Slots (ability type)

Slots (スロット) is an ability that appears in several games in the Final Fantasy series where various effects can happen when certain combinations are made. It is usually associated with the Gambler class. Slots resembles a, although unlike most real-life slot machines, in some games the player can control the reels making it a game of skill rather than a game of chance.

Final Fantasy VI


Slots is Setzer Gabbiani's special ability that consists of three spinning slot reels, which the player stops one by one. All custom Slot attacks are unblockable and are based on Setzer's magic power. The Slot command may also be used by the hidden character Gogo.

Final Fantasy VII
Slots is the second of Cait Sith's two Limit Breaks. The reels determine what various effects will occur, depending on the combination of the six possible symbols. Getting three same symbols to line up executes the best attacks, but is also the hardest to achieve.

Tifa Lockhart's Limit Break system uses a series of slots to determine damage and success of each hit. Each time the reel hits "Yeah!" damage is doubled, but each time it hits "Miss" the attack does not connect. Stopping the reel on "Hit" allows the attack to connect, but does not increase its power. The player stacks successive levels of Tifa's Limit Break - ending in Final Heaven - using the reels.

The Battle Square also uses a slots system to decide handicaps.

Both Tifa's Limit Break slots and the Battle Square handicap slots can be controlled by the player, but Cait Sith's Slots Limit Break is more complicated than that; the reels are meant to be rigged against the player to reduce their chances of spinning the best combinations.

Manipulating Cait Sith's Slots

 * For the list of different Slot combinations, see here.

There is a trick to manipulate Cait Sith's Slots reels: pressing will stop the reels, and tapping it repeatedly slows the reels down. This allows the player to find out where in the pattern they are and what symbol is coming up next. This way it also becomes easy to memorize the reels.

The first reel in Cait Sith's slots always stops when the player presses the action button, however, the next two reels behave differently depending on whether the so-called "Evil Flag" is activated or not. Without the Evil Flag, the second and third reels help the player get the same symbol as on the first reel by moving on for up to four spaces. With the Evil Flag on, the reels stop exactly where the player presses the button.

If the player matches the symbols on the first two reels, the third will prevent the player from getting a matching three by moving on to the next space. In other words, when the Evil Flag is activated, it is impossible to line up three symbols and thus access the best attacks under normal conditions. There is a trick to overcome this, however (see below).

The game decides whether to activate the Evil Flag or not depending on what the symbol is on the first reel and on the timer. Evil Flag is deactivated if the number of seconds the player has played is divisible by a certain number, and the number varies from symbol to symbol.


 * Crown and Star: Flag is always off.
 * BAR and Moogle: Flag is off if the time is divisible by two (50% chance)
 * Heart: Flag is off if the time is divisible by four (25% chance)
 * Cait Sith: Flag is off if the time is divisible by 64. (1.5625% chance)

Each reel consists of a pattern of sixteen symbols that is repeated continually.


 * Reel 1: Crown, Moogle, Star, Heart, BAR, Crown, Star, Cait Sith, BAR, Heart, Moogle, Crown, Star, Cait Sith, Moogle, BAR
 * Reel 2: BAR, Crown, Star, Cait Sith, Crown, BAR, Heart, Moogle, Star, Cait Sith, Crown, BAR, Moogle, Star, Crown, Heart
 * Reel 3: Crown, Star, Heart, Crown, BAR, Star, Cait Sith, Moogle, Crown, BAR, Heart, Crown, Star, BAR, Crown, Moogle

In order to get the desired symbol on the first reel, the player must know its preceding symbol to know when to press the button. Once the first symbol is acquired successfully, the second and third reels are easy to manipulate if the Evil Flag is deactivated. If the Evil Flag is activated, the player can trick it by first lining up two matching symbols, and for the final symbol, quickly hit the action button twice when it shows up. If done correctly, the third reel doesn't really stop, but the three symbols are lined up when the player confirms the action. The feat is most easily achieved while playing on an emulator and slowing down the game's speed.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-


In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, summons, Limit Breaks and leveling up are determined by the Digital Mind Wave reels. The reels keep on spinning as long as Zack has SP to expend, and the player can't directly influence the slots' outcome. The player can only boost their odds of certain combinations by equipping certain Materia. Certain status ailments and equipment prevent the reels from spinning.

