Cid Highwind/Gameplay

Final Fantasy VII
Cid roughly fits the description of a Dragoon, as he uses spears and lances in battle and can use jump attacks in his Limit Breaks. He has high defensive stats, but low Magic stats and MP.

When he joins the party his starting level is decided by the following formula:
 * [average party level + 3]

Equipment
Cid's spears have high power and many boast numerous Materia slots coupled with Double Growth, with one of them, the Scimitar, being one of mere two equipment pieces in the game to give Triple Growth. His Scimitar however, only has two materia slots, meaning it does the work of six materia slots, which is less than eight, which is the maximum number of materia any armor or weapon can allow. Therefore, Scimitar is desirable to grow one or two materia rapidly, but if the player if looking for efficient materia growth in the long run, they're better off with a weapon that gives eight normal materia growth.

His ultimate weapon, the Venus Gospel, grows stronger as his MP is closer to full. Cid possess the most efficient weapon for Materia growth, the Javelin. The Javelin has five materia slots with double materia growth, meaning it does the growth of ten materia slots. It is also one of only two weapons that offered greater materia growth than eight slots, the maximum amount of materia slots in a weapon or armor. The other weapon that offered more than eight materia growth is Cloud's Apocalypse. Therefore, if the player is looking for the most efficient materia growth, they should have Cid in the party with his Javelin and Cloud equipped with the Apocalypse.

Limit Breaks
Cid's Limit Breaks often hit multiple enemies or hit multiple times. Two of his Limit Breaks, Hyper Jump and Dragon Dive, have 20% and 28% chance to inflict instant death, respectively. His strongest Limit Break, Highwind, could potentially do 9999 x 18 damage, a feat only Barret's Ungarmax can match—even Cloud's infamous Omnislash cannot inflict so much damage. Cid also learns his Limit Breaks fairly quickly. All of Cid's Limit Breaks use his physical strength to determine their power.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
Cid is fought as a boss in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-.