignore Split? Well, that's not exactly what it is, coding wise, but effectively, that's what they made it. This move CAN be stronger than Aura Cannon, but generally, since multiple enemies exist often, and Bosses tend to be immune to this, it’s a pretty bad Blitz. Heck, if more than one enemy is alive, Raging Fist will do more damage.

Gained at level 15
Effects
Fire elemental magic damage to all enemies

Comments
Solid Blitz. Not much for raw single target damage, but its good for crowd control. Sabin's only decent means of taking out groups throughout the WoB, and the WoR prior to Razor Gale anyway.

Gained at level 23
Effects
Heals allies for an amount equal Sabin's current HP/party members excluding Sabin, THIS DOES NOT TARGET Sabin. Also cures several status ailments.

Comments
Pretty sad Blitz. By the time you get it, Status isn't much of an issue, and you will likely already have Esuna and Cura by then anyway. The healing isn't worth much anyway, and Sabin MUST be at high HP for it to even register as healing. Its nice, I guess, when you first get Sabin in the WoR, since if Sabin's at full HP, its free full healing to Celes, should she just have been hit with something nasty. If you want Sabin to heal, just have him cast Cura, even off his Magic, it'll end up the better option 95% of the time.

Gained at level 30
Effects
Wind elemental magic damage to all enemies

Comments
Great Blitz. This is basically like a "Rising Phoenix 2" of sorts, nixing the different element. Great for crowd control, and not too shabby on the raw damage department either. One of the few Wind attacks in the game doesn't hurt either, given how rarely that element is immuned/absorbed.

Gained at level 42
Effects
Heals whole party for massive amounts, and recovers just about every negative status in the game, removes Sabin from the battle, and he is then considered dead (unlike a Sneezed character who is just considered out of the battle, ala Run)

Comments
Horrible Blitz. Yay! Fully heal the team at the cost of one character's life that you can't recover until the end of the battle! Chances are, by the time you get this, Curaga already exists anyway. Avoid this Blitz unless you are absolutely desperate and are confident you can win without Sabin!

Gained at level 70, or by meeting Duncan in his Hut
Effects
Non elemental magic damage to one foe

Comments
Sabin's best Blit, barring MAYBE Razor Gale (Raw damage vs. MT Damage argument, etc.) This attack hurts make no mistake. Its this move alone that Sabin gets love. While it's not as good as broadcast, likely, it's still pretty damn effective. Sabin should be doing nothing but using this whenever he gets a turn once this move is available, besides maybe against large groups where Razor Gale might be a better option. It's generally his best damage by far until really high levels, when Master’s Scroll physical out powers it (though, this goes for ANY character, mind, not just Sabin)

• If its not obvious, it should be. Sabin goes in the back row, like most characters. Blitzes ignore row, take advantage of this.
  
  
• Also, give Sabin a shield cause, well, he doesn't come with one. Giving him Mog's Mythril Shield wouldn't be a bad idea, since other characters can use better supplements in the Heavy Shields, while he's stuck with the Buckler. Also, giving him Shadow's Ninja Gear as I suggested before isn't a bad idea either.
  
  
• Earrings are probably Sabin's best friend. Damage is what he has, and this raises that, you should have him with one on at most parts, at least any point after the Narshe Battle Sequence (he can get away without ones before then, since enemies tend to die to Aura Cannons anyway.)
  
  
• Never bother buying any weapons for Sabin. Blitzes do more damage anyway, and Zozo gives you a weapon stronger than anything he can buy for like the rest of the game for free anyway. Similarly, don't bother giving Sabin any helmet that isn't the Green Beret once you get that. Twist Headband and Tiger Mask both might look nice, but they're pretty much meant for physical fighters only, and Sabin doesn't really use much in physical attacks. The Evasion and HP Boosts the Green Beret give are definitely better.
  
  
• However, due to that strong weapon mentioned above, it might not be a bad idea to give Sabin a Black Belt; he probably makes most use out of it compared to other characters, sans maybe Cyan with Kazekiri or Locke with Hawk Eyes.
  
  
• It might not be a bad idea to buy two Poison Claws for Sabin when he first rejoins in the WoR, as Humbaba reacts pretty violently to that, so Genji Glove w/ those might be an odd case for Sabin to use those. Of course, if you don't want to spend the cash, it’s not that big a deal either.
  
  
• When you get the Falcon, getting Phantom Rush should be your #1 Priority regarding Sabin, so go find it and fast!
  
  
• Once Sabin gets the Tigerfang, keep him with that the rest of the game. Its Sabin's best weapon, even if Godhand is slightly stronger, it doesn't boost Magic Power, so ends up worse in practice, and it can be gotten early. Also, Sabin probably is going to want a Circlet to boost his damage, though you may prefer something more defensive like Genji Helm, so its debatable.

Listed in no particular order.

Tigerfang
Godhand
Impartisan

Red Cap
Priest's Miter
Circlet
Genji Helmet
Green Beret
Saucer

Red Jacket
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Tiger Fangs
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield/Thunder Shield
Circlet
Red Jacket

The usual distinction in Shields kicks in, so choose based on what you want. Circlet boosts his damage, Red Jacket is flat out his best armor, and Tiger Fangs are his best overall weapon. Really, only variations you can make to this set up might altering his helmet for something more defensive (like a Genji Helm.) Do not bother with Genji Glove set ups for Sabin since, well, not only do many characters use them better, Sabin probably only gets hurt by it. Just stick with basic Phantom Rush spams.


Godhand
Godhand
Red Cap
Red Jacket
Genji Glove
Master’s Scroll

I only listed this set up for those curious about a PHYSICAL ATTACK/HE'S A MONK DAMMIT Build. I’m gonna be blunt here. You see Terra’s Genji Glove set ups that don’t use Ultima Weapon? Notice how they only use one Relic slot too, and that relic is *NOT* the incredibly elusive Master’s scroll? Well, those set ups do MORE DAMAGE, and don’t completely fail on defenses like this one does. Alternatively, this set up gives up what little defense Sabin has for…less damage than his Blitz based set ups, and requires front row! I really shouldn’t have to explain why you should avoid this set up.

• Sabin can kill Vargas before the tutorial. Just use Raging Fist right on the spot, and he dies. Or you could try and kill him with damage, but given Vargas' HP, and how he hits you with a Countdown Effect, you'd need to be really high leveled.
  
  
• This isn’t particularly useful, and it’s probably well known by now, but its fun to do nonetheless. In the fight with Phantom Train, use the Meteor Strike; Sabin will quite literally SUPLEX A TRAIN. Never mind he was RUNNING AWAY FROM IT at the same time. Its worth watching at least once, in any event, if you haven’t seen it.
  
  
• Sabin at Figaro also provokes lines from the shop keepers! Pity they don't give him his brother's discount…
  
  
• For fun, have a confused Sabin use Aura Bolt, and see if he hits himself. Or heck, do that with ANY Blitz. They are all hilarious to watch him attack himself in nonsensical manners. Worth anything? No, not really, just novelty.
  
  
• Sabin is the ONLY optional character you can get before the Falcon. I suggest you make use of this.
  
  
• Sabin is required to start Gau's Father sequence. Why him? Who knows, he just is (well, ok, he plays a big part in the scene, but lets not get into that)
  
  
• See that point regarding Edgar for that extra scene in Figaro? Well, seeing as Sabin is the other element required for that, I think it belongs in this section or something, so yeah, you need Sabin to trigger it.
  
  
• If you do NOT recruit Sabin in the WoR, his ending scene with Edgar changes, to compensate the lack of him. It also helps indicate just how ridiculously strong Sabin really is (at least in the sense of brute strength), if apparently holding up an entire house wasn’t a good enough indication.

Rune Knight
Runic

Celes can only use this ability if she is equipped with a weapon tagged "Runic.” When this is used, it puts Celes in "Runic" status until she acts again or activates its effect. Under this status, she'll absorb the next spell, regardless of its source, providing the spell can be hit by Runic. If spell can not be hit by Runic, then it is ignored entirely. Once one spell is absorbed, Celes loses this status until she uses Runic again. When Runic absorbs a spell, Celes regains MP equal to the amount of its MP cost. Note that the elemental absorption rules apply here in REVERSE, so absorbing a spell with Runic while you absorb that element resorts in MP DAMAGE, for example.

Like Terra, Celes has only one special ability that has no set of skills. However, also like Terra, Celes has a bunch of spells she learns simply by leveling up. The list of those spells is as follows:

Lv 1: Blizzard
Lv 4: Cure
Lv 8: Poisona
Lv 13: Imp
Lv 18: Libra
Lv 22: Protect
Lv 26: Blizzara
Lv 32: Haste
Lv 32: Confuse
Lv 40: Berserk
Lv 42: Blizzaga
Lv 48: Vanish
Lv 52: Hastega
Lv 72: Holy
Lv 81: Flare
Lv 98: Meteor


I'm going to be relatively brief with Celes. Why? Because frankly, it'll seem like I'm reiterating a lot of the stuff I said earlier for Terra. Yes, Celes and Terra are very much carbon copies of one another, outside of Runic vs. Trance, some minor stat differences (well, +3 Magic Power kind of matters, I suppose), the natural spells they learn (which becomes kind of pointless once you get Espers) and their Dragon's Den weapon. Using a lot of the philosophy behind what makes Terra good in this game follows for Celes as well. This includes the great equipment, flexibility between Mage and Fighter options, good early game healer, what have you. Basically, the rest of this section will focus on anything different Celes has that makes her stand out compared to Terra, as otherwise, its the same stuff over again.

First off, their early game stuff is a little different. They share most of the same spells, only difference being Blizzard vs. Fire, which doesn’t seem like much, and Celes seems to have the edge in Runic vs. Nothing. However, this isn’t strictly the case; for the section of the game Terra and Celes share (Narshe Battle), there’s one enemy where Runic is useful on, and it’s a boss (Kefka.) Flipside, Terra has subtle, somewhat more significant advantages. The first is how much better Fire is in practice compared to Blizzard. The spells are about equal in damage, but Fire hits weakness on 3 enemies during that section (one of them is a pseudo boss), while Blizzard hits none, so Terra has the effective edge in offense, IN ADDITION to the fact that Terra can hurt Heavy Armors (one of the NON Fire Weaks, go figure) with her magic, while Celes has them provoke their little Reflect status, making her offensively useless against them once you factor in their high defenses (she can runic Magitek Lasers, though, providing you let them live that long). Terra also effectively has more MP than Celes. Not to mention, negligible as it may be, Terra’s healing is also slightly better than Celes’ due to higher magic power. Drain vs. Imp is pretty much insignificant overall, as you won’t be using either much at this point.

Yes, I just went into depth regarding Terra vs. Celes in the Narshe Battle Sequence, but its one of the only areas they actually share in the WoB. The other WoB area they share is the Floating Continent, where Terra just kind of dominates for a number of reasons. For starters, the Trance > Runic scenario kicks in, which I’ll get to a little bit later. More importantly, though, is the Esper time. Terra just had a whole lot of time to learn magic, boost her magic power with Espers, etc. that Celes didn’t have, and Celes really needs to play catch up. There’s just no legitimate reason to choose Celes over Terra at this point. Celes does get a chance to make up for lost ground right after the Floating Continent, where she’s available for the entire early WoR, mind, so by the time Terra rejoins, Celes has had some time to close the gap some, but on the Floating Continent, it’s a significant loss.

ANYWAY, the main difference between Terra and Celes would be Runic vs. Trance. Trance as I noted is an excellent method for butchering bosses if used intelligently, and its one of Terra’s selling points. Runic is defensive, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, its worth defensively isn’t nearly as good as Trance’s worth offensively. It has too many holes in terms of what it hits, and can actually mess you’re your team. For example, lets have Celes use Runic, hoping to nab the enemy’s spell, HOWEVER, the enemy acts instead using something NOT Runicable, and bypasses it completely. Right there, Celes has wasted her turn. But what if during this sequence, you had Relm try and cast Flare? Now Celes ends up absorbing that, and suddenly, Relm wasted HER turn too! That’s two character turns wasted, all cause things didn’t quite end up how you wanted! In the end, there’s a reason Trance gets a lot more respect than Runic, and that’s mainly cause its uses are not only more obvious, but generally more practical, where as Runic is just TOO niche for its own good.

The other main difference doesn't occur until Dragon's Den. This is when Celes gets her first arguable noteworthy advantage on Terra. Save the Queen is easily one of the best Dragon's Den weapons, sporting stats that make it kind of like a chibi-Lightbringer. This isn't to say its strictly better than Apocalypse mind; don't make that mistake. The two are merely different, in that Apocalypse more takes advantage of the offensive end while Save the Queen is more defensive. Basically, Celes becomes a better defensive character than Terra, Lightbringer cheese aside (which they both can use ANYWAY), however, she's pretty much forced to act as a Mage using this weapon, since its damage is a bit disappointing despite the 255 Attack. Keep this in mind when you decide who you want to be a Mage and who you want to be a Fighter (it use to be often Terra = Mage, Celes = Fighter due to their starting stats, but somehow, I suspect the Dragon's Den weapons will shift the way people raise those two.) Regardless, Save the Queen vs. Apocalypse is like the biggest difference Terra and Celes have, outside of maybe Runic vs. Trance, and its the first actual significant case that Celes has for use over Terra, though again, bare in mind that Save the Queen, like Apocalypse, is still inferior to Lightbringer in everyway, so its mostly there as a substitute should not enough Lightbringer’s be available.

Celes is pretty much the same damn character as Terra, with a worse special, and a different (though still rather useful) niche on her Dragon's Den weapon. This is by no means a bad thing granted, as Terra without Trance still has all those nice goodies in the godly equipment selection, and well rounded enough to be molded as a mage or a fighter, which Celes can very well fit. Definitely a strong character.

All things considered, Celes is just Terra without Trance, instead getting an inferior special in Runic, and a somewhat different Dragon's Den equip. Its safe to say that she is one of the best characters in the game. She MAY be in Terra's shadow prior Dragon's Den, but you could just always use both, and her effectiveness won't be compensated (there is enough of the good stuff for BOTH of them to take advantage of, after all. Definitely a character you don't want to neglect.

• Don't buy any equipment for her in South Figaro as a pre-emptive measure when she joins. It’s a waste of money, first of all, as she'll get stuff in the dungeon anyway, and secondly, there's better stuff that can be gotten in Kohlingen and Nikeah ANYWAY (if you did Sabin's Scenario first, keep this in mind.)
  
  
• Give her the Silk Robe for the Narshe Battle Sequence. Slight defense loss for better Magic Defense and +1 to Magic Power is worth it, especially considering Iron Armor lowers your speed (by a negligible amount)
  
  
• If you don't have enough Green Berets for the Narshe battle sequence (this depends on how many Satellites you fought on the Veldt), get a Magus Hat for Celes too. Slight Defense is nothing compared to +5 to Magic Power at the time. In fact, Magus Hat may still be better than Green Beret anyway, though at least here it’s debatable.
  
  
• Wouldn't be a bad idea to give Celes one (or both) of those Earrings you got during the Scenario sequence. In fact, one of them is outright found in Locke's scenario, you might as well give her that one.
  
  
• Celes should be taken to beat Kefka in Narshe. His Blizzara STINGS like nothing else at the moment, so having Runic there is quite helpful, along with stopping annoyances such as Confuse or Drain. Best paired with someone with high Offense like Sabin or Gau w/ Stray Cat Rage.
  
  
  
• Remember to Re-equip Celes after the Opera house sequence, as for some reason, they decide to strip her naked for that sequence (probably for Ultros purposes). This includes her Esper too, as a reminder.
  
  
• Celes should stick with the White Dress for the Magitek Factory. +5 to Magic Power and higher Magic Defense is a lot more useful than a minor defense boost from the Mythril Mail, especially considering Magic is going to be quite helpful in the next area.
  
  
• Giving Celes Ramuh for the Magitek Factory can be pretty mean. With magic power boosting equips along with Two Earrings/Hero Rings, summoning Ramuh is incredibly brutal there, so long as you don't mind the MP cost. The enemies here have considerably worse Magic Defense than physical defense, and most are weak to Lighting to boot.
  
