Hope is a Synergist, and has bestowed himself with some buffs.
The following is a list of statuses found in Final Fantasy XIII. Statuses can be negative or positive, and inflicted or bestowed via abilities, passive abilities, enemy abilities, items, accessories, and techniques. When either enemy or a party member has a status effect, its icon appears next to the combatant's HP bar in the battle system UI. Negative statuses have a red icon, while positive ones have a blue icon. En-abilities and bar-spells have purple icons, which could be considered a neutral alignment, though their intention is to deal more damage (former) and to mitigate damage (latter).
All statuses are expirable in Final Fantasy XIII in contrast to previous entries in the Final Fantasy series; even the auto-status abilities will expire and their effects can be dispelled. Conversely, the player cannot get 100%-immunity to ailments, but can make ailments less likely to stick and get means of quickly removing the ones that do. All statuses are removed from a party member who is KO'd and then revived. The Technique Dispelga removes all status effects, both positive and negative, from all party members and enemies.
Mechanics[]
Status effect duration, for both positive and negative effects, is calculated by the following formula:
- Base Duration * Chain Bonus + (MA of the caster / 100)[1]
The Chain Bonus in the formula refers to the target's chain value. When using roles that target allies, such as the Synergist and Medic, the player may notice that allies, as well as enemies, have a chain gauge. This chain does not fill when being attacked by enemies, however, but is used solely for Medic's healing spells' and Synergist's spells' calculations.
The caster's higher Magic stat will result in longer-lasting effects. Anything that directly affects the Magic stat will help, such as Faith status and the Power Surge passive abilities, with Stifled Magic and Fettered Magic being an exception. Conversely, having Defaith when casting the effect would somewhat shorten the resultant effect's duration.
Positive statuses[]
Fang uses Shellra, the upgrade for Shell.
The role specializing in bestowing positive statuses to the party is Synergist; the early game specialists are Hope, who excels in buffs that avoid damage, and Sazh, who specializes in augments that help the party deal more damage to enemies. In the late game, Vanille and Fang can learn some unique Synergist abilities that supersede the ones the other Synergists can learn.
Buffs can be removed with a Saboteur's Dispel, though it only removes them one by one starting from the most recently applied, as opposed to previous Final Fantasy games where Dispel removes everything that is dispellable.
Being in the Synergist role boosts the status enhancements' duration and the bonus is boosted further by having more Synergists in the current formation. The amount of bonus depends on the role level. A character can have maximum of eight status enhancements at one time. Chain bonus has a small effect on making status effects last longer.
Sazh's weapons skills, Augment Maintenance and Augment Maintenance II from Spica Defenders and Sirius Sidearms, increase the duration of the offensive enhancements that he bestows, while Hope's weapon skills, Defense Maintenance and Defense Maintenance II from Vidofnir and Hresvelgr, affect the defensive buffs that he bestows. The Boon Synergist passive ability lengthens the duration of status enhancements granted from Synergist spells and any status enhancements already on the ally will have their remaining length of duration increased by 5 seconds. However, Bravera, Faithra, Protectra, and Shellra do not trigger Boon.
The duration of enhancements granted from accessories varies. Critical-enhancements last 120 seconds (60 for the Tetradic Crown), while Auto-enhancements last 60 seconds (30 for the Tetradic Tiara). Enhancements granted from shrouds last 300 seconds.
Only one En-effect (infuses an element to most of the character's non-elemental attacks) or Bar-effect (half damage from the applicable element) can be in effect at once. En- statuses are dispelled if attacking an enemy that is not weak or normal to the corresponding element.
Negative statuses[]
Enemy with Deprotect.
The role specializing in ailing enemies is the Saboteur, with Vanille and Fang having the role since the start of their Crystarium tree. Vanille specializes in debuffing skills that make enemies more susceptible to damage, such as Deprotect and Poison, while Fang specializes in debilitating skills that hinder enemies' ability to harm the party, such as Slow and Curse. Debuffing skills have an "opposing" buff and the two are mutually exclusive.
The chance to inflict a target with a status effect is:
- (Base chance %) * (alteration due to target's resistance) * Chain Bonus[1]
The alteration due to resistance is equal to [(100 - Enemy Res) / 100]; if the enemy has 10 resistance against the status effect, the alteration is equal to 0.90. The chain bonus is taken as a percent value, so 100% gives a multiplier of 1 while 255% gives a multiplier of 2.55. Vanille's full ATB skill, Death, ignores the chain bonus factor.
Vanille's weapons skills Improved Debuffing and Improved Debuffing II increase the chance of debuffs landing, while Fang's weapon skills Improved Debilitation and Improved Debilitation II affect debilitations.
