Gau (Final Fantasy VI party member)

Gau is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. As a Feral Child, Gau fights by mimicking the behavior of monsters, allowing him to use a wide variety of attacks, but doing so puts him into a berserk-like state when he becomes uncontrollable and acts on his own.

Battle[]

Stats[]

Gau's stats are all around high. His Strength is the third-highest in the game and his Speed, Stamina, and Magic are above average. He has the second-best Evasion after Shadow and the best Magic Evasion. His only stat that is lacking is his Defense, which is mediocre, but Gau has access to the most physically defensive armor in the game, covering for this shortcoming.

To compensate for his inability to equip a weapon, Gau's natural attack power is much higher than any other character's—his base Battle Power is 99, when most characters don't exceed 20.

Name	Initial Stats
Strength	44
Speed	38
Stamina	36
Magic	34
Attack	99
Defense	44
Evasion	21%
Magic Defense	34
Magic Evasion	18%
Escape Success	5
HP Gain	45
MP Gain	10
Level Averaging	+2

Level	HP	MP	EXP
1	45	10	0
2	56	14	32
3	68	18	96
4	82	23	208
5	99	28	400
6	119	34	672
7	141	40	1056
8	165	47	1552
9	191	55	2184
10	218	63	2976
11	246	72	3936
12	276	81	5080
13	311	91	6432
14	350	101	7992
15	394	111	9784
16	444	121	11840
17	498	131	14152
18	555	142	16736
19	616	153	19616
20	681	164	22832
21	748	175	26360
22	817	186	30232
23	889	198	34456
24	965	210	39056
25	1044	222	44072
26	1126	234	49464
27	1212	246	55288
28	1302	259	61568
29	1397	272	68304
30	1496	285	75496
31	1596	298	83184
32	1697	311	91384
33	1799	325	100088
34	1901	339	109344
35	2004	353	119136
36	2108	367	129504
37	2214	381	140464
38	2321	396	152008
39	2429	411	164184
40	2539	426	176976
41	2650	441	190416
42	2763	456	204520
43	2877	472	219320
44	2993	488	234808
45	3110	504	251000
46	3229	520	267936
47	3349	536	285600
48	3471	553	304040
49	3596	570	323248
50	3724	587	343248
51	3854	603	364064
52	3985	618	385696
53	4118	632	408160
54	4252	645	431488
55	4388	657	455680
56	4525	668	480776
57	4664	678	506760
58	4806	687	533680
59	4950	695	561528
60	5095	702	590320
61	5242	708	620096
62	5390	713	650840
63	5540	718	682600
64	5692	724	715368
65	5845	730	749160
66	6000	737	784016
67	6156	744	819920
68	6314	751	856920
69	6474	759	895016
70	6636	767	934208
71	6796	775	974536
72	6951	783	1016000
73	7102	791	1058640
74	7247	798	1102456
75	7387	805	1147456
76	7523	812	1193648
77	7655	818	1241080
78	7781	824	1289744
79	7901	830	1339672
80	8018	836	1390872
81	8131	841	1443368
82	8241	846	1497160
83	8349	851	1552264
84	8454	856	1608712
85	8556	861	1666512
86	8656	866	1725688
87	8754	871	1786240
88	8849	877	1848184
89	8941	883	1911552
90	9031	889	1976352
91	9119	895	2042608
92	9206	901	2110320
93	9291	908	2179504
94	9374	916	2250192
95	9456	925	2322392
96	9536	935	2396128
97	9619	946	2471400
98	9705	958	2548224
99	9793	971	2637112

Equipment[]

Gau is unique among the party in that he cannot equip weapons, save for the universal Impartisan that has low battle power unless he's under the Imp status. Despite this, the Impartisan does have an important use for how it interacts with Gau's relics.

Gau's armor options are limited to lightweight gear. Because he lacks an ultimate weapon obtainable in the Dragons' Den, Gau has an "ultimate armor" instead, the Dueling Mask, which increases all his stats by 6, his HP by 25%, and halves elemental damage.

Gau is one of three characters able to equip the Snow Scarf, the best armor in the game with Defense and Magic Defense surpassing all other armor save for the Reed Cloak, which is only active under Imp status and only trumps the Snow Scarf by 10 Magic Defense. With the Snow Scarf and Dueling Mask, Gau is the bulkiest character in the game even before additional benefits from a shield are taken into account.

Three relics of note for Gau are the Genji Glove, the Gauntlet, and the Master's Scroll. The effects of these relics affect not only Gau's normal attacks, but also special physical attacks, such as Cat Scratch and Critical. The Genji Glove and Gauntlet only take effect if the user is equipped with a weapon, which is where the Impartisan has utility for Gau since it is the only weapon he can use, and together they let Gau use special physical attacks twice, or boost their damage. The Master's Scroll does not require an equipped weapon, and lets Gau use special physical attacks four times, eight if used with the Genji Glove.

Weapons[]

Armor[]

Abilities[]

Main article: Rage (Final Fantasy VI command)

FFVI GBA Gau Using a Rage — Gau using a Rage.

Gau's special ability is Rage, which lets him mimic the behaviors of monsters. When fighting on the Veldt, Gau has the Leap command whose use instantly ends the battle and removes Gau from the party. A time later when fighting on the Veldt, Gau will reappear at the end of a battle and, if not attacked, will rejoin the party having learned the Rages of any enemies that were in the enemy formations when he Leapt and when he returned.

