Final Fantasy I/II Advance - Final Fantasy I Magic FAQ by: transience written: 8/12/2004 version: 2.01 Introduction: Final Fantasy I for the GBA has a different magic system from past incarnations. While the old magic system was governed by uses per spell level, this version introduces an "MP" system that has dominated the FF series in recent years. This FAQ explains the magic system, how it works, and what else has changed. --- Copyright Information: I wrote this. You didn't. It should stay that way. Do not alter this document in any way - if you want permission to post this elsewhere, send me an email. dyschordia242@yahoo.com. Nice and simple. --- Version History: 1.0 - 30/7/04 - wrote this up. 1.1 - 1/8/4 - fixed a bunch of stupid mistakes. 1.2 - 2/9/4 - fixed a bunch more stupid mistakes. 2.0 - 4/12/4 - two words: American release. Edited names, changed a couple descriptions, fixed a mistake or two. 2.01 - 8/12/4 - added some info about Knights/Ninjas and how they learn magic. Table of Contents: I.) Spell Level Information II.) White Magic III.) Black Magic IV.) Miscellaneous --- I.) Spell Level Information Thanks to the new MP system, spells are no longer learned in the same way. However, this doesn't mean you can cast level 8 spells the second you have enough MP. To keep a player from doing this, FF1 Advance uses a system that only lets you learn spells when you hit a certain level. For example, a white mage needs to be level 4 before s/he can learn level 2 spells. Once you reach this level, you can use as many of the spells as you want as long as you have the prerequisite MP. Here's a list of the level you need to be at: White Mage / Black Mage Spell Level Level Needed 1 1 2 3 3 8 4 13 5 19 6 26 7 33 8 39 Red Mage Spell Level Level Needed 1 1 2 4 3 9 4 15 5 22 6 29 7 37 8 -- The Red Mage / Red Wizard cannot learn Level 8 spells, so accessing that Spell Level is pretty futile. Therefore, you cannot unlock it. Knights / Ninjas work differently. If you're above Level 15 (likely, unless you're doing a Level 11 challenge or just like the word "flee"), you'll know all your spell levels. Knights have Spell Levels 1-3, Ninjas 1-4. If you're below, you'll learn all your Spell Levels on the wonderful Level 15. Thanks to "The Mattinator" for this info. FYI: You can view what levels you can learn spells at by choosing your magic menu - the words "LV X" (with X meaning any spell level) will either be white or grey. If it's white, you can learn spells. If not, sucks to be you. --- (note: the GBA version of FF1 takes intelligence into account when casting spells. Therefore, pinning a number on how much the spell does is difficult to do. This goes for usable items as well (gauntlets, black robe, heal staff, etc) II.) White Magic Spells Level 1: Cure (kearu) MP: 3 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Get this - it cures. Cure does slightly more in the GBA version (maybe 40 HP?) than in prior versions. As always, a must have. -- Dia / Harm (dia) MP: 5 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Does minimal damage to undead monsters - skeletons, zombies, etc. Also hurts Lich. Will miss living monsters. Attacks the entire group and not just one monster. Not a bad spell. -- Protect (purotesu) MP: 3 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Increases defence. Don't confuse it with the modern definition of protect, though - this doesn't double physical defence, just increases it a little on one character. Not really that useful, though you might think differently. -- Blink (burinku) MP: 3 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Wizard Description: Increases the caster's evade. Terribly useful if you're doing a solo game since you can stack it four times to make your character essentially immune to physical attacks. -- Level 2: Blindna (burana) MP: 3 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Cures darkness. I suppose Kraken and Ultros can blind you, but still, this is totally useless. -- Silence (sairesu) MP: 5 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Silences an enemy. The only people this would actually be useful for are likely immune to silence, like bosses. -- Nulshock (basanda) MP: 8 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: This spell usually sucks, but if there's a boss that's gonna hit you with thunder, this is a cool spell. This spell cuts lightning damage by 50%. And yeah, at least one boss uses thunder. -- Invis (inbiji) MP: 3 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Increases evade by a lot of points. The difference between this and Blink is that you can cast this on others and that it isn't as good. Still, it's