Final Fantasy VIII statuses



The following is a list of status effects in Final Fantasy VIII. Status effects are applied by being hit by status spells and other abilities that inflict status effects. Enemies have innate immunities, but player characters must utilize the Junction System to be protected against negative statuses. The ST-ATK-J ability lets players add negative status effects to normal attacks. This can be detrimental if an ally winds up confused and attacks the party. Some positive status effects can be permanently applied to player characters via passive abilities learned by Guardian Forces.

The number of status ailments on player characters is a determining factor in calculating their Crisis Level, which affects the potency of Limit Breaks. Certain Limit Breaks in the game can be used to inflict negative statuses to enemies, while others apply beneficial statuses to the party.

Visual
Characters each have a brief and unique death animation. When allies are KO, they lay on the ground until revived and their ATB bar is emptied. Enemies fade out and are removed from the battle field after their death animation is finished.

Enemies struck by Sudden Death will skip their normal death animation and simply fade out red after being struck.

Effect
Sudden death is when a character is instantly killed, whereas normal Death occurs when HP reaches 0. When all enemies are dead, it is considered a Battle Victory. When the entire party is dead, it is a Game Over. There are no scripted battles which call for death to the heroes in Final Fantasy VIII, so it is in the players' best interest to survive the best they can by replenishing their HP as needed.

Phoenix Downs and Life magic revive to fallen allies, but may cause instant death to undead, including targets that have the Zombie status. On the flip side, utilizing Death spells or attacks against the undead may fully replenish their HP.

Guardian Forces can die if they run out of HP.

Duration
Remains until cured.

ST-DEF-J
Being immune to (Sudden) Death does not render one immune to Death via HP 0.

Visual
Afflicted unit has green bubbles above their head.

Effect
When an afflicted combatant takes an action, they take damage equal to 5 to 7% of their maximum HP. The damage is non-elemental, thus even if the player junctions the afflicted to absorb Poison damage, they still take damage.

Duration
Poison remains if not cured, even after battle.

Visual
Character is turned into gray stone and becomes immobilized. Damage and healing do not affect petrified characters.

Effect
Petrification flags the afflicted unit as defeated, and is thus essentially similar to the Death status. If all player characters become petrified it is a Game Over. When an enemy is petrified in battle, the player earns EXP based on the HP damage done prior to petrification. Petrify can be a useful asset to low level sessions where one might still want to gain AP but not so much EXP.

Duration
The effect remains until cured, even after battle.

Visual
The afflicted has a dark cloud over around head, shrouding their vision.

Effect
Darkness reduces a character's Hit Rate by 75%. Characters with base hit rate of 255% are unaffected, such as Squall and Seifer, although Darkness disables the gunblade's trigger making them unable to deal additional damage.

Duration
Remains until cured, even after battle.

Status Attack
Utilizing the ST-ATK-J ability, one can junction Blind or Pain to physical attacks. The advantage of using Pain is the triple threat of Poison, Blind and Silence together in one attack.

Status Defense
Utilizing the ST-DEF-J ability, one can junction Blind or Pain to protect against this status. The advantage of using Pain is it defends against Poison, Blind, Silence and Curse simultaneously.

Visual
The afflicted has a speech bubble with ". . ." above their head.

Effect
Silence disables the Magic, Draw and GF commands. Rinoa is immune to this status during her Angel Wing Limit Break.

Duration
Remains until cured, even after battle.

Status Attack
Utilizing the ST-ATK-J ability, one can junction Silence or Pain to inflict this status with physical attacks. The advantage of using Pain is the triple threat of Poison, Blind and Silence together in one attack.

Status Defense
Utilizing the ST-DEF-J ability, one can junction Silence or Pain to protect against this status. The advantage of using Pain is it defends against Poison, Blind, Silence and Curse simultaneously.

Visual
The afflicted turns red with steam rising out of their head.

Effect
The Berserk status raises physical attack damage by 50%, but the afflicted does nothing but attack random foes until the state is removed.

Rinoa's Angel Wing Limit Break is similar but with magic spells instead of attacks. She is immune to Berserk when in Angel Wing as well.

Duration
Remains until the end of battle unless cured.

Status Attack
Utilizing ST-ATK-J, one can junction Berserk to their normal attacks via the Berserk spell.

Status Defense
Utilizing ST-DEF-J, one can increase resistance to the Berserk status via the Berserk spell.

Visual
The afflicted turns green.

Effect
The afflicted receives damage from curative items and magic, and is instantly killed by Life magic and items. Targets under this status gain innate immunity to Instant Death and Doom, take double damage from Holy-elemental attacks, and become resistant to physical attacks, halving the damage. Draining HP from a Zombie unit damages the drainer, unless both the caster and the target are undead/Zombie.

Duration
Remains until the end of battle unless cured.

Status Attack
Utilizing ST-ATK-J, one can junction the Zombie effect to their normal attacks.

Status Defense
Utilizing ST-DEF-J, the Zombie spell will raise resistance against this status.

Sleep


Effect

Sleep temporarily prevents a character from acting, lasting for approximately 13 seconds. Regardless, the character's Evasion is not reduced, so it is possible they may avoid attacks while sleeping.

While induced with Sleep the Protect, Shell and Regen states do not expire. Whereas Protect and Shell still provide physical and magical defense, respectively, Regen and Poison remain dormant until the character is reawaken.

Some bosses and enemies, especially in the earlier portions of the game, are vulnerable to Sleep. By using this status effect with ST-ATK-J, players may exploit this weakness by utilizing magic spells on the inflicted, taking little to no damage throughout the whole battle.

Means of Removal

This effect will be removed if the inflicted character is physically attacked, however they will continue to sleep through magical attacks. Alternatively, Remedy and Remedy+ as well as the Ensuna spell will remove this status.

Status Attack

Utilizing ST-ATK-J, the Sleep effect can be applied to normal attacks.

Status Defense

Utilizing ST-DEF-J, one can raise resistance to the Sleep effect.

Slow


Effect



Status Attack



Status Defense



