Chain (term)

Chain is a recurring gameplay mechanism in the Final Fantasy series that involves chaining attacks or killed enemies.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
The game has a speed-based chain system. No matter the type of enemy, if they are killed fast enough the word chain appears on the screen, along with the number of enemies killed in-a-row.

Final Fantasy X-2
The parties can chain attacks by relentlessly attacking a single target. The chain is indicated by a Chain x1! message that pops on the screen while a unit is being hit. Both the player party and the enemy party can chain attacks. After each attack there is a two second window during which if the target is attacked again, the chain will keep on building. The longer the chain, the more damage the next attack inflicts. The window between attacks is two seconds for normal attacks and three seconds after a critical hit.

Chain x1! damage is normal damage plus 45%, and any hit that continues the chain adds 5% to the multiplier (e.g. "Chain x3!" means the attack dealt 55% bonus damage). The maximum bonus multiplier is more than 600%. On top of increased damage, attacking an opponent while it is still staggered from the previous attack (i.e. within the two second window) prevents the enemy from evading the next attack, and also prevents the enemy from executing its own attack.

If the player builds a long enough chain, the enemy may never get a chance to attack back, but if the enemy has already begun its attack animation, chaining attacks on it will not stop the attack. This is especially noticeable with enemies with slow attack animations, such as the Tonberry-type enemies.

Thief is a good job to use to build a chain, due to Thieves being fast and always attacking twice in succession. Yuna's Festivalist (International and HD Remaster versions) can also deal two attacks in one turn. The Gunner's Trigger Happy is one of the best ways to build a long chain.

Note that units afflicted with Stop cannot be chained, as they will never enter their stagger animation.

In Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster, achieving a Chain x99 will unlock the "Full Chain" trophy.

Final Fantasy XI
Experience Chains refer to extra experience gained while killing multiple monsters in a quick period of time. EXP Chains can only be made while fighting monsters that check as Even Match or more difficult. The time limit for killing another monster to make or continue the chain depends on the chain's level and the character's level. The bonuses and time limits for EXP Chains are listed below.

Final Fantasy XII
There are two types of chain: the player can chain kills by killing the same type of monster to obtain more loot as loot drops, and the player can chain their Quickening attacks to deal more damage to targets and to trigger finishing moves known as Concurrences.

Chaining Enemies
The player can build a chain by killing enemies of the same species. Genus breaks down all monsters in seven types, which are broken down further into different species or classes. As a player progressively kills enemies of the same species, the chain grows shown as a number above the party's ATB and HP bars in the lower-right of the screen. Chaining enemies makes it more likely they will drop rarer items, and makes it possible they will drop multiple items and more than one of the same item. As chain level increases, the number will flash when the next stage is reached, signified by the icon representing the dropped items changing - from a sack to a silver coin to a gold coin to a large gold coin.

At higher chain levels loot items may bestow beneficial effects on the party. These bonuses include 10% recovery of HP and MP, and bestowing Protect or Shell statuses. On Chain Level 0 there is no chance of bonuses, but at Level 1 there is a 10% chance of gaining HP or MP recovery when picking up a piece of loot, on Chain Level 2 the chance is 20% plus 5% chance the party leader is buffed with either Protect or Shell, and on the highest Chain Level there is a 25% chance to receive HP or MP recovery from loot, and a 5% chance all of the party being bestowed with either Protect or Shell.

All drops fall into one of the five categories: Always, High, Mid, Low, and Very Low. "Always" drops are rare and reserved to special battles, such as how Omega Mark XII always drops the Omega Badge. The effects of Chain Level on drops is as follows:

There are two exceptions to this rule: drops as a result of monographs and the Canopic Jar are unaffected by Chain Level but will still drop from chained enemies normally, so the player can receive multiple items as normal drops along with monograph and Canopic Jar drops.

Increasing the Chain Level is partially random, but is influenced by the player picking up the loot items enemies drop. Every time the player picks up loot the hidden counter towards the next level up will go down by 1 (Lv 0), 2 (Lv 1), or 3 (Lv 2). Even if the player picks up all loot the chain will still level up eventually, because the game forces a chain level up at certain stages. If the player does not pick up loot one can always level up the chain between 6 to 10 kills, reaching the highest Chain Level in 18 to 30 kills.

From time to time the player may notice the chain number flashing. This happens 5% of the time, and indicates the player can now pick up loot without penalty. When fighting multiple enemies at once the player can leave the loot on the ground and pick them up all at once when the chain number flashes. The no-penalty time ends when the player kills the next target and the chain number no longer flashes. Every time the chain number starts flashing there is a 60% chance it will keep flashing when the next target is killed.

A chain is broken when an enemy of a different species is killed. This is shown by the chain counter being crossed out, and it will start over counting the new enemy species as "1" for purposes of a new chain of that enemy type. Chains are broken if the player touches a Save Crystal or enters a town (any area where only Vaan is controllable).

