Final Fantasy Tactics

~B
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F I N A L F A N T A S Y T A C T I C S | Straight Character Challenge
[presented in THX surround sound]
||=== ||=== ====== written by MunkiBleedsGreen
||== ||== || <==Bad Ascii (linoleummunki@hotmail.com) ©2002
|| || || At It's Worst {best viewed at full screen}
____________________________________________________________________________

Foreword: This FAQ has been compiled by me through an on running post of
mine on the FFT message board at GameFAQs.com. While I did my fair share
of the research, much of this document came from a large group of people
whom I will thank later on. While I am the creator of this challenge,
I do not claim to be the originator of much of the information present
in this document, but the suppliers have given me full consent to present
it here. Without further ado, I present to you the Final Fantasy Tactics
Straight Character Challenge...
______________________________________________________________________

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
|Table of Contents\______________
|1. FAQ Information \ * Denotes Updated Section
| 1.1 Updates/Version* / ! Denotes New Section
| 1.2 Information! \
| 1.3 Upcoming/News* /
|2. The Challenge Basics \
| 2.1 Introduction /
| 2.2 Rules and Regulations \
| 2.3 Comments on Classes* /
|3. The Strategies \
| 3.1 Generic Strategies* /
| 3.2 Job Class Specific* \
|4. Miscellaneous /
| 4.1 FAQ* \
| 4.2 The Thanks* /
| 4.3 Random Stuff* \
|_________________________________/


-_-_-_-_-_-_ ________________
|Section 1 \_____/ FAQ Information\___________________________________

-1.1- Updates/Version

V.FINAL - June 2nd, 2002- Version Final?! Yes, you did read that correctly.
This is in fact the final update I'll be making to the
FAQ. Sad but true. This FAQ was first created on
May 1st, 2001, and now, one year and one month later,
I'm closing shop. All future SCC updates will be made
on the official site, http://scc.inferiority.org. As
of this day, though, it's still totally under
construction, but in the coming weeks, I'll be
transferring all data onto the site. I'll keep you
guys updated on the SCC's board and on the news post
at the SCC site. By the end of the month, latest,
everything should be completed and I'll be taking
strategical input once more.

In actual SCC news, in this final update, there's quite
a load of new information. Ultimaterializer has once
again contributed a ton of information, and we've
got new strats from oo7rules and Qalfie as well. Also,
most notable otherwise is that I've finally given in on
all the arguements over the Calculator SCC, which has
so far proven impossible under the current terms.
Thanks to some powerful debating by Master Daravon
and the constant attrition on my spirit by many other
posters, the new Crystal Method has been added to the
Calculator section, designating it as a 100% official
SCC, which for some reason or another, a lot of people
care about it being. In any case, the Impossible Method
is still in the FAQ as well, in hopes that one day,
someone may finally prove everyone else wrong. In total,
this final update brings in about 20k of new info.

That's all for now folks. Be sure to check out the SCC
site and the official board for updates and discussion.
Big thanks to all the supporters, all the players,
and all the inspiration. Be seeing you on the 'site.

-Munki


-1.2- Information

-Munki's E-mail
munki@inferiority.org or linoleummunki@hotmail.com

-SCC's Webpage
http://scc.inferiority.org

-Munki's Webpage
http://www.inferiority.org

-The Official SCC GameFAQs Board
http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=4694

-Strategy Input?
Check the SCC site to find out if I'm currently accepting any

-Hall of Fame Addition?
E-mail me your alias and completed SCC's

-1.3- Upcoming/News

-Check out http://scc.inferiority.org for all the current updates
and information on the Straight Character Challenge.
_________________________________________________________________________


-_-_-_-_-_-_ _________________
|Section 2 \____________________/ Challenge Basics\____________________

-2.1- Introduction

Well now, surely many of you are familiar with the Squaresoft game,
Final Fantasy Tactics. If you're not, are you really that bored and dull
of a person to go checking out FAQs for games that you don't know about?
Shame, shame on you! Well, for the rest of you, it has always been a
common complaint that this game is, with the exception of a few battles,
too easy. However, the job system of Tactics keeps us all addicted to its'
gameplay and in love with the game itself.

Another complaint is the uselessness of certain job classes, and the
abuse of more powerful ones. As a supporter of the less popular classes,
and someone who adamantly believes this game should be harder, I went out
and did something. I devised a bit of a challenge for us all. Perhaps I
didn't devise it, but I definitely popularized it.

The basic idea of this challenge: play with only one job class. This,
ultimately, creates new challenges abound. Old battles, once thought easy,
suddenly smack you in the face. Old skills you once ignored suddenly find
reborn usage. Most importantly, you find a new appreciation for job classes
you may have not regarded so highly.

Does this interest you? If it does, read on, young warrior, and enter
the Straight Job Class world.


-2.2- Rules and Regulations

>>1. Party must consist of 5 Characters, all set to the same job class.
Characters must attain Job before Dorter Trade City, and remain in
that class.

>>2. Characters can not use any other abilities of any other class at all.
Any Support, Movement, and Reaction skills must come from their own
Job Class.

>>Sub-Rule:

In a Squire challenge, I recommend Ramza to be treated as if he were
a regular Squire (ie. Ignore benefits not given to other Squires,
like his Guts ability and extra equips) GS'ing Ramz. into a normal
Squire may be the best solution. Again, this is nothing more than a
recommendation.

>>3. Special Characters are not allowed, as their enhanced growth can
dilute the challenge.

>>4. High leveling up is not allowed either. The following Level Caps have
been set as maximums for all job classes:
-Chapter 1: 20
-Chapter 2: 35
-Chapter 3: 50
-Chapter 4: 70 - Before Murond Death City
However, remember to use your judgement. These levels shouldn't be
approached with most classes. The stronger your class, the lower your
levels should accordingly be. Also, because sqpat17 pointed it out,
if you take on Mime (and perhaps Calculator), and go _over_ the level
cap just to get to the class, don't worry about it and carry on, of
course don't level up after that until you're below the cap.

>>5. Again, you may not use Gained JP Up, Secret Hunt, Move-Find Item, etc.
unless your character naturally has it in their class. This is the
same as rule #2, but I need to state it twice because this is the most
common mistake.

>>6. Guest Characters can become whatever you wish. A strong Algus and
Delita are pretty much required to beat early battles for many
classes. Guest Characters may be stripped of their equipment.

>>7. Monsters can NOT be recruited. If a Human is recruited through
Invite, he may be stripped of equipment and then kicked out. Any
Special Character can also be stripped and then removed.

>>8. If you have a problem in the game (Wiegraf, Balk II) use your better
judgement. Depending on how much of a purist you are, judge whether
to give yourself some leniency for a battle or not. To this date,
it has proven possible to win any fight with just about any class,
but anyone who thinks they're superior to you for completing this
fight without any changes is an arse.

>>9. Later in the game, at Chapter 4, you may use a full party of Special
Characters in a few random battles, just for the sake of your sanity.
This applies mostly to people with very tedious jobs like Summoners,
Mediators, and Bard/Dancers. Special Characters may NEVER be used in
Story Battles or in the Deep Dungeon. [Mucho Gracias Dr Goofy]

>>10. You may not Dupe Weapons or use the Level Up/Down cheat. Neither of
these is technically possible if you stick to the challenge, but it
should be said anyway. [Thanks to Cyrus Viruz for pointing this out]

>>11. At no time may Ramza or any other character change the Brave or
Faith of any character unless this ability comes from the selected
Job Class (in other words, only Mediator).

>>12. You may not rise over the level cap to get better weapons from
boxilized enemies and then level down to finish under the cap. Shame
on you if you say you didn't but really did. You're going to hell,
liar.

>>13. Gameshark Rules: Gamesharks can be used in the following scenarios:

A)The Dancer SCC: You may use the GS to create a team of 5 Dancers,
instead of using Ramza as a Bard. I'm a GS idiot, so don't ask
me about the codes for this.
B)Easy Advancement: Too lazy to get to Bard, Dancer, or Mime? You
may use the GS to open up any classes instead.
C)Not Benefitial: You may use GS codes which make the game or the
SCC more difficult, such as using the Hard Mode code.
D)GS Classes: While not all of them will present the same challenge
as the regular set, I'm now allowing GS class SCCs. I may even begin
to take some strategies for this...

>>14. Side Quests: This arguement is still in development. Some say that
if a class can make use of the Chapter 4 side quest, they should
use it: Others think it's not staying true to the SCC if they do
go through it. In truth, only Chemists and Thieves can really benefit
from it. Personally, I don't see a problem with it... but there are
a lot of purists out there...

>>15. If you don't like the regulations placed on the SCC, then do it your
way. You won't be doing an SCC, you won't get any credit in this
FAQ, but bloody hell, don't complain about a video game challenge.
You can go your own way .

>>16. The sixteenth rule of the Straight Character challenge is... don't
tell anyone about the Straight Character challenge... and judging
from how many new faces I see around this room, many of you have
been breaking this rule. ¬_¬



-2.3- Comments On Classes

General comments on each class are listed here. This is intended to
interest you into playing different classes and trying as many
challenges as possible.

The Basic Squire, left alone in the world to their own
meddlings. I recommend you ignore Ramza's additional Squire abilities,
like Guts and the additional Equips, to keep this SCC true. With
basic abilities, basic equipment, and mediocre stats, you'll have
to be a bit more patient with these battles.

Perhaps the "safest" of all classes. Their healing and
reviving is quite nice and comes in handy in ALL situations. However,
their battle power is horrible throughout most of the game, and their
mediocre stats can hold you back.

The slow, powerful warrior. High battle power will make early
fights easier than most. However, a complete lack of long range attacks
causes them to rely on melee fighting, and evasion. Handy ability set,
but vulnerable.

The first class I ever tried this challenge with. Their attacks
are crap early on. However, their long range superiority makes most
random battles a breeze. There are some story battles which give them
advantages, but there are many more which totally handicap them.

A real conundrum of possibilities here. Waiting for enemies to
come to you and then unloading with powerful spells seems pretty
effective, but when enemies with low Faith or better Speed come around,
you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.

The second job class I know to have been started in this
Straight Challenge campaign (Maligant did it, go Mal...). They have
healing, revival, auto-revival, protection, and even one of the
strongest attack spells in the game, as well as balanced stats and good
Speed. Don't forget though, for the better part of the game, enemies
will be killed with their sticks, and their healing and revival is
quite unreliable.

A powerful class, in both stats and skillsets. The obvious
advantages come in HP healing, status curing, revival, and long range
attacks. High Brave characters will dominate the game early on, and
moves like Wave Fist and Earth Slash will become powerful staples of
strategy. Remember though, they do have pretty poor HP. Still a fun
class.

Obvious advantages come in the Steal set. You can get nice EXP
early on, some equipment you couldn't get otherwise from Secret Hunt
and the Steals, and even the glorious Move and Jump +2s. They have
great Speed too! Of course, they have horrible PA and must depend on
the very very "iffy" Steal Heart to do their damage for them. Also,
they have low HP, and no actual long range attacking. Don't even get
me started on how they can beat Wiegraf or Velius...

Another fun magic class. They have a good ability set which
can be made great use of very early on, much moreso than other mages.
They have one of the best arguable movement skills, and one of the
potentially strongest Support Skills too. However, aside from the
undependable Meteor and Demis, they have no real attack power. They
must be drawn into melee combat, where they are quite weak.

A lot can be said for wide range attacks that can be pulled
off from many many Squares away. Target Unit, and run. Sounds pretty
effective, no? They have healing, attack, and protection, too! Then
you remember: They have low HP and below par Speed. Also, until you
get their precious Support, your Summons better get the job done
the first time, or you'll be left with guys in funny hats and no MP.

A very versatile class which I have always touted as a
wonderful job. They have a good assortment of equipment to make use
of, and have great melee combat, and good long range attacks too.
Attack Up comes in handy. On the down side, they only have average
HP, which isn't good for a close range fighter, and their abilities
do little damage.

With their Jumping prowess, good movement ability, great
reaction ability, and high PA, you may mistake Lancers as a
generally very easy class. But remember: Chapter 1 will be spent
without any weapons. And your Jump skills will require a few thousand
JP to be useful. Long road ahead.

Another fun class. Their status abilities can make battles
terrifically fun, or downright frustrating. It all depends on Faith
values, and your luck. Early power spells like Paralyze and Drain
Life only grow stronger as time goes by, and they have a two space
range weapon which packs a punch. Just remember, they are by no means
tanks, and fall prey easily to melee combat. It's really a matter
of luck...

An interesting challenge to say the least. You must now
make use of all those skills which most of us have ignored in the
past. Psst, Mimic Daravon can be quite useful. However, Threaten
may just become your favourite ability of all time. It's that good.
Remember to check the Rules and Regulations on these guys
too. Their downsides? Low HP, weak attacks throughout the game,
and a limited pool of good abilities.

A favourite among Tactics players, the Ninja remain a
strong choice for this challenge. Despite some possible difficulty
in getting the class, once there you will find certain battles to
be heaven, and others to be hell. Great PA, and simply excellent
melee and long range attacks, accompanied by a high move rate and
Speed make Ninja one of the most powerful classes in this Challenge.
Still, they have their weaknesses. Their HP probably won't ever
break the 200s.

I'll be blunt with this. Their skillset is the most varied
set in the game, and has a LOT of power. Early on, they'll be
extremely weak, but once the Samurai Swords appear, prepare for a
much more entertaining game. The big drawback of this otherwise
excellent class? Gil. You'll need it by the ton to keep up with
their expensive hobby of smashing swords.

Hah. Well I won't say this will be remotely easy. Their battles
mostly consist of playing the waiting game, hoping to gain enough
Speed and PA in order to wreck the opposing side. They have terrible
PA and HP, and their skills take forever to pull off. Still, it's
definitely possible.

This of course isn't possible to do completely true
without a Gameshark. If you have one, go for all Dancers. If not,
Ramza plays the part of the Bard, and this makes this scenario a tiny
bit easier, and it certainly needs it. Again, the game reverts to you
running and hiding from foes while their performances slowly chip
away at them.

Yes, this is apparently possible possible. From what I've read,
sqpat has even _completed_ this SCC. Their PA is adequate to turn them
into melee forces, but without any skills, winning seems like a long
shot. As Phoenix says, a Mime is a Monk with no abilities.

There's two ways to go about this. The Crystal Method
(haha) and the Impossible Method. Patience and luck will help
out with the Crystal Method, and Divine Intervention is perfect
for the latter. Even with a bit of Magic thanks to Crystals, you'll
have to make up for their atrocious stats with some skillfull strats.

_______________________________________________________________________


-_-_-_-_-_-_ _________________
|Section 3 \__________________________________/ Class Strategies\_____

-3.1- Generic Strategies

\Class Stats\
You never know when that one extra point of Speed, or even PA or MA
could really make the difference. If you find yourself just coming
up short, refer to the stat charts in the classes' reviews to find
out when your points of salvation are coming.

\Proper Team\
When starting the game, you'll probably find that the characters the
game has generated for you are't very good for your chosen class.
In this case, dump every single one of them that doesn't fit in
after Gariland. With this money, you will then be able to find better
characters who fit your class. Make sure to get good Brave/Faith Levels
and the proper gender, and under the right circumstances, properly
aligned Zodiacs. Classes which depend on each other, like Time Mage,
Summoner, and Priest, among others, may want to focus moreso on Zodiac,
since a Good alignment can REALLY enhance your results.
*NOTE* sqpat reports that Capricorn (Jan. 1st) is the best Zodiac for
Ramza. It gives him good compatibility with Gafgarion, Wiegraf,
Meliadoul, and possibly others.

\Getting There\
If you aren't playing Squire or Chemist, you will have to get your guys
the right specifications for their job. This is usually easy. Go back
and forth across Mandalia and Sweegy. Save very often, because it only
takes a few Chocobos to take you out sometimes. If you really must, use
Gained JP Up until you can get into your job. Upgrade your characters
as it comes, and the challenge of the random fights should diminish.

\High Level Jobs\
You've chosen a job in the third Tier (Summoner, Mediator, Lancer,
Geomancer) or a complex job like Samurai, Ninja, Bard, Dancer, or Mime,
and now that you've gotten them enough Job Levels, you notice that your
Level is kind of high for where you are. If you are a true purist, now
is the time to make use of the Degenerator Trap in the ditch of Zeklaus
Desert. Level down a bit, if only to keep the challenge consistent.

\Speed\
A key statistic in many battles is Speed. I've heard many times of one
point of Speed being enough to push the player to victory. Thus,
remember that if you're stuck at Golgorand, Lionel, or any other
location, most non Thief/Ninja classes get Speed bonuses at around Level
18, then at Level 35, then at around 52, and finally at around 69.
After that, the level cap is broken, so it's irrelevant to this
challenge.