When Gau uses a Rage, he takes on that enemy's elemental and status affinities, including innate statuses and immunity to statuses. This includes statuses that normally cannot be afflicted on the party: undead and dying at 0 MP. The latter only occurs if Gau's MP is reduced to 0 while under Rage; if his MP is already 0, he will be unaffected until an attack damages his MP. Each individual elemental affinity of a Rage will overwrite Gau's affinity to that element only if his equipment offers inferior protection—an enemy that is immune to fire-elemental damage would overwrite resistance to fire, but not absorption.

While in Rage status, Gau becomes uncontrollable and will randomly perform a normal attack or a special attack each turn, with a 50% chance of either. Rage continues until Gau is KO'd, petrified, or until the battle ends. If Gau is KO'd and revived, the elemental and status affinities of Rage will not persist, with the exception of Float.

Gau's Rages make him perhaps the most powerful character available in the World of Balance. He can access tier-two magic spells well before the party gains access to magicite, and can perform powerful physical attacks. Later in the game Gau can easily access earth, water, and wind spells, elements not easily available to other party members, and he can cast top-tier magic, including Meteor.

However, Gau's viability in the late game suffers due to his uncontrollable nature—while he can use powerful abilities, other party members can perform similarly and do so reliably without giving up player control. Gau's Rages do not become useless, but using him can be risky if the player needs a party member for a different task than what his current Rage locks him into doing.

Two popular Rages for Gau are the Stray Cat and Magic Urn. The Stray Cat's special attack, Cat Scratch, is a powerful Level 6 attack. While other Rages can be more efficient under various circumstances, the Stray Cat Rage is a simple but powerful option that can carry Gau through the game comfortably, as it can deal several thousand damage and even hit the damage cap as Gau trains up his Strength. Magic Urn absorbs all elemental damage and its special attack is Curaga, which, supplemented by Gau's powerful equipment, makes him very durable and allows him to support the party with healing magic.

Because Gau does not have an Attack command, he has no Desperation Attack. He also cannot use the Jump command; equipping the Dragoon Boots will do nothing.

"Wind God Gau"[]

A particularly powerful strategy for Gau was so effective that it was removed from all versions of Final Fantasy VI after the original Super NES release. Equipping Gau with the Merit Award allows him to equip the Kazekiri ("Tempest" in the Super NES translation), which has a chance to cast Wind Slash when attacking. The coding to randomly use Wind Slash is identical to the coding for casting spells when attacking that other weapons have, but is a separate mechanic, and because of this it is not disabled when using the Master's Scroll.

With this combination and the Stray Cat Rage, Gau will attack four times every turn, and each attack has a chance to use Wind Slash which will hit all enemies. Further, if Gau uses Cat Scratch, it can also trigger Wind Slash and Wind Slash will have increased power due to Cat Scratch being a Level 6 physical attack. This allows Gau to reliably hit all enemies for maximum damage, potentially multiple times each turn. The only drawback is that the strategy is much less effective against enemies that are immune to or absorb wind-elemental damage, but very few enemies in Final Fantasy VI are. This strategy was nicknamed "Wind God Gau" by the fanbase.

The PlayStation Anthology release made Gau unable to equip the Merit Award, but the "Wind God Gau" strategy was not entirely gone, as Gogo could also do it, just less effectively since they have poorer stats and cannot equip magicite for level up bonuses to their Strength. The Game Boy Advance version made both Gau and Gogo unable to equip the Merit Award, and all ports since have retained this.

Enemy[]

Main article: Gau (enemy)

Gau can be encountered as an "enemy" on the Veldt if he had Leapt previously and not returned yet and the party has fewer than four members. As long as the battle is not a back attack, side attack, or pincer attack, there is a chance Gau will appear after the monsters are defeated. He can be attacked and even killed during this time, but if the player does not attack him, he will speak up and rejoin the group with the Rages of any monsters present in the battle he leaped and the battle he returned in.

Quests[]

Recruitment[]

Gau is recruited in the World of Balance by purchasing dried meat from Mobliz during Sabin's scenario and then using it on Gau in battle when he appears. After a cutscene, he will join. When Gau uses Leap to leave the party, he will eventually appear at the end of a battle on the Veldt and rejoin as long as the party has an empty slot for him. He will not appear if the party is full.

In the World of Ruin, Gau will appear at the end of battles on the Veldt as if he had used Leap and rejoins the party as he would normally.

Skipping Sabin's scenario with the airship glitch will cause Gau to be forever unobtainable because, like most party members, Gau shares a slot with one of the Ten Moogles (specifically Kuru/Mugmug). Naming Gau during Sabin's scenario is the trigger for updating Gau's slot to be him and not a moogle, and not doing so will cause him to fail to load properly when encountered on the Veldt. When encountered in this way, Gau will never show up on screen, and be unable to be attacked or targeted with the Dried Meat, requiring the player to run away to end the battle.

Story role[]

Gau has unique dialogue when meeting Ramuh in Zozo, but because the game checks for his presence last when determining what dialogue to display, his unique dialogue will only trigger if he is the only party member.

In the World of Ruin, taking Gau to the house on the Veldt with at least him and Sabin in the party leads to a series of cutscenes where Sabin deduces the old man living there is Gau's father and dresses him up to introduce them. Completing this quest does not have any gameplay impact or rewards.

Low-level play[]

When Gau is Leapt on the Veldt, including the start of the World of Ruin, his levels are not included in the algorithm that calculates the levels of new and rejoining party members based on the average level of the currently recruited party members. This gives Gau important utility in low-level playthroughs as there are many scripted battles and unavoidable battles that reward experience points. To keep the party's levels as low as possible, players can fight these battles with Gau, allow him to level up, and then Leap him onto the Veldt so his level will not be included when determining the levels of newly joining characters.