final fantasy xii quickening

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Final Fantasy XII: Quickening Guide byGenzen

Version 3.0, Last Updated 2008-03-29View/Download Original File

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Hello and welcome.This is my first guide, and it will be a very short one at that.The reason I wrote this guide is that I was searching the Internet(for various reasons), and I constantly came across people askingabout how to gain large Quickening Chains, what the differencebetween the levels of Quickenings are etc, and so I decided tomake a document outlining my findings after quite a largeamount of experimentation.

The highest chain I have ever accomplished is 32 (with theconcurrence of Black Hole) and I frequently get chains in the

+20 region (usually resulting in Dark Hole, Cataclysm or WhiteOut).

This guide does try to explain Quickenings and Mist Charges asthough it was being read by someone with no experience usingthem, though some basic knowledge of the system will mostlikely help you to understand what is being said.

Contents:

1. What are Quickenings?2. Quickenings List.

3. Basic Mechanics of a Quickening Chain.4. Gaining a High Chain.5. Concurrence.6. Legal Nonsense7. Updates

1. What are Quickenings?

Quickenings are the Limit for the characters of this game. Formost people, you will remember how the FFVII characters hadLimit bars, which charged as damage was incurred, or how theFFVIII characters had the Limit Break command, which couldbe performed by any character in the HP Critical status.

FFIX players will remember each character having Trance bars,that was also charged as the characters recieved damage,and FFX players will be more than familiar with the Overdrivecommand, which filled under a variety of different conditionschosen by the character.As we can see then, each game has had its own version of aspecial move and FFXII has chosen Quickenings (andSummonings, which are not covered in this guide) as its
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variation.

So back to the original question: what are Quickenings?Quickenings are a command that can be found under the Mistmenu in the battle menu, and each Quickening expends a certainamount of Mist Charges.

To obtain a Quickening, all you have to do is obtain the licensefor it on the license board. The Quickenings are usually found atthe edges and the corners of the license board (presumably sothat you have to gain a decent amount of License Points beforeyou can obtain them) and each character can have a maximum ofthree Quickenings.

Once the license for a Quickening has been learned, thatQuickening slot is removed from all other characters licenseboards, which means that only one character can learn aQuickening from any specific slot on the license board (note thatthere are enough Quickening slots on the License grid for everycharacter to obtain three).

Each time a character learns a Quickening, they will receive anextra Mist Charge. A Mist Charge is basically a second MP bar,and can be used for extra MP for ordinary spells, or as an extracharge for a Quickening.

Quickenings have three levels. Once a character has learnt theirfirst quickening, they have their version of the level oneQuickening; they will gain one Mist Charge bar, and thisQuickening will cost one Mist Charge to perform.

When this character learns their second Quickening, they havetheir version of the level two Quickening; they will gain anotherMist Charge bar (total of two) and this Quickening will cost twoMist Charges to perform.

When this character learns their third and final Quickening, theywill have their version of the level three Quickening; they willgain another Mist Charge bar (max total of three) and thisquickening will cost three Mist Charges to perform.

To perform a Quickening, all you need is to have at least oneMist Charge available, and all you have to do is access the Mistoption in the battle menu, choose the Quickening option, andthen choose whichever Quickening you wish to perform.

I will cover damage of the various Quickenings later, for now

you should just be advised that it is generally better to start achain with the level one Quickening, even though the level threeQuickening is more powerful (explained later).

2. Quickening List.

Here you will find a list of each character, with theircorresponding Quickenings and their levels, along with a quick


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explanation of what each one looks like.

VaanRed Spiral Level 1Vaan performs an uppercut, then some red and blue streaksappear under the enemy and form a cone shape before exploding.

White Whorl Level 2Vaan clasps his hands together (like he is charging the move) andthen jumps into the air and hurls a huge tornado at the enemy.

Pyroclasm Level 3Vaan generates a ball of fire in each hand. He then throws one atthe enemy and waits a little bit before throwing the other onewith more speed, so that it hits the first one and they explode asthey collide with the enemy.

Balthier

Fires of War Level 1Balthier places one hand out towards the enemy, and variousballs of fire fly into the enemy and explode.

Tides of Fate Level 2Balthier performs a kind of hand-jive, which generates a hugepentagram around the enemy, and calls forth a huge tidal wave tocrash onto the enemy.

Element of Treachery Level 3A big symbol appears under the enemy, and then Balthier, alongwith your two other party members, flies off into the sky, before ahuge meteorite comes crashing into the enemy.

FranFeral Strike Level 1Fran performs a lightening fast punch combo, and the last onecauses an explosion.

Whip Kick Level 2Fran jumps into the air, and performs a succession of spinningkicks on the enemy, and then she lands and performs a flip kickthat sends a huge blast of air towards the enemy, causing anexplosion.

