Souleater



Souleater (ソウルイーター), also known as Soul Eater, Dark Wave, Darkness, Darkside (暗黒剣), or Shadow Blade, is an ability where a character sacrifices a small amount of HP to deliver a strong Dark-elemental attack on all enemies. It is usually associated with the Dark Knight job.

Final Fantasy III
Souleater is a job command exclusive to the Nintendo DS version of the Dark Knight. It damages all enemies at the cost of 20% of the user's max HP. This is part of the reason (the other being their weaponry) that Dark Knights are good against enemies which multiply. The damage formula for Souleater is as follows:


 * $$Damage Inflicted = Weapon Attack x 5 + JobLv x 10 + CurrentHP x 0.9$$

Final Fantasy IV
Darkness, also known as Dark Wave, is used by Dark Knight Cecil. It hits all enemies at the cost of his HP. It did not appear as a command in the game's North American SNES version. However, during Cecil's encounter with his Dark Knight copy during his Paladin trial, the copy still uses this move. In the Nintendo DS version, Dark Knight Cecil still has Darkness, however, it now has a different function; when used, the character enters the Darkness status casting a dark aura for three turns on its user. While in this state, the character's attack power doubles, and all of the character's attacks are of the darkness element, but they will lose 10% of their max HP for a successful hit. Any character can learn Darkness as an ability, provided the player had stolen the augment off Odin.

The damage formula for Darkness in non-DS versions are as follows.


 * $$Damage = Attack Multiplier * Attack Power * 1/2$$
 * Damage = Damage + ((Damage * random(100,150)/100) % 256)
 * $$HP Loss = Current HP * 1/8$$

If the target is undead.


 * $$Damage = Damage * 1/4$$

Flan monsters are immune to the attack.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Known as Darkness, it is an enemy ability used by the Dark Knight in the Final Tale, located in the Depths.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Zack can use Darkness by equipping the appropriate Materia. By sacrificing 12.5% of his HP, the player may damage all enemies within a certain radius around Zack, ignoring vitality. The ability costs no AP to use.

Final Fantasy VIII
The Guardian Forces Diablos, Doomtrain and Eden learn the Darkside command ability. It deals three times the damage of a normal attack, however, the user will take damage equal to 1/10th of their max HP.

Final Fantasy IX
Steiner can use Darkside. It deals Shadow-elemental damage 1.4 times as strong as a normal attack, in exchange for 12.5% of Steiner's HP. Darkside will ignore Mini status if Steiner is afflicted, and also ignores the target's Protect status. It should also be noted that this attack requires no MP to use, making it a viable option should Steiner use up his MP with Sword Magic and Sword Art attacks (Especially Stock Break, which consumes quite a fair bit). It is learned with the Blood Sword, which absorbs HP from the enemy making the combination of said sword and Darkside quite viable early in the game and in Ipsen's Castle. The formula for Darkside is as follows:


 * $$Base  = [(Atk Pwr * 14) / 10] - Target's Defence$$
 * $$Bonus = Str ... [(Lv + Str) / 8] + Str$$
 * $$Damage = Base * Bonus$$

Final Fantasy X-2
Available to Dark Knights as a job command called Darkness, the command takes at least 300 HP from the user to damage all enemies. Darkness is a non-elemental attack.

A glitch exists that if the user were to equip the Ragnarok accessory, or make it so that spells cost 0 MP, Darkness will take no HP to use.

Final Fantasy XI
The Dark Knight job class can use Soul Eater. It adds 10% of the player's HP to their next physical attack, making multi-hit weapon skills and certain weapons very formidable when used with Souleater.

Final Fantasy XII
The Souleater Technick is purchasable for 35 LP on the License Board. It deals damage to opponents by damaging the user.


 * $$DMG = (1.4 x ATK x Random(1~1.125)-DEF) x (1 + STR x (Lv+STR)/256)$$

Souleater is 1.4 times more powerful than a regular physical attack. Because Souleater doesn't use the weapon's innate damage formula but only considers the weapon's ATK stat, it is best to equip the highest-ATK weapon. Souleater heals the undead.

