Haste (status)

Haste (ヘイスト, Heisuto), also known as Fast, refers to the status effect that is beneficial to a character in that it allows a character to take a greater amount of action in a given amount of "game time".

In some games, such as Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX, equipping a character with the Running Shoes gives them the Auto Haste ability.

Final Fantasy
Haste, also known as FAST in the NES release, increases the speed of one ally, allowing their Hit rate to approximately double. It is gained from a level 4 Black Magic spell of the same name.

Final Fantasy II
The Haste status increases a character's hit rate. The higher the level, the higher the chance that the spell will work and the the higher the hit rate.

Final Fantasy III
The spell increases the Attack power of the target based on the power of the spell and increases the target's Attack Multiplier based on the Multiplier and Accuracy of the spell. Changing items in a character's hand will negate the effect of Haste. Haste is acquired from the level 6 White Magic spell of the same name. Unei can also cast Haste when she joins the party as a guest and this variant is cast over the entire party. The item Bacchus's Cider can also cast Haste.

Final Fantasy IV
The status increases a character's ATB gauge's filling-up speed. In non-DS versions, it decreases the speed modifier by 3 (default being 16 for all targets), and can only be decreased to 12, making the ATB gauge increase nearly 25% normal speed.

Final Fantasy V
Haste doubles the speed of a party member. The Hermes Sandals also provides Auto Haste, and the upgraded version of Haste, known as Hastega, casts Haste on the entire party in one go.

Final Fantasy VI
The status increases the speed of the player. Aside from the spell, it is also granted via Running Shoes, which grants Auto Haste. If a unit is immune to Slow, they are also immune to Haste.

Final Fantasy VII
Haste is a status which increases the speed of players. Interestingly enough, if a target is immune to Haste, the target will also be immune to Slow.

As well as the spell, Red XIII's Limit Break, Lunatic High, also grants the Haste status. The Enemy Skill Big Guard also grants Haste to the party, with the added benefits of Barrier and MBarrier. The item Speed Drink also casts Haste. The accessory Sprint Shoes also grants Auto Haste.

Final Fantasy VIII
Haste is a status which increases the characters' speed. It is gained through the spell of the same name, from the Mad Rush command ability, from the Auto Haste junction ability, or from Quistis's Limit Break when the Crisis Level is anything above level 1. It lasts for 32 seconds, but also makes other buffs wear off faster.

Final Fantasy IX
Haste is a status which increases the speed of players. It is a White Magic spell exclusive to only Eiko. It can also be granted through the use of the auto-ability Auto Haste. Carbuncle, an Eidolon used only by Eiko, can grant Haste along with Reflect by equipping Eiko with the Emerald Gem.

Final Fantasy X
Haste is a status which increases the frequency a player receives an attack round. It is a spell learned on Tidus' section of the sphere grid, along with the upgraded Hastega. It can also be granted through the use of the Auto Haste ability, as well as the SOS Haste ability when HP is low.

Final Fantasy X-2
Haste is a status which increases the speed of players. It is also granted through the use of SOS Haste (only after passing through all the gates on Highroad Winds garment grid) and Auto Haste (only after passing through all the gates on Mounted Assault garment grid). It is shown in battle as the ATB bar turning red for no-wait abilities.

Final Fantasy XI
Faced for the first time with real-time combat, Haste in Final Fantasy XI is extremely useful and controversial to the playerbase, and appears in a number of different forms. Haste functions for unknown reasons on a scale of 1028 parts, but is viewable to the players as a rough percentage value instead of a literal numeric value. For example, Haste+5% is actually equal to 50 in 1028 parts, or a real increase of only 4.88%. All of these forms of haste stack onto one another unless otherwise noted. Specific forms of haste also have defined caps, and an overall cap of roughly Haste+80%.


 * The literal Haste status, better known as Magical Haste, decreases the delay of a character's attack rounds and spell recasting time only. They do not affect the pace at which a player may launch a ranged attack, nor does the reduction in weapon delay reduce the amount of TP gained per swing, nor does it reduce the casting time of spells.  Haste in this form can be obtained through the actual Haste spell cast on a single target (150/1024, theoretically +15%), or the Bard's two stackable March songs (combined 200/1028, or 9%+11% under normal conditions) to all members of a party within the Bard's area of effect.  The cap on magical haste is an awkward 448 of 1028 parts, or about 43.75%.  Refueling and Animated Wail, Blue Magic spells, grant 10% and 15% bonuses to haste, respectively.  Furthermore, the Garuda Summon can cast the quickly fleeting Hastega spell, affecting all players within its area of effect for the same bonus as the Haste spell.


 * Haste is also available to players as a literal stat on their weapons and armors. Coined Gear Haste, it functions exactly in the same manner as magical haste (in that it will only reduce a character's attack delay and spell recast), but has an independent cap of 256 parts per 1028.  For this reason, some players will choose to create gear sets with a cumulative Haste+26% to compensate for the final 6/1028 parts they would otherwise miss through equipping Haste+25% (250/1028) in gear normally.  Catastrophe, a Weapon Skill specific to the Dark Knight Relic Weapon Scythe, Apocalypse, grants 10/1028 gear haste for a duration after its use depending on the player's TP, making the Dark Knight uniquely relevant in long damage-over-time situations such as Dynamis and Einherjar.


