Charge Time



Charge Time, sometimes abbreviated as CT, is the measure of time of how long certain abilities take to be performed.

Final Fantasy IV
In the PSP release, the charge time can be seen by the green bar overlapping the full yellow ATB bar when a character charges for a spell or ability.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Much like its predecessor, it functions the same way.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Just like the original, its appearance and function is the same as the previous two entries.

Final Fantasy VI


When using Cyan's special command, the player must wait for a bar to charge. The longer the player charges, the better attack they can execute. In the smartphone release the player can choose the power of the attack outright and Cyan will charge it in the background allowing other attacks to be performed meanwhile.

Final Fantasy VIII
Although not called "Charge Time", summoning a Guardian Force takes a moment to charge, similar to Charge Time in later games. The better the compatibility between the summoner and the GF, the faster the charge will be. After the GF command has been selected, the chosen GF's HP replaces the summoner's, and any damage the character receives during the charge is attributed to the GF, not the summoner.

If the GF's HP is depleted to 0 during the charge period, the summon is cancelled. This can also be used for strategic advantage, to summon a GF before an opponent unleashes a strong attack, in order to sacrifice the GF to survive the attack.

Final Fantasy X-2
The regular Attack command requires no Charge Time, but using most other abilities does. After a character's ATB bar has filled and a new command is selected, a purple "wait" time-bar will replace the green ATB bar, signifying the attack is charging. Once the purple bar has filled, the character will execute the action.

Once executed, the character gets another turn immediately. Each ability has its own Charge Time, and the best skills have the longest waiting times. The Charge Time of specific skillsets can be shortened by using special equipment, mastering specific abilities with that purpose on the skillsets' respective jobs and through Garment Grids.

Special Dresspheres have Limit Break-like abilities which takes full "charge" of the ATB gauge, which is possibly alluded in Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 by Full ATB Skills.

Final Fantasy XII
All actions have a Charge Time, which varies depending on the action. When a character performs an action, a bar next to their name in the battle menu fills up. This is known as the Charge Time, and after the bar has filled, the character will perform their action, whereupon the word "action" appears on the screen. An action's "action time" is always the same, but the Charge Time can be reduced via the Swiftness Augments purchased on the License Board, buffs like Haste, and setting the Battle Speed setting to the fastest.

Magnetize is a battle condition in the battle against Vinuskar in the Stilshrine of Miriam, and Ultima in the Great Crystal, where all metallic equipment slows down the wearer, and even spells take longer to cast. If the party equip any swords, hammers, axes, and the like, they could take three times as much Charge Time to dish out a single attack. Curiously, guns are unaffected.

Most stronger enemies, including bosses, have 0 Charge Time as their passive ability. Against these enemies the player is best setting the Battle Speed to the fastest, as playing with slow Battle Speeds only hurts the player. When wearing the Battle Harness, the character only Counterattacks if they are attacked during the Charge Time stage, and countering halts the Charge Time bar for the duration of the counterattack.

There are quite a few factors involved calculating the actual Charge Time:
 * $$Charge Time = (\text{CT} \times \text{CS-MOD} + \text{RAN0.5}) \times \text{L-MOD} \times \text{B-MOD} \times \text{ST-MOD} \times \text{M-MOD}$$


 * CT = Charge Time Factor (CT)
 * CS-MOD = Character's Speed Modifier
 * RAN0.5 = Random number between 0 and 0.5 (seconds)
 * L-MOD = License "Swiftness" Modifier
 * B-MOD = Battle Speed Modifier
 * ST-MOD = Status Effect Modifier
 * M-MOD = Metallic Modifier when magnetic field is active.

Charge Time Factor (CT)
All actions have a Charge Time Factor (CT). Each type of weapon comes with a standard CT. The Charge Time Factor is directly proportionate to the actual charge time, so the tables below can be used to compare the speed of using different weapons. Using items, performing Quickenings and summoning an Esper have no Charge Time.

Magicks' Charge Time Factor is always 30, no matter which spell is being cast, however, their Effect Capacity varies and when casting the most powerful of magicks no one else can act while a character is casting a spell, making using the most powerful spells much slower than using other actions. In the International Zodiac Job System version, the Charge Time Factor is always 23.