\Anti Magic\
Plain and simple. If your job class does not use Faith to calculate any
of it's abilities, make sure you keep it as LOW as possible. Use Reflect
Rings in Mage heavy fights, or Reflect Armor if it's available. The
following classes require Faith: Chemist, Wizard, Priest, Oracle, Time
Mage, and Summoner. Chemists only require it if you plan on using the
Faith based Elemental Guns.

irekile Falls\
I was pretty sure that this was basic knowledge, but I've noticed a few
people having a bit of trouble here. Before the fight, change Gaf into a
Wizard, Priest, or Time Mage, to weaken him physically, and then remove
his other abilities and all of his equipment. Now prepare to hand him
his own head on a platter.

\Riovanes Castle\
For many jobs, this could be the breaking point. Some Jobs, like
Mediator, Archer, Thief, and Bard/Dancer, may find it impossible to
defeat Wiegraf. Others simply can't damage Velius enough. Worst yet is
the Rooftop Brawl. Speed is key here, so what if you're a slow class?
Well then, take another way out. Get creative and get around your
difficulties.
-Archer, for example, can become a Knight with Equip Crossbow, to retain
the Archer's original intent. Now, with Chameleon Robe and Feather Boots,
it becomes possible to defeat Wiegraf.
-Velius just takes a heavy assault and a lot of luck, as well as playing
around with equipment. Take your time.
-Finally, the Rooftop Battle also involves luck, but there's another way
around it. Unequip one of your characters, and move them torwards the
Assassins and Elmdor. They will now target THIS character, drawing
attention from Rafa. Double up on the nudity to draw attention from
both assassains to ensure victory. Much thanks to TallgeeseVI and
DragoonMRM for this great tip, dubbed the Naked Strategy, and a bit of
extra thanks to Strat wunderkind Ultimaterializer for the double-up tip.

\Murond Death City - Balk\
This applies to just about all Mage classes. Use this formation for
the best results.

~ ~ ~ ~ X X-Mage
R X X X ~ R-Ramza

At nine spaces away from Rofel, he'll be forced to charge ahead and use
some Yin Yang magic instead of slaughtering you with Shellbust. Nuke
him with some spells and move along. Love to Ultimaterializer for that.

\Murond Death City - Altima\
Another nice little tip for any classes which have the ability to revive
or heal. Keep Alma alive! Computer AI will generally target the weaker
leveled characters and Guests. Alma covers both of these needs. Altima
will generally spend its time killing Ramza's sister or trying to destroy
her positive effects. Thus, by keeping Alma alive, you'll distract
Altima indefinitely.


-3.2- Job Class Specific Strategies

I. Squire - More Strat Coming
II. Chemist - More Strat Coming
III. Knight - More Strat Coming
IV. Archer - More Strat Coming
V. Wizard - More Strat Coming
VI. Priest - More Strat Coming
VII. Monk - More Strat Coming
VIII. Thief - More Strat Coming
IX. Time Mage - More Strat Coming
X. Summoner - More Strat Coming
XI. Geomancer - More Strat Coming
XII. Lancer - More Strat Coming
XIII. Mediator - More Strat Coming
XIV. Oracle - More Strat Coming
XV. Ninja - More Strat Coming
XVI. Samurai - More Strat Coming
XVII. Bard - Complete?
XVIII. Dancer - More Strat Coming
XIX. Mime - More Strat Coming
XX. Calculator - More Strat Coming

___________________________________________________________________________

-Note: "Relevant Stat" sections will reflect only what the
Recommended Party lineup would use (ie. Squires do not
require MA, and should all be Male, so therefore, only
Male PA Growth would be listed, and only as high as the
SCC level cap, which is Level 70. If you want a complete
listing, including HP, for both Sexes, head to Turd
Ferguson's magical site:

http://www.geocities.com/Zouf300/charts.html

And again, Speed Growth is the same for all classes except:

Ninja, Thief, Mime, Priest Calculator, and Summoners.

Normal Speed Growth:

Level 1 - 6
Level 18 - 7
Level 35 - 8
Level 52 - 9
Level 69 - 10

As a final note, Ramza's stats will always be above the
listed stats for Males, as he has a higher base stat.
He will gain those stats at those levels, accordingly,
though.
___________________________________________________________________________

___ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-I-\__/Squire\____/Difficulty: |=====================* |__|7.5|_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Fast Growth, Throw Stone, Dash, Accumulate

Disadvantages: Average Stats All Around, No Powerful Skills,
Lacking Attacks, Lack of Useful Reaction or Support Ability

Basics: Far be it for me to criticize a class, but when you think
mediocrity, you think Squire. Most people would never logically
bring a non-Ramza Squire into a battle after Chapter 1. Imagine
going through the whole game as one. Early on, they can perform
pretty well. With a cheap long range attack, Throw Stone can
lead to getting them all of their abilities quickly, and even
weaken enemies after a few throws. Dash is an indispensable
Squire ability. The 100% hit is nice, but the best thing is the
fact that it doesn't trigger Reaction Abilities. This should be
used to your advantage. Most of this game's difficulty lies in
the fact that your characters must rely on building their PA
up before attacking the enemy. Still, the challenge is worth a
shot. Hey, they even get Gained JP and Move+1!

Set Up: Basic Skills / Counter Tackle / Defend / Move+1

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 8- 5 | Level 22- 6 |
| Level 35- 7 | Level 49- 8 | Level 62- 9 |


Battle Strategies

NOTE: Since I've decided to attempt to enforce a more strict Squire
SCC, I've purged the strategy section of some Squire strats, most
of which involved Ramza using his special abilities to win fights.
Sincere apologies to Ex Soldier Cloud, since he provided great info.

>>Accumulate: This move is your best friend. You MUST make use of
it or you will die. Two to four times should be enough to
get you through a battle, and then they become Knights with
less HP. In fact, get this BEFORE Gained JP Up, since it will
prove more beneficial in fighting the earlier, treacherous
random battles. Sit back and enjoy your battles, Accumulating
until the enemies come to you.
>>Fort Zeakden: This battle can be tricky if played conventionally.
The big trick to this, any many other all Squire battles, is to
run and hide. Move all your units behind the Fort and Accumulate.
Delita should be dead by the end of the enemy's turns, and then
come back up again if Algus gets damaged before his next AT. This
should give you more than sufficient stall time to build up your
guys. Wait for Algus to come to you, then beat the hell out of him.
>>Goug Machine City: Spread your Squires out as much as possible,
and keep Ramza away from the Summoners, who can easily toast him.
Try to avoid any damage while your men accumulate to an adequate
power (3 to 4 times should do nicely), and then charge ahead. Ramza
can deal with the Thieves, leave the others to your "support Squires"
Also, take advantage of the rooftops and drops here, throw some
stones and use Dash a bit.
>>Golgorand Execution Site: Wizard Mantles are necessary here. Luck
will be nice, too, since if Gafgarion is wearing a crap robe,
instead of armor, he'll be a much easier kill. Bum rush him first
and then charge after the Time Mages. Kill off the three enemies
on the top walls, using Dash and Throw Stone when possible. Wait
at the wall now, accumulating, and let your victims come to you.
>>Lionel Castle- Gates: 9 Speed will do here, along with Battle
Boots on Ramza and Rubber Shoes on the Support Squires. Make
a break for the switch and allow your other men to take our Gaffy.
It's fine if Ramza dies, since Gaf's death will revive him. The
enemies outside will prove mostly ineffective, with their
lightning based weapons, so waste the Summoner and then finish the
rest.
>>Limberry Castle: Ramza should wear 108 Gems, the rest, N-Kai Armlets.
Spread out and allow some Squires to be Blood Sucked.
>>Orbonne Library- Rofel: Germinas Boots and Reflect Mail for Ramza,
Powersleeves and Reflect Rings for the Support. Accumulate
for a while and kill the approaching Summoners. Let the rest come
to the Support, but chase Rofel with Ramza.
___________________________________________________________________________

____ _______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-II-\__/Chemist\____/Difficulty: |==* |_| 1 |_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Mid-Faith.

Advantages: Reliable Healing, Revival, Long Range Healing, Guns,
Auto Potion, Move-Find Item, Status Negation.

Disadvantages: Low HP, No Early Long Range Attacks, Never a Physical
Powerhouse.

Basics: A very defensive unit. Access to this class is immediate.
Early on, Knives will prove to be pretty useless against most
enemies. However, their healing should keep them alive. The
"Lure then Surrond" strategy will have to be used until you
have access to Guns. In Chapter 1, you'll find yourself
probably depending on Delita and Algus for the majority of
the kills. Once you get Guns, though, your Snipers will be
able to kill many enemies from great distance in a few attacks.
They can benefit from Deep Dungeon, and are actually the only
ones besides Thieves or Summoners who can do so. It will take
a great amount of trouble, but they can rack up a lot of rare
and beneficial equipment.

Set Up: Item, Auto Potion / Equip Change / Move-Find Item

Relevent Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 3 | Level 7- 4 | Level 27 - 5 |
| Level 47- 6 | Level 67- 7 |

Battle Strategies

>>Build Up: Be sure to learn Potion and Phoenix Down first. After that,
move onto Hi-Potion, then X-Potion, then Holy Water, then Remedy.
You really shouldn't need anything other than that.
>>Pack' Em Tight: Keep your Chemists within six or so spaces of each
other. This way, Mages don't get to take advantage of groups, you
still get to use your guns from a safe distance, and you have enough
space between so that you can still Heal or Revive other Chemists.
>>Deep Dungeon: Abuse it!!! You can get a fair amount of nice equipment
for your phriendly Pharmacists here. Check another FAQ for all the
locations, and see what you need and what you don't. If you work up
to Tiger, you can get all 3 elemental guns.
>>Murond- Hashmalum: Your best chance at this is to vary your
equipment a bit. If you have the Vanish Mantle, put it on Ramza, while
the others should get Germinas Boots or Sprint Shoes. Keep any Chemist
not equipped with an Elemental Gun, if you have any, as a Healer, and
attack whenever you have the chance to. Avoid Meteor at all costs!
___________________________________________________________________________

_____ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-III-\__/Knight\____/Difficulty: |=====================* |_|7.5|_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: High HP, High PA, Equipment Breaks, Weapon Guard,
Knight Swords Late in Game.

Disadvantages: Poor Movement, Battle Skills Sometimes Irrelevant,
No Movement or Support Skills of Use, No Long Range Attacks.

Basics: The walking tanks. These guys can have either very easy, or
very hard fights. They are about unmatched in melee combat.
Easily accesible, they will prove to dominate most of the early
on fights. With Weapon Guard, Shields, and Mantles, they can
become HIGHLY evasive. Stat Breaks are good for Random Battles
and are a nice way to level up faster, and the Equipment Breaks
can make short work of many story characters. However, they
are handicapped in the area of manueverability. With a lower
speed rating and a Move and Jump of 3, it may take a while for
them to get going. Lack of any long range attack don't help
either. Most often, the enemies will get the first attack. Later
on in the game, Knight Swords (from Orlandu and Meliadoul) can
enhance your party to no bounds. Just remember, a group of mages
can really hack away at you, even with Low Faith.

Set Up: Battle Skills / Equip Armor / Weapon Guard
^
More Equipped Is Always Better
Than Less Equippped

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 8- 7 | Level 15- 8 |
| Level 22- 9 | Level 29- 10 | Level 36- 11 |
| Level 42- 12 | Level 49- 13 | Level 56- 14 |
| Level 63- 15 | Level 70- 16 |

Battle Strategies

>>Slow and Steady: Try to slow every battle down as much as possible
to aid the Knights. Stay far away from the enemy and when one gets
close to you, break him down.
>>Evasion Abuse: Keep up to date with the best Shields and Mantles.
Also, use Weapon Guard!!!
>>Weapon Break: Probably the most important ability in Story Battles.
Use it to nullify Gafgarion at Golgorand and Lionel.
>>Speed Break: When faced with the strongest of the Zodiac beasts,
Speed Break can really give you a strong advantage. Zalera, namely,
is crippled by dropping his Speed. Remember, your Knights may be
slow and practically immobile, but when the enemy's _slower_ and
_more immobile_, you're bound to pull of a victory. The actual
process of Speed Breaking is risky since you're leaving much to
chance, but if you get to swarm, you're bound to drop them by a
few points.
>>The Healing Ice Knights of Ivalice: Ice Brand + Ice Shield = Savior.
Once these items are made available, your Knights now stand a
fighting chance in later battles when the situation seems dire.
While you are giving up somewhat of a power advantage to the enemy,
sometimes you will NEED that healing. Don't depend on this strategy,
though, since you'll need to rely on grouping your Knights together,
which is suicide in several battles. This should really be more of
a last resort startegy torwards the end of the game.
---INSERT ULTIMATERIALIZER STRATS HERE---
>>Lenalia: Battles Boots are a must. Move your party back at first.
Allow Miluda to move in to attack your Knights from the front, and
then swarm. Barring any change in the earth's gravitational pull,
enough of these attacks should land so as to knock off the dame.
>>Zaland Fort City: Forget about saving Mustadio, you're much more
important. 3 Knights in Spiked Shoes, 2 in Battle Boots should be
adequate. Scale the walls and target the Archers first. Be sure that
Ramza avoids the Wizard spells, as well. With enough luck, you
should take relatively little melee damage.
>>Bariaus Hill: Stay the hell back at first. Agrias and Mustadio
should hopefully charge forward and do the brunt of the work for
you, allowing you to simply clean up after them. The Summoners will
hopefully drain themselves of MP for the most part before you're
in range. Move the wounded back, and rely on evasion when facing
the Knights.
>>Golgorand Execution Site: Level 18 should be suitable here. Favour
evasion over power here, since you'll damn well need it. Take
out Gafgarion as early as possible, ideally in the first round.
After that, get out of Time Mage range and work on the Knights, but
be sure to protect your flank (in other words DON'T LETS TEHM TOUCH
JOO IN TEH BAK1!1). Be sure to protect your wounded, since Archers
can be bastards about the "pick on the weak guy" situation. After
the Knights, and eventual Time Mages, things should be smooth
sailing.
>>Orbonne - First Floor: Lure single Lancers (well, hopefully single,
because pairs will kill you) out behind the stone slabs and
hope to off them in a single round of attack. Lather, rinse, repeat
after that until the main threats are offed. The problem here
comes with Jump. Generally Jump = bad for you. So... just pray that
the computer forgets about it having a good skill.
>>Orbonne - Izlude: Use Germinas Boots and wait in the back for
the enemies to move ahead. Scale the wall when the time's opportune
and hope to bust through Izlude's Mantle.
>>Orbonne - Wiegraf: Germinas Boots / Chameleon Robes will help out
here. Use the X formation and then just charge him after he hits
your guys. With luck, the battle ends in one round.
>>Yardow Fort City: White Robes all the way. Ice Shield and Rubber
Shoes may help as well. With luck, Rafa has Move+1, so that she
can safely escape to the corner of the map. Form a human shield
around her and let the Ninja come to you. The real challenge here
is getting Rafa to survive the onslaught of throwing stars and
elemental balls.
>>Riovanes Castle: Chameleon Robe on Ramza, along with Germinas Boots.
Other Knights should have N-Kai Armlets, with one also getting
a pair of Boots. The Booted Knight should be behind the right
flame, by the way. Wiegraf can be taken down with some faith in the
Goddess of Evasion. For Velius, move Ramza back four spaces, which
of course causes Velius to charge and try to cast a Summon on
Ramza. The other Knights can now pound him mercilessly as he
charges. Velius will probably next use Seal, but then be killed.
Not nearly as bad as one would expect, no?
>>Limberry Castle - Inside: Set your Knights up in four corners with
Ramza at the front. Equip one of the generics with 108 Gems. Now,
move Ramza ahead and let nature take it's course. One Vampiric
Orgy later, and you'll be the victor.
>>Limberry Castle - Zalera: Chameleon Robes on everyone, Ramza with
an N-Kai, others with Jade Armlet. The Healing Ice Knights are
also strongly recommended. Just keep your HP high, ignore waking
any Knights who fall asleep, and keep attacking Zal.
>>Igros - Adramelk: N-Kai Armlets all around. Do the usual sitting
back and allow Dyce to come torwards you. Surround and pummel him.
Adramelk is now surrounded by your Knights, and even with his
powerful summons, he won't be able to take damage from five Knights
for very long. A few Knights will drop, but Adramelk will go with
them.
>>Murond Holy Place - Zalbag: Vampiric Orgy Take Two. Have fun.
>>Murond Death City - Rofel: Healing Ice Knights, with Rubber Shoes,
and Reflect Mail work here. This will negate most of the Magic
offense. Take care of the Generics and try to stay nine spaces out
of Rofel's way. After the enemies are dealt with, try to lure
Rofel your way. Breaking his Save the Queen would be very ideal,
and expect to lose some equipment during your attempts.
>>Graveyard of Airships - Altima: Generics should have Healing Ice
Knight equipment, along with Black Robe and a Bracer. Ramza should
go with the Excalibur, Ice Shield, Reflect Mail, and a Bracer. Move
your Knights ahead, back to back, six panels apart, with Ramza
at the front of the party. If you can off a Demon before it gets a
turn, then by all means do so, but don't bother if it can escape to
use Ulmaguest. Try your hardest to keep Ramza out of any Grand
Cross situations as well. After the first form, the second should
be, by all means, cake. Speed Break Altima down into a state of
almost not moving, and then pound it into nothing with your
superior fighting machines.



