Item drop

Item Drops, also known as Treasure, Loot Drops, Spoils and Drops, are items the player receives by defeating opponents. In many games opponents have more than one item drop, some rarer than others. The player has a chance of obtaining an item from an opponent if the enemy is defeated and the player finishes the battle successfully.

Final Fantasy
In the game's original NES version the opponents don't drop items, but the feature is present in its remakes, the Dawn of Souls and 20th Anniversary versions.

A lot of common enemies have no item drops at all. There is no separating to common and rare drops like in the other installments, but all enemies just have one item they have a chance of dropping. Each enemy has its own item drop percentage, which determines whether or not said opponent drops an item when defeated. However, the chances to obtain items from regular enemies are often much lower than in the other games in the series. The bosses, on the other hand, often have guaranteed (100% chance) item drops.

Enemies can drop common items like Potions and Antidotes, but also equipment.

Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy II was the first game in the series to have item drops from opponents.

The items drops can be any kinds of items, from generic recovery items to weapons and armor. Final Fantasy II has a lot of equipment drops compared to most other games in the series. The enemies can also drop tomes, which allow party members to learn magic and cast magic when used as an item. The game, however, has a lot of enemies that have no item drops at all.

If any items are earned from a battle an item screen will appear. A list with eight slots appears on the left, each slot matching a respective enemy's item drop. If an enemy did not drop an item their slot will be blank, and each enemy can only drop one item. "Take all" puts all items into the player's inventory, or each item can be selected individually. The player can also take items out of their stock and place them in the unclaimed items field, or move unclaimed items or items from the inventory to the "Drop" option to remove them entirely. Selecting "Done" if items are left unclaimed will spawn a popup asking if the player wants to continue.

Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy III has item drops from opponents, although in the original version quite a few opponents don't drop anything. In the Nintendo DS version, most enemies have item drops.

In the DS version, an opponent can hold a maximum of eight item drop items at once. All items can only be the same item; e.g. in the case of Rust Bird, all item slots contain a Phoenix Down. Each item the opponent holds has its own drop chance; e.g. the Goblin has a chance to drop Potion at (3.7% chance), Hi-Potion (3.3%) or Phoenix Down (3%).

Most item drops are generic recovery items and drop rates are low compared to the later installments, most of the time hovering around 3%. Some enemies that have higher chances to drop items, are extremely rare themselves, such as King Behemoth that can drop Elixir (10.8%) or Protect Ring (10.2%) only appears in Ancients' Maze's last room and only extremely rarely. Odin has the poorest drop chances on the whole game, with only 0.4% chance to drop an Elixir and 0.3% chance to drop Gungnir (the items can be stolen from it, however).

Notable item drops are the Onion Equipment, which includes the Onion Sword, Helm, Gauntlets, and Armor. All the pieces are a very rare drop from the dragons at the Crystal Tower. All of the dragons may drop all parts of the gear in the NES version, but in the Nintendo DS version, Yellow Dragon drops Onion Helms (4.5% drop chance), Red Dragon drops Onion Armors (4.5%) and Green Dragon drops Onion Gauntlets (4.5%), while Onion Swords (1.5%) and Shields (7%) can be dropped by all of them. The dragons drop Elixirs when they don't drop Onion Equipment.

Final Fantasy IV
Every opponent has a single pool of items, where the players can steal and where the item drops are also chosen. Stolen items are always the first or most common item in the opponent's drop list and if an opponent does not appear to have a drop list, they actually do, which generally has the Potion at the top of the list. Notably, Zeromus never drops the Dark Matter, but it can be stolen.

If the player steals an item from an opponent, it will not drop items at the end of battle. This creates an issue what it comes to bosses that always drop an item: in the game's SNES version, if the item is dropped 100% of the time, the character cannot steal the item, but the game does not display a failure message. In the GBA version the character will automatically fail to steal.

Item drops can be all kinds of items, from generic items like Potions and Phoenix Downs to pieces of equipment. Notably, even summons can drop rarely from certain enemies, although Rydia must be present when attempting to use the item from the inventory, either as a child or as an adult, for her to learn it. She does not have to be in the active party for the item to be drop, however.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
The item drop system returns in the sequel of Final Fantasy IV, and it also function the same way as its predecessor.