probably the best spell on level 2. --- Level 3: Cura (kearura) MP: 10 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Cures for more than cure. Go figure! Another spell you don't get by without early in the game. --- Diara / Harm2 (adia) MP: 8 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Stronger undead spell. I'd call it useful, especially for fighting those huge parties of undead things you find around here. --- Nulblaze (bafai) MP: 8 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Knight, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Like nulbolt, halves fire damage. -- Heal (hi-ru) MP: 10 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Like cure, heal does more as well, making it infinitely more useful. This one isn't as useful, but ones after it are. --- Level 4: Poisona (poizona) MP: 3 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Cures poison. I like it and use it regularly, while others may find it too expensive. Up to you. Its low MP cost makes it much cooler, for sure. --- Fear (fia-) MP: 10 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Makes enemies run away, lowers their spirit. I've heard that you can make Kary / Malirith run away if you cast this enough. I myself never use this, but if you want to make weaker bad guys run, this is how. -- Nulfrost (bakorudo) MP: 8 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Halves ice damage. --- Vox (bokyaru) MP: 3 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Red Wizard Description: Heals mute. Once upon a time, a friend of mine went hunting to find a use for this spell. He spent hours, but he found it! I can't think of a single enemy that mutes you, and if you did get muted, it would probably be your white mage. Don't get this. --- Level 5: Curaga (kearuda) MP: 20 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Heals quite a lot of HP. Great for bosses and when you don't feel like using 600 potions. --- Life (reizu) MP: 20 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard, Red Wizard Description: Brings a character back to life with 1 HP. Not as useful now as before since you now can buy phoenix downs, but still cool. --- Diaga / Harm3 (dadia) MP: 25 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Stronger undead spell. Very useful, and huge packs of undead monsters can really start to wear you down. --- Healara (hi-ra) MP: 25 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Stronger all heal - like doing cure2 to everyone. Sexy spell for bosses who use all attacks. Grab it, as it's probably the best spell on Level 5. --- Level 6: Stona (sutona) MP: 10 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: Cures stone. Being out of golden needles sucks terribly, so this can be used as insurance. However, for that price, is it worth it? --- Exit (datelepo) MP: 25 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: Red Wizard, White Wizard Description: Exits you out of a dungeon. For some dungeons, it's the only way out. You can't use this out of the Soul of Chaos dungeons, though. --- Protera (purotea) MP: 20 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: White Mage, Red Wizard, White Wizard Description: Casts Protect on the whole party. I never use this, but I can see where this would come in handy: some of the soul of chaos bosses. I'm not sure how effective it is, though. --- Invisira (inbia) MP: 25 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: White Mage, Red Wizard, White Wizard Description: Casts invis on the whole party. Useful, though you get an item with the same ability. Great for Soul of Chaos bosses. --- Level 7: Curaja (kearuga) MP: 35 Where: Gaia Price: 30000 Class: White Wizard Description: Cures for 9999. Incredible spell, the one reason you want to have a White Wizard in the party. This saves your life repeatedly. --- Diaja / Harm4 (gadia) MP: 35 Where: Gaia Price: 30000 Class: White Wizard Description: This spell isn't really as good as the others; by now, not much is hurt by harm (sans Lich) that's really worth a 35 MP spell. It's better than some spells, but don't break the bank. --- NulDeath (bamajiku) MP: 28 Where: Onrak Price: 30000 Class: White Mage, Red Wizard, White Wizard Description: I guess this protects against instant death. Protect rings don't seem to offer 100% resistance to instant death, so I cast this on SOC bosses like Atomos for good measure. I'm not sure if it helps, but it never hurts in a long boss fight. Otherwise, this spell is very useless. --- Healaga (rahi-ru) MP: 38 Where: Onrak Price: 30000 Class: White Mage, White Wizard Description: This is a must-have in this version; I've had heal3 heal for