___________________________________________________________________________

____ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-IV-\__/Archer\____/Difficulty: |====================* |__| 7 |_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Long Range Attacks, Concentrate, Speed Save, Can Attack
From Nearly Anywhere, Low # Charge Skills.

Disadvantages: Mediocre PA, Mediocre HP, Lack of Useful Abilities,
Very Weak Weapons Late in Game, Occasional Awkward Attack
Positions.

Basics: Sure, we've all used them before a bit. And probably mocked
them. They don't really deserve all the smack they get though. A
well placed line of Archers can kill off an enemy faster than a
well placed line of Chemists any day. Though their attacks are
very innacurate, Concentrate more than makes up for that. Only
Arrow Guard and Blade Grasp can stop their assault then. The
biggest drawback to these guys come when facing enemies head to
head. Usually, they can't draw back fast enough before they get
way too damaged. Some battles can really drag on, as well. A
dropped Archer often results in a crystal appearing pretty soon.
Also keep in mind the insane difficulty that comes with facing
Velius.

Set Up: Charge / Speed Save / Concentrate / Jump+1

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 6- 6 | Level 14- 7 |
| Level 22- 8 | Level 31- 9 | Level 39- 10 |
| Level 47- 11 | Level 56- 12 | Level 64- 13 |

Battle Strategies

>>Swarm: Archers can OWN random battles with ease. Your best
strategy in any battle would be to take to the highest ground
possible while waiting for your enemies to enter your range.
Once they do, launch your arrows. Kill any yellow Chocobo
first, with extreme prejudice. If you can not finish all the
enemies with ease, just set them into critical and then move
in later to finish the strays off.
>>Fort Zeakden: With Jump+1 on, the Archers can climb up the box
on the side to the roof. From there, they have superiority. You
should be able to kill Algus easily, but for fun, kill off the
rest of his party before hand.
>>Golgorand: Use Arrow Guard to quell the opposing Archer threat.
Use Charge+5s to take out Gafgarion early, then concentrate on the
Knights. Try to take refuge on the wall with as many characters as
possible and you won't have trouble with the rest.
>>Outside Lionel: Be sure to bring spare equipment. Equip Ramza with
Battle Boots and the rest with Rubber Shoes. Ramza needs to make a
mad dash to the gate switch, and he might need a Speed Save or two
to make it in time (he'll need to survive three night swords...).
He'll surely die by the time he gets there. On the outside, only the
Summoner will be able to do damage to the outside Archers, so kill
him first, but remain close to the gate. Charge in once the gate is
opened and eliminate Gaff with Charge +5's. Ramza will re-raise once
Gaff is dead. The rest is a breeze.
>>Riovanes: Recommended Equip:
Windslash Bow
Green Beret
Power Sleeve
108 Gems
Make sure to equip Speed Save. You should have 8 speed base now, as
long as you're between Levels 18-35. Wie will go first and Stab
you. If it triggers Speed Save, you'll get 2 turns in a row, since
you're already at 100 CT. Use the best Charge available, probably
+5, and then one last attack regular attack should put him away.
Velius will be a task. Kamikaze Ramza to get in a few attacks and
then be sure to lure him down the stairs. Unleash a few Charges as
he proceeds down. If an Archer's targetted with a Summon, attack and
proceed to throw him into the water. A war of attrition, which
you should win with a little luck. Good affinity, and a critical or
two would do the trick.

-**Ultimaterializer Offers This Alternate Strategy**-
Pre Battle Formation:

Ramza's Party Second Party
~ ~ R ~ A ~ ~ ~ R-Ramza
~ A ~ ~ ~ X ~ ~ A-Archer
A ~ ~ ~ X-Imporant Archer
~-Space

^Hope I had this correct. Hard to judge from Ultima's Ascci :P

Swap 108 Gems for Sprint Shoes. At the battle's start, move two
spaces back, and one right. And after, into the right corner. Wie
will Earth Slash both times. You should survive (not sure if you
have Good Affinity, definitely Neutral). Check the AT list now. If
you have turns 3 & 4, move two spaces left and fire into the air. If
you have 5 & 6, move two left and wait. Which you get depends on
how well Speed Save worked. Wie will launch a final Earth Slash.
Use the double turns you should get now, with beefed up Speed, to
off Wiegraf. Here comes Velius. Move Ramza into the ditch in the
back left, just where the water starts. Velius should come down
and charge Cyclops on Archer X. Here comes the fun. The four Generic
Archers all need to get their hits in while he charges, but the
three that aren't targetted by Cyclops must stay out of the spell's
range. Also, one must get positioned one space behind Velius. This
will, in effect, save Ramza from a Demon attack. Now, Ramza will
get a shot in, and everything goes off. Move Ramza to the left side
of the room, just behind the divot on the bridge. You'll be able
to get a strong attack in here. Afterwards, expect Archer X and
Ramza to drop. However, now you'll simply have to spread your last
few Archers out and deal some damage to defeat the Goat man.
>>Bethla's Sluice: This battle could be extremely tricky, due to the
large amount of damage characters on the higher grounds can do before
you can even begin to damage them. To start, all characters should
have Hunting Bows, Green Berets, Power Sleeves, and Angel Rings. The
3 characters in Ramza's unit should get Platina or Diamond Shields,
while the other two Archers should get Aegis Shields. Arrow Guard is
also a necessity. Charge the 2 Archers forward, allowing yourselves
to be targetted by Wizards. You may want to wait to draw them out at
first, but basically, try to kill off the Wizards with their own
spells, adding in Crossbow damage as necessary. Ramza's men should
sit back and let the Knights come at them, taking refuge in the water
if possible. After the Wizards and Knights are finished off, move in
and kill the Archers and guarding Knights. With luck, you'll be able
to finish the Knights before any of your Archers have fallen twice.
>>Murond-Balk: Use the Bowguns (Gastrifitis I believe), Flame Shield,
and Rubber Boots. Now crowd the top area, mostly the four spaces at
the very heighest edge of the level, and just between. The Hydras
can't fly over and since their flame breath is negated, you won't
have much trouble taking them out. Cross the bridge then and off
Balk, ignoring the Behemoth.
___________________________________________________________________________

___ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-V-\__/Wizard\____/Difficulty: |===============* |__|5.5|_

Recommended Party: Ramza + 4 Females. High Brave, High Faith.

Advantages: Long Range Magic, Powerful Spells, Counter Magic,
Magic Attack Up, Strength Only Limited To Growth, Flare

Disadvantages: Horrible PA and HP, Can Run Out of MP, Expensive
Abilities, Needs High Faith (Heavier Damage From Magic), No
Movement Ability

Basics: These guys can be miniature war machines. They must stick
with the "Wait and See" strategy of battle. The cross panel spells
will prove to be endlessly useful. However, you must be very
careful with your usage of Magic, especially earlier on. Without
a method of regaining MP, they can be left helpless. In Chapter 1,
for story battles, it's best to let Delita and Algus do the
load of the work and only toss a few spells around. They work
wonders in Assassination scenarios, and it is actually a nice
strategy to kamikaze them into your target, knowing full well
that at least one will get a spell off. However, you can't always
charge them head on. That would be a very BAD idea. Counter Magic
pays off nicely against enemy mages. It takes forever to get
some of their best abilities, so you may want to have each learn
only one element. And by "Strength Limited Only to Growth", I mean
that they don't depend on their Equipment and what the stores
can sell them for their power. They can simply learn a new spell
and take a huge step up.

Set Up: Black Magic / Counter Magic / Magic Attack Up

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 7 | Level 5- 8 | Level 12- 9 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 18- 10 | Level 25- 11 | Level 32- 12 |
| Level 39- 13 | Level 46- 14 | Level 52- 15 |
| Level 59- 16 | Level 66- 17 |

Battle Strategies:

>>Patience is a Virtue: To pull off some of the best spells available,
and even in some cases the lesser magic, your best chance, often,
is to let the enemy use their turn first. Starting a spell while
their CT is lower can pay off when it comes to using spells like
Flare. CT Watching will probably come as a natural talent over the
course of the Wizard challenge.
>>Elementary Elemental Education: Elemental weaknesses can often
be the best blessing a Wizard could get. For random fights, take the
time out to find which element does the most damage to what enemies.
In battles with human characters, double check their equipment and
see if they've been given any strengths or weaknesses. And earlier
on in the game, use the Elemental Rods to your advantage, if
possible.
>>Levelling: If you really need to gain some levels and get some JP,
simply use Frog on a surviving enemy and whack that green sucker do
death with your painful murder sticks.
>>For The "Big" Battles: Assassination battles boil down to "Use
Flare" Wait for your target to come to you, taking kills if
necessary, and wipe them off the face of Ivalice with a searing sun
flare. In later story battles, abuse Angel Rings, because Flare is
mighty slow, so injuries on your side are quite imminent. This
strategy can be applied in Limberry, Murond Holy Place, Murond Death
City, and the final battles against Altima. Mindless, but effective.
>>Lionel Castle: Ramza, along with one other Wizard, can easily scorch
Gaff out of existence in a few short turns. The main threat here are
the Archers and Knights. The Summoner will probably go down in cross-
fire, so you should concentrate on killing the damage dealers first.
>>Riovanes: Wiegraf should go down to a simple Flaring. You want your
support to start torwards the back of the room. Have Ramza retreat
when Velius shows. Now wait for a member to be targetted by Velius.
Move that member forward and target him, even if death is imminent.
Bring up the rest of your team and unleash as many Flares as
possible. You'll probably need a bit of luck with this one, but this
fight will be easier than the ones most have with Velius.
>>Orbonne- Rofel: Thief Hats and Red Shoes work best here. Your
party formation should resemble something like this...

~ ~ ~ ~ W W-Wizard R-Ramza
R W W W ~ ~-Space

Just keep your guys 9 spaces away from Rofel at all time. When he
eventually goes to charge Petrify, hit him fast while he's casting
it to get around his Magic Evade.
>>Murond Death City- Balk: Thief Hats, White Robes, and Sprint Shoes
here, folks. As for the formation, Ramza's squad...

W X R ~ W-Wizard w/ Good/Best Compat. w/Balk R-Ramza
~ ~ ~ ~ X-Wizard w/ Bad/Worst Compat. w/Balk ~-Space
~ ~

The other party should simply get as close to Balk as possible.
Move Ramza's party, as a whole, one space back and one space to the
right. The rest should be slowly, but cautiously approaching the
other side. Keep them out of the monsters' and Balk's range though,
which is 9 spaces for the Hydra-types. Balk should concentrate on
the Bad/Worst Wizard as he slowly crosses the bridge to attack,
since that's the only Wizard he should be capable of hitting. Just
unleash a flaring hell upon him once he's within range.
>>Graveyard of Airships- Altima: Flash Hats, Light Robes, and Angel
Rings all around. For the formation...

~ W R ~ X W-Wizard w/ Bad/Worst Compat. w/Altima R-Ramza
~ ~ X X X-Wizard

Hopefully Altima will charge at Alma with a physical attack from the
start. Otherwise, you might be screwed. Flare Altima with the three
Wizards listed as "X" and have Ramza and the other run back, 3-4
panels apart. Surviving the Ultima Demon attacks can be tricky.
Nanoflares should only knock about 1/3 of your HP off, hopefully
a few Hurricanes will miss, and be sure to be out of Dark Holy range,
and NOT within 2 spaces of each other, so as to avoid Ultima. The
three Flares should take out Altima's first form. The second form
is a bit more straightforward. Just hit her with whatever you've
got, if anything, that will go off before her next AT. Her Face Up
reaction will lead to her Doom eventually. Just play smart.

___________________________________________________________________________

____ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-VI-\__/Priest\____/Difficulty: |===========* |__| 4 |_

Recommended Party: Ramza + 4 Females. High Brave, High Faith.

Advantages: Healing, Revival, Status Curing, Above Average Speed,
Holy, Regenerator

Disadvantages: Pre-Holy Difficulty, Holy's MP Cost, Dependence on
Holy, Limited Non-Holy Offense, Notice a Pattern?

Basics: So they have one of the strongest magical attacks in the
game. That certainly isn't going to help early on though.
Priests will be forced to stick with the "Bait, Lure, Swarm"
strategy early on. Their Curing, Protection, and Revival are
unmatched in power, but not very effective in their advanced
forms, due to long charge times. Still, the regular spells can
provide aid enough, and the sronger ones are still useful.
Regenerator is bound to become a favourite Reaction ability, and
really pays off for the less than stellar HP Priests. Once you
have reliable access to Holy, where you can cast it at least once
and still have enough MP to finish the fight, battles will become
a bit easier. Especially assassination missions. A fun job, with
more than enough power to it to survive.

Set Up: White Magic / Regenerator / Magic Defense Up

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 8- 7 | Level 23 - 8 |
| Level 38- 9 | Level 54- 10 | Level 69 - 11 |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 6- 6 | Level 15- 7 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 25- 8 | Level 34- 9 | Level 43- 10 |
| Level 52- 11 | Level 62- 12 |

Battle Strategies

>>Protect and Shell: Keep these walls up all the time. For best
results, use Wall! This, with Regenerator, should limit Priest
damage to a minimum.
>>Holy $*%#: Once you have the MP for it, I'd recommend learning the
best all around attack spell, IMO, in the game. Like Flare, it is
powerful, with a single, accurate effect range. However, it is
a bit FASTER than Flare. Obviously wise in assassination battles,
Holy will become your main strategy in all fights eventually enough.
>>Inside Riovanes: Pump up your Magic Power! Use Wizard Staff and Magic
Gauntlet, accompanied by Chameleon Robe to fake out Lightning Stab
and a Golden Hairpin for MP. This will most likely cause Wiegraf to
die miserably after his first attack. For Velius, your best shot is
the Holy strategy. Spread your Priests out though, to avoid death.
___________________________________________________________________________

_____ ____ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-VII-\__/Monk\____/Difficulty: |======== |__| 3 |_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: High PA, Long Range Attacks, Healing, Revival, Status
Curing, Variety of Skills, Counter, Restore HP, Hamedo

Disadvantages: Lower HP, No Armor, No Hats/Helmets, Some Skills'
Use Questionable, Not Very Manueverable

Basics: The real heavy hitters. You wouldn't imagine just how strong
a team of High Brave Monks can really be until you use them.
I'm sure you have an idea though. Multiply that one thousand
fold. Early in the game, they are more than safe. With powerful,
non-weapon based attacks, and more healing than is even
necessary, they are one of the few jobs that can breeze through
Chapter 1 relatively easy. When in a dangerous battle, be careful
to keep endangered characters from being trapped around non-level
ground, or Revive will be useless. Keep your team together and
designate a healer. Utilize their various abilities too. Secret
Fist definitely can be made use of. Your only weakness would be
Mage types on high ground, or fast moving characters, like Ninja
or hasted enemies. Otherwise, they always stand a good chance.

Set Up: Punch Art / [Reaction Ability Can Fit Situation] / Move-HP Up

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 6- 7 | Level 14- 8 |
| Level 22- 9 | Level 29- 10 | Level 37- 11 |
| Level 45- 12 | Level 52- 13 | Level 60- 14 |
| Level 68- 15 |

Battle Strategies

>>Ranged Attacks: Keep your distance with these fierce fighters.
Though their fists can be very powerful, it's often the best choice
to stay as far away as possible from the enemy, using Wave Fist and
Earth Slash to deal your damage. As a plus, with Earth Clothes, you
can endlessly Earth Slash your team for damage on the enemy, and
HP for your characters.
>>Hamedo: It works against all humans, and Zodiac monsters, as you
probably know. This pays off in Physical attacker heavy battles.
This move can be quite advantageous in Riovanes, as if Wiegraf
or Velius are too close to a character, he will try to attack them
physically.
>>Riovanes- Inside: Most important is to experiment first. Find out
how much damage deals, and adjust it so that you'll be put into
critical after two. HP Restore will save you then, with luck. Earth
Slash him to death. When he changes to Velius, and Ramza's HP should
be full. Bring Ramza one spot above the left torch. In this
situation, Velius will opt to use Cyclops. If possible, have Ramza
get in another attack, but you should probably move him out of the
other Monk's way. Punch him to death afterwards and don't bother
to Revive.
>>Igros Castle: Earth Clothes and N-Kai Armlets do nicely here. First,
move out of Lightning Stab's range and allow Adramelk to move
torwards you slowly. Earth Slash away when he's within range, of
course disregarding your own protected Monks. Once Dyce falls and
changes into Adramelk, chase him back down to the initial bridge,
using Chakra to survive the surely coming Bahamut. Surround him
when possible, and proceed with the Zodiac Raping.
>>Murond Death City- Balk: A very reliable strategy to use, so long
as you're levelled to around 45. Germinas Boots and Earth Clothes
are necessary. Here's your formation...

