A Knightblade's Guide to Finding Items

One of the most massively useful abilities your characters can pick up in FF Tactics is an inexpensive, little-regarded Chemist movement skill called Move-Find Item. Basically, this allows your character to slowly tread her paces across a battle map, and if she happens to stop where an item is hidden, she'll pick it up triumphantly and add it to your inventory.

This is fairly straightforward, and for the most part, your character will pick up weapons, armour, and items that you could have bought at the store. Sometimes, though, she'll find something truly precious.

An easy (if painful) way to find items is to walk about the map with any of your characters. Item locations are typically trapped, so if one of your fighters gets hit by a Steel Needle, Sleeping Gas, a Death Sentence, or the dreaded Degenerator, you know that the trapped square contains a hidden item. Move the appropriate character over forthwith. After an item is retrieved, the square will continue to entrap the unwary, though, so don't step on it again.

In some cases, an item may be 'buried' beneath another item. This is often the case in the Deep Dungeon, or with the best items. If you get the 'poor' quality item, you've lost the chance to get the superior one. Typically, the poor item is a Phoenix Down. If you pick up a Phoenix Down during the course of a battle, you know you've missed out on something good. You might consider restoring from save if you're a completist.

There is a way to enhance your chances of getting the superior items. Just as the Blade Grasp and Catch abilities depend on a high Brave score to be most effective, so too does Move-Find Item-- except in this case, a low Brave is desirable. In essence, your chance to find a 'superior' item rather than a 'poor' one is equal to (100 - Brave)%.

Brave can be reduced using a variety of means, including Mediator skills, the Foxbird spell, the Look of Devil, and Beowulf's Chicken attack. If it is reduced below 16, you get a warning message after each battle- your character is getting too scared to carry on!

The Deep Dungeon guide contains coordinates (as per a graph) which define item locations. Many of the game's best items can be found therein.

There are a number of other item-finding opportunities of note. The first can be found at Bervenia Volcano, which is pictured in the screenshot above. At the peak of the volcano, you can find Cloud Strife's Materia Blade. He'll need it if you want to use any of his special abilities.

Another such opportunity can be found at Germinas Peak. At the center of the highest hill on the peak, the Vanish Mantle can be found. It may be the case that it can only be found during your first battle there; I recommend that you try to retrieve it at that time.

Four excellent items can be found at the Nelveska Temple. Unfortunately, it's difficult to remain alive long enough to get all four. One can be found at the back of the cave. One can be found atop the hill. The remaining two items are atop a pair of columns. Getting to the top of these columns is challenging. Pick a class that has good Jumping skills, or wear appropriate footwear. You must also have an extra-large monster with you (such as a Dragon, a Chocobo, a Morbol, or Worker 8). The monster must stand beside the pillar. The character with Move-Find Item can then jump onto the monster's back, and from there (if you have enough Jump) to the top of the Pillar!

In Chapter 4, elite random battles can lead to opportunities for rare gear. For example, almost every archer you meet will be equipped with an Ultimus Bow. In one particular fight in the Deep Dungeon (Voyage), one archer is actually carrying a Yoichi Bow! Similarly, a battle at Germinas Peak will occasionally yield a chance to steal a Stone Gun. You'll know who has it-- he's the petrified one.