Quistis (Final Fantasy VIII party member)

Quistis
キスティス (Kisutisu?)
Portraits
Gameplay details
Type	Party member
Limit Break	Blue Magic
Ultimate Limit Break	Shockwave Pulsar
Weapon	Whips
Ultimate weapon	Save the Queen

Quistis is a playable character in Final Fantasy VIII. She is a Blue Mage who wields a whip in battle. Her Limit Break is Blue Magic, in which she casts enemy abilities learned by using special items on her in the inventory. Its strength lies in versatility, but she cannot reach the damage numbers party's heavy-hitters can dish out with their Limit Breaks. She is the first party member to join Squall and acts as a party leader once in the story. Her Triple Triad card is the first Level 10 card the player can get.

Party member

Quistis joins the party when the player first leaves Balamb Garden, and takes the player through a tutorial. She leaves the party when the player returns to the Garden after winning against Ifrit, but joins permanently after the events at the Timber TV Station. She is the party leader during a segment in Deling City with Zell and Selphie under her tutelage; the trio must venture through the Deling City Sewers, but this dungeon lacks a boss. During the Centra Excavation Site dream, Ward inherits Quistis's junctions and level.

As her Limit Break does not rival the damage numbers of the party's heavy-hitters, she may be more useful in a support role. She is a good candidate for casting Meltdown on enemies while the others attack and could take on a healer role, although in Final Fantasy VIII staying on low health is generally preferable to set up Limit Breaks. Quistis could be a good candidate for status-healing with a GF with ST-Def junctions, and stocks of Esuna/recovery items/Treatment command. She is useful for grinding where the player needs to dispatch many random encounters fast as she has a Limit Break that defeats most normal enemies instantly.

Her intro pose is to swing her whip before whipping the ground. Her victory pose is to stretch out her arms with her whip.

Weapons

Quistis wielding her Chain Whip.

Quistis wields a whip. Through upgrades via junk shops, she can come to wield variant models. Though not shown as part of her character model, it is thought that, when not in use, she wraps and stores the whip in a pouch behind her. Depending on the particular whip she uses, Quistis's weapons can augment her attack power and hit accuracy.

There are four whip models available:

• Chain Whip – Initial model. Described in Weapons Monthly, March Issue.
• Slaying Tail – Described in Weapons Monthly, May Issue.
• Red Scorpion – Described in Weapons Monthly, June Issue.
• Save the Queen– Described in Weapons Monthly, August Issue.

Upgrading Quistis's weapon is not a priority, as their strength boosts can be easily offset by junctions in STR-J. The characters whose weapons are worth deliberately upgrading by actively seeking out the ingredients are Squall for his Limit Breaks, and Selphie for her ultimate weapon's native 255% hit rate.

Limit Break

Main article: Blue Magic (Final Fantasy VIII)

Blue Magic is Quistis's Limit Break and involves learning enemy abilities via special items obtained in various ways (winning a battle, finishing a subquest, modifying from cards, etc). Once an item is used on Quistis in the menu, she will learn the Blue Magic ability permanently. Blue Magic ranges from elemental and status attacks to support spells and strong non-elemental attacks, making her versatile. Teaching every Blue Magic spell to Quistis in the Steam version earns the Blue Magic Master achievement.

Quistis defeating an enemy instantly with Degenerator.

She is a great party member to have in random encounters for her ability to dispatch most normal foes instantly with her Degenerator Limit Break. She can also use her Micro Missiles to bring enemies to low health to set them up for carding/devouring.

Her damage output cannot compare to the other party members in boss battles, but she can take on a supportive role with her White Wind and Mighty Guard, and inflict status ailments on the boss with Acid and Bad Breath. Her downside is that to get most out of her, the player needs to look for the items that grant her Limit Breaks. Although many of them can be obtained from Triple Triad cards, her ultimate Limit Break, Shockwave Pulsar, requires one to grind for 100 Curse Spikes, and still does not compare to damage from Squall's Renzokuken, Zell's Duel, Irvine's Shot, or Rinoa's Angel Wing (with the right setup) or Wishing Star. The only character with lower damage output is Selphie, but her Slot does not require any grinding to be optimal.