Final Fantasy V
The enemies have one item they can drop. It is either an always drop (bosses and few regular monsters) or the rare drop (16/256 or 6.25% chance). Many enemies don't have any item drops at all. Steal items and drop items are separated, so even after stealing an item the opponent can still drop an item as well. Enemies can drop all sorts of items from common recovery items like Potions and Antidotes to weapons, armor, shields and accessories. Certain special battles can also drop summons, like Ramuh and Catoblepas.

Notable item drops include Stingray, a seaborne enemy that can only be found in a specific location, that drops the strongest whip in the game, the Dragon's Whisker.

Final Fantasy VI
The item drops work similarly as in Final Fantasy V. There is an always drop and a rare drop (1/8 or 12.5% chance). To differ slightly from Final Fantasy V, however, some enemies can have both, a normal drop and a rare drop; the game first checks the chance for rare drop, and if the drop isn't rare, the normal drop is given instead.

Many enemies only have a rare drop and thus drop nothing 87.5% of the time. Some monsters don't have any item drops at all. Item drops are unaffected by steal, so the player can steal items and still receive item drops. The enemy, however, won't drop items if it is defeated with X-Zone.

Enemies can drop all kinds of items from recovery items, throw items, weapons, armor and relics. Notable drops include the Celestriad that is a rare drop from Brachiosaur, and the Eight Dragons that drop good equipment.

Final Fantasy VII
In Final Fantasy VII the player can reject item drops. In the battle results screen the player can choose which items to take, or take all items. The chance of the enemy dropping an item depends on the enemy in question and some enemies have very low chances of dropping an item, but some enemies that have low item drop chances appear in large groups, which improves the player's overall chances. Some enemies, such as bosses, Magic Pot and Movers, have 100% chance of dropping an item when defeated. Some enemies have no item drops at all.

The enemy will not drop any items if: a) the player has stolen an item from said enemy b) the enemy is defeated by using Remove c) the battle ends without the battle results screen (such as the opponents on the Battle Square).

All enemies can carry four different items at once, although not all enemies use all this space. Some of these items can be stolen, and some can be obtained as item drops. The player can only obtain one or the other; if they steal an item from the enemy, the enemy will not drop items after battle, even if the steal items and drop items are different. Each of the items an enemy has has an individual chance of being dropped.

For example, a Razor Weed has the following list:
 * [8] Tranquilizer, [8] Hi-Potion, [8] Loco weed

Both the chance of each item and the order are important. When the enemy is about to drop an item each item it has on the list is looked at in turn, and drops if the following occurs:
 * If Rnd(0..63) <= Chance of Item, then Current Item is won

That means there is a (Chance + 1)/64 the current item is dropped. This is done in order, so with the item list above would be done like this:
 * 9/64 Chance: Win the Tranquilizer
 * 55/64 Chance: Move to next item...
 * 9/64 Chance: Win the Hi-Potion
 * 55/64 Chance: Move to next item...
 * 9/64 Chance: Win the Loco weed
 * 55/64 Chance: No item is dropped

Chances of each item:
 * Tranquilizer: 9/64 chance, 14.06%
 * Hi-Potion: 495/4096 chance, 12.08%
 * Loco weed: 27225/262144 chance, 10.39%
 * Nothing: 166375/262144 chance, 63.47%

Even though each item has the same individual percentile chance the earlier items in the list are more likely to drop.

The items common enemies drop are common battle items, recovery items like Potions and Ethers, offensive items that cast a spell or deal an attack on the the target(s), and chocobo breeding items. Enemies never drop Materia.

Notable drops include the optional Weapon bosses; Ultimate Weapon drops the Ultima Weapon, the ultimate weapon for Cloud. Emerald Weapon drops the Earth Harp, and Ruby Weapon drops the Desert Rose, which can be traded with the Kalm Traveler for a set of Master Materia and a golden chocobo respectively.

