Popular fork among gourmands.
Description
The Bistro Fork is Quina's penultimate weapon in Final Fantasy IX. Like all their forks, it deals random damage with Attack, as instead of using Quina's Strength stat as-is in damage calculation, it uses a random value up to Quina's Strength instead. Like all forks, it teaches the support ability High Tide, which lets Quina build their Trance gauge faster. As all of their weapons have High Tide, and it is impossible to de-equip a character of a weapon altogether, the high AP cost of mastering it is inconsequential. The Bistro Fork inflicts the target of Quina's Attack with Sleep 1/5th of the time when they have Add Status active, briefly making the enemy unable act and vulnerable to damage.
Obtain[]
The player could get the Bistro Fork early if they grind the frog-catching minigame, as it will be rewarded for 33 frogs. As only eight frogs will spawn at one time at most, and it takes a moment for more frogs to appear even if the player leaves a "breeding pair" behind every time, the player is likely to reach the number by the time they can go round the available marshes on the Blue Narciss.
The Bistro Fork can also be bought for 10,300 gil from Bran Bal, and from Daguerreo after visiting Bran Bal.
Mechanics[]
The Bistro Fork's damage dealt with a normal Attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
- Base = 68 - Enemy's Defense
- Bonus = (A random value 1 ... Strength) + (A random value 0 ... [(Level + Strength) / 8])
- Damage = Base * Bonus
The damage is then modified by variables like Quina's row position and the enemy's Protect. Under Mini, Quina's Bonus would be 1. If Quina equips Healer, damage is converted to healing.
When in Ipsen's Castle, the stronger weapons do less damage than weaker weapons, and the Base part of the damage formula is altered to the minimum possible value.
When Quina equips Add Status, 1 in 5 uses of Attack (or Charge! or Counter) inflicts a susceptible target with Sleep, briefly making the enemy not act and vulnerable to damage.
Because damage with Quina's Attack is so volatile, using a randomized Strength to calculate damage, forks tend to have moderately high Attack values. Quina will still do more damage from front row than from the back row, but is not classed as physical attacker and so lacks means of enhancing their attack power via support abilities, though they do learn Counter. Quina will still do more damage overall when they have a higher Strength stat as the random value can roll higher results, and so leveling them up is not pointless. Instead of attacking, Quina can also defeat low health enemies with Eat, which is often the better ability to use whenever the enemy is within the HP threshold.
Use[]
The player is likely to get Bistro Fork around the time Quina joins the party permanently when they get the Blue Narciss to explore the world map with. To get the ultimate fork, the Gastro Fork, the player will need to catch much more frogs and be prepared to fight an optional boss, and so the Bistro Fork is likely the player's best weapon for Quina for a while, and will be their strongest weapon if the player is deciding to skip the frog catching quest.
As Quina learns magic by eating enemies, they do not learn new abilities from weapons and so the only considerations for equipment are Add Status properties and Attack Power. The Bistro Fork has innate Sleep, which is a useful status, but Quina already has a better means for inflicting it, Night, as long as the party has Insomniac. However, as Add Status works via Counter, this can be a way to inflict an enemy without using up Quina's turn.
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