  
• Get the Minerva Bustier ASAP. Its one of Celes’ big selling points (much like Terra’s), and can be gotten incredibly early. In fact, you can get it before facing Dullahan, though the prospect of leaving the dungeon, getting the armor and returning is probably not worth the time, so you might as well just grab it after you get the Falcon.
  
  
• When using Celes in the WoR, apply similar strategies to her as you would Terra, unless they involve Trance.
  
  
• One last comment. In Dragon's Den, unless the weapon being replaced is named Lightbringer, I highly recommend you give Celes Save the Queen. Sporting +7 Magic, and +40% to both evasion stats, its unlikely Celes will want any other weapon.

Listed in no particular order.

Lightbringer
Ultima Weapon
Enhancer
Save the Queen
Ragnarok
Zantetsuken
Excalibur
Organyx
Impartisan

Mystery Veil
Circlet
Red Cap
Genji Helm
Oath Veil
Green Beret
Saucer

Genji Armor
Minerva Bustier
Force Armor
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Lightbringer
Paladin's Shield
Green Beret
Force Armor
Zephyr's Cloak
Prayer Beads

If this Set Up doesn't look familiar, you haven't been paying close attention to Terra, Edgar and Locke. Basically, this is the usual 128/128 set up, and Celes is the 4th and last character who can use this. Of course, this still has the "uses that lone Paladin's Shield" thing so you might prefer...


Lightbringer
Lightbringer
Green Beret
Force Armor
Genji Glove
Prayer Beads

Same use as above, the usual "Has better Offense, worse on defenses, can actually be given to more than one character" uses. Of course, given Lightbringers aren't the easiest thing to harvest, you might just prefer settling with...


Lightbringer
Save the Queen
Green Beret
Force Armor
Genji Glove
Prayer Beads

See what I mean about Save the Queen giving Celes a niche? This set up grants Celes the perfect magic evasion, and ALMOST perfect Evasion (as in, 1% less.) Its very clearly inferior to the above two, not for the evasion reasons, but cause the first one gives perfect elemental immunity and higher defense against things that get through, while the latter set up gives somewhat higher offense, and full back row compatibility with it. So what does this set up have? Not needing to go out of your way to get more than one Lightbringer, or wasting that lone Paladin’s Shield so its a nice supplement if you still have only one.


Save the Queen
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield
Mystery Veil
Minerva Bustier
Soul of Thamasa

If you aren't going to abuse the Lightbringers, this works as a nicely balanced set up. Save the Queen's usual greatness is being used here, as are the trademark Mystery Veil and Minerva Bustier that Celes loves to take advantage of as much as Terra does, and the two shields...well, as usual, they come down to "What do you want more?" Regarding the name of this set up? If you've played FF9, you might get the reference. Soul of Thamasa was tossed on here because, frankly, if you're using Celes with Save the Queen, there's a VERY good chance you're using her as a mage, might as well maximize on it, right? Seeing as she's also one of the best mages in the game, though feel free to drop it if you want to give it to Relm or something, should they be in the same team.

• If you're wondering, there are a total of two equip differences between Terra and Celes. The first is the obvious Dragon's Den distinction; Terra gets Apocalypse, Celes gets Save the Queen. The other is how Celes misses out on one armor that Terra gets, that being the almighty COTTON ROBE bought in South Figaro's WoB.
  
  
• Of all the weapons Celes can use, only three of them don't work with Runic. Those are the Chain Flail, the Morning Star, and the Ultima Weapon. So yeah, chances are, if Celes has a weapon, she can use Runic.
  
  
• Celes gets some extra Dialogue if you bring her to Locke's Past sequences in WoB Kohlingen, at the Opera House. Sure, its only one more line, but still. Also gets one more line if she's in your party for when you meet up with Locke in the WoR.
  
  
• Saving Cid does NOTHING game play wise. Unless you have some moral side of you forcing you to save him, or just like to see that raincoat weirdo whenever you want, its likely easier to just kill the bastard. That, and it adds to Celes' character more, oddly.
  
  
• Celes, like Terra, naturally hits the MP Cap at level 99, so if you're a perfectionist in this regard, its worth noting Celes NEVER needs an Esper Boost in MP (and yes, her theoretical MP score WOULD be in the 4 digits as well)
  
  
• Celes is the first character gotten in the WoR! This means she can get some more Esper time in. Note that at the beginning of the WoR, Celes' level is refactored to be equal to whatever the average of all the characters you have thus far (if Gau is on the Veldt, he doesn't count, for example. Nor does Mog if you missed him in the WoB), so don't think of doing something like "Raise Characters, and ignore Celes, so can abuse the WoR!" as its not going to work.
  
  
• Celes has a minor glitch associated with her. I call this minor since it won't mean much in the long run, given its related to what spells she can learn. See, for some reason, Celes learns two spells (Haste and Confuse) at the same level, which isn't that weird, until you consider they're actually listed separate from one another, with Berserk being in between both (so the order would be Haste -> Berserk -> Confuse.) Normally, this doesn't matter, however, whenever Celes rejoins with her level refactored, should she somehow his level 32 without Confuse being learned, she won't learn it due to this oddity in spell listing. Again, its rather minor, as you could always just teach Celes (and good chance you already have since its available early) Confuse through an Esper, but if you're playing an NMG or something, keep this in mind.
  
  
• If you don’t recruit Locke, Celes’ scene in the ending which she shares with Locke will change to factor him out. While I said saving Cid has absolutely no impact beyond the scene you saved him, its fun to note that this scene makes ESPECIALLY little sense if you DID save Cid, but skipped recruiting Locke.
  
  
• GENERAL MOGHAN! No, I’m not crazy, and its not a simple case of just renaming Celes “Moghan” and there’s a reason I specifically chose that name. Essentially, there’s a way to skip recruiting Celes altogether in South Figaro, and finish it with Locke alone. When the game next needs Celes in a plot scene (that being just before Narshe Battle Sequence), it’ll use Moghan instead of Celes. The reason is because having never met Celes, the game never properly replaced Moghan, the placeholder moogle from the “Save Terra’ sequence, with Celes, so it just uses the character in that slot. This will result in having Moghan in the rest of the game over Celes. So what’s the purpose of this besides novelty? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Moghan is a complete garbage character, having really bad stats, only actions Fight and Item, and it can’t change equips. How to activate this glitch? You need to trick the game into having Locke run past that guard at the eastern edge of town through timing the menu and button presses right. Its hard to explain, but just know it involves tricking the game into making Locke walk through that guard.

Blue Mage
Lore

Anytime Strago witnesses a new Lore (be it used by the enemy, Relm's sketches, or Gau's rages), he will learn it at the end of the battle, so long as he "sees" the attack. Essentially, that means Strago must be in your party and not under one of several status' (Blind, Petrify, Wounded, and Freeze are a few) However, note that if the spell is cast, and THEN he gets hit with the status later in the fight, he will still learn the spell.

Going back to Stereotype classes after, if Shadow was the Ninja, and Sabin was the monk, Strago is the Blue Mage. If that's not obvious based on how Lores work and his class name...well, you must not play many Final Fantasy games or something. Regardless, Strago is the first character you get who'd fall under the classification of a pure dedicated Mage. Its a pity his Magic stat is a bit disappointing (one point higher than Shadow), though he can get a lot of Magic Power boosting equips to compensate at least. His Lores skill set is mostly just a variation of Magic in one way or another, often having some sort of catch or quirk to the attack.

So how does Strago hold up exactly? Well, when you first get him, he's pretty good. Aqua Breath, his primary damage Lore, is stronger than an Ara spell by a significant amount, and unlike Sabin's Aura Cannon (which is weaker anyway), Strago can scrape up a decent Magic score to make that worthwhile. Only flaw it has is that it can't be single targeted, and is forced MT, meaning it can't focus on single enemies unless there is one target available, and thus you'll always get the halved MT value. This flaw tends to be rather minor, but it still can be annoying against scenarios like Ultros+Typhon on the Airship, where you want to nail one of them, but you’ll end up healing the other. His other early Lores aren't particularly special, though Traveler can work as a back up damage Lore if need be, Stone can be brutal if your level is equal to the enemies (its an Intangr killer if you are level 26), and White Wind is a nice supplement for Cura, especially if you like Reflect status. His other early games are just impractical (Revenge Blast for example), or are just too situational (the Level reliant spells.)

And this is where Strago's decline starts. He has a nice strong start in the WoB, but the WoR, what does he bring? Not a whole lot. Grand Delta is reasonably strong, and Mighty Guard is pretty nifty, but the Magic Skill set is still outclassing most of what he can do. So he's a dedicated mage, so that isn't such a bad thing, right? It is when you consider Relm beats him in that department in everyway, having 10 points higher in Magic, and able to use some better equipment (most notably the Cat-ear Hood), Strago's enhanced skill set just doesn't quite compare as much as you'd like. This would be Strago's big failing; Lores just don't have enough to stand out compared to Magic, and his stats just aren't good enough (having game worst base speed doesn't help, though his best armor, the Behemoth Suit, does help cover that.)

As far equipment go...pretty much what you'd expect of a mage. Nothing that strong defensively, good magic defense...though the Behemoth Suit is weird in that it has the 2nd highest defense score (Reed Cloak excepted), yet worse Magic Defense than the Genji Armor, so I suppose he's not completely like that. He does get a really good weapon in the Magus Rod though, even if its not quite as good as it use to be since the Evade bug was fixed, but nonetheless, its a equip to have. It also renders his Dragon's Den equip, the Stardust Rod, kind of pointless since it has the same purpose, just gives 30% Magic Evasion which automatically makes it better than any other stat it could boost, and the special random Meteors cast by the Stardust Rod just aren't worth much in the end.

So really, how good is Strago? Not particularly good. Similar to Sabin, Gogo can fulfill any niche he has, and due to having access to things like Blitz, he can pull off higher damage despite the lower stats, so Strago's only real edge is higher defense, which just isn't enough in this case. Considering that Relm and Gogo both outclass him in most ways that matter, Strago's uses are limited outside of when you first get him. Sad to say, but FF6 isn't exactly a game where Blue Magic was godly (like it was in FF5 or FF7.) However, unlike Sabin, Strago lacks a lot of Sabin’s little minor bonuses, such like the incredible Esper time, so he’s hit even harder by this Gogo factor, making it even harder to justify using him, ESPECIALLY when other skills do the damage thing better than Lores (like Blitz), and most of Lore’s uses come from utility, which are stat independent.

Strago has a lot of variety, and seemingly a lot to bring to the table. The problem is, though, a lot of what he can bring to the table ends up fairly under whelming in practice, so he ends up taking backseat to other characters who simply bring less to the table, but do much better at what they have. Doesn't help that, again, Gogo pretty much can render Strago obsolete for the most part. Not a very good character, even if he seems like it on paper, which is a pity too, as Blue Magic is pretty cool in general. As an interesting note, though, Strago tends to LOVE challenges. Sounds odd, but it has to do with how Challenges tend to inflate Lores one way or another, be it a Low Level Game where Traveler, or in how a Natural Magic Game bans magic on most characters, making a lot of those otherwise obsolete Lores serve a purpose; its weird and unintuitive, but Strago goes from one of the lesser characters to one of the more useful ones when a challenge occurs; keep this in mind should you wish to try a challenge.

Strago's Lores are all gotten from monsters, besides the initial 3 he
starts with (Stone, Revenge Blast, and Aqua Breath).

Effects
Adds a Counter to the enemy. When the counter reaches 0, Death is cast on the enemy, in a form that never fails beyond immunity to the status.

Comments
Not particularly useful. By the time the counter hits 0, Doom is likely to have hit by then. Probably better to not bother with this outside of completion purposes.

Effects
Starts off selecting every target, and prompts the user to press "A" When pressed, the Cursor slows down til it stops on one target. This target is then hit by Doom in the same manner as Condemned's.

Comments
Kind of worthless, though, at least it can be used as a theoretical last resort, as it WILL work the turn it's used, unlike Condemned and its delay, so if you are going to die anyway, and the enemy is vulnerable to Instant Death, why not, right? Note that despite a one believed claim, there is no way to control what target is hit by this move; it actually takes a random number of targets from the position you pressed the button and that target dies, so pausing to insure you get the right target won’t work.

Effects
Water elemental Magic damage to all enemies

Comments
Against a Single Foe, its inferior to Aqua Breath in everyway unless they absorb/null wind. However, it ignores split damage, so its better than Aqua Breath for crowd control. Decent spell…or would be if it was gotten earlier. As it stands, you can get Flood, which is equal against multiple targets, and better against single targets, around the same time.

Effects
Wind/Water Elemental magic damage to all enemies

Comments
This is quite nasty considering its one of Strago's initial Lores, and when you first get, its in a dungeon with Water Weak monsters. It's stronger than an Ara spell, to boot. Quite a good spell, for when you first get Strago, and it’s a combo of two rarely resisted elements, and two elements that most have problems applying as well.

Effects
Wind Elemental magic damage to all enemies

Comments
This is the only Non Grand Delta attack spell worth using throughout the WoR in the Lore skillset. It’s on par with Aga spells for damage, and its element is one that's rarely ever a factor. Solid Spell overall, really.

Effects
Does 1000 damage to one enemy, regardless

Comments
This spell would be good if you got it and Strago much earlier. By the time Strago joins, he's breaking 1000 easily enough with Aqua Rake as is.

Effects
Adds Protect and Shell status to whole party

Comments
The one spell in the entire Lore skill set that isn't matched by anything in magic at all. This is rather nifty, as it set ups a full defensive layer for your team in one casting.

Effects
Damage equal to Caster’s Current HP subtracted from his Max HP.

Comments
Worthless. This is basically Locke's Valiant Knife with a base damage of 0, and thing is, Strago's almost always has better things to do with his MP than use it on a move that does "good" damage only when he's about to die. Granted, this is one of Strago's initial Lores, not surprising it really isn't worth much.

Effects
Heals whole party for an amount equal to Caster’s current HP.

Comments
An interesting healing spell. Never really bad at any point in the game, though, its worthless if Strago has low HP. Eh, probably better to just use Cura(ga), which will heal a sufficient enough amount at any point of the game, and you won't have to worry about the caster's HP. Probably best quality of this spell is it’s a Healing Spell that ignores Reflect AND Runic.

Effects
Instant Death to all enemies whose level is a multiple of 5
(5, 10, 15, 20, etc.)

Comments
Pretty meh, as there isn't really much worthwhile that can be hit with this. Requires you to use Libra, or to actually look up the enemies level, and its generally easier to just use straight out instant death, or just knock off all their HP. Make no mistake though; it is good on things it can hit, just there aren’t quite enough to merit use of this spell.

Effects
Non Elemental Magic damage to all enemies whose level is a multiple of 4 (4, 8, 12, 16, etc.)

Comments
Similar to Lv. 5 Death, this is too situational for any real use. It’s theoretically better than Grand Delta for MT damage if all enemies can be hit by this move, but usually, that's not the case. Easier to just use other damaging Spells to kill enemies. Again, like Lv. 5 Death, it has a few niche areas where it’s theoretically the best option, just those aren’t enough to be worth considering.

Effects
Adds Confuse status to all enemies whose level is a multiple of 3 (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, etc.)

Comments
Like its brethren, just too situational to really care about. Besides, the existence of Noiseblaster, and the Cait Sith esper hurt this things use as well, since both are also MT Confuse abilities, and both never fail barring immunity.

Effects
Adds Blind, Silence, and Slow to any enemy who has Reflect
status.

Comments
Well, it’s the only spell in the game that has NO MP COST! There's a reason for that; it sucks, this move serves pretty much NO purpose whatsoever, as not only is reflect status rare (only really seen in Cultist’s Tower, where you can’t use the thing, and the Ancient Castle area) but the enemies also have to be vulnerable to the Status' as well (which go figure, most that have Reflect are…)

Effects
Holy Elemental Magic Damage to all enemies if level is a multiple of whatever the last digit in your GP is (so if your GP is 238497, then it'd be a Lv. 7 Holy, per se)

Comments
The best Level based spell, ONLY because it can be tweaked to hit anything. Good on Kefka's tower if you go in with a “Lv. 1 Holy”, as NO enemy gives Gil that would effect that slot, and the spell is probably Strago’s best form of MT damage, Magic Defense concerns aside. Could be fun to muck around with, as a result, but might not be practical enough to be worth bothering.

