Final Fantasy Tactics Tips & Tricks

• Look, ma! No Game Shark! - Here's a trick that will allow you to gain a whole bunch of Exp, JP, and possibly some Gil without having to get into many battles. You should have quite a few Potions and/or someone with White Magic for this trick to work. Now, first get into a battle (preferably random) and defeat all the enemies but one. Have your characters surround the remaining enemy so it can't move. Now, have your characters (preferably the ones with low attack power, if any) attack the enemy, and the other(s) heal the enemy. This way, you gain Exp and JP when you attack, and gain Exp and JP when you heal the enemy. The enemy won't be able to run away, sense you are blocking its way! You should put off actually killing the enemy until you are satisfied with your stats. Of course, if one of your characters needs healing, go ahead and heal him/her/it. If you have a Thief, you can use Gil Taking to get some Gil, and still gain Exp and JP. You may have to stock up on Potions after the battle, but just LOOK at your stats! Note: This process shouldn't be used against undead enemies, since they would lose HP from the Potions/Cure spells.
• Don't ya love it when you get hit? - Now this may make that phrase come true! Here's a little trick which is useful when fighting Wiegraf/Velius. Equip the Chemist's Auto Potion Reaction Ability on someone (Ramza if you are in the Wiegraf/Velius battle). Now get rid of all your Potions and Hi-Potions and stock up on X-Potions. Whenever you get hit, the Auto Potion will usually be triggered. Auto Potion uses the weakest Potion you have on the person who got hit. Now, if you have X-Potions and no other Potions, with Auto Potion equipped, your HP will be restored by a whopping 150 HP whenever Auto Potion is triggered!
• If I'm going down I'm taking you with me! - Let's say an enemy cast a spell on you that will obviously kill you and have 100% accuracy. Now, even if you can cast a spell, you will be dead before the spell's AT arrives. This person that is casting a spell on you is a potentially dangerous person for the rest of your party. What do you do? Well, if you are close enough to the enemy and the spell is cast on the target and surrounding panels, then just walk up right by the enemy. When he/she casts the spell, the spell will not only damage you, but the caster. It might even kill him/her. Note: Or the spell might heal the caster, but not many enemies have the power to absorb elements. Also, this does not work for summons spells, because they identify between enemy and friend.
• Raise me up, don't put me down - One of the white spells you should learn as early as possibly is the Raise spell. Even a Phenoix Down doesn't compare to the power of this spell. When you revive a person with a Phenoix Down, about up to 11 HP will be restored, but if a Raise spell is successful, then the dead person's HP will be restored by half of his/her max HP. Phenoix Down's are mostly useful when you just want to stop a person's timer before it reaches zero or killing (or is it reviving?) an undead enemy.
• Going to charm school - This Final Fantasy game gives you the ability to do something only enemies could do (from the FF games I've played), charm an enemy. To do so, first you need to be a thief (req: Level 2 Archer). For 250 JP you can learn the Steal Heart command. Now you can use it in battle to make the enemies temporarily fight/heal for you! There is a catch though (besides it being temporary). The skill only works (but not always) against enemies of the opposite sex of your thief or monsters (because they are unisex). Don't become too dependent on it, because one hit from any character on a charmed one will uncharm it (even if it is a counter attack), and the enemy knows this. As you can probably tell, it's better to have a female thief, since their are more male enemies than females (although there is one stage with all female enemies).
• Ninjas? Dad's busy, so will you play Catch with me? - The Thief's Catch Reaction Ability is especially helpful once you start encountering Ninjas. Why? Simply put, Catch lets you catch items the Ninja throws at you, and keep them for yourself. I hear this is especially helpful on floor 9 of the Deep Dungeon (Horror) against the Ninjas. As their HP goes down, they will start to throw powerful weapons, like Excaliburs and Chaos Blades! Catch them, and you'll be whipping serious ass!
• What's the job description? - How units accumulate JP can be confusing sometimes, so I'll try to explain it. You get JP when you perform an Act and it has an effect (you can't "miss" and get JP). The JP you get will be shown on the screen (unless you turned the option off). That JP gets added to the JP for whatever job you are, no matter what the action was. For example, if you were a Knight and you casted Cure, the JP would be added to the Knight group. In addition, all other ally units will get one-sixth of the JP added to their JP in that job. Using the previous example, if he/she got 6 JP, then all other allies will recieve 1 JP in the Knight group.
• Well, THIS bar pays me a LOT! - Another way to get JP is to get a job at the bar in a city. Just check the Proposition and choose an adventure. To make jobs really easy, choose a city directly connected to another city (or a small blue dot). Then in the bar choose an even number of days for up to three members of your party to be gone (if you can). Now just travel back and forth between the two blue dots. The length of "time" spent on the game does not seem to effect gameplay. After the number of days has past, just check back in at the bar, and you will get a story from your party members. Then you will see the JP they each earned in their job group, what you found (if anything), and what you did. Usually you will get back more Gil than you had to pay to go on the job. Now check back at the bar and find another job, or (if there are no more jobs) just go to the other city of the two blue dots. This is a great way to get new and powerful abilities Note: Be sure to visit the bar to see if their are any more jobs occasionally. Sometimes new ones will come up. Also, certain units can't go on jobs. Here are the types that can't:
  • Ramza
  • Any Guest or former Guest (with some exceptions)
  • Monsters
• You got to work your way up from the bottom - Just as in business (usually), if you want a better Job, you have to get better at your present Job. All Jobs (besides Squire and Chemist) requires a certain level of certain Job(s) to be able to access the Job. Therefore, you should change the Jobs of your character often, but not so much that you have an entire party of (for example) Archers. Try to keep your party well-balanced between fighters (Squares, Knights, Archers, etc.), healers (Chemists and Priests), magic users (Wizards, Priests, Summoners, Oracles), and any other type you may find important. This way, you can have the units you can change the units you need in a battle to fit the situation, but still be able to take advantage of several jobs.
• Fighting, healing, and arithmetic - Believe it or not, the Calculator's Math Skill is one of the most powerful skills in the game. With Math Skill, you can use spells like "Level 5 Fire." Unlike other Final Fantasy games though, these types of spells are customizable. You choose three components to your attack: number, attribute, and spell. The number you choose decides the multiple; you can choose from 3, 4, 5, and Prime Numbers. Prime Numbers indicates any prime number from 1-100. If you don't know, a prime number is a number divisible only by 1 and itself. You can find a list of them in the game tutorial. The attribute is what attribute is the one that is divisible by the number. You can choose from Level, CT, Speed, and Height. The spell is obviously the spell chosen. Any spell that has "Calc," in its description can be used. So lets suppose you chose Level, 3, and Ice which would be Level 3 Ice. All units that Level is divisible by 3 will be effected by an Ice attack. The main privilages of this type of attack is 1) You don't have to be within a certain amount of spaces to hurt/cure the enemy/ally, 2) It costs NO MP, 3) It is cast immediately, no charging time, and 4) It cannot be reflected. However, a Calculator is slow (Speed is 3), and has low attack and magic power, so it is best to have Math Skill as a second ability on someone like a Wizard (you can get JP for the Calculator at bar Jobs.)
• Lights, camera, action! - You may be disappointed with the lack of cool graphics sequences (not necessarily CG) in the game. Well, there are two more than most people notice at first. There are six in all. The first is the one you see when you turn on the game, about the "Zodiac Brave Story." Then there is the one you see when you start a new game and another at the end of the game. And you probably know about the one when you wait on the menu with "New Game," "Continue," etc about "The Lion War." The other two are seen just like the previous one. After seeing the one about "The Lion War," if you keep waiting when you get to the menu again, you will see a sequence that looks like a preview to an (alleged) Final Fantasy Tactics movie. After that one, keep waiting when you get to the menu once again, and you will see a graphics sequence showing many of the Jobs and many of the monsters.

