Attack formations

Attack formations are the types of attacks that a battle can begin with. Usually they involve who gets to strike first.


 * Normal formation: Characters and opponents have an equal shot at getting the first turn.
 * Preemptive attack: The player party gets to strike the enemy first, and the characters' ATB gauges always start filled up. In later titles the monsters would also face away from the party members, allowing physical attacks to deal double damage for one turn.
 * Surprise attack: Sometimes also called Ambush. The enemy gets a chance to strike the party first, and the party's ATB gauges always start empty.
 * Back attack: This is similar to the surprise attack, however, the party is attacked from behind, and each character is in the opposite row which he or she normally is in. For example, a physical fighter in the front row would be placed in the back row.
 * Side attack: In this formation, the party surrounds the enemy, with two party members lining up on each side of the battle screen (or two and one if there is a three-character party). Any party member who hits an enemy with a physical attack while its back is turned deals double damage. Most spells that target all allies will only target allies on the same side of the battlefield. All characters' ATB gauges start filled up. During a side attack the party cannot flee the battle. Some fights, such as the Goddess in Final Fantasy VI, are always side attacks. Side Attacks only appear in Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, and in the Tactics series.
 * Pincer attack: This is similar to the side attack, however, the party is surrounded by the opponents, and all characters' ATB gauges start out empty. Any character physically struck from behind takes double damage, and spells that usually affect all opponents only affect those on one side of the battlefield. Some fights, such as the Cranes in Final Fantasy VI, are always pincer attacks. Pincer Attacks only appear in Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII although the battle against Tros in Final Fantasy X features a pincer attack formation.
 * Turn-Based attack: Prominent in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, both teams start off with a number of members and when the battle begins, the fastest unit on the field goes first and so on down the line. Faster characters usually get in more turns than slower ones. The accuracy of the attack is determined on what direction you attack the opponent from. Side and Back attacks are more accurate than ones from the front. Final Fantasy X somewhat follows this formation.

Final Fantasy V
In Final Fantasy V not all enemies can be preempted at all; it depends on the enemies and their precoded battle formations. Also, some enemies always back attack the party unless they have the Thief's Caution ability equipped. The Ninja learns First Strike which doubles the party's chance of preemptive strike from 32/256 to 64/256. If the party is back attacked, they can use the Return spell to start the battle over, usually without the back attack.

Final Fantasy VI
A random battle's attack formation depends on which types are allowed in the area the battle takes place. If any character is equipped with an Alarm Earring Pincer and Back Attacks are disabled. As in Final Fantasy V, not all monster formations can be battled in all attack formations; most formations allow all types, some disable pincer attacks, a few disable other types. Most boss battles disable all but normal attacks.

Pincer and back attacks will never be a preemptive attacks. For a normal attack there is a 1/8 chance of a preemptive attack. Side attacks have a 7/32 chance of being a preemptive attack. If any character is equipped with a Gale Hairpin the chances are doubled. Certain monster formations (mostly bosses) disable preemptive attacks altogether.

Final Fantasy VII
Each area in the game has a set number of battle formations that are possible to occur during a random encounter. When a random encounter is about to start the game performs a check to see if any of the "special attack formations" apply. There is a base chance of 16/256 of getting a pre-emptive battle, but a mastered Pre-emptive Materia boosts this up to 64/256. The maximum is 85/256, roughly a 1/3 chance.

If the area has any special formation battles (Back Attack, Side Attack and Pincer Attack) the chance of getting them is calculated first. These battles have the player at a disadvantage, but a mastered Pre-emptive Materia helps protect against these battles by halving the chances of the disadvantageous ones. The game uses two types of check in order to detect whether of not a party member has a mastered Pre-emptive Materia equipped: a single character check and a global check. The single character check is made whenever the player changes Materia or Equipment. If the character does not have a mastered Pre-emptive Materia the game will remove the "Ambush Alert" bonus, which halves the chance of Back and Pincer Attacks, and it doesn't matter if another character does actually have a mastered Pre-emptive equipped. The global check is used when entering the menu or exiting the PHS screen by running the single character check on each character in the party in turn, starting from the top. What this means is that only the bottommost character in the party counts for whether they have a mastered Pre-emptive Materia equipped.

After the game has ascertained whether the player gets the Ambush Alert bonus or not, and a random battle is about to begin, it will go through the four possible special formation battles for the area in the following order:

The game first checks for the Back Attack formations. It's impossible to pre-emptive these battles, but the Ambush Alert reduces the chance of Back Attacks by half. The next check is for the Side Attack, where the enemy is in the middle and the player characters on the sides. The final possible battle is a Pincer Attack where the player characters are surrounded by enemies. Ambush Alert reduces the chance of Pincer Attacks by half. The game rolls a random number between 0 and 63 to determine if a special formation battle occurs and which of the special battles it is.

The way encounters are decided on the worldmap are slightly different. Instead of a single random value being used for all four types of special attack formations, they are checked individually. This means the chance of not getting a special attack formation on the worldmap is not the sum of the chances, but instead the three chances of not getting a Back Attack, not getting a Side Attack and not getting a Pincer Attack multiplied together.

Final Fantasy VIII
The player can guard against back attacks with Cerberus's Alert ability, although it does not protect against fixed encounters, such as the second fixed Ruby Dragon battle at Deep Sea Research Center before fighting Bahamut. The Initiative ability allows the unit to begin battle at full ATB bar, but there is no ability to increase the rate of preemptive strike.

Final Fantasy IX
Freya is the only one who can improve the party's chance of a preemptive strike by equipping Initiative. The Alert ability decreases the chance of back attack in turn.

Final Fantasy X
Without the Initiative ability, there is a 12.5% chance of being Ambushed, a 12.5% chance of getting a Pre-Emptive Strike. With Initiative, there is a 25% chance of Pre-Emptive Strike and all Ambushes are eliminated (apart from those in fixed encounters). The player can use the First Strike ability to always get a turn first, even while being ambushed. This is especially useful in Final Fantasy X because characters can be swapped during battle.

Final Fantasy XIII
In Final Fantasy XIII the player can preempt the enemies, but the enemies can't ambush the party. The player can preemptive the battle and start with a full ATB gauge by engaging an enemy in battle before the exclamation mark appears above them. If the enemy is already engaged in battle with another enemy, they don't detect the party and the party can always ambush the pair, although after the battle starts, both enemy parties tend to concentrate on attacking the player party. The player can use a Deceptisol to make themselves invisible to enemies, and thus always preemptive them, with the adamantoise enemies as exceptions.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
Formazioni d'attacco