Luck (stat)

Luck is a recurring stat in the Final Fantasy series, although it is not as common as other stats. It usually affects things such as critical hits and finding rare items, but also can influence other stats like Evasion and Accuracy. In other games, where there is no luck stat, there are other stats which determine these instead.

Final Fantasy VII
Luck appears as an battle element in Final Fantasy VII, not to be confused with "All Lucky 7s", the higher the character's luck is, the more EXP and rare items they acquire. Luck stats can be upgraded permanently via Luck Source.

Final Fantasy VIII
In Final Fantasy VIII, players are able to junction magic spells to their own luck stat. The way to do this is to have a GF learn Luck-J either on its own or with a Luck-J Scroll. Luck determines critical hits, items dropped/stolen in battle, and cards dropped/stolen in battle.

Final Fantasy IX
In Final Fantasy IX, luck appears to affect the rate of being inflicted by status ailments.

Final Fantasy X
Luck in Final Fantasy X affects the character's steal rate, chances of being inflicted by status ailments, the chances of critical hits, the chances of evading attacks, and accuracy. However, unlike it's predecessors, it can only be upgraded via activating a "Luck Sphere" in an empty node.

***CORRECTION*** Luck only affects the chances of critical hits, the chances of evading attacks, and the chances of landing an attack (accuracy).

The characters steal rate is always the same: first attempt = 100%, second attempt = 50%, third attempt = 25% and so on. This goes for each enemy for example if Rikku steals from a Bite Bug she will have a 100% chance of stealing but if Rikku or another character attempts to steal from the same Bite Bug again they will only have a 50% chance. If there is more than one Bite Bug or another enemy in the battle then the first attempt on that enemy will also have a 100% chance of stealing.

You may be wondering what affects receiving a rare item versus a common item when stealing...

Each time you perform a successful steal there is a 1/8 chance that you will receive a rare item and a 7/8 chance that you will receive a common item. So if it is your first steal attempt then you will have a 100% chance of stealing and a 1/8 or 12.5% chance of receiving a rare item and a 7/8 or 87.5% chance or receiving a common item. If it is your second attempt you will only have a 50% chance of stealing and therefore technically only a 1/16 or 6.25% chance of receiving a rare item and a 7/16 or 43.75% chance of receiving a common item and so on...

The chances of being inflicted by status ailments is only affected by the type/strength of attack and your characters' resistance to any particular status ailment.