Doom (Final Fantasy IX)

Doom
(死の宣告, Shi no Senkoku?, lit. Death Sentence)
Availability
Obtained	Veteran, Ash
Character(s)	Quina
Classification
Type	Blue Magic
Skillset	Blu Mag
Effect	Count down to Instant Death to one target
Status	Doom
Specifications
MP cost	12
Reflect	No
Related pages
Recurring appearance	Doom (ability)

Casts Doom on the target.

Description

Doom is a Blu Mag spell for Quina in Final Fantasy IX that inflicts the status of the same name at a cost of 20 MP. The spell projects a mirror in front of an enemy from where a Grim Reaper stares down their target before the mirror shatters. Doom cannot be reflected but works with Return Magic. Ash, Lich, Lich (Crystal), Tantarian, Veteran, and Wraith use it against the player party.

Obtain

Quina learns Doom by eating an Ash in the final dungeon, or Veteran, first met in Ipsen's Castle. The earliest the spell can be learned is after the party has the Hilda Garde III, as the door to the castle is closed before it is visited as part of the story. If getting every Blu Mag spell the earliest they are available, Doom will be the final one Quina learns.

Mechanics

Doom attempts to inflict the Doom status to one targe, placing a countdown above them, which inflicts Instant Death as it expires. The countdown runs during animations and is affected by Battle Speed as set in the Config and the affected's speed status (Haste, Normal, Slow). The higher the affected's Spirit stat, the slower the timer counts down.

$Duration = (60 - Spirit) \times 200$

The chance of the Doom spell working on a target that is not immune is calculated as follows:

$Chance=25+Level+[Magic/4]-Target'sLevel$

Two randomly generated values determine if the spell will hit:

A random number 0...99 >= Chance, the spell misses its mark

A random number 0...99 < Target's Magic Evade, the enemy evades

The Instant Death still works on undead targets. Bosses are immune to Doom.

Use

Doom is not very useful in practice as it is learned fairly late and Zidane and Amarant have superior methods of inflicting Doom: Masamune's Soul Blade and Countdown, respectively. Vivi also has instant-defeat abilities with his Death, Break, and Stop (Doom's boon over Vivi's spells is that Doom pierces Reflect), whereas Dagger has Odin. Even Quina's other instant-defeat abilities tend to be better: LV5 Death if the enemy is on a suitable level, Mustard Bomb, and Frost, though the latter needs one more hit to shatter the frozen target.

Zidane's Masamune + Soul Blade is the best way to inflict Doom, making all other methods obsolete; this combination is great for defeating Yans.