Crisis Level

Crisis Level is a hidden condition in Final Fantasy VIII used to determine how often a character's Limit Break will appear, as well as different damage outputs, additional statuses, and more options for the Limit Breaks. The Crisis Level is invisible to the player, but is used in the game's coding to determine the outcomes of the characters' Limit Breaks, as well as the chances for the summon Odin's appearance. Crisis Level is achieved by having a character in critical status (having a character's HP lower than 32% of their max HP, though for Seifer, he must be lower than 84% of his max HP). There are four levels of Crisis Level, and aside from current HP, various statuses also factor into determining what a character's Crisis Level is.

Crisis Level
How to calculate a character's Limit Level:


 * $$HPMod = 2500 * CurrentHP / MaxHP$$
 * $$DeathBonus = DeadCharacters * 200 + 1600$$
 * $$StatusBonus = StatusSum * 10$$
 * $$RandomMod = [0..255] + 160$$


 * $$LimitLevel = (StatusBonus + DeathBonus - HPMod) / RandomMod$$

If (LimitLevel > 4) Limit Break can be used.

Seifer is a temporary character and uses a different HPMod:


 * $$HPMod = 1000 * CurrentHP / MaxHP$$

Each status effect has a certain value. The StatusSum variable is the sum of all statuses in effect.

By being under the effects of Aura, the character can easily reach the limit without being in critical health.
 * 200 Aura
 * 15 Slow
 * 30 Poison/Blind/Silence/Gradual Petrify
 * 45 Doom

The Limit Level is used to determine the Crisis Level that affects the move's potential strength.

Limit Level to Crisis Level conversion:

A higher Crisis Level means that the character's Limit Break is in some way enhanced. A character needs at least Crisis Level 1 to be able to use a Limit Break. It is easy to reach the highest Crisis Level with the Aura spell, as a character only needs to be at 11.2% of their maximum HP and under Aura status to reach Crisis Level 4 100% of the time. Without Aura, a character with 10% HP has only a 3% chance to get Crisis Level 4. While this is effective, in the end it is a risky decision as the character can easily be KO'ed.

Crisis Level doesn't affect temporary characters' (Seifer, Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Edea) Limit Breaks' strength; their Limit Breaks use a fixed damage calculation instead.

The following lists the differences in each character's Limit Break:

Squall Leonhart
The Crisis Level affects the number of hits in Squall's Renzokuken and the chance to perform a finishing blow.

In addition, there is a 50% chance to perform an additional Renzokuken hit at the end, making the maximum possible amount of hits eight. Also, certain enemies, such as Jumbo Cactuar and Ultima Weapon, have special Renzokuken sequences that are unaffected by Crisis Level. During a special Renzokuken sequence the triggers' timing is different from the regular Renzokuken sequence.

After the Renzokuken sequence there's a chance to perform a finishing blow.


 * $$Chance \% = (CL * 60 + 1) / 256 * 100$$

Meaning, there's a (CrisisLevel * ~23.4%) chance to perform a finishing blow. Which finishing blow is used is not affected by Crisis Level, but rather has a fixed chance of occurring depending on which weapon Squall has equipped.

Rinoa Heartilly
The Limit Break used with Combine varies depending on Rinoa's Crisis Level. If Rinoa has not yet learned an ability on the list, it will automatically go to the next highest ability on the list. For example, to increase the chance of getting Wishing Star, Rinoa should not learn Angelo Strike or Invincible Moon.


 * Crisis Level 1: Angelo Cannon
 * Crisis Level 2: Angelo Strike
 * Crisis Level 3: Invincible Moon
 * Crisis Level 4: Wishing Star

Zell Dincht
The amount of time Zell has in his Limit Break Duel varies on his Crisis Level:


 * Crisis Level 1: 4.66 seconds (Always starts with Punch Rush)
 * Crisis Level 2: 6.66 seconds (Always starts with Punch Rush)
 * Crisis Level 3: 9.33 seconds (Always starts with Booya)
 * Crisis Level 4: 12 seconds (Always starts with Booya)

Selphie Tilmitt
The higher the Crisis Level Selphie is in, the more rare spells appear in her Slots and the amount of spell castings will become three castings more often. While the draw-ups in Selphie's Slots may seem random, they, in fact, aren't, and the game data contains different spellsets which are graded to higher level and lower level spellsets. The spells in the higher sets are more powerful. The Crisis Level affects the chance Selphie's Slots will select a high level spellset.


 * See a more thorough explanation on Selphie's Slots mechanics in the Slots article

Irvine Kinneas
The higher the Crisis Level Irvine is in, the more time Irvine has to fire off Shots.


 * Crisis Level 1: 8 seconds
 * Crisis Level 2: 12 seconds
 * Crisis Level 3: 20 seconds
 * Crisis Level 4: 26.6 seconds

Quistis Trepe
Crisis Level is the biggest factor for Quistis's Limit Breaks, as several of the more powerful spells she has will only be potent if she is at Crisis Level 4. Below is the list of Blue Magic and their corresponding effects with Crisis Level:

It is also possible for Shockwave Pulsar to deal as much damage as Eden, if the conditions are set right.