The storyline boss Proud Clod drops Ragnarok, Cloud's second best sword. The Master Tonberry can drop a Megalixir on defeat. Interestingly, the regular Tonberry is programmed to drop a Phoenix Down, yet, being a Battle Square only opponent, it can never drop one.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Every opponent has a base drop chance. After the game has calculated whether or not to drop an item, the actual item to be dropped is selected. Enemies have both common and rare drops. The player's Luck affects the item drops: the higher the luck, the better the chance of rare drops.

Normal Drop Chance:
 * (Base Chance)+(Zack's Luck/10)/256

That's the chance to get a (common) drop. The chance that a drop is also rare, is a percentage out of the above Normal Drop Chance.

Chance that the drop is rare:
 * 1/8+(Zack's Luck/10)/256

Basically, the game first calculates whether the enemy drops an item or not. If the item is dropped, the game uses a formula to calculate whether the item that is dropped is rare.

The accessory Mog's Amulet makes all item drops rare 100% of the time. The Heike Soul accessory obtained after clearing all missions also improves the drop rates from enemies.

In Crisis Core enemies can drop all kinds of items, accessories and Materia. Because of the Mog's Amulet, stacking on good drops is much easier than in other games in the series. Notable item drops include the Materia Fusion items, which can be farmed to boost Zack's stats. Due to the nature of the Materia Fusion system, it doesn't, in fact, matter which Materia Fusion item the player farms, as all stats can be converted to another stat as long as the player has at least one item for the stat.

A notable opponent is the Goliath that drops Adamantines. Another notable opponent is the Magic Pot, which, after dropping its DMW skill, has a chance of dropping many good items. It drops different items depending on where it is fought.

Final Fantasy VIII
Every opponent has its individual chance of dropping an unspecified item. Some enemies, such as bosses, always drop an item. After the game has determined whether or not to drop an item, the item to be dropped is calculated from the four item "slots" each enemy has. The enemy will never drop an item if the player mugs an item from the enemy.

In the game data, every enemy has four item "slots" that contain all the possible item drop combination possibilities. Usually higher slots have better items. Bahamut's Rare Item ability doubles the drop rate of the second item slot, and reduces the chances of getting any items in the fourth slot to 0.

Opponents also have a chance of dropping cards, which is a separate mechanism from the item drops and is not affected by the Rare Items ability. Certain bosses always drop a card, but for regular enemies the chance is 9/256 or 3.5%. Enemies can only drop their own card, and not all enemies have a card to drop.

The items enemies drop can be any sorts of items ranging from normal recovery items to weapon upgrade items, GF ability learning items, GF compatibility items to offensive battle items and items that teach Quistis Limit Breaks.

Notable enemies include the Adamantoise, that can drop Whispers and Adamantines, and the Ultima Weapon, that can drop 100 Ultima Stones. Dragon Fang, item needed for weapon upgrades, is a drop from Blue Dragons. Energy Crystal, another important weapon upgrade item, is most easily obtained as a drop from Elnoyle.

UFO? is the only source of Aegis Amulets in the game apart from Angelo Search and Chocobo World, and Pupu drops its card if appeased with five Elixirs. If defeated, Pupu drops the rare item Accelerator instead. Seifer is also a notable enemy, the only one with a rare chance to drop Holy Wars. All of Ultimecia's minions in her castle also drop GF ability learning items.

Final Fantasy IX
Unlike in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, the player can steal items from opponents and still receive item drops from them. Enemies can have up to four possible items, always (256/256 or 100%), common (96/256 or 37.5%), rare (32/256 or 12.5%) and very rare (1/256 or ~0.4%). All the item drop chances are calculated separately and the opponent may drop only one of the possible items, or even all of the items, if the player is lucky. Few enemies have all four items, however, and some enemies have no item drops at all.

Receiving more than one item from an opponent is also a change from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII where the player can receive items only from one "slot" at a time; if the enemy drops the rare drop, it won't drop the common drop and vice versa. Bosses commonly don't have many items to drop, often none at all, and the ones they do tend to be generic items like Phoenix Down or Ether; the good items bosses possess tend to be steal-only items.

A notable group of monsters are the Friendly Enemies who drop the next jewels needed to give to the next friendly monster. Ark drops a Pumice Piece and optional bosses always drop high-rank items.

