Onion Shot

Onion Shot
(オニオンバレット, Onion Baretto?, lit. Onion Bullet)
Icon(s)
Availability
Obtained	Shop and treasure availability vary per version Initially equipped to Balthier
Required	Gun weapon
Character users	Zodiac: Balthier, Machinist, Shikari Original: All
Value	100 gil
Classification
Type	Shot
Specifications
Attack Power	1
Related pages
Recurring appearance	Onion equipment

The Onion Shot is ammunition for guns in Final Fantasy XII. It is the weakest ammunition for guns without any special properties, but guns cannot be equipped without owning some kind of shot. Owning the Onion Shot means the player can use an unlimited amount, and shots do not need a license to be equipped alongside a gun.

Obtain

Original

The Onion Shot is bought for 100 gil from Rabanastre (no longer available after defeating Belias), Nalbina Fortress, the traveling merchant Dyce in the Nam-Yensa Sandsea, Jahara, and Mt Bur-Omisace. They are found in a treasure in Dalmasca Estersand's Sand-Swept Naze , Dalmasca Westersand's The Midfault , Barheim Passage's Great Eastern Passage , and Ogir-Yensa Sandsea's Central Junction .

The player never needs to find or buy the shot, however, as Balthier joins the party with it equipped.

Zodiac

The Onion Shot set is sold for 100 gil in most shops.

The shot is found as a treasure in Barheim Passage's Great Central Passage (80% chance to appear, 55% chance for an item, 50% chance the item treasure is the Onion Shot without the Diamond Armlet equipped), and Trial Mode Stage 8 with the Diamond Armlet.

Balthier still joins the party with the Onion Shot equipped.

Use

The Onion Shot is the weakest shot, adding but 1 point to the gun's power without any added statuses or elements. The player is meant to equip it if they have no better shot to use; the Onion Shot can be swapped out as soon as the player gets any other shot. The other shots are commonly available in the bazaar, sold in packs alongside guns.

As Balthier joins the party with the shot already equipped, the player does not need to go out of their way to procure them unless the player started Vaan out as a Machinist in the Zodiac versions.

Etymology and origin

Onion equipment is a recurring type of equipment in the Final Fantasy series, associated from the Onion Knight job that debuted in Final Fantasy III. [view · edit · purge]The onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is used as a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium.

In a 2020 Famitsu interview with Koichi Ishii and Hiromichi Tanaka about Final Fantasy III, Tanaka stated that he created the term "Onion Knight" after seeing Ishii's character design for the job, likening the shape of its helmet's large, white plume to that of an onion.

Fans had previously speculated that "Onion Knight" refers to the Japanese metaphoric idiom "peeling away one layer at a time and crying all the way" (referring to poverty) or from the slang phrase "to know one's onions" (meaning to be very versatile).