Earth element attack
Description
Quake is an attack magic spell in Final Fantasy VII. It is granted by the Earth Materia at level one, and is the basic Earth-elemental spell below Quake2 and Quake3.
Mechanics[]
Magic Materia | Earth, Master Magic |
---|---|
Effect | Small earth-elemental damage |
Compatible Support Materia | Added Cut All Final Attack HP Absorb Magic Counter MP Absorb MP Turbo Quadra Magic Sneak Attack Steal as well |
Damage formula:
where "Level" is the caster's current level and "Magical Attack" is their Magic atk stat. This is effectively 0.6875x the base magic damage.
Use[]
Quake can be used by characters with the Earth Materia at level 1. It is more powerful than the equivalent Fire, Ice, and Bolt spells with only a slightly higher MP cost, meaning it is a good spell early on to cast on enemies that resist physical attacks, but are more vulnerable to magic. It is even more useful against enemies weak to Earth-elemental attacks.
Final Fantasy VII does not have a "flying" state like some other entries to the series, but most flying enemies have their Earth affinity set to Immune. Usually when an element is used on an enemy that is immune it does 0 damage, but in the case of Earth it will miss. Earth spells miss Earth immune enemies even if they are grounded (this also applies to when player's own characters are immune to Earth).
Quake can be amplified by pairing the Earth Materia with Support Materia. All Materia allows it to hit all enemies, while MP Turbo increases its damage but also its MP cost. Due to the low MP cost of the spell in general, this can still be economical on Quake. If the player has multiple Earth Materia on the same character, they can get various support effects simultaneously.
At later levels, Quake becomes outclassed by Quake2 and Quake3. Early on, it is still advisable to use Quake at times when conserving MP, though as characters' max MP pool grows, it becomes redundant. Quake is also outclassed later on by Break, gained from the Contain Materia.
The only enemy with Quake equipped is Lost Number's magical form. However, it will never use it in battle.