Firaga (Final Fantasy IX)

Firaga
(ファイガ, Faiga?, lit. Figa)
Availability
Obtained	Octagon Rod
Character(s)	Vivi, Steiner (via Swd Mag)
AP	75
Classification
Type	Black Magic
Skillset	Blk Mag, Dbl Blk, Swd Mag
Element	Fire
Specifications
MP cost	24
Reflect	Yes
Power	72
Related pages
Recurring appearance	Firaga (ability)

Causes big-time Fire damage to single/multiple targets.

Description

Firaga is a Blk Mag spell in Final Fantasy IX obtained from the Octagon Rod that can be purchased from Daguerreo and Esto Gaza before going through the Shimmering Island portal; if the player misses buying it, the spell is missed. Firaga deals major Fire-elemental damage to one or multiple enemies. If the target has Freeze, they will be thawed. If Steiner and Vivi are in the same party (and Vivi is not incapacitated in some manner), the former can also use Vivi's Firaga spell in his sword magic, where the ability uses his stats rather than Vivi's. In Trance, Vivi can use Firaga twice in one turn.

Firaga can be used as an enemy ability by Cerberus, Chimera, Earth Guardian, Garuda, Grenade, Maliris, Maliris (Crystal), Mover, Necron, Stilva, and Wraith. It can be reflected as normal and can be countered with the support ability Return Magic.

Obtain

Firaga is learned from the Octagon Rod and is a missable spell, as if the player never buys the Octagon Rod from Daguerreo or Esto Gaza during the window it is available (after Mount Gulug is open, before going through Shimmering Island), they can never learn the third tier elemental spells for Vivi. The Octagon Rod costs 4,500 gil.

Mechanics

Black Magic spells are based on Vivi's Level, Magic stats, and the Spell Power of the spell. Vivi can use the Focus ability to increase his Magic during that battle by 25% per use. The effect stacks up to 99 and lasts for the entire battle, even if KO'd.

$Base = 72 - Target's Magic Defense$

$Bonus = Magic + RndMOD ([(Level + Magic) / 8] + 1)$

$Damage = Base * Bonus$

Where Rnd means a random number, while MOD means modulus operation. "Rnd MOD x" can be read as a random number between 0 and x-1.

Bonus is halved by target's Shell, Vivi being under Mini, and if the player multi-targets the spell. Bonus is boosted by 50% if Vivi equips Red Hat. Steiner has no means of boosting Fire damage for his Swd Mag.

In Vivi's Trance, Blk Mag turns into Dbl Blk where Vivi can cast two spells on his turn. The spells cost MP and expend the Trance gauge independently.

The support abilities that affect Firaga are Reflect-Null (Firaga pierces target's Reflect), Reflectx2 (Firaga deals more damage when reflected), and Mag Elem Null (Firaga deals non-elemental damage).

Firaga Sword.

For Swd Mag, damage dealt is based on Steiner's Attack and Strength stat, as well as on the power of the spell. Using Firaga Sword boosts his Attack value by 30.

The damage formula for Swd Mag spells is as follows:

$Base = Attack + 72 - Enemy Defense$

$Bonus = Strength + RndMOD ([(Level + Strength) / 8] + 1)$

$Damage = Base * Bonus$

Use

Firaga is obtained during late mid-game, and stays useful until the endgame. It is especially useful against enemies weak to Fire, including various plant monsters. It is the best Fire-elemental spell, as Flare is non-elemental in Final Fantasy IX.

Etymology

As per the magic tier system, the suffixes -ra and -ga are added to the spell names to denote second and third tier. The Japanese system always either replaces the last mora, or adds it to the end for each type of spell. In the case of Fire (pronounced in Japanese as ファ(Fa)イ(i)ア(a)?), only the last sound is changed so the next spells are Fira (ファ(Fa)イ(i)ラ(ra)?) and the third-tier (Firaga), which would most accurately be transliterated as Figa (ファ(Fa)イ(i)ガ(ga)?). The official translation likely names the third-tier Firaga to keep the "r" sound needed to recognize the root word in English.