Ignis Scientia/Gameplay

Ignis is a supportive party member in Final Fantasy XV, and often stays near Noctis in the heat of battle. He wields a pair of knives as his Primary Arm. He can switch comfortably from a standard grip and a reverse grip for variable attacks. He can also toss one into the air and kick it at the foe he is fighting. His Secondary Arm is lances. Like all party members, he can also equip elemental grenades as a secondary arm.

His fighting style changes after Chapter 9 when his mobility becomes limited. In Chapter 14 this has improved, but he will prefer to throw daggers and lances rather than use them for closer quarters combat.

Ignis possesses the most powerful link-strike out of all of Noctis's friends. It is executed if Noctis attacks an enemy from behind with a greatsword, in which Noctis and Ignis perform six powerful blows to an enemy.

After patch 1.19, Ignis can be used as the lead character via character swap in the open world portion of Final Fantasy XV. He plays identically to how he handles in Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis. Ignis cannot be switched to during chapters 10 to 13 when his fighting abilities have been limited. He can he used in chapters 14 and 15, and his fighting style remains the same in the former even though during this time his AI has adapted to throwing his daggers and lances.

Party member
Ignis is the most supportive party member, excelling in both consistent damage output and being a helping hand, as strategist, medic,and saboteur. Though he is well balanced in terms of stats, anything that requires survival against magic or special attacks demands reinforcement in Spirit, as this is his weak point.

Wielding daggers and spears, Ignis is well equipped to inflict both fast and constant, to precise and focused attacks. He is not a very offensive unit when compared to Gladiolus or Prompto, but his addition to the team on offensive matters helps turn the tide by considerable margins. His fighting style changes after Chapter 9 when his mobility becomes limited. In Chapter 14 this has improved, but he will prefer to throw daggers and lances rather than use them for closer quarters combat. While Ignis is best at normal foes all around, it is advisable to keep him away and defend him from more powerful enemies as his endurance will not allow him to take heavy blows.

His skills are focused on helping out the team's footholds and advantages, from instantly analyzing monsters with Libra, poisoning enemies, to ensuring the wellbeing of the entire party with healing abilities.

Stats
Ignis's statistics with the Crownsguard Fatigue's equipped.

Abilities
As Noctis's party member, Ignis learns First Aid abilities from the Recovery grid in the Ascension. that let him recover his own health when low.

Link-strike

 * As Noctis cuts a slash from right to left, Ignis follows up by stepping in and tossing several daggers.
 * As Ignis begins a lead by tumbling towards the opponent, Noctis follows through and synchronizes a leaping somersault to smash down onto the enemy in tandem.

Teamwork
Ignis learns the following Teamwork skills from the Ascension Grid. He will use them independently.

Techniques
Ignis's Techniques range widely in purpose, from strategic offensives to issuing support, including healing and granting status buffs.

His default Technique is Mark, where Ignis tosses daggers at all enemies on the field. Upon finishing, Noctis will automatically rush in and warp-strike to all daggers that were thrown and had landed. Mark is further realized when the player taps for more daggers to be thrown allowing for a greater deal of attacks, and helps out in putting down great numbers or weakening enemies in a consistent fashion.

Enchantment calls for Ignis to pull out a Magic Flask imbue Noctis's weapons with Flameboost, Frostboost, or Stormboost, depending on the enemy aimed on by the player. Ignis can't imbue Noctis's weapon with Darkness or Light.

Regroup has Ignis signal an urgent command to fall back and band together, summoning the party to his call. Along with healing their HP based on a percentage, Regroup heals an ally in Danger state, boosts HP recovery and critical hits, and allows for the party to regain composure, from keeping allies close again for link-strikes and Techniques, to allowing the player to recalculate their tactics on the field and potentially saving gil from potions and other curatives.

Overwhelm has Ignis commence a full on assault with the party. It is one of Ignis's more powerful but studious Techniques to master; it focuses the party on one enemy at a time, where Noctis retains normal attacks while allies attack with Deathblows, with the party invincible for the duration of the onslaught. Depending on Ignis's position as well with the enemy's, the Technique can end up overwhelming a target with a constant stream of blows, or end up a sloppy with inconsistent and missed attacks, demanding a great degree of patience and setting up to ensure its full potential.

