Combine (Final Fantasy VIII)

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Rinoa&Angelo — Rinoa giving Angelo a treat after performing a Combine Limit Break.

Combine (コンバイン, Konbain?) is Rinoa's primary Limit Break in Final Fantasy VIII, in which she teams up with her dog Angelo to perform a variety of abilities. To gain access to Combine moves the player has to read about them in the Pet Pals magazines, then pick the move to learn next in the status screen in the menu, and learn it by walking with Rinoa in the party; progress in each skill is marked in steps. Learning all of Angelo's Combine skills in the Steam version earns the player the achievement Dog Trainer.

Several of Angelo's abilities are not triggered by the actual Limit Break command, and are, rather, triggered by events throughout the battle. Angelo will not appear during the battles against the Propagators on the Ragnarok. Although Rinoa is playable in the PlayStation Final Fantasy VIII demo Angelo never appears, and Rinoa doesn't have a Limit Break. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered adds new items to Angelo Search.

Mechanics

FFVIII Status Menu 5 — Rinoa's Combine skills in her Status menu.

The first four skills in the list are used automatically even when Rinoa is not in HP Critical health. If Rinoa is hit by an enemy, there's a chance that Angelo Rush or Angelo Recover will activate.

The game has an invisible "Dead Time" timer that starts from 200 and starts counting down. The timer only counts down when nothing is happening, decreasing when no one attacks (just like the ATB bar only fills when nothing else is happening).

After the timer reaches 0 (after 13.3~ seconds), the following things will be checked in this order:^[1]

Is Gilgamesh summoned
Is Angelo Recover triggered
Is Angelo Reverse triggered
Is Angelo Search triggered

If the player doesn't have the skill its check is skipped.

Angelo Recover and Angelo Reverse only trigger if their conditions are met; Angelo Recover will only trigger if there's an ally with less than 25% of their Max HP, and Angelo Reverse will only trigger if there's a KO'd ally.

The rest will only be used when Rinoa is in critical or Aura status by manually choosing the Combine command from the Limit Break menu. The player can't choose which attack Angelo uses, but the attacks Angelo uses depend on the Crisis Level.^[1] Angelo will use the highest level skill that she knows and that is valid to use. Angelo can't use a skill at a higher Crisis Level.

Crisis Level 1: Angelo Cannon
Crisis Level 2: Angelo Strike
Crisis Level 3: Invincible Moon
Crisis Level 4: Wishing Star

After Angelo performs her trick, Rinoa reappears and rewards her pet with a dog biscuit. Rinoa can teach Angelo additional Combine commands by reading the Pet Pals magazines, then earning experience for them via walking anywhere in the field, or on the world map (a tone will sound once a skill is learned). The fastest way to gain steps is to ride a chocobo or drive a car, but using a train will not help.

The skills that appear when executing the Combine command can be exploited to increase a particular skill's appearance simply by refusing to learn specific commands; for example, if Angelo doesn't know Wishing Star, she will use Invincible Moon at Crisis Level 4.

Combine abilities

Skill	Atk Pwr	Activation^[1]	Effect	Pet Pals Vol
Angelo Rush	32	Rinoa hit by enemy (6.25%)	A random counterattack against one opponent. Learned by default.	Default
Angelo Search	N/A	Dead Time (3.2%)	Angelo finds an item in the battlefield. The item found may be a rare item. In the Remastered, the previously Chocobo World-exclusive items are now found in Angelo Search. Angelo will keep searching new items as long as the battle does not end, and thus can be used for automatic item farming.	Pet Pals Vol. 5 (Buy from Esthar's Pet Shop; walk ~400 steps to learn)
Angelo Recover	N/A	Rinoa hit by enemy (6.6%) Dead Time (3.3%)	Angelo heals an ally's HP when they are in less than 25% of their max health. Heals 62.5% of the target's max HP.	Pet Pals Vol. 2 (Rinoa's room on the Forest Owls' Base & Karen's Store in Esthar; walk ~200 steps to learn)
Angelo Reverse	N/A	Dead Time (1%)	Angelo will revive a fallen ally to 12.5% of their full HP, leaving them in critical status.	Pet Pals Vol. 4 (Buy from Timber's Pet Shop; walk ~250 steps to learn)
Angelo Cannon	72	Limit Break: Crisis Level 1	Rinoa launches Angelo off her wrist, creating an explosion and causing medium physical damage to all enemies. Learned by default.	Default
Angelo Strike	120	Limit Break: Crisis Level 2	Angelo jumps into the air with one enemy, rotates 360 degrees and slams the target down, causing high physical damage.	Pet Pals Vol. 1 (Given by Zell during first train journey; walk ~800 steps to learn)
Invincible Moon	N/A	Limit Break: Crisis Level 3	Rinoa throws a bone for Angelo and she jumps up in front of the moon, causing its rays to shine on the party, making them temporarily invincible, for a duration seemingly longer than the Holy War item.	Pet Pals Vol. 3 (Buy from Timber's Pet Shop; walk ~900 steps to learn)
Wishing Star	130	Limit Break: Crisis Level 4	Rinoa jumps on Angelo's back, knocking enemies into space and attacking targets eight times, doing heavy magical damage. This Limit Break is exceedingly rare in occurrence, but under ideal circumstances can inflict 79,992 points of damage.	Pet Pals Vol. 6 (Buy from Esthar's Pet Shop; walk ~1010 steps to learn)

