Sword that can only be used by chosen knights.
Description
The Ultima Sword is Steiner's weakest knight sword in Final Fantasy IX, which outclasses his regular swords; all of Steiner's strongest weapons are knight swords, available in the endgame. The Ultima Sword has innate Sleep status, inflicting a susceptible enemy with the status 1/5th of the time when his Attack connects and Add Status is active. Ultima Sword teaches the Stock Break Swd Art, which damages all enemies in a group for 150% of Steiner's normal physical damage. The Ultima Weapon is a good throw weapon if the player has the money to buy a stock of them.
Obtain[]
The Ultima Weapon is sold in Daguerreo in the endgame for 14,000 gil and stolen from Maliris in the final dungeon.
Mechanics[]
The base damage dealt with normal attack is determined as follows everywhere but within Ipsen's Castle:
- Base = 74 - Enemy's Defense
- Bonus = [(Strength + Spirit) / 2] + Rnd MOD ([(Level + Strength) / 8] + 1)
- Damage = Base * Bonus
Where Rnd means a random number, while MOD means modulus operation. "Rnd MOD x" can be read as a random number between 0 and x-1.
The damage is then modified by variables like Steiner's equipped killer abilities or MP Attack, his row position, and the enemy's Protect. If Steiner is under Mini, his Bonus will be 1.
When in Ipsen's Castle, the stronger weapons do less damage than weaker weapons, and the Base part of the damage formula with the Ultima Sword is altered to the minimum possible damage.
The Ultima Sword has innate Sleep trait. When Steiner has Add Status active, his Attack (also via Charge! or Counter) has a 1 in 5 flat chance of inflicting the status to his enemy unless the target is immune.
Use[]
The Ultima Sword is Steiner's weakest knight sword, but he may have already gotten the stronger Ragnarok earlier from a Chocograph treasure. The superior Excalibur is also available concurrently with the Ultima Sword.
The Ultima Sword is the only source of Stock Break outside of the Excalibur II, a sword only intended as a reward for a speed-run playthrough. The downside is that by the time Steiner can get the Ultima Sword and master Stock Break, the party is no longer fighting groups of enemies, as the new enemies added to the world map do not contain any groups besides the Mistodons and the final dungeon only has singular enemy formations.
It is good to equip Add Status if the player is using the Ultima Weapon, as many enemies are susceptible to it. However, it is not among the best ways to inflict the status, falling behind Zidane's Soul Blade with the Ultima Weapon and Quina's Night.
Being a strong weapon the player can stock up on from a shop, the Ultima Sword can be a good throw weapon for Amarant if the player has no other uses for gil anymore. However, there is an expensive synthesis shop in the final dungeon so it is best to save up some funds for there as well.
All of Steiner's knight swords include his Spirit stat in damage calculation; the player can grind his Spirit stat by leveling him up with the Defender equipped.
Gallery[]
Etymology and origin[]
Ultima means "the last" in Latin and many Latin-based languages. The word is an inflection of ultimus which is the superlative of ulter, which means "that is beyond". In the Spanish versions of many Final Fantasy games, the spell Ultima's name is written as "Artema", a close transliteration of the Japanese katakana.
Though named similarly to the recurring Ultima Blade, Steiner's Ultima Sword is the first instance of this specific type of sword, though it has since appeared in some other Final Fantasy games as well. Though weapons named "Ultima" are commonly the character's ultimate weapon, this does not hold true for Steiner. Both the Ultima Sword and Zidane's actual best weapon, Ultima Weapon, have innate Sleep status.