Team Ramza Other
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ R-Ramza M-Monk ~-Sppace
~ R ~ ~ ~ ~ M G-Monk w/ Good/Best Compat. w/Balk
M G ~ ~ M

This should draw Balk to try and Arm Aim the Good Compat. Monk.
So long as he misses, he's dead. Balk should be on a space with a
Height of 6.5. Get in line with him to Earth Slash, going on spaces
as high as 8.5 in height. Shouldn't have much trouble finding him.
These five Earth Slashes alone should be enough.


___________________________________________________________________________

______ _____ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-VIII-\__/Thief\____/Difficulty: |==================* |_|6.5|_

Recommended Party: 2 Males, 3 Females. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Steal Heart, Steal EXP, Move/Jump+2, Speed, Equipment
Stealing, Secret Hunt

Disadvantages: Low HP, Low PA, Main Offense is Risky, No Good Reaction
Ability, Problems With Misproportionate Enemy Genders

Basics: A tricky little group to go through with. Their most obvious,
and most necessary attack is, of course, Steal Heart. Using an
enemy against the rest is most often their only way out.
However, this isn't a good thing. More Male characters are
found throughout the game, so this would probably push you to
get 4 Females. However, they have Lower HP and PA than the rest,
putting them at risk. Another drawback to the strategy is that
it has a poor chance of success in neutral Zodiac cases -
(50+MA)%. On an even lower note, the most obvious candidates
for these attacks, Story enemies like Gafgarion for example,
can NOT be charmed. Big problem. However, their high move rate,
accompanied by their movement skills, can take them around the
board several times before the enemy approaches, keeping them
free of trouble usually. Their Secret Hunt skills can supply
them with the occasional nice piece of equipment later in the
game, and can rid you of Undead. Most importantly, the Steal
set can basically rape those uncharmable Story characters. Then
again, Wiegraf has maintenance...

Set Up: Steal / Caution / Secret Hunt / Move+2

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 7- 7 | Level 21- 8 |
| Level 35- 9 | Level 48- 10 | Level 62- 11 |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 12- 6 | Level 22- 7 |
| Level 32- 8 | Level 42- 9 | Level 52- 10 |
| Level 62- 11 |

Female PA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 14- 5 | Level 27- 6 |
| Level 40- 7 | Level 52- 8 | Level 65- 9 |

Battle Strategies

>>Steal Heart: This attack cancels the enemy's charging. Very useful
for saving a Thief from a massive spell. If no spells are coming
your way, focus on Charming the enemy who will get its' turn first.
>>Steal EXP: Utterly invaluable to gain quick levels and JP early on.
Charm the enemy, then steal from them until they have absolutely no
EXP left. Then kill the enemy and move on.
>>Raping For Fun And Profit: Enjoyable little Exp. strategy. Work the
enemies down to one final character, and then surround him. Steal
their Heart, and work your magic. Steal their equips, their Exp,
their Gil, etc. etc. While a bit of an obvious strategy, this
becomes important since Thieves will generally need a high level to
handle a lot of their battles well.
---Insert Ultimaterializer Strats---
>>Party Alternates: You may want to take into consideration using a
party of Ramza and four Females. While this makes it considerably
more difficult to Charm female enemies, it could easily have a
better pay off late in the game, having four Chantaged party
members.
>>Notable Poachables:

Enemy Item Location
Ahriman - Air Knife - Grog Hill Random Battles
Plague - Zorlin Shape - Bervenia Volcano, After Free City
Porky - Chantage - Deep Dungeon: END

>>Dorter: A Dorter City strategy?! Hey, Ultimaterializer said it could
present problems :P Move+2 is important here. Charm the Knight and
the nearest Wizard, and then run up the building to battle the
long bow Archer. Things should solve themselves now.
>>Fovoham - Windmill: Simply put, charge with high Move rates and
try to steal Wie's sword before he offs you with ease. Now use the
Charm strategy. Also worth notice is the space above the shed's door
which can take you out of range of all enemies.
>>Goug Machine City: Slap on Rubber Shoes. This will nullify the main
threat here, Ramuh on a rainy board. Charm the Thieves first off,
and then slaughter the Summoners. Archers come next.
>>Golgorand Execution Site: Most important, in the very first round,
is to steal Gafgarion's Blood Sword, charm as many Knights as you
possibly can (most importantly, the one residing on the ramparts
with the Time Mage. Swipe at the Archers with any remaining turns.
Second round will mostly feature enemies being de-charmed, so scale
the walls and begin to kill the enemies as you come across. Focus
on the evil Time Mages. As the other enemies head torwards you,
Charm them for their trouble. With luck (ie. Gafgarion not having
a secondary ability, or at least a worthwhile one, enemies not
capable of massive healing), you'll eventually take your foes down.
>>Orbonne - Izlude: Rather than bumrushing Izlude and poking at him
with your flimsy daggers held by your weak girly arms, charm the
Knights around him and the Summoner. Once his own men work his HP
down to a manageable level, go in for the kill with random stabs,
or just act lazy and re-Charm the Knights.
>>Yardow Fort City: By now, you can potentially have Air Knives. Toss
in Catch, and your Ninja foes should be cake.
>>Yuguo Woods: Remember that Undead Humans can not be Charmed, and
that Secret Hunt-ed Undead Monsters do not return. Focus on the Time
Mage on the right at first, hopefully while charging, and then the
Ghosts. Work fast, and with luck, you'll survive.
>>Riovanes: You'll need 7 Move, an Air Knife, and 9 Speed to handle
this, meaning you'll have to be at about Level 40. At the start, run
back and to the left. You'll need to be on the small bridge section,
past the water, on the ramp going upwards past the dip...
__
\ __
\__/<--- Be right here, in other words.
After he moves, move far from him, almost torwards the door, and
attack the air (CT purpose, for Velius). Now move as far away from
where you are as possible, torwards the same spot you moved before,
only on the right side. Now move into the corner and wait for him
to get into range of an attack from behind. Hopefully he won't
counter, and if he does, hopefully he'll miss. He'll move away
and Stab you. Move behind him again and attack, and this battle
should end. Velius, on the other hand, is just tough. You'll
need to move around a lot again, and hit him as often as possible.
Good luck.

---Ultimaterializer's Alternate Strat---

Here's your Laundry List for Riovanes.
5 Air Knives, 1 Thief Hat, 1 Flash Hat, 3 Twist Headbands, 5 Black
Costumes, 5 Bracers. Approximate Level - 45.

Collecting this stuff is slightly complex. As mentioned before,
Ahriman can be poahced for Air Knives. At Level 35-40, Monks in
Sweegy (east entrance) wear Black Costumes, as do Archers in
Araguay (west entrance) whom also wear Flash Hats. At Lv 45, these
all important Archers also wear Thief Hats. Ramza should get the
Thief Hat, and make note of which Thief gets the Flash Hat.
Now time for the Battle Formation...

Ramza's Party Second Party
~ ~ F 3 ~ ~ 2 R-Ramza
~ ~ R ~ ~ 1 ~ #s - Thief 1-3
F-Flash Hat Thief
~-Space

From the start, move Ramza all the way over to the left. Wiegraf
will be out of range. Next, the cautious part. Use Ramza's superior
move to get him _one_ space out of range for Wiegraf's attacks.
You want to keep him near the small wall as well, so you'll most
likely be moving torwards the left flame. Attack the air for CT
purposes. Now head to the right flame, three spaces back and one
to the right. This should put you 5 spaces out of Wie's movement.
Attack the air again, which, for reasons unknown, will allow Wie
to move into Earth Slash range, yet not use it. Shhh. Now it's
time to smack him twice. This should put him out of commission.
The box is locked, the lights are on, it's Velius fighting time o_o
Move Ramza just to the left of the back right Thief. Charge the
Flasher ahead and try to Charm the best aligned Demon, or in case of
a tie, the one with the first AT. Now, for the tricky part. All of
these directions are in relation to "behind Ramza-facing Velius".
Thief 1 should move one space back, one left. Thief 2 should do the
same, and Thief 3 should just move one space back. (Note: Ultima,
if I have the wrong idea here based on your diagrams, just tell me)
The basic principle is to set it so that Velius, who charges at you,
can only target 1 Thief at most with Loss. This will cause him to
use a Summon on Ramza. Take this opportunity to whack the charging
Goat Man, but be sure that the summon will ONLY hit Ramza. The
Demons should hopefully be occupied with the Flasher. Surround
Velius with your Thieves and whack away. He should now run away
and attempt another summon. Your superior Thieving speed should
nicely set you up for another set or Charging whacks. Victory
should come about... now.
---Back to your Reguarly Scheduled Ultima Strats---
>>Roof of Riovanes: The battle shouldn't be difficult, but be sure
to swipe the Barrette and Cachusha.
>>Bervenia Free City: Again, healthy reminder. Steal Chantage.
>>Finath River: Poach the Red Chocobos, hope for Barrettes.
>>Limberry- Zalera: Ignore the silly Skeletons. Just slap on Angel
Rings and take the least reasonable sounding strategy with Thieves:
charge Zalera and pound on him brutally. He'll die first.
>>Igros Castle: Non-Chantagers get N-Kai Armlets. Pull back from the
start into the bottom right corner and let Dyce come to you. Use
the Chantager to try and Charm the Knights in range. Once he
draws near, send two thieves into the other corner, keep the other
two in the right, and set the Chantager right in line with the
arched opening, against the wall. Charge the Chantager forward
and don't be afraid to get her bruised up a bit for the sake of
putting some damage on Dyce. Now, lure him in, and try to get him
into this location, or near it...

O O O = Arch Opening ~ = Empty Square
X ~ X = Marks the Spot

Once he's there, swarm him with your Thieves, but keep the
Chantager four spaces away from Dyce. Once Dyce transforms, he'll
begin to target the Chantager with Holy. Since she'll be able
to get smacked with it and die, only to be re-raised before Ard gets
another turn, you've officially negated any threat the boss may
have been. Extra special thanks to Ultima for one hell of a strat.
>>Deep Dungeon: As one of only two classes who can really take true
advantage of this place, be sure to exploit DD. The Chantager will
end up doing the brunt of the fighting here, so if possible, rotate
the equipper so as to even out the levels of the Females.
-Use Angel Rings
-VOYAGE and TERMINATE: Avoid Archers at all costs.
-Avoid all Thieves at the same costs.
-At HORROR, Catch + Charm in the Samurai/Ninja Battle = Fun
-END: Chantager should get the Cachusha. Charge her ahead, charming
Apandas as she passes, and send her one on one against Elidibis.
This turns into an Adramelk repeat, since he really can't get much
done against you.
-After Elidibis, pick up some Chantage from the Porkys at END.
>>Orbonne - The Final Battles: Chantages + Cachusha + Barrettes +
Spare Equipment + Intelligence = Fairly Easy Battles. So sayeth
Ultimaterializer.


Other Stuff

>>Charmed Enemies won't do physical damage to other Charmed enemies,
but if they have an attack that only inflicts a status, they will
use it on any charmed enemy.
>>Boco is indeed a Special Character. You can not charm him in the
Fovoham Battle.
___________________________________________________________________________

____ _________ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-IX-\__/Time Mage\__/Difficulty: |=================* |_| 6 |_

Recommended Party: Ramza + 4 Females. High Brave, High Faith.

Advantages: Haste, Don't Move, Critical Quick, Short Charge, Demi,
Teleport, Stop+Meteor Combo, Speed, Pointy Hats

Disadvantages: Limited Offense All Around, Dependence On Halting Enemy,
Skills Fade Quickly Early On

Basics: It's kind of hard to find disadvantages to this Group. Then
again, it's pretty hard to find a lot of ADVANTAGES too. Surely,
their Time altering skills come in very handy. When wouldn't
you want to speed your guys up and slow down, or even stop the
enemy? The big irony here is that these abilities last for
little more than a full AT or two until you bring your
characters to higher levels, and thus, higher Speeds. It'd
imperative to Haste your group early on, and to abuse Don't
Move. Rather than totally Lure in enemies, it pays off to bring
them close, then stop them in their tracks and single them out.
Time Mage skills cost relatively little MP, so they can keep
this up for a while. Much like Oracles, winning a battle
depends much on your luck and the enemies' Faith levels. Can't
win if you can't hit them after all. Demi works wonders on
Zodiac demons, and once you have it all, Short Charge, Stop,
and Meteor becomes an ultimately powerful combo attack.

Set Up: Time Magic / Critical Quick / Short Charge / Teleport

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 5- 7 | Level 13- 8 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 21- 9 | Level 29- 10 | Level 37- 11 |
| Level 45- 12 | Level 52- 13 | Level 60- 14 |
| Level 68- 15 |

Battle Strategies

>>Early Help: From the game's outset until around the Execution site,
a great basic strategy is to Haste your Guests, Don't Move Knights,
and cast Slow on anything else. This will give you some easy targets,
and will probably be more efficient than waiting for Meteor to
carry you through the entire game.
>>The Sky Is Falling: A risky tactic, but worth it... Wait for the
enemies to draw near to you, then target them with Meteor (Short
Charge is a necessity here) and Teleport as far away as you can.
Keep moving back and you should Squash just about anyone with a
few Meteors. Make sure your characters are well out of range
though!
>>Don't Move: Obviously enough, use this on any Physical character. A
Knight three Squares away is as good as a Wooden Chocobo. It
performs it's function nicely VS Mage classes if you can run from
them, too.
>>Reflect: Remember this? I bet most of you don't. Reflect, as always,
has its' fair share of ups and downs. Indeed, you can knock away most
of the Wizard's skills, but don't forget, Haste can be Reflected!
Use this ability wisely, preferably AFTER you've Hasted. Also, it's
tough to target, and is quite random, but in a desperate situation,
try using Reflect to bounce a status off your character, across the
board.
>>Demi and Demi2: So, you don't have enough MP to throw around for
Meteor, or you just don't have Short Charge. In that case, when it
comes to fighting, assassination fights especially, a few doses of
Demi or Demi2 will off anything.
>>Quick: Since your entire party has exactly the same abilities, this
ability may not see much practical use. The only real example I
could think of to make use of this in is if another Time Mage has
enough MP for Meteor, but the Quick caster does not..

--Here Come the Ulti-Strats--
>>The "Blue" Time Magic: Meteor, Slow 2, and Haste 2 can all be learned
by having one Time Mage whack another Time Mage with those spells.
Of course the only way to transfer a Meteor between Time Mages is
probably to have Worst compatibility and a decent amount of HP, so
if setting that up is worth it to you, feel free.
>>Chapter 1: Chapter 1 battle strategies? Hey, if Ulti says they're
necessary... Most come down to one single tactic though. Haste
Algus and Delita, Slow the enemies, and hope Al and Del use
Potions and Phoenix Downs properly. Sweegy, Dorter, and Sand Rat
Cellar are where you'll have to do this, obviously enough.
>>Mandalia Plateau: Yes, a strat for this. Don't worry, it's not
very complex or anything...

~ ~ R ~ ~ R-Ramza D-Delita
T T T D T T-Time Mage ~-Space

When your turn comes up, after Delita sacrifices himself, form
a line of five mages by moving one forward. Just wait now, don't
Haste. By the time your next AT comes up, Miluda should be within
Demi range now for all. Just target her with 5, sit back, and enjoy.
>>Zaland Fort City: If you don't have Meteor yet, read on. Otherwise,
you know what to do by now. Hopefully Mustadio will wisely take
refuge atop the wall. Get him Hasted when he does. Haste everyone,
actually, ESPECIALLY Agrias. Slow down the enemies as expected,
and avoid the Wizards until they're incapacitated.
>>Golgorand Execution Site: Hopefully you've got Meteor, Short Charge,
and Teleport by now. Being under level 18 actually helps out here,
as you might depend on being slower than your foes. Meteor away,
with some caution. As of now, this is probably going to be your
strat for nearly every battle, so learn to love gigantic rocks.
>>Riovanes: This strategy only applies if you're under level 18.
Ramza should be in a Chameleon Robe. Everything else should be
standard. Here's your formation, soldier...

