Jump is a command ability in Final Fantasy VI. When Dragoon Boots is equipped, Jump will replace the wearer's basic Attack command. Jump causes the character to leap in the air, hiding them from battle until they land an attack on an enemy, at 150% the damage of a normal attack. This becomes double damage with a spear equipped, meaning Edgar and Mog, who can naturally equip spears, benefit from Jump most.
The Dragon Horn relic can augment Jump, causing it to hit 2-4 times rather than once. The Merit Award allows party members to equip spears if they normally cannot.
In addition to the command, summoning Quetzalli causes the entire party to perform a Jump attack.
Monsters, such as the Leap Frog and the boss battle involving Umaro, can also jump.
Obtained[]
Jump can be used by a party member the Dragoon Boots equipped, at which point it will replace the Attack command (meaning if Gogo has the relic equipped, Gogo will need to equip the Attack command to have access to Jump).
The other time Jump can be used is when summoning Quetzalli. When summoned, all party members will use Jump at once.
Mechanics[]
The character that jumped is temporarily hidden from battle, until they make the attack and reappear. They are thus immune to enemy attacks for the duration and the only way to avoid Setzer's Joker's Death outcome from his Slot is to be off the screen when the effect takes place via the Jump ability.
For spells auto-cast from weapons, the damage multiplier added by Jump affects the spell, so if the character jumps and casts a spell with the equipped weapon, the spell does extra damage.
Although Gau can equip the Dragoon Boots, Gau cannot have Jump on his battle menu, while Umaro cannot equip the relic. As such, Quetzalli is the only way they can Jump.
In the Advance and 2014 versions, Edgar's Longinus and Mog's Gungnir do not double the damage of Jump.
Jump is subject to a few jump glitches, as well as the 0 HP character bug if the jumping character is doomed and the counter runs out while they are mid-air. The Super Nintendo version has a bug in detecting the attacking hand for the Organyx breakage with the Jump command: if a player puts Organyx in a character's right hand, equipping him/her with the Dragoon Boots but no Dragon Horn, the sword will never break because the Organyx was coded wrong, and checks the left hand.
When using Dragon Horn, Jump can hit up to 2-4 times, where the attacks after the first can hit any random other enemy. If the weapon has an added ability that randomly initiates with Attack, it will only proc on the final hit against the last enemy affected.
Use[]
Jump deals more damage than a normal attack, but because it takes longer to use overall, is less turn-efficient than a basic attack. Equipping a spear gives it double damage, making it roughly as turn-efficient as a normal attack. However, the main benefit to Jump is not necessarily the stronger damage, but the ability to be hidden from battle. When hidden after using Jump, no enemy attacks can hit the party member in question. This can be an extremely useful way to avoid damage, and if used often throughout battle, it allows the party member to mostly go through battle unharmed. Jump can also be away to hide from a player's Meltdown attack.
With Dragon Horn equipped, Jump becomes considerably greater than a normal attack. As Jump with Dragon Horn can deal up to four hits per use, it can greatly increase the damage output; even if only two attacks hit, it is still more efficient than a normal attack when used with a spear. This makes Jump both an extremely potent offensive and defensive ability, and transforms it from a single-target attack to one that can hit an entire enemy formation.
Edgar and Mog are far and away the best users of Jump, due to their ability to equip spears natively, allowing them to use Dragoon Boots and Dragon Horn optimally. In both cases, this can even be better than their basic character abilities. Though Edgar's Tools command is strong, the ability for Jump to hit four times while avoiding much damage makes it an even stronger ability than the basic physical single-target damaging tools (Drill and Chainsaw), while still having access to the other situational abilities. In Mog's case, Dance makes him uncontrollable for its duration, where Jump still allows Mog to be given specific commands.
Jump is also of great use to characters using the imp equipment, the most powerful equipment in the game whose pieces grant a character maxed-out defenses and attack power while the character is under imp status, restricting their ability to use magic or special commands. Since the character under imp can only use the Attack command, and the weapon of the Imp equipment—the Impartisan—is a spear, an imp equipment build synergizes perfectly with the Dragoon Boots and Dragon Horn, allowing the characters to deal great damage to enemies. As the imp equipment is universal, any character is viable for this strategy, though it is of circumstantial use.
In theory, any character can make use of Jump without the Dragon Horn or ability to equip spears. However, without access to these options, Jump will not reach its full potential. Sabin, for instance, will greatly benefit from Jump with both Dragoon Boots and Merit Award taking advantage of his naturally high Strength, but Sabin will still not be able to match Edgar or Mog's potential due to Merit Award taking up the second relic slot and preventing use of Dragon Horn. All characters who focus on physical damage can use Master's Scroll instead, which will provide a similar boost in damage output as the two relic slots otherwise would. only missing the hide aspect.
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