Stats

The party's base stats are of lesser importance than in most other Final Fantasy games, as they can be nigh freely customized with the junction system. They can also be raised with Level Up Bonus abilities that some GFs have.

LV	HP	Str	Vit	Mag	Spr	Spd	Luck
1	216	1	1	1	2	19	14
2	257	2	2	2	3	19	14
3	298	3	2	3	3	19	14
4	339	4	3	4	4	19	14
5	380	4	3	4	5	20	14
6	420	5	4	5	5	20	14
7	461	6	4	6	6	20	15
8	501	7	5	6	6	20	15
9	541	7	6	7	7	20	15
10	582	8	6	8	8	21	15
11	622	9	7	8	8	21	15
12	662	10	7	9	9	21	15
13	702	10	8	9	9	21	15
14	742	11	8	10	10	21	15
15	782	12	9	11	10	22	15
16	821	12	9	11	11	22	15
17	861	13	10	12	11	22	15
18	901	14	10	13	12	22	15
19	940	14	10	13	12	22	15
20	980	15	11	14	13	22	15
21	1019	15	12	14	13	22	16
22	1059	16	12	15	14	22	16
23	1098	17	12	15	14	22	16
24	1137	17	13	16	15	22	16
25	1176	18	13	17	15	23	16
26	1215	19	14	17	16	23	16
27	1254	19	14	18	16	23	16
28	1293	20	15	18	17	23	16
29	1332	20	15	19	17	23	16
30	1370	21	16	20	18	24	16
31	1409	21	16	20	18	24	16
32	1447	22	17	21	18	24	16
33	1486	23	17	21	19	24	16
34	1524	23	17	22	19	24	16
35	1562	24	17	22	20	25	17
36	1601	24	18	23	20	25	17
37	1639	25	18	23	20	25	17
38	1677	25	19	23	21	25	17
39	1715	26	19	24	21	25	17
40	1753	26	20	25	22	25	17
41	1791	27	20	25	22	25	17
42	1828	27	20	25	22	25	17
43	1866	28	20	26	23	25	17
44	1904	28	21	26	23	25	17
45	1941	29	21	27	24	26	17
46	1979	29	21	27	24	26	17
47	2016	30	22	28	24	26	17
48	2053	31	22	28	25	26	17
49	2090	31	22	29	25	26	18
50	2127	31	23	29	26	27	18
51	2164	32	23	29	26	27	18
52	2201	32	23	30	26	27	18
53	2238	32	24	30	26	27	18
54	2275	33	24	31	27	27	18
55	2312	34	24	31	27	28	18
56	2349	34	24	31	27	28	18
57	2385	34	25	32	27	28	18
58	2422	35	25	32	28	28	18
59	2458	35	25	32	28	28	18
60	2494	36	26	33	29	28	18
61	2531	36	26	33	29	28	18
62	2567	36	26	34	29	28	18
63	2603	37	26	34	29	28	19
64	2639	37	26	34	29	28	19
65	2675	37	26	35	30	29	19
66	2711	38	27	35	30	29	19
67	2746	38	27	35	30	29	19
68	2782	39	27	35	30	29	19
69	2818	39	27	36	30	29	19
70	2853	39	28	36	31	30	19
71	2889	39	28	36	31	30	19
72	2924	40	28	37	31	30	19
73	2960	40	28	37	31	30	19
74	2995	40	28	37	31	30	19
75	3030	41	28	38	32	31	19
76	3065	41	28	38	32	31	19
77	3100	41	29	38	32	31	20
78	3135	42	29	38	32	31	20
79	3170	42	29	38	32	31	20
80	3205	42	29	39	33	31	20
81	3239	42	29	39	33	31	20
82	3274	42	29	39	33	31	20
83	3308	43	29	39	33	31	20
84	3343	43	29	40	33	31	20
85	3377	43	29	40	33	32	20
86	3411	44	29	40	33	32	20
87	3446	44	29	40	33	32	20
88	3480	44	30	40	33	32	20
89	3514	44	30	41	33	32	20
90	3548	45	30	41	34	33	20
91	3582	45	30	41	34	33	21
92	3616	45	30	41	34	33	21
93	3649	45	30	41	34	33	21
94	3683	45	30	41	34	33	21
95	3717	45	30	42	34	34	21
96	3750	46	30	42	34	34	21
97	3784	46	30	42	34	34	21
98	3817	46	30	42	34	34	21
99	3850	46	30	42	34	34	21
100	3883	46	30	42	34	34	21

Guardian Forces

Quistis summons.