Effects
Does damage equal to Number of Steps/32. MP Cost goes up by
one point every 30 minutes.

Comments
The MP Cost thing really hurts this move. That, and the damage is very disappointing. End game, it’s doing, oh I dunno, 3000 at best, when Grand Delta is able to hit nearly double that easily enough, and it’s likely costing less. Only thing you could argue about this move is that its "easily built up" by running around a town senselessly for hours, making it do massive damage early on…but I don't consider that something standard AT ALL.

Effects
Nulls out a totally random element for the rest of the fight on every. This type of "protection" from the element overrides all elemental features (weakness, absorption, what have you)

Comments
This move has gotten considerably better with the existence of Dragon's Den (use to be usable only after you beat one of the last bosses in Kefka's Tower; I'll let you figure out how useful that is). Given most of the Dragons use primarily one element, and sometimes that element (Holy Dragon's for example) isn't easy to block, this move can save your ass if you're lucky. It can, however, also hurt you if you null an element you are primarily using or the enemy is weak too. This spell is a completely niche spell with completely niche applications.

Effects
Halves an enemies level.

Comments
The only use this move has is for raising Steal odds. Why? Cause it fails on all the same things Death does, and that hits more or less just as often, meaning why bother weakening the enemy when you can outright kill them? As such, only useful for stealing as it not only makes the enemy weaker (thus less likely to kill you), but also raises your odds of stealing since Steal is directly impacted by the target’s level.

Effects
Hits one enemy with Poison, Sleep, Mute, Imp, Confuse, and Blind Status.

Comments
Fun spell, however, it is slammed hard by the Imp Immunity feature that the game has, which is to say, any spell that toggles Imp status will fail if the target is immune to Imp, irregardless of what other status it may have.

Effects
Heals Target's HP and MP fully, and recovers from most status'. User is then removed from battle, and HP and MP is reduced to 0.

Comments
This move sucks, as its basically fully restoring someone at the cost of someone else. Not really worth it, as a Remedy + Elixir more or less would do the same thing, and its only an extra turn, for the cost of that person not dying. Avoid this move.

Effects
Swaps status of user and Target, both positive and negative.

Comments
This spell isn't all that useful, but it…s a lot of fun to mess around with. Also the cause of lots of bugs, glitches, and other odd mishaps (none of which are serious) Yeah, don't expect much of this spell, beyond novelty.

Effects
Non Elemental Magic damage to one/multiple enemies. Does 8x damage if enemies level is equal to the casters. Adds Confuse status.

Comments
This spell is weak unless you hit enemy whose level is equal to Strago's, which to be blunt, happens almost never. Besides that? It’s a damage spell with below 100% Accuracy, that adds confusion, and its damage isn't anything special either. Easier to just use some other damage moves. To be fair, its one of Strago's starting Lores, so you shouldn't expect much.

Effects
Non Elemental Magic Damage to all enemies

Comments
This spell is like the Lore equivalent of Meteor. The spell is not bad by itself, but it’s completely outclassed in everyway by Grand Delta, and since its likely gotten
later, you'll probably never use this spell, beyond its nifty animation anyway. As a side note, this is a pure damage spell, with no non-damage related side effects, plain and simple, and its only special aspect is that it ignores defense.

Effects
Non Elemental Magic Damage to all enemies

Comments
Lore's answer to Ultima…only it’s about half as strong, making it just plain solid instead of totally overpowered. Strago's source of offense, late in the game, really, best to get this spell ASAP. Does good damage, both for single targets and for groups, and ignores everything that matters too (defense and reflect, mainly)

Effects
Does damage equal to the users Current HP, the caster dies as a result of this.

Comments
Seeing as this game isn't Pokemon (where Self-Destruct and its more powerful brother Explosion have some strategic use), the move is likely going to suck, right? Guess what, IT DOES! Strago's Worst Lore, BY FAR. You do more damage with just about all the other damage Lores, and they don't have this huge downside. At least Transfusion had a nifty effect with its sacrifice, Self-Destruct doesn't even grant THAT much. I guess it’s good if you like watching old men go BOOM!

• I think it should be obvious by now, especially with his ability to equip the Morning Star, Strago should go into the back row. Being a mage makes him want those defenses after all.
  
  
• Strago's physical can be made rather effective, though, if he's in the front row and able to nail a weakness. Genji Glove + one of the elemental rods tends to do more damage than you'd expect, especially if the random spell casting kicks in. Not that I recommend doing this, but just know its there.
  
  
• Strago should be using the Mythril Rod for the WoB, due to its Magic Power increase, he doesn't have much use for anything else otherwise. Similarly, that Tabby Suit you got from the mountain should go to him; slightly worse defensively than the Chocobo Suit or Gaia Gear, but the Magic Power boost is worth it, and unlike Relm, he doesn’t have access to the White Dress, so it’s the best he’ll get. For Helmet...tough call, you might want Green Beret for overall defenses, Priest's Miter for that quick boost to MP, or Magus Hat for that boost to Magic Power, its your call. Like with Sabin, Earrings are probably his best friend.
  
  
• Even though Aqua Breath can keep Strago afloat for awhile, it wouldn't hurt to teach him some Ara spells or Bio, just to keep his elemental variety up. If you face an enemy that nulls or absorbs Wind or Water (like Ultros), the spell becomes useless, and you might want to be able to focus your damage to one enemy in some cases, which Aqua Breath can't do. Not to mention that hitting weakness with an Ara spell or Bio will out damage Aqua Breath to boot.
  
  
• Try to get as many Lores as you can ASAP. There's plenty of decent FAQs on the internet that tells you the location of every potential place to learn Lores in this game, and how to trigger them.
  
  
• In the WoR, Strago should have the Behemoth Suit stapled onto him, especially since you now get two from the King Behemoth instead of one (all that meant in the original was some Veldt hunting til you fought another, so this mostly just saved time.) Its his best Armor barring none, take advantage of it. Similarly, he should be using the Magus Rod, though if you don't have one or enough of them, give him a Swordbreaker instead of that evasion boost is more valuable than anything else he can use.
  
  
• Fight Hidon/Omega Weapon ASAP for Grand Delta. This is the best way to make Strago worthwhile. I know I said get Lores ASAP, but I feel this one deserves its own mention, since Grand Delta is well above other Lores in damage; only Aero comes anywhere near it (doesn't hit defense so has potential for higher damage and can hit a weakness to boot.) If you want, try to get Aero before this (fight the birds near Kohlighen), if you want Strago to have good damage on the way to Hidon, but its not overly important.
  
  
• While originally you only had one chance to learn Force Field, in this version, you get a second chance, as Fiend appears in Soul Shrine, so don't feel too bad if you forgot to put Strago in your team that faces him. Do note, however, that Force Field is a little better in this game as such enemies like Dragon’s Den Holy Dragon can get completely walled by such a spell if you’re lucky, so you’ll probably want it.

Listed in no particular order.

Magus Rod
Gladius
Stardust Rod
Swordbreaker
Impartisan

Circlet
Priest's Hat
Genji Helm
Red Cap
Green Beret
Saucer

Behemoth Suit
Nutkin Suit
Magus Robe
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Magus Rod
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield/Thunder Shield
Circlet
Behemoth Suit

Strago's best set up for raw damage, and really the only one you should be using. The usual "Choose Shield of your choice" thing applies. All equips here are centered around boosting Strago's Magic Power, and then Magus Rod's Magic Evasion there complements the set up defensively some. This is pretty much the only decent set up for Strago, now that Magic Evasion isn't the all purpose stat it use to be, rendering 127% Magic Evasion set up kind of meaningless overall.

• As a Reminder, Strago can STILL learn things if he is dead. Rather, if he's seen the attack while he was alive, and then is killed, he'll still learn the Lore. So don't start getting annoyed when Strago gets killed midway in the fight, if he's seen the Lore, he'll learn it.
  
  
• Strago has one spell that's cost actually RAISES with the Celestriad, that spell being Reflect ???, which costs initially 0. Celestriad raises it to 1.
  
  
• Strago can actually get some obscure status' easier than others! With Rippler, he can nab Trance, Interceptor, Rage, among other things if used in odd ball fashions (used on an enemy who just ripplered a different character, in conjunction with Confuse, what have you) Yes, you can see Strago suddenly undergo a sex change and look exactly like Esper Terra. Pity he can't use her equips.
  
  
• Strago can help with stealing! Dischord halves the enemies levels, so using this raises the chances of stealing a bit. Handy for getting annoying things like stocking up on Impartisans and such.
  
  
• Strago is yet ANOTHER character who naturally gets 999 MP. Basically, yeah, another character who needs no MP Boosts. Meaningless? Sure, but it might matter for you perfectionists out there.
  
  
• If you do not recruit Strago, but DO recruit Relm, Relm’s little ending sequence will change to compensate Strago not being there. Strago is also the only optional character to play an impact in another optional character’s ending.

Pictomancer
Sketch/Control

Relm will make a "copy" of the enemy, and then one of two commands will be used. These commands vary depending on enemy, and aren't always the most sensible either (Example: Ice Dragon's sketch can yield Firaga) Relm's chance of success is based on her level compared to the enemies (if her level > the enemies level, then she will never fail). Equipping a Beret increases chances by about 33%. Not all enemies can be sketched. If FakeMustache is equipped, then Sketch becomes Control. Control uses same chances of success for Sketch, and chances can be increased by equipping a Hypno Crown. When Relm uses Control on an enemy, Relm forfeits all her turns for the enemies. When an enemies turn is prompted, one of up to 4 actions can be used. Control is broken when either the controller dies, or the one affected by the status is hit with a physical attack. What attacks can be used from a controlled enemy vary from enemy to enemy, and are the same as those the enemy can use in the Coliseum or under Confusion status. Not all enemies can be controlled.

Relm is, oddly, kind of the opposite of Strago. No, I don't mean that the little 10 year old virtuoso is a godly fighter (for all that this would be awesome!) I mean in the sense that Relm has an utter lack of a good skill set, but has great stats to compensate for it. The main selling point she has is that highest Magic Power in the game; I'm not sure the logic, plotwise, that lets Relm cast spells better than a Half Esper like Terra, but whatever the reason (probably gameplay balance purposes, which tend to ignore plot, cause lets face it, a Fighter Mage like Terra beating a skillsetless Pure Mage like Relm would be slightly unbalanced), Relm has the highest magic power in the game, especially after you factor in all those yummy equips.

This alone makes Relm a pretty strong character. She might not seem it at first though, given she has no magic, and unlike Strago, doesn't have a supplement move to carry her before she learns any, so she does start off pretty bad. Relm is totally reliant on the Magic skill set to be worth anything, and this shows in some challenges (like Natural Magic Games where Relm is practically worthless, being forced to rely on her physical.) Thankfully, Bio at least is taught pretty fast, and that's a good way to get her a head start fast, though she should learn the Ara spells ASAP if you really want to take advantage of her. I can't stress how much Relm needs magic to be worthwhile, because her weapons suck (for...all that dual wielding Elemental Rods goes further than you’d think); if you want to use Relm, she WILL need to be updated on Magic.

Now, I know you're saying "so what's so good about that? She's using a generic skill set!" To this I say Relm uses it better than damn near any other character in the game, sans maybe Terra but I’ll get to why later. That game best Magic Power and those mage equips aren't just for show. She gets everything Strago gets on equipment, outside of the new Dragon's Den item which largely is doesn't matter, and she adds a few nice things to that list like the Mystery Veil for the early game, and the Cat-Ear Hood, best helmet in the game outside of Gau's Dueling Mask, later on. These decent equips help secure her as, at very least, NOT a worthless character like some people immediately assume she is based off how bad Sketch and Control are (they...really do suck.)

Now, Relm does have some serious flaws that need to be noted, however. The first is that she’s a pure Mage, which while not bad in and of itself, its quite crippling when you consider how late she joins. She has no innate spells like Terra or Celes, and far less Esper time than both (Especially Terra.) So she’s right off the bat a project character which means she’s weak out of the gate. Furthermore, her big niche, the Game best Magic Power, is undermined by this lack of Esper time. Terra in most circumstances should pass her, even after the (mild) equip boosts. While true, not every character is Terra, this lack of Esper time means characters like Celes, Edgar, etc. will close the normal gap Relm has some, and thus hindering her usage some. Furthermore, it’s hard to justify using her over either Terra or Celes; both girls are similarly good at magic thing once Esper time factors in, likely to know more spells by the time Relm joins, and sort of crush her badly in defensive worth.

What of Relm’s Dragon’s Den weapon then? It’s very much the same as Strago’s Stardust Rod, in that it’s just a “Magus Rod Wannabe.” It does give a nice big Speed Boost, admittedly, but that’s a losing trade compared to the +30% Magic Evasion. It has an extra niche of randomly casting Confuse on the target, but why you are using Relm’s physicals is beyond me, and there isn’t really enough enemies that late for confusion to be worth anything. All in all, another character who got the Short End of the stick when it comes to the new equips, though to her credit, she wasn’t someone who was in desperate need of a new weapon (though, makes you wonder why Terra and Celes, the two characters with the best overall equipment set in the game, got among the better Dragon’s Den weapons, cause god knows they didn’t need them…)

So Relm is yet another character who, despite her horrid skills, ends up a solid character. I'll grant she's probably the worst of the females, but that doesn't mean she's necessarily bad. She makes a fine mage, and you have a total of 4 character slots, sometimes 12 to fill, she's definitely someone who deserves some actual time to raise, and some party time as a result. Saying she's crappy should only occur due to negligence, since she is a character who requires actual using to be made solid, due to how the magic system works. If there is any character who is FF6’s Project character, Relm is probably that.

If Strago is a prime example of how a great skill set can still yield a mediocre character, Relm is the opposite, showing how a bad special skill does not equate a character to being bad either. Relm compensates her bad skill set by having great all around stats (oh noes! Low Strength and weak weapons (Attack wise) on a pure mage!), decent equipment options, and that nice Magic Skill set to make use of. Sure, its universal, but Relm works better with it than mostcharacters; she just takes a bit of raising. Though, it is worth noting that Relm ends up being nigh useless in many challenges, since a lot of them have restrictions that just kill her use...which further proves she's the opposite of her Grandfather, and not just in the sense of jailbait little girl vs. ugly old man <_<. Regardless, if you're doing a challenge, Relm will probably not be a good option, for all that she's not bad in a normal game. Like I eluded to before, however, Relm’s still got that initial hurdle to work over where she starts off weak, and even after that, its hard to find uses for her over the other girls. A half decent character, in any event, who often gets overlooked for a number of reasons.

Relm's Theme Song

Since Relm's skill set is based off the enemy she's fighting, I'm not going to bother saying much here. I suppose I can give a quick explanation on their algorithms though (these won’t be EXACTLY how they work, but yield a good estimate.)

• Effectively, the Rate of success is Relm’s Level in relation to her enemies. So a level 40 Relm will have about 80% success rate on a level 50 enemy.
  
  
• If the “Beret” is equipped on Relm, the Sketch Rate is increased by about 33%; in the above example, Sketch would now have a 120% Hit Rate (it will never fail.) The same applies to Hypno Crown and Control, for that matter.
  
  
• If Sketch is successful, it chooses one of two attacks predetermined by the enemy sketched, a common one (75% chance) or a rare one (25% chance.) If the move does damage, the attack is based off Relm’s Level but the enemies respective stat (This is actually why Sketch in general never does good damage with any regular damage move. Enemy levels are typically higher than your party’s levels and vice versa in the case of stats, so Sketch takes the worst of BOTH worlds.)
  
  
• Control’s actions are the same as those that the enemy can use when under Confusion/Coliseum. The attacks the enemy uses are the same as if the enemy used the attack themselves, hence completely based off their own stats.
  
  
• There are some enemies who are flat out immune to Sketch and/or Control, and thus will always fail.

Naturally, if Gogo is using either ability, replace all instances of Relm with Gogo.

• When Relm first joins, give her an elemental Rod (doesn't matter which one, as long as its not Poison) Since she knows no magic at the time, she has no use for the Mythril Rod, and the average damage from an Elemental Rod is considerably better than her damage from the Morning Star, especially if she can hit a weakness. She might require Front Row, unless it’s the IAF sequence though (where you’re forced into Pincer Attacks, so Row is meaningless.)
  