Shatterheart Level 3This is very similar to the old-school summoning attack ofShiva. Fran sends two huge ice structures towards the enemy,and then she causes them to shatter around the enemy.

BaschFulminating Darkness Level 1Basch places his hands together and sends a stream of energy


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The power of the levels is displayed below:

Level 1 - 90Level 2 - 140Level 3 - 230

(source http://www.final-fantasy-12.com/ff12_mists_quickenings.html)

Although the power of these moves are the same, the damage canbe quite different, depending on the power of your character.

If you have a level 10 character perform their level 1 Quickening,it will do much less damage than if you have a level 50 characterdo the same.

3. Basic Mechanics of a Quickening Chain.

As mentioned before, to perform a Quickening, you must selectthe Mist option from the battle menu and then choose aQuickening to perform. When you have selected a Quickening(and chosen an appropriate target), the Quickening will beperformed, however, this alone will do little damage; you mustchain a succession of Quickenings together to get the desiredeffect.

To create a chain, you must pay attention to the bottom righthand side of the screen at the beginning of each Quickening.When you perform your first Quickening, you must chain asecond Quickening onto the combo within a certain time limit.The time limit is displayed as both a bar, and as a numericalvalue (the bar is so that you can monitor it out of the corner ofyour eye, without having to switch your attention from theQuickening commands to the numerical value).

Above the timer bar, you should see a button for each of thecharacters in your party who have learned at least one Quickening,and next to it, you should see a particular command. Thiscommand will either read Mist Charge or it will be the name ofone of the Quickenings that this character has learned. If it is aQuickening (not Mist Charge) it will also display the numberof Charges needed to perform that Quickening. For example, ifyou have Vaan in your party, and you have learned White Whorl,it might read:

[] White Whorl oo

This would indicate that the Quickening White Whorl isavailable to be performed, and that it costs two Mist Charges toperform. As the button at the beginning is the Square button(indicated by []) if you wanted to perform this Quickening, youwould press the Square button.

When you choose a Quickening to perform, this freezes the timebar.


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Sometimes, you will see that the commands that are displayedare in grey and not white. This is because you have learned thatparticular quickening, but you do not currently have enough MistCharges to perform that Quickening. For example, if choose theQuickening Pyroclasm to start the Quickening chain, this willuse all three of your Mist Charges, and will mean that you wonthave any left to perform a second Quickening.

If however, you were to start the Quickening chain with RedSpiral you would only use one Mist Charge, which means that, ifeither Red Spiral or White Whorl were to become available,you would have enough charges to perform either one of them.

If you see the command Mist Charge next to a particularcharacter, you are being given the change to refill that charactersMist Charges up to their maximum level. For example if youhave learned two Quickenings with Vaan and you are given theMist Charge option, this will refill his charges back to two.

When you choose the Mist Charge option, the timer will not stop,as you havent chosen another Quickening to continue the chain;you have only refilled a characters Mist Charges.

When you have chosen the Mist Charge option, all the optionswill be shuffled, and you will have three brand new options fromwhich to choose. These options might be Mist Charges for the othertwo characters, or they might be Quickenings.

Note that there is always one command for each character, andthat character will always correspond to the same button withinthe same chain i.e. Vaan will not switch from Square to Trianglein the middle of a chain: he will always remain the same button.

The way the button assignment is determined is dependent onwhom you have in your party. The person at the top of the partylist in the battle screen will always correspond with Triangle.The person second on the list will always correspond withSquare, and the bottom person will always correspond with X.The Circle button is not used when performing Quickenings.

Sometimes you will find that all of the options available to youare grey. This will either be because you have used all of yourMist Charges or because you do not have enough Mist Chargesto perform any of the Quickenings presented. If this is thecase, you can press the R2 button to shuffle your options.

This will give you three brand new options from which to pick;however you are not guaranteed to be given an option you canperform. Also be aware that the timer does not stop when youchoose to shuffle, as you still havent chosen another Quickeningto continue the chain.

To perform a large chain, you must juggle between not using upall of your charges, and not using up all of your time.

Once your time is up, you will perform a Concurrence. This


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is dependent on the length of your chain: the higher thechain means a better Concurrence.

Also note that anyone who performs a Quickening in a chain willuse all their Mist Charges.

4. Gaining a Large Chain

Now that we know how to operate the Quickening screen, wecan look at how to perform a large chain.

I (like most others) thought it was a good idea to keep shufflingthe options at the beginning of the quickening, trying to get asmany Mist Charges as possible, while the bar/timer was slow.THIS IS WRONG!You should choose an option as fast as possible, because themore time you use in the first round, the less time you have in the

second round, and the more you use in the second, the less youhave in the third etc.You usually start a Quickening with 5 seconds worth of timeavailable to you, and whatever you dont use is carried on to thenext round. After each round, the time is replenshed with half ofthe time you used in the previous round. For example, you startwith five seconds of time in the first round. If you was to useThree of these seconds in the first round, this would leave youwith two seconds, plus the replenishment of half of the time youused. Half of three is one and a half, making your total time forthe next round become two plus one and a half, which amounts tothree and a half.