Team Ramza Other
~ ~ T ~ ~ T R-Ramza T-Time Mage
X R ~ ~ ~ T X-Important Mage ~-Space

A simple Meteor will take care of Wiegraf. As for Goat Boy, have
Ramza charge a Demi 2 on him and then teleport three spaces to his
right. Velius should charge down and kill the Important Time mage
now with a physical attack. When Ramza's turn comes around, teleport
to the right of Velius and smack him. A Demon will now most likely
Giga Flare Ramza, damaging Velius as well. Some Demis from your
surviving Mages will send Velius packing.
>>Murond Death City- Balk: Thief Hats, White Robes, and a mix of
Defense Armlets and Red Shoes shouldn't make this one too much of
a task. Don't bother with Meteor here, though, Demi 2 will suffice.


___________________________________________________________________________

___ ________ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-X-\__/Summoner\___/Difficulty: |==============* |__| 5 |_

Recommended Party: Ramza + 4 Females. High Brave, High Faith.

Advantages: Wide Summon Range, Powerful Spells, Healing, Protection,
Odin, Bahamut.

Disadvantages: Huge MP Cost Before Half MP, Slow, Low HP, Poor
Movement, No Good Reactoin Abilities

Basics: Another assassination oriented job class. It certainly is fun
to tag an enemy with Odin and then run, knowing that their doom
is impending. With a group of five, you may become a little
bored of hitting everything with summons and waiting so much,
but it's for the better. In Story Battles, someone should
always cast Golem, and your Summoners should be as far away as
possible, casting some of the lower level Summons at their
leisure. You won't need much more than the basic elementals,
Fairy, Odin, and Bahamut. The others, aside from maybe Clops,
don't come in too handy. Half of MP is definitely a blessing,
but before you earn it, you may have to put up with the "staff
'em to death" strategy. They have a very easy time with any of
the assassination battles, and Summoner Ramza can defeat
Wiegraf with absolutely no effort, as NeoElfBoy so bluntly
pointed out to me. A strong, but tedious job.

Set Up: Summon / Restore MP / Half of MP

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 13- 6 | Level 31- 7 |
| Level 50- 8 | Level 69- 9 |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 8- 7 | Level 16- 8 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 24- 9 | Level 32- 10 | Level 40- 11 |
| Level 48- 12 | Level 57- 13 | Level 65- 14 |

Battle Strategies:

>>Patience Still A Virtue: Like the other mage classes, the Summoners
best fighting tactic is to wait for the enemy to enter THEIR range.
Since the Summoners aren't among the faster of classes, they need to
conserve CT and pay attention to the AT List. Some battles can easily
be won by charging full steam ahead with powerful summons, but when
you're out-powered, sit back and wait. Don't forget to check for
Elemental weaknesses too.
>>To Kill a Zodiac...: Simple. Lich 'em to death. Lich away until they
drop. Fairly simple, and evil, but it's a Gravity attack, of course
it's evil. Don't you remember the nastiness of Quartr and Fallen One
from FF6?
>>Golem = Friend: Golem is an all purpose hand of God. Personally, I
would get Golem as soon as the Summoners' MP is high enough. The
short term protection from physical attacks can be CRUCIAL in many
battles. Also, when leveling up, Golem can be re-cast as much as
necessary for JP and EXP. In many later battles, you'll probably
want to keep Golem active at all times.
>>Igros Castle- Adramelk: A rough fight indeed. One-hit kill range 4
summons aren't exactly what you want to be up against, especially
with his speed, and your lack thereof. Your best offense is to...
run like a rabbit. Stay scattered, and try your luck with Lich,
but be wary of Seal. Try to prevent any mass deaths, and be sure
to be wearing your Angel Rings. You'll need some luck to get by.
>>Murond- Balk: The bigger threat here for the Summoners are the
nigh approaching Tiamat-types. Since they can kill you, and
mostly everything else, with little effort, you'll have to
pull back some and try to finish the enemies off as they come
to you. Once the Hydra-beasts are done, cross the bridge quick
and pour some Lich onto the awaiting Balk. Death might be
imminent here, as this will be a long, dredged out fight.
___________________________________________________________________________

____ _________ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XI-\__/Geomancer\_/Difficulty: |==============* |__|5.5|_

Recommended Party: Up For Arguement. Some Swear By 5 Males. I Prefer A
Male/Female Mix. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Long Range Attacks, Elemental Status Effects, Attack
Up, Shields, Good Melee Attacks, Balanced Growth

Disadvantages: Elementals Are Weak, No Good Movement Ability,
Outclassed By Many Enemies

Basics: A favourite class of mine, I'll try not to be too bias. Think
of Geomancers as weaker, long ranged Knights. They can use
Swords, and can equip the ever powerful shields. Best yet, they
also get access to the stat benefits of Clothes, Robes, and
Hats. They have decent HP, and their PA and MA, which Elemental
is based on, is usually about even for Females. The statuses
inflicted by most elementals occur very often when they are
used 5 times in a row. Best yet, they have Attack Up, which can
turn them into powerful melee fighting machines. Now of course,
the bad parts. To get a good Geo, you should probably use
Females. This results in lower HP. And of course, the long
range elementals don't deal that much damage at all. They only
have an OK reaction ability, and their movement abilites are
arguably the worst in the game. Their skill set isn't much more
advanced than Knights, and isn't nearly as effective in story
battles. Most strategy revolves around a lot of Elemental
using, finishing the enemy off with a physical attack or two.
Another good class, well balanced, and definitely with
challenge.

Set Up: Elemental / Counter Flood / Attack Up / Any Ground

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 6- 6 | Level 14- 7 |
| Level 22- 8 | Level 31- 9 | Level 39- 10 |
| Level 47- 11 | Level 56- 12 | Level 64- 13 |

Male MA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 11- 5 | Level 23- 6 |
| Level 35- 7 | Level 48- 8 | Level 60- 9 |

Female PA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 8- 5 | Level 18- 6 |
| Level 29- 7 | Level 39- 8 | Level 50- 9 |
| Level 60- 10 | Level 70- 11 |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 9- 6 | Level 18- 7 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 28- 8 | Level 38- 9 | Level 48- 10 |
| Level 57- 11 | Level 67- 12 |

Battle Strategies

>>Fieldmarshall: Know your terrain! You have a whole game to spend with
these wacky hippies, so you should take the time out to note what
ground gives what Attacks. Know where to step for what status effect!
>>Axes Bad!: Axes are bad weapons. Period.
>>Ice Equipment Setup: Ice Brand, Ice Shield, and 108 Gems make a nice
set for Geomancers. If you deactivate Counter Flood, or just need to
take a chance, you can attack a fellow Geomancer to heal them. Also,
the Gems and the Elemental bonuses will increase the power of your
elemental geomancy.
>>Power Set-Up: Ice Brand, Crystal/Aegis Shield, Twist Headband, Black
Robe, Bracer. This setup is probably best for straightforward brawls.
With a +5 PA and 25% more PA on elemental attacks, you should have
enough power to handle any situation.
___________________________________________________________________________

_____ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XII-\__/Lancer\___/Difficulty: |===========* |__| 4 |_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: High Power, Two Range Attack, Jump Skills, Dragon
Spirit, Ignore Height

Disadvantages: No Weapons Early On, Costly Jumps, Reliance on Jump

Basics: Another very powerful Job which makes later battles a lot
easier. The all Lancer party's main weakness is it's reliance
on fists for the early sections of the game. It may require a
bit more leveling up, and a lot of weak jumping, but they can
make it through Chapter 1 eventually. Conserve JP for as long
as possible and only invest in the Level 8 Jumps, as usual.
Now, go for Ignore Height with your guys, and keep them out of
harms way and Jump what you need to to death. Dragon Spirit will
come in handy, and their high HPs will usually cause them to
be revived with enough HP to get hit again, and thus, reactive
it. Once they get past their early difficulties, most battles
will be easy. Their lack of Speed and Movement will be a
hinderance, but keep going at it and eventually you'll triumph.

Set Up: Jump / Dragon Spirit / Ignore Height

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 8- 7 | Level 15- 8 |
| Level 22- 9 | Level 29- 10 | Level 36- 11 |
| Level 42- 12 | Level 49- 13 | Level 56- 14 |
| Level 63- 15 | Level 70- 16 |

Battle Strategies

>>Jumping Fact: A jump lands (50/Speed) clockticks after being
used. A Lancer with 10 Speed lands in 5 clock ticks. For the
FFT-jaron illiterate, a clock tick is the moment of time in which
characters' CT increase, patented by Adi. A brief example follows
to make things crystal clear... The same 10 Speed Lancer has two
targets. Both have Speed 8. The Bomb's current CT is 50. On the
other hand, the Goblin's CT is 70. In 5 clock ticks, the Bomb's
CT will be 90 (50 + (8*5)), and the Goblin will have his turn, and
end up at 10 CT (70 + (8*5)). Obviously, the Lancer should choose
to Jump on the Bomb, since it won't have a chance to move beforehand.
Hope that about explains things.
>>Accessorize: The terribly slow Lancers should generaly focus on
increasing theyir maneuverability with their accesories. Battle
Boots, Germinas Boots, and Sprint Shoes should be chosen over
Bracers and such.
>>Just For Starters: Early on in the game, pre-Lances, you
will need to make use of all your wits to stay alive. Jump as much
as necessary and avoid hand to hand combat. Keep back as much as
possible and let your Guests do the greater portion of the work.
>>Kriss Kross Make Ya Wanna: When faced with a mage, despite your
low Faith, it's always best to Jump on their heads and make them
die, avoiding the spell, and offing an enemy.
>>The Roman Spear: A nice attack formation brought to my attention by
Izlude Tingle. Move all of your Lancers into the corner of a battle
ground, like this:

JJ
LLJ

Lancers labeled J should Jump, while L Lancers poke with their
spears. Enemies of course will move to the spot in front of where
the Jumpers are, putting the Pokers out of range of them, but
keeping them in range to be poked. The Jumpers will be in relatively
little danger. A great way to handle most random battles, and some
story fights.
>>Baiting Enemies: Jumps are hard to calculate. Most of the time
you can ascertain a general idea of when your man will land, but
between miscalculations and times when it's simply impossible
to land on a need-to-kill enemy, try luring them with a single
Lancer. Leave one empty space in front of a Lancer whom is near
the targeted enemy, and have another Lancer jump on that space.
The bait Lancer takes the blow, and the enemy takes the hit.
>>Yardow Fort City: Keep your guys at long range and let the Ninja
feed themselves to you. By now, your Jump range should be maximized,
so simply let them come to you. Malak should be offed as soon as
possible and the Summoners shouldn't be too much of a bother as long
as you Jump away from their infernal creatures.
>>Murond City - Balk: Equip Flame Shields to nullify the annoying
Elemental Guns, and Rubber Shoes to nullify the infernal Blast Gun.
Stay back and wait if necessary, but once Balk is at
around 30 CT or less, launch Jumps at him. They'll hit, and with
high enough power, he'll be dead after a few Jumps.
>>Airship Graveyard - Hashmalum: Use Sprint Shoes and strip your
armor. This will lead Hashy to use Meteor on you. Or at least he'll
try to. Position your Lancers so the Meteor will smash him, and then
send five Jumps his way. You'll avoid the Meteor, and hit him five
times. Another round of Jumps now, but you'll catch him charging
this time. He even made it easy for you. How kind. I should add
that Ultimaterializer submitted this and it's _exactly_ what I did
on my run through. Strange coincidence :P
>>Airship Graveyard - Altima: The first form will fall prey to jumps
quickly. However, before finishing it off, move all of your Lancers
six panels away from each other, backs to the walls. This will force
the second form to not use Grand Cross. Jump on Altima only when
A) You're sure you'll hit [see Jumping Fact]. B)When a weak Lancer
needs to avoid attacks. With a bit of Dragon Spirit, and a battle of
decent length, you'll come out on top.

___________________________________________________________________________

______ ________ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XIII-\__/Mediator\_/Difficulty: |====================* |_| 7 |_

Recommended Party: 2 Males, 3 Females. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Invitation, Alter Brave and Faith, Threaten, Guns, Mimic
Daravon

Disadvantages: Poor PA, Low Invitation Rate, No Good Reaction
Abilities, Mediocre Movement, Weak Physical Attacks At Beginning
and End

Basics: I once had a very incorrect judgement of these guys. After
playing around with them a little bit, I realize how terribly
wrong I was. Mediators are a grand big ball of fun to use.
First off, their Threaten ability can turn the entire battlefield
into a chicken coop. Solution can turn your party into
an anti mage war unit. Mimic Daravon makes for some nice back up
when all else fails. Don't forget about Invitation too, and
their anti-mage skill, Insult. All of this stuff has NOW timing,
too. They still lack terribly in HP and PA, but they can surely
make up for this if all they are fighting is poultry. Mediators
definitely present a challenge, but they are now among my
favourite job classes for this challenge.

Set Up: Talk Skill / Finger Guard [After B/F Enhancement] / Train

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 3 | Level 5- 4 | Level 20- 5 |
| Level 35- 6 | Level 50- 7 | Level 65- 8 |

Female PA Growth - | Level 1- 3 | Level 20- 4 | Level 39- 5 |
| Level 57- 6 |

Battle Strategies:

>>Finger Guard: Lay off it for a while. This poorly guided Reaction
will attempt to counter your Solutions and Praising. There is very
little market for a skill this useless...
>>Threaten: Where do I begin? This attack has about a 70% chance of
hitting against worst Zodiac, 90% normally. Keep that in mind. 3 of
these will poultryize most enemies, 4 will do the job on anything.
The bonuses of doing this? Well until it's Brave returns to 10, you
have now disabled an enemy and given yourself a 150% damage attack
against it. Oh, and when it does return, if it's a monster, any
physical attack it does will be pathetic, as they are partially
based on Brave, and any enemy is easy to return to his foul form.
Turn any battlefield into a Chicken Coop, and have your way with
them :) Thanks to Saint Ajora for letting me see the light.
>>Eat Your Level Eggs!: Okay, so now use the Chicken Coop strategy,
and now, with your group of clucking enemies, chase them into a
corner. Here comes the fun part. Try to save as many enemies as
you have characters and have each Mediator use Threaten on them
on their turn. This will set the enemies into eternal chicken
state. For a twist or two, use Solution if your Mediators' Faiths
aren't at 3 yet, or build up your Brave via Praise while your
better off dead chickens cluck in fear.
>>False Demise: Here's a very fun trick which I never thought about
until Turd Ferguson (who added all the strat following this piece,
too) pointed it out. With Death Sentence, enemies will be
inclined to ignore you, since you'll be dying on your own anyway.
So you can use this to your advantage, since combined with an
Angel Ring, you can have the status but not die when the timer
runs down. This basically gives you an enemy shield for a few
turns. Abuse the hell out of this.
>>Mythril Guns W/ Less Trouble: Since random Mediator battles
are basically the same thing over and over, to save yourself some
time, instead of walking to Goug for Mythril Guns, Invite the
Chemists from Goaland and Grog Hill, and the 5th will be won as
a trophy in Grog. Just a recommendation.
>>Riovanes-Wiegraf: Lv35 is a must for the Speed Point. Equip
Ramza with a Mythril Gun, best available armor, a Green Beret,
and Germinas Boots. You'll get the first turn. Shoot him, and
start running. Keep this practice up, and pay attention to
the AT List. There's a point where you can Act and wait w/o
moving to get double turns. Use this, and you'll off him before
he offs you.
>>Elemental Guns W/ Lots of Trouble: Only one Gun is directly
available during the Mediator SCC. During the Beowulf subquest,
you can Invite a Chemist from the Goaland Mines and steal his
Blaze Gun. You can also try to find more Chemists and Mediators
with Elemental Guns in Germinas Peak random battles, but you
won't be able to do this without a decently high level, and you
must have progressed past Zalera. Finally, to some extent you
can get some Deep Dungeon equipment. If you find a random human
with Move-Find Item, use Invite and then try to manipulate him
to walk where you need him to walk. Yes, this works, but no, it
isn't fun.
>>Graveyard of Airships: Hopefully you have at least one Elemental
Gun on you. Hopefully, you have more than one. These will be
your only means of victory, simply because your abilities aren't
terribly useful on your foes. Use the Angel Ring/Death Sentence
trick to protect your Elemental Gunners, and simply try to stay
alive long enough. Good luck.
___________________________________________________________________________

_____ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XIV-\__/Oracle\___/Difficulty: |=================* |__| 6 |_

Recommended Party: Ramza + 4 Females. High Brave, High Faith.