As Quistis is good for a utility role, Guardian Forces that grant buffs like Carbuncle or Cerberus may be useful on her. As almost all of her Limit Breaks are magical, she should equip a GF with Mag-J; the GFs that learn it naturally are Quezacotl, Siren, Diablos, Carbuncle, Leviathan, and Cerberus, but later on the player has a lot of freedom in customizing their GFs' abilities and Mag-J Scrolls are available from a shop. For a more utility role, she can also prefer GFs with status junctions: Siren, Carbuncle, and Cerberus.

The below values are the base compatibility values at the start of the game, but they are affected by actions Quistis takes in battle, and what compatibility items the player may use on her in the menu. However, the compatibility mechanic is minor and can be ignored.

GF	Compatibility
Quezacotl	620
Shiva	640
Ifrit	570
Siren	584
Brothers	580
Diablos	600
Carbuncle	640
Leviathan	570
Pandemona	560
Cerberus	620
Alexander	540
Doomtrain	520
Bahamut	510
Cactuar	550
Tonberry	520
Eden	440

Triple Triad

Card

Main article: Quistis (Final Fantasy VIII card)

Quistis is a Level 10 Player Card in Triple Triad used for playing the minigame and for turning into 3 Samantha Souls with Quezacotl's Card Mod. It is available since the start of the game, as the card is held by the Trepies in the Balamb Garden classroom or cafeteria. Quistis is the first Level 10 Card the player can get.

Challenger

Quistis is the final challenger in the CC Group side event. She holds the rare Gilgamesh card. After being defeated in Squall's dorm room, she can be challenged on the Garden bridge. During the endgame, Quistis, along with the other CC members, can be challenged onboard the Ragnarok. To play her, the player must have Quistis in the party and head to the Airlock, and then talk to her there.

Quests

CC Group

Main article: Card Club

Quistis challenges Squall as "CC King".

As the King of Balamb Garden's Card Club, Quistis is the final challenger to face in the CC Group side event. To get her to challenge Squall, the player must defeat CC Heart and head to the infirmary and talk with Dr. Kadowaki. After she mentions the King, the player must return to Squall's room and take a nap. When he wakes up, there is a chance of Quistis standing in Squall's room, decked in her SeeD uniform, ready to challenge him. It might take numerous tries, but the player can sleep over and over until she appears. It doesn't matter if Squall has other people in his party at this time.

Optional scenes with Quistis

The Card Club is Quistis's main side quest, but she has couple other scenes as well. If Squall does not take Quezacotl and Shiva from the Study Panel when prompted and meets with Quistis on the Garden gates without them, she will reprimand him and give him the GFs. Quistis will later contribute an entry to Selphie's blog, viewable from the Study Panel. There is an idle student in Balamb Town harbor gazing out at the sea, whom Quistis will also reprimand for missing class if she is in the party when they speak to him. (He is actually a special Triple Triad player, as he plays without any rules.)

In Timber, if the player talks to a man on a railway bridge after the events there are over, and Quistis is in the party, he will give her a Potion. If Rinoa is also in the party, she takes precedence. When the party departs Galbadia Garden, Irvine pairs himself with Selphie and Rinoa, and if the player accepts the party set up, they get a scene with Zell protesting and Quistis displaying mock infatuation toward Squall.

Quistis in Zell's room during Balamb liberation.

If the player takes Quistis with Zell or Irvine back to Balamb Garden to warn them of the missile crisis, she will eventually come into Squall's dorm room offering the two to have tea and a chat. If the player takes Quistis to liberate Balamb Town, she will relate an embarrassing story about Zell when they visit his room. Quistis's post on Selphie's "My Friends" blog can be viewed on the Study Panel after liberating Balamb Town from Galbadia.

In Winhill, if Quistis in the party for the vase quest, there will be a scene with her at the mansion. In fact, either Quistis or Irvine is needed in the party to start the quest.

When the party has the Ragnarok and Selphie and Zell are in the player's party, Quistis will pilot the airship.