Dragoon (Tactics)

Dragoon
(竜騎士, Ryūkishi?, lit. Dragon Knight) Alternate names: Lancer, Dragon Knight
Portrait(s)
Sprite(s)
Availability
Required jobs	Thief level 4(Level 3 in the original release)
Abilities
Stats	High base attack, very low base magic, high HP, low base MP See stats
Weapons	Polearms
Armor	Helmets, Armor, Robes
Command abilities	Jump See Jump
Support abilities	See reaction abilities, support abilities, movement abilities
More information
Recurring appearance

A warrior who may make soaring Jump attacks even in full armor, the dragoon is also a master spearman.

Description

Dragoon, also known as Lancer, is a job from Final Fantasy Tactics. A physically-based job, Dragoons fear no heights since their Jump command lets them reach nearly anywhere on the map, provided they have learned enough Horizontal Jump abilities.

Gameplay

Job requirements

In order to unlock the Dragoon job for a character, the player must first have that character at job level 3 for the Thief class in the original PSX version. The War of the Lions versions increases the requirement to job level 4.

Additionally, the Dragoon's job levels are required to unlock several jobs:

• Leveling Dragoon to level 2 along with a level 4 Knight and level 5 Monk unlocks Samurai.
• Leveling the Dragoon up to level 5 along with separate level requirements for Squire, Chemist, Geomancer, Summoner, and Orator unlocks Mime.
• Leveling up Dragoon to level 5 with Geomancer unlocks Dancer for female units.
• Mastering both Knight and Black Mage with level 8 requirements for Dragoon along with Geomancer, Knight, Black Mage, Samurai, and Ninja, as well as having 20 kills with the party (the defeated units must turn into crystals or chests to count as kills, listed in Chronicles (Tactics)), will unlock Dark Knight (not in PlayStation version).

Stats

Prerequisite	Weapons	Helmet	Armor	Equip Shields?
WotL(War of the Lions): Lv. 4 Thief PlayStation: Lv. 3 Thief	Polearms	Helmets	Armor, Robes	Yes

Move Rate	Jump Rate	Speed	Physical Evasion Rate	Base Attack	Base Magic	Base HP	Base MP
3	4	8	15%	High	Very Low	High	Low

Abilities

It costs 7,060 JP to master Dragoon in the original version, and 9,150 JP in the War of the Lions version.

Jump

Dragoon job command. Jumps high into the air, then dives downward into the opponent.

Description

The damage formula for Jump is as follows:

$\text{Physical Attack} \times \text{Weapon Strength}$ (+50% if a polearm is equipped).

The charge time for Jump is as follows:

$(50 / \text{Speed}) \text{ ticks}$

Name	Range	Effect	Speed	JP Needed
Horizontal Jump 2	2	1	—	150
	Jump 2 tiles horizontally.
Horizontal Jump 3	3	1	—	300/350
	Jump 3 tiles horizontally.
Horizontal Jump 4	4	1	—	450/550
	Jump 4 tiles horizontally.
Horizontal Jump 5	5	1	—	600/800
	Jump 5 tiles horizontally.
Horizontal Jump 8	8	1	—	900/1100
	Jump 8 tiles horizontally.
Vertical Jump 2	0	1	—	100
	Jump 2 tiles vertically.
Vertical Jump 3	0	1	—	200/250
	Jump 3 tiles vertically.
Vertical Jump 4	0	1	—	300/400
	Jump 4 tiles vertically.
Vertical Jump 5	0	1	—	400/550
	Jump 5 tiles vertically.
Vertical Jump 6	0	1	—	500/700
	Jump 6 tiles vertically.
Vertical Jump 7	0	1	—	600/1000
	Jump 7 tiles vertically.
Vertical Jump 8	0	1	—	900/1500
	Jump 8 tiles vertically.

Reaction abilities

Name	Description	Trigger	JP Needed
Dragonheart (Dragon Spirit)	Recover from KO status. Effect: Reraise.	Physical Attack	560/600

Support abilities

Name	Description	JP Needed
Equip Polearms (Equip Spears)	Equip polearms, regardless of job.	400

Movement abilities

Ignore Elevation is like Bard/Dancer's Fly ability, except it offers no protection from traps and will still be hindered by water/sand.

Name	Description	JP Needed
Ignore Elevation (Ignore Height)	Move to tiles of any height, regardless of Jump attribute.	700

Gameplay

Jump.