  
• Never bother with Sketch, except in a very select few cases, after the fight with Ultros. It’s just not worth it, trust me.
  
  
• Start teaching Relm offensive magic ASAP. Catoblepas gives Biox8 for the fastest spell to learn, though the worst, it should be enough to last her. For the more important spells (the Aras), either go with Maduin for the fastest net learning rate, or go with Ifrit or Shiva to learn one of them (Ideally Ifrit cause its Element is better, and the other spells Shiva teaches can be learned idiotically fast anyway)
  
  
• Or if you prefer, you could teach her the Aras on the way TO the FC, and in the IAF sequence, give Relm a Genji Glove, Hero's Ring, and two Thunder Rods, and watch her smite. You'd be surprised what a little 10 year old girl built to be a mage can do with that combo when smacking an elemental weakness when using a physical attack.
  
  
• Relm has a few Armor options for the WoB. Helmet is obviously Mystery Veil, as that flat out kicks every other options ass, but armor is a bit different. Tabby Suit is best balance between Defenses and stat boosts, Gaia Gear gives best defensive boosts, while White Dress is likely most useful if you want offenses. So…it’s between higher defenses (and earth absorption), higher offenses, or a balance of both. Chocobo Suit exists if you really want to raise her physical stats, but probably isn't worth it.
  
  
• Ignore the Regal Gown in the WoR. Yes, you'd expect the armor to be good, what with it being an Armor that only Relm can use, it must be special, right? Truth be told, the Magus Robe, effectively obtainable at the same time (eg before Relm re-joins), is likely overall more useful. All things considered, Regal Gown's BEST use is to turn into a Minerva Bustier for the adult women to use.
  
  
• Never give Relm a Brush. They, for the most part, are just for show, and a Rod is better pretty much always. This even extends to the Angel Brush from Dragon's Den, which is an inferior Magus Rod wannabe. If you lack enough Magus Rods?
  
  
• Attempt to get a Cat-ear Hood for Relm ASAP. It's not hard, just need to nab an Impartisan or Tortoise Shield, and bet those at the Coliseum. This will make the consideration of using Relm a bit more serious.
  
  
• Grab a 2nd Magus Rod ASAP, that way, you won't have to fear problems about using Relm w/ Strago or Gogo. Only method of getting more than one Magus Rod before the Soul Shrine is by betting Heal Rods (which are useless anyway) at the Coliseum (the first Magus Rod is gotten from Earth Dragon.) Even if you don't mind using the Angel Brush as a supplement, you get that late even by Dragon's Den standards, you'll want that second one. Before that second Magus Rod? Give her the Swordbreaker, the evasion boost will benefit her better than anything else, for the most part, barring maybe that Angel Brush's Magic Power.
  
  
• Be sure to keep Relm's magic up to date. Don't think her high Magic Power is going to save the likes of Blizzara throughout the whole WoR, as those will eventually taper off. Make sure to at least give her one high end spell.

Listed in no particular order.

Magus Rod
Gladius
Angel Brush
Swordbreaker
Impartisan

Cat-ear Hood
Saucer

Behemoth Suit
Magus Robe
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak


Setups

Magus Rod
Aegis Shield/Genji Shield
Cat-ear Hood
Behemoth Suit
Soul of Thamasa

Standard Relm Set Up. Relm is a mage, take advantage of this and nuke the competition with her game best Magic Power and high magic boosting stats. For once, Thunder Shield isn't such a great choice since the lower defensive stats.


Magus Rod
Force Shield
Cat-ear Hood
Mirage Vest
White Cape/Zephyr's Cloak
White Cape/Zephyr's Cloak

First off, I'll get this out of the way; whatever Relic you choose is up to you. Zephyr's Cloak grants Evade, White Cape grants more defenses, and Imp/Silence immunity (not that EITHER should hit you with this set up.) Now that that's out of the way...this set up has 128% Magic Evade, AND Automatic Image status, so she's temporarily invincible like those 128%/128% set ups (which Relm can also get, but requires Merit Award, Paladin's Shield AND Lightbringer.) Yes, other characters (like anyone with Lightbringer and Shadow...) can pull this off too, but figured Relm could use this set up more, since it requires a bit less (even if Force Shields are limited until the Soul Shrine) work. Worth noting that Strago and Gogo are only 1% and 2% away from perfect Magic Evasion with this set up, so if you REALLY want, you can give this to them too, though they use the considerably worse Priest's Miter instead of the Cat-ear Hood, AND they have worse stats to begin with, so Relm's using it more effectively anyway (Well...Gogo COULD bring more to the table with Blitz and such, I suppose). Regardless, if you want Relm to be a defensive character, this set up might be worth a look. Regarding the name of this set up...well, I'll let you figure that part out!

• Not entirely Relm related, but sort of worth noting. The Sketch Bug does *NOT* exist in this version of the game in anyway, shape or form. So if you are worried about Sketch screwing up your game, then you have nothing to worry about. Granted, there's still the issue of Sketch being a really bad skill to begin with...
  
  
• If you did NOT save Shadow, remember that you must go to the Veldt Cave BEFORE doing Owser's house in the WoR, to get Relm.
  
  
• Also remember Relm is needed to start the Hidon Side quest. I believe you don't actually need to bring her to the dungeon itself, but unsure on this, though she is required to actually start it, however.
  
  
• If you did not get Shadow, Relm will have her own dream in his place, proving further an already obvious aspect (not saying what that is, since it’s a spoiler, and by now, you should already know <_<)
  
  
• Relm is yet another character with natural 999 MP, and like the 3 preceding her, actually has theoretically 4 digits. Does it matter? No, not really, but there are perfectionists out there.
  
  
• As a random benefit to using Relm, she gets her own unique version of the Safety Bit, shared with one other character (if you've been reading this FAQ, you should know who that is), in the Memento Ring. There are two of these (...well, three, but why would you need a third?), and it’s a good idea to take advantage of this as Safety Bits are not the easiest thing to come across, and this is functionally the same exact thing (if you're wondering, the second Memento Ring can either be gotten by stealing from Wrexsoul, or by checking that little crevice in the top floor of Strago's House on the left hand side. Relm COMES EQUIPPED with the first, so it’s impossible to miss.)
  
  
• Relm can help a lot when it comes to teaching Lores, thanks to Sketch and Control, so its not a bad idea to bring Relm with you when you go Lore hunting.
  
  
• Cat-Ear Hood doubles the amount of Gil you get after a fight. Given this helmet, Merit Award be damned, is unique to Relm, its worth mentioning in Relm's section as such. This makes Relm the best character by far to bring anytime you need extra cash. Or conversely, anytime you just are fighting for whatever reason (Lores, Rage hunting, etc), bringing Relm as a 4th character is never a bad idea, just for that extra money. By taking advantage of this equip, she can halve the time needed to raise that 500,000 for Excalipoor, or just simply getting cash in general to buy other needed goodies (like, say, ammunition for Shadow.)
  
  
• Relm is the ONLY optional character in the WoR to get an alternate scene should she be recruited in the ending. If you recruit her, but not Strago, her ending will be changed to compensate for the lack of Strago (and said scene is somewhat more amusing than her standard one if you ask me <_<.)

Gambler
Slots/Gil Toss

When used, slots will appear. You are prompted to then press A three times in a row. Depending on timing, a different object will appear. Whatever is in the middle is the object of concern. If the three items match, then an attack based on what that is (for example, 3 Diamonds = Prismatic Flash) occurs. If they don't match, the attack "Mysidian Rabbit" is used. Some attacks are rigged in your favor, others are rigged against you. In some cases, the game flat out doesn't allow you to use certain abilities against some enemies. If Setzer has "Heiji's Jitte" relic equipped, Slots is replaced with Gil Toss. Gil Toss does damage based on how much gold is thrown. The amount of thrown is users Level * 30, and damage to Gil thrown ratio is 2 to 1 (So 2 damage for every Gil thrown.) Note that Gil Toss splits damage among all enemies evenly, contrast to most Split Damage moves where damage is just halved if targeting 2 or more enemies.

Ah, Setzer. The original Gambler of the FF series...even if there have been all of like two after him or something. Regardless, Setzer is a rather interesting character. His stats are, as you can tell, relatively unimpressive, as he excels in nothing. This is ok, though, as his attacks are strong enough to get buy early on, and his later moves (Fixed Dice, and to a lesser extent, Gil Toss) ignore his stats anyway. This makes Setzer a pretty unique character. Furthermore, should it matter, ALL of his unique weapons ignore row, so there is never a reason to use him in the Front Row, unless you gave him the Gladius or something.

One neat thing about Setzer is he can use all the standard Heavy Class equipment (why they chose a Gambler of all people to be a heavy armor user, I don’t know…), as well as getting most of the Light Armor equips, missing out mainly on the Power Sash. This makes his defensive stats better than you think, as well as keeps his armor options open. Granted, this is nowhere near the same armor variety as, say, Terra and Celes, as far as quality goes, but it’s still not half bad at all. His weapon selection, though, isn't exactly inspiring until the Fixed Dice; it’s essentially just a bunch of ranged weapons like Locke gets, except no Hawkeye in the mix. Well, ok, he can use the Man Eater and Gladius for some minor defensive boosts, but by that point, Slots aren't going to be doing enough damage, and Gil Toss is just a waste of cash and a Relic slot.

That would be Setzer's flaw; in the second half of the game, he's kind of lacking in anything that stands out. That is unless you don't have qualms in prematurely entering the final dungeon and raiding it some (as in, go as far as you can into the dungeon without fighting any bosses), which is where Setzer picks up his saving grace, the Fixed Dice. I can't emphasize this enough; Setzer without his Fixed Dice is a pretty sad character. It’s similar to Locke without the Valiant Knife, except there is no Lightbringer to fall back on. So if you want to use Setzer for something worth a damn, he WILL need those Fixed Dice.

Though, Fixed Dice alone aren't quite enough; that's really only half of the equation. Setzer also needs the Master's Scroll as well. Fixed Dice aren't that strong by themselves, HOWEVER, they ignore the Master's Scroll Damage Halving Penalty per hit, so unlike most weapons, they actually Quadruple in power, and due to how Fixed Dice work, multiple uses helps offset the randomness some. In fact, one really high roll on the Fixed Dice WILL make that attack worth it, even if the other 3 rolls are all crappy. That's one thing you have to watch out for granted; Setzer's not what you call reliable. On one hand, he can dish out insane damage if you're lucky, on the other hand, he can do piss poor damage as well. It’s all a game of chance; what else did you expect from a Dice weapon? So what about his new weapon, the Final Trump, from Dragon's Den? This weapon is kind of like Setzer's version of Terra's Apocalypse, except significantly weaker, no evasion boosts, and long ranged (also lacks Lightbringer to along with it for Genji Glove set ups). Its alright if you want to give the Master's Scroll to someone else, and still use Setzer, I suppose, but generally, Fixed Dice are better.

So what about before Fixed Dice? Well, Slots are probably strong enough to keep Setzer afloat for a while, especially in the WoB where they are downright strong. Lots of people will hype Sabin's Rising Phoenix and Aura Cannon Blitzes as being high damage, which I suppose is alright...however they then will state that Slots are weak because all they can pull off is "Chocobo Stampede" and "Prismatic Flash" (ok, so I've heard "Chocobop" and "7 Flush" more often cause of the SNES translation, but that's not the point!) This really is where the logic falls short. Elemental concerns aside, Prismatic Flash is flat out stronger than Aura Cannon, and against multiple targets, Prismatic Flash is equal to Rising Phoenix. What about Chocobo Stampede? That move identical to Meteor (a respected spell in general) in everyway...with one serious restriction in being unable to hit fliers, though. This isn't TOO bad, except that when you get Setzer, most enemies are in fact flying for the next few dungeons (like most of the Floating Continent enemies), so its actually a lot more limited in use, sadly. These two are worth noting mainly cause if you learn the timing of slots, they are never rigged against you...in fact, they're often rigged FOR you. Higher end Slots are a bit tougher to pull off, though one noteworthy one is Dive Bomb, which isn't rigged against you too often, and is pretty strong (we're talking stronger than Aga spells here, and this is only the WoB!) Anything above that though is typically not worth trying for, since the chances of getting them are a bit too low to be worth it.

All in all, Setzer's a pretty neat character, though he requires you to actually put some effort into him. Which is to say, actually bother doing an early Kefka's Tower raid (in fairness, Fixed Dice are early in Team 1's route, so you can pull this off early with some luck, if you don't feel like grabbing Mog early), and learning the timing on his slots. He has Gil Toss too, but that's not really worth the Relic Slot, or the Gil spent for that matter, so it’s probably a better idea to avoid that. Setzer should not be completely overlooked regardless though, as he's not a bad character so long as you're willing to go those few extra yards.

Setzer has a fair amount of potential, though how much of that potential appears depends on how much you're willing to give him. Requiring some rare items like the Master's Scroll does hurt his flexibility use some, so you'll have to set parties up wisely if you want him to be effective, and he needs you to actually grab those Fixed Dice earlier than you usually would as well. All in all, he’s a decent, if a bit unreliable, character.

Setzer's Theme Song

Setzer's slots are all based on what you get. I'll be listing the options in order of difficulty (so first is easy to get, the last is nigh impossible), per se.

Any Failure
Effects
Negligible Healing to whole party, recovers from Blind, Poison, and Sleep

Comments
Uhh…it’s a failure, you expect them to reward you with something? Yeah, basically, you get what you earned, more or less.

3 Diamonds
Effects
Non Elemental Magic damage to all

Comments
Rather decent, actually, for one of the easiest Slots to get. Good for ST damage, due to hits high Spell Power, and MT damage isn't too shabby either (Rising Phoenix level) Should be Setzer's primary Offense in the WoB.

3 Chocobos
Effects
Non elemental Magic damage to all, misses flying targets

Comments
A variation of Prismatic Flash. This one is centered more around crowd control, having much lower spell power, but ignores defense AND Split Damage. It's basically Meteor, actually, which is rather nice. Its main flaw is that it misses anything that has float status (annoying on the FC), though. Pretty solid move, though, considering how easy it is to get.

3 Airships
Effects
Non Elemental Magic Damage to all

Comments
Nasty move, if you can learn its timing. This move is SOMETIMES rigged against you, but more often than not isn't. Can be a bit hard to learn its timing, but it'll pay off in the end. The move is easily one of the most damaging attacks in the WoB, and isn't half bad in the WoR (Though, not stellar)

3 Bars
Effects
Summons a random Esper except Odin, whether you have the Esper or not doesn't matter.

Comments
This is when getting moves is harder than its worth. This likely isn't that hard, but, it's too unreliable to be worth using. Its only real use is for morphing, actually, as it'll let Gogo Mime Ragnarok's summon over and over again (something he can't do with Magicite Shards due to how they work), if you want to morph some hard to get items (like the Cursed Ring!) Generally speaking, I wouldn't bother with this beyond novelty, especially since you can get the Sword and Esper in the same file due to clear game.

3 Dragons
Effects
Non Elemental Magic damage to all

Comments
This is, to be blunt, Setzer using the Bahamut Esper for Free. The attack in and of itself is fine, but its just the odds of getting are too low for it be useful. Shame, too, as this move is basically his best Slots for raw damage, being better than Grand Delta (Strago's best Lore) in everyway.


3 7s
Effects
Kills entire enemy party, regardless if immune to instant death or not (yes, this works even on the final boss)

Comments
This is the best Slots, hands down…at least as far as effects go. What's its problem? The chances of getting this are incredibly low, and the game even sometimes doesn’t let you use it in some fights at that. Though, should you be lucky enough to get this, your opposition is gone. This is nice if you are patient enough to dual abuse slot tricks (the Pause + Accept method combined with Derigging slots)

2 7's and a Bar
Effects
Kills both the enemies side and your own

Comments
This has the same likely hood to happen as the above…only It’s a good thingin this case. This being used is a game over, period (unless you have Reraise, maybe), you want to avoid this like the plague. Yeah, basically, this is a NEGATIVE slots.

• Put Setzer in the back Row. Besides the Gladius and Man Eater, EVERYTHING Setzer has worth noting does the same damage in the back row. There's no reason to put him in the front row, EVER.
  
  
• When Setzer first joins, start teaching him Healing magic. He has enough offense from the get go with Slots, might as well have him able to cover another area.
  