Status effect duration is calculated the same as for positive statuses, and passive abilities exist that cut ailment duration. The player can protect their own party against ailments sticking with accessories and the Veil status. Esuna and status-healing items can be used to remove ailments after they have stuck. When an Eidolon is dismissed, regardless of whether it entered Gestalt Mode or not, all party members will be fully healed, both status and HP.
List of statuses[]
Bravery[]
Bravery raises the damage of physical attacks, such as Attack and elemental "-strikes", by 40%. It has a base duration of 150 seconds. It is opposed to Debrave.
Bravera[]
Bravera increases the damage of physical attacks by 80%. It has a base duration of 30 seconds. The only Synergists who can bestow it are Fang and Vanille, and only one enemy uses it: Sanctum Inquisitrix. Bravera supersedes Bravery, and so one cannot have both active at the same time.
Faith[]
Faith raises the damage of magic attacks, such as Fire, Deprotect, and Last Resort, by 40%. It has a base duration of 150 seconds when bestowed from the spell of the same name.
Faithra[]
Faithra increases the damage of magical attacks by 80%. It has a base duration of 30 seconds. The only Synergists who can bestow it are Fang and Vanille, and no enemies use it. Faithra supersedes Faith, and so one cannot have both active at the same time.
Haste[]
Haste increases the ATB gauge speed by 50%. It has a base duration of 90 seconds. It is opposed to Slow. Haste can be used to somewhat mitigate the effects of Leadenstrike and Ironstrike.
Vigilance[]
Vigilance increases the chance of interrupting the opponent's action when attacking and lowers the chances of interruption from the opponent. It has a base duration is 90 seconds. It is opposed to Curse.
Enfire[]
Enfire adds fire-elemental attribute to most otherwise non-elemental attacks and makes natively fire-elemental attacks more powerful. It has a base duration of 180 seconds. It will not affect Smite, Army of One, Highwind, Sovereign Fist, Last Resort, Cold Blood, nor most Eidolon abilities.
Enfrost[]
Enfrost adds ice-elemental attribute to most otherwise non-elemental attacks and makes natively ice-elemental attacks more powerful. It has a base duration of 180 seconds.
Enthunder[]
Enthunder adds lightning attribute to most otherwise non-elemental attacks and makes natively lightning-elemental attacks more powerful. It has a base duration of 180 seconds.
Enwater[]
Enwater adds water attribute to most otherwise non-elemental attacks and makes natively water-elemental attacks more powerful. It has a base duration of 180 seconds.
Protect[]
Protect increases resistance to physical damage by 33%. It has a base duration of 150 seconds. It is opposed to Deprotect.
Protectra[]
Protectra increases resistance to physical damage by 50%. It has a base duration of 30 seconds. It supersedes Protect and is also opposed to Deprotect. The only Synergists who can bestow it are Fang and Vanille, and no enemies use it.
Shell[]
Shell increases resistance to magical damage by 33%. It has a base duration of 150 seconds. It is opposed to Deshell and superseded by Shellra.
Shellra[]
Shellra increases resistance to magical damage by 50%. It has a base duration of 30 seconds. It supersedes Shell and is still opposed to Deshell.
Barfire[]
Barfire increases resistance to fire-elemental damage by 50%. It has a base duration is 90 seconds.
Barfrost[]
Barfrost increases resistance to ice-elemental damage by 50%. It has a base duration is 90 seconds.
Barthunder[]
Barthunder increases resistance to lightning-elemental damage by 50%. It has a base duration is 90 seconds.
Barwater[]
Barwater increases resistance to water-elemental damage by 50%. It has a base duration is 90 seconds.
Veil[]
Veil increases resistance to status ailments by 50%. It has a base duration of 90 seconds.
Debrave[]
Debrave reduces the target's physical power by 90%. It is opposed to Bravery and Bravera. Only enemies use it.
Defaith[]
Defaith reduces the target's magical power by 90%. It is opposed to Faith and Faithra and is only used by enemies.
Deprotect[]
Deprotect is a debuff that reduces the target's resistance to physical attacks by 89%. It has a base duration of 60 seconds. It is opposed to Protect and Protectra.
Deshell[]
Deshell is a debuff that reduces the target's resistance to magical attacks by 89%. It has a base duration of 60 seconds and is opposed to Shell and Shellra.
Poison[]
Poison is a debuff that causes the target to continuously lose HP every second equal to 0.32% of their maximum. It has a base duration of 60 seconds.