Starting from Chapter 10, Ignis gains the ability Libra Elementia. Sensing and analyzing an opponent's properties, Ignis exploits an enemy's elemental weakness by tossing onto the enemy a Magic Flask of their appropriate vulnerability.

Sagefire is Ignis's Level 3 Technique. Upon coalescing flame with both daggers drawn, Ignis rushes in with a headstrong charge on the designated enemy. Depending on the distance and whether he makes it to the target, Sagefire will see the attack consume the opponent in an explosion should it land, or will see Ignis cast off the flame into a giant stationary pyre should he miss the target. It is a devastating Fire attack that can break appendages.

Limit Break lets Ignis break the damage limit of 9999 when using Techniques.

Character swap
The player can learn the ability to swap to Ignis during battles from the Ascension Grid for 20 AP. It uses the same control scheme as Ignis's character episode (see below). Ignis excels in dodging and elemental attacks. He can heal manually without using items (pressing the warp button when Ignis is in Danger state makes him regain some HP). Ignis is the only one who can dodge roll in Danger status. Counterattack prompts become available when Ignis is being attacked by enemies. The player can only use daggers; no spears or magic. Ignis's attacks use his Strength stat to determining damage; his Magic is meaningless when playing as him.

Ignis has a unique phase that drains MP overtime where he can dodge attacks even while moving. His damage meter starts from 1.0 and goes up to 4.0. The more attacks the player lands consistently the more the damage meter increases an the more damage Ignis does and it becomes easier to stagger enemies, putting them into the Vulnerable status. Taking damage meanwhile staggers Ignis and lowers the damage meter.

Ignis's "Total Clarity" ability depends on which element Ignis has currently chosen. The player can charge it while holding the warp button, by attacking enemies by phasing attacks. Ignis uses three elements to empower his daggers.

Flamebind unleashes a flurry of fire attacks while dodging around enemies. It easily dispatches most enemies. Finishing the combo ends with an area blast. Flamebind has two aerial attacks depending on the distance from the target. Flamebind's Total Clarity ability is a multi-hit attack to one target that deals more damage based on the damage meter.

Frostbind deals ice-elemental area damage, Ignis attacking in a 360 degree motion. The combo ends with Ignis unleashing an area of effect ice attack that can stagger enemies. Frostbind has one aerial attack. Frostbind's Total Clarity is an area attack that knocks enemies down and is especially effective on Magitek Troopers.

Stormbind is a fast way to home in on a target, and Ignis zips across the field hitting enemies up to six times. When locked on to a target, Ignis focuses on it. Not locking on has Ignis switch targets for every hit and the player can move the analogue stick direct his attack. Releasing the attack button has Ignis backflip. His aerial attack is based on Noctis's air dance. Stormbind's Total Clarity attack is a lightning attack whose power is boosted for each enemy under Shocked status; the more targets the player has shocked, the more Ignis can hit.

Ignis has three Tactical Arts. High Jump acts similar to Aranea's Dragoon Dive at the cost of one tech bar. It deals area damage (damage scales off the damage meter) and breaks off enemy appendages. Overclock, which increases the damage dealt by normal attacks for a short time based on one of three elements at the cost of two tech bars. Ignis uses a random magic flask to temporarily boost an element and raises the damage meter from 1.0 to 4.0 for the chosen element, the max being 8.0. The element will looks different the higher the damage meter is. Ignis can't have multiple buffs active and using Overclock again overwrites the last buff.

Quick Recipeh allows Ignis to cook a meal mid-battle. Quick Recipeh's result is random, yielding either a buff or a debuff and has four versions:
 * "Terrible": Ignis hunches over and is afflicted with two debuffs exclusive to Ignis (damage and Total Clarity meters drop to 0, and Ignis can't build them up again until to effect wears off), plus poison.
 * "Bad": Ignis shakes his head and is afflicted with the two exclusive debuffs neutering his damage and Total Clarity meters.
 * "Great": Ignis holds his fist in front of him and gets two buffs: the Total Clarity gauge fills all the way up and his his tech bar fills faster.
 * "Perfect": Ignis holds out a dish, filling his Total Clarity meter and boosting tech bar refill speed, and also making Ignis invincible to damage and stagger.

