Marcus/Eiko stat bug

The Marcus/Eiko stat bug is a bug which occurs when leveling Marcus in Final Fantasy IX. This bug causes some of Marcus' stat growth he obtained while leveling to be added to Eiko's, without effecting her level, enabling her to obtain much higher stats.

The bug is a result of Cinna, Blank and Marcus being early temporary characters whose templates are later reused for Quina, Amarant and Eiko, respectively. In each case, if the temporary character levels, their stat growth is transferred to their counterpart. For the case of Quina and Amarant, they will become whatever level Cinna and Blank left the party at, if it is higher than the party average. Since Quina and Amarant's stats grow when leveling themselves, it is not beneficial to level either Cinna or Blank. The important difference is that Eiko will not retain Marcus' level when she is obtained, but will inherit his stat growth. The bug is most beneficial if one plays a level one game and levels Marcus to level 99 during his time with the party. Doing this, Eiko can potentially gain over forty stat points (combination of Speed, Strength, Magic and Spirit). She is the only character that is able to max either Strength or Magic and as a result can have the highest HP and MP in the game.

Trivia

 * Coincidentally, Marcus is part of the party in the only part of the game in which an endless stream of enemies will run towards you. This is also immediately following being able to obtain the Blood Sword, which allows Marcus to regain health when he attacks. Using a turbo controller, one can simply leave the game on for several days to allow Marcus to level himself to 99 with no in-game risk.

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