Advantages: Status Effects, Two Range Attack, Move-MP Up, Defense Up,
Petrify, Innocent

Disadvantages: Effectiveness Based Much On Luck, Little Offense For
Most of the Game, Random Battles Can Cause Problems if Swarmed

Basics: Another challenge. Their entire strategy hinges around
disabling enemies and taking them out when they can't fight
back. Paralyze and Sleep will become staple parts of your
strategy. Petrify can take out a sin gle non-special unit in
one fell swoop, but is very risky. They have several ways to
deal with opposing mages, and even have a pair of
recouperative abilities. Though they don't have high PA, their
Sticks are MA based, making them a PHYSICAL threat. The entire
problem with Oracles is that they NEED a lot of luck to win
battles. You'll find a lot of difficulty in random battles
until you have a good skill set, and even then, a swarm can
easily swamp the Magical Pimps. Prepare to be hitting soft
reset for a while...

Set Up: Ying Yang Magic / Absorb Used MP / Defense Up / Move MP Up

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 10- 7 | Level 18- 8 |
| Level 27- 9 | Level 35- 10 | Level 44- 11 |
| Level 52- 12 | Level 61- 13 | Level 69- 14 |

Battle Strategies

>>Paralyze: One of the earliest available and most useful ability in
the skill set. It has its' obvious uses, like inflicting Don't Act
at a rather decent rate. But, it also eliminates the victim's evade.
This becomes useful against Knights and such. Don't forget, Reaction
skills are ignored too.
>>Silence Song: The most basic, and effective way to eliminate any
type of magic class. It actually can outspeed most Black Magic
spells/ However, some may have protection against it. In that case,
use...
>>Doubt Faith: This nullifies the power of any mage. However, now your
characters don't stand a chance at hitting it with their spells.
Instead, try...
>>Blind Rage: This causes Mages to use physical attacks, while keeping
them open targets to Ying Yang Magic.
>>Sleep+Paralyze: This is the best strategy early on to stop an
opponenent dead in its' tracks. Put it to sleep, then Paralyze the
other enemies that are near to back them away for long enough.
Paralyze the sleeping victim, then attack without any worry of
evasion or counter, and with bonus damage.
>>Pray Faith: It's very easy to miss the usefulness of this ability.
It's best used in conjunction with Sleep or Petrify, seeing as they
both have the same Speed. Oracle 1 casts Pray Faith, and if it's a
pretty high hit percentage, Oracle 2 targets the same enemy with
Petrify or Sleep. This gets the job done well. Faith stays on for
a while too.
>>Equipment Upgrade: Before entering Goug for the first time, and
after dropping off Agrias and Ovelia at Lionel, return to Zaland.
Now you'll have access to Battle Bamboo, Green Berets, and Wizard
Robes. With this boost, you'll have an easy time in the next few
fights.
>>Foxbird: Two uses of this will reduce most enemies into Chickens for
a few turns. Three uses will turn ANY enemy into a Chicken. Use this
to your advantage.
>>Life Drain/Spell Absorb: 4 Life Drains will kill ANYTHING except the
Undead. 3 Spell Absorbs will drain ANYTHING of all of its' MP.
>>Confusion: Never doubt the power of Confusion. Though it'll
probably see more use in random battles, sometimes it's just a lot
damn more fun to have your enemies kill each other. Not practical
strategy, but all fun and no games makes the SCC really damned
boring.
>>Leveling Up Easy: This strategy requires that your Oracles all have
Spell Absorb, Move- MP Up, and preferably Absorb Used MP. Now then,
finish off all the enemies, save one. Put this sucker to sleep,
then get your Oracles gathered together. Find a few good pairs of
characters to Spell Absorb each other, and keep your Oracles walking
around. With fairly decent Hit% and compatibility, accompanied by
the occasional Re-Sleep, your Oracles will build up some nice
JP and EXP, giving them the boost they may need in Chapter 1 and 2.
>>The Undead: A bane to all Oracles. Since Life Drain, your prime
damage dealer most often, heals them and they've got a good chance
of reviving before your Oracles can finish the battle (earlier on
at least), you're best off trying to Petrify them, throwing in
Pray Faith when necessary.
>>Lionel Castle: Trouble? Well, on the Gafgarion side, either cast
Sleep on him, OR cast Zombie on yourself :) This will reverse the
effects of Night Sword. On the other side of the wall, Silence the
Summoner and put as many of the Knights to sleep as possible. The
Archers' Lightning Bows MAY cause a character to drop. If that's the
case, just rush. Have patience, above all.
>>Yardow Fort City: Use an Oracle to Silence, and thus, nullify, one
of the Summoners right off the bat. Sit back and Pray Faith your
party. Once the Ninja start to come out, Pray Faith/Petrify if
necessary. Life Drain works as well, but you may not want to risk
this since it's a slower process. The remaining Summoner threat
might get in some serious damage now, but shouldn't survive for
long enough without the Ninja to bother you. Be prepared to reset
a few times though, since much of this is left up to chance and
Rafa's survival.
>>Murond Death City- Balk: Of utmost importance here is to get the
approaching monsters paralyzed, or more preferably, asleep. Move
across as quickly as possible, Doubt Faith to nullify the Chemist's
elemental gun, and then Drain Balk down to nothing.



___________________________________________________________________________

____ _____ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XV-\__/Ninja\____/Difficulty: |========* |__| 3 |_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: High PA, Two Swords, Speed, Movement, Abandon, Throw,
Ninja Swords

Disadvantages: Low HP, Weak Early Weapons, Easy To Kill if Swarmed,
Throwing Can Be Very Costly

Basics: Having Two Swords certainly can be fun. Unless those swords
are actually Knives. There is only so much strategy to be found
in Ninja. Aggressive players will move in and hack away at their
foes. Passive players can play it safe and throw axes and such to
do damage from a safe distance. Despite their low HP, they do have
25% class evasion, not to mention the always reacting Abandon,
thus, as long as you don't let the enemy get behind you, you'll
have a good shot at evading the attack. Once you have Spell Edges,
exploit Don't Act as much as possible. If you can't kill
something, keep throwing Ninja at it until it's hit with Don't
Act. Early in the game, they have a great deal of trouble. Of
course, they are a hard class to get to, yet once you have them,
they are only a glorifed Squire for a while. Capable of dealing
Knight damage, they must depend on evasion and knowing when to
run. Play them cautiously, and be fierce when you need to be.

Set Up: Throw / Sunken State / Move In Water

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 7 | Level 10- 8 | Level 22- 9 |
| Level 33- 10 | Level 44- 11 | Level 55- 12 |
| Level 67- 13 |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 9- 7 | Level 16- 8 |
| Level 23- 9 | Level 31- 10 | Level 38- 11 |
| Level 45- 12 | Level 53- 13 | Level 60- 14 |
| Level 67- 15 |

Battle Strategies

>>Evasion: Make great use of the Ninja's natural 30% class evade. When
ever it is possible, use a Mantle instead of Boots or Gloves, and
equip Abandon. In a few attacks, the Ninja should be very hard to
touch.
>>Throwing: Though a costly habit, try to carry around Axes or Flails
to throw, as they supply some of the best damage. And remember,
Throw damage is Speed based.
--Ulti Strat--
>>Sunken State: Triggered by most attacks, hit or miss. Aside from
the obvious benefit of disallowing any chance of a follow up attack,
you get the added joy of having your next attack hit for sure, as
the Invisible status adds Concentrate. There's no shame in throwing
Knives at your own Ninja to activate Sunken State, either. It can
be crucial. In many key battles, due to the Ninja's speed, you'll
get first strike. Use some Knives to set four Ninja into Sunken
State, using the fifth as a decoy. Perfect Assassination-battle
strategy.
>>Stealth Assassains: Apply the Sunken State strategy as previously
stated to the following Battles: Bed Desert, Igros- Adramelk, and
Murond Death City- Balk. Certainly there are more, but I'm just
trying to save myself some time typing out the same repetitive
strat. for those o_o
>>Zaland Fort City: Battle boots are quite handy here. Get Ramza to
the top of the wall, and have the other three Ninjas hop on and off
a Wizard with Throw. Deal with the Wizards first and then simply
avoid the Knights until you've finished the Archers. Opt for Throw
over a physical attack if you're in danger of getting sliced up
by the Knights.
>>Bariaus Hill: Try to stay 10 panels out of the Summoners' way so as
to avoid getting destroyed via Summons. Sit back and let whomever
comes your way get Thrown down, and should the Summoners drop below
24 MP, strike them down. Agrias and Mustadio will perform clean up
duties.
>>Golgorand Execution Site: None too hard. Be sure to bring along
some Flails and Axes to throw. Three Throws will take down Gaf, buy
be prepared for some missed shots. Take out Gaf and the middle Archer
first and then head up the wall and take care of the Time Mages.
Get your Ninja Sunken to bypass the Knights' Evade and the rest
should be cake.
>>Chapter 2- Orbonne: Jump ignores Sunken State oddly enough, so take
precautions. Use Knives to Sunken your own troop and then wait.
This works fine in the first and second Orbonne fights. Izlude
shouldn't be a problem, though, as even his Jump won't be enough
to take out a Ninja.
>>Yardow Fort City: Formations, people...

R N N R-Ramza N-Ninja
N ~ ~ ~ ~-Space
N ~ ~ ~

This set up should send only one Ninja Throw Rafa's way, and one
yours. Destroy the Ninja atop the wall with some assorted Throw
goodies. Stay ten panels away from the Summoners for as long as
possible and destroy the other Ninja and Malak as they come your
way. Then slice up the Summoners when it's most opportune.
>>Orbonne- Rofel: First, the setup.

~ ~ ~ ~ N N-Ninja R-Ramza
R N N N ~ ~-Space

And so... there's one of two ways this battle will start. 1 )a sole
Wizard will get the first turn (somehow...) and charge a spell. Use
the in-range Ninja to kill him with Yagyu's and Wait. Don't move at
all. Rofel will come in, charge a spell, and then fall into a
pool of his own blood, Yagyu stars embedded in his flesh. 2 ) the
wizard won't get the first strike. This is even simpler. Just wait.
Repeat of the above Rofel death, of course.
>>Graveyard of Airships- Altima: Use the old 4 Sunken 1 Decoy strat,
but first let Altima kill Alma and let the demons muck around. After
that, now move in, with the 4 Sunken moving in first, and the decoy
used to get Altima's attention. Swarm once she takes the bait and
stomp her down. The second form isn't much of a stretch of the
imagination. Smack her with your Edges at first and throw Morning
Stars as she moves away. If you can catch her charging, throw
whatever Knight Swords you may have at her. Done deal.

_____ _______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XVI-\__/Samurai\__/Difficulty: |=========* |__|3.5|_

Recommended Party: 1 Males, 4 Females. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: High PA, Draw Out Variety, Blade Grasp, Healing, Protection

Disadvantages: Not Very Manueverable, Draw Out Can Be Costly, First Few
Draw Outs Are Poor, No Good Movement Ability

Basics: One of the most popular jobs in all of Tactics, Samurai has
every advantage a Physical class needs. However, they too suffer
in Chapter 1 as Weaponless wonders. This does give you time to
build, and build, and build up your skills for the swords yet
to come. So, while struggling through Chapter 1, make use of
Blade Grasp, which will keep your hapless Samurai safe from the
evil Chocobo. Once you have the Swords, grow a routine. Keep
your Samurai tightly knit. Open battles with Kiyomori, and use
Murasame whenever your HP is even slightly low. Bizen Boat can
make quick work of Mage classes, and before you get the real
power swords, Asura and such will provide decent damage to a
wide area of enemies. Be prepared to be constantly short on gil,
though, as you have to make sure that you carry a constant stock
of swords. As a final note, remember, you don't get access
to Masamune or Chirijaden.

Set Up: Draw Out / Blade Grasp / Two Hands / Walk On Water

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 6- 7 | Level 13- 8 |
| Level 20- 9 | Level 28- 10 | Level 35- 11 |
| Level 42- 12 | Level 49- 13 | Level 57- 14 |
| Level 64- 15 |

Female PA Growth - | Level 1- 5 | Level 10- 6 | Level 19- 7 |
| Level 28- 8 | Level 37- 9 | Level 46- 10 |
| Level 55- 11 | Level 64- 12 |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 7- 5 | Level 18- 6 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 30- 7 | Level 41- 8 | Level 52- 9 |
| Level 64- 10 |

Battle Strategies

>>When All Else Fails: Use Meatbone Slash! It causes huge damage when
it's activated, and can end most battles pretty easily. Great
early on, and even better late in the game when you can heal.
>>Blade Grasp: Shoot for this early. The protection this gives
to your party is beyond useful. Take your time, you may as well
have it before Dorter.
>>Two Hands: Another solid early ability to help combat the lack of
Katana. Punching damage increases a bit, which is helpful for
the time being early in Chapter 1. Also, even after Katanas are
brought into the scene, use Draw Outs only when necessary. Samurai
with Two Hands are EASILY strong enough to take out most enemies
with just their physical attacks.
>>Draw Out: Keep about 7 stocked Katanas in your inventory, as you
might run through them like water with 5 sword smashers on your team.
Never over do it; if Asura will get the job done, don't use Heaven's
Cloud. Get to know how much damage you'll do, and follow enemies
accordingly. Also, Draw Outs come in handy to avoid the ever deadly
counter attacks.
---Genuine Ultimaterializer Strats---
>>Fovoham Windmill: Wait for Boco to come to you, and pound the poor
bird to death. Move forward, but stand on unlevel ground to draw
Crush Punch instead of Stasis Sword (and hope for the best). Start
punching him after this and hope for the best. Ignore the others
since Blade Grasp should do its duty here.
>>Bariaus Hill: Bait the Summoners to waste their Summons on one
Samurai a piece, and then pull the bait back. Pound methodically
on the melee fighters, and protect the weak. Isn't that bad. Look
on the bright side, Katana come next.
---Pause in Ultimaterializiness---
>>Golgorand: Rush Gafgarion with your Samurais and get him out of the
fight. Draw your Samurai away from the Time Mages and focus your
attack on the Knights. Blade Grasp should give adequate protection
against the Archers. Finish the Time Mages last.
>>Lionel Castle: Don't attack Gaf until the gate is open. Split your
party up to take out the characters on both sides. After the others
are dead, take out Gafgarion.
---Genuine Ultimaterializer Strat---
>>Inside Riovanes: Ramza should have Heaven's Cloud, Circlet,
Chameleon Robe, and Red Shoes. The rest should sub. the Robe for
the best available Armor and Red Shoes for N-Kai Armlets (save one).
Formation is simple; move the team as far up as possible, placing
the one Samurai with Germinas Boots instead behind the right flame.
For the fight... move Ramza next to Wiegraf and use Heaven's Cloud
and face the back of the room. After Wie's Wave Fist or whatever,
heal with Murasame back where you started. Use Kiyomori next, and
then heal again. Now stand next to him again and use Heaven's Cloud.
If a third Cloud will finish him, go for it. Otherwise, strike
him down with your sword. Getting the kill will give Ramza a vital
extra turn. Heal Ramz and move him back four spaces. Another
Samurai can use Kiyomori, and try to Protect/Shell the entire party.
Velius will cast Titan on Ramza, which he should survive easily.
Kamikaze Ramza forward with a Heaven's Cloud. A second Titan will
off Ramza, but after four more whacks from the Samurais, Velius will
go down.
>>Outside Limberry: Keep all of your Samurai back and try to withdraw
Ramza if possible. Allow the Assassains to try for Stop Bracelet,
and then fry them with whatever you so desire.
>>Limberry Basement: Protect against Stop, and then pray. Zalera's
Speed and range of status effect spells can really put an end
to you. Hope for the best when he casts Nightmare. The best, oddly
enough, would be Death Sentence. Get him in range and hack away. A
lot of luck is necessary here.
---Ultima Strats Once More---
>>Murond Death City - Balk: Equip Red Shoes and start far back.
Simply move into Kiki. range and stop caring. Eight will take him
down, giving Balk a few opportunities for Arm Aim. If one misses,
he's lost. Sounds like good odds to me...
>>Graveyard of Airships - Hashmalum: After the initial Quake, heal
and then use Kiyomori. Move your in-range Samurai in for a smack,
and then repeat the healing process. No problem.
>>Graveyard of Airships - Altima: Protection is of utter importance.
Once you have a protected party, start to move in to do some damage
to Altima. Keep a Samurai to attend Alma, keeping her HP high to
draw attention away from your characters. Use your strongest Attacks
and keep Shell and Protect up, if for no other reason than to force
Despair 2 instead of a damaging attack.