Ignis has Impervious by default when he is playable (Noctis needs to unlock it in Ascension for 333 AP). Impervious negates the damage the player just took (except dark damage). Ignis has two versions of it, activated by pressing square before hitting the ground. Ignis is the only one that has a prompt for Impervious, for others, the player will simply need to hit the dodge button right as the attack hits.

Accessories
Some accessories are exclusive to Ignis.

Enemy
Ignis can be fought against at camp sites as a form of training.

Cooking


Ignis cooks for the party at camp sites, apart from Chapter 10 when the player can only have canned food or cup noodles. In Chapter 14, storywise, Ignis cooks one final time. The only way to gain benefits from meals at this point is to travel to the past, buy food or set up camp, and return to the present. Ignis learns new recipes from collecting ingredients, trying new food at restaurants, from cook books that can be bought from shops, and from seeing new food on signs and NPCs eating. Food eaten at camp provides various buffs whose duration can be extended via the Ascension Grid.

Ignis's Cooking skill levels up the more he cooks, earning him more recipes. Leveling up his cooking the first time earns the Cooking Rookie achievement/trophy. Maxing it out yields Cooking Expert.

A fast and cheap method to level up Ignis's Cooking skill is to buy Luncheon Meat from the general store in Lestallum (50+ is enough to max out his Cooking) to cook Mystery Meat Sushi. After camping the player can immediately camp again and cook the same meal. Doing this will max out Ignis's Cooking skill in about twenty minutes.

Another fast and relatively cheap method is to have Noctis fish heavy fishes that can be used to make food with another cheap ingredient, such as garlic. This process may take a bit longer, but will enable the player to maximize Noctis's and Ignis's fishing and cooking skills respectively much faster than doing them separately, since the dishes made from these fishes build up Ignis's cooking skills rapidly.

Food
Out of the group, Ignis has the strongest tastes. Many of his favorites reflect his his all-encompassing standards and his pursuit of culinary perfection, from a whipped chiffon cake to seafood dishes, to even recreating the original Kenny Crow's salmon. To obtain his favorite dishes requires the player to improve Ignis's cooking skills. Eating Ignis's favorites at camp empowers his Techniques.

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis
The player takes control of Ignis, who uses "spelldaggers" that can be imbued with fire, ice and lightning elements. He has a unique ability named "Total Clarity", whose effect depends on which element Ignis has currently chosen. The player can charge it up while standing still, but it leaves Ignis open for enemy retaliation. All of Ignis's attacks, including Total Clarity, use his Strength stat to determining damage; his Magic is meaningless when playing as him.

In the first chapter of the episode, Ignis has a hook arm he can use to "warp", similar to Noctis in the main game.

Ignis has access to three Techniques: High Jump, which acts similar to Aranea's Dragoon Dive at the cost of one tech bar; and Overclock, which increases the damage dealt by normal attacks for a short time based on one of three elements at the cost of two tech bars; finally, after beating the Episode once, Ignis gains access to Quick Recipeh in the main game when he is in the lead, and after acquiring the necessary items from shops during subsequent playthroughs of the Episode. Quick Recipeh allows Ignis to cook a meal mid-battle, whilst being invulnerable to enemy attacks, and give himself buffs, such as boosting the rate "Total Clarity" replenishes. The technique, however, has a chance to fail, giving debuffs such as poison.

Final Fantasy XV: Comrades
Ignis can be fought as an opponent. Winning against him is tough as he uses elemental spells to damage the main player, and uses his walking cane to do a 9999 critical damage and it can instantly defeat the player.

Trivia

 * In the Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo Ignis is the only one able to use magic with his Cure spell, which is not present in the main game. He could also use Venom Strike on enemies to poisons them.
 * When Gladiolus is not in the party in Chapter 7 and Ignis creates a new recipe, his situational dialog with Gladiolus can still trigger, but only Ignis's lines will be heard.