Eidolon (Dimensions II)

Eidolons are creatures that players can call forth in Final Fantasy Dimensions II. Eidolons play a pivotal role in the story as they are the source of magic in the world of humans as well as a primary influence on the core gameplay.

Eidolons are obtained in the form of magic stones called signets and can be equipped by party members. Equipping a signet allows the player to learn abilities, increase stats by upgrading summon signets, and summon the creature in battle.

Story
Centuries before the events of the game's present time, Eidolons lived in peace with mankind and granted humans the ability to use magic. The Eidolons Ifrit, Shiva, Titan, and Odin created the four elemental crystals that the people of Mysidia kept in the Crystal Temple to worship. In Mysidia, two children by the names of Chronos and Kairos created the Crystal of Time that was intended to be used to create a more peaceful world through the use of time magic. However, because the Crystal of Time's power was too great to control, the Crystal caused a catastrophe known as the Mysidia Crisis, a massive explosion that tore a hole in the world's center. After the events of the Mysidia Crisis, many Eidolons developed a strong hatred for mankind and their abuse of the Eidolons’ magic to fulfill their selfish desires. Due to this hatred, the Eidolons fled to the world of Eidola and sealed themselves within it. By doing so, the Eidolons took away the human's abilities to perform magic.

Obtaining Signets
Players can obtain signets through a variety of ways while playing.

The first method is by completing quests available in the game. Certain main scenario quests reward players with signets; however, very few scenario quests provide these rewards consistently. The second method is the subquests available in towns, which require players to defeat a certain number of enemies or to obtain a specific number of key items needed for the quest. All subquests reward players with a specific signet. Lastly, certain character episode quests provide signets for that specific character.

In addition to these opportunities, players can obtain summons from Babil Tower through two methods. Firstly, players will automatically obtain a specific signet by clearing a floor of the tower for the first time. The second method is through the tower's exchange shop.

The last way of obtaining summons is by purchasing summons from the Moogle Shop in the towns.

Equipping
To use a signet it must be equipped to party members via the "Signet" menu. Signets can only be equipped by the specific character the stone is meant for. Each character can only equip four signets at a time. Signets affect the character's overall stats, and raising the signet’s stats through evolution the summon will also raise the character's stats.

Learning Abilities
When a character is equipped with a signet, they will be able to learn the abilities that the signet teaches and to use the summon's special attack via the summon gauge. The equipped signet's eidolon can be summoned once per battle through the summon menu. After a battle, the party will gain ability points (AP) that are required to level up the summon. Once the player obtains the max AP needed for that summon's current rank, the player will learn the ability that summon teaches.

In addition, some summons at their max rank can grant the wielder passive abilities that either raise the user's attributes, provide elemental attack boosts, grant beneficial status effects or resistances to certain status ailments.

Leveling Signets
Once the player has a signet that has accumulated the max AP needed for its next rank, they will be able to upgrade the stone's rank by one. Signets can only be upgraded through the use of rank elemental gemstones that can be obtained through various means such as shops or completing quests. Rank I gemstones are needed to increase a summon to its second rank and Rank II gemstones are needed to evolve a summon to its final rank. Every time a summon's rank is increased, the overall stats will be increased as well.

Morrow


Morrow obtains Eidolon signets of all elements. However, out of the primary elements, he obtains Eidolons aligned with fire and wind-elements most often. In addition, he obtains the most non-elemental summons of the party. His summons focus on teaching him a variety of elemental physical and magic attacks and rare non-elemental abilities.

Aemo


Aemo's signet collection overwhelmingly consists of light-elemental summons with a mix of water-elemental summons. However, she lacks many fire, wind, earth, dark, and non-elemental summons. Her signets focus on teaching songs for her to aid the party or debuff enemies, but she also learns many light-elemental abilities.

Wrieg


Wrieg's summons mainly consist of the earth elemental summons, but he also obtains a fair amount of fire and wind-elemental signets. His signets teach himDragoon-related abilities, damage-reducing skills, and time magic.

Jornee


Jornee's signet collection includes Eidolons of the water element, but she also obtains a nearly equal number of non-water signets. Almost all of her signets teach her powerful attack magic, but she can also learn abilities that support the party.

Parai


Parai's signets are primarily fire-elemental, with very few of the signets being from the other elements. His signets teach him physical attacks that can deal heavy damage to enemies. Due to this, he rarely obtains summons that provide support abilities.

Maina


Maina obtains signets that are mostly aligned with the wind element, along with a number of earth-elemental summons. She is also the only character in the game who can equip the Four Holy Beasts as signets. Her signets provide her with a versatile arsenal of abilities that are usually classified as Ninjustu, but she can also learn abilities that inflict multiple physical attacks and supportive abilities.

The Deathlord


The Deathlord's signet collection is very limited due to him joining the party near the later portions of the storyline. His list of Eidolons includes a large proportion of dark elemental summons, with only a handful being aligned with the other elements. His signets teach skills that inflict dark elemental damage, debuff enemies, and a handful that provide support to the party.

Trivia

 * Despite summons being called Eidolons throughout the entire game, an episode quest for Morrow has an NPC with the name "Esper Girl", instead of "Eidolon Girl". This incongruity is most likely because the Japanese version of the game calls the summons Phantom Beasts, which is also the Japanese name for the Espers of Final Fantasy VI.