Imperil[]
Imperil is a debuff that reduces the target's elemental resistances by one stage: Absorbed → Immune → Resistant → Halved → Normal → Weakness. Party members afflicted with Imperil will take double damage from elemental attacks. Imperil has a base duration of 60 seconds.
Slow[]
Slow is a debilitation that decreases the target's ATB gauge speed by 50%. It has a base duration of 60 seconds. It is opposed to Haste.
Fog[]
Fog is a debilitation that disables the target's spellcasting abilities, and any pending magic actions will be canceled. It has a base duration of 60 seconds.
Pain[]
Pain is a debilitation that disables the target's physical abilities and any queued physical abilities are canceled. It has a base duration of 60 seconds.
Curse[]
Curse is a debilitation that increases the chance of actions being interrupted by the opponent and decreases the chances of interrupting the opponent's actions. It has a base duration of 60 seconds.
Daze[]
Daze is a debilitation that renders the target unable to act, and will take double damage from the next attack, which will dispel the status. Healing is also doubled but does not remove the status. Daze has a base duration of 60 seconds when applied from Saboteur's spells but Daze inflicted from enemy abilities can be much shorter. Daze will cancel any pending actions, but the ATB gauge will also pause for its duration. The party leader can still use Techniques and Items under Daze.
Provoke[]
Provoke forces the target to focus their attacks on the caster.
Provoke is caused by the Sentinel's Provoke and Challenge abilities, and will increase the likeliness that the target will attack the Sentinel. It is also triggered by Odin's Valhalla's Call auto-ability, and Alexander's Lofty Challenge ability.
Provoke is treated as a negative effect, and will increase the chain gauge and duration if it lands, but otherwise has a modifier of 0.0. It will wear off if the user switches to a different role. It has a base duration of 50 seconds, or 150 if applied with Challenge.
| Game Element | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Provoke | Sentinel ability | Entice enemies in range to attack the caster. |
| Challenge | Sentinel ability | Entice one enemy to attack the caster. |
| Valhalla's Call | Eidolon ability | Provokes enemies when attacking. The Provoke effect works 100% of the time. |
| Lofty Challenge | Eidolon ability | Provokes nearby enemies. |
Doom[]
Doom inflicts instant death when the counter reaches zero, spelling game over for the player as the enemies will only target the player character. Its purpose is to set a time limit to the battle, and is used by Eidolons and the final boss at the start of battle, as well as other tough enemies after 20 or 30 minutes of battle time has passed, depending on enemy. Doom cannot be healed nor resisted but summoning will halt the timer. The timer duration depends on the enemy that applies it, as well as the battle speed and difficulty level set in the config.
Death[]
Death is the basic defeat condition of both enemies and allies, typically resulting from HP being depleted to 0. However, a number of instant death attacks also exist for both enemies and party members, most notably with Vanille's full ATB skill, Death, which is the "true" instant death status against which enemies are programmed immunity. Odin's Zantetsuken, meanwhile, is more akin to ejection, and though it only works when the enemy is already weakened, it cannot thus be resisted. The Doom timer expiring is also another instant death effect, but on that cannot be resisted with accessories.
Enemies that succumb to death are simply defeated. Allies that succumb can be revived with Phoenix Down and other means, and if the party leader succumbs, the game will be over. The player can become more resilient to sudden death with Veil status and accessories that protect against Death, but the chance of it landing cannot be wholly eliminated.
Dispel[]
Dispel, and other abilities with a dispelling effect, typically attempt to remove buffs from targets, whereas the Dispelga Technique removes all status effects from both enemies and allies, barring Provoke and Doom, leveling the playing field. The player's main means of using this effect is with the Saboteur's Dispel spell, which removes the target's most recently acquired status enhancements while also doing some non-elemental magical damage. Dispel is a "typeless" negative effect, classed as neither debilitating nor debuffing.
HP Critical[]
Lightning in critical health.
Unnamed in-game, whenever a party member's HP falls below 30% of their maximum, they fall to an exhaustive posture. Their HP bar will turn red and flash white periodically, and the screen will glow red, continuing to do so if someone is knocked out.
Certain accessories grant positive status enhancements when the character falls below the critical threshold. Instead of expiring after the character's HP is recovered, these enhancements last 120 seconds (or 60 seconds for the Tetradic Crown) and do not reactivate for the remainder of the battle, even if the character falls below the critical threshold for a second time.
Some synthesized abilities activate when the character's HP falls below ten percent of their maximum HP, such as Low HP: Power Surge, which increases the character's strength and magic. These abilities expire when their HP recovers and can reactivate many times over battle.
Critical HP triggers the Sentinel auto-ability Deathward and negates Reprieve.
Gallery[]
