Gil

Gil (also translated as GP), is the currency in all of the Final Fantasy games. According to Final Fantasy IV, the Gil is named after the Gilbert family of Damcyan.

Appearance
Gil is almost never seen in-game. Usually, the only time Gil is seen is when using the Gil Toss command. The currency is predominantly circulated in coins of varying value. The only mention of paper Gil in the series is in Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, where Luso delivers a letter containing several Gil notes.

In Final Fantasy X, Gil coins come in several colors (and presumably metals), and each bears an image on one side and the value of the coin on the other. In Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII, Gil appears as silver coins with a hole through them, while in Final Fantasy V Gil coins are gold with a hole. This suggests that Gil is loosely based on the (円) or ancient Chinese coins, with Final Fantasy X's Gil coins appearing very similar to yen coins. The yen, along with other Japanese currencies such as the mon, have holes in some of their coins, a trade dating back to feudal times when coins were carried on string.

Usage
Gil is a metric currency, measured in base ten. Beyond this, the exact value of Gil varies from game to game. For example, in Final Fantasy IV Potion costs 30 Gil, while they cost 250 Gil in Final Fantasy VI and 100 Gil in Final Fantasy VII. Some items, such as Elixirs, have very low sale prices, usually only 1 Gil, meant to discourage the player from selling such rare items. The value of items between individual shops and towns is universal for most games, and items do not change in pricing depending on where the player shops. There are a handful of exceptions to this, allowing the player to earn discounts at some stores, but this happens very rarely.

Gil also has other uses. The most common of these is the Gil Toss ability, which allows the player to damage enemies by throwing money at them. Gil Toss often does great damage, but at the obvious drawback of costing a great deal of gil. In Final Fantasy X, Gil can be used to bribe monsters to leave the battle as well as entice Yojimbo into attacking enemies. In Final Fantasy XII, the Turtleshell Choker accessory allows the equipped party member to cast spells using Gil instead of MP.

In Final Fantasy VII, Gil and GP are treated as separate currencies. At the Gold Saucer amusement park, GP is used to pay for many attractions, while others charge Gil. GP is also used to buy items from the park. GP cannot be bought, but a man randomly appears outside the park who sells the player GP for 100 Gil apiece. Otherwise, GP can only be acquired by winning the Saucer's minigames.

Acquiring
Gil can universally be found in treasure chests and awards for subquests. Most Final Fantasy games allow Gil to be won from enemies, but there are exceptions. In Final Fantasy VIII, the player earns a regular salary based on their SeeD ranking. In Final Fantasy XII, monsters do not drop Gil but instead drop loot, which can be sold. In Final Fantasy XIII players have to find Item Spheres containing Gil. In some games, Gil can also be stolen from monsters. Some games offer the player the chance to win more Gil from battles by using certain accessories or abilities, and some penalize the player an amount of Gil for fleeing from battle. In all of the above instances, items can be sold for Gil as well.

Naturally, in games where monsters leave Gil, stronger monsters usually leave more. The reverse applies for games that penalize the player for fleeing - the stronger the monsters they are fleeing from, the more Gil they will lose.

Final Fantasy VII
An easy way to make plenty of gil is to sell a mastered All Materia to earn 1,400,000 gil. One can also exploit the W-Item Duplication Bug to duplicate items and then selling them for money, such as Sylkis Greens.

Final Fantasy VIII
The player can easily make plenty of gil with Carbuncle's Recov Med-RF ability. The player can fight Mesmerizes on the Trabia continent to get plenty of Mesmerize Blades which can be refined into Mega-Potions (1 Blade refines into 2 Mega-Potions). 100 Mega Potions sell for 500,000 gil, and are quite quick to acquire. The trick works better with the Mug ability.

Final Fantasy IX
Gil can easily harvested by synthesising the Cotton Robe and then selling it. Each time one synths 99 Cotton Robes, they make 60,000 gil. As money is most useful early in the game, prior to getting the Blue Narciss, it can be done easily three times, once per disc:

On the first disc the player can buy Wrists in Dali, Steepled Hats in Lindblum and synth them in Lindblum. On the second disc the player can buy Steepled Hats in Burmecia (at the end of disc 1), buy Wrists in Dali on the way to Treno and synth them in Treno. On the third disc the player can buy Steepled Hats in the Black Mage Village, buy Wrists while getting the Burman Coffee during the Card Tournament and synth in Treno.

Wrist costs 130 gil, and a Steepled Hat costs 260 gil. It costs 1000 gil to synthesize a Cotton Robe and they sell for 2000 gil each. The player makes 610 gil profit each time.

Other Appearances
Gil makes an appearance in another title from Square Enix, Gyromancer.

Gil Guil