Magick that calls down scouring lighting bolts, dealing lightning damage to distant units.
The Ivalice Chronicles' description
Thunder, also known as Bolt, is a Black Magicks ability in Final Fantasy Tactics, learned by the black mage job. It charges a spell that deals minor lightning-elemental damage to units within the effect radius. The action ability must be learned by expending JP earned for the black mage job.
Other abilities that deal lightning damage include the summoner's Ramuh and the ninja's Spark Bomb, among others.
Certain weapons can deal lightning-elemental damage and also boost lightning damage, such as the thunder rod. The blaster casts a random lightning magick upon shooting, being either Thunder, Thundara, or Thundaga.
Obtained[]
Thunder costs 50 JP to be spent on the black mage job. Once the unit has learned it, it is available for other jobs as long as they have the Black Magicks or Arithmeticks skillset equipped.
If a unit that knows Thunder becomes a crystal, a human unit picking up the crystal may learn Thunder without spending JP, as long as said unit has unlocked the white mage job.
Mechanics[]
Strip away the ground with glistening blades! Bolt!
Upon casting
Thunder costs 6 MP with a charge time of 25 speed, with a cross-shaped effect range that can damage up to five units. The spell deals damage following formula:
Magick has a chance to hit based on the caster's faith and the target's faith, based on the following formula:
This means that the higher both the caster and the target's faith stats, the higher the chances of the Thunder spell to take effect, as well increased damage.
The unit can still attempt to cast magick even without the required MP, but it will fail upon activating.
Any enemy weak to the lightning element will take 50% increased damage from the spell; further multipliers include equipment such as the thunder rod and the japa mala, as well the rain weather condition, all which increase the damage of lightning-elemental attacks by 25%.
Thunder can be reflected and magick-countered, and will be nullified against a unit with zero faith or under the Atheist status. The magick can be cast instantly by the arithmetician job command, Arithmeticks.
Human units lack innate elemental strengths or weaknesses, as opposed to most monsters. The monsters that have lightning-elemental affinity are:
- Mindflayer-family (weak)
- Automaton (weak)
Automatons have permanent Atheist, meaning they will not be affected by the Thunder spell; they can only take lightning damage if dealt through weapons, such as the blaster gun.
Use[]
Thunder is the most basic lightning-elemental magick, with a cheap cost and fast cast time; ideally, it should be the first magick to unlock as a black mage alongside its counterparts Fire and Blizzard, to give an array of spells to exploit different elemental weaknesses.
Thunder is mostly useful against enemies from the mindflayer monster family, which are weak to the element. It is recommended to wield the thunder rod or the japa mala when casting lightning magick to increase the potency of the spell.
Lightning is often considered the best element as none of the monster families resist it, and lightning-elemental attacks deal increased damage when it is raining on the battlefield, which is a common weather condition that appears often in story-mission battles.
Thunder gets progressively outclassed by its more powerful graduations, Thundara, Thundaga, and Thundaja. However, the spell can still be useful to finish off fleeing enemies at low HP, since it has a fast charge rate.
Behind the scenes[]
In the PlayStation version, a black mage casting Thunder may chant: "Strip away the ground with glistening blades! Bolt!" Spellcasting chants are not used in The War of the Lions version, but return in The Ivalice Chronicles with new localization.