The enemies may also drop cards. Unlike in Final Fantasy VIII they don't always drop their own card. Card drops are separate from the item drops. If the player's card quota is full, the enemies stop dropping cards. The chance for an enemy to drop its card is 32/256 or 12.5%.

The items enemies drop are common recovery items such as Hi-Potions and Eye Drops and jewels. Enemies never drop equipment, apart from the Tantarian that drops Running Shoes.

Final Fantasy X
Opponents always drop an item in Final Fantasy X. The drop is either common (7/8 or 87.5% chance) or rare (1/8 or 12.5% chance). Sometimes both slots (common item and rare item) contain the same item. If the enemy is killed by an Overkill, the amount of item drops is doubled. Enemies can drop all kinds of items, but the most common drops are regular spheres used to activate nodes on the Sphere Grid. The Monster Arena opponents and Dark Aeons (PAL/International version only) drop the best items, such as Dark Matters and stat boosting spheres.

The characters can also learn extract abilities that make all items the enemy drops into types of spheres; e.g. the Extract Speed ability turns all of the enemy's item drops into Speed Spheres. One has to be be careful using these abilities, however, as not to miss out on good item drops, so it is advised not to use the extract abilities against bosses.

In Final Fantasy X opponents can also drop weapons and armor, but the equipment drops are separate from the item drops. Not every opponent drops equipment, although quite a few do. Unlike the item drop chances, which are always the same, the equipment drop chances vary between enemies. Some enemies always drop equipment, whereas others drop some only rarely. Drop chance of 127/128 (99%) is the most common, but the drop rate can also be 64/128 (50%), 30/128 (23%) or 4/128 (3%), depending on the enemy.

How many ability slots and what abilities the piece of equipment has are chosen at random from the pool of options available from the defeated opponent. For example, the Dark Shiva can drop weapon or armor with three or four slots. The possible armor abilities are Break HP Limit, Ribbon and Ice Eater, and the possible weapon abilities are Icestrike and Break Damage Limit. The piece of equipment will always have one or two abilities in it. The best equipment drops are, again, from Monster Arena opponents and Dark Aeons. Once the player's equipment menu is full, the player must sell or discard some equipment to make room for new drops.

A curious glitch exists concerning equipment drops: the No Encounters is an armor ability, yet the Geosgaeno in Baaj Temple can drop weapons with No Encounters already in it.

Final Fantasy X-2
All opponents have two possible items they may drop, same as in Final Fantasy X, common drop and rare drop, but unlike in Final Fantasy X enemies don't always drop something. The common and rare drop items can also be the same item, or the enemy may have only one or the other. Most enemies also have an Oversoul version that drops different items than the normal version of the same enemy. Oversoul enemies still have two drops, the common and the rare.

Oversouled enemies always drop an item, but the drop rates for the enemies' normal versions vary. The most common drop rate of an (unspecified; common or rare) item is 50%, but it can be higher or lower, depending on the enemy. After the game has determined whether or not the enemy drops an item, it next determines if the drop is common or rare. The drop is common 7/8 of the time (87.5%), and rare 1/8 of the time (12.5%).

Most common item drops are Potions and Phoenix Downs and low level offensive and buffing items, but the player may also get accessories. Lady Luck can learn the Double Items ability, which doubles the amount of items received from battle. The effect is cumulative if the player has more than one Lady Luck in battle at the same time.

Notable item drops include the Rabite's Foot that drops from the Jumbo Cactuar and the Ribbon that drops from Angra Mainyu. Bosses in Via Infinito have good accessories as rare drops and the Aeon opponents often have a chance of good drops.

Final Fantasy XII
When an enemy drops loot it makes a sound effect and leaves a loot icon on the ground. If the enemy dies over an area inaccessible for the party, it will not drop loot, such as flying enemies flying over canyons. When fighting at the edge of a cliff, some enemies may fall off the edge when they die and thus drop no loot, such as the Tower at Pharos at Ridorana.

After the enemy has dropped the loot, the player can pick it up by walking into it. Only the party leader can pick up loot. If the loot is left for too long, it will first start flashing, then disappear. If the player crosses over to another zone without picking up the loot, the loot will be lost.