  
• Probably best to ignore Setzer's weapons for the most part, as Slots tends to be better almost all the time, and his weapons are just a waste of money.
  
  
• As with most characters who have this option, stick with Gaia Gear for Setzer's armor in the WoB.
  
  
• Don't bother buying an extra Diamond Armor for Setzer when he first joins, assuming you already have one on Celes and Edgar. This is because you get a Crystal Mail in Daryl's Tomb anyway, which is superior; just keep Setzer with Gaia Gear or whatever he was using before the World's Collapse. No, its not that good, but it saves you some cash. Also, in general, I recommend against buying Crystal Mails, as they're a negligible improvement over the Diamond Armor, yet you're shelling out a fair amount of cash for them.
  
  
• And as with most male Force Armor users, Setzer should use that as his choice of armor, at least if you have enough available. Chances are, though, you won't be using an Edgar, Cyan, Locke, and Setzer team though (Celes and Terra have a much better "Consolation" option in the Minerva Bustier (which is arguably better, but lets not get into that), hence why this is the only team where it really matters THAT much.) Though, thanks to Dragon's Den, and later Soul Shrine, you can get as many Force Armors as you want, so this becomes a non-factor later.
  
  
• Should you lack the Fixed Dice, and are using Setzer, Man Eater or Gladius should be his weapon of choice, if only for their defensive applications. Death Tarot and Venom Darts have some applications with instant death (especially Venom Darts since their instant death is compatible with the Master's Scroll), but its probably just easier to cast Death or Banish or something.
  
  
• As soon as you get Fixed Dice, give them to Setzer, and never give him anything else. They are his best weapon by far. It’s a good idea to raid Kefka's tower early for these alone. Only time Setzer shouldn't be using Fixed Dice is if you want a temporary defensive boost on turns he's using healing (which is probably more micromanaging than its worth), or if you prefer the steady damage of the Final Trump.
  
  
• Setzer, like Celes, Sabin and Edgar, has the advantage of being obtained BEFORE the Falchon in the WoR, meaning he can get some quick extra work in. Use that time for him to your advantage.
  
  
• I should get this out of the way as well; NEVER use Dice. They are a bad weapon. They work like Fixed Dice, except only use two dice instead of three, and lack that damage bonus on triplets by extension. Dice are NOT a good secondary weapon for, say, Genji Glove + Master's Scroll (which you shouldn't be using anyway), to use with Fixed Dice just cause they act like them and ignore Master's Scroll penalties. Its a flat out bad weapon, and should be avoided.
  
  
• Until Soul Shrine, I advise you not use Setzer and Locke in the same team, since they both want Master's Scroll and there is only one of them until you get there. Of course, if you are using Locke for the purposes of, say, Lightbringer, you probably aren't using Master's Scroll (or rather, you SHOULDN'T).

Listed in no particular order.

Fixed Dice
Man Eater
Death Tarot
Venom Darts
Gladius
Impartisan
Final Trump

Priest's Miter
Circlet
Red Cap
Genji Helm
Green Beret
Saucer

Genji Armor
Force Armor
Reed Cloak
Mirage Vest


Setups

Fixed Dice
Aegis Shield/Genji Shield/Thunder Shield
Red Cap/Genji Helm
Force Armor/Genji Armor
Master's Scroll

Like a lot of characters who can use Force Armor and Genji Armor, its a tough call to say which is better, which leads to the usual "what Shield and Helmet you want also depends on what you are aiming for." I'll be blunt though; Fixed Dice ignore Strength, so Red Cap and Genji Armor lose a bit of use there, though they still boost speed some and thus, work for that purpose. A nice balanced set up that takes advantage of what Setzer is good at. Just remember that for your second relic, Fixed Dice ignore logic and such, so a Hero Ring wouldn’t be too helpful, so probably best to opt for something defensive like Ribbon or Miracle Shoes.


Fixed Dice
Tortoise Shield
Saucer
Reed Cloak
Master's Scroll

Yes, like the Imp Set up listed much earlier, except Setzer's own personal take on it. This works because Fixed Dice ignore anything stat related outside of the users Level, which Imp doesn't effect anyway. As such, you can suddenly turn Setzer into an automatic tank while he still makes use of the Fixed Dice. Usual Imp downsides of making the character on dimensional and limiting your Status immunity exists, though, the latter isn't as bad as it sounds, as things like Berserk actually HELP you in this set up, while things like Blind and Silence (especially good since Silence immunity is on the same relic, the White Cape, as Imp Immunity anyway), doesn't do squat, so its only a select few that matter now. A nice fun set up, if counter intuitive, just remember to make Setzer an Imp before you use this, obviously. Like above, a defensive Relic would be ideal here, though DO NOT use White Cape or Ribbon, as that will remove Imp Status, thus lowering Setzer’s defenses dramatically.


Final Trump
Final Trump/Fixed Dice
Red Cap
Mirage Vest/Genji Armor/Force Armor
Genji Glove

If you don’t like tossing the Master’s Scroll on Setzer, and can get your hands on a second Final Trump, then this set up may be worth using. If you don’t want to get a second Final Trump, just use Fixed Dice and hope for the best, though Fixed Dice without Master’s Scroll is a tad disappointing, but figured it couldn’t hurt to acknowledge (might end up beating a second Final Trump anyway, but naturally, unreliable). Anyway, Red Cap is tossed in for the extra HP and Strength. Regarding his Armors, Force Armor covers magic defensive angle with elemental resists and Magic Evasion, Genji Armor boosts damage a bit more with +5 Strength and raises defenses the highest, Mirage Vest mostly just to work away that crippling defense stat, assuming you can end the fight fast. Damage isn’t too bad, but it’s a bit lacking in defenses, contrast to similar set ups by Terra who doesn’t suffer quite as much (and does more damage to boot), though he does keep Back Row. Again, I don’t really suggest this set up, it’s mostly just there in case you want to give that Master’s Scroll to someone else, but still want to make use of Setzer.

• You can actually rig slots so to speak. Or rather, unrig the slots that are rigged against you. Basically, use a very specific Combination of moves in a fight, and now slots won't be rigged against you, ever. Yes, this includes Joker's Death. Mind, you still have to know the timing, but hey, its nice, innit? I believe the easiest unrigging method is just use an Echo Herb.
  
  
• A way to cheese out slots is to press Start while they are rolling, and when you finally see the thing you want ABOVE the marker, hold the A button, and unpause the game. Unless the slots are rigged against you, this will pretty much always get you what you want.
  
  
• There’s a way to rule out the rigging of slots entirely, such that you can get whatever you want so long as your timing is right. Basically, have a character start using some spell. When the name appears and they go into casting, start Slots up. From what I gather, if you do this right, it will automatically undo the rigging and you can get ability you want…including Joker Death. Timing is everything here, but it lets Setzer be a cruel person if you don’t mind cheesing out what was probably an unintended little gimmick.
  
  
• As a random side note, using Joker Death apparently counts as using Lv. 5 Death, at least as far as Lores go, so using this can teach Strago Lv. 5 Death if you so wanted.
  
  
• Fixed Dice, unlike other Defense Ignoring weapons and abilities, do NOT ignore Multipliers, oddly. This means it can take the benefits of Berserk (especially good if using the Imp set up), and Trance (requires Merit Award obviously) if you want, to really wreck some havoc. Pity it cannot be given to someone with Rage anymore (both Gau AND Gogo can't use Merit Award), as Catscratch Fixed Dice use to be fun as well.
  
  
• Setzer will never use Slots in the Coliseum. This is a good thing, as it means, if you were careful on what spells to teach him, he can really come in handy for winning specific fights, and you won't have to worry about some idiotic actions.
  
  
• Setzer is the 3rd and last character required to get in the WoR!
  
  
• Setzer is one of two characters (the other being Terra) whose own personal ending in the montage has no variants. This is because he’s a required recruit, and unlike Celes and Edgar, shares his scene with no Optional Characters.

Moogle
Dance

Adds "Dance" status to Mog. Under Dance status, Mog can use one of four attacks, what attacks vary on each dance. All Dances have frequencies spread out between 7/16 for first attack, 6/16 for second, 2/16 for the third, and 1/16 for the rarest. Dances have a 50% chance of success upon initial attempt, and once successful, the dance will never fail again unless Mog dies and then uses a different dance (The Terrain changes when Mog uses a "Dance" successfully), UNLESS on Home Terrain, in which case, said dance never fails. Dances are obtained by finishing battles on new terrain with Mog in your party (yes, he can be dead) All Dances are considered magical.

As the first playable Moogle in the FF series, Mog had to leave quite a positive mark for his race! Well, one thing Mog does get credit for is having next to no logic when it comes to how his character was made up. Lets analyze him for a second. Its a little small stuffed animal, in essence, ok, that explains the low Strength...yet his Attack somehow is higher than that of a seasoned adventurer in Locke. Also, despite being so small, his defense is the second highest (non-Umaro) in the game, which normally would imply low Magic Defense…except he’s #1 in that as well! Decent Magic Power…but he’s best used as a fighter when all is said an done. Also, you’d think he’d use some small simple weapon considering what he is…but his weapon of choice is a Spear, probably the largest weapon class in the game. Oh yeah, normally, you’d think he’d have next to no combat experience, so he should join underleveled, right? Nope! He joins at 5 LEVELS ABOVE average, the highest of any (permanent) character in the game. Needless to say, “O_o” somes up Mog well. To make matters worse regarding the randomness, Mog's equipment is all over the place, outside of his weapons. He can use the Golden Shield, for example, but none of the other "exclusive" shields (Heavy Shield, Diamond Shield, and Crystal Shield), as well as the other Golden Equips, yet there is no armor upgrade he gets beyond the Diamond Vest until his ultimate armor, the Snow Scarf, which turns the smallest member of the cast into your best tank by far. Um, yeah, Mog isn't what I'd call an easy to classify character, so its best we just move onto how he works or something...

When you first get Mog in the WoB, his big thing will be his dances. They're actually pretty brutal at this point, since they often have big MT damage that can nail weaknesses, full healing, and tend to be on the home terrain often, so the stumble aspect doesn't kick in. Combine that with a decent equipment selection for the time, Mog is a canon with no real flaws beyond lack of controllability. He also can double as a Mage, being able to use the Magus Hat and having a decent base Magic Power score, so teaching him a few attack spells wouldn't hurt either. Lastly, he tends to be an incredible tank at first due to joining 5 levels above everyone else, giving him a nice big HP advantage, as well as a damage boost to boot. This does have the downside for less Esper boosts in the long run granted, though the difference isn't as big as you might think, since many characters will lose those some of those levels anyway due to Thamasa, let alone they’ll all have caught up by the WoR, so realistically only a few characters have a true edge on him in this regard.

However, Mog's method of playing kind of shifts dramatically in the WoR. Here, you'll likely be using him as a Dragoon, similar to Edgar, so he's actually playing like a Fighter now, less like a mage. Combine that with a incredible defense score, suddenly Mog's a force to consider using...in completely different ways than he was before. Its because of this sudden change in worth, and how Dances go from godly to, well, crappy pretty rapidly that a lot of people will consider Mog as a bad character. However, this is also clear that these people never got the Snow Scarf, one of Mog's big things, as they'll also claim he has bad equipment. Snow Scarf alone, combined with spears not totally sucking ass, make for a decent enough selection of equipment (also makes it easy to figure out what he wants <_<.) In fact, you'd be surprised how many people think Mog's only purpose in this game is for the sake of the Molulu's Charm (unique Relic for Mog that stops Random Encounters entirely), and even go as far as to get that Gold Hairpin instead of him as such (which...is kind of silly; FF6 is not a game where MP is a big deal, especially thanks to Osmose.)

Like Edgar, though, Mog's new Dragon's Den weapon isn't really a spear, for Jump purposes. Gungnir only gets the 1.5x damage that other weapons get, instead of 2x damage like Spears get. This naturally kills a good amount of its use. On the other hand, its also Mog's best weapon for boosting Magic Power, so it still has some on paper use for Mog should he have been raised as a Mage, so its not worthless the way Longinus is, though you'll probably find yourself using Radiant Lance or Holy Lance more often, since those two are overall better. Do note that Mog being raised as a Mage isn’t necessarily a bad idea, as he can serve the purpose of a durable Magical cannon if you wanted, and his Magic Power is competent enough to do the job, though, don’t expect the damage values from him as you would from someone like Relm. If you’re using Mog as a mage, its cause you wanted a spell caster who can take hits exceptionally well, not cause he can dish out big damage (this isn’t to say his damage sucks, of course, just doesn’t stand out.)

So Mog is a pretty darn good character...if you know how to use him. Knowing what Dance is the right one to use makes him a beast in the first part of the game, and second part of the game, he makes a scary Dragoon whose also a bit of a scary tank at the same time. Do not underestimate the power of the little guy, even if the mascot characters often end up crappy in the end, as Mog is clearly not something to be taken lightly...even if he himself weighs a rather small amount.

Mog is a pretty respectable character once you get it out of your head that he's more than just Dances and Molulu's Charm. Being a freakish tank late game, and a good physical fighter thanks to Dragoon Set Up (or conversely, a decent Mage, should you prefer that), he's definitely has his uses in the late game. Dances being dominant in the WoB certainly are enough to secure his use over the Gold Hairpin, especially giving him that extra time to learn some magic and some more Esper levels too (let alone joining over leveled has its benefits.) Despite being a total joke of a character in plot, he's no laughing matter in battle, kupo.

Mog's Theme Song

Below are a list of Mog's dances, how to get them, and what they
contain.

Home Terrain
Plains, Coliseum, the Veldt, and Sky (such as fights on the Airship)
Abilities
Wind Slash: Wind damage to all.
Sun Bath: Heals party's HP
Plasma: Lightning elemental damage to one
Cockatrice: Inflicts Stone status on target. Note the game says it does damage, however, the move misses entirely if enemy is immune to Stone status, so that factor is moot.

Comments
Fairly solid. Wind Slash is good MT damage, and Sun bath is effectively full healing. Cockatrice is a bit mehish, though, it’s the rarest attack of the dance, thankfully. Plasma isn't particularly special, but doesn't hurt either.

Home Terrain
Forests
Abilities
Leaf Swirl: Non Elemental damage to all
Forest Healing: Recovers party from most negative status ailments
Will o' the Wisp: Fire Damage to one
Wombat: Non elemental damage to one

Comments
Probably the worst dance in the game. Forest Healing being a frequent attack really screws the dance's potential, and it has no real tricks, beside Wombat which is oddly Mog's strongest damage dance…pity its also the rarest.

Home Terrain
Deserts
Abilities
Sandstorm: Wind Elemental damage to all
Antlion: Instant Death to one
Wind Slash: Wind Elemental damage to all
Meercat: Grants Haste status to the whole party

Comments
Pure novelty dance. Not particularly useful, but not scrubby either. Main problem is there's no real use for a Desert Dance, in general (if it had some good skills, that'd be one thing, but…it doesn't)

Home Terrain
Towns and Indoors
Abilities
Will o' the Wisp: Fire damage to one
Apparition: Confuses single target
Snare: Instant Death to one
Tapir: Recovers party from status

Comments
Nifty for the confusion, and chance of instant death, though quite lacking on damage. Not much home terrain to take advantage of this, the places that do its not worth it (Zozo, those few fights in the Banquet sequence, Owzer’s House, among a few other places)

Home Terrain
Mountains, and the Floating Continent
Abilities
Rock Slide: Non Elemental damage to one
Sonic Boom: Reduces target's HP by 62.5%
Sun Bath: Heals the party's HP
Boar Brigade: Non elemental damage to one

Comments
Nice dance. Great when you consider the Floating Continent is its home terrain as well. Rock Slide does some nasty damage (its an improved Flare, more or less), Sonic Boom is some Gravity damage, and it has some healing, even if unreliable. Boar Brigade is kind of just there, though.

Home Terrain
Lethe River, Serpent Trench, and fight vs. Leviathan
Abilities
El Nino: Water elemental damage to all
Plasma: Lightning Damage to one
Apparition: Confuses enemy
Raccoon: Heals party's HP and from most negative status effects

Comments
This dance, frankly, kicks butt, pity the home terrain appears almost never. El Nino is quite nasty when you first get it, and Plasma isn't half bad. Raccoon, while rare, is probably the best single healing ability in the game, having no flaws in and of itself, while healing ludicrously high amounts along with status. Apparition is mostly novelty, but isn't bad.

