Status Ailments

Status ailments are conditions that negatively modify the combat behavior of party characters and minor enemies. Bosses are always immune to all status ailments. Status ailments are most often inflicted against the party by enemy abilities, but the party may also apply them to enemies with a select number of weapons and magical items. Some ailments expire over time while others remain until a cure is administered. Combatants can only be afflicted by one ailment at a time, with additional ailments potentially overwriting the prior ones if they have a higher priority rating.

The tutorial with Master Tasman helps define status ailments by telling the player that Guarding, "completely protects against attacks which cause an abnormal status!" Likewise, transforming into a Dragoon will cure all status ailments currently inflicted, and being in Dragoon form grants total immunity. Some Armor and Accessories prevent certain status ailments when equipped, as explained in their respective sections, while only the Rainbow Earring prevents all status ailments.

Status ailments can be broadly divided into conditions which affect the body or the mind, based on being cured by a Body Purifier or a Mind Purifier, with the exception of Petrification which can only be cured using a Depetrifier. Body effects include Poison, Stun, and Arm-blocking, while mind effects include Bewitchment, Confusion, Fear, and Dispiriting. All status ailments can be cured in battle by having HP reduced to 0, or by the spells: Moon Light, Gates of Heaven, or Rainbow Breath. Outside of battle, a Clinic can cure the three statuses capable of persisting outside of battle: Poison, Fear, and Dispiriting.

Poison

When Poisoned, the target will take damage equal to 10% of their maximum HP each time their turn begins. This effect persists until cured.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Rainbow Dress, Armor of Yore, Satori Vest, and Poison Guard.

The effect can be inflicted as follows:

• From a foe's ability
• With the item Poison Needle
• With the weapon Virulent Arrow

Stun

When Stunned, the target will be unable to take actions for three turns. This effect ends if the target takes damage, the duration elapses, or combat ends. Effects which trigger on the target's turn still occur despite not being able to take an action. These effects include: recovering HP from the Therapy Ring, recovering SP from the Spirit Ring, or recovering MP from the Mage Ring.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Rainbow Dress, Armor of Yore, Satori Vest, and Stun Guard.

The effect can be inflicted as follows:

• From a foe's ability
• With the item Stunning Hammer
• With the weapons Flamberge, Beast Fang, Heavy Mace, and Great Axe
• By the Thunder Kid spell

Arm-Blocking

When Arm-Blocking is in effect, a character will be unable to use the Attack command for three turns. This effect ends if the duration elapses or combat ends.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Rainbow Dress, Armor of Yore, Satori Vest, and Protector.

The effect can only be inflicted from a foe's ability. All enemies are immune to Arm-Blocking

Bewitchment

Bewitchment enthralls the affected character, causing them to attack themselves or their allies for three turns. This effect ends if the duration elapses or combat ends. Characters with this status use a different formula for damage that ignores stats like attack and defense. Their damage equals their maximum HP divided by 5, rounded down, and then modified if the target is afflicted with Fear (in which case it is doubled) or if the target is Guarding (in which case it is halved.) No other modifiers are considered when determining damage.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Phoenix Plume and Magic Ego Bell.

The effect can only be inflicted from a foe's ability. All enemies are immune to Bewitchment.

Confusion

Characters under the effect of Confusion act erratically, causing them to Guard, attempt to flee the battle, attack themselves, or attack allies for three turns. This effect ends if the duration elapses or combat ends. Characters with this status use a different formula for damage that ignores stats like attack and defense. Their damage equals their maximum HP divided by 5, rounded down, and then modified if the target is afflicted with Fear (in which case it is doubled) or if the target is Guarding (in which case it is halved.) No other modifiers are considered when determining damage.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Phoenix Plume and Panic Guard.

The effect can be inflicted as follows:

• From a foe's ability
• With the item Panic Bell
• With the weapons Mind Crush and Bemusing Arrow.

Fear

A Fearful character will receive double damage and deal half damage. This effect persists until cured.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Phoenix Plume and Bravery Amulet.

The effect can be inflicted as follows:

• From a foe's ability
• With the item Midnight Terror
• With the weapon Spear of Terror.
• By the Death Dimension spell

Dispiriting

A character that is Dispirited will not generate any Spirit Points when they use Additions. This effect persists until cured.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Phoenix Plume and Active Ring.

The effect can only be inflicted from a foe's ability. All enemies are immune to Dispiriting.

Petrification

A Petrified character behaves as if their HP is zero. The affected character cannot act in battle, does not gain their Speed value for progressing toward their turn, and will not receive EXP if they are Petrified when combat ends. This effect ends if combat ends. If all three party members are either Petrified or at 0 HP, the battle ends in a Game Over.

The effect can be prevented with a Destone Amulet.

The effect can only be inflicted from a foe's ability. All enemies are immune to Petrification.

Non-Status Ailments

These effects break many of the established rules that status ailments follow but also share enough overlap to often be confused for them.

Instant Death, often inflicted by the move "Can't Combat," sets the target's HP to 0. While similar to status ailments in that it can be prevented with equipment, Instant Death cannot be prevented by any of the means said to cover all status ailments such as Guarding, being in Dragoon form, or wearing the Rainbow Earring.

The effect can be prevented with the following equipment: Talisman and Rose's Hairband.

The effect can be inflicted as follows:

• From a foe's ability
• With the item Total Vanishing
• With the weapons Gladius, Brass Knuckle, and Indora's Axe
• By the Demon's Gate spell

Command Blocking is a very rare ability that only two bosses in the entire game can use: the Polter Helm and Melbu Frahma. At face value it appears to be a superior version of the status ailment Arm-Blocking, even sharing the naming convention of "Blocking," as in addition to being able to block the Attack command, it can also block the Item command, or Dragoon command. Only one command can be blocked at a time, and Command Blocking can overwrite itself to change around which command is blocked. This parallels Confusion and Bewitchment, which share almost identical mechanics but one is superior to the other. However, Command Blocking ignores many of the rules that status ailments are set up to follow.

The effect cannot be prevented by any of the means said to cover all status ailments such as Guarding, being in Dragoon form, or wearing the Rainbow Earring. Even party members already possessing a status ailment such as Fear, will have both that status ailment and a blocked command. Other than its similarities to Arm-Blocking, it can also be cured using a Body Purifier, by having HP reduced to 0, or by the spells: Moon Light, Gates of Heaven, or Rainbow Breath.

The effect can be inflicted as follows:

• From a foe's ability

Trivia

1. In the game's code all minor enemies are immune to Arm-blocking, Bewitchment, Petrification, and Dispiriting by default. There is no way to inflict these status ailments without modding the game. However, the minor enemies may not have been programmed to handle said ailments, making this a failsafe measure.
2. It is possible for allied characters to become stun-locked. This is due to a particular enemy, the Salamander, having a basic attack that can inflict Stun. As there is a battle formation with two of them present in Volcano Villude, it is easy for many players to witness one or more characters become stun-locked as the Salamanders attack them over and over again. The reason this happens, is that even though the next Salamander attack breaks the old Stun effect, that new attack often applies a new instance of the ailment.
3. Should a party member be afflicted with Arm-Blocking, and then hit by Command Blocking that selects the Attack Command, and then hit again with it choosing a different command, the party member will no longer have Arm-Blocking.