---Ultima's Alternate Strat---

Equip all with Red Shoes. Move Ramza as forward as possible and
use Muramasa. Use 1 Kiki. each on the front Demons, and then focus
two onto the right most demon to off it. Altima will start to
cast Ultima on Ramza, so dedicate a Samurai to healing and protecting
him, while Ramza should attack the charging Altima. Finish the last
Demon with the three free Samurai, Kiyomori each other, and spread
out. Altima Form One goes down soon. Form two shouldn't be too
much of a deviation from this strategy. Focus any spell of Altima's
such as All Ultima on her, keep Ramza healed, keep Kiyomori up,
and continue to deliver strong physical attacks.


___________________________________________________________________________

______ ____ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XVII-\__/Bard\____/Difficulty: |==========================* |__| 9 |_

Recommended Party: 5 Males.

Advantages: Long Distance Aid, Move+3, Last Song, Cheer Song, Battle
Song, Ranged Weapon, Bloody Strings

Disadvantages: Very Low HP, No Damaging Skills, Must Wait An Eternity
To Damage Enemies, Low Song Hit Rate, Reliance on Luck

Basics: Eh... what can you say? You need both Third Tier Magic classes
up to Level four to use them, and then you get punished by having
to stretch every battle in the game out. Obviously, you must run
as much as possible and stay far out of the reaches of even
Goblins. You'll need to use Battle Song almost constantly, and it
isn't a bad idea to have one Bard use Life Song to keep your guys
up. With Move+3, you'll have a much easier time fleeing from your
foes. Once you've built up an insane amount of PA, run in and
smash those troublesome enemies into the ground. This is pretty
basic of a strategy, but a necessity. The _REAL_ challenge lies
in trying to defeat Gafgarion and Wiegraf like this...

Set Up: Sing / MA Save / Move+3

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Bard's PA Growth - | Level 1- 1 | Level 29- 2 |

Bard's MA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 6- 5 | Level 17- 6 |
| Level 28- 7 | Level 39- 8 | Level 50- 9 |
| Level 61- 10 |

Battle Strategies:

>>Bare Necessities of Bard-dom: Prepare to be cowardly. Since fists,
early on, suck, and Harps, later, suck almost as much, you have
to build your PA way up with several Battle Songs to be effective.
Also, it's imperative to be singing 2 Life Songs to keep your HP
at max for the most part. Life and Battle Song are the most
important to keep in mind; other songs can come later on, but try
to get MA Save and Move+3 in the mean time. Until mid-way into
Chapter 2, you'll have 1 PA and no weapon. After that, you may
want to start speeding up your characters with Cheer Song. Once
Bloody Strings arrive, focus on Speed instead of Life.
>>Singing Quirks: More basic information. A Singing character has
0% physical and magical evade. Damage is not increased, but of
course you'll be performing until you attack.
>>The Trance: A phrase coined by Babo, and pointed out to me by
Jjukil. From the beginning of the game until near the end of
Chapter 2, if you run enough Life Songs so that all enemy
damage would be negated, the enemies will cease attacking. If
they can gang up on a Bard, they will, but otherwise, simply
staying out of range can really keep them at bay. This will
basically fade away by the time you get a Harp, unfortunately.
--All Battle Strategies Came From Jjukil, Re-Written By Me--
>>Golgorand: Move+3 is imperative to your survival here. Run up
the walls and perform 2 Life Songs and 2 Magic Songs, allowing
the slightly bulkier Ramza (with a Wizard Mantle) to take the
damage from chasing enemies. Take out the Time Mages first,
then the Archers, then the Knights. Simply avoid Gaf until you
can take him out in one turn.
>>Lionel: Make sure to have Green Berets all around, and 5 Defense
Rings in stock. The first battle can be won by using Fly to send
all of your Super Bards to Ramza's rescue. The second fight comes
down to simply plugging away at Quek before he can take out all
of your Bards. Don't bother with songs, however you may want to
leave one or two Bards without Defense Rings, so as to attract
attention to them and leave the rest of your party relatively
unaffected by Status.
>>Orbonne-Wiegraf: This takes mostly luck. Form your party so Wie
can hit as few Bards as possible. After the initial stab, move a
healthy Bard in front of the door to prevent him from running.
Now start playing those damn harps. Getting around his shield is
a matter of sheer luck. In other words, good luck.
>>Riovanes: Get Ramza to 9 Speed (Lv35 and a Beret), with Move+3
and Red Shoes. Now runabout the room performing Cheer Song,
staying out of Wie's range. 25 Speed should be adequate. Use
your multi-turns to kill Wiegraf before he can do anything about
your Super Bard, and then pray to do the same to Velius (Luck).
>>Bervenia: Put every character in the back row from the start.
Use some experimenting to find the one character Meliadoul can
still hit in two turns, and put your worst Bard there. Move
the rest of your characters around the house and build their
stats. Draw attention to the decoy, and when Meliadoul comes
in for the kill, unleash your hellish (cough) Bards on her.
With luck (notice a pattern?), you'll get her in one fell swoop.
>>Limberry: Have 5 Twist Headbands, 5 Angel Rings, and 2 N-Kai
Armlets in stock. Elmdor's Blade Grasp makes him nigh impossible
for Bards to hit, so you have to rely on (ugh) getting the
Assassains to hit him with Ultima. Arrange your party so two
while be weakened or killed, but so Throw or Charm won't work
on someone else within range (this depends on N-Kai and... Luck).
Two Ultimas and a few lucky plucking of the strings should off Elmy.
Against Zalera, load up on Headbands, Angel Rings, and Power Sleeves.
Speed and HP don't matter because you WON'T have enough. Swamp
Zalera and pray he uses Nightmare instead of Spell. Good luck...
>>Murond Holy Place-Zalbag: Run for the low left corner and use 5
Battle Songs. Angel Rings and Movement should save you for the
most part until you can kill the Ultima and Archaic Demons. After
that, TRY to get Zalbag to Blood Suck your Bards. With a little bit
(yes, only a little) of luck, Zalbag will be offed by his own
vampiric creations.
>>Murond Death City-Balk: Two possible paths to take here...
1) Equip Rubber Shoes to nullify Balk. Kill the monsters as they
come to you, saving Behemoths for last. Since Hydras move so
far, you'll probably lose someone as you build up. Load for
bear, then come out swinging against whoever's in your way.
2) Lure Balk to a square just beyond the bridge and move a Bard
next to him. Now hope that a Hydra comes by and fries him with
a few consecutive blasts. Yes, this means you need luck. What
did you expect?
>>Graveyard of Airships-Altima: Protect Alma at all costs. On the
opening turn, surround her with Bards, and have them wait so they
can move before Ultima Demons off them. Kill the Demons and use
Angel Song to keep Alma alive. Yes, her MBarrier is that important.
Anyone who is attacked by Altima needs to attack back so they can
heal and survive. Altima should be influenced to use Grand Cross,
so just keep all of your protection up for as long as possible.
Keep chipping away at her, and try not to fall asleep. This could
take up to an hour.
___________________________________________________________________________

_______ ______ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XVIII-\__/Dancer\_/Difficulty: |=====================* |__|7.5|_

Recommended Party: Ramza (As Bard), 4 Females.

Advantages: Very Long Range Damage, Fly, Last Dance, Nameless Dance

Disadvantages: Tedious Battles, Low HP, Low Dance Hit Rate

Basics: Better than Bards? That's not saying much, but there really is
little to be said of Straight Dancers. After going through
all the job levelling up trouble, you must now wait for
"With Knives" to take out the enemies. They have some very nice
abilities, but most of the time it is way too risky to waste time
with them while you could be doing damage to your foes. Use the
Status inflicting and stat breaking Dances wisely for best
results. The big plus here is having Ramza as a Bard. Abuse
Nameless Song and keep your girls alive. Good luck fighting
Wiegraf though, it's just as tough in this game as it is in
the Bard game.

Set Up: Dance / A Save / Fly

Relevant Stats:

See Bard for Bard Ramza's Stats

Speed Growth - | Normal |

Dancer's PA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 8- 5 | Level 20- 6 |
| Level 32- 7 | Level 43- 8 | Level 55- 9 |
| Level 66- 10 |

Dancer's MA Growth - | Level 1- 4 | Level 4- 5 | Level 15- 6 |
| Level 26- 7 | Level 36- 8 | Level 47- 9 |
| Level 58- 10 | Level 69- 11 |

Battle Strategies:

Note: While I do recommend, if possible, using a Gameshark to have a
complete team of Dancers, since the simply majority of players out
there don't own a Dancer, strategies, unless otherwise noted, should
be used with a Bard + 4 Dancer party.

>>Dancing For Dummies: Wiznaibus and Slow Dance are necessities for
Chapter 1 and 2 battles and for the most part, throughout the
challenge. Just play keep away and slowly torture your enemies.
Nameless Dance becomes more important as the enemies become more and
more effective than your characters, and you'll often find yourself
saved just by Frogg'ing one enemy.

--Ulti Strat--
>>Golgorand Execution Site: Level 18 and a Green Beret are rather
important here. Use Fly to keep your Girls out of danger and
have them use Nameless Dance. Gaf can indeed be hit by Stop, Sleep,
and Confusion, so hope for some of those to get smacked on him.
Incapacitate the damage dealers and be sure to kill the Time Mages.
Keep Gaf in a status effect at all times, and slowly but surely
awaken an enemy at a time and allow Wiz. to do it's thing. Finish
Gaf off last.
>>Lionel: This is much like the Bard battle. Equip your Dancers with
Fly and use your Spice Girls to pound Gaf mercilessly.
>>Queklain: Defense Rings are of grave importance here. Your Dancers
can be smacked to death effortlessly, so you need to coax Quek. into
using another attack. Bunching up Dancers would be the best plan.
Pray that you survive Bio2, and then Slow the Impure One down until
you can dish out far more damage than he deals. Wiz. and bash him
to an obese, smoldering, putrid pulp.
>>Orbonne-Wiegraf: Be sure to boost your Dancers' PA above all, opting
for bonuses over HP. Set your party up well enough so that Wiegraf,
should he deem you so lucky, only hits one member with Stasis Sword.
(Note: I believe you'll have to hope he doesn't know Ligtning Stab,
but I've been wrong before...). Retreat as far as possible and
starting using Wiz., with Battle Song by Ramza. Definitely a war
of attrition. You should manage to finish Wie before he finishes off
you.
>>Riovanes: You'll have to follow the Bard strategy for this one, of
course. Get Ramza to 9 Speed (Lv35 and a Beret), with Move+3
and Red Shoes. Now runabout the room performing Cheer Song,
staying out of Wie's range. 20 Speed should be adequate. Now build
up Ramz's PA to around 25 (a few extra Speed points would do nicely
as well here). Use your multi-turns to kill Wiegraf before he can do
anything about your Super Bard, and then pray to do the same to
Velius (Luck). The rooftop shouldn't be a problem with fly, and
perhaps even the 'Naked' strategy found in the Basics section
(Unequip one Dancer to draw damage to that one).

--Battle Strats From Here Down Supplied by NeoElfBoy unless noted
>>Limbery- Elmdor: Black Costumes and Angel Rings should be on every
member of the party. Flash Hat, Sprint Shoes, and an H Bag should be
equipped onto one Dancer. The other three should be placed in the
corner of the Pre battle formation screen. Move Speedy up the side
of the walls. This should hopefully cause Elmdor to instead use
Blood Suck, since his Muramasa won't hit three units. Blood Suck
damage, and hopefully a few re-directed Ultimas, as well as some
Wiz. Dancing should put away Elmdor.

--Alternate Strat for Limberry By Ultimaterializer--
>>Limberry- Elmdor: Angel Ring, Flash Hat, and Black Costumes all
around. Here's your set up...

2 ~ 4 R-Ramza #s-Dancers
~ ~ ~ ~-Space X-Marked for Strat
R ~ ~

Elmdor should Teleport to the X and use Muramasa, and both
Assassains should use Ultima. Lede will aim for Dancer 1, while
Celia targets Ramza. Obviously, re-target these Ultimas at Elmdor.
#2 should fly up to the wall to her left and begin dancing Wiz. and
#4 should head two spaces to her right to the corner. For Dancer 3,
whack Elmdor physically and then Fly 3 panels left. Ultimas go off,
and after this, before Ramza re-raises, Lede will again target
Ramza with Ultima. Which means after that, you've deald 400+ damage
to good ole' Elmmy.
>>Limberry- Zalera: Slow Zalera down as fast as possible, preferably
to one Speed Point. If you get a unit asleep, let sleeping enemies
lie. Angel Rings should guarantee a victory.

--Ulimaterializer Strat--
>>Igros- Dycedarg: Thief Hats, Angel Rings, and Black Costumes all
around. Move your Dancers as far back into the corner as possible
in a straight line, with Ramza just above and to the right. Life
Song and Four Wiz. should start. Dyce will try for Bio3 on your
party, but this will bring Zal to Mind Ruin him, bringing Bio3
to manageable damage. Before the Wiz terror destroys Dyce, start
charging at least two Slow dances. Send Ramza face to face with
Adramelk now, and don't worry about getting destroyed. By the time
he re-raises, as long as Slow Dance has been generous, Ramza will
get in two actions. Get him at least twelve spaces away from
Adramelk by the end of those. Now switch to three Slow Dances and
one Last Dance, and be sure to get spread out. Adr. well get in
one more attack before being dropped to 1 Speed and getting hit
with Last Dance. Proceed with death.
>>Murod Holy Place- Zalbag: Use Nameless Dance to incapacitate the
Demons, and possibly Zalbag. Resume the Slow Dance strategy, and
then swarm and eliminate Zal.
>>Murond Death City- Balk: General equipping strategy applies here.
Be sure to place your Dancers at the back of the formation. Open
with Nameless Dance to cancel out the generic threat. Resume
with Slow Dance to gain superiority, and then Wiz. Balk to death.
Should be a rather long, drawn out epic of a dance rehearsal.
>>In Order To Save Myself From Typing Redundantly: If you're in a hard
battle against a Zodiac Boss, wear Angel Rings and use a lot of
Slow Dances. Repeat this over and over again. Don't give up, keep
replaying, and if you get really desperate, train new Dancers
to replace dead ones x_x
___________________________________________________________________________

_____ ____ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XIX-\__/Mime\____/Difficulty: |========================* |__|8.5|_

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Good HP, Good PA, Speed

Disadvantages: No Special Abilities, No Equipment, No Miming,
No Long Range Attacks, Poor Movement, No Support Skills,
No Reaction Abilities, No Movement Abilities

Basics: Ridiculous. Ludicrous. Impossible? All these words describe
the all Mime game very nicely. After a few centuries to get
the adequate Job levels, the player is then further tortured
by dealing with Equipmentless, Skill-less, Schmucks. Ignore,
for a moment, that these characters aren't really Mimes anymore,
but instead silly people wearing silly clothes, and look at
what they DO have. Excellent HP, and powerful physical Attacks.
Now, look back at the guys who got dressed in the dark inside
some sort of Salvation Army center. Their only hope to win,
ever, is to spread enemies out, then swarm and kill them one by
one. Some would say this challenge is totally impossible. It
hasn't been proven so... Wiegraf VS Ramza? Change Ramza for
that battle to something good. Hard, very hard. Perhaps
impossible, perhaps not. Needless to say, people have taken on
this challenge...

Set Up: None

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 7 | Level 13- 8 | Level 27- 9 |
| Level 41- 10 | Level 55- 11 | Level 69- 12 |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 6 | Level 8- 7 | Level 13- 8 |
| Level 19- 9 | Level 25- 10 | Level 31- 11 |
| Level 37- 12 | Level 43- 13 | Level 49- 14 |
| Level 55- 15 | Level 61- 16 | Level 67- 17 |

Battle Strategies

>>Attack: Use it to hit enemies. Don't hit your own characters
>>Run: Do this a lot.
>>Phoenix Wing Demanded It: Mimes do not mime other Mimes. (Mimes
don't let Mimes mime Mimes)
___________________________________________________________________________

____ __________ _______________1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10_ ___
_/-XX-\__/Calculator\_/Difficulty: |==============================* |_|10 |_
Crystal Method Difficulty Pending Decision


-The Impossible Method

Recommended Party: 5 Males. High Brave, Low Faith.

Advantages: Damage Split, They Can Move, Speed So Low That They
Don't Crystallize For A Long Time, Have Mohawks

Disadvantages: Horrible Speed, Low HP, No Abilities, Reliance on
Reaction Skill, Horrible PA, Disgusting Manuerverability

Basics: This is the most unlikely event known to all of mankind. Well,
considering they have absolutely no way of doing any real damage
outside of Damage Split, they can only really kill their enemy
by getting hit. Nice eh?