Home Terrain
Caves
Abilities
Cave In: Reduces Target's HP by 75%, adds Seizure Status
Snare: Instant Death to one enemy
Will o' the Wisp: Fire damage to one
Poisonous Frog: Poison Damage to one

Comments
Pretty average, this dance isn't much on raw damage, albeit, since the only damage attacks are rare. This dance has a few terrain areas, but there are often better things to do with Mog’s turns.

Home Terrain
Snowy Hills behind Narshe
Abilities
Snowball: Reduces enemy's HP by 50%
Avalanche: Ice damage to all
Snare: Instant Death to one
Arctic Hare: Heals party's HP

Comments
Pretty sad, considering how late you get it. Only one area is its home terrain, and the only thing worth fighting there (Ice Dragon)…is immune to all its tricks. Nothing really worth noting about this dance at all.

• When you first get Mog, in the save Terra sequence, De-equip him. This way, you can get an early Mythril Shield, and Mythril Pike. Note that Mog comes back with this anyway when he rejoins later, so you really are getting free stuff here (unlike Shadow's Ninja Gear which is mostly just equip transferring.)
  
  
• You should always grab Mog instead of the Gold Hairpin. Yes, halving MP costs sounds nice, but consider it takes up a whole relic slot, and that you can't grab Water Harmony outside of one chance in the WoR (Leviathan fight), and Mog loses even MORE Esper levels than before (when he joins in the WoR, his Level readjustment won't factor in if you got him early on) if you grab him late. That, and Mog is actually a decent character here to boot.
  
  
• Shove Mog in the Back Row, and give him Dragoon Boots. That relic should be somewhat a staple on Mog. Early on, Hero's Ring is likely the best option (boosts Jump's damage, AND his dance's damage), later, better off with Dragon Horn, so his optimal damage (Jump) increases.
  
  
• NEVER give Mog the Genji Glove. Dragoon Boots will result in the same thing, and doesn't sacrifice a shield.
  
  
• Only reason to give Mog that Gladius is if you want Mog to have extra defenses. Though, honestly, with that 255 Defense score, something tells me Mog won't care about physical evade much. Suppose it MIGHT matter if you give Mog a Force Shield or something. Regardless, Holy Lance is a better choice, since its a spear, and has random Holy castings as well.
  
  
• When you first get Mog in the WoB, I suggest taking a quick dance hike to grab all the dances you can get (all but Snowman Rondo are available) ESPECIALLY Water Harmony, as the area coming up (the Sealed Cave), to be blunt, its not very fond of that dance. (though, Mog does have 50% chance of failure, being not the home dance)
  
  
• Speaking of which, for the Sealed Cave, Mog's best option is likely Water Harmony. Unreliable, yes, but when he hits with El Nino, he hits HARD. Though, Twilight Requiem isn't bad if you are fighting nothing but Zombones (Since the only thing they are immune to is Poison Frog, the rarest of Dusk Requiem's dances)
  
  
• IAF Sequence, Wind Rhapsody hands down. Provides not only consistent Healing, but Wind Slash can kill those fights in one casting (Earrings/Hero's Rings can help insure this further) Plasma, while rare and not favorable, WILL kill whatever it hits, and works nicely on Air Force to boot. Cockatrice?too rare to consider, be it positive or negative. Most evil part is, this dance is the home dance too, so no real flaws into using it.
  
  
• Floating Continent, Earth Blues all the way. This dance is just brutal, in general, and it’s the home dance too, should be quite obvious as far as why to use it (it does have a flaw in that if Mog uses Sonic Boom on an enemy immune to Instant Death, it’s a wasted turn, but thems the breaks)
  
  
• Be sure to get the Snow Scarf before you are serious about using Mog in the WoR.
  
  
• Keep Mog with a Holy Lance (which you should try to get ASAP) or Radiant Lance at all times. Again, despite what it may seem, Gungnir is NOT a spear in terms of Jump. Only time you should be using Gungnir is if you need a magic boost on Mog. Otherwise, stick with the other high end spears.

Listed in no particular order.

Holy Lance
Radiant Lance
Gladius
Gungnir

Genji Helm
Priest's Miter
Circlet
Red Cap
Green Beret

Snow Scarf
Reed Cloak


Setups

Radiant Lance/Holy Lance
Genji Shield/Thunder Shield/Aegis Shield
Red Cap/Genji Helm
Snow Scarf
Dragoon Boots
Dragon Horn

Ok, first off, your priority should be to hit 255 Defense; perfect defense means Mog takes 1 damage from all physicals, 0 if he's in the back row. How you go about this is up to you. The ways that work above are Red Cap/Genji Shield, or Genji Helm with the other two shields. Red Cap combo grants more HP and some more damage, while the other set ups yield more elemental resistance (Thunder Shield + Snow Scarf stops 3 Elements and halves a 4th, if you're wondering) or more magic defense; it depends on what you want. Which Lance you want depends on how lucky you feel; Holy Lance randomly casts Holy, but Radiant Lance does more damage otherwise, its a tough call. And yes, this is a cheap shot at FF4 Kain in that his whole Dragoon hype thing is being outclassed by a little white fur ball, even in the department of tanking.


Gungnir
Genji Shield
Circlet
Snow Scarf
Soul of Thamasa

Gives Mog the best Magic Power he can get while still keeping that 255 Defense. If you're raising Mog a mage, then this would be the set up you want. Naturally, you might not have enough Soul of Thamasas to go around, so make sure someone else doesn’t want it more before handing it to him.


Gungnir
Paladin's Shield
Circlet/Red Cap
Snow Scarf
Ribbon
Safety Bit

This Set Up makes Mog damn near impossible to kill. I'm not a fan of wasting that Paladin's Shield, but in this case, Mog is making special use of it, per se. He's got perfect defense so Physicals can't get him, total immunity to Elemental attacks due to Paladin's Shield, Ribbon + Safety Bit means that the only status that can hit him is Stop (which can't be guarded outside of Reflect Ring in some cases) and he has good Magic Defense (which you could also cast Shell mid-flight to bolster if need be) for the non-elemental Magic. Only thing that can do real damage to him are the occasional Defense Ignoring spells that are non-elemental, really, or those rare Specials that are Instant Death related, and some of those run into decent Evasion and Magic Evasion anyway. What Helmet you want depends upon some one factor; this set up, Mog is going to act as a Mage since, well, his physical damage is not going to impress you, so Gungnir was kind of obvious here. Circlet will give you the boost to Magic Power, though, Red Cap will help push the Set Ups Defensive purposes higher, giving that 25% HP Boost, to help defend against some of those few defense ignoring moves you can't stop otherwise. This set up really deserves a look at if you don't mind giving Mog your Paladin's Shield, as its a not an easy thing for most enemies to overcome (though, don't think it alone will save you against the likes of Kaiser Dragon.)


Gungnir
Force Shield
Saucer
Reed Cloak
White Cape
White Cape

Gungnir's use here is obvious; Mog has his Relics taken up, so he's going to be acting as a Mage. The concept behind this set up is Mog has 255 Magic Defense, thus making him immune to all Magic that doesn't ignore defense, while also bolstering a nice 82% Magic Evasion to stop those pesky status spells or occasional Flare spells either. The set up especially asks Mog to be a Mage cause he has no real physical defense at all. It is worth noting, however, that if Mog uses a Tortoise Shield instead of Force Shield, he'll have 254 Magic Defense, loses 20% Magic Evasion, HOWEVER, gets 30% Evasion, which makes him not totally defenseless against physicals, though this also means he doesn't halve certain attacks like Meltdown or Flare Star, losing Force Shield's Elemental Resistance.


Gungnir/Radiant Lance/Holy Lance
Force Shield/Tortoise Shield
Saucer
Snow Scarf

Normally, set ups tend to have higher defense than magic defense, at least numerically, or conversely, they'll have incredible magic defense with really bad defense, at least assuming none of these set ups are evasion twinking in which case, things get messy. This set up though has impressive Magic Defense while retaining at least passable defense…kind of the opposite of normal balanced set ups. You'll note the only thing here that grants defense is the Snow Scarf, and Mog's defense still is adequate, to give you an idea of just how sick that thing is, and it still has a very good Magic Defense score. Force Shield vs Tortoise Shield is tough call. On one hand, Force Shield has better magic defenses in everyway, and adds elemental resistances and Shell status. Tortoise Shield, however, adds 30% Evasion, which helps cover the physical end, which is definitely the weaker side of the two. As far as what weapon to use…well, how are you using Mog? If Dragoon set up, Radiant Lance or Holy Lance would be ideal (which of those comes down to personal preference, as usual), if Mog is being used as a Mage, then go with Gungnir. Naturally, what Relics you use depends on how you're using Mog, so this is a very generalized set up.

• Mog is required for getting Umaro. This means that if you want everything, you must use Mog at least at some point regardless.
  
  
• Molulu Charm only works for one party, as a reminder. Mind, it helps turn things like Phoenix Cave into a one party area, effectively, since only one party is fighting, while Mog runs right through.
  
  
• When Mog uses a dance, you lose control of him completely, unless he dies. Keep this in mind before using Dance with Mog.
  
  
• And Mog is yet another character who naturally maxes out MP at level 99! So yeah, no wasting Esper levels, consciously anyway, with MP Boosts, as they're pointless for perfectionist reasons here.
  
  
• If you're curious, Mog can actually max both evasion stats out as well, if you don't mind using both Merit Award and Paladin's Shield. Not that I suggest this due to what it requires, but just know its there (check out, say, Terra or Locke's maxed evasion set ups, and just replace Zephyr's Cloak with Merit Award.)

Feral Youth
Rage/Leap

When Gau uses Rage, you lose control of him in a manner similar to Mog's Dance, and you won't regain control unless he dies (and is revived), or you end the fight. When in Rage status, Gau will use one of two actions; the first is always a standard Fight command, that despite its animation are all identical, and the other move varies (like Stray Cat uses "Catscratch" or Templar uses "Fira".) Any Status immunities or elemental factors (Null, Absorption or weakness) the enemy has is transferred to Gau as well, though do note that this DOES stack with equipment, in and Elemental cases, works on the same logic of Absorption > Null > Weakness > Neutral. Instant Death immunity is the one exception here, as if Gau is immune before hand (with a Safety Bit, naturally) and uses a Rage that isn't, he loses the immunity. In order to build up Rage, the command "Leap" must be used, which is available only on the Veldt. When using Leap, the battle there ends, and Gau is lost temporarily. Gau will then randomly reappear at the end of a fight on the Veldt, so long as your team has a free spot (meaning 3 characters or less), and learn any Rages of Monsters in the fight he returns on; note that if you scare Gau off by accidentally hitting him, he will NOT learn Rages as he has to actually rejoin.


Ok, I'm going to keep this short. I'm mainly writing for Gau this time cause, well, it feels like at least his objective facts like Stats and possible set ups should be listed. Gau is a character who has some of the most potential in the game, be it early on when he's an incredible powerhouse (though unreliable due to randomness), with a few tricks to screw over bosses, or later in the game when he's got this really evil defensive game due to how Rage's work. He also gets a new equip in Dueling Mask thanks to Dragon's Den. If you're wondering, the Cat-ear Hood use to be considered the best helmet in the game...Dueling Mask beats it at *EVERYTHING* outside of doubling Gil, to give you an idea how good it is. It also grants 25% HP like the Red Cap. Regardless, Gau is one of these characters whose about as good as you let him; if you don't mind Veldt Training, he'll be phenomenal so long as you know what Rages to use. If you hate training on the Veldt? You might as well leave him on the Airship, as he won't be doing you very good (he'll be a worse version of Mage Mog, in essence.)

See, it's already done! Short like I said, right? Again, this isn't cause I hate Gau, but rather, its cause to give a thorough analysis and strategies on Gau would require a FAQ in and of itself, since he's a very deep and complex character in terms of his game play worth.

Not much to say, beyond Gau is ONE COMPLEX CHARACTER. Again, I can't go into depth regarding him, since well...notice how his Miscellaneous Info is compared to everyone else? Yeah...Gau is about as good as you let him be, that's that. He can work as a tank Mage if you really want him too, but he'll be worse than Mog overall for that, at least until Dueling Mask, which is late in the Dragon's Den.

Gau's Theme Song

Gau's skill set relies on Rages. This is also by far the biggest skill set in the game, since even removing the unobtainable Rages, he's got over 250 of them. So, instead of dedicating a section of this guide to Gau's Rages (which realistically would take 7-8 sections alone, I'll simply point you to a few great Rage guides I found across the internet:

• GameFAQs[www.gamefaqs.com]
  
• FF Compendium[www.ffcompendium.com]
  
• UFF Site[www.uffsite.net]

...and also this cheat sheet I found showing Gau's best Rages:

• Gau is someone who might prefer Front Row, if only cause he'll always have that Physical as an option; this especially rings true for the famous Stray Cat Rage, since Catscratch does not ignore row.
  
  
• Rages to look out for early on are Stray Cat, Guard Leader, Templar, Oversoul, Bomb, Spritzer, Trillium, Darkside, Cloud, Lesser Lopros, and Acrophies. I won't get into why, but these are the stand out rages available when you first get to the Veldt, assuming you fought these enemies, for one reason or another.
  
  
• Keep Gau's at least somewhat up to date. I'm not going to tell you what Rages to get at every point (beyond the bunch I mentioned above) since after a point, it really becomes micromanaging, and you should raise Gau at a pace you feel works for you.
  
  
• Like with Mog, grab that Snow Scarf ASAP for Gau; its one of his big advantages, and he's likely going to need it if you want to use Gau effectively.
  
  
• Similarly, when you get the Dueling Mask, that should be a staple on Gau. It is the best helmet in the game in every possible way (barring the Saucer, which barely beats it in Magic Defense, and in Defense if you're an imp, but that hardly counts), so take advantage of it.
  
  
• I suppose its worth noting that Berserk is a beneficial status effect for Gau, at least after he uses Rage. Due to how Rage works, its script overrides Berserk, but you’ll still get the damage increase (which I think even applies to his magic, but not certain) from the status. Its generally not worth the use of another character’s turn, however, though it doesn’t hurt to remind that it exists. Bare in mind that many worthwhile Rages (like Magic Urn and Night Shade) are immune to Berserk, so this strategy is sometimes unusable. Just be sure to use Rage FIRST before you cast Berserk on him too.

Gau cannot use weapons besides Impartisan which actually LOWERS his
attack.

Priest's Miter
Green Beret
Red Cap
Dueling Mask
Circlet
Genji Helm
Saucer

Snow Scarf
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak

Setups

*Empty*
Aegis Shield/Genji Shield
Dueling Mask
Snow Scarf

Perfect Defense, lots of stat boosts from Dueling Mask and elemental resistance as well. Thunder Shield isn't really practical here as Gau already resists every element in the game, including Absorbing Ice, and depending on how you use him, he might resist more with his Rages. Aegis Shield is flat out the superior Shield here (since Gau maxes defense anyway, it gives superior magic defensive stats), though there's a limited supply of them, hence why you might prefer Genji Shield in this case.


*Empty*
Force Shield
Saucer/Dueling Mask
Reed Cloak
White Cape
White Cape

The perfect Magic defense set up. Note that the Dueling Mask falls short by literally one point, though give the Force Shield's auto Shell, that's probably not going to matter; put Saucer on there for perfectionist reasons. Dueling Mask is probably better for the elemental resists, Stat Boosts, and giving Gau *SOME* physical defense (its still bad, though not as bad as Terra/Mog's similar set ups, and he gets extra evade too.)


*Empty*
Force Shield/Tortoise Shield
Dueling Mask
Snow Scarf

Sort of a hybrid of the above two set ups. Having decent defense and even better magic defense, this set up can take both types of damage rather well, especially Magic with the Force Shield. That's not even considering the 25% HP Boost the Dueling Mask grants. The Tortoise Shield is listed since it grants an elemental resistance the Dueling Mask doesn't cover (turns the Water resistance into Water Absorbing), and adds 30% Evasion to help cover the lower (though by no means bad) physical defense. Which you want comes down to personal preference, mind. As usual, Gau will be about defenses, and this is about as good as he'll get for balancing both, barring the use of the elusive Paladin's Shield.

