Final Fantasy Tactics Poaching Guide

A useful battle feature in Final Fantasy Tactics that is sometimes overlooked is the ability to recycle killed monsters into purchasable items. You can start poaching monsters as soon as you unlock the Secret Hunt ability, which can be very early in the game, as it doesn't cost much and comes from Thief, which you'll surely unlock before Chapter 1 is complete. In order to use the ability, all you need to do is kill a monster with a unit who has the ability equipped; once you do, that monster will instantly vanish from the battlefield (meaning, doing this will block you from collecting its crystal or treasure drop), and the item poached will be sent to the shop inventory.

Each monster has a common and a rare item as part of its poach setup. It appears that the chance of getting the rare item is around one in eight, but unfortunately and predictably, those are the most exciting items to get. Your best chance of being able to poach in bulk is to recruit and breed the monsters you want, but even that is potentially a long grind due to the complexities of both getting and breeding monsters.

If you can't find the shop to collect your goodies, it's one of two things. First, the shops won't even appear in towns until Chapter 3, but any items you collected before then will be available once you get there. The second reason is that there aren't very many shops; you'll find them only in trade-style settlements, meaning Dorter, Warjilis, and Zarghidas.

Here's a list of all of the poachable items you can get from monsters:

Enemy	Common Item	Rare Item
Ahriman	Magic Shuriken	Air Knife
Behemoth	Defense Armlet	P Bag
King Behemoth	Ultimus Bow	Cherche
Black Chocobo	Eye Drop	X-Potion
Black Goblin	Hi-Potion	Antidote
Blue Dragon	Dragon Rod	Cashmere
Bomb	Fire Ball	Flame Rod
Bone Snatch	Hi-Potion	Partisan
Chocobo	Hi-Potion	Phoenix Down
Cocatoris	Soft	Feather Mantle
Cuar	Germinas Boots	Soft
Dark Behemoth	Stone Gun	Wizard Rod
Dragon	Jade Armlet	H Bag
Woodman	Eye Drop	Healing Staff
Taiju	Defense Ring	Defender
Explosive	Flame Shield	Lightning Ball
Flotiball	Shuriken	Platina Dagger
Gust	Hi-Potion	Main Gauche
Ghoul	Ninja Knife	Ether
Gobbledeguck	Mage Masher	Ancient Sword
Goblin	Hi-Potion	Potion
Great Morbol	Madlemgen	Elixir
Hydra	Rubber Costume	Setiemson
Grenade	Flame Whip	Water Ball
Hyudra	Scorpion Tail	Blood Sword
Juravis	Potion	Rubber Shoes
Morbol	Platina Dagger	Ice Shield
Mindflare	Hi-Ether	Dracula Mantle
Minitaurus	Coral Sword	Slasher
Ochu	Chameleon Robe	N-Kai Armlet
Uribo	Cachusha	Maiden's Kiss
Pisco Demon	Echo Grass	Hi-Potion
Plague	Yagyu Darkness	Zorlin Shape
Red Chocobo	Remedy	Barette
Red Dragon	Dragon Whisker	Salty Rage
Red Panther	Battle Boots	Antidote
Revenant	Hi-Ether	Mythril Gun
Sacred	Ivory Rod	Holy Lance
Living Bone	Elf Mantle	Wizard Mantle
Skeleton	Ether	Holy Water
Squidlarkin	Small Mantle	Sleep Sword
Steel Hawk	Phoenix Down	Hunting Bow
Porky	Chantage	Nagrarock
Tiamat	Whale Whisker	Ryozan Silk
Trent	Fairy Harp	Gold Staff
Vampire	C Bag	Holy Water
Wildbow	FS Bag	Ribbon
Bull Demon	Giant Axe	Battle Axe