over 300 to all. It's like casting curaga on everyone. Against bosses with nasty all spells, this is the way to go. Also it's a nice and quick way to heal up your party after battle. Just a great spell. --- Level 8: Holy (ho-ri-) MP: 50 Where: Gaia Price: 40000 Class: White Wizard Description: Costs a lot of MP, but makes up for it with incredible damage. This spell rules because a White Wizard can become a killing machine. A must-have. --- Nulall (baoru) MP: 40 Where: Gaia Price: 40000 Class: White Wizard Description: Reduces all spell damage by 1/2 on one character. Theoretically cool, but in practice it isn't. It was much cooler before the whole phoenix down thing, and even then it wasn't that cool. However, for certain SOC bosses (read: Shinryu) that cast more than one elemental spell, it's helpful. Light Curtains cast the same spell, though, and you can buy them at a certain point, so you may want to hold off. --- Dispel (desuperu) MP: 35 Where: Gaia Price: 40000 Class: White Wizard Description: Removes a foe's elemental defence, making them susceptible to spells. This spell is pretty much garbage. Chances are you don't need to do this. --- Full-life (areizu) MP: 40 Where: Lufenia Price: 40000 Class: White Wizard Description: Revives a character and gives them full HP. Uh, yeah, buy it. --- III.) Black Magic Spells Level 1: Fire (faia) MP: 5 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Attacks one enemy with fire elemental damage. Great for the beginning, useless past level 10 or so. --- Sleep (suripuru) MP: 3 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Attempts to put all enemies to sleep. I think I last used sleep in 1993 or so, but it's got some uses with more unique classes. -- Focus (sheipu) MP: 3 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Apparently it lowers foes' evasion. This might be the most useless spell anyone ever thought up. I don't know of too many enemies that evade like mad, but if there is, try this, I guess. -- Thunder (sanda) MP: 5 Where: Cornelia Price: 50 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Same as fire, but with a different element. This spell is useful for sea monsters. --- Level 2: Blizzard (burizado) MP: 8 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Ice elemental damage. a must have. --- Dark (dakunesu) MP: 5 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Inflicts darkness on an enemy. Yuck. --- Temper (sutorai) MP: 8 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Believe it or not, this might be the single most important spell in the game. Steel increases your attack by like 14 points and can be stacked over and over. I've taken a knight and made him hit for over 4,000 damage using this. Then I got curious and got a Red Mage over 10,000. Absolutely essential for fighting soul of chaos bosses. --- Slow (surou) MP: 5 Where: Provoka Price: 250 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Slows all enemies. Don't see how this would really be useful; if it was ATB, I might change my mind, but it's not. --- Level 3: Fira (faira) MP: 15 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Hits all enemies with fire damage. Essential. --- Hold (ho-rudo) MP: 10 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Paralyzes an enemy. Not many uses you're gonna find for this spell. --- Thundara (sandara) MP: 15 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Hits all enemies with thunder damage. Really helpful, especially against pisco demons and water enemies. --- Focara (sheira) MP: 10 Where: Elfheim Price: 1000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Same as the level 1 spell Focus, except it hits all enemies. --- Level 4: Sleepra (suripura) MP: 15 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: A more powerful version of sleep, but it only hits one enemy. Meh. If you've got a boss weak to sleep, go for it. Haste (heisuto) MP: 15 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Doubles the hits of the character you cast it on. Basically, it doubles your physical attack. Very important spell. Confuse (confu) MP: 15 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Confuses all enemies. Makes enemies attack themselves. Cool spell, kind of, but I never find a good use for it. --- Blizzara (burizara) MP: 18 Where: Elfheim Price: 2500 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Ninja, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Yum. Ice damage to all. Use this, as it does more damage than fira and thundara on average. --- Level 5: Firaga (faiga) MP: 30 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Strongest fire spell - necessity. --- Scourge (kuraudo) MP: 28 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Red Wizard Description: ..Scourge? Hits all enemies with deadly gas, killing them instantly. Cool for large packs of average enemies, but not cool enough to justify spending money on it. Tiamat can be killed by Scourge (also known as bane), though the chances of hitting are incredibly low. You get a sword later on that lets you cast it without wasting the large MP cost, so I'd wait for that. --- Teleport (telepo) MP: 5 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: Black Wizard, Red Wizard Description: Takes you to the previous floor of a dungeon. Cool for backtracking. Also, takes you from the inside of a spell shop to the outside of a spell shop, as I just found out. Now that's what I call a useful spell. Anyway, a cool spell, though exit is better. Can't use this in the Soul of Chaos, for obvious reasons. --- Slowra (rasurou) MP: 18 Where: Melmond Price: 4000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard, Red Mage, Red Wizard Description: Similar to sleepra, slowra only hits one guy but hits it much better. Works wonders on some early Soul of Chaos bosses. If you're trying to take them on on low levels, pick it up. --- Level 6: Thundaga (sandaga) MP: 35 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: Black Mage, Red Wizard, Black Wizard Description: Strongest thunder spell. Great against Kraken and others. --- Death (desu) MP: 30 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard Description: Instant death to an enemy. The problem here, of course, is that anything you'd want to kill in one hit won't be killed in one hit. Pass on this. --- Quake (kueiku) MP: 32 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard Description: Same thing as Scourge, but with a different resistance. Some stuff is weak to Quake and thus makes this a better spell. But I don't use either. --- Stun (sutan) MP: 20 Where: Crescent Lake Price: 13000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard Description: Paralyzes an enemy. Useful, if you're really depressed and like stunning enemies for no reason. Thinking about it, being able to stun people would be really neat in real life. Unfortunately, it's a pretty freaking useless spell. --- Level 7: Blizzaga (burizaga) MP: 40 Where: Gaia Price: 30000 Class: Black Mage, Red Wizard, Black Wizard Description: Destroys stuff, especially stuff weak against ice. Does the most damage of the elemental spells. --- Break (bureiku) MP: 30 Where: Gaia Price: 30000 Class: Black Wizard Description: Same as death, really. Less things are resistant to Break, though. It can also kill Tiamat, much like Cloud can. I don't think much of it myself, but it's not the worst spell in the world. --- Saber (se-ba) MP: 25 Where: Onrac Price: 30000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard Description: Like Temper, only better; problem is, you can only cast it on yourself, and only a black mage can learn it. Thus, it's pretty useless unless you want to equip them with the masamune. Oh, and you don't. However, the giant's gauntlet (located in the sea shrine) lets you cast this spell, making it the greatest thing ever. Be sure to pick that up. --- Blind (burain) MP: 25 Where: Onrac Price: 30000 Class: Black Mage, Black Wizard Description: Honestly, why would you want to blind an enemy for that much MP? Talk about a crappy spell. I assume that, like slowra, this will hit low-level SOC bosses, but by the time you're at magic level 7 it should be obsolete. --- Level 8: Stop (sutoppu) MP: 30 Where: Gaia Price: 40000 Class: Black Wizard Description: Stops all enemies. Don't know why you'd need this on normal enemies, and it won't work on bosses, so skip it. --- Warp (dejon) MP: 30 Where: Gaia Price: 40000 Class: Black Wizard Description: Again, like Quake and Cloud; instantly kills stuff. I'm not a fan of instant death stuff because it doesn't always work. --- Kill (kiru) MP: 40 Where: Gaia Price: 40000 Class: Black Wizard Description: Basically, it's like Death, but more deadly. If there's an enemy you want dead, use kill. But for one enemy, crappy. --- Flare (furea-) MP: 50 Where: Lufenia Price: 40000 Class: Black Wizard Description: Like Holy, this is a non-elemental spell that totally destroys everything. This is the only level 8 spell I ever buy; does wonderful damage. --- IV.) Miscellaneous Thanks: - AgriasOaks, for letting me know the levels a Red Mage gains spell levels. - Bladegash, for getting a ton of monster data for me. - AnimalSpawn, for correcting my mistakes, and for trying to convince me that slowra is the best spell ever. --- Contacting: dyschordia242@yahoo.com - ask away.