• Regardless of how hard you try, Gau will always have empty slots in
  his Rage list. Siegfried and Typhon are both technically Rages,
  however their formations (since they're pure coliseum enemies) never
  appear on the Veldt. As such, if you seem to have every enemy, this
  would be why. I heard Death Warden's formation used in the Soul shrine
  DOES appear on the Veldt, so if you want him, you'll have to wait til
  then, as the one found in the Box at in the Veldt Cave uses a different
  formation (if you're wondering, the Veldt only shows Monster Formations
  form 00 to 255, IIRC, and only if there is a Rage-able monster in that
  list; Death Warden in the original had an unused formation that fell
  within 00 to 255, while the one in the box was above that value.)
  ALSO, note that for different reasons, Tonberries (NOT to be confused
  with Tonberry) cannot be Raged due to their monster value. They were
  suppose to appear in the last slot, but that spot is value 255, or FF
  in Hex, which is treated as null data universally for purposes like
  this, as such, that would be another Rage you can't ever obtain.
  
  
• Remember that to get a formation/monster to appear on the Veldt, you
  have to encounter it. Whether you fight it the whole way through, or
  just run, it doesn't matter, just need to actually see it.
  
  
• Despite them appearing on the Veldt, Proto Armor and LIVING King
  Behemoth do not yield Rages. If you're wondering why those two haven't
  appeared on your list, that would be the reason. Do note that the
  UNDEAD King Behemoth still yields a Rage, however.
  
  
• Just to clear this up, no; not a single new enemy from Dragon's Den
  gives a Rage, so Gau gains no new skills beyond the 3 universal new
  spells and 4 new Esper in FF6a.
  
  
• Roulette used by Ahriman from Gau is *NOT* the same as a normal
  Roulette. Its actually just like casting Death, except it can't fail
  beyond strict immunity to it. This is because the targeting doesn't
  work with Rage (since Rage tends to just use ST, MT, or randomly choose
  one of the two if possible, completely ignoring oddities in targeting;
  Roulette would be the only oddity that matters, near as I can tell), so
  it just uses the effect, not the randomness part. It DOES count
  towards teaching Strago the spell Roulette though.
  
  
• Gau has a few "status" moves that work on bosses! Or more precisely,
  Rafflesia's Allure (which is an instant win to a boss if he has one
  target, and no HP Loops, should it hit), Fiend Dragon's Northern Cross,
  and Coco's Entice (I might be off on some of these names.) These
  aren't glitches, mind; there is just no way to immune these abilities
  in game, on either end (barring Magic Evasion anyway, in Allure and
  Northern Cross' case), so technically they are fair game, though this
  is probably an oversight...
  
  
• Despite how they appear in the Veldt, Proto Armor is not a rage-able
  monster. They are an odd exception in that they’re the only enemy that
  functions like this, due to how the game works (its not a bug, more just
  an odditiy.)
  
  
• Gau is another character who naturally gets maxed out MP...in fact, he
  hits 999 on the dot, instead of reaching a theoretical 4 digit value.
  
  
• Gau is also one of two characters who can actually become immune to
  the Stop status. This is because there is no equip that does this, yet
  Rages can yield immunity to the status, so its a nifty little
  advantage.

Mime
Mimic

Gogo will use the same action as the one used by the character immediately before him. Should the action either be one that can't be mimicked (Morph for example), or no action has been used yet, Gogo will default to using "Fight."

Other
Gogo can use any skill set of any other character in FF6, with the exception of Trance, Leap, Shock, Health, Magitek, and Possess (note that Health = Cura, Shock can be used via Yojimbo Rage, and Magitek can be used if Gogo has "Fight" and is in the Magitek Armor section of Cyan's Soul) Gogo's skill sets with these are based off of the skill set of the "home" character (IE Gogo will know only Blitzes that Sabin already knows), Magic command is based off whatever Magic the current party has (IE if your team is Gogo, Terra, Gau, and Sabin, Gogo will be able to use any spell that any of those characters know) Gogo can only use skill sets of characters that you have been "properly introduced" (IE seen their Naming Screen) If Shadow was not rescued on the Floating Continent, Gogo can not use Throw. For moves like Jump, Dualcast, Control, Mug, and Giltoss, Gogo must equip the proper Relic, and have the proper skill set equipped, to use those abilitie

Gogo's Skill set is, well, dependent on others. He can use all other skill sets in the game, with a few exceptions. If you want to see exactly what Gogo can use...well, I suppose I can list the actual Commands he can use himself:

Mimic
Fight (Jump w/ Dragoon Boots)
*Magic (Dualcast w/ Soul of Thamasa)
Item
Steal (Mug w/ Brigand's Glove)
Bushido
Throw (NOTE: If you did not wait for Shadow on the floating Continent, Gogo will not know this)
Tools
Blitz
Runic
Lores
Sketch (Control w/ Fake Mustache)
Slots (Giltoss w/ Heiji's Jitte)
Dance (NOTE: If you didn't get Mog in the WoB, Gogo will not know this
until you recruit Mog in the WoR.)
Rage

*As a reminder, Gogo’s use of Magic functions differently than other characters. He will only know magic of the characters in his current party, and can’t equip Espers. He’ll never know Magic permanently, and he can actually LOSE spells as a result.

NOTE: Anything listed in a () means you have to equip the listed Relic and the base skill set for it to work, as in, if its not obvious by now, to sue Mug, Gogo needs to have Steal equipped, and then.

Ah, Gogo; more variety than you could ever hope for in a character...at least by FF6 standards. He also has absolutely garbage stats and equipment isn't much better. This leads him to being a very niche character. He can do just about anything you want him too, but often, its worse than the original character doing it, be it cause of the garbage stats (his Bushidos will be worse than Cyan's, for example, due to much lower Strength), or because his equipment holds him back (while he steals just as well as Locke does, Locke has much better equipment options so he tends to live longer, plus higher speed never hurts.) If you're wondering, yes, the variety does compensate for the stats and equipment, but that doesn't mean Gogo suddenly becomes a massive powerhouse or something.

Gogo's equipment selection is essentially the same as Strago's, with a different Dragon's Den equip, and loses out animal suits for things like the Black Garb. This is a flat out losing trade, if you can’t tell, for a number of obvious reasons (Behemoth Suit > anything Gogo can get, for starters; Nutkin Suit too, for that matter.) He can at least use all the same important weapons, like Swordbreaker or the Magus Rod. His Dragon's Den Weapon...isn't particularly useful. Yes, it does grant +4 to all his stats, and it randomly casts Bio and is much stronger than anything else he can equip...but since when does Gogo care about his basic physical when he has moves Throw or Blitz at his disposal? The weapon yields no real defensive advantages, and Magus Rod yields more on the offense that Gogo cares about anyway; the boost he'd get on Throw from the Strength Boost is too meager to compare about, you’d be preferring those defensive gains from other weapons.

One of Gogo's flaws though, how big varies from person to person, is that he can't equip any Espers. He can't use them to learn Magic (has his own special method to determine his magic set, as noted earlier), he can't use them to summon them in battle, and what seems to matter most, he can't use them to boost his stats. As such, his stats are completely static beyond some equipment boosts. That's right, see those garbage stats? He's stuck with them. Another flaw, and this one is unique to this version of the game, is that Gogo can't even use Merit Award, meaning now he's even stuck with his bad equipment selection too. Yeah, this hurts him pretty badly, though it doesn't make him unsalvageable. The kind of equips he gets do help him out as they save his Magic score some, meaning he can still whip out a decent Phantom Rush and Razor Gale for consistent damage, as well as pull off a lot of Strago's tricks at the same time.

Its pretty clear what Gogo's purpose is; jack of all trades, master of none. He can do anything you want, but he doesn't do them all THAT well, so you have to keep this in mind when using him. He won't suddenly cover for 3 characters at once because he can use 3 different skill sets; Gogo is another point in the proof that a character is NOT determined by their skill set. Giving Gogo Tools does not turn him into a second Edgar, since Edgar is a character who relies a fair amount on his equipment late game. Granted, someone like, say, Sabin, who does rely on his special skill, can be replicated pretty easily by Gogo. How well Gogo replaces those characters varies depending on their equipment, and how reliant on their special skills they were. Do NOT expect him to suddenly act as a clone to a character just because he has their skills; I can't stress this enough. While it works in some cases, it doesn't work in ALL cases.

Gogo can do about anything you want him too, but whether he can do it well is a different story. If you're using Gogo, it better be for his variety purposes, as he doesn't have much else really going for him...well, ok, his damage is fine thanks to Throw/Blitz being among his repertoire, but that isn't the point! Point is, many will claim Gogo is the best character due to his variety, but his flaws are too great for this to be case. Don't get me wrong; Gogo is still a decent character, I'm just saying he tends to get a little overrated at times.

Gogo's Theme Song

• Gogo's Ultimate Armor is the Magus Robe; yes, that store-bought item that Relm/Strago also get in Maranda. You might as well buy it the instant he joins, if not before.
  
  
• The only two weapons Gogo should be using are the Magus Rod or the Swordbreaker. Swordbreaker has an extra benefit, granted, of allowing Bushidos should you want Gogo to use those for whatever reason, though Magus Rod tends to cover more important skills. Whether you want more Evasion, or Magic Power and Magic Evasion is your call. As a side note, BOTH weapons can use Runic, should you care. Yes, its odd, but Magus Rod is a runic compatible weapon, for one reason or another.
  
  
• Like most characters, Gogo should be in the back row, especially since he should never be using his fight command, ever. This is only further supported by the fact that his Dragon's Den weapon, the Scorpion's Tail, ignores Row penalties.
  
  
• What skill sets to give Gogo? Well, Magic is good if the current team has a good selection spells, Blitz and Throw are always solid for damage options, though I wouldn’t use both at the same time (which you use depends on if you want more raw damage in Blitz or more flexible, targettable damage in Throw.) Lore is nice for some variety, and good if the magic selection in the team isn't much. Other abilities have some uses here and there, but for the most part, those are likely the most useful.

Listed in no particular order.

Magus Rod
Gladius
Swordbreaker
Scorpion's Tail
Impartisan

Circlet
Genji Helm
Priest's Miter
Red Cap
Saucer
Green Beret

Magus Robe
Mirage Vest
Reed Cloak
Black Garb


Setups

Magus Rod/Swordbreaker
Genji Shield/Aegis Shield/Thunder Shield
Circlet/Red Cap
Magus Robe

I'll be honest; I'm not sure WHAT you want with Gogo, so this set up pretty much covers all areas...well, if you look at its amount of alternatives anyway. Circlet for Magic Damage, Red Cap for defenses and physical damage (Unfortunately, Gogo's defense is too low for Genji Helm to really be worth much), the usual Shield nonsense that applies for all characters, and then Magus Rod vs. Swordbreaker was explained above. Naturally, if you want Bushidos, which weapon you'll choose should be obvious. Magus Robe tends to win for the most part on Gogo's equipment options, hence why I figured he'd be using that.

• Do not forget that Gogo can Steal, much like Locke, so if you ever want a specific item, or have kleptomania tendencies, Gogo is a good idea to bring along, be it alongside Locke or in place of him. Also, note that Gogo in some ways is BETTER as a thief than Locke, due to how the Colosseum works. See one of the later points for how this works.
  
  
• Miming Magicite Shards is not the same as Miming 3 Bars! What do I mean? When you use Mimic with a Magicite Shard, Gogo will mimic the use of the item, which is to say, he can get a totally different summon than the original use of that item. So if Relm summoned Alexander when she used it, Gogo can Mimic that, and instead, get Ifrit. HOWEVER, if you Mimic the 3 Bars Slots, Gogo will copy the actual Esper summoned. This means that if Setzer were to summon Midgarsormr with 3 Bars, Gogo would actually mimic the summoning part, and summon Midgarsormr as well. This isn't particularly useful anymore, granted, since now a lot of people get the Esper Ragnarok instead of the Sword, given you can get both in the same file due to a clear save, but still thought I'd throw it out.
  
  
• HOWEVER, Gogo is still helpful for getting that Cursed Ring. This is because with Gogo, you aren't restricted to a single (reliable) Ragnarok summon a fight. Have someone else summon Ragnarok, then have Gogo continually mimic that until it hits. Only thing close to a reliable way to get that pure Trophy item.
  
  
• Gogo would be the OTHER character can immune the stop status, and for the same reason as Gau; he can use Rage.
  
  
• If you use Gogo in the Fanatics Tower, you may have noticed he can't use Magic there, only Mimic (and Item, if you gave that to him.) This is because the Fanatics Tower is, well, screwed up how it works. Rather than removing everyone's skill set but Magic, Mimic and Item, it removes everyone's skill set but Fight, Mimic and Item, but then turns Fight into Magic. It sounds screwed up, but trust me; that's how it works. The ending result is if you want Gogo to use the Magic skill set in the Tower, give him Fight, not Magic, and it will work. I know it sounds odd, but trust me, that's how it works.
  
  
• Gogo sadly can't use the Merit Award in this version, as I said before. Why? I'm not sure, might have to do with cheesing out Wind God Gau set ups, and realizing Gogo can do the same.
  
  
• Gogo *CANNOT* uncurse the Cursed Shield. Any fights Gogo has the Cursed Shield equipped does not count towards the amount of fights you have the thing equipped. Sad but true.
  
  
• For multi hit actions, each one of their own rule. Obviously, for moves that by nature hit multiple times like Tempest or Flurry, Gogo will do the full thing. He also will Mimic entire Dualcasts as well, so if you have Celes use Ultima twice with Dualcast, Gogo will do the same. However, for X-fight (What the Master's Scroll yields), Genji Glove physicals and Multijump (as in, Jump with Dragon's Horn), Gogo will merely use standard Fight commands, or in the case of Multijump, he'll use normal Jump.
  
  
• Gogo is one of the best characters to use in the Coliseum cause you can quite literally control his actions. If nothing else, you can just give him nothing but "Fight" commands and watch him be insured to damage the enemy. This is also nice when trying to get, say, Celestriads by stealing from Galypdes, as you can give Gogo nothing but Steal to insure he will do nothing but that (I suggest giving him a Brigand's Glove too, just so the fight will end within a reasonable time.) The only thing you have to be careful of is equipment; the limited equipment options might hurt his performance here, so take that into account.
  
  
• In an insulting scenario, Gogo naturally gets 998 MP, just BARELY missing that natural 999 threshold. Its especially insulting cause he can’t even use Esper Boosts to get that last MP! He can use Priest’s Miter, admittedly, but where’s the fun in that?

Yeit
"Rage"

When Umaro is in battle, you lose all control over him ala Rage or Dance. He will then only use Fight or "Tackle" commands. If he has the Berserker Ring equipped, then "Character Toss" may sometimes be used, providing he actually has allies. If he has a Blizzard Orb equipped, he will randomly use "Snowstorm" at times.

I'll be blunt here; Umaro sucks. There's no real denying that either. You can try to back him up all you want, but all you get is a character who randomly shifts between doing low damage and moderate damage, no equipment variety outside of Relics, and no real redeeming features. Well, ok, he does always absorb Ice and resist Fire, and with the Berserker Ring (which you SHOULD always have equipped, at least til Dragon's Den), he changes that Fire resistance to absorbing and adds Lightning immunity too. But beyond that, he's a waste of those great base stats.

Now, you might think "you're only saying that cause you can't control him!" but lets analyze this for a moment. Ok, suppose you COULD control him...he'd be a character who constantly does moderate damage then, alright, fine...so how is this better than, say, Mog who can achieve better defensive stats in everyway, and can shift equipment around to his liking? Or someone like Sabin who doesn't need Relics to use his big damage, thus can use Relics that augment it? Sounds like Umaro ends up being average at best there, if you ask me. Still not convinced? Alright, lets use a parallel character in Gau, who often gets bad rap due to his "uncontrollability." Gau can choose one out of 250 some odd Rages, so long as you get them, and many of them give him different defensive or offensive advantages...and he still has equipment variety, ignoring weapons, and better defensive stats due to Shields and Helmets. He can also NOT be forced into uncontrollable state, making him pull utility roles at very least as a healer, or throwing items, or casting magic on enemies, what have you. Even if these aren't good uses of Gau (since other characters can do them better), they are still something he has the option of doing that Umaro does not. If Umaro is left alone to fight an enemy, you basically pray your ass off things go the way you want; you can't try to revive party members, or cheese the quick spell, or what have you. No, Umaro's essentially Gau who can't change equipment, stuck in one set permanent Rage that can be augmented by using up his relic slots.

