The Duelist is a Basic Job in Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, and is the second job available to Jack at the start of the game, as well as the first job available to Jed at the start of the game. Leveling the Duelist is required to unlock the Thief job.
Duelist is the first critical-oriented job in the game centered around the use of the Daggers and is capable of dealing close-range damage at fast speeds and high evasion, making it easier to land critical hits and deplete the enemy's break gauge. The Duelist encourages an evasive yet destructive playstyle by increasing the duration of Lightbringer, extending the i-frames of evasions, and boosting critical damage dealt.
[Attack Type: Slash] [Stat Bonus: Agility] Quickly dash forward and deliver a slashing attack. Always critically hits, regardless of the enemy's position relative to you.
[Any Link] Can be set to any link ability slot.
The Duelist's Job Action is Weak Spot, a quick attack that grants the player a guaranteed critical hit, regardless of the enemy's position relative to the player character.
During this action, the player will also be invincible until the action has finished, provided that the player unlocks the mastery ability within the job tree. This ability is reliable for staggering enemies and opening them up for more critical hits and go in for a soul burst finish.
Temporarily causes hits landed to accumulate poison on the enemy. *The enemy will become poisoned after enough poison accumulates.
The Duelist obtains the Venom support ability, imbuing the character's current weapon with the Poison status, which inflicts the Poison status ailment with enough damage dealt to the enemy. It acts similar the later Tyrant job's Enchantments in that the support ability cannot be stacked with other elements. This ability is beneficial to jobs that specialize in inflicting status ailments such as Red Mage or Ninja for extra MP and damage dealt over time.
[Attack Type: Slash] [Stat Bonus: Agility] Leap at an enemy while spinning to unleash a series of slashing attacks. Critical hits will deal more damage more than usual.
[Attack Type: Pierce/Slash] [Stat Bonus: Strength] Impale an enemy, then unleash a quick slash that deals pierce damage and knocks enemies back. Critical hits will deal more damage than usual.
Duelist makes use of the daggers as its default weapon and serves as an introduction to this weapon type. These weapons are lightweight slashing weapons ideal for slipping behind foes and landing critical hits to clear break gauges. The combo effects thereof focus on increasing ability speed and dealing even greater critical damage.
Partial unlock for the Thief Job. Also requires a similar ability in the Pugilist Job Tree.
New Class: Cutthroat
Class Unlock
All Duelist tree abilities
Unlocks the Evocation Class for Duelist, Cutthroat. Only available in the Trials of the Dragon King DLC.
New Class: Merciless Champion
Class Unlock
All Duelist tree abilities
Unlocks the Ultima Class for Duelist, Merciless Champion. Only available in the Trials of the Dragon King DLC.
Class Trees[]
Introduced in the Trials of the Dragon King DLC, These classes are unlocked after visiting Bahamut's Cave and completing the "A Token of Courage and Strength" conversation with Bahamut and the abilities thereof can be bought by using Rat Tails which are accumulated by completing missions on the Bahamut difficulty onward and purchasing them from the Bahamut Exchange Shop via Dragon Treasures:
Cutthroat[]
Ability
Type
Rat Tails
Required Ability to Unlock
Description
After Image
Job Action
—
All Duelist tree abilities
Weak Spot + [Class Change Effect: Evocation] Temporarily increases break damage after chain cancelling this attack.
Greatly reduces the enemy's max break gauge on impact.
HP +200
Passive
12
Status Ailment Resistance +18.0%
Increases HP by 200.
Swordsman Master Points +3
Passive
17
HP +200
Increases duelist master points acquired.
Job Affinity bonuses[]
Most weapons and items of clothing have a certain percentage of Job Affinity for a certain job. By combining them together and raising this percentage, the character may not only gain extra EXP to that Job, but also unlock abilities and bonuses to their stats. The bonuses for the Duelist Job Affinity are:
Name
Job Ability Percentages
Description
Duelist's Wisdom I
20%
Increases the corresponding stat(s). Agility+1
Duelist's Wisdom II
30%
Increases the corresponding stat(s). Spirit+1 Agility+1
Critical Bonus I
50%
Increases critical break damage by 8.1%.
Duelist's Wisdom III
80%
Increases the corresponding stat(s). HP+25 Strength+1 Spirit+1 Agility+2
Critical Bonus II
120%
Increases critical break damage by 13.5%.
Duelist's Wisdom IV
160%
Increases the corresponding stat(s). HP+25 Strength+2 Spirit+2 Agility+3
Outlaw's Soul
250%
Daggers: Forward/Rear/Side attack links can now be chained up to two times in a row.
Dagger Master
400%
Daggers: Enables the use of all weapon abilities for the daggers and increases damage dealt with dagger combo abilities. Including Weak Spot.
Reduces the MP cost of dagger combo abilities while daggers are equipped. Also enhances the effects of Duelist's Wisdom.
Duelist's Essence
800%
Enhances the effects of Duelist's Wisdom, and also boosts stats based on your affinity.
Gameplay[]
The Duelist job enables players to perform fast hitting attacks against enemies, but at the trade off of having weaker damage per hit. It is a powerful Job for most players looking for a more agile fighter class that can more than reliably contend against enemies with large damaging attacks with slow startups. With its Weak Spot ability, the Duelist excels at breaking enemies easier than the other basic jobs at earlier levels.
Strengths[]
Excellent Break Damage. As a Speed-type job, the Duelist possesses high Agility leading to clearing enemy break gauges much easier.
Attack Speed. The Duelist is an agile job capable evading attacks while still poking at the enemy with fast combos to whittle their health down. This is made even more apparent with the Outlaw's Soul affinity bonus
Icy Mangling. With the Ultima Class Action's After Parry trait, this can lead to devastating combos with near invincible invulnerability.
Weaknesses[]
Poor defenses. The Duelist does not have the best stats for defenses as a Speed-type job, leaving it in a bad state when overwhelmed by constant enemy attacks.
Low HP Damage. When paired up against bosses possessing high Agility, the Duelist may struggle to break those enemies as the Agility stat contends with the character's break damage.
Unspecialized. The Duelist's stats and role as a critical damage dealer can all be fulfilled by later jobs such as the Assassin, Thief, and Ninja.
Stats[]
The Duelist receives the largest stat bonus in its Agility, providing even higher break damage upon a critical hit.
Ronin is a particularly good pairing with the Duelist due to its powerful strikes that are comparable to the kind of moveset and speed available to Swordsman. It can be used to break apart enemy groups that try to gang up on you, allowing players to circumvent any potential enemy rushes.
Hunter is an excellent support job for the Duelist, fitting for the Duelist's Pugilist's Heart combo effects. Analyze is helpful to bolster your attacks for the Duelist's barrage of physical damage output by bypassing resistances. This can also aid in MP management should the Duelist have the Lancet support ability at the ready.
Ninja is the most common support job for any job. Utsusemi is helpful to avoid any attack when the Duelist gains the greatest enmity or in case they need to Provoke enemies to save other party members, making it very useful when tackling higher level enemies who can kill with one attack.
Slash]
Agility]
>
.
Pierce/
Strength]
+ 
+ 
+ 
Ronin[]