What loot the player obtains from opponents depends on the current battle chain, and whether the player has monographs or the Canopic Jar. The chance of obtaining normal loot when defeating enemies increases with higher battle chain. If the enemy is poached it drops no items. Item drops are unaffected by steal.

Normal Drops
Enemies can drop all sorts of items from recovery items to equipment. Many of the game's best equipment can only be obtained as rare drops from enemies. Most common items are common loot items, however.

The player can build a chain by killing enemies of the same type. The chain level has different stages and will level up as the player builds more chain. Not picking up loot allows the chain to level up faster. If the chain number is flashing on the screen, it is a sign that it is safe to pick up loot without compromising the chain level build-up.

The player can leave the loot on the ground and pick it up only when the chain number is flashing. The "safe" period lasts until the player kills another opponent and the chain number no longer flashes. On high battle chain levels, the player may receive additional bonuses when picking up item drops, such as HP and MP recovery and buffs.

All item drops fall into one of the five categories: Always, High, Mid, Low, and Very Low. "Always" drops are rare and reserved to special battles, such as how Omega Mark XII always drops the Omega Badge.

How chain level affects the drop chances:

The drops are independent of each other; one can get different kinds of drops (High, Mid, Low, Very Low) in one bag. Monograph and Canopic Jar drops are unaffected by chain.

The player can gain multiple items in one loot drop. This effect activates when the player kills the same enemy in a row. The player starts randomly receiving multiple units of the same item at a single loot drop after they have killed more than 10 of the same enemy in a row. The most possible items in one drop is four (achieved after killing 26 or more of the same enemy in a row), but the chance is low even at high chains. Two items at a single loot drop is the most the items in the "Very Low" category can drop. In some cases a monster can drop the same item in different categories (High, Mid, Low, Very Low) at the same time, which should not be confused with the multiple items bonus.

The player can also build a reverse chain by doing the opposite of building a normal chain and killing only different type of enemies in a row. When building a reverse chain the game gives no indication that the chain is building, but it still affects the item drops in following manner:

If one builds up a reverse chain to more than 20 there is a 15% chance to receive the same item drop one would otherwise receive with a regular Chain Level 2.

Notable item drops include the Halcyons obtained rarely from the Entites. The Halcyons can be used at the Bazaar to create items. Some of the game's ultimate equipment can only be obtained as rare drops from opponents. Danjuro, the game's ultimate dagger, can only be obtained via a rare drop from the rare monster Larva Eater.

The game's ultimate ninja sword, the Yagyu Darkblade, is a rare drop from Bombshell, and the game's best armor, the Grand Armor, is a rare drop from Helvinek, and the best helm, Grand Helm, is a rare drop from Tower.

Monograph Drops
Monographs enable the player to receive additional drops on top of the normal loot drops. Monographs do not improve the chances for regular drops and are unaffected by battle chain. A lot of enemies, however, don't have a special monograph drop and possessing the enemy type's monograph makes them drop Pebbles; a rather useless item. The actual percentage chance of the enemy dropping a monograph drop depends on the enemy in question; enemies that drop Pebbles have 30% chance of doing so, but the items' chances vary.

Monograph drops are often special items that sell for more gil than most regular loot. Monograph drops are often needed to make the best packs at the Bazaar, such as the Tournesol.

A glitch exists in the game, where flan-type enemies are meant to drop Slime Oil, however, they don't. This makes Slime Oil one of the rarest items in the game to obtain.

Monographs are purchased from the Bazaar and obtained in various ways, usually by having visited a type of shop a fixed number of times, or having read the Hunt board a set amount of times.

Canopic Jar Drops
Canopic Jar drops work similar to the monographs, enabling all enemies to have a chance to drop Arcana. The enemies that drop Arcana even without the Canopic Jar have a chance to drop High Arcana instead. The actual chance of the enemy dropping Arcana or High Arcana depends on each individual enemy.

Canopic Jar can be purchased at the Bazaar after having sold special items obtained only as rewards from doing hunts.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Each battle has a fixed set of rewards the player gains by winning the battle. Storyline battles and most missions have one-off rewards, but other battles can be fought repeatedly. Individual defeated enemies do not drop items in Revenant Wings, all items are rewarded based on which battle was fought.