Set Up: Math Skill / Damage Split / Move EXP-Up

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 3 | Level 35- 4 | Level 69- 5 |

Male PA Growth - | Level 1- 2 | Level 16- 3 | Level 44- 4 |

Battle Strategies

>>Damage Split: You have to use it. No if's and's or but's about it.
Damaging the enemy is ENTIRELY based on them damaging you. If
you can spread the damage out well enough, perhaps you can kill
an enemy!


-The Crystal Method

Recommended Party: Ramza + 4 Females. High Brave, High Faith.

Advantages: Math Skill, Damage Split, Mass Destruction

Disadvantages: Horrible Stats All Around, Dependency On Luck to Learn
Skills, Lack of Mohawks

Basics: Convincingly possible. This method allows for use of Math
skills. However, you may only use magic which you've learned
from the crystals of fallen enemies. This limits your
arsenal early on, but many a SCC'er have proven that Calcs are
POSSIBLE to pull through Chapter 1 even without Magic. The
difficulty comes, obviously, in gaining Magic, dealing with
the Calcs HORRIBLE Speed, HP, and MA, and the usual tough
battles, like the second Balk. Have fun with this one...

Relevant Stats:

Speed Growth - | Level 1- 3 | Level 35- 4 | Level 69- 5 |

Female MA Growth - | Level 1- 3 | Level 9- 4 | Level 23- 5 |
*Also Ramza's | Level 38- 6 | Level 52- 7 | Level 67- 8 |

Battle Strategies

>>Coming Soon.

_____________________________________________________________________


-_-_-_-_-_-_ ______________
|Section 4 \__________________________________________/ Miscellaneous\

-4.1- Not So Frequently Asked Questions

>>1. Why is this called the Straight Character Challenge?
< but you can pretend it does if you wish. Originally, I had a
lot of off-colour comments to make about Priests who weren't
Straight in their jobs, but then this FAQ wouldn't get posted
now, would it? :)
>>2. What's with the cookies?
< known to be sweet and delicious. Many people eat cookies. An
estimated 10 out of 10 people eat, or know someone who eats cookies.
It's an international trend that will never die. Oh yeah, they used
to be my mascot of sorts. As of right now, I'm still taking
applications for new ones. Current front runners are Tito Jackson
and meatloaf. The food, not the person. Send in your application
today!
>>3. Isn't the Mime/Dancer/Bard Challenge impossible?
< SCC to date, with the sole exception of Calculator, has been
completed. Shift back in time 1 year ago, and it'd be hard to
imagine this. I guess we just learn more, and players become
even further advanced skill-wise as time goes on...
>>4. I have some sort of strange complex, how can I make the game even
_HARDER_ than this?
< characters in your party. If you're bored of SCC's, check out
philsov's FAQ for a complete list of Challenges created by FFT
board members.
>>5. I broke past the Level Cap!!! What should I do?
< no big deal to be honest. Just don't level up that much. You should
not have any trouble getting to Murond before Level 70 anyway.
>>6. What should I do if one of my characters crystallize?
< However, in my personal opinion, I'd say that you lost that battle.
I'm a perfectionist, and as one, I don't let any of my characters
crystallize. If I lose someone, I soft reset the game, and then
furiously punch a hole in the wall, or kick and scream like a little
girl. I think I may amend the rules one day and say that you can
not lose a character, but until then, it's all personal opinion.
>>7. In the Dancer challenge, wouldn't using Ramza as a Mime be better, as
then he uses Dancer skills? Why use him as a Bard?
< result in a somewhat unfair advantage, moreso than with one Bard. As
a Mime, all the Dancer's abilities would be doubled, technically
giving you 8 Dancers per fight. I think the Bard keeps the spirit of
the job a little more true, and is a little more challenging.
Of course, the best solution is to use a GS and turn Ramza into a
Dancer...
>>8. Where the hell have you been for "x" amount of months?!
< mind off of Tactics. Originally I took a break because I needed a new
copy of the game. After that it became laziness. But now I'm back, so
enjoy it :P
>>9. Can I do "blah"?
< since this is simply a more challenging and interesting way to
go through an otherwise easy game. You shouldn't feel the need to
"check" with me to see if you can do something. Just do it. If it
blatantly violates SCC rules, though, please, don't ask to be
put into the HOF for it -_-
>>10. -Insert Anything About How Calculators Should Be Given Privileges-
< the Crystal Method and be happy with life, dammit!
>>11. The FAQ seems fairly complete now. Any plans for the future?
< in less than three weeks of this update's writing, and it's really
matured all the way, and still going strong. I'm not sure where
things will go, but I do plan on getting an HTML version of the
guide up once I get through the process of registering a domain
name and getting webhosting. I'll try to rush things, though, and
hopefully get the site up in time for the SCC Birthday.
>>12. Where did the usual SCC topic on the FFT Board go to?
< to the main board. The board address is

http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=4694

>>More on the way.


-4.2- Thanks

-Here's the most important part of this whole FAQ. Now, I'll list all
the people who I have to thank for creating this FAQ with me. I am
only the writer and co-creator, these people are the real brains
behind the operation. If you'd like your e-mail address accompanying
your name, or if my stupid brain forgot you, just mail me and say so.

>>For Their Strategical Input... This Needs Some Heavy Updating...:
**Ultimaterializer** (Master of Terrible Ascci) - TONS of classes,
very detailed strats, and Criticism :)
Maligant(The 2nd Straight Man... Ever) - Priest
Cyrus Viruz(The 3rd Straight Man) - Chemist
RyuKaiser(No Funny Nickname) - Ninja
Owvin(I Always Think Of Cyan's Dead Son) - Various
PhoenixWing(The Squire of Irreverence) - Mime, Monk
TallgeeseVI(Gundam Name and I Don't Hate Him, Very Rare) - Lancer, Ninja
Dragoon MRM(The Winningest Original SCC'er) - Lancer, Dancer (Big Time)
Saint Ajora(Best Ancient Demon Villain Ever!) - Samurai, Wizard
Bahamut(My Hero) - Various
Dr Goofy(Name About Sums It Up) - Geomancer
thefool(Lovable Old Fool...) - Summoner
Bloo Roo(Love for Roo <3) - Oracle
AdamanBangle(Bangle... Funny Word.) - Chemist
CommanderJP(Super Monk!) - Monk
monkramza(Crazy Man...) - Dancer
Kantolin(The GobliThief Master Itself) - Thief
Goblez(Zelbog Backwards!) - Knight
Ark5th(My Brother In Archer Plight) - Archer
Pokey Tax (Heheh Pokey is Gumby's Horse)- Time Mage
Turd Ferguson (Silly remark not necessary) - Mediator, Geomancer, Stats
Jjukil (I can not pronounce this name)- Bard (Big Time)
Vadth (I can't think of anything funny to say, so... Cookie) - Summoner
Izlude Tingel (It's time to admit I've run out of wit) - Lancer
NeoElfBoy (As Opposed To The Old One) - Summoner
Ex Soldier Cloud (The Guy Who Basicall 0wnz Most SCCs) - Squire(Big Time)
Biggles (I Will Not Question The Name, I'll Only Giggle) - Monk
TimeMage (Aptly Enough With...) - Time Mage
NeoElfBoy (Proving Me Wrong Since The Beginning of Time) - Dancer
Mike (E-Mail Was Brightlord; I Didn't Know What To Put x_x) - Various
Chickenfingers (Chickens don't have fingers ;_;) - Geomancer
oo7rules (I think I've given up on the names ><) - Monk, Mediator
Qalfie ($100 reward for pronunciation of said alias) - Oracle

>>The Rest of the [Straight Crew]
Mousse, GrandCross, Storm Shadow, Neotericus, MagnusTheZero, Valdek,
trc1986num2, TimeMage113, RPGHarvester2000, MarvelousBob, ChronoTRobo32,
GameGuru86, FFTPro, MysticGohan42, Gamer4Life, RamzaHevenlyKnight,
IAmTheWheelman, Levianthan, Rainrir (The Insane), Faelim, Sword Spirit,
Ex Soldier Cloud, Izlude Tingel, avenger339, outheresomeplace,
lionthalanas, Beawulf, NeoKamek, Actionrat, PsyKoCracker, Redge, jabez,
NinjaMaster, ashtonarchers, Notti, and approximately 200 more people...
-Sorry to the newer SCC'ers, but I'm no longer updating this section,
simply because it would expand far too greatly.

>>Last But Definitely Not Least And In Some Cases, Again
The3rdOracle- For Being My Spellchecker :)
AeroStar- For Being Some Sort of Stat Producing Robot
Master Daravon- For Early Encouragement and Being a Genuine Genius
shoyru knight - Now he can't damn me!
Burgundy - Just because...
colddrum - For almost proving the impossible *Cheers*
NeoWeird - For letting me live underneath his bed <3
Tsogtoo - Who kindly pointed out another site using my FAQ
Maligant - For being the main Straight man during my first disappearance
Dr Goofy - For keeping up the fight too
Fragnarok - For supplying me with a back up account after I was warned
by idiots, and finding another FAQ Thief
Turd Ferguson - For being sexy and letting me use his Start charts.
NeoElfBoy - For revelling in proving me wrong.
And Everyone Else Who Kept The SCC Alive ::gives cookies::

-4.3- Random Stuff
________________________
~*^H A L L O F F A M E^*~
________________________

Ex Soldier Cloud- Completed Squire, Chemist, Archer, Knight, Wizard, Priest,
Monk, Thief, Oracle, Time Mage, Lancer, Geomancer, Summoner,
Mediator, Ninja, Samurai, Dancer, Bard, and Mime. And for
those who can't count, that's 19. Every Class but Calculator.
oo7rules - Completed Geomancer, Samurai, Priest, Ninja, Chemist, Archer,
Oracle, Thief, Mime, Lancer, Wizard, Time Mage, Knight, Dancer,
Summoner, Mediator, and Monk
NeoElfBoy - Completed Summoner, Archer, Chemist, Lancer, Knight, Samurai,
Mediator, Dancer, Squire, Time Mage, and Ninja.
Orlandu - Completed Monk, Lancer, Thief, Wizard, Geomancer, Summoners,
Ninja, Oracle, and Samurai
Ultimaterializer- Completed Squire, Knight, Chemist, Archer, Monk, Lancer,
Thief, Wizard, and Samurai
MunkiBleedsGreen - Completed Ninja, Wizard, Summoner, Archer, Lancer, Knight
Samurai, and Chemist. Go me.
Setzer - Completed Chemist, Wizard, Priest, Monk, Mediator, and Samurai
TallgeeseVI- Completed Lancer, Ninja, Geomancer, Summoner, and Monk
Chickenfingers - Completed Lancer, Geomancer, Monk, and Wizard
DragoonMRM- Completed Lancer, Dancer, Ninja, and Chemist
Jjukil- Completed Bard, Lancer, and Geomancer
Dr Goofy- Completed Geomancer, Monk, and Priest
Sword Spirit - Completed Priest, Oracle, and Monk
Wiegraf - Completed, Monks, Time Mage, and Knight
sqpat17- Completed Archer and Thief
Saint Ajora - Completed Samurai and Wizard
flying toaster - Completed Chemist and Lancer
Xenon - Completed Summoner and Monk
Son Gohan - Completed Ninja and Summoner
Xenon - Completed Monk and Summoner
Turd Ferguson- Completed Mediators
MarvelousBob- Completed Wizard
HeavenlyKnight - Completed Squire
Kantolin - Completed Thieves
AdamanBangle - Completed Chemist
trc1986- Completed Chemist
Cyrus Viruz - Completed Chemist
PokeyTax - Completed Time Mage
Actionrat - Completed Monk
DeathChicken - Completed Monk
Grenseal - Completed Ninja
Sweet Vengeance - Completed Lancer
Biggles - Completed Monk
DrizztDuOrden - Completed Ninja
Tadrinth - Completed Monk
OracleCat - Completed Time Mage
Qalfie - Completed Oracle
BrazillianMagus - Completed Samurai

If I'm missing you, or you've completed the challenge [honestly],
e-mail me to get added.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
This FAQ was generated from the topics "I Still Want A Cookie",
"Challenge: Straight Characters", "Who Got The Cookie? I Got The
Cookie.", "The Cookie In It's Natural Habitat", "Straight Character
Challenge Lives On", "Too Legit Too Quit; Straight Character
Challenge", and a plethora of other topics, which continues on the FFT
gameplay board to this very day. All of this weirdness began on the
Final Fantasy Tactics Gameplay Message Board, April 7, 2001.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

______________
Version History
______________

V0.9 - April 15th, 2002- Well, I've been a tad busy as of late with other
things, so I wasn't able to get the SCC Site up
as I initially hoped to do. I will still definitely
get it going soon, hopefully before the end of April.
The SCC Celebrated it's first birthday on April 7th,
by the way. The current official SCC topic is taking
residence on the Social Board. Also, the SCC has a
board of it's own claimed right here:

http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=4694

There's a slight possibility of an officially made
board for the SCC, but let's not get our hopes too
high for that. On the actual news front, current high
lord of all SCC Updates, Ultimaterializer, wrote a
trio of "SCC Bible" walkthroughs for Knight, Samurai,
and Thief. Bless him, for he has added about 22k
of new info to the FAQ. Woo. Anyway, I'll be working
on the site, and re-update the FAQ when it's ready.

V0.8 - March 19th, 2002- Whee... strategical updates mostly this time
around. Good to see that even as the SCC approaches
it's first Birthday, it's still going on strong, with
new insight, new participants, and is still a
dominant force on the Board's topics. It warms my
heart ;_; Anyway, so far there hasn't been much of
a reaction to the GS Classes, which isn't hard to
believe. A few Ratings were challenged, and when
I've been well argued with, I submitted and changed
a few (Chemist and Monk, namely). Thanks and HoF
updated as well. See you guys next update, probably
in time for the 1 Year SCC Anniversary. Also, for
some odd reason, I rarely respond to SCC-related
e-mail before I get around to updating. I apologize
especially to Ultimaterializer for this >< I'll try
to make amends bad this habit soon. All together, about
11k of new stuff. Not bad.

V0.7 - February 9th, 2002- Fixed a load of formatting errors, incorporated
Turd's stat charts (Much love for Turd <3 ) into the
class reviews, added a Difficulty rating for every
class, and changed a few basic rules regarding
Gamesharking, Dancers, Squires, and Sidequests. If you
have any problem with the Difficulty ratings I assigned
a class, email me and give me your arguement as to why
I should change it :P

V0.6-January 24th, 2002- Yeah yeah. Blame me definitely >< Anyway
read the notice and tell me what you think,
and send in whatever updates you want to
see put up. This guide's always been about
you guys, and not me. unki

V0.5-Sept. 21th, 2001-Heh, yes, I'm back. I've been a very poor daddy
lately and for that I apologize. I came back to
the boards just a few weeks ago, and now decided
to do something constructive with my time :)
Big thanks to Maligant, Dr Goofy, and everyone
else who've kept the SCC alive while I was gone.
Updates all around. New strats for Wizard, Dancer,
Geomancer, Thief, Archer, Summoner, Mediator, and
TONS on Bard. Updated Rules, Thanks, FAQ, Generic
Strat and the Hall. I'll try to keep updates as
consistent as possible too. Again, thanks everybody.

V0.4-May 9th, 2001- Well, added some new strategy. Most notably, I
totally re-evaluated Mediators and added new
accompanying strategy, buffed up Oracles, and a
whole load of new strategy has been added to
Samurai and Lancer, courtesy of Saint Ajora and
TallgeeseVI. I even added a Calculator section!
All together, about 12k of information.

V0.3-May 5th, 2001- Finished all of the Basic Class Specific information.
I'm putting up some strategy little by little now, as
it's pretty tough to drudge through the 1,500+ posts
on the Straight Character challenge I have saved.
Still, though, things are coming along nicely. I even
added some nice little strategies to a few of the
jobs!

V0.2-May 3rd, 2001- Lost this update... Created Generic Strategy and
put up a lot of Basic Job Specific Stuff

V0.1-May 1st, 2001- This is the first offline version of the Straight
Character FAQ. No body will read this until it
hopefully is accepted, but what the hey. I posted
all the basic stuff, and soon I will begin on
strategy construction.
______________

This document is ©Shaun Pilling (AKA munki@inferiority.org or
MunkiBleedsGreen)

This document can be found at GameFAQs.com, psxcodez.com, and neoseeker.com.
If you find any other location, please e-mail me.

::rides his ostrich off onto the horizon, throwing cookies to all those
who gave their time to read this FAQ, or take the challenge::

I salute you all! A winner is you!
_________________________________________________________________________