How I beat Wiegraf/Velius:

This guy can be hard to beat, since Ramza has to do a one-on-one battle with him, and he can beat you in 2-3 hits (1-2 if he uses a critical hit). You cannot go "train" before the battle because the last save point was not on the map. And then you have to fight this really tough form of him.

First, change Ramza into a Squire. If Ramza has 280 HP or under, then learn the Chemist ability Hi-Potion and/or X-Potion and set his section action as "Item" ; if he has over 280 HP, then it would make the battle go a lot faster if you learned a Black Magic spell (preferably a Fire spell) and "Black Magic" set as the second action (or you can use the "Item" technique (see above) if you want). Learn and equip the Move+1 action (or Move+2 if you can) and equip an accessory that will allow you to move more spaces.

Now when you go into battle, Wiegraf will get a cheap hit at you. Now run away from him and use one of the Potions or use Yell. It is important to Yell at least once during this battle because if you don't use it, eventually Wiegraf will get a two turns to your one. He will probably advance toward you and get in another hit. If he gets in a critical hit, you should go ahead and use the quick-reset (press L1+L2+R1+R2+Start+Select, same as FF7) and try to beat him again. Now Move around to spaces where he can't hit you. To see where he can move, press X on Ramza's menu and then press X again on Wiegraf. This is VERY important: make sure you travel the LEAST amount of spaces so he cannot hit you (4-6 spaces away from the closest Wiegraf can move to you is far enough). If you travel too many spaces, then he can trap you, leaving you nowhere to go without getting hit.

On the Move portion of the turn, use the Yell. Now keep moving and yelling. Eventually you will get 2 turns to his 1. Keep doing this until you get about 4-5 turns to his 1. At this point you can use Accumulate in place of Yell. Now to attack him, on your first, Move close to him but not right beside him (preferably be facing his back). Now either use Throw Stone at him or a Black Magic attack and Wait when asked to move. Now on your last turn before his turn, Move away from him, like you did before. Trying to hit him with your sword is dangerous, because he could then counter-attack, and thus kill you. Keep repeating this process, and eventually he will reach Near Death, and transform into Velius.

Now you will get the rest of the characters you positioned at the begining of the battle in the fight. Velius should be easy to beat if you used the method above, because your attributes carry over, including Speed. Just have Ramza approach Velius, and keep attacking. Have your other units fight Velius with all their might, and you should (well, I did) beat him before he or his demons can get in an attack!