TL=TR+(TU/2)

Where TL=Time LeftTR=Time Remaining from last roundTU=Time Used in last round

The way you should do it is to start a chain off with a level oneQuickening. When the options appear, if Mist Charge isavailable, choose that, and constantly keep pressing thatcharacter's button over and over (as you know that they willdefinitely be able to perform a quickening because they have justreplenished all their Mist Charges).

If you don't get Mist Charge as an option, choose the lowest levelQuickening available (so as to conserve charges). If the samelevel quickening is available to more than one character, performit with the one who has the least remaining charges (if you canremember) so that, if that character gets a Mist Charge, you willgain more charges.

e.g.

Scenario 1 (The Wrong Way)


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Quickening 1 - Vaan level 1Quickening 2 - Fran level 1Quickening 3 - Basch level 1

NOW IF YOU WERE TO GAIN A MIST CHARGE OPTION,YOU WOULD GET ONE CHARGE BACK, AND THEOTHER TWO CHARACTERS WOULD BE LEFT WITH TWOCHARGES;OUTCOME = 3 QUICKENINGS PERFORMED,7CHARGES LEFT.

Scenario 2 (The Right Way)

Quickening 1 - Vaan Level 1Quickening 2 - Vaan Level 1Quickening 3 -Vaan Level 1

NOW IF YOU WERE TO GAIN A MIST CHARGE OPTION,YOU WOULD GET THREE CHARGES BACK, AND THEOTHER TWO CHARACTERS WOULD BE LEFT WITHTHREE CHARGES;OUTCOME = 3 QUICKENINGS PERFORMED,9 CHARGES LEFT.

Now, when you get to the later stages, you will find that, becauseyou saved your time at the beginning, you will now have a lotmore time available to you, and it is more valuable to you at thelater stages, because you will have less Mist Charges left.

When you find that you have just performed a Quickening, andnone of the options that are available to you can be performed,only then should you shuffle the reels.If any of the options are a Mist Charge then take it, otherwisejust choose any option as quick as you can, so as to avoidspending too much time on one section.

Obviously there will be times when you have no charges left andyou have to shuffle 3-4 times to get a Charge, and sometimes itwon't give you one, but on the whole, this works for me.

Just remember to be fast at the beginning, and don't be temptedto keep shuffling for the Mist Charges.To simplify your thoughts, get into the mentality of doing things

in this order:

1) If a Mist Charge is there then choose it.2) If a Mist Charge isn't there, choose the lowest levelQuickening.3) If no option is available, shuffle and go back to stage one.

As for damage, it is simple; the bigger the chain, the more


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damage is done.With this in mind, it is easy to understand why we should alwaysstart the chain with a level one Quickening; simply because itconserves charges and allows for a bigger chain.

To look at it another way, a chain of nine Quickenings that areall level one would be more powerful than a chain of threeQuickenings that are all level three.

Obviously there will be times when the only option that you canchoose is a level three Quickening, and in that case you shouldchoose it, because it will add a decent amount of damage to yourchain, and it is better to choose the level three quickeningstraight away, rather that to waste time shuffling the options tofind a level one Quickening.

If you stick to the three stages above, you should get the most outof your chain.

Another point to mention is that, if/when you shuffle the reels, even

whilst the words are still shuffling, you can see what is going tobecome available by looking at the Mist Charges to the right of theQuickenings. The moment you press the shuffle button, the MistCharge icons change straight away to the next set of options,meaning that while you are waiting for the names of the Quickeningsto appear, you can be using that time to check the icons(Note that 'Mist Charge' has no icons, so be sure to look out for that).

Once you become confident with this system, you're free to take a morelevel-headed approach after selecting 'Mist Charge'. While your timeris still relatively slow-moving, you free to look for a second MistCharge. See, sometimes, you'll be given the option of Mist Charge, andyou'll obviously take it, and using our current strategy, you wouldthen be mashing that character's button in order to select a Quickeningand freeze the chain. You'll also notice that, when you do this, anothercharacter was offered the option of a Mist Charge. I've often filledall three character's charges in one round. To do this, just don'tspam-click the recently-charged character's button; wait and see ifthe Mist Charge option appears for either of the other two characters,and select it if you see it.This is only recommended for those with quick reflexes and plenty ofexperience with performing Quickenings, as you can often waste valuabletime trying to see if you have another Mist Charge option.

5. Getting The Most Out Of Your Charges

So far, we know how to get the most out of a chain, but how aboutgetting the most out of out charge

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