 * Better daggers have shorter CT:
 * Danjuro (21)
 * Zwill Crossblade (22)
 * Platinum Dagger, Orichalcum Dirk, Avenger (23)
 * Gladius, Main Gauche, Chopper (24)
 * Assassin's Dagger, Mage Masher, Dagger (25)

Character's Speed Modifier (CS-MOD)
Character's Speed Modifier is determined by the character's Speed stat. However, the effect on the actual Charge Time is only obvious when Speed is low (below 46) and the bonus becomes smaller and smaller as Speed increases. The highest possible Speed of 99 only makes charging 21% faster compared to the lowest possible Speed of 23.

License "Swiftness" Modifier (L-MOD)
Each "Swiftness" License results in a 12% reduction in the Swiftness Modifier (L-MOD) up to a total of 36% reduction when all three have been bought. This differs slightly from the in-game description which states a "10%" reduction.

Battle Speed Modifier (B-MOD)
One can choose between six battle speeds.

A fast Battle Speed (low B-MOD) reduces Charge Time while the Action Time stays the same. This means that by setting the Battle Speed fast one can reduce the relative disadvantage of actions with long CTs, as the action stage stays the same. However, when the characters are fleeing, setting the Battle Speed to minimum makes the enemies get their turns slower, but the party will still keep running away at the same pace.

Status Modifier (ST-MOD)
Various Status Effectes affect the Charge Time speed. The statuses can also be stacked.


 * Under normal circumstances Slow and Haste would replace each other, but when a character is Slowed while equipping the Hermes Sandals the two effects cancel each other out.

Metallic Modifier
The severity of the penalty is calculated using a modifier based on the total metal value of equipment worn by all party members.

Final Fantasy XIV
Almost every spell has a certain charge time, displayed on it's description. Using spells on a different class incurs an increase of roughly 50% on the cast time. While charging a spell, players cannot move or the spell is cancelled; selecting the spell again also cancels it.

If a player is hit during the charge time, there's a chance for it to be cancelled, with no MP loss. Charging may also be cancelled by being stunned, petrified, silenced, put to sleep, paralyzed (MP is wasted if the spell is cancelled this way) or KO'd. Certain spells such as Holy or Blizzara have no charge time and cannot be cancelled by any means, and the Thaumaturge spell Sanguine Rite prevent charge interruption.

Final Fantasy Tactics
All battle units, most spells and abilities have a Charge Time which allows the battle units to reach their active turn or the command ability to commence when the Charge Time gauge is fulfilled at 100 CT (while direct attack and other skills do not require charging time). Statistic Speed determines how fast the CT gauge to be fulfilled. For instance, when there are two battle units in the field, unit A has the Speed of 10 and B's is 5, unit A requires 100 ÷ 10 = 10 units of timespan to fulfill the CT gauge, while B spends 20 units, so A will act earlier than B and able to act twice between B's active turns.

After the unit takes a turn, its CT will be decremented depending on whether it has moved and/or acted. A unit that both moved and acted will have its CT reduced by 100; a unit that moved or acted but did not do both will have its CT reduced by 80; a unit that did not move or act will have its CT reduced by 60. In any event, the leftover CT is then capped at 60, and the unit's CT gauge will begin charging anew.

While initiating the command ability that requires charging, an independent and hidden CT gauge will start charging based on the Speed of the ability itself. Except for Jump, The Speed of the ability user, as well as under the status effect Haste or Slow has no effect on the charging speed of the ability. However, Stop does halt the charging of the ability until the effect wears off from its user.

If the Speed of the ability is lower than the user's so that the ability is not commenced before the user reaches its next active turn, player will need to choose the command "Wait" to continue the charging progress, otherwise initiating another command ability will cancel the previous charging ability. Except for performing Jump attack, charging an ability will make the user unable to dodge and take roughly 50% extra damage from physical attacks.

Certain spells, such as Haste, have the ability to increase a unit's Speed, thus fulfilling the CT gauge earlier, while other spells, like Quick, instantly fill up a character's CT gauge. The Support Ability Short Charge cuts down CT of all magicks significantly. There is also the dummied out ability called CT 0. When equipped, it removes the charge time from every abilities. This ability appears more to be a debug tool than an ability intended to be in the game.

CT is also a special command ability of Arithmetician which allows the character to target magick based on the units' current CT gauge. This is useful to target most (if not all) of the units in the battlefield with Magick.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
CT represents where in the Turn Order the unit is. Haste will decrease the time between turns, whereas Slow will increase it. Units with higher Speed will have more frequent turns, while units with lower Speed will have less frequent turns.

Certain Enemy Abilities such as Illua's Time Blade ability and the Lamia's Slap has the special effect "CT 0" which will completely drain the target's CT, thus placing them at the bottom of the turn order.