Souleater can be bought in Rabanastre and Nalbina Fortress for 6,400 gil. In the Zodiac Job System version, the Technick is available for the White Mage, Red Mage, Knight, Monk, Mononofu, and Uhlan job classes, although the White Mage and Mononofu must obtain the Esper Adrammelech, and Monk must obtain the Esper Exodus license first.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Souleater is learned by Ba'Gamnan at level 24 and consumes 25% of his HP.

Final Fantasy XIV
Blood for Blood is a Lancer ability that consumes HP to boost the next attack. Swift Blood for Blood enables it to be used more often; Enhanced Blood for Blood increases the damage inflicted.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Dark Knights have Darkness as a job command. Its techniques vary from the traditional use of inflicting massive damage at the cost of the user's HP to draining abilities which saps a foe's HP and MP to replenish one's own. The latter allows the unit to sustain its assault with the former.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
The Lanista class, exclusive to Seeq, have Souleater as an ability. It consumes 10% of the user's max HP to inflict Dark-elemental damage. However, unless the target is weak to the Dark element, it is usually deals the same amount of damage as a normal attack.

Final Fantasy Type-0
Darkside is an attack usable by Machina Kunagiri. It deals damage to multiple targets, stunning them and draining HP.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Shadow Blade is the Focus attack of the sword Ragnarok. The user rushes towards the enemy delivering a powerful slash that releases a dark crimson burst of energy on impact, delivering heavy damage at the cost of half of one of the users Hearts.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
Shadow Blade is a level 20 Sword Skill, which caps at level 100. It allows the user to deal additional damage at the cost of sacrificing HP, and can only be used once per day.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Darkside is an ability in the Dark Fencer crown. The crown also learns enhanced variations of this skill. Dark Fencer's abilities can attack one or multiple enemies, but sacrifice HP in the process.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Soul Eater is an HP attack available to Cecil and Bartz. When performed, Cecil or Bartz stabs forward with their sword, then slam an orb of dark energy into the opponent. Cecil's version of Soul Eater costs 40 CP to equip and 360 AP to master, while Bartz's Soul Eater costs 45 CP to equip and 180 AP to master.

Cecil's Bravery attack Dark Cannon resembles the Dark Wave attack from Final Fantasy IV, and has Cecil charge and fire a swarm of dark energy orbs forward that swirl back towards him, dragging opponents closer. The attack costs 20 CP to equip and 180 AP to master. If the player fails to input Cecil's EX Burst perfectly, he ends the burst with Darkness, which has a similar appearance to Dark Wave.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Soul Eater and Dark Cannon return as attacks for Cecil. However, Bartz can no longer use Soul Eater, instead gaining the Dark Flame ability from Cecil.

Kingdom Hearts
While not being a Final Fantasy game, the Square Enix-Disney collaboration Kingdom Hearts series features Soul Eater as the signature weapon of the character Riku, and is one of the many Final Fantasy references in the game. His story resembles Cecil's, Kain's and Golbez's in ways: He is the best friend of the main protagonist, Sora, but the darkness in his heart leads him to being controlled by the true antagonist of the series, Ansem (actually Xehanort's Heartless). As he fights for darkness, Riku wields the dark blade Soul Eater, and like the abilitiy darkness has a "Dark Aura" mode where his appearance changes dramatically, going from his normal clothes to a skin-tight dark blue and red suit with a tattered white cloth around his waist. By the end of the first game Riku is able to come back to his senses (like Kain and Golbez) and wants to go to the light. However there is still a taint of darkness in him that allows him to tap into his Dark Aura even as he fights for the light (like Cecil in Dissidia). His darkness is completely erased by the end of Kingdom Hearts II, and between that time and the first game Riku gains the ability to wield a Keyblade, the weapons of light wielded by the protagonists in the game (with a few exceptions), resembling Cecil's transformation from a Dark Knight to a Paladin. The Keyblade he gains is named the Way to Dawn, and resembles Soul Eater but has a smaller white wing protruding from the top.