Armor worn exclusively by knights.
Description
The Maximillian is an endgame heavy body armor in Final Fantasy IX for Steiner. It teaches HP+20% and gives a bonus to Steiner's Spirit when he levels up with the body armor equipped, making it good to wear for level grinding.
Obtain[]
The Maximillian is found where Shimmering Island used to be while riding Choco. The player needs to use a Dead Pepper to dive, but there are no bubbles to show the specific spot.
Mechanics[]
The Maximillian provides 54 Defense, mitigating damage from physical attacks. The body armor gives a +3 bonus to the wearer's Spirit when they level up with it equipped. When enough "bonuses" upon level up from gear have been accrued, the character gains a permanent stat increase. Spirit is a generally useful stat to raise for everyone, governing aspects such as HP the character is revived on, the duration of expirable status effects, the frequency Regen and Poison tick, how often the character enters Trance and how many turns they will get while in Trance, among other things.
Use[]
The Maximillian is an endgame heavy armor piece for Steiner, however, other endgame armor pieces are also available. The Grand Armor is stronger and halves Shadow damage and also gives a level up bonus to Strength, but only Ozma and Hades and Vivi's Doomsday deal Shadow damage and in these cases Shadow-absorption would be preferable to Shadow-halving. Steiner's ultimate armor is the Tin Armor, but the player needs to forgo an extra scene in the ending to get it.
HP+20% is a good support ability worth equipping if Steiner has the Magic Stones to spare.
The Maximillian's level up bonus to Spirit is good for endgame level grinding, though grinding and min-maxing are unnecessary in a normal playthrough even for superboss encounters. The Maximillian becomes available around the time level-grinding becomes worthwhile as the best stat boost equipment pieces will be available.
Beatrix can also wear the Maximillian, but the player cannot see this in a normal playthrough.
Etymology[]
Maximilian is a real life type of armor made in the mid-16th century for German Emperor Maximilian I. It was designed to both deliver maximum protection for its users and be aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
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