Sleep is a status in Final Fantasy IX that makes the affected unable to act or evade until awoken. The sleeping unit's ATB gauge will still charge, and if a command is issued but the unit is put to sleep before taking that command, the command is canceled and their ATB gauge is reset. Physical attacks deal x1.5 damage to the sleeping target.
Mechanics[]
Sleep wears off the faster the higher the sleeper's Spirit stat. The base effect duration is decided by the target's Spirit and the target's current status. A time limit is established by multiplying the target's Spirit by the base limit of the status.
- Duration: (60 - Spirit) * 200
The time limit will decrease by a rate of deduction dictated by the target's current status (Haste, Slow, or none) and the Battle Speed setting chosen in the Config menu. When the time limit expires, the status is removed.
Physical damage awakes sleepers, Steiner's Swd Mag being the exception.
Abilities[]
| Spell | Night 100% (Blu Mag), Sleep ~50% (Blk Mag |
|---|---|
| Weapon | Bistro Fork 20% (Add Status), Ultima Sword 20% (Add Status), Ultima Weapon 99% (Soul Blade) |
Enemy abilities[]
| Ability | Description | Enemy |
|---|---|---|
| Glowing Eyes | Inflicts Sleep to one target. | Axe Beak, Gigan Toad |
| Grand Cross | Inflicts Berserk, Doom, Petrify, Stop, Freeze, Heat, Confuse, Poison, Trouble, Silence, Zombie, Darkness, Instant Death, Mini, Sleep, and HP is reduce to 1-10. Each one of them has a 1/8 chance of being inflicted. | Necron |
| Hypnotize | Inflicts Sleep to one target. | Black Waltz 2, Hecteyes |
| Mist | Inflicts Shadow-elemental magic damage and Sleep to the party. | Feather Circle, Mistodon |
| Night | Inflicts Sleep on all enemies and allies. Can be learned as a Blu Mag. | Drakan, Hades, Maliris, Maliris (Crystal), Soulcage, Vepal (Red) |
| Sleep | Inflicts Sleep to one target. | Abomination, Grimlock |
| Sleeping Juice | Inflicts Sleep to one target. | Cave Imp |
| Tongue | Inflicts Sleep to one target. | Bandersnatch, Basilisk |
Protection[]
| Support ability | Insomniac |
|---|
Healing[]
Sleep is removed by being struck physically, when entering Trance, and with the Esuna spell. There is no item that heals Sleep. The player can use the mages' weak physical attack (Vivi, Dagger, Eiko) to wake sleeping allies.
Enemies[]
The following enemies are immune to Sleep. Most bosses are immune, the exceptions being Amdusias (Pandemonium), Antlion, Ark, Armodullahan, Black Waltz 3, Deathguise, Earth Guardian, Gizamaluke, Maliris, Nova Dragon, Plant Brain, Red Dragon, Scarlet Hair, Silver Dragon, Soulcage, Tiamat, and Valia Pira.
- All friendly monsters
- Core & Sand Golem
- Kraken (Crystal)
- Lich (Crystal)
- Mover
- Ragtime Mouse & True & False
- Tonberry
Use[]
Sleep is best used with Zidane's ultimate weapon and Soul Blade, or with Quina's Night when the party is protected with Insomniac. The Black Magic Sleep spell misses often and is likely not worth the gamble. The Night Blue Magic spell may be of use against Yans, whereas against Yans Zidane should inflict Doom with the Masamune instead of inflicting Sleep with Ultima Weapon. Most enemies are susceptible to Sleep, but in the endgame it also wears off fast. The player can use magic attacks and Swd Mag against sleeping targets and not wake them.
For the player, if they do not have Insomniac, having Haste or Auto-Haste and high Spirit stat makes the characters wake up fast even if not healed.