The Dragoon is a hybrid melee and ranged class that deals physical damage. Unlike the Knight, the Dragoon's magick and MP attributes are pitiful, with its magick attack being the lowest in the game. This is not an issue, however, since the Dragoon focuses on dealing as much damage as possible with Jump or a physical attack up to two panels; two panel range usually avoids Counter and First Strike.

Dragoons are complicated in terms of game mechanics and expensive abilities:

• They have access to the 700 JP Ignore Elevation ability, which allows them to move to any tile regardless of elevation, though mounting a Chocobo will also have this ability and a Time Mage has Teleport that ignores height/obstacles and increases movement range (it tends to fail if going well past the unit's movement range, however) for 100 less JP.
• Dragonheart needs the Dragoon to survive, and then react to cast Reraise on themselves to automatically revive themselves at critical condition on their next turn. The player can get a Game Over if their last unit was defeated even with Reraise, and a successful revival will not work a second time as their HP would be too low to survive to recast it. The Time Mage's Critical: Quick or the Archer's Adrenaline Rush with a means to reliably heal will give a Dragoon more turns.
• Their 8-tile Jump abilities are a maximum range, allowing the Dragoon to Jump up to 8 tiles any way, without needing to learn previous abilities. Most of the time, Horizontal Jump 5 and Vertical Jump 3 will be in range of the enemy (up to 5 tiles away and 3 tiles high), with movement accessories or abilities giving more horizontal range without needing to waste JP.
• The main drawback of Jump is that it functions similarly to the Archer's Aim: it will not lock on the target. If the target moves away from the tile before Jump lands, it will miss. Increasing the Dragoon's speed with abilities or equipment is the best way to circumvent this.
• A Dragoon under the effects of Haste will not land faster from a Jump; the status will, however, increase the amount of CT they acquire upon landing. Alternatively, their target can be slowed down or immobilized by a Time Mage to make Jump more effective, or give the Dragoon an extra turn with Quick while on the ground.
• A Mime can attempt to do both Quick (easier with a self-cast by another ally) and landing for Jump, but cannot mimic staying airborne.
• Jump can dodge attacks that require charge times, such as magick. It is effective to move the Dragoon next to an enemy to use Jump when targeted by an enemy spell, and have that finished charging spell only hit the enemy (Summon does not have friendly fire) while the Dragoon is safely airborne, and will likely land on their target if they have under 50 CT (preview time is not visible before doing Jump).
• Dragoon is one of the jobs that greatly benefits from the Samurai's Doublehand support ability, allowing it to wield polearms with both hands to boost its attack power. Although the user cannot equip a shield when two-handed, the Dragoon can easily deal maximum damage with normal attacks with the Gungnir or Javelin II equipped while using Doublehand. The Dragoon is the perfect candidate for Doublehand because only one support ability can be used (making Equip Polearms weaker on any other class and polearms cannot be used with Dual Wield) and the Samurai will be using Iaido most of the time. This ability does not affect Jump's damage.

Other appearances

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

This section about an enemy in Final Fantasy Record Keeper is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game

Dragoons appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game as Lightning-elemental forward cards.

Dragoon [1-122C] Chapter series card.

Dragoon [1-123C] Chapter series card.

Dragoon [1-147C] Opus series card.

Dragoon [1-148C] Opus series card.

Non-Final Fantasy guest appearances

Knights of the Crystals

Dragoon appears as a card in the Ivalice Special Arena has a limited-time special arena with eighteen floors.

Male card.

Female card.

Gallery

Male Dragoon.

Female Dragoon.

Male Dragoon Character Card.

Female Dragoon Character Card.

Male Dragoon.

Dragonheart.

Ignore Elevation.

Etymology

[view · edit · purge]"Dragoon" is the traditional name for a special soldier type in classical European warfare. Unlike in Final Fantasy, the original dragoons did not fight with lances, that being the job of "lancers"—a different soldier class. Dragoons were infantry that rode on horseback, but fought on foot. Originally they fought with a hand-held blunderbuss called the "dragon", giving them the name. The dragoons' arsenal expanded to include guns, sabres, and axes. During the Napoleonic Wars they became medium cavalry and reached the height of their popularity.

After the Napoleonic Wars, to make better use of the number of men the European military had, the dragoons were trained to use lances and lancers became obsolete. Thanks to the advances of modern warfare, dragoons lost their niche and modern dragoon units exist only for ceremonial purposes.