A powerful technique that destroys the target's equipped weapon. If no weapon is equipped, the effect is the same as the standard Attack command.
The Ivalice Chronicles' description
Rend Weapon, also known as Weapon Break, is an Art of War action ability in Final Fantasy Tactics, learned by the knight job. It attempts to break the target's equipped weapon, destroying it forever. It has no charge time and costs no MP. The action ability must be learned by expending JP earned for the knight job.
Enemies with other jobs that can use Rend Weapon include Isilud Tengille's nightblade.
The divine knight, sword saint and rune knight can use the superior crush abilities to destroy equipment with 100% chance of success.
Obtained[]
Rend Weapon costs 400 JP to be spent on the knight job. Once the unit has learned it, it is available for other jobs as long as they have the Arts of War skillset equipped.
If a unit that knows Rend Weapon becomes a crystal, a human unit picking up the crystal may learn Rend Weapon without spending JP, as long as said unit has unlocked the knight job.
Mechanics[]
Rend Weapon is an instant cast ability that attempts to break the target's equipped weapon, destroying it forever. The range of the ability depends on the user's equipped weapon's range.
The formula for Rend Weapon's success rate is as it follows:
The physical evasion of the target's job, as well equipment and abilities that provide bonuses to physical evasion, increases the chances of avoiding Rend Weapon.
It the target lacks a body item equipped, or is a monster, Rend Weapon will function as a normal attack, dealing damage instead, in all but the original PlayStation version, where it will not do anything to monster targets. The Safeguard support ability makes one immune to having their equipment broken or stolen.
Ninjas or jobs equipped with its support ability, Dual Wield, can use Arts of War's abilities twice, increasing the chances of success. However, if the first attack of Rend Weapon successfully destroys the equipment, the second strike will be dealt as a normal attack; on the other hand, if the target is also dual-wielding, each successful strike of Rend Weapon will destroy each equipped weapon.
Use[]
Rend Weapon can cripple a target's damage potential, as most physical-oriented jobs, excluding the monk (or a different job equipped with its Brawler support ability), rely on their weapons to deal damage. If used against certain jobs, namely the "special knight" jobs (e.g. holy knight, divine knight, etc.), having their weapon broken leaves them unable to use their abilities, as they require a sword equipped. However, Rend Weapon has the lowest base value in its success rate formula of all the rend abilities, making more difficult to hit.
Arts of War can be used by any job with any weapon. This means that ranged jobs, such as the archer or the orator (when equipped with a gun) can use these abilities to debilitate their opponents from afar. However, since the success rate of Arts of War's abilities is affected by the weapon strength, more powerful weapons, such as polearms and knight's swords, have a higher chance of hitting. To improve the success rate of the rend skills, the squire's Equip Axes can destroy equipment more accurately due to their high base weapon strength and Fundaments can increase their physical attack with Focus. The geomancer can equip an axe as well as use Attack Boost to improve rend success. The archer's Concentration support skill, meanwhile, will not guarantee success of rend.
With The Ivalice Chronicles', the auto-save feature can let the player try rending equipment repeatedly until it works.
Rend Weapon has its usability lessened if the player recruits characters with the more powerful Crush Weapon action ability, from Meliadoul Tengille's divine knight, as well Cidolfus Orlandeau's sword saint. The crush abilities have 100% chance of success and can be used from long range.
Rend Weapon can be good in Ramza Beoulve's one-on-one battles against Goffard Gaffgarion or Wiegraf Folles, leaving them unable to use their powerful sword skills.