Poach



Poach, also known as Morph , Metamorphose, Metamorph, Card or Transmute, is a recurring ability in the Final Fantasy series. Poach allows the player to kill low-HP enemies and receive an item. Normally, items received in this fashion are rare and often cannot be acquired by other means. Some stronger enemies and all bosses are immune to this technique.

Final Fantasy VI
Metamorphose is the attack used by Ragnarok when summoned. Ragnarok has a chance to turn an enemy into one of four items, with varying rates of success. Some enemies have a higher chance of being turned into one item than the others. For example, of the four items a Veil Dancer can be turned into, three of them are Potions and the fourth is Miracle Shoes, thus while there are only two items the Blade Dancer can become, there is only a 25% chance of that item being Miracle Shoes.

Since an esper can be summoned only once per battle, the enemy must be killed normally and another of the same type encountered to try again. With Gogo's Mimic ability, a player can have unlimited summons per battle by having Gogo mimic the summon, passing the other characters' turns, and having Gogo repeat the mimic.

There are 27 possible morph patterns coded into the game that any enemy can use. IDs 0-31 are used in the game code to determine which morph pattern, though 26-31 are duplicates. Set 12, 13, and 15 goes unused.

Final Fantasy VII
The Command Materia Morph is found in the Temple of the Ancients. When used, it deals a small amount of damage equal to 1/8th of a normal attack, but if it kills the enemy it will be turned into an item. Yuffie's Conformer ignores the damage penalty. Morph does the same damage regardless of enemies' row.

Final Fantasy VIII
Card turns enemies into Triple Triad cards, usually the card of the enemy itself. Some enemies have a 17/256 (6.6%) chance of rewarding a boss card instead. AP and item drops, including card drops, can still be earned, but no EXP is awarded for carded enemies.

Enemies may be affected by Card even at full HP, but the success chance is very low.

The success rate of Card is as follows:
 * $$Card\% = 100 * (TargetMaxHP - TargetHP) / TargetMaxHP$$

Card is learned by the GF Quezacotl for 40 AP, and may be taught to any GF using the Gambler's Spirit item. In addition to bosses, enemies that do not have Triple Triad cards, like Esthar Soldiers and G-Soldiers, also cannot be carded. PuPu and Vysage do have Triple Triad cards, but they still cannot be carded.

Final Fantasy XII
Poach is a Technick used to kill enemies in HP Critical to acquire an additional piece of loot. When poached, the enemy gives no EXP, gil, LP, or loot drops.

Enemies have two Poach slots. The first slot has a 95% chance of being the Poach item retrieved, while the second slot has a 5% chance. Some enemies have the same item in both slots. Poach is unaffected by battle Chain.

The Technick is bought for 7,000 gil in Rabanastre, Nalbina Fortress and Bhujerba and costs 30 License Points.

In the International Zodiac Job System version, Poach can be used by five job classes; Uhlan, Machinist, Archer, Time Mage, and Black Mage, although the Black Mage must acquire the license for the Esper Zalera and the Technick Steal.

Final Fantasy Tactics
Poach is a support ability the Thief class learns for 200 JP. It allows the character to poach the remains of slain monsters. Once poached, the player can access Poachers' Dens at trade cities, where the poached objects will be made into items.

Luso's special job class, Game Hunter, has Poach as an innate ability. The player can tame and breed their own monsters and then poach them back in the battle, which is a requirement to poach enemies not normally encountered, such as Wild Boar.

There are two glitches of this skill, one is the Poach bug which allows player to repetitively poach certain monsters. Another glitch relates to the weapon equipped by the poacher; some weapon randomly bursts the additional offensive magick to the target (for instance, Holy for Holy Lance). If the target monster does not die from the first weapon attack, but rather from the secondary magick effect, the monster will simply be KO'd rather than poached.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Transmute is an Alchemist skill. It allows the caster to transform HP Critical units into items. Similarly, the Hunter's Hunting skill attacks an enemy with little power, but awards the player an extra piece of loot if the attack kills the enemy.

Etymology
The ability has been known as Metamorphose.