Angelo Search item list

The following items can be obtained through the use of Angelo Search in the original version:

Potion - 16.7% (48/288)
Mega Phoenix - 11.1% (32/288)
Cottage - 7.29% (21/288)
Potion+ - 5.56% (16/288)
Hi-Potion+ - 5.56% (16/288)
X-Potion - 5.56% (16/288)
Phoenix Down - 5.56% (16/288)
G-Potion - 4.86% (14/288)
Tent - 2.78% (8/288)
Cactus Thorn - 2.78% (8/288)
G-Hi-Potion - 2.43% (7/288)
G-Mega-Potion - 2.43% (7/288)
G-Returner - 2.43% (7/288)
Protect Stone - 1.39% (4/288)
Holy Stone - 1.39% (4/288)
Jet Engine - 1.39% (4/288)
Sleep Powder - 1.39% (4/288)
Curse Spike - 1.39% (4/288)
North Wind - 1.39% (4/288)
Steel Orb - 1.39% (4/288)
Dragon Fin - 1.39% (4/288)

Combat King 004 - 1.39% (4/288)
Occult Fan II - 1.39% (4/288)
Elixir - 0.69% (2/288)
Antidote - 0.69% (2/288)
Hero-trial - 0.69% (2/288)
Hero - 0.69% (2/288)
Shell Stone - 0.69% (2/288)
Energy Crystal - 0.69% (2/288)
Gold Armor - 0.69% (2/288)
Adamantine - 0.69% (2/288)
Rune Armlet - 0.69% (2/288)
Force Armlet - 0.69% (2/288)
Circlet - 0.69% (2/288)
Moon Curtain - 0.69% (2/288)
Pet House - 0.35% (1/288)
Aegis Amulet - 0.35% (1/288)
Status Guard - 0.35% (1/288)
Magic Scroll - 0.35% (1/288)
GF Scroll - 0.35% (1/288)
Draw Scroll - 0.35% (1/288)
Healing Ring - 0.35% (1/288)
Hungry Cookpot - 0.35% (1/288)

Even if the player has 100 of the item already in their inventory, Angelo will still dig for that item.

In Final Fantasy VIII Remastered the Chocobo World mini-game has been removed, but its exclusive items (Ribbon, Friendship, and Mog's Amulet) can still be obtained via Angelo Search. Getting the Ribbons and Mog's Amulet is still rare and might take hours of non-stop searching (via below method). It appears that the Chocobo Tag item (used to rename the player's chicobo) is not available at all. The player does not need to visit a Chocobo Forest for the Chocobo World items to appear in Angelo Search.

Item farming with Angelo Search

Final_Fantasy_VIII_On_PSP_Perfect_Game_Part_5_-_ANGELO_SEARCH_Trick!!! — Final Fantasy VIII On PSP Perfect Game Part 5 - ANGELO SEARCH Trick!!!

Angelo will keep searching for items infinitely many times even in the same battle as long as the battle simply goes on forever. If the player finds an enemy that does not fight back, they can leave the game on, e.g. overnight, to accumulate various items. Enemies that can be used for this are the UFO? special battle above the Grandidi Forest, and LV30+ Turtapod in Esthar overworld; after the Turtapod takes a defensive stance, the player can confuse it, and it will never take on an attacking phase unless attacked first.

This still works in the Remastered, where the player can also use the x3 speed boost.

Other appearances

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

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Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia

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Pictlogica Final Fantasy

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Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade

Ability Cards

Legend Cards

This gallery is incomplete and requires Angelo Cannon (Summon) and Angelo Strike (Summon) added. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by uploading images.

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