Break Damage Limit (ダメージ限界突破, Damēji Genkai Toppa?, lit. Damage Limit Breakthrough), also known as Uncapped Damage, is a support ability in many Final Fantasy games that allows the player to exceed 9,999 damage in a single hit, which was the primary damage limit in early Final Fantasy games. Despite the name, Break Damage Limit usually allows units to restore HP exceeding the 9,999 limit as well.
Usually, abilities that break the 9,999 damage limit cap at 99,999 instead. Final Fantasy XIII is the first game in the series that sets its primary damage limit at 99,999, and sets its secondary damage limit cap at 999,999 damage.
A glitch that results in more damage than the highest intended limit is called an overflow glitch. This is especially notorious for Final Fantasy VII.
Appearances[]
Final Fantasy[]
Enemies in the remakes gained a boost in their HP and new enemies with higher HP were added. The attacks in the Dawn of Souls, 20th Anniversary and mobile editions can exceed 9,999 damage, and it will show the amount on screen. This is only possible by augmenting attacks with status-increasing items or magic.
Final Fantasy II[]
In the original version, only the final boss, Emperor, has more than 9,999 HP. Nevertheless, players can exceed the damage limit if they boost their damage with the help of Haste and Berserk and are equipped with the Blood Sword(s). Instead of displaying the true damage value, the game will only display the last four digits in the damage window, e.g. if one were to deal 12345 damage, the damage window will state 2345.
In later remakes, attacks in the Dawn of Souls, 20th Anniversary and mobile editions can inflict more than 9,999 damage, but will only show the maximum of 9,999 damage even if more is inflicted. This amount of damage is only possible by augmenting attacks with status-increasing items or magic.
Final Fantasy III[]
The original NES version allows players to break the damage limit of 9,999. This is most commonly done with the fully equipped Onion Knight strategy, as that is the strongest setup. Even if the player were to exceed 9,999 damage, the game will still display 9,999 damage. However, the exact amount of damage will be dealt to the target nonetheless.
All attacks in the 3D remakes allow more than 9,999 damage, but it will display 9,999 damage even if more damage is done. To check the real amount of damage players can visit the old man who lives in the town of Gysahl who records various information from the game, including the maximum amount of damage dealt.
Final Fantasy IV[]
Limit Break is an augment ability in the 3D version acquired automatically when the player completes the game. Only two Limit Break augments can be obtained, since the game allows only two plays of New Game Plus. In iOS/Android/PC versions, only one Limit Break augment can be obtained.
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years[]
The Limit Ring is an armor piece that allows a character to break the damage limit, provided their Attack power and Strength are high enough. There are also several Band abilities that can exceed 9,999 damage: Makeshift Cannon, Petal Whirlwind, Infinity, Sky Grinder, Ultima Spark, King's Quad, Final Fantasy, and Double Jump. All other Bands can break the damage limit if at least one of the characters involved has the Limit Ring equipped.
The Tokita Sword is one of three super items that were likely used for testing purposes that still reside in the game's coding. The debug sword allows the equipped character to break the damage limit.
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-[]
Zack can use Break Damage Limit when he is equipped with the Brutal, Divine Slayer, Heike Soul, or Genji Glove accessories. Brutal is a reward for beating mission 7-4-6. For Divine Slayer the player must defeat the superboss Minerva in mission 9-6-6. The Heike Soul is a reward for completing all missions. Genji Glove is hidden in a treasure chest in mission 9-6-4.
Final Fantasy VIII[]
The GF Eden, the Kamikaze ability, and Quistis's ultimate Blue Magic, Shockwave Pulsar, can all exceed 9,999 damage. The GF Cactuar can also deal 10,000 damage at level 100. ChocoBocle is another attack capable of breaking the damage limit, but it can only obtained by playing Chocobo World in the original version. In the Remastered version, where Chocobo World compatibility is removed, it can instead be obtained raising Squall's level to 75.
The hard damage cap is set to 60,000.
Final Fantasy X[]
The normal damage cap is 9999, but with Break Damage Limit it rises to 99999. Break Damage Limit can be customized into weapons with 60 Dark Matters. Fully powered-up Celestial Weapons also have the ability. Aeons' attacks and Overdrives also have this capacity, although Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva, and Yojimbo only gain this ability after Yuna, Wakka, Kimahri, Lulu, and Auron's Celestial Weapons, respectively, have been upgraded with their Crest.
