Quina Quen/Gameplay

Quina is a playable character in Final Fantasy IX. S/he is a Blue Mage and can cast Blu Mag spells obtained from enemies by consuming the enemy who possesses the attack. S/he equips forks as weapons, which deal random damage. While not possessing as high a Magic stat as the other mage characters, Blue Magic grants Quina versatility.

Cinna is an early temporary character whose levels (not statistics) are transferred to Quina, should Cinna's level be higher than the party average upon Quina's joining the party.

Recruitment
Quina can be recruited to the party on disc 1 after first leaving Lindblum on foot. The party is supposed to make their way to Gizamaluke's Grotto, but if they visit the Mist Continent Qu's Marsh, they can meet with Quina and Quale, the latter asking for the party to take Quina along. If the player forgoes visiting the marsh, Quina will not be recruited and the player must complete Gizamaluke's Grotto, Burmecia and Cleyra with a three-member party.

After Cleyra, Quina leaves the party and returns to the marsh to again join the party when it next visits, this time as a mandatory part of the story, looking for a route to the Outer Continent. If the player never recruited Quina before, the same recruitment event takes place. If the player had already recruited Quina previously, the party members are surprised to find Quina alive, and s/he explains how s/he ended up back at the marsh.

Support abilities
Quina's ability repertoire is geared toward magic rather than physical fighting, although s/he does learn Counter. Quina takes far longer to learn the Trance-boosting High Tide ability than any other character, however, all his/her weapons possess High Tide (and only this ability).

Quina's unique abilities are Millionaire, which allows the party earn more gil from battles, and Absorb MP, which lets Quina gain as much MP as the cast ability required when struck by an enemy's spell when s/he has no MP left.

Eat
When an enemy drops below 25% of its maximum HP, Quina can eat it, defeating the enemy instantly, and teaching Quina any Blue Magic abilities available from the enemy in question. Not all enemies can be eaten.

Blue Magic
The Eat command is required for obtaining new Blue Magic skills. If successful, the enemy is killed and Quina will learn a new skill. Each skill can only be learned once and eating more of the same type of enemy does not increase the attack's power or accuracy.

If the player is trying to learn a Blue Magic ability from a fairly weak enemy and is worried about killing it before Quina can eat it, they may want to try using a Demi-based ability or Quina's Blue Magic Matra Magic, that reduces an opponent's HP to 1.

Trance
When in Trance, the "Eat" command is replaced with the "Cook" command. As opposed to "Eat", "Cook" will work on an enemy whose HP has fallen below 50% of its maximum.

Equipment
Quina uses forks as weapons. Despite their odd appearance, they can be powerful in battle. Forks deal random damage, and the odds of dealing higher damage are not affected by Quina's row placement, and thus it may be a good idea to leave Quina in the back row. All but two of his/her forks are imbued with status effects; Quina's Needle Fork is a useful weapon acquired early in the game that can inflict Petrification with the Add Status ability. The ultimate fork is the Gastro Fork acquired after catching 99 frogs in the various swamps around the world and defeating Quale.

Frog catching
When Quina is in the party, the player can play a frog catching minigame at the Qu's Marshes around the world to earn rewards. Catching 99 frogs is a required to earn Quina's ultimate weapon. More frogs spawn gradually after being caught, but return faster if the player leaves a male and female behind rather than catching all frogs. One golden frog can also spawn randomly to a marsh, which expedites the rate the frogs spawn. Catching frogs also powers up Quina's Frog Drop spell.