Boarding the Strahl does not reset the chain, which the player can exploit to get rare loot from enemies that usually cannot be chained because there are no enemies of the same type nearby, such as the Tower at Pharos. The player can also kill other types of enemies without breaking the chain by using the Break and Poison spells. The Zone Out Glitch can also be used to chain enemies, even Rare Game.

Acquiring a 50 chain in battle unlocks Montblanc as a trophy in the Sky Pirate's Den.

Hidden Chains
On top of the regular chain, there are two "hidden chains" invisible to the player.

The first one is related to the normal chain and allows the player to gain multiple items in one loot drop. This effect activates when the player kills the same enemy in a row. The player can keep the chain going by killing enemies of the same species, even if they are different enemies, such as wolves, hyenas and worgens.

The player starts randomly receiving multiple units of the same item at a single loot drop after they have killed more than 10 of the same enemy in a row. The most possible items in one drop is 4 (achieved after killing 26 or more of the same enemy in a row), but the chance is low even at high chains. Two items at a single loot drop is the most the items in the "Very Low" category can drop. In some cases a monster can drop the same item in different categories (High, Mid, Low, Very Low) at the same time, which should not be confused with the multiple items bonus.

The player can also build a reverse chain by doing the opposite of building a normal chain and killing only different type of enemies in a row. When building a reverse chain the game gives no indication the chain is building, but it still affects the item drops in following manner:

If one builds up a reverse chain to more than 20 there is a 15% chance to receive the same item drop one would otherwise receive with a regular Chain Level 2.

Quickening Chain


Another type of chain is a Quickening chain. Every character has three Quickening moves, one for each Quickening level. The level 3 Quickenings are the most powerful, but require all of the character's MP to perform. All active members in the party who know Quickening moves and who are not Berserked or Confused or otherwise incapacitated, can join in the chain. When the player executes a Quickening the game imposes a time limit, and the player can attempt to chain as many Quickenings as possible within it.

The characters' available Quickenings come up for selection at random, and the player can shuffle through the options by the press of. Sometimes a Mist Charge option activates, which restores the character's MP to full, allowing them to perform more Quickenings. By successfully coining different level Quickenings together the player can trigger finishing attacks known as Concurrences.

Final Fantasy XIII


Building a chain bonus on the enemy target has a pivotal role in the Command Synergy Battle system. The player can fill up a chain gauge to deal successively more damage and, once the gauge is full, stagger the enemy. Staggered enemies can be launched into the air preventing them from hitting back. Whether staggered or not, a higher chain bonus directly increases damage from the party's attacks, and the chance to successfully inflict negative statuses. The chain bonus is capped at 999.9%.

All attacks are not equal to building the chain. Enemy chain bonuses are most effectively increased by the Ravager role but Ravager attacks do not increase the chain gauge's timer by much, making it easy to lose the chain bonus. Other roles don't increase the chain bonus by much, but increase the chain gauge's timer more than a Ravager.

When using Medic and Synergist roles the player may notice player characters also have a chain bonus. This chain bonus doesn't increase damage taken from enemies, but applies to the strength of healing spells and the duration of enhancements, and is increased by casting such spells and enhancements.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Stagger returns in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and works the same as in Final Fantasy XIII.

The formula for its chain bonus is as follows:
 * $$ChainBonus=(AbilityValue*RoleBonus)*(100-ChainResistance)*HiddenBonus$$

Final Fantasy XIV
Experience Chains in Final Fantasy XIV work similarly to Final Fantasy XI exp chains. They can only be gained while fighting monsters that are of the same level or above the player's current class level. Chain bonuses stack with linking, guildleve, level difference and party bonuses.

When chaining, a timer appears above the experience bar and the current chain number is displayed on the screen.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
When a Battle Piece is interacted with, such as an item being taken or an enemy being defeated, any adjacent enemy Battle Pieces turn berserk and attack the player, resulting in a chain of battles where the player has no chance to heal in-between.

This is critical to conserving Destiny Points on many boards by the player positioning their character to chain multiple enemies and minimize their movement on the board, while maximizing the DP earned from enemies. Enemies can be prevented from going Berserk by using certain skills.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Chains function similarly to how they do in Dissidia, but as Destiny Points are no longer used, chains serve a different purpose in practice. When enemies are chained the KP multiplier increases by the amount of enemies chained - chaining two enemies increases the multiplier to 2x KP, while chaining three increases it to 3x. Chains can also be cancelled by pressing before a chain battle.

When the chain is complete the player earns as much KP as they won from the enemies by fulfilling the KP Chance requirements, times the multiplier. Thus, defeating enemies in a chain can exponentially boost the KP the player earns. Some skills allow the player to chain enemies in new ways, such as the Cross Chain chaining all enemies on a diagonal to the player.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
When the player hits consecutive notes they build chains. At the end of the battle in the Battle Results screen their best chain is displayed, which affects overall rank the player will get for a cleared level.