The aeon Anima can seemingly break the 99999 damage limit in International/PAL/HD versions when using her Overdrive. Anima's overdrive, Oblivion, lands 16 hits on each enemy. When animations are set to short, these hits are combined into a single damage value. This may create the appearance that Anima can exceed even the 99999 damage limit; however, it is simply displaying the total damage of 16 hits, in which each individual hit is still limited to 99999; thus the total damage to each enemy cannot exceed 1,599,984.
Break Damage Limit has no impact on items. Items can never break the damage limit, except for Dark Matter, which can always break it even without Break Damage Limit equipment. Mix is mostly unaffected by Break Damage Limit equipment; generally any given mix will either always be able to exceed the limit even without equipment, or never be able to exceed the limit even with it.
Dealing the maximum damage of 99999 in the Final Fantasy X HD Remaster version earns the Mega Strike trophy/achievement.
Final Fantasy X-2[]
Yuna, Paine, and Rikku can break the damage limit via the Invincible accessory and through special abilities on the Higher Power and The End Garment Grids. Only the special dresspheres have Break Damage Limit as a job ability, after the acquisition of certain key items.
Invincible is acquired by asking the cameraman in Kilika Port in Chapters 1, 3 ,and 5 about the Youth League base. After speaking with him in Chapter 5, he will take the party to the new Youth League base where the accessory Invincible can be found. The Higher Power Garment Grid is acquired in Chapter 5 found inside the Chocobo Ranch. The End Garment Grid is obtained from Shinra after completing Shinra's Bestiary.
In the International and HD Remaster versions, the Garment Grids Peerless and Last Resort have these abilities as well, by passing through their yellow and blue gate, respectively. Furthermore, a new auto-ability exclusive to captured creatures, Total Limit Break, serves as a combination of Break HP Limit and Break Damage Limit.
Dealing 99999 damage in battle in the HD Remaster version earns the trophy/achievement Overkill.
Final Fantasy XI[]
Single-hit physical attacks initially capped at 9,999 damage, but damage multipliers can break the cap. Diabolos's Ruinous Omen and Odin's Zantetsuken against NMs cap at 9,999 damage, but multipliers can cause them to break the damage cap. All other damage is not capped. The damage cap was raised to 99,999 damage as seen by many Magic Bursts by Mages or Summoners. Skill chains themselves have also hit the damage cap of 99,999 damage.
Final Fantasy XII[]
In the original PlayStation 2 version, Quickenings, Numerology, and Dark Matter can break the damage limit, and the Arise spell can heal over 9,999 HP. Because the game has an invisible Break HP Limit (players' max HP can exceed 9,999 by utilizing the Bubble buff, although that is the highest value displayed on screen), Balance can also deal more than 9,999 damage if used by a low-health character whose maximum HP exceeds 9,999.
Certain Esper abilities can break the damage limit, including Zalera's Condemnation, Shemhazai's Soul Purge, Exodus's Comet and Meteor, Zeromus's Gravity Well and Big Bang, and Zodiark's Final Eclipse. Both Dark Matter and Soul Purge are capped at 60,000 damage.
In the Zodiac versions, all damage can exceed 9,999.
Final Fantasy XIII[]
The cap is set at 99,999 damage. The limit can be raised to 999,999 with the Genji Glove accessory. Breaking the limit unlocks the Limit Breaker trophy or achievement. Eidolons can naturally break the limit, allowing the player to gain the Limit Breaker trophy without a Genji Glove.
The Daze status allows an attack to deal up to 199,998 damage without requiring a Genji Glove equipped. In the original Japanese PlayStation 3 release, the damage from Daze was calculated after the damage cap applied, allowing attacks to deal up to 1,999,998 damage, with the "1" not being displayed.
Final Fantasy XIII-2[]
Uncapped Damage is a passive ability that raises the 99,999 damage cap to 999,999 damage. Only Lightning's Commando form learns this ability through her Crystarium. It cannot be infused into other Paradigm Pack allies. Lightning also breaks the damage limit by default in the "Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess" downloadable content scenario.
Final Fantasy XV[]
Limit Break is an Ascension Grid ability, appearing thrice for each of Noctis's three allies, that allow their Techniques to break the damage limit. They are prefixed with whom they belong to. Limitless Link is a Teamwork ability that allows link-strikes to break the damage limit.
Limit Break is also an elemancy effect that allows spells to break the damage limit. The Rare Metal accessory for Noctis allows his own attacks to break the damage limit, but does not affect elemancy.
Astrals and Armiger Unleashed naturally break the damage limit.
