Deathblow (command)

Deathblow, also called Deadly, D.blow, Finisher, and Smashing Blow, is a recurring ability in the series. Deathblow increases the amount of damage a character deals, and in some games has a chance to inflict Instant Death on the target.

Final Fantasy IV
Known as Deadly, this ability is exclusive to Yang, and only available in the Advance and PSP versions. When equipped with the Discipline Armband, his Focus ability is replaced with Deadly.

Deadly is a stronger version of Focus, dealing triple damage after a turn skipped to charge up power. This command is most effective against Flan, even though it isn't a targeted weakness, but a complementary command to Kick.

Final Fantasy V
Finisher is a ability learned from the Gladiator class, exclusive to the Advance remake, and requires 70 ABP to master. It allows the user to strike a powerful attack on a enemy's weak point for massive damage.

The Finisher command can do one of three things:
 * 1) Elemental Attack - Elemental attack that does max damage (9,999).
 * 2) Critical Hit - Perform a regular Critical Hit.
 * 3) Nothing - The attempt failed.

The ratio between failure, elemental attack and critical hit varies by job level, which is shown as follows:
 * Job Level 0: 37.5% chance to fail, 37.5% chance for Critical Hit, 25% chance for Elemental Attack.
 * Job Level 1: 31.25% chance to fail, 37.5% chance for Critical Hit, 31.25% chance for Elemental Attack.
 * Job Level 2: 31.25% chance to fail, 31.25% chance for Critical Hit, 37.5% chance for Elemental Attack.
 * Job Level 3: 31.25% chance to fail, 25% chance for Critical Hit, 43.75% chance for Elemental Attack.
 * Job Level 4: 25% chance to fail, 25% chance for Critical Hit, 50% chance for Elemental Attack.

The element used depends on the character's crystal element. For example, Bartz's elemental attack is Wind, Lenna's is Water, Faris's is Fire and Galuf/Krile's is Earth. An enemy vulnerable to the character's element will suffer 9,999 HP worth of damage. However, if the enemy absorbs that element, they will be healed for 9,999 instead. In spite of a slash "animation", Galuf/Krile's Elemental Finisher will miss flying foes (the critical-hit functions as normal), making her version of this ability less useful than the others.

Final Fantasy VII
Deathblow is a Command Materia found at the Gongaga mako reactor. When equipped, it raises Luck by 1, and gives the character access to the Deathblow ability. The Accuracy of Deathblow is 1/3 that of a normal attack, but if it connects the attack will always deal critical damage.

Players can greatly increase the chances of delivering a critical hit every time by giving Deathblow materia to Vincent when equipped with the Sniper CR or Long Barrel R as both these weapons have 255 accuracy. Tifa's weapon, God's Hand, also benefits from this attribute.

Final Fantasy XIII
Deathblow is a Commando auto-ability, available to Snow, Vanille and Fang at Role levels 5, 9 and 7 respectively. When attacking foes below a certain HP threshold, there is a chance to kill them in one hit; if the target's remaining HP is less than 1.2 times the damage that would have been dealt, damage will become 1.5 times the normal.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Deathblow functions the same as in Final Fantasy XIII. It is usable only by Noel at Role level 50.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Smashing Blow is a Ranger that deals a critical attack to an enemy. It has a 25% chance of inflicting Instant Death an enemy.