Final Fantasy VIII - Status Effects / Attacks / Abnormalities

Category: Final Fantasy 8

Status Attacks

Status attacks allow characters to simultaneously inflict status effects on enemies while physically attacking them. Many kinds of magic inflict a status abnormality on your opponents. For example, if a character junctions the magic sleep, his or her physical attack is likely to subject the target to this this abnormality. To achieve this duel attack, you must choose junction option in the main menu. Following this choice, you must choose junction magic on the junction menu. Go to ability St-ATK-J (once you have already junctioned a GF that has learned the ability). If this ability is available, it will appear in the white above the HP on the magic junction screen. You must scroll to the left twice to encounter this ability on the screen. When you have done this, you can select the status attack ability and choose the magic you wish to junction to it. The probability that a character will cause a particular status abnormality when attacking can be increased by different factors:

Increase a Characters Hit%
Increase a Characters Luck

Status Defence
Status Status defense allows characters to defend themselves against certain status abnormalities inflicted by opponents. Many kinds of magic protect your characters from status attacks. For example, if a character's ST-Def is set against Petrify this particular status attack will not take effect and the character will not be petrified. To obtain a status defense, you must choose the Junction option in the main menu. following this choice, you must choose to junction Magic on the Junction menu. Go to the ability ST-Def-J (once you have already junctioned a GF that has learned this ability*) If this ability is available, it will appear in white above HP on the magic junction screen. You must scroll to the left twice to encounter this ability on the screen. When you have done this, you can select the status defense ability and then choose the magic you wish to junction it with . The probability that a character can resist certain status attacks can be increased by different means:

Increase a Characters Spirit (Spr) Points%
Using Hero Item makes you temporarily invincible to status attacks.

Magic to Raise Status Defense
Usually junctioning magic with ST-Def-J only raises the characters defense against the status related to the junctioned magic. For example, junctioning "Bio" will only increases the characters defense against Poison. the following four kinds of magic, however increase multiple status defenses: J: increases ST-Def / -: Does not increase ST-Def.

Death Poison Petrify Darkness Silence Beserk

Holy J J - - - J

Esuna - J J J J J

Reflect - J J J J J

Pain - J - J J -

Zombie Sleep Slow Stop Curse Confuse

Holy J J - - J J

Esuna - J J J - J

Reflect - J J J - J

Pain - - - - J -

Status Changes Table

Status Abnormality Effect On Target Caused by Item (I) Magic (M) Command (C) Removed With Item (I) Magic (M) Command (C)

KO, Death Death Death Stone (I)
Death (M) Phoenix Down, Mega Phoenix (I) Life, Full Life (M) Revive (C)

Poison Loses Hp with every action Bio (M) Antidote (I)**

Petrify Instantly turns to stone Break (M) Soft (I)**

Darkness Can no longer see and will almost certainly miss the opponent when attacking Blind (M) Eye Drops (I)**

Silence Can no longer use magic, items and command abilities or summon GF's. Silence (M) Echo Screen (I)**

Beserk Goes out of control attacking wildly Beserk (M) Removes at end of battle**

Zombie Attacking power increases but recovery items and magic cause damage Zombie (M) Holy Water (I)**

Sleep Falls asleep, is defenseless. Sleep (M) Removed when target receives a physical attack, after some time has passed or when battle ends**

Slow Has fewer turns as its ATB fills more slowly Slow (M) Removed after some time has passed or when battle ends**

Stop Is immobilized, commands are disabled Stop (M) Removed after some time has passed or when battle ends**

Curse Disables Limit Break enemy magic cannot be used by party Holy Water (I)
Removed after **battle ends**

Doom Countdown until death Doom (C) Soft, Remedy+, Elixir, Megalixir (I) Treatment (C) Removed after time has elapsed and when the battle ends.

Petrifying Countdown until you are petrified enemy magic, cannot be used by party Soft (I) Removed after time has elapsed or when battle ends**

Confuse Disables commands, causes attacks against allies and enemies alike Confuse (M) Removed when target receives a physical attack, after time has elapsed or when battle ends**

Vit 0 Targets Vit becomes 0 Meltdown (M) Remedy+, Elixir, Megalixir (I) Esuna (M) Treatment (C) Removed at the end of battle.

* This status abnormality does not end with the battle but continues until is removed.
** Can also be cured by: Remedy, Remedy+, Elixir, Megalixir (I), Esuna (M), Treatment (C)

Useful Status Effects

Status Change Effect On Target Caused by Item (I) Magic (M) Command (C) Removed With Item (I) Magic (M) Command (C)

Haste Speeds up ATB gauge but protection status expires faster Haste (M) *

Regen HP are slowly restored during battle Regen (M) *

Protect Reduces physical attack damage by 1/2 Protect (M), Protect Stone (I) *

Shell Reduces physical attack damage by 1/2 Shell (M) Shell Stone (I) *

Reflect Reflects most magic skills that target a single enemy Reflect (M) Ruby Light (GF Carbuncle) *

Aura Limit Break can be used more often Aura (M) Aura Stone (I) *

Invincible Takes no damage or status change Hero-Trial, Hero, Holy War Trial, holy War (I) Removed After time has elapsed and when the battle ends.

Float Receives no damage from earth attacks Float (M)
*

Double Enables the use of 2 magic attacks simultaneously Double (M) Counter Rockets (GF Cerberus) Dispel (M) Removed at end of battle

Triple Enables the use of 3 magic attacks simultaneously Triple (M) Counter Rockets (GF Cerberus) Dispel (M) Removed at end of battle

Defend reduces physical damage received to 0, magical damage reduced to 1/2 Defend (C) Removed when the next command is confirmed or when the battle ends.

Angel Wind Activates sorceress power, disable commands; target aims and cats magic randomly causing 5x the usual damage; stock magic is not used up Angel Wing (Rinoa Limit)
-

* Removed by Dispel (M), after a certain amount of time has elapsed or when battle ends.

Useful Status Effects
There are quite a few rare character abilities that can b junctioned that automatically affect the characters status in battle. They are:

Auto-Haste
Auto-Protect
Auto-Shell
Auto-Reflect
Auto-Potion
Auto-Haste

Auto Item can be quite annoying though as this depletes your Potions stock very fast, so is best not to use this although it can be helpful in sticky situations. Another brilliant one is Auto-Reflect which means that any enemy that cats magic on you gets it repelled back onto them, The problem is you cannot use healing magic on yourself.

Elemental Attacks and Defense
"Elemental" is a physical attribute. Attacks with elemental properties can cause more damage than without. There are eight elements: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Earth, Poison, Wind, Water and Holy. When junctioning magic you will come across two important variables.

Elem-Atk: Junctioning a element to your physical attack is a great idea when wanting to deal extra damage to an opponent. To achieve this, you must choose the junction option in the main menu. Following this, go to the ability Elem-Atk-J. Then junction a appropriate magic to the stat. NOTE: if your GF hasn't learnt the Elem-Atk-J, then you will not be able o junction magic to it and it will be displayed in grey. The stronger the magic e.g. Blizzaga instead of Blizzard will increase the percentage shown as can deal more Ice type damage.

Elem-Def: Basically repeat the same as above but on the Elem-Def-J stat and this will add the element to that increasing your characters resistance to that type of magic. Again, the stronger the magic, the more that character has a defense of. If you have 100% on the stat, you can actually heal that character when casting the magic onto him/her.