Quezacotl (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quezacotl is one of the first two Guardian Forces available in Final Fantasy VIII. It is a Thunder-elemental bird-like being. Its name is shortened from "Quetzalcoatl" to Quezacotl due to the character limit. Though it also appears in some other games, Quezacotl's main appearance is in Final Fantasy VIII in which it debuted.

Profile
Quezacotl is a pale green winged creature with darker yellow wing-tips and darker green patterns around its body. It has no legs, but has an elaborate tail. Though bird-like, its body appears smooth rather than feathery.

Obtained
Quezacotl is obtained by entering the tutorials from Squall's desk in the classroom at the very beginning of the game. If Squall does not access the tutorial before leaving Balamb Garden for the first time, Quistis will give both Quezacotl and Shiva to Squall before reaching the world map (in the Japanese version, Squall and Quistis will leave without any GF if Squall did not access the tutorial before).

Obtaining Quezacotl in the Steam version earns the player the achievement Quezacotl.

Battle
Quezacotl's attack, Thunder Storm, is a Thunder-elemental attack that damages all enemies. Quezacotl's summon time is 13.3s, which, according to the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, allows the player to boost its damage to around 180% of normal damage using a regular PlayStation controller.

Its damage is calculated as follows:
 * $$Damage = 60 * Level / 10 + 44 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (265 - TargetSpr) / 8 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * 44 / 256 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * Boost / 100 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (100 + SummonMagBonus) / 100 $$
 * $$Damage = Damage * (900 - ElemDef) / 100:$$

Elemental Defense starts at 800 (0%), 900 nullifies damage and 1000 absorbs it. If an enemy is shown to be weak against an element, its Elemental Defense is below 800. If damage becomes negative (due to high Elemental Defense), the target is healed by that amount.

Compatibility
The charge time for summoning depends on the compatibility between the character and the GF and the Battle Speed. The greater the compatibility, the less time it takes to summon. Compatibility can be boosted with compatibility boosting items, by casting magic that is the same element as the Guardian Force and by summoning the GF during battle. Compatibility is reduced by using "opposing" magic to the GF's element and other summons.

The below values are the base compatibility values with all playable characters at the start of the game.

Stats
The following table represents the base stats:

Abilities
Abilities learned naturally by Quezacotl are listed below:

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Quezacotl from Final Fantasy VIII appears as a lightning-elemental card.

Etymology
Quezacotl's name in Final Fantasy VIII was shortened from Quetzalcoatl due to name size constraints. It is known as "Golgotha" in the French translation and "Quetzal" in the Spanish and Italian translations.