Final Fantasy VIII
Selphie Tilmitt's Limit Break is called Slots. Slots seemingly randomly choose a spell and the amount of times it will be cast. Slots do not use up any stocked magic. A single Slots draw-up contains a set amount of commands, meaning that if the player accidentally skips over The End, it will come up again if the player keeps shuffling the slots, but also, The End has a chance to never come up in that particular draw-up. The player can cancel the action and choose Selphie's Limit Break again to get a new draw-up of magic.

As it is random whether the player ends up with good spell combinations or not, the player can equip the Defend command to Selphie when fighting strong enemies that use only physical attacks, such as T-Rexaur and Wendigo, and while in critical health, put up the Defend command making her immune to physical damage. The effect won't wear off until the next command is chosen, so on her next turn, Selphie is free to shuffle through the Slots for as long as is needed.

Mechanics
To calculate the Slots Level:


 * $$Slots Level = Level / 10 + Crisis Level + [0..4] - 1$$

While the player can influence the Slots Level via Selphie's level and her Crisis Level, the next step, Slots Mod, is random.


 * $$SpellSet Value = Slots Mod * 12 + Slots Level$$

The game has a list that determines which SpellSet is used depending on the SpellSet's value.

E.g., SpellSet# = 35 would get Set 14

After the set is selected, the game picks a spell from the set, which is what Selphie is able to cast. The numbers are maximum amount of casts; the actual amount of casts is anything between one and the maximum.

Spells in each Set:

Slots Special Spells
Further diving into the game code reveals two other spells specific to Selphie, Percent (a Reduce-HP-to-1 move similar to Matra Magic), and Catastrophe (major damage to all enemies). These two spells were removed from Selphie's spell list in the final build of Final Fantasy VIII, but are still visible using third-party data exploitation programs.

Final Fantasy X
Wakka uses reels as his Overdrive, and the player can control the outcomes exactly, unlike for Setzer or Cait Sith. The faster it's completed, the more damage the attack does. Wakka gains new reels as a random prize in blitzball tournaments and leagues. Each reel has a different ability.

Element Reels
Wakka spins the slots, with the four magical elements: water, fire, thunder and ice. If three similar icons (I.e Fire-Fire-Fire) are lined up, Wakka unleashes a blitzball attack of that element on all enemies with full damage. If two out of three are the same, Wakka unleashes one attack at random with this element. If all three are different, Wakka just attacks at random, but with more attack power than a normal attack. This Reel is available from the beginning.

Attack Reels
Wakka spins the slots, this time with various attack multipliers (1 Hit, 2 Hit as well as a Miss slot). The stopped multipliers determine how many attacks take place; for instance, if Wakka lines up 1 Hit, 1 Hit, 2 Hit, he would attack the enemy four times. If the symbols lined up are all the same, the attack is doubled; e.g., three 2 Hits will attack 12 times (6 attacks x2). In the initial releases of Final Fantasy X, this was potentially the most powerful attack in the game, usurped only by Anima's Overdrive in the PAL and International versions. Wakka can win this reel in a blitzball tournament.

Status Reels
Wakka spins the slots, with many negative status effects (Poison, Sleep, etc.). A status effect occurs if three of the same status effect slots are lined up. Wakka can win this reel in a blitzball league after appearing in 250 battles.

Aurochs Reels
Wakka spins the slots, with random combinations of the Element and Status Reels. If the three Besaid Aurochs symbols are lined up, Wakka will unleash a huge non-elemental, non-status attack on all enemies. Wakka can win this reel in a blitzball tournament after appearing in 450 battles.

Final Fantasy X-2
The Lady Luck Dressphere uses slots as one of its combat abilities. This ability can create most, if not all, of the negative status effects for the enemy, cause significant damage, but also has a potential to heavily damage, if not KO, the player. These reels are easy to abuse, as the player can pause the game while the reels run, and press right before they align in the right slot.

See Slot Mechanics here

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Slots appears as one of minigames in Final Fantasy XIII-2 as part of casino games.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
The Party Host's Pot Luck ability works similarly to the Slots skills from other Final Fantasy games, and is basically the game's version of a gambler skill. Using Pot Luck takes three AP and will cause a random effect.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Tifa's EX Burst, Final Heaven, uses the slots mechanic from Final Fantasy VII. To charge it to its maximum strength, the player must spin seven slot wheels with "Yeah!" "Miss" and "Hit." Landing more "Yeah!" on the reels powers up her EX Burst.