Combine (Final Fantasy VIII)

Combine is Rinoa's primary Limit Break, in which she teams up with her dog Angelo to perform a variety of abilities. To gain access to Combine moves the player has to read about them in the Pet Pals magazines, then pick the move to learn next in the status screen in the menu, and learn it by walking with Rinoa in the party; progress in each skill is marked in steps. Learning all of Angelo's Combine skills in the Steam version earns the player the achievement Dog Trainer.

Several of Angelo's abilities are not triggered by the actual Limit Break command, and are, rather, triggered by events throughout the battle. Angelo will not appear during the battles against the Propagators on the Ragnarok. Although Rinoa is playable in the PlayStation Final Fantasy VIII demo Angelo never appears, and Rinoa doesn't have a Limit Break.

Mechanics
The first four skills in the list are used automatically even when Rinoa is not in HP Critical health. If Rinoa is hit by an enemy, there's a chance that Angelo Rush or Angelo Recover will activate.

The game has an invisible "Dead Time" timer that starts from 200 and starts counting down. The timer only counts down when nothing is happening, decreasing when no one attacks (just like the ATB bar only fills when nothing else is happening).

After the timer reaches 0 (after 13.3~ seconds), the following things will be checked in this order:
 * Is Gilgamesh summoned
 * Is Angelo Recover triggered
 * Is Angelo Reverse triggered
 * Is Angelo Search triggered

If the player doesn't have the skill its check is skipped.

Angelo Recover and Angelo Reverse only trigger if their conditions are met; Angelo Recover will only trigger if there's an ally with less than 25% of their Max HP, and Angelo Reverse will only trigger if there's a KO'd ally.

The rest will only be used when Rinoa is in critical or Aura status by manually choosing the Combine command from the Limit Break menu. The player can't choose which attack Angelo uses, but the attacks Angelo uses depend on the Crisis Level. Angelo will use the highest level skill that she knows and that is valid to use. Angelo can't use a skill at a higher Crisis Level.


 * Crisis Level 1: Angelo Cannon
 * Crisis Level 2: Angelo Strike
 * Crisis Level 3: Invincible Moon
 * Crisis Level 4: Wishing Star

After Angelo performs her trick, Rinoa reappears and rewards her pet with a dog biscuit. Rinoa can teach Angelo additional Combine commands by reading the Pet Pals magazines, then earning experience for them via walking anywhere in the field, or on the world map (a tone will sound once a skill is learned). The fastest way to gain steps is to ride a chocobo or drive a car, but using a train will not help.

The skills that appear when executing the Combine command can be exploited to increase a particular skill's appearance simply by refusing to learn specific commands; for example, if Angelo doesn't know Wishing Star, she will use Invincible Moon at Crisis Level 4.

Angelo Search List
The following items can all be obtained through the use of Angelo Search:

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Ability Cards=

Final Fantasy All the Bravest
Angelo Cannon is the ability that is used by Rinoa during battle.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Rinoa uses her Combine abilities in Final Fantasy Record Keeper, Angelo Cannon being her default Soul Break ability.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
One of Rinoa's cards has Wishing Star as its ability. Wishing Star Breaks a Forward of the player's choice with a cost of 5 or more, for a cost of three Wind CP and discarding a Rinoa card.