Kytes's Goblin Pouch accessory allows the player to receive additional items from battles, often superior to the regular drops. Most of the game's best accessories are received as rewards from storyline battles. Notable rewards include the rare crafting items, which can usually only be obtained with Kytes's Goblin Pouch in special locations.

Final Fantasy XIII
The Battle Results screen shows obtained items, called spoils in this game, after hitting on the PlayStation 3, or  on the Xbox 360. The enemies have three types of spoils: normal spoil, rare spoil, and shroud. Although the individual drop chances vary between different enemies, the player's battle rating can either boost or lower the base chance of obtaining rare spoils and shrouds.

The normal spoils' drop chance is unaffected by battle rating. In the Easy Mode available in the Japanese versions of Final Fantasy XIII, the player receives no rare drops from enemies at all.

In other words, the better the battle rating, the better the chance of obtaining rare spoils; the worse the battle rating, the better the chance of obtaining shrouds. With low battle rating the player has no chance of getting rare spoils from enemies.

The enemies drop different items depending on their type. Human opponents drop recovery items like Potions and Phoenix Downs, and items that can be sold for gil. Animals drop mainly organic items that can be used to upgrade weapons to add a multiplier to the weapon's EXP intake. Mechanical enemies drop mechanical items that can be used for weapon upgrading; they give the most EXP but take the EXP multiplier down.

All opponents can drop shrouds, although the chance to obtain shrouds from enemies gets progressively worse toward the game's end. Some enemies can also drop catalysts, rare items needed to upgrade equipment to their superior forms. Enemies never drop pieces of equipment.

Certain accessories boost the player's chance to receive items from enemies. The Survivalist Catalog increases the chance of obtaining shrouds by five-fold, the Collector's Catalog makes the enemy's normal drop chance 1.5 times the normal rate, and the Connoisseur's Catalog makes the enemy's rare drop chance 1.1 times the normal rate. All catalogs can be equipped at once.

The item drops are displayed on the enemy's bestiary page in battle. When facing a new opponent the item drops are first unknown, but become known once the player has received the drop from the enemy. The player can unveil all of the opponent's information at once by using a Librascope. The information on the bestiary page is also slowly unveiled just by attacking the opponent, but done this way the item drop information is the last bit of info to be revealed.

The oretoise family of monsters all have good spoils. Notably, the Adamantoise and Long Gui drop Platinum Ingots (common drop) and Trapezohedrons (rare drop) and the Shaolong Gui drops Gold Nuggets (common drop) and Dark Matters (rare drop). The Sacrifices at Orphan's Cradle also drop good items for selling, if the player is not ready to take on the Adamantoises yet.

The game's International Version includes a new gameplay option, Easy Mode, where the player has a better chance of receiving items from enemies.

Final Fantasy Tactics
Enemies in Final Fantasy Tactics do not drop random items. Instead after each battle gil is awarded. Additionally after story battles, preset items are also given.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Enemies drop unranked Loot when they are defeated. If a monster is defeated using the Hunting ability, one extra piece of unranked Loot will be obtained.

Final Fantasy Legend II
Monsters may leave behind weapons, armor, or items. There is also a exclusive drop present to the Final Fantasy Legend games, monsters will sometimes drop meat. If a monster has eaten the meat, they can transform themselves into either a stronger or weaker monster. Items are awarded after the player has collected their experiences and GP.

Final Fantasy Legend III
Final Fantasy Legend III has items, weapons, armor, or spells that drops from defeated opponents. Although, bosses don't drop anything. There is also a exclusive drop present to this game, defeated opponents will sometimes drop Meat or Parts. If a character has "eaten" or "installed", that character will undergo a transformation. Items are awarded after the player has collected their experiences and GP.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Items and gems are received after battle. While the player can hold 99 gems of each type, the player can only collect the items from battle if they have enough space in their inventory. Each character has 15 spaces for items in their personal inventory, and the items are distributed to whoever has space, or the player can distribute the item drops manually.

The Bandit job lets the player more items from enemies as battle spoils. The Merchant job does the same for gems.