 * Much like gear haste, haste gained from Job Abilities, such as the Samurai's Hasso command, have a 256/1028 cap. However, such haste is usually coined in-game as an increase in Attack Speed, and as such specifically does not affect the recast timers for spells, but only weapon delay.  Again, this does not include ranged weapons.  Hasso specifically increases attack speed by 10%.  Other abilities such as Desperate Blows and Haste Samba also count toward this kind of haste.  Though Spirit Surge, the Dragoon Two-hour, is technically an ability, it grants 25% worth of magical haste.


 * The term Fast-Cast appears as both a permanent Job Trait and visibly on gear much like the Haste stat. Fast-Cast differs from the Haste status in that it will not only decrease a player's recasting time for a given spell, but will also shorten the actual casting time of the spell itself.  A permanent trait for Red Mages, Fast-Cast makes the Job excellent for both tanking and stunning, enabling them to maintain Utsusemi shadows or quickly Stun catastrophic enemy attacks.  Fast-Cast does not affect attack speed in any manner.


 * The Dual Wield ability is another Job Trait available to Ninjas and much more recently Dancers; it can also be found on some armors. Dual Wield lowers the literal Delay stat on any combined pair of one-handed weapons that are being dual-wielded by the player, increasing the frequency of attack rounds at the expense of a dip in TP gain per swing.  Though a character may have the Dual Wield trait active, they will not receive its benefits unless two weapons are equipped into the Main and Sub slots in their gear selection (e.g., equipping two katana, an axe and a sword, or a dagger and a club would activate the effect; equipping a sword & shield or a staff & grip will not activate the effect).


 * Snapshot is yet another trait available originally to Rangers only, but has more recently appeared like Fast-Cast on actual gear. Unlike normal melee combat which occurs automatically, players are required to fire ranged attacks manually. Each point of Snapshot reduces the delay of ranged weapons by 2% without decreasing the value of TP gained per shot, allowing players to activate a ranged attack sooner than normal.


 * Hand-to-hand weapons are also calculated in a unique manner. A trait specific to Monks and Puppetmasters is called Martial Arts, and each upgrade to the trait reduces the innate delay of a character's hand-to-hand attacks in much the same manner that Dual Wield does, with TP penalty.  Monks and Puppetmasters must use hand-to-hand weaponry to activate Martial Arts; equipping staves or daggers, for example, will not activate the trait.  At Level 75, with Martial Arts VI, a Monk's hand-to-hand delay is reduced from the innate 400 to 300.

In regard to Desperate Blows, the ability grants an increase to Attack Speed when a Dark Knight is wielding a 2-handed weapon such as a scythe, great sword, or great axe. With the addition of Desperate Blows to the Dark Knight's arsenal, it became possible to achieve haste levels approaching a 100% reduction in delay. As a Group 2 Merit, Desperate Blows originally was only capable of being raised by 3 points, to an Attack Speed increase of 15%. This allowed wielders of the Rune Chopper (a great axe) and aforementioned Apocalypse to exploit what has become known as the "DRK Zerg" strategy with few complications (still championed today by Kraken Club owners, a one-handed weapon that may randomly attack up to 8 times in one attack round). When Group 2 merits were raised to allow 5 points of upgrading, it enabled an increase of 25% to Attack Speed. This would have created a data overflow, wherein the amount of weapon delay reduction the player obtained exceeded the 1028 cap (i.e., an interval of literally 0 time passing between attack rounds). Likely, this would have caused said players' consoles to crash as servers would have been unable to compute the data and returned erroneous data packets. In lieu of addressing the issue accordingly, the development team introduced a harsh cap of 80% on all cumulative haste for the entire game (prior to the cap, haste of about 95% was possible). As the amount of damage produced with a reduction in delay is exponential, the effects were horrendous on the playerbase. Players could no longer exceed about 824/1028, rendering the Rune Chopper almost worthless and extremely limiting the damage potential of the Apocalypse. The development team's handling of this particular exploit (what was actually an existing feature of the game) is considered heinous by players, who see themselves as being wrongfully punished for a lack of foresight in regard to the issues Desperate Blows may have prompted.

Final Fantasy XII

 * "The flow of time for the character is hastened, reducing time required to act. The effect is temporary".

Haste decreases the time it takes for an action to be performed

Final Fantasy XIII
Haste is granted by the Synergist's Haste spell or through the use of a  Fortisol. It makes the ATB gauge charge faster.

Final Fantasy Tactics
Haste increases the Charge Time (CT) recovery rate of a unit.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
The haste status increases a unit's CT recovery rate.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Haste can only be cast by stacking Life and two Cure spells together.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Haste is a spell that can only be cast by stacking Clear and Thunder together.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales
Haste is a status effect that makes it so that the player affected by it goes first the next turn.

Cards that cause Haste

 * Cactuar's Spinning Needle
 * Carbuncle's Quickstomp
 * Odin's Sleipnir

8-Bit Theater

 * In the Castle of Ordeals, Red Mage made it appear that he had hasted the zombie dragon into red shift, making him fossil fuel in seconds, earning Black Mage respect, before losing it when he revealed it was just an illusion, and that stacked haste spells only boost the time the spell lasts, not the potency.

Gallery
Hast