In "Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis", Ignis naturally breaks damage limit in battles where he uses the Ring of the Lucii. In "Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn", Ardyn's Cerberus-0 rifle can break the limit with a headshot, and Ifrit's cinematic Hellfire attack inflicts 99,999 damage.
Final Fantasy Type-0[]
Most attacks have a damage cap of 9999. In the HD remaster, Eidolons can passively break the damage cap, seen especially with Bahamut ZERO's Tera Flare. Triad Maneuvers and the Vermilion Bird spell can also deal over 9999 damage. Ultima is the only magic spell that can break the damage limit. Breaksight strikes will never exceed the damage limit.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest[]
Due to an overflow glitch, if Benjamin casts Cure on the Dark King, he will deal damage well over the intended limit.
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light[]
The player is able to break the damage limit by default and all attacks that exceed 9,999 HP will be shown.
Final Fantasy Dimensions[]
The Eidolon Bahamut and the Gigaflare Fusion Ability can break the damage limit when used. Wielding the Ultima Weapon or a Valhalla can allow the wielder to break the damage limit with other attacks.
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy[]
Wall Rushes can do more than 9,999 damage, but the extra damage is not shown.[1]
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia[]
The initial per-hit damage cap for all characters without equipping passives is 9999. Leveling up and equipping abilities extends this per-hit cap to 99999. LD Abilities will always maintain 99999 damage per each hit indicated. Mastering a unit's High Armor can potentially raise the cap to around 150000 per hit indicated. Once this process is completed, both BT and FR skills can benefit from the enhanced effects. All damage scored is displayed as a cumulative total when the desired maneuver is completed, unless in Force Time where the damage figures are displayed in gold and enhanced by the percentage accrued in each turn of Force Time. Taken together, it is possible to accrue several million damage in any one player phase.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper[]
Overstrike Soul Breaks, introduced with the Challenge Event Glimmer of Hope, can break the 9,999 damage cap and extend it to 99,999 damage.
In addition, Cloud's Ultra Soul Break, Ultra Cross Slash, grants him (or the evoker, in case of Roaming Warriors) the status SOLDIER EX Mode. In addition to increasing the user's Attack and granting guaranteed critical hits for the duration, all physical attacks by the user will break the damage cap.
Most Awakenings increase the damage cap (referred to in-game as Cap Break Level) of the user's regular attacks by 10,000 or more, i.e. Cap Break Level 1 ups the limit to 19,999, Level 2 raises it to 29,999, and so on.
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius[]
In the early versions the damage cap was set at roughly 2,14 billion per turn. Updates changed the damage cap mechanics drastically to 99,999,999,999 points, with an additional damage cap per hit of 9,999,999,999. It is possible to break the damage cap through use of multi-hit attacks, along with chaining to boost damage. Both caps are the highest in the series.
War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius[]
The normal damage cap is 9,999 per hit but there are several ways to break the cap. Certain Vision Cards grant the ability to increase the damage cap limit by a certain amount when equipped. Units that can unlock their EX Job will have a Damage Limit increase ability in their ability board, which must be unlocked through leveling the main Job Lvl to at least 19. The skill must then be leveled up to extend the limit by up to 2,000 damage. The introduction of Truststones provides another potential source of damage limit extension if the player crafts one with such an ability. Some content, like Guild Raids, provide a default extension of the Damage Cap limit for easier clears. All sources of damage limit break stack.
As the damage cap is set per hit, it is possible to circumvent the normal damage cap limit through the use of multi-hit abilities, as even if individually they would be less than the damage cap, they can be high in terms of the total sum. The most reliable way to achieve this is through chaining multi-hit attacks of the same attack type and element. Decreasing the enemy's speed while augmenting that of the player's units can greatly delay the opponent's next turn allowing chains to build rapidly before they disappear as soon as the enemy gets a turn. Breaking the damage cap in this fashion is often necessary to efficiently clear events with high HP bosses, such as Raid or Trials of Reckoning.
Gallery[]
Names in other languages[]
- Italian: Danni Apeiron ("Danni" means "damages" in Italian, and "Apeiron" derives from Ancient Greek meaning "no limit").
- Portuguese (from Brazil): Quebrar o limite de dano ("Quebrar" means "to break", "o limite" means "the limit", and "de dano" means "of damage".
- French: Dégâts extra ("Dégâts" meaning "damage").
- German: Hit-Expander.
- Spanish: Expansión de daño ("Damage expansion").