Now, in fairness, the Bone Wrist he gets from Dragon's Den does save him some. It gives him a hefty boost to all stats (+5 to the 4 base ones, +10 to both Defenses and +10% to both evades), as well as combines the Hero's Ring, Sniper's Eye, Hyper Wrist, and Muscle Belt into one Relic. Needless to say, this thing looks utterly awesome on paper. The fact that despite this Relic, Umaro still falls short of being decent proves his worth beforehand; he's really a bad character.

I suppose Umaro can be good if you get him ASAP, before characters start getting their good stuff...I mean like you grab him after Grabbing Mog (whose required) and maybe Phantom Rush (no reason not too) only, but that means you already have access to Agas and Quake by default, and feels silly when there's slightly easier characters to get back like Terra, Shadow and Gau. He also works if you really want a physical fighter for Fanatics Tower I suppose, but...that's about where his use ends. He's a quirky character that was badly thought out, and Square apparently realized that, tried to salvage his worth, and even with a relic as strong as that, they didn't really succeed. Well, I suppose another thing Umaro has in his favor is not being total garbage in an Natural Magic Game. After all, he IS one of the only characters who can ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING in the Fanatics Tower (Terra, Celes and Gogo being the other three), so that's a point there, I guess, but...yeah, shows that other characters need restrictions for Umaro to even have any use.

All in all, Umaro is simply not a good character at all. Even characters like Cyan got some sort of "saving grace" with Quick or something letting them work well, but Umaro doesn't even get that. He's a fairly one dimensional character, and isn't even that good at his one dimension. Avoid him unless you like berserk type characters or something, as he's not someone worth hyping at all. What's worse? He can't use Esper boosts either, so he's stuck with those stats like Gogo is as well.

Umaro sucks. I know I said this many times already, but its pretty much a fact. Anyone who says otherwise is really reaching; especially if its before the Bone Wrist. I know I TRY to be objective when looking at these characters, but all ways I look at Umaro, he ends up being "he CAN do passable damage occasionally...and has nothing else going for him" which kind of is the definition of a sucky character, at least by this game’s standards. Uncontrollable, not as strong as you'd like, little variety on what he can use, especially since he requires unique Relics for his moves...yeah. Hate to say it, but Umaro is someone who really has no real point in this game, and if you're a fan of Umaro, I'm sorry, but the sooner you accept that he's worse than other characters, the better.

Umaro's Theme Song

• Give Umaro the Berserker Ring. That raises his chances of using actually good moves, and boosts protection against two elements. Do not bother with Gauntlet as it won't raise his damage as much as been hyped in the past, though Gigas Glove or Black Belt both work. Blizzard Orb isn't really worth the hassle, though the option is there.
  
  
• The only other strategy I can think of is when you get the Bone Wrist, keep that on Umaro and never remove it. Its his best relic by far, and it doesn't even turn into anything useful at the Coliseum (ok, Dueling Mask *IS* awesome but only Gau can use it outside of Merit Award, and even the Dueling Mask doesn't justify wasting a Relic Slot for...)
  
  
• Interestingly enough, Berserk is 100% beneficial as a status effect for Umaro. Due to how he works, he’s always using Physicals anyway, the game just randomly replaces them with some other action. As a result, all Berserk does is increase his damage of his basic physical (and possibly Storm) by 50% (Tackle and Character Toss ignore defense, so they ignore this bonus.) Not worth wasting the turn of one of your allies, probably, but hey, its Umaro; you take what you can get.

Bone Club

N/A

Snow Scarf


NOTE: These are the only equips Umaro can use, aside from Relics.


Setups

...given Umaro can only use Relics, I'm not going to even bother here. I'll just say "give him Berserker Ring and Bone Wrist, as they're his best Relics" and move on. Ok, he MIGHT prefer a filler relic in the spot of the Berserker Ring, or in rare cases, the Blizzard Orb, but...yeah. Umaro has no end-all-be-all setups.

• Umaro is a decent Coliseum Candidate since you know exactly what he'll do, in essence. This means you won't have to worry about him screwing up set ups that are reliant on relics.
  
  
• If you use the Unequip Guy on the Airship, note that he will NOT touch Umaro's equipment. Probably done so Umaro never loses his Weapon or Armor (so no freebie Snow Scarf! This also makes the Bone Club you can get in the Coliseum junk outside of Coliseum Purposes or extra money), but it also extends to his relic. Something to keep in mind if you can't find that certain relic you were looking for, and you used Umaro recently.
  
  
• Black Belt allows Umaro to use his other commands. This is because the game randomly checks to see if his "Fight" will be replaced with Tackle, Character Toss or Snowstorm, and Black Belt does nothing but counter with a "Fight" command. This makes Black Belt a better option than it might sound at first for him.
  
  
• Master's Scroll is NOT a good option for him though, since while it doubles the damage of his basic attack, it HALVES the damage of Character Toss and Tackle, so you get the same damage in the end, but wasting a relic slot.
  
  
• Character Toss is SUPPOSE to do extra damage when Mog is thrown, however, due to an oversight in programming, where the boost was done like any other Multiplier instead of a unique method, this is ignored as Character Toss ignores defense, so its meaningless. Just a random piece of useless info!
  
  
• Character Toss heals Sleep and Confuse status of the character thrown! This actually kind of matters, especially since Umaro WILL always use Character Toss on that character if that person has one of the two status'.
  
  
• Just to clear an old rumor up, just in case. Green Cherries do NOT increase Umaro's Attack. This was believed to be the case because Umaro would use a Green Cherry in his boss form to trigger a power up mid fight. This is purely a battle script thing for his boss form, and has no effect for the form that joins you at all. Do not fall for this silly rumor.
  
  
• As a random fact, Umaro’s Character Toss was suppose to double in damage if the character in question was Mog. This would have been a neat gimmick, except that because they programmed it like a Multiplier, and Character Toss ignores defense, the boost gets overridden and becomes completely useless.

A major question with characters that is asked is "how should I raise this character?" Well, obviously, with Espers! . . .what? I'm suppose tell you what KIND of espers? Oh, that's no fun...wait, right, who said anything about writing a FAQ was fun? ...don't answer that.

Anyway, raising a character depends on what you want. First off, I'll say this; specializing in on area, physical or magical, tends to work better than dual raising. Especially since Strength boosts are only noticeable in bulk, you'll want as many of these as possible. A good way to raise a character is to try and max their Strength or Magic Power (as in, 128) and then put the rest of the boosts in speed. If you want 9999 HP, 2 levels of Diabolos somewhere between level 31 and level 83, I believe, should be enough to hit 9999 (originally, you had to use level ups of 68-69, 69-70 and 70-71 with Bahamut for the minimal requirement, if you're curious.) I might be off, but point is, any 2 levels somewhere in the middle should work. If you wish to Max MP, well, any character I noted that does this naturally does it, obviously. Other characters should just equip Crusader for a level (earlier = better, in general), and that should be enough.

Do note that for those being raised as Fighters (as in, Strength boosts), the true cap is 128. While 128 is the BASE stat cap, as in if the character is naked, that is the highest value they can get, thus the highest Espers can raise it naturally, stat boosts from equipment (like Enhancer's +7 to Magic Power) are still functional. Strength, however, truly does cap at 128 due to how the algorithms work; any value above 128 becomes meaningless. It might not be a bad idea to work out what equipment you plan on using, see what strength boosts occur, and then raise your strength stat to the point where you can hit 128 with the boosts from those being enough.

Anyway, once the stat is maxed out, boost speed as much as possible. This means use Cactuar for the rest of your levels, barring maybe those few levels you're using Diabolos or Crusader if you want those perfect 9s in HP and MP. Stamina boosts are NOT worth it. You might have noticed I haven't mentioned any boosting to Stamina, but that's simply cause the stat plays such a little impact in general that boosting it really isn't worth much; best to ignore it and move on.

Esper Boosts work quite simply, for those who don't know by this point. Some Espers have a bonus to stats. When you have the Esper equipped, they do nothing normally, but when you level up, that bonus is added to your stats. So take Ifrit's Strength +1; every time you level up with Ifrit equipped, you'll get +1 to Strength on that character. Naturally, you'll want to take advantage of this, but I wouldn't get TOO upset if you missed a level here and there, unless you are a perfectionist.

To avoid confusion though, HP and MP boosts are *NOT* strict boosts to the respective stat. If you have 1000 HP and level up with Midgarsormr (+30% HP), you will not have 1300 HP, or whatever it'd be factoring in the natural HP Boost. It doesn't work that way; that'd be cheap as hell naturally, and in only a few level ups with Bahamut, let alone Diabolos, you could have 9999 HP by level like 40 <.< No, the way Esper Boosts to HP and MP is that they are % bonus to the HP INCREASE you gain. So in that 1000 HP example, if you were to gain 100 HP on that level up, yielding a total of 1100 HP after leveling, Midgarsormr would give you an extra 30 HP, making the total 1130.

Now, what Espers boost what stats? Well, for a complete list, just look below! Some of these might not be worth bothering with, just listing them for completion purposes:

Siren: HP +10%
Catoblepas: HP +10%
Midgarsormr: HP +30%
Bahamut: HP +50%
Diabolos: HP +100%
Phantom: MP +10%
Fenrir: MP +30%
Crusader: MP +50%
Ifrit: Strength +1
Bismark: Strength +2
Raiden: Strength +2
Gilgamesh: Strength +2
Ramuh: Stamina +1
Golem: Stamina +2
Lakshme: Stamina +2
Leviathan: Stamina +2
Odin: Speed +1
Cactuar: Speed +2
Maduin: Magic Power +1
Cait Sith: Magic Power +1
Zona Seeker: Magic Power +2
Valigarmanda: Magic Power +2

There are other Espers in the game, obviously, but those have no Esper boosts, thus are totally meaningless for these purposes.

So obviously, the whole argument of "Raiden vs. Odin" kind of just went down the drain; Odin is no longer the only speed boosting Esper, and to add to that, he's not even the best anymore thanks to Cactuar. As an added side note, Gilgamesh teaches Quick, so the argument is ESPECIALLY silly now since both are just added flavor; IOWs, don't worry about losing Quick cause you want perfect stats, as you'll get them regardless of upgrading Odin to Raiden or not. Personally, I’d go with the upgrade for a few reasons, but that’s not important here.

Anyway, you'll want to get as many levels as possible under any +2 Esper. Mages naturally want Valigarmanda and Zona Seeker, Fighters want Gilgamesh, Raiden or Bismark, and for speed boosting, you'll want Cactuar. If for whatever crazy reason you care about it and want Stamina Boosts, Golem, Lakshme and Leviathan are what you want. For how to raise which characters...well, just check below! Naturally Gogo and Umaro are excluded from this list purely on concept of not being able to use Espers. Another thing to consider is how much more impactful Magic Power is than Strength for their respective attacks, and how nearly everyone can make good use of Magic Power to varying degrees, where as some characters like Strago are total lost causes with physical damage. A common suggestion that comes up, as a result, is “When in doubt, raise Magic Power” which is not a bad suggestion at all, so keep that in mind.

She's got good magic power and equipment to support being a mage, meanwhile, she also has strong weapons to make use of the fighter side. Either strategy is viable, so use whatever compliments your team better, such like a “Fighter Terra” may be overall worse than “Mage Terra”, but it’d compliment some teams better, such like those with, say, Relm, who need that Soul of Thamasa more desperately. She works well either way, even if technically the Mage Route is overall more effective, the Fighter route tends to be a bit more flexible for a number of reasons.

Locke's big thing comes from his weapon selection, and notably, the Valiant Knife. Combined with his low starting magic score, and how he's using his basic physical from the start of the game, he'll want as many strength boosts as possible, so the direction is pretty clear.

Most of his Bushidos are physical, well the ones you're likely to use anyway (only magic one that matters is Eclipse, I suppose.) Only reason to boost his Magic Power is if you REALLY like the Kazekiri. I personally don't think its worth it, especially since its a bad set up for bosses, but if that's what you like, feel free.

Throws are Physical, so boost Strength. HOWEVER, if you plan on getting to level 99, it may be worth raising Magic Power as even Shurikens will deal 9999 at level 99 with not many Strength boosts. Granted, since you fight most things below then, Shadow will probably benefit from these boosts more. Of course, Magic Power boosts Scrolls which are good damage at different points so...yeah, can be a tough call at times, Strength probably is the overall winner though. Worth noting that due to how Throw works, Strength boosts are relatively more significant for him than other characters who make use of them.

Dragoon Set Up is what you'll be using him as (at least, for a reason over Terra and Celes), and that's primarily strength based. As an added bonus, enough strength boosts turn Auto Crossbow into a Free Ultima at high levels, with a faster animation. That can't be a bad thing, right? Edgar can be made a half decent mage, mind, but note that “Mage Edgar” has absolutely nothing worth noting over Terra or Celes being used in the same vain.

Sabin's big Blitzes are all magical. The ones I'm referring to are Aura Cannon, Rising Phoenix, Razor Gale and Phantom Rush. Pretty much at all points, one of those will be Sabin's primary damage, and considering Sabin doesn't really do much with Strength anyway (despite popular physical Sabin builds for new players), it is recommended he go this route. As I’ve noted earlier in the FAQ, despite some popular newbee belief, Sabin is a pretty scrubby physical fighter, both when compared to other characters being treated like that, or just compared to what he can do with Blitz.

See Terra, mostly. I should note that you should probably avoid raising both a Fighter, and make one of them a Mage. I personally suggest, if you do this, that Terra be made the Fighter and Celes the Mage, since Save the Queen is pretty much a pure Mage weapon, where as Apocalypse is a good Fighter weapon, though this is moot if you get 2 Lightbringers of course. This is contrary to how most people use to raise them the other way around, due to how their base stats would imply, but the equipment (and lesser extent, special skill) speak otherwise.

If Lores being Magical, having weak weapons, low physical stats, lots of Magic Boosting equips and his class being called "Blue Mage" didn't give it away (...ok, I take that back; FF5 Blue Mage wasn't half bad at fighting, and Sabin is a Monk who uses Magic Power...), then I don't know what would. Strago is pretty much a lost cause as a fighter, so don't try to turn him into something he's not.

Similar to Strago except replace "Lores being Magical" with "Game Best Magic Power." Like Strago, she's a lost cause as a fighter, so take advantage of that magic stat.

Only reason to raise Setzer as a Fighter is if you REALLY like the Final Trump, and want to dual wield them (this requires betting the Scorpion's Tail at the Coliseum, before the last part of Soul Shrine anyway.) Otherwise, stick with good old Fixed Dice + Master's Scroll, and raise something that'll effect things like Curaga or Rasp (good for Dragon's Den's version of Skull Dragon), as well as increase his consistent damage (let alone Multitarget). This also boosts his slots damage, so its decent thing to start out with early on, to give Setzer that little extra push in the WoB, where he’ll be using Slots, which are ALSO magical.

Again, he's an oddball, and despite his stats and appearance, he'll prefer the Strength for his Dragoon Set Up, which is probably his most effective use. If you really like the prospect of a tank mage, I suppose Magic Power doesn't hurt (especially now that Gungnir exists), but yeah, Mog is someone whose going to want Strength overall, I think. He's got spears for the Dragoon use, why not make the most of it?

No, I do not mean "Either" like Terra/Celes/Shadow. I mean actually raise both. Gau can ALWAYS use Extra Strength since he'll use those physicals regardless of his Rage (and Catscratch is physical to boot). On the other hand, the only way he can do damage outside of Rage is through Magic, and several of his rages use Magic anyway, so its a good idea to get both his stats high. Also, because Gau requires little human input after Rage, he's actually going to be a bit faster in practice than he is on paper.

As I stated before, a decent philosophy to go by if you aren’t sure is “when in doubt, raise Magic Power.” Otherwise, this should help note what characters are good being raised as what.

Whew, this guide was a PROJECT! Now that it's finished, I hope at least a few people get some use out of it!

Credit to Meeple Lard from GameFAQs for the original guide.